glory day

Less ‘Gloomy Sunday’, more blah Sunday

Yesterday was grey and rainy, the kind of day where getting out of your pyjamas seems unnecessary.  The kind of day for reading the paper, and reading the internet, and eating potato chips – hey, all of which I achieved! – but little else.

So after flopping about on the sofa for most of the day I made the mistake of eating a handful of chocolate-covered coffee beans.  Big.  Mistake.  Insomniac + night owl + coffee beans = one tiny little brain-voice shouting oh my god this is so great hey i know lets tidy the bookshelf its only 2am wheeeee so much fun while the rest of my brain watched reruns of The Unit and tried to pretend nothing was happening.

When I finally went to bed the brain-voice still wouldn’t shut up so I lay there thinking omg what is the name of that girls cat is it sapphire no i think its mitzi no wait wait wait its muffin no its sapphire, so obviously that wasn’t such a relaxing thing to do.  And then I dreamed that I was at a rally with some buffoonish clown the leader of the opposition, whereas in reality SIGNIFICANT sums of money would have to change hands for that to happen.

Today was a little more productive (although hard not to be, really) and tomorrow hopefully I’ll get some more sewing done.  I’ve been sewing quite a bit lately, including this baby blanket:

It’s for a baby girl who is due to appear some time this week, and I hope she likes it.

Summer: 1; me: 0.

Summer has absolutely kicked my arse this year - I don't remember it being so humid and cloying since 2000 (my first Sydney summer).  I don't cope well with the heat - I don't like my make-up running, I don't like sweating and I'm NOT a fan of sunburn.

And the heat has leached all my motivation/creativity/spirit/will to live.  I haven't cleaned the house for ages, I can't be bothered cooking, my sewing machine has cobwebs.  De and I are walking once a week rather than every night.

Then there are the mosquitos (to which I am allergic).  I spend most of the summer with painful and inflamed bite marks on my legs (and arms, and face, and chest.  And pretty much everywhere else).  And the fleas!  I have NO IDEA how my cat gets fleas - he has supervised access to the enclosed front courtyard which has no lawn, and has no contact with other animals - but oh hell yeah, he gets the fleas.

OK, so 'funny' story: we were going out the other night, and I could feel a hair brushing my cheek, but couldn't find it to touch it.  I looked in the mirror and discovered that there was a flea on my face.

Let's do that again, shall we?  I was about to go to a nice restaurant for dinner and there was a FLEA ON MY FACE.  Seriously, that was one of those primal moments from which I may never recover.

I mean, I Frontline, I bomb, I lux, I powder, but the little buggers are still there!  And nobody else ever gets bitten or anything (and I'm fairly sure David's never see a flea) but because I'm so allergic to the bities they lurrrve me and lie in wait for me.

Thankfully it looks like the temperatures might start dropping over the next few weeks.  I've been taking massive amounts of B vitamins to combat the blues and started planning what I need to do next.  I refuse to be beaten by a season.

Oh actually I have done something - I made a lap blanket for De.  Here Mr Puss indicates that my colour blocking is simplistic and jejeune:

But he has fleas, what does he know.

And there are lamb shanks for dinner, so that's good too

SEWING:

I finally finished the handbag I started about a month ago:

(You're right, it is a bit uneven, but it's not as bad as the photo would have you believe).

LOVING:

My new haircut.  I'm so used to having longer hair which only needed cutting every two months that it didn't occur to me that a short hairstyle needs cutting more often.  That's OK, lesson learned.

LOOKING FORWARD TO:

Decluttering ~ getting the house clean ~ buying some more jewellery ~ North Sydney Oval to watch Uni ~ All Blacks hopefully to beat Springboks ~ maybe cocktails ~ maybe Hive Bar ~

BEST NEWS OF THE DAY:

Kees Meeuws has returned to Otago rugby!  Perhaps we shall have to go over to watch an Air NZ cup game!

I'm of two minds

I can't decide if the card I made for my step-nephew is cute and whimsical or strange and tacky:

(it's four $5NZ notes folded up and tied on to a card to look like a pile of presents).

In fairness, however, I'm not sure what to buy for him - I don't know what he's in to, I'm not sure how old he'll be, in fact I've never actually met him.  But I figure that a cash gift from a mystery auntie - however small that gift - is always welcome.

My life in snippet form

Now I really hate to moan (HA!) but this weather simply can't go on.  Both my lillies are dead - aue, the lillies I raised from teeny, teeny bulbs - and I am losing the will to live.  Supposedly there will be a dramatic lowering of temperature tomorrow but that remains to be seen.  And the promised thunder-storms would have been nice, too.

