Free Shipping anywhere in Oz

Hey everyone - 

Tomorrow is my birthday - and to let you all join in the celebration I am offering free shipping over at GingerKnits.com until the end of the month - and yes, it is available with any other discount*. The caveat is that this offer is only available in Australia^ - and it will take a day or two in the post as The Man is taking me away to Daylesford for a dirty romantic weekend.

Happy Shopping!

*discounts are available via blogs "Pimping my store"(see post above) and there is also a discount for Ravelry users...

^Australia Post is too expensive for overseas packages for me to cover the costs - something to do with us being so dang far away and surrounded by water...

Bliss!

Rain on a tin roof...

Distant thunder rolling by...

The refreshing smell of wet bush-lands...

A wood fire crackling nearby...

Soft candle light...

Collinette Point-5 on the needles...

I love it when we escape to the bush block!

Want some free stuff???

To help promote my new store over at GingerKnits.com I am having a competition and a sale.

All you need to do to win stuff from my store is to "Pimp my Store" and offer a discount to your blog readers. 

Sound easy???

Here's the deal - 

1: you must have a blog....

2: email me at info@gingerknits.com with details of your blog.

3: I will email you back with a unique code you can pass onto your readers for a discount at my store.

4: post this code, with a link to my store and the GingerKnits.com button (shown in top sidebar at right)

5: The bloggers who generates the most customers and/or the most sales for GingerKnits.com gets $50 to spend at GingerKnits.com

Promotion starts from now until the end of March. The sooner I get your email the sooner you can start to "Pimp my Store" and direct your readers my way.

Pierre news

On Saturday I was supposed to attend the Stitches and Craft show with some of the Geelong Knitters, but had to pike due to a lack of spare change, and a promise to the Man of a stash diet...

Instead, the Man and I gathered up Pierre and took him to the Dogs Day Out run by the Geelong Animal Welfare Centre and the local Council. The main reason we went (apart from giving P some doggie social hours) was to sort out his registration for the next year, but we decided to have a go at the agility course that was set up.

Apart from trying to duck under the jump (set only about 20cm above the ground), the pupster did really well. He ran over the 4m high beam (he's had practice on the backs of our armchairs and couch) and had no problem running through the tunnel. 

I got some information about training sessions, and unfortunately the club meets on Sunday mornings - so P and I won't be able to go until markets wind down a bit....

When discussing this idea with the housemates, they were certain the Pupster did not need any more agility...

In fact - they fear that with any more agility Pierre may turn into NINJA PUPPY :

Ninja Puppy would cling to the ceiling near the fridge to stalk any housemates wanting a midnight snack. Once the Ninja Puppy lands on your heads, he owns your food....

(yes.. I have been playing with photoshop... why do you ask???)

Mandie - you Rock!!!

This post is spoiler free!

Just got the latest Ewe Give me the Knits fibre club installment, and I have to say... 

WOOT!

SQUEE!

YAY!

Mandie - the swag is fantastic! Made my day - and love the top paddock blend and the colour!

About to dash out the door to school, but I'm glad I was here when the postie stopped by. And also glad that he had my current ebay purchases for my Passap :) One less trip to the post office for me!

kindergarten painting...

Have I mentioned how much I love my course???

One of my classes is colour theory and applications... but rather than learning about radiation wavelengths and frequencies, or doing a whole bunch of heavy reading what we are doing is a lot more fun...

Yesterday I spent the whole day making a colour wheel by mixing primary colours - yes, the same principle that you learnt in kinda...

Okay - perhaps a little more advanced, we were trying to mix exact shades and there was no finger-painting, but do you know how much fun it is to spend the whole day at a higher education campus and and play around with gauche and paint? After spending years reading articles about subversive patriarchal ideologies in literature or trying to write computer programmes for spherical trigonometry there something so freeing about going to class just to paint colours so you can learn by doing....

