Seasons Greetings to everybody (& First.Ever.Turkey)

via

(EDIT) ps. check out my First.Ever.Turkey

The Awesome Cranberry-Bacon-Pinenut Stuffing that was amazingly delicious and went into the First Ever Turkey. (Stuffing mix + finely chopped onions & bacon + soaked dried cranberries + toasted pinenuts = yum!)

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Six Watching the First Ever Turkey in the Oven

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Love the Christmas Feasting.

fact is

I like to Learn Something Every Day

a suspicious character & giveaway winner

I don't know about him. Ever have those projects that never quite seem finished, or you're never quite satisfied? This guy is weird.

I ran out of fur for his hood and his forehead was huge so I gave him a fringe. Then his chin looked funny, so I turned his tail into a beard. (You know I like beards). But still, he just manages to look a bit shady, with his interlocked fingers and sideways glance. A suspicious character.
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(ever have that thing where photos only upload sideways? or is it just me?)

In other news, I have drawn a winner of the crochet and embroidery books (I remembered!) Thanks to everyone who entered, your Silly Chicken stories made me giggle and feel much better! *drum roll* and the lucky Chicken is mammajoy! Yay!!

this week

I made some business cards


and bookmarks from old books. Then I included them in some

orders that I wrapped up and posted. I've just temporarily closed my shop so I can have a break and restock.

And to restock I need fabric. Which is a perfectly valid excuse to go to a thrift store that had everything half price and buy this much. Here it's in a laundry basked waiting to be rewashed, but I'll show you the best bits soon.

I would like

this book quite a lot. Thank.you.very.much.

they've got a blog too.

the cat who was allergic to fish

Six is my slightly chubby, arrogant but loving cat, and has had a strange lesion on her lip that grew bigger until I carried her fat bum to the vet last week (and found muscles in my arms I didn't know I had). The vet found more lesions in her mouth, said a really really long word, and declared that she is probably allergic to fleas and fish.

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Treatment includes injections, fastidious flea control, checking all food, no licking from tuna cans and definitely no drinking from the goldfish bowl (goldfish food has fish in it. She's been drinking fish water for years).

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What kind of a cat is allergic to fish? It's absurd. Like a dog allergic to bones. Then the vet told me that the other possible diagnosis is cancer. So suddenly I'm okay about the fish allergy thing.

I am a Silly Chicken & Giveaway

I am a Silly FORGETFUL Chicken. I completley and utterly forgot the Brown Owls Christmas Party. I was looking forward to it. I had suggested a location, I RSVPd, I decided what to wear, I had chosen and wrapped a secret santa present.

Then I forgot. At 7pm Sunday night I sat upright, slapped my forehead so hard my eyes bugged out, and swore very loudly.

I blame the uni essays crowding my mind. I blame a lifetime of absent-mindfulness and my current lack of diary and pause of to-do list writing. I blame the alignment of the planets, and my silly brain. Most of all I blame me, which is awful because I really was looking forward to going, and was prepared to face my shyness to do it. I really enjoy spening time with the lovely crafty and funny Brown Owls, chatting about crafty things and thread and the best way to finish a stitch. Sorry guys. My brain.

Now I have gone for a walk, eaten a bag of mixed lollies and stopped swearing everytime I think of it, I am having a giveaway for the gift that was to be the secret santa. Two books, cozy crochet and embroidery.

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The books are brand new and full of tips and patterns and projects and pictures, and quite-darn-nice. To enter this giveaway, leave a comment on this post. If you like, leave a comment about the last time you totally forgot something and felt like a Silly Chicken. It may help me feel better. For an extra entry, post about the giveaway and/or being a Silly Chicken. I will draw the winner next monday.

Unless I forget.

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Just kidding.

I think.

(edit) giveaway for international peeps too!

My Place and Yours

My Front Door. A big red door. Blackboard with quotes, bookcase full of Agatha Christie and Frankie magazines, a bowl of keys and coins and a Kermit I found last week.

My Collection. You've already seen my keys, boardgames and animated movies. Now I have four old yellow phones. Not sure what I'll do with them, but it seems it's a bit of a collection now.

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Wherever I Hang My Hat. Wherever I move, as soon as I hang up my cloud where I can see it from my bed, I feel like I'm home.

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Nice, Different, Unusual. Many friends who visit our house comment on our ginormous bathroom sink. It doubles as the laundry sink, and it's huge. Everyone else's sinks now seem really puny!

letters

A letter to myself
Hey you. You look nice today. Yes, even in your pajamas, sipping tea with your hair all mussed up and a slight headache. I know you’ve had a rough time lately. This year hasn’t been easy but it will get better. I know it’s hard to hear it from me, that some part of you doesn’t believe it, but I know that if you were my dear friend this is what I would tell you. You are beautiful. You are loved and you are stronger than you think.

A letter to my anxiety disorder
You’re a bit of a pain, aren’t you. Well it’s good to finally meet you, though I’ve known you for a while. Now I know who you are, I can recognise you. You have taken me away from my friends, away from life and so many exciting things in the world. You see you take a process that is really handy in response to, say, a ravenous lion; or a piano falling from a skyscraper above you; and apply to not-so-handy situations. Like getting on a bus, sitting in a restaurant or lining up at the bank. I am grateful to my body for having these responses like releasing adrenaline and making my heart beat fast so my muscles can carry me away from danger and maybe save my life. But you have to stop tricking my body into thinking that supermarkets are dangerous places. They’re really not. I don’t like being so scared and feeling like I may throw up or faint, and making excuses why I can’t do things and it’s starting to make me mad. I don't like that you've invited depression in to keep you company. So don’t get comfortable, generalized anxiety disorder. I have friends who have friends. I have backup. And your time is limited.

