An Ordinary Life

Mid-January Update - List of Three

2012-01-14T20:15:00.003+10:00

Thought I'd post an update of how I'm going with my daily list of three. Just briefly.

It's hard going on days when I'm working. I have a million things to do (I keep a 'to do' diary for work). I don't want to put work things on my List of Three; I'm not convinced I'm going to be inspired to do anything by the time I get home; and I'm not always sure what time I'll get home or what'll be waiting for me when I do. So, I've missed a couple of days this week.
I haven't been Twittering my lists consistently; particularly on work days. The phone app doesn't allow me to post to Twitter. By the time I get to a computer to send them through, I've often completed them (or decided to can them).
The kitchen shelves from the 2nd are a bit of a bug bare. Maybe tomorrow.
My other bug bare (bear?) is my stationary portfolio. I've had other sewing projects (and early nights) take presidence. It keeps getting bumped off.
I need to make more of an effort to continue to record 'to do' items in a general list. Too often I've thought "I've got three; I'll leave that." Then later I can't remember what it was to add it tomorrow. The plan has always been to keep a "future" list; once the three are done for the day the future list is fair game. It's also supposed to 'feed' my List of Three.

List of Three

2012-01-06T08:01:00.005+10:00

For a number of years I've been receiving Philip Humbert's weekly "Tips" newsletter (http://www.philiphumbert.com). I like Phil's newsletter. They're success orientated, but recognise that success does not necessarily mean lots of money, flashy cars and over sized houses. Success is a very individual pursuit.

Some time ago he suggested a very simple method of getting things done. I wish I could find his instructions, 'cause there was a little more to it than I'm about to explain. However, the premise was to take a small card that will fit in your pocket, wallet, etc - so you have it with you all the time. On one side of the card you write three things you have to do today. You will not go to bed until those three things are done. I think on the other side you kept the full to-do list. But the three things are a priority.

Well, I've substituted my to-do app on my phone for the card. After all, I have my phone with me 24/7. I started on the 2nd (not into NY Resolutions). Each day I enter three tasks that I will do today. For the last four days I've completed all but one of them. The outstanding task was a little ambitious and multi-step undertaking.
To add a little accountability, I thought I'd post each of my three tasks on Twitter and then post when they're done. Obviously, my explanation is a little longer than 140 words - hence the blog post. Gees, what did we do before the internet?

The important thing, for me, about the "list of 3" is that they don't necessarily have to be important or life-changing tasks. They're things that I would probably put off without some prompt to get them done.
Here's my lists to date (with a little explanation):

2 Jan

Fit kitchen shelves - this is my outstanding task. It really should have been just the first step, but I'm leaving it there until it's done.
One bookshelf - we're decluttering our books, one shelf at time. This task is likely to be reoccurring for the next few weeks (at least)
Bedroom floor - it just needed to be vacuumed and mopped - every square, dusty inch of it, which means moving the bed and everything

3 Jan

Masters - to buy bits and pieces including cucumber seedlings and kitchen shelf brackets (and check out whether it really is as good as Bunnings)
Weed veggie patch - self explanatory really

I didn't have a "3 3/1", because after the kitchen shelves I was thinking "smaller, smaller", and then went too small, listing each item I wanted from Masters as a separate task. It's a learning process.

4 Jan

Plant cucumbers - I'd bought them, they needed planting
Buy newspapers for GP cage - we don't buy newspapers, but we'd run out of freebies for lining the guinea pig cage
Call Trev, plan worship - needed it for Sunday

5 Jan

Clean out the "deal with it" drawer - this is the 'pre-filing' drawer.
Plant low-growth seeds - I have had a collection of seeds, some years old. So I dump them into a container based on their growth habit - root, low, high, climber.
Clean study desk and shelf - my desk is used for study, for sewing, for work and is everyone else's general repository for junk they're not sure what to do with

As you can see - nothing particularly astonishing there. If you look closely though, you'll see that some tasks have a theme. I could set myself a NY resolution (or just an every-day goal) of setting up my veggie patch again, which is a big task - it needs to be weeded, dug over, plants bought, plants planted, rah-rah. Hours and hours of work. Easier to leave it until 'later'. If I set myself a single simple task each day, before you know it - there's a veggie patch happening.

The other important thing about the List of 3, is that they're not my only activity for the day. They are simply three things that I am going to prioritise on any given day. As things I want to achieve occur to me, I'm adding them to a general list of tasks. Some of them will simply happen as a matter of course, others will get transferred (in small chunks) to my List of 3.

My aim is for each of the tasks I set myself each day to be important to me. I found a little quote last year that I'm using to help me determine just how important things are:

If it's important to you, you will find a way
If not, you'll find an excuse.

If I'm finding excuses not to do things, why are they not important? Have I set the wrong goals? Are they my goals or are they goals I think I "should" be aiming for? Am I wasting time and energy on things that really aren't important to me after all?

