fiveandtwo

I'm Still Here...

Yes, still here, but completely out of the routine of blogging. For me, it does need to be slotted in, in some organised way. Spontaneous blogging is a rarity around here! I guess this is true for most people.

My routine has had a big shakeup (it happens every so often).

After a nearly twenty year hiatus I've returned to "formal" art study - Diploma of Visual Arts at East Gippsland TAFE. With a view to eventually gaining a degree in Fine Art, probably from Monash Churchill. The closest uni. to where I live but still a 2 hour drive away!

I've always wanted a tertiary qualification. I rejected a science degree at the beginning of 1982. I'm interested in many aspects of the sciences but Pure Applied Chemistry? What was I thinking.

Family consensus was "artists never make money", therefore studying art was a really bad option. Making lots of money is better than doing what you enjoy?

 

I'm only doing three subjects - painting, drawing and theory - which occupies two days, but it's anough to throw me out of whack!

Thank goodness paid work is usually only one day per week.

It's very motivating being at TAFE. I didn't realise how bored I was. Of course, I had plenty to do with household/kid/husband stuff, and loads of projects in the offing. I think it's been the exchange of ideas that's been missing. Talking with like-minded people, talking books, art, reasons, ideas. Talking about what you're working on, why you're doing it.

Discovering blogland filled part of the gap here. Nothing beats face-to-face interaction though. It sounds lame but I think that stumbling on blogland a couple of years ago prevented me from going completely barmy.

 

I've come into contact with wonderfully creative, articulate and interesting women. I've even met some of them in real life!

So, I've done no crafting except make a paint brush roll.

It's based on the tool roll in this book.

  

I'm a fan of Lotta Jansdotter's style, I have two other books of hers. The printing one, and a Japanese one. I see she has a making-things-for- babies book out.

 

Pics of paintings - TAFE stuff I've been working on.

So, I'm working on slotting the blog posts. You'll probably be subjected to WIPs of TAFE assignments rather than craft/garden/op-shoppy things. You have ben warned...

Return From Unannounced Blog Break.

What have I been doing? Battling demons. With a bit of teen wrangling for light relief

What else? Walking. Changing the garden around - seem to do a lot of digging things up, moving them and changing the size and shape of garden areas when unwell. I think it parallels the changes I struggle to make within.

Two views of garden work in progress.

Doing what else? Sewing clothes for Clare and Ally to not wear.

From this book (ISBN 978-4-579-11132-9)

In a past life it was a linen shirtdress from the op-shop.

Used the same pattern for the "Lady" jackets  for the Book Day costumes.

Little top, cute bumblebee fabric (from Spotlight, as with apple fabric, below)

From this book (ISBN 978-4-579-11954-4)

Heh, could've ironed it! Lovely green linen from the op-shop.

Old Burda pattern (9995) with sash added. Fabric is two vintage pillowcases. All from op-shop.

Clare actually wore the one below..!

Used Ottobre Design's "The Best T-shirts" pattern for these, all op-shop fabrics. The stencil came from Stencilry, loads of stencils you can print and use (personal use only, of course). I used freezer paper for the first time and was very pleased with the result.

A couple more things to sew up and a couple needing buttons. I want to make some pants and skirts for summer. Thinking of making a duct tape "body double" to help with fitting, perhaps then there won't be so many duds - look terrible/don't fit properly.

The Japanese pattern books come from Yesasia. They have free shipping.

You're a Terrific Bunch.

The Satsuma is always the first fruit tree to flower in this garden.

This picture is for you lovely people who cared to comment on my last garbled post.

Sometimes I wonder if I should visit dark places in public. Heh, when I started this blog it was going to be all shiny, happy - none of that other stuff! Things went awry along the way...

However, I am feeling better. I'm thinking perhaps my feeling so "off" was a side effect of a new medication I started taking last week. I will persevere with it though, because it's having very much the desired effect otherwise!

