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Scott took me to the night market at Queen Vic for a #SMAJ. We had a Sri Lankan roti stir fry, a lobster roll, some Filipino skewers, and a strawberry lemonade. It’s kind of fun to be able to have so many different cuisines at the same time, although it wasn’t cheap! We went at 5PM so at least there weren’t any lines.

We had a big weekend of pickleball at the Pickleholic Autumn tournament. On the Saturday Scott competed with Jarrod in the morning, and then I competed with Eloise in the afternoon. We went up a category so it was pretty hard!! Especially because my OG partner got injured the day before and Eloise and I only got organised at the last second. But fun was had. Then on Sunday Scott and I competed together in the lower division and we made the finals but lost both final games and finished 4th. We were happy that we played pretty well together that day though (doesn’t always happen).

A couple weeks later I did another tournament at Pickle Play Dingley with Priscilla and we crushed it!!! We squeaked into the finals, but then won both final games and came home with a gold medal! The final game was our first time playing with an umpire and a bunch of people watching, which made us very nervous at first but eventually we remembered to talk to each other again. It was a very fun day with lots of laughs and making friends, as Priscilla is very friendly.

Scott won a different tournament with Jarrod that evening as well, so it was a very good day of pickleball for our household!

We went to the Melbourne – Carlton game with low expectations, as everyone expected Melbourne to lose every game this season, but we won! Also, Scott stood up and caught the ball in a perfect mark and it was very funny and exciting. Everyone around us cheered.

I got drenched in a surprise Melbourne rainstorm while pumping gas and had to show up to my hair cut appointment looking like a drowned rat, haha.

I think my team might have a bit of a sugar addiction…

Chocolate is too expensive so I decided to try and make marshmallows for the nieces and nephews for Easter. It was pretty sticky and messy but they came out great and the kids seemed to love them!

I also tried making homemade pasta for the first time. We’ve got a pasta roller attachment for our stand mixer but not a cutter yet so we have to slice the noodles freehand. I also made a slow cooked beef ragu and it all turned out extremely delicious if I do say so myself.

I finished my scrappy stripey socks while on our Guildford trip. As per usual I am not that happy with the way the variegated yarn worked out. I probably should have just skipped over the weird brown section of the wool.

I used duplicate stitch to stitch two loons onto the cashmere gloves. I designed the loon pattern using my old cross stitch software, with the grid modified into rectangles instead of perfect squares. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out although it was not easy to do on a pair of gloves! I had to use a cookie cutter to keep the wrist opening open enough to be able to reach inside. I am planning on using this technique in the future on some kids sweater designs. Eventually.

I also worked on a pair of felted double layer slippers using chunky 100% wool. It was kind of a fun project although the (free) pattern sucked. I should probably write my own version.

Unpictured stuff:

  • Jono visited from Scotland and they went golfing and he came over for a very impromptu dinner.
  • April interviewed me for a school project about growing up in another country. I talked about having to walk to school uphill both ways in the snow of course.
  • We saw Project Hail Mary. Both of us enjoyed the audiobook. The movie was fun too.
  • Went to Braeside for a bird photography outing with my new lens and saw enough birds that I’ll make that it’s own post.
  • We went to Guildford for a #SMAJ weekend! I’ll write it up in another post too!

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I had a really epic alone-y weekend in Bendigo at the end of February. I took the Friday off from work, did a pickleball round robin tournament in the morning and had a lot of fun and achieved my goal of finishing in the top 10 (I finished 7th!). Then I drove up to Bendigo and went to the conference opening, checked into my motel, and went for a quick swim/hot warm tub.

I couldn’t believe it, Ben Folds just happened to be playing in Bendigo (for the first time) on the same weekend, on the one evening I had free. I got a last minute ticket on Tixel and it was great! I liked that it was a small venue. The funniest part was when the piano bench kept sticking to the floor so he kicked it away and gave it double birds and played the rest of the show in the lunge position like the old days. However, I’m pretty sure he skipped the second encore because of back pain haha.

My first workshop of the conference was Let’s Get Lacey: Starter Lace Knitting. I made soooo many mistakes at the beginning, but once I started using a bunch of stitch markers and lifelines, I got the hang of it.

First time wearing my knitted tank top in real life! I got a lot of comments.

In the afternoon they had some panel discussions about making a career out of crafting and about Bendigo Woollen Mills. They were somewhat interesting discussions but the best part was just seeing what everyone was working on while they listened. Really incredible pieces, very inspiring. I worked on a pair of socks.

Then they had small group table sessions where I learned a few mending techniques, crocheted a bunting triangle, and learned how to do Tunisian crochet.

I got Malaysian food for dinner and then went to the Craft Cinema where we watched The Princess Bride and I finished my socks.

My second workshop was Introduction to Botanical Dyeing. We learned all about the different supplies you need and what kind of stuff you can collect to do dyeing and how to do it.

We all got to take home a mini skein of wool and cotton from each of the four brews.

And then I drove home! Cup full and inspired.

Overall the conference was great!! It was so neat chatting with everyone with our common interests. I loved seeing what everyone was working on and picked up a bunch of tips and tricks too. There were a few hiccups with it being the first time they’ve run the conference, but they also did great problem solving and I’m sure next time will be perfect. I hope I can go again!

