No I haven't lost the blogging mojo...

have just been extremely busy at work so that I can go on leave! Today is my first day of my 3 week holiday (yay!).

Unfortunately, my son has now caught the same virus as my daughter...he didn't catch it off her...he caught it from his school :(. So we're going through round 2 of the "pox virus"-but-its-not-chicken-pox illness.

He doesn't seem to have it so bad though, so that's a bonus.

So my plans for the next 3 weeks?

1. Have fun with my one on one time with my son!!

2. Finish home decorating! I still have my children's room and the spare room to go. I also have some large pieces of furniture that I need to upcycle :).

3. Get my car fixed. (long story that I will blog about later - I made a huge frugalling error!)

4. Apply for other jobs.... I need to really sort out my work/life fusion (thanks Paul for the term because the term work/life balance certainly doesn't fit for me!)

5. Make sure I get some days to just read and nap!

So hopefully you guys will see frequent blog posts from me over the next 3 weeks! (In the meantime, please send "get a great job" vibes to me please! I think I'm due for some good luck!!

Great movie review site for parents

I've been meaning to blog about this but kept forgetting.

With my daughter having to spend so much time at home lately we've ended up resorting to hiring a couple of movies for us to watch.

Some time ago, I found the Young Media Australia's Movie Reviews website. They review old and new films and I love how they review them in regards to a movie's impact on children. They talk about:

- the synopsis and rating of the movie,
- particular scenes that may scare/disturb/confuse children below a certain age (eg. children at 5yrs, children at 8 yrs etc), AND
- they also talk about product placement(s).

I also love how they provide some helpful hints about things we can talk about after the movie. Its nice for someone to point out some things that may be obvious to me (eg sarcasm in a particular scene) may not be so obvious at my children's developmental stage.

Anyway, my daughter is much better now and I hope she'll be able to attend the last few days of school before end of term.

In the meantime, have you seen any good movies lately?

Reconstructed winter dress in 1 hour.

So my daughter's been feeling very down this week. The rash is getting better, but well....it looks awful. That and the combination of not being able to play with other children is getting her down.

In an effort to cheer her up last night, I suggested that we dress up for a dinner at home. This means wearing our "bestest dresses", wearing jewelry and doing up our hair. My daughter *loves* dressing up. She also *loves* bling. So we went to her wardrobe and she happily contemplated a couple of dresses, then going through her jewelry box and decided which one to wear.

Then we went to my wardrobe and.... um.... in my daughter's words "you don't really have anything that's not for work, huh Mum".

Okay - so she has a point. I have a formal (wedding) dress but no party dresses as such. Plus all my dresses (yes the ones I wear to work) are all summer dresses.

So I realised that to carry the evening through, I needed a party dress. So hunting through my wardrobe, I found this:



Its an op shopped men's jumper I bought recently for ....$1. Its 100% lambswool and um...black. Its warm, its comfortable and IT'S DAGGY. Its my uber daggy jumper for my uber daggy days.

But daggy has no place, when a diva awaits :P.

So I cut off the cuffs on the sleeves then cut the sleeves again and re-sewed the sleeves.

I cut off the bottom and reshaped the torso and arms using the same coat I used for my reconstructed leather jacket as a guide for a shaped look.

Then I resewed the bottom upside down to get the "frill" look at the bottom and....





Incidentally, necklace is from my daughter's jewelry box (because she said that mine's "boring") and the boots are Country Road - op shopped at St Vinnies for $20.

My daughter also looked fantastic in her red dress but she didn't want me to take photos of her with the rash still on her face. So I'm putting up an older photo of her in it:



Imagine above dress but with much more bling.

Dinner was by candlelight using the best of our dinnerware and I got sushi from her favourite restaurant. I had a wonderful time and it was fantastic to see my beautiful daughter giggle and laugh throughout "our date".

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

When its raining little curve balls...

The last couple of weeks have been hard for me. Things happening at work, including some last minute travel, me feeling like I'm missing too much of my kids lives as a result etc etc. By themselves not too bad but taken together it gets a bit...well tiring.

My daughter's sick at the moment - she has a viral rash all over her body. Doctor has confirmed that it's NOT chicken pox - but contagious anyway. So my son will be staying with my parents and I've gotten time off work. While I am feeling that this is a respite that I need, I do feel frustrated. I had planned to finish some stuff at work so that I can take time off in July without having to worry about unfinished stuff...

And a part of me also knows that I'm expending energy needlessly by feeling this frustration.

