A new quilt and too much other information.

Once again, it's been a while between posts. But the combination of "ergh, I'm so much ache right now I could die, I'd better say my farewells" and "OMG OMG OMG I actually made a quilt" have come together to inspire a post.

Second things first; that's right, quilt! A whole one, pieced top, quilted, bound, everything. Admittedly, it was a fold over the back binding, but whatever, I was rushed. It was for a birthday last Tuesday, though fair's fair she really only wanted to show it off Saturday night, and I made it Friday night so all's well.

It's for Casey, obviously, and tells the gripping tale of a man and his tractors. I'm not sure where he gets these tractors to try and fail to pull up a tree, but maybe there's a prequel panel somewhere out there. It's about 1.3x1.6, and the backing is butcher's twill. Never in the whole of human history has there been a quilt so perfect for someone.

And last night, quilt showing-off night, was Harrow BnS. My first in over 6 months, what with missing Longy with laryngitis and Paruna getting cancelled. We took two virgins (by that I mean people who'd never been to a ball before) and a 5L keg of strawberry cider and about 100 jelly shots. And we drank and danced and ended up funny colours and found boys and new exciting ways to inadvertently injure ourselves.

As a result, I suspect this will be my last ever post*, what with the culmative aches acquired on the weekend all banding together and leaving me convinced I won't survive to the morning. A nasty bruise 3/4 of the way down my spine. Don't know how I got it. Another quite large one on my left leg. A painful, odd looking friction-burn-and-bruise combo on my right elbow that I got by miss-executing a decent down the chain ladder on the playground. And a friction burn on my knee that I got becasue I managed to pick up the only guy there with a swag smaller than mine. But I guess that's what I get for picking up floppy haired emo boys at BnS balls. "But I love them... They're my favourite" I say when anyone warns me against it. Of course, they're not quite as specific as, "Don't do it Sara, he'll have a tiny swag and very long gentleman parts and it will be quite awkward trying to reconcile the two in a sexy sexy manner without injuring either yourself or him" and I kinda think they're worse friends becasue of it.

Real friends will violate the laws of space and time and find this shit out for you and travel back and let you know to hook up with Dreamboat instead, in order to avoid the kinds of aches that follow an evening with a boy still in his teens. But it's okay, I am, for another 48 or so hours at least, still in my early twenties, and can therefore still choose the 19 year olds instead of the 30 year olds.

Even if it's a terrible decision. No matter, I'll be dead soon. Remember me fondly, and raid my stash fairly...

*I am of course, being over-dramatic for comedic effect. When I don't post for another month, it'll be because I'm too busy being an alcoholic and watching sitcoms to post, not because I died from the assorted aches of a debauched last-big-weekend-before-entering-the-mid-twenties booze-and-boys-fest.

Story of my life.

This week I altered a dress for a friend for her 18th birthday this weekend. Then on friday night I sewed myself a gorgeous navy blue cowl-neck sheath dress to wear out with her.

Unfortunately we got a bit carried away with the celebrating and the drinking and forgot to take any photos :(

Random bad habits I really need to get under control #78: making out with randoms on the dance floor that I have no intention of getting with :/

llol. with two ls.

So all of a sudden it was 3am and I realised I hadn't started Thirsty Thursdaying yet. But there was a bottle of double strength summerberry cider in the fridge, and I have a box of cruskits. So that's good. Progress is good.

Anyway, I found this earlier, and it gave me literal lols.

  A teenage boy is getting ready to take his girlfriend to the prom. First he goes to rent a tux, but there’s a long tux line at the shop and it takes forever.
    Next, he has to get some flowers, so he heads over to the florist and there’s a huge flower line there. He waits forever but eventually gets the flowers.
    Then he heads out to rent a limo. Unfortunately, there’s a large limo line at the rental office, but he’s patient and gets the job done.
    Finally, the day of the prom comes. The two are dancing happily and his girlfriend is having a great time. When the song is over, she asks him to get her some punch, so he heads over to the punch table and there’s no punchline...

Arty Artness.

Ah, long weekends. The perfect opportunity to get seriously stuck into working on some of your long-neglected WIPs.

Unless of course you're like me, in which case you work all three days as well as drinking on two of them.

