Husband Love

Still school holidays here.  And Winter has struck.....which in turn means everyone will inevitably get cabin fever.  My darling husband came up with the idea of taking the kids ALL THE WAY over the other side of the city to visit him at his new work place, and go out for lunch.  So, seeing as though there were only two available days left to do this, yesterday, I packed the kids up (and if we weren't meeting him for lunch, we would have needed to pack one) and prepared them for the trip - To visit Daddy!

Forty-five minutes of mind-numbing freeway later, and ending up in the middle of no-frickin-where, we arrived at his work.  He really was not joking when he told me he worked in the middle of a paddock!  You are probably wondering what on earth he does for a job?  Or couldn't care less? He's in logistics.  

***crickets***

Logistics - the storing and moving of shit from one place to another.

He runs a whole big mother-trucking warehouse where said logistics take place.  He's the Boss.  The head honcho. The big cheese.....

Anyway.  I digress.  The visit was successful.  The kids surely think the warehouse is a gigantic version of hide and seek, and are impressed that Dad has his own kick-ass office, where he gets to boss people around all day.  They left him something to remember their visit.....

The main point of this post, cos I know you're wondering, is to profess my gratefulness to thy husband.  Although he has always worked a fair drive from home (he actually drives that freeway in peak hour both ways!), it was not until yesterday that I fully appreciated just how much time he spends commuting.  To make a living.  For us.

On occasion, I have been known to bitch chat about how much I do for the family.  All the running around, the cooking, cleaning, washing, washing and washing, as well as my own part time job.  And as much as it irks me at times, I would not change a damn thing.  

Tonight, I'm sending out some special Husband Love.  Thank you dear husband for sucking it up each and every day, and getting the job done! Bravo!

Have you ever taken the time to thank your other half for all they do?  Or are you the other half and do you ever get thanks?

Disclaimer...........Don't get me wrong - I'll still tell him he should bow down to me for everything I do - maybe just not so often....

My Easter Sunday.....

Happy Easter.  Happy Birthday.  Happy Me.  Sorta......

Today marks the 37th year I have been on the earth.  And surprisingly, that was not so hard to write.  As I edge closer to the big 4....0..... I find myself gasping for air.  And it's not actually until I wrote that, I realised maybe that has something to do with how I am feeling today.  Rather ho-hum.  It certainly doesn't help having to share your birthday with a friggin bunny!  But them's the breaks......

A lovely friend of mine Ms Gemma over at Pretty Bobbins asked a question a little earlier.  "Do your kids really believe in Easter?"  Hmmmm...... I shared with her that I asked the same thing of my husband last night.  Ms Chelsea will be nine years old next month, and she is an intelligent human being.  As we were gnawing on a carrot and delicately rearranging the kid's notes to the bunny whilst tipping out the milk they had left, I questioned how such an intelligent little girl hadn't cottoned on to the Bunny yet?  I mean, how on earth does a bunny manage to spread foil wrapped chocolate eggs oh so precariously through our front yard?  How does the same bunny manage to leave presents inside on the coffee table for them too?  Really?

I cannot for the life of me remember when I stopped believing.  I do recall us kids getting caught out one year, finding Mum's stash of Christmas presents in her walk in wardrobe.  In my defence, my older sister found them, and encouraged made me participate in the pulling them out part.  I think we were told Christmas would not be happening that year!  But it did....

I also can't remember when Lochie stopped believing.  Is that bad?  He is only 13, so surely it was only a few years ago that he worked it out?  My memory is failing......is that part of getting old?

I have been feeling guilty the past week, about my lack of interest in Easter.  My lack of enthusiasm for Easter craft, Easter cooking, Easter anything.  I stashed all the easter eggs outside in the hood of the pram that sits on our front step, so that when I was woken for the third time overnight, at 6am, I could just go out like some crazed, pyjama-wearing, easter egg throwing Mother.  Then crawled back in to bed.

Once the kids were awake, and had ceased trying to be quiet, I opened my eyes to feel the familiar thumping in my head, accompanied by the blurred vision.  Fabulous.  Migraine.  Happy Birthday to me!  I followed it up by standing in my front yard, eyes squinted whilst feigning my excitement about kids crawling under plants to discover eggs.  Note to self - open eyes at 6am when throwing easter eggs in the dark!

I sound rather bah-humbug don't I?  Things have brightened a little.  I took my sad-ass to the shopping centre and punished myself with a 40 minutes chinese massage.  That dude found every single sore spot that existed.  Or perhaps I am just a walking sore spot?  Purchased some pharmaceutical supplies and then called for the husband to bring the kids and meet me for lunch.  The haze has lifted, and I may even laugh at some stage today!  Oh sorry, I did laugh - when I received text messages from Andrew telling me Chelsea was begging for a kitten.  Very frickin funny....

