A Week Is A Long Time In Christmas-tics

I have made it through the week. The mind is intact though the body is weak and totally worn out. The days have been packed with activity, one, two or sometimes even three things, for seven days: in spite of all my planning, it just happened.

Also, there is a smudge on my camera lens, I breathed on it just now and gently cleaned it with some soft fabric. This is probably the wrong thing to do, but the smudge went away. I can feel the lens is scratched. I may need a new camera.....

I have had so many Christmas occasions and appointments and my mum came to visit for three days for her birthday: we did so many things and had a wonderful time. I baked lots of things for my mum and sewed her nothing. I did take up her new trousers. We ate curry and toasted sandwiches and a delicious meal at a posh restaurant where I even had a tiny dessert. It was a passionfruit meringue sundae, served in a tiny glass with shortbread crumbs then passionfruit curd, passionfruit ice-cream and a caramelised meringue shard. It was so delicious but I felt far too full!! Mum had the frozen lemon parfait with caramelised mandarin and a scoop of lemon curd icre-cream.

The Labradors have felt neglected. They went for a walk with mum and Hedy is in love with her. She wiggled and waggled and carried on a treat. They both ran very fast as they were so excited. It is good to see Lorelai Gilmore running and being well.

Gilly is far more sensible. You can tell she is more sensible because she is poking out her tongue!!! We had a lot of rain after the heatwave broke and Gilly and Hedy took every advantage and were totally wet all the time.

Though they may have felt neglected, they were not and there were games and paddle pool adventures at ten o'clock at night.

I have been sewing for my friends. I sewed some Project Bags by By Annie for our Sewing group. I made the third biggest size, there are four, and they measured 35cm square. The back is quilted and the front has vinyl and a zip. I made them to easily hold layer cakes and our Moda Cake Mix papers.

I made two needle rolls for our Knitting Friend who is going to live overseas. One is for Double Point needles and the other for interchangeable tips, and I left a space for some cables.

I sewed Christmas shopping bags for my friends. I didn't go to our 2017 Christmas because my mum was here, so I sent them all off to good homes!!

And finally I sewed some zippy chip/popcorn bags as well. These are always popular and they are well used. The children wear them out so I am happy to make them a new one every year.

Consequently there was no Friday Food, but I made a gingerbread traybake for Leukaemia Christmas BBQ. It was so easy, and though I didn't taste it, I had so many requests for the recipe I sent it off to our nurses for them to email to the group. I can highly recommend it and I will post the recipe this Friday. I did have tiny gingerbread decorations but I could not for the life of me find them so I used festive M'n'Ms. I forgot to take a picture of the bags I sewed for our fabulous nurses, they look after us all so well.

MrsDrWho has bought an aviary,

and furnished it with love in anticipation of finches. The finches are being re-homed and they arrived this week. I am looking forward to seeing them.

And finally, I managed to take a reasonable photo of The Labradors for our Christmas card. Someone had their eye closed, or was looking away, or would not sit close enough to the other dog!!! This is not the photo, but it is pretty good. I was holding a seaweed rice cracker to entice Hedy Lamarr to look my way. Lorelai Gilmore is a super model, she needs no encouragement.

If you have read this far, well done and would you like a Christmas card from The Labradors?? There is an Email Me button at the bottom of the side bar, or you can leave a comment and we will email and ask for your address. We sent cards last year and it was lots of fun. We can't promise they will be there before Christmas, but that's par for the course in our lives.

This week I am going to try and sew a dress to wear to the Star Wars The Last Jedi at a quarter past midnight on Thursday morning. Wish me luck. I have my back up Star Wars dress, so we shall see. After our walk tomorrow we plan to sleep ALL DAY.

And finally, The Parliament said Yes, and same sex marriage is now law. People can be married from January 9th I think. I do think it rather rich that some politicians smugly congratulated themselves on the passing of the Bill. I say that we did their job for them and they could have saved the $122,000,000 and done their jobs. We did it for them and they should not steal the credit. Happy New Marriage Year!!!

