Hey Adelaide, it seems like only last week that I... Nevermind...

Today was a beautiful day for a roadtrip: chilly outside but sunny enough that inside the car was quite warm. I loved it. Five hours of listening to music and talking to myself and thinking about stuff and marveling at how pretty it all is.

I got in at about 7 and got myself some tea, and since then I've watched some artsy movies that I'd been meaning to watch for a while, and then I did some more thinking. I had planned on going up to Eagle on the Hill tonight too but the internet is so vague on it and even though my brain is saying that's where you see all the lights from, I can't actually remember, and this motel annoyingly sometimes runs out of carparks, and I don't want to risk it. I might check tomorrow sometime.

It's so nice to be home, on my own bed with it's electric blanket, in my own bedroom where I'm not worried about the sound of my typing waking people who actually sleep at night, driving my own car, and having enough powerpoints for all my tech.

And, since I'm warm and happy and content, I may as well break out a couple of whinges.

Why do all the motels in Adelaide make you check out at 10 when nothing opens till 11 on a sunday? I think it should be like how maccas does breakfast till later on a sunday. In my world, motel checkouts would be at least a half hour later on sundays, maybe a full hour. It just makes sense.

Why on earth do people still listen to the radio? I mean, yes, it's a handy way to learn new songs, but if I'm honest, most of those new songs are shit. Even Call Me Maybe, which I adore, is admittedly, lyrically quite weak. And the jingles, oh, the jingles. My travel companions wanted to listen to the actual radio as we were going through the hills, and the stupid ads were so insipid and annoying that I wanted to pull the car over. I lost the will to live, let alone drive. If I'm gunna be stuck in a car for five hours, I want to be feeling pumped, having fun... not listening to a cheesy rhyme about shower screens. And the fizzy sound. kzzzzztch...Really science, it's 2012. Haven't you fixed that yet? I don't want to have to find a new station every 45 minutes, but the fuzz at the edges of range gives me a terrible headache.

Why does Spotlight have their sales on weekends when I've only got 10 minutes to shop? Why can't they have 30% off fabric next thursday and friday, when I can get to a whole lot of stores, instead of popping into one quickly and grabbing a half dozen random fabrics while everyone else looked at baby stuff? (I'll take photos tomorrow, they've pseudo-assimilated into the stash already, so I need to fish them back out)

Why do I get an overwhelming urge to quilt when I'm stuck in a car 300km from my machine, but as soon as I get home I'm like naaaah...

Good ol' Rant.

So I'm in my motel room in Adelaide, and the design of the height and angle adjustable shower head here was almost good enough to be my favourite thing this week. Seriously, as a piece of industrial design, I'm kinda in love, and I want one at my house, since ours is old and decrepit.


But really, a shower fixture does not a favourite thing make. Instead, here goes.


I love long drives, singing, loudly and badly, and so intensely that your face starts to hurt. For mile after mile.


I love finding a pace car, and becoming really really attached to it, and having one-sided, long and emotive farewells when it turns off. For the first 100km today, my pace car was a swift, and that was even better, because it was like we were a gang. And then I did see a gang - The Finks were in Tintinara when I drove through and they overtook* me about 100km up the road. And I'm not sure why the government is going through all these hoops trying to outlaw them - in 5 minutes I saw about a dozen road traffic offenses EACH, and that's more demerit points than they have, and once you're out of demerit points, you can't ride your bike any more. Unless it's a push bike. Seriously, the government should hire me. Minister for Obviousness.


I love literally rolling into Adelaide. The last 5km is all downhill.


I love this motel, for its free wi-fi and the fact that the best satay chicken in the world is directly across the road. I could have gotten it twice tonight, but I told myself no. I also love this motel for its shower fixtures.


I love my GPS. It's about 5 years old now but its still great, especially since I only paid about $100 for it new. It's called a "travel companion" too, which fits in well with my habit of anthropomorphising things. I have taught it an epic, round-Adelaide route for tomorrow, so I have time to get everything in.


I love the fact that, with facebook, it's now quite easy to bad-mouth someone that no-one who's reading it has ever met without the incompetent shop assistant ever knowing. It saves embarrassment all round, while letting me get it off my chest. Though if anyone but a teenaged boy had just pushed the scissors along the fabric, shredding the edge in the process, I probably would have leaped over the table and stabbed them with their own scissors. And granted, by putting it on facebook instead of telling it to his face, he'll probably just do it again, but the other woman behind the counter looked like an absolute cow, and I didn't want her going and being all passive aggressive no-one-else-minds at me when she was the one who should have taught him to cut the fabric in the first place.