So - back to Easter.  We now have a kitchen full of chocolate, and no more mention of the bunny.  And nobody has asked what happened to Jesus today.  How do you celebrate Easter, if you do?  And what does it mean to you?

Happy Easter!

Random instagram photos taken whilst out to my birthday lunch.  Minus one child!

Easter Saturday Experiment - Fat 1/4 Rag Quilt!

Good afternoon!  I have had a pile of half yards sitting in my shelf for quite some time now - all in blacks.  And have wondered what I would do with them?  Well, one of my besties is turning the big 40 tomorrow (we share a birthday) and her big bash is in a few weeks up in the country.  And black is her colour.  Literally.  She has amazing style - both in clothing and home, so I wanted to make her something that would not stick out like a sore thumb, but would be practical also.

I have made rag quilts before, but only cot size, so the thought of making a large quilt, with 9" blocks was not overly appealing to me!  I decided to take a punt and see if the same rag quilt theory would work on a larger scale.  So this is what I did.....

WHAT I USED:

5 Half Yards of quilting cotton

2 metres of flanelette

2 metres of plain homespun cotton

Rotary Cutter, Mat & Ruler

Sharp scissors!

HOW I DID IT:

First I chose the prints I wanted to use.

All fabrics required.

You need 3 layers of fabric - The prints for the top, flannelette for the middle (you can use bamboo batting which works well also) and another layer of cotton for the bottom, I'm using black homespun.

 Using my rotary cutter, ruler and mat, I squared up my fabric.  If you have purchased fat 1/4's, just neaten them up to make sure they are straight.  I have half yards, so I had to cut them down to size.
FYI - Fat 1/4's are 18x22inches.

Once you have all fabric cut to size, it's time to layer them as mentioned earlier.  Lots of pins help with the process when sewing each square together.  You can use more or less than I have, but I am not a lover of pins, so this was enough for me!

All the squares pinned together, ready to go.

Get a quilting ruler (or long ruler or measuring tool of some sort) and line it up from corner to corner.

Mark lines using fabric pencil or chalk from corners to corners, as well as straight through the middle both widthways and lengthways. 

You want a star formation of lines.

Now it's time to sew.  When I have made smaller size rag quilts, I have just sewn from edge to edge.  However, because these are larger pieces of fabric, I found it was best to start from the middle and work outwards.  This lessens the risk of your fabric bunching up and getting little "pleats" of fabric.  Backstitch at both the beginning and end of each line of stitching.

A star formation of stitching.

Now it's time to take all of the sewn together blocks and place them how you want the end result to look.  You are now going to sew the rows together in 3's. 

Take your first 2 blocks and place their backs together.  You can pin them together if you like, but I chose not to.

Sew them together using a half inch seam allowance, remembering to backstitch at each end.  If you haven't made a rag quilt before you may find this strange, but you want your seams showing on the outside of your quilt.

Like this!  Grab the 3rd block and sew to make a row of 3.

You will then have 3 rows of 3 blocks.

This is where my pinning comes in.  I take 2 rows of blocks, and pin them together at the seams, backs together, to make sure they are all matching and "square".  I push one seam to each side to lessen the bulk as I am sewing. 

The edge of the rows pinned together.

Sew the two rows together, once again using a half inch seam allowance, with the seams showing outwards again.  If you find as you are sewing the material puckers a bit, don't stress!  These quilts are rather forgiving!! 

Rows coming together. Now sew the 3rd row together. 

Finished seams.

Quilt all sewn together!

Lastly, sew a half inch seam all the way around the outside of the quilt.

Now it is time to give the quilt the "rag effect".  Get yourself some really sharp scissors.  Start by snipping the seams where the blocks all meet.  Snip on each side of where the seam has been sewn down, allowing the seam to lift up as shown.

You now need to go along EVERY SINGLE seam and snip them, as close to the stitching as possible, without cutting the stitches!  (If you do happen to catch the stitching, just run over it again on your sewing machine) You can make the cuts as close or as far apart as you like, mine are about half an inch apart, I find that this gives it quite a good effect.

This seam snipping is the most time consuming part of the quilt, so grab a coffee and watch some tv!
Once your hand has recovered from all of the snipping, take your quilt and throw it in the washing machine.  You don't have to put any detergent in if you don't want to, and just pop it on the quickest wash cycle you have.  I have a 15 minutes cycle.  Once your wash is finished, throw the quilt in the dryer.  Make sure your lint collector in your dryer is empty before you do this, as your quilt is going to lose a LOT of threads and lint, so you don't want to clog it up.

Ta-daaaaa!

The more washes your quilt gets, the more "raggy" the seams will become!  
This quilt's finished size is 50.5" x 60".  Perfect for a grown-up!


I hope you've found this helpful and informative!  Let me know if you give it a go!