The Force Asleepens

Gilly is pretty sure that she missed two whole meals somehow. Yesterday everyone went to bed, they got up at 11pm and went out in the car while she stayed home, then everyone went back to bed again at 3am. Finally we woke up and went for a walk at 8am. She is sure that somehow she missed out on a breakfast and dinner!! She has been playing with her rawhide bone. It is dug up, carried about and then reburied again. It is almost 8 weeks old.

MrsDrWho, MrsSingapore, MissSingpore and I went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens (spoilers). It was excellent: on a par with VI, V and VI and streets above I,II and III. The film started at 12-01am and we had assigned seats so there was no frantic queueing. We saw a lot of ardent fans, there was a beeping R2D2 and the ushers were all Stormtroopers. Lightsaber wielding people had their photos taken outside.

The audience was very well behaved and the cinema was air-conditioned, which was so wonderful. We are having a heatwave, it will be 33*C tomorrow. Hopefully a cold front with rain will come through on Sunday. We saw the 3D version and it was not too 3D, you didn't have to duck all the time. I can't wait to see it again. I think Disney can have a Gold Star for their first effort.

I wore my new Star Wars dress. It has a little pocket for keeping the Star Wars music player, but I can't find it, so I just had to hum the music instead. I am very pleased with my dress, I like the green border, I think without it the dress would be all busy print and no focus. The plain border grounds it.

The dress has the bodice I sewed for my Hawaii dress, and a knife pleated skirt. The skirt is almost 4m wide and I made 2.5cm knife pleats. I am exceedingly pleased with the way I inserted the zip. It doesn't interfere with the pleats at all.

I have been sewing Christmas shopping bags. We are a crinkly plastic bag free State, so we all need shopping bags. I have to make one for The GardyGardeners tomorrow.

Last week I went to MrsDrWho's class until recess time. They made Ungingerbread Houses. The houses are hugely OTT. They children were very good at listening,  following instructions and sharing. Teaching for me is like riding a bike, once I am there with a class it just seems right and proper: I made them instantly quiet and sitting up straight when I said: "As soon as everyone is quite I can give out the ziplock bags." Who knew I still has The Power??

Well, that's all. The heat is very wearing. We have the evaporative cooler filled with water and some ice to blow cold air during the night. And this afternoon too. We caught up on sleep. I had been doing well with my Christmas preparation, but the hot weather has put a spanner in the works. I am lucky that my family and friends are so understanding. They say things like:"Oh, how nice to get a present after Christmas!!"

Tomorrow I am baking a Sticky Gingerbread Cake and the last in my new Christmas baking for Friday Food. I have no idea what it will be. I am sure Gilly will be ready to help.

The Pyjama Games

I am partial to a Doris Day film, and to her singing as well. She's one of those people I always wonder about: has she died or is she still alive?? As of right now, she's either ninety, or ninety-two, and still going. When I searched the internet for The Pyjama Game film I couldn't find it at first, that would be because Americans spell it pAjama. We spell it as pYjama. I have a few pieces of material that I bought to sew skirts, but now I sew dresses. I really loved the green rose print and so I decided to make some pyjama shorts.

This is a free pattern from Melly Sews. You have to sign up for a newsletter, but there are quite a few free patterns so I don't mind. I am not any size included in the pattern, so I had to add quite a few centimetres and next time I will also add some length so that the waist elastic sits a little more at my (so-called) waist. This is the first thing I sewed with my new machine and it was such a delight to use. Sewing heaven!!

That's just about all that has been happening at our house. I finished the Ender Dragon costume and didn't take a single photo. Then on Monday and Tuesday I had a bit of a migraine. The Labradors and I slept all day on Monday after our walk and all I ate was a few of The Labradors' seaweed rice crackers. Tuesday I felt a little dull and so we slept all day again. It is very lucky that Peri and Gilly don't mind sleeping.

