Puh-ride.

So over the weekend the kidlets got to go to a big dinner thingie and get their award from the mayor for the pageant. Tonight when I got home I noticed this next to Graham's bowls. I think he deserves it.

Life choices: Validated.

My mum said to me a few weeks ago (I think it was when I was churning out the adorbs halloween animal ears) "why can't you and your father use your powers for good instead of evil?"

However, all my life choices were validated when ABC local radio's Stan Thompson said that he was particularly impressed by my dinosaur dog costume, as worn by Graham in the local Christmas Pageant on Saturday.

Admittedly, in all the photos it looks like there's a stuffed toy dinosaur trying to hump him. I'm gunna say that it's my retaliation for all those times when he's humped my leg. Powers For Evil!

Anyway, The Bedrock Kids float won the "encouragement award" and made it into the paper. There were 5 copies of The Border Watch in our kitchen tonight when I got home... one on each of the 4 tables, and one in my hand as I walked in.

Honestly, encouraging us isn't that good of an idea. With no encouragement at all my father built a four-bike-powered Flintstones car on a whim and I managed to design, draft and construct a perfect doggie-dino costume in an evening. Admittedly, I did need a bit of encouragement to help with the kids costumes, but that was because mum assembled them and then wanted me to sew the spots and triangles on them. And she always wanted me to do it in the mid-morning, instead of at 2am like I normally would.

And she's got the nerve to call me evil. I think it's not only my father that I get that from...

Happy Halloween.

It was so nice to come home tonight and not have to make anything. I think I was so excited by the fact that I could just spend the night on facebook and tumblr and youtube that I got a bit carried away, which is why it's now 5.30am.

Anyway...

A cool cat, a cow and little red riding hood. All made by me.

A cool cat and a cow holding tails, and getting photobombed by the boy who couldn't be arsed doing a costume, so we made him wear teddy bear ears.

The ears of the cow... she didn't wear them because they kept flopping over her eyes.

Group piccie.

As much as I was sooooo sick of working on this stuff by last night, I'm also so glad I did it. Only two of the daytime staff did anything, and only two of the people in this photo (the witch and the bloodsplattered guy) aren't wearing at least a little something I made. But we had a fantastic night, got quite a few compliments (a couple were skeezy, but they were balanced out by the adorable ones from little kids) and generally enjoyed ourselves.

The fact that I can now, still, 7 hours on, still feel the ghosts of the sunglasses/headband combo pressing against the sides of my head seems like a small price to pay.

And it's over...

As of 10 hours from now (8 hours of which will be spent sleeping) my holidays are over. Sad times, though, admittedly, considering it was only 5 days off, short times too.

I've spent most of the last 5 days sewing costumes for Halloween, from a whole heap of ears:

To a truly bitchin' Red Riding Hood cloak, that I don't even get to wear because I agreed to do it for Chantelle.

And a cow print onsie that's given me a lot of trouble because it's for someone who's a completely different size to me. And that doesn't matter with animal ears or badass crepe georgette (why did I pick that fabric? It was horrible to work with) cloaks. But on me, the crotch is almost down to my knees, and the legs are waaay too long, which stopped me from putting feet on it like she wanted. I've put some buttonholes at the ends of the legs though, so I can make her some button on feet later.

And a half dozen boring black capes that I'll probably insist management wear, since I like the idea that they can be the villains of the piece. I'm still going with being a cool cat. Brittni (who we often call Britta) is going to be one too, so I think that means that halfway through the shift I need to get myself some white wings and a halo and be the cool cat that had too many drugs.

Hopefully I'll meet some more Community fans in the process. The world needs more cool cats.

My new favourite.

So a while back I bought this pattern off the Vogue website along with a whole heap of others that were $3 each.

The reason I picked this one is because it has a whole lot of collar and really slim sleeves, which is what I've been looking for in a jacket. I had already found it actually, but they were asking $95 for it, and it's not even real leather. I'd pay twice that if it was real leather, but it isn't, so I'd consider my budget to be half that.

And tonight, since my voice is still hiding behind a couch somewhere and my asthma is playing up to the point where I chickened out of going to Longy Bns even though I wasn't working, I decided I'd make the night at least slightly worthwhile and have a go at the pattern. I had some dark grey wool/acrylic blend medium weight coat fabric that I bought so long ago that it was in a cupboard in Becky's room and some quite thin black cotton for lining and I went for it. I skipped the pockets, since this was pretty much just a test run, slimmed the sleeves way down (even though the pattern said they had to be made from at least 10%+ stretch fabric) and decided I'd line the entire thing instead of facing the front and the collar in the same fabric as the outer and then having a part lining.

