This is Tropical Cyclone Laurence...



TC Laurence, Laurie to his friends, is new in town. He's been traveling down North West coast here trying to make friends.

I for one am always eager to meet new people and make new friends, welcoming new folks to the community and trying to be warm and inclusive. Since TC Laurie is making his way closer to my camp, and thus possibly making friends with ME, I'd like to offer him some advice...



Laurie, I find the best way to make friends is not to come whirling in, aggressive and showy - but to be polite, well mannered and friendly. You don't need to be the toughest, gnarliest, most hard-core kid in the class to stand out and be admired. Uprooting towns and leaving people cowering inside with torches and radios does NOT ingratiate you to a community. Laurie, settle down a bit then you can come out to play.

Mystery knit!

I have a bit of mystery gift knitting going on!!



I just hope I can get it finished in time... Isn't that always the way?!

p.s. Crowd surfed for the first time last night - AWESOME!

I Only Like Pompoms as a Friend

I fell in love with the 'i HEART pompoms' pattern and after some extensive Ravelry stalking, finally cast on! Knitting with the Bendigo Alpaca yarn is a dream, it's perfect for this pattern and so lovely



I'm only moment from the finish line with this one - it is sitting on my shelf pompom-less and bereft, I really must get my act together, whip up a couple of pompoms and cord and then it will be DONE!

Lovely weekend with Lovely Mum!

Shortly before I flew up here to work away again, I spent a wonderous weekend with my lovely Mum. It was just the two of us and we spent three glorious days together crafting, talking and relaxing.



I feel so blessed for my parents, and count them amongst my closest and best friends in the world. It feels such a special treasure to have been able to spend the time together with Mum, nestled away in her gorgeous home delighting in each others' company.



Mum has recently re-taken up the knit, so we spent quite a bit of time knitting in various places; cafes (with delicious meals), the loungeroom (watching movies) and of course sitting on Mum's fabulous decking.



As is always the way with magical times, it seemed to be over all too soon - but I know there will be other wonderful times, and we can keep the magic with us for now in the memories and shared delights until next time :)

No Deja Vu here

There's so much I want to blog about - adventures, crafts, fabulous times - but at the moment I've barely had time to log on, let alone upload pictures and put together a post!



I'm back up North in the Pilbara working on the next construction site job and it has been INTENSE! Even though we did this last time - I flew up first, shweetie was brought on board a couple of months later - and I've already spent over a year and a half living in a Fly-In Fly-Out camp, deja vu doesn't seem to apply!

Since the day I flew in (5:10am no less...) it's been non stop action with a totally new project, new team, different site, with different and stringent regulations to remember and adhere to, new camp and room... the list goes on! How do I get to work in the morning? Where do we pack crib (lunch)? What's the postal address here? Who do I see to get hooked up to the work server? and so on! So much to absorb and get right!

Suffice to say I've been pretty exhausted each day when I finally get home to my little room.
But the last two days I've been feeling myself again and settling in a little, much to my relief! Last night we had our Christmas party which was great fun and today was officially a Rostered Day Off (RDO - this site has a 6 day week: every Sunday off, an improvement on the last site which had a 13 day fortnight with only every second Saturday off!) but my manager and I headed in to work anyway which was fine. So much can get done without the distractions! We cranked some tunes, smashed through the work and went out on site and climbed to the dizzying heights at the top of the steelwork. A small crew of dogmen, riggers a crane driver were in too extending the boom on the big 250 tonne crawler so we headed over to say g'day and were able to help them out pulling some of the collosal cables into place - like pirates on a huge rope!

So no exciting crafty posts just yet I'm afraid, but hopefully soon, as long as the rather dismal internet service out here can manage photo uploads and such!

ICANHASHILARITY!

Icanhascheezburger delivers again!

My Retro Skirt!

Allow me to finally display.. My first sewn skirt!



Terrible photo - at night with a mobile phone - bad combo!

But I didn't have time to take a better one at the time, and now I have washed the skirt and discovered it DEMANDS ironing after a wash! Ah well...

The gorgeous monochromatic retro flower print was actually nestled in amongst a scrap grab bag of fabric I snatched up when I first bought my sewing machine. My shweetie suggested a grab bag of fabric practice on, and lo! This fabulous fabric (I keep almost typing 'yarn' I'm so used to always utlising THAT craft material!) was in amongst the mish mash, in two long strips.

I took the pattern from my favourite skirt, but had to adjust it to suit to strips of fabric - hence the black panels!

Over all I'm very happy with it, the only downfall being the recently discovered high maintenance nature of the fabric! Ah well, a quick ironing and I'm off! Promise to take some better photos once the iron has been wielded ;D