Disaster!

As you may or may not have noticed, all my pictures are gone. Or to be more exact, all my pictures are there but the site they are hosted at is gone :( I dont know why it happened but I am trying to get it fixed atm, so please stay tuned and hopefully we will return to your regularly scheduled blog shortly...

I'm melting! ....melting!

Its been far too hot lately to do much crafting - sweltering, melting, sticky hot and its not even properly summer yet! I keep getting sunburnt on one side driving to and from work, Im going to end up with a super brown 'driving arm' by the end of the summer. I did manage to get an elephant done for Ammi this week, and if the storm comes through as its meant to tonight and cools things down a bit, I will start on a lizard or maybe a crocodile.

So in lieu of my own pics, I thought I might share some inspirational pics of things that I like and that I would like to do:

Jenny's sunroom is beautiful, I cant wait to have our own home to decorate and fill with lovely things like this (I am drooling over these bookshelves!!) After years of renting, the first thing I want to do when I get my own house is to paint the walls whatever colour I like - no more rental beige for me!!

Bree's house at Universal Studios, from when I went to LA in May.
The tour we were on thought I was a lunatic because I nearly
passed out when we went to the set of Desperate Housewives. I
made them stop at every single house so I could take a picture!! *lol*

Speaking of houses, I am also in love with the houses of Wisteria Lane, the crisp white trims, bright colours and perfect lawns (I think its called 'colonial revival' style, but I could be wrong?) My ultimate dream would be to have a nice house in Balmain, with a bulldog in the backyard and a frangipani tree.

I also dig the bead rings currently on Craftapalooza, I have so many beads that would be perfect on a ring like this - the ones that are tricky to incorporate into a necklace or individual ones that cant be made into earrings, but are too special and beautiful to waste. I will have to investigate where to get the 'ring' part itself, and experiment with how to actually put them together (I think hers are wired, but then how to attach to the base?)



The log cabin pillows A Bird in the Hand has been making lately are to die for!! I have been thinking about attempting quiting for the first time, but I dont want it to be too 'cottagey'. I think these babies fit the bill! I will have to build up my fabric collection some more first, then any advice from accomplished quilters as to where to start on a project like this would be gladly accepted!! :)



Bella Dia's pincushions are always inspirational, and the 'quilt' set are certainly no exception. These are so simple, yet so so beautiful.



And Ana Ventura's scrap paper dolls are the most gorgeous combination of art and craft. It amazes me how much depth and personality these (literally!) 2-dimensional characters have. Her christmas and whale mobiles are also faves.

The Secret Revealed!

Nics 20th birthday present, all wrapped up. I love this box - $4 from The Reject Shop, and theres a whole set of different ones in different sizes and colours too! The ribbon was from there also ($2), Corn has already taken all the beads off and added them to her collection :) And whats inside...?



Ta da!! A small Sock Dog, Sportsgirl chunky beady necklace inside a handmade paper box made from a printed vintage wallpaper pattern, and of course what every girl needs, Jelly Belly jellybeans!

So the TOP SECRET project is finally revealed! I am very pleased with how this little guy turned out, I think he has a nice look about him. He is a pair of gray baby socks (about size 2-5), and is my first foray into canine sock creatures. He literally has a button nose! *lol*

He's very obedient and can sit on command. He was sitting ready in the box for her to open - as I was wrapping it up, Lak kept saying "He's not a dog ON a tucker box, he's a dog IN a tucker box!" and thinking it was hilarious (I had a chuckle I must admit).

Gratuitous butt shot - this was mainly to jazz him up a bit, since he was made from a plain pair of socks. I wanted to make some felt spots for him but I was worried he might end up looking like he had some sort of skin disease, or possibly looking like a cow. So he got sequins and a heart on his bum instead. Now that I think about it, he kind of resembles a Care Bear! And speaking a things from my childhood, how exciting is this?? Muppets + reality TV = Danielle heaven :)

I wasnt one of the 3 winners in Penelope's drawing competition, but the ones that did win were excellent, so Im not too sad. Lori Joy Smith's one really sums it up I think - "Cackle" is a witch in one word *lol*

Lori Joy Smith's 'Draw a Witch' submission

I am trying to figure out how to get to Adelaide to have a sticky beak at the Morphe exhibition in December. I cant really take time off work at that time of year for us to drive there, and I think that flights would be quite expensive near Christmas as well. Argh, Adelaide - so close, yet so far away!

Let there be craft!

