Friday, November 30, 2012

TGIFF Debut


Tonight I'm linking up with TGIFF (Thank God It's Finished Friday!).  It was suggested to me by my lovely friend Gemma, from Pretty Bobbins.  You see, over the last few weeks I undertook something I never had done before - a real quilt.  Yeh sure, I'd made a few rag quilts, and cot quilt for a friend's baby (which was gorgeous, but I took the easy way out and didn't bind it!).  But never before had I actually taken the time and more importantly, the patience, to make a real quilt.  And as soon as I had finished it - Gemma told me I was now a quilter!  Hooray for me!

So this quilt began as a humble little "jelly roll".  For those of you who have no idea what that is, it's a roll made up of strips of fabric from any chosen fabric range.  I got this one for an absolute steal during a sale, so thought it perfect for my first go.
Source

I had seen a friend's jelly roll quilt many months before, so took to Google to find how to make one.  I found this fabulous video tutorial which lead me successfully through each and every step.  I had the whole quilt top finished in approximately one hour!  My kind of quilt!  

I then pulled out some plain white Homespun for the back, but realised I was short only about one to two inches.  So I referred back to some other ideas I had seen on my trips through the web, and got all the scrappy pieces and came up with this:
I was extremely proud of myself, as I do not do fiddly!!!
For the next two weeks I patiently awaited the arrival of my order of yardage to make the binding.  In this time, I also wondered how on earth I was going to do the binding!  But Google helped me once again!  And last Saturday, I spent the whole day (broken up in to bits and pieces due to kid's basketball matches and other odds and ends) making binding, basting the quilt (I even bought real quilting safety pins!) and then quilting the top.  I do believe I finished binding it at 11pm that night!

I can honestly say I have never been so proud of myself for something I had made!  And I cannot wait to see the recipient's face when they receive it for Christmas!
The front

The back, with pieced section

The binding with mitred corners!!!

Love it!

So there you go!  Thank God it's finished!!  I have lots of things on the go at present, as I'm giving a whole lot of handmade love for Christmas this year.  So I will no doubt be back sharing with TGIFF.



Thursday, November 29, 2012

What Water Restrictions?

 Since I can remember, well at least since my second child was born nine years ago, Melbourne has lived through each and every Summer (and most of the year actually) with water restrictions.  There was only watering your gardens on alternate days, washing your car with a bucket of water - no hose, and most unfortunately - no sprinklers allowed!

We have had a bumper year of rain in 2012, which has led to 81% water storage levels!  Which in turn leads to the water restrictions being lifted - hoorah!

Last night, when the kids heard it was going to be 38 degrees today, they were bitching and moaning complaining about how hot they would be, and how would they live?  "Mum, you'll have to pick us up from school, we can't possibly walk home."  "Why don't we have a pool?"  Blah, blah, blah.....   Well, I fixed their little red wagon by announcing I would make a trip to the hardware store in the morning to buy them a sprinkler!

**********crickets***********

"What's a sprinkler???"

Andrew and I then went through describing what a sprinkler was.  I was quite disturbed by the fact that they had no idea what one was, and amused bored them with stories from when I was a girl.....

I remember ALWAYS having a sprinkler within tap's reach to run through on a hot day.  I won't mention that we also always had a pool to run and jump in to.  That is beside my point.  The sprinkler was FUN!  And how about the slip n slide?!?!?!?!  So many injuries gained from running and sliding in all kinds of strange manners down a dodgy hill covered in plastic (and sometimes doused with washing liquid).

So first thing this morning I was met with questions and reminders about how I would be picking them up from school and turning the sprinkler on for them.  I jumped in the car, took them to school and then took Chloe with me to the hardware store.  Straight to the "watering aisle".  And was presented with a wall of these: 

A bit high tech looking for me!
Is this a tractor sprinkler???
Remember these ones??
Ahhh, the old faithful - we had a few of these permanently planted around our yards growing up.
The old soaker hose.....
We chose this one!  Cheap and cheerful!

We made our purchase - along with a couple of big arse fans due to us not having airconditioning downstairs (that's a whole other blog post) and a hose to connect this little baby to!

