Sew Kind Of Wonderful Blog Hop

It's true - I have signed up for a challenge - I'm participating in the first ever Sew Kind of Wonderful Blog hop.  Now, given I bought my Quick Curve Ruler back in April, and it's still sitting in its wrapping, very patiently I must say, I'm what you would call a "QCR Virgin".  Ahemmm......  Well, that's about to change!  I've just read through my first QCR pattern and although my head is about to explode with information overload, I'm doing what I do best - jumping in head first!

The blog hop is kicking off on Monday with the following amazing bloggers in showcasing the Quick Curve Ruler and patterns. We have:

Monday 18 August	http://quokkaquilts.com
Tuesday 19 August	www.cluckclucksew.com
Wednesday 20 August	www.fromthebluechair.com
Thursday 21 August	liveacolorfullife.net
Friday 22 August	www.happyquiltingmelissa.com
Monday 25 August	www.greenfairyquiltsblog.com
Tuesday 26 August	http://blog.sewbittersweetdesigns.com
Wednesday 27 August	www.pleasant-home.com
Thursday 28 August	http://www.lucymade.wordpress.com AND http://msmidge.blogspot.com.au
Friday 29 August	www.dontcallmebetsy.com

There will be plenty of chances for you to see the Quick Curve Ruler in action, and there will be giveaways galore, so make sure you check in on Monday for more details! The blog hop is going to be followed by a 'Curve it up' Challenge Quilt-a-long on the Sew Kind of Wonderful blog starting in September, so join in the blog hop, get inspired and get ready to Curve It Up!

 

Watch this space!

Making It Work - A Lesson In Patience

I've been channelling Tim Gunn this past few days (Project Runway for those of you scratching your head), and have babbled "make it work" on more than a few occasions.  You see, my darling Bernina came very close to being thrown through my wall on Friday, after repeatedly snapping threads and just being an all round biatch of a machine.  After the 542nd thread snap, I snapped.  And turned to my IG friends, asking for advice......  Which lead to Gemma texting me instructions to do this......

 

After holding my breath for a while, I managed to gently dust the machinery and dislodge a little thread in the uptake thingamajig, then put it back together again.......  It worked for a whole five minutes then 

SNAP!!!!

I called the dealer I bought her from (in Tasmania) and walked through some trouble shooting, and she gave me the bad news that I'd need to take her somewhere to be looked at.  Thinking tension discs or a burr on the bobbin case.  Sigh......

Anyway, I picked up my bottom lip and rang my Mum.  Drove around there and picked up this......

 

Good old faithful!  I used this for quite some time before buying my own Bernina, and it's an absolute work horse.  HOWEVER....  it has no quilting extension table thingy, nor a walking foot, nor a zipper foot.  Hence, I have had to make it work.

 

My to do list this week is literally packed.  And I was so depressed about my missing baby, I couldn't bring myself to sew.  Kicked myself up the bum this morning and got out my big extension table and just sort of sat it there.  Worked out how to drop the feed dogs and whacked on the fmq foot and just gave it a crack.

 

And ta-daaaaa!  Look, it's far from perfect, but given there's no needle down function, the fmq foot is not actually genuinely made for this machine and the dodgy way I had the extension table set up - it's pretty damn good!  I had this cushion cover top finished a few days ago - it's a birthday gift for one of my youngest daughter's friends.  M is for Mitchell!  I pulled out a bag of scraps leftover from my SON's QUILT, which I knew eventually would come in handy!  The letter M is from Quietplay's alphabet patterns, and is super easy.

 

I literally started in the middle of the cushion and worked my way outwards.  There's some wonk in those "organic" straight lines!  But I am actually very impressed with the consistent stitch length - that's one tick!  I used my go to thread - Aurifil #2024.

Once I got the the white space, I tried a little pattern I've seen around, and just love it!  I can see myself using it on a bigger scale on quilts.

I'm not even showing you the back!  Let's just say that inserting a zipper without a zipper foot is not my forte!  But hey - six year old boys are not likely to criticise?  I hope?

All in all, it has been a very interesting experience.  I have learnt patience in my quilting.  After I'd finished this cushion, I kept going and finished off two other cushion cover tops for Collaborate For A Cause.  And the quilting is actually incredibly neat and as I said before, the stitch length is perfect.  So there's a lot to be said for quilting with anxiety!  I am however looking forward to a phone call from the service guy telling me I can pick up my baby!

