I crocheted a hat for Audrey using this pattern.

I don't think she likes wearing it very much. Perhaps when it gets colder...

Alex wanted to learn how to crochet so we made these adorable octopus amigurumi using a free pattern by móhu.

Mine is the smaller one.

Work has been keeping me busy, so I've been too exhausted to work on any new hobby projects, but I still regularly play the uke. I'll get to the end of the day, pick whatever song that pops into my head, Google the chords and record myself attempting to play it. Even though they are full of mistakes and sometimes I'm literally falling asleep as I sing them, it's therapeutic.

If it be your will Leonard Cohen is one of my favourite song writers and I've always thought this was one of his prettiest songs. I read once that when he was asked which song he wished he'd written, he answered "If it be your will, and I wrote it".

Desert Garden by VAST. "Do you feel like I do, tired of everything?". If I had to pick an anthem for my life this might be it. I often stare at the stars. I used to play this song on repeat when I was feeling bad, so I've listened to it many times over the years.

Sound of Silence I remember learning this song on guitar when I was about 12 years old. I had to sing it solo for assessment in Grade 8 Music in front of the whole class and it was terrifying. Still love the song despite that experience. I realised I should have transposed this up because it's difficult for me to sing that low so I stopped after the first verse. Maybe I'll go back and sing the whole song sometime.

Strange Weather I heard Anna Calvi's cover of this song through Spotify Discover earlier this year and couldn't get it out of my head. Then I went and listened to the Keren Ann original and found a whole catalog of wonderful songs to listen to.

Across the universe One of my favourite Beatles songs.

In My Life Another favourite by the Beatles. Still recovering from a cold and I should have transposed it up a bit but I was too tired.

Love me Tender When I was at school I had an ongoing Beatles vs Elvis debate with my geography teacher over several months. I was on team Beatles then of course, and she loved Elvis, but now I realise why not both?

Moon River I must have watched Breakfast at Tiffany's hundreds of times, I love Audrey Hepburn so much. I tried recording this and my cat started snoring so loud right next to the mic, I couldn't help but laugh and ruin the recording, so I tried again but it suddenly started raining heavily and I almost lost it again. Thought I'd try a third time but the birds outside were having a party so I couldn't get through it and gave up. At least it cheered me up

For baby I played this one because my new niece was born and my parents used to sing this for me as a lullaby when I was a baby so it was stuck in my head. They did a much better job of it.

Jersey Thursday This song by Donovan is kind of meaningless hippie fluff. But I used to listen to his music a lot when I was in high school during my flower child phase, and it reminds me of a simpler time.

The Wind I wanted to play a Cat Stevens song. I'm embracing the "sing confidently enough and it doesn't matter if you've played the wrong chord or sing the wrong note" approach here :D Which makes me think I should try 'if you want to sing out sing out' next.

Last week, Alex and I visited the Kyoto Japanese Folk Dolls Museum in Arashiyama, which has a special exhibition of karakuri ningyō (clockwork dolls and puppets). Here we are amazed and amused by some of the dolls in the collection:

Last week I learnt how to make washi paper in a traditional paper workshop in the village of Ainokura, Japan. The paper is made from the paper mulberries that grow in the village.

I've been learning the chords for some of my favourite songs on ukulele lately. I've made recording the songs part of my process - usually I'll pull up the chords online, play through a few times and then record it (mistakes and all) for my future reference. Here are some of the songs I've recorded lately:

Come wander with me This song comes from a surprising source - it's the main plot device from an old episode of the Twilight Zone.

Dream a Little Dream of Me - (the raw version without the monster filter) - This song is so sweet but I particularly love the Mama Cass version of this song.

Donna Donna - (also no monster filter) Such pathos. I can't help thinking of the tachikomas singing this as they went to be destroyed in Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex.

Who knows where the time goes I can never decide whether I like the Fairport Covention original or the Judy Collins version better - this one steals my favourite bits from both.

La Vie En Rose I always think of Audrey Hepburn singing La Vie En Rose in Sabrina, but I would mangle it in the original French. I have a music box from my youth that plays this song. Also Wall-E <3

Wild is the wind I love, love, love Nina Simone's version but this also one of my favourite Bowie songs. It's too far below my comfortable range to be able to sing it very well.

Unintended The lyrics with the uke chord chart I found had 'mending all the pieces' so I sang it that way despite years of singing along to the original as 'mending broken pieces' - then I listened to the original by Muse again and it's definitely 'broken' - so I guess I'll have to re-record this sometime.

Originally these were just for me but hey, why not share?

Feeding my quail with a bit of interference from some opportunistic chickens.

My Dad gave me some ants. In this video I give my ants some food, visit my Dad, check out his ants and take a look at the crickets he is breeding to feed to his ants.

I recently facilitated a workshop on designing dollhouses at The Edge. The content included 3D modelling with Tinkercad and using Illustrator to make house parts and furniture for fabrication on the 3D printers and laser cutter.

We didn't get all of the pieces cut during the workshop, so I cut the remaining parts afterwards at Hack the Evening. Here's a video about it:

I was flipping through the Ukulele songbook that we used at CampJS and started playing the chords for 'Dream a little dream of me' on ukulele.

I like to record a song while I'm learning it so I can hear where I'm making mistakes.

But then I got distracted with GarageBand effects... I still love how epic the 'monster' effect makes the uke sound

On Friday afternoons, I play soccer with my team mates from work. Here's a one short video blog about it:

CampJS IX was held over the weekend of the 10th - 13th of August at Springbrook and was wonderful as ever. My heart is full of ❤️for my CampJS peeps.

This year, I made button badges for swag as well as name badges for attendees. I had the idea of badges instead of lanyards after noticing that most people weren't wearing lanyards in photos from previous camps. People seemed to enjoy the process of making the badges and I noticed a lot of people wearing them throughout the event.

Prototyping badges

An assortment of logo badges for swag

Name badges!

Photo in the header by CampJS photographer Arai Araya. You can find more photos here

And if you want to know why CampJS is so great, check out this lovely video blog by Ash:

Or these write ups:

• Why I’m Going to CampJS Next Year by Ben C
• My first CampJS by Sox
• CampJS IX — 2018 By Josh W

I made a new necklace with stone beads from AliExpress.. Not sure if they are malachite but I like the stripes.

An artefact that I uncovered in my garage - a computer case that I painted in an Egyptian theme in my youth

This computer was named pr-ast (house of Isis).

I've been drawing mandalas for as long as I can remember. Mandalas are diagrams used traditionally as a tool for meditation, but even when I was very small and the only things I knew about Buddhism came from watching episodes of Monkey, I drew circular geometric designs reflecting my inner thoughts using color pencils and graph paper to calm my mind.

At first I didn't know they were called mandalas, but at some point I saw a television broadcast of monks creating and then sweeping up a sand mandala on a news program, and I had a name for what would become a life-long practice for me. From about the 4th grade onwards, I discovered Deluxe Paint on the family computer (an Amiga) and my mandalas became digital. Over time I've experimented with using whatever medium I've had to hand - paints, sand, beads, wire. My digital mandalas were almost always transient like the traditional sand paintings - I would build them up in layers and then reverse the process to destroy them. This process of constructing and deconstructing the mandala is what's most precious to me, not the picture that unfolds during the process.

A static picture could never capture the essence of the practice - constructing a mandala is like telling a story by building up a map from my thoughts - by moving through that map, those thoughts are set free so that I don't have to dwell on them or stress about them. However, I recently started saving images of some of the mandalas I create to share so that people might understand a little more about what they are and why I draw them. The examples on this page show how the mandalas I draw unfold. I drew these using Kaleidosketch.