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.

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.

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.

ZOMG.

Although Joe Nichols thinks tequilla makes her clothes fall off, it's actually the fact that Joe Nichols is going to be at the Deni Ute Muster that's making my clothes want to fall off.

Also, I think my ovaries might have exploded. Awks.

The good, the bad and the shiny...

The good: New episodes of True Blood drop on Mondays in Australia (since we're a day ahead of America) and drunk Sookie was brilliant but, even more importantly, this is the week when I get a new episode of White Collar! The only way this could get better is if someone could put Magic Mike on the internets for me.


The bad: Tonight, in the car, on the way home, The Dance* by Garth Brooks came on. And though those who know about all the ex-boyfriend weirdness that's been going on might think that my having a little cry to myself was to do with that, it wasn't. You only get one Garth song, and he got Friends in Low Places*. The Dance was how I felt about Honeycat, and tonight I found myself missing her. I guess the fact that I spend more time hanging out with the yabby than the dog means I need a pet of my own.

The shiny: On Thursday I went to Target to get a couple of things, and while I was there I saw a little boy, maybe 5 years old, and his RM Williams belt buckle was bigger and shinier than my RM Williams belt buckle (admittedly, mine is also a kids one) and when I was a bit tipsy on Thursday night I was thinking to myself "well, that just will not do". So I went on the internets and found this one. And it is big and very very shiny. Admittedly, I need to find a belt to go with it, but that shouldn't be too hard. Probably quite expensive, but not actually difficult.

*...for a moment all the world was right, how could I have known, that you'd ever say goodbye? And now, I'm glad I didn't know, the way it all would end, the way it all would go... Our lives are better left to chance; I could have missed the pain, but I'd have had to miss the dance...


**...well, I guess I was wrong, I just don't belong, but then, I've been there before; Everything's all right, I'll just say goodnight and I'll show myself to the door... Hey, I didn't mean, to cause a big scene, just give me an hour and then, well I'll be as high as that ivory tower, that you're livin' in...

Favourites List

Getting that "vibe" that you really should go to the op shop today, and finding a half dozen brilliant things.

Mini Sausage Rolls from the OK Pie Shop.

Being the only one home in our end of the house.

The music of the late 90s and early 00s.

Looking for shoes and finding yarn.

Making clothes without a pattern, because if there's no right way, then there's no wrong way either.

Having an "ironic" hot pink mullet skirt.

And a backup dress just in case the so-bad-it's-super-freaking-awesome mullet skirt is too ironic for tomorrow night.

Finding a full bobbin of the colour you want.

The fact that bacon tastes better cold.

How I don't have to shave this week, because I got a wax last week.

The Vacuum Sealer.

Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen.

How clean my fingernails are after I wash my hair.

Lists. Writing them, crossing stuff off them, leaving them home; list are brilliant.

The good ones.

Even though camping has been fun, it's so nice to be home in my bed, with its electric blanket, in my house, which isn't rocking with every gust of wind. Internet and phone chargers are nice too, but when it's been such a long day, it's the little things, like, um, having an actual toilet*, that matter.

I got up at 7.30 this morning, which, as I'm sure you're aware, is incredibly rare for me. I can even tell you the last time it happened - January 15th, the day after the last BnS ball I attended. That's pretty much the only thing that gets me up early of a morning, the fact that I'm camping. Not that it wasn't a stunningly gorgeous morning - I had woken up briefly as the sun was rising, when a gust of wind had made the annex sound like it was collapsing, to the view of a stunning sunrise out the door, and it was still bright and clear, if a bit windy, when we properly got up.

Barbecue bacon on toast for breakfast was delicious, and then, since the weather was so lovely, we took turns canoeing down the creek: first group capsized less than half way down, second forgot to stop, decided to head for Tasmania and then capsized 20m out to sea, but Kelsey and I soldiered through, arriving dry but on the wrong side of the creek, meaning we had to wade the boat to the side that the ute was on. Still, victory for us.

