2paw

Lady Caroline La(m)b

Thank goodness The Ribbet has a Red Eye fix, or in my case a White Eye fix, because The Labradors' photo made them look mad, bad and dangerous to know. After their tea they decided to play rowdy games in the quite hard rain and in the dark. The Game also necessitated running inside, around the house, and then back out again.

After Byron threw Lady Caroline Lamb over, he married, and his daughter Ada was the woman who worked with Babbage on his computer. I wonder if I knew that and had forgotten? I think I did.

Earlier this week on our walk I was patting Peri and Gilly when I realised there were too many legs: Sandy had appeared out of nowhere. He is so strong, and the hill so slippery and gravelly, his dad lets him off the lead and we usually hear him thundering like a horse towards us. The wet ground must have absorbed the sound.

I've finished The Walk Mittens. I am not sure I need buttons and loops. I'll see. I made a little pop-top for the right thumb. It works well enough. I have torn both my thumb nails about half a centimetre down from the top at the edge. It must have been the cold snap and not wearing rubber gloves enough. I am nursing them along with nail glue and tiny squares of tea bag material. I've noticed that when I click on Popular Posts on Bloglovin' they are mostly fashion, and nail polish. I am not a nail polish person, I am too gung ho and chip it after five minutes, but most of the popular world is nail polish obsessed it seems.

Sadly, it hasn't been cold enough to wear my mittens, but I have been knitting away on the back of Dreamy Vision (Aislinn) I am going to attempt short row shoulders. I love the way it is looking, nice and long and such a nice green. I'll be ready to start a sleeve tomorrow. I knit a sleeve and a back to check how much wool I will need. The pattern says about 1859m, but so far I've only used 400m for the back so I may need less.

Today I wore my sleeveless Pear dress to Leukaemia Support Group. It did rain and turn dark and cold later on, but I'm pleased to be getting so much mileage out of my dresses. And speaking of dresses, my Sew Serendipity patterns arrived from the US is eleven days. That's right, eleven days. Excellent service, and great communication. I am very happy.

In other complimentary news, Nestles has thoughtfully put a little hemispherical dip in the lid of their condensed milk so that when you slip your thumb under the ring pull, there is extra room and it is so much easier to open. And McKenzies has released Gelatine Leaves, with instructions in Australian and a clear indication of how many leaves to use for the amount of liquid you have.

I used the leaves to make The Iced Vovo Tart. It's going to be my Friday Food this week. There is no actual baking, but it does take all day to make, so you need a wet day at home and some dedication. I went to The Dutches' for tea on Sunday night and saw the wonderfully cute Bay Zoe. She's gorgeous and doesn't have her nasal gastric tube anymore and eats and is starting to talk. I am so happy for all The Dutches.

I sewed a Bunny bag for The Dutches for a very late Easter present.

I can't add any books to my Books I am Reading list because Typepad and Amazon are having issues again, but I picked up new Library books and there could be a day in bed reading later in the week.

In other happy news my sewing machine is back. MrsReno's dad kindly cleaned it and said that the plates were tight. I am not sure what that means, but I am so glad to have it back. MrsReno's dad has gone back home but when he comes back to visit I shall cook him something delicious to say thank you. He said he was very pleased to fix my machine because he is pleased people still like to sew!! How cool and kind is that???

MrsDrWho and I went to see Star Trek Into Darkness last week. We went on Friday at 6-30pm and there would only have been twenty people there. We saw it in 3D, because, well why not??!! It was great, it was full of lovely nods to the original series and explosions and Starship battles and angst and running and sacrifice. Pretty fabulous all round. I think they have done an excellent job with their casting and I could slightly swoon over Chris Pine's James T Kirk and Karl Urban's Bones. Oh my!!! I know some people pooh-pooh reboots, but I lived through the long Sci-Fi and Fantasy drought of the 80s and early 90s and so I am just ever so grateful that someone has gone to the trouble of making a new film that I can enjoy. It was over two hours long and by my usual rating system I did not look at the time once, didn't even think of the time I was totally engrossed, and ducking debris, for the whole time: so that's 5 Stars, A+++ and 10/10.

Sheffield of Dreams

I am always extra tired during the School Holidays, but I can't pass up a chance to catch up with my friends.

