Sixes for 2006

So, it's almost the end of 2006 and what have I accomplished this year?

6 Things I've learned
Don't turn down any invitation (you can meet some wonderful people and it gets you out)
How to live on my own
Jewelry making
VERY basic knitting
That making blankets takes a long time and can be pretty frustrating
Good medicine practices

6 New People I'm glad I've come in contact with
Rosie - a wonderful Bookcrosser/Backpacker who has taken me to plays in Adelaide and who I've had lots of fun with
Meshell - a wonderful crafty blogger, it's been great reading her blog but
we've also exchanged birthday gifts (you get to open yours soon) and
postcards.
Dr House (name changed for privacy!) - one of the doctors at work. Can be a bit of a grump but he's taught me a lot.
Dr C (name changed for privacy!)- introduced me to a lot of new people and got me involved in various things. Always has time to help.
D (name changed for privacy!)- made me welcome in SA when I was feeling loneliest.
S (name changed for privacy!)- makes me laugh at work!

6 New Things I've done
I've moved out of home
I've got my first real full time job
I've moved interstate
I've started using ebay
I've taken part in two craftster.org swaps
I've given several talks to vets who were paying to listen (Yikes!)

6 Numbers
128 - the number of books I've read
121 - the number of blog posts I've made
60 - the number of projects (According to this blog) I've completed. I think there are a few more things that I haven't photographed though so I'm going for about 65. I'm pretty impressed with that, especially as it included 3 blankets.
13 - the number of times I've been on a plane
3 - the number of things I've won(roving, yarn and a book/DVD pack)
1 - the number of times I've watched all Angel episodes

So that's a bit about my year, I hope everyone else has had a good one, and I'll post some plans for 2007 in the New Year!

Look what I got

Look what I got for Christmas (I know, I should have posted it a few days ago, but that's not the point).

It's all shiny and comes with an instruction book (highly important) and I haven't mucked up anything I've made with it yet (although I haven't done anything challenging!). I've had a bit of a play with it, but I think I'll have to wait until I move back to Melbourne in March to really start having fun, because I'm not taking it back to Adelaide for two months.



So I guess now I have to accumulate a fabric stash?

Secret Santa

I've done a Bookcrossing Secret Santa this year (and this post has been sitting in drafts for some time until it was sent off and recieved), and participants had to send one book, and whatever else you wanted to. So my Secret Santa-ee loves vampire books, so I thought I'd make an amigurumi vampiress. It was lots of fun, although she is a very stereotypical vampire with her black hair, white skin and corset!



She's been really well recieved, it's just fantastic! At the moment she's still waiting on a name but it shouldn't be long.

I also made a book string. I'm very pleased with that, hopefully it will look very appropriate sitting in some gothic romance novel.

Merry Christmas

All of my family is currently doing the whole "Why did I eat too much, I'm going to sit on the couch and go to sleep" thing, so I thought I'd take the chance to wish everyone a happy Christmas.


My mum asked me to do up a bit of a voucher for my sisters Christmas present from her and dad, and I wasn't happy just doing a voucher, I had to do a stocking for it to go in as well.

All I had in Melbourne was yellow embroidery thread (actually I might have had blue as well but it didn't go so well), otherwise I might have done holly and stuff too, but I think this looks cute!

All the gifts I made went over really well and I got some good presents (including a sewing machine, ooooh!)

Swap Goodies

So, I've just done my second swap on Craftster.org, and it was my first swap where I had to craft something. It was the Aussie 2006 Xmas card with small gifts swap.

My partner chose an embroidered tote bag, but I had to cheat a little and get someone else to make the bag, so while I was waiting for that I made a little amigurumi birdie. Isn't it plump and cute?



So, as well as the bird, I embroidered the bag (that bit was all me) and then I had to send it off (I think that was the hardest bit). I guess the thing is though, that if I didn't want to keep the bag (and the bird), I wouldn't be happy with the job I'd done and I wouldn't want to send it off.




I also included some FruChocs (apparently they're only available in SA) and some x-rays (because I can get hold of them fairly easily, but most people can't) and it all went over very well. Yay!