I have no idea how long I'll keep the posts to Twitter going, but I thought I'd try it. My first post (including the link to this blog) I'm including on Facebook, but after this one, I'm only posting to Twitter. So, if you're at all interested in whether I achieve a 1,000+ tasks by the end of the year, you'll have to follow me there.

~~~~~~
I found Phil's instructions:
http://www.philiphumbert.com/3x5Card.htm
http://philiphumbert.com/audio/3x5audio.mp3
http://philiphumbert.com/Time.htm

A quilt

2011-03-31T21:02:00.004+10:00

Haven't posted since June last year! How time flies. I'm back at uni this year, doing some post-grad studies. So, naturally, I'm back sewing again too. It's only when you're busy that you get stuff done; at least that's the story of my life. This week I've worked 42 hours (not bad for a 'part-timer'); started and finished a quilt; finished a first draft of 2 assignments; and some how managed to not fall apart (yet).

So, to the quilt I started and finished this week. A lovely lady I work with is not well. I wanted to make something fresh and bright to add some colour to her day. It needed to be simple and quick because I knew I'd be busy. I put out a call to my on-line quilting buddies for ideas and they sent me a dozen or so wonderful options. I didn't use any of them :-) But I did use the inspiration to decide what to make.

The pattern is called Chinese Coins (I think) and the quilt is called "Chinese Coins for Health". I'm not completely sure if Chinese Coin quilts are supposed all be the same size blocks, so it might only be an almost Chinese Coins quilt.

The Teen chose the colours - pink, purple, green, and yellow. I simply pulled out the scrap bags, pulled out a dozen or so of each colour, cut various length blocks to the same width, sewed them together and quilted it with fleecy.

I also put a fair bit of maths into it, to ensure it was completely random. I realised after I was almost finished that I did the maths backwards. I worked out for a 50 inch strip, I would need so many 6 ,5 ,4, 3 and 2 inch strips. If I had 6 strips, I'd need 6 times that amount, divided by the four colours, gave me a roughly even distribution of colours and sizes. The more logical way to do it would have been to divide a 50 inch strip into 4 (colours). Divide each of the four into various sizes. Each strip would then have the same amount of each colour.

However, I like the quilt as it turned out anyway. Some fabrics repeat; some are loners; one is backwards (I decided against unpicking it); and some ended up not so random. But I still like it. I hope Jo does too.

For those like to know these things - the blocks are 4 inches wide, the sashings and borders 2 inches wide (finished). The finished quilt is supposed to be 38 x 54 inches (but with my sewing and cutting - no guarantees).

And Finally - Project No. 4

2010-06-20T22:10:00.002+10:00

This has to be the last one, 'cause it's way past my bed time. I have a shirt I was given. It's a stretch t-shirt, but still a wee bit too tight. Only the arms though. And a bit too low in the front.

I fixed the front a couple of weeks ago. The shirt is grey and I had some black netting with some fancy flower work on it from another project. I put that in the front, like a sewn in camisole peeping through.

Still the sleeves were tight. I found some black lace that is actually elastic (or maybe it's elastic that is actually lace?). I cut the sleeve from cuff to shoulder and sewed the lace/elastic in. It looks pretty funky; black stripe down my arm.

It doesn't feel so crash hot. I used a narrow zig zap 'cause I didn't want to lose much to seams. And it's a bit scratchy. I have to think about what to do about that.

Again, no photos at the moment. Sorry about that.

Project No. 3 - Cushion Covers

2010-06-20T21:57:00.005+10:00

For several years our once-white lounge has been covered with an assortment of sheets or blankets. They always come untucked, ended trailing on the floor and generally looking rather tacky. Sadly, the once-white also looks a little tacky.

Today, I cut up the sheet currently being used and made covers for the seat cushions. Reasonably simple process. Given the sheets are old and aren't furnishing quality I didn't want to go to too much effort, expense or time. Basically, I made a fitted sheet for each cushion.

Working with a piece of fabric I knew would more than fit the cushions. (Covers the top, the sides and comes in about 3-4 inches on the bottom)
Pin the fabric to the top of the cushion so it's smooth.
Turn the cushion upside down.
Pin the sheet around the edge of the bottom.
This leaves 'dog ears' at the corners. Pinch and fold the corners. Pin the corners.
Remove all the pins (except the corners).
Take the cover off the cushion.
Sew the corners. I laid the each corner out flat and drew a straight line where it was pinned before I sewed.
Cut off the dog ears.
Sew a casing around the edge, thread elastic through casing.

Edit 22 June 2010 - here's a photo.

Project No. 2

2010-06-20T21:37:00.005+10:00

I'm going to Manila (in the Philippines, not northern NSW). It's for work but I'm very (very) excited. I haven't been overseas for ... a long time. I'm also very nervous. I have to change planes in Sydney, and, well, I haven't been overseas for a long time. I decided I needed a travel wallet. One of those lovely fancy things that holds your passport and tickets and rah-rah. I found a wonderful pattern.

I will say the pattern needed a little altering. It may be my sewing isn't as accurate and neat as it could be, or it could be that passports and credit cards are slightly different sizes in different parts of the world. If you do decided to make it, measure the two rectangles required before you sew them (they have no pattern piece). The pattern also talks about a contrasting strip on the front, but I didn't quite get how that worked, so left it out. The pattern says to use six different fabrics - each bit is different. I combined several into one fabric. Really, like most thing, you can do whatever you like. I'm thinking of making a raw edge leather one for The Man.

Photos of other people's version here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/glassbeach/541301419/in/set-72157600405070648/
Instructions here: http://www.box.net/shared/y27zn7uz41
Pattern pieces here: http://www.box.net/shared/spfyrf8e0m

Project No. 1

2010-06-20T21:35:00.001+10:00

Every year, at least once, we stay with a wonderful person in Goomeri. Maggie is a fellow Meniere sufferer, only she's a lot worse off than I am. She's lots of fun and a very generous spirit. She has a lovely old Queenslander, which originally she was doing up for a B&B, 'til the Meniere's got too bad. In her kitchen she plans to put gingham curtains on the cupboards.

During our last visit, while she was having a nap, I snuck about and found a tape measure and measured the cupboards. When we got home, I realised I'd stuffed up when I wrote the numbers down. Digit dyslexia strikes again. I wrote the 'rail' to the bottom shelf was 20.5 inches, and the under-bench to bottom shelf was 25 inches. However, I knew positively, that it was NOT 5 inches to from the underbench to the rail. So, were the numbers 25.5 and 25 or were they 20 and 20.5? Who knew? Not me.

I very sneakily found Maggie's good friend & neighbour on Facebook and asked her to sneakily remeasure the cupboards for me. Once that was done, I went and bought the fabric. Lime green 1/8 inch gingham.

I started with this project because it's quite simply the simpliest. A casing at the top for the elastic wire to thread through, a hem at the bottom. I left them full width, which is about 2.5 times the width of the cupboards. They might be a bit full, but I figure it's easier to make them narrower than to make them wider.

The three curtains are all packaged up, addressed, and waiting for a trip to the Post Office tomorrow.

New Whiteboard - starting my busy weekend

2010-06-20T21:18:00.004+10:00

Haven't blogged for ages. I have done a few things, here & there. This weekend I've been especially productive. I've started a new "whiteboard" of projects on the go/in the planning.

Did you know you can use ordinary glass as a whiteboard? I "knew" that 'cause all our office whiteboards are actually glass walls, but I didn't "know" that until I read it somewhere. DUH! I have a picture frame; el-cheapo and a bit dodgy for hanging on the wall (probably fall apart in the middle of the night and scare the bee-gee-bers out of all of us). I put a piece of paper in the frame and, hey presto, a new handy sized whiteboard to list all my projects on.

The entire list (which is not the "entire" list) was a bit disheartening. I mean, where to begin. I had several Spotlight bags on my desk of things bought for various projects. Just overwhelming.

However, I overcame the whelming, and started.

Why I Quilt

2010-05-05T16:43:00.004+10:00

This quilt is the reason why I quilt.

We recently visited with my nephew's family. His little boy loves silky things; sleeps with a pair of boxers :-) I thought a quilt might be a little nicer, so decided to make him one when we got home. The quilt is pieced silky (poly) fabrics with a fluffy polar fleece backing.

Hurdle #1. It would seem that little boys aren't supposed to like silky fabrics, unless they also like spiders, skulls or other nasties. I simply couldn't find any suitable prints. In the end, we (The Girl & I) opted for smiley faces and a few coordinating plains.

Hurdle #2. The fabric. Horrid, horrid stuff. It doesn't square up easily (if at all); it slips when you cut it, when you sew it, when you iron it; and it shreds like overcooked corned beef. I've since been told that one trick is to use a fine soldering iron to cut it. It seals the edges; stops the shredding and gives you a firmer line for pinning/sewing.

Hurdle #3. I didn't buy enough fabric. (Do we ever?) I didn't have a plan when I went shopping; mainly because my plan was to buy 1/2 dozen or more different fabrics (see hurdle #1). I wanted to keep the pieces large to keep the silky feel (and because of hurdle #2). I eventually formed a plan (which evolved as I sewed). The main problem with it - I didn't (and don't) like it LOL. This is not one of my great works of art and craftsmanship.

So, given the numerous hurdles and hassles; that I don't particularly like this quilt; that I didn't enjoy the process of making this quilt - why is it that this quilt represents all the reasons I quilt?

Because the recipient of this quilt, little Roycey, loves it. He will no doubt wear it to pieces. I am sure it will end up a tatty bit of rag by the time he's done with it. And that, for me, is what quilting is all about. I'm not interested in the latest technique or style; or entering competitions or shows; or impressing my fellow quilts. I just love making quilts that people love, that people use and that eventually just plain wear out from use.

December

2010-01-04T13:01:00.003+10:00

I have been busy through December (who, in the Western world, isn't?), but I have been sewing and creating. No pictures at the moment though.

I finally sewed The Man's Christmas shirt (promised last Christmas). I'm not sure he likes it; he hasn't worn it yet. Usually he wears my shirts the first opportunity he gets. It's a dark purple fabric with a black 'spray paint' through it. He chose the fabric. I added some bright yellow highlights - the collar band, a peeper through the pocket, a peeper in the yoke seam at the back, and yellow top stitching (mainly the buttonholes). I think it looks great.

I'm working on a skirt for me at the moment. It's bascially pattern-less. It's from a great book "How to make the new classics". Has lovely classic wardrobe pieces and to-scale patterns in the back. The skirt is pleated all round, with buttons down the front. My trouble has been a) shaping the waist and b) fitting pleats. I've now finalised the skirt shape and the pleats. I've topstitched them down for about 5 inches, 'cause I don't really need any more 'fluff' around my belly! Just have to put on the waistband, and buttonholes. I've downloaded some embroidery buttonholes. Just tossing up which one to use, and what colour thread to use. Contrast, co-ordinating, not sure.

I made The Girl a matching skort and shirt set before Christmas. It has a lovely dolphin embroidered on both pieces. The fabric is a lovely blue with mottled pinks, purple and green patches. She doesn't like it. "It's too pink". The fabric screams "blue" at me. The shirt isn't her "style", whatever that might mean. I'm mean enough to insist that she wear them anyways!

I also added a lovely, simple flower pattern to a very plain blue chambrey (sp) dress I have. It just adds a little lift to the dress without detracting from it's simplicity.

Quilt delivered

2009-12-23T22:14:00.003+10:00

I handed over the quilt today. It's now called "Going Places". If I wasn't so brain fried I'd tell you what book it's from, or at least which post I talked about it last in. The basic idea is you make six different blocks - rail fence, four patch, double four path, 2 solids, half square triangles. Each block is made from a different FQ and the background fabric. Instead of a single background fabric I used a mix of beiges. Once you've made all the blocks you then decide on a layout that you like.

I knew Iwouldn't be able to hide the quilt from Cara, the intended recipient, so I didn't even try. I bought the fabric at a quilting fair. I had too many FQs, so I said something about needing to decide which ones to use. She said "I like that one; not so keen on that one." I then sewed the top while sharing a table with her at retreat. When I was trying to decide on the layout, she was giving me a hard time about not being random, and kept moving blocks. We discussed the border options. I thought at some point I must have given it away; surely she would have worked out that the quilt was for her. But no, she was quite surprised tonight.

I like this pattern. I've never made a quilt to a pattern before, so it was an interesting experience - measuring everything just so. Usually I make it up as I go, and fudge what doesn't work. I was thinking tonight I'd like to make one in black and jewels. I'll add it to my "one day" list.

Original post: http://suebk.blogspot.com/2009/10/catch-up.html

Christmas is under control

2009-11-30T23:12:00.003+10:00

In case you haven't noticed, Christmas is just around the corner. And this year I am organised.

Pressies for scattered rellies - bought/made, wrapped, carded, boxed. Ready to post.
Christmas catch up letter - written, printed on Christmas cards
Cards - personalised, stuffed, sealed
Card envelopes - printed (I'm too darn lazy to hand write when technology will do it for me)

To do: get hubby to write on his mum's card; buy a present for brother (simply sorted); buy stamps; post boxes and cards.

Then all I have to think about is The Man, The Girl and my nana, for whom I want something special and I haven't had any brain waves yet.

Creative effort tonight? As part of our Christmas present for family we included a personally chosen Bible verse. I printed them out all pretty and nice with some Christmas clipart and fancy fonts. I also dreamed up 50 different ways of saying "have a great year/hope you had a great year/enjoy Christmas".

Wedding Present

2009-11-29T19:54:00.002+10:00

Forgot to add a new photo of the re-vamped wedding present. We had a discussion the other day about finishing. The receipients are Salvation Officers, so they move a fair bit. The general consensus was that it would look best in a frame with some light wadding, but a wall hanging would probably be more practical. I'm still not sure which way to go.

Sunday

2009-11-29T19:25:00.006+10:00

More pictures. My plan today was to do some 'real' sewing while the The Toy did its thing. But I got sidetracked by this and that. I actually spent most of the day on the net looking for miniature rugs done with machine embroidery. I found some for sale, and very nice they were too, but I want to make them myself.

Eventually, I found some patterns I could work together into a rug. Not entirely what I wanted, but for the moment good enough. (Why did I want a rug anyway, you ask? We're supposed to take a small Secret Santa to The Girl's miniature's club Christmas dinner. I don't do miniatures, too fiddley, too much time for small results (hahaha); but I thought I'd see what I could produce on The Toy.)

