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!

Pickle me grandmother!

Does anybody except me remember Ted Bullpit?  Not that I ever watched Kingswood Country, you understand, Gentle Readers, as I believe it was on TV at a time when I didn't own one (and didn't miss it either, I might add) ... the most memorable thing about it was the way Ted treated his son-in-law, who, in real life, was Greek, but who played an Italian in the show.  Apparently the producers thought nobody would notice or care...


Anyhoo..., I have been somewhat unwell today, and yesterday, in fact, and spent most of the past 24 hours prone, in the dark, bucket close to hand.  Got up at 4.00pm to make some cushions (as you do), and to try out this little demon:

which snuck into the house after the craft show.  1100 stitches a minute makes it perfectly suitable to use for upholstery and the best part?  It's the same size as a normal machine, so I can make cushions & stuff without having to find a new house for something this size, 1.25 metres long, 60cm deep, 90cm high (read: needs a large space)... 

Anyway, I whipped out some Amy Butler home dec fabric I've had lying round for quite a while, which MGF Kaz waits patiently for me to make into cushions for her, and thought "oh, why not?"

So, here we are.

I had to fiddle a bit to get the tension right, but I think she'll like them.  Now, what's next?

Ciao!

Quick, be quick

I've been so bad this week and it's not my fault, Gentle Readers, but the fault of either the weather, which has been rather wet, or the new neighbours, who moved in about the time the weather started, and who may or may not have, just saying', you know how it is, been given our broadband copper wire by some dodgy-brothers telephony contractor, because, our wireless router is up, it's down, it's up, it's down... It has more ups & downs than the roller coaster at Luna Park.  Roll on the National Broadband Network*.


Anyway, not only have I fallen waaaay behind on my blogging obligations, I've also fallen behind on the Facebook scrabble I play with my lovely Ma & MGF Kaz, correspondence with a number of other people, lurking on blogs, reading blogs, wasting time on the interweb, and of course, being amazed when I realise how much I've actually achieved by not wasting time on the interweb.


Upholstery school continues apace, I had a good day and a bad day today... mostly good, because I went in specially on Tuesday to finish the practice back of the Slipper chair - they make you do one in crap fabric before you slice your own, expensive fabric up - I'm doing some fairly complex pattern matching, and this is the mid-point of where I got up to:

It took me about an hour to get the positions of the outside pieces right.  I actually got them stitched on, and then did something so stupid I'm still kicking myself... All the staples for the outside edge of the inside back are supposed to go on the back of the chair (got that?), where they won't be seen when it's finished.  Miss Dummy here managed to staple on the side, putting big holes in the side fabric, where it will be seen.  Agggh.  Anyway, I had to pull the entire inside back all off, unpick the rhs piece, cut another one (thank the goddess I bought lots of the fabric) and then reposition it (remembering that it took me an hour to get the position right this morning!).  Sniff.  Whimper.  I'm now behind again, and will need to work like a navvy to get back up to the rest of them.  


Well, when I say the rest of them, I mean the three other people who've done more than this.  John, Dean & I are still wrestling with the sewing machine, and Jo is still trying to get the inside back webbing & hessian on her chair.  


Miss Sulky actually managed to have a conversation today with one of the four of us she doesn't normally acknowledge, which made the sky fall in (and I guess that might explain all the rain?), and I'm wondering if she's realised that treating people in a completely contemptuous way isn't the best idea if you've got to work as a team?  Anyway, I quite enjoy being in Upholstery-purdah, it certainly means I don't have to be polite to people I think need a good smack round the head...

I will take a photo tomorrow of the finished inside back so you can see the fruits of my labours - but here's a shot of how it might look, so you can have an idea of what I'm agonising over:

Curse you, Amy Butler.


More later.  Dinner calls, plus Spicks and Specks.  You gotta love that Alan Bro', eh?


Ciao!


*No, seriously!

The Daily Nag

So, Gentle Readers, the lovely and erudite Peppermint Penguin (aka AJ, aka The Thick as a Plank One) wasn't kidding when she said she was going to remind me every single day to get off my slowly shrinking butt (7 kilos since Christmas, but who's counting?) and do something about getting a job with a real upholsterer .. which is fine, but really, AJ, Sundays???  I don't know any upholsterers {and this sentence could stop right there} who work on Sundays!


Anyway, I can't do any more about it until Tuesday, when I'm free again (Monday being a School day), but I will make a list today of Upholsterers in the district, and on Tuesday I will start making calls.  


