Banaghaisge

Canadian Glue

2012-02-10T10:34:00.001+11:00

The Canadian Glue is called Weldbond and it is REALLY useful!

You can even use it as a concrete hardener. Just in case your concrete is going soft...

I have heard we can now get Gorilla Glue here in Oz but have yet to see it. That is the glue that everyone in America thinks is the bee's knees.
But that is only cos they haven't heard of the Canadian glue that sticks elephants to ceilings...

I bought it at the local hardware shop (thanks Tonks), but I think it would also be in Bunnings. About $20 for 500mls.

Home Repairs

2012-02-02T07:00:00.000+11:00

The screws fell out of the bottom hinge of the front door. And when I tried to screw them back in I found they had just been sitting there, wandering around inside vast spaces.

SO - I glued in some matchsticks - each hole needed three as the screw holes were so worn. And then I chiselled off the matches and screwed the hinge back together. I used that wonderful Canadian glue that you can use to stick elephants to ceilings.

And now the door closes properly!

Pantry Cupboard

2012-02-01T13:45:00.002+11:00

The pantry cupboard got some shelves installed and is now in the pantry and all loaded up. I still need more storage for all my cooking pots and cake tins. That will come, I can't keep hiding them all in the four ovens of the Rayburn!

S2 and S4 came last Sunday week and did some wonderful musclebound bloke stuff, adding more insulation tot he ceiling above the pantry. Next job is to fill in the triangular space with more pine boards, and to mouseproof the gaps in the ceiling (the bloke who started building this house was short and didn't have a ladder so there are a lot of high up spaces which have gaps big enough for large animals let alone tiny weeny antechinuses, possums, and urk - bushrats and mices.

This is S4 up the ladder and S2 about to give him a hand with the insulation batts....

You can see light shining onto the ceiling from a gap in the pantry ceiling. Sigh.

And somebody took a photo of me whilst I was busy Making Lists. I didn't even know it was on my camera! There aren't many photos of me in any form, so you are lucky!!

This Week Has Been Hectic!!

2012-02-01T13:37:00.000+11:00

I have yet to add the sparkly Christmas lights to the kitchen chandelier - I haven't had time...

Most of the time was taken up with Newstead Live music festival. Lovely lovely music, and I was billeting The Beez who are from Berlin. They also stayed with me two years ago so this time it was like Old Friends returning!
And also last week, my former husband died. Malcolm The Unwelcome. Poor bloke, though he did deserve the title we did have some good times at the beginning. And lovely sons.
Here is a eulogy.
His funeral is tomorrow in Geelong - "wear bright colours" always seems to be wrong for a funeral. I don't want to be so bright I look like I am happy he has died rather than celebrating his life. Which was really interesting, and I still yearn for all the great science we did together. He has six children from three of his five marriages. I was the fourth (Castlemaine Four Ex...), he is still married to my successor who he hooked up with in mid 1989 (though I didn't find out for two more years...hmmm!).

Anyway - here is the chandelier:

I don't know what those little orange bits are in the cup pieces of it - maybe just the reflection of my lovely pine lining boards...

RAIN!!!

2012-01-31T13:49:00.000+11:00

Yesterday it bucketed down. For ten minutes. But there was 13mm of rain. The little track that Jake Dog made on his treks up to Outer Bungolia turned into a little ravine gushing with water. Not big enough to lose him...

And after a couple of weeks of the temperature hovering between 40* and 45* it was soooo lovely when it got down to 25*!!!!!

Pantry cupboard

2012-01-21T09:52:00.000+11:00

Green inside the doors, and red door knobs. Might just sand it back a bit and leave it at this.

I found this lovely flower illustration on http://cargocollective.com/brittanyburton and am (probably) going to decoupage it on the inside of the doors cos the colours are SOOO pretty! Having fun cutting them out at least...

I See The Light!

2012-01-20T16:19:00.001+11:00

Well, almost see the light. Getting there...

I am being creative with a couple of old crystal chandeliers that The Sweetheart found (in the pine wardrobe in his garage) and was about to sling into the garbage.

I pulled them apart, washed 20 years of garage dust from them, and polished up the crystals. Then I ripped the electricals out of them (who wants plastic fake candles anyway???).

I managed to get the two of them screwed together - with some ingenuity and grittings of teeth - and draped them with the original crystals as well as a pile I have been collecting for a long time.

What they looked like to start with - less the plastic fake candles and the flickery light bulbs...

Rippin' out the electricity (NB - I painted the shelf which is going into the pantry cupboard)

More ripping!

The two chandeliers screwed together and with extra dangles, prisms, crystals, beads etc.

And from the other angle. The gold cup screws up over the hook that will be in the ceiling. When I find something strong enough - it now weighs about 10 kgs.

They are going to be draped with a string of tiny LED lights left over from Christmas, and then hung above my sink. Nothing nicer than a crystal chandelier to wash dishes by...

A Get Well Song

2012-01-19T10:45:00.000+11:00

S4's girlfriend is a wonderful singer and songwriter. She has the sweetest voice, and is very talented - she is studying music at university, and has some regular gigs as well.

A few months ago she wrote me a Get Well Song, and she and S4 recorded it. I have finally figured out how to add it to here!

It is called Oh, Jasmine so click on the link and have a listen to the lovely song!

(Listen right to the end and tell me if their 'not so hidden track' didn't make you smile!)

The Snuggle Chair

2012-01-16T12:47:00.001+11:00

In 1987 when the boys were tiny and we were living in San Francisco I bought a wonderful old armchair in a garage sale. It was the chair we could all fit into for a cuddle and became known as The Snuggle Chair.

Over the years it has got so very sad and saggy, and it got past the stage where another bed-pillow stuffed in under the cushion wasn't enough to stop us falling through.

Finally the tacks gave up the ghost and the springs fell out onto the floor so I am compelled to un-upholster it in readiness for re-upholstering.

About 20,000 tacks later I discovered another layer of upholstery under the tatty, faded and ragged brocade that was on when I bought it. (It has had a couple of slip covers I made over the years, and then I left it Shabby Chic until it sailed past Chic and even left Shabby behind...).

I have almost got it back to bare wood, and also remade the seat squab with more layers cut from an old doona cover, and added the feathers that were originally in it along with the feathers from the doona and balls of polyester wadding that I rolled up and stuffed in the centre of the feathers and down to give it all a bit of body. It is about 15" high, but will foof down when it is sat on.

I have photos of the process but they are on my phone and I have yet to discover how to get them from the phone to computer (there must be a cable that I have mislaid last year when the camera was new, thinking "Dunno what this is for, shall just put it ...here". Now I just have to find where 'here' is...). (No, don't have bluetooth and I tried emailing them to myself but it seems I don't have data transfer on my pre-paid 'plan').

Some shots of it so far:


The start - I had taken off the back cover and was about to tackle the webbing and springs when I discovered the little nest of red-backed spiders (very dangerous. Deadly even). So sprayed and waited. And then sprayed a bit more...(NOTE: the pine cupboard in the background - more on that soon).


I gessoed the legs and have some blue oops paint that may well be their new colour...

Discovering the second layer of upholstery - lovely glazed cotton.

My impromptu work-bench. Six besser blocks stacked 3 high with a wide plank over the top (which will be new shelf in that pine cupboard mentioned above, and below)

The new seat squab. HUGE new seat squab!!!. I traced around the old cover - only had red texta and it wasn't until I sewed it up that I realised I should have sewn that to the inside. Hopefully it wont bleed through.

Pine wardrobe from The Sweetheart's garage that will be a new pantry cupboard. Here it is with a first undercoat of gesso. It has a top shelf and hanging rail. Am going to take out the hanging rail, and add a couple more wide pine shelves and this will be a lovely mouse-proof cupboard in the pantry for my bins and crocks, and the big posts that are too large to be anywhere else. Don't know what colour it will be yet - there are a few oops paints in my tool cupboard.

Haircut!

2012-01-12T19:58:00.001+11:00

Mostly I get so sick of my hot hair whenever the weather starts threatening me as it did last week when it leapt to 40* (C - that is 100+F) that I tie it up on top of my head with a scrunchy and lie around with wet facewashers on my forhead feeling fragile.

And then I get sick of it and hack it all off so it is really short and out of my eyes. Neck. Ears.
Myself. Without any training.
However, I DO use haircutting scissors...*

Anyway, when I mentioned on Facebook the other day that I was about to do the haircut thing again lots of people told me to indulge myself a little and get a 'proper' haircut. And S4 told me abouthis friend Michelle who has a salon in Castlemaine.

So I went to see her this morning! Oh - the BEST haircut I have ever had! EVER!!!!

So from long enough to tie up to this cute whispy very gorgeous short, short cut!
I love it.
And when I came to pay Michelle said "Oh no, it has been taken care of" - and my S4 had prepaid as a surprise for me! What a darling child (always my child, even though he is now 24)!!!!

And if you are anywhere around Castlemaine and you need a wonderful haircut go see Michelle - Placebo (5472 1777, 62 Hargreaves st., Castlemaine!). She is one hell of a cutter!

*'Proper' haircutting scissors that I bought at the supermarket...

My place

2012-01-10T15:58:00.000+11:00

I haven't been as chirpy as I want. Nor as chirpy as I have been pretending to be, neither.

The last few days I have crashed late afternoon and slept right through (fibbing a bit there - waking up around 8pm to do the drug thing, and the other drug thing - email!) and then sleeping through till the kookaburras start yodelling outside at dawn.

Back to St Vincent's on Thursday for the post-op check-up. I don't think I am tired cos of anything sinister, it is just that I was expecting miracles and that might take a few more weeks. It is only 5 weeks since surgery so p'raps I am still also recovering from all that anaesthetic stuff, etc. Not to mention a long time not being anywhere near 100%...

I have got PAGES of lists of things I really MUST do around my home. Poor neglected place. There are spiders fighting other spiders for space in the layers of dust. You get the idea...

On the Australia Day weekend (AD is January 26th for those of you who can't rattle off the national days of other countries...) Newstead Live! happens again. Lovely music!!!
The Beez - from Berlin - are the headline (international) act again. And again, they are staying with me. Hooray! They are all so lovely, though I was fucked totally last time with all the late night dinners we had in the week leading up to the Festival cos they arrived 5 days ahead of time. Not that I minded, it really was such fun.

BUT I WOULD LIKE TO DO SOMETHING MORE TO THE HOUSE BEFORE THEY GET HERE!!!!

This is what the pantry looked like before I got flooded. TWICE. Once 12 months ago today, and then again in February. So all the water came in through the damp-course (haha) and flooded the floor. And then a million bush rats and mice moved in to keep warm and dry.

Back in June S4, his darling Clancye and their mate Isaac came up and spent a few days moving everything out of the pantry, and S4 and I went shopping for all sorts of lovely paint, plaster, big wide pine boards, cans of expanding gap-filling foam, etc etc to be able to make the pantry vermin proof.
S4 used a big can of the sticky scary alien gap-filling stuff but there are still some gaps in the rammed earth walls that have to be mudded up. He also added a couple of ceiling beams to add false ceiling over (under) what is already there so we can add another layer of insulation to make it REALLY cold in there. On 40* days (like last week) it is only ever about 18* anyway. We still have to add the plaster. And paint it. After I mud up those gaps...

So - this is what my pantry contents still look like. Piled all over the kitchen table, under it, and in a couple of other temporary cupboards I bought at the Tip Shop (for $15...).

Poor old sink cupboard from the Tip Shop with more groceries etc stuffed uncomfortably into it. And still with the old sink intact but with a great lump of melamine on top of it so I can use it as a proper bench. Temporarily...

And I wanted to rip up all this revolting crappy not-enough-cement-in-the-concrete floor and lay more bricks like in the bathroom area. And to add a couple of courses of bricks as a base under the Rayburn so it is up to the height of the one I grew up with. And because it isn't impressive enough without it's majestic four ovens. So it needs a plinth.

But that isn't one of the things on my list(s).

Installing the butler's sink I have sitting out in Outer Bungolia is on the list. Which means building a stand for it. And doing some plumbing, but that is OK cos most of it is sitting waiting from the temporary laundry trough that is still where I wash dishes. (Right photo below)

In the Library I want to consolidate all the bookcases (there are a couple more on that mauve wall at the far end, and a big one to the left of the doorway, as well as another on the east wall (about over my right shoulder from where I am taking this photo). And there are three more cases in Outer Bungolia which really should be in the Library so that all the books that are stacked two deep on some of the shelves can be allocated a proper home. And I want to add strips of timber between each to join them, and then paint them.

But that isn't on The Current List either.

Both the floor in the kitchen and these bookcases are all on The Next List...

The bathroom is on This List. All of it. I haven't got a photo of it, but I think there is one on my website. Shall have a hunt for it and add the link to it if/when I find it.

It is ghastly. Functional but still in the realms of "Bush Humpy".

Not "primitive" - it isn't that good... I shall spare you. For the time being...

The ABC Radio have just put out a warning for extremely high winds in a cool change that is hurtling up from the south west of the State:

"Issued at 9:45 pm EDT on Tuesday 10 January 2012.

Weather Situation

An active cold front approaching southwestern Victoria tonight will move rapidly eastwards across the State overnight and Wednesday morning.

Damaging winds averaging 50 to 60 km/h with peak gusts around 95 km/h are forecast for the South West, Central, West and South Gippsland and East Gippsland forecast districts and over parts of the North Central and North East forecast districts. Coastal and exposed elevated areas are the most likely regions to be affected.

The State Emergency Service advises that people should:

Move vehicles under cover or away from trees.
Secure or put away loose items around your house, yard and balcony.
Keep clear of fallen power lines."

The tree feller fellows

.
Poor Just as well I had this 'heaving' tree cut down in Dec 2010. It was really close to the house (just to the left of the photo) and I was always concerned each time I came home after a bit of a breeze that it would be lying down on my home (and then I wouldn't have to do anything about the pantry or kitchen. Hmmm... Lovely old tree is still cut in lumps waiting to be stacked. Should add that to the Next List... We (we is not the real we cos I only paid and pointed etc, didn;t actually do anything lumberjackly) left one piece bench height - I might add a basin on top of it for the bathroom. Cos there isn't a basin in the bathroom yet. I could figure out some way of making a hole for the drain-pipe stuff. And some cute dish for a basin. I bought glass drilling bits at Aldi a few months ago just so I can make a plug-hole in something basin-like. Ignore the 'poor' under the tree photo - it was the start of a sentence and attached itself there and I don't know how to remove it without removing the tree photo. If I can live with it then so can you.

Doesn't my home look lovely!

PS. And I am going to give the blog a New Year freshen up sometime soon, too.

Merry New Year!!!

2012-01-01T19:08:00.002+11:00

Merry New Year everyone - I know that 2012 is going to be a much better year than last year. Has to be...

However, I am already over summer this year. Today is 40*, tomorrow is going to be even hotter. That is enough summer for me.

When it is cold you can always add another layer. Or go to bed. Or both...
But when it is like this there is a legal - and aesthetic - limit to what you can peel off...

Just been flopping on the couch reading and doing not very much else. Lots of water. Not even able to do all the net things that are so much fun in winter as this little notebook gets so HOT. In winter it is just cosy and warm.

I will show you what I have been knitting another day (two circles from Nicky Epstein's "Knitting in Tuscany" of her Tuscan Sun Shawl to make a pot holder, a stray ball of wool in Cross Stitch to make a belt for a skinny neice, and another pair of socks for the boy off to Germany).

Stay cool. Envying you if you have snow...

Friday Funny

2011-12-29T10:39:00.001+11:00

I love French comedy...

...and there are more where this came from, too!

Granma's Christmas Pudding

2011-12-24T21:17:00.001+11:00

Here we are at Christmas Eve in the Land Downunder and I have just stirred up the Christmas pudding. From Granma's recipe - the grandmother who is my great grandmother who died when I was about 8. I have posted the recipe for her wonderfully yummy pudding' each Christmas - you can find it at this link (or by searching "Christmas pudding" in the little window in the top LH corner here:http://banaghaisge.blogspot.com/2009/12/granmas-christmas-pudding.htmlSo may you each and all have a very happy and safe Christmas time with those whom you love best!I'll be back soon!!

Making Christmas cards...

2011-12-24T11:56:00.001+11:00

I made all my cards this year. Mostly the different tree shapes cut from paint chips and glued to cards bought pre-folded from the $2 shop. Great fun.Some of them were multiple tree shapes cut from hand dyed handmade paper and glued to one side of centre-opening cards. They weren't as much fun nor as effective as the paint chip trees. The trees were decorated with sequins, diamonds (Real? As if), buttons, glitter, or hologram stars stuck on with tiny foam sticky things to make them a tad 3D.Here are a few pics...

Feeling More Betterer!!!

2011-12-19T15:31:00.003+11:00

I can't believe it is only two weeks since I had surgery!!
I am not only so much skinnier but am also feeling quite lively. Much more lively!!!

I got back into my size 11 jeans yesterday (that is about size 7 or 8 for Americans), and had to hitch them at times (yippee!!!). For the first time in SIX MONTHS!!!

I know the actual surgery will take a bit of getting over - one and a half hours of anaesthetic is enough for anyone I reckon. And my belly is a bit tender still: there are three little sore patches that are still swollen inside, but only a bit. And getting less each day.

AND - I can take big deep breaths and that already makes a difference, I reckon.

Did I mention there was 3000mll of fluid in that thing? And that is what they managed to catch and measure so possibly it was more cos there wasn't much room to put a bucket in there at the time.

I have been making - and posting - Christmas cards. Will add a photo tomorrow, got to dash to catch the post now.

Nicky Epstein

2011-12-17T09:55:00.000+11:00

I have been reading a wonderful blog based in the book "Knitting On Top Of The World", called - appropriately enough - Knitting On Top Of The World Knitathon.

Lovely knitting, Mary has set out to reproduce every garment in the book. A HUGE feat given that I reckon Nicky Epstein had more than a few test knitteres running up all the patterns in her book...
Have a look at Mary's site - she has created lovely garments.
And last month she had a give-away, a copy of the book signed by Nicky Epstein, the genius knitter-designer herself!!!

AND I WON THE BOOK!!!!!!

Here it is, snuggled on my couch with some of my knitting - the Sock Yarn Blanket, socks, Bare Bear's clothes. the jumper for The Sweetheart, some other doll clothes, and the tiny fine knitted bedspread for the doll's house bed (with tiny dollies in bed, too).