Done - Finally

Last night, I spoke briefly about Eden, and her journey to Niger on behalf of World Vision Australia.  I promised I would sponsor the child I have spoken of sponsoring for years now.  And then I went to bed.  Today, amongst the running around with the kids, getting washing done and finishing sewing orders - I kept thinking about the child I hadn't sponsored yet.  But I kept getting busy, and forgetting.  So tonight when I read Eden's latest post, I walked over to my husband and said "You know how I keep saying I want to sponsor a child, and I never do?  Well, I really want to sponsor a child - now."  His response?  "Ok."

I came back to the computer and clicked on the link.  And then got flustered.  Should I sponsor the first child that came up the screen?  Should I choose?  Boy or girl?  Which country?  Should I click on the link that said "longest waiting"?  I became a little overwhelmed.  I'm still overwhelmed now.  I decided we would sponsor a girl.  And the first girl who popped up and was the same age as my eldest daughter was it.  So, it is with great pride, and a feeling of "finally", that I introduce the latest addition to our family...

I feel really silly writing this, but just as her photo came up on the screen then, I've started crying.  Told you I was overwhelmed.  I have no words.  I hope that our $43 a month can help Keriya and her community.  I really do.

Thank you Eden.  Thank you.  I've just shown my nine year old Chelsea the photo of Keriya and explained to her what our family will now be doing.  And she just quietly smiled.  I asked her what she was thinking?  "I'm just happy" she replied.  Bless.

So much

So much going on in my little world at present.  I don't even know where to begin.  But I'll make a start....

It's school holidays.  Half way through the first week, and I've confirmed that starting on some sort of medication for my sanity is a very good idea.  Enough said on that.....for now.

I worked my first full 3 day weekend last week, probably since the start of the year.  It was not easy.  Though, it was not hard.  I am continually torn as to how to juggle my employment around my family.  February and March were made MUCH easier for me.  I used a whole lot of annual leave which meant I had nearly every Friday and Saturday off.  Which meant I had no children home on Fridays, and I didn't miss anyone's sporting events on Saturdays.  I could breath.

My little business has picked up speed again.  After Christmas and the New Year, I wondered whether the momentum it had gained prior, would ever happen again.  It seems it will.  And is.  It makes me smile.  But it also makes me very busy.  Well, busier than the very busy I was before....

My little family (or rather large family to some) has some very exciting things unfolding.  It's been killing me to mostly keep it to myself.  And I have been a little cryptic on my FB page, leading to some private messages questioning my cryptic updates!  But I don't want to spill until all is set in stone.  Let's just say life is looking very good.  I often wonder how life keeps getting better?  When I think things are perfect, they just get perfecter (I know that's not a word, but it's fitting!).

Anyway, that's just some of it.  And even as I sit here typing about what's going on in my world, I'm still thinking about Eden, and the amazing journey she is embarking on at present.  I just read the latest post HERE.  And am feeling guilty about the little rumble in my tummy, and my want to get up and find something to quieten it.  Eden's ability to get on a plane (well, many planes) to travel halfway across the world, to raise awareness of a HUGE unfolding crisis has me thinking.  Thinking that I have been slack in my ability to make a difference.  At least once every year, I state I am going to sponsor a child.  And still, in 2012, I have yet to follow through.  I am committed this time round.  And will follow through.  And I am now accountable to you all!  I promise I will have the proof.  Thank you Eden. xxx

Moonlighting.....again.....

I was going to pop in today and write something super quirky, intelligent and funny!  But I decided to spend the day sewing, yelling at kids, doing some errands (why is it we start using words like errands at a certain age???), yelling some more and just trying to breath!  Soooooo, nothing really quirky, intelligent nor funny to share.  Sorry.

Instead......I will share with you my latest stint at Moonlighting - Here!  I'm hoping someone out there finds it helpful in some way!

I shall endeavour to find my way back here tomorrow.  This is highly likely given the children will be vacating the house at 5pm for a 24 hour stint at their Pop's house. Hallelujah.

Night night! xx

A Fabulous New Blog!

Good evening!  You may (or may not) have noticed I have a lovely and shiny new Button over there to the right >>>>>>>>>>>  This button connects you to the delightful Renee and The Sewing Library!  And if you don't know what The Sewing Library is - please pop over and have a look at their fabulous new Blog!  Renee's first post explains how the library came about and links you up to all the wonderful Facebook Groups she has been inspired to make.  I can't believe that a year ago, I had no idea what they were!  Now, I pop in daily to see what everyone is up to, and also pop in for advice, sewing tips and sometimes a very good giggle.  Renee is running a really great GIVEAWAY on the blog - so if you love sewing and would be interested in learning some great lessons - pop over and enter!

That's it for me tonight - I'm completely spent after a full weekend of work!  I hope you've all had a lovely weekend, and I'll be back tomorrow with more to say no doubt! xx