I, apparently, love ranting about things.


Finally, I love these.

*When I say overtook, I mean my pacetruck and I got surrounded, and they sort of wove in and out of us and the car behind me and the cars coming in the other direction, with about 30cm to spare, and after I had to break suddenly for the third time, I considered just running them down, and charging the government for services rendered.

Change of plans.

So I'm still in Adelaide. Kelsey's dad got here about 4 and said I could stay with them if I wanted. And Kelsey seemed to be enjoying the company so I stayed too.

Now, what I should do next is tell you all about my day. But I'm worried it will be a bit of a spoiler of Shay's big post tomorrow. Suffice to say, she isn't a creepy old guy in a trench coat, but is instead everything I was expecting. Nice and funny and completely ready to blame me for all her fabric purchases. I've devised a cover for her "Yes, but you should see how much Sara bought" though she's probably worked that one out for herself. When all the ladies in the line start gossiping about "what ever can that girl need all that fabric for?" you know you're shopping right.

But now I've run out of money (Though to my mind, still having a couple of hundred is broke - I like to be covered for any emergencies that crop up) so it's a) a good thing I didn't go to Lucindale and b) a good thing my car is full of petrol, and very efficient. When I filled up today it read an average of 6.1L per 100km, and that was the city driving as well as the distance stuff. $33 I put in, I filled up in Naracoort, which is about 100km past my house, so it's probably used about 30 litres for the whole trip.

Which meant I had more money to buy fabric. So I did.

Road Trip Day!

I'll be honest. right now, as I'm typing this, it feels like Thursday night. It's actually 2am Friday morning, I should be in bed, but my CD is burning and if I can get this done now, sweet.

I've been tossing up whether to stick with my favourite thing this Friday, or revert back to just liking everyday things. I maintain that it's the key to happiness (you should have heard me try to explain to my Mum tonight how cheese was the answer to all the ills of the world) but it is Favourite Things Friday, not Stuff I like cause it makes me happy even though it's quite mundane and insignificant but even so I think we should appreciate how great it is that we live in a world where we have access to (insert thing here), Friday*.

So, an actual favourite thing. Except, today it wont be. Today, it will leave me stiff, and achey and exhausted.

There's a one in four chance that as you read this (so long as it's still Friday somewhere in the world) I will be doing it. I'm anticipating about 14 hours of it over the course of the next two days.

So my favourite, and least favourite thing? Driving. I'm torn between "I get to drive all the way up to Adelaide on my own!" and "Ergh, I have to drive for 5 straight hours tomorrow. and then drive some more in the city. Ergh."

15 months on, the thing I miss most about my ex is the 30 minute drive to his house. Back roads, with really good bends, which were never ever policed and could be driven at slightly ridiculous speeds, especially the 4km flat straight. At night with the moon and the stars, and the music on loud. Now, I have to make do with the highway; no bends, lots of cops, 60 and 100km speed limits.

Tomorrow, for 5 hours, I have control of the music. I can talk to my car without anyone in the passenger seat looking at me like I'm weird. I can say "Swift" every time I see one, which, surprisingly, is a lot less in the city. I can stop where I want, go where I want, take corners at what speed I want without someone criticizing me. It will be me, and my girl Taylor, for 500 fantastic kilometres.

By the time you read this, I could be there. I could already be hating driving, and parking, and the fact that Taylor doesn't ride quite as comfortably long-distance as BJ did. But just now, looking forward to it.

I'm stoked. I get to go for a drive.


*and lets all be grateful that it isn't, cause I don't know that all that would fit on a button.

Bitchin' (used in this context as a compliment)

So first of all, some good news. I commented on some people's blogs the day after I read them, and nothing bad happened.

Actually, later tonight I went to comment on a facebook photo that Ballarat Patchwork had up of a quilt in progress, but my phone randomly put the comment on someone else's post. But it was a photo that had only been up for an hour or so, so it wasn't the commenting delay that caused the badness, phew. Just a stupid version of facebook mobile.

Anyways, as I said yesterday, work, getting stuff ready for Boobs and Jordan's* engagement party and then the actual party itself pretty much completely robbed me of quilting time today. But, here's the thing, I'm capable not only of letting life be a procrastination from crafting, but also of letting crafting be a procrastination from life.

