I'm not going to get too sentimental...

like those other sticky valentines... okay, so it's not a song title, but it is a line from a great song.. and it was a lovely day - Friday was our 16th wedding anniversary, which is amazing, really. We've beaten both our married and subsequently divcorced siblings, but I don't think we'll ever catch up to MWH's parents, who were married in 1955, and who lasted 49 years before my lovely FIL gave up the fight against Alzheimers disease..

MWH surprised me, too. He, who isn't normally given to moments of spontaneity, had organised a surprise night in the hotel where we spent our wedding night, which was lovely. For dinner, we went to the Italian Restaurant we've been going to before we even were a couple, run by another advertisement for marriage. Dad waits at table, Mum cooks & number 3 son splits his time between the kitchen & the restaurant, depending on how busy they are. Lovely, fresh and generous - that Nocello bottle made a couple of visits to our table and I had a slight headache yesterday morning, but it was worth it!

The view from the balcony was gorgeous, too...

And because Friday should have been a wholly happy day, today I feel a bit like I should take down the rant about the injustices of large corporations taking advantage of their workers, but one of my fellow DUSTers, Sayraphim, obviously felt the same way! Check out her shop in Etsy, she does beautiful work - and she made this for me as part of our February Craft Swap - I've named him Captain, for reasons which the older readers amongst you may find moderately amusing... and because I was so thrilled by the Captain, I've made her some lavender pyramids as a small 'thanks!', also pictured here. Hope she doesn't read this before they arrive on her doorstep!

Also good news, the last of the pouches I made for the Oz Bushfire Appeal Shop on Etsy has sold, to another person in Georgia, USA. Two to the States, one to Mexico & one to Grose Wold. Wonderful. I'm thinking of making more... maybe... I'm loving making the box pouches, and the flat ones, and I just sent my Mum the links to the tutorials that helped me get started - I'm thinking now I should make a tutorial about lining the box pouches, seeing as I haven't found one anywhere on the 'net & had to figure it out myself... any takers?

Working for the man...

Sorry, but is it me, or is it completely unrealistic of an employer to give you so much work that you have to stay there until midnight and regularly work seven days a week to finish something? And if you do that, are you creating a monster and making it really hard for the rest of your colleagues? Australians work more unpaid overtime than any other nation, apparently. I think it's indefensible that an organisation which can make billions of dollars profit can happily squeeze 60 or so hours a week out of somebody without paying them a red cent to do so. Unconscionable. Unethical, unprincipled, immoral. And don't give me that line about "we're paying you above-market rates so you should be fine with working a few more hours...", it's just another way of saying "we're bloodsucking leeches and we're going to squeeze every free minute out of you that we can".

When I was in my 20's, I had a job like that in a small organisation owned by 2 guys - and I wasn't making huge money here, less than $20k a year, if memory serves. These guys didn't pay overtime, they didn't pay leave loading, there were no meal allowances, and no taxis home [note here for non-Aussie readers - leave loading is something you are paid by your employer as a 'thanks for going on holidays' bonus, it's 17.5% on top of your salary & the reasons for it are lost in the mists of time, but suffice it to say, pretty much everybody gets it], they were pretty much in the 'you should be grateful to us for giving you a job' kind of employment space, rather than the "we're an equal partnership & we can't survive without each other" space I have experienced elsewhere.

I regularly worked 10 or 12 hours a day for these guys, for nothing. I gave up my Saturdays, and I even worked until 2.00am once trying to finish something. And for what? Nothing. I came to my senses and left, and they said "thanks for coming", and carried on. I could have dropped dead and they would have just kept going. So why, why, why, even in this "harsh economic climate" do employers think it's okay to expect that people will just give up their lives, for no return? The irony of it is that they proclaim they are "family friendly", and that the 'work/life balance' is really important to them. Hah! Bah humbug, I say. I refuse pointblank to do it anymore. If it means I don't get a bonus, so be it. I'd rather have a life.

On a much happier note, my lovely DSSIL* came to visit, and she brought Chloe with her, and so I was able to take a photo... she also ordered a dog from McCalls Craft M4893, some jumbo lavender pyramids, and three toilet bags, one in the box pouch style & two in the flat bottom 'toilette' bag style, so now I have no spare time... but I've started on the order already.. at least the pyramids are quick to make!

*defacto step-sister-in-law

Remember my name, fame...