Of course, I completely disregarded the instructions. I've never made a pattern exactly as it says to, ever. It's not that I think I know better than people whose actual job it is to know this stuff, but I've got my ways that I'm used to, so I lined it in what I think of as "handbag style" because it's how you line handbags: basically you make two the same, one in inside fabric and one in outside fabric, and then you sew around the edges and turn it inside out and topstitch the edges. Of course, the ends of the sleeves are a bit more complicated than that (you sort of pull them out of the inside once you're half done and then turn them inside out again and... it's complicated...) but it all came together great. Narrow sleeves, massive collar that doesn't really have any bulk and therefore drapes nicely, full lining so it doesn't scratch your underarms when you're wearing a singlet... I hated having to take it off to take a photo of it, but I suck so bad at selfies it had to be done.

And that coathanger just doesn't wear it as well as I do. It's pinned closed here since I didn't have any press studs to put a closure on it but I'll happily wear it open for now.

Now I want to find myself some waxed cotton drill and do another one.

Finding the bright side in the dark.

I've found the best thing about laryngitis. It's going out into the kitchen, in the middle of the night, wearing headphones, not turning any lights on, having a groove in the dark, singing along at the top of your lungs to your mp3 player.

No-one can hear you! It's brilliant! It's like being home alone, but, we'll I'd say it happens less rarely, but this is the first time I've ever had laryngitis, whereas I've been home alone plenty of times, so there goes that theory. Oh well, it happened tonight, and I was loving it sick. That's the important thing.

Anyway, before I was being Bruce Springsteen, I actually got a little bit of quilting done, just boring wavy lines, but yay progress. Until the bobbin ran out, and I stopped. Because clearly, my sewing machine wanted me to.

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...

Saying something.

There's something to be said for lying on the floor in front of the fire listening to songs you haven't heard in ages, and staring at the roof thinking about shit, and that something is: I should do it more often.

I had a lot of options for tonight. A couple of different invites out, or drinking on my lonesome, or even sewing. But I think I made the right choice, spending a couple of hours reading random wikipedia articles and eating baked beans. And then taking to youtube to find all those songs that have slipped out of my regular rotation. The Youth Group and the Snow Patrol and the Coldplay and the Dr Hook.

Actually, apart from roadtrips (which are a brilliant excuse to do pretty much nothing but listen to music for 5 hours) I think the last time I did this was easter, when it was 1am on the beach. It's a shame. I'm so used to multitasking - to crochet as I watch tv, to sew with music in the background, to read while cooking (I'm pretty hardcore) that I don't take as much time to think and reflect and just be, quietly, as maybe I should.

See, whenever I'm being me, I tend to be almost obnoxiously me. As me as I can be. I'm usually me-ing my little heart out, reveling in the feeling of my me-ness, because it's damn awesome, if I do say so myself. I'm not ashamed of it, admittedly I rarely notice it, and I really don't mind it. But I suppose there's also something to be said for introspective me too.

And that something is, she has fabulous taste in music.

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.

Snh, Snh, Snh.

In my favourite series of novels, Discworld, by Terry Pratchett, there is a character called the Death of Rats.

The name's pretty self explanatory. 

Anyway, when he talks it's in Sᴍᴀʟʟ Cᴀᴘs and he says things like Squeak, Eek, and Ik and when he laughs it's written as Sɴʜ, Sɴʜ, Sɴʜ.

And for some reason, when it's all too big and too much, and a thousand words can't sum up the whole experience of being a human being, alive at this very moment, I think a little Sɴʜ, Sɴʜ, Sɴʜ pretty much sums it up. Because actually, it is pretty fucking funny.

PingPingPing

I'm just really really having a lovely night. I was going to do my favourite things friday, because I'm feeling so good, but I'm worried that by trying to quantify it, I'd end up losing it, so I wont.

I should also point out that that I've been downing sprinkles at a ferocious rate tonight - I tip them from the packet into an empty tic tac container, and then straight into my mouth.

It's heaps fun, I've had 4 containers worth tonight, my teeth all spontaneously fell out and I'm pinging so hard on a sugar high; now I'm just waiting for the soon-to-hit comedown at which point I will immediately fall asleep.

Gotta say, its cheaper than wine, and it tastes waaaaay nicer. It's 83% sugar, in case you were wondering. And rainbow.