Thus, let me introduce, the Bitchin' Chair.

Bitchin', isn't it? Obviously I didn't make the actual chair - it's from Woolies, and they finally kicked into half price today. We've had them for ages (by we I mean Woolies; I work there) for $30 and I knew they'd get marked to half price at some point, and I actually got a junior to go stash me one because I was stuck supervising and I didn't want to miss out. Then, having saved $15 on the actual chair, I went straight to Spotlight to spend $16 on fabrics to make a cover for the chair.

Because that's how I roll.

It's a very simple thing - I got a metre each of the floral drill (same as my handbag and heavily featured in the swag quilt) and hot pink poplin, as well as some blue ribbon that I was gunna use to give it a pretty edge but which got used on the cake Casey made them instead. Laid the top fabric out upside down over the chair and pushed it into the crease at the bottom, drew a line in the crease and around the edge. Cut it out, and used the bit that was leftover to do the bit at the base. Sewed them together, cut pink into three 32cm strips, joined them together, folded it in half, sewed around the edge of the big circle. Add some elastic and voilà, Bitchin' chair.

My cover is completely removable so it can be chucked in the machine when someone spills alcohol on it and the chair itself has only one, teensy tiny fault.

It doesn't really fit into the boot of a Suzuki Swift. Probably not a problem for those of you who don't have a Swift, but Taylor and I are kinda tight now, and while I like to usually have a chair in the boot, it wont be this one.

Still, the fact that I won't always have immediately to hand the Bitchin' chair does not in any way lessen it's bitchin'ness, so it can be bitchin' at home.

Unfortunately, spending all my time being bitchin' got in the way of researching my big plans. I'll get on them tomorrow, cause they're bitchin' too.

*Boobs would be Steph Vine and Jordan would be Gordan Megaw.

It's still Friday somewhere...

It's been two weeks so I think it's about time I introduced you all. Everyone, this is Taylor.

Now I will be honest - I don't love love her, not yet. Not like I loved my last car, but then, I had been working on that love for 5 years.

She is a 2007 Suzuki Swift (hence the name) and apparently EZ S spec, though since Top Gear magazine wasn't publishing in Australia back then, I can't compare her specs with the ones on paper. The current S has side curtain airbags, which she doesn't, but they might have been added in the last 3 years.

We are getting along well, except for my complete inability to unconsciously operate the windscreen wipers, unless I'm under stress and trying to indicate. Her aircond is really good, important for this time of year, and she has a gorgeously tiny turning circle. She's also excellent at pulling away from the lights if I'm in the middle lane and someone is trying to unjustifiably overtake me on the turning lane. This is my biggest pet peeve when driving, and I think people who do it should be taken out the back and shot. Or at least, humiliated by a girl in a car with a 1.5L engine.

I plan on spending at least the next 5 years of my life with her, if not more, so it's just as well that I like her.

Goodnight already...

Sorry about the mopeyness yesterday, it happens sometimes.

In spite of the fact that I got GoogleEarth quilted and bound today, I had hoped to achieve a whole lot more. I had planned to go in and finalise the paperwork for my car, go to Stitch and Knit to get some backing and binding fabrics for a quilt noone's seen because I never seem to have it out at the same time as a camera, and come home. Then I would achieve all the stuff I've been meaning to do - quilt GoogleEarth, bind the four recent baby quilts, make some bags, maybe find a solution to world hunger and sort the back I bought those fabrics for.

But then it turned out to not just be paperwork for the car but the actual changeover, and so I was feeling glum and I hung about in town because I knew that as soon as Mum asked me how I was about it all I'd start bawling (I did) and then when I did get home I find out that Nan's up at the hospital to have emergency surgery on a perforated ulcer in her bowel, so we go up to see her and then it turns out maybe it wasn't an emergency emergency, because it gets later and later and still no surgeon. We get told that it's happening soon at 9.30pm and come home, and since they haven't called we can assume everything went well.

So I got GoogleEarth quilted in straight and wavy lines, and bound in a green fabric I got the other day from Spotlight for it, and the binding for two of the others is cut as well, but then I would have had to change threads, and that can sometimes be an insurmountable obstacle.

I've just realised I'm using very long sentences. It could be that the huge glass of coke I just sculled has induced a sugar rush. Not enough of a one to cause me to go and change the thread in my machine, but still...

