25-30/30

As promised yesterday, my final 6 macro shots for the macro challenge for the month of April. I have to say I have really enjoyed this activity as it has made me look at things differently when searching for subjects and I know how a few more buttons on my camera work. These 6 pieces of embroidery are all from a bowl full of pincushions, scissor pillows, needle cases and brooches, they were all stitched by my hand a number of years ago. I don't seem to embroider much at all these days, isn't it funny how we keep evolving with the crafts and arts we keep taking on. Please CLICK and pop over and have a look at some of the almost 2000 fabulous macro photos submitted during this month. Thanks also to Orange Flower for giving me this opportunity to improve my photography skills. Also remember you can click on my photos so you can get a real close look if you need to.

Gotta get a handle on it............

..........couldn't wait any longer to show you. It's felted but still need to find the perfect pair of U shaped handles for this Doctors Bag. Can anyone suggest somewhere within Australia to find a great pair of coloured resin handles? All I can find locally is wood, bamboo or pretty ordinary plastic ones.

Mini break

The view from my sisters cabin............not bad!

Sunning seals

Merimbula wharf and aquarium

Old Tom

This is how it was done

Scrimshaw

Whaling boats of old

Fishing is the game

Protected harbour

Boat sheds

Cousins at play

On top of the world

Too cool

We had a few days away with my sister and her family during the school holidays on the very beautiful Sapphire Coast of southern NSW. We stayed in Merimbula at the Merimbula Beach Holiday Park. We visited Pambula and Pambula beach by bicycle along a great bike path, need to improve my fitness! We loved the Pambula River mouth, great white sand, old boat sheds and volcanic rock formations. Spent a rainy day in Eden and learned so much about the whaling history of this town at their great little Killer Whale Museum, I particularly liked the story of 'Old Tom' the Killer Whale who worked with the whalers to bring the whale into the harbour. Australia is an anti whaling nation these days and Eden is now a very busy fishing port. Everyone ate, fish, squid, oysters and prawns till we couldn't eat another thing back at our cabins at night, it's a great place for buying fresh seafood. Merimbula itself is a very busy little holiday spot, great food, interesting shops, great walks, lovely beaches and interesting foreshore areas. I especially loved the Australian Fur Seal sculptures in the main street.

19-24/30

School holidays have been bad for my blogging, I promise to get back to my normal rate of blogging very shortly. Everyone was out of the house by 8am today so I have just over 8 hours to myself and things are going well so far. Will keep you posted about any creativity that occurs. Only one more day of April to go so expect 6 more macro shots tomorrow if I get myself organised.

Final fitting

Doesn't he look pleased! It's cooling down and he's a 12 year old Jack Russell who is starting to feel the cold so thought I would whip him up a little jumper from some scrap wool, actually a jumper I had when I was at high school in New Zealand. These photos were taken late last evening as soon as I finished. Casper is not an inside dog so he was a little worried about coming in but once he got his jumper on he seemed very pleased with himself. The jumper survived the night, I wasn't too sure what he might do if he got annoyed with it. This little knit was inspired by a pattern I found designed for West Highland Terriers so with a bit of lengthening and a couple of mods it seems to fit really well.

Cute of the day

Aim for the stars

A felted thrifted jumper, some trimmings from my stripey bag, a felting needle and my sewing machine and look what you can make in an hour. This passport cover is a gift for a nearly 19 year old heading off overseas for 12 months. She's a great kid and I know she will see and do so much while discovering there is a great big wonderful world out there waiting to be explored.

17 and 18/30

Through the eye

Red head

Now my regular readers will know of my dear friend Ron who is 91 and that he has had a lifelong love of photography and is a great source of knowledge. He still has a keen interest in digital photography and computers, he is certainly keeping his brain cells ticking over. A while back he sent me these two slides he had shot and then a photo of the camera used for the task. Now you have to remember these were taken many years ago, before all the modern technology we have at the push of a button. Pretty damn good don't you think! I guess a bit of the clarity has disappeared over the years, there is a bit of lint on them and they were emailed to me. We are spoiled when we can mostly just push on the macro button or add a macro lens to our modern digital cameras.

Day begins......

