Sweet Fabric:
making me laugh

We had the very bestest time ever.

Nan didn't put the camera away & I didn't get it out.

Thursday: trip to Kyo/The Mill/How Bazaar was amazing & of course my regular Melbourne haunts seemed somewhat crap in the shadow of the Day 1 shop. I stitched & laughed 'til I cried.

Friday: Nan hatched an exciting quilted garment plan. There was much swearing & carry on about the quality (or lack thereof) of the Janome & many pro Pfaff arguments were put forward. I stitched & laughed 'til I cried.

Saturday: Shopping for craft supplies & a bit of parental running around for me & a lot of time with the Janome for Nan. I stitched & laughed 'til I cried.

Sunday: Camby Market & back home to the trusty Janome for Nan. I stitched & laughed 'til I cried.

I didn't feed her (like at all - - - I was too busy stitching & laughing 'til I cried), but I think there's plenty of nourishment in a Capiroska & I made her plenty of those.

I've been very lucky to meet & make some really truly ace real life mates because of this space. Let me tell you...Rummage is one of the best.

Big giant ups to The Date & to The Frenchie too for making it happen.

Hoping that your weekend was fabulous too. x

From the sublime to the ridiculous.

Just the way things are.

Happy weekend to you all.

This made my heart skip a beat.

Five envelopes and then the card. I love the run-on of daught
er.

EDIT: It's not my birthday - sorry. I thrifted this yesterday. See the date? 1 January 1954.

Happy weekend.

Hugely inspired by Trixie Delicious & my love of stating the obvious. This just gave me a huge giggle.

In the words of teenage girls everywhere "no offence".

If you know someone who might appreciate this (or something a little less blatant) there's a template over at Feeling Stitchy today.

A few months back The Date & I went shopping for a hall table. We bought a fabulous old hospital laundry trolley which is doing the job perfectly.

On the same day we purchased these signs which, in a former life were in situ at the Kew Police Station.

The little guy laughed out loud when he came home from school & saw the "mess" sign at the bottom of the stairs.

& this outside the door to the laundry craft room.

This kind of stuff gives me a real kick.

Claim: WKHZPB9XZRFN

I understand that the emoticon is a necessity of faceless communication (& I've been known to throw in a :) myself every now & then but I admit, I'm not a fan.

I've got a fabulous book filled with gold & one of the pieces of advice is...

Don't use emoticons ;-)
they're just annoying

BUT I reckon when you've got your tongue planted firmly in your cheek it's probably OK. I made myself laugh if nothing else.
8-) = wearing glasses
B-) = wearing cool shades

My research did lead me to these characters of note. One a super model & the other a super woman:

:-.)

&

######:o)

Teeny tiny port glass with offerings from the walk home from school.

I had a lovely evening last night at The Aviary catching up with old school mates & laughing until tears were streaming down my face. Absolutely nobody can make me laugh like those girls can. It's really good to laugh until your cheeks hurt!

I'm completely on a roll with the redwork, filling every spare moment with a few more chain or stem stitches and getting a huge amount of pleasure from the small repetative stitches.

Hoping your weekend has been a cracker too!

I'm a roller!

When I learnt to embroider from my highly skilled neighbour she was most emphatic...

"embroidery works in progress should always be rolled"

I'm all about the kit, I have kits for every craft project. So, before I could begin stitching up my quilt project design I had to make up a special quilt project kit.

I thought I'd share with you the step by step.

I think these would make a great (& almost free) gift for any stitchers in your life.

So no more scrunching or folding people...it's all about the roll.

PDF how to available here.

How To Fabric Covered BoxView more presentations from kootoyoo.

Sometimes I find myself quite funny.

Aunty Cookie Eyechart from the letterhead crafter's panel + temperamental sewing machine = glasses case.

I enjoy cutting comments. Many of my very favourite people are superb at dishing it out. Most enjoyable when directed at me...go figure.

I gave myself a giggle when I took "The Cookie Cutter" literally & made these.

There is another element which I was too chicken to photograph for fear of being sued for breach of copyright but you can find it over here.

I admire a geek (of any kind).

This fabric picked up at the Op Shop tickles my fancy. I'm old enough to remember Commodore 64 & Apple IIe.

Just look at that seam joining the panels - can you even see it? You might need your specs. Clearly I'm not a sewing geek - I couldn't be fagged with that effort.

