Sneaky

Illustration Friday theme this week: sneaky. Fox? Dog? As usual, I'm not sure. Cat on wheels or a pig? You decide!

Garden Baby

I've never been very skilled at certain things of a domestic and crafty persuasion - in other words, sewing, baking, and knitting of any kind. Although I can draw things on paper, it's the making of most other things in three-dimensional form that gives me grief. Gardening has also always fallen into the 'completely ignorant and not at all green-fingered' category, but over the last year or so I've been taking baby steps in the garden. Recently I've started trotting down to the local garden club on a Saturday morning to learn a bit more about the importance of mulching and how to stop my tomatoes from withering away. I do feel like a complete baby in the garden, especially as I come from a family of gardening fanatics. The sum total of my vege garden at home is four lettuces, four tomato plants, some rampant silverbeet and a dubious little patch of herbs...but it's only the beginning! I too will waft amongst the greenery (in a floaty white dress) on sunny summer evenings, nibbling at homegrown strawberries and whipping up sensational salads from my bed of organically grown lettuces. I can see it now...

Suddenly Summer

Big bunches of basil, newly planted cherry tomatoes, strawberries and asparagus, the oak trees in the park giant and leafy... and it's suddenly hot. Looking back on my past year of blog posts, I can see how any hint of summer suddenly makes me want to write about it, endlessly. Skirts, jandals, after-school picnics at Point Chev beach, and the feeling that everyone is emerging from their little dark winter houses ready to have a party. I never used to be in love with summer the way I am now - it hasn't even officially started yet and I want it to go on forever.

Hello Gocco

Today I cleaned up the laundry and made myself a (very small) printmaking space. It has been on my list for months. My box of supplies has been sadly languishing in a dark cupboard, and the Print Gocco set I bought a few years ago has sat there lonely and unused. It's good to get away from the computer and do something by hand. I had run out of the right frames and had to use the screen in a normal screenprinting way, making a shaky start on some Christmas cards in an effort to be early, organised and impeccably prepared. Haha. Despite the usual problems with registration and keeping myself clean, I was happy to produce a few passable cards and some test prints on fabric. Lots of great Gocco-ness to be found here on the Save Gocco blog, and here on the Flickr Gocco Group page.

Broken Bones

It's been a funny week, full of unexpected accidents. Overheating ovens with dodgy old thermostats, cuts and bruises, and one very broken arm. L's always tripping over and crashing into things. It's like his speedometer is set a little too fast, most of the time. Hearing him cry loudly is nothing out of the ordinary, neither is a bit of screaming, but when I looked at the wiggly limp shape of his arm I knew there was something very wrong. Seven hours, several lollipops, a lot of waiting and one brand new plaster cast later, we finally got home to bed. There were some traumatic moments involving intravenous ketamine. I thought that was only used on ponies, or as an illicit club drug, but  it's also used as short term sedation to pull the bones and set them in place for casting. Not a good thing to see your child going through, no matter how safely controlled it is. I'm glad it's over. What a week.