Changes

"Everyone thinks of changing humanity, no-one thinks of changing himself"


Hi all

Yes I know it has been awhile since an update. Without excuse really other than being very busy at work which means been rather brain dead at night and too tired to be bothered.

We have had a series of upgrades, as in email , phone, and programe upgrades with another library system upgrade due in November which has meant we have just finished a week of training. Most of the systems are much the same but acquisitions , which is now part of my job description is much more complicated and different. As in it took us a couple of hours just to figure out invoicing alone.

So the past couple of weeks we have had eftpos, phone and cash receipting outages as well as library systems outages on top. So work has been "a pain"! Only words for it really.

Also last weekend we had the dear grandchildren to stay for 3 nights. Their dad was involved as an exhibitor in an photography exhibition in Auckland. [ His first ] He was one of only four and it meant his traveling up to be there for the opening function. As this coincided with "his" weekend they needed a place to stay. They were very good , much easier now than when they were babies in nappies etc. There was much excitement when "dad" was on TV3 news on Friday night and his pictures were shown as well. We ended up going to the movies to see " Chihuahua" a movie about a dog that gets lost. Once you get over the fact that the dogs "talk" the movie was rather funny and we enjoyed it much more than we expected. They thought it was great of course!

But joy of joys this weekend is a holiday , long weekend in New Zealand. Labour weekend to celebrate the start of the 40 hour week. The weather has been a throw back to winter with a cold wet southerly. But this has meant an excuse to stay inside and keep warm. Haven't done alot other than try to do some gardening before the rain drove me back inside. DP has put up another flourecent light above my work bench in the garage so have finally put my blow torch together and cut out several pieces from copper and annealed them. I did try hammering one piece but the cat went crazy so will have to do some more later.

I have been slowly knitting a piece to mount in a box as I am doing another course in a couple of weeks and we need a piece of weaving or embroidery to mount in the lid. So decided to do a piece in pearl cottons. It has taken a couple of goes to get it right. Not too happy with the colours but it will "do". Other than that and slowly plugging away at edging samples for my city and guilds have been rather slack in the knitting department.

I am in the middle of trying to arrange a trip to Washington DC next year some time. A friend is planning on going to the US open tennis champs [ in New York ] so we are hoping to travel together. So perhaps can plan some side trips to Soar, or Stitches or Rhinebeck I will have to see.

Anyway I have to think of our exhibition as well. I am in the process of making a big change. Just have "to feel the fear and do it anyway." I very much want to take some unpaid study leave to work on my art projects but as I support my grandchildren alot this has been something of a mission. I am fearful of "losing" money by not working but really want to work some more at home. So when my credit card is paid off [ next pay hopefully] am going to try a day off a fortnight and see how it goes. I have been told I can have "unpaid study leave" which means I can go back to full time if I need.... we ...will ...see... watch this space...!

Anyway one thing we did do yesterday was go for a walk on the beach in the showers. We decided to go to a different beach and it is more rugged and exposed. Lots of sea weed and floatsom. A very grey day.

Knit on all, hope you are all having a great weekend.

W.O.W

"Inspiration is just around the corner, the effort comes in taking the trouble to turn the corner and look for it!!

How can I descibe the past 3 weeks, fantastic, mind stretching, inspirational, fast [ as in can I have a replay, a bit slower this time] or merely as W.O.W.!!!

It started with being lucky enough to get tickets to the WOW awards dress rehearsal. This show is just mind blowing and if you ever get a chance don't miss it. I really enjoyed it and we had front row seats right where the models paused to turn so got a great view.

This show is a real culture treat, the audience dresses up and they always have audience involvment and "happenings" outside as well. Of course I wasn't able to take any pictures but took a couple outside of the costumes of participants.

Believe it or not but these three are "alive" and slowly moved through the crowd milling outside.

Next up a very tall "creature" who posed for me.....


This is the back view of another with an old wharf building behind.

Next up was the junior school production staring DGS as a chicken and DGD as "Happy" the dwarf. The storyline was based on the 6 o'clock news and told the story of several fairy tales. Each class put on one story. It was very well written and the usual cuteness of small children .

Then it was packing up and going to Aotearoa Textile fibre forum as mentioned in the last post. As usual this was a wonderful learning masterclass with an American tutor Mary Hettmansperger, a jeweller from Indiana. A lovely lady and an excellent teacher.

I learnt so much and produced over 20 items. I had a wonderful time and have spent the past week, as well as catching up at work, and housework getting my work space freed up in the garage to set up my new blow torch. Thats right once the course was finished I brought some of the equipment cheap and am going to try and make some items to sell. I have received so many favourable comments if I can just sell a little I can take a day off a fortnight to concentrate on study.

So have the equipment, most of it and the materials. Just watching on the metal punch to arrive from America. Couldn't buy it here , worst luck as the exchange rate with the world economic crisis at the moment is pitiful.




So here are some pics of some items I made. I have slowly being finishing some off, still some to do and have been drawing up some designs to cut and burn and stitch.

I have been doing knitting, just incase you thought I had forgotten my pointy sticks. I have been working through my sample knitting for city and guilds and am currently doing edgings. This time I am making a concentrated effort to make enough samples without going over board. I am trying tho to draw up some of my own designs rather than just using ones from books all the time.

The week is a time of leaning, inspiration and a chance to meet with other artists from around the world and hear them talk about their work, lives and inspirations. We had Alexander from Russia, Glenis and Carolyne from Australia, Mary from USA and Pauline from the UK.

So it has been a great weekend, The physio won't be pleased as I have "tweeked" my back moving stuff in the garage but much better to day so hopefully it will get better quick.

Eek is that the time... better away to bed.

Knit on all >^..^<