I took Mum and Kelsey home in the early afternoon and paid Helen a visit, during which time the weather turned, quite badly, with sheeting rain and gale winds. Still, I had promised to take potatoes back down there for tea by 5 and did so, but it was miserable so we huddled in the little van playing Sequence while tea cooked, before moving to one of the big vans for the eating. The roast lamb was incredibly good, but the roast potatoes were a bit burnt.

The rain eased off and we moved back to the fire with some quilts too, and when we started to run out of wood, Carol and I proved our bravery by stealing some from the people in the next campsite, after Dad and Greg chickened out.

It's been quite a while since I've done family camping - we used to do it all the time but it's been pared back mainly to just Easter and Christmas now. And while it can be unpleasant at times (the fact that 3 of the 4 awnings had to be taken down because of the very weather they're meant to shelter us from being a good example) I quite enjoyed this little jaunt, so it can be my Favourite Thing this week.

*Oh, and the fact that if you say shit yeah really quickly it sounds like shit chair; that's a favourite too. Because for a month or so there's been an old chair sitting under a bush across the road from our house, and we decided we should take it down camping with us, to which I said, shit yeah. And guess what we cut a hole in the centre of and put over our dunny hole? The shitchair.

Oww.

I am drunk. I am at the lake charlegrak country music festival. I have snuck off to hide under a tree because I have terrible terrible heartburn. It hurts. Finding out that my ex cheated on me hurt less than this heartburn does. I've had two zantac and two quick eze and still it hurts. Ow. On the other hand, Meagan liked her quilt, ergo life is good. Except for the heartburn. Actually, its receding. I'll be okay in a couple of minutes. Except for the twig poking me in the arse. As I sit under a tree.

I put that warning there for a reason...

Do you wanna know what I did tonight?


Warning, contains ya mum jokes. And obscure bogan references.

I'm at a BnS...

Posting from my phone, cause I managed to get rid of both of the annoyingly persistant boys that wanted to take me back to their swags, and instead I'm nice and comfy in my own, chatting with ball-virgins-no-longer Anna and Jamie. It's a lovely evening...

Happy times :)

Yay Stuff!

So, friday. Well, Saturday now, obviously, since my timing tends to be a little skew-whif, but still, that means favourite things.

I had been thinking that what I would put as my favourite thing this week would be my sheer unadulterated awesomeness, since I managed to design, piece, quilt and bind a quilt for my sister's birthday this sunday in just 3 days, but then I realised if I was as truly awesome as I thought I was, then I would have decided to get started weeks ago, and I'd be getting in some sleepsies before the BnS ball tomorrow night, instead of sitting here having just finished. I'd have also remembered to take a photo before I put it in the washing machine, and I wouldn't have made that cutting error as I was finishing the binding.*

So, other things.

The fact that mum is worried about the ethical implications of my messing around with her netbook and using Daemon Tools to convince it that it has a DVD player when it doesn't just makes me laugh. "But you're lying to it..." she goes, while telling me that it's silly for me to feel bad about the death of my old laptop.

My phone. Still. Three months on, I'm still loving how it just does stuff. No faffing or fart-arsing about. It does everything I want it to do, except maybe print me money.

Having a real laptop again. Sure, the fact that it's running Vista is really irritating, as is the fact that the touch screen only works with the pen, but as a stop-gap till I decide what I actually want it's excellent. Look at me, blogging away on it. Nice keyboard, too.

The "slow" button on the foot pedal of my sewing machine. I thought it was pointless the first time I saw it, but it was very handy tonight, stopping me from rushing the binding and making a(nother) mistake.

Being indecicive about which ballgown to wear, because it means I have the kind of life where I a) occasionally wear ball gowns and b) have enough ballgowns to have indecision between them.

Having a CD burner. Saying "I need a new CD" and going and making one.

Oh, and the fact that I'm going to a BnS ball tomorrow night, and I'm taking along one of my best friends, who's never been to one before. Toats exciting!


*Fourtunatelly, although it shit me, it really only added about 5 minutes of work, and about half of that was just me despairing.

Progress.

Progress is, um, progressing. Casey's quilt top is assembled and the lines of quilting have been done either side of the vertical seams so tomorrow it should only take me an hour or so to fill it in and I can get on with the very nasty job of binding.

