I only have these 2 photos at the moment, but will post more when my daughter emails them to me after her honeymoon. The second photo is the first time I have had a picture with *almost* all the kids in it in about 12 years, although there was one daughter missing who didn't attend last night. It was at the end of a long photo session so we were all being silly :P
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Nothing like a wedding to bring out the best - and worst - in people. So tonight I went to what was supposed to be my eldest daughter's engagement party, but turned out to be her wedding. As usual, my parents stole all the credit and the limelight from me - I didn't even get a mention anywhere for the whole night, they just gave everyone the impression that they are her parents and the sole reason she turned out ok. So I'm a tad drunk while writing this (so yeah, excuse any spelling errors etc, because I'm not exactly in a fit state to spot them).
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Sometimes I hate having a brain that never shuts up.....
It is currently 3:45am and as usual I can't sleep because my goddamn wiring doesn't allow my brain to switch off, and night time is when it does most of the processing of things that have happened recently...so I'm going to write this to get it out of my system and allow me to hopefully get some sleep.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Heartbreak, a shift, and finding Love and Compassion
It is no coincidence that in the last week or so I have found myself in a beautiful space of complete trust, joy, love, compassion, gratitude and faith - at the same time this has happened and I have literally had tears of joy and gone to sleep with prayers of thanks and woken the same way, I have had many dear friends who have suffered the most horrendous heartbreak :(
Friday, June 3, 2011
I don't even know what to call this post....
I am heartbroken as I write this - my good friend Charly from IxCHeL Yarn & Fibre has had a devastating loss of many of her beautiful angora rabbits this week, all due to a suspected mutated strain of the calici virus (a manmade virus created to control the wild rabbit population, for which there is a vaccine available - and Charly's bunnies were all vaccinated - but even the literature that comes with the vaccine says that it may not work!)
Charly and her husband Paul have spent the last 7 years carefully breeding and selecting their bunnies, and in the space of a couple of days all their hard work is just gone. I am close to tears even now, a couple of days later, as I think about how this has devastated Charly - this is not only her livelihood, but the bunnies are her babies, they are family to her.
The Australian Government really needs to rethink their policy here - they allow scientists to create dangerous man-made viruses by manipulating biological material (myxomatosis and calici virus) in order to kill wild rabbits without warning, because if a wild rabbit is sick it is not allowed back into the warren to infect the other rabbits. So these viruses act quickly and with very few signs of infection - and it is currently government policy that domestic rabbit owners are not permitted to vaccinate their pets against myxomatosis (presumably for fear that a domestic rabbit will escape and infect the whole wild rabbit population with immunity to it - can we say, "whuuuuuut?") These viruses mutate very quickly, and the virus that killed Charly's rabbits is suspected to be a mutated strain of the calici virus (which the already rather ineffective vaccine does not protect the bunnies against).
In honour of the beautiful bunnies that Charly has lost, I have created a very special pattern for some colourwork mittens using IxCHeL BFL/angora blend yarn. You can find it on Ravelry here:
Bunny Love
All proceeds from sales of this pattern will go directly to Charly and Paul to help them begin the long process of rebuilding all their hard work. In addition to this, for the month of June, 50% of the proceeds from all my other patterns will also go to Charly and Paul. Please, if you like my patterns, consider purchasing during June to help my wonderful fibre friend.
In addition I would like to ask you to take a moment to email the Hon. Joe Ludwig, current Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and ask him to stop allowing the manipulation of biological material to create these deadly viruses, and to allow vaccination against myxomatosis for domestic rabbits. So many pet rabbits are lost for no other reason than that the government considers biological warfare to be effective but doesn't think about the consequences (cane toads, anyone?) and then will not allow the owners to protect their pets. There are links to a couple of petitions on Charly's blog that I linked to above, please go read her blog with the full story of what happened and then click on the petitions to sign them! Thank you.
