At least this one looks like it's meant to...

...even if he is a little squidgy around the edges. Introducing Mr Green-O-Bot, from Jess Hutchinson's fabulous Unusual Toys for you to Knit and Enjoy. He was such a fun knit, and Grumbles has been wonderful this morning by having a two hour sleep, thus allowing me to sew him up in time for Christmas. I hope the Galumph isn't reading, because the bot is a gift for him and Grumbles to share.



So now it's off to finish up wrapping of gifts, and packing of bags. We're heading down to the coast for the merry season, so I'll catch you all in the new year. Mwah!

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a... knitted alien?!?

Well, a knitted babe to be correct, although at the moment it does represent some sort of alien entity who suffered severe charring when their spaceship crashed upon planet earth. But nonetheless, they are still smiling!

I'm hoping she looks better with hair. Which may or may not be a blue afro. Just to make her look even more freaky. Merry Christmas, Grumbles!

PS Better pics to come when she is clothed and trichomed. And maybe blessed with better eyes.

Carolling away

Saturday evening was spent down at our local Carols by Candelight. I think I was the only one in the audience singing away, but no one was sitting close enough to us to complain. And we made it home before the storm hit - woo hoo!

What's been going down?

Indeed - what has been happening? Well...

- I got some snazzy wool from Marta's Yarns, which have, incidentally, opened a new shop in the city. The colours and textures are fabulous, but I have absolutely no idea as to what I shall make with them. My guess, sadly, is scarves. Again.

- Grumbles is now the proud owner of another two pairs of shorts, this time red and yellow, with elasticised pockets at the front. These pockets may have been a slight design mistake on my part as, instead of looking tres funky, merely looks like her parents keep putting her shorts on backwards. We live and we learn.

- The Kidsilk Haze ruffly scarf is coming along nicely, if not slowly. It's funny - I love how it's looking, but am finding it completely hard to get motivated. Which brings me too...

- I am officially out of Christmas cheer. I don't know why, and I don't know what happened - usually Christmas is my favourite time of year, and I drive everybody else around me barmy by blabbing on about it - but this year it just feels like one big headache. It also feels like the meaning has completely gone out of it. Thank goodness for Oxfam Unwrapped.

- I am somewhat in the grumps. For this I am blaming (1) my phantom period; (2) the fact that I still have a gazillion things left to do on my Christmas list, and am no nearer to finishing any of them; and (3) the dot point above.

- My front garden has roses. Well, had roses. Now a pint glass in the dining area has roses. And wool as companions.

Weekend wrap-up

The weekend was crazy, and I'm still recovering, so instead I'll just take a big breath and blurt it all out: in-laws for dinner, lots of driving, wool shopping, fruitless book searching, sun burn, Christmas breakfast at Brighton Yacht club (oh la la!), swimming in the ocean, lazing on an outside swing, picnics outside, fabric purchasing and a rather sleepless night due to an upset tummy and possums racketing around in the roof.

Tonight it's Santa doing stories at the library. Then home for a hot chocolate (Galumph and I), bottle (for Grumbles) then the cot (for all of us!).

The fambly at Brighton Pier

A quick lesson in botany

It would appear that, for certain monocotyledons, if you remove the top part of a stem containing the coleoptile then the plant will no longer have the ability to grow towards the light, or in other words, onwards and upwards.

I wish the Galumph had been thinking of that before he took the garden shears to our Christmas tree (just for point of reference, that was four years ago now. The tree should, technically, be at least 1.2 metres tall. It barely scrapes in at 30 centimetres).

Anniversary

Today the Galumph and I have been married for three years. That's 1096 days! And in that time together we have moved house three times, done a bushwalking holiday and a biking holiday, had a birth (hi Grumbles!), had a too-darn-close-for-comfort near death (don't go just yet, Jorth!), had a few nice dinners out, had many lovely dinners in, thrown a dinner party for 22 people (my oven got a work out that day!) and given each other far too many goopey smiles.

Actually, you can never have too many of the last.

Happy anniversary, my love.

Why you should always do a swatch

Because if you don't, the jumper you lovingly handcrafted for your wee little one may not be so much soft and snuggly as skin tight and scary. It doesn't even fit her cute little arms! The poor tyke couldn't even lift them!

Just as well it fitted a 3 month old I knew (as opposed to the 11 month old it was supposed to fit).

Exhibition building and Grumbles

It's a sad but true fact that if you take your child to the museum, pay lots of money to get in and have lunch, tote them around to all the exhibitions in an attempt to expand their fertile young minds, they will still appear to garner more enjoyment playing on the bike stands positioned outside. Oh, and from the picking up of gravel - also to be found outside the museum.

Still, it was worth the bike trip there.

2 down, 20 to go. Eeeek!

Yesterday I was able to scratch one more item off my ginormous list of things to be done before Christmas day. Introducing... Grumble's new shorts! Kindly pardon the crummy photos - there's not much light around here today as it's been raining since, oh, 9:30 this morning (Oi! Weather gods! You call this summer?).

The fabric is cotton, with the pattern made by yours truly. They are a little boring, I admit, which is why I added the butterfly buttons, but I didn't want to get too fancy shmancy on my first go, least not until I knew if they would fit her or not. And fit they do, so a few more are in the works.

I'll post a gratituous shot of her wearing them when it actually becomes warm enough for her to do so. In the meantime, make do with the fuzzy shots below.