22 today, well yesterday..

I'm back!

Yesterday was my 22nd birthday and the day before that my partner Oscar's 22nd birthday as well. What a fun two days we've had! I'm tired now... We went out for dinner on the 21st and went to a nice Italian place. Hadn't been before but enjoyed it :) I had a beer from the Invercargill brewery which was called wasp and was a honey beer. You could just taste a slight honey note and certainly smell the honey too. It would be interesting to try honey in our beer too. It was Kamahi honey from the Catlins, I've had that honey before and could taste the particular flavour. Delicious Pav for desert... then I felt ill! Too much rich food like at Xmas...

Mmmm my favourite! Stramberries and grapes a bit of a treat too.

 I made Oscar two hand crafted presents...

A magic the gathering playing mat:

It's a bit creased from being folded up when wrapped but you get the idea. I had fun dyeing the different sections, painting the food dye and vinegar mixture on by hand and drying and setting the dye with a steaming iron. Then I stitched the five elements of magic on with the sewing machine. I did a rough outline of each symbol with pencil or tailors chalk and stitched around the lines twice. The hardest was the yellow sun. The flame one is hard to see, I probably should have chosen another colour, but oh well it was an experiment the whole thing! I had no idea what it would turn out like, but I'm happy with it and Oscar loves it! He was awestruck when he saw it! The top fabric is silk so that the cards will move easily when you turn them or pick them up. The bottom is a light woollen fabric and the inner is some flannel cotton. 

I quite like the swamp symbol :) Kind of cute in a dark way.

 

The sun looks the best I think, but was tricky to draw. I had to divide the circle into eights to get the even spokes (what word would you use?!) on it.

We tried it out by playing a game, it seemed to word well! Really need a table that allows us to sit opposite each other though. Playing on a corner doesn't work so well.

Pretty flowers from the garden, brighten up the table a bit. The lavender smells amazing.

I've been knitting a bit lately, on socks of all things! I knit the heel of these at the fair last weekend and since then couldn't stop. I'm now nearly up to the knee. Sort of a combination of other patterns and my own invention :)

Toe up obviously so I can use all my yarn. It's working out at being 3 balls for each sock which is perfect, that's how much I have to spare.

I'll leave you now with some pics of me when I was little. Aren't I funny! Especially the one with the coat and hat, I look so very sinister... 

I'm still dressing up in crazy costumes and loving animals :)

N