It is chockers with wonderful patterns based on different techniques from 50 or so countries. Everything from those tiny islands north of Scotland that make Skye - and the Mallee - look like Gardens of Eden! to South America, Japan, Middle East - all over. And everything from socks for feet to hats (and jumpers) for heads and all areas in between. Fabulous!!!!
Now to save up for some of the wools - the garments are all knitted with yarns that I should have to mortgage my house to be able to afford!!!

By the way - the koala in the photo was given to my by my Mum's Uncle Shig. Uncle Shig (Cedric) Bayliss was a tanner, saddler and whip maker in Tumut from the 1920s to his death in the 1970s (or maybe 80s - will have to check the Family Tree).
He would go out in summer and shoot kangaroos and feral cats, and then spend winter tanning them and doing his leatherwork. He is in The Stockman's Hall of Fame for his talents.
He made a stockwhip that was 60' long. At the handle end it was as thick as an arm. He used to walk out along the road dragging it behind him to be able to crack it. When he got too old to be able to crack it he took it up the back to the woodheap and chopped it up.

And the teddy - Bare Bear - was also given to me when I was born. He used to have fur but when I was three I dropped him in the copper when Mum was doing the washing and all his fur fell out. And that is why he is Bare Bear...

"Knitting On Top Of the World" is available from all good book shops - in Oz if I am not buying in person from Stoneman's Bookroom in Castlemaine I use The Nile which is another Aussie on-line bookshop. With free postage, too.

Laughin'...

2011-12-16T10:03:00.000+11:00

I disabled predictive text on my mobile as it took far longer to try to find a word than actually just spelling it out...
Probably just as well when these sorts of typos are taken into consideration:

http://damnyouautocorrect.com/13603/the-25-funniest-autocorrects-of-dyacs-first-year/

I found these last week when I was still afraid to breath deeply as my surgery site felt like it was going to rear up and kill me. I laughed till I cried. But in a good way.

Book Sculpture

2011-12-12T09:09:00.001+11:00

"Amazement", was my first reaction. And to be honest - my 2nd, 3rd ... last reaction!!http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2011/12/05/magical-paper-sculptures-from-the-library-phantom-photos/How wonderful to have a secret artist flitting around the city. Lucky, lucky Edinburgh!!

Lots of Laughin' Out Loud

2011-12-11T11:01:00.001+11:00

You probably will laugh at these two sites.
I just discovered this one - a great parody of Anthropologie (which is an American website full of very exxy MUST-HAVE stuff - just about every home decor related blog in America has some cheap rip-off of Anthropologie items to the extent that I was starting to feel sorry for Anthropologie and their copyright...):

Check out Anthroparodie and "YES, it seems that the items on this site are actual truly ruly Anthropologie 'treasures'"...

This necklace that looks like a string of sausages that have been gutted is one example. Or even a string of guts that have yet to be made into sausages.

AND ONLY $198....

The other site that always give me a lot to laugh at is by a patient person who trawls through Etsy looking for creations that really do belong on Regretsy.

There are some scary bloody ugly things on Etsy that have found their way to Regretsy, too!

Sunday Singing!

2011-12-11T09:26:00.001+11:00

I should start a Sunday Singing habit....

So here is the first (of many) - it is Bobby McFerrin teaching a huge audience to sing a pentatonic scale. People who thought they couldnt sing...

Thank you Kate for first finding this for me!

It is very sweet and lovely. Time to get back to choir stuff now that I can again take deep breaths, methinks!

Just see if that doesn't make yoou smile!

Update:

2011-12-09T10:29:00.001+11:00

I am gettin' better - I can now do ab crunches without gasping.
Almost...

It is amazing how much work tummy muscles do. You can't sit up without the, or pull yourself up the bed, or roll over in bed even. Even putting arms in the air uses tummy muscles.

But I am almost brand shiny new. Almost like a shop-bought one.

Hooray!!!! (Now to make Christmas cards. And POST them off)

The Blanket in the last post...

2011-12-06T19:30:00.001+11:00

I have also been knitting the Sock Yarn Blanket that is in the background of the socks photo below.More about the blankie can be found HERE:I hope that works - I am a bit post-op tired and emotional! BUT, I am quite flat-bellied after the large cyst on my liver was removed yest a.m. via three neat little keyholes (rather than the larger and far less comfortable open cut mining they suspected they may have to use!)Ooroo - I am up for another snooze...Try this for the link to original post about the Sock Yarn Blanket. And if this doesn't work have search for "blanket" in the little window at top LH corner:http://banaghaisge.blogspot.com/2011/07/knitting.htmlAnother snooze...zzzzzzz

Housewarming socks

2011-12-03T07:48:00.000+11:00

These are the socks I made for S2 for a Housewarming present. He and his wife just bought their first ever home. I have a feeling it will probably be their last ever home, too. It sounds fabulous - 30+ fruit trees, and a chook palace, other shed, a well (with lots of water in it!), a paddock, lots of vege gardens - all on a couple of acres on the outskirts of Wodonga.

When I grow up...

2011-12-01T15:25:00.001+11:00

When I grow up I want to sleep in real linen sheets, and pillowslips, and even a doona cover. Maybe linen curtains, too...

I found these somewhere whilst I was wandering the highways and byways of the web.

The company is http://roughlinen.com/ and how wonderful do these sheets look?
I even like the idea of the bedhead made from bits of the chook yard...

More socks

2011-12-01T13:59:00.001+11:00

These were made for my Tall Fiddling Friend Andrew Clermont.
He is REALLY tall and has REALLY long feet to match. And these fitted perfectly!

The green is some lovely spotted silk, the brown cashmere. Bit luxury, actually.

This was the first pair I made, they are top-down, and I made a little mistake on one when I was joining up the heel. That is OK though cos Andrew says he will know which one to put on first...

And nicely styled with a yummy breakfast goog...

PS Go and find his music, he plays all over the world, and if you don't like folk stuff, then he also has country, bluegrass, soul, blues, Indian et al in his repertoire

I love eBay!!!

2011-11-26T16:57:00.001+11:00

Just look at this description, spelling mistakes and all:

"Up for sale is a old fasioned wool machine, I think you feed it wool and it turns it into wool like thread for sewing, Its NOT working, but its more like a souvenier. Im not sure if its antique or not. Its got engraved in it ASHFORD, MADE IN NEW ZEALAND."

"...I think you feed it wool..." and it magically turns into wool!! What a description!!!!

Like The Singing Alien*, this makes me laugh every time I read it!!!

http://www.ashford.co.nz/newsite/spinning-wheels/20/spinning/traditional/moredetail.html

This is an image I hooked off the Ashford site. The wheel she was selling looked just like this. And sold for $25. I was so tired Thurs night I just crashed into bed and forgot all about bidding for it.
Bugger, and double bugger.
I think a spinning wheel would be a lovely thing to have a go at. Certainly with all the knitting I am doing. And the alpacas down the road who's wool just gets chucked cos nobody wants it. Nobody else...

*Ah, you don't know The Singing Alien?
Here 'tis:

P.S. Anyone got a spinning wheel they don't want any more?

Big Day Down the Mine!!!

2011-11-24T21:33:00.001+11:00

Wow, what a BIG HUGE news day it has been today.

Starting with the wonderful, headmasterly Harry Jenkins, Speaker of the House (of Parliament - our big deal Federal one. In Canberra) handing in his notice.

GASPS of shock from the Liberal Party who, it seems, had No Idea it was happening.
I will find a photo of him tomorrow and pop it in, but he is a beardy bespectacled cross between Santa, a science teacher, and a boxing referee. (Or you could just Google "Harry Speaker" - that will be enough to find a link to him!!! Well it was this morning...).

His father, Dr Harry Jenkins was a Speaker in previous times, so Harry grew up with this job cooked into his breakfast porridge, and has handled the shenanigans of the Lower House inmates with humour, tolerance, sometimes intolerance, and grace. A delight to tune in to Question Time each afternoon to see Harry keeping the lions in order and turning them into pussy kittens!!!

Harry Jenkins wants to get back into the hurly-burly of politicking, he has had enough fun up in the Big Chair and now he wants to play with the kids again.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and all the other Members on the Speaker's Left Hand were opposed to the pollie the who was put up to be the new Speaker, a pollie who came from THEIR side of the fence!! Peter Slipper, Liberal Member for somewhere in Queensland next door to where my Mum lives.
It means that in this narrowly held Government that the Liberal Country Party Coalition would be a vote down as the Speaker is meant to be impartial.

Without going into all the politics of it, Peter Slipper has been the smelly one in the school yard and none of his mates liked him or wanted to play with him.
Leaving the door to the shelter shed open for the Labour Party to slip in and court him.

So, the poor old Opposition Party put up their own choice for Speaker - a Labour Member, praised him highly - VERY highly indeed - seconded the motion and all. And the Labour bloke stood, said "Thank you for saying such nice things about me" and declined the offer.
So they put up another Labour Party politician, said nice things about him/her, and the same thing happened.
By about the fifth Labour Member to be nominated by the Opposition, praised, seconded and declined it was all starting to lose it's special love meaning.

They nominated NINE Members before deciding it was perhaps beginning to look a bit sad and try-hard.

I reckon they reached that stage by the third turn-down. If they had been trying to get a dance at a B&B Ball they would have ended up out the back of the hall looking for someone who had a spare slab in the boot, sat down and got pissed as an alternative.

And the Libs cracked the shits and made a rule that said that if any of them became Speaker then he wasn't allowed to be a member of the Liberal Party any more. But 'Slippery Pete' Slipper got to the Chair and made a lovely speech about how he was going to be so impartial he was even going to resign from being a Liberal Party Member. He jumped before they even got to tell him he had to get ready to be pushed...

Anyway, it was lovely politics and made me wish I was sitting in the Press Gallery, or even the Visitors' in Canberra today. Or that the ABC had a Parliament Channel on the TV rather than on the wireless cos it is much more fun when you can see people jumping up and down, and looking embarrassed, or crappy, or shitty when the Speaker flings them out of the House.

Maybe if you are not in Australia and you give a toss you can iView it, or find something on Youtube. Google "Australian Politics" at least.

Hey - I found some footage - good old 7.30 on the ABC
I reckon My Friend Julia did very well today as Prime Minister.

She isn't really my truly ruly friend but I have shared a platform with her in front of thousands and met her a few times, and not everyone can say that.

That wasn't all that happened today.

Prince Fred from Denmark came to Castlemaine today, and got to look at how WE make Danish hams at KR Bacon (otherwise known around here as "The Pig") and be impressed at our cabana. I saw him eat a bit of that. On telly. I didnt go in to town and stand out the front of the factory like "women of a certain age" did. The ABC reporter said that is what they were.
And his wife - OUR MARY got to go see kids at a Primary School in Pakenham.

I wonder who draw the short straw for today's round of regal glad-handing...

I DO like Our Mary, she is very elegant, and laughs a lot when she is around kids. (Probably glad she has her own lovely four at home who are always sweet and clean).

Here is Fred at The Pig and Mary with the school kiddies

And then the last bit of lovely news was that the high school I went to got some money to do stuff with.
Sea Lake High School is now all grown up and is a K-12 College. Meaning it caters for all years from Kindergarten to Y12 (end of HS for us), and all the little schools around have closed.
When I went to school we travelled about 60 kms each way, mostly on dirt roads (yeah yeah, I know - carrying the bus blah, blah. Actually not too far from it, no air-con, and sometimes the bus would bog in the sandy road and we would all have to get out and push...).
And there were 90 of us in Y7, but only 250 kids in the whole school. Yay for Baby Boomers!!!
Anyway, Tyrrell College today were awarded $500,000 (!) so the kids can start a school farm. I reckon you could probably buy about 10,000 acres of the Mallee with that and still have enough over to buy stock and a ute...

The Mallee - uninterrupted views of the horizon...

Here is a story about the grant and the website for the College.

Goodnight.

Hmmm...?

2011-11-23T10:58:00.001+11:00

Re yesterday's post, Carolyn commented that I still have the word verification activated.

Hmmm, I did what I was supposed to - perhaps it is Blogger doing that Yahoo/Yahell thing and just being slow with the upgrade.
OR - I have done it wrongly...

Carolyn also said that she likes a pop-up comment box rather than one where the page has to reload. Oh dear. I can't say I have actually noticed there was a difference whenever I comment on other people's blogs. Just that sometimes Blogger treats me with disdain, and tells me I am not a member either of them and/or of my own blog.

I know it is easier and quicker to comment if you don't have to wait around for word identification - especially if you are on a slow internet (and I know there are people still on dial-up as there isn't another choice).

Has anyone else had these problems?

I shall pretend to be someone else and see what it says when I comment on my own blog...

How to set no-reply and/or no-word-verification

2011-11-22T14:40:00.000+11:00

If you are a commenter on blogs it is a good idea - a really, really, really good idea - to set your profile to include your email address.

This is so when you comment I can write back to you and say "Thank you for your comment" and generally have a further ramble to you about whatever is rattling around in my mind at the time...

And there are some who have email addresses that read "noreply-comment@blogger.com" and that isn't good for any of us...Sometimes, I spend time to track the email down, sometimes I just throw a teatowel over my head and sob.

The wonderful girlie at I Have A Notion has written a little how-to so you can remedy this:

Here is how to do it:

•first, go to your blogger dashboard

•near your picture or logo on the left, click "Edit Profile" E"

•go to the first section labeled "Privacy"

•in this section, the third line down should say "Show Email Address"

•make sure the IS a Check Mark in the "Show Email Address"

•if you don't have an email address listed, you can fill it in in the "Identity" section

•The MOST IMPORTANT part when you finish, is to go to the bottom of the page and click "Save Profile" on the bottom left side. If you do not click save it won't work.

And I have lately been having trouble commenting on some blogs. I know it is cos Blogger has PMT days and wont acknowledge that I have written the correct word identification (aren't some of those words AMAZING???).

So I have done as Pleasant Home suggested and dropped the need for a word verification.

Here are her step by step instructions. I would highly encourage you to try it this way. Just give it a week. If you're not happy, you can go back in and change it.

Go to:

Design
Settings
Comments

In this section you will want the following:

Comments - SHOW
Who can comment - ANYONE
Comment form placement - FULL PAGE
***Comment Moderation - ONLY ON POSTS OLDER THAN 15 DAYS
you will need to check this circle and type in 15 in the empty box..
***Show word verification on comments - NO
Show profile images on comments - YES
Comment Notification Email - Type YOUR email address in this box

By using the ONLY ON POSTS OLDER THAN 15 DAYS option and with Bloggers

new Spam filtering. You don't have to worry about unwanted / spam comments.

I have not (yet) had any problems with spam - don't expect to however. I think between Blogger's spam filter, and my ISP's filter there wont be much chance of any getting through.

Is this any help?

Back to knitting a sock.

xxxx

Bugger - I am bumped!

2011-11-22T14:15:00.001+11:00

The hospital just rang - they need my bed for someone with a trifle more urgent need so have postponed my surgery for a week.

Now it is December 5...

The lovely nurses in Victoria have been on strike for the last few weeks. Whilst I cannot deny them the right to more pay I JUST WISH THEY WEREN'T DOING IT ON MY SHIFT!!!!!!!!!

Their strike hasn't had any influence on my delay - that is just the system... Too many sick people, not enough doctors or nurses, not enough beds in not enough hospitals etc etc. At least we have hospitals, and running water unlike 90% of the world.

The Good News is that I will be able to go to the House Warming Party that S2 and his missus are throwing on the 3rd of December. They just bought a house, their first ever (eeek!!!) and are having the BEST fun playing cubby houses!
Here is their blog:
http://widgetgrove.com.au/
They have a couple of acres, and there are already lots of good stuff - chook palace, hay shed, green house, garden beds, a well that reaches to the bottom of the earth (or at least to the water table!) and dozens of fruit trees. They now have chooks, and are getting some sheep, and are planting lots of garden stuff. I think they will be largely self sufficient within a short time!

In the meantime - I can keep knitting socks...

Balcony decking and house history

2011-11-21T12:30:00.000+11:00

When I bought my home nine years ago it was really a BIG MESS.
The Draughtsman who came to look at the place prior to drawing up plans for renovations got out of his car and just said "Bloody hell! Get a bulldozer in"!!!!!

It didn't have any of this turquoise weatherboard upstairs, nor lovely wide veranda. Instead, there was a slopy (and sloppy!) roof made from bits of corrugated iron the bloke (who started building this.
In 1967...) had scavenged from the tip.
And bush poles holding up a veranda that was head height - for him, head-bashing height for me - and only about a metre deep.

Holding up the iron roof were a couple of rafters that were each made of two shorter beams just nailed together. So a bit saggy.
And then no ceiling, just silver insulating foil that was orange from the smoke from his pot-belly stove.
That didn't have a chimney...
The room below was 16' x 32', with brick floors. Mostly.
There were some patches of dirt...
Probably for his 11 dogs to dig in...

The rest of the house was 32' wide and 40' long.
It is built of a mixture of mud bricks and rammed earth for the walls. And gaps, The bloke was not very tall, so instead of buying a ladder he left gaps between the tops of the walls and the roof...
There were four small rooms, each 10' square, along the south side (which is the cold side of the house in Australia, like the north side of a house in the Northern Hemisphere) - a laundry, bathroom, junk room, and pantry.

The house is an Alistair Knox design - famous for wonderful mud brick house solar passive designs that were ahead of their time in the 1960s. More information is here and here on this amazing man and his designs.
However - HOWEVER!!!! - the builder of mine was not really a builder. He started, as I said, in 1967 - I found receipts - and in 2002 it was still far from finished! (Not just receipts, but all sorts of stuff - all his bills, wedding TELEGRAMS and cards, piles of newspapers, junk, crap and all sorts of shit. And that was just for starters...)

So I really got a bargain - the Draughtsman was right - it really was a bulldozer renovation. I paid land value for the whole kit and caboodle, so got what I paid for...

We took 10 or 12 tip truck loads of rubbish to the tip, as well as having a huge bonfire, that burnt for 2 weeks. We SHOVELLED dirt out of the place.
S4 used to say "This house has nothing but potential" and "This is the only house where you wipe your feet as you leave".