On Monday I went on a pre-excursion day trip with MrsDrWho and her mother. We went to Sheffield, the mural town, where I saw a baby alpaca, found and returned the bank bag to the Lolly shop, minded the Marble shop for five minutes and had an apricot slice with the most deliciously flaky and crisp layered pastry. Oh, and we looked at lots of murals.

This is my favourite at the moment:

The caption reads:

We visited the new Bass Strait Maritime Centre where I was (Pirate) Queen of the World.

Inside the ship there are computer screens and for $2 you can have up to nine minutes of sailing a steam ship (I think) simulation.  We called into the Axeman's Hall of Fame, but by them I was too tired to tour and finally we late lunched at the Raspberry Farm. I came home and went to bed and slept like a log. We went to bed at 10pm on Tuesday night as well. I think I may have caught up on sleep now.

Yesterday I lunched with Bella'sMum and MrsMauritius, whom I have known for twenty-four years. I met them when I started teaching here. We try to catch up more or less every holidays and when we do, it is as if we were just at school together yesterday. I had delicious club sandwiches and we all shared the chips!!! I had a marinated lamb wrap with local cheese and relish at the Raspberry Farm.

At long last, momentarily, Peri settled down on the warmy bed. I am not sure why she hasn't liked it this year, maybe she wants her little quilt as a cover?? Peri is so very beautiful, I love her ears' expression!!! Oh, and all the dog hair on the rug. Acrylic rugs just attract the dog hair like all get out.

I found Miss Lorelai Gilmore asleep in my spot on the couch yesterday. She has the whole other end of the couch, but she likes her pillow in my spot and sleeps soundly and happily.

They have been running around and playing in the cool Autumn weather. It was 2*C this morning. If we don't meet any of their friends they play chasings and locate lots of smells together. Oh and go under the wire fence of course!!!

The Boo!! socks are coming along nicely. Here's a night time photo, but I knitted the rest of the leg white watching the Finals episode of The Great Sewing Bee tonight. I decided I wasn't up to the Eye of Partridge heel section until tomorrow. I am really enjoying knitting these socks, the colour changes are such fun. And see how they match???

Here's what I knitted in the car on Monday. Now you see it,

and now you don't.

I realised the sock was going to be way too big for me, that the Socks That Rock mediumweight is 5ply, and that with no nylon in the mix at all it would be better as a hat or cowl. I have knitted some lightweight STR socks and they developed holes quite quickly.

I have some Malabrigo Worsted in Lettuce to soothe my addled knitting nerves. A neckwarmer/cowl is in order. I bought this from Jellywares. Excellent service and free winding-into-a-ball.

Spotlight had a spot sale of all sewing patterns for $5. I bought two of these three dress patterns, the third is on order- still for the $5 price. The middle dress pattern takes 6m of fabric. I shall have to buy something on extreme sale, maybe from the FatQuarterShop. I bought some pretty green fabric for $5 a metre there. Both Vogue patterns have Custom fit for the upper nether regions. Yay.

I shall sew skirts for other people with these two patterns and once again, the second one is on order.

And of course today is ANZAC Day. There were Dawn services and marches. I'm not big on ceremony. I thought of my dad, and how we dressed in our best clothes and went to watch him march. He'd come back and give us all a kiss and then go off to the pub with his friends. I realised yesterday that I have spent more of my life without my dad, than with him. I am lucky he was such a great dad in the time we had together. When I talk to my psychologist every month, I frequently reflect on how lucky I was to have such a happy childhood, with my mum and dad and sister. We had all we could need or want, and more.

I ate some cheesy bought biscuits this afternoon and that's why I've been so thirsty- lots of tea and raspberry cordial later!!! I succumbed to their lure. I shall eschew them again until I forget why I am doing it. I'm going to start a loaf bread tomorrow and think of something to cook for Friday Food. The week has passed so quickly. Only one more week to go.

Monkey See, Monkey Through.

Unbeknownst to Peri, she has been educating Gilly on a means of escape from the dam area. Peri is an expert under-the-fencer, and Gilly has been extremely interested in mastering this skill. For quite a while she was flummoxed.

But Gilly has learned well and achieved success.