(Cradle by The Girl).

I've only been able to do these things with the help of Embird. The centre roses had to be shrunk to 25% to fit the centre of the frame, which I think I shrunk to 50%. Most of what I've done has been 'tampered' with some how in Embird. I've shrunk things, joined things, changed colours, deleted bits I didn't want, tested layout options. It's really been invaluable.

Two that I forgot to take of photos of the other day. My stripy frog:
I used a variegated thread and it didn't work quite how I imagined. The thread changes colours too abruptly. I think, even if the cheaper threads work out okay for plain colours, it's probably worth the extra expense for variegateds, just to get a more subtle colour shift.
Hmmmm. Not entirely happy with the Maltese. There's a lot of long loose threads. While it gives it nice shading and texture, it's makes it 'dangerous' embroidery for anything other than probably a frame. But, hey, it's all a learning process. And until I've learnt, my family will just have to wear the product of my trials :-)

These are the two I couldn't take photos of last night.
My shirt. Again, using a variegated thread. It's okay. I wanted something subtle; but if I was to do it again, I'd use a plain grey/silver.

My angel. You can't see it in the photo, but she's still a little 'disconnected' in places. Another trip to Spotlight this week I think :-)

Branching Out

2009-11-28T20:56:00.002+10:00

Someone, I believe me, left the camera turned on so it has a flat battery. No photos of my work tonight.

I've branched out :-) I've tried lots of normal embroidery patterns on stable fabrics, so it was time to move on.

I re-did the wedding present on a satiny sort of fabric. Probably a poly, not really sure, but lovely and shiny, and slippery and a bugger to sew (that much I do know). Looks very pretty though. I think I might have originally bought it for vest backs.

Today I tried my first t-shirt with sticky stabiliser. It turned out quite nicely. I used a grey/black variegated thread on a black shirt. The image I used is from cute embroidery. I rotated it so it runs down the neck line of the shirt.
My second branching out was a lace angel, also from Cute Embroidery.

I have some Solvy bought several years ago. The lady at the shop said it wasn't really very good for embroidery, and she's right. At least for this sort of heavy stitching. It tears too easily. I stopped one angel part way through 'cause tearing meant the stitches weren't catching on each other in some parts. I used a double layer and it was better, but not brilliant. I will have to 'invest' in some washable stabiliser better suited for this sort of work. I'd like to make some of these for a secret santa we have in a week or so.

I've also be investigating applique embroidery. Seems pretty simple; not sure if it's easy though. Applique embroidery has a fabric behind some or all of the stitches. Seems you stitch the outline of the fabric bits on to paper to create a template, sew the outline on your backing fabric, carefully place the fabric bits inside the outline, then keep stitching the rest of the pattern. One of my favourites on cute embroidery is this gorgeous heart. In the close ups on the website it looks like the inside fabric of the heart is a felt, which would allow this to be used as a brooch or similar.

One issue I've hit on already. The tutorial I watched on Embroidery Library Projects suggests creating the template by stitching on paper without thread. My machine knows when it has no thread - and it won't stitch. Normally that's a good thing, but in this case, it's annoying. Guess I might have to revisit the instruction book and see if there's a way around it.

Duck

2009-11-26T15:19:00.000+10:00

I found the website I got the duck and the lettering from :-) http://www.bunnycup.com On the left hand side there's a link to "free retired sets". Lots of goodies to be found.

New Toy

2009-11-26T13:16:00.006+10:00

I've been away a while, but I have still been creative in my absence. On Monday I got a new toy :-) For the past couple of years I've been saving my pennies towards a new sewing machine. I wanted a you-beaut does everything except make the bed type machine, but some wise ladies advised me I'd be better off with a stand alone embrodiery machine. The u-beaut machine would probably take another two years of saving, the embroidery only machine I could afford now. Never being a person of much patience, I took the advice, and I now have a new toy to play with. And play I have!

My very first effort. I only had a limited range of threads to play with the first night. The clovers are supposed to be four colours, but they look okay. And The Girl was impressed. In fact, she got herself kicked out of the sewing room 'cause I got sick of her flights of fancy and the list of all the things "she" could do with my new toy!

My next trial was a couple of little double hearts on the corners of a sheet set. Double hearts for double bed sheets :-) (No photo, sorry.)

Again, this little flower was supposed be four shades of blue. I only have two so the leaves and stem are green (shock!).
We have a basket of serviettes in the dining room and we never use them. I'm wondering if I monogram all of them, will they get used more?
I bought myself some cheaper threads. I know there are some who will smack my wrist for that, but I just can't afford $7 a pop for thread. Amongst those I bought were some variegated threads, 'cause I love variegateds in quilting. I really love the green vine in this, but I was disappointed with the lettering. I'm currently redoing this panel (thankfully I saved it, so I didn't have re-arrange it all).
I love this duck. So cute. The lettering is downloade from the net. The built in alphabets have the advantage of working as a "set". That is, if you enter a word it moves around the screen as a whole word. Downloaded alphabets are actually individual images for each letter, hence the slightly random placement of this lettering. Works well for this style, but others might need more effort to be "right".

I don't remember where I downloaded these two from. I have some book marks on the main puter and some on the sewing room puter.

I then got adventurous. I downloaded a trial of Embird. It's got expensive bits and pieces that attach to it, but the basic thing lets you resize design, take bits of them, join them all up (which you can do on the machine, but much easier on a full puter screen).

I downloaded a lovely curly font to make monograms for serviettes. The letters were too big and the "C" had too many curls. I shrunk them by 50% (not possible on the machine) and removed the extra curls. If you look closely at the top left hand of the "C" there's just a wee bit of extra curl that I didn't quite manage to remove. Still, my first attempt, so I was happy.

I downloaded a second beautiful curly font. Again it was too big, so I shrunk it by 50%. The program adjusted all those swirls and curls beautifully.

Both of these alphabets come from http://alphabets.cuteembroidery.com/. It's AU$34 to sign up for 6 months, but you then get free access to all the designs on the site, and there's a fair packet of them!

Angel Bling

2009-11-26T13:01:00.005+10:00

I promised photos of the angel bling I'm making for the Christmas carols. Still working on flowers, but here are the hair combs.
I cut a scrap of fabric slightly bigger than the sticky label of the parcel decoration. Didn't bother hemming it or anything, 'cause the whole lot is stuck to the decoration so it shouldn't fray. I folded over the top edge and added a strip of double sided tape.
Stick the fabric to the top of the comb using the double sided tape. Make sure the fabric is away from the comb, otherwise the decoration is going to make putting the comb in your hair problematic.
Sew the fabric to the comb. I went down the tines and then back up, just to make sure it wasn't going anywhere :-)
Peel the backing off the decoration and press firmly to the fabric. Make sure there's no sticky edges left uncovered. Sticky and hair aren't a good mix :-)
Finished angel bling. So easy, so cheap, so effective.

Slow week

2009-11-19T21:48:00.003+10:00

Haven't been posting; haven't been doing a lot of creativity. It's just been so unpleasantly HOT. I love hot, but not this hot. I have been 'dabbling'; keeping up the five minute rule. Most of my creativity has involved "angel bling". Blingy things for angels at the Christmas carols. Spray paint some flowers, glue on some glitter, play with some ribbons.

I have bought myself a Janome 350E embroidery only machine :-)) I pick it up sometime next week. I've very excited. To quote Hawkeye Piece "Goody, goody, goody. A movie. I'm so excited I could plotz." (Although it's not a movie, it's real life!) Funny thing about that quote. The sentiment is often appropriate except for that word "plotz". According to the dictionary it means to be excited, to faint from excitement. But growing up I'm sure it meant "number twos". So, I never feel quite comfortable saying it out loud.

Not a lot of creativity will happen over the weekend. Going south to attend my pop's (grand-dad's) memorial service. I feel for my nan, who I'm sure is struggling to come to terms with the end of a 70 year old relationship.

Hmmm...

2009-11-16T20:32:00.003+10:00

Can't remember what my last post was about. Hmmm, Saturday. What did I get up to on Sunday? Seems so long ago even though today's only Monday. The Girl and I went shopping for bits and pieces, and dragged The Man along with us.

She wanted clay, I wanted fabric for my scrap quilt borders. I've been distracted however. It's that time of year again. Our annual Christmas Carols in the Park is just around the corner. I volunteered to look after the costumes. I love costumes. You can cheat like billy-o and no-one notices. Because it's in the park, in front a thousand or so people, under huge flood lights, everything has to be *BIG*. Last year I added large blingy collars and sashes to the angels. This year I stumbled upon arrangements of holly leaves and bells and such like, smoothered in glitter. The Girl and I agree they'd make wonderful hair accessories or brooches for angels. In my wisdom (BWAHAHAHA) I decided I could make them for about 1/4 of the price. I spent some time yesterday experimenting with glitter and glue and making mess. More experimenting to come this week.

I did make some wonderful (and cheap) hair pieces. Take one hair comb, one scrap of fabric, and one sticky backed over the top silver bow/ribbon arrangement (officially used on presents). I have photos but no camera access at the moment. I sewed the scrap of fabric to the comb; stuck the bow on the fabric. Sticking the bow straight on the comb had a few problems - sticky in hair, not good, and high likelihood of it falling off. I'll post clearer instructions and photos at some point.

The other thing I did yesterday was put together the "Mummy Care Package" for a baby shower I'm going to in a couple of weeks. I had lots of fun finding yummy things for mummies and probably spent far more than I planned. But it's so much fun to spoil someone with all the things you'd like someone to spoil you with :-)

Today I finalised my coaster pressies for rellies. I bought an assortment of tea and coffee bags to stuff them with. They're all wrapped and waiting to be posted! How darn organised is that?

One my cards for this week:
Borders on the scrap quilt
Finish quilting the last block of Thomas and cut binding to sew it all together
Further experimentation with angel bling.

I think that's enough to be going on with :-)

Saturday Mixed Bag

2009-11-14T21:27:00.001+10:00

It seems that the 'forced' creativity has had the desired effect. I now find it much easier to spend time being creavity without it feeling like a chore.

Yesterday, in addition to starting the coasters, I finished the Girl's skirt. I think my shirring elastic is old. To get the skirt to fit tight enough there was barely any give left in the elastic. I pulled it out and threaded normal elastic instead. And hemmed it :-) (Hate hemming almost as much as buttons and buttonholes.)

Today I continued making coasters. Have done nine so far. Also made a pentagon ball. Petagon balls are very easy. Cut 12 pentagons. Pick one for a base (doesn't matter which one, 'cause they all look the same when it's finished). Sew a pentagon on each side of the base. Then sew the sides to each other. Make two of these, sew them together, stuff. The original pattern used paper templates and hand stitching. I'm not much of a hand sewer. I machine sew. When working the base I start each seam at the beginning of the fabric, but finish 1/4 inch before the end. This gives neat corners. I won't post a picture 'cause it's a Christmas present, and it might be a bit obvious who it's for :-)

I also spent time in my garden. Pulled out the Madagascar beans. Grow fabulously, but we didn't particularly like them. I think if I soak them and then mash them before adding them to spag bol or something like that they should be fine. Pulled out the cabbages that had been destroyed by cabbage moth :-( And generally just tidied up. Found about half a dozen self planted potatoes. Not sure if I'm happy about that or not.

And now it's bed time.

Pocket Coasters

2009-11-13T20:22:00.008+10:00

I did some calculations and decided there was just too much work to make the number of placemats I wanted in time for Christmas. I remembered a clever pattern for coasters I saw on someone's blog some time ago. I wish I could remember who so I could give them credit. Here's my version of the instructions :-)

Each coaster requires six squares of fabric cut to 4.5 inches and one square of batting 4.5 inches. Quilt two squares and the batting. One side of this quilted square is the bottom of the coaster, the other one isn't seen. I cheated and used a single layer of track suit fleece instead of quilting. Another cheat would be to quilt a larger piece and then cut it into 4.5 inch squares (which may also be more accurate).

One pile of backing fabrics:

One pile of front fabrics:

I think maybe I have enough LOL.

Place the backing fabric right side up. That is, the side you want to show on the bottom of the coaster is facing you. The side that will be hidden is facing the desk. With the fleecy, I want the fluffy side to not show, so it goes down. The knitted side will be the bottom of my coasters, so it is up. (Clear as mud?)

Fold one front fabric in half and pin to one edge of the bottom, matching raw edges.

Fold a 2nd front fabric in half, and pin on top of and 90° to the first. Again, match raw edges of the front fabric to the edge of the backing fabric.

Fold and pin a 3rd front fabric in the same manner.

Fold and pin a 4th front fabric to the last side of the backing fabric.

The end of the 4th fabric must be placed under the end of the 1st fabric. Each fabric should have one end over and one end under its neighbours. You should see a small square of each fabric.

Sew 1/4" from the edge all the way around.

To keep the front fabric flat and even as I find its easier to pin them in the corners and then use another pin to pull the fold tight and flat as you sew.

Snip the corners.

Turn right side out. Give the corners a poke to make them as square as possible. Depending on the fabrics you use, you may want to topstitch close to the seam. I've used upholstery samples, which are quite thick, so I've decided to leave the edges as are.

In the pockets that are formed I'll add some fancy teabags and/or coffee bags. Cheap, easy, personal. Maybe next year I'll get organised in July and make placemats.

Placemats

2009-11-10T21:34:00.006+10:00

I don't think any family read my blog :-) and if they do ... oh well.

Thinking of making placemats for Christmas. I want something simple that still looks effective. I figured out placemats are about (6 x4) 3 inch blocks or (3 x 2) 6 inch blocks. 3 inches is pretty darn small, and I'm not so hot on the accuracy. I think I've decided on simple half square triangles in dark & light scraps. If your'e not a quilter - take 24 squares of paper; draw a line diagonally through each one; colour one half in. Have fun arranging them in a 6 x 4 grid.