The floor is red bricks laid directly onto sand. In some places he added builder's plastic down first, in others - zilch!
And in other areas there were large areas of dirt he hadn't got around to bricking.
The floor along the western end is mushy concrete, where he didn't add enough cement to the mix, so it is all flaking and dusty.
The floor in the laundry and junk room we ripped up and laid more bricks.
The bathroom floor was mostly easy - it had proper leveller under the vinyl. But only sand

under the leveller... So that came up, too and we laid bricks there, too.
The pantry floor had a great pit in the centre of it, and a hole to the outside world at the bottom of the wall. And holes in the ceiling. I think his idea was to fill the pit with water (and breed mosquitoes) and use it as a cool room. We filled the pit and the wall hole in. And laid more bricks.
He had a generator (which he took with him) and the front door was piled to the ceiling with blown up appliances.

All of which just needed a replacement fuse. He didn't know about $4 fuses, and went out and spent $$$ on another microwave/toaster/TV/whatever. The wiring was also bits he seemed to have scavenged from the tip. Short lengths of electric wire joined, not with proper little box joiners (cos they cost $$$), but with plumbers tape...

You are all probably crying now, so I wont dwell any more on what was!!!! Now, there is an upstairs with French doors facing South, East and North with little balconies

out of each, over the veranda roof.

Ever since I ran out of money back in 2004, and then got sick in 2005 (so no money AND no energy), nothing much more has been done to the house after the initial reno frenzy.
A few months ago, The Sweetheart and I decked the North and South balconies - the East one was done years ago. And we were so clever and worked so well together and it all is such a lovely feeling to be able to walk out onto the balcony instead of balancing on the joists!The upstairs is 16' x 32' - like the downstairs. It

is now my studio - at the North end, and my bedroom at the South, looking out to thousands of acres of State Forest. I only have 5 acres, but the Forest backs right onto my fence so I may as well have a Million Wild Acres!!!

The top photos are the South balcony, and these ones down here are the North balcony. You can see the roof to the rest of the house is higher than the veranda.
This is because there is also a mezzanine - The Shelf which runs along the south side and east-ish side of the big room. The living area has lovely almost double story space, and has wonderful acoustics. Not to mention a great balcony rail to hang quilts over. You may be able to just catch a glimpse on the right of the bottom quilt photo of one of the big posts holding up the roof. They came from Victoria Dock in Melbourne and are over 100 years old.

Here is a bit of rock art S4 did - lots of lovely sandstone around here, just waiting to be used. Lots of rock walls in kit form...

And this is some of the lovely wattle that flowers through most of winter. There are four or five different ones around here which start flowering in June and carry on right through to September. Lovely splash of gold amongst the green of winter.

Clever tiny bows

2011-11-20T11:00:00.000+11:00

I made tiny bows using a tutorial I found online, but a video is an easier way of learning to make them.

If you can get over those nails...her's, not mine. French nails should only have a sliver of white on them otherwise they look a bit scary. And what do all the books say about 'file to an oval'??? Check out mine - they are perfect (hahaha)...

Here is the video:

And then I added them to undies so they look cute.
And so you don't put them on backwards (tho these are gs so you would probably notice pretty quickly if they were on backwards...).

I sent them to my SIL cos she has a skinnier bum than I do, but they were also too small for her. (Whew).

SILK ribbon, too.
Very cute.
Another one of my great grandmother's forks put to good use!

Echidnas!

2011-11-19T15:00:00.000+11:00

Not so long ago Jake (the Jack Russell-Corgi cross with Queen Anne front legs who thinks His Job is to Keep An Eye On Everything) ran TWO lovely echidnas to earth.
Literally!
He spent from 5 in the morning till 10 just helplessly yipping at these invaders of his territory.They are so lovely, there is a little furrow under the back gate where the echidnas come in to forage in the night.
For termites.
Around my house...

I am so lucky to live on the edge of the bush and be visited by some amusing creatures.

The echidnas waddle and snuffle around.This is what they look like when they aren't hunkered down escaping mad crazy watchdogs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JgYrpncA2Y&feature=youtube_gdata_player

This video was taken not too far from where I live - the bush is the same, and I could probably find mine ambling around too if I wasn't sleeping so much...

A HOT DATE!!!!!

2011-11-18T10:55:00.001+11:00

Hooray!! I got a date for my very own hospital bed, with hot and cold running nurses and ensuite surgeon!!!

Weird of me to be so excited about surgery. I love that bit where they say "Count down...it's all over" like it was one sentence.
Last night I watched a programme which showed some abdo surgery, and the memory of that shoulder tip pain as the gas dissipates through my diaphragm all flooded back. (The gas is used to blow your belly up like a balloon so the surgeons can all get their scopes, spanners, chainsaws, party drinks et al inside during surgery).

November 28.

Is a Monday, and the Haematologist wanted me in 24 hours ahead of surgery so they can have a look at my bleeding tendency (Von Willebrand's variant, which was only diagnosed 3 years ago when I had a period of unexplained bruising, and massive haematomas on my foot which looked like ugly Old Lady bunions. Only bigger...You would have thought that this might have been picked up when I had some impressive bleeds after babies, and that superb one when I list 4 litres of blood in two haemhorrages after my sinuses were irrigated. Certainly could have been picked up when I was married to MTU* THE GENETICIST...).
Which means surgery on Tuesday 29th, and home in a few days after that. Or less, depending on whether it descends into being open surgery rather than cute keyhole. But at least I then wont have shoulder tip pain. Hahahaha!!!!!

It will be lovely to get my liver fixed up, and back to functioning properly. And that goes for the rest of me, too!

*Malcolm The Unwelcome

Op Shop Treasure

2011-11-17T09:30:00.000+11:00

Look what I scored at the opshop!!!Umm, $12....

Cunning me...

2011-11-15T14:05:00.001+11:00

Smart arse me, really, too clever for this world, will have to grease my bum and slide into the next one..."Why?", I hear you whining...BECAUSE - I cleverly loaded all those sock photos on Sunday whilst I was still at home, wrote a tiny bit of cleverness, and then hid it down the back of the couch so I could surprise you all down the track.And now when I tried to edit it and add more lyricism the screen is full of gobbledygook of HTML stuff and it is impossible for me to edit. Cos whilst I LOOK like I know what I am doing with computers I really know bugger all.the most computer related thing I have done IN MY WHOLE LIFE was to give birth to a computer genius - S#2 who did computer science AND computer engineering and used to fill in the software squares inside Nokia phones but has now grown past that and now does immensely cleverer things like build some little machinery that is like a photocopier except it makes more bits of itself so you can then build some bigger bit of machinery that will then create more of itself and eventually will get up off the desk and bring you a cup of tea from gratitude. Or something.If you want a lesson on reading computer gobbledygook then here is an old page from his secret diary: http://noraisin.net/~jan/diary/Not really secret cos I googled him ("S2 computer gobbledygook")and found that stuff.Course, might be nothing to do with my computer genes at all, cos Rex The Ex was a Systems Analyst back in the olden days.(Yep, Rex The Ex and Malcolm The Unwelcome... Makes me wonder why I got married really).So, the whole point of this entry is to tell you that you will have to extrapolate from the little I wrote in the previous entry what all the other captions might have been if I wasn't such a computer lightweight.Ooroo.

More socks

2011-11-13T09:19:00.001+11:00

All this talk of socks in previous posts has surely whet your apetites for more photos. Surely?
Hope so - cos here are some more...
I used this pattern as the basis for my toe up socks. Look at how lovely they look (even if I say so mine self)

And Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind off which really IS surprisingly elastic and stretchy...

Socks for a Sweetheart (and me)

2011-11-11T12:15:00.001+11:00

Above is when I had knitted one sock, and the second one was still in kit form beside it.

And then I got TWO made, and the Sweetheart practised being a ballerina with some fancy footwork.
Actually fancy sockwork because he has never been able to do this without those socks on.

He says...

This (below) is really what the colour was like and what it looked like when I tried it on.
Geez he has got BIG feet!!!

He has sworn NEVER to put these socks inside his boots. And is also thinking I could sew soles on them so he has 'house slippers'...

I made sockies for me, too. This was the variegated stuff I got as a surprise that I blogged about last week and knitted up with the cone of silk I scored from the opshop.

Coming along well.

I now have two made, and then I made another pair.

And then I made another pair (almost to the cuff on the second sock) and I knitted a WHOLE sock whilst hanging around surgeon's rooms on Monday.

It is nice to be home on my Mac and to be able to post photos easily....
even if it means I have to make my own tea and toast...

Rememberance Day

2011-11-11T11:00:00.001+11:00

Lest We Forget...

Material Give-away

2011-11-09T12:47:00.000+11:00

Beach Vintage are setting up a lovely new online shop and have HEAPS of lovely materials - for example ALMOST SIXTY oilcloths! and over a hundred gorgeous patchwork weight cottons.

They are having a give-away to celebrate and I am supposed to pick my favourite fabric, but to be honest I love 'em all. I would be able to do something with any of the materials depending on the length.
Give me a bundle of FQs and I will leap into making a quilt (yeah, yeah, I know - I am sick but I am not going to be malingering for ever, duh), or a few metres and there are quite a few vintage patterns at home that I can make up a lovely foofy 1950s frock, or about eleventy one metres of some furnishing stuff and I will make slipcovers for The Couches for a summery look (cos they are red jacquard velvety sort of winter flavoured material.
So nip over to http://www.fabrictraders.com.au and have a squiz at their yumminesses.

I tried to drag photos of all of these - sorry but you wil have to click on the links to be able to drool!

http://www.fabrictraders.com.au/shop/kenyan-tea-leaf-by-alexander-henry-56 is one of the Alexander Henry patterns I think would be a lovely vintage frock although just about any of the Alexander Henry's would be at home on my shelves (and then in my creations...).

And look at THIS with lovely sedate floral background but with black cockatoos splashed over it! http://www.fabrictraders.com.au/shop/cockatoo-lipstick-pink-197

Then a Moda with lovely line drawings that would be gorgeous on my big old Snuggle Chair which needs reupholstering anyway - http://www.fabrictraders.com.au/shop/moda-masion-194

Or a Kaufman which looks so old-fashioned it could only be in the kitchen, with splashes of red to accent the gorgeous 1950's jade green background - http://www.fabrictraders.com.au/shop/happy-homemaker-in-green-542

Then another big blousy floral roses which has to be a 1960's frock - http://www.fabrictraders.com.au/shop/flower-garden-rose-by-martha-negley-172ias

OH - and they also have all sorts of trims, bias binding etc, too.

After all that, how can I possibly choose my favourite????

It is going to happen!!!!

2011-11-08T21:42:00.003+11:00

I spent ALL day yesterday in the City, hangin' around in waiting rooms. So much waiting that I knitted a sock right up to the cuff...

First visit was by 0830 to the Royal Melbourne Hossie where they were very lovely, and I got to see the surgeon who had actually talked to my GP 7 weeks ago - I was so grateful to have only waited an hour and a half that I forgot to ask him how his overseas holiday had gone. (Because he wasan't available for 6 weeks after my GP had spoken with him. He didn't mention that to her)
He said that this great bulge could be BLOATING and that I wasn't to be disappointed if I still had a fat belly after he had operated.
Eventually operated.
He put me on a vague waiting list and said it would definitely be before March.
Hopefully.
And grumbled the new Liberal (which is a Conservative rich bastards government if you aren't in Australia) State Gov had lopped $100mill off the Health Budget DESPITE WHAT THEY PROMISED. I said "Who would have thought, eh?". So it is really (Premier) Ted Baillieu's fault that I am not going to get a bed soon at the RMH.
I sat in the foyer to have a little rest and a quiet think about my "bloat" and suddenly there was my ex husband (Malcolm The Unwelcome) and The Next Wife right in front of me. Sadly he was there for chemo treatment. He has Multiple Myeloma - same disease that my father died from when we were all young things. So, as a geneticist, I hope he is spending his last five minutes on earth checking the genes out for MM cos it means my boys have a double dose of a chance. He offered to find a Hep-Biliary surgeon in his wide acquaintance, though oddly enough, I seem to have been able to do that already.
Without his help.
He kissed me. He must have forgotten why he left me in the first place.
Hadn't seen him for ten years, I reckon.
An old Greek lady sat beside me also for a rest, asked "Was that your father?"(haha, he does look a bit aged and decrepit but that is mostly because he is ill. AND because he really is old. If that sounds harsh he told me he was dying, and The Next Wife said "You have been dying for years, Mal" which sounded pretty heartless, though honest). And then said I had "beautiful face" and that it was probably "because of baby"...

Then I caught a tram and had a bit of a walk up to St Vincent's Hospital. It was a lovely, lovely day in Melbourne Town. Perfect for smiling at people and sitting on walls and doing a bit of knitting and having a rest.

I discovered the restaurant and filled in another hour and then went up to the ST V's clinic to check in half an hour early for my 2pm appointment.
There, they told me that I wasn't due till next week, and the letter that I had received last week saying "7th Nov" was really for cancelling the appointment of "24th Oct", but then I pointed out that I received the letter AFTER I had been a fortnight ago, and none of this made sense and I was here anyways so find a spot for me.
Two and half hours later (than my appointment time, but really three hours of knitting there/sitting therre), I was half way up the leg of the sock I finally got to see the surgeon my GP had spoken with 6 weeks ago.

And it was as though the clouds parted, angels sang a cheering chorus, the sun shone and a rainbow arched and danced overhead. Truly really it all happened.
She KNEW what it was like to be size 12 and suddenly have to buy maternity pants (though I reckon she is never going to see size 12, she was about as big as a pixie. Small as a pixie) and GENTLY prodded my belly and asked about all my scars, told me this was as big as she wanted to see me, wrote the magic words "CATEGORY ONE URGENT" on my file and sent me off to Pre-Admission. Actually escorted by now-smiling minion to Pre-Admission. Who welcomed me with open arms and smiles, took lots of blood, and an ECG, and height/weight etc etc, I got to spend heaps of time with smily Erin a baby doctor (not as in Obstetrics but as in Intern) who asked if I was knitting socks for him, and we partied on until about 6pm. And they are writing me a letter very soon.

Because - I shall be having surgery "within 2 weeks, certainly no more than three weeks".

HOW GOOD IS THAT???????????

I got home to the Sweetheart's about 8 pm last night, absolutely stuffed, and have been sleeping for the best part of the last 24 hours.

I might finish the story I started on Sunday next time...
Goodnight. XXXX

PS Three people - apart from the Greek nana - asked about my baby, and one bloke asked me if it was a hernia because he had TWO and I was bigger than he was. He was pretty pleased to find he was still unique, and proceeded to tell me all about his previous hernia surgery. Fortunately, smiling Dr Erin called me in and saved me a lot of gruesome details....

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words!

2011-11-06T12:44:00.000+11:00

This is going to be where I upload photos of what I have knitted this past week.
Or it will be an essay on ditto...

Because, indeedy doody, I am becoming THE queen of sock creation!
This past week I have finished the pair or sockies I started last week, AND WORN THEM. Nobody noticed...

And then I started another pair, still using the toe-up pattern but adding in even more of my own creativity. I made a lacy row of eyelets around the ankle. I meant to do it too.

And then thought that looked so pretty that a whole lot holes would mean lacy socks. So, I did rows of "knit 2, yarn over, knit 2 together" (K2,YO, K2tog) which didn't make for anything like a lacy pattern. But it did make an interesting sort of spiraling rib.

Then, I did a picot edge around the top...

Here endeth the first lesson.
Blogger, or the iPad ate my homework.
I shall rewrite these thousands of words shortly.

Weight Watchers recipes...

2011-10-30T20:00:00.002+11:00

Made me laugh:

http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards.html

On being up the duff...

2011-10-30T17:39:00.000+11:00

Yep - this is what my belly looks like. Actually, it is what it looked like a week ago. It is even larger now...
No wonder people ask me if I am 'with child'.

No wonder I am becoming ENRAGED at a medical system that has kept me waiting so long I am forced to buy maternity clothes, and to stave off queries about the imminent birth of my baby.

I wish I had gone private. Which would have meant a large amount of $$$ but my darling family were going to chip in to help with the money (whether they knew it or not!). My GP said that I wouldn't get any better surgeon in the private system. I think I would almost have settled for 'quicker' rather than 'better', though I would like to believe both would apply...

After my visit to St Vinnie's last Monday I decided to keep the appointment with the Royal Melbourne hospital for Nov 7th and then decide who was better.
But on Friday I got another letter from St Vin's asking me to come in on Nov 7th. Not the 14th like they said last week. I don't know why they want to see me sooner. I worry that it is because there was some unpleasantness in the blood tests I had done last week. At least I thought to get them to copy results to my GP, so she will alert me this week if there is anything I need to panic about.

I am having great difficulties adding photos to here off the little Notebook I am using at The Sweetheart's. I fluked the Fat Lady photo above. Actually, DO NOTE the definite lack of fat lady roll of fat around my hips and back - this bulge is all out the front.

I have been knitting socks this week. I made a pair of rather long socks (well not KNEE socks, whew) for The Sweetheart, in lovely pure wool streaked from bright aqua to navy. He has vowed to never put them into boots, and wants to wear them as house slippers ("liverlips" in our house!).
A WHOLE PAIR OF SOCKS!!
TWO MATCHING SOCKS!!!!
Clever me! It is really tricky to make a pair of socks. Often the second sock gets left behind, and one sock is generally of little use to most people.

And after I finished his socks yesterday I began a pair for me. His are in 8 ply (DK) on 4mm needles and really were a piece of cake.
My socks are 4 ply on #3 needles. Made with an odd ball of donated 75% bamboo/25% nylon "Happy" yarn made by Wendy. It looks like this. I knitted half a sock and didn't like the way the stripes were turning out. So I unknitted it. (Not just beautiful but clever and discerning also). And reknitted it adding in a turquoise strand of some op-shopped cone of something that seems to be silk. Lovely. And for $2, too...
It has blurred the stripes and looks much softer. Feels much softer, too.

I am ripping through these socks in such a terrifying speed because I found a pattern for socks that are knitted from the toe up. Maybe it is psychological but it makes the knitting go quicker. I love the cunning way you cast on using two needles and winding the yarn over them in a figure 8. And I love that it doesn't seem to be any time at all before you have got enough of the foot knitted that you can put your foot in it and admire what you have created. And demand that every one else also has an admiring look as well.