My efforts to banish the demons have meant I shifted the enormous pile of mostly composted chook run stuff from the middle of the back yard: dug into the vegie garden, scratched in around all the citrus and filled into the hole (bear pit) that Suska the dog dug under the apple tree last summer.

Vegetable garden nicely turned & composted. I scooped out quite a few self-sown poppies, forget-me-nots and sweet peas and put them in the new garden out the front before hand. They may or may not take. These things tend to resent transplanting. My vegie garden was once much bigger. I suppose such a reversal sounds strange these days. I found that as our income improved to a point where we didn't have to provide/preserve practically everything scaling back a bit made it much more enjoyable. It was kind of liberating in a way, to buy some lettuce seedlings at the market for successive sowing, for example, rather than having to be on to it all the time. I still like to grow a lot purely from the eating point of view. Home grown tastes far superior especially the soft produce: stone fruit, tomatoes, herbs and lettuces. But even things like cucumbers! I think around these parts, however, I preach to the converted.

The tranquillity of these two was mightily disturbed not long after this was taken. After much resistance it was  yes, you are going to learn to ride your bike today! Off we went to a nearby oval and basketball court  where we had to bully them into the whole starting-stopping-riding business. Being seven years old they caught on very quickly and it was all over in an hour! Tears and trauma. Of course, now they love riding, and've spent vast amounts of time since in a cul-de-sac nearby perfecting their skills. On Tuesday we will ride to school (not tomorrow - appointment at 9.00). This resistance to cycling has occurred with all four girls, but not Giles. Stereotyping? Dunno. All I know is, it's an important life skill (like being able to swim ok)and best learnt young. Actually, I'd be interested to know what other things you consider to be "important life skills". Being able to cook is another that springs to mind. I'm actually thinking of things not usually covered in mainstream school curriculum.

Another in the "chair series".

Do You Ever Have Days Like This?

I've been having one of those times when I just don't know what to make of anything , when everything seems like crap. Hideous. I am employing my usual defences: walking the dog ragged, gardening like a demon (includes wielding a mattock and shovel to plant the lovely wintersweet), talking to people (the hardest, hardest thing) because I really don't feel like talking to anyone - not even my own family. But I make the effort because this will pass and I love them dearly. I can type this stuff , interestingly. Perhaps I need to write messages to self and others? My inner ponderings say I need to do "self work" and "marriage work". My preferred option is to walk the dog and have a cup of tea and a bottle of wine! Or actually de/re-materialise and become a tree.

Another in the chair series . A title courtesy of Victoria. After a very thorough tidy up of their room! This is an abnormal manifestation of tidiness.

A bit of window light, actually, from one side of the room to the other. The things you look at when you're cutting up vegies.

All Sorts of Stuff

Firstly, a mighty big thankyou to all of you who've taken the time to comment on this blog. I really enjoy the feedback, ideas and information.

I was touched by your thoughtful responses to the "Seventeen" post.

I realise I need to be more thorough when posting about my garden plants. Shula's comment reminded me that hellebore is also known as "winter rose", which I knew but neglected to mention. I also had an excellent comment from Julie telling me the name of my favourite bromeliad (Aechmea gamosepala - matchstick plant).

Comments are a good exchange of information. Elaborating on the content of the post. When I encounter a post (within a blog) that's dear to my heart I always peruse  comments for input from other readers.

Secondly, another mighty big thankyou to the op-shoppers out there who're keeping an eye out for wallpaper. It's a rare beast I think. In about ten years I think I only discovered two rolls. All used now! Linsey has tried painting on fabric and wrapping paper without the desired result - too absorbent. We may have to scan and screenprint the required surfaces.

I always read Jenny's blog. The first bit of the "Something New" post really resonated. And then I read today's writings "The Great Debate". I usually write on forms that I'm a "mother". Thinking about it I'll put "self-employed". That's what I put when I do "partner's occupation". Basically I'm employed by me to run the household - all that household and family stuff I do. A small business, of course.

