Ah, bliss

It was warm, you know, and sunny, and above all, dry!  It was quiet, and peaceful, and I did a spot of bird-watching...

and a spot of garden watching...

and a spot of dog-watching...

This is Gus.  He's very funny, sitting right in front of the fire, even though he has a mat only 5 feet away from the fire.  He's just small enough to fit there, and Jarrah, who's the other Dog of the House, is very jealous, but too big to fit right there!


Note the big chunks of wood?  That's Jarrah.  People like me pay lots of money to have beautiful furniture made out of this wood, my kitchen bench in particular...

(Please excuse the mess but you get the idea) and over in the West, they burn it.  Amazing.

What else?  A nice lunch out here, a spot of sewing (pictures to come, I promise), and a spot of fabric shopping.  I feel very relaxed.  Well, I did till Tuesday, when the madness started again... however, only one more day of whining from me, and it's all over, back to 'normal'.  Can't wait, I have to say!

When I finally unpack the sewing I did in Perth, I'll post some pics.  And in the interim, I collected this from the post office this morning, from here:

and this:

I can't wait to trim something!

Ciao!

There's nothing like a few days off...

to make you feel better... so I'm off visit my Ma & lovely Hank for the long weekend we didn't even know we were having (it's actually next weekend, where we live, but this weekend where they live)... we got nice cheap flights, and I'm very happy not to be going into the office until next week now...


And the good news is that I've managed to find myself another job, working for the same monolithic megacorporation... but *voice squeaking in excitement* in town!!!


I'm finishing at the arse-end of nowhere on Friday 11th, and will be starting my new job after the 'real' long weekend, so I have three weeks in a row with less than 5 days (and hopefully less than 50 hours) in it!


All so exciting.  Not quite as exciting as lovely Felicity's adventures in Broome, but still enough to make the tunnel, and its associated light, a little closer!


And in the meantime...

I'm thinking about these... some of my favourite colours... nice combos, very tempting... being strong.  For now.

Have a great weekend, back soon!

And now I'm really annoyed

So... for a while now at the August Institution that employs me, I have spent the nanosecond that is laughingly referred to as a "Lunch Break" by reading some blogs I follow, and some I don't .. it's a harmless way to waste a bit of time, and I have even, on the odd occasion, posted a note here from the office.  There's no harm in it, as far as I can see... however...


They have now blocked access to blogs, particularly those which are hosted by Typepad, Blogspot, Blogger, LiveJournal or MySpace.  OK, so I understand about the social networking sites, I really do.  But the blogs?  What possible harm can there be from reading about Felicity & her ongoing adventure in the Kimberley?  What damage can Sharon Lee & Steve Miller possibly do to a huge filthy rich multi-national August Institution?   I'm cross, gentle readers, very cross.


Of course, my cross-ness may have something to do with the 51 hours I worked there last week, but then again, perhaps not.  I might just be a cross person who's found something new to whinge about, but I don't think so.  I like to think I'm generally upbeat & cheerful, but I'll admit to being quite vocal if I'm unhappy about something.  I am not like a lot of Aussies who will suffer stoically, internalising all rage and taking it all out on the cat/dog/child/spouse/ colleagues/opposition leader/football referees.  Really.  No, really.


Anyway, on a happier note, these were waiting for me when I got home - I love to come home to a parcel of fabric on the doorstep!

And the second best thing about buying from Japan?  6 days turnaround.  Fabulous!  When I've made something gorgeous with this, I'll post some pictures.  Honest.

And now, gentle reader, I am going off to the Small But Perfectly Formed room to finish the pouches for my WMIL*.

And I have news, exciting news, but I can't tell you yet.  Although, given that where I work has blocked access to blogs, maybe I can**!

*Wonderful Mother-In-Law

**I'm moving to work in the City!  Shhhh!

Spending the day in your pyjamas is...

very enjoyable, actually.  Sunday, it was cold & rainy.  Fascinating details of my day follow, so you may want to tune out here & come back some other time...


I got up early (7.00am), had breakfast, read Saturday's paper, did a bit of pottering to clean up from Saturday night's dinner with Nephew (and friend), went back to bed & read a bit, then got up again & tidied the Small But Perfectly Formed room - there's a limit to the amount of mess I can stand, y'know?  I can live with it for a while, but then, BAM!  I have to clean up.  I bought a bunch of magazine boxes (what are those things actually called, anyway?) from Ikea a while ago & started to sift through the two large piles of magazines on the living room floor, I moved all the crap off my sewing table, I even shifted some fabric around to make room here and there for the accumulated Holiday treasure...