And the heel is also cunning and easy - much easier it seems than the other socks I have slogged my way through when I started at the top. And then suddenly, I am knitting up around the ankle and up the leg, about to do the ribbed cuff.
Just like that!
With my sock, I added a couple of deliberate lacy holes down near my toes and a line of 2 purls all the way up that I then incorporated into the ribbing.
So, one sock almost finished, and I will get a good start on the mate while watching the Grand Prix from India this evening (yay, go 'our' Mark!!!!).
This is the pattern I am using:
http://www.wiseneedle.com/patternpage.asp?pattern=knitpatksox

Been inspired to knit lately because I can't NOT sit and do nothing, and I am too fatigued to sew quilts. I have had to put The Sweetheart's big jumper aside as it is now too heavy on my belly now that I have reached the armholes on the front and back. So - socks for me. Even the lovely Nana Rug I was making a couple of months ago is too heavy to continue working on at the moment.

And Mary of Knitting On Top Of The World has had me enthralled for ages with her fabulous creations.
This wonderful book by Nicky Epstein has been a catalyst for many people to start knitting. However, Mary has taken it one step further and is knitting EVERY article in the book. Have a look at what she has already made (she still has a couple of years of knitting to get to the last page...).
Recently, she had a give-away and I was a winner. So excited to find my name up there in lights last week after such a crapful Monday.

http://knittingontopoftheworldknitathon.typepad.com/

I am really enjoying knitting socks. Like the doll's clothes they are achievable...

Better have a shower.
Ooroo. xxxx

Ah, the Long Liver, or how I fought the health system (didn't win but...)

2011-10-25T14:04:00.001+11:00

Maybe the public health system in this state really is fucked. Mostly I have had really good treatment with hospitals - as I mentioned a few posts ago. Albeit they were all emergency admittances (except for the open choly which turned out to be a waste of time and of a perfectly good and well-behaved gall bladder. Umm, sorry about medical talk - an open cholysystectomy is when they take your gall bladder out through a hole large enough to party in, not the nippy little key-hole surgery that almost everyone else I know has had. Except my Mum, but then she had her open choly way back in The Dark Ages...).

So...my appointment was for 2 pm yesterday. Miserable and cold raining in Melbourne all grey and gloomy, we had to drive up 12 half floors of the car park before finding a space (so really only the 6th floor but 12 lots of ramps, dizzily spiralling up) that eventually cost us the same as a small car would have for the parking...

And when I got there it was a clinic, filled with HUNDREDS of people all waiting to see either cardio-vascular specialists or the biliary-hep clinics. Not the appointment I thought I had with my very own surgeon who had told my GP that they would be having a conference before they saw me abouot what to do, etc etc.

Surprise, surprise - my baby sister the nurse turned up. She usually lives on the Sunshine Coast - therefore totally out of her natural habitat in the weather sense but totally at home in a hospital being a nurse. And bearing an armful of gorgeous irises, and a box of gourmet cupcakes "for after". Cos, optimist that I am, I fasted from 8 a.m. so I would be ready when they pulled out the horse needle.

And we waited.

And swapped iPhone photos of her cute and clever grandchildren who live tied to her apron strings, and iPad videos of my cute and clever dogs. What a loser I am.

And we waited.

And my baby sis talked nurse talk to the receptionists and found out that because next week is a public holiday (for Melbourne Cup Day which is FOR A HORSE RACE - does that happen anywhere else but in Oz????) they had double booked patients who would otherwise be lining up at the TAB to place their bets next week. Or specialists polishing their Porsches and fascinators to head out to Flemington Racetrack.

And (AND) she found that the doctors were all at a conference and "were taking it in turns to come downstairs so they wouldn't miss important shit going on in conference" (may have misquoted a tiny bit, but not much really).

SO - twice as many patients and half as many doctors. Do the maths. Fucked system, to put it bluntly.
Oh, and they were graciously putting the country patients in first as they knew we had come a long way. But because (probably) my baby sister the nurse had stood up for me they 'forgot' I was from the country.

And we waited more till my baby sister the nurse had to leave.

It was 4.30 before I got into see 'my' surgeon'. Except it wasn't 'MY' surgeon (cos she was busily having cups of coffee and plateloads of cake upstairs) but some other dickwit who hadn't read my history and who had no idea what I was there for except a vague 'must be liver cos this is bilia-hep clinic territory'.

And he reckons they will do keyhole surgery, not neato needle through the ribs and slurp everything out, which however may descend into open surgery because of scar tissue from the previous open choly wound (of perfectly good unused gall bladder - I may have mentioned that before).
But before that he wants MORE bloods done - blood sugars cos I mentioned recent cravings for 3L of fluids/day; and hydatids because I grew up on a farm even though the radiologist's report was that it wasn't hydatiform; and also cancer markers (ditto radiologist noting that the cyst has no blood supply etc).

I know they have to be prepared for all sorts of nasty surprises. But it also means another THREE weeks before I return and get treated like cattle again and then it will be Christmas and I will be ready to explode. Or even exploded.

He says there "MAY BE ANOTHER REASON FOR THE FATIGUE AND THE SWELLING". WTF???? Because it is unusual to have happened so suddenly. Not that I think June to October is 'suddenly' but he thinks so. I did tell him about the size 12 jeans but that didn't mean much to a bloke. Especially one who was full of coffee and cake...

I went around to pathology, and the phlebotomist also thought I was pregnant and got very excited and happy for me. And the only upside of that one - again - is that anyone could possibly think that I am young enough to actually have a baby.

In two weeks I have another appointment with a totally different lot of surgeons at another hospital. After a lengthy text conversation last night with my lovely GP I have decided to keep that one. Because I sure as hell have zilch confidence in this mob of leech farmers.

Now I am going to get out of lovely warm bed and maybe slap a different lot of chemicals on my head to see what will happen to the colour. My baby sister the nurse said it wasn't too orange but it looks to me too much like a bad bleach job. Which indeed it is.

And I will post photos when I find out how to get them from various devices to here via the little notebook I use. Of my bellyful profile and (perhaps) the orange hair.
Perhaps...

The next step...

2011-10-24T11:56:00.003+11:00

I went op-shopping the other day and bought some maternity pants. My belly is HUGE, is now about 110cm around, bigger than my bust measurement - and bigger than my hips. So uncomfortable, too. Which is why I bought the pudding pants. My back aches, and my muscles are protesting at being stretched, and my entire gut is carrying on at being squashed and pushed aside like it doesn't matter.

According to the radiographer the cyst is pushing right against my aorta and lungs so I run out of breath really quickly. And feel quite sick if I have to pick anything up from the floor. So I just leave it all there till I have a collection of stuff and then crawl around picking it all up in one sicky go. The house looks like crap.

Last week I was in the queue at the library (before I bought the jeans with the jersey panel across the front, too), rubbing my belly high up under my right ribs cos it HURTS. And a woman beside me said "Aw, a little foot in your kidney, eh?". She was probably thinking "Poor (silly) woman, no wonder she looks hagard, having a baby at her age" not realising that I am actually hagard cos I really am OLD...
I told her I was happier with a cyst than if I was pregnant. Another baby, bloody hell, it is all I can do to convince myself that it would be a lovely idea to have another puppy...

This afternoon I am off to see a surgeon at St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne. Armed with copies of all the history, referral, DVDs of various scans in case they have mislaid anything.

My GP has been sending me encouraging texts - she is a honey. She said to tell them I am OK with them getting out a needle and stabbing me between the ribs RIGHT NOW.
It would be so very good to walk out of there with size 12 jeans on again.
US size 8, btw.
However I am not taking them with me cos I reckon they almost certainly will not do anything today. Today is just to see if we like each other. No, it isn't - it is for the surgeon to determine how URGENT it all is. It is bloody truly really urgent - on this weekend I am MCing at Maldon Folk Festival, and I need to look gorgeous for being on stage, not having to explain to people I have known since my boys were little blokes that "No, I am not pregnant, it is a cyst" over and over...

SO - just in case they do decide they will aspirate the cyst today I am fasting. Would kill for a cuppa tea... Better get up and have a shower and see what I can do with my hair cos I am an idiot.
I decided to "add some hightlights" the other day with a blonding creme. Never having done it before. Mostly I just add some auburn/goldy colour to make what my (original) colour was shine and glimmer.
Now I have odd coloured orange-ish hair. I look like Pauline Hanson on a good day. Never mind, I can always add that glimmer another day. I will let my hair get over the shock of this, and pretend I meant to do it.
Orange?????

Medical stuff (sorry)

2011-10-13T11:30:00.000+11:00

Actually this is the first time I have had what seems to be undue waitings and run-arounds for hospitalisation - all my other illnesses have been seen to pronto. (Admittedly, there isn't a waiting list when one has a cardiac arrest...).

I had an ultrasound yesterday, gynaecological one as I am also doing a bit of bleeding, (lady parts bleedings). My GP said "No waiting on this one", and wrote a referral. I have had a couple of years now of odd Pap test results and two - expensive - visits to a gynaecological-oncologist in Melbourne. VERY expensive.
Go book in for a Pap test right now, please!

The radiologist asked me what all the scars on my belly were about. And also he asked me if I had had abdoplasty - ie tummy tuck!
Owned up to a large number of different surgeries over the years (humungous varicose vein near my uterus that got really big whenever I got pregnant and then squashed off blood supply - I had LOTS of miscarriages back in the day - so that got cut out - in San Fran, how exotic...; and appendix out; another cut for keloid tissue mass, and my gall pladder out (even tho it turned out to be normal, bloody bastard surgeon Campbell still trying to massacre a MacDonald...), more than a few laparoscopies, etc etc.
AND some stretch marks from eleventy one pregnancies, too...

And then detailing all the things that have gone wrong in the last 5 years - meningitis, cardiac arrests from bee stings, that scary bruising thing that turned out to be a genetic bleeding disorder and not leukemia, the Chronic Fatigue stuff, CMV, and Uncle Tom Cobbly and all. Just as well he tried to look at the cyst and really hurt me which gave me an excuse to have a cry. Cos I did have a little self pitying sob. He felt so bad he apologised for hurting me...

I have to go back tomorrow for another ultrasound to see how big the cyst has got, then a double appointment with my lovely GP on Mon to get all the papers, referrals, history etc etc in order to take to a surgeon at St Vincent's the following Monday (24th). We are still keeping the November appointment with the holidaying surgeon at the Royal Melbourne as well. Insurance. Back-up. Bidding war...

My darling S4, the one doing engineering at Uni, came up with the formula for the volume of a ball that is 14 cms in diameter. It is something like 1.7 litres. That is some water balloon in my liver. No wonder I look so pregnant. On Monday, my "girth" was 102cm. That is 40 inches. My waist used to be 28". Less if I sucked my gut in to look good...

Does my blog look any different? It doesn't to me, but it should. I have changed the font, and also the background (cute almost quilt) and the colours, and deleted some of the trimmings. But I am still in bed working on the notebook - maybe it will be fine on the Mac if I get up.
Time for a snooze. I have worked very hard this morning. Writing this, geez what did you think I was doing????

Still here...

2011-10-09T16:51:00.001+11:00

I am still in the land of the living.
Mostly cos no bastard surgeon has got his Porsche-influenced hands on me. Yet...

SO...
My GP did all she could before heading off for two weeks holiday (!) with her Just The Four Boys.
School holidays here. Her boys are aged 15 to 6, so she wont have too much of a holiday I think.
She gave me her mobile number to be able to keep in touch.
Phone answerers at the Rpyal Melbourne were less than helpful.
One clerk snapped at me "We haven't got your referral. And even if we had it then it wont be looked at until next week". To which I replied "How can you be so sure? You haven't even asked my name"...grrrrr.

Two weeks have elapsed by this time.

I finally found a sweet man at Outpatients at the Royal Melbourne Hospital who was so very chatty and informed.
So, Helpful Man was VERY helpful, explaining the whole deal to me. And even telling me that despite my GP talking to the surgeon for 30 minutes he hadn't told her the most important thing. That he was Out Of The Office until the second week in November...
DOUBLE GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

Helpful Man has gone on holiday to the States, first stop San Fran. So I gave him my niece's details (Ula Of The Lovely Bottom has moved there recently with her new Google boss husband. He is an Aussie who got a wonderful job so they got married with three weeks notice and took off to live a different life in a different world!).

My GP arranged for another doctor at her surgery to look after my file, so she sent a further referral to St Vincent's. THEY can see me on October 24...but not before. Too busy. The Other Doctor is in my pocket - I taught her to make quilts about 14 years ago.

Now it is more than THREE weeks since I was told 2to 4 weeks.

Tomorow I see my GP again. She is going to send me off for another CT scan so we can see how fast it is growing. That might mean I am going to be shifted from being a Cat One patient to being Urgent. And I thought Category One was the Top Cat of categories, the creme de la creme. Silly me.
My Best Sister in Tassie said she will rouse the family and pass the hat so I can pay to go private if that will speed up the surgery. (We have done that in the past for another one of us who needed surgery in a hurry but not so much the system thought was urgent).

I hope they think this is Urgent. I look like I am six months pregnant, and my back aches. I can't touch my toes to be able to paint them without weird contortions and grimacings. Blokes carry things for me and open doors when I am down the street. Bastards.

This past week I have been at The Sweetheart's. Is nice - he brings me cups of tea and plates of toast. And worries about me.

I haven't sewn for months. Once I used to turn out a quilt a month. At least.
I am too tired to sit and sew. I get uncomfortable sitting for any length of time. So, I am knitting!!! In fact, knitting The Sweetheart a jumper. That is a very big committment you realise. This is like getting engaged. I hope he understands this. Might have to drum it in to him (by whispering "Engagment ring, diamonds, Dunklings*" whilst he is sleeping).

Is a pattern from The Knitter - English knitting magazine I have discovered, full of imspiration. I am knitting Suviitak from Issue 14. It is the jumper on the front cover, all full of cables and fancy pants stuff.
I think I have a row where the cables are somewhat truncated. But buggered if I am going to pull it back (besides it is 12 rows back, and it is only a 24 row pattern. Only...).

I am using Patons Jet rather than the Alpaca/cotton the model was knitted with. Jet is a 30% alpaca, 70% wool mix, and quite lovely and soft to work with. It is a blue/greyish variegated, and I am alternating two balls of wool so the colours don't 'block' (see - I am learning proper knitting terminology!!!).

I have almost finished both the fronts and backs to the armhole decrease, knitting them separately. However, I shall knit the two sleeves at the same time. Was always the way Mum did it, and the bestest way to get both sleeves identical.
Lincraft have spring sales on at the mooment - flogging off all their wool cheaply.
I went down the street this week (cos remember I am at The Sweetehart's and he lives in the Big Smoke and has streets full of temptation right near where he lives. Even an Aldi...). And bought heaps of wool.

Probably enough - hopefully enough - to whip up another Sweetheart jumper of "Italiano Alpaca 50" 12 ply and "Italiano Donegal Merino" 8 ply (Lincraft home brands). Neither look like their stated plies, will swatch them (technical term again, I am getting good at this knitting lark) and see what happens. One is dusty blue, the other fawn flecks.

And lots of lovely red "Cashmere Plus" (50% wool, 42% soya (sic), 8% cashmere. So it is called Cashmere Plus because it is cashmere plus optimism I reckon), regal purple "Silk Plus" (ditto, with its 60% wool, 20% bamboo, 20% silk), and red/purple variegated Patons "Foxy" that is 100% Acrylics.

Oddly, Lincraft only had ten balls of each on the shelves so I bought all ten of each.
Am thinking some sort of Fair Isle pattern. They had Patons 1148 for 20c - reduced from $4.95 so I had to buy that. It has an interesting two coloured snow flake-ish pattern.
Though now that I have seen Patons 1148BJ I would rather that...Isn't this bed jacket alluring? Almost like a REAL cardie.
I should whip it up for hospital visiting hours, instead of the fluffy little thing I bought in the Salvos the other day (I think it is one of those cute things that aspiring ballerinas wear to keep their scrawny ribs from clattering when they are bobbing about).

Clever me, I just learned how to pull a pic off a page and stick it back on to my blog. Could do that more instead of making you all click on links. Though how you can expect to get fit if I do it all for you is beyond me.

Better get dressed and see if I can find a Sunday Age down the street. Is probably time for Japanese Grand Prix on the telly, too. And there is Bathurst 1000 today too. I will find links for them, so you can appreciate what sort of cleft stick this petrol head is in:
Grand Prix with Chesty Bond chinned Mark Webber is HERE
Bathurst 1000 is HERE

I was taught to drive by a King Of The Mountain (Bathurst winner) back when it was Bathurst 500. They didn't make it twice the length, they just went metric. The Sweetheart has raced at Bathurst. He is a clever bugger.

It is heading to 5 pm and I am still in bed (and The Sweetheart is watching car races at Winton - he got up at 0600 and headed off in the rain. He will be tired but happy by the time he gets home).
Best get up, showered, dressed etc...

(*Dunklings is the jeweller shop Dad bought Mum's engagement ring from, always seemed to me to be the epitome of engagement ring shopping)

2011-09-24T18:49:00.002+10:00

Sometimes it seems to me that it all just goes from bad to worse and then to worser.

And worserer even.

To review:
Back in May I came down with CMV and had all sorts of problems with high blood pressure and all. My lovely GP sent me off for an ultrasound of my heart to make sure everything was OK.
(Eighteen years ago my Mum had a cardiac myxoma. If you aren't ready to put yourself to sleep reading that medical journal simply they are like ganglions - which grow on nerve tissue (people get them on their wrists and the old remedy was to thump 'em with the old family bible), myxomas are similar but grow on muscle tissue).
It is pretty unusual to have them growing in a heart, even more unusual to find it before post-mortem stage. Mum is fine now, though had 4 or 5 hours of surgery to remove it. The point is they are familial, so every year around my birthday I have an ultrasound to make sure I am still myxoma-less. The rest of my sibs are supposed to also (but I don't think they bother - just waiting to see if I get one before they do. After all, I am the eldest and the one who sets the example...!!!)

And I just kept feeling crappy and even more crappy, but figured my GP would have rung me if anything was wrong with my heart.
To be honest I was to stuffed to even care - just slept a lot, and felt very sick.

Last week I finally thought how much nicer it would be to be dead and free of pain. And that gave me such a big fright so I raced (ha!) in to see her.
And she pulled up my file and swore profoundly and profusely.
Apparently, the cardiologist had found that although my heart was fine my liver was not.

AND THE CARDIOLOGIST HAD TAKEN OVER TWO MONTHS TO SEND THE REPORT TO MY GP!!!!!!!

TWO MONTHS!!!!