...I just got distracted for a minute in a search for a hole punch for my tags and then suddenly came down from my sugar high quite hard. But that's okay, 2am is practically an early night for me.

This was only supposed to be about icecream...

If your love, your love, your love is Kesha's drug, then this is mine.

My achievement for the day was NOT eating the whole tub.

Be proud of me. It was hard work. But I knew that if I didn't I wouldn't have anything for breakfast.

Actually, I'm feeling marginally better about the whole car thing today, because I realised that it's not like the boyfriend breakup I had thought it was. It's a friend breakup instead.

My best friend from high school is getting married Friday week. I mean, what the shit? We're 22... How the hell did that happen? But then, how the hell did we go from spending 8+ hours a day together, and talking on msn most nights, to maybe seeing each other in passing once a month? My brain says that it shouldn't have happened, but then, maybe it should have. Time goes by and time brings changes*, and all that jazz. We're different people, our lives have gone in different directions, and it's hard to make more of a commitment to someone from years past than a facebook friending. At no point were there tears, or shouting, or angry recriminations or blame. The world's full of people, and they come and go. They touch your lives, make a difference, and then, they don't need to anymore. There are other people whose lives need touching. But that doesn't mean the people from your past cease to exist, or cease to matter. They just cease to be involved in your day to day existence. All you can hope is that they're happy somewhere, and try to be happy yourself, because I think that's what drives everything we do. The quest to make ourselves happy, and others happy.

Recently, most of my so called "perfect moments" have been with my car. Driving through my town, usually at night, music on loud, feeling that everything is right in the world, and that in spite of all my misgivings, I'm right where I should be. But the thing I've been forgetting is that it wasn't about the car. It was about me. About being comfortable in myself, in my world, in my moments. Because I just remembered having this exact conversation some 4 years ago, when I was worried that by giving up Elsie (she was a little corolla - LC) I'd be letting go of a part of myself. The part where I was independent of the people around me. The part that was just me, untethered to anything and free of everything. But I know this time what I didn't last time. You let go of some of yourself, and more pops up to fill the hole. Already, I feel comfortable in my new car. She's not even mine yet, but I sit in her and feel like I'm home. I know full well that within 6 months, we will be the best of friends. And that in 5 or 6 years time, I'll be going through this again. Letting go of a big hunk of metal I've essentially put an invisible friend in.

At least invisible friends don't invite you to their weddings and make you wonder what the hell happened to your life...

Nonetheless, Glenn, even though I can't make it to your wedding, and you will never read this, I wish you all the happiness in the world.

Same for you BJ. You two were some of the best friends I ever had. And now I need to convince myself I'm not letting you both down.

*yes, that is the song from Cars. It's all circular, people...

I owe it all to Wendy's Mint Madness...

Today, solely to please a pajama loving blog friend, whose name I discovered tonight I dont actually know, I sewed nothing at all today.

Okay, that's a lie. I had a bad headache in the morning, I went to Helen's for the afternoon, spent the evening giving my car a final clean out (I only cried once, and only for a tiny second) and the night eating icecream and watching season 3 of Chuck.

I'm nothing if not predictable.

To be fair, my only actual plan for the night was to quilt GoogleEarth. And then I found a tutorial for a really cute purse, and then I knew that if I plugged in the machine I'd sew that instead of what I was supposed to be sewing, so I just got myself some more icecream.

It seemed like the logical thing to do.

I would kill for some mint choc chip...

I kinda had a really big day.

I didn't go to the pageant, cause frankly, we all know it's gunna be shit, so what's the point?

Instead I decided to get stuck into stuff. Instead of putting on TV (cause the thing about Chuck, and why I've been so into it lately, is that it's very arc-y. Not as bad as, say, 24, but at least on par with Alias. You need to pay attention to that stuff, and you can't while you're sewing) so I got my funky little TV box thingy to play music really loud. Everyone else was wasting their morning in at the pageant so they couldn't complain about my terrible taste. Suckers.

So, and please hold your applause, today I did two quilt tops. And then I made a back. And then I basted it to a top and some batting. And then I basted the other one to some batting and a piece of backing fabric that was slightly too small, but will do. And then I quilted the first one.

Well, I quilted half of it. And then I turned into a weepy crying mess, because Mum came in.

But backstory is needed at this point. A previously on, if you will. I love my car. My car is old. My car is buggered. I need a new car. I still love my car.

