My condition

Now I haven't told anyone yet, so I thought I'll just let you guys know that I have a Condition. It's not contagious and hopefully it won't kill me, so don't worry. It's called synaesthesia, and to be more exact, grapheme synaesthesia. I love it, and I love that I now have a name for it too.

I have always, for as long as I can remember, associated numbers with colours. Two is yellow, three normally green, four blue, five always red, eight feels like brown, one is sometimes white. It's hard to describe how it works, but my brain pretty much interchanges the colour and number; for example when I was writing the previous sentence, I could just as easily have written 'yellow is two' or 'red is five'. It also works with some letters, like 's'. Red=five=s.

Now you're thinking I'm crazy, but it seems to be quite common. It's when your senses are intertwined, and some people see sound, feel words, smell colour, etc. It hasn't affected my life greatly, but I suppose what amazes me about it is that my brain has found a way to use my love of colour in an unexpected way. And now Craig has discovered a new word to tease me with :)

Wanda in Wellington

I haven't mentioned that I have a new stockist in Wellington yet, the fabulous Wanda Harland stores. I sent my little parcel off earlier this week, so you should be able to buy a little bit of Ruby in the Dust in Petone and Mount Victoria soon. I am so pleased to have my products there with some very talented NZ designers and makers.

(Not having been there myself, I had to steal this photo off their page; thanks Martha!)

Bedtime stories part 2

I am so excited to introduce a limited edition range of rebound journals today; the Uncle Arthur Bedtime Stories books. I've collected 9 of them over the past year, and thought it was about time to do something with them. In a nutshell, they are Christian story books written by Uncle Arthur over something like 35 years, and come with the most hilarious photos and particularly captions. I've written a previous post about them, have a look here. For the journals, I've only used the best photo pages, there are about 12 of them through each book of otherwise blank pages.




The message is pretty heavy-handed, and comes from all sorts of angles. I don't really know how this one could be possible, but this dog has managed to make his mauling of a doll somebody else's fault:

(Rex felt very relieved to know it wasn't really his fault that he tore Tammy's rag doll to bits.)

Serendipity is a common theme:

('A little beggar boy found your watch', said the station master.)

(Just then a car came by, an unusual thing at that time of day.)

As is temptation:

(The thought of cuddling a nice furry cat was too good.)

And many lessons; so many lessons:

(When Barbara lost her warm white scarf she learned a lesson she will remember as long as she lives.)

(Water-skiing is great fun; but Joy had to miss the boat ride and all the thrills. However, she did learn her lesson.)

Wonderful. They'll be available at Kraftbomb this coming Sunday; my first official appearance for the year. I've also listed a couple on Felt, including one with my favourite caption 'Dickie's pocket was bulging with lollipops'.

Fragile

While the boys and I were harvesting some cape gooseberries today, I came across this one. It must have been lying under the bush for weeks, the fruit ripening while the casing was decaying. What a beautiful symbol for autumn, don't you think?

Woolly

I've spent a fair bit of time recently restocking my supplies cupboard, and that means trawling the local op shops. Today I had such good luck, finding a big stash of Little Golden Books and a drawer full of what looks like handmade wooden circular knitting needles. I couldn't help myself, and got 3 pairs. One can never have too many of those, especially if every project you'd like to knit is done in the round... I've been knitting with bamboo needles, which I love, so I'm looking forward to trying out wooden ones. Here's my latest circular knit, by the way; the Scrumptious Neck Warmer pattern which I got on Ravelry.

And here's another stellar buy, one for the tea towel stash. It speaks for itself really...

New and improved

A week or so ago I found the most beautiful old curtain in an op shop, and it's been eyeing me up ever since. No, of course it hasn't, it's me with the fabric infatuation. I've got lots of plans for it, but today a tiny piece of it became a little bag. It's made using the same pattern as the satchel tutorial you can find in the side-bar, which used to be very cryptic. I've decided to write it up into a proper tutorial, which is available for download on Scribd (free, of course). It shows how to make either a handbag or a satchel.

And since I have no use for this lovely little bag, it is now available in my shop.

Coming home

Just found this through Endemic; this so captures the spirit of this country, not to mention the scenery. Love it!
I've copied the lowest resolution for this clip, but change it to high res and watch it full screen, it's worth it. (Click on the screen a couple of times to open it in its own window.)

Crafty Wellington

Well, what a weekend it's been! My lovely sister-in-law and assistant Lesley and I came back yesterday, after a very busy time in the capital. Apart from a bit of a drama over undelivered mail and getting around all the one-ways, everything went really well. Craft 2.0 was apparently much quieter than usual, but it was still a very enjoyable market and I got to meet some wonderful people. The New Dowse is a great venue, and the 70-odd stalls were spread out over most of the ground floor. You can see more photos of the market here, but thanks to said assistant, here are a few pics. My huge and very low table just before the market started:

A close-up of my felt bird display. And me looking like I've got mumps. Just look at those gorgeous flowers, lisianthus, they are. My mirrors and brooches. I only sold one mirror, which was quite disappointing, considering I carried about 2kg worth of glass across the island. At least that one went to a good home: lovely South-African expat and fellow stall-holder, Shelley from Sweet William. Apart from selling at the market, it was great to meet Emma Wallace, one of my stockists and designer of this perfect t-shirt, which I just had to have. Also met a couple of other potential stockists; who will be named when they've taken the bait :)

Now, if you've read this far, you're obviously interested. Maybe enough to become a Facebook fan? I noticed last week that I'm close to having 100 fans, and once I have that many, I'll do a little giveaway on FB. Just a random giveaway, so whether you're a new or old fan, you'll be in the draw...

Hearts

Now I can show you what I've been working on... a new felt kit, of course. This one makes 6 hearts and uses the same colours as the birds, so you can build up a collection of beautiful decorations for your tree, rear view mirror or wherever you like to hang something pretty. I'll sell them at Craft 2.0 this weekend, but if you can't make it, have a look on Felt, Etsy or Toggle (just search for 'Ruby in the Dust' on Toggle). If you don't know anything about these kits, let me tell you the decorations are very easy to make; everything is in there to make 6 decorations, including illustrated instructions and even an embroidery needle. And everything in there has been designed, chosen and put together by myself right here in my work room, without the help of small foreign children. That's got to be good.

I think this will be my last post before next week, when I'll tell you everything about my 2.0 experience. Over and out then...

Midnight oil

I was up at 1am last night, and just had to take a photo of the full moon in the cloudy black sky. It was really magical, looking up and feeling such a sense of distance. This photo is my favourite, it shows my craft room all lit up against the moody sky. Night now, I have to go to bed a bit earlier tonight...