The remainder of my day was filled with questions from the four year old.  When can I go in the sprinkler?  What time are the kids home?  Why can't I go in the sprinkler now?  Can you put my bathers on?  Well, you get the picture.  Traipsed up to school at 3.30 to do a good motherly deed and pick the two whinging, red faced school children up, and returned home again to never ending questions about when the sprinkler could be turned on.  I gave up at approximately 4pm.

And this is what happened:







 $12.95 for an hour's worth of fun!  Oh and a bonus hour of fun after dinner too!  Not to mention the obligatory "turn the sprinkler on whilst your husband is standing nearby"!!

What are you doing to keep cool this Summer?  Sprinkler?

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Sunday Stash - Away for a Rainy Day

A late night post, and late night photos, but I'm here!  I have a couple of prints in my stash that I have put away, for no reason other than I love them, and think I may need them to make something for my girls.

This divine unicorn print was from my second ever bulk fabric order.  It is from a range called "Pernilla's Journey" and is amazing.  I forgot I still had this yard, until yesterday when I found they had released more of the range.  So I have bought more to make some goodies to sell!

I made a tonne of capelets this Winter from these gorgeous Red Riding Hood prints.  When I worked out I only had a yard or so left, I stopped taking orders, basically because I didn't want to not have any left to make something for Chloe!  It's still sitting on the shelf!

I just received these two prints last week!  I'm taking part in a Jennifer Paganelli  showcase in January, and after I signed up I went searching for something that not only jumped out at me, but also was not from a new range.  They are from her "So St Croix" range and are a much nicer colour in good light!

And in the same order as the JPag prints, came this beautiful "Fresh Cut" Heather Bailey print.  I bought two yards of this to make binding for my first "real quilt".  And not knowing how much I would need, I now have over a yard left!  Yay me!  I will have photos of the finished quilt later this week.

So these are just a few more of the fabrics now residing in my shelves.

I'm linking up with Sunday Stash at Finding Fifth.

Do you hide away fabric sometimes, just in case?

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Not Much of a Muchness

I have been a little quiet here of late.  Not on purpose.  I just really had nothing of interest to add to the blogosphere, nothing that I felt was blog-worthy.  I still really don't, so I'm having one of those random "open up blogger and blurt out whatever is in your head" kind of moments.  Here I am!

Last night our delightful little puppy dog - Hamish - decided he would channel his inner Houdini and escape.  Out in to the darkness, in a neighbourhood he has absolutely no knowledge of whatsoever.  We realised his little trick at approximately 9pm when Lochie went out to feed him. So the following hour was spent driving around the neighbourhood and printing out lame ass posters and sticking them on light posts in our immediate area.  I say lame ass because I literally could not find one single bloody photo of him, so it was a MISSING poster without an actual photo of him!

I went to bed exhausted, because between worrying about the frigging dog, and worrying that Jason would win X-Factor - I had fried my brain and could not function any longer!  Slumber arrived rapidly.  And disappeared approximately three hours later.

The delightful Chloe - aka "Go The F*ck To Sleep" - decided 2am would be an appropriate time to wake up, and continue being awake, until she had not only woken both Andrew and I up, but also her brother.  This fun torture ensued until I was confident she was back in bed, and Cadyn had ceased complaining about having something "killing his eye".  Slumber returned.

6.15am arrived with the sound of three over-enthusiastic and LOUD children downstairs.  I soon ruined their party by stumbling down the stairs with one eye open and questioning why the hell they were all so chipper at such a ridiculous time of the day?

"We've been awake since three o'clock Mum"

*********crickets********

WTF?!???!?!

Yep - it seems when slumber attacked my sleep-deprived body, dear little Chloe returned downstairs and got both Chelsea and Cadyn up, and they eventually gave up trying to get her back to bed - and decided on a few good early hours of television........

After shouting a few expletives, Chelsea crawled back to bed and I left the other two turkeys to continue watching Sponge-Bob.  And got another half hour of shut eye in before my alarm went off.