On the seam front...have you been following Liesl's Seamalong. She's super good.

You'd think after 12 years of preparing meals for kids I'd have sussed this one before now.

Hey... I'm a bit slow on the uptake & it takes ages to chop those vegies up so small.

The big girl is by far the fussiest but none of the kids like carrot. The last two weeks I've been serving up massive scoops of these raw vegies & they've been eating the lot!

I'm calling it salsa so it sounds more exotic. But not matter how you sell it - it's still just a plateful of raw veg with all the nutrients included.

The boy even mixed it through his homemade fried rice last night!

One of my neighbours from childhood had a little boy recently.

I set about making a music box for him just like this one. I stained & printed the fabric. I lovingly stitched & assembled all the elements. Once complete, I imagined how this little gift might be treasured in years to come by a sweet little boy named Harry.

Then, just as I was about to wrap...something made me hesitate. I came downstairs & trawled back through the inbox only to discover the baby's name is HENRY!

So might I suggest that if you're expecting, that Harry is an excellent name for a boy ...

Image Source

I'm older than you & I'm sure I saw him first.

I told Lara I was going to put this on Flickr "for her eyes only" to say thanks for being super specially good. BUT this girl said she'd post it on her blog if I did! You know she'd do it too. Safer here where I have some control!

It seems my big fat bogan wedding has been an item of interest to a few lovely folk.

This is me with my "I really (insert expletive) hate you" fake smile. My beautiful friend thinks that they taught fake smiling at my school. One of my very good friends from school is on Melbourne Radio & Trace reckons we have the same fake smile!

Reason for fake smile: Casual, relaxed, natural photography brief. Photographer turned up with an ironing board & tulle & made me do this!

Points to consider when critiquing the event.

1) I was 23
2) I was 23
3) I was 23

Thanks!

See more bogan shots here & here.

PS: I'd be pretty happy to trot the wedding dress out if anyone wants to host a wedding dress party!

PPS: I'm going to get the wedding video out - that's a real comedy!

I love this girl.

She's got it all going on.

Adventurous
Spirited
Determined
Thoughtful
& just so good with the words.

This last point especially important for me at the moment when I feel as if I have no words left! I can go & have a pretty drink with this girl & think "coulda woulda shoulda" written something like that on my blog today.

I just wish she lived in Melbourne. We'd be firm friends I'm sure.

So the event of the year was on Friday night.

I've prepared a little something for Brooke ... not quite the midday movie but almost as trashy - enjoy.

& the sound track...

Found Photos hosted by Bricolagelife.

More of the funny. I think Jessie & I would have got along like a house on fire.
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This gave me such a giggle today.
I NEVER watch or post You Tube so you know it must be good!

& the Lyrics:

I surf the web, I used to watch TV
now I’m logged into Joost, it’s commercial free
lets see where I want to go
and who I want to know
connecting people with people with web 2.0
I don’t use email unless I’m at my job
want the next post, I subscribe to the blog
I’m easy to find
I’m always online
social networking sites, I think I have nine
I use myspace to promote my music
I get friends and album sales that’s how I do it
but tell me have you heard
about the new word
something like myspace but they call it virb
always something new, I’m a start creatin
I’ll make a brand new facebook application
uploading pictures and mp3’s
update my profile and hit ctrl D
can’t stop what I started, it’s getting ridiculous
social book mark it, add it del.icio.us
some can’t take it but I just can’t quit
go to Imeem and listen to my playlist
watching videos on my You Tube channel
clickin so much, my mouse smoking like a candle
I’m online for hours, addicted to the power
10 tabs open on a firefox browser
I must be going crazy cause I can’t get enough
I guess I’m addicted to social media

I don't know what half these things are - now I'm going to have to check them out!

I had to delete the post from yesterday, I tried to edit it & there must have been something wrong with the code. I figured it was the universe telling me not to post that map so I deleted it.

So that freak running in the all together did actually put the wind up me a bit. Today my run took me just about as far away from that park as it is possible to get on foot & without a compass.

I still think it is hilarious that anyone would get their kicks running without pants but now I'm feeling annoyed that I've allowed the idiot to get to me.

I reckon it'll be a good few weeks before I'll be in that neck of the woods again. I'll be spending much time here re-working some of my favourites.
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