A letter to you
Hello. I like your shoes. Would you like some of my cookie? It’s choc chip, and I’m getting crumbs in the keyboard. I just wanted to let you know that I am a better person because of you. Thank you. You, reading this, makes me more open and able to share my thoughts and encourages a creativity that sometimes surprises me. You make me see the world in new ways. Your comments make my day. Your stories make me smile. Your empathy in bleak days and joy in happy times makes me wonder at humanity. You inspire me. Thank you.

A letter to tea

I like you very much. You are warm and comforting and oh-so-tasty. You make hangovers more bearable, sundays more lazy, you wake me up in the mornings, and give me a reason to get up and have nice little breaks that makes my work much nicer. You are an excuse to buy pretty mugs, and sit on the front step to watch the street at dusk. Keep being awesome.

around the Place

ripe juicy Peaches..

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friends for a Picnic..

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a neighbourhood Party..

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new knitting for a tree in the Park..
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my comfy sunday Position..

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is 8 cups a day too much?

via starstrings

gratitude

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Firstly thanks so much for your words and thoughts, they help more than you know.

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On blog rounds I have also been inspired by 31 experiment who is doing a series of posts on gratitude, and ShineaLittleLight's post about thankfulness, which got me onto this super little blog thxthxthx which features a thank you note a day. Like the ones above.

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I also read this week that a study found that after writing down things they were grateful for, after a few weeks people were 25% happier. TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT people!

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So I have a little red notebook, and I will start a thank you list, a bit like 1000 awesome things, every day write a few more in until I get to one thousand. Every day has things in it that I am thankful for, even if they've happen a thousand times before. Every day is full of things I am thankful for, if I look for them, and I will write them down.

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Number one is going to be you.

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Pepper is currently experiencing technical difficulties.

My mum always said, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

So I've been a bit quiet lately. I have been a bit gray. Sad, and scared and lonely. Not all the time, but sometimes all at once.

I don't want to have a ultra-sweetener blog that is always sunny. It's part of me, and right now I'm a bit gray. I thought I would just let you know that I'm still here, and I am enjoying reading your blogs and your thoughts and everyday lives. I hope you will stick with me in the gray, and soon I will return to normal multi-colour services.

x Pepper

reading alone in my fort

via starstrings, floating in the blue and booktumbling

even cuter than I imagined

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I have never made a giraffe before, so I made two from the soft woollen blankets (that are shrinking fast as I chop them to bits), with soft fur manes. These guys have no hard parts or wire or buttons to get into little mouths, so suitable for babies and small children, and they turned out even cuter than I imagined. In my store.

Next, a bird, a bear and the ballerina monster (oh I haven't forgotten him, don't worry!)

I hope your weekend is just lovely!

write love on your arm today

To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.*****To Write Love On Her Arms Day is a day where anyone can write the words love on their arms, to support those who are fighting against depression and those who are trying to recovering.

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On this day, just write love on your arms, and show it off, other people will ask why you have love written on your arms, and you tell them you are supporting to write love on her arms day, and how its benefiting a non profit organization helping stop depression, and make love the movement.

It's today. (edit: it was yesterday. Doh!)

(facebook)

feeling lost

'passive agressive' acrylic on printed plate, 2009 by Alastair Levy

“ you lost your way home, and you felt like a passenger left by the road, well I’ll tell you the reason you couldn’t get home, cos home is nowhere you’ve been and it’s nowhere you’re going, home is only a feeling you get in your mind from the people you love and travel beside, you may feel like a passenger, but now you’re the driver, you’ve got to keep travelling and travelling on, cos if you break down, it’s a cold hard shoulder , so fuel up your mind and fire up your heart , and drive on, drive on, and when your days are darker, put your foot down harder and drive on
fuel up - stornoway

(via)

Ogres.are not. like cakes.

The theme for this week's (last weeks?) My Place and Yours meme from Meet Me At Mikes is My secret weapon.

It is, a little unexpectedly even to me; animated kids movies. I love to have them on in the background as I stitch or stuff or knit. They are cheerful (mostly) funny (with adult jokes interwoven that go over kids heads) and distracting enough so that I don't get bored with counting rows, but not so distracting that I sew ears on backwards. I think from working with kids too, they remind me of simple times and they way they would laugh uproariously and repeat the best lines over and over.

Whatever it is, I started small with Shrek and Shrek 2. Now whenever I've had a glum day, I know that picking up a new one and picking up some thread will make me calm and sort me out.

I probably own more kids movies than a grown woman without children should, but I mean to have some one day, so it's an investment, right?

(and the title of this post? arguably my favourite bit of Shrek. Parfait may be the most delicious thing on the whole damn planet)

knitti gritti

Over in Melbourne there, as part of a community-based, contemporary arts and cultural festival Big West Festival, they have plans to knit an entire bridge. A whole bridge man.

If you're in Melbourne you can watch the daily progression of the Big Knit onsite at the Stockbridge during the festival and there'll be a casting-off celebration on Sat 28 November. Otherwise you can follow the progress on lovely blog Three Buttons (she'll be walking by every day) and also the Big Knit blog.

If that wasn't awesome enough, the festival is also working on an extensive guerrilla knitting campaign across the neighbourhood, with the help of hundreds of knitters.

yes. yes it is.

I like this shirt. Buy it here.

clothes from the blue of the sky

these gorgeous prints are from Freya Art & Design, via Down & Out Chic.

From her post:

Remember, there's beauty all around, sometimes it takes longer to find, but it's there. I have to remind myself, in the hardest of times that it's often my attitude that blocks the goodness being offered to me.

Precisely, Uh-huh. Love the prints, love the words.

festival love

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Newtown Festival, in My Favourite Park, Sunday 8th November