Me: a work in progress.

Hopefully my existential angst for the quarter is over - I'm feeling better today. It's probably a combination of things: catching up with a friend I haven't seen enough of lately, a new watch coming in the mail, getting my bags from the weekend back (including the flannelette bundle I bought at lincraft Rundle Mall)

Marveling at the wonders of cyclonic vacuums (Shay, they use centrifuges, and centrifuges are interesting) Finishing season 3 of Buffy, devoting a bit of time to laying backwards over one of the big balls at the gym (when your thoughts are every which way, hang upside down for a bit, and they'll pool in the top of your head)

And knowing that if I keep on being glum, then I've got no hope of ever being awesome enough to rock shoes like this.

Okay, I might never be. But there's no point in not having a go, right?

Home.

It's so nice to be home, in my own bed, under my own quilts, with my electric blanket. That 5 hour drive, after getting about the same amount of sleep last night, wasn't particularly fun. But loud music helped, and I only nearly died once. And even then, it wasn't that nearly.

Before that though, I spent a lovely afternoon at Shay's house, walking her through sewing a couple of zip pouches with really no swearing at all, trying to understand a tutorial that was missing about half the steps on a site which I had assumed would have higher standards, and getting there eventually, and then making a little pouch with a recessed zip, just to prove how easy it was. We also spent a lot of time playing with the dogs, being ignored by the cats, and watching my team thrash hers in the footy. Good times, and I can't wait till the end of July when we get to do it all again.

I've put all the new fabrics into their respective bundles, but there's still the other quilts in the finishathon to get through first - I think I have one more to quilt and then it's all bindings.

Ergh. I might have to run away again.

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.

Saturday Night (do do do do do do do do)

What a crazy day. Enjoyable, but crazy.

Started off, I went into town to buy stuff. The $10 vouchers that Spotlight sends can be used once a day for the 4 days, and I like to get my money's worth. Today I bought a similar bundle to yesterdays, but in blues and greens instead of pinks and yellows and greens.

Again, about half of it is from stash. There's also a couple of cuts in here that are only 10cm, but because it's a random design, this is okay.

Work was especially fun for a Saturday night, for two reasons. Firstly, it's (now) April Fools Day, which means that I was free to leave clever traps for the co-workers who are working in the morning. I left a note on the service desk saying that a heap of people had called in sick, and the girl in the office left a similar one saying that the safe combo had been changed. We also left some hints as to how they could pass on the April fools joy - PA calls for staff members' number plates, food dye in the milk in the staff room, that sort of thing. Much fun.

Even funner, Kelsey had sorted out a scavenger hunt for her friends for tonight, and one of the things the groups had to do was come in and sing me a song. Naturally, hilarity ensued - Even though I had told the girls on checkout that tonight was going to get a bit weird, and let the duty manager and a couple of the nightfill guys what I was anticipating, we didn't tell all the nightfill people, nor the other customers. We were pretty quiet, till the singing broke out, and the walking-around-falling-down worried a few of the nightfill people at first, but it still made for one of the most enjoyable Saturday nights I've worked in a long time.

And then, after meeting up with them all to get a quick run down on which teams achieved what, I went to meet Casey and a few other friends for a few drinks and a firebucket.

Now I'm gunna put my clock back for the end of daylight savings (sad face) and snuggle up with my electric blanket.

A Zen bit of Angst.

In a strange sort of way, I feel incredibly zen about the Angst Bag. Maybe the clue is in the name - the fact that there was angst before I'd even designed it meant that by the time it came to make it* I was pretty chill about everything.

Not that there were any huge dramas - one of the cross stitch cottons ran out half way through a quilting line but I just magically joined the next bit up and kept going. I made the lining 5cm too big, so I just trimmed it down. I stabbed myself with a pin, but hey, that's what sewing's all about.

It's not perfect. It has it's faults. Some slightly messy lines, the stitching going completely mental when I just sewed on the tab at the end of the zipper.

Whatevs. It's nice. I like it. I think it's going to be liked. I can't wait to make myself a mini version in black with rainbow stiching.


*admittedly, it was about a 5 day turnaround, but I like my emotional rollercoasters like I like my real rolercoasters - fast.

FTW!

All the custom monsters (fortunately there were only 8) have been cut out.

Achievement!

It worked!

I had told myself that I was going to piece the backing for the blue and grey quilt tonight, but after going out to dinner with a friend I hadn't seen since high-school, I got home and wasn't really feeling it. I finally got around to sewing down the fold over binding for the sunset quilt now that I've bought some more hot pink cotton, and then I got into a flat bag.

