Sunday Burger Frenzy

My boss came back from leave the day after Australia day and I managed to wangle the Thursday and Friday off - so I have just enjoyed a pleasant and reasonably productive 5 day weekend.

My studio, while still an abomination is a significantly more organised abomination than it was a couple of days ago. We did an Ikea trip to get more bookshelves for the library, I got a plasma globe for $20 - its cheap and nastiness does not in anyway diminish its cool electrical Teslaness.

We framed and hung some beautiful art sent to us by our extremely talented friend Tonia, you can see more of her works here.

This one was a Christmas present.

And this one was part of Scott's birthday present (apologies for the crappy photos).

I found a new fabulously ugly piece of horse art at the Silver Compaq (the best second hand store around and a source of many fantastically ugly things).

This is the first painting (well textured print) that I found there:

And this is the new acquisition:

The horses are in relief on a kind of a hessian background and it has a kind of tikiness to it. I did not mean to start an ugly horse picture collection when I bought the first one but I guess having two is probably a bad sign.

Navigating the yard has become a little hazardous with summer getting into full swing, we have orb spiders everywhere.

Their webs are so beautiful, except when you wander into one without knowing whether the spider was home and have to do the get this thing off me dance. I have become very cautious when heading down the front path on my way to work.

Gol Goroth is coming along slowly, I have done about as much as I can until his eye gets here. Still having some issues keeping him upright as the leg armature keeps twisting relative to the body but hopefully I can sort something out.

I have also finished my piece for the Strumpets Crumpets valentine craft swap. My swapee is a vegan which presented some interesting challenges re materials but with a bit of questing I managed to put together a suitable combination of acrylic and cotton yarns.

Meet the veggie burger purse with beetroot, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and of course veggie burger.

I'm not entirely happy with the veggie burger yarn which is a mixture of two yarns knitted together but there was not a lot of choice. Tomorrow I will send it on its journey to Canada.

Sunday Fence Frenzy

Finally it has happened - we have a dog proof fence. No more having to constantly supervise the little buggers while they are outside. We had to cut off part of the yard as otherwise it was going to be too expensive. On the plus side we now have dog free part of the yard to put a veggie garden and maybe one day some chickens.

Another cool side effect of the fence construction process was we discovered we have an apple tree with what tastes like Granny Smiths growing all over it.

Our backyard is a constant revelation there are all sorts of things hidden in its jungly depths. One of these days we will have to get organised and tidy up a bit, I have a dream of a more permaculture type set up with cooks and food type growing things.

Gol Goroth now has one wing fully completed.

A bit of an arduous frustrating process involving spiky wire and awkward angles.

The left wing still needs its scallops added round the edge but I have had enough for now so it will have to wait a bit to be finished.

I also have a date for the exhibition with set up on the 3rd of May and the opening on Friday the 6th of May. This is all getting quite exciting - my first ever exhibition looks like its really underway.

Sunday Feather Frenzy

Not much to show this week, working on a secret project that I can't show you till after Scott's birthday next weekend (assuming I get it finished).

This weekend I over did it a bit and my neck and hands are killing me but Gol Goroth's wings are well underway.

I figured out how to crochet the feathers around the wire so they are sitting better than the tail feathers do.

There will eventually be an armature that runs right across through both wings I am waiting until the last minute to put it in as it is hard to crochet around. I'm getting spiked by the wing feather wires enough as it is.

It is not easy but everything continues to be crocheted in - nothing is sewn on at all.

Sunday Crochet Frenzy

Had a bit of a stall on Gol Goroth this week while I waited for some blue wire to arrive to support the feathers. So I started on a Gug (especially for Tonia).

I found some great lumpy wool on sale and am experimenting with texture in this one, I think it looks kind of like stone.

The blue wire arrived late in the week so I have spent the day trying to get the tail to work, I think it will but it is hard to tell at this stage because the excess armature keeps flopping over.

I must thank the lovely Karla over at Itsy Bitsy Spider for the inspiration for the tail feathers, the idea came after seeing pictures of her beautiful doves.