Rafa's dad and mum are back from their overseas trip, and Rafa from his dog hotel too. All the dogs met up at the dam and Sandy's mum came too. Can you guess which two dogs just love to have their photos taken?? If there was an idog-phone, they would be taking selfies all the time!!

Peri, Rafa and Gilly

Sandy, Gilly and Peri

Gilly loves to walk to the top of the hill, she is quite sturdy and marches up briskly. She likes to be first. Sandy's mum offered to take her right up to the very top where her car was parked. Peri and I said goodbye and we walked back down the hill to our car. We drove up and barely went round the first bend and there was Sandy, his mum and dad and Gilly. Apparently Gilly was fine until Peri and I were out of sight and then she would not budge. She wouldn't go another step, and cried and whined piteously. Peri was beastly careless until she saw Gilly. Gilly had to be comforted and she tried to climb in the door to reach Peri. Shes' been a little clingy today, but I am not playing into her hands and we are being jolly and confident.

It's Show Day today and this week we have had electrical storms, wild winds, sun and rain. That's Show weather. I still can't knit so I have been doing lots and lots of reading and watching Falling Skies on TV here, and Farscape at MrsDrWho's house. There are four series of Falling Skies to watch and they are making a final fifth to conclude the story. I hate it when a series just stops, with no proper ending. TV is great at the moment with new The Blacklist, Marvel Agents of Shield, Salamander, Madam Secretary, Scorpion, Modern Family, The Code. Oh and all the NCISes. The ABC has some great new shows coming soon and I so enjoyed The Bletchley Circle and I am sad it has been cancelled.

Yes, I like TV, but I do only watch the things I like and I especially like The ABC's curent affairs shows and news. The marvellous thing about using a DVR is that you can deleted the advertisements, or start watching the show after it has started and fast forward through the ads, so it really does only take forty minutes to watch a programme.

I made some granola this afternoon. Tomorrow is the last day of the school holidays so I am going to bake something especially nice for MrsDrWho, to ease her back into the last term of school!!

It has been Mental As week on The ABC: a focus on mental health. RUOK? Day is a great idea for some, but it didn't work for me. My friends asked me all the time if I was OK, and so did my GP, but I could not tell them I wasn't mentally well. I had depression and anxiety. I also have a tiny part of me that looks after me, and that part made me ring my GP and sometime psychologist when I was sure I couldn't go on and felt suicidal. Reaching out for help was the best thing I have ever done, and just as I take drugs and have treatment for my physical chronic illness, so I take medication and go to counselling to maintain my mental health and well being. I'm glad to be here.

But When The Thermometer Goes 'Way Pup

I wondered where the week had gone. Suddenly it was Thursday and I struggled to think what we had done on all the other days?? Monday the weather was wintry so we went to bed. Tuesday the car had to be serviced and, with the comings and goings and waiting, that took all day. Yesterday The GardyGardeners came and I did some baking.

Then my mobile had a conniption. I turned it on to text my mum and then it sent three empty texts to The Vet and threatened to send a dozen more before I could turn it off. I had to go out and buy a new one. And of course it is never that easy. The new mobile has a nano SIM: the old SIM is gargantuan. I couldn't transfer anything over, but I could keep my old number. I just had to go in, swap the new SIM for a blank one, ask the kind technician to do the magic whatever to make it work again and wait ten minutes. I think it works now, I am too afraid to try!! I did ask them to bar the internet. My mobile is pre-paid and I don't want to accidentally spend all my money on an unexpected trip to The YouTube.

This afternoon Peri went back to The Vet to see Dr David. Gilly comes along because she hates being left home alone. They spend all their time in the Waiting Room crying and looking alert. They know when the door opens it will be their turn and they want it to be their turn NOW.

