Book - Yarn - Cards

We should be celebrating!! 

We have finally heard word from our insurance company, but only after a call made to them from our lawyer. After almost three weeks in waiting and being accused of adding and building on to our home and stating that our home was under evaluated  (trust me we most certainly do not  have money for that!) the insurance company admitted to the fault being entirely theirs and they have put through our claim and will be covering everything!

I am elated yet at the same time utterly exhausted. It may be from the stress of the past two and a half weeks finally coming to an end?

The flu like symptoms, I was telling you all about at our last link-up with Ginny's Small Things Yarn Along, have seemed to improve. Well except for the exhaustion so I am pleased for that.  I'm sure as we start getting our home in order and unpack and repack when the construction work comes to an end I will start to finally catch up with myself. I cant wait!

I finished White Oleander over the weekend. What a book. If you havent read it you need to add it your list of books to read. Really!! I think I will leave it at that. 

I have started on Just Another Kid By Torey L Hayden. I am not that far into it, perhaps a few pages or a chapter at the least. I predict this one to be a goodie too. 

I will let you all know in the weeks to come *wink*.

I finally found (well actually Oumie found) a star knit pattern for the front of the hot water bottle cover. I will start working on that soon. In the meantime I have be clinking the needles together and finishing off a couple more "Dish Towels". So now I have one in natural, blue/natural and green/natural. There are still about 3 or 4 more balls of each colour. So hopefully by the time I have gone through them all the "Dish Towels" may turn into something else? I started a knit project in the beginning of the year and when I feel the need for a change from what I am working on I go and work a little on it. The needles are on the small side and the wool is a soft double knit so its best to knit when I have a sufficient amount of light. There is no rush to finish this one, when the urge arises then I will pick it up and knit up a few more rows.

Thank you for stopping by! 

I love reading all your comments and ~ well ~ just knowing that you there!

Angie xxx

Madhatter's Hat

Friday Garren had his Grade 1 Madhatter Tea Party at school.
He and Rob had been busying themselves all through the week on this very secretive project. A surprise, a little something that no-one else would have thought to jumble up together.

I felt a little sad, that a hat of this kind would have to be thought of. Tristan and Joshua had magickal hats that were made in fun in another kind of way. How times have changed! Yet at the same time I had to have a good ol' deep down belly chuckle when the little voice explained to me the purpose of this fabulous hat.

A hard hat to protect your head from the hail.
Candles to light your way during load shedding.
Hanging (empty) match boxes to wiggle around to keep the mosquito's and flies at bay.
(and if the boxes were filled with matches they would light the candles Mom!)
And of course earphones so that you can listen to music! Garren does love his music.

The Madhatter Tea Party was a huge success I was told. I am please for that.

On another note, I have come to the realisation.... Moving little ones like the fluffy fowls in the coop do not make for pretty photographing.

Angie xxx

Book - Candle - Yarn - Cards

I can't believe that it has already been a week since our last link up with friends on the blog.  I for one wont admit to "time flies while you are having fun" this last week! Don't get me wrong, I love my life and my family and I treasure every moment with them and feel so blessed daily... but the In-Home-Camping-Adventure is starting to feel a little wearisome on this soul of mine. We are still awaiting replies from the insurance company and it doesn't seem that they are on the same page with us and their contractors, that in actual fact our home has been listed as "critical and needs urgent attention".

I think I may manage a little better if my beloved coped better with change. 

I'm sure by the time we get our home back he would have gotten used to the idea... *chuckle*

Our weekend found the sky bursting with deep dark clouds of grey and a steady drizzle. After finally getting the last of the plastic sheeting on the roof and buckets placed strategically around the lower levels of the house I curled up with a warm fuzzy blanket on the couch and took turns in alternating a little knitting and further reading of White Oleander. I have finished both sides of the hot water bottle cover and I am still at a loss for how I will be finishing it off. I think I may just have to make a turn at the Wool & Habby shop at the end of the month for a little more inspiration (and more wool... shh - dont tell Rob!) I am still looking for the right Star pattern for the motif on the front. Do any of you have a knitted 5 pointed star pattern that you are willing to share? I would be so grateful! 