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In February Yo-Chi had a promotion that if you did 25,000 steps by 2PM you could get $15 of free fro yo per person, so Scott and I decided to try and do it. It was a very funny day. We walked all morning. I took extremely tiny steps to try and boost my numbers. We played pickleball as well which took care of a big chunk. We mayyy have cheated a little by taking turns wearing both watches at once for a bit so the other person could have a bit of a rest… but at least we showed up to the shop tired and sweaty, unlike some of the other people who 1000% cheated because they didn’t look tired at all!!!

Anyway I enjoyed my enormous free fro yo that probably took a month off my life.

I went camping for a night by myself! Near Kinglake. The only part I was worried about was whether I’d be able to set up the tent on my own, but it ended up being easy. I DON’T NEED NO MAN. :P All I did was set up my tent, make dinner, knit for a little while, and then moved into the tent to read once the mosquitos came out. The next day was one of my Birdlife photography meetups which was nice, but we barely saw any birds and I only took two pictures, both of which were terrible. lol.

Our #SMAJ activity was watching Pretty Women at the outdoor cinema. A cute evening. I hadn’t seen it before. Big mistake.

Of course we ordered the Wingspan South America expansion as soon as it came out. It adds on hummingbirds, which mostly just make it easier to get resources, so you can build more birds, which is always fun I guess. Can get a really good engine going.

One (creepy) glove done.

Cable knit blanket coming along. During the summer I could only work on it when we had the AC blasting during Free Power Hours, haha.

Unpictured stuff:

  • Sally had the whole gang over for a crafternoon. We got Malaysian takeaway and had a lovely chill hang out.
  • I watched 70 million hours of the Winter Olympics. Love it.
  • So much pickleball. Still addicted.

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Holy late post Katrina. Oops.

NYE fireworks at Bis’s apartment. It was so cold out.

Wingspan with Michael and Gina. You can see the birdhouse that Bis printed for us because our cardboard one was wearing out.

We played free pickleball in Bayswater and then got suburban Malaysian food for dinner. Scott got asam laksa and I got sar hor fun, which was sooooo gloopy but… I love gloopy!!

Bis needed some help assembling his new shed so Scott and I went over for a day to lend a hand. It reminded me of my childhood at the cottage. He had to over-engineer it to stand up to the gale force winds they get on their balcony so there are a lot of extra pieces and A LOT of rivets.

We got the strangest pizzas I’ve ever seen for dinner afterwards from a Korean pizza shop. This one had corn shaped mashed potatoes on it.

The girls came over for a sleepover! We went swimming at the pool with waterslides, watched Wicked: For Good (so much squealing at the scene with Elphaba and Fiyero in bed omg), and ate chicken nuggets spaghetti and red velvet cake (with secret beets).

We had a Second Christmas at Jemma’s house. Many presents and treats. My brother-in-law looooves Nanaimo Bars.

We went to the outlet mall and bought five pairs of shoes at once. Scott’s Vietnamese fake Salomon shoes did not hold up.

I mistakenly bought tickets to Opening Week of the Australian Open which is actually the week BEFORE the Australian Open starts. However, Jemma’s family also had tickets so we all went in together on our day off and it turned out to be quite good!! And it only cost me $5! You can do all the AO activities with no lines, and there are still some good matches going on for qualifying. You can also watch the top people practice, but I found that quite boring. I also got to see a bit of the One Point Slam which was quite funny, and Myles and Damien got a free legit tennis racket each as well. Would Opening Week again.

I spent a whole afternoon building a collapsible lightbox for product photography. Why? I don’t know, but it was pretty satisfying and it works really well. I did a combination of about 4 different Youtube video tutorials.

Then I spent another entire day taking pictures of every little bit of wool that I have and cataloguing it on my Ravelry account. Again, why? I don’t know, but It tickled my neurodivergent brain just right. So organised.

I went to Phillip Island for a night of the January long weekend. Sonika had organised an Airbnb and we played tons of board games. 12 Rivers had a fun mechanism where you get to yank a barrier out at the top and all the balls roll down into different areas. Whirling Witchcraft had the worst rulebook I’ve ever seen but was actually quite funny once we figured it out. I taught the group Orleans, which they liked. And The Hobbit: There and Back Again was fun but quite difficult for me and Bis to play with our aphantasia.

I went to the Churchill Island farmers market for a focaccia and a fruit sorbet.

Always looking for vegan soft serve. This one was half ube and half avocado in the CBD. Not too sweet. I liked it.

I got Scott and I tickets to see the Hoodoo Gurus at the music bowl. I didn’t really know the band before but it seemed like they’re an Aussie equivalent of The Tragically Hip. It was a very pleasant evening of lounging around on the picnic blanket with snacks and margaritas and live music.

Summer knit projects! Socks and gloves. I still loooove making socks, but I didn’t really enjoy gloves. So fiddly.

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Didn’t have time to write this before my yearly wrap up post. Ah well. This is gonna be a long one, it was a busy month!