When the children were babies, I slowly learned that it was a LOT easier when I just went with the flow. It was emotionally and physically easier to *not* expect my children to sleep through the night but just take each night as it is and not have expectations of other nights. It was easier to feed my babies when they're hungry as opposed to having set meal times in my head.

Then my babies started to grow up and slowly those expectations started to creep back in. Then I returned to the workforce and I re-discovered the amount of control I can have over my day. The trouble with control is that the more you have it, the more expectations you have because of it.

Hence my current feeling of frustration. So I think I just need to re-learn that letting go for the next few days. The doctor has said that my daughter will be fine in 5 to 7 days. Something I need to reinforce within my self is to have faith that I can cope. That my daughter *will* be okay next week. And the week after that when I return to work, then I also *will* be able to cope with the inevitable back log.

I come from a mindset that I can have it all - that I can do it all. And that's another thing I will have to let go of (again). I need to remember that there will always be people who will help me.

When life is raining little curve balls, its time to let go and smile.

Smiling in the Rain by Just a Big Geek

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Another 5 min craft - transforming a tin

Just a simple craft today. My daughter needs a money tin (to save for her stick insect). I had this tin in the cupboard that would do, but in my daughter's words, "its boring".

"Mummy's boring old tin"

Then I remembered Heidi and Seek's comment in my "Owning only as much as I can look after" post about decoupage and mod podge...

So with fabric scrap and modge podge, the tin has now been upcycled:



And has been renamed "beautiful money tin".

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend! (Its raining again here! yay!)

Boggle craft!!

Some people already know this but... I am a boggle-addict. Sad, but true. I love playing the game. If I could, I'd spend hours and hours playing it.

Unfortunately none of my friends want to play it with me (I'm always met with groans of "NO!!!" the minute I take out my boggle board - hehe). So I've resorted to having to go online to play it.

Anyway, the cool thing about going online is that you meet people who are better than you at the game. My Prolific friend, Alastair, is one of them. And not only is he the best Boggle player I've ever come across, he is also crafty! Recently, he gifted this Boggle craft to another Boggle player. Alastair agreed that I can blog about it (because I think its so cool) here.

Knitted boggle cubes!
How many words can you make out of it? (me = 52 words in 3 mins)

Complete with instructions!

Are you addicted to a board game?

If you want to see the making of this amazing boggle craft, check out Alastair's flickr photo stream. There's even a video in there of someone playing with the set. :D

Teaching my children about money

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. I spent much of this weekend talking to my daughter (aged 6 - or as she says "6 and 3 quarters")about pocket money.

I have promised her that the day she gets really good at recognising money and adding and subtracting by 1s, 5s and 10s will be the day I give her pocket money. Well it looks like that day is fast approaching for her! She still has to work on her subtractions in combinations of 10s, 5s and 1s (eg: 100 minus 10, minus 1, minus 5 equals...) but otherwise she seems to have a good grasp of basic arithmetic. So I'll be giving her pocket money starting next Monday.

She's very excited. Her excitement has worked in my favour because her favourite topic of conversation is about money.

See, I've decided not to tie pocket money to chores. Simple reason is that I just don't see the two of them as related. She (and her brother) have always done chores anyway...in fact, it was only recently that my daughter realised that what they do are called "chores"!!

It also helps me because I can teach her about money without having to think about chores either. For me, she has "earned" her money by becoming proficient at the very basics of it - the adding and subtracting by 1s, 5s and 10s. Next step for us is for her to now become proficient at managing that money. For me, that means learning about financial goal setting, saving and using alternatives.



Financial Goal-Setting

So as a first step, I asked her: "If you had money, what would you buy?" She told me she would buy a stick insect. So I wrote on a piece of paper stick insect, small aquarium and rocks = $65.

Then I asked her "If you had money to buy something little once a week, what would you buy?" And she told me that she would buy food from the canteen once a week (she's currently not allowed to do this). So I got the food list from the canteen and wrote all the foods she would buy and it all added up to $5.

Talking about Saving

I then told her that I will give her $6 a week for pocket money. This meant that she has $5 for the foods she would buy AND have $1 saved over which she can use to save for her stick insect - which would cost $65 after she's bought the aquarium, the rocks etc. This meant she would get her stick insect next year!

Looking at alternatives

As you can imagine, my daughter didn't like the idea of waiting that long for her stick insect. So the clever girl then said "I can look on Freecycle for the aquarium and the rocks....that's free."

She also said that she can get rocks from the garden and wash them, if she can't get those on freecycle.

