That list...

1.  Pouch for Anne-Marie (18 months ago) (Anne-Marie retired before I got to this.  For SHAME!)
2.  Cushions for Mr Golightly's Big Sis (17 months ago) (Still waiting).
3.  Cushions for Lyndsey (6 months ago)   Finished (finally) & waiting to be handed over for her birthday.  Yay!
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)  No change.
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.  No change.
11.  Christmas Gift for Gill in the UK.  Not even started.  No change, nearly two years later.  I'm sure I'll manage something this year!
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).  Baby is now 2 plus.  Oops.
14.  Kris Kringle gift for friend at lunch on Sunday*.  Lavender bags X 3.  Time?  20 minutes.  Easy.

I think I need a new list.  

It's 4.24am, Gentle Readers, and my brain is churning.  I dug out this old entry from December 2011 & I'm sorry to report that its the same colleague who's giving me grief.  Some things never change.  

I'm considering making a quilt for my nephew & his lovely wife (oh!  Did I mention there was a wedding in the midst of everything else that went on this year?  I'm sure I'll be ready to share more details later.  Really).  I just ordered this to go in the middle of the squares of the quilt - it's all made from Japanese cottons, and it needed something a bit ... lively... for the middles.  We'll see.  And here's one I made earlier:

All the quilters who read this blog (ha!) will be exclaiming about the terrible join in the border.  I know, I know.  At least I hand-stitched the binding on.  

Now.  Back to bed.

PS Why???? Blogger, Why?  Arggggg

So... what's it been like, then?

So, I took the posts down about Mum dying because I read what Jane Brocket had to say about her mother dying, and I thought, "you know what?  I don't want to dump my sadness on everybody who pops along here for a dose of sewing, cheer and grammar."  I did think that, honest.  Well, maybe not quite like that, but something along those lines.

But then I thought, maybe the Gentle Readers will enjoy hearing about what's been happening at Casa Golightly whilst I've away.  So here it is...

December:

 Sitting on the work desk of the Uncle of the lucky recipient & in the organza bag, which is why she looks a bit weird.  Apparently Miss Three went ape & is still carting it round with her, nearly a year later.

A Christmas Reindeer for MBF Deb, which I is made from Dr Seuss fabrics I found somewhere & wished I bought more of!

Christmas themed reindeer which the lovely Kerry at Rapport Beauty Therapists in Newport let me put in her shop window.  Needless to say, they sold!

And finally:

I didn't actually make the one on the right, but the one on the left was a "Hey it's a baby" gift from me to one of my team...  Not traditional baby colours, but there's a bit of Danish blood in there, so red & white was it!

February:

This is Spot The Rabbit, which is a bit of an unfortunate pun here in Oz at the minute, as we're starting to see those pesky little buggers make their presence felt on the land again - this one was meant to be the mascot for the Project I was working on, but some stuff happened & he's ended up on the desk of one of the really really nerdy people.  Oh well..  I'm sure he's loved... maybe.

Bunting for the USA - a lovely lady ordered two lots for her nephews & I had a lot of fun finding fabrics I thought small boys might like - her feedback was "it was perfect", so I guess we hit the spot...

March:

The order was for some funky fridge magnets for the friend of someone I was working with - apparently they were also a hit (would anybody tell me if they thought it was crap, do you think?)

Then MGF Kaz ordered an elephant for Miss Camilla, the latest addition to the great-nieces & nephews... very cute indeed, and that led to an order from Miss Grace for five more elephants, for various friends and relations - and did I take photos?  Like bloomin' 'eck (that means "no"...).. they were pretty cute though.

Nearly as cute as these guys - I made them for Easter - I mean really, who needs more rabbits?  Miss Kerry at Rapport was kind enough again to let me put them in the window... and they sold.  Any ideas what the collective noun for platypusses/platypi is?  Me neither...

Then, for the June long weekend, where we celebrate the Queen of Australia's Official Birthday, we went to the Hunter Valley to stay with OGF's K&A, and Kaz & I had a lot of fun making magnets...

July

Then we got word that Mr Golightly's great-nephew, IPL, had some kind of pox, and a soothing green elephant was called for...

Which led directly to a Pink Elephant (and a truly terrible photo!).

And there's been other stuff, like the dolly I made yesterday for Miss Alix's gorgeous daughter Anastasia, but completely failed to photograph, some pouches, some lavender bags, and a very poorly filled box of stuff for the market stall I was going to attempt in September or October ... this year.  Not looking very likely now.

In other truly exciting news, I found Chipotle in Adobo Sauce in my local(ish) deli & I'm thinking now would be a good time for fish tacos.  Thoughts?

Oiling the rusty gates, brushing off the cobwebs...

Yes, Gentle Readers, I'm working my way back into this blog... stay tuned for more, same bat time, same bat channel.  And here's one I prepared earlier, to help you on your way...

4.53am

So, Gentle Readers, here we are again.  4.53am, a big day in front of me and the elusiveness of sleep running round in my head like a trainwreck waiting to happen.

In happier news, the very lovely Miss Blue Lambb sent me a photo of the huge success that was the eReader cover:

Edited to add:  Found it on my tablet.  Told you it was worth waiting for, didn't I?

Yes, it's somewhere in the ether.  Either on my tablet, my phone or at work.  It looked really good though.  Honest.

What else?  The chair progresses, slowly, presumably the threat of being covered in lighter fluid and set on fire has spurred me on to being close to finishing the damn' thing:

Don't get too excited, it's only pinned.  Next week, all things being equal, I will hand stitch the top on, then staple the underneath, then cover that with calico, and then I will cover it with lighter fluid and set fire to it.  Just kidding.  I think.

In news of slightly less exciting-ness, I'm off to Perth tonight, on the good old 1750 QF587, and Mr Golightly is following on Friday.  Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me, Gentle Readers, as we deal with medical madness once more.

And now?  Breakfast, I think.  (And in case you were thinking you had it all under control, here's something to consider - 2 months today is Christmas Day.  Yeehaw.)

Ciao!

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!