I'm linking up - You can too!

New York Beauty

The Wombat Stew paper piecing bee is rolling on for 2014.  February is Gemma's turn as Queen, and after much thought, she threw us a curly challenge!  A slightly open ended one at that.  Gemma asked us all very kindly if we would make her a New York Beauty block............. 

 **crickets** 

After the initial shock, horror and gasp - we all agreed.  Then hit Pinterest!  I found a multitude of amazing blocks, in all shapes, colours and sizes.  Then stepped away cross-eyed and anxious.  I mean, they're a pretty full on block to tackle!  Anyway, I took a deep breath and decided to choose THIS ONE.  But knew it would look completely different!  Gemma gave us a colour palette to work with, so I drew from that and spent over an hour pulling fabrics, putting fabrics back, re-visiting fabrics and then walking away.  Another deep breath and I jumped in!

And a few days later, this is the result.....

Isn't she lovely?  Now, it's not perfect, but damn I came close!  I basically managed to match all of the seams except one quite obvious one!  And I'm too scared to unpick it!  So I shall leave it for Gemma to ponder :)

I chose the orange, purple, pink and reddish floral first, then threw the yellow in for POW factor.  I think it worked?  The turquoise Art Gallery print was added after some consultation with Gemma.  Blue wasn't in her colour palette, but when i think of Gemma, the first colour that comes to mind is turquoise! I think it works perfectly.  The next stressful decision was the centre circle.  I spent a considerable amount of time auditioning fabric, before once again handing the choice over to Gem!  I think her choice is spot on.

After working myself up over how difficult this block was going to be, I have to be honest and say that it really wasn't bad at all!  In fact, it's all rather straight forward paper piecing.  The curves had me worried, but turned out to be not so bad after all!  The tricky(ish) part is putting your four quadrants together.  Matching the seams is daunting, and I had to make sure to use quite a few pins, which for someone who doesn't usually pin - was quite amusing!  The lining up of the text wasn't really a fluke, I made sure when cutting the wedge shaped pieces out, that I cut them around in a circle.  The part I am most proud of, is the matching up of seams on the "sun rays" at each quarter!  They are perfect-o!

Soooo, where to now?  Well, I must say I am keen to get my New York Beauty on again!  In fact, I'd LOVE to have a bit of a sew along.  Make sure you check back here in the very near future, and I will have some more info to share!

Have you ever wanted to tackle a New York Beauty?  Want to join me?

I'm linking up - You can too!

W.I.P. Wednesday - Green, Purple and Silver

This W.I.P. Wednesday is brought to you by the colours Green, Purple and Silver!  It's also accompanied by some Doubt, Anxiety and a sprinkling of Trust.  I've thrown in some hope and Faith for good measure!

Doubt that the three colours would go together well.  Anxiety over my choice of design.  Trusting my instincts would be correct.  Hoping that when I've finished all the blocks it will look amazing, and faith that the recipient will love it!

So far......so good!

I'm linking up with W.I.P. Wednesday - You can too!

I've got My Ranty Pants on.....Again

So I have my ranty pants on tonight.  Most of my ranting of late is to do with social networking and teenagers.  Basically because I have a teenager and he lives and breaths social networking.  Don't get me wrong - I am quite obviously in to social networking, but the past six months or so have opened my eyes way more than I am comfortable with in regards to the way our teenagers are portraying themselves to the world.

And here are just a couple of examples why.....

I've been banging on to Lochie about being aware of what he is "liking" on FB.  The fact that when I look through my newsfeed I can see that he likes 50 girls status's and/or photos of them leaning forward in to the camera lens with their tongue hanging out the side of their mouths makes me queasy.  Not because he likes that sort of shit - he's a teenage boy with a pulse - but because these girls are putting that crap up there for him and a million other boys and possibly pedophiles to see....

The fact that I can then (if I wanted to) right click on any of said photos and save them to my computer makes me ill.  And I'm a harmless, 37 year old Mother of four.  Who else could save these photos to salivate over???