Last week Peri was very poorly, and her liver numbers were on the high side of normal. She's been taking horse antibiotics and eating bland food for a week. Dr David took her temperature again. It is very undignified for her, but she is very brave and stood nice and still. Dr David multi-tasked: he took Peri's temperature and patted Gilly so she didn't cry from being left out. Peri has been pronounced well, her temperature normal, but we have to go back in a fortnight for more blood tests. The bill has been $300 so far, and will be another $250 in a fortnight, so for the time being there is no new sewing machine. Maybe at Christmas. The Labradors are far more important.

My Ca Plane Pour Moi cardigan has been going along very nicely. I made short rows using the Shadow Wrap method, and I cannot see where I turned and went the other way. There are short rows to make the hem curved. I am up to the under arm cast off, but I'm going to measure twice and decide tomorrow if it is the right length.

New pyjamas!! I like stretchy pyjamas and these were on sale, 50% off, at only $17-50 (well, $17-48 but you have to round up now we have no 2 cent pieces) As a bonus, they are the perfect length for me, and I was able to find my size, which is apparently a 14 or Large. I think they are underestimating their sizes!! The picture is from the Sussan website.

I have my fingers crossed that my long running cold is on the way out. At last. I have been enjoying the Spring weather, which is windy, wild, wet and colder than Winter with snow as well. I've also been enjoying the Spring vegetables and fruit. At the weekend I made quick vegetarian tostadas. There is something about tasty vegetables that makes me feel better when I am not. I even made my own flat bread using Jamie's recipe. I only made one quarter of a batch, but they were three very good flat breads. I can highly recommend this recipe, though mine were on the thicker side, I am sure they can be enthusiastically rolled thinner.

My new SD card ate all the photos saved on it, and so I have thrown it out and I am just using my old one. I have already uploaded the photos for tomorrow's Friday Food, so I can rest easy now. I do have a photo of my new sock wool. Our Knitting group made an order from overseas, but sadly they only had three of the green colours I wanted. Still, at just $12 a ball they are not to be sneezed at. They are greener than they appear!!

We might have a very early night. I am always secretly worried when we go to The Vet, and it is a relief to know, for a while at least, that Peri is well. Gilly is very happy about that too!!!

Too Darn Hot with Ann Miller from Kiss Me Kate.

 

This is one of the records my mum played all the time when I was a little girl and I can sing along, lustily, to all the songs.

Especially Brush Up Your Shakespeare, which I adore.

 

There's No 'I' In Team (Australia)

Really?? That's the bring-us-all-together cry of the PM?? Operation Everything, where anything becomes a military campaign. If it is the old "if you're not with me, you're against me" then I am against you. Who knew?? I can be VERY contrary. Maybe it is the centenary of WWI that has brought all this military posturing out into the civilian arena. I don't think it sits well.

And so, onto what the PM would call Operation Quilt. Luckily it's not an on water operation so I can discuss it with you. There has been an awful lot of block making going on. When MrsReno laid out the blocks we had made this year I realised I should have sixteen: I always make two of each block.

Oh dear. I didn't have sixteen at all. Yesterday I sewed quite a few blocks and made next week's blocks as well. I am missing four blocks, they are in a random bag somewhere. There are only three more blocks to sew, I'll make doubles and that's twenty-four and enough for a quilt. And I will have used up both my fat quarter sets as well.

My friends have finished some more blocks too. My favourite recently has been The Exploding Pineapple, of course: that's the pink once in the middle of the second row below. I haven't ironed or trimmed mine yet.

I kinneared Colleen Hewett, very unsuccessfully, at the supermarket the other say. I would be no good as a spy. As I was trying to take the unobtrusive photo, she said to the person on the other end of the phone: "A lady is just taking a photo of me". That's no lady, that was me!! Colleen was here to make a special appearance at a local College's production of Godspell. I do remember Colleen from my teenage years, and I reckon I could sing along to all her songs!! She's pretty fabulous and I told her so.

