Blogtoberfest 14

Occasionally it is fun to play with photo software.  I don't have Photoshop (too expensive!) so rely on the software that comes with Picasa and stuff that I can get on my phone.

I took these last year and played with them, using various filters and the like.  It amused me.

The only thing that is not tweaked with them is the basic composition.  It really was a heart shaped leaf, pretty much the colour that it is shown in the top photo, on a gravel path in a park.

Blogtoberfest 13

On April 8th, 1989, we got married in the then Moe Uniting Church (now no more, I think it may have been knocked down and turned into apartments or something). 

Blogtoberfest 12

Sir Laurence (or Lawrence) Carter, Baron of the Exchequer, was an 18th century judge in England.  The name Lawrence Carter has been used in my husband's family for some time, possibly named after him or not.  My late father-in-law was insistent that this was not the case, but the family story persists.  This is a portrait of him.

Blogtoberfest 11

I knew it would get too hard to keep up with Blogtoberfest, I'm feeling too tired to think of anything interesting, so here is an odd picture snapped in a Lakes Entrance cabin several years ago.

Blogtoberfest 10 - Wordless Wednesday

Blogtoberfest 9

A totally gratuitous photo of Sirius guarding her biscuit, lying in a welter of biscuit crumbs and smiling for the camera :)  Oh, and lying in front of a heater - guarding it, you know, against thieves and intruders.

Blogtoberfest 8

This sort of follows on the theme of yesterday.  I found this in the Pioneer Village at Swan Hill, on the Murray River and the border of Victoria.  It's a portable vault used by funeral directors in the country in the past, and I presume it was filled with ice to keep the deceased, er, 'fresh' in the searing heat that happens up there.

Blogtoberfest 7

Wentworth is a NSW town not far over the border from Mildura.  It's a hot, dry, dusty town and it's main claim to fame is its gaol, long since defunct as an actual penitentiary.  It's a museum now.  Last time I visited it, over 20 years ago, you could dress up in costumes and be photographed in a cell, and somewhere I probably have a photo of me doing just that (must find that one!)

It's an interesting glimpse of social history.  For quite some time after the gaol ceased its original function, it was used as a school.  Small changes were made - a pink peppercorn tree was planted in the old exercise yard to provide shade for the children (somewhere I think there must be an ancient statute that decrees that every Australian school must have a pink peppercorn tree in the yard somewhere) - but on the whole they used the old gaol facilities.  I wonder how that felt!

I was amused by the mortuary slab, just lying on the floor in a room, with the handwritten notice.

Blogtoberfest 6

Pretty cast iron gate in Broken Hill, NSW.

Blogtoberfest 5

While driving through central Victoria a couple of months ago we drove through a tiny place, the name of which I cannot remember, and the main street was full of yarn bombed trees.  I squealed, 'Look, yarnbombing!', George looked at me blankly, and I had to explain the concept to him!

I don't know where Yandoit is, but I presume it's near where we were.  I couldn't resist taking a photo of this poster - not in a ridiculing way, I just thought it was unique!

The yarnbombing had been done by people connected with the local yarn store, which sadly was closed - there was great stuff that I could see through the windows and I would have loved to have browsed.

Blogtoberfest 4

Sadly, the painted car in yesterday's post is not mine :(  It's in the Pro Hart Museum in Broken Hill, NSW, and was painted by him.

This is Rocky Road made from a Coles supermarket magazine a few months ago, obviously designed to use a new product as it included a particular, newly released jelly sweet in it.  For once I made it exactly as the recipe said (something I rarely do!)  It didn't last very long!  

The next Rocky Road I make will probably be the one that was on Masterchef last year that included fresh raspberries.  It looked amazing at the time and I have the recipe now.

The dress, by the way, turned out quite well, and I will post a photo when I have downloaded the latest ones from my camera.

Blogtoberfest 3 - Wordless Wednesday

Blogtoberfest 2

A knitted kitchen handtowel. To exterminate moisture!
Pattern on Ravelry.

Blogtoberfest

*****!!!!!

I've screwed up the courage to post once a week for a few weeks after a long hiatus.  Now, a sweet encouraging comment from the originator of Blogtoberfest has spurred me into attempting to do it.

Crap!!!

Blogtoberfest Giveaway

Well it has taken me a while to recover from all that Blogtoberfest posting!  But I did do the draw for the giveaway and am delighted to announce that the winner is Robin Norgren of http://www.mycreativepeace.blogspot.com/.  I have notified her and will send her a Mazey Pretty Things brooch as soon as she lets me know her details, and I will post a pic of it here - AFTER she has received it though!

Blog posting will return in a few days.  Well, maybe next week.  That effort wore me out a bit1

Blogtoberfest 31

I blogged about this a while ago but it still holds great resonance for me.  Part of me wants to do scholarly stuff on the subject, another part of me wants to do work inspired by it instead.  (While the major part just wants to sleep).

Hope you have enjoyed Blogtoberfest!  It has been fun.  I found it a good way to go through old photos and use Blogger's pre-scheduling thing, plus the occasional new post.  And don't forget that giveaway.  I will draw it (or my disinterred, and disinterested, husband will) over the weekend. 

Blogtoberfest 30

A final reminder about the giveaway:



Now for the giveaway details. Every comment received this month will go into a special magic giveaway hat (well, the name of the commenter will!) and after the end of Blogtober I will get a completely disinterested bystander (ie. my husband) to pull a name out of the sorting hat. Each time you comment your name will go in.


The giveaway is a Mazey Pretty Things fabric brooch - see my sidebars for my Made It and Etsy shops to give you an idea of what they are like. I will post to anywhere in the world with great delight.

The idea being that EVERY time you comment, your name goes into the hat. So you three or four people who comment on every post, be warned, there is a strong possibility that you might win something!

The whole time thing is too hard to work out, so I am going to say that all comments received by the time I get round to reading the blog on November 1 AEDT will count.  I have no idea what time that will be in any other partof the world.  Except Queensland.  It will be an hour earlier there.

Blogtoberfest 29

I am VERY SLOWLY working through Karen Ruane's online course.  There's the whole working thing, which takes up all day and then I'm knackered at night, so progress is painfully slow.  Plus I have been really sick this week with a virus that has robbed me of the ability to think or concentrate (so it's pretty much the same as normal, then!)


But here are three more potential button brooches.  Again done on silk dupion.  Can you tell I am having fun! And this is less than one-third of her course, I need to do all sorts of other fun things as well!

Blogtoberfest 28

Blogtoberfest 27

I haven't done Creative Spaces for a while, but here is one:

I am knitting the Kimono Jacket on the left of the photo in very green Patons Sorrento, for once using a pattern written for the yarn I am using - unusual for me!  Sorrento is a nice blend of 62% viscose and 38% cotton and will be a nice summer cover-up.  Of course I won't finish it for ages but it's more about the knitting (and the colour!) than the finished object.  This comes in two versions, one long and one short, and of course I had knitted 15cm of the long version before I realised my mistake, and then realised that I couldn't really fix it because the stitch counts were different and that it would easier to start again.  Slowly.

More Creative Spaces scrumptiously displayed here.