Wednesday 26 November 2014

I Quit!

Yes, Gentle Readers, I gave up the fabulously well paid job at the other corporate salt mine.  It was too much like the last corporate salt mine, and after 4 months, I'd had enough.  I spotted a job in the Internet Job Search toolie thing for somebody to work 3 days a week for a company that sells meat online, and I got the job, despite being old, and somewhat crotchety.  It's busy, without the incredible levels of stress I've previously experienced.  I get to go home every lunch time for a sandwich, and I can wear casual clothes.  Really, what more could a girl ask for?

So, I've been very very busy sewing little critters:









And on and on:






Needless to say there has also been lots of fabric purchasing to facilitate all this loveliness, and I'm kind of thinking that I need to stop soon.  Really.  No, really.

In other news of unparalleled excitement, the brand-new laptop hard drive crashed, and I had to have a new one.  Lucky for me I did a complete copy onto an external HDD when I bought this machine, so nothing has gone missing - amazingly I had the presence of mind to install some software called Photosync which copies the pictures between devices...seamlessly, and so all the photos on my phone & tablet are also available on the newly blank computer.  Thank goodness for wi-fi, hey?  

My favourite Hunter Valley Hound had a small black spot off her nose, and she's wearing a plastic cone around her head...pictures as they come to hand...

And my lovely friend Jarrah went to dog-heaven, after 16 happy years as a rescue dog:



We miss her.

I've finished sewing up the leg of Number Ten, and the huge bag that's going to Queensland containing the Bilbies is ready to be sealed up.  Oh wait.  Did I mention that?  Oh no... well... the Save the Bilby fund has bought 10 of my little guys, and is going to list them on the website for sale.  Apparently it's really hard to find nice 'hand-made in Australia' Bilbies.  No kidding.  I feel vindicated.  I did them a great deal on the price, because they are a charity, after all, and who knows?  I may become the Bilby Queen (that's kind of like the Borg Queen, only with better resistance) of Newport.

And that, Gentle Readers, is that.  I'm off to bed. 

Buona Notte!

Monday 3 November 2014

Wait! It's November?


Sometimes I really hate computers.  I wrote a whole long post yesterday about all the sewing I've done in October, put in loads of pictures, clicked 'save' multiple times, and then tried to publish it, but would it?  Oh no.  So I wandered off to do other things (more later), and now I'm back to it... and everything except the first two paragraphs is gone.   Gorne!  Arrgh!!  Anyhoo...let's do it again.

Can you tell me, Gentle Readers, where October went?  I'm pretty sure mine went into the bowels of my sewing room (did you even know it had bowels?  What a disturbing thought!!)...

I've been very busy making stuff for this market, which seems both terrifyingly close, and frustratingly far away - I can't even confirm until 19th November that I've even got a stall (unless they confirm first, which might happen, and it might not, my initial impression being that these people are not quite in the 21st Century (bank cheques, I ask you - but that's another story)...

So... sewing...

More bilbies, including some that look disturbingly like others I have already made:









And some new friends, as of last night:




I've also got bunting made, a stack of fridge magnets which I'm pretty sure I covered off in tiny detail in the last post, or the one before, and I've got lavender bags coming out the wazoo - MGF Kaz & I had 53 when we were last in the Hunter, and I'm just waiting on the supply of more lavender from the lovely Christine at Ratho Lavender Farm so I can stuff some of them & send them off to her... (Christmas orders in nice & early, gotta love that!!)... what else?  I have a few pouches made a long time ago in nice linens, and I made a few turtles, before I realised that the pattern is for personal use only & I can't sell them at the market:


And I've added in a few of these really cute guys, in dark reds, ideal for Christmas decorations or table centres, with cloves in them so they smell really christmassy.



And in news that's kind of come round unwelcomingly quickly (ooh, that's an ugly mouthful), it's two years tomorrow since the death of My Lovely Ma, and I thought some more of her work deserved an outing:












I still miss her everyday, especially when I go to things like Urban Stitches, which I know she would have really enjoyed.  I don't have any friends who craft, and so it was lovely to be able to ring her and talk about the latest disaster, triumph, hideous fabric I'd seen and beautiful things I'd seen on the internet... 

And that, Gentle Readers, is that.  Now that I have a little more time on my hands, I will endeavour to post more frequently.  What's that?  Why do I have more time on my hands?  Let's just say that things have changed.  

On that mysterious note, I will say only... ciao!