The BlackSpot of Doomlight(tm) had Vogue patterns on sale for $5 or $4-50 with their card. I bought two patterns, very restrained I know. I love the simple dress with the v-neck and flared skirt. View B takes less than 3 metres and I like the Princess Line construction, I find it easier to make a FBA. I have had my eye on the Vintage Vogue coat in the second pattern for a while. I don't actually need a warm coat, but it would be nice of an evening when I am coming home to have just an extra layer in the Winter. I think this will fit the bill perfectly.

And on the same topic, a new sewing machine will be arriving at our house soon. My Brother is just not solid enough and won't sew over more than two layers of material now. The GardyGardeners told me there was a sale on in town at the sewing machine shop and so I went in. I have some birthday money, and my tax return and a little put aside and so I can afford a nice sturdy and exciting machine; Janome DC 6030!!!

I am most excited about the Scissor Button. After you have ended off with the Knot Tying Button, the Scissor Button cuts off the threads close to your sewing and leaves long ends. Yay!! There is also a small 'table' which can be attached to the sewing machine. It sews very nicely and doesn't have a bazillion decorative stitches, which I never use anyway. Of course there wasn't a machine in the shop, so I am waiting for a phone call any minute now.

I used my current machine to sew a very, very belated Christmas skirt for MrsHouseOf. It is a very swirly peasant style skirt. I used this pattern as my guide, but I did make the layers longer as MrsHouseOf is nicely tall. It is a Two Hour skirt and that is not far off the mark.

And now to more important things: Peri and Gilly went to The Vet to see Dr Marion last week. They were both vaccinated and examined and pronounced thin and very healthy. Peri has a little arthritis in the leg that was operated on for cancer last year, but she's on the way to 13 and so it is to be expected. The cancer hasn't come back, so we are very grateful and pleased. Gilly was tied to the table and in her excitement she dragged it across the room!! Gilly is very well, and just has one waxy ear. Peri is allowed to be off the lead and wander about the consulting room. She likes to stand right next to The Vets and lean on them as they examine Gilly, and she looks in the rubbish bin.

The weather has been very warm, I had to turn the air-conditioner on in the car. It was 17*C the other day. The BOM said Winter has been up to two degrees warmer than average. Peri and Gilly enjoy the frosty mornings and sunny days.

Peri Naughty and Miss Lorelai Gilmore are very well behaved. There was a little argument between the boy dogs on our walk, and The Girls were quite confused. There is never any growling or fighting at our house, The Labradors always get on very well together. Sandy decided that he would grab hold of Rafa's lead and drag him along. Rafa was not happy and there was some growling and rolling of eyes. They are friends now, but Rafa stays well away from Sandy when he has his lead on. Peri and Gilly couldn't give two hoots when he does it to them. Peri gives him her Paddington Hard Stare and he soon stops.

This month's Better Homes and Gardens magazine from Woolworths, or Roelf Vos as I still call it, comes with a 'free' bar tin. It is a long rectangular bar tin. I have an old one like it and when I tried to buy a new one last year it was going to cost about $30, so I went back and bought another magazine. $7-20 is so cheap. There is a very good recipe booklet and I shall be cooking lots of cakes and slices in bar tins. MrsDrWho has just suggested I should buy a third, just in case...

MrsDrWho, MrsHouseOf, a Young HouseOf and I went to see Doctor Who Deep Breath at the cinema. It was pretty great, there was a special extra beginning and a making of at the end. I heard a hipster looking man outside pooh-poohing people paying $25 to go and see it, but I think it is four cups of trendy coffee and anyway, I just like Doctor Who. There is something special about watching it when you are with a like minded audience. I am looking forward to more Who next week. Peter Capaldi will be an excellent Doctor, and a Scottish one at that!!!

Medium Times At Ridgemont High

I paid the price for living life in the medium lane, I can't manage the fast lane. Saturday was a day of enforced sleep and headaches. Twenty hours of almost continuous sleep, I did get up to feed Peri and Gilly, did the trick and I felt much better on Sunday. Of course I didn't do anything on Sunday, which probably helped too. MrsDrWho was flying the Yellow Flag of Quarantine as visitors had been extremely unwell. I was happy to stay away from the house of actual physical sickness.