What do I have to say about White Oleander......?

*sigh* I absolutely love it... I love that when I am reading, the words turn into poetry and I feel that I am there experiencing it all with dearest Astrid... So much so that I have had to put the book down the last couple of days. The emotions were a little too intense and a breather away from the smell of the pages were in order. I only have a few chapters to go and tonight being a no homework night I may just breathe and then continue. Some things just feel a little too close to home with this one! While on my breather I got a little closer one-on-one time with Earth Magic Oracle Cards Guidebook by Steven D. Farmer. Not everyone's cuppa tea but for me it gave me a little more insight on the cards that I have been reading. I like to get to know the cards first without the guidebook and then peruse through and see what the  Author has to say about it. It's a beautiful deck and I am enjoying the readings that are coming from the cards.

I was once again on the couch yesterday. I have been fighting an onset of flu symptoms and yesterday I decided I just couldn't fight them anymore! I surrendered... and while surrendering pulled out the seriously chunky Elle CottonOn that Oumie bought me a few months back. The original plan was for me to knit up simple place mats for our dinning room table. I love the natural colours! The only thing.... the 100g of 100% Virgin Cotton only makes a mat of about 38cm x 20cm which is slightly small for a place mat. I marched on through to the cottage to have a chat with the Ol' Crone and she admitted they were on the small side but maybe we could use them as dish towels?? What do you think?

Last night I use it to do a card reading on! 

Perfect sizing if you ask me... *wink* and *chuckle*....!!!

Oh and look at what's peeping up through our marg! Rob says its because of all the rain!

Me... well I say we have been visited by the fae.

Joining the lovely Ginny (Small Things) over at Yarn Along & Nicole (Frontier Dreams) over at Keep Calm Craft On ~  for their Link Ups. Thank you special ladies!

Angie xxx

Coming Up To Breathe

Last week the unrelenting heat all but nearly broke me.
We live in a little town nestled between mountains, so when the tempretures rise so does the humidity. A stagnant heat that one just cant seem to escape from.

The boys feel it the most. I can see it in their blotched red hot faces when I fetch them from school and on our drive home in the afternoon the beads of sweat trickle down their little faces. The only reprieve is to get them into the slight cooler waters of our pool when we arrive home.

When they are in they do not surface. Only coming up for breath when their little lungs just cant take the pressure of the spent oxygen.

This new week we have started off on a cooler note. There is a nip to the air and the sky is covered in voluptuous shades of grey. I feel we should expect a few more heat waves before the cooler months of Autumn set in. I also feel that way may just be in for a very cold spell this Winter too.

Angie xx

This Week Gone By

I always seem to have an abundance of photographs. What can I say? I am a trigger happy Mama!

So I thought, to appease my family who don't get to see much of us and who are always on the prowl to see more, I would upload a weekly picture update just for them. 

Weather permitting that is.

Here are a few from this week gone by.

Hugloads of love

Angie xx

Manni Mannikin

 

Little Manni ~ meet everyone... Everyone meet ~ Little Manni!

Little Manni is the only fledgling that survived the storm last week Friday.  

For those who are new to our home. Oumie (aka Rob's mum) has this magickal knack for saving little birds and caring for them until they are old enough to care for themselves. 

Who remembers the little sugar bird she saved the weekend she and the Old-Man (aka Rob's dad) moved in with us? She kept that little thing going the whole week and the following weekend when we went back to their old house to make sure all was in order, before handing over keys, she placed the sugar bird alongside the hedgerow and miraculously the parents came back for it! We were shocked that it was accepted back!

As sad as she was to have to say goodbye she knew that it would be safe and Mum and Dad were there to raise it naturally the way Mother Earth intended!

