Monday, July 04, 2005

What To Do Next?

See the cute baby birds? These are bush tits and Thom photographed them a few weeks ago as they were sitting in our hydrangea bush while their parents were hunting for yummy bugs nearby in our shrubbery. There were five in total and these three sat pretty still to have their picture taken. If you know how small a bush tit is, these guys are almost life-sized on the screen.


This was a test of the new Blogger system for downloading pictures to my blog. I think I like it better than Hello. (Sorry, Hello, but you are kind of annoying.) At least this way the pic goes straight into the blog file instead of me having to go chase it down and edit to add more text. And each one doesn't become a separate blog file either. I'm delaying a final choice though because it took 3 tries to get this pic downloaded. Don't know what happened the first few times, but some baby bush tit clones are out there lost in cyberspace without their mommy.


Craft Report
Now that I've finished the poncho and written out the pattern in a (hopefully) comprehensive way, I'm not sure what I want to do next. So I'm cleaning, tidying and reorganising my work space instead. I always get inspired to do something when I'm cleaning. Either I find something I'd started so long ago I'd forgotten it or I find the makings of something new.

I'm really lucky in that I have the whole top floor of my house to play in, plus a third of the basement space as well. It sounds like a lot but in reality our top floor is only two rooms with slanted ceilings and no wall lightswitches. Oh wait — there are also 2 large closets and 4 attic storage spaces that are so low I have to put on kneepads to search for anything. However, they are wonderful for stashing stuff out of the way. To make it possible to find anything again, I have to muck them out every now and then.

One of the rooms is designated "the studio." This is the place where my looms (yes, that's plural), sewing machine, serger, ironing board, large work table, a ton of yarns, more fabric, and paper arts supplies live. The attic spaces in the studio contain spinning equipment in one and fabric, old patterns and ton of assorted junk in the other. (This one needs major help!) In the closet lives a collection of weaving and yet more spinning equipment.

The other room is called "the study." This is where I am right now because my computer lives here. Also more yarns, two more spinning wheels, knitting supplies, kumihimo (Japanese braiding) equipment, beads and supplies, desk, and 6 bookcases with my library of craft books and magazines. There's also an antique Morris chair that is desperately in need of reupholstering. The cats use it more than I do because it's so lumpy and uncomfortable. My cats like lumps. The closet has my equipment for teaching kumihimo, the vacuum, and seasonal clothes that are swapped out of the bedroom closet. One attic space has all my spinning fibres and two knitting machines, and the other has family stuff like Christmas decorations, suitcases, and the sad remains of my kids toys from their childhood. I'm sitting on the Lego until Simon asks for it back. He probably will as soon as Kiera is big enough not to eat the little pieces. Or maybe not — he likes her to have her own toys so he doesn't have to share his.

I've actually left out a lot of things mostly because I doubt anybody cares. Suffice it to say that there's a lot of stuff up here. Thom is mock-concerned that one day the floor will give way and crash into the main floor. At least I think his concern is mock? I keep the books situated against the wall and the yarns and fibres are pretty fluffy. The beads might be a problem, though he's the one who keeps making me new ones. The glass travels from the basement where his torch is upstairs two floors to my bead boxes. It changes shape first from long and skinny rods with no holes to lovely beads. So far I've given away a few but I'm really reluctant to sell any. I might feel differently when I run out of places to put them however.

Back to cleaning and tidying...where did all this paper come from? The computer's printer? Do I have to file it all? My hands get tired opening and closing binders...

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