And even more alternatives

After all this, I told her this brings the cost of her stick insect to $20. Which meant that she can have her stick insect by Christmas instead of next year. She still felt this was too long to wait, so I then sat down with her and said you can save for your stick insect by looking at what foods you can do without in the canteen. I told her she can save money if she brought her lunch from school instead.

She still didn't like this and said she wanted to buy something at the canteen with her friends. I told her that now its a matter of priority and that whatever she decides, that's okay. I told her that she can either wait till Christmas or have fun with her school friends.

After much thinking my clever girl came back and said, "I can still buy from the canteen and be with my friends but just not buy as much so I still can save money."

So I sat back down with her and went through the food list and in the end, she decided that she will just buy the chicken nuggets and not everything else. Instead, she will bring food from home to go with her chicken nuggets.

This meant that she now will only spend $3 a week of her $6 pocket money. Which meant she will get her stick insect in 7 weeks instead of Christmas. This is still a "long time" for her but we've agreed that there may be times when she will decide that she can bring all her lunch one week and so all her pocket money for that one week will go towards her stick insect.



Let's hope she can stick to what is effectively her first budget!! I know that there may be times when she'll slip up but I think saving up to get to $20 is a small enough amount as a first goal.

For now she's just so proud to be a "grown up" about money and I have to admit I've also very proud of her thought processes so far with it.

If you have any stories about pocket money, I'd love to hear them!

Embroidered notebooks

Have you ever given a present "just because"?? I love "just because" presents - they can really turn an ordinary day to a special one.

I gave these to my kids a few days ago. They're similar to the fabric covered notebook I made a few days ago, but this time I thought I'd try my hand with some embroidery as well as applique.

Here's the one for my daughter:



And here's the one for my son:



It took me a couple of days to do it. As usual, I just used scrap fabrics to make the applique as well as the denim cover/backing. The pages inside were from a large sketch book I found at the op shop. I just sewed down the middle of the pages to connect it to the fabric book cover.

My children loved their "just because pressies". It even encouraged my "I-don't- need-a-pen - I-can-just-type-it" son to spend an hour drawing and trying to write his name in his new notebook.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a lovely weekend! I have some new neighbours across the road and I'm planning on popping over there tomorrow with some of my lemons. Otherwise, I'm just planning to relax.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Being neighbourly..

When I was a teen, I used to *love* the TV show, Neighbours... Anyone remember that show from the late 80s?

I was in love in Guy Pearce (boy kneeling on one knee on the right) and wanted to have blonde curly hair like Kylie Minogue (short girl in the centre)...'course, with my Asian genes, I now realise how sad a look that would be on me).

But aside from my usual teen crushes and wannabe phases, one thing that really attracted me to that show was the idea of a close-knit community. A community where people just popped in and out of each other's houses - most of the time without knocking - to gossip, to borrow stuff or to return stuff.

I have lived in a lot of neighbourhoods since and I have to say a close-knit neighbourhood is a rarity. These days, it seems people are just too busy to get to know their neighbours... actually its more than being busy - its simply not done.

So it was a pleasant surprise the first time I moved into this neighbourhood over 10 years ago to receive a little card in the mail, the first day we moved in. It read:

"Hello and Welcome to ----- street! The nearest shops is at ----- street - just go up the hill, take the first left, then left at the T junction and the first right. They're open 7 days a week from 7am to 7pm. Garbo days are Mondays and the next garbo day is also recycling bin day. If you have any questions at all about the neighbourhood feel free to ask any of us!"

And the card was then signed by the people living in the ten houses nearest to us (they wrote their street number and street next to their name).

It was a wonderful gesture and something that came as a huge surprise to me. Perhaps its because all the people living in those houses were a lot older (in their 60s and 70s)- all of them had been in the area for over 40 years.

My local shops back in the 1970s. Consisting mainly of goods and wares stores. Check out how many bikes there used to be!!

Many of those neighbours (aside from two houses) have moved on now - some have died, some have gone to live with family and some have gone to live in retirement homes. New people - closer to my age or younger - have moved in.

Now that I'm back in this neighbourhood the second time round, I notice that its a much more busier place than it used to be. Where before there were always people in their houses or lounging in their gardens during the day, now almost everyone is at work or just have more activities during the day. Cars are always streaming in and out of houses - the "welcoming cards" have now stopped.

My local shops now. Mostly restaurants now (but still the original grocery store!) and no more bikes.

