feet

i wore my cosy bamboo socks todayand there was a moment when i was standing on the new green mat that i had to capture -

billthedog and i were in the right place at the right time.

mended

i tripped and fell and tore a hole in my jeans last weekend (and a hole in me - but that's more easily fixed)
i begrudge spending money on jeans and buy them at op shops or savers but over the last few weeks i haven't been able to find the right pair.

and i wasn't ready to say goodbye to these ones so it was out with the interfacing and a bundle of fabric i bought from pippijoe during the etsy bushfire fundraising appeal and found just the right piece of screen printed linen

feline blogsurfing

toby is a keen student of both the interwebs and crafting (although he has developed an unfortunate fondness for removing pins from my pincushion)

as i was taking a stroll around the blogosphere this morning toby's eye was caught
and then galvanised
by pip's blog

salt

alerted by laura at sorrow at sill's bend i rushed over to see what the uk publisher salt had to offer.

in a word - treasure.

if you want to do something to save a stunning publisher from the fallout of the horrible gfc go and buy a book from salt.

i bought this

and this

we need to support companies like salt if we don't want to end up with dreary airport novels or factory churned out diy books as our only choices. i walked around dymocks at lunchtime today - they were having a 20% off sale (just as salt is at the moment) and i couldn't find anything i wanted to buy. their 'history' section was full of world war two or lightweight social histories, their so-called 'literature' section was awash with pot boilers and the australian fiction section was dominated by bryce courtenay.

it was a horrid glimpse into the future if we don't support independent publishers and booksellers.

so go straight to salt and buy a book. or two books. and then go to the hill of content, or readings or their equivalent wherever you live and do your bit to see they stay in business. how dreadful if the cheap greed that caused the gfc meant that we were condemned to battery books....

sunday evening

sunday can be summed up in the word - tired....

we kept will quiet and warm - occupied by making chocolate chip bikkies from this fabulous book i bought em for her birthday. the easiest biscuits i think i have ever made - and i am a regular biscuiteer.

i also made myself a couple of haramaki - see some gorgeous ones here and a tutorial here (because i baulked at paying $US25 for a cotton jersey tube i could make myself) i made a purple and a brown one.

yesterday i painted the connections quilt to deepen the indigo with some ultraviolet and black. i have plans for the next stage.....

but for the moment, early dinner and early bed - and hopefully no more croup

sitrep sunday

well we're back to normal chez seascrump after a scary night.

william was well looked after at the children's hospital - apparently it was a big night for croup and they were packed to the gunwales with barking infants. they gave him some steroids and he watched the wiggles and wallace and grommit* and was allowed to come home.

so this morning william, the scrumpster and i looked rather hollow eyed and pale but are all much better. it was lovely having will snuggled back in the big bed, breathing a bit raggedly but not that bug eyed panic and fighting for every breath.

and i owe bthed an apology - he was put outside for his pre-bedtime pee and i forgot to let him back in! so he spent the night outside, being the little matchgirl and missed all the fuss. he does have a doona and a beanbag to sleep on in the laundry so he wasn't huddled into a snowdrift but all the same...

*memorably known as 'grollis and robert' when emily was small

anxious of thornbury writes...

i am feeling rather strung out - the usual maternal mix of anxiety and guilt. poor william woke us up just before 2am with an awful croupy cough, struggling for breath and very upset.

after ventolin and calming didn't work we phoned for an ambulance - the paramedics arrived within 10 minutes, were wonderful and calm and gave w some oxygen which helped to calm him down. then he and the scrumpster were loaded into the ambulance and taken off to hospital.

as the ambulance pulled away i had that awful 'will i see you again' strickenness and felt like the world's worst mother in not being the parent in the ambulance.

but someone has to stay behind to care for the other kids, the scrumpster was ready and had w's jacket and slippers, i did the last hospital run etc etc all the rationality and reasonableness in the world can't sweep away the anxiety of not knowing what is happening, of not being there with my boy.

and that slack-arsed bthed slept through the whole thing!! wouldn't have noticed legions of paramedics taking over the house. miss molly moth conducted a thorough inspection of the equipment and had to be reminded not to climb up the younger paramedic's back - she and toby have gone back to bed.

