posted by Lily on chatter, family, knitting

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Again!  For the last four weeks, Abby and I have been expecting to attend a craft group. For several reasons, none of our making, it has not happened.  And we don’t find out until the last minute.  This week, there we were, freshly showered, all dressed up and nowhere to go.  Again!

So we did something we so rarely do … we went to the local shopping mall.  Shudder! There was purpose in our madness … I’d been promising Abby some skinny jeans for ages and she wanted a red silk tie.  Now, I truly don’t mean to sound pompous, but when you studiously don’t visit the mall for over a year it is quite overwhelming when you finally get back there!  It felt so big.  Bulging with “stuff”.  Parts of it were quite snake-oil-salesman like.  And there was a desperate air to it – as per the financial report on the nightly news.  An alter-universe to be sure :-)

But we had a giggle.  I tried on some skinny jeans as well … and there is photographic evidence on Abby’s phone … but she didn’t pass those ones on.  Bless her!

Isn’t it fabulous crowding into the change room with your daughter/mother/bestie.  I love it.  Especially when mum is with us too.  We laugh until we cry!  And it’s such a good thing the walls of tonight’s change room were solid – somewhere to land when I fell over whilst trying to wriggle the red skinny jeans up over my tights.  I don’t know if it was the velcro effect of the tights or my plumpness that stopped the dratted jeans from reaching my waist.  So I had a donut.

And the stitchy element of tonight’s post … why it’s my temporale dorato.

I’ve been in flurry of knitting lately … the tram-ride tam, this here shrug, a pair of mittens (post coming – wonderfully quick to knit and deliciously snug to wear), arm warmers for the girlies, and now a beanie for Jules (he wants it for Saturday – maybe!).  I knitted this in a few short days – it is so much less complicated then it looks.  I think the leaves show up more crisply in the plain colour (as per the original) but Mum had given me a skein of Cascade’s Eco after her last trip to Tangled Yarns in Brisbane, and it was just the right weight and amount for the shrug.  My leaves are those autumn leaves once they’ve hit the ground and been shredded by the lawn mower :-0

So, no craft group.  But an opportunity to wear my shrug out with my dear girl, have lots of laughs and come home with some lovely treats … skinny jeans that really should only be worn by teenagers not plump 42 year old mamas, a red silk tie, and a beautiful Lush bubble bar – I know what Abby and I will be doing tomorrow night – thank goodness the bar’s big enough for two baths!

Oh and here’s a photo of our hapless, besieged prime minister.  Yes, I just want to say Julia … I am totally with you on this photo.  I see all these other bloggy mamas modelling their stitchy goodness, hanging out with their kiddos etc. looking so lovely and real – you know the kind I mean?  Those moments that are just so beautifully blended into life – the only moments captured of me seem to involve either multiple chins, equally ridiculous expressions as yours here, or look ludicrously posed!  And it doesn’t help that there’s no damn light here in Melbourne at the moment.  Just grey, grey, dreary grey!

When I mentioned (whinged about) this to Abby tonight, she brought out your photo, Julia.  She’d saved it earlier in the year, during your last leadership stoush.  Yes, my dear daughter reminded me that even our nation’s most powerful woman can be caught looking utterly ridiculous and that very good light didn’t always improve matters!

Yet, it’s not that we permanently look peculiar, is it Julia?  It’s just our beautifully blended life moments are a bit quirkier.  Hmmhmmm … quirky, that’s what it is …