And now some knitting...

Seeing as we're having such a cold end to summer (what summer?!) here, I thought some knitting content would be appropriate:

I knitted this lovely little vest for Poppy's Class 1 teacher who left at the end of last year to have a baby, due any time now. It's the Pebble vest, from the free pattern at the Thrifty Knitter.

It was such a lovely little vest to knit up; I admit I got discouraged partway through, because I thought that it was taking a long time, but then I realised that as the back and front are knitted up at the same time, it really wasn't that long at all until I was dividing for the shoulders, and shaping the necklines. I have knitted two of these so far, and plan to knit as many as the mamas of new babies I know will allow me to give them - they are just lovely and too, too cute on small fry!!

I'm told they are also super-practical, because they totally unbutton to lie flat, so there's no wrestling them over a baby's head to get them on. And let's face it: the less wrestling one has to do of babies, the better.

Ramekins, a new obsession

Sunday nights are Dessert Night at our house. We instituted a weekly evening for this as I was getting sick of being asked, "Can we have dessert tonight?!" EVERY night, and also because if I wasn't asked, I tended to forget for weeks on end to actually make dessert...

So! Dessert night was the solution, and one that all of us look forward to. Even those of us who have to make the said dessert every week. To combat the onset of the same-old, same-olds I have acquired some oh-so-wonderful pottery to keep me interested: Martin Boyd ramekins!

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE these! They come in such beautiful colours, and are different on the inside from the outside, and all of us have our favourite combinations.

I first came upon these lovelies via Loobylou, who used them for shepherd's pie. Then I spent two years (yes! two years!) stalking them on ebay... and procrastinating about buying myself some. THEN, I had a feeling my grandmother would give me some money for this Christmas just past, so I went ahead and bought some. The ones I got even had 'rare side plates' that are unsigned, but have the same distinctive yummy colours of the ramekins. Yay!

Now we use them (carefully!) for a few things, not least of which is apple crumble, my dessert night fallback position. Sometimes I get them out just to play with the pretty colours...

Inspiration Monday

Ah, achievement! Posting on the day I've aimed for. Small victories; small victories. So, to my current inspirations:

This is going on my wishlist...for one day, maybe.

Some of these toothbrushes will go a long way to easing my landfill-creation related guilt.

...and one of these for a bit of Pride and Prejudice every day.

Simple Solutions...

Sometimes a solution to a problem is so simple that you feel a bit silly after you've worked it out.

I figured out the other day why our current collection of very yummy cheeses is sitting in the fridge uneaten. I diagnosed a lack of decent crackers to eat it with, remedied the situation, and now I have yummy snacks of cheese & crackers at the ready whenever the mood strikes!
Cheese and crackers FTW!

Inspiration Monday

Ok, so I can have 2 *inspiration monday* posts in a week. Can't I?

Stumbling around the internet is an interesting thing. I find myself going in circles, reading the same blogs every day, and I could be in danger of thinking that the internet is made up of yummy food blogs, crafting mamas and crazy knitters with database building skilz. (Hello, Ravelry!)
So I decided to see what else was out there.

These women have chutzpah in spades. And some good advice, too!
Dmitry Orlov, the man who predicted the GFC
and
This, for my friends who keep bees.

Inspiration Monday....I guess I got distracted!

Good intentions to play along on Inspiration Mondays, but...

Poppy started back to school this week, and Leo had some kinder starting preparatory meetings to get through, so we did that at the start of the week, then the weather began to ask politely for our attention.

Well, to distract myself from worrying about family who are now out of mobile phone battery power, and who I can't bother every so often for updates on their safety in the face of this, I think some inspiring links might be in order.

Getting great mileage from the constant updates on twitter here.

Thinking of using this great idea for taking the perfectionism out of journaling.

Amazing aerial shots of the world here, via Walk Slowly, Live Wildly.

And I'm grateful to have found these errata before setting out to cut into some fabric!

Hopefully we can make contact with family over the next few days, and I'll actually have inspiration on monday next week... or not. It all depends.