I'm gonna live forever, I'm gonna learn how to fly (high)... or something. I have never watched that movie, right up there with Thelma and Louise, and Pulp Fiction. Apparently this makes me some kind of social misfit, but I'm coping, trust me. The McVities Ginger Nuts are helping me cope... There's a couple of shops in the city called "Sweet Treats from Home" [I just had an ABC kind of moment, as in "Should I be doing advertising here?", and then I realised, "it's my party, I can cry if I want to..." or, I can say what I like without worrying about the perception of impartiality. If people don't like it, they don't have to read this... so...] and these shops sell food, drinks, some household items such as, get this, Fairy Liquid, and of course, McVities Biscuits, all from the UK and Ireland. I love McVities Plain Chocolate Digestives, which in the hemisphere I live in, is actually 'dark' chocolate. We can get those in the supermarket, mostly, but the Ginger Nuts are harder to come by. They are so good... dunked in tea, milk, old fashioned lemonade.. not so great in coffee, but still great to eat on their own. Yum.

Anyway, surprisingly, I have digressed... Oh yes, social misfittedness. No, Fame! That was it! One of my photographs has been selected to go into something called Schmap, which is an "online digital travel guide"... apparently they don't pay you, but you get kudos and people all over the world get to see your photos. There's a widget too, apparently, but I'm not going to include it - all the photos on my flickr page are shown on this blog anyway, under the "My World' thingy - the one that Schmap is including is right in there... so, small moment of Fame...

Other news: I've just made 3 more pouches, 2 for gifts & one more for the WMIL's easter gift parade, only 4 more to go for that. The gifts are for two of my favorite people who have February Birthdays, and although I had the gifts in good time, it's just taken a bit longer to get the pouches organised. I've fallen into a bit of analysis paralysis, where I can't make anything because I can't choose which fabric to use. On a brighter note, I have almost finished moving stuff from big boxes into smaller boxes, only the huge upholstery, curtain and remnant box to go.

How excited am I about doing that one? Not at all, really, but it's got to be done, then we can sacrifice the large, ugly, ungainly shelving unit to the garage, and my small but perfectly formed sewing room will look a lot bigger. Isn't it weird? MWH has built an L-shaped unit, with four low shelves & six high, and although it's taller, and wider, it makes the room look bigger. Maybe because it isn't that terrible orangey-red colour the other one went (we did stain & varnish it about 15 years ago, and I'm sure it wasn't quite so foul then, so I'm blaming the colour change on the varnish...) but rather a nice neutral pine colour.

Anyway, the other nice news is that my lovel DSSIL is coming for a visit tomorrow, to pick up her froggie, and to have a quick lesson on the sewing machine I'm gifting her - much fun ensuing tomorrow, and hopefully lots of fun sewing, and no dithering about which fabric to use... I've just ordered this, too, which I think is gorgeous, so we'll see what comes of it... maybe some birdies... maybe...

Message in a bottle

I was going to forgo the musical theme (what, you thought it was all a coincidence?) tonight because I've had two glasses of wine (normally I don't drink during the week) and didn't think I'd be able to come up with anything witty, but hey, Crowded House is always good. Ooops. I think it was Split Enz. See, I've had a glass of wine.

Anyway, for those who care, an update on the raffle - we've had so many neat donations that I'm now embarrassed & need to run around selling tickets like mad to make sure people win all the stuff! Thank you everybody : -)))

Sewing news - well, MWH worked late, really late, last night, and I made a box pouch, instead of having dinner, then I had a bowl of cerel at 10.00pm. See, having no kids means you can eat what you like when you like. Then I woke up in the middle of the night telling MWH that I knew how the guy was doing it [doing what?] but I just didn't know how - apparently I was convinced somebody was spying on us through the light fittings, and no, she says, pouring scorn on HWH, it wasn't an alien, it was a real guy... and no, I'm not asleep. Zzzzz. Wow. Weird or what? I remembered doing it this morning but not what triggered it.

Actually, I do know what caused this one - I was watching Stargate, the episode where Daniel is being interrogated by Osiris in his sleep & they capture her & remove the go'auld - I fell asleep in the middle of the episode & obviously it decided to play out in my subconscious...

When I was doing the last semester of my IT Diploma I used to sleepwalk downstairs to the front door & check it was shut. This was somewhat different but not hugely - stress is the trigger for me - and if the current project keeps going the way it has been, I may be doing the ironing whilst asleep before I know it... so if you hear of a house burning down because a woman was ironing whilst alseep, it's only me. Don't panic!

Remind me again

Why we're doing this? For this, in case you'd forgotten. So much fun, and they all have their own personalities. Sometimes it's really hard to send them away, and I miss the ones I didn't take pictures of - Miss Chloe, who is going to be the big sister of this guy, was one of those...

I'm sure, though, when I die, people are going to wade through my photo directory and go "what was she thinking?" ... but I don't care. It's creative, it's colourful, there's an amount of technical challenge, they smell nice, they have personality... what more could you ask?

Anyway, Miss Mandy, I admit I had my doubts about the colours being a bit dull, but sometimes it's nice to be wrong! Please let me know his name when he tells you.. I figure these guys are a bit like the dragons on Pern, who know their names when they hatch. Go, read, discover, worship at the altar of McCaffrey. She is probably a frog person too. Why wouldn't you be?