I am not too sure about Manni though. Oumie has placed the Bronze Winged Mannikin close to the community of finches all very busy trying to rebuild their homes (like we are) and they just don't seem to be interested at all. I don't fear that it wont make it through, it is a feisty little thing that wants to get up and go...... But I do fear that it may not make it home naturally the way intended. This one may end up being a little home bird.

Finches teach us to awaken to our surroundings and encourage the connections in our family.

It must be because they all have to work very hard to build and keep their little family and communities safe and sound.

Angie xxx

Book - Candle - Yarn - Cards

One thing that has been keeping me going, while we have been ever so patiently waiting for assessors and insurances to begin the process of getting back to some form of normality after the weekends Storm That Broke The Hearth, is knowing that I will be catching up with all the lovelies over at Ginny's Yarn Along! I love perusing through all the link ups and seeing what they are reading and of course what they all have clinking and clanking away on their needles.

I haven't let the darkness that now engulfs part of the house deter me from getting on with chores and the few hobbies that actually on a normal day keep me sane. I may have to thank our previous load-shedding adventures for that! The heat this week has been cruel and I do hesitate in the afternoons when clouds start circling as I am not too sure if they are here to stay and whiplash us with another freak-of-nature-storm or the slight pitter patterings of rain. The rain I enjoy and know we can withstand but another storm... I hesitate.....

Our kitchen has now temporarily been moved into our dinning room and of course our dinning room table has always been used by the boys for homework. Although a little crammed we are getting it right and I feel so blessed the boys are taking this all in their stride. It's our in-home-camping-adventure... *wink* *wink*. I have heard from others who were hit by the storm too. Although not as much damage done to their homes as to ours, their little ones just haven't coped well and have been sent off to stay with families in another part of our town. So yes, again I am blessed!

To get back to Ginny's Link-up.....
The Witching Hour that I was ever so slowly but surely reading last week has come to a grinding halt. The pages are slightly damp so I have put the book to one side and to let the pages dry slowly naturally. It is not damaged and the pages are legible thank goodness. In the mad rush on the weekend to save my books from their place on the shelves while the water poured through the huge gaping holes in the roof, I was able to save White Oleander. I found this Janet Fitch novel while perusing through one of the stalls at the Farmers Market many many moons ago. I had watched the movie before and knew that the book would be so much better as with all books! But of course I never seemed to get around to actually reading it.
I only remember snippets of the actual movie, so as I'm reading along by candle light it is all coming back to me.

The hot water bottle cover I have clinking and clanking away on my needles is almost half way done. I have finished the back half and started on the front. I may just craft up another one in the future but this time on a circular needle or double pointed needles so that there wont be a seam. I'm not very good at sewing and always feel that when I have to finally sew all the bits and pieces together I really dont feel entirely happy with end result. So for me seamless knitting is the way to go. When I figure the pattern out I will pop it on my Ravelry Account.  I haven't yet made up my mind if the front will have a knitted motif or if I will cut out some felt and then knit a star to sew on. All I know is the protective star will be placed on the front of it.

I think I may just want to add that today is also the last day of Mercury Retrograde.....
I feel a great big ol' sigh of relief about to depart from my heavy lungs and through my lips!

Angie xxx

The Storm That Broke The Hearth

On Friday evening our little town was hit with hail stones the size of apples. 

We are calling it The Storm That Broke The Hearth.

As much as we are devastated by what proceeded said storm, we also feel deep gratitude that our family was unscathed and we are now safe.

While we still process the ordeal, clean up the debris and of course make for rearranging our living arrangements I will process more photographs and wait in the queue with the rest of the inhabitants of our little Sleepy Hollow to have the damages assessed and then the process of picking up all the pieces again. As per the norm I haven't had a chance to read the newspapers or chat with my special friends across the miles on social networks. Please bear with us - we will be getting to you all as soon as we can. Thank you for all kind words and encouragement that has been sent our way. We are deeply grateful and appreciate each and every one of these words. They did in fact get us through the weekend.

 Much like any adventure I shall prepare myself for all its ups and downs and know how blessed I am that I have a family that work wonders when together.

Angie xxx