BUT some things are still the same. People still make the effort to chat to each other when our paths do cross. We still put each others bins in and out if we notice someone has forgotten to do it. I share my lemons around or help them carry their groceries in. They pop in to give me a magazine or help me lift furniture. We borrow from each other - tools, gardening or electrical items.

I realise now that we are all like this because we were all fortunate enough to have moved into a neighbourhood when there was enough left of an established community from the older generation to teach us what neighbours do.

I have to say, being a true neighbour still doesn't come as second nature to me. For me, I still have to force myself to remember that my neighbours are more than just people who happen to live next to me. I still um and ah when I need to borrow something from one of them. I wonder if I'm imposing. I ummed and ahhed about sharing my lemons - what if I'll be "interrupting" them?

But I'm determined to preserve the neighbourly atmosphere of this street, so I knock on their doors anyway and I'm always received with warmth and a smile. Perhaps one day, being neighbourly will be as easy for me as it was for my original neighbours. In the meantime, I watch my children confidently learn how to be neighbourly and I see how easy it is for them... and that alone is reason enough for me to keep on *being neighbourly*.

I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend!

Owning only as much as I can look after

In a couple of days, I would have been in my house now for 2 months! Time has flown!

One thing I have always found hard to keep up with has been housework but this time round...well, its been pretty easy! (oh man, now that I've said that, I just know I'll slip up later and will look back on this post with embarrassment)

Just a bit of a background for new readers of this blog - almost 9 months ago now, I had a huge life change - the end result being that I've had to pretty much start again from scratch in terms of household items (furniture, appliance, kitchenware - pretty much everything).

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that almost everything I now own I regard as "treasures" - they are things that I've created, restored or upcycled. They are things I've 'found' in op shops, second-hand shops and second-hand markets, and couldn't believe my luck that no one else had grabbed them before me. They are things that truly reflect *me* - my taste AND my values. I have not had to compromise my carbon footprint nor buy from companies who exploit workers in order to furnish my house.

Or perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I don't actually own that much. I no longer have the 'luxury' of letting dishes pile up...simply because I don't have that much kitchenware. I no longer have to go through mounds of stuff to find a pair of shoes because... I don't have that much stuff...nor that many pairs of shoes.

The cool thing about buying old stuff is that they don't seem to breed the need to buy more stuff. Have you ever noticed that? I didn't until now. Here's an example... If I was buying brand new and I bought say a brand new non-stick frypan (because they all seem to be these days), then I need to buy utensils. BUT I can't just buy any type of utensils, I would "need" to buy utensils that would not damage my non-stick frypan...and so now my choice of utensils have become limited to pretty much buying brand new for those as well because the chances of getting a full range of those types of cooking utensils second hand is pretty rare. THEN when I go to the shops, I notice that many utensils seem to come in "packs" - if I needed one cooking spoon, I see that its almost the same price to get two cooking spoons (albeit one is "plain" and the other is "fancy") in a pack rather than just the one cooking spoon. Next thing you know, you end up with more cooking utensils than you need. See what I mean about brand new stuff "breeding"? I also think it is limiting my choices because I just can't buy a cooking spoon - it has to be a special type of cooking spoon.

Now going with that example but this time using the second-hand option. I noticed that almost all good second hand kitchen pots and pans are either enamel, (the heavy kind - not the thin kind you see brand new), ceramic or cast iron. They cost pretty much the same as the brand-new non-stick pans BUT they are better quality. These pots and pans have lasted a long long time and they are still useable (plus the food seems to taste better in them too). Now I turn to buy utensils...and I realised that I can buy whatever utensils I want. These pots and pans can withstand pretty much all of them. So I just buy the utensils I use (second-hand) rather than packs of utensils brand new. And this way I save money on the utensils AND I don't end up with utensils I don't use. And I'm only using 1 drawer for all my utensils rather than two. :)

Heavy ceramic frypan and saucepan bought at YMCA Garage Sale - $5 for both

So for me, buying second-hand also meant buying less stuff...and that means that now I only have as much as I can take care of.

Anyway, those are just my random thoughts. I have to admit, I am lucky to live in a place with a wide range of second-hand goods...though many don't seem to think so! Maybe its 'cause I've finally learned how to truly look?

Have you bought anything second-hand that you also treasure?

5 min craft projects and balloon flights!

Sorry to put two very different subjects up in the one post (I seem to have a habit of doing that).

5-min craft project

First up, I promised to show off a quick 5 min craft project:

Not sure what it is??

The cool thing about these polar fleece scarves is that they don't fall off easily. And its a great way to use up left over bits of fleece.

