look what came today

packing my bag, ready to go

Not really but the idea of it sometimes seems good, really good, good like a mug of delicious hot chocolate would feel right now, which on a cold grey windy day would be good but not on a sunny day - so you see what I mean just sometimes does the idea of packing me bag, ready to go, seem good.

But today it is just for effect, really I am off to knitwit's, her of the beautiful house, evidence here, to meet knitwit and knitclicking to prepare for our Outcast day at South Hill Park Christmas Fair 2007.

Outcast, stand 40!

one week in pictures

Too busy to fill in what has been happening but have a look at some pretty pictures instead - see you when I am back from www.affordableartfair.com

1. one day you will be a man my son, 2. SPT 5th July 07 homage to uk etsy obsessed bad mums, 3. The amazing work of miss bunny :: Baby, it's cold outside, 4. mini morkers, 5. the big one, 6. SPT - Feb 15th

10th birthday cocktails

10th birthday cocktails, originally uploaded by alabamawhirly.

Etsy Front Page Treasury - Boys Age 8-11 Picks

Etsy Front Page Treasury - Boys Age 8-11 Picks, originally uploaded by heidillustration.

wow, this made me smile a lot -

1 because it has some of the best etsy bits on there


2 because the wonderous Heidi Burton made it, she from an inspirational family and lovely artist herself


3 because it features two of my favourite UK'ers Lupin (as mentioned previously here) and Bombus


4 because Heidi made it inspired by the lovely Henrik, who once wrote me a lovely card for some gloves I made him


5 because a pic of my son is on it, modelling a moustache for Lupin


I think I pass the six degrees of separation to heidi test

drowning gloves and loving the dog

So here, I am day 35 of the 365 crafting days project. Making Lupin's aka bugsandfishes hobo gloves drown, well, just soaking them, ready to block and then sew. These are based on the first fingerless gloves that I ever made myself when I was 14, a whole blinking 25 years ago - my knitting has improved ; ).

Those ones, 25 years ago were stripy, I was obsessed even then and my mum aka grandmalovestooknit taught me how

I also realise that I am only 20 whole days behind Lupin.... a kind of number anniversary of multi sorts - have I already said I love numbers??

The last thing I will do tonight, as I do every night is love the dog, no matter how much I want to slunk to bed she is always there waiting to give me a cuddle. Love that dog.

winding up - crafting 365, day 32

winding up - crafting 365, day 32, originally uploaded by alabamawhirly.

So whirly is at her friends and there is just Louie and me here, we are rambling through our normal conversation:

* What's your favourite playstation game Mum? * which do you think is better DC or Marvel? * If you could be any superhero, which would you be? If you could have any animal as a pet, what would it be? * And now we are both here, I am writing this, he is chatting in my ear and we are laughing and no matter how many other things I have to do, I remember that maybe soon he won't want to do this with me so I will leave and savour this moment a bit longer.

*yarn by the amazing skeinqueen
the picture, a small snippet of our home - my sanctuary bit

spider and them

A massive spider is coming!



But they are just laughing



I'll just carry on knitting

A grand day out in the smoke

humbug - crafting 365, day 29

humbug - crafting 365, day 29, originally uploaded by alabamawhirly.

brown paper package tied up with string????

Almost, something I have made but I can't tell you who for - it's a secret.

My swap partner decided in the UK swap organised by the lovely and talented Charlotte Narunsky, yes her, queen of the tag game.

It's a brown box from Reading Museum and if I told you what it was called it would give the game away or the colour of the object inside...so you will have to be patient and wait and see...bah humbug!

a portrait of an apple

a portrait of an apple, originally uploaded by alabamawhirly.

TAGGED

it does, originally uploaded by alabamawhirly.

I was tagged three days ago by the talented Lotte, and please forgive me for almost dropping the tagging ball (sounds like a forgiveness ritual!) but there have been so many balls too juggle. Now I must share with you seven random facts about myself, as well as posting the rules of the game, which are:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

My random facts are:

1. I don't like the bathroom at night, in fact to be honest I don't like it in the day - I pull the flush and run, you know the toilet-flushy monster might get me.

2. I once shared a dressing room with Johnny Ball and David Essex, firstly that will show how geriatric I am but secondly I was only 14 and dancing on Saturday Superstore.

3. I am so unmanageable in a job that I have always had to invent my own job and like to employ equally wayward (I like to call it inspired) people

5. And talking of jobs, do you know that I have the best job ever invented (well, ever invented by me)

6. I love people coming round, just dropping by any old time so come on round.

7. I am slightly obsessive about palindromic numbers or connected numbers, only slightly, but had to be married on 20/6/02 at 2pm and then eat at 6...LMAO... it is only a slight obsession. Oh yeah, and did I say that 2's and 3's and 6' and 7's are some of my favourites.

Now I get to tag people in turn:

1. iant - because he has such interesting headgear
2. monkey - because I really want to know 7 random facts about him
3.yumptatious - because I love what she makes
4. urbanknit - because I am still thinking about the ice-cream on her blog and she makes beautiful things
5. feltbug - because I love her blog and flickr page
6. makelondon - as they are so inspiring
7. RE:form - because she is the exact little sister I would want to have and so talented...RAWWRRR

found you at last

found you at last, originally uploaded by alabamawhirly.