Aussie swap Goodies

I've just participated in my second craftster swap (the first one where I had to craft stuff though, the Aussie 2006 Xmas Card with Small Gifts Swap) and yesterday I recieved a wonderful parcel from radish_spirit.


I got this gorgeous felted turtle which I'm going to call A'Tuin (see if you can work out the reference). I'm so in awe of this, I think it's just amazing!


I also got some spicy smelling felted soap, some badges, a candy cane and an origami box. So I think I'm very lucky to get all these goodies, and I think I may officially have the swap bug now!

Christmas Cards

I got inspiration for my Christmas cards quite early this year. I think it was from a corset, and I like the simplicity of them. Admittedly there are a few people who don't have them yet who might see them here, but that's ok because they haven't seen the inside.



I made these in front on the tv in an afternoon. They have Christmas stickers on the inside saying "Seasons Greetings" or "Happy Christmas" and putting them on straight was probably the hardest bit.

Crocheted hairclips

I'm heading back to Melbourne for Christmas tomorrow so while I'll still blog, it may be less frequently, and less craftily (as most of my supplies are in Adelaide). I'm really looking forward to a bit of a break and time with my family! I thought I'd leave you with some cute flower hair clips I made.



The pattern for this one came from here.

Pretty roving

I was lucky enough to be a winner of one ofsheep geek's Blogiversary prizes and I won some gorgeous roving.


Look how nicely it was wrapped, and with the added bonus of chocolate.


And here it is, the colours are more distinct in real life because I have dodgy lighting, but I think even this picture is gorgeous.

So anyway, my goal is to be able to spin well enough that I can do this lovely roving justice, so it won't be spun straight away, but it will be spun.

Coptic books

This is a pretty old project (over a year old in fact!) but I figured I may as well post it. When I graduated university I wanted to give my friends something special, so I made them all coptic books, that they could either get people to sign, or could do whatever they wanted with them.

Some of them had bookmarks and others didn't, but did have small images scattered throughout the pages. I tried to personalise them all but it did get hard by the end.



The monster one was mine, and when you opened it's mouth my photo was in there. Coincidentally the one with the map was a map of Hong Kong and after I made it that particular friend unexpectedly ended up getting a job in Hong Kong and is living there now. Spooky hey?



The one with the leopard print and lace was actually for a guy, but he came to one end of lectures fancy dress day in drag, and it was a little scary how pretty a girl he was. The sailor one is for a friend who came to another end of lectures fancy dress day as an extremely gay sailor.




None of the other covers have particularly good stories to go with them, but they were lots of fun to make and went over really well.

Birthday Goodies

So these are the lovely goodies that Meshell sent me for my birthday. At least I hope it's all of them, I had to round them up from around the house!



There's a gorgeous card, one of her world famous pincushions (how lucky am I?), a Christmas decoration (that I thought looked gorgeous in her blog, but is even cuter in real life), some shrinky-dink (I've been dying to play with some), a yummy Chewy Choc Chip Slice recipe card(doesn't the name just sound delicious!), some trims and some lollies, (and I may have puffed up the bag just a little to hide the lollies that have already been eaten!), including some caramel apple pops which from the sound of them, I'm surprised Meshell managed to give any away!

So thanks very much Meshell, it's all fantastic!

Edit: The Caramel Apple Pops are REALLY good. It's lucky this is typed because otherwise I'd just be saying "Mmmmm mmmmmm mmmmmmm mmmmmm mmmm MMMMMMMMM mmmmmm!"

Birthday Surprises

It's my birthday today and it's been full of surprises. First my dad rings at work and lets me know that he and mum are coming to stay tonight and then I got a lovely package from MissMeshell. Yay!

I'll post pictures of all my goodies later, because right now I have to get back to cleaning up. Later I may have to explain the presence of a large spinning wheel in my bedroom.

Postcards

I took part in the Easy Postcard Swap, Round 2 on Craftster and I just realised I hadn't posted any of the cards I've been sent. So here they are.







Aren't they all lovely? Doesn't it make you want to travel? It was so much fun getting all these cards in the mail, so much more exciting than what I usually get in my letter box.

November crochet squares.