Yep, am yelling.
Back in June they could see a mass in my liver that was 10 centimetres in diameter. I said "Oh lovely - two seam allowances" and she just got her tape measure to show me just how big 10 cm really is. It is almost 4"...
Whizzed up to Bendigo for a CT scan with lovely radioactive dye in my belly (a litre of urky stuff to drink beforehand, burp) and another shot in my veins.
And now the mass is 13cm (5")...It is right at the top of the left lobe of my liver, sitting inside my chest cavity and elbowing my right lung for space. It is like a balloon.

I have lately been feeling crappy about my expanding midriff, thinking that middle-aged spread was suddenly being cruel and harsh. And it is not menopausal tubbiness but some ghastly alien.
The good news is that it is all nicely enclosed, "just a cyst", and without a blood supply etc so it is mostly a good sort of alien if I was ever going to choose what sort I wanted...

On Monday my lovely GP rang the surgical registrar at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and got to have a long chat to a liver surgeon who wants to see me in the next couple of weeks.
One week of which has already passed.
I am Category 1, which is the urgent end of the waiting list queue, and should be fixed up soon.
When I rang the hospital on Wednesday (as she said for me to do) I was told they had not received the referral she had faxed on Monday, and didn't know about me. So she faxed it again.
Rang again yesterday and they told me the same thing, and also said even if it had been faxed it wouldn't have been read and I wouldn't have an appointment either. To which I said "How do you know, you haven't even asked for my name", and the woman then managed to find that indeed I was on their computer.
But still no appointment time...
I have to 'wait for a letter;.
And she (my GP) has gone on holiday for two weeks (though she did give me her private mobile number which was very sweet of her). And also getting her practice manager to kick the arse of the cardiologist till his nose bleeds...

And in the interim I still feel like crap, and am so tired, and want to throw up cos my belly is so squashed by this great balloon sitting under my ribs.
And so thirsty - drinking buckets of water, and tea every day. And night.
But not very hungry. And not sewing cos it is uncomfortable to sit for long (how lucky are you now, eh?) nor knitting.
Sleeping lots. With those two funny Jack Russell-ish dogs on the bed, and sometimes almost on the pillows either side of me and watching me. Probably wondering how they are going to get the fridge open to feed themselves if I don't wake up...

And that is why you haven't heard from me for ages and ages. Hopefully, you will hear soon enough what is going on.
xxxxx

Spring has sprung...

2011-08-03T18:17:00.001+10:00

Or maybe spring hasn't sprung at all.
Today the Bureau of Meteorology told us that tonight's minimum temperature will be 13* (C - which is around 55* in the old money)and this coming Sunday's MAXIMUM is going to be 13*!!!

Nice and warm and no need to add a quilt to the bed for tonight, and by Sunday the forecast is for snow down to 1,000 metres...

I have had the Rayburn fired up a bit recently. And made some overly sweet pancakes from a recipe that I found on an American blog. They had started with a basic pancake mix with a spiral of butter melted with cinnamon and castor sugar. Flip the pancake, finish cooking them all, layer them and add a frosting with cream cheese, icing sugar and cinnamon. The sugar burst made me fall asleep almost immediately. Furthermore, the original creator never said that I would need a cold chisel to get the cinnamon toffee off the pan...
I am not going to credit the original source cos I don't think it is one to repeat.

I didn't get a photo of the plated up product - it DID look so good that The Sweetheart and I fell upon it like wolves upon the fold...

I have been knitting. knitting. knitting...

It is getting bigger and bigger!!! There is enough left from 8 metres of what is on one of the skeins to make one of the tiny squares which start with 8 stitches per side.
There is a pretty rainbow of other bundles that I am combining to make multi-coloured squares. There are a few in it already, each made of up to four different but similar colours.
Aren't they pretty?

And then to finish off, for the moment - LOOK WHAT HAS MOVED IN DOWN THE ROAD!!!!!!!

Aren't they so totally gorgeous and amazing?! They are just in a paddock, a hundred metres up on the edge of the bush, just down the road from me. As if it isn't enough to have the Clydesdales on holiday from Sovereign Hill next door to alpacas, donkeys and an emu, and lots of other horses, sheep, cattle now we have a lovely little zoo.
It doesn't matter that although all the rest are truly ruly real animals and these are life-size statues. They are fabulous!
I wish I had some, too.

Knitting

2011-07-20T14:32:00.000+10:00

I have been snuggled on the couch a lot lately. Mostly cos I am still recovering from the wrassle with CMV, but also because it has been quite nippy. And I have been knitting. I found a tutorial online for a Sock Yarn Blanket - thank you so very much Knotty Knickers!

I don't make very many socks so I didn't have any sort of stash of leftover space dyed 4 ply, but I do have a goodly collection of DMC (and etc) tapestry wools left from knitting hippy hats.
Each square takes most of the 8 metres in each skein, and at between 80c and a dollar a hit this is going to be a bit of an exxy blanket.

I am starting with a few rows of black Totem 8 ply, and then mostly a single colour in each square. Some of them I have had to use more than one colour, though trying to make them similar shades. And I have also started a row (or more) of little squares where four of them make one of the larger squares, doing them with two lighter colours at 3 and 9 o'clock, and darker colours at 12 and 6 o'clock.

After starting with ten separate blocks I then joined them together knitting another square in between setting them on point. I am also knitting in the ends as I go so the blankie is really very neat and tidy on the back. And also very warm, I have had a lot of afternoon naps when I nod off in front of the fire whilst knitting...
Here are a couple of photos before I started adding the smaller units. Doesn't it look pretty on the wattle? Incidentally, has anyone got any spare skeins they want to get rid of? Or scraps of 8 ply? I would welcome them...

Blogger

2011-06-22T20:28:00.000+10:00

I am having All Sorts Of Strife with Blogger. I don't know if it is cos of this little notebook not having enough sense to do stuff, or whether Blogger is playing up.
Maybe it is Blogger. A lot of people emailed or Facebooked me to say they had tried to leave a comment here on my recent posts and weren't able to.

I have been trying to make this page a bit less fussy. And having all sorts of bothers. It even yelled at me that I didn't have cookie settings in the right place. BUT I HAVE! Well, I have now...

So, if one day, you should come to read my blog and all you find are bare rooms with the furniture piled in the garage, drop cloths over all the floors and empty coke bottles and lolly wrappers lying on the floor you will know that I have got the painters and decorators in. And not done a runner with the rent money tucked down my bra.

What do you reckon about the font I have managed to change - the title, description and the labels here? The font is called Kransky. I like it cos the boys used to LOVE eating cheese kranskies. Except they called them cheese krankies...

Blog etiquette

2011-06-21T20:11:00.000+10:00

There is a blog I have been reading a lot lately - mostly cos her clever ideas kept cropping up on Pinterest - The Art of Doing Stuff.

Karen makes me laugh with her writings - and her funny photos. She never gets boring with them - there are only so many ways a blogger can show you how clever she is at making something.

Or there is Karen's way...

Take, for example, her blog on How To Fix A Slamming Screen Door.

Three and a half hours - AND THIRTY SECONDS - to get a screw driver and turn a screw. That 30 seconds at the end is the "Fix" part of the "How To"!
Made me laugh heaps.

She has a fabulous post on How To Properly Re-Post Something for the rest of us bloggers out there (out here) in blogland.
If you have a blog you MUST go and read it. Useful information.

http://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/how-to-properly-re-post-something

I just wish I could drag a photo off her page so that you will get hooked like she says I have to but I can't figure out how to do that with this funny little bit of computer that is the size of an A4 page but more useful. And my brain ditto size of A4 but currently less useful...

And when you have read that and taken it in, and bookmarked it so you can add it to your own blog (CREDITING KAREN OF COURSE) then - only then - can you look at this posting of hers.
Though not before you also make a cuppa tea and get some bikkies and settle somewhere cosy cos you will be gone a while.

http://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/best-of-the-blogs

P.S. I hope the person who lifted one of my photos from my website that has "Copyright" all over the site, used it in a money making exercise and then emailed me afterwards to tell me they had used it and 'hope you don't mind' will read it. Grrrr. YES, I DO MIND - I make money from my photos. If I so choose.

And also the people who just take other people's pictures, mostly from Pinterest it seems, and repost them as "Lovely kitchen/bedroom/bathroom/frock/whatever" and nothing else on their blogs... Well, lovey, that aint bloggin' - that be borin'!

Ailing....

2011-06-17T16:11:00.000+10:00

I have been back to see my GP a couple of times since I last wrote, made an appointment to see a cardiographer, and had a bucketsworth of blood tests.

So, the heart thing is ongoing, BP still a bit elevated (but nowhere near the 190/100 that it was when I first went to see her!!!) and there was a bit of a worry that I may have some heart damage, even perhaps a little stroke. I don't think so in light of blood test results.
I have CMV - CytoMegaloVirus.
Which is a nasty little virus in the same family as Epstein Barr Virus (EBV is more commonly known as Glandular Fever), chicken pox (and all the other Herpes cousins). HERE is a link to some government official type info about the whole box and dice of CMV.

Although maybe up to 80% of people in 1st World would test positive to CMV I haven't ever had it. I tested negative in a blood test a couple of years ago when we were trying to work out why I was so tired and feeling crappy. Compared to what I was feeling then now I feel triple crappy. Maybe quadruple crappy.
Because of my previous health record - all the Chronic Fatigue/Fibromyalgia stuff as well as the cousin of that bleeding syndrome I also have (seems memory loss is also part of CMV...sigh) I have been well and truly felled by this bout of bugness.

All I do is *sleep, make a cup of tea, sleep, drink cold cup of tea (urk), sleep, check Facebook, sleep, 'nother cup of tea, sleep, Pin something on Pinterest, sleep, knit a little bit, sleep, more sleep, toast* repeat from * to * . Sometimes I cry cos I want my Mum.

And this might go on for weeks more.
I am not sick of being in bed.
Yet...
It is really quite cosy. I have a feather down mattress topper, and lovely sheets and then a feather doona with a pretty floral cover.
Lots of feather pillows to fluff up behind me and a couple of little ones on which to prop the notebook I am using to keep me connected to the world.
Enough room on the bed to have a basket of tapestry wools to use for the Sock Yarn Rug I am knitting (mentioned in the last entry). I am managing about a square a day. (Actually, not that many but I am trying to cheer me up).
And TWO bags of library books on the floor beside me. At least the joy of going to see my GP every week means I stagger in to the library and replace the books I have used up in the previous week. My attention span is about that of a toddler. I borrowed Kevin McCloud's new book a few weeks ago - "43 Principles of Home" through an inter-library loan. It is FABULOUS, such a useful book for anyone contemplating building, extending, even just livign in a house! My only complaint is that it is way too heavy a book for in-bed readings. Makes my tummy hurt.
I have got books on knitting, garden design including building a dry stone wall and water features, crafty things, 800 years of the written word, travel - all from the non-fictions ection. I don't have the attention spam to be able to cope with fiction. Even gorgeous lovely Kevin has to be taken in small doses and re-read to be able to comprehend what he is telling me. Not my usual way of digesting books.
I creep downstairs and load another lot of wood on Ned Kelly, my aging but trusty slowish combustion stove, which keeps my draughty old home quite warm. Especially upstairs. Sometimes I sleep so long that it goes out. I have discovered that spraying kindling with WD40 makes it burn much better (I ran out of fire lighters so this was a stroke of brilliant necessity).
And make a cup of tea while I am down there.
Sometimes I have a shower. But not very often cos I have to fire up the Rayburn to heat the hot water service now that winter is upon us and the sun is below my trees and the solar panels are in shade (insert sad face here and yearning for brave men with chain saws to return my house to winter sunshine).
I am so tired already that the effort of actually having a shower totally exhausts me. Anyway, I figure I haven't done anything to get filthy dirty. I have a cat wash every so often - there is a big pot of water sitting on top of Ned keeping water heated for dishes and a slosh of a face washer when I imagine I can't bear my stench.
I am not smelly at all. Can't be. There hasn't been a delegation of neighbours or a visit from the Health Officer from the council...
And in between I sleep. I nod off with my glasses on my nose and the laptop on my belly and wake hours later, still the same. Or crash at night, waking 18 hours later. With the fire out.
Last night I drifted off in the afternoon and didn't wake till 8 a.m. Didn't take my drugs last night, so was feeling yucky. And woke totally confused, and disoriented still involved in the dream I was having being a photographer on location in Tasmania taking pics of a politician. My camera wouldn't work and I was having all sorts of problems with the settings. What a weird dream. And what a weird location!!!
Time to either put more wood on the fire, make a cup or tea and/or have a snooze. Catch you soon. XXXX

Bed rest + COLD Snap = Knitting

2011-06-08T22:25:00.000+10:00

My GP told me the other evening to stay quiet in bed and look after myself until I get to see her tomorrow (Thursday). Combine with this with the coldest snap we have had for many many years (snow down the road, cars falling off roads everywhere cos of black ice, fingersand noses nippy drippy cold. And I am in bed...

I have been knitting scarves for weeks. Don't have a pic atm - but they are clever bits of knitting half and quarter rows before doing full rows so they turn out spirally and looking like Sharks' Eggs. I was hoping to sell them but I have given so many away - my very successful market research!

Anyway, this evening I was faffing around in bed with the notebook keeping my belly warm and puddling away through Pinterest and following links and I found a blog posting on knitting Sock Yarn Blankets. And a tutorial... Here is the original blankie posting I discovered and she has a link at the bottom there to a lot of other pretty knitted blankets.

So I have pulled out some 4 ply wool and have almost finished my first square. She says that you only need 'a walnut sized lump of wool' for each square. I think I could use skeins of tapestry wool to knit them with - I have a little collection of them. I don't know if they are 4 ply but the look close enough and I think that is all that matters.

By the way - yesterday top temperature here was 6*, today is soared to 7*. Might have to break out the sunnies and bathers tomorrow...

PS I just noticed there is a (new?) location button down the bottom RH corner so I set it. You can go and have a look at where I live, there is even streetstalk which went up the road almost to my place before the driver wandered off into the bush and drove bewildered and lost through every little track in the State Forest before discovering Maldon 45 kms further on (Maldon is only about 8 kms in a straight crow-flyin' line), hehehe!!!!

But if...

2011-06-07T14:21:00.000+10:00

I reckon if I had THIS CHAIR I would be just sitting in another chair and looking at it!!!! How pretty is that! I wish I was on a computer where I knewhow to easily grab a photo but you can go to the link and have a drool.
ANd while you are there just IGNORE the price. I am sure they left out the dot before the cents...

AAAAGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-06-07T13:12:00.000+10:00

I have been sick.
I am still sick.
Furthermore, I am sick of being sick.

My GP discovered 4 weeks ago that I have enormously HIGH blood pressure. (190/100 if that means anything to you). On to a couple of cardio drugs, but two weeks later my BP was still up there in the clouds.
So she added a beta blocker.
As a consequence my BP plummeted, as did my pulse rate and I started to fall over whenever I stood up too quickly. Or even slowly. Cold white fingers, pins and needles, absolute lethargy, etc...
Had to get The Sweetheart to take me in to A&E on Saturday (cos I drove off the road the last time I drove the Iced Volvo...).

So now I am off the beta blockers, and am on bed rest until I go to see her again in a couple of days. Then an ultrasound on my heart and a brain scan cos I may have had one of those cute little strokes. And to see an industrial strength cardiologist.
Bugger.
My heart has been foolish since the last couple of bee stings where I arrested, before that my BP used to be a lovely 90/60. Thank goodness for my Epipens - now I carry TWO to keep me going until the ambulance gets to me.

So, I am not sewing.
I have a hexagonal stars all cut out and a bit sewn together to make for a young friend who has scary melanoma, and a bag for my sister for her birthday (which was only a couple of weeks ago, and she isn't expecting a pressie so that is OK).
The quilt is a lovely Sarah Fielke pattern from her new "Quilting from little things..." - Stars in Your Eyes.
This was featured in last month's Better Homes and Gardens mag - Sarah writes about it here but I also bought her fabulous book in April. For each of the patterns she has an achievable mini quilt as well as the larger one.
The bag I am making for my next sister is from Julia Davis and Anne Muxworthy's "Easy Japanese Quilt Style". This is a link to the book, however not the book I have but one which has the bag I am making as the cover pic (how lucky was that - now I don't have to explain it!!!).

BUT the enforced bed rest has had an up-side.
I did discover Pinterest which is such good fun. It is a website that acts like a pin board where you can 'pin' your favourite photos. Each 'board' can have a different title so you can group your faves. I have one Board that is my home as it is, followed by another Board for the dreamings and desires!
There are LOTS of lovely links to all sorts of craft stuff, quilts, architecture, pets, fashion, pretties, some GREAT photo-journo links to some of the war zones I either went to or dodged...
I don't have to worry about making things at all. I can just explore other people's creations and then Pin them!!!
Here is my link to Pinterest. There are some of my own pics in my quilts and sewing Board as well as my home.

I am cuddled up in bed, lovely and warm cos of the little notebook whirring away on my lap, and lovely cosy flannel sheets, and snugly jarmies. Outside today it is 4* (at noon) and sleeting and hailing instead of snowing. It is good to be so warm on such a day (and it is apparently going to get colder over the next few days...).
I will keep you posted.

I know it is late!

2011-05-18T23:21:00.000+10:00

BUT - I am going to try and post at least every day...

This is what has made me slack this year.
January: It rained and rained and my house got flooded.
February: Repeat but worse this time.
March: Had some visitors from overseas who took a lot of recovering from.
Spent five wonderful days with Smelllie 1 and Moo the grandgirl, and got my "Just The Four Boys" together for a long weekend - first time all in one place for NINE years!!!
April: Easter and ANZAC day took up the last half of the month. Breathing used up pretty much all the rest of April...
May: Ah, that is now.

And that is it.

In between I have been trying to sew a couple of quilts, and some clothes (just for fun) and small stuff. Knitted lots of scarves and Barbie doll clothes cos that is achievable. I am still not being terribly lively healthwise.
And I have done some "house fluffing" - trying to get the kitchen in order and other bits of decorating. I will post some photos some time soon.

I have yet to have the water damage from the flooding fixed. It bucketed down, everything just FLOODED, there was 6" of water just rushing down all over my land, the road was washed out in front of my place and the creek rose and cut off the other end so I was almost trapped, fled through flood waters.

