Back in town - Lots to do!

Well we're back from Diamond Harbour now, such a lovely quiet place there. Feeling refreshed and rather overwhelmed by how many things there are to do now! Over two weeks spring has seemed to have come and I'm noticing all kinds of little things that show it, plants popping out of the earth again and flowers blooming. It's funny coming back home after a holiday, it takes a while to adjust to responsibilities again. Although it's nice to be independent again :)

My parents just got back from China with some awesome presents, the best have to be the kites my dad got us. At the moment we are waiting for the wind to pick up enough to fly them, then definitely I will post pictures of them in flight, they aren't your normal kites!

Mum bought some incredibly soft Cashmere wool for me, not sure what to make with it as it such a special fibre. It's very fine so I'm going to ply it together before knitting with it.

They visited some traditional paper craft workshops over there too - The red one is a paper cut of a phoenix and dragon. Sorry about the relfection but I'm unable to take the paper out of it's protective sleeve.

The second is a traditional woodcut, printed in layers. Such bright colours, but the subject matter is very traditional; hair cuts and all. They look great decorating the walls.

I was a bit worried about the pot plants that sit on the window sills while we were away, but they were fine. In fact this particular viola has a total of 9 flowers on it! It's desperate to get pollinated and go to seed but without any insects inside it can't, poor thing. But if I did put it outside the cold would probably kill it. I love how one of the flowers is growing upside down :)

Oscar got me a great CD for our anniversary, all the way from America it took a good month to get here but is well worth the wait. If you get a chance, give the album The Shepard's dog by Iron and Wine a listen. I'd describe it as a combination of Gotye, Angus and Julia stone and his own unique style.

 Current projects:

• Grandma's Doily covered bedspread
• Finishing Mum's jumper
• Ten stitch spiral rug (Koru)
• Sheep PJ pants
• Mending felted slippers 

Finished this week:

• Bias woollen skirt
• Thrummed alpaca hat

To start:

• Costumes for Macbeth (I can't reveal on here what they are till after the play is finished!)
• New designs for my shop
• Clothing for myself and Oscar 
• Write up knitting patterns
• Other general projects like getting the veggie garden going again

That's all for the moment, back soon with more updates and photos about my crafting and kite flying!

Nina

Holidays...

Going on holidays soon and back in September. I hope by then I'll have a camera to help document and share my crafting on this blog more thoroughly! :) Should have some interesting pictures to share from the holiday too.
Back soon to those who view my blog!
PS. Don't be afraid to comment...

My shop

A few months ago I decided to start an Etsy shop to sell my handmade clothing. It was mostly driven by the fact that I had been looking for work for more than a year and had no success. I've always made things and often thought of selling my creations and Etsy seems like the right place to do that. It's been a slow set up but now I have 15 items in my shop and hopefully soon more to come. A few things lately have held me back from making progress, being sick, not having a camera to photograph with etc. I'm hoping that when I get back from a holiday soon with a family camera I can get back into it again. It's really satisfying to see my garments up online and out there for people to see!

Link to my shop: SewFjords

 A woollen cape-let modeled by a friend with a cut and slash collar. Perhaps one day I will make a tutorial on how to do the cut and slash technique, its a lot of fun!

 Houndstooth waistcoat lined with a recycled men's rayon shirt. I think these vests really flatter the female shape, and they look cute.

 A funky flared skirt made from upcycled women's shirts. This one has the original pockets on both sides from the shirts it was made from.

 Also available is a knit design I have written myself, a thrummed headband. It is also on Ravelry here: Aruhu thrummed headband

Here I am modeling it on that snow day, it certainly kept my ears warm and toasty on that cold day!

Making and maintaining an online shop is a slow learning process and requires a lot of self motivation but in the end it was a good choice to make. It's empowering to display and sell your own creations!

Snow day in May!

So this year in May it snowed. I know that was a while ago but now that I'm blogging again I thought it deserved a mention. Last year we got a bit of sleet, but on the 28th of May it snowed over night. When my boyfriend got up to go to work he opened the curtains and said "Oh my god, Nina, Snow, everywhere, look! look!" Having grown up in Australia, we never experienced snow in our own backyard before. So you can imagine how excited we were!

First thing we did was have a really good look at everything outside and have a walk across some pristine snow, made snow angels and rescued the veggie garden which was covered in snow. It's amazing how the snow falls and leaves outlines on the trees and collects on certain things, the clothes line for example had snow resting on the wires.

We made a snow man and later when we went for an explore around the neighborhood, rolled giant snow balls on the oval :D

The next day all the snow had melted and things got back to normal, it was like it never happened.
Such an amazing experience, hope it snows again this year before spring comes. The strange thing is how mild it's been lately, the weather seems to be getting more extreme and topsy turvy these days...