May Gibbs exhibition

#48/366 May Gibbs exhibition, originally uploaded by gramarye.

We went for a drive across Sydney to visit the "Inspired by May" exhibition at North Sydney Library by the members of the Australian Textile Arts and Surface Design Association (ATASDA)

I submitted two little pieces of work (my earth spirits) for the exhibition and also took part in the collaborative banner, 25 sections worked by 25 members of ATASDA.

My square in the banner is on the top row, 2nd from left.
If you remember my banner it started off
here like this:



There's another photo of the banner on the ATASDA website where you can click on each square to see an enlarged picture
Inspired by May banner

The photos are not great as I took them through glass without the flash:

photographing lunch

lunch, originally uploaded by gramarye.

Serendipity

There are still lovely moments on the internet - this morning I found one.

There I was in Sydney, Australia reading an American knitting site (knitty.com) and found a link to an Irish knitting blog so away I went to look.

The blog is A simple Yarn written by Cheryl Marling, an American living in Dublin, it's a good read and I will be back to spend more time there, but the thing that caught my eye this morning was MY granny's sewing box...yep, alive and well and living in Dublin!

Cheryl's box was found dumped in a skip and she describes it as a writing desk, not sure of the measurements of it so although it looks the same, it could be larger than mine.

This is Cheryl's: (apologies Cheryl, I hope you don't mind that I'm using this photo from your blog, but I really wanted to show the two boxes together)



and this is my granny's:



Granny left it to my mother and now it's come to me - the inside of the box is still in the original, very used, worn out state - I've often thought about restoring it but didn't want to touch the fine worn blue silk, so have just left it.

I was always told it was a sewing box, I really think it would be too small to use as a writing desk as Cheryl describes.

Now the strange part is that my great grandmother, Margaret Reilly, was Irish and came to Australia about 1847 from County Cavan. She was about seventeen years old when she arrived here - we've been unable to find out very much about her and she died when my grandmother was only three years old.

I've often wondered about the worn out condition of the box as Granny really took good care of the other things I've inherited so now I'm wondering if this originally belonged to *her* mother -

Would a poor young Irish girl have brought a box like this with her from Ireland?

I guess now I will always wonder, but never know

what's been happening

Has it really been that long since I made an entry?
I've wasted so much time this last month, not content with joining just one photo a day group on flickr, I've also joined a monthly scavenger hunt group.
I've spent weeks wandering around with camera in hand, looking at everything as a photo opportunity, then downloading the 50 photos I've taken of the one thing and worrying which I should post.....it's all getting out of hand.

here's one from my scavenger hunt - we had to find onion photos - do you know how hard it is to stand in the supermarket, whip out the camera and take a photo of the onions.....I'm fast becoming the eccentric old lady I always wanted to be.
I'm also trying to teach myself to use photoshop, so I've added some layers to this.



What's been happening in sunny Sydney these past couple of weeks....rain, that's what, this is our driveway, with the water nicely dammed (damned!) by our neighbours lawn.

Your father I am not, young Luke

Your father I am not, young Luke, originally uploaded by gramarye.

you can tell I've been having a lazy afternoon,
playing with my toys and special effects

photography - the cup & the cat

#25/366 a photo a day - the cup & the cat, originally uploaded by gramarye.

you can call me all you like - I am NOT turning around to look at your silly cup, I KNOW it's not a real frog - and anyway, I have a nice profile....

photography - holidays

#24/366 A photo a day - holidays, originally uploaded by gramarye.

My big camera has gone on holidays to Vietnam without me or its little friend here. (just hope it comes home with some great photos or it will be in trouble!)

I think my little camera is jealous, I caught it dressing up and taking self portraits in the mirror.

the kitchen dresser

#23/366 A photo a day - kitchen dresser, originally uploaded by gramarye.

I've finally managed to rub back and varnish the doors on the old kitchen dresser I'm using for storage in my sewing room.

I started this little restoration project right in the middle of moving into my new sewing room back here
Still need to rub back the drawers, but at least for now all the mess is hidden.
whoops, did I say mess.....meant to say Vital Craft Supplies

I inherited this from my aunt.
It holds some very special memories of staying at her house as a child in the summer holidays, and setting the table for lunch with dishes from here.

photography - textile closeup

#20/366 A photo a day - textiles, originally uploaded by gramarye.

