My Bit of Randomness

Bells tagged me for this meme, and since I haven't finished the Great Flickr Upload yet, let's whip this one in to tide us over :>

Seven Random Things About Me

1. I remember plotlines, subplots, character interactions and significant non-verbal cues from anything I've read or watched and paid attention to. I can give detailed accounts of the flow of a subplot through several books in a series or episodes in a book, and analyse the relationships between significant characters based on not a lot. Sometimes this is handy, and sometimes people have to tell me to stop, they only asked did I watch it last night.
2. Sometimes I get names mixed up, eg calling my children by my dogs' names.
3. I don't like roses much. I prefer tulips once they've opened right out - that egg-shape does nothing for me. I love gerberas, zinnias, anemones, ranunculus and nemesia. I also love structural flowers like proteas and grevilleas, and I love gumflowers.
4. I didn't really learn how to sing until I had my son, and sang him to sleep - I never really knew how to switch into my singing voice before then. I'm still not a great singer though.
5. My husband's birthday is the day before mine. We usually still have two cakes though.
6. I can ignore lollies, milk chocolate, ice cream, custard, most bikkies - but I am very susceptible to dark chocolate, home-made cake or bikkies. My sweet tooth is quite picky.
7. I do not, have never, and probably will never like raw tomato. Big, small, red, yellow or pear-shaped.
   

So, who wants to play? Leave a comment if you do :>

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You Make My Month

There's an award that has been doing the rounds, and I was thrilled to bits when Kate and then InkBerryBlue listed me amongst their choices. It has taken me a dreadfully long time to reciprocate, but at long last here it is:

The rules state:

Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware; you may get the award several times.
So here are my top 10 bloggy smile makers:

1. 2paw - my first Blogging Friend
   
2. Madam Sewingsticks aka Penni - my first Real Life Knitting Friend
   
3. KissMyFrog Kate - she makes me giggle!!
   
4. Tinkingbell - generous, gregarious, gorgeous!
   
5. My Knitting Group - they make my first Saturday of the month, and the occasional extra!
   
6. Jess, Knitting and Chocolate - we share a deep love of purple that cannot be denied
   
7. the Ruth Spoon - the thing with the aprons is quirky :P
   
8. Random Knits - her lace shawls are so so beautiful!
9. littleblackcrow - she puts the Goth back into Amigurumi (and knits a mean sock, too)
10. InkBerryBlue - she always has flowers!
    
11. all the funky blogs I click on for humour, lace, peacocks, colour, the Aussie knitting scene, design, the madness of modern family life, and sheer volume of garter stitch - to name but a few...

I hope to keep reading, commenting, chatting and even meeting you all for a long long time. Keep it up guys. You make me smile.

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So before we get to this Saturday

Let's talk about last Saturday!

Tink and family were visiting Hobart for the weekend, which naturally involved a flurry of emails regarding going to stitch'n'bitch, the markets, and possibility of stash enhancement. Tink and co found our house mid-morning, our various offspring considered the possibilities for playing with great solemnity (ie they stared at each other for a while before remembering when our family visited Tink's house last year), and I put the kettle on. Tink, Her Accountant, the MOMD and I sat down to chat, drink, munch, and play show-and-tell - well, you can guess who was involved in that last bit! Tink produced her travel knitting bag, with glories such as the Noropup sock, the Mystery Sock, the Vog-Ons, the Red Bird Every-Other-Month Sock Club Kit, and a full range of Harmony dpns - and then expected me to Give Them All Back!!!! In (revenge) return, I shared some books from my shelves, a number of WIPs (making her drool with my L&L Clapotis), and gave her a little b'day prezzie. This had been a little tricky to achieve, as when I sat down to make the prezzie, I discovered that the presser foot was missing from my sewing machine! ARRRRKKK!!! Miss V was the most probable culprit, but has she hasn't yet learned to speak, the chances of a successful interrogation were miniscule. I gave up hope, rang various shops to no immediate avail, and sewed almost everything with teh zipper foot. (Don't ask me about the tension.) (Material or Emotional.) And on top of all this drama, Tink gave me a prezzie - the woman is nuts! (But welcome any time her generous heart desires!) I now have a new Liberty floral pot-and-cup set (pics later - if I try to do it now you won't get this till next Thursday).
Aaaaaanyway, we had a nice time chatting and giving the hubbies and children time to get acquainted, then Tink and I made a wild bid for freedom, and headed for the city! We spent a couple of hours wandering around Salamanca Markets, poking around in the Spindletree, and then made our way to the Feb meeting of More Stitchin' Than Bitchin' (click on over for some excellent pics - can you spot my Rav tshirt?). A fun time was had by all, WIPs were admired, styles discussed, and we welcomed a new person - Kirra, who was found on Ravelry! We headed home at 4, somewhat reluctant to return to lively children and no knitting time :P The hubbies had done an outstanding job, children were intact and still being cooperative (woweee!), and Tink and co stayed on for a bbq dinner with wine and talk and bursts of laughter.
I know our family had a lovely time, the MOMD at no point said 'never again' (which means I am quite happy to dob him in for babysitting in the future), and Tink seems to have enjoyed herself :>
SO much fun. I wonder what this weekend will bring?

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Thank you Tink for this Link :>

Austen fans, unite!

Take the Quiz here!

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Easter Weekend

It's only Saturday and I feel like I've had 3 days' holiday already! What spell is this? Maybe I should share:


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Spam, spam, spam, spam

Do you think that sometimes the spammers get things wrong on purpose?
I've had a couple of new ones recently, that stand out from the "cheAp s0ftware" and "be more than other men" [ha!] and "Urgent! Next of Kin!!" emails; the best is:
Alexander Gonzalez World Wide Lootery agent
Isn't that just perfect for a phishing scam?

The Title? Monty Python spam song: audio files, text of the skit and song, or the video - Y*uTube or G**gle Video
Picture? From the homepage of a physicist at the University of Pennsylvania (his choice of cartoon!)
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My sheep is hot stuff too ☺

In my former life as a teacher-librarian in a K-12 school, I got to do many cool things, such as go to training days where we learned hands-on craft activities based on that year's Children's Book Week shortlisted picture books. The Early Childhood Book of the Year in 2005 was Where is the Green Sheep? by the very cool Mem Fox and the amazing Judy Horacek. (BTW, Mem has an interesting page with the text of a speech she gave describing the process of creating Where is the Green Sheep? - if you are a children's book person, for whatever reason, it puts to rest any idea you ever had that writing kids' books is easy!)
One activiy was to make a sheep using a block of polystyrene, some paddlepop sticks, plasticine, felt shapes, and died wool tops.
Et voilà!

Hot Sheep

Click to go to the album (all of two pics:> ) to see the twirls on the sheep's back
(the missing foot is waiting some kind of sticky-tape surgery, or a new paddlepop stick - my kids love it so much I have to keep it on the top shelf to prevent further amputations!!!)

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It's not a sheep, it's not a goat, it's not an alpaca...

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama.php

ps It's a Monday Morning Mirth!! Thanks for the link, Jae!! :)
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I'm such hot stuff

Get Your Sexy Name

found via Romelda
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A word I never knew I needed

Thank you Peeve for posting this silliness - I tried a few, but 'bewildered' or 'lachrymose' are not me..

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Duchess Kate the Deipnosophist of Grasshopper in the Hole Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

HILARIOUS!!!! And what does it mean? Spot on, I tell you!

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