Upon waking - again - I wondered how the hell I was going to manage three over-tired children, a missing dog, un-washed hair and a 9.5 hour shift at work??  I went in to auto-pilot and sorted children out, left for work on time, watched Chloe in the rear vision mirror as she nodded off to sleep on the way to creche.  Wished the creche staff well upon my departure (yehhhh - good luck!!) and got to work right on 8am!  The following hour was made up of phone calls to all our local vets, RSPCA and the micro-chipping place - because as luck would have it, I of course had not gotten around to updating our details since moving...

As I then pondered my next move, I thought about the multitude of ridiculous fines I would be receiving if the council managed to find Hamish before someone else.  Because really, it would just be common sense to have him neutered, registered and kept in an escape-free backyard yes?  Apparently not.

Anyway - as luck would have it - one of the local vets called me back not long after to tell me a lovely lady had brought him in!  Hoorah!!  Thank f*cking God!!  Bank account exhales.....

It's hard work being exhausted after a night out on the town!

Butter.  Wouldn't.  Melt.


The rest of the day?  Well, it was very un-newsworthy, as it should be.  I spent the drive home with the car windows wide open, handing Chloe chocolate - just to keep her awake!  And all three kids were done and dusted and out like a light by 7pm.

PHEW

Anything exciting going on in your corner of the world?

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Saturday Bloggers Boogie - The Live Edition

Little White Dove


Three more sleeps until I take my biggest boy off to his first ever concert!  He turns 14 on Tuesday, and I bought tickets months ago to see Coldplay.  He still has no idea what we are doing - I've spun a tale about taking him out for dinner because Chelsea and Cadyn both has basketball training -he's bought it so far!

So in light of this momentous occasion, I thought I would share some songs from a few of the fabulous concerts I have been to!  I've just been racking my brain trying to remember ALL of the live shows I've seen, and have been surprised (and a little embarrassed) by some I had forgotten about!  I'm going to attempt to give them one to two word ratings/descriptions......

Wa Wa Nee - Keyboard Guitar
Noiseworks - Sweaty
Prince - Amaze-balls
The Cure - 90's Emo
Janet Jackson - Pre-boob-gate
U2 - Unreal
Michael Jackson - Shit sound
Chocolate Starfish - Pub Greatness
Alex Lloyd - Man-can-sing
Joe Cocker - Soul Man
John Farnham - Mum-loved-it
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Mad Hatters
Robbie Williams - NomNomNom
Kylie - Fabulouso
Whitney Houston - Disappointing
Beyonce - Crazy Good
Powderfinger - Awesome
John Williamson - Surprisingly Enjoyable

And here's my top five picks!

This is the only artist I've seen TWICE - nuff said.

Saw them at Waverley Park before they stopped using it for footy games.  Amazing.

Spent a Day on The Green with my parents and in-laws drinking vino and listening to this great man's talent.  Fab day!

This woman was AMAZING in concert!  How she manages to sing, dance and not have a wardrobe malfunction is beyond me!


Watched this unreal Aussie band in a freezing cold, mud pit tent up in the country for their farewell tour!  Although I left with frostbite, it was worth it!

So there you go - that's who I've seen live - how about you?



Friday, November 9, 2012

The Wife

I've had this whirling around my head for days, and am now going to spill in all its glory.  It may not be pretty, but here goes....

I am a Wife.  I have a Husband.  We have a Family.  Those three statements are the most important in my life.  I take all three very, very seriously.  And I protect them ferociously.

I've felt as though I've had to protect them, come to their rescue, on a number of occasions.  And when I do - it is with great gusto.  Passion.  Emotion.  And imminent anger.

My husband and I went out Saturday night.  I drove an hour to drop our kids off, and an hour home.  I played music loud.  I put on a beautiful dress - AND HEELS.  Make-up, hair - the works.  I was going out as "the wife".

We met 15 others at a restaurant, I was introduced to people I had only ever met once before - fleetingly.  We had a beautiful meal, drank some lovely wine, and had some great conversations.  But I went in with my guard up.  I held on to my husband tightly and my senses were hyper-aware.

Then it happened.  The young, single, blonde made an evening that was about my husband - all about her.  And the intuition that I had had many months earlier was proven correct.  Once again, some 20 something girl thought it appropriate to drape herself over my husband.  In front of me.  In front of everyone.