And I was kinda happy, because this weekend was intended to be our last hurrah until the show, which is 4 weeks away, meaning that we would have some time to recover. Then I remembered that I agreed to go to Adelaide with Casey and Jeffy for reasons I'm not entirely sure of. Probably mainly to do with Chinese food, which I've just realised I get to eat in 4 days time. Now I'm keen.

As for stuff that I've been making, well, I did some Sherlock Texts From Last Night for the Tumblrverse. Does that count? I used mspaint...

P.S. Lets not talk about the footy. I'm still too full of feels.

Getting high, every night, with every single, every loving girl in sight...

Someone pointed out to me the other day how silly it is that they're called "roofies" when they make you fall on the floor. Nonetheless, Kelsie's Free Candy and Roofie Lexia party is tomorrow night, so while Casey was working on a pedo-van cake, I decided to make some roofies.

Now, obviously, they're not actual date-rape roofies. This isn't Breaking Bad, it's an 18th birthday party. But my original plan, which was to just give everybody Splenda tablets, was derailed by the fact that artificial sweeteners taste like shit. So I needed something else. And I decided I wanted them to be nice and obvious - both obviously there and also obviously not-actual-roofies.

Solution - basically tiny, tiny pavlovas. Beat a whole lot of icing sugar into an egg white, pipe out little pellets onto some baking paper, put another piece of baking paper on top, bake it as low as the oven will go for 5 minutes, and voila - roofies.

Some of them got a bit burnt, but they still taste fine. And about 5 times as many as are here (that's a 125ml tub, about half full) decided to sortof implode as they were cooking, so they got et already. And I made another batch where I didn't put the second piece of paper on the top, hoping that that would reduce the implosions. It did, but since their tops weren't flattened out they look kinda droplet-shaped. Still, much like the ones that imploded, they're still a delicious sugar hit.

For the record, the don't dissolve, and they float. This, combined with the fact that they give you a sugar high as opposed to causing anterograde amnesia means that anyone hoping to actually date-rape someone is going to be hugely disappointed. The effect they have is more like that time we went around one high-school lunchtime with a box of sugar cubes and a heap of those sugar-sachet-sticks. Everyone's gunna get super excited and then need a lie down.

Well, it's an 18th party, they'll be doing that anyway.

And so say I.

Caitlin Moran's new book Moranthology is out. I haven't found a hardcopy locally yet (unsurprisingly) but after an epic battle with the Google Play app on my phone it graciously took my $15.99 and let me read it.

And that's why I did nothing this weekend. Maybe. I also drank so much that I can't remember most of the rest of this weekend, but I'm sure that's a random, uncorrelated coincidence.

Weekend

Before having an arguably ridiculously big night last night, yesterday I went into Spotlight's Quilt Expo that they were having. I'd taken in a half dozen quilts for them to display, to help get out word that it was going on, and probably a quarter of the quilts they had there were mine. I got there pretty late because I was up till 8am having a spontaneous bedroom cleaning spree, and really, I don't need to be taught how to make a block. But they had all dress fabrics at 30% off, and I wanted to buy some pleather to do a dressier version of my jacket, but I didn't really want to pay $23 a metre. I'll have to try to do it without pinning it, but I figure the fabric won't stretch or shift as much as fleece does.

Today I spent being hungover and watching True Blood. Tonight I am having an early night.

You Guys...

Guess what everybody! I've had too much to drink. On a Monday/Sunday night. Brenton was drinking so I figured it was okay for me to drink. And I've spent the evening chatting with my ex on facebook. Why the hell not?

...

You guys, I'm really drunk. I've agreed to a True Blood marathon of season 5 with my ex boyfriend this weekend, and, even worse, I'm looking forward to it.

The Plan

The plan for tonight was to finish work at 10.30, go to the gym and come home home to try to have an early night. I start at 12 tomorrow, and that's early for me. But I forgot my headphones, and EmmStaff, who is one of the most gorgeous, tall, athletic, pretty, smart, funny, insecure 17 year olds I know, was going to try to sneak into The G underage, and wanted me to come with her. And because I adore her even though I really should hate her, I agreed. It was her best friend's 18th and that was going till midnight and I figured that would give me time to finish the half-sewn olive green version of my fantastic jacket.

Long story short, she got in, we danced, I had two drinks, there was some country boys in there, I decided I'd have a crack if the opportunity presented itself, it did, I've got it even in town, and then I ninja'd away to take Emm home, and came home myself. It's no later than I would have been up anyway, I had a fun evening with a different crew, and it was a good reason to finish off my jacket, which I'd be procrastinating on for no apparent reason.

