Project 365: Week 18

Catch up, Catch up, Catch up. It's the theme of the moment at the moment.

I'm frantically writing lists - looking at the tasks I need to do, the time frame I have to do them in and then quietly going crazily insane whilst attempting to scale the pile of marking and teach my class with my usual maniac enthusiasm. I'm OK as long as I don't think too deeply about what I should have done at any point of time.

So I'd like to give a small shout out to the landscaping team at work for brightening my days with their efforts outside my office window. They've kept me thoroughly intrigued with what was going to happen next in the massive garden redevelopment project. It has been a source of much joking speculation amongst my fellow office occupants. There's also the entertainment factor of watching other people undertake hard physical labour in adverse weather conditions whilst you are in your cosy office attempting hard intellectual labour.

Day 119: The end of the fire season. Washing and airing the daughter's fire-fighting after her last batch of controlled burning. They were is serious need of this. I swear they were so black with soot and stuff they almost stood up by themselves.

Day 121: I think this is in fact a close relative of the iconic artwork - Blue Poles. I here by give you - Red Poles. Aligning these suckers seemed to involve alternate intense periods of sweaty labour and silent contemplation by the work team.

Day 122: The gift basket for the new baby waiting for delivery. Due to a complicated series of misadventures, I had temporary custody of this in my office for a few days.

Day 123: Look the mushrooms have grown up now. They've flattened out and opened up. More disappointingly, they're now a boring brown instead of that cute yellow.

Day 124: I feel this photo may need a "This photo may distress a few viewers". I get a phone call from my little sister yesterday evening saying, "There's a mouse in my dishwasher!". "There's a WHAT in Your WHAT???!" I reply. "Fine. I'll come and deal with it in the morning". That's my role. I deal with vermin. She doesn't. When I go to remove said mouse, I find a dead rat face down in a wine glass. This leads to speculation about what type of wine a rat might drink - red or white? I remove said rat. Need to give her cat some severe re-education about how inappropriate it is to chase vermin into slightly open dishwashers. Cat feels no need to listen to any boring lectures suggesting its conduct may be lacking. We DID rewash the dishes! TWICE!!

Day 125: The coolest thing to do with old suitcases. The amplifiers / ipod speakers on steroids my son fell in love with at first sight. Sunday morning at the Camberwell market with my girls on a shopping mission. Success! One tailored long black wool coat for the giant European adventure for one daughter and a suitably pre-loved classic leather jacket for the other at $10 each. Looking longingly at old tailor's lasts (cos' who doesn't love a disembodied wooden foot) and hat forms but decided my taste in classic industrial decorating objects and my actual budget are worlds apart.

Day 126: Granny wants a Latte Machiato. An update on the great granny rug project. 140 squares completed of the 300 I need. It looks so cool though when you lay them out on the floor and see what you've got. 

Project 365: Weeks 16 and 17

Dear Blog,

Apologies. I have clearly neglected you. For a whole month! (Past experience with me should make you resigned to this state of affairs though).

OK. Here's the stage of the year when life seems to run away with you and one day blurs into the next and the weeks fly buy. I've officially dropped the ball on this photo a day thing. I've missed the odd day here and there before now but these two weeks I've nearly missed more than I've taken.

I think I'll just keep trying and post what I've got and attempt to do better for the rest of the year.

It's been a few weeks of constant classes and intense exam writing and proof reading and marking - none of which lends itself to pretty pictures (and then there's the privacy issues too).

Day 106: The owl hat in its natural habitat. I think wearing headphones on the top of your head is a fashion statement from the same styling school as wearing your sunglasses on the top of your head - possibly pointless.

Day 108: This was supposed to be titled 'Birds on the Wire'. However, the birds decided they didn't want their photos taken and flew away when they saw the camera. A cold grey frosty early Autumn morning.

Day 109: These mushrooms appeared virtually overnight in the work car-park. They're growing on the root system of tree that used to be there before it decided to fall over for no reason and kill a few cars that were quietly minding there own business. This one's for my middle daughter. Her area of scientific passion is Mycology - also known as the scientific study of mushrooms. She's even off to a fungi conference in a month or so.

Day 110: Knitting designer. One of my work colleagues is the proud parent of a new baby boy. She's an owl researcher. So I decided to make a toy owl for the new arrival. Here's the first stages of the design process, a sketch and the start of the body.

Day 111: Shades of red. I have decided that I possibly own a few too many red jumpers and cardigans. This is the current batch drying inside having all been worn over the last few days. It hasn't exactly been conducive weather to drying them outside. My eldest daughter has been known to go shopping with me and when I point something out to her, say "it's very you Mum, but you already have a [insert clothing item name here] exactly like that!" I fear she may be right...

Day 112: Happy birthday little sis. My sister had her birthday last week and we mutually agreed it was time for me to make her something for a change. So meet this cool garter stitch scarf. It only took a week and it's soooo soft. The yarn is 80% wool, and 20% soy protein! (I know - do you wear it or eat it?)

Day 114: Check out how much those mushrooms have grown! Maybe they're mutant mushrooms looking to take over the planet.

Day 115: Productive use of a public holiday. You know that owl I was designing? Well here's the finished toy. He turned out just how I wanted him too.

Day 116: Lunch with my middle daughter. A quiet interlude after some essential odd jobs involving banks.

Day 117: Matching beanies. After the the near incident of the great beanie kidnap attempt over Easter, I made the eldest daughter one of her own to discourage future attempts at beanie theft from her brother. I think they need to work on their synchronised modelling skills though.