Or: How I learned that people without a functioning sense of smell probably shouldn't do cooking experiments on top of the fireplace.
We are nearly out of tomato sauce.
That might sound like a weird opening, but here's the thing: my body has an uncanny ability to crave whatever it is that we are running low on in the house. Want peanut butter on toast? No bread. Would give your left leg for a paddle pop? No ice-cream of an kind in any of the four freezers. If I'm having a hamburger (by which I mean a beef patty, and a bit of bread) I want tomato sauce with it. Ergo, tonight, midnight, I open the fridge, see a packet of mince, think "perfect, hamburger it is." Sure, the mince is one day after it's best before, but don't they play it safe with those things, surely you have a day or two extra, right?
Not only that, but it's winter (pretty much) now. The fire is lit. The fire, which gets super hot because it's 20 years old and all its insulating bricks have fallen out. The fire that, sometimes last year, I would cook a beef patty on, instead of having to wash a frypan.
Also, I decided to test that thing where, if you wrap a bottle of drink in some damp taper towel and put it in the freezer, it gets cold in 5 minutes. This will be an important part of the resolution to the story, even though it seems a bit random (ie. not as ominous as everything else Ive written so far) at this point in the story.
So I've decided to cook a burger on top of the fire. Normally I'd mix the mince with breadcrumbs and seasoning, but, well, I'm both hungry and lazy. And anyway, aren't Maccas burgers supposed to be all beef? If they don't need breadcrumbs, neither do I. So I squish the mince between some baking paper till it's flatish, carry it across the kitchen, and plop it onto the top of the fireplace.
It makes a satisfactory sizzling noise. There's a big bit of baking paper folded around it, but I've put the fold to the back so I can lift it up and have a look inside.
It appears to be browning in the correct fashion. But this is where the problem starts. Some beef juice is leaking out in the sizzling. This happens when I make stir-fry, but not when I cook myself a burger. Conclusion: the breadcrumbs are needed to soak up the juice so it doesn't leak everywhere. I get a spatula and try to hold up either side of the paper, so the juice will pool under the burger next to the crease and hopefully re-absorb into the burger.
I know very little about cooking. I now know more: I now know that this does not work.
When the underside appears to be sufficiently brown, I try to pick up the burger and flip it over, without letting the tiny, miniscule dribble of juice I expect to be leftover (ha!) come out the sides.
It doesn't work.
So now there's beef juice sizzling on the metal surface of the fireplace, and from the feel of it, there's still a fair bit of liquid in the baking paper. I carry it over to the sink, and drop down one corner. About 45 litres of liquid gushes out. My burger is half cooked. The baking paper is feeling a bit damp. I get another piece of baking paper, this time doing some foldy-origami type thing to the sides.
I take it back and cook the other side. The origami turns out to not be necessary: the fact that it's already managed to perform the scientific wonder of expelling 5 times as much liquid as it appeared to weigh (I too have done this, one morning when I was so hungover I peed for about 15 minutes) has left it quite dry now that it's time to cook the other side. And even more dry when I bring it over to the plate, and cut through it to make sure that it's cooked through.
I figure I should try clean the top of the still lit, still very hot fireplace, and fortunately, I have some frozen paper towel wrapped around a not-really-at-all-cold bottle of coke in the freezer. And it turns out that frozen paper towel does an alright job of cleaning the top of a hot fire, if by cleaning you mean wiping a few times in hope that it's making some sort of difference and also not getting burnt. I don't know if it's actually even slightly clean: I think the best way to tell will be to wait for someone to go "what's that smell?" since I, as ever, smell nothing. But the bottom of the now half sizzling, half frozen paper towel is a bit brown, as it would be had it cleaned up some well-cooked beef juice, so I figure, job well done.
Having given cleaning the top of the fire a, excuse the pun, red hot go, I go to the cupboard to get some sauce to have with my burger, and discover what you have known from the beginning; that all 4 bottles of sauce in the cupboard have just a tiny dreg in the bottom, which will only come out, accompanied by little fart noises, with a good deal of shaking and squeezing. There simply isn't enough sauce to cover the fact that my burger is a dried out, shriveled up blob of blandness, that may or may not have been fit for human consumption before I even got it out of the fridge.
I chop it up into little bits and put it in the dog's bowl, and eat my piece of bread, unsure how exactly I made it to the point where I am considered an actual grown up human being.
In conclusion, it's probably a better idea to just use regular herbs and spices, than to decide that cooking in a way you haven't done in about 8 months is going to be enough to make your dinner edible. Also, if you've been putting off writing a blog post for about 3 months because you know that it will be your 900th, and you want to make it worthwhile, maybe it's just better to do something so stupid that it deserves the spelling stoopid, and blog about that instead.
P.S. I just went to the kitchen and the dog appears to have eaten it. I guess it can't have been BAD bad, since his nose (I assume) would be able to tell the difference.
Showing posts with label About Me. Show all posts
Showing posts with label About Me. Show all posts
Monday, May 13, 2013
Monday, August 27, 2012
Wait, what?
Tonight I found myself only wearing one sock, after I got an itchy foot a couple of hours ago and took my sock off to scratch it. I hadn't realised how long it'd been - I must have done it all the time a couple of years ago, since I named my blog after my tendency to end the evening wearing only one sock. I'm not sure why it's not happening much any more, except possibly that my heels are a bit more callused these days, and maybe that helps them grip socks better.
What's more I've passed both 2 years of blogging and 850 posts without noticing. In much the same way, it's already the wee small hours of Monday morning and my weekend is all gone.
How did that happen?
What's more I've passed both 2 years of blogging and 850 posts without noticing. In much the same way, it's already the wee small hours of Monday morning and my weekend is all gone.
How did that happen?
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Shit story, needs more unicorns.
So, tonight, I've got a story. It's not a great story, unlike that one about the time when I woke up still wearing pants, actually it's a bit dull; the basic plot is about a girl who watches a romantic comedy and subsequently re-evaluates her life. It's fairly par-for-the-course, and if it's anything like the movie within-the story (because I like to be meta like this) then the funniest scene will be at the end, after the credits, but if that's the case then I should have injected a little bit more hilarity in going out to the woodshed and filling up the wheelbarrow just now. Whoops.
Anyway, yeah, tonight I (the protagonist of this story) watched Any Questions For Ben, an Australian movie that just came out on DVD. I went and hired the DVD and everything. It's about a guy (Ben, the protagonist of his own little story) who's living the high life, working in advertising, footloose and fancy-free in a Melbourne that's a lot prettier than I remember it being. But then he realises that his life is kinda empty, and there's a girl, and it's all very hard, and then they end up together. I'm fairly confident that's not a spoiler, since the bit before the brackets coupled with the second sentence is pretty much the plot of every romantic comedy ever, just with the option to switch the genders. But it gets there in a lovely way, with some nice heartfelt/funny/touching sentiments in there, and yeah, it was, for me, a bit of a ...yeah... moment.
I have loved loved loved the last 2 1/2 years of being single. Well, okay, maybe the first five or six months weren't great, but since then, I've been rocking it. Queen of the single ladies, corrupter of colleagues and regular dancefloor gyrater. But I've been saying "I'm so in love with their love" a lot* lately. And just maybe I've been saying it out of jealousy. Or, not jealousy, but a milder version, not envy either, and longing is also too strong of a word. I think I'm starting to feel about the idea of a relationship the same way I feel about the perfect slim jacket sleeve design. I'd quite like that. It'll be hard to find, but whenever I'm about, in a place where it might be found (in the case of a nice sleeve, I've been looking for a coat to chop up, since it's proving quite difficult to find an actual pattern) I'll be keeping an eye out.
