A growing pile of rainbows - part two

It occurs to me that I posted a whole blog about knitting a toasty pile of squares - to be made up into an even toastier blanket, and yet I have failed to fill the blogasphere in on the fact that I finished the project. It has actually been finished for quite some time and gets dragged from room to room depending on where some extra cosy-ness is needed.
The blanket was finished well in time for my mum's visit and I was very happy the moment I spread it out on our spare bed for her.  And she gave me a perfect gift to accompany it.
A rainbow coloured cushion cover designed by Betsy Napangardi Lewis and hand chain-link embroidered as part of the Better World Arts, cross cultural project. The design is based on an indigenous dreaming story of journeying women.

Completed blanket with Betsy Lewis cushion cover

To add to these rainbows I recently attended a craft workshop at Edinburgh Contemporary Crafts, and had a very relaxing Saturday afternoon learning to make felt beads. Although my beads did not start out rainbow coloured - once I got home I inevitably ended up going a little embroidery-rainbow crazy.

Rainbow stitched ball necklace

I am still playing with this idea, and my final piece may end up looking a little different - but it is a lot of fun and you can bet whatever the finished product is, it will be multi-coloured.

With our days getting rapidly shorter and colder I was very pleased to unwrap a parcel from my mum containing bright orange leg warmers (originally purchased in NYC way back when) gloves (originally purchased on Gertrude Street in Fitzroy) and a (surprise surprise) hot water bottle cover made by me featuring... clouds and a rainbow. I am saving it for my next lot of Aussie guests.

cloud and rainbow hot water bottle cover

I thought I would also use this blog to talk about a different sort of rainbow in my life, which is the 'somewhere over the rainbow' type of dreaming one does. Some of my dreaming is about my writerly self and I am very pleased to announce a little landmark on that journey. The book, which I have a story in Edinburgh Shorts has been available to purchase online, both as an e-book and paperback for a little while now, but this week marks my own and the Cooperative of Creative Writers début as writers with a book in a bookshop. Seeing out book on the shelves of the wee bookshop in the lovely Scottish Poetry Library made my heart sing.

Edinburgh Shorts

And that is quite a pile of rainbows for any girl to have.

This blog is posted in conjunction with Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday

A Poem I Wrote...

I have lot's of writing projects on the go at the moment, and I have to admit that the blog has not been getting a fair share of my attention. So I thought I would share a poem I wrote this week in an attempt to keep the blog goblin happy.



Traffic Jam

Near the playground
a runner and a cyclist
pause helpless.
Prams clog the footpath.
There is no budging them
from their helter-skelter logjam.

The children have discovered
the Autumn leaves.
And until each leaf is examined
and catalogued,
no one is going anywhere.
The parents are helpless -
against the wonderment
of fallen leaves.

Sandy B.

This blog is posted in conjunction with Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday