Rummage

I can safely say that today was the first time I have experienced perspiration on my eyelids. An experience I am not looking to replicate any time soon.

We floated about today wearing only what decency demands looking like people in the last stages of galloping consumption with ruby cheeks and a sickly air. Actually, the small people did nothing of the sort they were their exuberant selves in the peak of rude health, bugger it! I considered attempting some origami-style yoga manoeuvres to deposit myself in the freezer but there's a strong possibility the kids would have got in with me so I decided against it.

It's hard to believe that there are still non-believers out there on the climate-change issue. I say lets put all the sceptics in a 1970's brick veneer bungalow in a tree-less urban sprawl sans air conditioner and watch them change their minds. We don't have an air conditioner as a matter of principle, actually that's a complete lie. We're too poor. No, really, I don't think we'd get one. When I walk Kipper I can here the thunderous roar of a thousand pre-apocalyptic air-con units as we stride the suburb and it makes me depressed. I figure if we caused the problem we should have the decency to feel it.

Sorry, I'm getting all evangelist on you now. Hope it's cool where you are.
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Contrary to popular belief, Canberra is one hell of a stylish place. Truly. Just ask Nina, doyenne of the Canberra blogging world and a woman hell-bent on communicating Canberra's style secrets to the world. When I first moved to Canberra, Nina's blog, 'Canberra's Got Style' was one of the first local blogs that I hooked up with. I've been an avid follower ever since.

Recently I discovered that Nina and I lived in the same suburb which led to a champagne-soaked lunch at my place. She was every bit as entertaining as I imagined, the kind of girl you want in your corner at a dinner party. If you get a chance, do check out her great blog and NinaRibenaMakes, her crafting blog. Look out for her at the next Handmade Market at Albert Hall on 7 February - she has some very cool stuff to sell, you can also check out Nina's post on my place here.

In other news I have fallen seriously off the bandwagon as a member of Fairy Light Addicts Annonymous, (FLAA). Kipper is also a FLAA recruit, showing his love by biting half way through the cord before being apprehended in the nick of time. Electrocuted puppy is never a good look.

Have you seen 'Sideways'? Very cute film.
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Can you tell I'm avoiding the craftroom? Someone's been in there making an absolutely disgraceful mess. Not me, nooooo.

I'm blaming the canine and the small people.

 
I would have loved to have been at the Inauguration do yesterday. For all of the obvious reasons of course but perhaps most particularly so I could get a hit of cold weather. I would have taken all my clothes off and run around au naturale, a bad idea of course so it's a good thing I live too far away. One wouldn't want a lunatic Australian nudist marring the event.

I caught some of the concert for Obama on SBS this afternoon which will no doubt go down as the funkiest political event in modern times. Stevie was amazing - left Shakira and Usher for dead. But it was Pete Seeger who won my heart in his rousing version of, "This Land is Your Land" with Bruce Springsteen. I used to play guitar in a school folk group as a little tacker and this song was, and still is one of my favourites.

Here's hoping those sweet winds of change will soon be felt in this neck of the woods.

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So there we were in the kitchen. Kipper, the two year old and I.

Kipper was communing with my left sandal in the corner, the two year old was bellowing at ear-splitting decibels, and me? Well, I was turning myself inside out trying to make a rock and roll sandwich. That was the request, actually no, it was more like, "Maman? Wock and Woll samich, peeeeeeze."

She didn't enlighten me any further than that. My first guess was honey. This went down like a lead balloon. Next, I went for blackberry jam which was met with the stamp of a chubby foot. By the time I had moved on to cheese she was on the floor imitating an epileptic starfish. *$%@#@#!!!

The indecipherable two year old! I have a friend whose toddler upon dropping a cup of water would embark on a full-frontal tantrum when handed another cup of the same - he wanted those exact water molecules scraped up off the floor and squeezed into the same cup.

Back to the sandwich - it turns out it was vegemite. Naturally, a very rock and roll substance when you think about it. The moment I put it on her plate she reverted from starfish to model child sitting quietly on her stool eating her sandwich. The cooking chocolate and I went off and passed out quietly together on the lounge.

It has come to my attention via a member of the household that I am wont to speak in disparaging tones about a certain foreign gent with whom I co-habit. So here are some nice things I can think of to redress the balance.

1. He does an excellent white man's overbite on the dancefloor.

2. He makes me spelt sour dough every morning  - rain, hail or shine and will whip up a batch of killer pasta when asked to do so. Pizza bases are also a specialty

3. When I met him he wore a self-imposed uniform of braces, striped shirts and high waisted trousers. Think 40's gangster crossed with ironic 90's rockabilly.

4. I could only understand every seventh word he said when I met him. We're narrowing the margin now with about every third word.

5. He resembles both Goofy and Krusty the Clown depending on angle and lighting.

6. He has the kindest eyes I've ever seen in a man.

There.

These are some of the fabrics I've chosen for my quilt for the OneQuilt project.

Indigos and old cream flour bags with a hint of sashiko in scarlet. What do you think?

The house is agog with semi-masticated shoe-orphans. Kipper has a quirky penchant for burying one shoe, (one assumes this is for later consumption), and having a jolly chew on the other.

We are continuing to wend our way lazily through summer holidays. A white peach here, a juicy mango there and then a mid-afternoon kip in the backyard under a shady tree. Life is lovely. Really no crafting to speak of, just a post-Christmas vignette-rearrangement or seven.

The only real exertion I have been able to muster in the last few weeks is a couple of kilos of tears whilst watching Vera Drake. Hells Bells! I thought I'd have to go to hospital for some emergency rehydration, I cried so much. Do see it if you can and are not on the verge of topping yourself.

How are you?

I give you Kipper, the Wonderdog.

PS. Ikea canvas makes a most excellent dog bed.
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Yes we are. Lazing about damply in the hot weather reading and eating stone fruit. Listening to the Sundays definitive hot weather album 'Static and Silence'. Flipping through seed cattledogs. Listening to the baby wrens calling out for their upteenth meal. Painting our toenails.
Yes we are.
And the white peaches are in their zenith.
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