..........with a yummy banana snack, my favourite! Pia is now back in her shredded paper nest to sleep away her day, what a life!

Too early

I'm not at my best first thing in the morning............and I don't really want to see how much I weigh!

Now this little girl can really pee and let me tell you the smell of fresh possum pee is not something you want to remember too often, think very fermented fruit and because Princess is not completely mobile just yet lets just say her bedding needs changing fairly regularly. Now I mentioned this to her original carer and she sent me an email to tell me she hadn't told me the little ones whole name............'Princess Pia' so now I realise why I'm doing a load of smelly washing every day, just like the good old days when my littlies were wearing nappies..........you remember the smell of a toddlers early morning nappy............are such sweet memories!

Cat dog

Don't those little eyebrows say it all........"HELP mum the cat is eating my dinner and I'm too much of a chicken to fight for it because I know she'll win". He's right about that, he has a scar on his nose to prove it and another on his chin from dodging a clawed swipe. I have never seen our fussy cat eating dog biscuits in her 9 years with us and I guess he's hoping it doesn't become a regular event!

16/30

Now this is one way of making sure you get what you want for Mothers Day. My teenagers thought it was cute that their mum still wants to keep them close. I ordered this little tiny squares pendant to hang near my heart from Lisa Leonard via her blog 'it's the little things.......' and it arrived this week all the way from San Luis Obispo, California in the cutest gift box. I really love this simple piece, the stamped silver squares are 1/2" and it's a freshwater pearl. She has so many designs to choose from have a look at her new website Lisa Leonard Designs.

A Fairy Tale Princess

Once upon a time there was a little Ring Tail Possum called Princess and she loved living in the native trees and shrubs in our garden with the rest of her family but one day she had a nasty accident and has had to submit to lots of care and attention to make her better again.

We really hope this fairy tale has a happy ending someday soon.

I have taken a few more photos today so you can see how very beautiful she is and all her great adaptations for living her life in the trees. She is very photogenic don't you think? The soles of her feet are hard and leathery with sharp little nails perfect for gripping onto branches. The bottom third of her tail has a bare underside which is made for gripping and grasping as a fifth limb which could be really handy when you are racing around at night searching out fresh leaves, flowers and fruit.

'This is........'

...................my latest discovery, a new way to knit a bag for felting and the pleasure of knitting with Clover bamboo needles. I recently bought this pattern from Pippspurses at Etsy and she also has a blog named Pipp's Felted Knitting Blog that has some great tips and hints. I took this project away with me last week and did manage to get a fair bit done but boy of boy are there a lot of tails to weave in, 362 exactly from just the striped pattern, best tackled a few at a time while you knit the bag or otherwise I don't know that I would ever get them done!! My own bag patterns are all knit on circular needles and have almost no sewing up and very few ends to darn in so I have enjoyed learning a new technique which will open up some new possibilities for some more creative designs. Now I'm on the look out for a great pair of handles for this Doctors Bag, would love a really great pair of acrylic ones. I have knit with bamboo before and my favourite crochet hook is bamboo but this pair of short 5.5mm ones are just so light and easy to manoeuvre, I'd recommend them to anyone but especially those who dislike steel and need a little comfort for tired sore hands.

Thanks to Knit Owl for the meme this week and for Mother Three Buttons for the timely reminder.

Princess' first appearance

Don't be scared she is very cute and cuddly, although she does nip you if she is worried. Dear Husband found this injured young Ring Tail Possum 4 weeks ago across the road from our house. We have since found her nest or 'drey' in one of our trees. It appears that she may have fallen or been attacked by a dog, or both sadly. She had a ragged ear, limp prehensile tail and non functioning rear legs. She has come a long way with a wonderful wildlife carer and now eats ravenously, curls her tail around anything she can grasp and is pulling herself around with her front legs while the back legs are getting a little stronger with lots of physio. Today she climbed about 1m up a tree in our garden but I don't know whether she could yet climb down without falling. Princess loves fresh native leaf tips, diced banana and pureed fruit. She isn't very big around 800g and her tail is 33cm long, unlike the Brushtail Possums which are about 4 times the weight of these little ones. We hope to fully rehabilitate her and then be able to release her back into our garden where she will hopefully go on to raise a little family of her own.