Progress on everything else BnS related hasn't progressed at all.

Bugger.

Remember when I said yesterday that it was a bad idea to try do any big sewing projects in the same week as a BnS ball?

I kinda forgot is was my sister's birthday this weekend.

Well, not really forgot. I know it's on Sunday, but my brain didn't really reconcile the fact that it was her birthday this sunday with the fact that it's her BIRTHDAY on SUNDAY.

My brain is dumb sometimes.

Anyway, I remembered remembered this morning and so I figured I'd better get on it. I haven't actually made Casey a quilt yet because she has an amazing ability to be both very picky AND very vague - she's always very specific about what she does and doesn't like in what you're doing, but then she'll go "Can you just make me (insert whatever here)... I don't care what colour/fabric/width/shape..."

So where does one go with that? Well, I've started with the back, which is the two yards of half-naked-cowboy fabric, added an altered version of what I was planning on doing as a top to test my new back arrangement and sacrificed to the cause a quite nice collection of solid Konas in the green to purple section of the spectrum.

The colours in this photo are all wrong. The purples are way darker and those yellows are actually greens.

Not yet actually assembled, but I got the math done, the colours picked, the fabric cut and the blocks sewn in 5 hours, so I'm happy to stop now.

If it looks like a bit of an off shape, it is - since I'm making this top as something to have on the other side of the back, which is what's actually featured, it's the same size as the back, ie long and skinny. 105x175 is what I've mathed to, which is about 42x70 for those of you that think imperial. I considered shortening it to make it a bit more or a normal ratio, but one of the girls at work pointed out that a long quilt can go across the knees of two people, so I took that as a decent reason not to chop it up.

It'd be a shame to lose any more hunky man-ness than I need to.

In related news, and in celebration of Harrow BnS being only 3 days away, this video made me laugh.

Tooooo Much.

Do you ever have one of those days where you think to yourself, "Um, I've drafted too many different blog posts in my head, and now I don't think I can cohesively link them all together or choose which one to use"?

Also, I've been up since before 8, and yet here I am, at 2am, still keeping my normal nighttime hours. Probably resulting in even less cohesion, if that's at all possible.

Right, first things first. Last night, after sitting on a haybale pondering humanity, I got up, had a bit of a dance, and when the music stopped, we all went back to the van of filth to settle in for the night. And then a boy appeared, and even though I didn't actually want him, I still wanted to try. I think it's a bit like how my dad goes cray fishing, even though noone in our house eats crays. Except instead of ending up with cooked crays sitting in the fridge, staring at you with their dead, beady little eyes every time you open the door, I ened up with a boy, who I had been being affectionate towards, and who was reciprocating, and then I realised, oh, that's right, I don't want a boy. I have no real use for one, and they're not even selling for about $80 a kilo, making them handy barter should I want to get on someone's good side.

Awkwardness. But catching boys is fun; funner certainly than catching crayfish, where you have to go out on the boat, and you get all wet, and there's sharks and stuff. And yeah, awkwardness, but drunk boys are even more suggestible than drunk girls, so I got rid of him eventually, no hard feelings. 

Still, we were all (and when I say all, I mean the four of us, including the 8-year-old) up till well after 3am, meaning we were still pretty bleary eyed when we got up this morning and went to maccas in Portland. We also went to Aldi, which was less impressive than I thought it was going to be (except yay for honey wheats) and some little cheap stuff shop that also happened to have some quilt fabrics in it. Slightly random, but there was a few nice Riley Blake's amoungst it, so I got a half metre of these two.

At $15 a pop it's cheaper than most of the stuff at Stitch and Knit and about the same as most of the regular priced Spotlight stuff.

We stopped at the strawberry farm on the way home and picked ourselves a few kilos. And then when I got home I ate at least a half a kilo. Delicious, but it has given me the farts.

And I completely forgot about it yesterday, what with going to the rodeo and all, but I got some fabrics from Stitch and Knit. They're from Fresh Air by Chez Moi, and it's quite an old line - so old it's not even on the United Notions website any more.