PS Anybody wanting their own froggie can contact me here.

And we'll have fun, fun, fun

Till they tell us to stop. Actually that's not how the song goes, but hey, you can't win them all. However, if you are lucky, you could work with me, and win this pair, which I made this afternoon. We're working on a plan to have 'fun at work', which imho is an oxy-moron. Now, I'm not saying you can't enjoy your job, and the company of the people you work with, but when management has to sit down & get everybody to think of ways to have fun, then you know you've got issues, man, serious issues.

Anyway, I was detomm (dumb enough to open my mouth), and suggested a raffle, with proceeds going to the bushfire appeal. So of course I get to organise it, collect the prizes, sell the tickets, hound people to buy the tickets, beg people to buy the tickets... actually I'm sure the purchasers are going to be very generous. The big cheese threw in a voucher for Red Balloon, which does a great job selling 'experiences', and somebody has anonymously donated a $50 Sanity Voucher (oh, that would be me... gotta put your money where your mouth is, after all), but until Friday, nothing else had turned up. Hopefully I will be inundated by donations tomorrow, and my small handmade contribution will go to a nice home!

Question for the panel - should I make more of these to sell? Upside - Easy to make, look fantastic, very useful - downside - market (well, Etsy, anyway) already has a bazillion of these for sale, people only need so many cosmetic/toilet bags (although the prototypes seem to be holding up nicely in my bathroom, that's for sure). Let me know what you think. Small prize available for the neatest, most correct entry.

Back to the small but perfectly formed room - MWH has just finished building me new shelves & I need to go & move things from really big bulky boxes into smaller boxes. I'm going to try & find some fabric to put on Etsy in a destash sale. Don't hold your breath!

Feelin' groovy....

Well, not quite. I still haven't quite recovered from my [apparently] jetlag induced lethargy from my lightning trip to Melbourne last Friday - Melbourne, Melbourne, I love Melbourne. It's the closest thing to Europe we have here in this country, and I love it. I love the lanes, the fact that a person of the female gender, on their own, can go out for a nice meal, get a good table at the front of the restaurant where she can see the nice man playing the guitar, watch the nice people having their passeggiata, eat nice food and drink nice wine, and nobody bats an eyelid. Nobody hits on her, nobody bothers her, except the waiter to make sure she's got everything she needs, including the salad that wasn't on the menu but which they made specially for her... I love it. I left a fairly hefty tip, trust me.

I also did a spot of shopping whilst I was there, I gave in to my apparently re-growing devotion to all things red, and bought a nice light linen jacket with a very groovy shawl collar and three-quarter length sleeves, some seemingly randomly placed pieces of cotton twill tape for funk, and a thing at the back I can't think of the name of, that we last saw on safari suits and tweed jackets. Leave it with me, I'll dig out both editions of the my Fairchild's Dictionary of Fashion and look it up, or better yet, I'll ask my mother.

Her grandfather was a Master Tailor, and she'll know, because she knows all kinds of useful stuff like that. I saw a lounge suite (boy how old does that make me sound) at a garage sale once covered in some weird looking fabric which was part flat and part raised, in patterns, with the raised bit being made up of tiny weeny loops... she knew instantly I described it to her that it was called 'moquette'. Amazing. Even more amazing, she knew exactly what colour it was. Yucky olive green. Psychic powers or what?

I nearly succumbed to another red handbag, too, this morning - how many is too many? I already own five, four from Italy (Venice 1, Florence 1, Volterra 1, Rome 1) & one I got in the MLC Centre in Sydney, from the nice shoeshop man who is closing down very very soon - this newest one was very groovy, square, with links and a bar clasp going across the bag as the closure - it was also reversible, with camel coloured suede on the inside.. it was very nice, but my conscience stopped me... sadly.

In case you were going to say "Five handbags isn't many", That's five red ones. I own a bundle more than five... I was going to list them all but decided that probably isn't a good idea. I don't them trundling the guillotine into my front yard just yet, thanks.

Anyway, my wonderful mother-in-law (henceforth known as WMIL) has asked me to make 8 small pouches to give to her tapestry group for easter - she's going to fill them with eggs & a tiny chicken [toy], and then they can use them for whatever... and I've already made two, plus the two I made today trying to get the sizes right. These two are going up to Etsy for sale... if everybody isn't already pouched out. I sold my third Miss Muffett to a lady in Mexico, and there's only the orange one left. Didn't really think I'd sell that, but hey, it was worth a try. I'm delighted that I even had the opportunity to help the bushfire appeal by selling the ones I did. Anyway, pictures upcoming, and so, to bed. I can hardly keep my eyes open, which is, hopefully, a good sign!

Night night!