So, I've done my November squares for the 12" Crochet Square of the Month Craftalong. Actually, I did them a little while ago but I was getting low on bandwidth so I didn't get round to posting them (do you notice near the end of the month my posts tend to drop off? That's why). But here they are now.

Butterfly bookmark

I'm definately adding to my collection of bookmarks to give away as gifts. There seems to be a tradition at work that when the intern leaves each year they leave a photo board. As the most recent one is still sitting on the floor I thought I'd break tradition, so at the moment I'm planning on making everyone something small.

One of the girls at work loves butterflies and purple, so what better than a purple butterfly bookmark. I just love this variegated floss. It's got such lovely colour transitions and I think it's just gorgeous. I've only got a little bit left so I might have to buy some more.



The pattern is from crochetroo and lives here. And yes, I still need to block it.

My Spinning Wheel

Alright, so it was a bit mean of me to post my new spinning wheel with no explanation, but it was lots of fun.

It was pretty much an impulse buy, I admit, on one or two occasions I had thought "Wouldn't it be cool to spin my own wool?" but that's about as far as it's gone. I have never tried to spin, either on a drop spindle or a wheel. So anyway, I was walking down my street, which has lots of antique shops and normally I don't go into them because I'm sure I'd just find something cool and buy it, but one of them had this spinning wheel out the front and the price tag only said $35, and it seemed to work. The evil lady in the antique shop didn't even pressure me, she actually told me I could come back later or walk around the store and look around, so I bought it (that's why she's evil, she didn't have horns or walk around stabbing customers or anything).

So I got it home (where it looks a lot bigger) and it's an Ashford Traditional Single drive, and other than a little spring which costs about $2 it's ready to go (although I'm going to buy a maintenance kit with some oil and stuff too, so I really need to spend about $20 on it). So all I need to do is get some wool or roving and learn how to spin. How hard can it be?

Plus, I've decided that if I am a terrible spinner it can become a decorative piece of furniture, which will serve as a talking point, and possibly also somewhere to hang clothes.

And yesterday's impulse buy was...

Toilet art

WARNING: This post may seem a little odd.

Last night I went to a play (Translations by Brian Friel) which was very good, although that's not actually my point. After the play, I had to use the toilets and they were really cool. On all the toilet doors and some of the walls they had pasted vintage magazines and newspaper images and pages from the 50s and 60s. I could have spent ages in there looking at all the pictures...except that it was a public toilet, and that would just be weird.

But if anyone wants to see the toilets, they are at Higher Ground theatre, 274a Rundle St. I'm now ending this odd post. The next one may be odd too though!

Demodex bookmark

This one probably needs a bit of explanation. One of the vets at work is a dermatologist and one of the skin diseases dogs can get is Demodectic mange (you can read more about it here, so what better idea than to make him a Demodex mite bookmark? Ok, there may be better ideas but I thought this one was pretty cool, and I think he'll get it.



It still needs to be blocked, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Fan Bookmark

I've made another crocheted fan bookmark for a gift, it worked up really quickly and is very nice, but it's going away (to a safe spot, which I may or may not forget about) until it's time to meet it's new owner now.



From the lovely crochetroo, the pattern is here

Cherry Jewelry

So I had some round red beads and therefore I had to make some cherries. Although, then I bought the leaf bead (actually I bought three but they looked too big on the earrings).

I like the pendant, but the earrings are a bit long for my head, so my sister might get them, although I still think they're cute!

Ballycumber

After seeing a couple of stuffed Ballycumber mascots at the Adelaide Bookcrossing Convention I was inspired to make my own crocheted version of the little running book.



It's all done in single crochet with plaited arms and legs and pom pom hands and feet. He has no face, but does have a clip attached so I can pin him to my bag or whatever I'd like. Not including his legs he's about 12cm tall and lovely and squishy!

Embroidered bag for my mum

I've finished all the embroidered tote bags for Christmas, and now I'm trying to think of other things to embroider, because it's lots of fun.



This is adapted from a picture by Jennifer Brinley called Jet Set II. I really enjoyed doing the whipped back stitch, I'll be using it more often. It looks a bit creased (even though I ironed it) because I didn't want to iron too close to the metallic thread because I may have heard it melts. I could be completely wrong but I decided not to take the risk.