I have lots of scraps; HST aren't too hard. I figure on cutting the correct size square (think that's 3inch finished, plus 1/2 inch seams, plus 1/8th for the HST; have to check that), which will give me at least 2 blocks of each fabric. I can then layout each placemat slightly differently - diagonal lines, square in square, pathways etc. The repeating fabrics from placemat to placemat will make them a "set", but they'll each by unique.

These are a few of the options I came up with in EQ. Designing them is as far as I got today.

Sewing Holster pattern

2009-11-09T17:26:00.004+10:00

I've had a couple of people comment on my sewing holster (post here). The pattern comes from Inspired to Quilt by Melanie Testa (available from Amazon and probably a dozen other places, including the library, where I got it).

The basic set up is: quilt one long thin rectangle (5x42"); quilt two pockets (5x8", folded so the fold forms the top edge of the pocket); sack quilt one 5 x 7" (also folded) to form the pin holder. The pin holder has a magnet put in it (check its the right way around :-) before you quilt it. Then cut the neck and pocket patterns out of the quilted pieces.

The main piece has a long straight edge; the other edge is narrow around the back of your neck and curves out towards the ends. The ends are rounded. The pockets are shaped to fit the ends. The pin holder is shaped on an angle to fit nicely on the shaped neck piece. The unseamed edge of the pin holder is the one that attaches to the neck piece. The whole thing is bound, and the pockets are bound into it. A slightly smaller piece of felt is sewn under the pin holder.

I don't want to put the pattern on line 'cause it's not my copyright. I'm guessing if you're clever you can probably make one to your own design, or hunt for the book at your local library.

Better photo

2009-11-09T17:19:00.003+10:00

A better picture of the quilt top.

Retreat

2009-11-09T15:50:00.006+10:00

My last post is dated the 6th, today is the 9th; but it feels like I've had about month in between. Firstly, Heavenly Harry (Mark II), aka "Kevin's Heaven". My boss was sitting on a different floor to us for a several months and it was a right pain in the proverbial. When he was finally moved to the same floor he tacked to his door a scrappy piece of paper, held in place by great globs of packing tape, "Kevin's Heaven". I try very hard to overcome my perfectionist nature, but after a while the untidy nature of the note started to irritate me. Last Thursday I had a brain wave. I remembered an applique pattern I had made called "Heavenly Harry". (In case you collect magazines, he's in Australian Homespun, No 19, Vol 4, No. 5). I made Harry in batik-like fabric 'cause Kevin spent several decades in Indonesia. I was pretty impressed that I whipped him up in a single night!

Friday afternoon I headed off to my annual quilting retreat. The lovely Julie organises this weekend every year and it my favourite annual event. Some of us know others of us in real life, but many of us only know each from Julie's retreat. We all take our own projects and work on whatever we want to work on. Last year I had the sewing blahs and achieved precious little. This year I was pumped and ready to go. I previously posted my plans and I came up with the goods:

Hopefully later I can get a better picture. It's rather overcast and gloomy today and I have no spare hands. I am quite pleased with the finished result. The plan now is to add a narrow blue border as most of the fabrics have blue through them, and then a wider pink border to keep the warm feel. Then I'll have a think about whether that's enough or not and what to bind it with.

It took longer than I expected but not as long as I thought :-) I was thinking "6 FQs, 6 blocks, easy done". But I've also never made a quilt from someone else's pattern and instructions.

The 1/2 square triangle instructions were to cut strips to something and some eighth. I don't have good 1/8ths on my large ruler so decided to go for the next 1/4. A good proportion of my finished blocks turned out the right size. That's a good thing, except it means either my cutting or sewing (or both) aren't terribly accurate! The four patch in the double four patch was also measured in 1/8th so I cut those to the nearest 1/4 too. And what do you know! All of them needed trimming. And because they're 4 patches I had trim every side to keep them even :-( Just can't rely on myself to maintain standards of inaccuracy!

It was fun and I will possibly make another quilt from instructions now. There's less stress, particularly for one who is mathematically challenged. I'm tempted re-try a Hidden Wells quilt. My last one was a disaster. Note: lots of ironing of seams and poly thread don't go together. And neither will your quilt when the threads all melt!

It's now Monday afternoon and although I had a great night's sleep in my own bed last night I'm still stuffed. I feel like I spent the weekend hiking not sewing.

Heavenly Harry

2009-11-06T06:27:00.001+10:00

Just a quick note 'cause I'm away tonight until late Sunday on a quilting retreat YAY! I started and completed a wall hanging for my boss's door at work last night. I took photos and will upload them when I return. Will post the entire story then too.

Peasant Skirt

2009-11-04T09:54:00.003+10:00

The peasant skirt, with the shirred elastic waistband is back. Strangely enough, this is a fashion The Girl seems to like. Whether she likes her mother's creative efforts or not is another matter.

The skirt still needs to be hemmed, but obviously that will have to wait til The Girl gets home from school 'cause not everyone got the day off today :-) I didn't use a pattern. I sewed two widths of fabric together and seamed into a tube, gathered the top back to a single width, put a wide waist band on, then added about 5 layers of shirring elastic.

I've never worked successfully with shirring elastic before. I think the difference this time is a couching foot I bought some time ago.

I don't use it very often, but its very handy for what it does. I bought after spending a day doing "arty" quilting with a friend, including couching wool threads to the background. She couched hers without any effort at all, while I muttered and mumbled and unpicked a lot. At the time, The Man did think that $40 for a single fancy foot was a bit much, but maybe now I've made a $30 skirt for basically nothing, he'll appreciate its worth :-)

The ribbon, or elastic, or wool, or whatever, goes through the ring at the front, then through the hole in front of the needle and under the foot to the back.

You can sew ribbon with a straight stitch down the middle, or couch finer threads with a zigzag. I guess if you're keen you could set the needle to the edge of the ribbon and sew one edge down, then sew the other edge with a zipper foot or similar.

Birthday Part 2

2009-11-03T21:39:00.001+10:00

Surprise, surprise, I did do something creative :-) The Girl wants a FULL skirt out of something light weight. The left over fabric from my wrap trousers is the perfect material so I started. Remains to be seen whether she likes the results LOL. Eleven year olds are pretty tricky. I have the day off tomorrow, so maybe I'll even get it finished.

Birthday

2009-11-03T15:35:00.004+10:00

My creative effort for today involves getting older. I manage to do it without thought 364 days of the year, but today requires a little more effort. I have been spoilt with Wild Raspberry jam (yet to be sampled) and a beautiful necklace and earrings.

We saw these at a little gift shop while on holidays way back in September. I've had to wait all that time to be allowed to see them again and wear them. I don't wear a lot of jewellery but I just love the colours in these.

I didn't win any Melbourne Cup sweeps :-( Not to matter. I entered five fabric sweeps, and risked receiving 23 FQ if I did win. Since I say I'm trying to thin out my stash, it's probably a good thing I didn't win. Instead of a net gain of 19FQ, I get to just give away five.

Off to dinner tonight. If we can find a restaurant with a spare table; The Man isn't exactly a forward planner!

Finished Holster

2009-11-02T14:16:00.002+10:00

I stayed home today; not feeling 100% and so had the opportunity to already finish the hand stitching on my holster.

The finished product. It has two pockets on the ends and a pin/needle book.

It's worn around the neck and everything is right where it's handy (and difficult to take a photo of :-)

The pin book includes a flap with a magnet; handy for when you're pulling pins out of machine work (maybe I won't put them in my mouth any more); and a felt pad for storing them more long term.

I think this will be very handy when I'm hand stitching in the lounge room. I usually use a little basket to keep things handy; but this will work even better.

Holster

2009-11-01T20:42:00.004+10:00

I made more stickers today. Little smiley faces in jail LOL. The Man is a prison chaplain and works every 2nd Sunday in a different prison. Each prison has different service times. These new stickers have the prison name on them, so The Girl & I know where he is and when he's due home.

The original clip art is a smiley astronaut. I put the name badge over the stars on his helmet and the bars on the front.

I also continued working on my sewing holster. It's almost finished but the binding HAS to be sewn by hand :-( They say to cut it 1 1/4 inch wide. The instructions seem to indicate that it's folded like normal binding, but aren't very clear. I've had to trim the layers right back to be able to wrap it over. I'm almost half way there with the hand stitching. Maybe photos tomorrow :-)

Stickers & Doodads

2009-10-31T20:38:00.004+10:00

I've had a busy day. Can't say I've been in the best frame of mind today. The next door neighbour rang at SEVEN AM. There went my planned sleep in. Still, things achieved.

Decided that sharp objects and measuring (requiring clear thinking) probably weren't a good idea. Took some time this morning to make some stickers for the family calendar. I use a big, almost A2 sized, desk calendar for the family. I bought some stickers, but there's things missing that I wanted and things that we don't use. I went to Word, found some related clipart, and made my own.

To find related clipart (ie clipart that's in a similar style) - search for an image in Word. Open the preview window so you can see the name of the image; usually a bunch of numbers dot jpg or wmf etc. Copy that name into Goggle; the top result will almost certainly be the Microsoft clipart site (that's the easiest way to find it, rather than navigating the MS site). Open the preview window there and there'll be a link for "style" (another number). If you click that, it'll find all the clipart that's the same style as the original.

To make my stickers, I resized all the images to 1.5cm high, printed a long strip of them, and then feed them through a scrapbook sticker maker gadget. Handy dandy thing. Think it was about $15 from KMart; rolls of tape are about $10 (but seem to last ages); works a treat. I use it for address labels, spice bottle labels etc.

My 2nd creative effort was to extend one container of fried rice into a full meal. Cut up a bunch of veggies, scramble fried some eggs, fried the veggies, added the fried rice, added a packet of fried rice flavouring. Hey presto - a full meal and left over.

And last, but not least, I've started a sewing holster. It goes around you neck; looks a bit like an extra long undone bow tie LOL. Has a pocket at each end and a pin/needle holder. It's all quilted and the one in the book looks pretty speccy. Tonight I chose some fabrics and cut them out. The idea is to quilt the fabric and then cut it to the shapes required. Hopefully, pictures to post tomorrow.

Catch Up

2009-10-30T13:48:00.006+10:00

Wednesday - creatively talked my way into an early mark from work so I could come home and go to bed and read. It was a coolish afternoon 'cause it rained; perfect weather for snuggling up with a book. Nothing else achieved LOL.

Thursday - I cooked Burmese Chicken. A fairly standard curry recipe - cumin, tummeric, cardamon. But with lots of ginger (fresh and powdered!), lemon grass and oddly enough, cinnamon sticks. It was very good. I've tried my hand at about 1/2 dozen different curries and I'm pretty consistent at producing the goods. Which helps make up for my more traditional meals (spag bol, meat and three veg, and the like), which aren't so consistent. Or maybe its just that I don't like them whether they're good or not. The others seem to polish them off without complaint.

I've sorted my main project for my upcoming quilting retreat (just one week left)

The fabrics. These aren't my thing at all. I recognise that they're very pretty, but they don't float my boat. However, I know the person I'm planning on giving the quilt to will love them.

The book:

The pattern. The idea is that you make 6 different blocks using 6 different FQs (and a background fabric - my beige FQs). You then decide on a layout to suit yourself, filling in gaps with extra blocks or left over fabric from the FQs/BG fabric. I saw one a friend made and I loved it.

Update

2009-10-27T21:09:00.002+10:00

Completed two more blocks while watching "Back to the Future". Fun movie, even after all this time.

Just Quickly

2009-10-27T18:15:00.001+10:00

Quilted another T for Thomas block. Might do some more while watching Back to the Future tonight; then again might just blob.

Burnt dinner (that has to count for some measure of creativity).

Busy Weekend

2009-10-26T19:36:00.005+10:00

We had a full weekend. Lots of creative activity. Saturday I worked on T for Thomas in the morning. Later in the afternoon we went to the Jacaranda Festival; a local fair. In the evening we went to the Planetarium. Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy so we didn't get to see the real stars. Saw a great star show in the dome though and got some contacts for The Girl to learn how to use her telescope.

Sunday morning we visited a church on the north side. I met Graham & Sheila Woodward about 20 years ago in Victoria. Although our time together was brief, they made an impression on my life. Our church was away for the weekend, so we took the opportunity to go visiting.

Afterwards, we visited other friends on the east side of town. We ended spending the rest of the day with them. It was a good afternoon. I came home and went to bed. No "artistic" creativity on Sunday; but lots of inspiration. Some lovely quilted wall hangings in the church and some wonderful dramatic presentations. And some inspired conversations in the afternoon.

Today I have created a card for my friend whom we visited on Sunday afternoon. The photos are brilliant (I was been "hurried up" to play cards). The flower is a larger image behind an aperture in the front of the card. The verse is 1 Corinthians 2:9 No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.

I had a realisation today on the way home from a very draining day at work. Since April I have spent the vast majority of my work day buried in programing a database. Database programming is very logical and analytical. Today I tracing numbers; it's complicated to explain but suffice to know that there's LOTS of numbers and NO art LOL.

I considered that maybe I need some means of clicking from left brain to right brain when I get home. Maybe the 'forced' five minutes of creativity is enough; I'm not sure. I know there are exercises that are supposed to engage both sides of the brain. It's something I plan on investigating.

Inspiration & Trousers

2009-10-23T18:26:00.003+10:00

I went to the Quilting & Craft Fair today. I had a ball. For the first time I took money I was allowed to spend. I started quilting after we had The Girl and there hasn't been too much spare moola since. (Not sure if that's the fault of the Girl or the quilting ;-)

There seemed to be a lot more quilting stands at this year's fair than in previous years, which was great, 'cause as much as I enjoy the other craft's I go for the quilting. I picked up a few gadgets. A nifty brush for de-linting my machine, a magnifier so I can watch movies (long distance glasses) and thread needs etc (without my reading glasses). I bought a brooch for my glasses, so I can wear one pair and have the others handy.