What's more, because there's no-one else up this end of the house, I figure'd I'd have a go at getting a picture of it, since the dark green's probably easier to photograph than black.

I think what this picture best shows is that my fingers are freakishly long, and that the bathroom mirror really needs a clean.

When all else fails, sit on the floor in the passageway with the tall mirror leaning on someones door and take wonky photos, and wait for instagram to fix them.

Thanks instagram.

Tablet sleeve test

Mum, Dad and Maddy are off to Bali on holiday in a few days, and Mum bought herself a tablet to take with her, which arrived a couple of days ago. Tonight, I had a go at making it a sleeve, and I'd have a go at an idea I had a while back for a zip down handle, which could make it be a bag too.

The zip curves around the entire top of the bag, and only the bottom side of the zipper is sewn for the whole length, while the top zipper is attached at either edge.

I like the idea. But I've realised that the top curve in particular warps the body of the sleeve a bit too much fr me to be satisfied with, so next time I'll do it with two short zips so they only curve one way, and only in the middle of the bag as opposed to on the corners, where it's more noticeable.

Also, as usually when I make a sleeve for a piece of technology, it's ever so slightly too small. It fits, but barely, and it makes the edges where the closure zip is (I could only find one pink zip) stick out weirdly.

And now I'm off to play the moustache drinking game. Happy Thirsty Thursday everyone

:{P

The BnS Post - Stonerollers 2012

...

(That would be the pause I give when someone asks me how my weekend went.)


Well... (that would be the traditional beginning) It was awesome. I had been a bit worried for the last couple of weeks that a) the weather would be shit and b) that I would have hyped it up a bit too much in my brain, resulting in the inevitable dissapointment.

But, thankfully, wrong on both counts. Saturday morning we left a dreary grey sky'd Adelaide, and we took the curly mountain road (Eagle on the Hill) instead of going through the tunnel, and that was AMAZING. All Caps amazing. Pulling onto the the off-ramp from the freeway, going up the mountain, it got super-foggy. There was NO view. Just white. Curly, twisty roads, up and down hills, white either side of the road and visibility ahead of about 50 metres. It was like living a dream sequence. I considered doing a loop and having a second go, but Casey was driving her car ahead of me, and I wanted to keep convoy. But back on the freeway it all burnt off, and even though it wasn't exactly warm, it was nice in the sun.

There was a pretty big line at the gate, and we all decided that, obviously, we'd start drinking. But I accidentally got one of my strong ciders, and had 3 standard drinks in a half hour... by the time I actually got to pay for my ticket I was dying of indigestion and trying really hard to play it cool. One we were actually in I pulled back a bit, but I kept at it and didn't return to real sobriety till today.

The ball itself consisted of me dirty dancing with as many people as I possibly could and making out with a dozen guys. I stopped my actual alcohol drinking at midnight, which is a good plan if you don't want to wake up with a walking dead hangover, and got on with the all important picking up. I even managed to get about 4 hours of sleep.

Recovery today was almost more bonkers than last night, because I did it all again sober. More overambitious dancing, more boys, and a wet tshirt contest that was very much about the wet and not so much about the tshirts. They'd chopped them down but thankfully my boobs are small enough that they were still covered. No-one else's were, so I kept a shred of dignity by comparison and got my horrible sticky clumpy hair somewhat rinsed out.

We hung about till about 3pm, sitting in the afternoon sun at the campsites after recovery stopped at 1, then we eventually got mustered to go, got KFC and headed home.

Tonight, I faced the biggest challenge of the whole weekend - there wasn't enough hot water left when it came time for me to take my shower.

It was horrible.

Too Much?

How close to the end of a project will you stop? An hour of work left? Half an hour?

Of course, it's hard to know how long something's actually going to take. I have rounded (by about a centimetre) the last corner on the binding. I started it in the middle so there's probably less than 50cm to go, but I'm not sure how long it would actually take. And I'm ready for bed, so it can wait. It's not like I can't do it anywhere, right? Wasn't that the whole point?

Admittedly, I did kinda want to have washed it before I took it to Stonies, not just to (hopefully) crinkle it nicely, but mainly to get rid of the glue residue. When Casey and Jess got here tonight, the first thing they did was whinge that the room smelled a bit funny. I had meant to leave the window open today while I went shopping, but I forgot.