Dad bought the Swift out today, so I took it for a couple of drives. It's really nice. It's brakes are touchy, it needs a wheel alignment and it gets caught quite badly by the wind, but I'm gunna keep her. She's beautiful, she goes like stink for a tiny thing and she's really nice inside. But I need to get rid of my beloved BJ. A two year old Swift is not cheap. And even though a 15 year old mondeo that runs like crap isn't worth much, I need to let him go. In spite of everything. In spite of all we've done together. In spite of the fact that he's been everywhere with me for the last 4 years, it's time for me to let him go. 

Tonight Mum came and said we would clear him out tomorrow so that Dad could touch him up before they take him in for a trade in or valuation if Nev at the dealership thinks we can get more going private. So naturally I had myself a cry, just like last time I had to let go of a car. And then I sucked it up and finished my quilting.

Now look at some pretty pictures while I go mope like a pathetic loser.

I've decided to call it Summer Citrus. The differences between the two shades of each colour is more obvious in the real world.

I was originally gunna go with Cuddly Cammo, but I've changed my mind. It looks like GoogleEarth.

The back of Summer Citrus. The dots actually look like blueberries, so it's kindof a whole fruit salad.

It's quilted either side of the straight seams in one direction and next to the wonky seam on one side, and I taped a bit of cardboard onto the foot of my machine to keep the distance level to do another couple of wonky rows.

I'll be hanging with the icecream if anyone wants me.

I had plans.

I had many plans. Awesome plans. Then I accidentally watched 3 episodes of Chuck, so those plans have been postponed till tomorrow. But I did get my design worked out for one of the bundles (the orange and yellow and green one) so that's good, and I also met what will probably be my new car. She's red, and I get to play with her tomorrow.

So maybe a bit more postponing on that sewing then.

And it was all going so well.

The good and the... well, nothingness, really...

Still no sign of Babycat, but tomorrow is Monday, and I'll be calling all the vets and the pound, and hoping for the best.

Did at least get some good news today - BJ is fixed! Hurrah, and even more hurrah for the fact that it is only costing me $900 (last time it was about $1700) on the proviso that I buy something Japanese, soon, and never bring a Mondeo back again. Seems fair enough.

I've been using an Astra for the past few days, and well, it's certainly not "the one". It has very uncomfortable seats, and windows that you wind up by hand. It goes like stink though, which is nice, but if I'm spending twice as much, I want it to be twice as good. This is simply not. I should also point out that it goes like stink compared to BJ, who accelerated at a pace not dissimilar to continental drift.

After working all day I did some prewashing and ironing (I'm comfortable now with not prewashing the more expensive fabrics, but the cheaper stuff from Spotlight definitely gets prewashed.) After the success of yesterday's quilt I've remembered how much I missed the stack and slash quilting I used to do, so I've sorted out 4 bundles of 6 fat quarters each, and cut them into neat16ths (two bundles are 23x25cm, one is 22x25 and one is 23x24) ready to slash when I get to them. Two are boy colours (well, there's a blue and brown and a blue and green, in flower-free prints) because I'm worried that I don't have enough boy quilts.

I don't start work until 5.30 tomorrow night, which is good, and since I realised tonight that the icky feeling I've had all day is probably just indigestion, I doubt I'll be calling in sick like I had considered. Still, the late start means I should at least get one top done before work.

Also, I the weather is nice, I promise I'll take some photos.

Stupid Bloody Tuesdays*

As I said earlier, it's been a big, long day.

Dad dragged me out of bed early to help Casey and Becky clean out the house gutters. Then they pissed off down to Nan's to see if these long lost relatives that have come for a visit are worth schmoozing with. Apparently they arent, but still. This meant I was home without any means of escape and Dad made me mow the lawn. I had been making good progress on the Nutmeg quilt top, not racing through it by any means, but cruising, and stopping to mow the lawn killed my flow.

Geoff the mechanic called at lunch time, and apparently what's happened is the engine has got hot (there were always problems with the temp gauge, reading fine for a little bit warm then after halfway to hot going back to cold) and one of the cylinder heads has warped from the heat, and that's letting in water. Car should be fixed by Friday, which is good news in that if it takes less than a week to fix, it shouldn't be too expensive. I don't think I'll keep it though, at least not for long. It still has 10 months rego left though, so I think I'll say that I'm gunna use it for another 3 or 4 months, so that I can get plenty saved to get a brand new car, and not a Rio like Dad is suggesting. There's a 2002 Civic in Gazzards for a bit under 10k, but I'd rather a new Swift, for 18ish.

