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. 

That list again...

For those intrepid Gentle Readers still checking in to see if I'm alive, the rewards are all here.  An update on the list, a small exposition on the prospect of breaking rules now that I've turned *gasp* 50, and some gratuitous photographs.  What more could you ask for?


List Update:


1.  Pouch for Anne-Marie (18 months ago)
2.  Cushions for Mr Golightly's Big Sis (17 months ago)
3.  Cushions for Lyndsey (6 months ago)
4.  Seat covers for Mrs Autrey (at least 9 months ago) Finished, just waiting for the Post Office to re-open.
5.  Dog for Effie in Canada (only Monday) Cheated just slightly & sent her nephew the one featured on the blog.  Hope she doesn't mind!
6.  Pouch for MBF's children's piano teacher (3 months ago) Let off the hook, she'd forgotten too & bought something.
7.  Pouch for MBF's children's dance teacher (ditto)
8.  Cushion for MGF Kaz (who knows, so long ago I've forgotten)
9.  Dolls for the children of people in my team (2 months ago). Finished, see previous blog post.
10.  Christmas Scarf for Clare in the UK.  Started but nowhere near ready.
11.  Christmas Gift for Gill in the UK.  Not even started.
12.  Welcome gift for Mrs Autrey's baby (knitted but not wrapped or posted).  Wrapped & waiting for the post office to open.
13.  Welcome gift for Clare's baby (not even started).
14.  Kris Kringle gift for friend at lunch on Sunday*.  Lavender bags X 3.  Time?  20 minutes.  Easy.


Wow.  See what you can produce if you don't have to go to work, Gentle Readers?  Although I've now been off for 11 days, it doesn't feel like I've achieved much, although I have sorted out a bunch of stuff which is going into the roof pending the re-opening of the local high school - apparently they're always looking for dressmaking fabric, and I have a bunch of stuff which is not good enough to keep, and certainly not bad enough to put in the recycling... so come February, that's where it's going.

School holidays, I hear you ask?  February?  For those Gentle Readers who live in the other half of the planet, I'm in the other other half.  This is the half where it's summer right now, albeit cold & rainy, and school holidays start towards mid-December and run until the end of January.  Just like you up there, we make our kids go to school when it's cold & wet :-))


In other news of no relevance, I had a birthday.  It ended in a zero.  I'm now officially middle-aged, although I quite like Cordelia Naismith's* version of middle age, which is "always 10 years older than you are".

That's what's left of my surprise dessert croquembouche, with vanilla bean ice-cream.  It was delicious, and having the whole restaurant singing along to "Happy Birthday" was lovely - it's a bit of a tradition in our local Italian Restaurant, everybody sings when a sparkler-encrusted dessert item wends its way out of the kitchen - that way we all get to join in the fun, if not the food.


Sadly, I had to drive home, so my intake of a fabulous Shiraz from 2003 was somewhat limited - it's sitting in a cool dark place waiting for another opportunity... which will be tonight, when we're zipping up to MBF's house for pizza - is it a crime against wine to drink a Gold Medal winning wine with pizza?  Hey, now that I'm 50, I'm breaking all the rules, not just the wine rules. White wine with beef, red wine with pizza, socks with sandals, sling-back heels with panty hose, high heels with trousers that are too short, sock with heels, black bras under white shirts, showing my bra straps... wow, can't you tell I'm old?  When I was a teenager (last century, no less), you were a real moll if you let your straps show.  Phew.  


Anyway, I'm going to put my lederhosen and wig on now, and go & watch India and Australia in the cricket.  Nicely multicultural, that's me.  Ciao!

*copyright Lois McMaster Bujold, some time ago.

Aliens amongst us...

All lined up ready to go... and then.... gone!  I hope you all had a fabulously festive day yesterday, with lots of food, drink and loved ones... we certainly did.

Ciao!

Don't look too closely, but...

It's 11.47am on Saturday & I'm sitting down to write a blog post.  I woke at 5.50am, got up & had breakfast then fiddled with my phone for about an hour (no wonder my data download bill was so high in November!), then I crawled back into bed to warm my cold feet on Mr Golightly's lovely warm calves, and slept until 8.15, when I crawled back out, threw on clothes & helped Mr Golightly load the industrial overlocker (which we acquired at the same time as the industrial sewing machine) into Mr Jared's van.  Mr Jared does upholstery school with me, and he's very good.  