Yesterday I took a couple of pictures of my nice dining room to share with you, just so you can share the joy of upholstery:

Not so nice, really.  Fabric everywhere, supplies everywhere, a half-finished drop-in seat and a half-finished footstool... I need a workshop!  Whilst on the way to School on Thursday morning, Miss Natalie had a brilliant idea about people with sheds... and I know one.  


Mr Golightly's lovely sister Miss Cathy has what we in Australia half-jokingly call a 'granny flat'* in her backyard.  It's got two rooms, a teeny tiny kitchen, a bathroom and a double carport out the front.  It's got "My New Upholstery Workshop" written all over it, only she doesn't know it yet. 


There's a small problem in that her Number One child and his partner are currently living in it (If you work for Warringah Council, forget you read this!), but I know they're going to move closer to lovely Miss L's work very soon, and then!  Shazam!   The makeover magic begins...and she has two chairs she wants recovering, so I think I could even do some kind of contra deal on the rent!  Maybe.  Maybe??


Anyway, I have to go & get dressed, partly because it's 0937, partly because I need coffee for my hangover, and partly because it's only 10°C/50°F and I'm freezing [read:  still in pyjamas], and I've got to get on with the present for He Who Cannot be Named... so, more, later!


Ciao!




*Small dwelling detached from the main house with the locks on the outside (just kidding).

Progress Part II

Made birthday things for Miss Mandy but can't show them here as she reads this!  Once the birthday is over, I promise purple photographs.


Chair coming along nicely, but disappointingly not finished today due to my overwhelming desire to make sure the slip-stitching along the edge is invisible.  Which meant, I had to pull it out five (yep, count them, not one, not two, not three, not four but FIVE) times before I was happy with it, and even now there's a couple of spots I'm not sure of.


My fingers are very sore.


We're off to Hunter Valley tomorrow for a weekend of R&R & mowing, if Mr G ever gets home from work to pack his clothes, although he probably thinks I'm going to do it for him because I get home earlier than he does.  Ha.  


I've been playing scrabble online with My Lovely Ma & MGF Dawn, and losing badly.   Little old ladies have no scrabble-scruples.


There is other news, but I need to go & drag the suitcase out of the roof, apparently, so more on our return from the Green & Pleasant Land!


Ciao!

Oh my aching feet...

Well, Gentle Readers, I am happy to report that my first day of Upholstery School went very well, with one or two small exceptions. 
Getting up at 0530 was not so pleasant, especially as my brain had been churning all night to ensure I didn't forget to get up and I felt like a big bucket of dren when I got up, but the trip took exactly an hour (have no fear, I'm sure when the Universities go back, it will take longer!).  Imagine my horror when I got there and discovered that not only is there no ATM/cash point/teller machine, but even worse, the espresso machine wasn't working, and I couldn't have coffee.  Oh dear.  

Anyway, most of the people are lovely, except of course for the other exception - Missy Badhair and attitude who turned up late for the information day also managed to be half an hour late on the first day (if people can't make it on time on the first day, what's the rest of the year going to be like?) - but the winner was a person who turned up 45 minutes late, then sat in the back whispering to Missy Badhair - hadn't enrolled, couldn't fill in the form (apparently she forgot her phone (so?) and her glasses..) but she did manage to bond almost instantly with Missy Badhair, and impart the very important news that she lived in Balmain, she went to lots of bands, and they should go out some time.  All this whilst the teacher was telling us lots of unimportant stuff like... timetable, safety info, equipment needs.  You know.  The useless stuff.  


Then, to top it all, when we were making our first thingy (oh, did I forget to mention we made something?  Well!  We did!!), she was so busy talking over the top of the teacher she missed the instructions and had to ask people what to do.  I hate hate hate people like that.  When I was a trainer, I would let that go once, then I'd jump on them.  It's not fair on the other students, because then they miss out on what you're saying whilst answering the non-listener's questions.


Anyway, my Instant New Best Friend, N, leant over at this point and whispered to me "I'm going to kill her...".  Hah.  I love it when somebody else gets it.  Then when we got back into the workshop, she managed to use everybody else's equipment because she hadn't been listening when the equipment list was given out & hadn't picked up everything she needed, she dropped a 1.5 metre ruler on the floor & left it there, she picked up my safety goggles from my desk & put them on because they were closer than hers (yep, a whole 60cm/2 feet away, that's a long way when you're a rude inconsiderate jerk), she didn't put anything away, she didn't sweep any benches... I'll give her a month.  And you can bet your bottom dollar she'll quit because the teachers don't like her.  It won't be her fault, oh no.  