This quote says, "The beauty is a indiscribable/inspirational? source of joy for that which can discover it" I think, although I don't actually speak or write French so I could have made lots of spelling errors or have it completely wrong. I spent ages useing BabelFish trying to find a good French quote, in French and hopefully I succeeded, otherwise it'll be a good joke at least! Except I found and printed it up in Melbourne and forgot to print the translation, which is why I'm not sure what it says. Oops!

Craft Fair

There was a quilt and craft fair on in Adelaide this weekend so I thought I'd go to it and spend some money. Anyway, after I'd paid for parking and entry and bought three or four things I'd run out of money (I hadn't spent that much, maybe a bit over $40) and when I went to get some more out the ATM wouldn't give me any money. I should have had enough money in my account, so then I started panicking, thinking that someone had hacked into my bank account and I now had no money (it's a logical conclusion isn't it?). But when I got home and checked my balance all my money seemed to be there. Hooray!

So now I've got some lovely crimping pliers, some shiny new embroidery scissors, some bigger jump rings and some mobile phone charm cords (that was an impulse buy, everything else was actually on a list of things to buy if I saw them). I think if I'd been able to get more money out there would have been more impulse buys though.

Swap Info

Here's some general information about me to help anyone stalking me for a swap.

Last updated 15 May 2008.

I kept putting information in here until I got bored talking about myself, because I thought the more information the better.

About Me
I’m a 25 year old girl currently living in Melbourne, Australia, working as a vet. I love crafting (obviously), books, animals, and pretty things.

What I can do (in descending skill level!)
Crochet, embroidery, basic jewelry, papercraft and I will try other things. I’ve knitted two items (I'm sure there will be more, but I'm not really confident enough to knit anything for a swap at this stage. ). I can hand sew (but don't very often), and now that I've got a sewing machine, I should be able to do some basic sewing...but I'm sure I'll enjoy any swap sewing challenges. I've just bought a small loom and I do have a spinning wheel, but I'm not much of a spinner (partly because I haven't had time to play with it much)

Styles I like
I like animals (particularly turtles, butterflies, whales, sheep, dogs, dragons), pirates, skulls (in moderation), vintage style things, Asian themed stuff, fantasy stuff, scientific stuff, cute stuff (in moderation too). I’m fairly casual and go for more toned down things really, but I like cute little pretty items (I’m not making this much easier am I?). Occasionally I also like the slightly disturbing and creepy, so that's always fun too! I also like swirls and spirals. They're pretty.

Styles I don’t like
Anything too bright or big, chunky jewelry, long earrings (they make my head look too long!), anything too alternative. Skirts that go past my knees (they make me look like I’m playing dress ups!), anything too short or revealing. Anything too fussy and frilly.

Colours I like
Purple, Red, Blue, Green

Colours I don’t like
Fluorescent colours, lots of pink or orange (although a little can be very nice!).

Food/Drinks I like
Chocolate, icecream (although not chocolate icecream!), generally sweet things, coke, lemonade.

Food/Drinks I don’t like
Coffee, Fanta, Peas, Pasta, other stuff. In odd things I'm not all that partial to lunch as a meal. Weird I know.

Books/TV shows and Music I like
Books: Discworld (Terry Pratchett), Harry Potter, Raymond E Fiest, Jacqueline Carey (loved the Kushiel's Dart series), Ben Elton. I like fantasy and sci-fi, but at the moment I'm trying to branch out a bit (and I'm enjoying it). For more information on books I like, go here
TV Shows: Angel, Dark Angel, House, Black Adder, Thank God You're Here (Australian show), The Simpsons, Futurama, Firefly
Music: Robbie Williams, Missy Higgins, Jack Johnson, Michael Buble, The Waifs...