So you heard it here first, because I'm still not quite ready to post it on facebook yet, but I, Sara, am looking for more than just an epic fabric collection and six part-done quilts hanging from the curtains.
I think I want a boyfriend.
*Usually, it's about actors who are real life couples - Bill and Sookie in True Blood are married and expecting real life twins, and the lead actors in this movie are going out too. But I do it with real people too, just cruise around going "oh, good for you guys" quite sincerely, a totally different tone to my normal sarcasm. The signs have been there.
Anyway, yeah, tonight I (the protagonist of this story) watched Any Questions For Ben, an Australian movie that just came out on DVD. I went and hired the DVD and everything. It's about a guy (Ben, the protagonist of his own little story) who's living the high life, working in advertising, footloose and fancy-free in a Melbourne that's a lot prettier than I remember it being. But then he realises that his life is kinda empty, and there's a girl, and it's all very hard, and then they end up together. I'm fairly confident that's not a spoiler, since the bit before the brackets coupled with the second sentence is pretty much the plot of every romantic comedy ever, just with the option to switch the genders. But it gets there in a lovely way, with some nice heartfelt/funny/touching sentiments in there, and yeah, it was, for me, a bit of a ...yeah... moment.
I have loved loved loved the last 2 1/2 years of being single. Well, okay, maybe the first five or six months weren't great, but since then, I've been rocking it. Queen of the single ladies, corrupter of colleagues and regular dancefloor gyrater. But I've been saying "I'm so in love with their love" a lot* lately. And just maybe I've been saying it out of jealousy. Or, not jealousy, but a milder version, not envy either, and longing is also too strong of a word. I think I'm starting to feel about the idea of a relationship the same way I feel about the perfect slim jacket sleeve design. I'd quite like that. It'll be hard to find, but whenever I'm about, in a place where it might be found (in the case of a nice sleeve, I've been looking for a coat to chop up, since it's proving quite difficult to find an actual pattern) I'll be keeping an eye out.
So you heard it here first, because I'm still not quite ready to post it on facebook yet, but I, Sara, am looking for more than just an epic fabric collection and six part-done quilts hanging from the curtains.
I think I want a boyfriend.
*Usually, it's about actors who are real life couples - Bill and Sookie in True Blood are married and expecting real life twins, and the lead actors in this movie are going out too. But I do it with real people too, just cruise around going "oh, good for you guys" quite sincerely, a totally different tone to my normal sarcasm. The signs have been there.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Saying something.
There's something to be said for lying on the floor in front of the fire listening to songs you haven't heard in ages, and staring at the roof thinking about shit, and that something is: I should do it more often.
I had a lot of options for tonight. A couple of different invites out, or drinking on my lonesome, or even sewing. But I think I made the right choice, spending a couple of hours reading random wikipedia articles and eating baked beans. And then taking to youtube to find all those songs that have slipped out of my regular rotation. The Youth Group and the Snow Patrol and the Coldplay and the Dr Hook.
Actually, apart from roadtrips (which are a brilliant excuse to do pretty much nothing but listen to music for 5 hours) I think the last time I did this was easter, when it was 1am on the beach. It's a shame. I'm so used to multitasking - to crochet as I watch tv, to sew with music in the background, to read while cooking (I'm pretty hardcore) that I don't take as much time to think and reflect and just be, quietly, as maybe I should.
See, whenever I'm being me, I tend to be almost obnoxiously me. As me as I can be. I'm usually me-ing my little heart out, reveling in the feeling of my me-ness, because it's damn awesome, if I do say so myself. I'm not ashamed of it, admittedly I rarely notice it, and I really don't mind it. But I suppose there's also something to be said for introspective me too.
And that something is, she has fabulous taste in music.
I had a lot of options for tonight. A couple of different invites out, or drinking on my lonesome, or even sewing. But I think I made the right choice, spending a couple of hours reading random wikipedia articles and eating baked beans. And then taking to youtube to find all those songs that have slipped out of my regular rotation. The Youth Group and the Snow Patrol and the Coldplay and the Dr Hook.
Actually, apart from roadtrips (which are a brilliant excuse to do pretty much nothing but listen to music for 5 hours) I think the last time I did this was easter, when it was 1am on the beach. It's a shame. I'm so used to multitasking - to crochet as I watch tv, to sew with music in the background, to read while cooking (I'm pretty hardcore) that I don't take as much time to think and reflect and just be, quietly, as maybe I should.
See, whenever I'm being me, I tend to be almost obnoxiously me. As me as I can be. I'm usually me-ing my little heart out, reveling in the feeling of my me-ness, because it's damn awesome, if I do say so myself. I'm not ashamed of it, admittedly I rarely notice it, and I really don't mind it. But I suppose there's also something to be said for introspective me too.
And that something is, she has fabulous taste in music.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
I, anosmic.
Sometimes, like, that moment when you realise you might have blown out the flame when you shut the door of the oven 10 minutes ago when you checked on your food, but the gas has probably still been pumping through the whole time, but you're not sure if it has or not, and you've turned it off but now you're not game to turn it back on since the oven door's been open long enough for it to all waft out, so you won't re-light it in case the whole damn house explodes, and your food's still only half cooked, and you're getting seriously hungry but you're gunna wait yet another 10 minutes before you even turn the oven on... Sometimes, I wish I had a sense of smell.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
I need a supersoaker.
Tonight I had a look through an old harddrive, and if I'm honest, what I found ranged from amusing to horrifying, and that was just in the photos.
 |
| Me, Casey, Glenn and Lisa, 16th Nov, 2005, Vansitart Park Playgrounds. Blowing off school with my sister, my bestie and his girlfriend. |
I haven't even looked through the documents yet, though fortunately back in high school I password protected quite a lot of files, and I can't remember any of the passwords 7 years on, so that at least ought to protect me from reading the musings of 17-year-old me.
 |
| Me, 16th Nov, Vansitart Park playgrounds. After mucking about for a bit, we got fish and chips for lunch, then walked to coles and bought a bulk pack of icypoles. We couldn't eat them all, so we gave the rest to random kids. |
Still, it's left me feeling a bit bummed and nostalgic and, frankly, irritatingly existential.
 |
| Out the front of the 2nd driveway of our house, 19th Nov, 2005. This was the week my camera arrived in the mail - A no-brand 8MP I bought on ebay for about $80, when to by a 4MP locallly was a massive, and expensive, deal. It took beautiful photos in sunlight, but was a piece of crap indoors or at night. |
I'll be honest, I don't really know what I'm doing with my life - I live in an eternal now that I am, for the most part, pretty okay with.
 |
| Sunset from the back shed, 1st Feb, 2006. Possibly the only bad thing about working evenings is that I no longer get to take a million photos of every single sunset. |
Did I think I would have done more with my life by this point? Well, frankly, I'm not sure. I have a really shit memory of everything except song lyrics and credit card details, but then I'm often unconvinced that reality even exists, and go through life in a bemused state of wonderment that life seems to be pressing on without me really doing much to facilitate it except eating and pooing.
 |
| Ignore the date shown - Mum never set the date on her camera but I know it was 22nd Jan 2006, because it was my 18th birthday. |
Do I now, at 24, have a pressing urge to get out there and do something?
 |
| The Blue Lake, 14th Nov 2007. I was trying to be "artsy" with my framing. |
Well, not really. Even though, in the words of Five for Fighting, I've "only got a hundred years to live..."
 |
| Me, Sports Day, 13th Feb, 2006. Big Red, the bear I am laying on, was the mascot I made us - He was essentially a massive bean bag. We would throw epic parties on sports days, bring in heaps of food and drink and have a wow of a time - we once got told off for having "too much fun" - apparently we were not respecting the importance of the day. |
Life is going to continue whether I know what to do with it or not.
 |
| Inside the Cave Gardens, 15th Nov, 2005. The actual day the camera arrived in the mail, and the 14th picture taken. Since then I've had two other digital cameras that I've used a lot, before moving to mainly using my phone now, but I don't think any of them have taken as nice a photos as this one did. |
In the meantime, I'm just going to get on with living it as it comes.