Anyway, now that I've got that out of my system, I will show you pictures of the magnificent upholstered article we made:

Confused yet?  What was yesterday?  Valentine's Day, of course.  Whoever said Upholstery teachers don't have a sense of humour was completely wrong.  They got us to cover a wooden heart.  Two different fabrics so you can learn how to deal with different levels of flexibility and grain, lessons on how to mark out fabric using blackboard chalk & cut it out using scissors, (almost quaint, really), and the most scary part, a compressed-air powered staple gun to put it all together.  Man, those babies pump it out.


Anyway, I now know that the stuff round the edges is called gimp, and it hides a multitude of sins, and it's used to finish off the two ugly rows of staples that hold this baby together, along with my burnt finger's new best friend - the hot glue gun.  See, who said upholstery was a skill?  Bring me your chaise lounge, your chesterfield, your wing chair.  Bring me a valium.  


And now, I must get in the shower, because I'm going into town for a social event.  And did I mention it's going to be 21°C today & dampish?  Yeehaw.  Love it.


Ciao!

Weekends in Burgundy

Well, not quite, but we spend quite a lot of time with Mr & Mrs Grand Cru** Vineyard, of Burgundy, France, who are here for Vintage (that's grape picking, for youse not in the know of the vineyard lingo)...


They are lovely people, except Mr Grand Cru is a fiercely competitive Scrabble player, and we played quite a few games of multilingual scrabble, which was great because some things are spelt just far enough off the English spelling that we could use up some odd letters - and Mr Golightly's crowning glory, was zero, which he managed to get in the bottom left hand corner of the scrabble board, which is, of course, a triple word score.  Ten for z, 1 for e, 1 for r, 1 for o, 39 points, thank you very much.  


I took a few pictures:


Dusk:

Dinner:

Dog:

Dark (almost):

And we drank lots of great wine in good company:

And the weather was perfect:

I discussed upholstery options with Kaz, who has a small bench she wants to reupholster in this:

which I've had sitting in the 'Home Dec' box since April 2009, just waiting for the right project... 

We bought some gorgeous quilt backing (108"/274cm wide) From Busy Needles, in Singleton, to make new dressing gowns for me, Kaz & Az and although I had already bought a pattern from Folkwear, we popped into Spotlight & picked up something a bit less... fiddly?  Ornate?  I should be able to get started on these after Wednesday, but I did wash the material tonight, which was a smart move considering how much blue dye came out in the water... I may even wash them again once they're dry, just to make sure it all comes out in the wash.  Sorry, couldn't help myself.

And we won the cricket, so it was one of those weekends which are all good, but now, Gentle Readers, I am knackered, so it's goodnight from me, and Ciao! from him.

Ciao Ciao!  

**Interested?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cru_(wine)

I am too late?

To stop what I'm doing and do something completely different?  Do people get to have two sea-changes in a lifetime?  When I was 37 I was working in IT, but without any qualifications, so off I went & did a IT Diploma (Analyst/Programmer, if anybody cares) - it was useful, and  the skills I learnt are just as valid now as then, but what's changed is the job focus - in the '90's I worked in what's known as 'Production Support', but is now known as 'Business as usual' - keeping the lights on & making sure that people can get their money out of the ATM's when they want it (snigger snigger NAB)...


Now you get to 'analyse' people's requirements, write process flows & talk to idiots who don't know how their products work but need you to work it out for them so they can tell you  how to change it.  It's more like hand-holding than analysis.


Gentle Readers, I've had enough of this.  I've seen an ad looking for an Upholstery apprentice.  I know it says "suits school leaver".  I am a school leaver.  It was just a while ago.  I'm reliable, I'm keen, I won't take sickies, I'll work hard.  Just because I'm 30 years older than the school leaver you were thinking of, doesn't mean I can't do a good job, right?  


Mr Golightly is somewhat dubious, because this will be my second sea-change, and he doesn't do upheaval very well, but really, I'm not working now, so what have I got to lose?  The August Institution I work for pays really well, there are great benefits and it's so secure it's like they've shackled you to your desk, but my heart just isn't in it anymore.  


I want to do something creative.  I want to spend 30 minutes driving to work instead of 90 minutes on a bus.  I want to leave home at 7.00 & be home by 4.30 instead of 7.30pm.  I want to be able to go for a walk after work.  I want to learn how to do this.  Do I want too much?