Nice little segue there: Shopping! Today I did a whole lotta op-shops, and thank god for my GPS. Yesterday I got from Parafield (mid north east) to Marion (mid south west) with no GPS, just to prove to myself that I could, but today I happily went wherever it told me too. I had to start in Port Adelaide since Dad needed me to get something for him from there, and I'd worked out a route that got me most of the stores down the west side of the city, all about 10 minutes or less apart. There was one I couldn't find, but I also found two surprise bonus St Vinnies stores and a Red Cross one too.

After 5pm I went to Rundle Mall because late night shopping in the city is on a Friday. And I bought some more stuff. A whole lot of it is basics - a half dozen each of bras, singlets and tees, to go with the four coats I've bought op-shopping, two ballgowns to stash (in January, for a friend's 18th, we're all wearing ballgowns to Dirty Shads, and these were $3 each, so the fact that they're to big for me was irrelevant) two kids rugby jumpers on end of season clearance, two long sleeve tops,  six printed tees, a checked shirt and a white jacket.

And the same shirt dress three times in two colours, because I really like it and it was only $10, and two handbags, and some DVDs, a few fat quarters, and a bit more booze too.

Because, like singlets, socks and fabric, you can never have too much booze.

Good Questions.

Why is laundry so much easier when you're dancing badly to the music in your headphones?
Why do I only ever get the urge to tidy my room at 2am?
Why did all these coathangers end up under my bed?
Why do I own so many dresses?
Why do none of them look as fabulous as I want them too?
Where did my boobs go?

I ended up finding my boobs in one particular green dress, after trying on SEVENTEEN other ones. That's right, I had 18 dresses to try on tonight. In my cupboard. There are actual dress shops with less dresses than I have. I didn't even try on my fancy dresses, since I'm trying to get started on my packing for Stonerollers next weekend, and I'm not going to wear one of my good ballgowns to a BnS ball.

It's a bit early, by my standards, to be getting sorted for a ball, but I've got quite a week ahead of me. Thirsty Thursday is off, because in the wee small hours (actually about 6am, but that's still barely medium sized) I've got to go into town so I can get driven to Adelaide. As long as my snoring doesn't wake the baby, I'm allowed to sleep in the car - it's a bridal party trip to the city to look at dresses and flowers and such for Meagan's wedding. Three days in Adelaide, then two days at home, then back to Adelaide for a lone-wolf shopping trip, and then it's Saturday and time to drive down to Murray Bridge for Stonies.

Gah, crazyness. So it's best that I start now: two loads of washing done, dress picked, fur coat found but not yet cleaned. It probably needs to be professionally done, but I think they'd disapprove of the fact that I let it get covered in food dye and then put it in a box in the shed. I only paid $16 for it, so I don't feel all that bad, I just know it's gunna make a mess of me when I go to clean it out. Food dye, even when it's dried in, gets everywhere once you wet it again. I'm usually covered in dye days before I even get to the ball, but with it forecasted to be cold and miserable, I'm gunna need my coat.

Uuuummmm...

Thirsty thursday shouldn't include vodka. I know this now, because I have woken up at quarter to ten in the morning, still wearing pants.

Clearly, I got a little too hectic last night. Time to take off pants and do the bed thing properly.

And done...

A slight tummy ache was all the excuse I needed tonight to spend 3 hours looking at dresses on ebay and funny e-cards on the rest of the internet.

For those of you who don't know, most of the e-cards floating around the internet these days are a solid colour background, a drawn black and white image to the right and an amusing/smarmy/condescending/relatable message or statement to the left. Kinda like this.

I figure it's because once facebook actually existed, you didn't need to email someone a card any more. E-cards were just a stopgap between real cards and writing on someone's wall. I suppose it's ironic then that so may of them end up being liked on facebook.

Anyway, since Shay and I were discussing my drinking, I made myself this.

So, I guess the internet is complete now...

It's alright...

I had some misgivings about tonight - drinks with the girls after work, when I have to start at 12 tomorrow. Those misgivings got worse when I found out that we were planning on actually going out out as opposed to just sitting on the couch with a couple of drinks. But it turned out to be really really fun; an hour of gasbagging about work, then going to The G (that bit was kinda boring) and then off to Shads. It's been a long time since I've had a night out with people from work, it's been even longer since I've been to Shads relatively sober (less than one drink per hour) but, actually, I kinda loved it. I guess it all depends on who you're with, and if you get to dirty dance with some random guys, then all the better.