Then there's the posts he likes from ridiculous FB pages and/or groups.  One of them was beautifully titled "Straya C*nts".  Lovely.  Let's just say I was able to delete this page from his list whilst I still had his password...  I pointed out to my beloved son that not only was I seeing this shit in my newsfeed, so were his grandparents and potentially anyone else who had eyesight.  I am no prude, and have been known to drop the odd "C" bomb, but would not and could not in front of my parents or grandparents.

Last week was the straw that broke the camel's Mummy's sanity!  Now that Instagram is gaining a tight hold on everyone, it seems a young girl whom I'm assuming is probably quite charming, has named herself "Infinity Whore"......and Lochie is "following" her.  There are so many things wrong with this scenario I don't even know where to begin.  The bottom line is this - no 14 year old girl should be naming herself in any way, shape or form a Whore.  Not for amusement, not for popularity and certainly not for anything but degradation.  Unfortunately it took quite a few conversations, raised voices and the reality that he will some day in the near future have two sisters the same age as this girl, to finally get through to him that this was NOT OK.  Oh, and a phone call to his Father threatening not to pay phone bills or give him access to any form of internet and/or phone if he did not use communication tools in a way I find respectable.

  I posted this on his FB page and we spoke about it.  I think I'm on track....

{Source unknown due to random FB post}

To top all of this, last night whilst scrolling through  FB world, I see my darling son has liked a young girl's status about it being nice to know that some people care out there.  For some unknown reason it raised my curiosity, and when I clicked on this girl's page I was horrified.  There were several posts about wanting to kill herself.  About how close she lives to a train line.  And that she had tried to kill herself the previous night.  As I read through it all, I wondered who her parents were?  I wondered who I could contact to let them know their baby was in trouble?  And as I scrolled down this stranger's page, I recognised two other children in her photos.......  They just happen to be a friend's children, and after emailing said friend, I find out this morning that she is the friend's step-daughter.

My friend was very grateful I had emailed her, and during a phone call this morning explained that the young girl had been banned from FB, but had obviously opened up her own account and gone on to block all family members from any access to her page.  What she didn't think about was the ever growing six degrees of separation that FB has helped to create and make public.  Her step-mother now has screen shots of her page so she can somehow deal with the situation at hand.

Now I questioned my actions this morning.  Should I have butted in?  Should I have made contact and let this girl's family know what was going on?  I DID NOT HESITATE.  I would want someone - anyone, to butt in and contact me if God forbid I had no idea.  And as another friend pointed out - I could not live with myself if I hadn't and something happened.

It has also made me wonder how parents are dealing with the 24/7 presence of social media in our children's lives?  Another friend asked me last week how long I thought it would be before Lochie would no longer allow me to be friends with him on FB?  Ummmmmm - how about NEVER?!?!  We have rules in this family - and many relate to his usage of FB.  I believe that having his password for the first couple of years he was on there was the single most smartest thing I could have done.  I picked up so many inappropriate things, but turned them in to lessons for him.  He knows that if he wants to use FB, he needs to follow my wishes of using it respectfully - OR HE WON'T HAVE IT.  As I said to him last week - having his phone, laptop and unlimited access to WiFi is a PRIVILEGE,  NOT A RIGHT.  And I am more than happy to remove his privileges whenever I see fit.....

Sooooo..........how are you dealing with your kids and social media?  Would you alert a parent to a potential issue on their child's page?

Discuss.....

Gonna Make You Sweat!

I had no intention on writing a blog post tonight.  I have worked all day, then gone straight to the Season Opener for Junior Cricket......................................   Sorry, that is a big long line of dots because the excitement that cricket brings to my life is just that, like a long line of dots.    And now that I'm home and have make a hot chocolate, put on my pj pants and started popping the immune system boosting tablets I bought from the chemist on the way home, I decided it was a good time to catch up on all the blogs I read.

UNTIL

I logged in and found that Blogger wanted to tell me:

"You are currently not following any blogs"

WTF?!?!?!?  Not normally one to panic, I felt my heart pick up pace and my finger clicking the mouse, trying to figure out what kind of cruel game Blogger was playing with me??  I diverted the mouse back to FB, to my handy-dandy-blogging-library-friends, where I put out my anxiety ridden call to help.  And thankfully, a lovely level headed blogger calmed me by saying it had happened to her and to refresh or go out and back in to Blogger.    PHEW.  (Thanks Carmel).