Then I remembered Maggie Groff's Mother's Behaving Badly. She'd written a letter to the "Herald" titled Motherhood is More Then Just Housework  (mid-1998). The gist of it is "...Housework has nothing to do with motherhood. Housework is care of a house...Motherhood is care of a family...". That's why I put "mother" as my occupation. It would mean nothing to the statisticians, of course. But who fills out forms for that purpose?

And because all the words need a picture.

be

Wattle that Clare and Ally picked when we walked down by the river on Saturday. Now, I've looked up the books and it appears to be  Acacia baileyana  Cootamundra Wattle. Not indiginous to this area. I believe it's a weed in some areas. Stunning all the same.

Seventeen

Here's a picture of my first baby.

She's seventeen today. I just took the baked cheesecake out of the oven which she requested for her birthday cake.

I am amazed she survived her mother's frequent crises of confidence, crises of identity, depression and general nuttiness. She is so very different from me at seventeen - vastly more sure of herself, confident and "switched on". I really struggled with who I was. I allowed myself to buffeted by all the  "shoulds" that abound out there. "You've done well at school, your secondary education has cost a lot of money therefore you should go to university", is one example. Gosh, that one plagued me for years! "I should be like this person, or that person", "I should earn my own money, so I'm not dependent on a man", are others that spring to mind. I can see now that it was all so black and white, I was unable to discern all those shades of grey that make up the layers of people's lives. It annoys me that it took me so long to deal with it all. All that mental energy wasted! I'm mighty relieved though, that Linsey has developed a good, strong sense of identity and belief in herself.

Here she is last year in Germany. The German language students at her school went on a three week trip to Germany, Austria and Czech Republic in September last year. Linsey loved it and is saving to go back after year twelve is finished. Yes, that is a labret piercing.  It's placed a bit lower than usual so it doesn't interfere with her playing the clarinet!

In my completely unbiased opinion the best seventeen-year-old in the world.

A Bit o' Sun

After much welcome rain, some welcome sun.

A bit of homework being done on the front deck. You can see by all the wood stacked around that it's winter! The dry weather caused Clare, Ally and I to venture out to a nearby playground.

This is a nice shady spot in summer because of the massive old oak trees. Now nearly leafless.

At home I sorted and tidied the craft and sewing books - the ideas bank. See below.

While books, the internet, magazines and the like are a rich source of ideas and inspiration, I've always found what I call "fiddling" puts me at my most creative. I imagine it's a process we all follow one way or another: trying different colours and textures together, different shapes, developing an "eye" for what works in various situations. Making things and then refining them. It applies equally to my art and my craft - although I don't distinguish between the two (I do very little "art" these days). Fiddling is also the most satisfying part of making. Unfortunately it requires time and headspace. The most unbalanced times of my life have been when there hasn't been even a skerrick of time for fiddling. I guess the correct term would be the creative process. But I prefer to call it "fiddling".

The result of some fiddling. Purses cut out, embellishments prepared, threads chosen, button closures chosen. All separately packaged, no intermingling allowed, too confusing. Scissors and needles - check. I like to do a bit of handwork in idle times. I am taking a couple of books as well. To read in bed at night. And while waiting for the Sunbus. Ooops, I've wandered off onto another subject - slightly related though. Preparations for the week away. Only four sleeps. I am looking forward to only looking after three others, not feeding any animals, not organising household affairs for anyone, not doing business paperwork (it will be there when I get back), not providing transport services, not being a drop in centre for local youth, a rest from conflict with Princess Leah and requests for money from Giles, not keeping the fire going, not winter pruning, sleeping without a snoring partner. Man, I should go for years. Then I'll be appreciated for, umm, about five minutes! However, I'm always ambivalent visiting my parents. My relationship with them is rather fraught, mostly. So many issues...and they're so frail. So I'm not going to talk about any of that stuff with them. A couple of times, on the phone, I tried. But...no go. I'm worried that when my kids are grown that they'll have issues too, and perhaps they'll feel like they can't go there. Yeah, I know that I'm manufacturing scenarios that may not occur. I struggle to put in place avenues for them to express their angst. I am actually glad they're not at boarding school like I was. I am compelled to know them, to have an intro. to their peer group. My parents always claimed this knowledge, but, well, really I was gone for basically ten months of the year. Where the hell did they think they received that info? As I said, there are issues.

