Monkeys in my suitcase

I'm off to Wellington for a few days - to see friends, catch this and this and deliver these monkeys to their new home.
See you next week.

While the sun shines

These photos of the cherry trees in my garden were taken over a month from late September to today. The blossoms arrived late, burst into glorious pink wonderment and then, suddenly, the leaves came and now it's all but over. Still, the blossoms were as beautiful as ever and attracted loads of bees.
I've been thinking about taking a photo a day for a year of the trees and then running them all together as a slide show. Probably its already been done and I'm not sure that I have the discipline to do it but it would be amazing to see the trees go through the seasons in a matter of minutes.

Taking the good with the bad

Do you remember this book? It's about a boy, Alexander, who wakes up with gum in his hair. From then on his day just gets worse and worse. The moral is that everyone has a bad day now and then - even in Australia!

And even in New Zealand. Well, actually not the whole day just the bit after work - which should be the good bit.

• On the bus on my way home, I had my ipod but no headphones (bad)
• As the bus pulls in to my stop, it starts to rain (not so good)
• I get home to find the rubbish bin, even though today was rubbish collection day, didn't get emptied (bad)
• I get to the front door - no key (very, very bad)
  
• I phone The Husband to find out where the spare key is hidden. He remembers (very good)
  

I hope you've had a good day.

Rocky Raccoon

This raccoon, named by me after the Beatles song, is from Brenna Maloney's book 'Sockology'. Even though I have so many things to do - like finish a quilt - I simply had to make him. He is pretty cute. I knew this was procrastination but I justified it by deciding I could give Rocky to the Softies for Mirabel campaign.

If you're into making softies out of socks as I am/was you'll like Brenna's book. There are some cute and weird things in there and the instructions are so well described and illustrated that they all seem pretty easy. The raccoon though is my favourite.

monkey do

The Mirabel Foundation - with help from Meet me at Mikes - is running its Softies for Mirabel campaign again this year. People from all over the world knit, crochet or sew soft toys for the Mirabel children. The foundation is an Australian charity that assists children who have been orphaned or abandoned due to parental illicit drug use and are now in the care of extended family.
You can read more about the Softies for Mirabel campaign and sign on to participate here.
Donations of handmade toys need to be in Melbourne by December 5. No time to lose. I'm thinking about joining this year. Maybe make a monkey or two.

A little bit more cute

After a bit of detective work - and, after all, what is a librarian if not an information detective? - I have tracked down the maker of my little, blue rabbit. Her name is Aksinia and she has an online shop with loads of great things that you might like to take a peek at. I really love the felted acorns.