Turquoise!

I am pleased to announce the results of my survey, conducted over a huge, wide-ranging sample of three very intelligent respondents:

It's official: turquoise is the best colour in the whole world, ever.
Well, at least it's more popular than Orange, Charcoal or Cream.

Turquoise - the fancy French word for "turkish" - turkish blue, aqua, jade, teal, aquamarine, seagreen - there are many gorgeous variants of bluey-greens.

Apparently it was Gianni Versace's favourite colour.
And is also Giorgio Armani's. Picasso was also an admirer. The colour of water, of the ocean, of David Hockney's swimming pools, of the metallic feathers on a lyrebird's tail in the Australian bush. And of course, one of my favourite birds, the kookaburra, features turquoise in the markings on its underbelly and wings, mixed in with earthy greys and variegated browns.

All that, and a fancy French name, as well!

ouch!

well,thats almost what i said when theknife slipped and i almost chopped off the top of my left thumb last night. Had stitches and now on painkillers and ice, but I won't be knitting or crocheting for a little while. it's difficult to type with one hand, too, as I am normally a very fast touch typist.

Grrrr. So i will spend the next few days reading, and maybe some drawing, as I can do that with one hand.

another good reason not to cook - it's too dangerous!

Two very different scarves

I've added two more scarves to my etsy shop, they are really different. One is the Crazy Daisy scarf, which I showed you in "bits" a few posts ago. Here it is, you might need sunglasses to look at it as it's VERY bright:

Now, a totally different scarf, one of my tweedy styles, more of a study in tone than the bouquet styles which are studies in line and colour. This time, the tweedy scarf is in blues and gorgeous greys. I used about 10 different balls of yarn, mainly 12 and 14 ply bulkies, in a moss stitch, just blending and changing colours as I went along. It sort of goes from a darker tone to lighter shades.

Here it is:

I've done this type of scarf in all colours, I did a red one, sold last November at an exhibition, I've done a purple one, and also a neutral one in earthy tones, which was commissioned by a client. There is a chocolate one in my shop, and I've also sold a "Shades of Grey" one, last year. They're a sophisticated, subtle design, and go well with a lot of coat colours, e.g. camel, brown, grey.

I almost called the blue one "Stormy Weather" but then I decided on "Moody Blues" after the band which made some of the pop music I liked back in the seventies.

New goodies!

I've been working hard to finish some gorgeous new accessories now for sale:

My "Just Peachy" extra soft coral pink neckwarmer, $35 US.

My "Tequila Sunrise" pure merino wool neckwarmer, in hot pinks and reds, $30 US.

And my "Violet Buttercup" baby hat, $30 US. All from my etsy shop.

Still busy with finishing and photography on lots more yummy new goodies - now that my camera is working again - YAY! Thank you to my dearest daughter who is a genius. Love ya darlin'.

PS US dollars means it's cheaper in aussie dollars, I don't know exactly how much, just trust me on this one!

Technologically challenged

Why haven't I posted for so long? Well, a few weeks ago, I made the mistake of combining digital photography with house-cleaning, and unknowingly vacuumed up my camera's memory stick, which had fallen on the floor. THAT will teach me to vacuum! Anyway...

Went to Officeworks to buy back-to-school stuff for my DD, so took the chance of asking the sales assistant who informed me that "they no longer make that type of memory stick" and that I'd have to get a new camera. Ha? Well, following his logic, I would have to get a new computer and laptop as well, because the new memory stick won't fit those, either. The Husband was not impressed with this. Neither was I!

So, in between ferrying my DD to her many social engagements, providing holiday entertainment 24/7, etc., I turned the house upside down looking, as I thought, for the only memory stick in existence which would fit my camera, computer and laptop. No luck. It MUST have gone in the vacuum. It is rather small, after all.

I'd already thrown out the rubbish, so no hope of sifting through the dust bag. Off DD and I went to Harvey Norman, where an equally helpful and informed (NOT) young salesman again informed us that "they" no longer stocked my antique memory stick. When I asked if he was sure, he turned around and grabbed a product off the shelf, "well you could try this and see if it works". Great, except that the memory stick he showed us was about 100 times bigger than the one I wanted. On the plus side, there'd be no chance of vacuuming it up, but it was too big.

Then it began to dawn on us. These guys weren't LISTENING to us, they didn't have a clue about any of their products, even less about accessories. So, DD took matters into her own hands.

Scanning the shelves, her eyes fixed on one item, and she dashed behind the counter to grab it from the shelf. "Looks like this one, Mum". Yep, it did. And it does, and is. Ten bucks, it cost me. Thank you, Sandisk, no thanks, Sony.

How difficult is it, to hire and train staff so that they know what they're talking about? Pity my DD's too young to get a job there, she'd be National Sales Manager in a couple of weeks! LOL

Anyway, the long and the short of it is, school's back, so I have more time to blog, and I have a camera and computer and laptop which is WORKING so I can post pics.

So I'd better get to it.

Stormy tawnies

Last week I visited Coffs Harbour for a few days. The weather was cyclonic, pouring with rain and high winds. This storm was moving down the entire coast of NSW so that most beaches were closed, including Sydney beaches.
Here is the usually calm Coffs Harbour (shot last year), a lovely, long sheltered beach:

...and here it is last week:

Driving back was a nightmare, with downpours, slippery roads and traffic. Some poor guy ran into the back of us in Kempsey. But we're all fine, including the other guy, only minor car damage. Took us 7 hours instead of the usual 5 1/2.

It was nice to get away from Sydney for a few days. In Coffs, we were lucky to meet some feathered friends, just outside the dining room. Here's one, a tawny frogmouth chick, one of three birds, one adult and two chicks, roosting there. They are quite drowsy during the day as they're nocturnal hunters, but they were very wary of me and my camera, also a couple of pet dogs (including Frankie) who were unaware of their presence.

They remind me of the family of Tawny Frogmouths who nested in a gum tree outside our own house a few years ago. As the weeks went by, we enjoyed watching the chicks hatch, grow, and learn to fly, under the careful watch of their parents. One baby fell out of the tree, and DH rescued him and put him back in the tree. They camouflage by assuming a pose which makes them look like a tree branch. PS Tawnies aren't actually owls - they're nightjars, whatever they are!

I finished another "bouquet"scarf - this time in bright colours - while away, and also finished a custom order scarf.

Almost finished!

I spent a few days in the Blue Mountains last week, having some well-earned time out after a frantic year. The Blue Mountains are west of Sydney, an easy 1 1/2 hour drive. Here is a photo I took at night, of the "Three Sisters", a rock formation and popular tourist lookout.

While there, I sewed together my latest Bouquet Scarf, in summer colours of royal purple, ultramarine, cobalt, sky blue, jacaranda. The fuzzy bits are mohair, for some textural variation. Mohair is very warm and very light. It doesn't drape like merino wool does, though, it tends to "float", so I usually use it with wool, to give it some extra body and weight. I only use fine quality mohair because the poorer quality can "itch".
So no, all I need to do is finish the ends of the scarf, press it and it's ready for my etsy shop.

Hmmm. Everything is "blue" at the moment, even the Mountains!