When the weather cleared up I went to take some photos, and realised, they don't really work if you've had them folded in cute little bundles for a few weeks. So I ironed them, and by then the clouds had come back. I got the nutmeg quilt to the point of being 3 big strips to be joined together before the sun came back and I had another go. I took a heap hanging from the wall of the pergola, but even with most of the creases ironed out, they still have nasty shadows on them. As a result, most of the photos have been taken with the quilts lying on the freshly mown grass. It may as well have some use, right? Then I figured I may as well do photos for what's missing on the page of completed quilts, so I pegged out Maddy's, the BlueGreen and the big rainbow and took photos of them on the clothesline, since they were all crease free from being on the bed. The retro quilt was still in the washing machine though, so maybe tomorrow for that one.

Everyone else gets home about now from school and Nan's and just as I'm about to get back to the last 2 seams on the Nutmeg quilt, there was a massive crack and then the sounds of destruction...

It doesn't look that bad in this photo...

This was our storage shed.

Now under a tree. A really big tree. Probably the biggest on out block, before someone let Dad near a chainsaw on a Tuesday*

So we had to spend half the afternoon pulling most of it off and putting it on the pile (I don't have a photo of the pile, but if there's less wind tomorrow night we'll be burning it. It's very big, look for the glow...)

See those tubs in there? Those are mine. They're full of wool, and half done projects, and books, and bags, and fabrics. You cant see the other 4, that got crushed, or the garbage bags full of wool, a couple of which burst.

Hoo-freaking-rah.

Anyway, we stopped at this point, so there'd be something left to show the insurance man, but I have a nice graze up my arm from where a stick fought back (I threw it on the pile, and it bounced) and Casey got eaten by various things that made her neck and arms all blotchy. Good times.

Tomorrow though, we are going into town at lunchtime, Nevile is going to let me pick a car (I've already picked. I want a Swift) and I am going to drive it across the road to work, where I will stay till late, hiding from any manual labour that's taking place at home.


*Tuesdays. Although Australia Post says more things get delivered on a Tuesday than any other day, Tuesdays in our family are bad, since Dad starts his socialising/drinking week on a Wednesday. So Tuesday is the day when it's been the longest since he's had a drink, and he's usually grumpy, and, apparently, shouldn't be in possession of any powertools. Tuesdays in our house are best spent, well, at the post office, I suppose.

Completed Quilt list has been updated.

It's turned into quite a big day. I've taken some photos, updated my list of completed quilts, almost finished the Nutmeg quilt top, got good news about my car and chopped up some tree. Now I'm gunna go have a nice long shower, and see what floats to the top of my priority list for the night.

Sadness. Again.

My box of stuff from fabric.com finally got here, and going through it took up the night that I was gunna spend finishing off yet another baby sized quilt top.

At some point soon I will have to start making them into actual quilts but not tonight.

What did happen tonight was that while I was at work, my parents got my car going. And while that should be cause for jumping up and down and cracking the champagne, it would seem it's not. What they're now thinking is that, since it's running fine once it gets started (the problem apparently is something to do with there not being enough compression to fire the cylinders to begin with) what they want to try to do is take it in to Geoff in the morning and see if it is indeed a crack in the cylinder head, in which case he can do this miracle fix thing that will temporarily seal it so that it will start for the next month or so, which means that we trade it in ASAP, because apparently with the lower priced trade-ins they then sell them off to wholesalers in the big cities, making it no-one around here's problem anymore.

Economically, they are right. There's no point spending over a thousand dollars to fix it up this time only to go and spend another few thousand on it next year when the next part of it blows up. It's better to cut my losses now, get 3 grand for it at trade in, and buy a whole another car that will last longer.

But it still feels like ditching a friend because he's got cancer. I wouldn't send one of the cats off to Adelaide just because of the vet bills. And I've had my car a lot longer than my cats.

Am I being pointlessly sentimental? Will this I-owe-it-to-the-inanimate-object mentality result in me eventually being smothered to death in my own house, one of those crazy old ladies who could never let anything go?

All that said I'm fairly sure I'll get a Suzuki Swift, unless Dad can sort out some super amazing deal on a Honda Euro for me. The Swift S is about 18k list price for a new auto one, but I might be able to get a still-in warranty used one, and anyway I suspect we will get it cheaper anyway.