Missing this little guy.
 |
| Me, 28th August, 2006. Judging from outside the window, I think it must have been taken at Potters Point. Judging by the date, the car was Elsie (LC), the little corolla. |
Missing this little guy.
 |
| Ralf, 20th Nov 2005. I still have this picture in my wallet. |
And wondering what happened to this little guy...
 |
| I made him as a present for my then-boyfriend, and we always joked that if we ever broke up we would sell him on ebay (similar ones have sold for over $500) and split the profits, but I haven't seen any money, and I really don't think he deserves to keep him. I just hope he didn't get incinerated. |
Sunday, January 22, 2012
It's mah Birthday!
If I'm honest, I've never been that huge of a fan of my birthday - I spend most of them waiting for the 23rd to roll around. My 18th I worked 9-5.30 (though we did have a lovely party in the lunchroom) and my 21st we had dinner at my nans. I can't remeber any of the others, though I recall spending one waiting half the day for the RAA man to come and jump start my shitty old car.
Anyways, yeah, I'm not really a birthday person. Nonetheless, it being after midnight, it's now my birthday according to my drivers licence - I won't consider myself to officially be 24 till after 7.45am.* In the meantime, Im chilling in my motel room after a lovely drive up to Adelaide and going to get chinese twice tonight (once as soon as I arrived and again just as they were closing, 3 1/2 hour gap between)
The last time I was staying at the Granada was the night before Myponga BnS last year, and Casey and I made jelly shots in our room. Tonight I've just eaten lots of satay chicken, watched a really sad movie on showtime and a lot of amusing clips on youtube (yay supplied wifi!). I put my carton of banana milk into my washed out coke bottle so I could shake it up nice and frothy, but that's the extent of my motel-room culinary delights.
Probably for the best really.
Tomorrow I'm just gunna go with the flow, see how many Spotlight stores I can visit in one day - I'm going for 6...
*after the horror of being shoved through a cervix, I was never up and about that early again...
Anyways, yeah, I'm not really a birthday person. Nonetheless, it being after midnight, it's now my birthday according to my drivers licence - I won't consider myself to officially be 24 till after 7.45am.* In the meantime, Im chilling in my motel room after a lovely drive up to Adelaide and going to get chinese twice tonight (once as soon as I arrived and again just as they were closing, 3 1/2 hour gap between)
The last time I was staying at the Granada was the night before Myponga BnS last year, and Casey and I made jelly shots in our room. Tonight I've just eaten lots of satay chicken, watched a really sad movie on showtime and a lot of amusing clips on youtube (yay supplied wifi!). I put my carton of banana milk into my washed out coke bottle so I could shake it up nice and frothy, but that's the extent of my motel-room culinary delights.
Probably for the best really.
Tomorrow I'm just gunna go with the flow, see how many Spotlight stores I can visit in one day - I'm going for 6...
*after the horror of being shoved through a cervix, I was never up and about that early again...
Friday, November 25, 2011
My Christmas list.
I think it's about time I put my Christmas list out there. People have been asking, after all.
First up is some stuff on ebay. I hesitate to post links to items, since the links die after a couple of weeks, but it's still the best way.
I would like a big cutting mat, but since I quilt in metric, there's not that many choices. Matilda's Own have a cutting mat that's 1.3m long, but since my ruler is only 60cm, it seems unnecessary. I think this one is the best blend of nice and big but not so big it wont fit on my bench.
In the last year I've bought myself some very nice men's Wrangler watches. Of the ones online at the moment, I'm thinking of this one. Actually, just the white one, but the blue one comes with it.
For some reason (probably too much re-watching of Buffy) I've decided that what I really really need to make my life complete is a pair of leather pants*. Maybe these ones. Or these ones. I may buy these for myself. Probably the first pair.
I always need USB sticks, because I am incapable of hanging on to them. They are like pens, except they cost $15 each. And I'd like a micro SD card with at least 16G, but I'd rather a 32.
If anyone's in Spotlight, I use Schmetz quilting needles and the Birch extra long/extra sharp dressmaking pins.
If anyone thinks it's cliched getting me something off a list, then anything shiny or sparkly or rainbow is bound to make me happy. Glitter, sequins, mirror balls, holographic book coverings. I'm easily pleased. I also like modelling clay, and anything miniature.
And as for big picture, can't be bought in shops goodness, I'd like the google reader app for android to let me post comments, my leg hair to stop growing, a better understanding of the contextual applications of it's versus its, a lovely nice warm summer, a cure for cancer and world peace.
But I'd settle for a jar of chocolate coated peanuts. They're yum.
*How the hell did she afford her wardrobe? I spent hours searching through thousands of pairs that were in the hundreds and even thousands of dollars. AND ebay didn't even exist for the first few seasons.
First up is some stuff on ebay. I hesitate to post links to items, since the links die after a couple of weeks, but it's still the best way.
I would like a big cutting mat, but since I quilt in metric, there's not that many choices. Matilda's Own have a cutting mat that's 1.3m long, but since my ruler is only 60cm, it seems unnecessary. I think this one is the best blend of nice and big but not so big it wont fit on my bench.
In the last year I've bought myself some very nice men's Wrangler watches. Of the ones online at the moment, I'm thinking of this one. Actually, just the white one, but the blue one comes with it.
For some reason (probably too much re-watching of Buffy) I've decided that what I really really need to make my life complete is a pair of leather pants*. Maybe these ones. Or these ones. I may buy these for myself. Probably the first pair.
I always need USB sticks, because I am incapable of hanging on to them. They are like pens, except they cost $15 each. And I'd like a micro SD card with at least 16G, but I'd rather a 32.
If anyone's in Spotlight, I use Schmetz quilting needles and the Birch extra long/extra sharp dressmaking pins.
If anyone thinks it's cliched getting me something off a list, then anything shiny or sparkly or rainbow is bound to make me happy. Glitter, sequins, mirror balls, holographic book coverings. I'm easily pleased. I also like modelling clay, and anything miniature.
And as for big picture, can't be bought in shops goodness, I'd like the google reader app for android to let me post comments, my leg hair to stop growing, a better understanding of the contextual applications of it's versus its, a lovely nice warm summer, a cure for cancer and world peace.
But I'd settle for a jar of chocolate coated peanuts. They're yum.
*How the hell did she afford her wardrobe? I spent hours searching through thousands of pairs that were in the hundreds and even thousands of dollars. AND ebay didn't even exist for the first few seasons.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Honestly...
I got too many regrets
I've smoked too many cigarettes
I've had more blondes than brunettes
I'm not expecting your sympathy
But it's all been too much for me...
-Monsoon, Robbie Williams.
Okay, so technically, the lyrics aren't quite accurate. But if I had to pick a song to fit my mood, it's be this one.