So in a bizarre roundabout way, it made me think of some of the things that make me sweat.  The things that raise my blood pressure or peels anxiety out of its hiding place.  So here are a few.....

*  Meeting new people - namely Mothers whom I've never met before.  This should not worry me, but it does.  I can't help wondering what they think of me?  Don't talk too much.  Don't not talk enough.  Don't get too friendly.  Sad I know.

*  Watching my kids hurt.  Like, really hurt.  The hurt that produces tears.  Each of my four kids have done damage enough to themselves to reduce me to a mess.  And I'm pretty sure there will be more.

*  Expecting visitors and looking around to see my house resembles a literal bomb site.  Happens all too often.  Although I go into a tizz over it - it's also the best remedy to a messy house.  Never do I clean as well as when I am expecting people!

*  Big sporting events.  Strange.  11 years ago, before I met Andrew, I had never really watched sport.  Never participated in sport (well, apart from my famous season of soccer when I got the trophy for most improved).  Never had family members participating in sport.  Now I find myself at Cricket finals.  Basketball finals (remember THIS final?).  And bloody AFL Grand Finals!  It's all too much....

Ok.  I could go on and on.  But it's now 10.30pm and I need to walk back down the freaking stairs (I now FULLY understand why my pleas for a house with stairs when I was younger fell on my parents' deaf ears) and get another fancy Immune-boosting tablet, before traipsing back up here to curl up in bed and hopefully be cured of this lurgy by morn.

Tell me - what makes you sweat?  Well, apart from the obvious??

Night night!

Blah....blah blah!

I've been a busy little beaver (so childish that every time I hear that word I laugh?) this last week or so!  Apart from the fact that it's school holidays here, which itself is enough to generally send me in to a spin - I've also well and truly got my Sew-jo back!    The last few months have been mind-blowingly maniacal, and I'm still recovering.  But our renovations are ALMOST finished - just one bloody toilet door to be hung!  Our house is feeling like a home - mostly due to the amount of crap that everyone feels comfortable leaving lying around.  My Dad is recuperating from his generous stint in hospital and scaring the shit out of us all.  The sun has been shining at least a few days a week, lulling us Melbournians into a false sense of Spring.

Things are looking up in the world.

I took my two working week-days off work last week, and spent it hanging out with my two primary school kids.  It was actually refreshingly lovely.  I also took Saturday off work, for the AFL grand final.  But we won't talk about that........bloody Swans.

When Chelsea asked me yesterday if we could go and watch "Hotel Transylvania" at the movies, I said yes (if you've seen it, you will now understand the post title!).  I sms'd her bestie's Mum, who also happens to be my friend, and arranged a weeknight date.  Unheard of.  We took Lochie along too.  Had a fabulous laugh at a really great film, and was later introduced to HARRAJUKU CREPES!!!  What rock have I been hiding under????  FAR OUT!  I didn't order one because I really wasn't sure what on earth they were all about.  But I made sure to help both Chelsea and Lochie (and my friend) to eat theirs.  Now all I can think about is a return trip.  Nom nom nom......

I've also been chatting to the girls at The Handmade Library!  And just yesterday they unveiled an Amaze-balls give-away!  Which you can check out AND ENTER HERE.  I am very happy to be a sponsor of the give-away - so head on over and tell them I sent you!

And today?  Well, today I'm having another chat, and a cuppa, with Clare from Clare's Craftroom.  Clare is running a series of morning teas with a bunch of lovely crafters - so I'm wrapt to be included!

Oh - and I'm off to work!  So that's it for now.  I will leave you with some of the results of my return to the sewing machines.......

All of these goodies can be purchased from Thursday 18th October when I hold my Out To Sea Market Night!  HERE is where you will find the details.

What have you all been up to in my absence??

Crises....of sorts

It would be a fair assumption to say I am at a crisis point.  Actually, I am at a crisis junction - too many crises!  Where to start?

#1 - I received Chloe's kindergarten forms last week.  Which was all very exciting.  Until reality struck.  My baby will only be home one day per week.  GREAT I hear you say?  Well that's what I thought I would be saying - but I'm now in panic mode.  14 years of having a child at home with me is coming to an end a little too suddenly.  I need to wrap my head around that.....

