Black Saturday

12 months ago, under a sky black with smoke and ash, our world changed: so much tragedy occurred on one day out of hell.

In my mind's eye, I can still see the old Marysville, still smell the crisp mountain air tinged with woodsmoke, and wander through the rooms of the old Ranch.  A sound, a smell, a feel to the air takes me back to before that horrible day. 

In the aftermath there was so much hope and determination, and so much restoration of faith in humanity as we helped our own. And just as the bush recovers, so will all those little towns, covering the burned, blackened memories with new growth.

Nothing will be the same again.. but it will be good again, in time.

We will NEVER forget Black Saturday... and we WILL return.

Animal Rescue

N rescued a baby bird tonight.  For some reason, the park we go through on our way to the station has a high number of fledglings flapping helplessly on the ground.  N rescues them all. 

But today's little one was different  (For a start, it was a wattle bird (the others have been noisy mynahs)).  N met me at the station with a bundle of stunned bird cupped against his chest and clinging to his finger.   It was only half-fledged; so tiny and helpless, listing badly to one side.  It was far too young to be out of its nest, with one wing still downy and under-formed, and a bald head.

He managed to revive it when we got back home: cleaned away the dirt, gave it a drink, checked it for major injuries.  There was a speck of blood on the back of its head, but nothing else that we could see.  I'm hoping it's a small flesh wound from the fall - the only nest we could see was quite high - but who knows?

After it perked up, N returned it to the park.  I was all for keeping it safe in our big tree, but if it's parents are trying to find it (and we suspect they were keeping a close eye on us during the examination), the park is the most sensible place to take it.  And maybe they'll be able to look after it there.

It's been about an hour and I want to go back to the park to check on the poor little thing, but if it's deteriorated, I'm not a vet and with no car, have no way to take it to one.

So we hope for the best now.  It's a million-to-one chance, but I hope the little guy makes it.

[edit 7:50pm]
I couldn't resist.  I went back to find the little fellow, and discovered he'd fallen again and was in bad shape.  So I brought him home, and cleaned him up as best I could (nowhere near as good as N).  He flapped a bit more, and was a little perkier, but I couldn't take him back to the park.

Now he's in a makeshift nest of sewing offcuts and a kittylitter tray.

I called Wildlife Victoria, and they're sending out someone to asses him and care for him until he can fly.  I hope they can save him.

[edit2: 8:23pm]
He's been picked up.  The carer wasn't terribly optimistic of his outcome because of the head trauma, but she'll do her best.

While I had her, I asked if she needed any fabric for pouches, blankies, etc.  She was quite keen on the fleecy stuff (not so for the safety synthetics), so as soon as I dig it out, I'll send it her way. 

Craftyness # 5 and 6 (and 7?)

I've run out of resin!

I wasn't going to post this batch because technically they're Charissa's batch, but I did phase 1 of the stirring, and it's my resin, so nyah.  I'm not sure what we're going to do with them yet, but it was a fun experiment with glitter.  Some of the pieces, though, have still stayed sticky, even now, which is somewhat bothersome: definitely something we need to iron out for the next batch.

Oh, wait.. the fish tile is all mine:

I think I had grand plans of making hima  bag tag or keyring.  Now, I realise I need to cut straighter.

And here's something I whipped up this week/last week.  The bangle still needs to be sanded/polished, but that'll be done when it's a little cooler:  Apparently resin goes a little soft in this heat - who knew?  I've also got a paperweight pyramid in the same theme curing at the moment; it should be ready on the weekend.  That used up the last of my (resin for the moment).

I actually made the bunny pendant and ring in late Jan, but they were sitting with some of my other resin-bits while they cured and I ovwerlooked them.  The gold ink bled a little, but if you didn't know, it wouldn't be obvious... it gives it more of a hand-crafted look, right?

I want to play around with the bangles some more once my next batch or resin arrives.  I'm envisioning fern fronds, green and bright, wrapped inside the mould.  Hmm...

Rant Rant Ranty Rant

So much for no news being good news.

I just got a call from the car repairers.  Apparently there's some "dodgy" repair work from a previous accident which the insurance company is not willing to pay for.  Joy.  Wouldn't have even known it was there if their client hadn't hit me!

Actually, I tell a lie.  I suspect that previous accident/repair work was all that hard work N did when he bought the car, in order to get the car roadworthy and running smoothly.  I knew he'd fixed it, but it wasn't dodgy "filling a hole with a potato cake" repairs, like someone else I know!  As long as the price is right (or at least tolerable), I'll be happy to pay to get the "dodgy" part of the car fixed.  As long as the insurance company coughs up more to get the bulk of it repaired.

Gah - it's always something, isn't it?

Between that and the office politicking ("I want you to move desks" "I'm not sitting there!" "well X will move and you can sit there" "But I want to sit with YYYYYYYY!" "hang on, why am I dragged into this? I like where I am!") going on today, it's unproductive and frustrating.

is it hometime yet?

Need a good book to get your teeth into?

(The movie was better)

And remember... there is no spoon:

Painting (Part 2) and craft #3

Aside from a few touch-up spots, like where the colours join and fixing the ceiling, the painting is DONE.  No more vilebeige, just a lovely soft lilacy-grey instead.

 It's hard to tell, but this side of the pillar of DOOM is Silver Gum as well.

The colours look so much nicer in real life - photos don't do them justice at all, and the bright window doesn't help.  Is it wrong that the bit above the pelmet is actually the neatest bit of cornice, and I was pretty much painting that by feel?

And here's something cute I whipped up night while watching FOTR, all hand-stitched because I didn't feel like getting out the machine:

Ninja PillowCat is watching you.

Painting (part 1)

I'm covered in paintsplats.  But at least the bulk of the loungeroom is a cool, fresh green (Taubman's "Silver Gum"), and no longer vilebeige.

Before on the right; after on the left.  There is still one more wall to paint, as well as the central pillar, but I can't do much until the brushes and rollers are dry.  The remaining wall will be painted Taubmans "Galloway", a lovely light stormcloud-grey:

I'd also like to paint the woodwork (and not just because I ran out of painters tape and am bad at staying in the lines) - I think crisp white woodwork will look really lovely with those two colours.

But we'll see.

Sunday baking with Silicone Goodness

OK, I cheated - those last two were from two weeks ago, but I realised that I hadn't actually shared them yet.   Top ones are the giant cupcake moulds, middle are the regular size, and bottom is one of the super-mini-hearts.  Baking is fun!  :)

---

I got utterly soaked bringing in the washing earlier, but the sparkly, sunny aftermath of the rainstorm was a perfect opportunity to test out the new monopod:

(and who doesn't like raindrops on roses?)

Anxious Moments

Around 10pm on Wednesday night, I had an anxiety attack.  The second one I've ever had in my life.  This was no hyperventilating let-me-out-of-this-situation attack, this was a fullblown, "OMG, I think my heart is exploding" attack of pain, which of course exacerbated the anxiety ("Am I dying?") which made it all worse.

Fun night.

I think I know why I had the attack.  I've been trying to get a hold of the guy who hit my car in order to get it fixed and back on the road.  And now I think I understand why it took so long for the police to interview him - he's not answering his phone,  not returning voicemails, nothing.  And it's getting frustrating.  It's been over three months since he rammed my car and drove off into the night, and I'm sick of seeing that sad little vehicle sitting folornly in my garage.

I even called to tell him I'll sic lawyers on to him if I have to, but still radio silence.

Enough is enough, I think.  I need to call the insurance company and get their lawyers on to this guy so I can be independently mobile once more.  Is getting insurance details really too much to ask?

[edit] Good News! As I was about to pick up the phone to get the lawyer's details, I got a call from the other driver's insurance people, and my poor little sad car will hopefully be at the repairers on Monday or Tuesday! 

Craftyness Week 2

This week (being Sunday 10th)'s craftyness was a super-quick top to keep the sun off.  I used a basic t-shirt pattern that I've used HEAPS already, but in a non-stretch silver-grey from The Bungalow Stash.  I was also going to make it in the yellow crinkle cotton, but the overlocker had Words to say about the thread I was using.

The top worked well on Monday's day of Infinite Hotness, and between that, my floppy sunhat, and long skirt I remained unburned.

However.  I suspect I forgot something vital (or just sewed badly) because I managed to develop a rather large hole in one arm-seam in the process of wearing it.  Note to self: adjust stretch patterns for non-stretch fabrics!

No pics (yet).

I want to make a sunhat that folds up small and fits into my handbag when I'm not wearing it, like envirobags, but finding inspirations (or patterns!) is harder than it seems...

The best laid plans oft go awry

Resolutions broken in the first week of 2010: Two. Not a good start. I'll blame being back at work.

The 365-photos failed because I kind of, sort of, ran out of time. Oh well. Maybe I'll do a week's worth of photos each weekend, or something, instead.

The wearing-a-pedometer-and-recording-steps one failed because the pedometer died. Who'd have thought that such a clever piece of technology would fail because of a bad clip? First it fell into the (clean!) loo, then it randomly loosened it's grip when I walked and smashed on the tiles. I'm not sure if it's salvageable or not. I hope so - I liked being able to track progress on my computer and see the graphs.

Oh well.

In other news, my resin is wearable and getting spiffy compliments from strangers.  I still need to make it super-shiny (it's got a dull matte finish which is annoying): I've read that super-fine-grain sandpaper followed by car wax and elbowgerase will help.  We'll see.

Craft 1/52

Is it cheating to include my first pieces of resin, given that I started them on December 30? They weren't cured and able to come out of the molds until today...

Clockwise from top right: (1) Glitter and red dye. Unfortunately the resin dye evaporated before I could use it, so I tried red food dye. Not a good idea. I'm not terribly happy with this piece as the glitter sank in the resin - I was hoping for a more "floaty" effect. (2) Glitter and green dye. Same as above, except I kind of like how the green dye hangs in the resin. I need to seal the back, though, so I don't wear the dye. (3) Just glitter. Which sank. I'll know for future reference that it's not a good idea. Not too thrilled with this one, but it may be salvageable. (4) Some cute bead findings I found. In hindsight I should have kept it simpler and not tried to add the yellow flower/blue sequin in an attempt to layer. (5) I really like how this one turned out. The pigment is actually a cheap eyeshadow I use for dancing. It's all swirly and irridescent and the glitter chunks work. (6) Another eyeshadow-used-as-pigment, irridescent reds/blues, and another one I'm really happy with. (7) Cake-decorating fissshes. I like how clear the resin turned out with these, and the levels/layering they did on their own. I'm thinking this will make a really cute pendant. (8) Beads. Are. Not. Good. Inclusions. Especially when the resin is a bit spotty with an attempt to get dye flakes to blend. (9) Feverfew flower. Did you know flowers float even when drowned in resin? It turned out really cute, although I will need to seal the back to stop it going icky (the stem-bit rose to the surface) (10) 100's and 1000's. I'm really happy with how this turned out - super clear and colourful. Just needs a trim and a polish and then... what will I do with it? (11) Another one I'm really happy with: hard to go wrong with buttons, right?

So out of my first attempt at resin-making, I'm super happy with 6 of them, can salvage 4, and have give up on 1. Not bad at all.