And, while I would like to explore this further (for me, reminder: it's your blog), I actually need to feed my family. And the teenagers have been patiently waiting for computer time.

Chooks, Rain and Fickle Children

It started raining quite heavily about an hour ago (and it's cold). Six people and a dog sitting around the fire. One is braving the cold and doing motorbike fiddling in the shed. I'm mighty glad it didn't rain yesterday afternoon because the chook run finally got mucked out. I tracked down some bedding straw at last. The job was up for grabs - paid work, I would add, because the run was putrid. It is what's called a deep litter run and is usually mucked out every couple of months, but it had gone a lot longer because I wasn't able to get a good amount of anything suitable to spread in the run (rice or wheat straw usually). I was about to go and get a trailer load of sawdust from a local mill when I saw straw at a garden centre nearby. Leah did the  dirty, stinky work, and did a mighty good job too.

There she is, slaving away. The chooks got to have a roam around and gorge themselves on various chooky delicacies. Dog confined to the house for the duration.

Bottoms up, heads down, scritch, scratch. Clucking excitedly when something especially delicious is found. I love the idea of free ranging, but the reality in a suburban setting is all mulch and seedlings scratched up and chook poop everywhere. Plus, it's not known if the dog is "chook friendly". But even before dog they were deep littered.

Vegie garden is languishing. I wish I'd put some leeks in. They're wildly expensive at the moment. But there's plenty of perennial herby things. And plenty of parsley. Nothing worse than a parsley drought, nooo...

Still sewing. I was going to post "a bit of skirt" since I made two skirts today, but with the rain and all, the light just wasn't good enough to take a photo. However, these pants were made on Saturday. Clare and Ally hate them. Very reluctantly modelled by Ally. Note firmly folded arms!

They're made of a kind of brushed denim (op-shop fabric). The pockets and hems are meant to fray over time. I know they're not a current style, to me that seems to mean dressing your seven-year-old like a hooker. Clare and Ally, for their birthday a couple of months ago, were requesting Bratz dolls from their friends. I don't want those skanky things around, so, on the party invites I put "No Bratz Please". I'm pleased to say none of these dolls appeared (yay!). Some mums didn't  see a problem with Bratz, but I'm thankful they honoured my request. Interestingly, Clare and Ally have Barbie dolls. Most inherited from Linsey and Leah, some of their own. I don't know - Barbie, for all her faults, doesn't dress and look like a prostitute. Anyway, the point of this is, if you've got someone in your family who you think would wear these, let me know. They're size 6-8 depending on how tall your child is. Drawstring waist with some elastic, fraying pockets and hems (as before). If you'd like 'em - they're yours, or if you know someone appropriate. My best buddies have kids who're too old for these (youngest nearly 12, oldest 20).

And because it's raining: raindrops on the apricot tree. Oh, but this is from Sunday. You know, when I first started blogging (urrm, not so long ago), I was going to post every day, just like my first encountered bloggers. Then I realised that this new obsession was mighty time comsuming. Oh dear - can't do it. Just. Can't. But then, if I don't post a bit I feel lacking. It's become some sort of on-line debrief, check-in, connection (hopefully), with like-minded women. Cheers!

Fun and Games

The lovely Janet has given me tips for re-sizing my photos - I didn't realise they were so enormous, taking ages to load. Umm, sorry about that. Should be much speedier from now on. Let me know if they're not.