I'd done a test version with just the lines drawn on the other night and nearly finished it before I realised I was doing it all wrong - trying to sew it like I'd sew a lined pouch with a zipper instead of constructing it like I used to make laptop bags with the top flaps. So tonight's version worked much better.

I still have to sew a clasp into it, and I'm considering maybe making the gusset go the whole way around as opposed to tapering off to a point just beyond the corners, because they're a bit messy. That photo is actually stuffed, well, It has my spare phone and car keys and a lip gloss and a pack of quick-eze in it, which is pretty much everything, except for money, that I need for a night out.

I think next time I'll do an edged handle too, because the black kinda vanishes. I considered using piping on all the edges, but I got lazy.

Still, as a proof of concept, coloured in with fabric markers, I'm pretty pleased. Next one I'd like to try one of the side zipping ones with two handles, but I think tomorrow I should try get that grey and blue quilt backed.

Hi Ho (Hum)

Well, my holidays are pretty much over. In 10 hours time I'll be back at work, for a 9 hour day, no less. I think that the first half of your first shift back should be holiday-paid too, so your first day back is a half-day, to help you ease back into it.

And yes, I know it's only been two weeks, but they've been a fairly full two weeks:

I learned how to make shoes, culminating in spending the last two days wearing a pair I made.

I quilted a mid-sized quilt, and the binding's 3/4 done too, but I've run out of pink thread.

I made (as in, fully completed) two baby quilts.

I'm about half way through 25 monsters.

I made three skirts.

I pieced and quilted a pillow case.

I cut and began piecing a 4th quilt.

I went to four parties, and a country music festival.

All in 17 days.

Worse, I feel like I'm really starting to build momentum, like if I had another week off I could fully double that output. Though I will confess, both weeks I had a Monday/Tuesday slump, so maybe I'm just imagining it.

Anyway, no photos of the grey version of the peach spotted skirt I made yesterday, because it got vomited on by Anna's dog. Luckily I had packed the peach one too, in case of something like that happening, so I just switched halfway through the night. And then my shoes really did coordinate with my outfit, since I'd made them in the same peach fabric.

I realised last night too that the skirts really really needed to have pockets (I kept putting my phone down and freaking out 30 seconds later), and even though it took me a bit of thinking today, since I hadn't done pockets in a long time, I eventually got them worked out.

Not that you can see them in the photo. The fabric is a very lightweight poly-cotton blend, that I don't love the drape of as much as the rayon, but which I love the retro browns of. The crinkle made it hard to cut straight too.

I spent a couple of hours tonight sewing the faces to the monsters, and I've found that the keys to raw edge applique are to have your machine on the slowest stitch speed, and do something else every other hour, lest you go blind and/or insane. All the black around the eyes and the big smiles is done, now I just need to do the whites of the buck teeth and then the associated mouths.

In between the two hours spent turning fabric in circles watching a needle bob slowly up and down, I cut all my HSTs for the blue and grey quilt I bought for earlier in the week.

And it seems the key to correctly cutting an entire quilt is to only use new fabric that can be replaced tomorrow if any mistakes are made. None were, and after my second hour at the monsters I laid this out.

And I'm so in love. Here it's laid out at 1.4 by 2 metres, but there's pretty much 4cm of seam allowance for each block, so it'll become quite a bit smaller. That's the worst thing about HSTs, you lose 2cm in the 45 degree seam and then if you sew with a wider allowance so it's easier to do neat points, as I do, there's the same gone again. Still, it's going to be at least 1.6m long, and that's nearly as long as me, so it's plenty big enough.

Favourite Things

DVD commentaries. Cookie dough. Long hot showers in the wee small hours with the music cranking and really bad singing. Plaiting my hair so it'll be curly tomorrow. Early 90s music. Good fuel economy. Really sharp scissors. Videos on my phone. Headphones that clip on the outside of your ears. Using cushions as mousepads. Mechanical pencils. Writing bogan parody versions to songs. My new RM Williams shirt. 100% cotton sheeting. Showing the ladies at Spotlight a voucher on my phone instead of actually printing it. Stubby holders. Spare batteries for my phone. USB extension cables. Columbines. Yarn dyed checks. Cold cans of coke. Spontaneous roadtrips. Strawberries.

Spontaneous roadtrips to strawberry farms. Tommorow. Looking forward to it.