Chaos, Frivolity and a little something for you.

 

Hello. How are you? Pardon the mess. I'm just snatching a few quiet moments here while Flynn is napping and hoping the deafening sound of the jackhammer doesn't wake him up. I can barely hear Radiohead playing on my headphones and my desk is vibrating but I'll persevere and take this tiny window of time while I can.   

It has been a tad chaotic here this past week. There are lots of balls in the air and we added a few more when we decided to tart up the kitchen/dining area and replace the 30 year old oven that doesn't work before the real chaos starts when we open for business in the New Year. There's also been dealings with local Council and Government Departments, headaches here, hiccups here, product development, selecting all the seeds for my cut flower patch and finalising our business logo only to find that an almost exact copy has found its way into the market place so back to the drawing board with that- grrr! An exploded Fire Hydrant is a picture that springs to mind to describe how I'm feeling right now. I've flipped my lid more than a few times this week, the exhaustion pouring out in a spectacular fashion yet not really accomplishing anything in terms of putting out all the little spot-fires around me.

Breathe.

There have been some nice moments amongst the chaos. Halloween was a hit. I know some people have very strong views on celebrating Halloween in this country and I dislike the commercialisation of these holidays as much as the next person but you have to pick your battles and this is one I'm not inclined to get my knickers in a knot over. The kids love dressing up and we head down to the beachside suburb down the road every year where treat-or-treating has become a 'thing' and we spend a lovely evening walking around the suburb mingling with our friends and eating fish and chips on the beach. It's at the very least a community-building activity, a lovely way to spend the evening and besides, there's not enough Frivolity in the world.

To cope with all of the above I've joined another Knit Along - Stephen West's Exploration Station. Completely uninspired by my current knitting project for the obvious reason (I'm seeing a lot of green in the photo above), I chose some soothing neutrals and a bolt of electric blue (above right). It's not outrageous but at least it's not green. I did a quick search on Ravelry and decided I needed some Stephen West in my life to get me out of my knitting slump. I watched his little video tutorial and he had me at "swooshity swoosh" so I signed right up. It's so far proving to be a very interesting and fun knit, as one would expect.

Images from here

Is anyone joining in? It's not too late, I started on Tuesday night and have finished the first clue already.

Finally, we had a fantastic day at the Tasmanian Craft Fair in Deloraine on the weekend and were completely inspired by all the wonderful craftsmanship. I bought a couple of little things for you too. There's a sweet brooch on the left by Sarah Millicent Elliot and a print "A Riot of Kookaburras" by Red Parka Design on the right. I love collective nouns and when I saw the Kookaburra print it reminded me instantly of blogging, all of us chatting to each other throughout the blogosphere like a riot of Kookaburras. If you'd like these lovely Tasmanian creations just leave me a comment and I'll draw a name out of the hat on Sunday. Good luck and have a great weekend!