Wednesday 16 November 2011

Squinty-eyed but gorgeous

Some interesting things have happened in my life since I last dumped on you, Gentle Readers, including something that has made me question the sanity of my decision to return to work at the August Institution.  


In other news, my lovely MIL tripped & fell off her platform stilettos*, spent 2 days in hospital, acquired some cracker bruises to go with the broken nose, fractured wrist, and dislocated & damaged thumb.





A good friend's mother died, and lastly, a piece of good news, my lovely friend Clare Carter, of Lulu Carter fame, had her baby!  Yay Clare & Ashley!


In amongst all this, I did not go to Upholstery School, despite being off on Tuesday.  Nor did I go tonight, which I probably should have done, because I didn't go last week (Mr G & I both having the day at home to keep an eye on his poor battered mother, and although Mr Golightly was going to have dinner with his lovely Ma, and I could have gone to upholstery school tonight, I wanted some time in the house with no noise.


I'm sure I've alluded to this before.  Mr G likes TV.  He likes movies, wrestling, the cricket, game shows, the news.  He would watch paint dry if it was on TV.  I, myself, am not so keen.  I lived by myself for a number of years with no TV and never missed it.  I may have spent a little time talking to myself, but generally, I like the sound you get between your ears when there's nobody in the house but you.  Especially on a night like tonight, when it's raining, and you can hear the drops hitting the roof.  At least, I hope that's what it is.


Anyway, tonight I did a bit of work on the Christmas Gifts I'm making for people in my team who have young children - I think there's about seven or eight of them (kids, not team members), and I've started making a bunch of these:




Some Gentle Readers who have been curious enough may have seen previous iterations of the pooch, including this one:




which I made for Nephew E's friend Lachie, and this one:




Which I made for MGF Kaz's niece Sharlene, and finally, Elliot:




So cute.  


Anyway, it's 10.32pm now, and even though I haven't imparted much by way of news and information (apart from the "Battle Murder and Sudden Death" at the top of this little missive, I feel my eyelids starting to droop, and I must away, away to my bed.  Besides that, there's a huge spider on the wall behind me, and although I'm not scared, per se, of spiders, I don't always want to share the room with one.  Especially when they go like the clappers and can run up your arm & up your nose before you can say "what spider?"...


Ciao!


*Actually, they were more like this:






Sunday 6 November 2011

I've figured it out!

What happens is that I can only write blog posts in the study, on the big laptop.  I can't write them in bed, on the lounge, sitting in the sun or anywhere else on the small laptop, because the keyboard is too small, and the words don't come out right.  So... I can only write blog posts when I can sit down, uninterrupted by life, the universe and Mr Golightly, and use the laptop in our dedicated study room.  This room started its life as our bedroom, when we first bought the house, but it has since lost about 1.5 metres off its width to the hall, and is the perfect size for a study.  Along with several hundred books, a couple of thousand dvds/cds and a large pile of miscellaneous junk, artistically arranged across several shelves, that is.  Ghod help us if the archeologists ever get in here.


Anyway, I digress. The point of that useless little story is to confess why I don't post more regularly, such as every Sunday night, when I'm slumped on the lounge watching crap on TV, thinking "I could be writing a blog post about now".  It's because this machine is too heavy to sit on my lap, and so I would have to leave behind Mr Golightly's excellent company, the warmth of the fire (yes, Gentle Readers, even in November it's been cold enough to have the fire on) and the noise of whatever is numbing our minds at the moment... and so I don't.


However, I have been sewing today, and so have snuck in here to put pictures of my work into the shop, and the lightbulb went on!  Aha!  Quick, get a post written before you get dragged out of here & into the slothly pit that is the living room.


Here's the pouches:



Beautiful lining by Robert Kaufman, called 'Tea Time', and nice thick Japanese linen for the outside.  I appliqued the small teapot on the front for the finishing touch:


And the other one, in one of my favourites, the shot red linen:


Lined with some beautiful Momo Wonderland, now sadly out of print & very precious!


I hope Mrs Pudding likes these - they are for the children's Teachers, so if you're one of them, stop reading 5 minutes ago.

In other news, the chair progresses, slowly... I have coconut fibre-d, 


Stitched all that down neatly:



Learnt how to do a stitched edge (from the Child Minder, no less!)


and added half a basket of flock to the top of the chair - and my sinuses kindly waited until yesterday before playing up.  I look a bit panda-like today, dark rings round the eyes, but I feel much better than yesterday, when (once again), I didn't get out of bed until 3.00pm, but this time it was just the woolly head, not exhaustion.

But, here is the chair!


This week, calico, and much, much, much thumping with a mallet.  Pray for me to your gods, Gentle Readers, for I fear the return of the Tennis Elbow.

In other news, I've discovered Words with Friends, and I now have five games on the go at once.  It's keeping my brain going, that's for sure, and I just spent the huge sum of $1.33 on Doodlefit, which I'm going to go & play right now!

Ciao!