I'd bought a couple of half metres a few weeks ago from the $12 box to use in a pavement quilt and so I got some fat quarters of the few prints that were still available. It's not my usual colour palette but I think it's nice - I'd like to try to use a tan brown or a mustard yellow* or something for the sashing instead of white, but I haven't decided yet. I might just go with a beige.

*See the yellow of the bottom flower in the middle fabric? That.

I am a dull and uninteresting person.

I know that music aficionados say that the richest sound comes from vinyl. I know that the best method of digital compression and storage for audio is FLAC. I know that I much, much prefer being able to download an album in 17 seconds. I know that it took me 3 minutes, and the assistance of one of my sisters to work out how to merely open the one remaining cassette player in our house today.

I didn't know that cassettes ran two channels of audio. Or maybe I just hadn't thought of it. Cassettes were a dying breed when I was in my formative music years, but I was there for them. My first ever album was on cassette (it was Hanson. The ones that sang MmmBop. My favourite song was Yearbook.) I can remember friends bringing over their cassettes and CDs and making mix tapes. You couldn't do that in 17 seconds - you did it real time, having one play in slot 1 while you recorded in slot 2. 

Today I didn't make a mix tape. Today I did the reverse. Six weeks ago I wrote about a song called The Melbourne Cup which I couldn't find anywhere. My sister (the same one who can remember how to open a cassette player*) told me that it was on the Home Among the Gum Trees cassettes we had when we were little. I looked on eBay, and there was one lonely copy available. I bought it. "That's excellent," said Casey. "You can put it all on the computer for us and then give it to Nanna Joy for Christmas."

So it's on the computer, in 25 minute blocks of 7 songs per side. Digitized by plugging an audio cable from the headphone jack of the almost-never-used sound system in the lounge to mic jack of mum's laptop, and pressing record in my music editing software, and waiting 25 minutes before flipping the cassette. Each channel of audio is different, and I'm breaking it down into little bits by listening to the beginning and end of each song through my headphones, and yeah, one ear is hearing different things to the other.

It's not beautiful sound. There's a lot of noise in the background. Not actual noise, of us putting up our Christmas tree, which we finally did tonight at about 11pm because it was the only time all six of us were home, but the faint buzzy cracklyness of the cassette.

Weirdly, even though I'm listening to it through the sound card on a computer, it feels soothing. Familiar. Songs I haven't heard in 15 years, from a cassette 25 years old. I wonder if it's because of the cracklyness. I'm planning on having a go at cleaning it up some other day, but maybe I shouldn't. Maybe it's important.

Also, I have the worst Deja Vu of my life. Not just cause I'm listening to songs from when I was a kid - I don't think I ever listened to these songs at this house, just in Dad's ute or on the houseboat. But I feel as if I've sorted this audio before. Maybe just because it's taken me the last 4 hours to get halfway through.

Anyway, if any of you remember any of these songs, or maybe want them, or came here cause you too realise that, for reasons beyond your control, your identity is tied up in some songs sung three decades ago and now unavailable to anyone not lucky enough to do the right eBay search on the right day, message me and I'll send them to you.

Home Among The Gumtrees - Bullamakanka

Old Man Emu - John Williamson

Ridin' - Smoky Dawson

The Gondiwindi Grey - Johnny Greenwood

Click Go the Shears - The Hawking Bros

Redback on the Toilet Seat - Slim Newton

I was only Nineteen - Redgum

Downunder - Men At Work

Put Another Log On The Fire - Bill & Boyd

Little Boy Lost - Johnny Ashcroft

I'm The Sheik from Scrubby Creek - Chad Morgan

Theme from Picnic at Hanging Rock - Paul Lennon

Tenterfield Saddler - Peter Allen

And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda - The Bushwhackers

Our Don Bradman - (No artist listed)

The Wild Colonial Boy - Smoky Dawson

Waltzing Matilda - The Sundowners

Theme From Rush - Brian May and The ABC Showband

The Melbourne Cup - The Hawking Bros

Santa Never Made it to Darwin - Bill & Boyd

Flash Jack from Gundagai - The Bushwhackers

The Ettamogah Pub - Ray Kernaghan

Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport - Rolf Harris

Come On Aussie Come On - Frankie Davidson

The Dog on the Tuckerbox/Road to Gundagai/Back to Yarrawonga (Medley) - The Sundowners

Theme From Cash & Co - The Bushwhackers

I Still Call Australia Home - Peter Allen

As for craft, today I did none whatsoever.