#2 - Work.  I have been at the same job for some 15 years.  Love my job.  Not so much loving the shift work attached to said job these days.  Working every second weekend has lost its appeal.  Having three out of four children playing weekend sport as well as a husband who widows me every Summer, has made this past year frustrating.  Shift work is ideal for families with small children, but as we move into this next phase of activity over-drive, I'm finding myself treading water.  Lucky I have an awesome boss who doesn't slap me around when I'm having my all-too-familiar meltdowns!

#3 - The Big Brown House.  It's becoming very real that in a matter of weeks, we will have a mortgage.  A very substantial mortgage at that.  Back in my past life, at the ripe old age of 21, I bought a house.  For $75k!  Now THAT was a mortgage.  As I lay in bed trying to work out where the ABC1 weather man gets his outfits from, I told Andrew I was having a bit of a heart attack.  About the mortgage.  He laughed.

#4 - Seal quite obviously needs some sexual healing.  I watched "The Voice" and felt the skin crawling off my bones during Emma's performance.  At about 1.10 minutes in, it gets uncomfortable.  He needs to learn how to hide his lust!  And how to get a private room......

I could go on.  But I shan't bore you all!  

Anything got your knickers in a knot??


ps. this is my 200th blog post!  I'm going to get an icy-pole to celebrate....cos that's how I roll!

A Likely Witch Hunt

Happy Mother's Day!  I worked all day but was happy to return home  to a lovely Indian meal cooked by the husband, and the children had all made and bought me lovely bits and pieces.  Nice.


What I didn't think was nice, was the not so brilliant timing of 60 Minutes' story telling.  I mean seriously, putting a story on about smacking, on Mother's Day.  Good one.  I saw the ads for it last week, and straight away thought "fabulous, that woman is going to get roasted".  I'm always curious as to why people would put themselves out there, in the public arena, to be torn to shreds?


Just to clarify - I am NOT anti-smacking.  I am NOT pro-smacking.  I am PRO-PARENTING.  This is my take on it all....


I am not a perfect parent.  Far from it.  I have smacked my kids - on the VERY rare occasion.  It's usually out of frustration.  And I ALWAYS feel guilty after I have done it.  Hence why it has rarely occurred.  Watching the story this evening, I cringed.  This Mum, whom I am certain loves her four children dearly, smacks on a rather regular basis.  My opinion is that if you are smacking your children often, and on a regular basis - it's NOT working.  It's NOT effective.  Change your tact.  Clearly this Mum thinks she is doing the right thing.  And you know what?  That's for her to live with.  I can only imagine that she is now going to go through hell - because every anti-smacker on the earth is going to want her blood.  They will be gunning for her.  And that is unfortunate.


We all parent the only way we know how.  I USED to yell.  Until a few weeks ago.  Things are different in our household now.  I am relishing the random hugs, kisses and "I love you's".  A few days ago, I lost my shit for the first time since then.  And as I raised my voice and lost my temper, my eyes were open.  I saw the way my kids were looking at me.  And I remembered why I stopped yelling.  Their eyes were sad.  I stopped and apologised.


I'm hoping that the Mum from tonight's story watched tonight, and that her eyes were open.  I'm hoping that she saw the looks on her kids faces, and their body language.  And I hope that she learns from it.  I also hope that the wider audience and the media are kind, because after all - she's a Mum, just like the rest of us.  


Did you watch tonight?  Thoughts?

And We've Only Just Begun.....

The Brown House.  That is the best description I have for it at present.  Brown.  Really brown.  But we have a vision.  Sort of.  It's a bit of a blurred vision right now, but I'm hoping my little exercise book filling up with notes will soon make it clearer.

I have a gazillion more photos of our new home, but am too scared to look too closely, for fear of running!  This little big beauty is most definitely a work in progress.  It's going to take a whole lot of hard work and hard earned money to get it to look the way we want it to, but I'm shitting myself quietly OK with that.

You see - this big brown house is where my husband was brought home to after he left the hospital.  Back in 1979.  This is his childhood home.  Last year sometime, he suggested that when his Mum was ready to downsize (she has been living here by herself for quite a while now) it would be the perfect sized home for us and our tribe, and perhaps we should think about purchasing it?  He left the thinking up to me.  SO I thought long and hard about it.  And after about a week, I told him I agreed.  This humungous house was pretty much perfect for us.  Except of course for the carpet, painting, tiles, gates, doors, decking yadda yadda yadda......