So now they both travel between the two dimensions just like in Timeslip. I remember watching as a child and being both terrified and fascinated. I have never seen it repeated. It is a good TV memory.

The weather is now alternating between cold enough to wear jeans (Friday) and warm enough for just a dress (Saturday and today). The nights are cold enough for the doona and hot water bottle and Peri and Gilly have to be under their quilts, no matter whether there is room for them on the bed or not. I have knitted three whole pairs of socks and they all have the ends sewn in and are ready to wear. I also have two individual socks. One is The Clock Sock which has a ball of wool so I can knit the partner. It is part of my "Knit all the socks in The Knitter's Book of Socks" project. The other is a random green sock- no, it is not. Somewhere it has a partner. That's 4 1/2 pairs of socks!!!

My Purls before Swine socks are not the correct green colour, the I Let Leaves are fine and so are the Colour Me Surprised.

I have knitted 85% of my Podracer convertible mitten by Glenna C. The fingers are short because you knit a mitten top that flips open to allow for dog lead manipulation and treat distribution. They are for iPeople with iDevices who need their fingers and thumbs. I have made a Podster thumb on my right hand but I will make an ordinary thumb for my left. It can be difficult to take a photo, sometimes very difficult, especially when Miss Lorelai Gilmore is helping. And I use the word helping in a sense in which it is almost never used: as in NOT helping. She's a funny sweet girl.

There may have been an accidental lay-by of more green jeans. Three pairs in, respectively, lime, sea green and sage. The first is a thick but stretchy denim and the second and third stretch cords. That makes nine pairs of green jeans/trousers. There have been the long dark years of no green jeans though. I worry about being too consumerist. (Is that a word??)  But they will last for years: the coming long dark years of no more green jeans!!

It is school holidays and MrsDrWho and I are going on a short day trip to assess possible excursions and write some questions for the children to consider. I am presently winding up a skein of Socks that Rock so I can knit in the car tomorrow. It is medium weight Merino wool in the Bella Coola colourway.

I'm  in the market for another knitted neckwarmer. I wear the one I have to walk The Labradors and don't have to worry about an Isadora Duncan moment with a car, tree or kangaroo.

I fear there will not be an April dress. I have one up my sleeve, but I'd like to whip one up from the new Knit pattern. Oh, I've made the picture a clicky link!! I think....

I'll finish winding the wool, make a cup of tea and cast on for new socks while I watch Doctor Who. Then it will be early to bed for everyone, as I have to be ready to leave at 8-45am in the morning and there's a walk to be squeezed in for Peri and Gilly before then.

What's A-Flatter You, Hey?

I remember watching Joe Dolce's 'song' being Number 1 on Countdown for weeks. Believe me  you don't want to click on the link, at best you'll have an earworm, at worst......

This week my Knit to Flatter book arrived. It's a book of patterns, by Amy Herzog, where you decide what figure type you are and which styles suit you best. Without even asking MrsDrWho to help me with a photo I have decided for myself, to be going on with, and I'm going to knit the Cypress Cardigan.

The book has lots of cardigans and gives hints on how to adapt each pattern to suit each type- and there are only three types, so I have a high percentage of making something fabulous!!

Meanwhile I am making the There's A Sucker Cardigan. It's The Bailey Cardigan and I am using my Damasco mohair. Thus far I have only knitted a few centimetres, but it is made in one piece to the underarm, so it's a slow journey.

There has also been a little crochet of a Bunny doing the rounds. It's my Rabbiting On. I crocheted a little ball for the tail instead of a pom-pom and embroidered eyes, as I felt a pom-pom and button eyes weren't safe for a baby/toddler. Rabbit just needs to be sewn together.

One row of my Craftsy BOM 2012 has been sewn together.

Once each row is sewn, I am making some biased binding from the left over batiky prints and centring it over the back where the two blocks meet. Then I'll sew it down and make a nice set of quilted lines on the front.

Peri Pumpkin has been enjoying the Sun. Now Daylight Saving has ended, and I am starving them by making them wait an extra hour (from their POV) for their food, she has to seek out the warmth. The Sun doesn't shine on her spot outside the back door until much later in the day. This is Morning Tea Sun on the front verandah. She has been sitting in that same spot for twelve years. Well not constantly, but once every week.