My plans for tomorrow: spend a lot of time crying so that I get out of having to clean out the car that economics is forcing me to abandon.

Rambling ramblyness.

On the one hand, I wonder why any of you read this. On the other hand, in spite of all the interestingness the internet contains, sometimes it can get hella boring. And when youtube has chewed up all of your bandwidth, an oft-updated blog can be a good few seconds of distraction. Or a few hours, depending on how rambly I'm feeling. Today it would seem to be very.

Anyway. Private discussion time now. Should I pull out of going to Birchip? There's a lot of reasons I don't want to go, but I'm not sure that any of them are a reason not to go. I think I still want to go. I don't know.

Reasons.

We will be leaving Saturday, and arriving late. Maybe an hour before the kickoff. Not much time to get ourselves settled; probably end up is a nasty corner miles from the toilets.

No massive support group. Granted, Longy wasn't a massive crew, but we were there early, had time to make ourselves a camp, with a fire, and definite claimed/defensible feel to it. Small group + arriving late = uncontrollable variables = me freaking out that I might start bashing people over the heads with bottles. I do this when I get stressed, and I don't care if the bottles contain drinks, whereas everyone else cries alcohol abuse.

I've kinda gone a bit off Jelly Tots. And after not being able to complete the final stage of the digestive cycle for almost a week after going to Rainbow, I've kinda gone off the idea of eating nothing but raspberry twists for an entire weekend.*

I wont have BJ. For over 4 years my car has been my safe place, and it is into him that I retreat when I've had enough of the drunken antics. And he wont be there. The van is not mine alone. I apparently get to sleep in it, since I do not own a swag, but still. Vera is not BJ. I do not feel comfortable having random, one sided conversations with her.

I just don't really feel like picking up. And there's not much point, as a non drinker, in going to a BnS Ball if I'm not going to find myself a root. I like Casey's idea of collecting randoms, but, well, I'm not that kind of person. She exudes confidence in these situations. I raise an eyebrow and step aside so as to not get covered in food dye. And then get picked up by one random, without even being offered a chance to sample the alternatives, and then, well, thinking about it, it all seems like too much effort.

My dress is in the shed. I put it in a bag and put it out there when I still had hopes of getting my room organised. So I'll have to go out and find it. I've no idea where my coat is, and it still has a big tear up the back, that I will have to hand sew back together, on account of it being real dead animal, and too much for the machine to be able to handle.

I will have to wax my legs. It's about time anyway, but still. I will have to find time in the next 5 days, around working a 35 hour week. It will hurt.

I will have worked 10 straight closes in the lead up to it. 63 hours worth. And because I'll be going away, neither catching up on sleep nor sewing will be getting done**

My cats went mental the last time I went away for 2 days. This was 2 weeks ago, and still their dietary habits have not reverted to pre-absence.

Entry is $100. Which could buy me a half yard of each colour of this in the stripe, the birds and the flowers inside the diamonds. And the postage. And some other stuff too, probably.

The guy I hooked up with at Longy might be there.

Reasons I probably will go.

I'm a sucker.

My Future Husband might be there.

There will be plenty of opportunity to frown disapprovingly at Becky.

I like the drive up there. Not just when I'm driving, but I enjoyed the last trip in the van while Casey was driving too.

I will have the nicest dress there.

If there's a guy in a pimp coat we can look knowingly at each other, and he will acknowledge that my actual fur coat is cooler than his purple-velour-with-a-leopard-velour-collar coat is.

Random people will come up to me and stroke my coat. Then I can imagine I am one of my cats.

If my funky new business cards get here, we can invent interesting fake names for ourselves***

The main reason I'll go.

You never know. It might be fun.


*this is a complete lie. But I do like being able to poop.
**sewing's not getting done anyway.
***but we will have to make sure we aren't wearing our name necklaces, because that would ruin it.

I'm not liking this "working" thing...

My much searched-for "Spring to Life" Mingle bundles arrived today, still looking like bundles, so no chance for me to spend a half hour refolding them and getting a good lookie innie, but that's okay. I'm not gunna start anything with them straight away, since I need to make some more progress on a DVD player case for one of the girls at work, who has boys, and therefore picked a blue fabric with cars on it.