And I bought fabric. I have a quilt by M'liss Rae Hawley called Mystery Sampler that I really want to make. You make 6 different blocks with 6 different FQs and a background fabric; and then you put it together however you want, with filler strips and bits to fit. I realised I have the perfect excuse to make it, but the recipient to be has very different taste to me. She likes muted colours, browns and beiges. I picked up a lovely bundle of 10 FQs for $25. BARGAIN! All beiges, dusty pinks and sky blues. Very pretty (but not very me). Then I got a bundle of 7 cream on cream FQs for $35. An average of $3.50 a FQ. The most of the stalls had FQs for $6 or $7. So, again, BARGAIN.

I saw some STUNNING quilts. Man, oh, man, oh, man. Some people are just amazingly talented. Colour choices; quilting that was just gob smacking; and details that could just blow your mind. I snuck some photos on the phone of quilts that appealed to me AND that I thought were within my ability level. Which meant I didn't take photos of some that really blew me away LOL.

And when I came home - I SEWED. (The crowd goes wild, the cheerleaders leap to life, the fireworks go off.) I sewed my trousers. I finished my trousers! Which is probably more amazing than me starting them. They're just so DARN EASY. Some photos (which aren't brilliant) to prove I've been creative today.

The shape that you cut out (need two, plus the four ties).

Showing them flat. Look like elephant pants LOL.

Showing a little bit of leg.

The finished product. Very comfy. And they don't look bad either.

Trousers

2009-10-22T22:11:00.003+10:00

This has seemed like a very long week, but I'm not really sure why. I only worked for an hour on Monday (although it took me 3 1/2 hours to get to and from the hour's work ); and I'm not working tomorrow :-)

Tomorrow I'm off to the annual Quilting & Craft Fair. Must remember to take some snaps on my trusty mobile of all the great ideas I see.

Today I spent about 10 minutes searching for some fabric. I bought some pretty groovy fabric to make summer trousers out of. It's a lovely light weight cheesecloth sort of stuff, bright/light greens and yellows with a silver thread through it. My pattern couldn't be easier. I have a pair of 'wrap around trousers'. Bit hard to explain but let's try. You put them behind you and tie waist ties in your front. Your back side is covered and they curve around to stop towards the front of your thighs. You then reach under and pick up the other side to bring it to the front. It ties at the back and the sides overlap by several inches (I guess maybe 4 or 5 at the waist). Little bit daring; wonderful cool in summer. (And expandable if you eat too much desert ;-)

The beauty about sewing them is that there's only two pieces plus two waist band/ties. You place the pattern (my old pair) on fabric that is doubled and folded; cut a curve for the middle; hem & edge them; sew two seams; sew on the waist ties. Hey presto; a pair of trousers.

Now, I only got as far as finding the fabric this evening. I have a basket of clothes sewing projects - all the fabric, notions and patterns in bags (so I don't accidentally use bits in something else). The fabric wasn't there; wasn't any where that I could find. Eventually I found it in the very bottom of my misc dress making fabric tub. Which is odd, 'cause it was one of my more recent purchases. I also dug up the pants I'm using for a pattern.

I'm guessing tomorrow my creativity will be focused on photos of great ideas. But maybe Saturday I might whip up a pair of pants and post some photos.

Mail Organiser

2009-10-21T21:02:00.002+10:00

I wasn't creative yesterday. Went to the library and borrowed lots of lovely books. I love books. I'd happy to read all day every day. Love reading. Buried myself in a book by an author I like and didn't surface til way past bedtime.

This afternoon I drafted a pattern for a mail organiser wall hanging. We have great difficulties co-ordinating the mail. The Man can't see to grasp that if it's open - I've read it. I open it, read it, leave it on the table. He reads it, and leaves it on the table.

My organiser has three pockets - one for him, one for me, and one for filing. My idea is simple. BWAHAHA. I put his letters in his pocket, I open the rest. Anything he needs to see I put in his pocket. He then knows (this is where it falls down) that opened mail in his pocket I have read. If it's ditchable - ditch it. If it's fileable - put it in the file pocket.

Will it work? I'll never know if I don't make it. This afternoon I drafted up dimensions; printed some alphabet letters as templates for appliqueing on the pockets; and found a picture of a mail box that I'll probably simplify to use as a pretty picture on the top.

Teddy Card

2009-10-19T12:44:00.005+10:00

I wasn't creative yesterday. Most of the afternoon I was battling a caffeine withdrawal headache. Why I do this to myself I'll never know. Today I finished my niece's engagement card.

The front of the card. The card has a precut window and came with various coloured frames. The teddies are from a packet of postcards I bought about 12 years ago. They were supposed to be for birthday cards. On the back in the postage stamp corner some of them have names. Obviously not a goal that I met!

The inside of the card. The card doesn't have a flap to cover whatever you put in the cut out, so I needed to cover it with paper of some sort. My sewing/craft room is very well organised. Everything is in boxes, with labels. There's no boxes behind other boxes. I used to have lots of smaller boxes, but the ones behind were a pain to get to. Now, I have larger boxes and some have smaller boxes in them. I have a box labelled paper craft. Inside is a box with stamps, another with pens, etc. I spent two days looking for paper. Naturally, I couldn't see the BIG box labelled "scrap book paper". When I did eventually find it I found these lovely couple of bears, who look like they're supposed to go with the front bears. In fact, they're from a cutesy calendar I saved (also probably 12 years ago).

Personal details on the envelope have been smudged electronically; in real life they're very pretty :-) I stuffed the envelope. Day dreaming away I wrote the groom-to-be's name instead of the street name. DUH! I have no labels at home, but The Girl has a label maker. Feed your bit of something in the top and hey presto a label pulls out the bottom. So, I took the opportunity to make the writing a little fancy.

Crafty Afternoon

2009-10-17T20:29:00.002+10:00

I spent this afternoon crafting with a friend. I didn't have much inclination or enthusiasm, but I figured it was the ideal opportunity to get my 5 minutes in. I think I packed about 1/2 my sewing room into the car; we spent about 5 hours together. I created one card (I'd upload a photo, but I haven't unloaded the car yet) and marked the quilting lines on the rest of the T for Thomas blocks.

Creative Creativity

2009-10-16T22:22:00.003+10:00

My creative effort for today is, well, a creative attempt to justify doing precious little.

My niece's fiance mentioned on his FB the other day something about pineapple lumps from New Zealand. I happened to see some in the supermarket this afternoon, so I grabbed a packet. I even got to the post office in time to get a padded envelope and postage so I can mail them! I call it creative gift giving.

Tonight I stumbled on a site about running 5km in 9 weeks. That works out to about 80 metres a day; I think I can manage that. BWAHAHAHA. Actually the site is a plan to start at zero to work your way up by combining short burst of running and walking, gradually decreasing the walking and increasing the running. I spent some time crunching the numbers; working out where I would need to run to/from to get the stated distances. Thinking about whether its something I really want to. I call it creative self-delusion.

I entertained a work collegue with my wit and humour. BWAHAHA. I have a very! dry sense of humour and a lot of people (most people) just don't get it. They think I'm a serious and that's just tragic. However, my work friend thinks I'm hilarious. I must admit, its a lovely ego stroke. If I could clone her for audiences, I could work the stand-up circuit. Creative entertainment.

So, while I haven't been artistically productive today, I feel I have been creative. Not sure about the 5 minutes of tangible evidence, unless you count the to-be-posted package on the kitchen table. Creative procrastination.

Ready to Start Over

2009-10-15T17:35:00.003+10:00

I finished unstitching the unwanted teal this afternoon. I then spent 10 minutes looking for the sticky roller thingie. I know I own one; I remember buying it. I bought it for two purposes - one to clean up cat hair and two to clean up unpicked stitchings. Eventually I found it in the bathrooom. Naturally - that's where I get dressed; that's where the cat hair is noticed (supposedly). Sadly, I'm far too unaware in the morning to notice something like cat hair.

The roller does, however, work like a charm on threads from unstitching.

Below is my T for Thomas block, minus the teal.

Tomorrow I might start quilting the remaining blocks or maybe I'll spend some time in the garden.

Undoing

2009-10-14T19:05:00.002+10:00

My creativity today consisted of starting to undo work already done. Originally on my initial "T" block for "T for Thomas" I stitched a teal. The stitching was quite good really, but I didn't particularly like the teal and teals look much like ducks. (It's a long story why the teal in the first place).

This afternoon I started unpicking the teal. It's taking longer than expected because its hard to trace where hand stitching goes, but I'm almost finished.

I've found that sometimes you have to deal with something that bugs you to enable you to move forward. Sometimes that means undoing, sometimes it means simply accepting that 'perfect' is a pipe dream.

T is for Thomas

2009-10-13T18:41:00.003+10:00

I am working on a quilt for my nephew Thomas. I've been working on this quilt for over 3 years! It's right up the top of my "must finish" list. It's an applique quilt from an "initial swap".

An initial swap is fairly simple. We had 12 in our group. Each person cuts out 12 large squares of background fabric. On one of them you applique/stitch/whatever a letter of the alphabet. The whole bundle is then sent to the next person. They take a square and they stitch onto it something that starts with the letter you've chosen. At the end of the month, everything is then sent onto the next person. After 12 months you get back 12 squares - your initial initial and 11 pictures.

I chose "T" for "Thomas". And I got back some lovely work from some lovely ladies who put a fair bit of thought into it. Since receiving the squares they have sat in my project box. Recently (ie this year) I decided to put them together. I'm working with a quilt as you go scheme (never done that before). About a month ago I stalled.

Tonight, I cut out enough squares of wadding and backing to put all the squares together. Now I just have to quilt them, bind them together, and bind the quilt. I have actually finished 5 of the 12 squares, so I'm further ahead than I thought was.

I'm tempted to aim for one square quilted each day, but I'm keen to not box myself in. I know myself well :-) If "rules" are flexible there's far more chance of me succeeding at this "creativity every day" gig.

Tidiness

2009-10-12T20:52:00.002+10:00

About a month ago (how time flies) I did some sewing. For one reason or another the sewing room got left "as is".

I don't work well in mess. I'm not a great housekeeper, but I need a tidy space to work. My desk at work is always spotless; if I'm cooking I need clean benches; if I'm sewing I want only the current project around me.

I spent all of 5 minutes (give or take a few) tonight tidying the sewing room. Putting things away and chucking out paper seemed to be the only tasks. Why is it that we put off and put off tasks that are actually so quick and painless?

My sewing room is now ready and waiting for me tomorrow night.

Handles

2009-10-12T19:29:00.003+10:00

Monday, Monday. Getting anything done on a Monday seems to be a chore, but I'm determined to give this every day creativity a fair shot. While the Girl was at painting class (being very creative) I went shopping for handles. I couldn't find what I wanted, but what I ended up with is possibly actually better than what I wanted :-)

For some time I've wanted to put some handles on our man-hole cover. We have blow-in insulation and any foray into the ceiling space results in dirty hand marks on the cover. The man-hole is visible from our bedroom so it often occurs to me. Plus the hall way is the next space to be painted. I don't want to paint the ceiling only to have dirty prints on it two days later.

Man-hole cover complete with grubby hand prints.

The second thing I wanted handles for was our bins. We have four - one for ordinary (putrescible) waste and three recycling bins. They have a spring to automatically lift the lid, but on some the spring has sprung. On the ones that still have a spring all it takes is a bit of paper caught when the lid is closed for the spring to not work.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get something artistically creative happening.

Creativity - Every Day

2009-10-11T20:12:00.009+10:00

Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. Thomas Alva Edison.

As a creative person I don't seem to actually do a lot of "creating". I talk about it, I think about it, but I don't actually do it. I think sometimes the issue is that I sit around waiting for the inspiration to hit while wasting my time doing ... stuff. Stuff like surfing the net, Facebooking, playing silly games, watching TV. Actually, for someone who doesn't own a TV, I watch a huge amount of TV. The advent of past TV series on DVD has been my downfall.

I have decided that the only way I'm going to overcome this lack of creating is to start putting in the perspiration bit on a daily basis. I'm pretty certain I'm not going to succeed, at least not immediately, but I am aiming to do something creative every day.

My rules are pretty simple. Something every day. Can not be housework (cleaning, vaccuming, mopping, dishes, laundry), can not be shopping, and, as much as I love it, can not be reading. If I include reading I'll never do anything else. It can include cooking (not sausages and eggs LOL), gardening, decorating/renovations, sewing (obviously, since that is my main hobby), and any other craft activities. Reading about projects doesn't count, I actually have to do something tangible.

I'm thinking if I'm blogging about it, maybe I'll push myself to do something. On the other hand, maybe blogging will take up time I should be using for creating, so we'll see how that goes. My on-line quilting group has a "Friday Flaunt" where members post their blog addies with their creative efforts for the week, so initially I'll make it my goal to blog at least once a week.

Believing that today is always the best time to start anything, I have started. It's a partial cheat. We don't like commercial tartare sauce and Tuesday night is fish & chip night and we're out of tartare. Tartare needs a bit of time to sit and mature. It's sort of a "have to do" but it is still creative.

My tartare sauce recipe:

1 jar of the absolute best mayo you can get. I only buy one without fake anything in it.
1 or 2 large "branches" of Italian flat leaf parsley (from the herb garden)
couple of stalks of tarragon, leaves only ditch the stalks (also from the herb garden)
2 spring onions (ditto the garden :-)
2 large dill gerkins
2 tablespoons of capers

Put everything except the mayo in the food processor until teeny tiny. Stir it through the mayo. Store for two or three days before eating. Yummo.

Note: always check the bits from the herb garden for visitors. They're best removed before you chuck everything in the food processor!

Exams

2008-05-23T19:53:00.004+10:00