Things I’d love
1. A crochet projects tote: In an ideal world I would like a slash pocket on the front (for patterns etc) and a zip pocket on the back (for other things like my wallet). Inside I’d like a section for currently unused yarn and pockets for a crochet hook roll, the current hook I’m using, scissors and a little loop or clip that I can attach a coin purse to which would contain stitch markers and needles and stuff.
2. Above coin purse
3. Some nice scrubs: I’ve got one pair of plain green ones at the moment and they’re a bit boring, plus they’ve got a couple of holes in them where I’ve caught them on things (I don’t really look where I’m walking)
4. Some hand knitted socks
5. Resin goodies
6. A microscope slide pendant
7. Original art
8. A swap journal
9. Fingerless gloves


Supplies
1. Shrinky dinks
2. Beads and buttons
3. Lovely yarn (especially some hand spun or dyed)
4. Bits and bobs
5. Badge/button thingies
6. Roving
7. Ephemera
8. Pretty fabrics

Learn-to kits
1. Polymer clay

Other stuff
1. I’m kind of collecting the magazine series ‘Stitch by Stitch’ which was published (in Australia, UK, New Zealand, South Africa, Singapore, Malta and Hong Kong) in the 1970-80s. I'm missing part 1, and anything from part 66 on really.
2. Old craft books, the dodgier the projects the better!
3. I collect pins (the badge kind) because they’re pretty!
4. This is more an Aussie thing, but any Canteen bandanna's would be cool. I've got a few and I'd like to do something with them, but I think I need a bit more of a range (I've only got three colours at the moment) to do much. At the moment I'm thinking they'd make a cool quilt (which involves me learning to quilt, but nevermind)
5. Recipe cards (10cm x 13cm, 4' x 5')

Vegetable embroidery

I've embroidered the bag for my sister now and I think it's very cute. She's studying to be a dietician so I thought she might enjoy this. I used a colouring book picture from here

October crochet squares

I've decided to take part in the craftster 12" Crochet Block a Month craftalong and here are October's squares.




They were nice quick projects, and I can put them away and not feel like I have to work on them, or other squares straight away which is nice.

Necklace for my Granny

Ok, so here's the last of my Christmas jewelry creations. Unless I think of something else I want to make for someone, which I may, because I've got a couple of ideas now. So it's probably not my last one. Anyway, enough rambling and on to the pictures.



This is made with assorted glass beads on gold tigertail with some crimps and a wire nest with more pretty beads. My granny has quite a few items of jewelry with lovely warm oranges and browns, so while this may be more of the same hopefully she'll like it. It's a bit longer than I'd usually make but she also likes long necklaces.



While I'm generally more a silver person I really like this one, but I've got enough jewelry so it's definately a present!

Bird embroidery

This is the tote bag I've made for my granny to put her Christmas gifts in. The design is from Needlecrafter, which has some great free designs. I love the vintage look of this one, it just kept growing on me as I worked on it.



It was the first time I did lazy daisy stitches and on some of the flowers you can tell. Unfortunately as well, I included central flower beads on the same piece of thread as the petals and when I washed out the design outline some of the beads have pulled on the thread a bit, making the flowers even more uneven. I've adjusted them now, but they'll probably do it again. I guess I've learnt my lesson, and hopefully someone else will learn from my mistakes!

I'm just doing embroidery on one side of this bag, rather than a double sided one like the last.

Bookcrossing Convention

The 2006 Australian Bookcrossing Convention was on in Adelaide this weekend and I went, and had lots of fun. I've ended up with 13 or 14 more books, a DVD, a CD, and lots of new friends.

I released quite a few books (nearly 30, some at the Convention, and some on the streets of Adelaide) and I've got a few good catches.

This is my favourite:

I saw someone stop outside my place of business, and gathered around it, then I went outside to see what they where looking at and found the book. This morning on Sunrise they had been talking about book crossing and now I am experiencing it, I think that's great I will definetly read the book and leave it somewhere for someone else to befriend it.

CAUGHT IN KENT TOWN SA AUSTRALIA

But I also like this one:

Found at the Adelaide BC Convention. (Actually, picked up on the sea - wall at Glenelg) I've been looking for this book for years!

It's lots of fun passing books on!

Necklace for my Mum

So I'm getting on with Christmas presents. While it may seem like I'm organised I'm sure I'll still be running round at the last minute sorting things out. Either that or I'll forget stuff in Adelaide (I'm having Christmas in Melbourne, YAY!) and have to post it back home.