While we were having Morning Tea a very stange boast motored up the river. I have no idea what kind of boat it is, but it looks as if Captain Jack Sparrow could be aboard.

Lorelai Gilmore has conquered The Creature several times. Velcro and a too big plastic cup are no barrier to her insistent nose and teeth. She is very funny. The Creature doesn't stand a chance.

I put some saucepans on the lay-by. My old saucepans were excellent and the same brand, but the knobs on the lids had broken and the handles were all loose and wouldn't stay tight. The new ones have copper bottoms and cook beautifully. How do I know this?? Because my very kind mum sent me the money to pay them off and they are at home with me. I am very lucky!!!

I have had quite a sore toe since last Sunday. It was swollen and felt infected. I soaked it in hot salty water, rested it, doused it with antiseptic, but nothing worked. Knowing that if there was going to be a red line up my toe and foot it would be at the weekend, I went to the doctor and came away with a script for antibiotics. And yes, my toe was much worse yesterday so I cashed my script in. It's still sore, but not as bad. It would be so much easier if I could just fight my own germ battles.

Last, but definitely not least, we went out for Knitting dinner and I had the most delicious mixed entree, Tom Yum soup and Green Tea ice-cream. Peri and Gilly had a wafer each. Peri actually had one and a half because she was waiting faithfully at the back gate.

I had meant to post to my blog on Thursday, but I had an appointment and then on Saturday I had brunch and a long nap in the afternoon and today I knitted and made a cake and went to tea at MrsDrWho's house. I think I am suffering from Daylight Saving Lag.

Peri and Gilly are very happy because Sandy and Rafa are back from Easter holidays. We haven't seen Jet thus far. Maybe tomorrow? And the weather? Warm, but not too warm, with a few showers. I am getting as much wear out of my dresses as I can before Autumn really kicks in.

Hope Sprinklers Eternal

Elbow length sleeves? To my eyes: bad. Much shorter sleeves? They look better to me. I think the longer sleeves pulled the dress out of whack, and they were also hotter. This is Dress #4. It doesn't have a name, but on reflection the flowers look crocheted, so it's the Doily Dress.

I love my new dress, it has a swirly hem. I swirl it a lot. I wore it to the opening of The Cancer Support Centre. They had chairs for all the important people, and the older lady volunteers and the sick people were standing up. I have to give top marks to Michael Ferguson  Geoff Lyons, Peter Gutwein and Ivan Dean, politicians who all gave up their seats. There are others too, like Nurse Cathy, I can see. Some younger hale men stayed sitting down and let the older people stand. It wasn't a case of men versus women, rather ill versus healthy. I couldn't have stood in the humid heat for half an hour. You might spot me in the photo!!! The Centre is wonderful and we are lucky to have access to such modern facilities.

Sadly there were no egg sandwiches for afternoon tea. A tad disappointing....

I sewed two skirts for MrsHouseOf's birthday. Sadly, my photos were more awful than usual. I sewed Views D and E without the ruffles.

I didn't quilt all of my blocks for the Craftsy BOM 2012 last month. I did sew two dresses, two skirts, an apron, a tote bag and a bagsket - in spite of all the hot days. This is quite a total and I am very pleased. We are having still more hot weather in Autumn: 29, 31, 31, 27, 27, 28 and 29 this week. I shall leave the quilting until it is much cooler and instead I shall sew a Pear Dress.

I bought Peri and Gilly a sprinkler to play under in the hot weather. I am not sure they know it is meant to be fun yet. Vundy and Tori loved their plastic sprinkler to death. Literally. Their enthusiastic engagement of sprinkler and excited teeth lead to its demise.

I am soon to be the proud owner of two pairs of short boots. One pair is a teal green and I have new jeans that match. The other pair is emerald green and I have new jeans to match. There will be a certain lay-by wait. MrsDrWho and TinkingBell convinced me that the slim leg jeans don't look too awful on me. Thank you ladies!! I had a lovely day with Tinkingbell, we brunched and lunched and chatted non-stop!!!

I found the teal boots in town and the emerald ones at I Love Billy via Frocks and FrouFrou's blog.