The "Do you ever feel, already buried deep, six feet under screams but no-one seems to hear a thing" line from Katy Perry's Firework is kinda accurate too.
Because lately, regularly*, I've been feeling like it's all too much. That it's won, I've lost, and now I'm stuck. It's all become too much for me.
At what point should one consider faking ones own death to escape the clutches of a dozen half-done projects, a trail of sketches for dozens more, and a fabric stash that I'm constantly worried will smother me in my sleep?
I am in too deep. My plans stretch too far forward and I will never be able to catch up, never be able to make all the projects I have thought about, done the maths for, bought fabric for. I have too much fabric, and I'm buying it twice as fast as I'm using it - three times, four times as fast. I suppose this is what if feels like to be caught up in a big lie and realising you can no longer talk your way out of it.
Hell, I was never even gunna be a quilter. I was gunna move to Adelaide, do a fashion design course, and then maybe become a buyer for one of the chain stores, or open a little bridal boutique, depending on how I was feeling about traveling. Never did "Amass over 100 fat quarters" show up on my list of life goals. I don't want "Finish your fourteen half done projects" on my to do list. And while I genuinely am the happy, optimistic person, full of wonder and amazement at everything and anything that I claim to be, underlying this is the knowledge that I'm also a big fat faker, and sometimes that bubbles to the top of my personality, and I wonder how the hell I got myself caught up so deep in all this.
I suppose I feel like I'm somehow indebted to all my half done projects, that I only got partway through creating them and what kind of mother would I be if I left them to waste away their days unfinished and unused? That I promised those fabrics something when I pressed the "proceed to checkout" button, and now they're languishing unloved in a box. That if I don't make all the quilts I can see in my head, they will never get made. But every new quilt I think up, every bit more fabric I buy makes it worse, and once the "hooray, new fabric" feeling has worn off, I remember that this has made me even further behind.
My plan to finish at least half of my part done quilts was probably the best compromise between getting at least some of them done and not driving myself bonkers by banning myself from creating new things. For that reason, I wouldn't ever ban myself from buying fabric, not least because a lot of plans I've made already still have little holes in them that need to be filled, and denying myself the option of filling them, or forcing myself to fill them with something I'm not satisfied with would probably make it worse.
But I feel guilty when I'm not getting on with something. I took a break from the big projects last night and pieced myself a couple of little pillows from the charm squares Shay gave me, and even though I needed it to escape from the pressure of the five big projects I'm actively working on, I still felt guilty about it, and tonight to make up for it I told myself I would quilt two of the basted quilts I had lying about. They're pretty much done, almost, and I probably will get them finished before I go to bed, but somedays I kinda feel like chucking it all in, running away from what I've spent so long amassing, because I worry that I'm not realising it's potential, that someone could do a better job of it than me, that I'm just faking it all and pretty soon you're all gunna realise.
BUT...
I'm not a mind reader, but I'm fairly sure we all feel this way about something or another. That we're all just pretending to know what we're doing. And what I've decided is, that's okay. If we're all pretending, and we all know we're pretending, it's a little white lie that's necessary to allow society to function, no different to the lie that a little bit of plastic or paper is worth as much as a trolley full of food. It only is because we all agree it is, and that's okay.
I've decided it's the ones who actually believe all these lies they tell themselves that you have to watch out for. And that I'm gunna get over my worries now, and go and get on with life.
I've got some quilting to do.
*when I say regularly, I mean for at least one minute every day. Regularly doesn't have to mean often. Hayley's comet comes around regularly too. I wish my self doubt only came by once every 72 years.
I've smoked too many cigarettes
I've had more blondes than brunettes
I'm not expecting your sympathy
But it's all been too much for me...
-Monsoon, Robbie Williams.
Okay, so technically, the lyrics aren't quite accurate. But if I had to pick a song to fit my mood, it's be this one.
The "Do you ever feel, already buried deep, six feet under screams but no-one seems to hear a thing" line from Katy Perry's Firework is kinda accurate too.
Because lately, regularly*, I've been feeling like it's all too much. That it's won, I've lost, and now I'm stuck. It's all become too much for me.
At what point should one consider faking ones own death to escape the clutches of a dozen half-done projects, a trail of sketches for dozens more, and a fabric stash that I'm constantly worried will smother me in my sleep?
I am in too deep. My plans stretch too far forward and I will never be able to catch up, never be able to make all the projects I have thought about, done the maths for, bought fabric for. I have too much fabric, and I'm buying it twice as fast as I'm using it - three times, four times as fast. I suppose this is what if feels like to be caught up in a big lie and realising you can no longer talk your way out of it.
Hell, I was never even gunna be a quilter. I was gunna move to Adelaide, do a fashion design course, and then maybe become a buyer for one of the chain stores, or open a little bridal boutique, depending on how I was feeling about traveling. Never did "Amass over 100 fat quarters" show up on my list of life goals. I don't want "Finish your fourteen half done projects" on my to do list. And while I genuinely am the happy, optimistic person, full of wonder and amazement at everything and anything that I claim to be, underlying this is the knowledge that I'm also a big fat faker, and sometimes that bubbles to the top of my personality, and I wonder how the hell I got myself caught up so deep in all this.
I suppose I feel like I'm somehow indebted to all my half done projects, that I only got partway through creating them and what kind of mother would I be if I left them to waste away their days unfinished and unused? That I promised those fabrics something when I pressed the "proceed to checkout" button, and now they're languishing unloved in a box. That if I don't make all the quilts I can see in my head, they will never get made. But every new quilt I think up, every bit more fabric I buy makes it worse, and once the "hooray, new fabric" feeling has worn off, I remember that this has made me even further behind.
My plan to finish at least half of my part done quilts was probably the best compromise between getting at least some of them done and not driving myself bonkers by banning myself from creating new things. For that reason, I wouldn't ever ban myself from buying fabric, not least because a lot of plans I've made already still have little holes in them that need to be filled, and denying myself the option of filling them, or forcing myself to fill them with something I'm not satisfied with would probably make it worse.
But I feel guilty when I'm not getting on with something. I took a break from the big projects last night and pieced myself a couple of little pillows from the charm squares Shay gave me, and even though I needed it to escape from the pressure of the five big projects I'm actively working on, I still felt guilty about it, and tonight to make up for it I told myself I would quilt two of the basted quilts I had lying about. They're pretty much done, almost, and I probably will get them finished before I go to bed, but somedays I kinda feel like chucking it all in, running away from what I've spent so long amassing, because I worry that I'm not realising it's potential, that someone could do a better job of it than me, that I'm just faking it all and pretty soon you're all gunna realise.
BUT...
I'm not a mind reader, but I'm fairly sure we all feel this way about something or another. That we're all just pretending to know what we're doing. And what I've decided is, that's okay. If we're all pretending, and we all know we're pretending, it's a little white lie that's necessary to allow society to function, no different to the lie that a little bit of plastic or paper is worth as much as a trolley full of food. It only is because we all agree it is, and that's okay.
I've decided it's the ones who actually believe all these lies they tell themselves that you have to watch out for. And that I'm gunna get over my worries now, and go and get on with life.
I've got some quilting to do.
*when I say regularly, I mean for at least one minute every day. Regularly doesn't have to mean often. Hayley's comet comes around regularly too. I wish my self doubt only came by once every 72 years.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Hello, Me of 5 years ago...*
Tonight, I accidentally found my old blog. The first one, not the livejournal one that I can still access pretty easily. The one that was started pre-boyfriend (2005), and ends about 3 months into the relationship, well before I finished school (2006). The one from highschool, when I had lots of different (read: nerd, not bogan) friends, and what feels like much more spare time, but then, when I read it, clearly wasn't any spare time at all. Because I was working just as much and going to school occasionally, and hanging out and being a social teenager.
