Doing it backwards.

Today I came up with a fantastic method of turning 110 cm wide fabric into a 120 cm wide quilt back, plus a spare 20 cm so you can do it as a fold-over-binding, AND it's all on point so you won't get big bulges in your fold-over-binding.

Unfortunately, I don't have a 120 cm top that I can quilt in one direction and do a fold-over-binding on. But I've done some maths for one.

Rainbow Pants Monsters.

I had a look through my scrap bag tonight because I figure I should start thinking about the next batch of monsters rather than cramming them into a frantic 3 days come early February. Also, I was at the salvos the other day and found some fantastic handmade (the sewer had problems with the tension on their overlocker. They're not the only ones) rainbow batik pants for $3, and I think they'll chop up into some really lovely monsters.

Back to my scraps, and I was pleasantly surprised. I'd had a rummage when I was doing the last lot of monsters, but there was still a fair bit of decent stuff in there. Lots of narrower bits too, I noticed, about 10cm wide, so I drew up some more skinny monsters to use that stuff up. And while I was drawing, I sketched out a couple of four legged shapes, because most of them are a wee bit humanoid. Mainly because it's the easiest to make, but I should stretch myself, and four legs is only a little bit harder than two, whereas four arms is a surprisingly large amount more work.

I think the thing I learned most doing the last batch (other than "don't decide 5 days before christmas to make a dozen monsters really really quickly for the facebook crowd") was that I really like long arms. There's going to be a lot of long armed monsters in the next few batches.

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.

Faking it.

I consider one of my best and most important talents to be my ability to fake it. Being able to blend into just about any situation is probably one of the best talents you can have short if having an actual superpower. With a weeks notice and about fifty bucks I can get myself prepped to sidle my way into just about anywhere. I can have the outfit, the attitude and enough knowledge to politely follow the conversation and make the occasional witty interjection. It's not entirely difficult; with wikipedia and ebay it's even easier than ever.

Getting into the country crowd is surprisingly easy with regards to the attitude and the knowledge, but quite expensive when it comes to the look. You know those cowboy hats you can get at cheap as chips or wherever? They don't fall for them. If you can't afford an actual akubra,  you'll be best to look for an old hat advertising a tractor dealership. And any old boots wont work, you need ariats at the least. These are people who probably own 5 shirts. But they've probably cost them $100 a pop. It's a hard group to fake your way into on a budget, and probably not worth bothering if it's only for a weekend.

But if your bestie is already in, and is about the same size, and is offering you a full and perfect outfit for the weekend, wouldn't you take it? The chance to slip seamlessly in without any hassles; I'd jump at the chance. But Anna is obviously a bit weird, cause she WANTS to look out of place next weekend. And while I get wanting to be individual and true to yourself, I thought the whole point of her coming was to get away from her life and into mine for a bit.

Maybe I'm being all judgmental, but I think she'll have a lot better time if she's not spending half the weekend convincing people to listen to her even though she's a city princess.

Tonight I'm at the Tirrendarra Rodeo, a curious blend of country folks who've travelled a long way to come see it (we drove about an hour) and all the locals who came cause it was on. And even though we're in the middle of nowhere, the locals are the ones who I think look yuppie, in their skinny jeans and flats.

People are interesting.

Go figures.

So, was last night an abject failure? Did I lie awake half the night, tossing and turning and worrying about all the stuff I could be doing?

Well, if it had been a two hour night, then yes, but since a standard night is apparently 8 hours, then well, it's not so much half the night as is was about 12.5%. On the other hand, though I was asleep by about 3am, I still slept in till 1pm. Go figure.

Anyway, tonight I'm going to bed early not as some kind of crazed experiment, but because I'm too lazy to actually do anything productive. Also, it's my one day off this week tomorrow, and I feel like actually doing something with it. Not sure what yet, but something.

I'll probably wait till after the end of next week before I have a proper go at changing my sleeping patterns... the schedule of a BnS Ball is pretty much the complete opposite of the early nights favoured by farming types, and much more in line with my current timing. Go figure that too.

This wont work.

This probably wont work, but I, Sara, am going to try getting into my bed right now in hopes of falling asleep at an hour (2am) which is, for me, very early.

I'm probably about to set myself up for 3 hours of lying here bored, but I ate some foods today that I haven't had in a while (sausage rolls, beef and mashies and hot cross buns*) so it seems to be the day for trying new stuff.

Wish me luck!

*they were available two days ago. In the next week, bags of the little easter eggs will arrive at our store and start going up on clip-strips at the ends of the aisles.

Finally

So today, finally, a few days late I know, I came up with all that new years stuff. Last year, I went with keeping my phone charged and checking my junk mail folder. The first one saw slight improvements for a while, followed by massive ones upon the purchase of a fully bitchin' new phone, which I subsequently had to use as a computer when my laptop failed, causing the previously-going-well resolution number two to fall in a hole and die.

This year I am going with watching all of Buffy at the gym - with still about 130 episodes to go that means about 3 times a week. I'd also like to end the year with less WIP/UFOs than I started with, though I still need to do a count. I'm not saying I need to finish everything I start, and I've given myself a get-out clause in that I'm allowed to say to myself "no, I will never finish it, I therefore let it go" and either turf it or pass it on to someone who might*.

I'd like to go on more adventures. I had some good ones last year; Balls, shoots, the trip to Adelaide on my own, as well as the one with Meagan, Anna and Brenton. I'd like to go on more spontaneous ones, and especially more on my own. Just to take a day and go somewhere, pointlessly, see something and come home.