Our little town was isolated when the Loddon River cut off the road to the west. Muckleford Creek was feet deep over the road to the east, and the other road to the north was also way under water. The Loddon River almost overtopped the levee banks - all the townspeople turned out to sandbag extra height. The water almost came to the top of the sandbags. That is way too high!

Bit of the usual argy bargy that so many people have had with insurance companies. Generally they are coming to the party but they wanted a second opinion and the assessor to come and visit. TWO MONTHS after they had told me they weren't going to do that. Because my home is mud brick and rammed earth it is more of a specialist builder job than a regular one. Fortunately there is a really fabulous builder just down the road from me who has a superb reputation (and I have been to visit at the house he built. Magic!).
The bottom course of mudbricks have been eroded, and water came inside and flooded across the floors. Fortunately, the floors are red bricks, but they are still drying out, and now there is white efflorescence happening from salts in the water, soil, etc.

It has all been really stressful My extremely high blood pressure, I discovered last week, may well be the cause of the appalling headaches I have been having. On meds for that now. Sigh.

I recently discovered Pinterest. How much fun is this!!! Check it out if you dont know about this great waste of time! http://pinterest.com/ A wonderful waste of time!!!!

And now I am going to snuggle back into my lovely warm bed with the featherdown mattress topper and the soft flannelette sheets and this laptop to check out the latest Pinnings. Perfect for a frosty night!!

I AM here!

2011-05-17T14:56:00.000+10:00

I am so naughty - poor little blog, poor sad followers!
I am still alive, still here.
No great excuses.
I just got out of the habit of blogging.
Now, I will probably find I have forgotten how to work all this and IT WILL SERVE ME RIGHT!
This is just a heads up - I will be back tomorrow with some nice stuff for you.
Truly.

Happy New Year!!!

2011-01-07T14:07:00.000+11:00

I know - it is way past New Year and most people have already packed away their decorations for another year (11 months) and are into sewing Valentines or Mother's Day pressies but I am still catching up!
We had a lovely little Christmas, did very little until later in the afternoon when Smellie 3 and his GF and Smellie 4 came over, along with StepSmellie 1 and his GF, and StepSmellie2. We did the pressie thing and had cold meats and salads, frozen icecream pudding, and Granma's Christmas Pudding. It was very peaceful.
My Sweetheart gave me a new camera!!! Hooray! Another Fuji - the big brother of the one I left in the bush. There are a heap of photos on it but at the moment it is going back from whence it came. When I am videoing you can tell when I zoom. And not just cos things get bigger but cos you can HEAR the little cogs and levers workign inside. Not a good thing. SO no photos of my pressies (lovely boys picked very good sewing quilty things for me) or post Christmas when we went back up to Mitta Mitta to The Witches Garden for a few days.

I was very disciplined with the tree this year - all pink and silver:
It also had lights sparkling away. These photos were taken with The Sweetheart's new iPhone which I was still learning to drive...

I found this very sweet little Advent Tree in Big W ($10) with cute hand painted decorations - tiny brass hooks and eyelets to dangle them from.

There will be more when I get my camera back - much more interesting when you have photos to look at!

Christmas!

2010-12-25T16:06:00.000+11:00

Hooray!!! Only 366 days to Christmas. I shall need every minute of it...

If you need to make a pudding for tomorrow's late Christmas celebrations, or you are going on a picnic make Granma's Christmas Pudding.
Here is the link to last year's story on it:
http://banaghaisge.blogspot.com/2009/12/granmas-christmas-pudding.html

Some of the Smellies and the Step Smellies are coming for dinner. Cold meats and salads, THE pudding, and also an icecream pudding (chocolate icecream on the outside with extra 'bits' in it - nuts, choc chips, mixed peel; and vanilla in the centre with extra cream and fruit mince (which has been bathing in a bucket of brandy for 5 months).

Oh - and we will open pressies!

My Sweetheart gave me a lovely camera. I left mine (accidentally) on the side of the road when we were filming/photographing the High Country Targa last month. Silly, totally idiotic thing to do. It wasn't until several days after we got home, and after The Great Flood, that I discovered it missing. Been too wet to recover it, not much point after several inches of rain - and then some - 300 kms away. This is the same (Fuji) only with twice the megapixels, a few more bells and whistles, and of course MUCH newer!
Shall be back to taking photos and adding them soon enough!

Merry little Christmas to all. Now I must get back to some kitchen fussings...

Decisions, decisions!

2010-12-15T11:12:00.000+11:00

Or rather - indecisions...

What shall I do today?

The Sweetheart and I won tickets to an ABC preview of The King's Speech in the city tonight. What if, what if They spring Geoffrey Rush on us as a surprise? 'Cos at least he lives here the rest of the time therefore it isn't likely to be gasp swoon sultry brooding Mr Darcy Colin Firth who would have to be brought at great expense to the management from freezing cold England (though he may leap at the opportunity).

The other horn of this dilemma is that this arvo is the 159th anniversary of the Monster Meeting at Chewton when the gold miners started the revolt that led to Eureka Stockade - with TONY ROBINSON coming to film it all for the History Channel.

I love Tony Robinson. Who can ever forget all those wonderful laughs in Blackadder - many of them directed at poor Baldrick?

Here is a snippet - but don't let that prevent you from hunting down more episodes on Youtube. Or even going and buying the full set of Blackadder for yourself for Christmas.

After Blackadder, Tony Robinson went on to be the one who didn't do any hard work in The Time Team (that isn't true - he is one of the producers of the 15 series show as well as the delightful presenter!).

Oh, what shall I do?

Of course it will be The King's Speech - I can wave to the Monster Marchers as I drive past them at Chewton on my way south. And then watch Tony Robinson's show on telly in a few years (if I find someone with the History Channel).

Floods...

2010-11-30T17:58:00.000+11:00

We had 142mm of rain from Thursday night until Sunday evening! Yikes!! That is 568 points or 5.68" of rain in the old currency.

Saturday was Election Day (State Elections, don't talk to me about it - very sad face) and The Sweetheart and I went in to The Maine to vote, had a Proper Cooked Breakfast at Togs (yummo!) and then decided to go look at the spillway at the northern end of Cairn Curran Reservoir.
Cairn Curran has been dry for years, and in the last two months has gone from empty to OVERFULL on Saturday!
There is a great pic here of the dry lake bed, and Crikey has a bit written last week (they should have been here this week!!!).
Saturday when we got to the spillway we were met with all sorts of flashing lights - CFA, SES and Police - the dam was overfull and the sluice gates were being opened. The land below the dam wall was about to be flooded by the Loddon River water - and continues to head north towards the Murray River, wetting all sorts of towns, farms, houses and flooding roads on it's way.

Here is my dam on Saturday morning - the most water it has had in it in EIGHT years!

And here is my dam later on Saturday when it overflowed!

The Loddon at Newstead got too big for it's banks and fell out all over the road and paddocks.

The highway was also blocked half way back into Castlemaine at Muckleford Creek until yesterday (Monday). The woman who owns the store and lives over the river took an hour to get to work on Sunday - via Franklinford, Castlemaine and Maldon!

A lot of people - far too many actually - tried to drive through flooded roads and got stuck. Or worse - swept away. Fortunately, nobody went missing but just caused a nuisance for the Police, SES, CFA etc who had to haul them out. Or leave them there....

Coming home on Saturday from not seeing the spillway spilling we discovered our road was being washed out. All pretty scary really - we weren't in the big deal 4WD but in the very low to the ground 944, aaaghhh!!!

The water was rushing across the road on the left, down from the hill as well as rising up from the creek on the left hand side. The water on the right was coming down faster than it could get through the wire fence!

2010-11-12T14:14:00.004+11:00

14.13 on 12.11.10

Oh bollocks! It clicked over to 14.14 as I hit 'publish blog'.
Sigh.
Never mind - there is always next year when I can blog at 15.14 on 13.12.11
I will start earlier.

Friday Funny

2010-11-12T11:41:00.000+11:00

Every so often a lovely romantic song comes along that just grabs ya right where you need to be grabbed...
(this one probably aint it however)

Sewing, sewing, sewing!!!

2010-11-04T15:34:00.000+11:00

Here is a wiki page with all the secrets of international sizing exposed!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EN_13402

I have been hunting out lots of different patterns for summer clothes - including what to wear to the Porsche Club Ball next month.

I am rather leaning towards this Butterick Retro with it's big flowy skirt and long wide wrap-around waist ties:
http://butterick.mccall.com/b4919-products-5273.php?page_id=152
You will have to go and look at it - can't seem to be able to whip an image from the site (but then I AM using the tiny notebook which is so small it hasn't learned to do some things...!).

And then I discovered this site:
http://m-sewing.com/
So very many FREE downloadable patterns there for just about everything you could desire to sew. Women's, men's, girls' and boy's patterns and everything from underwear to raincoats!
You possibly wont hear from me for a while...

Stephen Fry does it for me!

2010-11-01T13:59:00.000+11:00

I do love Stephen Fry.

QI is one of the highlights of the television week, and it is all for his quick wit and erudite ramblings - love how his mind can whirl and twirl and land back on it's feet in the right place!
He recently came to Australia and gave performances in Sydney (filled the Opera House) and Melbourne.
The Sydney performance was shown as a snappy hour long tv show. Seemingly without edits. A great joy to see. Wish I had been able to go to his show. Or both of them would have been greedy but wonderful. Like second helpings of something with truffles...

Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography - Language from Matthew Rogers on Vimeo.

Halloween!!

2010-10-31T22:11:00.000+11:00

And here is one for Halloween...

It maybe Halloween but really it is...

2010-10-29T14:56:00.001+11:00

MALDON FOLK FESTIVAL!!!!

Hooray! It is that time of the year again when we all sit on the side of Mt Tarrengower and listen to wonderful music!

Here is a video of what life is like over a Maldon Folkie weekend, too:

It is just the BEST Festival - like a family reunion except you like everyone...

I am not one to ever whinge about rain but I would like to mention that there is up to 75mm (3") of rain forecast for the next two days with flood warnings, and sheep grazier alerts (where sheep farmers have to bring newly shorn sheep into shelter so they don't die from shock, etc) as well as all sorts of other sensible things like moving stock and equipment to higher ground.
I have planted seeds out in the garden - made another little bed around the bird bath.
And did three loads of washing so everything will be all dry and lovely before the cold and rain begin.

And you wont be hearing anything of me for a few days - I am Door Bitch at the Anglican Church again all day tomorrow. I have done this same security job for 10 or 12 years now. I really should be due for Long Service Leave... I was hoping it was going to be this year. Sigh.

Have a lovely weekend - see you at Maldon!

Me, and the Rich and Famous.

2010-10-26T20:10:00.001+11:00

Subtitled: Who is that up there with Jasmine?*

Last Sunday we did HEAPS of stuff.

Firstly we went to The Royal Exhibition Buildings in Carlton ("one of the world's oldest exhibition buildings").
There was a great show (Motorclassica) of veteran, vintage and classic cars. Some of the most expensive cars known to man!!!

And I got to meet my childhood hero!!!
A man who was my pinup boy when I was still in single figures, and who fed my yearning to be a racing car driver. Which, incidentally, has yet to be fulfilled - and I possibly have left the running (ha ha small bad pun) too late...though have done my share of marshalling, timing, navigating, et al at car thingies.

Here is (another out of focus) photo taken by The Sweetheart (I do not know what it is with him taking photos of me with Famous People - they are always out of focus. And worser cos he MAKES A BIT OF A LIVING taking photographs...).

Yep - me and Sir Stirling Moss! We had a nice conversation where I got to thank him for giving me so much delight over the years and for being a hero of mine. I don't believe many people get to tell the people they admire just how much they mean to them!

I was taught to drive in my teenage years by another famous (Australian) racing driver - Frank Coad. I went to school with his daughter and he was our local Holden dealer which made it much easier to learn - hooning around in their paddock in his race car...

Here is Stirling Moss's car which was at the show.

I was going to write a big deal post about all the things we did on Sunday but I reckon this is enough actually.
Me and my friend Stirling Moss.
(Oh bloody hell - I see I am the same age as his wife of 30 years.
Sigh.
Where was I in 1980????
Sigh.
Oh bugger - I know where I was...
Saving lives in refugee camps in the Thai Cambodian border and being shot at by drunken Thai soldiers.
Double sigh.

* Precis version of old joke:
Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke visited the Vatican and was leaning out a window with the Pope, waving to the crowd.
A couple of Aussies down in the square looked up and asked "Who is that up there with Hawkie?".

Gardening

2010-10-25T12:57:00.000+11:00

This is what the garden looked like 12 months ago:


Garden end October 2009

And THIS is what it looks like now!!!


End October 2010

I can't even get in to it to weed it - there are too many bees in all those weeds (I am REALLY allergic to bee stings ).

You can see that I haven't done too much to the old gate or the bit of netting... How embarrassment!

I need someone to come and help me. Who would like a little holiday in the bush? There are kangaroos and echidnas...

Even the trees in the bush behind look more lush. You can't see as much sky between the branches because there are so many more leaves on them! The understory has been a carpet of lovely wattles - different shades of gold in the greens and greys of the bush.

Anyway, please give me a yell if you would like to come and stay and help me do some gardening - it isnt actually onerous work. The garden bed is quite small really.

See you soon!!!!

Even MORE creativity!!

2010-10-24T08:35:00.000+11:00

This is my sewing chair. It really needs some TLC.

Watch this space! Two projects (that you know of!!!!).

More creativity!

2010-10-23T11:22:00.001+11:00

Yesterday I put a lot of my Sister's Choice blocks together.

Here it is hanging over the balcony.
Now it is up to 8 blocks by 10, the blocks are 8" (finished).
I have another 30 blocks so it is going to end up being 10 blocks by 13 which will make it 80" x 104" - that is a good size!

These are blocks made by my Best Sister, and my friend Trish. And me.
We have been making these and sharing them around for quite a while now.
Here are some more pics. Now each of my three sisters and my two sisters in law have one. Shall have to make one for The Sweetheart's baby sister, too. (She is only 24 (younger than most of our Smellies!) and we have only recently had her back in our lives. SHe is off to Europe in a few weeks so I shall make a Travelling Quilt firstly).

The white dangly bit on the top RH side isn't daggy threads - is the wiring from the sparkly Christmas lights which decorate my chandelier.


Sister's Choice

Getting creative

2010-10-22T13:43:00.000+11:00

I rescued this drawer from my neighbour/cussie's bonfire. I reckon there is a shelf in this bit of kindling:

Upcycling at work!

I can see this with it's back off so the base part will be the front of the shelf and this side (ie the open top part of the shelf) will be against the wall. The bowed front has an overhang which will make a cute bottom shelf.
Might leave the knobs.
Might not.
Some paint. Some pretties...
Just you wait and see!!!

More spring!

2010-10-21T12:37:00.000+11:00

It is really tough to grow anything here - this land was all sluiced in the goldrush days (from the 1850s) and there isn't any topsoil left.
I live right on the edge of the alluvial fields. Only a couple of kms out in the bush there are DEEP shafts - now fenced to stop animals (and people) falling down them. Wouldn't be much fun. I think there are more than a few "missing persons" who could be located down shafts around the district...

I have a great pile of dirt that came from the derelict goat pens that were here when I bought the place. I got the bloke with the bobcat to push it all into a great pile and then let it compost for a few years.
It is now my vege garden.

I had lots of lovely things growing last year but there are too many bees there already for me to start weeding and planting. I have had a couple of cardiac arrests in the last ten years from bee sting reactions. I now carry TWO Epipens but I still live in fear of being stung when I am here alone. Pretty scared of being stung when I am with anyone else, too!!!

Capeweed

Look at my pretty petunias and snapdragons, grown from seed, in a tub by the front door.
There are also irises and some lavender in there which will soon be flowering.
Very pretty. Everything is abuzz with foraging bees. The paddocks are chockers with Capeweed. An awful pest, but it looks so lovely, and smells wonderful!

Spring is here!!!

2010-10-20T21:47:00.001+11:00

Eight years ago I planted a row of lilacs.

These are the first flowers ever. Poor little plant is about a metre tall. This is a tough bit of land to grow anything really...

I thought since I missed the 2010 posting - not by much though :( - that I could post at 20 past 10.
Which would be 20.10.2010 at 10.20.

Stuff it, I can't stay awake any longer...
There is always 10.11.10 at 11.10 (or 10.11)

Look at the date!!!

2010-10-20T20:11:00.002+11:00

And here it is - 20.10.2010! And hopefully I will post this at 2010...
(Buggeries, it ticked over to 2011 as I hit "publish post". All good intentions however...
As usual.
Sigh.

Last weekend was Mt Tarrengower Hill Climb, run by the VSCC (Vintage Sports Car Club of Victoria).
The last couple of years the Sweetheart and I have been Flag Marshalls 'up the hill'. This year we weren't able to be there for the weekend of fun (cos we went to Lake Boga for dinner on Saturday night to celebrate WATER IN THE LAKE!!

Dave Gittus loves his old bikes! He also restores old (and ancient) bikes. And is a great box player - always good to have at a session or party!), and used to be our Mayor.

This photo made it to a great half page spread (IN COLOUR!!!) in the local rag.
ON THE FRONT PAGE!!!!

You can check out more photos of the Hillclimb taken by The Sweetheart here .

This is our good friend John Needham, praying that this MG will have massive gear box failure as it flies up the mountain. Thereby giving him more work...

More stuff!!

2010-10-18T13:57:00.003+11:00

I am beginning to do some creative things to my kitchen.
Lots of my house still needs finishing/renovating/even BUILDING (like the bathroom which is still 'temporary'!). I have written a bathroom blurb here.
The kitchen doesn't have any cupboards in it.
It never did.
Nor a sink.
Not much of a stove even.
My Best Sister brought me a wonderful old four oven Rayburn stove from Tasmania as a house warming present when I first bought the house. The concrete on the floor was put down with not enough cement in it so it is all flaky and dusty. The bathroom and laundry area (10' x 30') was the same but I have ripped that up and laid lovely old red bricks in it's place. I want to do that to this kitchen area too. Just need to get some energy from somewhere!

the left hand drawer of kitchen cupboard

Anyways! I bought a couple of entertainment units. Since everyone (else) in the world has gone crazy for enormous flat screen televisions there is now no call for the sort of cabinets that used to hold a 'normal' telly, along with drawers etc for CDs, DVDs, videos and all those other useless bits of wiring, remotes, waranty docs and manuals. I have one pine unit which will fit snugly into the pantry, and this one as a bar in the kitchen.