Now, I like cars (actually, gimme a sec, I need to go download that new episode of Top Gear... done) but these are not particularly nice kinda Nascar-y ones. And the background is a nasty navy. I like pretty fabrics, but I understand that boys don't. Even worse, it's up to a bit with hand stitching, which is the other reason I stopped.

Still, I had better start it again soon, since she's going on holiday on Monday and that's when she needs it for.

But I really don't like hand sewing.

In other news, Helen, do you think Poppy would lend me the Falcon for a couple of weeks? Becky says it's an auto...

Damn.

Don't you hate it when you find a truly wonderful seller online, who not only has ridiculously good prices, but also responds quickly, packs your items in the cheapest way possible, charges you the same for postage as what the post office has charged them, and posts super super quickly?

No, you probably don't, because when you find a seller like that, you're all "woohoo! this seller is awesome! maybe they don't have a huge range, but I don't care. What they have is so nice, and so cheap, that I'll take two of every bundle they have. Hell, some of them I'll take 3. It would almost be a crime not to stock up on such nice, pretty, well priced fabrics!"

I on the other hand, don't get to buy anything new for probably the next 4 weeks, which is about how long its going to take to earn enough money to get my car fixed, as well as how long I have to wait till it can actually get into the mechanic. Which is fortunate I suppose, since part two cant happen without part one. But still, no more fabric buying for me.

At least I have stuff still arriving, including these today, from the aforementioned seller.

Robert Kaufman, "Mingle" in "Newspaper"

Robert Kaufman, Nautical Stash Stack

Robert Kaufman, Cherry Cordial Stack Stash

The thing about all these bundles is that, in order for the postage to be so cheap, the seller has to take them all apart and refold them nicely so they'll fit into a flat rate envelope. And that takes work. It's the kind of thing that the people at fabric.com, for instance, cant be bothered doing, which is why their international shipping is so freaking high. Of course it means that at the other end I have to reassemble the bundles, but that's worth the $15 or so it's saved me in postage. I'm actually quite good at it.

Anyway, here's an open letter to anyone selling fabrics internationally on the internet. Be considerate. Think about what you're doing. If it's something nice for the person who's buying it, they might really like you and buy more from you, or tell everyone who's reading it to go and buy some stuff from you*, because you are so awesome.

On the other hand, you can be like fabric.com, and have a massive range and fabrics at $3 per yard, so that I put up with the fact that postage costs me more and it takes your packages a month to get to me. But the thing is, I wont be saying nice things about you. Your staff are rude and your postage pricing scheme unfair to international buyers.

I much rather buying things from and supporting the small-scale fabric sellers on eBay and etsy. This week though I have to support my local small-scale mechanic, because the big dealership service centre didn't even notice that my catalytic converter had disintegrated...

Still, 2 more packages of fabric, plus more rotary cutter blades, and the next set of custom necklaces, including Kelsey's slightly late birthday present, are on their way.

If only I could get to the post office to get them.

Damn.

*but seriously everyone, don't buy it all, because I want for there to be some left when I have money again, so that then I can buy lots more, mainly of the Autumn Nutmeg and the Mingle in the Blue/Brown/Orange I used for the wonky quilt, so that I can make a bed sized version of it....

Home safe...

...And glad to have chips, juice and a wireless internet connection again. Not that I didn't have juice or chips while I was away, but things are always nicer at home.

Unfortunately, my car hasn't magically repaired itself, so I cant run into town and go to the post office, to see if any of the 3 packages due any day now have arrived. But also unfortunately, I have to work tonight (5.30 start) so I suppose I can get someone to take me in early so we can get there before they close at 5.

I'm getting a fairly big urge to start making stuff again too. Nothing too big just yet, while I get in the swing of working a real job again, but I'm sure I can think of some mini projects. I've got a shelf full of notebooks I'd like to make some pretty covers for, and Helen has been having a go at some patchwork bibs, which also look like something interesting to have a go at. But then again, something I get in the mail might inspire me to bigger and better things. There's the purple and green mingle bundles coming in one pack, the same fabric in red white and black coming with a blue and brown bundle and a red white and blue bundle, and the box from fabric.com, which, among other things, includes more fabrics to add to the autumn nutmeg bundle I got a while ago. So there's plenty of combos that i could put together in quilts.

Also, I kinda wanna finish Dad's cover and the purple quilt, just so they're not hanging over my head.

Whatever I end up doing, it's good to be home.