Last week I went off to one of the shiny new hospital buildings to be part of the Patient Partner scheme. I spent the afternoon with the doctors-in-training on their Haematology unit of work. Only three people felt my spleen, as last time everyone did and I couldn't lie on my left side for a week. It is a good feeling contributing to their experience of unusual and interesting diseases.

MrsReno (formerly known as Jubbly's mum) has a new dog, a friend for Jubbly. His name is Curly, and you can guess why. Jubbly had his coat clipped for the Summer and Curly is off to be clipped this week. He came from the RSPCA and is a very nice dog. Already Jubbly and Curly are constant companions and friends.

I am extremely tired after MrsHouseOf's birthday outing and I had appointments today. Tomorrow there will only be sleeping, dog walking, and Amy Johnson.

Donkey Magic, Donkey Magic.

Monkey Magic was more popular in Australia than any other country. I loved it, Ahh Tripitaka, I would say in Monkey's atrocious accent.

Yesterday it was Donkey Magic. I am slightly afraid of horses, cows, bulls, sheep, pigs and so on. All large farm animals really. So when Jet's Mum invited me to visit a donkey and a pony I was a little anxious, but I knew donkeys were quite gentle. Jimmy the Donkey, and his constant companion Tonto the white pony, were very excited to see Jet's mum. Jimmy hee-haws his welcome.

Jet's Mum went into the paddock, but I stayed outside and fed carrots, oats and licorice to Jimmy and Tonto. Tonto could be a bit enthusiastic, Jimmy was more my speed. He was so gentle when he ate the oats from my hand.

He has a cross on his back, and there is a legend to go with it.

Jimmy especially liked to scratch his head on the tree when he itched. I am not afraid of lovely donkeys like Jimmy, he is just so cute. I have a soft spot for him!!! Tonto and Jimmy live in a large paddock next to the house where a big family lives. They are never lonely and have lots of attention. Then Jet's Mum and I had brunch and a nice long chat. It was a very good way to spend the morning.

In other cute news, Gilly may have thrown Sandy over for her new fascination: George. She trotted right behind him, could not take her eyes off him. I think it may be because she has never met a dog smaller than her. George is 12 or 13, so he's way too old for her!! Her Winky Wonky eye is much better now too. Thank goodness.

Peri almost accidentally ate the camera. I usually have a treat in my right pocket, but today I popped my camera there as well. When I pulled it out slowly to photograph Gilly and George, Peri appeared out of nowhere ready to have treat for being a good girl. Luckily she has a soft mouth and is not easily surprised. She was sad though, so I gave her a special consolation treat.

The world is tired of hearing it, but it is hot again. Nevertheless, I have cut out all the pieces for my Posher frock I need by Tuesday afternoon. The afternoon part is really important, it gives me extra time. I traced off the bodice pieces because I needed to range across a few sizes. Then I shortened the skirt by 8cm because I'm not tall. I really should have checked more carefully how much material I needed, but in the end I was able to squeeze every piece out of what I had. No weird seams or joins necessary.

I have sewed this before, so I raised the v-neck by 3cm and remembered I don't need a zip. I forgot to eliminate the back seam on the skirt, so I'll cut 1.5cm off the other side. I used the long sleeve, shortened, instead of the Imelda Marcos pleated sleeve they suggest for this view.  I play fast and loose with my alterations. I should be able to sew the dress tomorrow. I've bought some biased binding for the hem, as shortening the skirt by 8cm was accidentally the right amount to make the pattern fit, but in case it is too short a biased binding hem will crib back 2.5cm.

We had our first Sewing of the Craftsy BOM 2013. MrsDrWho' theme is chocolate,

and Jubbly's Mum has chosen travel as hers. We forgot to sew them into a block, I'm not sure which way they like best.

No-one would be surprised to learn that after making my blocks so early, I put them somewhere safe and now I can't find them. Oh dear!!!

Maybe I'll find them before Sewing in a fortnight. I won't hold my breath.......

 

Only Pools and Horses

24, 27, 28, 28, 28, 29, 26. It's going to be quite hot for the next week. It was hot today, so hot that I was happy to drive the long way home and wait at red lights because the air-con in my car is so nice and cold.

Peri defies logic and bakes in the Sun, whilst lying on the black foam, which also absorbs the heat. It's a hard job, but someone has to do it.