Of course, one of things I am enjoying most about my course is  difference is pedagogical method between tafe and university. Everything that you do at tafe is so practical, with the theory being taught during or after you have completed the task. Quite refreshing after years of uni where you learn the theory and then, if you are lucky, do the practical (which, when I did physics, I found rather redundant: "We learnt in the lecture about Boyle's law and low pressure - why do I have to waste three perfectly good hours first thing on a friday morning to test it... the guy is obviously right or else it would have been dropped from the course content...") 

Oh - and did I tell you last week we spent a day at the zoo sketching animals for drawing class? You can't get more fun than that! If I remember I'll take some photos of my sketches and see if you can guess which animals we visited!

seven simple joys

Caffeine Faery tagged me for 'seven things' and I thought I would take Taph's idea for a ride - so without further ado, seven simple joys:-

1. Surviving a long weekend without having to put fuel in your tank until the Tuesday... 

2. Hearing Alex Lloyd's Amazing on the radio - I find that song so uplifting... I remember when it first came out in 2001 I would drive the hour home from work at 1-2am flicking through radio stations hoping to hear it play.

3. Having discussions with The Man about 'our' future.

4. The pupster jumping all over me the minute I walk through the front door. When I sit down he gives me a thorough face-washing with his tongue. 

5. When people (okay, older women) at the market comment that they wish they had grandkids to buy my products for. 

6. Having a housemate who wants to watch all your Buffy and Angel DVDs... in order... and doesn't think that doing so is overkill.

7. The Man waking me up in the morning with a coffee... and grabbing his laptop so he can work checking his emails in bed and spend more time with me before he dashes off in the morning :)

Launching GingerKnits.com!

Hey everyone - 

Big news... I have finally started my own online shop over at GingerKnits.com

This will have all the stuff I sell at the markets, things I am making as part of my textiles course, plus a few extras from other crafty people out there. 

I have most of my current stock up there, but have some baby/toddler clothes, doggie sweaters and stitch markers that have yet to make it.

Please pop on over and let me know what you think. Next week I am hoping to run a competition to celebrate the launch of my new store (and a way for you to save money) - details to follow.

If you are interested in getting your stuff online, drop me a line at info@gingerknits.com

Saturday in the Park..

well, the dress is 'saturday in the park' but we were 'saturday at a wedding' - Ceremony at a church and reception at a coastal winery.

The Man and I spent a wonderful day celebrating with our friends and their family, dancing well into the evening. 

For those interested, the dress is from Glampyre's Fitted Knits, and knit in Spotlight's 70/30 bamboo/cotton yarn. 

waiting in the wings...

..is a bit of a special project -which hopefully I can go public with on Monday :)

NinaRibena from http://canberrasgotstyle.blogspot.com is jumping on board as well...

....check back on Monday for the big unveiling!

Tapestry Workshop

Visit to the Victorian Tapestry Workshop 19th Feb 08.... as part of my elective class in tapestry weaving.

This workshop has produced many great tapestries hanging in public places- one of the better known ones being the Parliament House Tapestry in Canberra.

Somehow I can't see myself completing these huge communal pieces that take many much...

but I do love these - they are much more me :)

web hosting choice

Best 10 Web Hosting Choices.

Web Hosting Choice is your advertisement free guide to choosing the right web host for your personal or business site. Their focus is on a searchable directory that will let you find web hosting plans suitable for a small site or for a large e-commerce website

check out web hosting choice for more info.

study in porcelain

One of the classes I am getting quite a bit out of is Drawing.

Week one was 'Drawing the Porcelain Bus'  

First time I had touched charcoal since about year 8 high school - and it was a little bit daunting staring at a toilet bowl with a whole bunch of easels set up around it.

Week two was 'Passengers on the Porcelain Bus'

An exercise in surrealism - we had to integrate a picture or photo into our drawing. Apparently my drawing is okay, but my shading is shite... 