I'd like to eat with a bit more variety - I'm one of those people that eats about a dozen things. Chips, nuggets, chicken and lettuce rolls, cheese, plain beef or fish, spaghetti, donuts, lamingtons, strawberries and vegemite on toast. That's only eleven. Icecream. And that's pretty much what I've been eating lately. I need to eat more sausage rolls, or rice, or bowls of cereal, or roast spuds. My diet's pretty boring, which I think is why I fall back on chocolate and cheese so much, and I know it's mainly laziness that stops me from going to the extra effort of getting other foods, so I really should start getting over this.

I'd like a pet of my own. Since that cats left, Graham is still ignoring me, Logan (budgie) is still pooping on me and Nimrod (guinea pig) is still hiding from everyone and everything. I don't want a boyfriend but I still want cuddles.

I'd like a slightly more regular schedule, but not too far backward. 10am seemed like a good get-up time, I'd like to try to get back to that. Not tomorrow though. It's already after 3.

*I was considering that as a whole resolution in itself - to give up on things instead of deluding myself that I'll do it one day, leaving me burdened by yet another unfinished guilt trip of wasted time, effort and money.

Lovin' it.

I've just realised it's been a few weeks since I did a random good stuff post. So here's one.

I love columbines. I love how long they take. As a scoffer of chocolate/lollies, I like that you have to take your time, lest you be left unable to open your mouth. I also prefer the ones in blue foil, for all that I know that there's no difference between them and the ones in pink.

I love demazin. I love how it makes me be not snotty, and how it comes with a measuring cup, and has a delicious vanilla peach flavour.

I love those little hair ties that are essentially a tiny, smooth elastic band. I never used to, when I had lots of hair, but now that I only have a little bit I'm going through them at a fierce rate. I need to get some more tomorrow.

I love all the public holidays there've been lately. $45 an hour, get in my wallet. Actually, that's not right, since I keep my money in my phone case.

I love my phone case. It's purple, and orange inside, and full of phone, and also money (see above).

I love the hot weather we've had lately. A lot of people have been poo-poo-ing it, but I think it's great. Except for how the roads are melting. That kinda sucks.

I love whitebait. You scoop them up, you chop their heads off and you fry them and eat them. They are tiny, fishy deliciousness.

I love that my youtube addiction has finally come in handy, entertaining me for the last 3 hours as I've copied some TV for a work friend.

I love that the first harddrive has finished copying and now I can set the second one to start (cause that one will probably take about 5 hours) and go to sleep.

I love sleep.

Warn. Your. Children.

Most of you are probably too busy having lives to know this, but if you play an MMORPG (those big online computer games) it lets you know if you've been playing it for a certain amount of time - a little popup ever hour or so to remind you that there's a world beyond your computer screen.

Why doesn't youtube offer this? I'm watching it on my phone - surely they could tell me after I've been running the app for more than an hour. Two hours. Three hours. Four hours.

Ah well, I hadn't made any progress on that quilt top in about 6 months... what's a few more days? And you would think I would have learned after I did exactly the same thing last night, except curled up in bed till 6am instead of standing at the kitchen bench with my cutting mat in front of me. It's still going right now. I've gone from Paley Panels to funny ads to beer ads to clips from the Melbourne Comedy Gala.

I actually came up with the term "Youtube Hangover" to describe it today. With people asking one another how they pulled up after last night, I was having to explain that I'd had 2 drinks, walked it off, eaten some delicious fairy bread, driven home at 2.30, gotten into bed... and clawed my way out at 11.30 after, confusingly, just 5 hours of sleep. But many, many Related Video tabs.

So please, for everyone's sake, lay off the youtube, kiddies. Just say no. 

Especially after the 4th hour.

NYE lessons.

It's not that bad working till 10.30 NYE. There'll be very few customers, and most of them will be drunk co-workers coming in to say hi. If one of them is your manager, and she's drunk, ask her if you can slack off. Mine said yes...

5 inch heels are bad. Pretty, but bad. Mine were pretty enough, and only slightly bad enough, that I forgive them. This rarely happens with heels. I have a small blister. This happens often. Pack bandaids.

If you happen to be out and about on NYE with the only good friend of yours who would recognise your ex-boyfriend, at a distance, from behind, and you happen to both spot him in the same instant, laugh uproariously for the next 3 minutes. The kind of laughter you'd do if there was only 3 minutes worth of oxygen left in the world and you wanted to use it the right way. This may need to be explained to the guy you're with, who won't get why the slightly lame joke he just made got the best response ever.

Fireworks are pretty.

Groups of people (especially drunk people) are terrible at making decisions. It's much easier if you just tell them all what to do. Cheerful drunk people appreciate direction, especially if the directions lead them to more drinks. Grumpy drunk people should be left at the kerb.

Sad songs are good. "I know this room, I've walked this floor" from hallelujah, when walking past your old high school, slightly tipsy, in the middle of the night, is particularly good. Angie Hart's "Blue" is good no matter the occasion. Sad songs in the presence of one of your best friend's exes, when she's off making out with someone else and he's not over her, are bad. Except Angie Hart's "Blue" since it's about accepting being alone. Unfortunately, while it's very good, it doesn't have magical powers, so you'll still have to listen to him go on about how he can't get over her.

Holly Williams' "Sometimes" (I wish I was a fine wine, I wish I were a good drug, and hey if I were Jesus, maybe I could heal all of us..) would be a good song in this occasion. "Empty Chairs" by Don McLean is a bad choice.

Gutters are for sitting in while looking at the stars and quoting Oscar Wilde on facebook. This gives the drunker members of your party time to catch up.

Just because it was in the low 30s during the daytime doesn't mean it's going to stay warm into the nighttime. Pack a nice cardi, or you'll have to wear the hoodie in your gym bag. Pack a quilt too. Everybody loves quilts.

Oh, and if I could tell the world just one thing, it would be, that we're all okay. Thanks Jewel.

Happy New Year Everyone. It doesn't look all that different to the old one, but the fireworks at changeover time were pretty.