This cabinet has a pull-out drawer shelf at either end (see top photo) which had a couple of vertical boards with plastic thingies to hold DVDs and CDs. So I pulled them out, and cut the timber into lengths to make them into horizontal shelves, and nailed them in.

useful drawers full of jasmine

Just totally perfect for herbs and spices, and all the small things that get lost in a big cupboard.
The centre has two doors that fold back into the unit with another unit inside with shelves where the TV and DVD player etc sat, and more drawers.

interior of kitchen cupboard

One of the Woods Ware Jasmine plates (cups and saucers, jugs, bowls, whatever) which is tucked away in the bottom drawers and shelves of my new unit.

the Wood's Ware Jasmine china I collect

The answer is 42. Painted on 10.10.10 - 101010 or XXX

On October 10 I made this painting to celebrate 10/10/10. There are 10 x 3 hearts cut from handmade Japanese papers, as well as three x 10, and three x X. Somewhere in there is perhaps going to be a shadowy 42 because in binary 101010 is 42! There are bits of gold leaf as well as a warm and cold cream (ha ha not Ponds...), and metallic sparkly paints. It is a long time since I painted. I think I shall have to do more of it (I need the practice for starters!)

Teddy, and a barbie - with new clothes

I have also been knitting dolls' clothes. And teddy clothes. This is my poor old Bare Bear who I have had since newborn. He is called Bare Bear because when I was three I threw him in the copper when Mum was washing clothes and all his fluffy mohair fur fell out...These are the first clothes he has had since I took him out of the nightie Nana made for Uncle Ernie 89 years ago. Still got that little nightgown, too! I have made a lot of barbie doll clothes, and even smaller knitted ones for a couple of tiny teddies who are about the right scale for the doll's house I am making (see below!). The tiny garments are knitted from one play tapestry wool on 1.5mm needles. I have also made some blankets for the doll's house beds in fine crochet silk, and the one ply wool. Good fun - fiddly but achievable when I am feeling tired!

doll's house bed with knitted blankets

OH look!!! a tiny doll's bed with knitted bedding! Next plan is a weeny small patchwork quilt using fine Liberty cottons and some silks I have stashed away!

This is a smaller scale doll's house that I have been making for years! It was a rather crude kit I bought in San Francisco when the boys were little. I put some of it together with their help a long time ago, and then put it away as it was rather too fiddly for little boys...

cutie pie doll's house and furniture I am making (yep that is a quilt!)

Some of the other furniture there is from the weekly installment doll's house I am currently putting together.
The quilt hanging behind is one I bought in SF back in the 1980s. It is hand stitched reverse applique and made by Hmong refugees who had gone to live in America from northern Thailand/Laos.

Tiny Teddy's new clothes

The very small teddy with his new cable knit jumper and woolly shorts! That is a dressing gown on the needles.
The patterns are from the booklets that came with the weekly edition packs. We started buying this back about 1997 - it was supposed to be 100 weekly installments costing $10 each. Then it wandered up to $14 or $15, and to even monthly intervals. AND THEN - when it got to 100 installments it kept going for another 25 installments...

It took YEARS to collect!

All up these five boxes of kit must have cost about $1,500 (I could have had a REAL bathroom for that price!). Sadly - or surprisingly! - I am missing only one installment (somewhere in the mid 50s). It is the one that has quilting in the booklet, too. I don't know what part of the house is missing.

Below is a photo of the booklet front page. It was developed by Del Prado, originally it seems from Spain, but then from the UK. Each installment came with a part of the house, instructions on how to construct said part, and a 6 or 8 page booklet that went together to compile a whole book about all sorts of aspects of dolls' house stuff.
Sometimes the wooden bit would be a chair, or a dresser, or half a wardrobe with the other half the following week (fortnight....month...sigh), or a piece of wall, floor, ceiling. Absolutely impossible to construct really until all the pieces were acquired!

Fortunately I DID get a ring binder with separators for each of the construction instructions to keep them orderly.
However, all the other bits are supposed to go into binders to make into about 6 different books. Don't have them, haven't been able to source them online either.
Nor did we get the transformer for the electricals - lighting etc. But that is probably cos it would have been different wiring or even voltage if it originated in Spain. But do have all the tiny light fittings and bulbs etc.

Cover of doll's house booklet

The bottom right hand house is similar to the one I am making. Mine has a narrower hallway in the centre rather than rooms, is two storied with two more rooms in the attic.

So far I have got the bottom left hand room done, and the downstairs hall as well as some of the dear little furniture. It is really lovely silly fun!

right side with new shelves

Oh will you just look at that!
Here is the photo from the top of the page that I thought was lost!
I am not going to risk trying to relocate it again...
This is the right hand pullout drawer/shelf unit. That is the pantry door in the background, and the sink is to the right, lounge area to the left on the other side of the unit.
It is high, high enough to lean on whilst entertaining guests on the other side and I am on the working side creating a meal!

And cheap as chips.
I bought this on eBay for about $80. It was a craftsman-built unit, solid timber as well as classy veneer (not crappy chipboard and plastic!) - weighs a tonne!

I thought I was immensely clever to think of upcycling one of those redundant units (or two of them really!).

Apologies if this is difficult to read and with a messier than messy layout. Suck it up. Next entry will be better I promise - I am at The Sweetheart's on the eccentric notebook to add insult to injury!

Some stuff

2010-10-14T14:45:00.004+11:00

Some of what I have been up to recently....

There was a great tree, far too close to the house because the ground was "heaving" around it. (Technical term used by the tree surgeon who came to look at it).
Here is the tree LOOMING over the house, and the water tanks.

Every time I came home I would turn the corner at the end of the road and look to see if I could still spy the blue triangle of the end of the roof!
It is about 12 metres to the first branches.

This is the "heaving" ground. Not very comforting. Eucalypts have very shallow root systems, they spread out on the surface with no great tap roots to hold them to the centre of the earth. Furthermore, the last ten years have been dreadfully dry droughty years, so all the trees are under stress. We have had some good rains this winter - the best in ten years in fact - but too late for many trees. There are lots which have fallen in recent months.

And then Wesley, the tree surgeon cutting in to the lovely big tree. He cut down three for me, the two others were looming over Outer Bungolia and the house but smaller than this one, and destined for firewood.

Here is the yellow gum lying down. It is 9 metres long, and tapers from 800mm to 650mm along the length.

Wesley said it would be "a shame" to burn it for firewood, as there is a house full of timber in it. How amazing is that?! Even if it only is an Outer Bungolia full of timber I shall be happy.

I am still looking for someone who has a portable mill who will be able to cut it into useful timber for me to use.

And that is one of the things that has occupied me lately!

(and ignore silly text change too - in case I haven't been able to fix that either...another sigh!)

About time!!!

2010-10-10T11:39:00.007+11:00

It seems an appropriate date to start blogging again - 10/10/10.
I should have got started earlier and posted this at 10 a.m. as well. However, we were watching the beginning of the Bathurst 1000...and when the Sweetheart raced there, too!

I am so sorry to have left the last post hanging - and so long ago, too.
Everything is now fine, it wasn't so bad back then either. Got through all the gyny-oncologist stuff with flying colours. Actually, the colours were rather drab and murky, but things is now good, am beginning to feel human again.

I got out of the blogging habit over winter. Lots of lovely curling up in bed with good books - and not so good books, lots more of knitting (tiny dolls clothes - they are achievable!) in front of the telly and a fair bit of being at my sweetie bloke's place. (And not JUST because he has instant heating either...).

I shall have to not only get back in to a blogging habit, but to learn all the new things that Blogger seems to have come up with whilst I was hibernating!

Thanks for your patience - I shall now be back in force!PS - Just went off to see if I could edit the time to make it look like I actually was on here at 10 a.m. but decided either a) it going to be too difficult or b) I am not really good at lyin' and cheatin'!

What? Where? Who???

2010-04-23T11:26:00.000+10:00

I know - another week has slid past me and you haven't heard from me.
Sorry.

What happened?

On Saturday we went to the footie to see Gisborne get thrashed by South Bendigo.
This is a shot by The Sweetheart so you can see what sort of football we play in Australia. It is like running two marathons - not a great big interchange bench like in gridiron, and far far more ball contact that soccer. Look at that score - how disappointing for Gissie!!!!

At half time all the little kids - children and grandchildren of players and supporters - get out on the oval and play kick to kick with their little footballs. Look at this little bloke, he is still in nappies!!!

And then life got interesting with a sort of streaker. Some bloke on a buck's turn in a mankini.

Who says looking like Borat isn't a good look?
That isn't a bad looking arse, is it?
He just did alittle dash out onto the oval and then a u-turn and back over the boundary fence where he was met by all his mates. I don't know that too many people even got to see him.
The Sweetheart grabbed this shot - good job he had the big lens on, we wouldn't have been able to see this if I had used my little camera...

I need some help identifying this plant.

And I thought I planted snake beans in the garden, but instead these things have happened. They came up in a creeepery-vine which fooled me into thinking they were beans.
The leaves are heart shaped and the flowers are tiny little white ones that look like a solanum, there are then berries that rapidly dry to a paper casing with three of four dark triangulate seeds in them.

And the seeds smell a bit yucky. Not a pleasant spice smell, but a bit nasty.

I have the feeling I should be ripping them all out cos I am betting those seeds will germinate and the whole world will be covered in them by next summer.

Any help with identification would be great - maybe I have something new and exotic that will be useful to the world. I know what bean seeds look like so am pretty sure that is what I planted...

You can get some idea of the scale with the seeds on the crossword. They are little pods, only as big as my little finger nail.

And then I made a peach chocolate cinnamon cake.

I just made up the recipe, drained tinned peaches on the base of the square cake tin, 2 cups of dark brown sugar thrashed to death with 250 grams of butter, added 4 eggs, and 2 cups SR flour sifted with a few spoonfuls of lovely Dutch cocoa and a tablespoon of cinnamon, along with the juice from the peaches. Cooked for about 35 mins at 350* - possibly should have been a bit shorter time as it dried out a bit around the edges, but nothing that a slathering of cream couldn't fix.

I think it would be nicer with some ground ginger in with it as well.
Next one...

I am knitting a jumper for The Sweetheart, 2 different cables one with a 12 row repeat, the other 24 rows, and in alpaca and wool variegated. I did a lot of mumbled countings, and unpicking rows and stitches for the first few days, but now I have done three and a half pattern repeats and am getting the hang of it. Sort of. It is beginning to look like something is happening now.
This is the first time I ever knitted anything for someone bigger than me. And the last time I knitted something for me was 1984 when I was pregnant with S3. Still have it. The good thing of polyester wools - they NEVER wear out...
Photos to come.

And have re-arranged my bedroom, spray painted some old lamp bases (one wooden candlestick one is now black satin and the other - formerly lolly pink girlie op-shopped china is now glossy Chinese red) and redid shades to make it all look sparky new there. And a really awful op-shopped plastic mirror frame that was brown and tan but is now satin black, and looks like finely carved wood.
Photos to come.

Yesterday my tall fiddling friend Andrew Clermont (or on Myspace, or just google him for all osrts of mentions!) dropped by with two of his musician friends (Parvi and Josh), they had lovely-to-listen-to rehearsals, showers, and an early dinner before heading to Melbourne for a few gigs.
Last night at The Lomond where S3 was co-incidentally working (because of the extra crowds because of the famous performer coming!) and then to stay with S4. A very early morning gig at The Hyatt in Melbourne and another at a school in Melbourne and then back here to play at The Maldon Hotel tonight. It is always delightful to catch up with him,and to spend time checking out the latest photos - he does wonderful slide shows on his iBook. The latest was a fabulous trip through Spain and Portugal in the last few weeks with his darling Bettina who is an extraordinary artist in Berlin. Check out her website to be impressed!!!

Wednesday night my lovely GP phoned to tell me that I failed dismally the Pap Test I had the other day.
Eighteen months ago I had 'low grade abnormalities' and had to see an oncologist-gynaecologist in Melbourne.
I was supposed to have another Pap Test after 12 months but last November was getting to Christmas and was a busy time. And besides they aren't the most fun things I ever do. Another besides, because of my naughty clotting factor I also bleed, and I quite like being menopausal and not bleeding. It hurts on top of all that. All very good excuses for procrastinating.
So back to see that nice o-g woman at the Royal Women's for another colposcopy and cone biopsy. Sigh...

I am a bit depressed about it all, really. A fuck it - am REALLY pissed off actually. And scared and worried. The only positive is that nobody in our family has ever had any sort of girlie cancer.

Better to to town and buy more food.
xxxx

Dad's Clothes...

2010-04-16T14:57:00.000+10:00

Bruce Watson is a wonderful singer and songwriter here in Australia. And overseas, too. Sometimes overseas - he and his wife also have Just The Four Boys so they don't do the overseas bit as much as they want - or as much as they will when all the boys leave their nest!
Check out all about him here on his Myspace page.

He has a really great song about sorting through his father's belongings after he passed away. "Dad's Clothes" has been on my mind a lot this week.
On Sunday we went through The Sweetheart's Dad's stuff, and sorted who gets what.

"We sorted through Dad’s clothes today
Working out just who gets what, and what
we’d throw away...
Sifting through
the sifting sands of our family
We cried a little, we laughed a lot
Telling stories of the things we got
Telling
stories of the things we got
We didn’t know just what we’d find
Old fashioned
ties – and ties that bind
We sorted through Dad’s clothes today..."

You can find the whole song on that Myspace link, right hand side of the page and scroll through the songs until you find it and have a listen to it.

Dad had lots of stuff. And only two sons and a daughter to spread it around to...

His family history things that are going to a cousin as she is writing it all up.
Except for his war medals - The Sweetheart as the eldest son got them.

There were some paintings by Granma Inez - a stunning one on ivory of an ancestor painted 'from life in 1912' according to the inscription on the back of the frame.

And some lovely pottery. Dad was a really talented potter - he studied in Japan in the 1970s under some of the great Living Treasure potters, and had a lot of exhibitions over the years. A couple of years ago he told me he had worked out he had made over 40,000 pieces over the years. In which case we have bloody little to show for it all!!!! Only the leftovers that hadn't sold.

Four garbage bags of clothes - Pringle tshirts (silky and shiny and lovely to wear - ask me how I know this); and Ralph Lauren shirts and pants (including a rather loud pair of tartan trews), and a box of silk ties - mostly Italian hand made designer sorts of things, and some still in their wrappings. Jackets - pure wool as soft and tactile as silk and suede, and melton. Hats - a Stetson, and a Panama and a real boater.
And a German wool jacket and hat - the sort of thing you see every Sunday in Bavaria for Sunday Best.

And it all got divided up between the "kids" with some treasures to be divided between their kids.

All very sad really. A whole life relegated to memories. And worse - "where did THIS come from????"...
I have washed all the clothes and taken off his name tags. There is a great mountain of wonderful fine cotton shirts (he was very structured with his wardrobe - they are either variations of blue or of red) to make into a quilt. There are lovely linen trousers that one of my boys will wear cos for them they don't have the "old man" associations that Pop's clothes have for his grandsons. And I reckon S3 will DIE for that Bavarian coat with it's embroidery and the cute hat.
It looks like THIS and the hat like THIS but of course not a cheap crappy party one but a real one.

I haven't got any photos as I left my camera at home, so you will have to just imagine all the rest. Though not to difficult to imagine Ralph Lauren shirts (though you might do a cat cough cough furball thing on those tartan dacks. They are so awful they are almost worth wearing. Not me - one of those Smellies I reckon).

Going home now, and I am going to STAY there - got far too much to do there really. And spending far too much time doing stuff here...

Funny funny boys!!! And a good site!

2010-04-14T12:11:00.000+10:00

This girlie Mandi has a delightful blog about all the creativities she is having fun with in her home.

And funniest are the little side bits where she has notes of things that her little boys say.
Example:
Jamison (making a Christmas card):" Mom, how do you spell Horz?" (sounds just like Whores),
Me: "What??"
" I want to say 'ho' 'ho' ho' but I want to call them ho-ers."
Me:"Um you can't call them that."
Jamison: "Fine. How do you spell 'Merry Christmas, Ho's!' ?"

There are lots of them.
It is a good idea to write down the cute and funny things your kids say cos sure as eggs there will be too many of them for you to remember when they get old and sensible...

And did I mention she does really good stuff with her decor on the cheap? I want one of those little electric sanders she has. And wouldn't a nail gun be really really USEFUL? And then I would have to borrow The Sweetheart's compressor. No big deal.

Oh, oh, oh, isn't it Mother's Day SOON???????????????????

Op Shop Treasures!!!!

2010-04-10T14:09:00.000+10:00

I have been op shopping again.

Got to love when you get a table full for $40. Oh, plus another $20 for the analog lawnmower I bought for S2 to whip that new lawn in Albury into shape.

Could get him this t shirt...

Anyways, here are the treasures I got this week cluttering up the table!

I love the shape of this hand blown glass. Want more please.

A hand blown elegant jug, and a couple more of those 1940's pressed glass dishes with the warts of glass on them.

Some more glasses - champagne? Parfait? Two sizes in pretty smoky colours.

Two silver goblets, heavy and lush, a parfait spoon (woo hoo - now I have TWO) and a silver teaspoon, and a light weight silver plate.

A pretty blue glass for my friend Wendy who has a collection on her bathroom window sill.

More glass, a silver bud vase (specimen vase), a bamboo vase/pot, a heavy REAL steel cake tin with sewing goodies - zippers, bias binding, old lace, and some sparkles for 50 year olds (three packets of them! Happy 50th birthdays Lew and Flossy!!!).

Lots of material - 2 metres each of glorious green raw silk, and African looking hand blocked red and green cotton, and a bundle of furnishing fabric scraps, couple of metres of each (and the op shop woman said "Bits of left over old material, how about 50 cents the lot?"...)

A stunning book, not (definitely not!) a children's book - In The Kingdom of Mescal with fabulous illustrations. On the back cover are some brass curtain rings, and a very elegant bottle opener, a silver buckle, and some beads that could be resin or they could be amber...

Some spice jars with tin lids and a very ugly wooden holder, one missing but useful for beads I reckon. A glass cloche (or perhaps it is meant to be up the other way with a candle but I prefer it in cloche fashion), and a really interesting and really ugly PLASTIC mirror that will look fine when it is sprayed a different colour (not black which is all I have ATM). Some patterns to make things perhaps for Moo, and an old 1960's hostess gown frock pattern (with "Mum's" written on it) and only, oddly, the sleeve pattern used...

