2 things

exhibit 1

the sour cherry cake i made this evening, which followed roast turkey drumsticks with roast potatoes, roast parsnips and peas (not roasted although it's a keen idea). cake recipe was found here although i modified it a bit and added shirtloads of vanilla and flaked almonds.

and exhibit 2

another cool illustration from a medical encyclopaedia published in 1964 - a bargamonious purchase from the reservoir tip recycling centre a couple of years ago

a day in the life

in the just over 15 hours since i got up this morning, i have:

• roused 3 kids and chivvied them out of the door to school, clad and lunched;
• fed the chooks and put billthedog mournfully outside for the day
• smiled at the lorikeets in the fig tree
• cursed the bats for crapping fig crap on the clean washing
• dropped the smallest at before school care 
• sang all the way down st george's road in peak hour traffic
• got to the office and inspected my emails 
• printed the 60 gazillion agenda papers for the meeting in sydney which i will read on the plane tomorrow
• went to the cafe downstairs for emergency encaffeination
• finished one board agenda paper
• rang the canberra person whose call i had missed on friday (this happened a few times as we played phone tag)
• had a looooong managers' meeting
•  proof-read the strategic plan
• ate my peanut butter sandwich, apple and 6 tiny teddies at the computer
• got keys cut at the nice hardware store and bought some intriguingly shaped gardening tying up stuff
• had a lovely knitting chat in the park with my colleagues
• had another meeting where i made courageous decisions
• set up meetings as a result of the courageous decisions
• rang the chair of the 4pm teleconference to say i couldn't make the meeting but had various terse things to contribute
• wrote another board paper
• had a long and dull conversation with a canberra bureacrat
• puzzled over a project budget
• gasped at the time
• rushed to collect smallest child from after school care
• put on a load of washing
• cook dinner
• sort 2 baskets of clean laundry
• pack swag for smallest child for the next 2 days wiel i'm away and the kids are wiht their dad
• glue smallest's soles back on his shoes
• hang out first load of wash and put on next x2
• wash up
• clean kitchen
• delegate animal feeding to reluctant teenager and bin putting out to less reluctant teenager
• encourage smallest to pyjama-ate and brush teeth
• agonise over what to wear to commonwealth/state/NGO meeting in Sydney so i look friendly but intimidating
• pack clothes
• find key that teenager has lost almost as soon as i gave it to her
• tidy house as cleaner is coming on wednesday.
• chivvy teenagers off to bed
• hang out last load of washing and marvel at the moon

i am sooo looking forward to getting on the plane tomorrow

                                                                                           

at last

i never thought i would say this but at last i have another work in progress....

i was starting to think that maybe i had lost the spark - perhaps i just couldn't do it anymore and what on earth would i do with all the stash??? early yesterday morning i had a real tussle with the muse who just wouldn't turn her head but kept puffing on her cigarette holder and looking fixedly into the middle distance.  on the verge of despair i thought i would just try a small piece - no precious fabric, no grand ideas - just sit down and play and see what happened.

and lo i had an idea - i took some black heavy cotton, some wool felt and black velt, a couple of pieces of painted canvas and the photo of me as a very small, traumatised child and the composition fell neatly into place. add some black tulle and i was off.

and then i came to the point where i had propped and fallen last time: how to do the stitching? this felt like it could be the place where i came completely unstuck, but if it went back into the cupboard then i might as well give up.

so i thought of the way i planned the stitching for Jealousy and of the big cheap sketchbook that remained untouched and it seemed to be a good way to break though this particular impasse. and it was.

i played with some ideas and ended up with a vague cartoony plan.

 

 and started stitching

emerging from murk

while i am up in the murk midnight, i am being poked by small world-weary demons who started off with reasonably sharp sticks and have now faded to a desultory poke. 

 they are losing their strength, folks, and i am gaining mine.

as this is another wander around the inside of my head post and therefore light on for obvious visuals,  i thought i would wander around the archives and pick up those photos which spoke to me, without filtering or judging too much.

and i see i have chosen quite a few that are looking up - often from darkness into light.

 and i think that's a good sign.