I did a lot of walking this month. I said I was going to do 10k steps every day in December, which is a lot for me! (Some days I get like 400 steps…)

We went camping at the free campground at Beauchamp Falls in the Otways. The campground was alright, the grass really needed to be cut, it was hard to walk through, but it also made the bottom of the tent really squishy and plush. There was a big Nepalese family there making lots of noise as well. But I saw a female Satin Bowerbird! I thought it was a pigeon at first, glad I decided to actually take a picture of it.

We drove down to Apollo Bay and I got to have Nerds sorbet! That’s pretty much my dream ice cream flavour, and it was dairy-free, like they knew I was coming.

Kookaburra
Australian Wood Ducklings
King Parrot

We also went to Kennett River in search of koalas but didn’t see any. There were lots of good bird photo opportunities though and I got lots of steps in.

Then we went home early because Scott’s work kept calling him and he had to go in and work on the weekend. :/

I made Scott promise that he would at least help me get my steps done somewhere interesting the next day so we walked around Albert Park lake and had enormous burgers and I had a dairy free gingerbread ice cream that was really nice.

Fancy new pickleball paddle. :D

I got Scott the Wingspan nesting box for his birthday. Rosemarie thought it was a lame gift but he loves it. It fits all the expansions (including future expansions!) and makes things super organised. It’s extremely satisfying.

We tried to go our for birthday brunch at a Thai brunch place but they didn’t actually open when it said they would and we ended up having to go to McDonalds instead!! LOL. Then Scott played bowls all day and went to a concert with his friend in the evening.

Our new PET camera got installed at work and makes me feel like I work in a space ship or submarine. It’s pretty fancy! We didn’t get to start using it until January though so December was a very slow work month. I had a lot of time to walk the hallways and get my steps up while working, which was great.

I spent a couple hours pulling apart the lead pots that things get delivered in so we could bring the lead to the scrap metal recyclers. We harvested 60kg and got $120 for it! (I wore gloves in case you are wondering, dad.)

We never remember to take a proper picture but Maz and Ty cooked everyone an epic UK-style Christmas dinner a few days before Christmas. Their turkey was SO MOIST and the roasted parsnips were incredible. Everything was great really, except the bread sauce… England you can keep that.

They also have a carpet python.

Actual Christmas was quite chill this year, relatively speaking. It was Small Christmas so there weren’t that many little kids around. The nephews are all pretty much adults now!! We had cold chicken and ham and tons of different salads. There were many presents, and many balls accidentally hit over the fence.

We went for a walk around Jells Park afterwards so I could get my daily steps. I was surprised how many other people were out doing the same.

As is tradition, we crashed Donna’s family campsite in Walkerville for a night. It was great, it’s nice down there and we love spending time with the cousin-nephews. We splashed around on the beach, talked about birds, played Uno No Mercy and Bananagrams, built a dam, ate cheese, went for walks.

I even got to go tubing!

Our December #SMAJ was making mosaic coasters. We got to put as many designs as we wanted together and then at the end you pick your favourite two to grout. It was fun!

We had too many tomatoes so I made salsa for the first time. I can’t believe I haven’t done that before, it’s so easy! And delicious! We had epic nachos for dinner.

Bis’s apartment faces the city so they always have NYE at their house so you can see the fireworks. I don’t normally stay up for New Years but we decided we would go this time and I’m so glad I did because he also prepared the most epic hot pot meal I have ever experienced. It was like being at a nice restaurant and also unlimited, because any time we got close to finishing something he brought out another!! Lara also got a HUMONGOUS honey cake. We are so spoiled. I ate so much I had to lie down from like 9pm to 11pm.

One of the final fittings to check the length. And pastel tank top after blocking! Thankfully blocking relaxed the armholes and top part so it’s not so tight any more. I haven’t actually worn it out yet.. I was planning on wearing it on New Years Eve but then it was like 12 degrees that day.

Lauren’s Musselburgh hat. Finished! No Mike & Ike’s trapped inside this time, pretty sure.

Unpictured stuff:

  • I did manage to do my 10,000 steps every day. I don’t know why I get so many less steps than Scott even when we spend the whole day together. I ended up having to do a lot of extra laps around our neighbourhood and house sometimes. One time I had to bail out of the car at a red light and walk the rest of the way home. I didn’t really notice any changes to be honest. I haven’t been doing it now (in January) but I am considering doing it again in February. Maybe every second month.
  • Scott worked A LOT. He racked up an extra like 40 hours of time in lieu. Crazy. It’s because in December there are graduations AND supplementary exams. At least now we know not to plan any trips in December next year, too busy.
  • Our pickleball friends put on an awesome Christmas party with pickleball (of course), games, door prizes, and awards. It was lots of fun!
  • I got to take a full two weeks off from work over Christmas which was so nice. I had a big list of things for us to get done around the house but we only did like a third of it. But I’m not mad because we filled every day with a lot of fun things, like playing games of Wingspan with Rosemarie AND Lauren, getting together with friends, playing pickleball all over the place, watching movies, helping our friend build a shed, hanging out with family, and more. We did also do a big garage clean out and pantry reorganisation, so at least we got a couple big jobs done.