my creative space

it appears i have a really bad habit. the habit of offering up our spare room (my creative space) to waifs who are in need of a place to stay. yet again, i have changed my spare room into a hotel room. but that's ok, for there are times when it is nice to share. so at the moment, due to our current house guest, i have gotten a bit creative with my space. see, i often create on the couch in the lounge room (where the heater lives). but my current project (or more accurately one of my current projects) actually requires a desk. i'm working on some papercutting, and have found that sharp scalpels, tender fingers and soft furnishings are not an ideal combination. so i have purloined a 'lap board' from a friend of mine. its such a great idea - just like a desk, with a hard surface to cut on, but sitting here on my lap on the couch. (i sometimes even prop it up on an extra cushion to bring the little cuttings closer to my old tired eyes).

creating can then ensue...

join in with kirsty for more creative spaces

busybusybusy

i've had a really busy week last week, and then a pretty hectic weekend. then this morning, a bit of opshopping with a friend, home for a quick bite of lunch and i'm heading out shortly to afternoon tea with another friend... so its nice to take a few minutes out and sit in the sun with a cup of tea and some biscuits. i made these yesterday, and they are so very yummy. the recipe is in a delicious magazine cafe recipe special, but it actually originates from one of my favourite cafes (sweet source on rathdowne st, carlton north), i usually adapt it depending on what sort of nuts i have in the cupboard, and this is the version i used yesterday... Oaty choc cookies 125g butter 1/2 cup caster sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 tea vanilla bean paste 1 egg 1 1/4 cup rolled oats 1 cup plain flour 1/2 tea baking powder 1/2 tea bi-carb soda 1/2 tea salt 1 block lindt 70% chocolate (which is 100g), broken into little pieces 105g almonds (dry fried in a heavy frypan and then crushed up a bit with a motar and pestle) cream butter, sugars and vanilla. beat in egg, then fold in oats. sift flour, baking powder, soda and salt and fold in. when nearly mixed in, add chocolate and nuts. spoon onto buttered trays and bake about 10 min at 170 degrees C. cool slightly on trays, then place on wire rack. serve with tea. mmm, tea.

knitta please

i am up here in canberra for the weekend, and decided to go see the soft sculpture exhibtion at the national gallery - it was brilliant (but no luck if you didn't get to catch it, for it closed today).

we parked and then walked through the sculpture garden to get to the gallery. and what fun - knitta please had been doing their work...

* with photo credits going to my sister - there is a fundamental lesson about using rechargable batteries in your camera that i seem to have missed

i love a bit of knitted graffiti, don't you?

one lovely blog award

how lovely! i got tagged by the lovely sayraphim of the page 63 of your manual with the One Lovely Blog Award. so very lovely - thanks sayraphim. so the rules are: 1. Accept the award, post in your blog together with the name of the person or people who gave it to you an a link to their blog. 2. Pass the award to other 15 blogs that you have newly discovered. 3. Contact the bloggers you award to let them know that they were chosen. such a lovely idea - without further ado (and due to time constraints), i pass on this lovely award to 7 of my fellow bloggers: 1. Clutterpunk (i know sayraphim tagged you but your blog is so lovely, that i had to tag you again) 2. little lovelies (whose blog brings me joy and inspiration) 3. sosewpoppy (who is amazingly talented) 4. kootoyoo (who makes thursdays creatively fun) 5. greedy for colour (whose current crochet obession brings me joy) 6. m* (aren't her wuppets fab) 7. vadjutka (who makes amazing jewelry) so big thanks to you all guys for making my world so lovely!

joining grannies

so, i've crocheted myself enough practice grannies. now i find it's time to join them up. again, my lack of ability to follow or understand patterns has caused a bit of chaos. i started off chaining them together, like this. but i was not really happy with the result. the great thing is that i popped over to little lovelies the other day and found that i wasn't the only one joining grannies. at her direction i popped further over to the lovely carina's craftblog for a fabulous tutorial! a-joining-we-will-go...