GM fish

Husband and son went fishing and didn't catch anything,
and polar bears, who had fishing down to a fine art, are dying because of global warming,

Would a genetically modified fish be easier to catch, I guess it would depend on the RPM

Baubles

I don't *do* christmas, so this is the closest I come to doing what I don't do, I made these to pass around to our Ladies Who Lunch at our Christmas/Solstice party.
They are small styrofoam balls with scraps of fabric pushed into the styrofoam with a sharp nail file.
It's an old idea from years ago when my mum showed me how to make them. You can also add tassles or beads but those might need a drop of glue to hold them in.
They look glitzy and effective and make nice decorations for them wot is inclined to decorate at this time of year.

Christmas in Sydney

While all the bloggers up-top are posting their pictures of December snow, I thought you might like to see how one group of us downunder celebrated.

I was a bit worried when my son said my nephew had hired a catamaran to take a group of us out sailing, I had visions of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, and definitely didn't want to be swinging out over the side or keel hawling or other nautical stuff, so I was relieved to find the boat was quite civilised and had a couple of cabins and a good seating area up top.



we almost had a stow away but he jumped ship before we left the dock



this is the little commuter ferry that travels across Broken Bay to Patonga Beach



here's son steering (is that the right term for driving a boat, I'm sure there is supposed to be a nautical expression for steering - I'll have to watch "Pirates" again, although I'd probably be too distracted by Cap'n Jack to listen for the right expressions)



nephew had a slightly different technique for his steering:



and just look at this, you could imagine it would have looked just the same when the early explorers sailed here 200 years ago (I nearly said Captain Cook, but I don't think Cook actually entered Broken Bay, I know he didn't enter Sydney Harbour but sailed past it - will have to read up a little more on Pittwater)



We wondered what this ship was doing here, it was called the Orion, looked a bit suss moored in this quiet little backwater with radar and big round whatsits on top, but googled it later and found it was a cruise ship with a load of poms here for the cricket - at about AU$18,000 a head. (that's without the air fare to Australia)

I wonder what the poor people are doing...

Oh that's right...they are sailing past in a catamaran...



I won't bore you with all the photos, but there are more on flickr if you'd like to see them



The return trip across the heads of Broken Bay was a little rough but the boys handled things superbly, at times they almost looked like they knew what they were doing, and I had a great time.

Planet Mb'lish - a little late night madness

Space, the final frontier.

After many light years traversing the cold darkness of space, the starship fleet of the Stash Enhancement Xpedition (S.E.X.) has boldly gone where no man has gone before, and is in orbit around the Planet Mb’lish

"I don’t like it Cap’n – our scanners are picking up strange life forms from the planet"

"We’ll have to risk it Scotty – Earth needs more Stash, we’ll orbit a little closer and send out a drone plane to a look at the surface"

"aye Cap’n, synchronizing planetal rotation now sir"




"Look at that landscape –we’ll be rich beyond the dreams of Averase Scotty"
"Aye Cap'n, that Averase was a greedy bugger"





"Hmm" mutters Scotty "if we live through it"

"Prepare to touch down!"





The two starships of the fleet land on the surface of the planet,

"It’s verra quiet out there Cap’n"

"Lieutenant – take a pod and check out the terrain....and Scotty, we’ll beam down to the surface, we’ll take two scutters with scanner beacons and see if we can pick up any trace of those life forms"



"I don’t like it Cap’n, look at the mouth on that creature....it’s life, Jim, but not as we know it"



"It’s OK Scotty, it has a young one with it, just protective that’s all – back away slowly"




" Cap’n! I just received a message from the drone, the Lieutenant’s pod has been found ...empty....the drone is patching through some pictures...."





"Wait....it’s not empty....what are those threads....they look like....Stash!!"



"I still don’t like it Cap’n, look over there in that cave, they are just sitting.....watching us...."



"Look Cap’n! the scutters have located something big off the starboard bow"





"the scutters are down sir!!"



"Back to the ship Scotty......beam us up NOW!!"

"Cap’n, our mission was to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations........now we’ve found them, can’t we just kill them?"

"Scotty what are you saying??!!"

"I wasn’t attempting to evaluate the moral implications, I just want to get out of here"

"Set up the magnetic shield and lock phasers on target"

"Cap’n, the shields are down, there is some kind of ball of thread heading toward the ship.."



" Bridge to engine room, warp factor nine! "

" Ach! If I give 'er any more she'll blow Cap’n!"

" Scotty - bypass the energizer and give me inpulse power "

" Ye canna' change the laws of physics Cap’n - I've got to have thirty minutes for the auxiliary power or the engine imbalance will cause a worm-hole....

....It’s too late Cap’n!! the threads are all over the ship and the automation system is overloaded



"....aaaaaahhhhhhhh...."



The starships of the S.E.Xpedition were never heard from again.

Every 20 years, when the planetary orbit of Mb’lish brings it within transponder distance from Earth, a single signal is picked up…….an ancient morse code spells out the word S.T.A.S.H..elp…..



Meanwhile on the planet surface, the two little scutters have adapted to their environment and are spending the rest of eternity gambolling happily, engulfed in stash.

Sumptuous surfaces

fabric collage 9

I went to a workshop given by Effie Mitrofanis, called "Sumptuous Surfaces"
She had us make up four pieces of collaged fabric, we then chose the piece we wanted to work with that weekend, tacked it onto a thin backing, then went all over with running stitches.

Then we couched on cords and did bullion stitch over them and added beads.

It was a very relaxing weekend, no pressure to 'get to the next stage' we just sat and stitched and Effie, who is a wonderful teacher, had lots of eye candy to show us and talked each of us through our choices.

I've since finished the other 3 pieces I prepared that weekend and have made more - I'm just becoming obsessed with these little glitzy pieces, I can work on them in the night while watching TV without stressing although the lounge has eaten a few beads.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with them, Effie had attached some of hers to sheer fabric banners which I thought would look great as my new lounge room curtains, but probably not too practical as they certainly wouldn't be washable, but I might still do this...stay tuned for that idea