skulls versus skills

This post is brought to you by the letter 'E' for effort, 'S' for skill, 'H' for hours of work and 'R' for repeated goes at getting this bloody thing right...

A cover for an eReader was requested by the lovely Miss Blue Lambb - she wanted something that could be closed over the reader, with elastic straps for the reader to slot into - so...

A pair of fabric pieces stitched together with the elastic between then, then quilted onto the matching lining piece, then quilt the outside piece onto the quilted calico inner liner, then add in a magnetic clasp, then make a strap, adding in the other piece of the magnetic clasp, stitch that onto the back of the cover, then stitch the lining and outer cover together... turn it all outside, topstitch it all to close the turning hole and ...
voila!

Now.  Did I mention that I had to make it twice?  I cut it out to the size of the measurements Miss BlueLamb gave me, then realised that it would be too small once it was made - so I made a pouch for her out of the leftovers...

In other news of unparalleled excitement, I've given up my day off once a fortnight, and now I'm working one day a week from home - apparently... so far it's only happened once in the last two weeks, but I'm making damn sure it's going to happen from now on.  

One of my colleagues is making me a little crazy, but I'm working on that... and I've been getting a bit of sleep, which is nice - and given that my colleague is making me crazy, it's probably just as well.

And now, back to old episodes of The Guardian.  Ciao!

Morecombe, Mumbai, Malden

Well, hello there!  I love seeing the list of cities and countries that pop up down the bottom of my blog - it's actual proof that there is life on other planets... 

I've been busy doing the usual frack, working, driving, sleeping... and yet more sleeping.  I've booked in for a sleep study on Tuesday, after seeing the specialist.  Lovely man, probably the nicest doctor I've ever dealt with.  You know sometimes they can be arrogant pricks?  Not this one.  He took a comprehensive history of my sleeping habits, the increasing need to sleep at weird and wonderful times, and the constant tiredness.  Words like 'snoring', 'loud vigorous snoring' and 'snorting' were discussed, along with the couple of times in my life when I've woken up feeling completely paralysed - it's a weird feeling - apparently you're actually not awake, you just think you are.  

Anyway, the word 'narcolepsy' was eventually raised, along with the doctor's eyebrows, especially when he heard about me having to have sleep in the carpark before starting work (lucky for me it's an underground carpark) because I've barely been able to keep my eyes open on the drive in...

I try to go to be in bed by 10.00pm most nights, and the alarm used to go off at 0530, and I'd be out the door by 0630.  Now, I can't even wake up till about 0620, and sometimes I go back to sleep and wake up at 0700, meaning I don't get to work until 0900.  It sucks. 

In other exciting news, I made a 1600 Quilt - using the very beautiful Lumiere De Noel fabrics from moda - one of my favourites.  I've left it at My Lovely Ma's, because I'm avoiding the 20 year long tradition of Festival of the Boot at The Boxes, and I'm going back to Perth for another long weekend, leaving Poor Mr Golightly behind.    Mixed blessings, hey?

And now, Gentle Readers, it's time for bed.  Buona notte!

You naughty girl...

Well, here's a bit of news, Gentle Readers... I snuck out today (note:  it's the second Tuesday, so I'm not at work)... up to a purveyor of electrical goods, and run a covetous hand over the Asus Transformer Pad... and then I... bought one.

You know I've never had any luck with getting the Samsung Tab to work with Blogger, and yet, here we are, working away.  The Font & Size icons work just beautifully, but I can't out how to get a picture out of Google Images into the text yet... but I'm on it.

So.  Anybody want to buy my Samsung Tablet?  Going cheap!

Ciao!

Third time is enemy action...

On Tuesdays once a fortnight, I don't go to work.  I stay at home, and do stuff like this:

Ah, perfect day.  A second visit to the Doctor, lunch with my lovely MIL, sewing, putting the bins out, finding my wallet, tube of mascara, phone case and a knitting needle under the passenger seat in the car, buying dinner, proofreading a story written by Master H, a spot of Spooks (season 8, Mr Golightly being somewhat behindhand with his viewing) and then some knitting.

Tomorrow I have to go back to the August Institution, even though my lovely Dottoressa* gave me another two days off to deal with the lingering lurgy, and I will be finishing the performance reviews for my team.  That's the only reason I'm going in, really.  Otherwise I could be at home making more elephants.

I wish.

Ciao!

"...Twice is co-incidence..."

I had no idea Ian Fleming said that whole thing - I do love it, I have to say, having first read it in a book by one of my favourite authors, Lois McMaster Bujold.  The whole saying goes "First time is happenstance, second time is co-incidence, third time is enemy action".  Lying here in bed with my second bout of the nasty for this year makes me wonder if this little maxim applies to me... and then I started wondering what a maxim actually was...