A proper crafty post was well overdue, so here is the camel for Ammi I had mentioned in an earlier post. His humps are not quite even, but he turned out pretty good I think. He is from the Felt Mascots book again, everything in that book is so gorgeous and easy to make! I really need to knuckle down and get into these christmas pressies - I need to do 6 more for Ammi, then I was going to make little things for everyone at work which is another 8 people.

I love these felt ornaments (via Creature Comforts), I wonder if I could make something like these myself? There might not be enough time though - I dont want anyone to panic, but there are less than 8 WEEKS until Christmas!! Argh!!

My shelf, my self

Im hesitant about making a proper profile in Blogger - I know its a bit strange to write down happenings in my life, my crafts and my thoughts in these posts and not just give a brief overview of myself in a profile section, but I just feel a bit 'safer' somehow that way. Maybe thats just me. Anyways, after my earlier post regarding arranging things by colour, I rearranged the bookshelf in my bedroom. I have more books than this in various places around the house (the coffee table, another smaller shelf for big hardcovers, text and work books in the study...), but the majority of my novels are on this shelf. So I was looking at my bookshelf last night and I thought how much the books and objects on this shelf show the type of people Lak and I are. So as an indirect profile, here is an overview of my shelf/myself.

I will pick out special things that say something about me and my life, although now that I look at it there are so many meaningful things on this little bookshelf that this could end up being a really long post! :) So if you'll bear with me, Ill explain things from the top down, left to right:

• Out my bedroom window there is a view to Wollongong Harbour and around to South Beach. I love my little apartment, the only thing I would change would be for it to be in Sydney instead of Wollongong!
• My lemon box, which I want to give as a special gift but secretly I dont want to part with
• A photo of my best friend Pete and I on her wedding day, in the frame she gave me for my 21st birthday
• A chinese seal/stamp kit given to me by our amazing friend Mimi
• The sock monkeys Winston and Benjamin
• Collection of Dan Brown books. I read the Da Vinci Code from cover to cover in 2 days - it is a fantastic book. I love ancient mysteries, secret passages and clever puzzles.
• (Purple section) Backyard Blitz book, one of my favourite shows. Im a sucker for makeover shows of any kind (Queer Eye, Changing Rooms, What Not to Wear...)
• (White section) Stack of books all written by Oliver Sacks. When I was at school, my aim in life was to be either a neurologist or a graphic designer, and I ended up a graphic designer. I had grand plans to study at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York where Oliver Sacks teaches. I still wonder what my life would be like now if I had taken that path - I might not have met Lak, I might be still living overseas, I might have been hurt in 9/11, so many things could be completely different. Im definitely happy where I have ended up though.
• On top of the stack of Oliver Sacks books is the princess crown Lak got for me to wear at my birthday/ New Years Eve last year at Cockle Bay Wharf on Darling Harbour. He also got me a pavlova cake, my favourite.
• Next to the crown is a kiwi I got Lak on my first overseas business trip to New Zealand
• Semipermanent 2003 book, from the graphic design conference. Conferences like Semipermanent confound me - the speakers are always amazingly inspiring and down to earth, but the attendees are all a uber-trendy and aloof.
• 'When Dining With Tigers' book, written by our friend Brad's dad, Frank Chan Loh
• Lak's 'Guiness Book of Cricket Facts & Figures'. He's Sri Lankan, so he's all about cricket.
• (Yellow section) Small chicken, on top of 'The Beach' by Alex Garland - this book is concrete proof that the book is always better than the movie, its one of the best books Ive read. I bought it second hand for about $2.
• 'Design Literacy' by Steven Heller, the bible for graphic designers
• Lak's 'Guiness Book of World Records' 2005 (theres also an earlier one in the green section). Lak loves trivia, this is about the only book he reads from cover to cover.
• (Black section) Englebert the crow, next to 'No Logo' by Naomi Klein, a highly interesting read on its own, and particularly relevant for designers
• (Blue section) Lak's thesis on MPEG4, and a few books over, 'More Than A Hero' by Hana Ali which Lak loves to read (he's a huge Muhammad Ali fan)
• Gus the crochet elephant, just near Stitch. It sounds a bit crazy (philosophy from a cartoon character?), but we love Stitch's idea of ohana, and I try to keep a hold of that idea when things with my family are not 100%.
• (Green section) The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Ive always loved english and writing. I studied the Sonnets at school for english, as well as making a set of postcards based on them for my art major project.
• And finally, to the right of the shelf, The Monkey. I got him for Lak for Valentines Day because whenever I ask him what he would like for a present, he says without hesitation "Monkey." So now he has one :)