As usual, not much crafting going on here. I have been working on the knitting, but since I’m getting close to a happy dance* on that, I’m not going to show it to you today.

As for my sewing machine, the most action it’s seen lately is a quick bit of repair work on some cloth nappies (actually, not so quick, and man oh man is that Bum Genius elastic dodgy – if anyone plans to buy any, check whether they’ve changed the elastic since I bought ours – which were version 2.0, I think. If you have no idea what I’m on about, ignore!) Oh, and I also whipped out the machine to run up a quick wheat bag – thanks to a blocked milk duct (ow ow ow ow ow) the other day. Thirty-three months of breastfeeding, and this is the first one I’ve ever had (total for 3 kids, not all at once!). Here’s hoping for no repeats.

But! While I didn’t get up to much creative today, I did find myself with two sleeping children. Amazing! I baked blueberry muffins to celebrate (had been planning to do this with Niamh, but I do prefer to bake alone anyway)… then parked my bum on the beanbag for a little while to enjoy the silence and a few new books I’ve picked up lately.

And now they’re both awake, and one is drooling on my laptop (like the poor computer doesn’t have enough problems!), and school pickup is imminent! Cruise on over to Kirsty’s for some more spaces

*Happy dance = finished project. I think this one might belong to the cross-stitchers, yes? Or is it an all round crafty term? Anyway… now you know!

So the weather forecast is for cold, wet and miserable this weekend in Melbourne. Great reading weather! You think I should head out and pick up the other two books?

I just checked my Books iRead on Facebook – I’ve been plugging in books this year as I read them – looks like I’ve managed 22 books so far this year – I’d say that’s one successful resolution for 2008. (Ahem… ‘more stitching’ was clearly not such a success).

Ooh, and in other (wonderful) news today – I passed my first glucose tolerance test. Whoohoo! I had to do an early one this time – at 18 weeks – on account of having had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with Niamh. I was (and am still) fully expecting to have GD again – there is a fairly high probability, I’m only being realistic. But the 18 week test came back normal. Which means, although I have to repeat it at 28 weeks to see if things change, I won’t be a diabetic for Christmas! Restricted portions, no refined sugar, and four-times-daily finger pricks would not make for a terribly festive Festive Season. (Not that I’m taking this as free rein to be a sugar glutton mind you).

Thanks for allowing me that little sidetrack off the sanity wagon. For your patience, you get to (finally) witness some craftiness around here.

I have a bit of a problem with craft markets – occasionally I walk in and get a bad case of I-can-make-that-itis. Then I get an attack the guilts, because crafters gotta eat, too! It’s a fine line though, between supporting small makers and blowing my budget. So I do my best, but frequently I leave with a head full of ideas, and my money still in my purse.

Mathilda’s market yesterday was bit like that. I went on a whim, since I was heading that way anyway. I spent 40 minutes or so dodging baby-bumps and uber-prams (I took neither, since the kids stayed home with Dermot, and to be honest, my ‘bump’ is still more fat-like than bump-like), but left almost empty handed. I did say a brief hello to the lovely Leslie on my way our, and immediately felt kind of blog-stalkerish and awkward

The afternoon proved much more just-what-I-needed – I picked up a friend, and we made our way to the Shirt & Skirt market at the Abbotsford Convent. Which is sensational! I had a really good time. We grabbed some yummy lunch at Lentil as Anything and had a catch up, then wandered the market (markets, actually – there’s a second ‘Maker’s Market’ inside the refectory) and the convent grounds for much of the afternoon. I still managed to avoid parting with much cash, but there was much less I-can-make-that-itis, and much more How-awesome-is-that-I-wish-it-would-fit-me-itis!

I did buy the nifty stone necklace you see above (hello cleavage!). I’m convinced there’s a name for stacks of rocks like this (are they cairns? or something different?), but for now I’m calling this my Makka Pakka necklace (that’s a parents-of-young-children reference ). I like it a lot. The artist is Martina Öhlinger. She doesn’t sell online, but is definitely someone to seek out if you’re at a future S&S market.

The wee chicky and his mum are a gift for someone I quite like, if I can bear to part with them. I didn’t get the details from this stall (inside, in the Makers’ Market), but there were a bunch of other lovely Steiner/Waldorf-y playthings to be found there.

Also seen above are two things made… by me! The amigurumi boy-in-dragon-suit I finished up quite some eons ago. This is the first ami I’ve ever finished. He’s a little bit wonky, and I’m not quite happy with the stuffing showing through the stitches look, but he’s still cute! I bought the pattern from Owlishly (Etsy shop here, Blog here), and it’s very well written and easy to follow. Highly recommended.

Little Ms Red Riding Hood is an entirely-by-me creation. A few weeks back it was badge night at Brown Owls. The badges I made that night are currently all AWOL (blame Niamh, she took a liking to them!) – but I found this ‘in progress’ shot on one of Steph’s many blogs. Aaaanyway (geesh, this is getting rambly and long), we had a bit of a felt-badgy-tutorial from Ms Anna Laura, she of cute lady-badges, and I was inspired a couple of days later to whip up Ms Red here. I won’t point out her flaws, because I’m starting to realise I do that a lot. She’s pretty ace, if I do say so myself!

And now. I’m off to bed to make a start on Twilight. I wasn’t going to, since I’ve already done the whole Anne Rice vampirey thing in my youth and all, but I finally gave in and decided to borrow it from the library. Then I went and bought it instead, because I didn’t feel like waiting until next century (seriously – #64 on the holds list? Stuff that!) So it better be all everyone says it is.