Considering this stuff is all new to me, I am quite happy with the results - however, I am quite looking forward to next week, which will apparently be toilet bowl free.

garage sale

Hey there - 

I have a couple of things up on ebay - an ipod and a designer handbag. Both new.

If your interested, check 'em out!

***edited to add - iPod already sold***

I signed up for PPP!

Okay - so I am selling out a tad bit :)

I signed up with PayPerPost, where every so often I will earn money for 'sponsored' blog posts. Don't worry - I won't be turning into a sad cable channel, running informercials all the time - part of the understanding when you sign up is that you continue your normal blogging. In fact - I am hoping this will encourage me to blog a little more than I have been of late. 

The plan is to use half the funds I get from this to help out with bills and such (it takes a while to get used to centrelink after having a professional salary) and the other half will go into my 'Yarn Money Box' - which is only fair, as this blog really is all about the yarny-goodness... and yarn was the first item to disappear from my budget.

All sponsored posts will be fully disclosed - I won't try to pass off any paid advertisements (which is exactly what this is) as a normal blog post. Print media can't get away with it, and neither will I!

If you could also do with some extra pocket money, and keen for a similar opportunity check out PayPerPost. 

blog reviews

mac the knife*..

oh yeah baby - I have joined the mac revolution and I'm loving it. I got my new macbook on tuesday night, and less than half an hour after opening the package I was connected to our network (via airport). The Man had terrible trouble getting his PC connecting to this network. After consulting the IT guys at his work, it appeared some obscure setting on Vista was turned off...

The only trouble I have had is that my external hard-drive - which has all my music on it - I imported about half a dozen songs before something decided it needed to be formated. Lucky the Man copied all of my music to his external hard-drive so I shouldn't lose any of it (of course, I will have to import all of my Harry Potter #7 from the CDs again... The Man didn't get a copy of that!)

*of course - I don't have one of the brand spankin' new macbook airs you could get a paper cut on (it was another $700 for that one), but I still think mine is pretty sharp!

geek-cool

I'm in photography class and this image came up - it was taken by Muybridge to settle a bet in the 19th Century.

I recently read about it in a book, and mentioned this in class. I actually admitted to finding out about it in "The Science of Discworld"... cue the nerd alarm!!!

However, I didn't feel too much of a nerd - the instructor is wearing a Dalek t-shirt!

I love school...

Just a quick one because it's the first week of my course and I am exhausted...

but I was sitting up the back of class today, quietly knitting some socks - teacher notices and...

turns the lights on for me, cos, you know - good OH&S practises :)

It's over, Socrates...

Here tis - the hemlock ring doily blocking on my queen size bed. It is about 120cm in diametre - and lovely and warm. I am really happy with the FO - I was rather worried that it would end up looking like a very bad tie-dye job... but the muted neutral colours striped very nicely.

I am rather attached to this one, but have promised a couple of friends I would make them an afghan for their upcoming nuptials. If they fall in love with this one I may end up passing it on, with a couple of cushions to match. Or I may end up knitting another threw-for-the-carch before the month is through :)

Where's my cow??? Bugrit!

'That's not my cow - that's foul ol' Ron!'

If you are a discworld fan, and have read THUD! you would be rather familiar with these lines... one of the better habits I have adopted from the Man is a rather keen ambition to consume discworld novels at a crazy pace. When I discovered that Pratchett had written a discworld picture book, I went a-hunting it down.



Unfortunately - the local bookshop didn't have it,but could order it in... and it would take about a month...and would be rather expensive.... so I went a-hunting on the internet, and managed to surprise the Man with a random gift (he didn't know about the book at all!)



The Man is rather delighted with the book - particularly with the illustrations of Commander Vimes (One of the man's fav discowrld characters - the other is Lord Vetinari)

This is a delightful picture book, great for kids and a must have for any discworld fan. I recommend you chase it up!

And on other note - just to prove Pierre did survive the three weeks without me, a cute dog photo: