I have...

...started another ripple throw for a friend...

...brought a pair of black flats for Winter ($20)... ...brought a pair of grey flats for Winter ($11)... ...finally spent a $30 gift voucher I have had in my purse for several months. I must have been saving it until I found this wool hat for Winter... It is more of a red colour in real life and is very 1940's-ish in style...

Sunday Stash...

If you have fallen in love with fabric and are building up a stash to the point of obsession...

Could you walk past this large piece of beautiful woolen tartan in at op-shop for $2.00? - Tamara knows all the other people building up their stashes...

Eye Spy... My Morning Ritual

My morning ritual is slow and sleepy as our six month old is still having 4am feeds.

By 7 o'clock I am awakened by a happy baby, babbling in his cot.

He looks up at me with pure delight, as I appear leaning over his cot, ready to pick him up.

We have a cuddle while I ask him if he had a nice sleep, what did he dream about, is he hungry. He answers me with squeals, laughter and 'kisses' which have become his habit. He leans in to you, open mouthed, and gives the most beautiful baby 'kisses' on your cheek.

We snuggle up in the big bed and he has his morning feed. He looks up at me, eyes shining, and holds on to my arm, or my clothes.

I cherish these moments.

I know I will miss them.

Then the day is underway. It is time for coffee and breakfast. Time to wash clothes, or wipe bottoms, or run errands, or clean the house, or play with blocks, or do one of the million things I do each day now that I get to stay at home with my baby.

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The lovely Cindy is the hostess of Eye Spy and it is with thanks to Angie that we have this weeks theme.

I'm exhausted...

Last Monday we were at the hospital,

this Monday I was at the Vet...

Our beautiful nine year old Rhodesian Ridge back cross Rottweiler had an aural haematoma... but no ear infection, so we don't know what has caused it.

He had an operation to drain it Tuesday and we were warned he may not wake up from the anesthetic as he is an old dog now.

It was a long wait to find out. I can't even explain how emotional it was, but I am exhausted. Those who have been in a similar situation will understand.

While operating, a mass was found under his tongue that could be cancer. It has been removed, but we didn't get it tested, as we decided we would prefer not to know and just enjoy what ever time we have left with him...

If it was cancer we will find out soon enough. Yesterday we were back at the Vets. Odin was having trouble walking. The poor old boy has arthritis as well and now has more pills.

He is getting l0ts of love and attention and is spending his days and nights inside and eating Dave's lunch ham.

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He is our baby and we have had him for so long it's hard to imagine being without out him.

Sunday Stash & Eye Spy... My Karaoke Masterpiece

My Sunday Stash goodness this week is a little fat quarter that I don't know what to do with...

'Frida Khalo's Garden' that I brought from Funky Fabrix.

I love Frida Khalo, thus the purchase, but what to do with it... Tamara, at 1/4 of an inch, can lead you to other stashes... -

Erin has asked us to Eye Spy our Karaoke Masterpiece...

Well, I have never really done the karaoke thing...

Although you will find me wandering around the house and singing along to the likes of Jeff Buckley, Nick Cave, Cat Power, Ani Difranco and Bob Dylan...

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My favourite karaoke moment though would have to be at a Chinese restaurant, watching three Asian teenage boys singing a Back Street Boys song.

(I can't stand the Back Street Boys!)

Poor darlings, it was hilarious...

The choice of the song, the accents and the dance moves!

Oh, dear... I think they really did think they were the Back Street Boys...

Thanks to Cindy and Erin for reminding me!

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The ripple is growing...

What do you call...

A group of geese is a 'gaggle'...

A group of foxes is a 'skulk'...A group of owls is a 'parliament'... So what do you call a group of cotton?

When I brought the cotton for the beginnings of my ripple blanket a couple of weeks ago at Spotlight most of the cotton had been sold. Sitting lonely on the shelf were four colours in 8 ply. I asked one of the ladies if they had any other colours. She looked it up and told me there would be more soon. So today I go to Spotlight again. Guess how many colours there are now? Two.

That I already had.

So just as I am about to have a tantrum, laying on the floor and kicking my feet and screaming, I notice the sale bin...

And in the sale bin I notice these bags with five yarns in them for $5.

4ply and 8 ply.

Yarns that are usually $3.99 each.

So I brought them all...

Work In Progress...

Oh Lucy, what a bad influence you are on me...

If not for you, I would be finishing my giant granny square blanket,

and not starting another project...

I would have more time, as I wouldn't be reading all your previous posts on Attic24 and day dreaming about your tutorials... I would have more money because I hadn't spent it on cotton yarn... (But I wouldn't know how to ripple crochet...) Thank you Lucy!

PS. I am a Ravelry-er now. Little-bird.

My Creative Space...

When I get some minutes to be creative, these are some of the things I have been doing with them...

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Making my first one of these thanks to Craft Pudding...

(Not as cute as hers, but it is my first attempt and we don't have tiny baby food jars.

These are all the baby food jars we have, as I have been making Cohen's mash, I mean, food.)

Practicing my stamp carving... Creating 563 chain stitches for a possible crochet project...

Cutting out the fabric for an attempt at skirt 2 on the op-shopped pattern...

And a superfluous pic of my best collaborative creation, who has managed to scratch his nose...

If you need some more linky love to creative spaces, you best be off to kootoyoo and Kirsty will provide...

It's raining...

It's raining...

It's pouring...

The big dog is snoring...

Cohen's in bed...

he slept last night...

and he woke up early this morning.

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(Warning: Picture heavy post)

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My thanks again for all the lovely comments and emails about Cohen's trip to the hospital. He had a visit to the Doctor again today and is feeling much better, even if Mummy and Daddy made him wear a beanie in the bath so he couldn't splash water in his ear...

Little moments in every day life ...

Like a dog inside on the front door mat while it rains...

Baby medicine...

Crochet...

A comfortable cat...

A sewing basket recovered...

And filled with cottons... Every day chores... (a fry pan in the sink) And op-shopping finds... yarn... Buttons... (because when is enough buttons, enough?)

A cute tiny pillow case to be used in a project...

Flannelet baby wraps that may one day find themselves turned into a quilt...

A hoop and a tiny embroidered babies pillow case... Which found themselves turned in a decoration, soon to be hung on the wall in my craft room...

Now I just need to find a couple more hoops...

PS. Another sneak peak of my Pay It Forward gifts.

They are coming along, I promise...

He cries, I cry...

If you have ever had a sick child, then you will know what it is like to see them cry in pain.

It seems even worse when you don't know what is wrong with them or how to help them.

So you go to the chemist and the doctors and finally you meet your husband at the hospital and sit there for four hours...

You sit in the waiting room watching your sick child, noticing that his left ear is swelling and poking our from his head...

You show the triage nurse and she says not to worry unless it turns blue!

After three hours you make it into the emergency paediatrics and bubba is given a cot...

Half an hour later a wonderful Doctor sees you and takes one look at your child and tells you he has an ear infection and possibly a perforated ear drum...

Cohen has some how picked up a virus in his ear and each time he lays down he screams...

And each time he cries, you cry.

Now he is on painkillers and antibiotics...

And hopefully there will be no more tears.

Sunday Stash & Eye Spy... green

Sunday Stash

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As promised here is the new fabric I received in the mail...

It is a fat quarter of Ecchiono fabric, from jamsabon, to go with the fabric Melissa sent me... (and some linen tape to go with this fabric.)

Hopefully one day to become some sort of bedding for Cohen...

To show off your stash, or to see other stashes, please visit 1/4 of an inch and she will get you involved...

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Eye Spy... green

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Tashalou has asked us to spy some green...

Before babies there are overseas holidays.

Here are some pics from mine... can you see the green?

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On some stairs leading into Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Seaweed on the Isle of Skye, Scotland.

Me and a random guy drinking beer at the Heineken tour in Amsterdam.

Floating flower market, Amsterdam.

Looking down from the Volcano, Santorini, Greece. Edinburgh Castle, Scotland.

Island in Croatia... (but which, I cannot remember, we boat-ed it to a few that day...)

On the Dalmatian coast, Croatia.

A cat in the grass on a tomb in the cemetery, Paris, France.

(We were on the way to see the graves of Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde. As you do...)

What other interpretations of the green theme will there be?

To find out, you will have to go ask Cindy at Bug and Pop.