Soooooooo............as we begin this journey into home renovation - bare with me!!  This is not my first rodeo renovation, my past life ended at the final stages of an extension.  My plan is to have THIS marriage outlast THIS house!  I will more than likely be committed at some stage, and will require you to tell me that it will all work out.  Please.  Thank you.

Am I crazy?  Do you have any tips for getting through a rather large renovation?

Random Rambling...

Today, I was going to come and write a post about others cynicism towards all things good.  Then I changed my mind and thought I would write about something else.  Then I started writing.....

 My annoyance rose from a very innocent flippant comment, I'm sure, the other day regarding the Kony 2012 campaign.  Said person questioned its success, and pretty much judged it a flop.  I was a little disappointed.  Sometimes I think people question the validity of social consciousness basically because their conscience is failing them?  Perhaps they would like to see things fail because it would make them feel better about not being supportive?  I was more than happy to let them know that on my way to work that day I saw this:

Just a random traffic light post, in a random suburb far far away from Africa....

I also know for certain that quite a number of regular Aussie kids sent away for their Kony 2012 packs and have been educated by this campaign.  So I guess in my eyes, this was far from a fail....

Let it be known these little men are very proud of their involvement!

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A lady I like to call a friend, even though I have never met her, nor had a conversation with her  - Eden Riley - wrote a post this week that broke my heart.  I blogged about the profound effect Eden's trip to Niger, on behalf of World Vision Australia, had on myself and my family.  It was a week in Eden's life that I cannot even imagine.  Well, it seems a whole bunch of naysayers decided they would target Eden and question the way she wrote about her trip as well as the way she is living her life since said trip.  This infuriated me to say the least.  How dare someone else, who has NO idea of what someone has been through, question them?  I just DON'T GET IT?  Another case of people feeling guilty about their lack of involvement, their lack of social awareness and their lack of tact and manners.  Shame.

I see this sort of crap daily.  Over a wide variety of subjects.  People dragging people down, to make themselves feel better.  And it makes me proud that I am no longer the cynical teenager I was once judged to be.  

---------------------------------

So that's what I was GOING to write about.  I did a good job not writing that didn't I?

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I'm also linking up with The Studious Stitch today!  So feel free to hop along to the other blogs linked up - you may just find something you like!

Tell me - what would you write about today?

To Medicate or Not to Medicate - THAT is the Question.

I have thought about writing this post for a few weeks now.  Sort of mentioned it here, but something always stops me.  I'm going to try.

When I started blogging, way back here, my little "tag line" was - "From One Un-medicated Mummy to Another."  Back then I WAS un-medicated, and still am.  But it hasn't always been that way....

I was told by my GP back in 1999 that I was depressed.  I was 24 years old and had a little baby boy who depended on me.  I can still very clearly remember returning home to my then husband and telling him that "The Dr says I am depressed".  His response?  "You're not depressed".  This pretty much summed up the support system I had at the time.  Zilch.  I soldiered on for a while longer until I decided I should fill the script for medication I was given.  It was only a year or so later that I realised I wasn't really depressed - I was really unhappy.  In the boldest move I would ever make in my life (I am was a chronic people pleaser) I decided I would take control, and left my husband.  Strangely enough - my depression left.  And so did the medication.

I was lucky enough to meet my fabulous husband - Andrew - about 14 months after that.  Bliss.  We have now shared over ten years together, and that unhappiness that weighed heavily on me has never shown its ugly face again.  For that I am grateful.

Regardless of my giddy happiness, and complete and utter fulfilment family wise, my dear old brain and its battle with serotonin have led me to medication a few times.  Well, three times to be exact!  It seems one of the downfalls for me whilst being pregnant, was that I felt like a crazed woman.  I couldn't control my temper, my emotions, my anxiety.  I had no control.  Over anything.  I was in the fortunate position of having a wonderful obstetrician when pregnant with Chelsea, and he suggested anti-depressants could possibly help.  And he was right.  They did.

I always made a point of explaining to people that I was NOT depressed.  Anti-depressants, for me, level me out.  They lessen my stress levels, my anxiety, and make me a little more "zen".  Throughout my last two pregnancies, a point would come where Andrew and I would have a conversation that went something like this....

