Thanks to those who commented on my most recent post.  I admit to having been a bit down in the dumps, but I'll get over it.  I manage to use the "cooling off period" technique a lot of the time, but sometimes something creeps through. 

The down side of having a blog is the tangible evidence that you're not getting anything finished - no more blissful ignorance! I have gained so much inspiration from blogs over the last few years, and I love seeing photos of other places and hearing about other people's lives that are so different to mine, yet oddly the same.  I love the snow photos and I love seeing other people's dogs! I will quickly insert a photo so that you don't get bored with my mutterings.



Yes I've been crocheting due to some online inspiration.  Crochet is one of the things I've always been able to do, but not kept it up regularly due to the "doilyness" of it all.  Yes I know that isn't a word.  It's like the tatting  I blogged about recently - I still haven't had a go at that.  The good news is that crochet is becoming a little more relevant, or modern.  The granny square will never go away, but lovely new yarns and colours are making it popular again.  I love the look of cotton, and now bamboo is joining that group of yarns.  The yarns above are either cotton, cotton with a bit of synthetic, bamboo, and bamboo with cotton I think.  I bought them at my local Lincraft store (maybe like Joanne's in the US?), and I have to say that I wouldn't buy the bamboo again without looking a bit more closely at it.  The twist in it is very loose making it difficult to crochet with, but I do love the colours.



I've also been loving this Japanese crochet book and the bags above.  The crochet chart idea is new to me - I much prefer written instructions - but the chart idea is useful when the book is written in a foreign language.  Here is a photo of the explanation of the chart.  I also think that we use different names for stitches than in the US, so the chart idea helps with that.



I've also had a trip to IKEA this week for a bookcase with a glass door.  Living on a dirt road in a climate that demands leaving the windows open all the time has resulted in a new vow which is that never again will I buy a piece of furniture without a door.  Man I hate dusting.  I bought 2 small Billy bookcases with glass doors which will go in my bedroom out of the sunlight to hold books and quilts.  I just have to put them together...  I wonder if there is a home in all the world that doesn't have a Billy bookcase?  Last year I was reading a blog that linked to Bloombergs who had created an index with the prices of  Billy bookcases around the world.  It seems to be a one-off, but interesting reading all the same.  I have 3 Billy bookcases downstairs which I would like some glass doors for, but after perusing the catalogue I find that 2 of the shelves I have don't fit the doors, and also that the colour I have is no longer made.  I had to buy the very pale colour for upstairs, but would rather have the darker look for downstairs. 



I also saw this quilted bedspread - look at the price!  The cost of just over 3 metres of quilt fabric here.  The red and white ones on the right also have perfect stippling on them.



I have an updated photo of the progress next door.  They have cemented in these poles which the house will sit on, and they have to sit for 2 weeks to harden, so the house shouldn't be too far away now.