Wow, I love this, everything about it - it is exactly me. I was buying this one and RE said she'd make me my own one. I could not make up my mind and left design choices open and everything about it was perfect - how it was wrapped, how it feels and how it looks.

Thank you RE:form
x x x x x x x x x x x x

walking the pier

walking the pier, originally uploaded by alabamawhirly.

look what I made today - craft 365, day 5

look what I made today - craft 365, day 5, originally uploaded by alabamawhirly.

Today I made this, the new gallery and agreed plans - today was the day (I must give JA credit too, thanks Jim)

A glove for johnny rotten *god save the queen, the...* - crafting 365,day 4

A glove for johnny rotten *god save the queen, the...* - crafting 365, day 4, originally uploaded by alabamawhirly.

Day 4 in the crafting 365 house

So I was making up all the gloves I had knitted in preparation for the Outcast stand at South Hill Park , yes I know it is over 2 months away but I have a lot of other things on too, including the Affordable Art Fair, jelly and more... and listening all the while to my fidelity old record player.

Breaking out some old faves from my youth including The Fall, Velvet Underground when the Sex Pistols delivered a new energy to the finishing of my gloves. Who'd have thought it??? So these little union jack gloves (in the making) are a homage to The Sex Pistols, Johnny Rotten, God Save the Queen and being able to finish off work in this century!

just trashy enough

SPT 6 Sept 07, originally uploaded by alabamawhirly.

So we live in this beautiful home, that was unloved and we have loved it to bits, moving things, fixing things, adding more lights, restoring pieces and now after 9 years there is a new opportunity to change our lives big time. Currently we have so little time together as a family as our mortgage waits to be paid each month (in fact it does not wait, it stamps its feet impatiently) and we have 16 more years to go.

I never imagined I would be a completely inaugurated member of the mortgage club, always having been quite flighty in my movements such as living here at Walsingham House. But my life for many years has been focussed around jelly and soon jelly will be moving to a new home and then the young blood will deliver the next 15 years of jelly's life.

So for us, Si wants to go back to the sea and suddenly Twinkle has appeared and could be our new home, that is a home without a toilet, heating, designated rooms but it does come with running water but sadly the wrong kind that flows through at high tide and needs to be pumped out - are you sold on it yet? She is over 100 years old but has a permanent mooring and a potential to be loved and lived on temporarily whilst the next boat is built.

The extra upside is that we will completely eliminate our mortgage and be able to buy her and the mooring outright so we will be free.

a cup of tea and a mohair spoon - crafting 365, day 1

a cup of tea and a mohair spoon - crafting 365, day 1, originally uploaded by alabamawhirly.

So the lovely lupin invited me to join the crafting365 pool over on flickr. (This should be okay as long as I remember to photograph my work!)

Here is day 1 in the 365 pool for me - this is a piece of work that has been flipping around in my head for a while but there have been so many projects on the go that I have kept it to one side. It is a handknitted and crochet mohair and merino spoon, inspired by a very old forum post at the beginning of 2007 regarding strange punishments (don't ask) - this also led to the pants competition, which you can read about at the uk etsysellers blog updated by the fabulous lupin, how does she do it??

Venturing into the uk forum is a strange array of delights, you will never know what you might read about from hairy spoons, to pants to so much worse and sometimes it can be distracting away from the real job of making but I love it to bits

So this piece of work is a homage to the uk sellers

The spoon comes in a Reading Museum box which once held a spoon, but never one quite like this.

bama took this

bama took this, originally uploaded by alabamawhirly.

another day at the seaside.

Talent is seeping through their veins, Louie loves his board, both surf and skate, playing his guitar and generally looking very rock *starry*

Whirly sings, makes and takes good pictures. She loves it, picking the camera at any opportune moment

I love it, that she does that.

It is nearly time for them to go back to school and me to completely re-focus on my job in the real world. The next few months mean a flurry of art and craft fairs, organising an exhibition, developing new projects, pushing the new build along (for which I shall be wearing this!. I love my job, the variety and change but I will also miss the time with them

And apart from that, I will spend more time updating my etsy shop with new pieces that are waiting to be photographed by whirly (yes she does all my photos, check these out!), keeping to grips with the blog, flickr, knit night, the new puppy May, life and friends - phew, roll on the autumn.

then another one

then another one, originally uploaded by alabamawhirly.

So this is us.

It has been a little while since I wrote anything here but many things have changed, been happening and are up in the air so it is hard to know exactly what to say.

We have been travelling, visiting, seeing, doing, filling days. My parents left and we miss them, the weather changed and the river flooded. The water broke the bank, the children were stuck at school on the last day and eventually they got home after almost 7 hours.

It could be that the weather was a metaphor for what has been happening in our lives but it is not, it is a larger global travesty making people homeless, under threat of disease and causing long term suffering and death.

We are lucky and we have been living our life to the full: playing in the woods, building dens, skateboarding, surfing , camping in the mud, being with friends, being with family, playing in the Hyde Park , going on a pedalo, going to the sea, loving a rescue dog, eating lovely food, blackberrying, taking a Shetland pony to the pub.

We only wish we could all be together more.