My stomach lurched, my head was hurting.  I was embarrassed, felt like an idiot.  The comfortable atmosphere turned awkward and I was keen to make tracks.  But most of all - I was angry.  Pissed off that whilst my husband spends all day, every day, away from home earning a great living, so that we can have an awesome family life - this "woman" thought it appropriate to develop some sort of feelings for him, and even more alarmingly, thought it appropriate to display them in front of me.

We are ok.  The husband and I.  We are lucky.  For a very smart man, he can be very naive when it comes to women.  His personality, charm and endearing nature is what I fell in love with - so it should be no surprise to me, nor him, that other women would be enraptured?  My intuition has been correct before, and he's been horrified upon this realisation.

I know I'm not the only one who has gone through this sort of a situation.  One of my friends said her waxing lady (yes, that's what I said) told her today that a male client had taken it upon himself to send her flowers, not once, but twice.  She is married.  So is he.  He said he sent them "just because", she won't dare tell her husband because, well because it's just fucking wrong!!!!

So I want to know - What is the appeal?  Why are married people so damn appealling to others?  Does a wedding ring not signify to others "CLOSED TO ADVANCES"?  Discuss......

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Cat. Again.

I sent Bella the cat off to the vet last Monday to have her tubes tied, or whatever the hell it is they do to cats to ensure they cannot reproduce.  My main reason for doing this?  So she can get out of my f*cking house!!!  I've tried.  Believe You Me - I've tried!  But she is literally doing my head in.  First of all, there's all the furniture she is slowly but surely annihilating.  Secondly, the solitary indoor plant we own is apparently her favourite "toy".  If said plant did not have a great deal of meaning to me (I gave it to Andrew's Nanna a few months before she passed away) I quite possibly would not give a rat's and it would have landed in the rubbish - but it does have meaning, and every time that little s*it goes near it - I yell!  And thirdly - well, the same reason our older cat became an outdoor cat many many years ago - the litter tray.  That dirty, stinkin, blue box of crap.  I. Cannot. Stand. It.

Anyway - back to the operation.  I popped Bella in the cardboard travel box we owned, and then popped it on the front seat.  The vet is only a ten minute drive away, and in those fleeting minutes, Bella managed to claw and bite her way out of the box.  So I spent half the trip worried she would land under the accelerator pedal.  Got there, got her admitted, and skipped to the car.  Andrew picked her up that evening, and my expectation of a drowsy, quiet cat was dashed immediately.  No, no, not our Bella.  She jumped straight out of that (new) box and was flying around the house like nobody's business.  You would never know she had had major surgery.......

Crappy photo - but it is incredibly difficult to take a decent one of a pitch black cat!

Last night, on the eve of her having her stitches removed, and the excitement of being able to let her roam free, Bella mysteriously disappeared.  No bell to be heard.  No meow to be meowed.  I ended up going to bed thinking she had whipped out the back door when nobody was looking.  Upon waking this morning, I broke the news to the kids, and Cadyn took it upon himself to search the house.  The same house I searched high and low 12 hours beforehand.  He heard a meow.  We followed it.  And found her.  

Here.

She had spent the whole night in a storage cupboard.  And took her cardboard fetish to a new level.  Thankfully, she quick-footed it straight to that stinkin litter box and did her business.....

Cat anyone??

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Saturday Night Boogie.......on a Sunday! M.C.'s Choice.

Little White Dove

The husband and I went out last night......which is a whole different post entirely.....and I didn't get around to sorting my music in time!  I did a whole lot of music purchasing for one of the delightful residents I care for in my day job, and had a little giggle yesterday whilst sewing and shuffling iTunes when a few of his songs randomly came on.  So without any further delay - here are my music picks for this week!

This gorgeous song is M.C.'s all time favourite.  His Mum used to sing it to him!

Forgot how much I love this song until yesterday.  Sung it loud and proud!

Nearly wet my pants when this one came on!  Can't say I have ever, ever owned an ABBA tune!

Not your finest hour Kyles....

Another song you don't really expect to pop up!  Yothu Yindi really did bring it back then!

So that's it!  Some of the tunes that have inadvertently made it on to my itunes playlist.

Do you ever have random tunes pop up unexpectantly??
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