*The stop button is also the open button.

Home Safe

"So", said Brad as they drove back to the ball site from Loxton with their lunch. "What have we learned this BnS?"

"Well," said Sara, "I've learnt that even though people have a tendency to make disparaging comments about my boobies, I can still get a free bottle of vodka if I get them out in front of the promo guys."

"Thats... A very good lesson." said Casey.

I do sometimes wonder if I'm likely to offend people by talking honestly about what happens on my nights out, but really I don't mind. Judge away. I'm quite happy to look myself in the eyes in the mirror, and that's what matters.

Actually, in spite of the little incident discussed above, it was, by my standards, a VERY responsible ball. Had maybe a half dozen drinks, danced till 2am when it finished, made up my swag, read a book on my phone for 15 minutes and went to sleep. Made out with 4 guys, but Rob doesn't count. Came home dry and relatively clean, save for a slight blue smudge on my hands, which I think was more from the old dye on my coat than anything new. Some guy kept coming up to me and asking if he could pour his drink down my dress. I said no and in response to his 'why not?' I told him I'd kick him in the nuts if he did. It's got a very full skirt, so movement's not limited like it would be in something less ballgown-ey.

Today I slept in, meaning I missed the gelly-baff wrestling (thankfully) and in the afternoon we drove the half hour to Loxton for food, fuel and an impromptu swim in the Murray by Case, Brad and some guy called Kiwi. I put my shorts on and lay on the pontoon, trying to get rid of some of the pasty whiteness of my legs. It didn't work. The fast food place at Loxton had the best gravy I've ever eaten, ever, but the chips were a bit overdone.

We left a bit after 5.30 and had the most glorious afternoon driving home, except for Casey needing to chuck up a bit. I am the queen of the 6-stacker-CD-player, making us an epic 8 hour loop that had all the right music at the right times - mellow for when we were easing into the drive up there, stuff to dance like idiots to in the middle, country for arriving at the ball and then a bit of rock and some more mellow for the drive home. It got dark as we stopped in Naracoorte for a sausage roll but that's okay, because we know that part of the road well enough to do it in the dark.

And now we're home safe, Casey has fallen asleep on the couch and I'm going to have an early night.

Goin' Adventurisin'

Well the dress is washed, the CDs burned, the carrots chopped into little sticks and the coat... Well, I have to admit, the coat isn't looking it's best. I think it's time to call in the professionals: there's only so much you can do for a full length fur coat that's covered in blue food dye, especially when all you have to hand is some old towels and a hair dryer. But it will do for this weekend, and we shall have to look at getting it dry cleaned when we get home.

This BnS is called "Bush Chooks" and it's held in a place called Paruna, about 500km north of here. Noone knows we're coming - Casey is working till 1 tomorrow so we will be driving up in secret and arriving (hopefully) and hour or so before the ball starts. Fortunately, I won't be able to do a shot of vodka with every drink I have, so it shouldn't end as badly as a few weeks ago.

I hope my (still) bruised coccyx doesn't hold me back. And that I come home some other colour than blue. I'm so freaking sick of blue.

Blabbing, TV and Stubby holders.

I may be experiencing what feels to be the end of Thursday, but it's been Friday here in South Australia for four and a half whole hours now and I just ate a bowl of nutri-grain and that's a breakfast thing so I think I may as well do my fave things Friday now.

First up, some random good things.

Parents are on holiday, so to save on dirty dishes it's time to start drinking milk out of the carton. This makes me way happier than it should.



Improvisational scrap piecing. Probably not gunna be able to do it again anytime soon, since I'm not big on the scraps. Actually, this was pretty much all I could find.

30cm square, leftover bits from making the back of the Autumn Nutmeg quilt

Today, Spike got killed on Hawaii Five-0. That's not good, because they needed him to tell them about the Asian guy that the Aussie guy's dad may or may not have been having bad-guy collaborations with, but the point is I quite enjoy referring to characters on shows by the name of the character I most know them as. I'm sure James Marsters' character has a different name on this show, but I can't be bothered learning it. Also, I really just like James Marsters in general.