Anyway, I've got one of the seat covers I foolishly offered to make in June for Miss Alix in London still to make.  That's a hell of a sentence, isn't it?  I had a bit of a mental block with the second one, didn't seem to matter what I did I couldn't get it to fit.  Anyway, I skipped out of the work Christmas Party to come home & get it fixed, which I did... and now I have one left to make.  


I've made a Christmas doorstop for the lovely lady at the Beautician, along with cutting out a bunch of dollies, which I'm trying to make for the children of people I work with,  and I'm going to spend all of tomorrow making them.  


And since then, Gentle Readers, I've had a nap, a night's sleep, an excellent roast beef dinner at MBF's house, scrambled eggs & bacon for breakfast with two excellent cups of coffee (thank you Bilgola Deli) and have finished both the last seat cushion cover (yay!) and three dollies. 


I realised when I was about to make the fourth one that the work christmas party is not on until the 23rd, and although I don't have to go, I am on holidays & can drop off the dollies then, which means I can also make enough for all the children - I got up to identifying seven  (Jackson, Joshua, Zoe, Abbey, Chloe, Charlie & Charlie's sibling) and my bosses two kids who are a fair bit older... and then I went... phew.  I can't do all this tonight, so next week (when I've got some time off) I can throw myself into it.


Here's some pictures of the effort so far:

Notice they're all a bit... odd?  Some are odder than others, which is all good.  They're all made form the same pattern but with different scraps from the scrap box.  Nothing new was cut up to make these guys... except maybe some rik-rak.  I like.  I'm thinking of offering for sale, maybe if I open my shop again next year.  Price indicators, anyone?


Ciao!

The list...

This is the time of year when people make lists.  Most people make lists of things they'd like for the Festivals that abound at the end of the year... some people, like me, make lists of the things they haven't done yet, and that they really really need to do before the end of another set of opportunities (read "year") flies by.  


So, in the interests of depressing myself even further, here is my list, along with some indication of when I said I would deliver.


1.  Pouch for Anne-Marie (18 months ago)
2.  Cushions for Mr Golightly's Big Sis (17 months ago)
3.  Cushions for Lyndsey (6 months ago)
4.  Seat covers for Mrs Autrey (at least 9 months ago)
5.  Dog for Effie in Canada (only Monday)
6.  Pouch for MBF's children's piano teacher (3 months ago)
7.  Pouch for MBF's children's dance teacher (ditto)
8.  Cushion for MGF Kaz (who knows, so long ago I've forgotten)
9.  Dolls for the children of people in my team (2 months ago).
10.  Christmas Scarf for Clare in the UK.
11.  Christmas Gift for Gill in the UK.
12.  Welcome gift for Mrs Autrey's baby (knitted but not wrapped or posted).
13.  Welcome gift for Clare's baby (not even started).
14.  Kris Kringle gift for friend at lunch on Sunday*.


I'm sure there's more.  I'm beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed by all this.  I need to stop doing a few things, and spend more time actually sitting down at the sewing machine, rather than in the coffee shop.  Tomorrow would have been a perfect day to do this, being Saturday and all, but here's the schedule:


8.00am - haircut & colour in Newport.
10.30am - drive to Dee Why for x-ray of jaw.
11.00am - xray of jaw.
11.15am - drive home.  Go up to MBF's house to belatedly help with Birthday decorations for Miss Nelly's birthday party.
12noon - Madly wrap presents before Nephew arrives for Birthday Lunch at the Arms.
3.00pm - home to start on next round of sewing (see items in list above for a clue which one I'll be doing first - *pick me*) - any suggestions as to what I can make the friend?  Quickest and easiest is jumbo lavender bags...


The chair continues apace, but I was one day short of finishing it.  The front border is on though:

and all that remains is the two outside arms, the piping (all 1.68m of it) and the back, which has to be handstitched into place.  Guess I'll be going back next year after all.  Actually, Lucas, the fabulous night-class teacher was very encouraging & suggested I enroll, then at least if I do want to carry on after I finish this chair, I can turn up from time to time with projects and work on them at my own speed.   I like the sound of that.


And now, Gentle readers, it is 01.04am, and I have to be up at 0700 to prepare for another long day, so I am going to leave you with the pictures of the first two children's softies I made, which went to a very good home:

See?  There are aliens among us.


Ciao!

Squinty-eyed but gorgeous

Some interesting things have happened in my life since I last dumped on you, Gentle Readers, including something that has made me question the sanity of my decision to return to work at the August Institution.  


In other news, my lovely MIL tripped & fell off her platform stilettos*, spent 2 days in hospital, acquired some cracker bruises to go with the broken nose, fractured wrist, and dislocated & damaged thumb.