Andrew - "I think maybe you might need to go and see the Dr?"

Me - "I think maybe you're right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I wish I had of had such insight back when I was pregnant with Lochie.  I was the same anxious, stressed ball of emotion back then - but did not have the support or type of relationship where it was acknowledged.  There were warning signs.  Like the time we got in to a fight (I was probably 7/8 months pregnant) and he locked me out of the house to calm down.  In the rain.  Not a good idea.  Let's just say I ended up kicking a glass door in.  Hmmmmm......should have taken that warning sign and run with it!?!

Anyway.......... The reason I am writing about this NOW is that over the past few weeks, well months really, I have admitted to myself - and Andrew, that I'm struggling.  Struggling with everything.  And unfortunately I take my frustration and lack of control out on my beautiful kiddies.  I've always been a bit of a "yeller".  Not something I'm proud of, but it's me.  When I feel like I have been feeling, I lose control, and I can scream like a banshee.  I hate it.  I hate myself when I'm doing it.  I hate myself after doing it.  

I'm super aware of the fact that mental illness is part of my family.  It's part of my genetic make-up. I figure I shouldn't put it off, so it's off to the Doctors again.

I have a LOT of people ask me how I do it all?  How do I have four kids, work, run a small home business and still have it all together?  I generally laugh it off and joke about how I manage.  I look like someone who has it together, but THIS is the truth.  I don't!  I'm not worried about it.  My darling friend at work reassured me that sometimes we just need a little help.  SO I'm going to get it.

My question to you - How do you do it all?

Tutorial - Facing the Fear of Facing

Last week, I Guest Blogged over at The Oz Material Girls!  I was wrapt to contribute with my first ever tutorial.  If you sew clothing you may just find it helpful!

A few weeks ago, I bought the "Scientific Seamstress Aline Dress" pattern.  I was after a basic pinafore pattern to get started on some Winter garments and this was perfect!  I received the pattern straight away and began reading the instructions to plan my attack.  I then realised that the reversible version of the pattern required quite a bit of hand sewing, something I steer clear of due to my lack of ability.  So I thought "No worries, I'll just make it one sided".   The e-book did have some instructions on doing so, however, it did not have instructions how to assemble a facing and sew it in.  Right then and there, I gave myself the challenge of working it out.....  And to my excitement - I did!  So here is how I did it....

I started out by following the directions and drawing out my pattern as per instructions.

Then using the template for the bodice of the dress, I cut out another pattern piece, but only a few inches long in the body part.  As indicated on this line on the pattern.

Once all cut out, you should have four pieces.

Next, put your front bodice and facing piece right sides together, then your back bodice and facing piece right sides together, and pin from the armholes around.

Now it's time to start sewing.  Using the seam allowance as recommended in the pattern, start sewing from one armhole, all the way around to the other one, remembering to backstitch 

at each end.

Bodices and facings sewn together.

At this point, you can either overlock the edge of the facing, or if you prefer do a regular

 small seam to neaten.

Clip the seam allowances around the curved parts of the garment, being sure not to cut the stitching.  This will help when turning the pieces right side out.

Then turn both your front and back pieces right side out.  You can use any blunt instrument to help get the corners out beautifully.  Chopsticks work wonders! 

You can also add size and/or care labels if you choose.

Once you have it right side out, lay your front and back together, right sides facing each other.  You will pull the facing pieces upwards, opening them up and pinning together also.  

Make sure your seams match up at the armholes.

Sew your front and back together using recommended seam allowance.  You will start at the edge of the facing and follow all the way down to the hem of the dress.  

If you have an overlocker/serger, go over the same seams to neaten or use a zigzag stitch

Pull the facing back down so it covers the stitching.  

It looks nice and neat on both the inside and outside!

Topstitch around the entire top half of the dress, starting just behind one of the armholes and following all the way until the stitches meet again.

You have now successfully sewn a facing into the dress!  

Follow the remaining instructions on the pattern to complete the garment.  

These instructions could be used for most dresses and tops that require a facing.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful - I certainly had a "lightbulb moment" when I realised it had worked!  You can purchase this pattern from Patterns Only, as well as hundreds of other great patterns!