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.