What was I thinking?

Well, apart from the social obligations, Gentle Readers, sometimes it's nice to get completely out of your comfort zone and go to somewhere you've never been and will probably never go again, just to have lunch with somebody.  My good friend KP is working out at somewhere I consider to be a true AEON*, took me an hour to get there, four motorway/freeway tolls and a deepening conviction that everybody who lives out there is completely nuts.  Here's a picture of the Google Maps directions from Newport (Point A) to my destination (Point B):

That's further than I've been on holidays, some years.  Of course it wasn't the distance (70km each way) that makes me think they're all nuts, it's the temperature.  It was 38.5°C/101.3°F out there, with a hot wind blowing right off the desert, at 2.00pm.  No sea breeze, no prospect of a coastal southerly to cool them down.  OMG.  


So, needless to say, I was very glad to get home & ventilate the house, and joy oh joy, a cool(ish) breeze whipped through about 5.00pm.  Some sleep is in order tonight, I hope.  I also got up into the roof (don't even ask me what the temperature was up there, please!) to get the other fan down, which is noisy but effective - but the way we've been sleeping this week, I'm quite sure the sound won't be keeping us awake.


In other news, I was delighted to see a whole gaggle of visitors from foreign climes (not foreign as in 'strange', but foreign as in 'not living in Orstraya'... hello to all you lovely lurking Gentle Readers in Oxfordshire UK, Garfield, NJ USA, Southsea, Hampshire UK, Philadelphia The City of Lurve, Pennsylvania USA, Hockworthy, Somerset UK, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (or Tronno, as we say here), and good old Wenty, somebody from Wentworthville, NSW, who drops in from time to time but never delurks, that I know of anyway.


I'm wondering if my visitor from Hockworthy, Somerset, is the lovely LucyWithaY from one of my favourite blogs, Lives By The Woods?  Come on, 'fess up if it is you.  You know you want a froggie.


In other, makery type news, I have today found out what a comprehensive PITA** it is to sew PUL***, but how much easier it is with a walking foot - first time I've used it on this machine, and after having to get the book out to work out how to put it on the machine, it was dead easy.  That stuff is so sticky, it gummed up the rotary cutter something fierce, so that's another trap for young players...  anyway, I, who am the master of the boxed-bottom pouch decided that it was a bit disgraceful to keep going on visits with a toilet/cosmetic pouch held together with a safety-pin, so I made myself a new one.  I used that gorgeous Echino Birdsong linen, and kept the nice purple bit at the bottom to match up to the zip.  Shame I couldn't find a zip that colour, but hey, it's close enough.

Also, I found out that if you're careful enough, you can put a zip in using a walking foot.  No zip foot required at all - the topstitching is a little bit close for my taste, but the pouch opens & closes without any dramas.  Also, the label is in the wrong place.  I still can't work out exactly where to put them to avoid them being swallowed up by the box-bottom, but again, it's only for me, so who cares.  It was a bit of a conceit putting the label on it anyway, but you never know what may come of it... commissions from Ma's friends?  Stranger things have happened!


So.  Pics?  You can just see the label there at the bottom left.  Bah.

The absolutely best part is that I can get all the crap I need for a week's visit to my lovely Ma, with room left over - 

And hopefully the PUL lining will keep it nice & clean.  I'm tempted to offer them for sale, 
but suspect the market is flooded already (no pun intended).  What pun?  It's a waterproof lining.  Honestly.  Anyway, any thoughts on the viability of selling them, very welcome, as always.


In other Etsy related news, my lovely Toile lavender bags have been featured in a treasury, again (so excited!), so if you're bored & want something lovely to look at, check this out.  I love treasuries, I really do.  There is some absolutely amazing stuff for sale on Etsy, it never ceases to amaze me what you can find.  I think that might be the theme for my next one!  


And that's it, for me today.  Mr Golightly is wending his weary way home from another very long day, and the dinner sits in the fridge, staying cool.  I hope that wherever you are, you're safe, and the weather is kind to you.

Ciao!








*Arse end of nowhere
**Pain in the arse
***PolyUrethane Laminate(d Polyester).  Dunno why they don't just call it 'PULP'. 

Too darn hot

I keep trying to find the energy to write a post but it's just too hot.  Yesterday was worse, about 38°C/104°F, no breeze, nuthin'.  Today, not quite so bad, at least there's a breeze.


Anyway, not much to report here, because heat-driven apathy has got me in its evil grip - but I did get some lovely pics from MGF Kaz of the bed made up with the pillowcases I made, to show you:

I made the square, lighter ones, too, about six months or so ago - from a pair of table napkins - they've got red backs too.  Not bad, really.


I also finished the tablecloth yesterday, too.  It looks really nice, but I think I should have checked how big her table was first!

I also made some Birthday Bunting for the Birthday Girl's house:

Came out really nice, but I've got to work on the perfect colour for those letters... the green is Jay McCarroll Woodland Wonderland:

which I love because it's so... weird.


In other news:  Queensland is preparing for the worst cyclone in living memory, and our entreaties to the weather gods go their way... Check this out if you want to be really scared... I'm very much looking forward to the end of February, I have to say, when Summer will be over and we only have 16°C days to worry about.


Also, the poor sods in Missouri are facing the worst ice storm in decades, and our thoughts are with everybody there, but especially the Pudding family.  Keep safe & stay warm, Mrs Pudding.


Ciao for now!

Ooops there goes another one

Another follower has departed, back into the ether.  Any more of these departures without an explanation & I'm going to stop doing this, I swear.  It's quite interesting, actually, what motivates people to write a blog.  I started originally over on MySpace & I still have a profile, but I never update it.  It's a bit too much the Facebook sinkhole, where you get sucked in & never fight your way out.

The first few posts I wrote were about my Dad dying, and all the dramas I had to go through to sort out his estate - he died intestate, in a typically self-centred act, and left it to friends and family to clean up the mess.  Not so bad, really, you might think, except that we hadn't spoken for 27 years, so I was a bit surprised to find out that the NSW Police considered me to be the next of kin.  

The other thing that amazed me about the whole ugly mess was how they traced me - my Dad had the original Document of Identity that we travelled to Australia on, with our full names & dates of birth - assisted passage migrants didn't need passports, in those days.  In 1984 when I was sharing a flat in Fairlight with my good friend Deb, we were burgled and the Police attended.  When the Police ran my name from the Document of Identity through the computer in 2007, they were able to match me to the 1984 burglary, then found my current address in the electoral roll and phone book.  Scary.

Anyway, I found the whole experience surreal, and so I started writing the blog.  Then I started sticking in the craft stuff, with the occasional rant about life, the universe and everything, picked up a few followers here & there, and now they're dropping like flies.  Not that I wanted thousands like some bloggers, but I do like the feeling that somebody is out there listening - apart from friends, of course (hello MM & Kaz)... 

Other news?  Went to a nice 50th Birthday lunch today, and the weather was amazing - we had hail, rain, sunshine, gusts of wind and complete calm all in the space of an hour:

  

and... Sunday night television is still shit.  So, remaining gentle readers... off to bed.  Ciao!