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Let’s dance!

The only thing wrong with my New Years is that it isn’t involving dancing.  I’m thinking Charleston.

I want to be happier than this couple though.  More like this:

That’s the spirit!  Happy New Years!

I hope you all had a truly wonderful 2011.

Speaking sharply

This is my vintage needle collection.

First, my favourites, the Flora MacDonalds:

Darners, sharps, and crewel embroidery needles in 2 sizes

I’ve yet to figure out what Flora Macdonald has to do with handwork, but I’m a big Flora fan, and a big needle fan, so it works for me.

Flora in tartan

Besides, how cute is she?  The back of the packets are lovely too:

Over a century of reputation

And the trademark is adorable:

Crossed foxes! I love it!

I also have some not-quite-as-exciting needles:

Blue Dorcas

The colours are all lovely though: orange, red, teal

Scientifically shaped eye!

And another great trademark:

Three pins tied with a bow!

The colours and graphic layouts of these two are very striking:

Just sew and sew

Redditch must have been an important needle making centre.

I'm not sure if Woolworths even exists anymore. At least not in NZ.

Not my favourite, but possibly the most fantastic, is this one:

A happy home...is one where women sew...and go gaga over it

I crack up every time I see it.  Everything is so dramatic!

The selection of needles on the inside

Camping

The Naiad and I, along with Shell, the Sewphist, and another friend, are all going camping.

Camping is good exercise.  Even if you don’t do anything but lounge around the campsite and roast marshmallows, you still have to wrangle all your gear into place, pack your bag, and figure out how to put up your tent.  And boy, do those things take energy.

First, there are the sleeping bags.  This is mine:

Look at it. Even just lying there it looks evil.

When I bought it it came all nicely wrapped in its own personal little bag.  Once freed from that bag, no amount of effort on the part of Mr D and myself (working together) could ever convince it to return to those confines.

It has all sorts of weird drawstrings and pockets.  Is it supposed to wrap into itself and fasten with those?  Ack!

What does it mean?!? What does it mean?!?

After wrestling with it for an hour on my own in an attempt to get it in a bag twice the size of the one it came in for this trip, I gave up and got creative.

Heh. It's not pretty, but it works.

Courtesy of my spare elastic stash, I managed to secure it into a reasonably handle-able bundle.

Now I just have to get it in the backpack!

Backpacks, if anything, are worse than sleeping bags.  They have so many zips and buckles and straps and pockets.  I swear, you need a specialised degree in ‘tramping pack packing’ just to figure out how to load the darn things.

My backpack is pregnant

Mine is ugly and lumpy, but everything is in it.  Good enough for me!

Part of the reason for the lumps is the amount of protection I need:

Bug spray, from evil to least evil, lotion, and sunscreen

Sun and sandflies are not my friends.

With all this complaining, I have to fess up that I actually do love tramping and camping.  Just not prepping for it.