How good is this lot of stuff? Now to get back to remaking the curtains and Roman blinds my neighbour rescued from A Famous Person's skip a few weeks back - he brought me a car full ,stuffed around his work gear, and there were ten times as many left to go to the tip. People are so wasteful I reckon. Thankfully...

What happened @ Easter...

2010-04-09T19:29:00.003+10:00

On Good Friday we went to Albury and stayed with S2 and his Beloved again. They have done lots of things since we were there last (the weekend before!) including digging out all the weeds from their patch of lawn and reseeding it, planting LOTS of seeds and plants in their vege garden, and getting on with their guitar lessons...

On Saturday we headed north.

We played submarines in Holbrook, and a nice Kiwi woman from Gisborne took our photo at The Dog on the Tuckerbox at Gundagai.

Then on to Bathurst where we met up with TWO Axe Murderers, and staying with one!

Christine is on the LHS of this photo in her studio, and we stayed in her wonderful home.
The most beautiful place we have ever stayed.
There are more photos after this, but just picture a 19th century workmen's brick cottage, semi detached, but instead of a dark passage to access the rooms a wide sunroom with the rooms opening off it with internal windows and glass paned doors. And then filled with flowers, quilts, beautiful old furniture, and wonderful food smells!

And that is Del on the RHS of the photo above. She came around for a moment to see what I looked like and we didn't stop talking for three hours!!!

This is where we went on Sunday, me in the 'truck' as Pit Crew and The Sweetheart getting ready to scare the living daylights out of himself! AS I mentioned in this post we were there to have a lovely fun time on what is The Mountain of Australian Motor Racing. I don't think it is very often used for club racing - mostly it is The Big Boys with all their money and sponsored hot cars that get to run around here.

The Festival of Sporting Cars was a wonderful event!

This is The Sweetheart in our dear Little Red Car, lined up on the Dummy Grid. He had enormous fun, with a top speed of 200 kph down the straight on his runs.

He leapt from the car at the end of each run absolutely GLOWING!!!

This is the hotel where we stayed Sunday and Monday nights. It is right on the track with all the rooms opening onto balconies overlooking the track, the other side of the hotel has all the service rooms. Our room was on the second floor just in front of Armorall.

That cloud of dust is someone giving themselves an almighty scare. Nobody was hurt and only a couple of cars out of the field of 600+ were a bit bent over the entire weekend. A wonderful record!!

The whole event was organised and run by volunteers from all around the country - members of various car clubs. They all did a wonderful job - everything from flag marshalling to timing and just being helpful. This country really would be rooted if it wasn't for volunteers...

We packed up on Tuesday afternoon, getting Little Red onto the trailer just as the rain started, and headed for home.
The very first hill out of Bathurst the trailer started driving the car - it was a very greasy road. I started yelping and essentially didn't stop stressing for 15 hours. We DID stop for a snooze in a truck stop out of Wodonga for 2.5 hours but didn't get home until 5 a.m. I am still a *bit* tired...

However, it was a wonderful weekend, and a great experience. However, NEXT Easter we are going back to the National Folk Festival in Canberra - The Sweetheart can do My Thang!!!

That 10,000th visitor...?

2010-04-09T10:07:00.000+10:00

A little while back the 10,000th visitor to here came along and I am offering a prize to that person. But they aren't a bloggie person and therefore don't have any contact details.
Check here if you were in Little Rock on April 1st (not an April Fool's Joke) and let me know for a little surprise!
Otherwise, I shall just wait till the 20,000th person has a squizz...

Easter fun!!!!

2010-04-01T13:37:00.000+11:00

This is what The Sweetheart does for fun.

Sometimes scary fun.

For example, a couple of years ago he set fire to his other Porsche on the race track.

He didn't mean to, of course.

An oil line burst onto the engine and suddenly there was smoke all through the cabin and the duco rose up about a foot in a great big bubble and he screeched in to the curb with the firies screaming "Open the bonnet" cos they had forgotten to put their gloves on...

We know this because The Sweetheart had his video camera on board. But he wont put it on Youtube otherwise I would point you to it...he is a bit embarrassed about it actually.

Of course, when the cold foam hit the hot bits of metal there was a scientific experiment.

Yep - the head cracked.

He has still to find a replacement head that isn't also cracked. He bought one from America at great expense to management but it turned out to be also cracked (and the bloke said it wasn't when he had it...?). It is just about ready though. For me.

This weekend, in fact for all of Easter, we are heading to Bathurst to Mt Panorama Racetrack. It is a great race track, very famous for the Bathurst 1000 which is held in October each year.

And this year, The Sweetheart is fanging around the track and I am Pit Crew. We leave tomorrow, and scrutineering is on Sunday morning, we fang around till Tuesday lunch-time. It is just club racing, not for profit, and all the Porsche Clubs around the country will be there, so we will make lots of new friends!

How much fun will this be!!!

And I took that photo of Little Red tip-toeing at Sandown racetrack. I am pretty proud that I managed to get that front tyre for the split second it was in mid-air!

AND THE WINNER IS...

2010-04-01T12:18:00.001+11:00

I went through double blind hoops to pick the winner of my quilt,

Firstly, I edited the list of comments, taking out the duplicates and the oops ones etc.
There were 88 entries.

So then I wrote 1 to 88 on a piece of paper, and cut them apart.

Mixed them up and laid them out randomly in rows of 15.

IE, number 1 on this random list is number 2 on the written list, number 2 here is number 41 on the written list, etc.

And I used a Random Number Generator here and tried to take a pic of it to add here but it isn't working. And it looks like I picked a number between 1 and 100 on this clip, but I did use 88!

(This isn't allowing me to post and I suspect it is the RNG pic that I added here so I am removing it and hoping this will then become a blog entry...)

And number 49 on the RNG equates to number 52 on my original list.
Is this double blind enough, d'you reckon?

And that is Cindy from Chilliwack, British Colombia.
Her blog is http://imagine-dream-create.blogspot.com/

I have emailed her to let her know she will be a tad warmer this winter!

And this is what the quilt is beginning to look like. Still has to have borders, and still to be quilted. That will happen as soon as I get a day that looks a bit like mine and nobody else's...

Testing, testing...1, 2, 3 ...

2010-04-01T12:04:00.000+11:00

I am trying to announce the winner, and Bloggy is going Silly.

This is a test.

Ignore it. Except to say that the winner has been picked, and notified, and it wasn't you if you are still looking cos otehrwise you would know by now.
Sorry.

AND A BONUS WINNER!!!

2010-04-01T10:46:00.001+11:00

There is a bonus winner here, too.

I just had my 10,000th tourist dropping in for a look!

So if you are from Little Rock AR and were checking me out last evening your time, and half an hour ago my time (!) please leave a comment with a contact detail and I will send you something yummy.

Probably another quilt...

And don't be naughty and pretend to be from Little Rock cos I will know who you are. Don't forget - I SLEEP with my Internet Provider. I know all the behind the scenes tricks!

And also - thank you so very much for following me, and reading my ramblings, and for all the lovely comments over the last 13 months. I do enjoy sharing little bits of my life this way.

My Blogaversary Give-away is finishing!!!!

2010-04-01T10:18:00.000+11:00

I am about to close my Blogaversary Give-away!

I wrote an entry last night to say it was closing at midnight our time but then something went wrong with my net and I couldn't.
So that is the Quilt Fairies way of telling me to give you all a bit more time, I reckon!

It will close at midnight GMT - another 45 minutes or thereabouts - you can find out the time in London here:
http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/

If you haven't already entered please head on over to:
http://banaghaisge.blogspot.com/2010/03/blogaversary-give-away.html
and you may just be in the running!!

Some yearnings

2010-03-31T16:07:00.002+11:00

I have a few little shakers of various types - a silver sugar caster, and some salt shakers. I put my cinnamon in one so I can shake it in a nice fashion over my yoghurt, honey and mango.

But isn't this a rather yummy looking little cupboard and an even lovelier collection!
It belongs to quilt designer Anne Sutton and I found it on The All People Quilt site.

It is a site filled with all sorts of time-wasting pages...
Oh, and you can sign up so they will send you some more ideas every week thereby causing even more time to vanish.

You were warned.

I think this is also from the same place (ie BH&G All People Quilt). I deleted the link so I can't totally credit it, and another day will vanish if I go looking for it...

ThANK YOU Susie!!! She found the link to the quilt:

http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/antiquequilts/antique-quilts_ss2.html

Click on it to have a good look!!

But it is an old (1930's era) quilt in the top photo and a modern reproduction underneath.

I like the brighter old quilt much better. The modern quilt looks gloomy I reckon.

Very cute little Nine Patches with that curved sort of sashing in between the blocks.
Be a good setting if you had a collection of Nine Patches from a swap.
Especially if they were tiny blocks...

This is a really nice idea for my bathroom.
REALLY nice!

I will post some photos of my current bathroom one day. When I get brave enough to show you.
It is a temporary bathroom. It isn't going to be temporary forever. If it was then it wouldn't be temporary, would it?

I DO really like the idea of a quilted tiled bathroom, however.

Shall have to collect more old tiles. I have some lovely old blue and white antique ones that have been around here for a long time. So this is an idea I have had for about 20 years. I haven't even had a temporary bathroom for anywhere near that long!

Incidentally - have you noticed how much easier it all is to post now? Blogger Fairies have been even busier whilst I was busy last week and done all sorts of lovely things.
It is so much quicker to post and edit - look at uploading photos for starters!
However, I am still getting used to what it looks like. My Preview hasn't turned out like the original posting looks and I came back to re-edit and it is just getting even more all over the place.

Better finished that perfect. My quilts are like that.

Life...

2010-03-30T12:28:00.001+11:00

Life... We would be a bit stuffed if we didn't have Life but geez it DOES get in the way sometimes.

This past week has been so busy.

Dad's funeral was on Wednesday.
Here we are (some of us) at the pub for a little wake after. There are a lot of boys on that side of the family!
Got to meet The Sweetheart's little sister for the first time (she isn't in the photo). Of course the family have known her marginally but she wasn't really a big part of this side of the family. Seems to have been actively discouraged from knowing her Dad.
She is only 23 - Dad remarried when he was 65...
She is gorgeous, tall and with a smile that lights her face and half the world - even though she was so distraught at the funeral for the Dad she never got to know. And she is living in Melbourne, last year at University (Industrial Design which is what my Baby Brother studied. And at the same place, too).

On Thursday The Beezs came back to visit. They had a gig on Friday night at The Palais in Hepburn Springs which unfortunately turned acoustic when The Palais sound system went very ill. They were fabulous though and JUST what we both needed to cheer us up after a sad week.
They stayed a few days before heading to their last gig in Australia for this tour. They will be back in 2012. I shall let you know when their next gig is. Or check their website for Northern Hemisphere dates.

I got up one morning and Trevor seemed to be missing. Then he poked his little head out from a nest he had made in the couch cushions. Right in between them.
That dog certainly is a worry!
He did look very sweet however.

And look at that Chook cushion. She is wearing purple Doc Martens like I do and has a secret pocket in her wing that sometimes has treasures in it...Easter eggs for example.

Then Saturday we drove four hours to Albury to have a housewarming party for S2 and his Beloved. And it was also my Biggest Little Brother's 50th birthday. S2 and his Beloved cooked a great meal and we ate and had a lovely time. Except I forgot to take all my lovely drugs and found just how effective those pain killers are. Even panadeine every couple of hours didn't do anything nice for me. Got home last night and immediately gobbled my dose. Can't believe how much pain they do indeed kill!

Three quilts went north - a Housewarming Quilt for S2 and his Beloved, and a Birthday Quilt for my darling handsome Bro, and another Quilt that S2 made when he was 18. Actually, they are only tops so far...

The photos for all that partying etc are on The Sweetheart's camera, and we shall have to wait until he downloads and sends them to me. I will add them later. Or sooner...

Got back Sunday afternoon in time to watch the Australian Grand Prix - poor Mark Webber, when is he ever going to have a proper podium? Or ten would be even better...

I am going to close my Blogaversary Give-away tomorrow night (Eastern Aussie D.S. Time) so hop in for it if you haven't entered

2010-03-22T18:16:00.002+11:00

I got this idea from my friend Lisette at Textile Seahorse
Do have a look at her blog - she does such very clever textile creations.
Such an easy entry when my mind is otherwise occupied!

Watching :: my step
Reading :: just about everything - get 15 books each week from the library, half of them junk food for the brain, the rest are highly nutritious
Making :: my mind up (often...)
Eating :: icecream, mixed berries, red jelly, King Island cream and crumbled meringue on top.
Feeling :: sad about Dad dying yesterday
Thinking :: thinking about his amazing first 15 years at the Paris End of Collins st with a famous artist creative mother
Hoping :: I find more photos of her like this one
Wondering :: how Dad managed to have two war records with slightly different names and slightly different birthdates (added an "N" and changed his birth year from 1922 to 1920 but same next of kin details et al!!!
Hearing :: Melbourne International Comedy Festival on the telly in the background
Liking :: my life! A lot!!
Wanting :: to be sewing...

Very sad

2010-03-21T12:32:00.004+11:00

Today is a very sad day.
The Sweetheart's Dad passed away at 11 this morning.
He went into Epworth Hospital yesterday morning after a few little T.I.A.s but this was not at all expected.

This is when I wrote about him on ANZAC Day last year, at the bottom of that entry about the other soldiers in my family.

And this is the quilt I made for him last year when he moved in to Happy Paddocks. He had it on his bed all the time, but hidden under the bedspread as he was so worried somebody might steal it. But he showed everyone so the whole world knew where it was anyway!

Here he is with The Sweetheart and my brother-in-law at his 88th birthday party in January. The BIL is such a pest - here he is pulling Dad's whiskers...

This is the entry for Dad's birthday with a little bit about him.

My Dad died when I was 17, he had been ill for ten years before he died (Multiple Myeloma) which meant I was really very young when he was last a healthy fathering man.
I have so missed having a Dad in my life for most of it. The Sweetheart's Dad was a bloke who certainly lived life to the full. (And then some!). Yep, he had a good innings...

I am going off to have a little think, and a cuppa tea, and then drive to Melbourne.

St Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T12:44:00.000+11:00

I celebrated St Pat's Day by getting a gastro thing and feeling very very GREEN.
About as green as Ireland in this lovely photo of my DDIL. S2 took this last year at Bunratty Castle whilst they were having a mid-summer break from busy old Dublin.
There are more of her photos here at her gallery.

And so I have just been wallowing in between self-pity and the bathroom and my bed this week and have done very little else.
Feeling much better now, and have even retained something in my poor innards - dried bikkies and lots of fluids - but it is a start.

Nothing has been done on blogaversary quilt, neither quilting it, or picking a winner. So it is still open for entries!

I hope everyone else had a blast this week for St Patrick's Day - even if you aren't Irish!

More op shop treasure!!!

2010-03-13T16:15:00.008+11:00

And I found some more op shop treasure at The Salvos in Albury!!!
This is four panels that had been hand sewn into curtains, so really easy to pull apart. Each piece of material is about 2 metres long, lovely 1960's print I guess.
In all 8 metres of material for $6...

Just look at these mad statues of liberty, space capsules, astronauts, and all with luscious lime green and hot pink accents!!!
Think this will just HAVE to be a 1960's frock for next summer:

And this is S2 with Trevor sucking up to him. He thinks Trevor is depressed, so he cuddles him and says "Are you sad, Dear Little Dog?" and the DLD gazes soulfully at S2 and snuggles in and sighs "Yes I am, but less so when you cuddle me. Don't stop"....

The quilt is a couch quilt for The Sweetheart's lounge room...

Quilts

2010-03-13T15:57:00.005+11:00

I took some photos of quilts I have made for S2 over the years.

This was for his 18th birthday. It was half square triangles and a charm pack of plaids, lovely gold and Jinny Beyer borders:

And then his 21st which was hexagons made from 60* triangles, but with two strips of orange and turquoise sewn together. I used the hexagons with orange centres for the front of the quilt, and the turquoise centres for the reverse and the borders. From memory about 30 - or more - of each colour, the oranges range from almost pink through to gold at the other end of the spectrum. And the turquoises range from pale blues through to almost indigo.

This is the reverse. I had the shakes when I first slashed the large hexagon!

This was their first house warming quilt which I made before they went overseas:

I shall have to go digging through my archives to find a photo of their Wedding Quilt. This is a good start, however!

I can't believe how much quilting I did on them. Back in the olden days before I got ill and when I had far more energy...

Time flies

2010-03-12T20:52:00.005+11:00

I have been away doing all sorts of things.
Last weekend was Labour Day long weekend. To celebrate the 8 hour day everyone in Victoria takes a holiday...

We went to Mitta Mitta to visit my brother and sister in law at their wonderful Witches Garden.
This past weekend was extremely rainy - a remnant of a couple of cyclones that have been wandering around the northern parts of Australia. So warm(ish) tropical rain bucketing down. We drove up in the rain to the Dartmouth Dam because it was too wet to do anything else:

And look at the rain pouring down the spillway cuttings (been years since there was water over the spillway from the dam, sadly) into the Mitta River:

Same as last year - the Might Mitta Muster was on. (Check out the link for last year's photos in the sunshine!).
Because of the rain all the woodchop events were cancelled, and many of the horse events too. There was a clever young bloke with a pile of whips he had made himself, and he was thrashing them around his ears, and around the ears of anyone who was brave (silly) enough to be his 'assistant'. What looks like smoke is the rainwater evaporating off the ends of his whips at the speed of sound as he cracks them:

And THEN I stayed on for a few days and helped my S2 and his darling move into their new home in Albury. This was some of the 1/3 truckload of boxes that had been in storage for the five years they have been working in Europe, and also some of the treasures they air-freighted home from Dublin. It was like Christmas for them, discovering all sorts of delights:

The bride is wearing her hen's night veil with the red devil horns...
All those boxes are now unpacked and their contents tucked away in their right places. It seems the only thing that got smashed along the way was the Man of Steel tin (sorry about the blurry pic - I was laughing too hard at this symbol of irony):

Tomorrow I shall post some pics of the quilts I have made for them and that I not only got to take photos of but GOT TO WASH (one was for his 18th birthday, the other for his 21st. Only one of them had been washed. EVER. He is now 33... And he lived under them all through 5 years at Uni. They were pretty stinky...)