The good in the bad.

So I woke up today with a terrible hangover. Some might say that it was karma from getting a really annoying advertising jingle stuck in the heads of my entire facebook friends list, and maybe they're right. Some problems, when shared, are multiplied instead of halved.

Anyway, once I finally achieved verticality (it was a real struggle) I cooked some homemade chips which, naturally, gave me horrible indigestion. From headachey and nauseous to crippling heartburn in under an hour. Thank god for Quick Eze, which is so much more than just a one-day favourite thing. Quick Eze has saved my life many, many times, and I'm so grateful for its existence. A world without Quick Eze is a world in which I would not wish to live.

Similarly, a world with only one like per Friday isn't for me either, so, keeping with the theme, I'd like to honour my hungover shirt. Yes, that's right, I have a shirt especially for being hungover in. It's a mens shirt I got for $5 from Kmart (actually, I have two of them the same) and it always seems to end up in my morning after bag for BnS balls, and so, whenever I feel hungover, and I look in my cupboard, it's the thing I pull out. it's big and comfy and still looks very good on me, even when I'm struggling to stand. It's awesome.

As is my new method of cooking beef burgers - squish the mince between some baking paper and sit them on the top of the fire. Flip them over and once it's cooked through, eat. With lots of tomato sauce, because that's the whole reason for having beef burgers. I don't know that it would work on many fires other than ours, which pumps out a stupid amount of heat because all the insulating bricks in it have disintegrated after 20 years, but for me at least, it's quick, doesn't dirty a frypan and there's less grease in it. It's a good thing about winter, finally, though I'm also loving the sound of the rain tonight.

WARNING!

So, when I drink, I usually drink cider. Strawberry cider is my favourite but it's expensive so I usually stick to pear cider, which is known as perry. But my brain of course hears that and starts sing that subway jingle, the peri peri chicken, peri peri chicken, peri peri chicken chicken sub one.

I'd just like to warn you all, in case you ever end up drinking with me, and I end up singing this. Also, I'd like to apologise to anyone who knows that ad and now has that stupid damn jingle stuck in their head. Me too. Sympathy, dudes.

Thirsty Thursday

Having... actually, I don't even know what they're called. The lids that you need a bottle opener to open, the ones that aren't screw tops. I don't think it's pop-tops, since I think of pop-tops as those little kids drinks. But having the lids that you need a bottle opener for, I think they're a good idea. Because when your good bottle opener is out in the car, and you need to use the little bit on the can opener, which is really really hard to use, it's kinda like a clever little drunk-person lock. When you've had too much, you can't open another bottle, so you stop. Brilliant.

Anyway, it's Thursday. I wish that I could be doing my lonesome drinking practice on a Tuesday, because I could call it Tipsy Tuesday, but it's Fridays I don't work, not Wednesdays, so I guess we'll have to stick with Thirsty Thursday.

It started with Wine and Cheese and True Blood night. Now the girls at work are all "It's Thursday, Sara! Getting drunk tonight?' and I have to point out that it's not drunk that I'm aiming for, just a pleasant shade of tipsy where I can flipflop between loving all the funny animals on youtube and being sad cause I'm single, tipsy and watching startled goats fall over.

But then again, my ex messaged me a couple of weeks ago, and it wasn't until then that I had a chance to realise how truly glad I am to not be with him any more. Because you can both tell yourself something and not really think it. And it's not until you might actually have the opportunity to do what you found yourself wanting to do for so very very long (in this case, have them want you back, and entertain the idea of telling them that they're fucked in the head if they think you'd be that stupid again) that you realise you don't need to, because of how good your life is now. Good enough that you get to have your own Thirsty Thursdays, having a hell of a lot of fun getting drunk on my own because you can. Because now, I can do whatever I can. Maybe that's all the difference one needs. Maybe that's what's important.

Also important, breadsticks. Obviously. And big glasses, though I'm not sure why. Wine glasses are necessary, though wine is not. I think it's the way you hold them. And it's easier to drink it too.

So here's to big glasses. And bottle tops both screw-top and otherwise. And fainting goats and breadsticks and doing what you want for your own reasons.

Cheers.