For newbie crafters, the great thing about fleece is that you don't need to hem it as it doesn't fray. Just cut and sew (if you are going to put an applique like I did). The flower applique, again, cut the flower shape and sew a button on it.

Oh and my son decided to try his hand at it too (though I ended up cutting out his applique for him).


Though now that I look at it, the applique still doesn't look like a car...ah well, he wanted "a car with no roof" so that's the best I can do!

Balloon flights

I went to Questacon with my son today. Just as well because I realised that our membership there expired today. Anyway, for those ONC'ers (or those visiting the ONC this weekend), Questacon is offering tethered balloon flights this Saturday (6 June) with admission! That means for members - it will cost $0 to go on a balloon! Time for the balloon flights are from 7:30am to 9:30am, but staff members told me that you'd need to turn up early to get a flight.

Only downside is that children must be 5 years and over....which means I won't be able to go as my 4 year old would be left behind. Ah well...there's always a next time I'm sure! For those who go, please let me know what its like!

*ONC = Our Nation's Capital

It rained all day!

And its still raining now! This is such a rare occurence here at the ONC (6th year of the "drought"*) that something like this should be celebrated.

Now here at the ONC, the drought has been going on for 6 years but Australia-wide its been a lot longer for many many other people. I think there comes a point when I think we need to accept that this is no longer a drought but a permanent change in our climate. And that its no longer a concept, it is happening to me - right now.

While I am loving this rain, its seems to me that we have waited too long to help the Murray Darling.

Ah but enough of these thoughts! Like I said this rain should be celebrated! I'm currently celebrating tonight snuggled on the couch, warm under a throw rug, glass of wine on one hand, Oxfam chocolate on the other and rain as my music (laptop about to go off soon).

I had planned to post about a 5 min sewing project I did today but camera needs batteries so I'll do that tomorrow.

Hope you are all having a wonderful night!

Gift for 6 yr old girl and a refashioned jacket for me

With me being so busy with work these days, I have to admit I am not having as much time as I like to sew. But yesterday, I managed to get a couple of things done!

First up is a handmade sketch book for a 6 year old girl who loves ponies and drawing:



Fabric outer is made out of scrap fabrics. I used denim and iron-on interfacing (on the inside fabric and the applique) to make it stiffer.

I have to brag here and say that I drew and cut out the horse! I'm just so proud that I managed to free-hand draw something that is actually recognisable! hehe



The pages are from a large sketchbook that I bought at an op shop. I just ripped out 5 pages from the sketchbook, trimmed the ends and folded them. I then just sewed right down the middle of the pages attaching them to each other and the book.

Pink and white thread was op-shopped too. :)

I added to the little girl's present by buying Faber and Castel's Eco Pencils and a sparkly pen from Oxfam.

And finally I refashioned a jacket for me! I bought this leather jacket at Salvos for $3. The leather is gorgeous - very soft. But there is a reason why it was only $3. It was because it hung like this (apologies for flash photography but its winter now and hard to get a pic out of hours that's in natural light):



Perfect fit on the shoulders, but boxy (of the type that makes-me-look-like-I'm-pregnant) from shoulders down.

I have been umming and aahing on how I could make it look more tailored but I don't own a sewing dummy so I had no idea how I could tack it on. In the end, I just laid another jacket over the top of it:



Drew an outline and pinned it. Sewed down the line. Cut it. Cut the bottom off it and hemmed it.....



...and voila!



Incidentally, one of my op shop threads was the EXACT match for the colour of the jacket... which just confirmed for me that this refashion was meant to be and gave me the confidence to cut leather.

I think its much nicer. And now I have a leather bomber jacket. All for $3!! (and about 1 solid hour of my time).

Swine flu: hype and hidden agendas?

So the news here in Oz has been concentrating a lot on Swine Flu. After being somewhat isolated from this latest global crisis, there are now about 200 people with swine flu here - 3 of them are ONC'ers.

Now while I think its very sad that some people have died from this virus, I have to say I'm quite at a loss as to why there's so much fuss about it.

"Regular" flu kills hundreds of thousands of people every year (the World Health Organisation (WHO) puts the figure between 250,00 to 500,00). The WHO's report re: Swine Flu as at yesterday is as follows:

Image from http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/history_map/InfluenzaAH1N1_maps.html

For those who can't quite see the figures, the total number of laboratory confirmed deaths globally as a result of swine flu is 95 (as at 27 May 09). While it may be more (ie not yet confirmed via laboratory tests) the reality is that swine flu deaths are still nowhere near the rate of normal flu deaths.