A long time ago, long before Team Edward and Team Jacob, us Buffy nerds were all in love with either Spike or Angel. I was only 15 at the time, so it was the dramatic, never-can-be love of Angel that I was sappy over, but now that I'm older, I must admit, I would like to have a house fall down around us while I did the dirty with Spike. It makes me sad that I've only just started re-watching season 2, and I have 4 more seasons to watch before I get to that storyline. Nonetheless, the fact that that storyline exists makes me happy. Aww hell, the whole show makes me happy. Except, you know, when someone dies. Then I bawl like a small child.

Anyway, back to good stuff. Strawberry and Lime cider. But it's a bit expensive. I also like the Smirnoff goon sacks, and they're much more alcohol-bang for your buck. But the nozzle looks like it may be a difficult one do inflate after I've gotten around to drinking it all.

Being massively bogan. And a massive geeky fangirl. All at the same time.

Having the coolest stubby holders around. And a tutorial to share too!

Stubby Holders: You will need (measurements are in cm, a rough conversion should work fine)

10cmx 24cm rectangle of insul-bright (the stuff that goes in quilted oven mitts)

9cm long piece of soft and flexible velcro (you can use the regular stuff, but this is way better)

30cmx12cm piece of pieced fabric (or whatever print you want on the outside) and 30cmx12cm of inside fabric, sewn together to make one long piece. Or a 60cmx12cm strip of fabric.

Lay the insulbrite on the wrong side of the inside fabric, with a centimetre or so overlapping onto the outside fabric.

If your insulbrite has one side that looks plusher than the other, put the plush side up.

Flip it over, holding the insulbrite in place, and sew the scratchy side of the velcro over the seam, about 5mm from the edge of the insulbrite.

The stitches can't be seen very well, but there's about half a centimetre on the three edge sides

Trim the overhanging end edge to 3cm.

Fold the outside down over the insulbrite, get the inside fabric out of the way and trim the outside fabric to 1cm beyond the end of the insulbrite.

Flip the outside fabric back over the insulbrite, leaving a couple of millimetres of overhang in your fold, so the insulbrite doesn't bunch at the end when you turn it right way out.

At the other end, fold your outside fabric back at about a centimetre from the end of the insulbrite.

Fold the inside fabric over the top of that, with the fold extending a few millimetres past the end of the insulbrite as before.

Sew down the sides. It doesn't matter if any insulbrite gets caught, it will just mean a slightly bulkier bit. Make sure to backtrack at either end or else it will come loose.

Turn right way out. The opening should end in a little pillowtuck type end.

Sew the soft side of the velcro over this to close it.

Quilt however you like. Vertical stripes make it curve easier. Sew a box roughly around where the velcro is at the other end. I also did random lines and an edge stitch.

This is designed to fit 375ml cans and standard stubbies. If you drink from different sized bottles, cut your insulbrite to the circumfrence of the bottle +3cm for overlapping velcro.

If you want your drinks to remain extra insulated, use two layers of insulbrite. Cut each to 23 cm and skew them to make a 25cm piece - it needs the extra length because it's thicker. If you can get hold of wetsuit material, that's really good too.

These really aren't that different to the coffee insulators that I've seen about a bit, only straight. And with the velcro helping you cheat your way out of tricky turning gaps needing sewing up.

Ow.

I am home. Safe and sound. And sore. Really, really sore.

Long car drives, sleeping (or lack thereof) in a swag, shooting a double barreled shotgun with full cartridges, jogging around a lake, climbing a mountain and getting attacked by a tree all add up. The laughing and the dancing and the alcohol were all contributing factors too.