Anyway, I've made this set for my mum.



It's made with fresh water pearls on nylon thread, and tying all the knots was painful! Especially on the earrings. But I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The earring hooks are sterling silver so I went all fancy pants with the whole thing!



Here's an action shot of me wearing the necklace. So if mum doesn't like it...I get another new necklace!

Nestlace Pendant

I really like the Nestlace I've seen on craftster, and I had some wire and I found a bead shop around the corner from me (I don't think it's new, it's just a bit hidden) so I bought some beads (only what I needed this time) and used some of my wire to make this pretty thing.



I'll have to make some more pendants for this necklace. It means I can get more out of the jewelry I've got.

Alcoholic embroidery

This year I've decided rather than wrapping gifts for my immediate family, I'd give them in embroidered tote bags. It's more personal, long lasting and much better for the environment.

I started off with my dad's, because for once it was reasonably easy to think of what to do (I'm still not sure about the gift, but nevermind that!).

So here it it, my own design and other than a few creases that need to be ironed out a bit better I'm pretty pleased with it. I suspect it will get more creased when actually used so maybe I won't worry too much about it. It's actually a bit straighter than it appears in the first photo though.




I've decided to use a Needlecrafter design for my granny but I'm having trouble with ideas for my mum and sister so any suggestions would be fantastic.

Mum: she's currently studying French, so I was thinking something along those lines. If I can't think of anything I'll probably do the Eiffel tower but I'd rather a little cartoon or something in French (maybe something from a school French textbook if anyone has anything they could send me? My mum's books don't have anything I've found useful and they're in another state). Either that or a platter with french bread and cheeses and wine, but I'm not really confident designing that one myself, it's a little complex.

Sister: She's into all the brand names and stuff so anything too unique would probably be left in the cupboard. While she likes to go out, she's fairly health conscious (she's studying nutrition), the bag might get used for going to the gym.. Her favourite colour is blue. She doesn't really read. At the moment ideas I have are a mouse or mice (read the mouse post!), cute anthropomorphic fruits and vegies, a retro style cocktail image, although I haven't found anything specific just yet.

Please help me with these ones!

Wow

I went for a long walk into the city the other day and for once I actually took my camera and I grabbed a shot of this.



Isn't it amazing. I just love that someone has painted that on their wall. It just made me smile when I walked past.

Birthday Card

I bought a card for one of my friends birthdays (because I didn't think I'd have time to make one) and then I lost it, so I've had to make one anyway. I was trying out a new glue and I think I used a bit much but it's not too noticable and I think the card is cute anyway. I hope she likes it!



I'm guessing I'll find the bought card the day after I post this one. Oh well, I'm sure it'll come in handy. Maybe I should pre-make a few cards for when I forget people's birthdays until the last minute.

I can knit!

I have finally stepped up to challenge one of my crafting phobias - knitting.

I've tried to knit a number of times since I was a little kid and my granny tried to teach me. Every time (ok maybe twice) I would try, my creations (generally something simple like a scarf) would enlarge in size until they were trapezoid rather than rectangular at which point I'd generally stop working on them. I'm not sure what happened to them after that. I imagine my mum probably threw them out.

Anyway, I decided that I should try again. Over the last year or so my crafting skills have developed from making an occasional card to spending much of my spare time (which I need more of) crafting, so I decided I should develop my skills further into the area of knitting, and I didn't fail. Although, even if I had my mum bought the needles a couple of years ago and I was using scrap yarn, so it wouldn't have been a big investment of time or money (what did I have to lose?).

So here is my new neckwarmer (as we've had a 34*C day this week I don't know that it's going to get a lot of use in the near future).




It's done in garter stitch and even has a button hole (which I made too big for the button I had so I then made a crochet flower which gets stuffed through the hole - it works quite well).

I'm very happy that I've managed to do something which I always thought I couldn't.

Postcardy Goodness

Ooooh, look what I got! Pretty vintage postcards from MissMeshell. We did a personal postcard swap (my first swap, ooooh!) and I got these lovelies.




I'm not quite sure where they're going to live at the moment. I don't have a cork board or anything and I don't think I can stick them to the walls here so they might go on my fridge.