Gilly was so hot and the paddle pool water level was low. I filled it up again, but I know why it was low. Gilly is always busy digging a hole. Digging holes is her speciality at the moment, especially after a dip in the paddle pool. She concentrates so hard.

There may have been a little horse play ( a lot of horse play) with the hose to cool them both down: two wet Labradors. They ran down the stairs and far away from me!!!

They look wonderfully slim when their fur is all wet and sleek.

Today I did some baking for MrsDrWho's morning tea turn tomorrow. I made red velvet cupcakes and piped on the swirly cream cheese icing. I am obsessed with passionfruit right now and so I also made some passionfruit cupcakes with a few white choc chips thrown in for good measure. MrsDrWho has taste tested them and they are both fine.

The Kaffe Fasset quilt is one step nearer to completion. It is too hot to be under it or near it. Maybe 24*C tomorrow is my only chance.

I've also started quilting last year's Craftsy Block of the Month. In random order. And not very well. If you are not interested in quilting-as-you-go please skip this long and boring (for you) part!!

I layered the backing, cotton batting and the block and then quilted away with a 3.5 length stitch. I tried to remember to leave an unquilted border around the edges. When they are all done I will trim the backing and batting to 1/2  inch. Then I will sew a 1 1/2 inch lattice, just between the two blocks, using two 1/4 inch seams. Then I'll flip it over and the backing and batting will meet in the centre. (I hope) Finally I plan to sew on some biased binding to cover the join. On the front it will be two rows of stitching down the lattice. I think I will use a patterned fabric so if my stitching is crooked it won't show up so badly.

Oh and I found Dress Length #13 at the bottom of the Christmas material tub.

I need to make a start on February's dress because I have been invited to the Posh Opening of the new Cancer Council Centre. The Governor and Federal and State Ministers will be there. I am beastly careless about that, but I was thinking of using my apple material: an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Actually, I am hoping the afternoon tea will be fabulous!!! We had Leukaemia Support Group at the new Centre today. It is always lovely to catch up with everyone, My great achievement was to work out how the boiling water dispenser worked, otherwise we would have been cup of tea and coffee-less. My Hb has been a little low. I like to think that it is the hot weather depleting my resources. I shall just keep thinking that. It goes up and down. I'm expecting it to go up again next time.

Over the last few months I have been working my way through the eight seasons of Monk on DVD from The Library. I am now awaiting the final two discs. I don't want it to be over. I have thoroughly enjoyed every episode. I might have to eke the last six out at the rate of one a day and then watch the final two episodes on the seventh day. Then it has to go back to The Library.

The Gardy-Gardeners aren't coming tomorrow, so we'll all have a little lie in and then maybe I'll think about cutting out my new dress.

Don't Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Lab After Midnight)

Our visit to The Vet was very successful, but I have no photos as the camera batteries chose that moment to expire!! We saw a new vet, Dr David, who was very thorough and very nice to Peri and Gilly. He checked Peri first and was surprised she was twelve. He thinks she should probably have her lump removed and I said when my tax return came we would. He said he hoped it would be a healthy return. Hmm, that does not bode well!! Otherwise she is in excellent condition. Gilly was given 10/10. She's in fantastic shape and very alert with clean ears!!

They had their dew claws clipped, worming tablets and vaccination. Both of them carried on like a pork chops while the other was being checked out. Peri was so noisy I had to hold her muzzle to quieten her so Dr David could listen to Gilly's heart. It was so hot that when we came home we all needed a nap. Gilly was exhausted.

After a nap they ran about outside willy-nilly and Peri decided that the best way to continue working on the hole the are jointly constructing would be to eat the dirt.  Yuck. She nibbled away at it for quite a few minutes.
Peri must have had a reaction to either the dirt or the vaccination, because that night she woke us pretty much every hour so she could go outside, stand there for a few minutes and then come back to bed. We had an awful night's sleep before and after midnight. She didn't feel too hot, and didn't want a drink. She was fine the next day. I am thankful for their vaccinations as Harki and Peri both caught the Kennel Cough a few years ago and their illness was relatively mild, but still serious. I can certainly imagine how an unprotected dog would quickly die from the virus.