So we went to the Tim Fisher Memorial Shoot in Patchewollock yesterday. Really really lovely day, but the big spring rains aren't due to hit till the day after next, so alas, there weren't many flowers to be woven into crowns. Instead I sat and chatted and ate honey crackles and chicken twisties, and after the actual shoot was finished, they asked Me, Case and a couple of the other girls if we'd like a go. Since I'm quite disappointed that I continue to not be an action hero, I was a bit stoked. I shot one clay which I was quite proud of, and apparently with smaller cartridges I'd be a lot better because there wont be so much kick. Casey got five (we had about a dozen goes) but she's got the bulk to handle the big cartridges. We both have slightly munted right arms today, and oddly, I find the back of my shoulder hurts more than the front. Casey wants to join the local gun club right away, but I've noticed that ebay doesn't sell guns, and that could hold me back a bit. I've never seen any at the Salvos either.

Seriously though, it was much fun, and any sport that involves a gentle stroll back and forth is one I could get to like. Also, you get to shoot things. And they all have these jackets with a quilted shoulder where the gun goes, and I really like the idea of quilting my own.

We went to the Patchy pub on the way home, got takeaway and some takeaway alcohol and went back to Jan and Dal's. One of the neighbours, his brother and his brother's girlfriend from England came over to visit, and Case and I had a ball weirding them out with our singing and dancing antics. Then it was sleepytimes, or at least, sleeptyimes for everyone but me, for whom it was lay around and listen to everyone snoring really really loudly times. At one point, the three of them synchronised so one of them was crescendoing at all times - I was quite impressed.

When I woke up this morning I asked the girls how the hell they had slept through Brad's snoring. Brad claimed he wasn't snoring, and before I'd had a chance to tell him that he most definitely was, he said "that's not snoring, that's a mating call"

Um, no thanks.

Saturday night one of the girls at the Rainbow pub mentioned that she'd been geocaching that afternoon. It's a thing where people hide things and post the coordinates on the internet so people with GPSs can go find them, and leave behind something of their own. I'd heard of it but figured there wouldn't really be much in the middle of nowhere places we go to, but Casey and Jess got really excited about the idea - they even got cross that I had, quote, "kept it a secret from them." Turns out there's millions of the things, everywhere, including one just 500m from my house. Usually it's little tupperware containers with little trinkets and a notebook in them so you can write in that you found it, what you took and what you left.

To make up for it I downloaded the $9.39 geocaching app for my phone and we went looking. We went to Lake Abacutya, which is mostly dried up - we drove across it and found, in the middle, a small hollow, maybe 30m in diametre, full of water, so I jogged around it. When I tell people tomorrow that I jogged around the lake they will assume I mean all 8km of the Blue Lake, and be very impressed. We got back in the car and kept driving, coming up the boat ramp on the other side. We went to the site of Peppers Point School and didn't find anything, gave up and went to Lake Hindmarsh (which is very, very full) and found one! I left behind one of Helen's crochered oreos, so it's out in the world now.

We went to the Arapiles, some big-arse rock mountains near Horsham. One of the problems with geocaching is that it just gives you a location, and while the app is nice enough to show it on a map, it doesn't tell you the route. We started at the campsite, walked/climbed 500 of the 700m before we ran out of track, came to a sheer cliff face, I got attacked by a tree, my phone reached 5% battery and we decided to go back down, only to find, upon leaving the national park, that there was a road to the summit on the other side. We drove to the top, climbed the last 50m to the hiding spot and found our cache. I left behind a little torch and took a US 1c coin.

We stopped at three more that were on the side of the road on the way home. The app tells you the nearest ones and location can be down to the metre in some cases. I highly recommend it for anyone looking to waste an afternoon with some friends.

We will be tomorrow. We're going to cheap as chips first to stock up on some party favours to leave behind.

And I'm gunna take the quilt. It's been washed, so I'll be looking for a nice photogenic spot to make it look especially pretty.

The night after the night before

Well I made it home safe, for all that I was a bit worried I might doze off. It was such a beautiful day, and nice and warm in the car. Got home before two, had a very blue shower (as soon as the water hit my hair, it was as if a feild of smurfs had been masacared. I didn't even get it all - my fingernails remain blue and probably will for a few days yet, and once my hair had dried enough to put the part in the right spot I discovered yet another big patch of blue scalp) and went to bed. Which meant I slept through dinner, and now I'm starving, and my chicken strips in the oven are taking too long.