And asking myself the big questions. This was in the first month of being in the relationship.
"do i change to become something i think they want me to be or do i keep being me because they want me already, and if i change it might cause the loss of what they love about me?"
I obviously wasn't as big on the capital letters 4 years ago. My answer at the time (in the next post) was keep being me, but I did obviously change. It wasn't a change I could notice at the time, and I wonder now if anyone else noticed it, and also if the new girl has undergone the same sort of changes as I did.
Hmm. Anyway.
I've started on my prep for this weekend, which means no sewing got done today either. Also I worked 9 hours, and that seems like a good reason for not getting stuff done too. I've got a pretty big run ahead of me actually, Harrow this weekend, 23rd birthday the one after and my one year anniversary of joyous singledom after that (There will be a party. Unless I'm working. In which case I will party at work). Casey's 18th will be at some point, and Maddy's 8th, Mum's 49th and I think we're going to the Dartmoor Rodeo if I'm not working.
Seems I still have a social life. Who'd a thunk it?
*I commented on one of the posts to see if I got a message on my current hotmail account, that could help me sign into it. I didn't but I feel better knowing that I've let the me of 5 years ago know that it all gets better. She was a bit emo, see, but she seems quite a bit funnier than I am. She probably plagiarised a fair bit.
And asking myself the big questions. This was in the first month of being in the relationship.
"do i change to become something i think they want me to be or do i keep being me because they want me already, and if i change it might cause the loss of what they love about me?"
I obviously wasn't as big on the capital letters 4 years ago. My answer at the time (in the next post) was keep being me, but I did obviously change. It wasn't a change I could notice at the time, and I wonder now if anyone else noticed it, and also if the new girl has undergone the same sort of changes as I did.
Hmm. Anyway.
I've started on my prep for this weekend, which means no sewing got done today either. Also I worked 9 hours, and that seems like a good reason for not getting stuff done too. I've got a pretty big run ahead of me actually, Harrow this weekend, 23rd birthday the one after and my one year anniversary of joyous singledom after that (There will be a party. Unless I'm working. In which case I will party at work). Casey's 18th will be at some point, and Maddy's 8th, Mum's 49th and I think we're going to the Dartmoor Rodeo if I'm not working.
Seems I still have a social life. Who'd a thunk it?
*I commented on one of the posts to see if I got a message on my current hotmail account, that could help me sign into it. I didn't but I feel better knowing that I've let the me of 5 years ago know that it all gets better. She was a bit emo, see, but she seems quite a bit funnier than I am. She probably plagiarised a fair bit.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Words. Lots and lots of words.
It's now much more like my normal posting time, and I must say, it has been a lovely day. Sure the 7.30am wakeup sucked pretty bad, but I was back in bed within an hour till my usual wakeup time, and perhaps Mum is right about single serve pavlovas being called that because you only need to eat one, not three, but oh well. Everything between was good. Lunch at Nanny's tasted good, and Dad's decision to not go to Shayne's till 5 meant we got to sit around and gab about random shit for much longer than we otherwise would have. Even going to Shayne's wasn't as bad as I had feared, mainly because Casey was there already with her boyfriend Jamie and her bestfriend (and Jamie's sister) Jess, so I just went out and laid on the grass with them, before having a quick chat with everyone and coming home. And it was the coming home that was the best bit, driving too fast down back roads I've sorely missed this year*. And randomly, though of course he didn't recognise my car, (I recognised his, because I always thought it was stupid) I crossed paths with the ex for the first time in a long time, but instead of making me sad, I felt really really good. I was tearing along at speeds I wont state lest someone tells my Mum, listening to good music, taking a road only because I felt like it, not because I had to go see my boyfriend because he couldn't be bothered coming to my house to see me.
I've spent a while lately thinking about my end of year post, and even though there's still 6 days to go, I'm in a good mood now. I had thought it would be silly to celebrate this year as the year of being single, when 19 of my 23 years have been. I was gunna go with it being the year of blogging, but I've had various blogs over the last 6 years, so it's not that new. It was the year I became a cat owner, but since I didn't really get a choice, it's more like the year I got adopted by a cat. It could be the year I embraced my boganism, but then on the other hand, I got a Suzuki Swift, and you can't fit a five-poster to it, or fit a swag in the boot. If I had to pick one single item to define me, I'd probably go with my necklace, since I haven't really taken it off since I got it, and it is one of a kind, but then, it's an RM Williams longhorn, so it's back to the bogan again.
Ultimately, I think it's the year I met me. When you're in High School you're too busy being someone for everyone else - your teachers, friends, parents, whoever. When you're dating someone, you're being someone for them. I had thought I was waiting for him to be ready to move with me, but maybe I was waiting for myself to be ready to stay.
In the past I would look back at myself and think "gosh, I'm a completely different person now" whereas now I can look back and see that actually, I've been the same person all along, I just didn't know it yet. And now that I know who I am, and I'm comfortable with where I am, I can spend next year looking at where I want to go. I still don't know what I want to do with my life, but actually, I've got a lifetime to figure it out.
This time last year I was expecting a lot from 2010. I had a long term, serious boyfriend, we were looking at houses in Adelaide, I was a good chance at getting into my course, things were looking good.
It didn't turn out the way I expected.
It all turned out different, but then it also turned out even better.
Except BJ. That still makes me sad.
*I can't help but think that if BJ and I had still had a reason to drive too fast down back roads, he would have stayed in better condition, but then I'm probably confusing the way a car stays in good condition with the way a human body stays in good condition. I know I should work out, but there's an eBay to be browsed.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
It happened!
While the readership of this blog is nothing compared to some of the more established ones out there, I consistently get 2 or 3 dozen hits a day. Originally, most of my readers were in Australia (like I am) but in the last month or so the number of overseas readers has shot up - this week I have 3 times as many hits from Americans as I do Australians - And it's got me wondering about my content.
I have about 2 dozen blogs that show up as being followed, and another 4 or 5 that I have bookmarked because there was no follow button on their page, and I couldn't be bothered cutting and pasting their address into dashboard. Almost all of these blogs are Australian.
Originally, I made a point of following only Australian blogs. Slight reasoning led me to believe that local blogs were more relevant to me than ones with plenty inspirational content but not much I could relate to. I like blogs where the weather was the same as at my house, and where the school and public holidays were at the same time. I especially like blogs where they talk about the towns that Daniel Gibson, (who does the South West Victoria late weather bulletins) mentions on the telly (Foxs Lane). I liked any blog that was set in a town mentioned in the Bond Homes jingle (RicRac and Narioka). For an international blogger to be added to my list they needed to have a quilt making style that really matched mine. I was less interested in their day to day posting, more interested in what they had made.
Which makes the notion of international visitors odd for me. I never really thought that I was blogging for anyone, let alone people who use different money than me. To be completely honest, my thought process was something along the lines of "I need to improve my typing. I shall blog." And now people read this, and I worry that they're bored by my car issues and baffled by my fascination with the Aussie dollar.
Tonight, at about 11.30, it hit parity, or actually $1.0003, for less than a minute. According to xe.com, it's dropped back 0.9cents, to around 99.1 now. The Autumn Nutmeg bundle, of which I plan on eventually buying a lot, is listed at US$14.99, which eBay is currently converting as AU$15.05
This is a complete lie, because Paypal is usually 2c worse than the official exchange rate (it's how they make money) but eBay says that any displayed conversions are based on the official Bloomberg rate. Whatever.