Well, it's that time of semester again. BUT, the good thing is - this is the final semester. At last. It's only taken 6 1/2 years to get here, but I finally finish uni on 11 June, at 11:30am. That's less than 19 days time. YAY. Needless to say I've been pretty slack about keeping my blog updated, 'cause I've been focussed elsewhere. BUT, still, here's a tip or two.

If you don't like your job - change it. If you think you can't change it - you're wrong. The reality is any one of us can do anything we choose to do. It's also a reality that we have different priorities. If you can pinpoint some of your priorities, you might just be able to change your life.

For example: you hate your job and you think "I can't do anything about it" - what's really guiding that? Is it that you don't want to go without the money while you study? You're scared you'll be no good at what you really want to do ie you just don't want to step out of your comfort zone? Whatever it is, you have to a) identify it and then b) ask yourself is this really a bigger priority for me than what I really want to do (eg change my job).

Now - if changing your job is a bigger priority - get out there and do it. IF on the other hand maintaining your current comfort zone is a bigger priority - then stop whinging about your current job.

When I went back to uni I was the breadwinner for the family. (I couldn't cut it as a stay-at-home mum, so The Man took over.) I had to juggle being a mum, working 40 hours a week (plus the rest) and studying. That meant I had to give things up - reading, movies, sewing, sleeping long hours. But I just didn't want to do what I was doing until I retired.

It's taken 6 1/2 L-O-O-O-N-G years, but I've finally made it. I really enjoy my job, and I'm just starting at the bottom! And now I get back my free time and comfort zone. There were times when I HATED studying. There were even a few times I threw my books across the room (stats!) But in the long run - it's worth it.

Thing is though - only YOU can decide if its worth it. Doesn't matter what it is. Some people want to climb mountains (why?), some people want to make lots of money (ho hum), some people want to put a computer in every household -they all made sacrifices to see their vision come to fruition. If you have a dream; a goal; a desire - call it what you will - decide if you want to make the sacrifices and then go for it.

Tips - Zip Lock bags

2008-04-22T15:43:00.001+10:00

I love zip lock bags. My house has boxes of them spread all over the place. I save all the ones that things come packaged in - wee little ones and great big ones. They're great for keeping cotton wool balls and buds dry in the toiletries bag when you're travelling; storing buttons or bits you want to take shopping to match against things. I have two favourite uses for them though, and generally use the biggest ones I can buy.

Use #1 in the sewing room - I store all the bits and pieces of a work in progress in a zip lock bag. If I buy fabric for a particular project I store it with the pattern in a bag so I don't accidently use the fabric for something else. Once I start cutting up zip locks come into their own. So handy.

Use #2 (so different!) in the kitchen - zip lock bags are brilliant for marinading and coating food.

To marinade: make the marinade in the bag (no washing up!), squish it around, add the meat (or whatever), squish around, fold, put in the fridge. Every so often, squish it around again. If you're wary of the seal of the bag - put it on a tray.

To coat: add all the ingredients to your bag, add meat, squish around. I usually blow a little air into the bag, seal, and then toss it about. A lovely coating for chicken - garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and equal quantities of breadcrumbs (or cornmeal or crushed cornflakes) and flour.

Tips - Storage

2008-04-18T17:00:00.000+10:00

My study area is surrounded by windows. There's not a lot of space for storage. I solved some of the problem by using bathroom accessories, designed to suction onto tiles or glass. The top photo is a soap rack, that nicely holds my PDA and phone while they're recharging. The stick-on hook helps keep my cords where I need them, instead of all over the floor. The bottom picture is a basket, I guess it's really designed for toothbrushes or razors or so forth. But it makes a jim dandy pen holder.

You do have to be careful, particularly with things with cords, that you can still easily open and shut the window. Make sure to stick your bits and pieces on the sliding half of the window!

And an extra tip - if the suction caps don't work very well (you have no idea how often my phone and PDA ended up on the floor!) put a little bit of vaseline around the outside edge of cap (leave the centre clear). Works a charm.

Tips - Chooks

2008-04-17T17:00:00.000+10:00

Oh my goodness - I've lost two days. How does that happen? It can't just be to me that it happens. Other people must lose days, weeks or even months. They do, don't they?

This tip is very simple - own a couple of chooks (chickens to those who might be from parts other than Australia). Couple of good reasons for chooks:

Our chooks lay one egg each every day. We have four chooks, we have three people. I never buy eggs. Good quality (ie free range) eggs are over $5 a dozen. We do buy laying mash for our chooks, but I get a dozen eggs every three days, and my laying mash costs about $20 every month. You do the maths.
Chooks eat ANYTHING. The down side of that is you have to protect some areas of your garden. The up side is that, other than chicken and egg scraps, all food scraps go to the chooks.
Food scraps that go through chickens turn into lovely rich growing material. I'm guessing it's not strictly "soil", but its great in the garden.
Chooks do not take up a lot of room. We have a 'hutch' with an enclosure around it. The whole area would be three metres square. The chooks are often let out to roam our (fully fenced) yard. We let them out in the afternoon as they tend to lay in the morning, and while Easter egg hunts are fun I don't want to do it every day.

The only real down side is that I haven't worked out what to do with chooks that no longer laying but refuse to conveniently die. Hubby keeps suggesting the cook pot, but I'm too much of a city girl to pluck and gut a chook. Ewwww.

Tips - Caffeine

2008-04-14T17:00:00.002+10:00

If you're trying to give up or reduce your caffeine intake try drinking green tea.

Black tea has about 1/2 the caffeine of coffee; and green tea has about 1/3. You can further reduce the caffeine in green tea very easily. Make your tea in a pot or cup, let it sit for about 30 seconds, then pour the water off. Refill and this time drink it.

The only difference between green tea and black tea is that black is fermented and green isn't. Apparently (and I can't remember where I read this) this means that green tea releases its caffeine very quickly, so you end up pouring most of it down the sink. (Or pour it into a container, let it cool, and water your pot plants.)

I add sugar to my green tea (gasp, shock, horror) and depending on the brand of tea I can't tell the difference to black tea.

Tips - Unique Clothes

2008-04-13T09:03:00.004+10:00

I love to sew. I actually love to quilt, but I do also do some clothes making. I actually prefer to "embellish" than make however.

Embellishing takes in a range of skills - embroidery, applique, painting, beading. If you've got some sewing skills you can turn a $4 t-shirt into a one-off masterpiece.

Some ideas I've used:

Beads:

a spray of beads down from one shoulder on a dark shirt (beads are time consuming);
beads in blue and silver on a very plain black dress, with matching beads on a blue over jacket

Embroidery

flowers around the collar, cuffs and pocket top of a man's dress shirt;
a wave of flowers down the front of a bottle green, button up vest - the vine was plain green stem stitch, the flowers were variegated pastel thread
if you have an embroidery machine you could do all sorts of marvelous things

Buttons

These days everything seems to come with shell buttons; add some colour - contrasting or complimentary or silver/gold buttons or even fun buttons.

Applique: I've used:

a spray of green and brown gum leaves on one shoulder of a pink shirt
a swirl of boxes all in (different) blue fabrics on a blue shirt, and various other abstract ideas
a lovely mask from a piece of fabric
The options for applique are really endless. You can choose complimentary colours or contrasting colours, or an array of colours. Decide how you want to wear the item first. If its a black shirt you want to wear with anything you probably don't want a bright red pattern on it.
I've also used applique to coordinate an outfit. I had a pair of pants that were too short. I added a hem to them, and used the same fabric to applique an abstract image on a shirt. When I wear them together they look like a 'suit'.

If you're going to buy cheap t-shirts it sometimes pay to run a line of ribbon around the inside of the hem and along the shoulders. This helps prevent the shirt from stretching out of shape so quickly. One shirt I actually used bias binding in a darker shade than the shirt, ran it around the hem, the neckline and the sleeve ends as a contrast.

Tips - organising chargers

2008-04-12T08:54:00.003+10:00

I haven't used this tip, but I think I might! I think I saw it in a copy of Handyman somewhere, but I couldn't find it on their website.

You will need

A fishing tackle box - one with a large space in the bottom and a removable tray at the top
A power board - the bigger the better, 'cause (as I'm sure you've noticed) a lot of rechargers take up two slots :-((
A label maker of some sort - you can buy little tags from Officeworks (?) for tagging cords (very handy around the 'puter)
A drill and a small, fine saw

The idea is:

The power board goes in the bottom of the tackle box
The cord goes through a slot along one edge (which is why you need a drill and saw)
The power cords for the appliqnces come up through the tray (another drill job)
The appliances (phones, PDAs and who knows what else) sit on the tray
All the extra cords sit inside the bottom of the tackle box.
The labels a) help you know what plugs in where and b) stop the cords falling back through the holes into the bottom of the box

The main reason I haven't used this yet is that hubby's PDA sits at the main 'puter; his phone is in the bedroom ('cause he used to work shift work and get calls at all hours); my phone and PDA sit in the study near my laptop. I love the nice, neat, tidy concept though.

Tips - Kids' Art Work

2008-04-11T14:12:00.002+10:00

If you've got kids you'll know that they bring home a heap of art work - particularly when they first start school. It's precious, it's special, it's blinking nuisance. We have a clean out of art work every so often.

I have a big scrap book - the sort you get for a dollar at the el-cheapo shop - not the sort you pay big money for at some fancy scrap booking shop. Anything that is super precious goes in the scrap book.

Anything that doesn't warrant a place in the scrap book is photographed. Particularly costumes. My girl has several fancy dress opportunities every year. I love designing the costumes, but the reality is - by the time she needs another "survivor of a cyclone" costume she's probably going to be 10 sizes bigger. So, I photograph them. I do allow her to keep one small article to represent the costume. Her room is decorated with Charlotte's web (the "some pig" one); a couple of magic chair wings and other bits and pieces.

I figure the photos will last a longer than the original piece, and take far less room (stored electronically) than boxes of drawings and egg carton dragons.

Tips - Ice

2008-04-10T14:00:00.002+10:00

I like my drinking water at room temperature but I like all my soft drinks (soda, pop, etc) icy cold. We have a separate freezer and have room to store a bag of ice from the supermarket. BF (before freezer) we were limited to the little space above our fridge.

I found that the door shelves of the freezer were pretty darn useless for just about anything. I bought a long, narrow plastic container that squeezed into one shelf. We would empty the ice cube trays into the container, and then refill them. As we used the cubes from the container the water in the trays had a chance to freeze.

We also invested in some Tupperware icecube trays. These trays have lids. The Tupperware sales person went on about putting fruit in them and so forth; but really the biggest advantage is that they stack easily. Now that we have a full freezer the ice cube container sits on top of the trays.

Tips - Family Favourites

2008-04-09T22:04:00.003+10:00

Buy a nice note book with a solid, hard cover. Mine is a bit smaller than A4. Write down all your family favourite recipes. (If you're not married - write in it all the favourites from your childhood.)

It saves hunting through recipes books for that recipe each time, enables others to find the recipes easily (makes getting someone else to cook a little easier), and makes a great leaving home present. Well, I'm guessing at that last one. The Girl hasn't quite left home yet ;-)

A recipe journal also makes a lovely gift - engagement, housewarming, etc. I gave one to my sister-in-law for Christmas one year, and explained how I used mine. She loves it.

Tips - Budgetting (2)

2008-04-08T18:13:00.002+10:00

When you're making up a budget always round outgoing amounts UP to the nearest $10 and incoming amounts DOWN. Unless you have a lot of self discipline (and are in a really bad spot) budgetting to the exact cent will be impossible to maintain. As soon as a bill is 5cents more than expected your whole budget falls over. Rounding outgoings up and incomings down gives you a little bit of lee way.

Tips - Budgetting

2008-04-07T18:10:00.002+10:00

Budgetting is not one of my strong points. Lots of good intentions. Bit of a "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" situation. But, this tip has worked for us in the past.

Add up all your regular bills for 12 months - registration, rates, phone, electricity, school fees. Leave out the day to day stuff - groceries, petrol etc. Divide the amount you come up with by the number of your pay periods (if you get paid weekly divide by 52; monthly divide by 12; etc).

Transfer that amount (automatically is best) to a separate account every pay period. Don't touch the account unless it is to pay one of the bills you included in your calculations. An ING account, or other on-line bank, is probably good 'cause they have high interest and you can't just take money out at an ATM.

Tips - Bills

2008-04-06T18:08:00.002+10:00

A quick tip. For bills that come around less frequently than say monthly (registration, rates, etc) - add them to your PDA or computer calendar with a repeat function. Make sure you set them to start reminding you a week or two before the due date. Although the amount might change from bill to bill you won't be caught out by them being quite so unexpected.

Tips - Menu Planning

2008-04-05T17:00:00.002+10:00

One of the things I gained from Flylady (http://www.flylady.net/) was an introduction to Leanne Ely. Leanne runs a website called Saving Dinner (http://www.savingdinner.com/).

Leanne writes and sells menus. Not restraurant menus, but every day cooking menus for busy families. The basic deal is: you sign up for a particular menu; every week you receive an email with 6 recipes and a shopping list. The recipes are all very easy, very quick, and mostly wonderful. In 12 months we had maybe 2 or 3 we won't be eating again. Probably about half a dozen dishes are repeated in a 12 month period. Although Leanne is Amercia based she has available menus for the southern hemisphere so produce is fresh and the dishes are suited to the weather (no hot soups in summer).

I saved all my menus, and we're about start our third year using them. Because there are so few repeats we never get bored; and as we've gone through them again I've removed dishes and vegetables we haven't enjoyed and substituted some old favourites.

It is possible to do this at home and not pay someone else to do it. I tried, but being who I am it would take me a whole day every week to plan a menu and shopping list. I even tried using various bits of software. In the end I decided it just wasn't for me, and paid Leanne for her menus. One thing that worked for longer than the others was to write all our favourite dishes on index cards. At the beginning of each week I'd close my eyes and pull out 6 cards - and that's what I'd shop for and cook during the week.

Here's the advantages of having a menu for the week:

No more looking in the fridge and thinking "what's for dinner"?
No more going to cook something only find you're missing the vital ingredient
No more spending too much at the grocery store 'cause you're buying stuff "just in case"
If the main cook is running late everyone knows what's for dinner and they can start on it

Basically, having a menu planned eliminates the stress of dinner - particularly if all the cooks are also busy people (and who isn't)!

Tips - More on Routines

2008-04-04T17:00:00.001+10:00

I intensely dislike housework. You do it, turn around, and it needs doing again. I'm not sure which happens faster - dishes piling up on the counter or nuclear fission. The sad reality of life is, however, that housework has to be done by someone; and really it's not fair to expect hubby to do it after he's worked 15 hours and I've sat around blogging and watching movies for 15 hours. Here's a few things I've learnt:

Time those hated activities. Most of them don't take anywhere near as much time as we think they do. Do you know that it takes less than 15 minutes to wash up more dishes than my drying rack and the counter next to it will hold?
Drop the perfection mentality. When I wash floors I don't move furniture out of my way unless its furniture that often gets moved. If it normally doesn't get moved who's going to know if I mopped under it or not? I won't ;-)
Remember - housework blesses others. If you live by yourself the 'other' might actually be yourself; but if you share a house you will bless those you share with.
Routines :-) That's right. Having a routine makes it so much easier to talk yourself into things. Friday mornings is my day for Home Blessing (a Flylady term). Friday I don't shower in the morning; I clean my house and then I shower - 'cause I try to go as fast as possible and I get really hot and sweaty. Here's my routine; takes about an hour (tops).

Pick up everything that's not where it belongs. I dump it in a big basket and everyone is responsible for retrieving their own stuff.
Strip and remake the beds every 2nd week; the towels every week; put a load of washing on.
Spray the shower (see previous post about spray)
Race (literally) around with the vaccy. See above about moving furniture - it don't happen.
Then race (literally) around with the mop (see post about vinegar and floors). We have all hardwood floors through the house, so I vaccy and mop the entire house.

Routines - that's just what I do on Friday mornings. I decided not to complain or whinge about it; I just suck it up and do it 'cause its got to be done. And, yes, it does bless my family.

Tips - Routines

2008-04-03T17:24:00.001+10:00

Just about everything I've learnt about routines I learnt from Marla Cilley, better known to the internet community as "The Flylady" (http://www.flylady.net/). I haven't followed the Flylady system completely, but I am grateful to Marla for some really important life lessons. Lesson number one - routines are not a strait jacket. In fact, routines create freedom. Actually, no, lesson number one is that most of us have routines - they're just not very effective.

I've always had a morning routine. In my last job it was a well known fact that I didn't start until 8:15, even though the official starting time was 8:00am. Every single day I ran 15 minutes late. And even then I often ate breakfast at my desk. Now why is that? Because my routine was ineffective and inefficient.

My morning routine has been "tweaked" to be effective and efficient. It took some work. Habits aren't formed overnight, but they are formed day by day. Given that I can step into the shower, and 30 seconds later wonder if I've washed my hair or my face or both (when in fact I've done neither) and stepping out of the shower with conditioner still in my hair is a common occurence - these changes definitely didn't happen overnight.

But in that routine there is freedom. The old morning routine (which I never admitted was a routine) used to cause anxiety and grumpiness (for me and family, and probably my boss). My new routine (which I happy to admit IS a routine) gives me freedom. I no longer rush around like a headless chook in the morning; the Girl goes to school with lunch in her bag and breakfast in her tummy; I arrive at work exactly when I say I will (showered, dressed decently, teeth brushed, hair brushed, and breakfasted).

To those that insist that routines create bondage - I'll take that bondage, 'cause strangely enough I'm freer with it than without it.

And my morning routine, if you're interested:

get up (kinda obvious)
make the bed (I'm not a hospital corners person; just straighten the sheets and quilt - when you make 'em you want 'em on display)
loo (of course)
take my iron, brush my teeth (these go together 'cause liquid iron tastes revolting)
have a shower
do my hair, get dressed (always nice for others you're going to meet during the day)
organise lunches
have breakfast while reading my emails (see - time for me, even in the mornings)

Tips - Vinegar and the Wash (Laundry)

2008-04-02T17:00:00.001+10:00

Another tip for vinegar (told you I liked the stuff). I think I picked this one up from Shannon Lush. Shannon does a segment on ABC Local Radio helping people with their cleaning problems. She's got a couple of books published. I don't own any, although I did buy one for my defacto dad as a joke (he's a perfectionist cleaner - something I'm not).
Anyway, the tip. Towels should never be washed with fabric softener 'cause it stops them being effective water soaker-up-ers. But, most of us hate scratchy, hard towels. The answer is to use vinegar instead of softener. I just pour it in the softener holder in the machine.
As mentioned before vinegar helps kill mould, so it helps clean the insides of your machine at the same time.
A word of caution, however, I read somewhere that some machines don't like vinegar. It apparently attacks some of the soft fittings. I haven't noticed any problems with our machine though.

Tips - Vinegar and Floors

2008-04-01T17:00:00.001+10:00

Tip #2 (don't worry I'll stop numbering them soon ;-) This one is also from a Mary Hunt newsletter. I guess I should have mentioned in the first post - obviously a lot of my tips haven't come from me direct; I've picked them up all over the place. Where I can remember the origins I'll give the credit. Even though they may not be "originals" they will all be tips I've used myself.

Vinegar (my favourite cleaning product) - for hard floors use a bucket of HOT water (I use one kettle of boiling water and about the same amount of hot tap water); add one to two cups of vinegar (good ol' plain white vinegar). Apply mop to water and then to floor.

This does take a while to dry. Not sure why that is the case; but detergent does seem to dry faster. I am always amazed, however, at how dirty the water is by the time I'm finished. Amazed might not be the right word. Horrified might be better ;-)

Its also true that the house smells like a salad factory for an hour or so afterwards, but the smell does disapate.

Tips - Vinegar and Dish Detergent for Showers

2008-03-31T17:00:00.001+10:00

Here we are almost April and I haven't posted anything since late November. That's because I couldn't think of anything to post. Yesterday I was wondering who I could share something with - a tip that has saved me time and money - and that's when I realised that's what I could make the focus of my blog. All those bits of information that I've picked up through life. Time savers, money savers, energy savers, life hints, study tips. Just random bits and pieces. I'm going to try and limit myself to one tip a day, every day. Bwahahaha. Like that's gunna happen - but I will try.

So, my first tip. Got this one from Mary Hunt's daily email "Everyday Cheapskate" (you can sign up for it at http://ads.everydaycheapskate.com/).

To wash showers: mix together in a spray bottle, one part dishwashing liquid and three parts white vinegar. Spray on the tiles and glass etc. Leave for one hour. Scrub (I use scrubber pad supposedly designed for bathrooms) and rinse well. Mary's original email said "be prepared to be amazed". I wasn't - until I noticed a section I'd missed. The soap scum was about as thick as my pinky finger nail. Every where else was glistening clean. Only then did I realise just what a difference it made.

My guess is that the detergent simply makes the vinegar "sticky" keeping it on the surface long enough to penetrate the scum. My toxicology lecture (Dr Peter Dingle - from "Is your house killing you on SBS"; if you Google him a heap of pages come up) - he said that vinegar kills mould. So, you get rid of two issues at once.

I use it once a week. I use whatever dish detergent we happen to have (if it's a concentrate use only 1/2 a part); and el-cheapo vinegar. I use vinegar for so many things I go through about 2 litres a week! But more vinegar tips later.

Life, but not as we know it

2007-11-22T20:04:00.000+10:00

Well, I thought it might happen. End of semester rolled around and writing more than a single sentence became near impossible. I've spent the best part of the last month avoiding studying and achieving very little.

I have gotten older. A whole year older in fact! Just one more year to the "big four oh". Funny thing age. I feel so out of touch with most people under 30. Haven't a clue what they're talking about a lot of the time. But I don't feel much older than about 25. Age! I said to someone it was all just in your head. And they said nope, it's all just physical. I think I like Mark Twain's take - it's mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter.

So, aside from getting older and greyer (it's study and kids that do that to you) what have I been doing? Precious little. Today, being between exams, made The Girl a pirate's outfit for the end of year play. Actually, it was pretty easy. Take one picture of a sword off the net, print it out nice and big, trace onto thin ply. Use electric jigsaw (love my power tools) and cut out. Paint silver, wrap handle with wadding and leather (glue in place), stick cheap glittery rocks on the rest of the handle. Next, take one hubby sized white business shirt (its okay, it was in the Sallie's bag). Use pinking shears - cut off the sleeves at wrist length of child, cut of the bottom to suitable length, cut from the 2nd button up and around the neck to remove the collar. Next sew elastic to inside of the shoulders to gather; sew elastic to sleeves just below the elbow; add pleats or tucks to back to gather it up a bit. Hey presto, one lovely big baggy, but fitting pirate's shirt. Add black leggings, a red sash and gold belt, and pirate's hat (cheated - that came from Crazy Clarks) and you're in business. I'd love to find her some spats so it looks like she's wearing boots. Might Google it later.

Aside from that, hmmm. Discovered Facebook. What a disaster! Great tool for procrastinators. I spend most of my time in the TV trivia application. And I only watch one or two shows - both oldies. MASH and Northern Exposure. We own the entire 11 seasons of MASH on DVD and we've watched them about a dozen times. Think I've earnt myself nearly 80,000 points answering MASH questions, at 30 or 40 points a question. Sad, sad life.

And that is about as exciting as life has gotten in the past month. Seems I named my blog rather aptly!

Favourites

2007-10-21T14:55:00.000+10:00

I've been thinking about favourites. There's a little box somewhere on the blog where you can make a list of your favourite things. I think that's what started me thinking about it. I have so many favourites, I don't think a single list would suffice. So, today I'm going to start with a list of my favourite email newsletters.

Over time I have managed to get myself signed up to dozens of email newsletter. Many of them I don't even open, they go straight to delete. Some however are firm favourites, and I read them whenever they turn up. So, in no obvious order, here they are:

Simple Savings, http://www.simplesavings.com.au/, weekly, Australian. There are two newsletters come out. One is a top tip savings for the week, the other is a compilation of bits and pieces. I actually have a membership to the "vault" for this site. The vault is a collection of savings tips from readers and has heaps of interesting ideas. The reality of my life that when hubby and I get our budgetting act together we will do much better at saving.
Cheapskates, http://www.cheapskatemonthly.com/, daily, Amercian. Mary Hunt sends a variety of tips each day, including both time and money savers. Some of them are interesting; some of them not very relevant to Australia.
World Wide Words, http://www.worldwidewords.org/, weekly, British. Michael's newsletter is has a combination of a modern phrase or word and some older terms that may have fallen into disuse. He also has a wonderful section "Sic!" where readers contribute grammar mistakes they've seen, often in quite illustrious publications.
Word a Day, wordsmith.org/awad/, daily, Amercian(?). I believe Anu is Indian, but lives in Amercia. He often picks a topic for the week and sends out an obscure word each day. Sometimes just for fun he picks on more common words - or maybe it's just they're words I'm familiar with. At the end of each newsletter is a quotation, totally unrelated to the word. I love quotes.
My Daily Insights, www.mydailyinsights.com/, daily!, Amercian. This is a quote a day service (told you I love quotes). They cover a whole range of issues, but are positive, motivating quotes. Friday's newsletter is a longer story, often very pointed.

My favourite newsletter of all is Philip Humbert's "TIPS for Extraordinary Living" http://www.philiphumbert.com/. Philip is an Amercian life coach. I often find "success" newsletter have a strong focus on making lots of money, gaining lots of tangible assets and generally being wealthy. Philip has a wonderful balance. Whatever your definition of success - HD student, sports star, business genius, great mum - his weekly tips are applicable. If you're a business person he has a separate section in the newsletter that is just business tips; but the main section is general lifestyle tips.

For example, just recently he looked at perfection, excellence and good enough. Only very rarely should we (can we) aim for perfection. And often the reality is that good enough is enough. We need to weigh up our priorities and decide how much effort something is worth to us. The example he used was mowing the lawn. If our garden is not our supreme priority, than maybe good enough is enough when it comes to spending time mowing the lawn.

And talking of priorities, I've promised my study accountability buddy that I would achieve a certain amount of study today. Guess I better get to it.

Cheap Fun

2007-10-17T15:45:00.000+10:00

I found my blue food colouring, so I've had some cheap fun this afternoon. I've done my assignment, so I'm technically not really procrastinating. Except for all that other study I have waiting for my attention.

You take nine containers all roughly the same size and food colouring in the three primary colours (red, yellow, blue). Mine are all motel shampoo type bottles. Set up your bottles in a triangle:

In "R" put three drops of red, in the "2"s next to "R" put two drops of red, and in the "1"s put 1 drop.

In "B" put three drops of blue, two drops in the "1"s, 1 drop in the "2"s.

And finally, repeat for yellow - three drops of yellow in "Y", two in bottles closest, and one in the next lot out.

Shake well and you end up with a spectrum of colours. Some of my bottles show the colour better than others. And I suspect my blue is slightly more 'powerful' than the red and yellow. But still, it's a cheap fun way to make a colourful bathroom display.

I picked this technique up off a DVD by Michele Steele, a well known Australian quilter. She was demonstating how to dye fabric. I really can't justify the time or effort to play with fabric at the moment, so I'm content to play with my little bottles. I have fabric dying on my list of Christmas holidays things to do.