A good friend's mother died, and lastly, a piece of good news, my lovely friend Clare Carter, of Lulu Carter fame, had her baby!  Yay Clare & Ashley!


In amongst all this, I did not go to Upholstery School, despite being off on Tuesday.  Nor did I go tonight, which I probably should have done, because I didn't go last week (Mr G & I both having the day at home to keep an eye on his poor battered mother, and although Mr Golightly was going to have dinner with his lovely Ma, and I could have gone to upholstery school tonight, I wanted some time in the house with no noise.


I'm sure I've alluded to this before.  Mr G likes TV.  He likes movies, wrestling, the cricket, game shows, the news.  He would watch paint dry if it was on TV.  I, myself, am not so keen.  I lived by myself for a number of years with no TV and never missed it.  I may have spent a little time talking to myself, but generally, I like the sound you get between your ears when there's nobody in the house but you.  Especially on a night like tonight, when it's raining, and you can hear the drops hitting the roof.  At least, I hope that's what it is.


Anyway, tonight I did a bit of work on the Christmas Gifts I'm making for people in my team who have young children - I think there's about seven or eight of them (kids, not team members), and I've started making a bunch of these:

Some Gentle Readers who have been curious enough may have seen previous iterations of the pooch, including this one:

which I made for Nephew E's friend Lachie, and this one:

Which I made for MGF Kaz's niece Sharlene, and finally, Elliot:

So cute.  


Anyway, it's 10.32pm now, and even though I haven't imparted much by way of news and information (apart from the "Battle Murder and Sudden Death" at the top of this little missive, I feel my eyelids starting to droop, and I must away, away to my bed.  Besides that, there's a huge spider on the wall behind me, and although I'm not scared, per se, of spiders, I don't always want to share the room with one.  Especially when they go like the clappers and can run up your arm & up your nose before you can say "what spider?"...


Ciao!


*Actually, they were more like this:

I've figured it out!

What happens is that I can only write blog posts in the study, on the big laptop.  I can't write them in bed, on the lounge, sitting in the sun or anywhere else on the small laptop, because the keyboard is too small, and the words don't come out right.  So... I can only write blog posts when I can sit down, uninterrupted by life, the universe and Mr Golightly, and use the laptop in our dedicated study room.  This room started its life as our bedroom, when we first bought the house, but it has since lost about 1.5 metres off its width to the hall, and is the perfect size for a study.  Along with several hundred books, a couple of thousand dvds/cds and a large pile of miscellaneous junk, artistically arranged across several shelves, that is.  Ghod help us if the archeologists ever get in here.


Anyway, I digress. The point of that useless little story is to confess why I don't post more regularly, such as every Sunday night, when I'm slumped on the lounge watching crap on TV, thinking "I could be writing a blog post about now".  It's because this machine is too heavy to sit on my lap, and so I would have to leave behind Mr Golightly's excellent company, the warmth of the fire (yes, Gentle Readers, even in November it's been cold enough to have the fire on) and the noise of whatever is numbing our minds at the moment... and so I don't.


However, I have been sewing today, and so have snuck in here to put pictures of my work into the shop, and the lightbulb went on!  Aha!  Quick, get a post written before you get dragged out of here & into the slothly pit that is the living room.


Here's the pouches:

Beautiful lining by Robert Kaufman, called 'Tea Time', and nice thick Japanese linen for the outside.  I appliqued the small teapot on the front for the finishing touch:

And the other one, in one of my favourites, the shot red linen:

Lined with some beautiful Momo Wonderland, now sadly out of print & very precious!

I hope Mrs Pudding likes these - they are for the children's Teachers, so if you're one of them, stop reading 5 minutes ago.

In other news, the chair progresses, slowly... I have coconut fibre-d, 

Stitched all that down neatly:

Learnt how to do a stitched edge (from the Child Minder, no less!)

and added half a basket of flock to the top of the chair - and my sinuses kindly waited until yesterday before playing up.  I look a bit panda-like today, dark rings round the eyes, but I feel much better than yesterday, when (once again), I didn't get out of bed until 3.00pm, but this time it was just the woolly head, not exhaustion.

But, here is the chair!

This week, calico, and much, much, much thumping with a mallet.  Pray for me to your gods, Gentle Readers, for I fear the return of the Tennis Elbow.

In other news, I've discovered Words with Friends, and I now have five games on the go at once.  It's keeping my brain going, that's for sure, and I just spent the huge sum of $1.33 on Doodlefit, which I'm going to go & play right now!

Ciao!