The silk bug bites again

I felt like spinning something different tonight when I got home so I pulled out my fibre stash crate and went diving. I came across a huge 150g braid of pure mulberry silk that I purchased a few months ago and dyed gunmetal grey. I plan to spin it up fairly fine and ply it with an equally fine strand of pure midnight black merino that I purchased for this exact spinning project...I just hadnt gotten around to starting it yet ;o)

huge braid of pure silk fibre


a bowl of pre drafted silk ready for spinning


the spun single

I've just started spinning this gorgeous fibre...and I'm already hooked. Again. You gotta love silk.

Ch ch ch changes

I havent posted in quite some time...sorry about that :oP

I spent the last few weeks getting all my TAFE assignments finished and handed in as the first semester has just ended. It was a bit of a struggle to get it all done as I was rather seriously behind in some of my work due to my unfortunate experience in the hospital and having to take time off from TAFE to recover a bit. But I pulled a couple of all nighters (as you do) and surprised myself (and several of my teachers, I'm sure) by getting everything done. I tell you, if it weren't for the last minute nothing would get done around here ;o)

A lot of things have been going on since I finished my first semester. I'll try to remember all the items on my list that I need to put on here but if I forget something I'll get back to you.

First thing on the agenda; I've just redesigned the blog to give it a cleaner, easier to read appearance. What do you think of my new do peoples?

I had my birthday in June. I'm finally norty forty and you have NO idea just how norty (although, not really as its just too darn cold for that kind of thing, but I DO like to think about it...a lot ;oP). Everyone keeps telling me that life begins at forty...in my case that's closer to the truth than many people realise since my brush with the infinite dark was only about a month and a half ago (read the month of May if you're not sure what I mean).

Since forty is supposedly such a milestone for women in today's society I thought it only proper that I head out and buy myself a cheap, plastic, fur trimmed tiara to wear out for my birthday celebrations. What more could a classy, mature woman (*laughs hysterically) want than a physical license to behave like a spoiled five year old on her birthday? I had a fabulous time out drinking with friends but sadly forgot to take the tiara with me so didn't get a chance to take a pic of myself wearing it, but here is a pic of it being worn by my desk lamp instead.

I received much love, cash and pressies for my birthday this year so I'm calling it a huge success all in all. My actual birthday was on a Tuesday in the final week of TAFE so I had to be in class, but my awesome classmates Joel and Stephanie went out and purchased a cake and a birthday ribbon/badge for me which was totally sweet and unexpected. The fact that these friends are 20 years my junior tells a story though, don't you think? ;o)

The week before my birthday was the June long weekend for the Queens birthday or some such nonsense and I was lucky enough to have my sister come up from Sydney to visit me for the weekend. We sat up late at night drinking and chatting and generally catching up. We went out for lunch a couple of times and I made the most drool inspiring roast turkey with crispy roast potatoes and cauliflower for dinner on the Saturday night. I invited my uber cool neighbour Terese over to join us and she kindly supplied desert...apple pie with cream...yum!

All in all the weekend was heaps of fun and I really enjoyed reconnecting with my sissy poo. She gave me a gorgeous, hand made lead light lamp shade for my birthday (along with some cash from her and my mum *squeee). My partner thoughtfully bought a lamp base to match so I could use it (also for my birthday). It now sits proudly on my corner table and looks just beautiful when lit.

While she was here we also hit a couple of op shops to see if I could pick up some warmer clothes for winter. I didn't find any clothes but I did stumble across some other stuff that I HAD to have. Many of you will know by now that I started collecting antique(ish) tea cups at the beginning of the year. I came across not one but TWO sets for only $10 each at a shop just around the corner from my house, one of which was a Queen Anne set that I have priced online for around $145 (SCORE!). We also discovered another beautiful Queen Anne set at another shop and my sister splurged and bought me a small Royal Adderley plate to go with my collection. I'm stoked that my collection is growing and now I just need to find a cute little glass front china cabinet so I can display them...plus some space in which to put said cabinet :oS

Queen Anne tea set


Regency (British Anchor) tea set


Queen Anne (Rose Garden) tea set


Royal Adderley plate


Starting to look like a real collection now

Since my sisters visit I've been knitting my first pair of gloves (for my sister funnily enough) here is a pic...not far to go and they'll be finished. I thought they'd be difficult but in actual fact they've turned out to be quite easy. I'm enjoying knitting them so much that I've planned another pair for myself.

Ive also been doing a bit of spinning lately, but I'll leave some of those pics for my next post (the rest are on the handspun for sale tab). Hope you're all keeping warm for the winter :oD

Feeling Love

The past couple of weeks have been pretty full on for me and aside from my health it has taught me to appreciate my awesome friends.

In the past two or three weeks, a number of my friends have been especially awesome; my gorgeous neighbour has looked after me and even made me dinner and bought me flu remidies (nawwww), a lovely derby kitteh came and had coffee with me and kept me company while I was having a difficult time dealing with the emotional fall out of my experience (love you viscious kitteh), another gorgeous derby doll; the awesome Mz Lickit (xoxo), has kept in contact with me fairly regularly and has made it perfectly clear that if I need her; she's only a phone call away, my closest friend Mz Militia has been in regular contact to make sure I'm ok, even though she has a busy family and work life, all my classmates at TAFE have been super supportive and enthused about my return to the land of the living, my TAFE bestie has visited me a couple of times to keep me up to date on stuff that I've missed and generally just to provide company and a laugh, an awesome young friend of mine gave me the amazing gift of trust and shared with me something that to them was very personal and life altering, and the most awesome bunneh lady I've ever not met sent me a beautiful and thoughtful get well gift of luscious bunny fibres and gorgeous silk yarn.

beautiful bunny fibres
and silk yarn from the talented
Mz Charly over at Ixchelbunny

I gotta tell ya guys; you really are the best! Talk about feeling the lurve :oD

Reconnecting

I'm stoked to say I found out today that my sister is coming to stay with me for the June long weekend. I'm really looking forward to seeing her and having a catch up. I heard from my job network provider today and they might have found me some part time work in the graphic design industry that wont interfere with my tafe studies (WOOT!) and a friend of mine who does web development has put me on his 'go to' list for when he next needs a designer to do some work for him.

Things are definitely looking up :oD

Second chances can be scary

I went to see my doctor this morning because I've had the flu since I got out of hospital last week and I feel pretty much like crap on a stick. I also needed to talk to him about my 'experience' in the hospital, keep him up to date and stuff.

Boy was I surprised when he told me that he'd 'heard' about my experience from someone who worked in the theatre before he received his copy of the hospitals discharge report and realised they'd been talking about HIS patient. That someone turned out to be his wife and as medical professionals with a common patient they had a good old natter about what happened. And it was scary. Not just for me, but for the hospital staff too.

From what he told me this morning the type of reaction I had was actually a rarity in this theatre. And though I'd been led to believe it was a close call by my anaethetist (why do they play these things down?), it was actually a little bit more than that. According to his wife I actually died (told ya it was scary) and while I was going through this, every anaethetist in the hospital was in that theatre fighting for my life. In my doctor's wifes words, 'its a miracle they were able to revive me'.

Hearing this from him this morning really bought home for me just how lucky I really am to be alive right now. It certainly made my experience so much more REAL for me. I think up till now I've just been coasting along, thinking; yeh, I'm tonka tough, you cant keep me down. But to find out that I actually died for a minute or so...that really does my head in. Needless to say I'm having a somewhat delayed emotional reaction and am really glad I have a friend coming over for a cuppa soon. I could really do with the company.