*****

I had my hair done yesterday, into a shorter style which my hairdresser describes as 'edgy'.  That would be the 'suburban housewife' version of 'edgy', of course.  It looks nice, I like it, but in no way is it 'edgy'.

*****

Foxtel played the mini-series Roots last week, which De and I watched together.  It's a great series, and interesting to watch in light of current events.

*****

My house is seriously upsetting me right now.  There's so much stuff here I can't even begin.  I berate myself for not tidying up, but seriously, there's nowhere to put anything.  And there's nothing I can do about it!  If I try and think about it for a moment I get all stressed and panicky and hyperventilate-y.  I honestly don't know what I'm going to do about it.

*****

I wrote up a long schedule of sewing projects for the next few months, which I now don't really feel like doing (and frankly, there's no room downstairs to sew) so I made some necklaces instead:

So while I'm not doing the stuff I need to do, at least I'm doing something.

*****

And now I'm going to make cupcakes for tomorrow's afternoon tea.

Peacock feathers, paua shell and loud loud prints

I have had the most vicious head-cold this week.  Thankfully it's getting a bit better now but I was like a lurching zombie for most of the week.

I did manage to make a couple more faux-wrap dresses, in red and purple, and to cut out another one in the loudest print imaginable:

I also made some xmas ornaments.  I usually make things in greens, blues and purples, like paua shell or peacock feathers, so I thought it was time to go to the source:

and make things out of paua shell and peacock feathers.

Everybody's happy now The bad thing's gone away

Today was the last day of my course.  I now have two lovely sets of cardboard pattern blocks, and I got to use the notching clipper which is the coolest thing ever.

One of the nicest things about doing this course, and certainly the most unexpected, was chatting with the other participants.  It struck me today how nice it was, five women of different backgrounds and experiences sharing our lives with each other.  And yes to some degree it was superficial stuff but we also discussed significant things such as family dysfunction, health problems and infertility.  I don't know that I'll ever see any of them again but it was a nice time.

I had a watershed moment on the way home: a young man offered me his seat on the bus.  I had conflicting emotions - on the one hand, win, and on the other: am I old?  Although David has just told me that school pupils are required to offer their seats to any adult standing, so I shall not dwell on it.

And I got home to find that the world has changed today.  Hope and change, such amazing words.  I'm thrilled beyond belief to see such change, I hope very much to see more.

I went looking for a photo to sum up the day, to sum up this feeling of incredibly awesome and tears leaking out and hope for the future and tidal waves of emotions.  And I give you Hook-Hand Jesus, who is holding holy water in his hook:

Some day his story will be told.

Everyone in Australia is drunk right now

If you work in an office the Melbourne Cup is awesome.  Basically it's a day you're paid to be at work but with the office sweep and the catered lunch (either in the boardroom or somewhere off-site) and the champagne very little work gets done.  There's always a colleague who is a self-professed expert on the horses and someone who just can't get the hang of the betting form (actually that person was usually me).

I couldn't get my head around it when I first moved over here - you  pretty much get a day off to watch a horse-race?  That's ... different.  But it really is a lot of fun as long as you accept that nobody will get any work done today, although I once scored an awesome deal from my printer because he had inbibed too much champagne to do basic maths, yet not enough not to answer his phone.

It's not the same when it's just me and the cat, although I suppose it's nice that a Kiwi horse won.  And, wow, I live in a country where a horse-race stops the nation.  That's ... different.

And speaking of different, if by different you mean unflattering, when I put all the pattern blocks together in one garment this is what I get:

Oh, yeah. 

I was quite taken by one of my classmates telling me that it could be jazzed up with some sequins; I thought it so touching that something that doesn't suit me either in shape or colour could be saved with a bit of bling.

And seriously this weather needs to sort itself out

David raised some money for Life Education Australia by taking part in Ocsober (something I was not prepared to do for love nor ready money).  Unfortunately his fundraising career has ground to a halt, as I have expressly forbidden any participation in Movember.  I have met many lovely gentlemen who sport mustaches, but I'm not a fan of them up close and personal.

I've been working on my pattern blocks today.  It occurs to me that I only really have the vaguest idea of how to use them when they're done, but surely it can't be that hard.  Famous last words.

And to top off this rather random and most irrelevant post here's a picture of a cushion I made for David's dad:

with obsessively-rendered representations of Sydney Swans jerseys.

A cause for celebration

David became an uncle again today when his SiL gave birth to an eight pound baby girl.  How lovely for the whole family.

Luckily the baby blanket was finished:

and now I just need to work out how to send it to Canberra.