Getting back to textiles - this is a close up of a wall hanging I made last year.

I'm not even through January and this photo a day project is becoming harder - I think I need to work out a plan for monthly themes

photography - the Dutch shop

#19/366 A photo a day - the dutch shop, originally uploaded by gramarye.

We took our Dutch friend to Sydney's Dutch shop, where there was (predictably) an abundance of blue and white delft china and wooden clogs

and lots of yummy Dutch food

photography - jungle scene

#18/366 A photo a day - jungle, originally uploaded by gramarye.

Grand daughter made a jungle scene which involved much chopping up of green crepe paper and frequent visits to the loo to empty the toilet rolls.




the hippo tried to warn the cows (in the jungle??)
but did they listen.....??

Camping out indoors

#17/366 for Project 365+1, originally uploaded by gramarye.

Camping out in the living room.
We made a tent over a card table, the small person decorated the side and added the welcome sign - her intention was to sleep in it last night, but decided the living room was far too dark and spooky once the lights were out (even with the dog for company)

photography - iceblocks

#16/366 for Project 365+1, originally uploaded by gramarye.

The theme on the Project 365+1 flickr group this week is COLD which is easy for those in the northern hemisphere surrounded by snow but a little hard for us in Sydney.
We bought a tray of mangos, so I pureed some and made mango iceblocks, very yummy! so that's my 'cold' theme.



It was a toss up if I used the ice blocks or this next -- playing around with a little DOF (hah! don't I sound like I know what I'm doing!!)

movies and lunch with the small person

#15/366 for Project 365+1, originally uploaded by gramarye.

One of the joys of grandparent-hood is taking the small person to the junk food outlets that you vehemently resisted when your own children wanted to go.

She did tell me she is only allowed McD for a special treat - and we were on our way to the movies so I thought that was special.

...and I must be improving because I didn't feel at all self-conscious whipping out the camera in a packed food hall (although I didn't spend much time on composition)

We went to see the Water Horse - (warning spoiler ahead)

one of those generic boy and his pet monster type movies - boy loses sailor father in war, boy denies father gone, boy has nightmares about drowning, boy overcomes fear with help of pet water horse, widowed mother scores both a handsome handyman and army captain, army captain bombs shit out of water horse, horse escapes to open sea with help of boy who suddenly finds his inner strength.

- there, now you don't have to sit through two hours surrounded by obnoxious little feral monsters making loud comments and encroaching on my elbow space.

The small person was an angel in comparison to the ferals and totally loved the horse (who was quite cute, even when he ate the bull dog.....oops)

"Inspired by May" collaborative banner

collaborative banner, originally uploaded by gramarye.

Our textiles group is making another banner for the next exhibition.
We were all given a section of a painting to interpret in textile and a piece of blanket to either work on or include. This section of the painting is a part of a banksia.
I used my needlefelt machine to work directly onto the blanketing - I had expected it to pull in and reduce the work area, but instead it stretched the wool, so it finished up a bit larger than I started, hopefully it will be able to be cut back to shape without losing the original design.

Miniature book

my photo a day shot for Jan 12, 2008

#12/366 for Project 365+1, originally uploaded by gramarye.

Took the small person to Fairfield Museum in Sydney, this is part of their permanent local history display.
I thought it had a steam punk look about it

I've written about a previous visit to the museum here on my old gardening blog

my photo a day for Jan 13, 2008

aahhh, Sunday morning, nothing like curling up with coffee and a good book!



My friend Gail, from our miniatures group, makes these miniature books.
She writes the stories so she has no problem with copyrights, prints them, binds with hardcovers using a traditional bookbinding method, prints the end papers and dust jacket.

photography - toy penguins

#11/366 for Project 365+1, originally uploaded by gramarye.

#11/366 Jan 11, 2008
playing with penguins

what do you call a lot of penguins - a mob, a flock, a herd, a huddle, a parcel of penguins? - I like an infinity of penguins



we were having fun til the mirror fell over and squashed them
(no penguins were injured during the making of this entry)