So what's all the fuss about?

The difference it seems is age. 90% of people who die as a result of regular flu are elderly (source: "Influenza Virology: current topics" by By Yoshihiro Kawaoka, 2006). Swine flu, however, affects the young - in Mexico, 26 of the 58 deaths were aged between 20 to 39.

To me the intense media focus on this issue is a clear comment on our global values. That we value youth over the elderly. That we care to hear more about the "strange" (ie that young healthy people can die of the flu) rather than focusing on what we can do to lessen the pain of our norms.

However, in my journey to become more consumer and media literate, I have learned that hype is almost always driven by more than just mass curiousity and anxiety - I've learned that it is often helped along by those who benefit from it.

So who is benefitting from the Swine Flu hype?

Crikey and International Business Times have all reported that the share prices of pharmaceutical companies involved in vaccines and anti-viral medicines (in particular Healthcare, Roche and CSL), as well as health insurance companies have all been increasing since April 2009. (The US Government recently placed a A$232 million (some US$180 million) order with CSL for swine flu vaccine.) *

While there will always be winners in any situation (I don't advocate conspiracy hype), we do need to be mindful that certain media organisations are owned by companies who also own biotech companies. Eg. General Electric owns the NBC network (and many pay tv channels) and GE Healthcare.

So what am I doing after learning all of this?

I guess for now I'm just trying to keep things in perspective and not get carried away by the hype. I'm still going out and about and I am enjoying this wonderful time of the year (autumn has always been my favourite season!)

And to be honest I'm not really doing anything different from what I always do at this time of the year. I have stocked up on echinacea and my hankies are at the ready.

Oh and on that note - I might as well share my thoughts on the hanky Vs tissue argument.

Viruses don't last that long outside the human body. Hankies do not carry viruses!

Bacteria thrive in damp environments - so there's just as much bacteria chance of bacteria living in used tissues as there is in used hankies. Some people put used tissues in the bin where it then goes to the tip and add to the risk of making tip workers ill. I put used hankies in the dirty clothes bin and they get washed and line-dried with my normal laundry. Washing machine washes away most of the bacteria and sunlight kills the rest of it. No tip workers becoming ill and a lot less environmental footprint for me. Yes we go through a lot of hankies when we're sick but honestly, even 50 hankies don't make that much of a difference in the laundry - it always fits in the one load with all the other clothes. Plus, we have the added bonus of never getting "nose rash" with hankies!

My son ironing hankies.

Anyway, once again I've rambled on enough. I wish you all a wonderful weekend!

*Note at the same time, the US also blocked CSL's merger with another biotech company saying that the merger would mean lessen competition and therefore drive prices even further up. Oh well, at least the vaccine order has softened this blow to CSL.

Stitching up the NGA!!

My friend C sent me this via email and I thought it was such a great project that I'd blog about it here.

The National Gallery of Australia wants to transform its front entrance and foyer by covering it with knitting pieces!! Here's the excerpt:

From Tuesday 7 to Sunday 12 July, Knitta Please founder Magda Sayeg and Sydney artist Denise Litchfield, with a team of volunteers, will transform the front entrance and foyer of the National Gallery of Australia. Knitta Please is a tag crew of knitters who turned their frustration with their half-finished knitting projects into a phenomenon sweeping across the world.

Knitters are invited to help create pieces that measure 10–20 cm wide and 140 cm long, which will be stitched together to create coverings for 6 large concrete poles at the front of the National Gallery of Australia. Any colour, yarn and technique is accepted—the brighter and wackier, the better!

So you send in your knitting piece before 7 July to:

Knitta Project
Public Programs
National Gallery of Australia
GPO Box 1150
Canberra ACT 2601
AUSTRALIA

OR drop it off at the front security desk of the NGA.

Make sure you include with your knitting piece a small note stating your name, location and age (optional) because each knitted strip will have a small label stating the maker’s details.

Knitta Please covered an entire bus in wool at Plaza Luis in Cabrera in Mexico City in 2008.
Photo by Magda Sayeg, founder of Knitta Please

This is such a cool project that I think I might have to just take out those knitting needles again and make a strip! I'll see too if my daughter may be interested in putting in a strip with her finger knitting.

The project website is: http://nga.gov.au/WhatsOn/highlights/default.cfm

To see other Knitta Festival events, visit: http://nga.gov.au/EXHIBITION/SOFTSCULPTURE/Default.cfm?MnuID=9#knitta

Can't wait!