Anyway, I'm excited. So excited I spent the night flitting from news site to news site, instead of sewing. This happens sometimes. Also, the fire is lit, since it's freaking cold here in spite of the fact that it's allegedly spring, and it's warmness is intoxicating after spending 8 hours this afternoon in front of an open door on the smokes counter.
The girls asked on the way home if I was sure I didn't want to come. One of the boys we were planning on convoying with has decided he will now be leaving at 9, instead of 10 like they had all planned. Casey got upset about this, and I was sure. My ten (very tiring) closes in a row are over, and what I need now is a couple of days spent bumming about at home, not traveling across the country stressing about more things.
I have sewing to do. But first, I have sleeping to do.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Name change...
An unable to sleep, middle of the night net sesh has revealed there's an actual real one sock productions, who are a .org. As a result, I've decided to add me an L.
Also, I'm doing me a new logo, and Lone looks better than One.
I wish I could just fall asleep.
I'm hungry again.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Oooh, craftbloggers quiz...
1. Why blog? How did you start?
This is my third blog, not including the beloved facespace. The first was here on blogspot, and was made in about 2003/2004ish, and has since been lost to the mists of the internet. The second was a livejournal, where I hung about being emo, and now use to spy on old enemies who, since I didn't use it for about a year before our falling out, have forgotton that I'm still on their "friends" list and can therefore read anything they post. Mainly, I wanted somewhere to host the toy patterns I had every intention of sharing with the internet. Admittedly, this has not yet come to fruition but I found my book of neat copies of the patterns (as opposed to the scungey notepad paper ones I use normally) so now I've just got to work my way up to scanning them in, which is quite a big job as the scanner is in the big lounge, where I hardly ever go.
2. Family taught/Self-taught/Trained?
Family (mainly 2 grandmas and Helen, my aunt) until I hit my teens, and from then, pretty much just making it up as I went along, with a little help from the internet. When I was in year 10 the craft class staged an uprising against their teacher and had me installed as her replacement, which was both a blessing and curse, as I had my fitness and leisure class at the time (we agreed that I would go for the 2 double (1 1/2hour) lessons a week and they could stick with their regular teacher for the 45 minute lesson, as that was when we did bookwork for f&l, and that got me out of the actual sports but maintained me a B- grade for the semester)
3. Workspace - studio or kitchen table?
The sewing machine is in the bedroom, but I have at least moved off my actual bed and now sit on a gray pouf that sat in my car boot for over a year, until I got dumped and my plans for it changed.
Ironing is done on the kitchen bench, and most of final design work is done on the lino, as is the basting. I do it in the middle of the night though, so as to not get in anyone's way.
4. Blog/Shop name, where does it come from?
As discussed in my opening post, I came up with it the night before I started this after I stepped on a pin and took one sock off to see how much I was bleeding. I then couldn't be bothered putting it back on, and spent the night wearing only one sock.
5. Favourite medium to work in?
Fabric. Always has been fabric. Very into quilting at the moment but I have always thought of myself as a "soft engineer" - bags are probably my favourite but I also love working out the structure of a perfect garment. The way something that is not only soft but also very 2 dimensional can be transformed in to something that's almost 4 dimensions - the fourth being practicality as well as the usual up, down, out - is probably my favourite part of being a crafter.
6. Ambitions/future directions/future projects/medium you'd like to try?
The website I copied this quiz from said "I like pottering around, I want someone to pay me to potter. I don't think that's too much to hope for." And I couldn't agree more. In my brain I would like to design fabric, but in the real world I'm a shit design drawer (person who draws, not something for putting cutlery in) I can only draw what I can see, not what I might like as a design on fabric, so that's never going to happen. I like the idea of doing this properly, being a craft blogger or writer, but I tend to get distracted and write instead about all the adorable stuff my cat has done today.
7. Are you neat and organised or, ahem, creatively messy?
Messy. And not even creatively so. I simply have way too much stuff, and not nearly enough space. I've learnt now how to not buy most of the stuff I don't need (overshoping was a massive problem for me as soon as I got an income) but the thing about crafting is that you simply don't know what you will need, so you buy it just in case. I've stopped buying yarns at least, since the cats chew through anything I try to knit. Still, my room is filled with some half dozen 55L tubs, and there would be twice that out in the sheds. Beads, yarn, fabrics, half done projects, notebooks, bags, toys, I have it all.
8. Favourite handmade, handcrafted item you own?
Bit of a toss up here. My handbag is my most used thing. As an achievement, to do the rainbow quilt as a first quilt, in 10 days, then to enter it into a competition and have it achieve moderate success, that's a freaking high achievement. The retro quilt is my favourite though, because to my eyes, it seems so "quilty". My laptop bag is a fully padded, fur lined, soft engineering triumph, though I never use it now because I never take my laptop anywhere (I used to take it to the ex's 3 times a week.) And the top that I wore to Jess' party last Saturday week, that's freaking awesome too.
9. Favourite food/recipe?
Cant really cook, though I will say that Inghams chicken strips need to be oven baked, whereas Golden Circle straight cut crunchy chips need to be deep fried. I also love coke, and lettuce, and strawberries (even though they give me a belly ache) and jelly tots, and milo on tea breaks, and fritz in the middle of the night.
10. Favourite colour?
Green. The green that the Huggies green fabric softener used to be, before they changed the formulation and it became mildly darker. You can also get it in the cheap embroidery thread at Spotlight, the one that isn't Anchor or DMC.
11. Star sign?
Aquarius, but not a horoscope reader.
12. Favourite place, landscape?
Anything I'm looking at at night through the windscreen of my car. Doing 100 on an empty highway, stereo blaring, the horizon beckoning... If I could write this from the drivers seat of my car, every word would be poetry. It's where I do my thinking, where my ideas come together. It is my only place that for the most part, is a place for only me. The thing I miss most about being single is not having someone who gets all your in jokes, or kissing, or hugging, or sex, or any of that. It's the excuse to go for a 20minute drive 3 nights a week.
13. Any tricks for juggling life/work/family with creative pursuits?
Get up around lunchtime. Interact with your family then, as well as with the shops and the post office. Work 3-11. When you get home, take an hour or so to have some food, relax on the internets for a bit. Then, you've got 4 solid crafting hours before you can go to bed for your 8 hours of sleep. NOTE: this only works if you are 22, and your parents work from home.
14. Favourite artists?
Blergh... Lila Tueler has designed 2 or my favourite ranges (Eden and Soire'e) does that count? Here's an alternative, I've never seen a Kaffe Fassett fabric I would buy. Even if it was in the $2 a metre clearance bin. I simply do not get everyone's obsession with his stuff. His patterns are way to busy for my liking, with too many clashing colours in too small an area, and his edges are not neat. This anti-Kaffe attitude seems to make me unique on the internet.
15. Favourite blog post/thing you've made/photo?
Blergh again... none really. Not till I get the flatbear patterns out on the internets.
16. Three words to describe you?
concentrated (not like orange juice, more like that I focus intently on whatever it is that I'm doing. I tend to scrunch up my forehead a lot)
off-kilter (if I say or do something odd, assume its an obscure reference to something you haven't seen and move on, otherwise there will be explanations. long, convoluted ones)
proficient (this might seem a bit up myself, but I seem to be lucky enough to be either good at most things or able to fake my way through them. The best tip I can offer is this - don't attempt something you will be no good at. This is why I play no sports, and am happy to chat inanely with customers while avoiding saying more than 2 words to management. There are some things I simply cannot do)
17. What do you like to do besides creating?
Facebooking.