which is where i should go now and try and get some sleep. will keep you posted

shiver...

last night chilled gizzard presaged a cold :( i have been fighting off the creche cold for the last couple of weeks and now it is getting the upper hand. so i am downing cups of ginger tea, swallowing echinacea and keeping warm.

all very grrrr making as i want to get on with my challenge quilt this weekend. i set this challenge theme of 'connection(s)'

it started as this
then was dyed with some instant indigo to become this
and as i lay half awake this morning i had the great leap forward idea that has been fomenting in the far reaches of my brain.

sur le weekend

this is becoming a weekly update - i seem to have lost my blogging mojo, hopefully only for may. i'll try to be more sprightly in june... let's aim for weekly in the meantime.

this weekend sloth has not been resident chez seascrump. there has been much squirrel cooking (as in cooking like a squirrel not making squirrel broth). the freezer is now full of various casseroles of chicken, lamb shanks and goulash not to mention the scrumpster's magnificent baked beans cooked for hours in the oven. i divided my weekend between the inevitable washing, making 2 new skirts of the leftover fabric from the previous 2 weekends' frocks and 7 jars of plum and raspberry jam. the raspberries were picked at kinglake almost 18 months ago and have been lying mammoth-like in the freezer. luckily the berry farm survived the bushfires - they made the most wonderful raspberry ice-cream...

this afternoon we had a relatively brisk walk along the darebin creek walking trail. bthedog lay down at one point and was on the point of refusing to go on but we coaxed him a little further. i didn't like it as much as the merri creek walk - darebin is much more suburban and as a consequence, comparatively bland. there were a couple of great trees though - the one dubbed by emily "the big awesome tree" and a dramatically dead elm.

then this afternoon i finished skirt a - a simple A line skirt with a stretch bengaline waistband and appliques with some gorgeous laura foster nicholson ribbon which has been in my stash for a long time.
the second skirt has panels of purple kimono and leftover stretch black cotton from last week's frock. i made it more interesting by inserting a red zip, finishing the waist with purple bias binding and appliqueing some japanese fabric circles. i added a yoyo from the same fabric at the end of the zip.oh, and i bought some lairy new socks
back next week with hopefully something more interesting to say

more images

and few words i'm afraid. but everyone chez seahorse is in various stages of lurgidom ranging from incipient galloping flux to poor w's husky cold/laryngitis/croup. i just feel low level bleurk and in need of a steady diet of sleeping in and reading in bed.

mother's day was quiet and productive here
my kids gave me a thoughtful and heartfelt selection of presents - 14 year old a knows his mother well and gave me some tins found in a junk shop and a jar of sweeties; 12 year old e made me heart shaped brooch with sequins and 4 year old w made me a card (recognise my portrait on the front?) and some rum ballish type things at creche - of course he ate 3 of the 4 balls..... and inside the card after the usual maternal verse syrup came the relaity check of w's comments about his mother "she gives me chippies and ice-cream and she lets me have cooked octopus with chilly (sic), my mum is really good at cooking" the only person in the world to give such a testimonial :)

on the left hand side of the photo above you can see the dress in progress - i bought the fabric and trim at the new tessuti store in flinders lane - gorgeous gorgeous fabric which leads me too...

exhibit b - this wonderful doorstop by flickettysplits - bought at the recent made in thornbury craft market and trying a new career as a pincushion. it is too beautiful to put on the floor. she also made me a lovely cuddly catticus cat who was too shy to have his photo taken just yet (and i forgotted)

exhibit c is the quince cake i made on sunday
and exhibit d - the leaves on the fig tree being slowly leached of colour and moisture - i doubt they'll last the week and then we return to the bare antler branches of winter.

lacuna

not much to say this week - i have felt more comfortable with the telegrammatic style of facebook.... but there has been activity

including the 21st century magic of a microwave that has a working light and a door that opens without the aid of a screwdriver
backson

bargain!

available at the pet shop at northcote plaza.... multicultural, multifaith and apparently multispecies.