Knits Needles & Wool had a morning tea to raise money for the Bushfire Appeal. Lots of people came and went and I knitted new socks because the weather is cool and rainy!! I am testing out some new wool and they are a pair of toddler socks. Oh no, I can't find the label. Might it be Biggan?? I shall have to ask. It is very nice to knit with and the stitches are very smooth. I call these Lace Miserables. I spent ages deciding what little lace pattern to use and this is simple, but sweet.

 

Last night I watched  ABBA: Bang-a-Boomerang, a documentary about the Special Relationship between ABBA and Australians. It was so popular that the show is being repeated tomorrow evening on ABC1I didn't think I was a big ABBA fan, but it seems I am. I knew all the songs, even their later 'sophisticated and introspective' ones. I've never denied them three times before the cock crowed, but I didn't have posters or a lunch-box. I don't have any ABBA music, so MrsDrWho is going to let me sing along to ABBA Gold.  In years past The ABBA Game was all the go at parties I went to. These were parties where everyone was sensible and well behaved and lots of children were present!! Someone would cue up the start of a song on the LP, and we would listen for a few seconds and then have to shout out the name of the song to win. MrsDrWho and I were very successful: indicating an un-wasted youth. Or a sad and lonely youth with no friends. I think the latter!!!

School goes back next week. Far too early for my liking. February is the month I am going to quilt-as-I-go my Craftsy BOM 2012. I am going to use Lillian's method. Lillian showed me her finished quilt-as-you-go method which looks neat and fairly easy. I shall have to carefully work out how to cut my squares so it all fits together smoothly. I found my lost Kaffe Fasset jelly roll and so I whipped up a new quilt top. It is small, less than thirty strips and I left three out so I had to sew them on the ends. It's going to have wide dark brown or charcoal borders on the longer sides and rainbow binding of some description. There is one anomalous strip, blue with white spots. I was going to leave it out, but I just used 20cm.                           

The Federal Election was announced yesterday. I usually enjoy elections but I am not so enthusiastic this time. Politics is so adversarial these days. I do enjoy voting, sometimes just to put a candidate last.

Friday Food tomorrow. This year I don't have a theme or rules. I am blogging about what I cook during the week: from any source, for any reason.  I'm going to post the recipe for the things I took along to the morning tea today.

PS Once again, please excuse any spelling errors. I can't make Typepad work, still, in Firefox and I can't copy and paste into IE, where the spell check doesn't work either but I can Compose.

How Could I Not Believe, When Ita Tells Me Too*

Christmas is long past, but I am well on the way to completing MrsDrWho’s presents. Today I gave her a Christmas Penny Rug. It is a traditional American craft. I discovered my sewing machine will do blanket stitch and so I used it to sew the 27 coloured felt ‘pennies’ to the larger green pennies and then to the same sized penny backing. I did blanket stitch the Santas and holly by hand. It is for the centre of her coffee table.

I also finished the Santa and Reindeer wall hanging/table runner. It too has some machine blanket stitch and hand quilting. The reindeer are very cute and I found dark blue material with a small white spot to represent snow in The BlackSpot of Doomlight™. I was exceedingly happy!!

Oh and a Zombie parody of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I had only skimmed it, but MrsDrWho read it properly and there is a spelling error. Oh dear.

There has been quite a lot of publicity about how much food is wasted each year in Australia: $6 billion I think. Not at our house. All food is used up. Peri and Gilly are hoovering up the end of the salad that went slightly icy in the fridge. I love the way their noses scrunch up a little bit. I think they are concentrating on eating fast.

We had rain last night, quite a lot, though not the end of a cyclone or the tornadoes they had in Queensland. I know it rained because the wind was very noisy and Peri needed to go out and just check almost every hour. That meant Gilly went too, and then there was a lot of towel drying of furry creatures and that woolly smell until they finished drying. I am looking forward to the end of the week when the BOM has forecast 20*C. I might be able to start some socks!!!

Ita Buttrose is our Australia of the Year, and a very worthy recipient. I checked the list and fewer than 20% of AOTY have been women. I think there needs to be more consideration given to that.