Illegally downloading episodes of American and British TV shows as soon as they have finished airing, which is usually 6 months before they air in Australia.
Playing with the cats.
Country Karaoke at Flannies every second Saturday.
Reading.
Driving fast.
Shopping online.
Going to the post office.
Sleeping in.
this quiz was found at flowerpress.blogspot.com
This is my third blog, not including the beloved facespace. The first was here on blogspot, and was made in about 2003/2004ish, and has since been lost to the mists of the internet. The second was a livejournal, where I hung about being emo, and now use to spy on old enemies who, since I didn't use it for about a year before our falling out, have forgotton that I'm still on their "friends" list and can therefore read anything they post. Mainly, I wanted somewhere to host the toy patterns I had every intention of sharing with the internet. Admittedly, this has not yet come to fruition but I found my book of neat copies of the patterns (as opposed to the scungey notepad paper ones I use normally) so now I've just got to work my way up to scanning them in, which is quite a big job as the scanner is in the big lounge, where I hardly ever go.
2. Family taught/Self-taught/Trained?
Family (mainly 2 grandmas and Helen, my aunt) until I hit my teens, and from then, pretty much just making it up as I went along, with a little help from the internet. When I was in year 10 the craft class staged an uprising against their teacher and had me installed as her replacement, which was both a blessing and curse, as I had my fitness and leisure class at the time (we agreed that I would go for the 2 double (1 1/2hour) lessons a week and they could stick with their regular teacher for the 45 minute lesson, as that was when we did bookwork for f&l, and that got me out of the actual sports but maintained me a B- grade for the semester)
3. Workspace - studio or kitchen table?
The sewing machine is in the bedroom, but I have at least moved off my actual bed and now sit on a gray pouf that sat in my car boot for over a year, until I got dumped and my plans for it changed.
Ironing is done on the kitchen bench, and most of final design work is done on the lino, as is the basting. I do it in the middle of the night though, so as to not get in anyone's way.
4. Blog/Shop name, where does it come from?
As discussed in my opening post, I came up with it the night before I started this after I stepped on a pin and took one sock off to see how much I was bleeding. I then couldn't be bothered putting it back on, and spent the night wearing only one sock.
5. Favourite medium to work in?
Fabric. Always has been fabric. Very into quilting at the moment but I have always thought of myself as a "soft engineer" - bags are probably my favourite but I also love working out the structure of a perfect garment. The way something that is not only soft but also very 2 dimensional can be transformed in to something that's almost 4 dimensions - the fourth being practicality as well as the usual up, down, out - is probably my favourite part of being a crafter.
6. Ambitions/future directions/future projects/medium you'd like to try?
The website I copied this quiz from said "I like pottering around, I want someone to pay me to potter. I don't think that's too much to hope for." And I couldn't agree more. In my brain I would like to design fabric, but in the real world I'm a shit design drawer (person who draws, not something for putting cutlery in) I can only draw what I can see, not what I might like as a design on fabric, so that's never going to happen. I like the idea of doing this properly, being a craft blogger or writer, but I tend to get distracted and write instead about all the adorable stuff my cat has done today.
7. Are you neat and organised or, ahem, creatively messy?
Messy. And not even creatively so. I simply have way too much stuff, and not nearly enough space. I've learnt now how to not buy most of the stuff I don't need (overshoping was a massive problem for me as soon as I got an income) but the thing about crafting is that you simply don't know what you will need, so you buy it just in case. I've stopped buying yarns at least, since the cats chew through anything I try to knit. Still, my room is filled with some half dozen 55L tubs, and there would be twice that out in the sheds. Beads, yarn, fabrics, half done projects, notebooks, bags, toys, I have it all.
8. Favourite handmade, handcrafted item you own?
Bit of a toss up here. My handbag is my most used thing. As an achievement, to do the rainbow quilt as a first quilt, in 10 days, then to enter it into a competition and have it achieve moderate success, that's a freaking high achievement. The retro quilt is my favourite though, because to my eyes, it seems so "quilty". My laptop bag is a fully padded, fur lined, soft engineering triumph, though I never use it now because I never take my laptop anywhere (I used to take it to the ex's 3 times a week.) And the top that I wore to Jess' party last Saturday week, that's freaking awesome too.
9. Favourite food/recipe?
Cant really cook, though I will say that Inghams chicken strips need to be oven baked, whereas Golden Circle straight cut crunchy chips need to be deep fried. I also love coke, and lettuce, and strawberries (even though they give me a belly ache) and jelly tots, and milo on tea breaks, and fritz in the middle of the night.
10. Favourite colour?
Green. The green that the Huggies green fabric softener used to be, before they changed the formulation and it became mildly darker. You can also get it in the cheap embroidery thread at Spotlight, the one that isn't Anchor or DMC.
11. Star sign?
Aquarius, but not a horoscope reader.
12. Favourite place, landscape?
Anything I'm looking at at night through the windscreen of my car. Doing 100 on an empty highway, stereo blaring, the horizon beckoning... If I could write this from the drivers seat of my car, every word would be poetry. It's where I do my thinking, where my ideas come together. It is my only place that for the most part, is a place for only me. The thing I miss most about being single is not having someone who gets all your in jokes, or kissing, or hugging, or sex, or any of that. It's the excuse to go for a 20minute drive 3 nights a week.
13. Any tricks for juggling life/work/family with creative pursuits?
Get up around lunchtime. Interact with your family then, as well as with the shops and the post office. Work 3-11. When you get home, take an hour or so to have some food, relax on the internets for a bit. Then, you've got 4 solid crafting hours before you can go to bed for your 8 hours of sleep. NOTE: this only works if you are 22, and your parents work from home.
14. Favourite artists?
Blergh... Lila Tueler has designed 2 or my favourite ranges (Eden and Soire'e) does that count? Here's an alternative, I've never seen a Kaffe Fassett fabric I would buy. Even if it was in the $2 a metre clearance bin. I simply do not get everyone's obsession with his stuff. His patterns are way to busy for my liking, with too many clashing colours in too small an area, and his edges are not neat. This anti-Kaffe attitude seems to make me unique on the internet.
15. Favourite blog post/thing you've made/photo?
Blergh again... none really. Not till I get the flatbear patterns out on the internets.
16. Three words to describe you?
concentrated (not like orange juice, more like that I focus intently on whatever it is that I'm doing. I tend to scrunch up my forehead a lot)
off-kilter (if I say or do something odd, assume its an obscure reference to something you haven't seen and move on, otherwise there will be explanations. long, convoluted ones)
proficient (this might seem a bit up myself, but I seem to be lucky enough to be either good at most things or able to fake my way through them. The best tip I can offer is this - don't attempt something you will be no good at. This is why I play no sports, and am happy to chat inanely with customers while avoiding saying more than 2 words to management. There are some things I simply cannot do)
17. What do you like to do besides creating?
Facebooking.
Illegally downloading episodes of American and British TV shows as soon as they have finished airing, which is usually 6 months before they air in Australia.
Playing with the cats.
Country Karaoke at Flannies every second Saturday.
Reading.
Driving fast.
Shopping online.
Going to the post office.
Sleeping in.
this quiz was found at flowerpress.blogspot.com
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
So... you blog stuff?
So I'm starting a blog in an attempt to give me an alternative website to eBay to hang out on. There, I waste money. Here, I can only waste time. Currently only my time, but, I suppose, if you're reading this, then yours as well.