Charly and her husband Paul have spent the last 7 years carefully breeding and selecting their bunnies, and in the space of a couple of days all their hard work is just gone. I am close to tears even now, a couple of days later, as I think about how this has devastated Charly - this is not only her livelihood, but the bunnies are her babies, they are family to her.
The Australian Government really needs to rethink their policy here - they allow scientists to create dangerous man-made viruses by manipulating biological material (myxomatosis and calici virus) in order to kill wild rabbits without warning, because if a wild rabbit is sick it is not allowed back into the warren to infect the other rabbits. So these viruses act quickly and with very few signs of infection - and it is currently government policy that domestic rabbit owners are not permitted to vaccinate their pets against myxomatosis (presumably for fear that a domestic rabbit will escape and infect the whole wild rabbit population with immunity to it - can we say, "whuuuuuut?") These viruses mutate very quickly, and the virus that killed Charly's rabbits is suspected to be a mutated strain of the calici virus (which the already rather ineffective vaccine does not protect the bunnies against).
In honour of the beautiful bunnies that Charly has lost, I have created a very special pattern for some colourwork mittens using IxCHeL BFL/angora blend yarn. You can find it on Ravelry here:
Bunny Love
All proceeds from sales of this pattern will go directly to Charly and Paul to help them begin the long process of rebuilding all their hard work. In addition to this, for the month of June, 50% of the proceeds from all my other patterns will also go to Charly and Paul. Please, if you like my patterns, consider purchasing during June to help my wonderful fibre friend.
In addition I would like to ask you to take a moment to email the Hon. Joe Ludwig, current Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and ask him to stop allowing the manipulation of biological material to create these deadly viruses, and to allow vaccination against myxomatosis for domestic rabbits. So many pet rabbits are lost for no other reason than that the government considers biological warfare to be effective but doesn't think about the consequences (cane toads, anyone?) and then will not allow the owners to protect their pets. There are links to a couple of petitions on Charly's blog that I linked to above, please go read her blog with the full story of what happened and then click on the petitions to sign them! Thank you.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Knitting news!
I am all aflutter - I have just uploaded my first ever pattern for sale on Ravelry! You can find it here:
Ukrainian Inspired Mittens
This pattern marks a couple of firsts for me - my first ever pattern for sale, my first colourwork design, and my first charted design :) I hope you all like it! It is the first in a series of 8 mittens I have designed all inspired by my Ukrainian heritage, all of which will be available for sale on Ravelry within the next week or so.
*bounce* I'm EXCITED! :D
ETA: Rather than making a whole 'nother blog post for this one, I am adding it here - I have also just uploaded the second pattern in the series, you can view it here:
Ukrainian Blue Mittens
I will be working on uploading the remaining 6 patterns over the next couple of days, then I have some new design projects in mind already ;) One in particular using some spectacularly soft BFL/angora yarn that I purchased recently from Charly at IxCHeL - stay tuned for updates!
PS - It's 1am and I have just uploaded the third pattern (YAY for insomnia LOL!):
Ukrainian Diamond Mittens
Ukrainian Inspired Mittens
This pattern marks a couple of firsts for me - my first ever pattern for sale, my first colourwork design, and my first charted design :) I hope you all like it! It is the first in a series of 8 mittens I have designed all inspired by my Ukrainian heritage, all of which will be available for sale on Ravelry within the next week or so.
*bounce* I'm EXCITED! :D
ETA: Rather than making a whole 'nother blog post for this one, I am adding it here - I have also just uploaded the second pattern in the series, you can view it here:
Ukrainian Blue Mittens
I will be working on uploading the remaining 6 patterns over the next couple of days, then I have some new design projects in mind already ;) One in particular using some spectacularly soft BFL/angora yarn that I purchased recently from Charly at IxCHeL - stay tuned for updates!
PS - It's 1am and I have just uploaded the third pattern (YAY for insomnia LOL!):
Ukrainian Diamond Mittens
Sunday, May 29, 2011
More musings on Love
I have had plenty of time for introspection in the last couple of weeks, and have done a lot of thinking and processing. And it has all come down to one single, very important realisation.
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