Ita has a song written about her by Cold Chisel*, and was in charge of the HIV/AIDs campaign with Death and a bowling alley of people. She is a great advocate and works hard for the causes she supports. Ita is truly an inspirational person and I can remember her being so for all of my life.

MrsHouseOf, some young HouseOfs, MrsDrWho and I went for afternoon tea on Thursday. The waitress (serving person??) accidentally dropped the tray of bubbly and a raspberry cordial, smashing the glasses and MrsDrWho was splattered with bubbly. They were so apologetic and brought her a towel and cleaned up and apologised again, and when MrsHouseOf went up to pay they only charged us for five plain afternoon teas and not the bubbly ones. Excellent service and follow up at The Charles!!! My favourite thing, apart from the egg sandwiches, is the tongs. I love snapping them and playing posh ladies!!

On Friday The Labradors ran away on our walk. They ran 700m up the steep road, way farther than they had ever been before. Jetty and his dad were with us and Jet was such a good buy. Peri and Gilly would stop just out of reach, turn and look to check we were coming, and then run ahead again. It was only when Peri was too tired and hot that they came back. I was too tired to be cross because I walked 1.4km, half of it uphill. I fed them and they went to sleep and I did too for a couple of hours. By tea time I was tired again and had another sleep from 6 till 9-30pm. Then I had some supper and went back to bed to sleep some more!!

I had forgotten tomorrow was a holiday for Australia day, I’m glad when I made The Labradors’ appointment at the vet I made it for Tuesday because there is a Public Holiday surcharge. They are going for their annual check up and vaccinations. We are all Very Excited!!

Surprisingly, I may just have another cup of tea- chamomile- and then perhaps a little reading or TV before we go to bed. We live life in the Fast Lane here!!

It's A Dress, Jim, But Not As We Know It, Not As We Know It, Captain.

The pattern envelope said the dress would fit smoothly below the bust at the top of the rib cage. Not on me it didn't.  So, no dress by Friday. But there was a dress by Saturday and I had my revenge on Supposed Dress #1: I used it as lining. Ha!

I sewed Simplicity Amazing Fit 1800, view B. It has an interesting construction and I am very glad I basted it together first:

 

 

 

 

 

The next thing I did was clean the mirror!! I found 2.5 metres of fabric in one of my tubs. The perfect amount if I didn't add the giant pockets and I used the other failed dress as lining. The pattern has extra wide seam allowances which I utilised. And then immediately un-utilised. As usual I overestimated my size. And I liked the sleeves narrower. All in all this is a great dress. It is so comfortable to wear and it will be nice and cool in Summer too.

I did try to take some self-timer photos, but Gilly was helping....

But I managed one reasonable picture. It has a 1950's vibe, according to party goers. The sleeves are attached last of all and form the shoulders after they are faced at the top.

I stayed at the party for two hours and talked to lots of friends, had a glass of posh bubbly and some finger food. Then I had to go home and go to sleep immediately!!

Cheered by my dress success I decided to fix my green dress from earlier this year. I basically took it apart. I raised the shoulder seam by 4cm, re-drafted the sleeve heads to take out all the excess puffiness, and then sewed it together again. In spite of this, the neckline still gapes and I feel I must keep putting my hand on it all the time to hold it close. I threaded hat elastic through the top stitching channel. I just need to adjust it one last time and stitch the ends in place. It is not perfect, but as good as it is going to get.

So not a dress by Friday, but two wearable dresses by Sunday. Not too shabby.

The weather has been very warm today, but now we are having thunderstorms. Peri and Gilly needed to cool down in the paddle pool. But only their feet and in Gilly's case, only one foot!!!

I re-potted my zucchini plants into three bigger pots after a lot of helpful advice. Imagine my surprise when I saw actual zucchinis had appeared. Two actual zucchinis, but it is two more than I have ever grown!!

I  am still quite tired after my outing yesterday, so I plan to get some extra sleep this week. I did something every day last week, and two things on some days. I also have a huge haul of thick books from the Library. I had 15 books on Hold and they all seem to be coming at once. I need to do some dedicated reading. I was so slow with one book, and we have three weeks, that I missed the due date and now I have a $1 fine to pay on Monday. I think we may just be able to sneak in a quick nap before tea!!

Please excuse any errors, I have read through twice, but my brain is a tad sleepy and slow.