So, what's this blog about?
Um, actually, probably not much at first. One day, it would be wonderful if it ends up in the big circle of quilting/ crafting blogs that exist in the interspace, but, for now, it's probably gunna be sewing, and cat complimenting, and, occasionally, even though it’s been nearly five months, some bitching about the ex and his gummy new girlfriend. I've mainly moved on, with a little help from the realization that you can’t firebomb them all, a life lesson that will no doubt be the subject of its own post very soon.
So, who am I?
My name is Sara, though I also answer to Skinny, “hey, you,” “um, excuse me?” and “meow.” I’m 22, still live with my parents, work at a supermarket and, 3 months ago, got adopted by a cat. Her name is HoneyMuffinLollipopCupcakeSprinkles (I have a seven year old sister) but we call her Honeycat. Her hobbies include eating 6 full meals a day, disemboweling mice and leaving bits at the back door, chewing through any wool I am trying to knit, tipping over my bottles of perfume in an effort to get me out of bed (so I can feed her), sitting on my keyboard while I'm trying to facebook and enticing feral toms into the backyard. She is getting spayed in 2 weeks though, so hopefully that will stop the last one happening so much.
What do I do?
Sleep, mainly, these days, as my first attempt at quilting, around 8 weeks ago, was just 10 days before the thing was due to be entered into a competition, and, as the only available time to sew in the lounge room was after everyone else was abed, I stayed up till 4am sewing. Now, even though I'm back to mainly doing little projects in my teeny bedroom workspace, I'm still usually doing them between the hours of midnight and 3am. Fortunately, I do afternoons at work on the smokes counter, which means working hours of 3-11pm, and so I don’t have wake till around eleven, or sometimes even lunchtime (not including the 2 ½ minutes I'm awake putting my perfume bottles back on the shelf and feeding the cat, usually around 7.30am)
Craft wise, well, I don’t scrapbook (I facebook) and I can’t crochet, which bums me cause I desperately want a room full of tiny amigurami (that totally baffled spell check) but I can’t seem to figure it out myself, and certainly won’t be trying at the moment, when I have had to switch pretty much exclusively to fabric crafts, which the cat doesn’t find as tempting. Lately I am mainly quilting and toymaking, though my current handbag is getting a bit feral looking, so it’ll be time for a bit more of that shortly. I also do clothes, when my stash looks ready to devour small children and needs to be culled quickly.
Why One Sock Productions?
Well, um… honestly, I'm not entirely sure. For the most part, I go with Kooky Couture as my pseudo-label, but it came to me last night, and I like the ring of it. There’s two versions to the story, one is that I live in a cold climate and my sewing machine has a metal pedal, so you need a sock on that foot but the room is a bit of a mess and sometimes you can only find one… the other is that last night I stepped on a pin, and obviously, once you’ve pulled it out you take off your sock to have a look at the hole, but there’s no point taking the other one off so you spend the next 5 hours wandering around the house with one sock on… mainly, I wanted to keep this separate from my other online endeavors, and it was the most recent thing I came up with.*
So that’s it, you wanted somewhere to post mean stuff that no one you know will read?
No, since I'm using the same email address, my real name, my place of work and I’ll probably tell my crafty aunt about it… I haven’t used my old livejournal since the shit of January2009 went down, and facebook isn’t really suited to proper blogging. I had a blogspot back in high school, and as it seems most of the crafty blogs are here rather than livejournal, here it is.
Why have I switched to being a separate voice, whereas before I was you?
Dunno. You’re the voice, try and understand it…
And now we’ve alienated all the non Australians…
Buggerem. That Jodie lady from RicRac, she’ll get it.
*the most recent thing I came up with that wasn’t an embarrassing reference to a Garth Brooks song, which will no doubt be brought up at a later date.
So, what's this blog about?
Um, actually, probably not much at first. One day, it would be wonderful if it ends up in the big circle of quilting/ crafting blogs that exist in the interspace, but, for now, it's probably gunna be sewing, and cat complimenting, and, occasionally, even though it’s been nearly five months, some bitching about the ex and his gummy new girlfriend. I've mainly moved on, with a little help from the realization that you can’t firebomb them all, a life lesson that will no doubt be the subject of its own post very soon.
So, who am I?
My name is Sara, though I also answer to Skinny, “hey, you,” “um, excuse me?” and “meow.” I’m 22, still live with my parents, work at a supermarket and, 3 months ago, got adopted by a cat. Her name is HoneyMuffinLollipopCupcakeSprinkles (I have a seven year old sister) but we call her Honeycat. Her hobbies include eating 6 full meals a day, disemboweling mice and leaving bits at the back door, chewing through any wool I am trying to knit, tipping over my bottles of perfume in an effort to get me out of bed (so I can feed her), sitting on my keyboard while I'm trying to facebook and enticing feral toms into the backyard. She is getting spayed in 2 weeks though, so hopefully that will stop the last one happening so much.
What do I do?
Sleep, mainly, these days, as my first attempt at quilting, around 8 weeks ago, was just 10 days before the thing was due to be entered into a competition, and, as the only available time to sew in the lounge room was after everyone else was abed, I stayed up till 4am sewing. Now, even though I'm back to mainly doing little projects in my teeny bedroom workspace, I'm still usually doing them between the hours of midnight and 3am. Fortunately, I do afternoons at work on the smokes counter, which means working hours of 3-11pm, and so I don’t have wake till around eleven, or sometimes even lunchtime (not including the 2 ½ minutes I'm awake putting my perfume bottles back on the shelf and feeding the cat, usually around 7.30am)
Craft wise, well, I don’t scrapbook (I facebook) and I can’t crochet, which bums me cause I desperately want a room full of tiny amigurami (that totally baffled spell check) but I can’t seem to figure it out myself, and certainly won’t be trying at the moment, when I have had to switch pretty much exclusively to fabric crafts, which the cat doesn’t find as tempting. Lately I am mainly quilting and toymaking, though my current handbag is getting a bit feral looking, so it’ll be time for a bit more of that shortly. I also do clothes, when my stash looks ready to devour small children and needs to be culled quickly.
Why One Sock Productions?
Well, um… honestly, I'm not entirely sure. For the most part, I go with Kooky Couture as my pseudo-label, but it came to me last night, and I like the ring of it. There’s two versions to the story, one is that I live in a cold climate and my sewing machine has a metal pedal, so you need a sock on that foot but the room is a bit of a mess and sometimes you can only find one… the other is that last night I stepped on a pin, and obviously, once you’ve pulled it out you take off your sock to have a look at the hole, but there’s no point taking the other one off so you spend the next 5 hours wandering around the house with one sock on… mainly, I wanted to keep this separate from my other online endeavors, and it was the most recent thing I came up with.*
So that’s it, you wanted somewhere to post mean stuff that no one you know will read?
No, since I'm using the same email address, my real name, my place of work and I’ll probably tell my crafty aunt about it… I haven’t used my old livejournal since the shit of January2009 went down, and facebook isn’t really suited to proper blogging. I had a blogspot back in high school, and as it seems most of the crafty blogs are here rather than livejournal, here it is.
Why have I switched to being a separate voice, whereas before I was you?
Dunno. You’re the voice, try and understand it…
And now we’ve alienated all the non Australians…
Buggerem. That Jodie lady from RicRac, she’ll get it.
*the most recent thing I came up with that wasn’t an embarrassing reference to a Garth Brooks song, which will no doubt be brought up at a later date.
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