New boots and panties...

Don't ask why I've given this post that title, I have no idea myself.  Maybe because it's  pi**ing down outside, freezing cold and was pitch dark at 5.00pm.  This, Gentle Readers, is unusual for us.  Our winters are often balmy, dry, modest affairs, devoid of rain or wind.  Not this year.  We seem to have had more than our fair share of rain (note previous pics), interesting wind-type events, catastropic (sic) happenings (not to us, thank the goddess) all round.  I personally blame the Transit of Venus.  Interestingly, when I tried to type that just now, it came out as "the transit of venue".  Yeah, that too.  


The last time we had the Transit of Venue (sic) was in 1769, when James Cook travelled to the southern hemisphere and "discovered" Australia.  That's what I was taught, as a young whipper-snipper (sic) in my first heady encounter with Australian history at my first Australian school. Hmm.


I also had the windows cleaned today, so of course it rained.  The nice man comes by whenever you need him, by arrangement.  He cleans the screens, all the inside glass, up inside the skylights, the mirrors, and all the windows.  Well worth the money, I think.  I hate cleaning ... windows.  


In other news, we had a lovely weekend in the Hunter, spending a pair of days doing absolutely nothing.  There was some fabulous wildlife:

Some fantastic winter colour:

A smidgen of cloud:

And some fantastic iceberg roses:

Not to mention prawn and fresh asparagus pasta for Friday night dinner, delicious home made pizzas for Saturday night dinner, Farmers breakfast on Sunday morning, freshly made scones for morning tea, home made chicken and corn soup, and finally, spring rolls, all made from scratch by the chef of the house.  Isn't it strange how the rain brings out the creative thingy in some chefs, and the urge to eat it all, in some guests???

Now, back to the fridge!  


Ciao!

And then there were six...

I finished the last tree & then discovered that it wasn't quite big enough to be in the centre of the beautician's window - so I had to make another one, which I got the photocopier guy to make A2 size - then I had to make an emergency dash to the lovely ladies at Cottage Quiltworks to get some more fabrics, just in case.  This one is the same fabric front & back, but without the decorations - instead I just attached a bunch of bells, all over the tree & one on each branch - it's going to jingle every time the door opens, the breeze blows, the reindeer land on the roof...

I also helped My Best Friend's Kidlets to make some more fridge magnets, and I made a set for Christmas, which are in the shop:

the book is, somewhat ironically, Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol".  Deliberately chosen, of course... I have the whole set, which were a constant presence in the house when I was growing up.  They were originally published in the 1930's and they aren't worth very much, but I wouldn't part with them for all the money in the world.


What else?  I spent some quality time showing my WMIL* how to start a blog for her Strata Plan, we had a lovely family dinner to welcome back Mr Golightly's nephew & his partner from The Biggest Smoke (London) on Friday night, and I made a small pouch, also destined for the shop:

And now, Gentle Readers, the sound of the rain falling on my back roof is so loud that I can't think, so I'm going to trundle off to bed!


Ciao!

Blogger ate my post.... again

Man.  I am so annoyed.  I just wrote a brilliant post criticising (hey!  Four eyes!  Sorry, bad Optical pun for those in the know) the growth in grammar illiteracy that seems to be on the rise - why is it that so many people who write for the public (and by that I mean anybody who can get to the internet) have no idea what they're doing? - and blogger ate it.  I am so annoyed.  Oh yes, I just said that.


Probably just as well, it was getting a little righteous, but when I see "Bored of Sewing" used as a title for a blog which is probably read by gazillions of people, it just makes my blood boil.  Just because you sew or quilt or whatever for a living doesn't mean that you should appear to be ignorant to the rest of the world.


Don't even get me started on those people who can't get "number" versus "amount" right.  For those of you who care, it's simple:  Amount is for money and things that can't be counted, such as "rain", "snow", "air", "time".  Number is for things that can be counted, such as "50 mls of rain fell in less than an hour on Newport last night & my laundry roof is leaking", "52 inches of snow fell on Washington DC last night", "the average human consumes 1 cubic foot of air per minute", and "look at the time, I have to stop writing this shit".  Just kidding.


And did you notice that I used "who", for people, rather than "that"?  That's one of the other ones I hate.  It's right up there with people who can't get "it's" and "its" right.  It's soooo simple.  


Also, I know that there are a few people out there who are going to say "you started a sentence with "and"... well, at least the rest of it is grammatically correct, and so is the spelling*.  


Anyway, rant over.  I got this in the mail this week, from here, one of my favourite Etsy shops:

and I'm going to give it a try - I've never done Sashiko embroidery before, but I'm sure it'll fun - and I'll post a picture of the finished article...

and these: 

which are going in the 'do not cut' box, except that I want to make lovely Clare over at Lulu Carter a birthday present, and these are ideal...


And, (there she goes again...) if you're like me and you love 1930's fashion and music, hop over to Gerald Gee, who does the most amazing things with music & photo montages...


Now.  Back to the damp ceiling!






*All you people in the Americas - we don't use the 'z', just like you apparently don't use the toilet.

Rain rain go away

Well, actually, don't, but could you at least let me get the washing dry?  I've tumbled-dried sheets and towels, but some things I just refuse to put in the dryer (who doesn't remember what the industrial-strength tumble dryers at the laundromat/laundrette did to your bras, back before we owned our own laundry equipment?) & so the back of our house looks like a chinese laundry... and none of it is any drier than it was when I put it out yesterday!


Apart from this:

which turned up earlier in the week from here, and although I know they're old and have been superceded by equal bouts of loveliness (actually, if I never have to look at that whole Wildwood collection ever again, it won't break my heart, you know why...) but there's something just so fantastic about the combinations you can make with them that I wanted to buy some to keep.  Forever.  

When lovely Clare from Lulu Carter visited me, we talked about how to keep favourite fabrics forever (hey, we could start a club, the 'FFF Wits'.  Nice...) and I commented that I'd seen it done on her blog and that's my plan, long term - pieces of my favourite fabrics, in embroidery frames, on a wall.  Nice.  When?  Who the FFF knows?

 

Thank you Miss Lulu for letting me share your image!

In other news from The House of Wet Washing & The Outlaw Josie Wales*, I made this:

which is going off to Brisvegas, for a lovely customer who lives in NZ, and I spent some time ogling these, which came from the V&A, one of my all-time favourite places in the world, as a slightly late but I wasn't going to mention it birthday gift from Doc Rosie and her other super-talented daughter, Miss Alix, who lives in London (hello, yes, April, not long now)...

  

Trouble is, when given ribbon as beautiful as this, you never want to use it, so you start hoarding.... (joke... 'start' was a very long time ago!)... and then you need a bigger house!

Now, off to break my fast, move my washing & sit in my lavender-scented Small But Perfectly Formed room, and make a dog!

Ciao!

*Mr Golightly spent yesterday watching Clint Eastwood movies.  What else would you do?