A project that's been in the pipeline came to fruition this weekend:

Ta-da! Games room in the shed. Sharing space with motorcycle workshop, storage of potentially handy materials and, in wet weather, the washing. That large board thing behind pool queen Leah slots over the pool table and then you have table tennis. Next pic shows the dartboard.

Teenagers and token dog enjoying new facilities. This whole thing came about with repeated whinging about "nothing to do" when friends come over (a problem perceived by Giles more than the girls). Last week we placed an advertisement in the local paper to the tune of, "Wanted: small pool table", figuring there's probably a few languishing unused. We got loads of phone calls! Ended up buying it from the first caller. Roger made the table tennis top for it and the dart board came from K-Mart, along with table tennis equipment. Very low budget. Nevertheless there's been rather more 12- 15 year olds around than usual. I'm actually glad of that. I can suss out Leah and Giles' friends, know them a bit better. Better than just a name anyway. Observe dog's day bed in its new position (under the table). She remains confused.

I've done a mighty lot of sewing. Reason being I've moved my machines back into the kitchen. I once again sew in snatches. Something that was difficult with the sewing kit upstairs in my bedroom. The downside is that the kitchen/dining is once again a right royal cluttered mess. Sigh.

It's been worth it. For me: two pairs of "jeans" two tops, and a skirt. All were cut out, awaiting sewing. I'm on a dark blue, navy, denim - anything that requires navy overlock thread - stint. For the small fry:

I think it looks lovely on my reluctant model. Clare's comment, "What did you make a dress for, I don't wear dresses!". Ally (who's wearing it) would like it if it was pink. Sigh. It's leftover linen, and it had a really nice selvedge, so I turned it to the outside as a feature, and also because there wasn't enough fabric to cut on the fold. Gosh, and then I put on pockets with the selvedge folded over, so it's all tied in. Heck, I've quite a few items cut out for these two. If I get the same reaction I'll be cross - they chose the fabrics.

And now for something completely different (sorry)... I found a book at the opshop, "A Few Home Truths" - Sharon Gray. A columnist for "The Age" newspaper I think in the 80's and early 90's. I did read and enjoy, back then. In one of my scrapbooks are a few of her columns. Preserved for eternity. Ok. I bought this book, knowing I'd found treasure because googling the name revealed some American crap. Oh, it's lovely, articulate stuff. And I wonder what kind of blogger she'd be (Sharon Gray was a pseudonym, so I discovered) in the here and now. I do think she'd have had a blog. It makes me think of Margaret Simons, oh boy, did I enjoy her columns. I have some books of hers, "Wheelbarrows, Chooks and Children" (a sort of compilation of her column stuff)  and "Resuurrection in a Bucket" (an erudite discussion of composting and etc). Yeah, she'd have had a blog. maybe she does? With all the different naming, who knows?

Hoping you had an enjoyable long-weekend (well, it was in Vic.).

Why Comment?

I enjoy reading sooz's blog regularly. A number of recent posts were food for thought (as others have been). Sooz wrote about the possibility of people feeling too daunted , perhaps, to comment. I feel this too. There are a number of blogs I visit that I doubt I would ever comment on. "What could I say?", I think. (Soozs isn't one of these). They're a compelling, and mostly enjoyable read. But it's all so different from my personal experience. They seem incredibly together, or something like that.

I make a comment if something strikes a chord, compatible humour, experiences in common (of course), craftwork and skill I admire (I'm a poor knitter, so knitted things...got to comment). Op-shop finds deserve some feedback (it's a significant part of my life), families like mine(always look at big family blogs). Myself, I've only commented on Australian blogs so far. Common thread, of course. Some bloggers are able to articulate very well, they discuss stuff that I'm interested in, but I don't have the language skills to "get it all down".  They make my thoughts coalesce. I like to make a comment then. To say thankyou, for discussing this or that subject, for providing some links to follow.

And now, I would like to say more, but the teenagers have been hassling me - three 1/4hour now. Got to go!