Where did that go again?

Well, the new job is in full swing.  Amazingly nice people, full of all the flaws of people everywhere, but the atmosphere is so much nicer than ...that other place... even with the normal stresses and strains of work...

And here's the view from the building:

And on a good day, we get to see this:

which was really spectacular, but shows a bit of reflection of the office interior, if you look too closely, so don't, OK?

It's going swimmingly, so far.  I like my colleagues, my boss, the work.  I love not having to drive to work, but I'd forgotten how annoying the general public can be, especially with things like moving to the back of the bus, taking your backpack off so you don't clobber everybody with it on the way through, turning your headphones down so the leakage doesn't drive everybody nuts... and not covering your face when you cough or sneeze.  Ick.

I really love that the post office has parcel lockers under our building, and I've registered to use them (it's free!) and all my etsy purchases turn up there now.  I've brought home some amazing parcels and I think my new colleagues think I'm a bit whacky... 

Hmmm, what else?  My lovely nephew and niece-in-law (heh?) had their baby and I'm a great-aunt - it's probably just as well - my sewing room was starting to get a bit full of toys for the baby:

I can count seven here...the giraffes and the red bilbies all went off to Miss EE when we were first introduced.  The Turtle is still here, but the other bilby went off to Master IPL for his second birthday; it's in the same fabrics as the quilt I made him for his first:

This was one cute Bilby, too:

and by all accounts he was quite pleased.  I also sent one off to London, for Miss A, who was turning 3:

Don't you just love the flowers?

And in completely unrelated news, we just came back from a fabulous weekend in the beautiful Hunter Valley, getting some canine therapy, and doing what we do best - I made cushion covers:

Plus two other yellow ones, including one with piping, to go with the quilt I bound - I don't have a picture of quilt with binding, but I'm pretty sure MGF Kaz will provide one if I ask nicely.  She's good like that.

And I photographed a couple of things for the FatMumSlim PhotoADay Challenge, which I'm doing for August, over on the 'Gram (that's Instagram, for you older peeps - I'm IsabellaGolightly26, and I'd love you to come on over & have a look at my pics.

Today's theme was "In the Middle".  

Isn't it fantastic?  The whole display is just gorgeous... but the photo was taken with the phone, so it's not great.  Plus the smell of a tonne of moo poo was making my eyes water a bit.  Mr Golightly & Az spent a lovely morning doing what they do best, shovelling it all over the garden.  You gotta love the countryside.

What was that?  You want to know about the baby?  Oh!!!  She was 49cm, 3kg and looked like a blob.  That's official, from her extremely proud father.  We saw her at a week old, and she slept happily in my arms for 2 hours.  That's a first for me, I can assure you.  We're hoping to catch up with the delighted parents very soon, so more news as it comes to hand (I know, I can't believe it either - I'm excited about a baby!!).  And so, amidst all this excitement, it's off to bed.  Ciao!

Home again home again jiggity jig II

Well, Gentle Readers, it would appear that half the population of Sydney decided to return to the Big Smoke at the same time as we did - we got half an hour into our journey on Sunday night and realised that because of the volume of traffic, it was probably going to take us 5 hours or so to get home - a trip that normally takes 2.5 hours... so we turned around.  Lucky for us Kaz & Az are pretty laid back, and we hadn't worn out our welcome.  Monday morning came & 8.08am saw us on the road - we were home by 10.20am.  


What did we do?  Well, as usual, Mr Golightly toiled mightily in the vineyard, winding up wire, splitting wood and help Az build some raised vegie beds, and I worked on Kaz's dressing gown, getting it 98% done, with the only bit remaining the really fiddly bit, which is to put the piping on the sleeves.  Being the fussy creature that I am, I want to use a method which will allow me to have only one visible seam, but I want the outside fabric to show on the inside of the sleeves too - I believe Vogue Sewing has the answers, so I'll be checking that out today, especially as it appears Autumn has hit with vengeance, and it's going to be cold and rainy all day... perfect for sewing!


For the first time in ages I didn't take any photos with my actual camera, only one rather nice piccie of Mr G with the pooch, her in her favourite spot, ie, right on top of Mr G, with her ears up, waiting for him to move so she can lick him into immobility... she's such a softie... although when the people on bicycles rode down the driveway & sat down to have their picnic, she set up such a barking & carrying on that it dawned on them that the land wasn't actually a park, despite the close resemblance, and scurried back up the driveway, with a "sorry" floating back our way.  Didn't do much to stop the dog from barking, but it did give us all a bit of a chuckle...

I have ordered some fabric, to make Az a footstool - I took my project up for show & tell, and he was so impressed he wants one.  Now all I have to do is find time to squeeze it in - I'm sure I'll manage!  This is what Kaz & I found trawling through upholstery fabric on Etsy:

and this one, which is also fantastic:

which I am just waiting for the owner to make me a custom listing so I can buy it & then Madam Kaz can choose her favourite.  I think they would both be amazing, but we shall see.


And now, given that I've been awake since 0430, I think I'm going to crawl back into bed and thank the Guvnmnt for my extra day off.  Enjoy it, Gentle Readers, I'm going to!


Ciao!

No news from here...

Just more happy pics - I was busily taking pictures of the gloriously green Hunter Valley on Sunday (did I mention, Gentle Readers, that it's as green as I've ever seen it?  That would be a good name for a book, don't you think?  "How Green was the Hunter".  Might be a best seller. I should write it.  Ahem.), and the pooch, the very gorgeous Zoe, decided to run into my shot just as I clicked the button.


She's got excellent timing, that dog:

So of course I had to take a proper picture of her - dogs are normally hard to photograph because they never want to sit still, and they never look at you when you've got the camera in your hand (with the possible exception of Zeb, who knew she was a movie star, and knew how to hold her chin and knew when to smile and how to work the red carpet)

So I persuaded Zoe to do the same, kind of:

And she's laughing her head off at me.  Smart dog!

And on a slightly more cheery note...

I have to share this with you people out there! Sorry Kaz, if you didn't want it out there - it's too beautiful to leave unposted somewhere on the fancy young people's internet (thanks, Tony Squires...)


This is the label my lovely friends Kaz & Az are going to put on their wine this year - they normally sell all their grapes to these people, and have a few bottles kept aside for themselves prior to it being blended in with other quality grapes - and they've had a label in the past, but nothing as spectacular as this:

How could anybody resist? And it has two of my four favourite dogs in the whole wide world on it - just beautiful. It is slight, ever so slightly not quite but nearly geographically correct, but who's going to quibble? Everybody will be so taken by the gorgeous doggies that they won't even twig that the water is not really there... and who cares?

And, do I hear you say, what about the other two favourite dogs in the whole wide world? Well, seeing as I haven't done any sewing since Sunday (shame on me), and no material arrived in the mail (and what's that about?), it's down to the dogs - or is that "we've gone to the dogs"? Sorry. Couldn't help it, you know how I love a good pun...

This is Gus. He's a boy. Anybody who didn't notice needs to have their eyes checked very very soon. He was a pound puppy, can you believe it?

And this is Jarrah:

She has the sweetest nature, and puts up with all sorts of crap from Gus, who constantly teases her, chews her legs, flicks her ears, worries her tail... and she just happily sits there, until Gus goes just that little bit too far. Then she growls at him, he runs away and peace is restored. For about 10 minutes.


Love it. Love those dogs.