Busy

I've been busy, busy, busy...mostly with work, although I've managed to squeeze in a few creative things in the past fortnight.

I went away to visit family down in the South~West and took lots of photographs of the wildflowers that are blooming around my sister's property.
Here's one:

These delicate little flowers (which, I think, are a type of native orchid) also grow in the Darling Ranges, where I grew up. I used to believe that fairies lived in them when I was really little, inspired by my mother's copy of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Can't you just imagine it?

(Incidentally, I came across Little Black Knitting Crow's photography blog: little clicking crow and really enjoyed looking at her photos of Tasmanian wildflowers and such. She has a wonderful eye. I'm also the proud owner of one of her lino prints. )

I've managed to bead a few memory wire bracelets.
One, just like this, for my mum's birthday:

and another pink one for me:

I've also been working on my Spring Ripple Scarf.

I'm using Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn Number 188 and I think that the colours are delicious!

...and now it's time for me to get back to marking.

Have a wonderful week.

Butterflies

I've been looking after a caterpillar farm over the holidays (as you do) and, yesterday, a butterfly emerged;
a little, female cabbage white.
Here she is, fresh out of her pupa:

(you can tell she's a female by her slightly green colour
and the two spots on each of her top wings)

...and here she is taking her first flight:

Watching her wheeling exuberantly up into the air filled me with delight.

As you can probably tell, I love butterflies,
both the real life varieties and the arty~crafty kind.
These two reside on my fridge door:

The first one was created by one of the children I worked with last year and the second was bought from an art market. By the way, the second butterfly is much, much smaller in real life. They were both made with overhead projector plastic, permanent felt tip markers, thin magnets (the kind you find on the back of junk mail calendars) and a dusting of glitter. One of these days, I'm going to make some myself (and if I had a dollar for every time I've ever said that I would be a very rich woman indeed.)

I try to encourage butterflies into my garden by growing plants that they can breed on. I have milkweed in my back garden for wanderer butterflies and nasturtiums in my front flower beds for the cabbage whites.

Nasturtiums come in such a wonderful array of colours:

As well as admiring butterflies I've been crafting, of course.
I found a sweet crochet lacy scarf and tried to track down the pattern but came to a halt when I reached this blog because it's written in Chinese (I think). So, with the help of Dot Matthew's directions for the Fancy Fans Stole, I worked out the pattern myself.
This is what I've come up with so far:

I think that it's working up prettily but, with warm weather really and truly upon us here in Perth, I won't be wearing it anytime soon.
I'm having fun anyway.

I hope your week's blessed with fun too.
Butterfly kisses to you.

Spring Break

I'm on holidays again, which is lovely. I've been doing a little spring cleaning, but not too much. (I read this article in The New York Times and I like the idea of saying yes to my mess.)
I have made a point of going very slowly
... sleeping, catching up with friends, reading on the couch...
and I've spent time in my garden; such a restorative thing to do.
It's spring time, so lots of the plants are flowering.
My coral gum is in bloom right now:

(It's also hosting a bunch of sawfly larvae, which are all clustered together, tapping their tails. I haven't seen any since I was a child ~ we used to call them spitfires ~ so I'm thrilled that they've come to stay in my backyard.)

I've also made a memory wire bracelet to go with the pink necklace I showed in my last post:

...and I've received a wonderful surprise package from Cindy2paw as part of a swap I've participated in over at Ravelry:

Cindy's spoiled me rotten. As you can see, she's sent me a gorgeous leafy green washcloth, the sweetest floral project bag that she's sewn herself, pretty lavender soap, Tasmanian fudge, a purple notebook, postcards from the Apple Isle and a lovely card with a photo of her adorable dogs. Everything was beautifully wrapped in bright green paper and purple, silk ribbon...there were lots of squeals of delight as I opened it all up!

...and don't you think the project bag goes beautifully with the Spring Ripple Scarf that I’m working on right now?:

Thanks so much, Cindy.

May your week be wonderful.