The things normal people do to fill in a half hour!

Plans

2007-10-17T08:32:00.000+10:00

Here it is Wednesday, again, already. Big plans for this week. ASSIGNMENT! Due Friday and I haven't even worked out the question yet. Too much time wasted on the computer playing stupid games. When I close my eyes and see the game pieces - I know I've played too much!

Had some advice that I had too many tomato plants in one pot. I transplanted them on Sunday afternoon. I was a bit worried I'd lose at least two of them as they were rather droopy on Monday. But they seem to have come good. I already have two baby fruit :-) Fresh tomatoes. Toast, with real butter, fresh tomatoes, little bit salt and bit of fresh cracked pepper. Yum. Nothing better.

Had lots of thoughts churning around. The election. I'm sick of it already. I know as a middle-aged, "responsible" citizen I'm not supposed to feel that way. But really! If I could say one thing to politicians "GROW UP. Get over yourselves already."

Cancer. Seems everyone I know knows someone going through it at the moment. I haven't heard anyone official come out and say cancer rates are rising; but it sure seems that way to me. I had a toxicology lecturer who was down on plastics. Says plastics cause all sorts of issues. I still use plastic heaps, but I think about it every time I reach into the cupboard.

I'm sure there's lots of other thoughts floating around in there; but they're being crowded out by the undone assignment. I guess I should just go do it, so I can think clearly again!

Friends and Food

2007-10-13T11:11:00.000+10:00

I have achieved just about zip this week, except for a high score on my new time wasting computer game (http://www.addictinggames.com/cubis2.html). And I swept the floors. It's hot enough to go without shoes at the moment, but that means you can feel if the floor is dirty. I guess that's the disadvantage of having wooden floor boards (can't think of any others).

But, I've had a rather satisfactory week. Wednesday afternoon we zoomed out to the international airport to spend an hour with Nem who was enroute from sunny Queensland to NZ. She hasn't changed since I first met her nearly 20 years ago. Nem would be one of the truly beautiful people I've met in life. If Dove wanted nominations for their 'real beauty' ad campaign, I'd put Nem forward in a flash.

After the airport we choofed down to the Gold Coast. With the traffic it took about 1.5 hours. But it was worth it. Had dinner with Pete, a friend up from Melbourne for a conference. Seafood buffet. I love my seafood. I think I got my money's worth (or Pete's money worth, since he paid). I had at least 2 dozen oysters, and I lost count of the prawns. I'm guessing it was around 2 dozen. I had a little salad - just to keep it balanced. And desert, but it wasn't really worth the effort. I should have had more oysters.

Tonight we're going over to Narelle's 'cause she's got bubbles to celebrate a new job. I love bubbles. My favourite intoxicants are bubbles and rum.

As a kid my favourite meal out involved oysters, bubbles and cheesecake. I really didn't care what came in between. Now days I'm pretty fussy about what sort of cheesecake I like, but I'm thinking to top off the perfect week, food wise, I need to pop over to the Cheesecake shop and get something sickly delicious. If not cheesecake, then a lemon merengue or a scrummy carrot cake.

At the wedding last weekend I had a wonderful lemon/lime merengue. It was so tart you needed the merengue. I hate it when the lemon is as sweet as or even sweeter than the merengue. I think people miss the whole point of putting lemon and merengue together.

In the meantime this ordinary life requires that I go put away the fruit and veg I bought this morning. The work of a mother is never done!

Gardens

2007-10-10T12:25:00.000+10:00

I just can't help myself. There is something about gardens and home grown veggies that I just can't resist. Here I am, just a couple of weeks from exams, several assignments still to complete (and to be truthful, very little study done all semester), and what do I spent my morning doing - gardening.

For some people "gardening" means dirty, broken finger nails, sore backs and knees, and a satisfying pile of rubbish to go the tip at the end of the day. For me, it's more of a potter. The problem is - regardless of which way you go about it - gardening is time consuming. I haven't really done all that much, certainly not enough (it would seem) to occupy an entire morning. Pinched out some new growth, added some fertiliser, watered.

All I have done this morning is tend to my tomatoes and herbs. In fact, that IS my garden. We have plenty of trees about, but there's no pretty flower beds or bountiful veggie patches. Firstly, because we have plenty of trees we don't have plenty of sun. Secondly, we live on the side of a hill, so we have little usable soil. The best soil is in the chook yard, but it's not in the sun (and chooks have a habit of decimating plants). And thirdly, I'm supposedly to use my time to grow my knowledge, not plants.

But I can't resist. I simply can not put up with another summer of store bought tomatoes. Nearly everything else I'm happy to eat commercially grown, but tomatoes ... store bought tommies just don't taste the same. In fact, many of them simply don't taste at all. A couple of weeks ago on impulse I grabbed a punnet of seedlings. They're now about a foot high, and already flowering. My mouth waters at the thought of real, ripe, red tomatoes.

My herbs are even less effort. They grow in pots on the kitchen window sill. We have a major problem with little black ants. Some days you'd swear the kitchen bench tops were living. The ants are so thick you can't see the colour of the laminate under them. If you spray them it takes weeks to get rid of their little dead bodies.

Aiming to be the environmental conscious person I'm studying to be, I got online to see what organic solutions there might be. Seems herbs keep them at bay, except no-one could quite agree on which herbs. I decided to play it safe and grow the lot. At the moment I have mint, basil, oregano, parsley. I did have a mini rosemary, but it's 'gone' (I missed it dieing, and it's already composted). I've tried growing coriander, but I'm not doing too well with it. The mint was getting very leggy, and I've got a lamb roast planned for later this week, so I decided it was a good time to prune it and the others. The leaves are now soaking in a cup of boiling water. By Friday they should make a very nice mint sauce.

This time next year I should have finished studying, and will have time to devote to a veggie patch. We only have one small area suitable for veggies, so the best option is containers. I'm considering digging out the chook yard and using that for potting mix. I'm told that if we put sawdust in the yard the chooks will turn it into a great growing medium.

Holidays

2007-10-09T12:53:00.000+10:00

Goodness me! Two weeks later and it takes me 1/2 hour to remember my flipping password and account name so I can log in and post! This blog business could become time consuming.

We've just returned from two weeks in Melbourne. It's amazing how different two places in the same country can be. Under ordinary circumstances it takes less than 2 hours to fly between Brisbane and Melbourne, but they are worlds apart. Yesterday was jumper and trackies and the heater on most of the day. Today is shorts and t-shirts and 'where did we store those electric fans'?

I said under "ordinary circumstances" because our trip wasn't. We were delayed in Melbourne (have no idea why) and then arrived in Brisbane the same time as a tropical storm. Poor girl across the aisle from us was sick, and I wasn't feeling overtly briliant myself. The pilot got about 5 or 6 metres (or it felt) from the ground, and then decided to abort the landing and went 'round again. The Man (hubby, student pilot in a previous life) said he'd prefer to fly with a pilot prepared to abort a landing than one who took the risk. I guess, all things considered, so would I, but at that stage I just wanted to be on solid ground again.

But about our holiday. It's always interesting staying with other people, however close they are, and however much you love them. The best bit about it, often, is coming home :-) We stayed with my SIL (The Man's twin sister) and her family. Very different. Even more different than chalk and cheese.

SIL has raised five kids (four boys) and recently taken in another teenager. All on a single income. The noise level in their house could easily compete with the busy road outside our place. Three conversations, two videos and miscellaneous music all happening at once. When the phone rings, everyone ramps up a notch so they can hear over the phone conversation. In our house, everything gets turned down or off for the duration. Not to mention that two of the boys are drummers and are constantly (CONSTANTLY) tap, tap, tapping away on something. The worst bit about tapping is that it is contagious and you find yourself doing it.

They eat differently too. Being a small family on a relatively good wage-and-a-half we eat well. Steak, chops, chicken, heaps of fruit and veg (I avoid pre-made wherever possible and practical). SIL's family, being large, eats lots of mince/sausage dishes (both meats nowhere near my top 100 favourites), and (surprisingly) very little fruit and veg. I always find it surprising when people eat less fruit and veg than me - 'cause I don't really see how that's possible. The Man is always telling me I should eat more, and he's right (not that I'd ever tell him that).

Of course, there's all the standard things - different bed, different pillow, different shower, different TV likes/dislikes (ie no MASH for a fornight ). I think the main purpose of a holiday, any holiday, is to make you really appreciate what you have at home. Even really great holidays make you realise exactly what you have (or don't have ;-)

The wedding we went down for was lovely. The bride wanted a fairy-tale wedding, and she had that. Actually she did it very well. Too often "fairy tale girls" end up with horrid amounts of lace and ghastlies, totally ruining the effect. The bride's dress, in this case, was very simple, but very elegant and very fairy-tale. The bride's maids all wore black. Strange colour maybe, but three of the four were Maori girls, so it looked lovely.

The groom, hubby's nephew, was stressed all week. He's a bit of a practical joker, so the family was paying him out for years of harassment. Every time anyone mentioned doing anything even slightly out of the formal he snapped. The groom's men (all his brothers) were talking of doing a finger snapping, hip swaying routine while the bride came down the aisle - he was not amused. He wanted everything just perfect for his bride. Naturally, though, when it actually came to the ceremony - he was the one cracking jokes.

My BIL was probably just as nervous as the groom. It was his first wedding as a pastor, and his first child to get married. But he did a lovely job.

I haven't been to too many weddings, but I thought it was strange in some ways. There was an item presented by some relatives during the signing of the papers, but otherwise no singing at all. And the only prayer during the whole event was the grace before dinner. Guess different people think different things are important to include.

That's another snippet of my ordinary life. This week its back to cooking, cleaning and studying. And I guess I should show up to work at some stage as well.

First Post

2007-09-25T21:42:00.000+10:00

As if I don't have enough to do in life, someone has dared me to start a blog. Why? Who knows! For some reason, my banal ravings in various email groups and forums about my rather ordinary life seem to appeal to some people. I haven't met many of these people in person, so I can't vouch for their sanity.

What will I (can I) rave about in my blog? My life is nothing extraordinary. I'm certainly no Mother Teresa or Bill Gates. Don't make squillions, don't save millions. But, at the same time, I refuse to hand my minutes, hours, days, weeks and years over to the idiot box that adorns the corner of most lounge rooms (and bedrooms, and dining rooms, and kitchens).

What do I do with all those minutes, hours, days etc? I'm not really sure. I do know I often don't have enough of them. Let's take day as an example:

Got up (always a good way to start the day). Read through my various email groups. I belong to a group for quilters; a group for Covenant Players (a theatre company I was once part of); a forum for people with Menieres (a horrid inner ear disorder that I work hard to master and tame); a forum for external students at Murdoch Uni (in Perth) and individual forums for each class I'm taking this semester. That all pretty much tells you what's important in my life!

Once I've read my email I always complete the Engima Device puzzles for the day (http://wordzap.com/enigma/). I love words.

I finished my morning internet habit and my breakfast (Carmen's museli - best stuff on the planet!). Had a shower etc etc. Went shopping for some bits and bobs for an upcoming trip. Visited with a friend. Made The Girl some new pyjamas. We're going to Melbourne - where it is still cold. We live where it is already hot. There are no winter clothes to be bought anywhere in town; or at least anywhere that I'm prepared to drive to (ie there's nothing at the local Big W). Hence, the PJ sewing. I also listened to a lecture about environmental resource impacts. Got some lunch (okay, so I cheated and bought meat pies from the bakery on the way home). Organised dinner (okay, so I cheated again, and bought kranskies from Adams. Adams - the small goods deli to end all small goods delis).

Somewhere in my ordinary day I also watched a couple of episodes of MASH. I love MASH. We own the whole 11 series on DVD. Most days we watch at least one episode. It's funny without being stupid; its serious without being morbid. It's just so very easy to watch. I also like Northern Exposure (that's the one with moose wandering down the main street in the credits); Red Dwarf (the British version) and Babylon 5. I don't like TV programs that've come out in the last 10 years or so - because I've never seen them.

You may have picked up (from the above) that my ordinary life involves university. I'm four exams away from a Bachelor of Science. This time next year I will have that magic bit of paper in my hot little hands. In fact, by this time next year, I plan to have that bit of paper in a frame on the wall. I started studying when the Girl was one, she's nearly 10. I'm really looking forward to FINISHING!

Why am I studying? Now, that's a very good question. And if you've read this far I guess you want to know the answer. Well, I'm not sure of the answer. I actually started studying a Bachelor of Asian Studies, majoring in Indonesian. I had to choose a 2nd major; and somehow, over time, that second major has actually become my main degree. I will graduate with a Bachelor of Science majoring in Environmental Management. The "how" is a long story. The "why" is really an unknown quantity. I'm good at the science. My GPA is almost 3.5 (out of 4; or 6.1 if you work on a 7 scale). I'm actually quite surprised by how well I've done - 'cause I was hopeless at science in school. I barely passed year 12 at all, and I failed chemistry. What I'm gonig to do with the qualification, in the long term, I don't know. What I would like to do is something useful. My original idea was to live in Indonesia, work in areas like sanitation, water, sustainable farming, ecotourism. Things that make a real impact on the quality of people's day-to-day lives.

I believe, however, my focus at the moment has to be on my studies. I actually don't have a lot of mental energy left over at the end of each day. When I've finished my studies, the next step will be revealed. I'm pretty curious as to the next step.

In the fashion of all good blogs, I've written a lot of dribble. It's getting towards pumpkin hour, which my dribble will get worse if I don't stop now.