Holy spitballs, how did it get to be February?

I feel very naughty, Gentle Readers, for having neglected you for so long, but, yanno, life...

I've been extremely busy with Instragram, and have had much more success in luring the innocent and unworldly into following my doings, such as they have been...

Let's see... I took a complete copy of my Lovely Ma's photo archive after she died, and I've been slowly culling all the duplicated photos - clever though she was with some things, she never quite grasped the concept of 'don't need to copy things more than once', so some pictures appear four, five, six, seven times... it's a bit tedious, but I've been posting some of the better ones of her Quilts on Instragram (photos, that is) - the quilts are fabulous but the photos are just crap.  I think it was because she was so impatient with the digital camera, she never quite gave it enough time to focus, and nearly every photo is blurry...

Scrap Quilt, Nanga 2004

Although this one makes me a liar, of course... Like most of Mum's quilts, I think this one went to Tonee, her very good friend from the Telfer days, but I'm not really sure.  It's good that there's no shortage in our house or I'd be hunting them down.

I wanted to post a picture of my all-time favourite, Sarah Johnson, which was made very much in the traditional colours, (not usually my favourite), but I can't find one that does it justice - it's all hand-quilted, with needle-turn applique and it's on our bed all the time:

In other news, I've made some animals, and things are so disorganised I haven't even set up the 2015 Crafting folder... here's some pics I dragged over from the phone:

Liberty-Belle, the Birthday Bilby

Hi, I'm Jumpy

I'm a secret Bilby

And I've just made a Miss Muffet bag for my lovely friend Grace to give her Mother, not quite traditional because she wanted it padded and no inside compartments, so I cheated again and used quilted calico inside the lining - so easy - but I'm very happy with the way it came out, and I love the colour combination (such good taste my friends have):

The very lovely Alison from Cotton_Factory (my go-to fabric store these days) has asked for the pattern details - I feel like a bit of a cheat, this pattern has been around for at least 200 years (remember Lucy Locket who lost her pocket?), but hey!  I'm willing!  I'll post it here as a tutorial if anybody is interested.

Finally, I've signed up for three (OMG what was I thinking) craft swaps - the #igpincushionswap, the #nerdscraftitbetter swap (both due in May), and a #payitforward one which has some random date, to be determine by the Swap Commander-In-Chief.

And now, Gentle Readers, having watched three episodes of Season 4 of Breaking Bad (OMG How Good Is It!!), investigated 37 pincushion patterns, eaten dinner, put the groceries away, shifted 972 photos from my phone to my PC, played 8 games of scrabble on my tablet, liked 37,372, 459 photos on Instagram and done precisely zero craft since I got home at 5.45, I must away to bed.  

Ciao!

Oh dear...

You know what, Gentle Readers... I think I've lost my blogging mojo.  I had forgotten how much time is taken up with photography, moving the pictures from the camera(s) to the PC(s), the hard disk(s), sorting the photos in my filing system (by year, by month, by date of event), fiddling with them in Picnik (and what's that about, hmmm?  Apparently it's been swallowed up by Google...) and Picasa, finding suitable images when mine don't quite measure up... and then, the writing... coming up with the witty titles, the theme, the tags, the content, those fabulous jokes, the clever and succinct lines filled with news of high import, low import and no import...


I started this when my father died, and I really needed a way to express my feelings about dealing with something completely unexpected... a dead father I hadn't spoken to in 27 years, and who died without bothering to make a will, but who, amazingly, was considered by the law to be my responsibility.


Anyway, I've made a vow for 2012, which is to stop saying "I can do that for you", and that includes a bunch of the things on the list... (remember that list?).


So... one of the things I want to do more of is sewing, and that means, less time for other things.  I'm planning on a single night per week at Upholstery school, working from home the next day so I don't have to do a late start/early finish, and then my every-second Tuesday off at home to do the grocery shopping/washing thingy.  


Where does blogging fit into this?  Somewhere between the grocery shopping and washing, I think.  That means, Gentle Readers, that I might go a few more weeks between posts.  Or... I might not even post again. What do you think I should do?


Ciao... for now. 

Did you know...

There's an Annandale in Virginia, USA?  There's also one in Sydney.  They don't look much alike on Google Maps:


VA:


Sydney:


But I get visitors from both places!  Nice work you guys!  


I've been flat out like a lizard drinking, all day today, morning fart-arseing about, haircut at 10.30 (not sure about the fringe, but we'll see), lunch with my WMIL* and Mr G's niece Miss ALex, then off with Miss Alex to Warriewood for a trip into K-Mart, which wasn't as horrendous as I thought it might be (but boy that Christmas stuff looks picked over already and it's only the 17th!), then a  side trip into the Post Office to have some stuff weighed & my ID recorded in case those clove-filled Christmas Tree stars I'm sending to England (a bit late, I know) turn out to be exploding clove-filled Christmas Tree stars and they can trace it back to me, then to Wheeler Heights to drop off Miss Alex, then back to Mona Vale to buy food for the hordes for tomorrow, then a side trip to the sports store to pick up an alternative gift for Master Ethan because K-Mart had sold out of Pictureka, [goddess damn you K-Mart], then to Bilgola Plateau to check My Best Friend's mailbox because she's away, then to the butcher to pick up the meat which wasn't going to be ready before 4.00pm, then home to unload it all, then salads to make, then I got to sit down & have a cold drink.  Phew.


How was your day, Gentle Readers?


Ciao!




*Wonderful Mother-in-Law