Then I sewed.  I made the previously discussed pouch for Miss Jerry, using this from here:

And this, from here:

with a co-ordinating blue zip, and blue ribbon, just to keep it from being too 'dark'.  She's only seven!

And then I took it to work for the lovely buyer, without taking any photos.  Oh well, you get the idea.

I also cut out two flat pouches from this, which I love:

 oh, now, see, blogger is doing that stupid thing again where it won't put the pictures in the middle.  I hate this. 

Anyway, I'm lining the pouches with this, from here:

, which, amazingly, is the exact colour of the turquoise on the linen.  Nice, huh?  Pictures, I promise. 

And now, gentle readers, because it is 2.57AM, and I have to be up at 5.30AM, I'm going back to bed, for another attempt at sleep.  Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye... 

Yipeee!

It's raining!  That means... sewing tomorrow!


I've got some orders, two flat pouches for my lovely WMIL*, and my friend Yvette wants a pouch for her young friend Jerry, as in "Tom and...", with her name on it - she's seven, and apparently much absorbed by co-ordinating her little seven-year-old wardrobe - so much pink and black has been called for, with loud and lairy lining.


So... I'm going to dig into the stash, and see what I can find.  Shouldn't be too hard... remember this?  I bought it just before we went away...

or...

or...

and for Miss Jerry...

 or   ??????

Have a great one, Gentle Readers...

*Wonderful Mother-In-Law

Crap!

Shoulda guessed it wouldn't last, shouldn't I?  I've been doing the commute, you know, out to the arse-end of nowhere every day, leaving home at 6.30am, waiting for the bus, getting to the office between 8.00am & 9.00am, and leaving bang on the dot of 4.20pm, because I have to get the bus - ha!  It's been fantastic.  There's a nice man who drives us, seats, warmth, music (yesterday we had one of my favourites, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue) and good conversation with the man next to me who has an uncanny resemblance to Uncle Fester, (but I don't have the heart to ask if he's part of the Addams family...)

Anyway, as part of my punishment for having a holiday (that's a joke, I think!), I've been given oversight on a project which has been running for about a year, has had several project managers, is running massively late, and overbudget, has at least 66 major changes needed to get it into line with what was originally requested, and only two under-resourced and overworked BA's.

So, today, I drove to work, arriving at 7.15am, and left tonight at 7.11pm.  Knew it wouldn't last....

Oh, all right then...

The lovely AJ who frequently comments on my blog (so nice to know somebody else is out there...) as "A Peppermint Penguin" has begged, nay, implored me, to reveal what I actually bought in the fabulous Bassetti Tessuti shop in Rome... as she is a discerning woman of some refinement, how could I refuse?


Just a word of warning - if you aren't a fabric maven, or have even a slight interest in fabric, you might want to go away and come back another day...


So, here goes...


The gorgeous lilac silk jersey, next to an envelope so you can see the colour - I just realised it's exactly the colour of my kitchen cupboards!

A large remnant of shirting, 100% cotton, with gorgeous pique stripes and a tiny weeny darker stripe on either side, just to give the white stripes some oooomph...

The palest of pale lilac shirting, in a really fine pique.  Very soft.

A kind of weird choice, really, neither vibrant nor traditional... but I liked the colours - it's a sort of rough cotton, I don't really know what the name of it is.  Just enough for crafty things, I think.  I don't think I'd be seen dead wearing it!

And then, shirting in a really pale pink herringbone, excuse the shadow in the bottom of the picture...

Also a crafty choice - it had such a '60's look I couldn't resist - I'm sure my mother had a dress made of this in about 1964...

And then, a lovely crisp cotton, a bit heavier than shirting, with a sort of Japanese-y feel to it... I have no idea what I'm going to do with this!

And then, just a tad more shirting, in a pale pink, with a nice white square (is that, strictly speaking, a check?  I need to check my Fairchild's Dictionary of Fashion, I think.

And finally, the piece de resistance, or 'piatta forte', which Babelfish tells me is the correct interpretation of the French, the Houndstooth silk:

You can see from this that it's actually black and cream, not black and white - but it is still gorgeous!


Sadly, that's it.  If I'd only had more time, a shipping crate, another ten credit cards and a more willing husband, then I could have bought more, so some of you are probably quite pleased I had none of those things.  


Me, I'm already thinking about my next trip, and how I can survive a month in Europe with only 2 days worth of clothes to make extra room in my suitcase!!!