You see, Gentle Readers, where my brain takes me when I'm ill?  Into the weird and arcane world of words.  I was reading "My Grammar and I" the other night, loving the way it changed my view about "people who" and "things that", but supported my view about nouns of mass - "no amount of things here" - and wondering if that made me truly odd.  And then I thought "probably".  I've been firming up my vocabulary quite nicely by playing Wordfeud a bit, with a bunch of people, and I've used great words like 'thine' and 'sucre' and 'drib' and 'fart' and 'turd', so you can see it's not great works of academe... but it is improving.

Digressing (see?) somewhat, I've just been to see my lovely Dottoressa*, who's given me the rest of the week off - again.  Man.  The only way this could be any better is if I wasn't sick, so I could knit, write, sew, cook, clean.  Hey, let's not get carried away here...

My lovely Ma & Hank are off to Bali tomorrow morning at 6.00am (shudder) for 10 days of warmth and sun, MGF Kaz & Az are in Europe enjoying the last days of summer in England, then moving across to France, for Vintage, in Burgundy, no kidding.  Bastards, all of them.

In other news of huge importance, I took up the fantastic suggestion from The Peppermint Penguin and flicked over to Ravelry, where I probably haven't been for more than a year, to look for patterns for hats for little boys.  I found a couple of goodies:



http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/gooseberry-hat (free download)




http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/aston (free download)


http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/easy-peasy-newborn-sock-hat (free download)

I love Ravelry.  Such a nice feeling about a site where people are kind enough to share their patterns, no crap about "you can do this or that with them".  Even the patterns for sale are very reasonably priced - 

Even the one I bought today (for me, not the Bub) was only C$6.50.  That's almost unheard of here, where patterns, like yarn, are relatively expensive.  My favourite Filatura Di Crosa yarn is retailing at US$11.00 on the net, but we're being charged A$14.50/ball.  And the Aussie dollar is above the US Dollar.  Makes me mad... and our shops wonder why we don't buy from them anymore?

Off to the needles.  Ciao!



 *Doctor

Tempus fugits (Part III)

It's a sad, sad indictment of my life that I seem to be only able to find time to post when I'm at home sick.. which I am.  Again.  Sore throat, dry wheezy cough, sore ears, sore eyes.  Yesterday I felt a little off, and somebody kindly pointed out that the usual colour in my cheeks had highlighted itself to be ugly blotches, and my eyes were red and watery.  Ick.  

What's been happening?  I had a very pleasant outing with MBF to the Church Point churchyard (yes, that's why it's called Church Point, because there used to be a church as well as a churchyard) to take some pictures with Miss N & Master H... it wasn't particularly atmospheric, but terribly overgrown.  Such a shame...

I've bought bits and piece of fabrics...

Some of these are old favourites, some are a new adventure.  All gorgeous though...

And in exciting family news, Mr Golightly's middle niece, Miss Emma, has given birth to her first baby, a boy named Isaac Phillip, - a fantastic name, given that Mr Golightly's actual given name is Phillip - apparently it's a tribute to Mr Golightly's awesome uncle-ness.  Nice.  I've ordered some fantastic baby burp cloths:

and I'm looking to make a cot quilt in similar colours - eventually... And I've been sussing out the knitting patterns for babies, but interestingly, most of them seem to be targeted at girls.  I don't know if it's just my imagination, but they just all seem a bit fluffy.  Anyway, I've started knitting a rib tube, which is pretty cute, and I'll post a picture when it's finished - it has surfaced before, looking like this:

Much as I find knitting rib boring, it does make a very cute hat... 

I'm making a doorstop for Mr Golightly's lovely Ma, cut out and pieced, but gone no further...

Phew.  I just ran out of energy.  Back to bed.  Ciao!

Making it right...

Here's a record, Gentle Readers, three in one day.  What's the connection?  Not at work, I'm thinking, and therefore not knackered, and able to think of other things.  I even cooked dinner last night using fresh vegies.  Wow.


Anyway, you know that I might have been feeling just a tad, a really small tad, guilty about the purchase of the Singer Heavy Duty machine before I sold the Industrial machine, but then, on Sunday night (note:  still feeling crap, but I said I'd deliver, so I had to deliver), I got to use The Seaminator (maybe I should just call him Arnie, and the other one Danny?) to fix MBF Deb's work pants, and all my guilt fled.


I hate doing repairs, Gentle Readers, it's one of those things my mother drilled into me at a very young age - don't admit to being able to do repairs, or people will be bringing their crappy jeans from far and wide, and you'll never get to make anything you want to:

Anyway, Deb's lovely Ma, the gorgeous Clare, did a patch on this particular pair of crappy jeans some time ago, but it was starting to show its age... Could I help?  

Well, it was a good test of both my skill, and the capacity of the machine.  After a bit of thinking, I decided the safest way to do it would be to split the side seam, fix the patch, then restitch the side seam.  Easy!

Good as new.  That'll be $60, thanks.

That's it for now.  I can feel a nap coming on, before I get started on tonight's dinner, sausage and mash with pumpkin.  Mr Golightly doesn't know what's hit him.  

Ciao!