Enforced rest on the couch has produced a hat and three quarters of a mitten, I can't quite bring myself to sit on the couch and do absolutely nothing all the time. I tried on a hat at Knits Needles & Wool last week and it didn't look half bad. I remembered some Tasmanian handspun emerald green 12 ply at home and so the Hat's The Way, Aha Aha, I like It hat was born. I made stripes with the leftover Azteca from my Cowling Occupants neckwarmer. I had a false start and a false end but it turned out very well: it is warm and water repellent and not unflattering. I've written the basics of the pattern on The Ravelry. I wear it with the naturally rolling cast on edge rolled a little further up.

And now the third of my almost matching but not quite Winter set: Cowling Occupants, Hat's The Way and now the Transpodsters. Well three quarters of one. In The One With The Embryos the question Monica and Rachel need to answer for the win, and the flat is "What is Chandler Bing's job?" and Rachel answers "A transpod-transpondster!" and while this is patently untrue, it is an excellent name for the Podster mittens. I'm not making individual fingers inside the flip top, just a longer ribbed pieces for all my fingers. I am knitting them in 10ply Naturally Loyal in a warm teal. The thumb has a 'finger' of its own. The colour in my Ipad photo in pearl lightbulb light isn't true, but the hat, neckwarmer and mittens all co-ordinate imperfectly.

MrsDrWho's Girl With A Purl Earring socks were completed and may be adorning her feet as I type. I have no idea, as every person and their dog moved over the Easter/ANZAC Day/School holidays break and she has no phone or internet. She's pretty much moved in and the house is becoming a home, and it is a wondrous house: Cleo and Caramello are semi-happily ensconsed and Muppin comes out of the bedroom to see people she likes. That would not be me, the mean woman who takes her to the cat sitter and the vet.

Peri and Gilly have had a wonderful few days. There was a frost at the dam on Saturday and we walked in the rain today. It has rained all day and I spend fifteen minutes cleaning the gutter outside the gate so we didn't get flooded again.

I am getting a cold, or Peri and I have hay fever. In Autumn. And it has been 19*C. That's too warm for Autumn.

Peri has been very happy, lying in the sun and playing in the freezing cold weather. She's channeling a film star with her cheeky over the shoulder look. When she runs at the dam it is hard to remember she is twelve years old.

Gilly hasn't been close enough to take happy pictures, she's been off running as fast as she can to keep up with Rafa and Sandy. They are much bigger and should be faster, but Lorelai Gilmore is surprisingly fleet of foot. When she is ready for her close up, she looks worried, and I don't know why.

I've been for my two monthly check up with my GP, where I realised that it is ages since I even thought about how long it takes up to drive to the dam. When I was depressed and anxious it HAD to take eight minutes, or else. "Or else what?", my GP asked, and I had no idea what, only that it was going to be terrible if it took nine minutes. I am always happy when my numbers are the same, not up or down, not better or worse, but the same. The same is not good, the same is awful really, but as long as the numbers are not worse, awful is great.

Oh and I am living in The Future, in Star Trek or Stargate SG1. I wondered what the microphone next to the space bar on the pop up Ipad email keyboard was for. It is for speaking to, and then it types your email for you. I press Reply, tap for the keyboard to pop up, press the microphone icon and just chat away to the Ipad, or I imagine it is Siri. I tap Done and my email magically appears. I have to fix a word or two, but I never imagined I would be living in a time when I could do that. It's amazing. Truly mind blowing. Of course in Star Trek they just say "computer" and it responds, but I have to tap my Ipad for Siri or email. I expect soon I won't even need to do that. This week I have also learned to take a screenshot on my Ipad and save PDFs to iBooks.

Now we just need a Back to the Future Hoverboard and a transporter and we're done!! Oh and FTL space ships. Then we're really done.

I have never seen Fast Times At Ridgemont High. I don't expect I will, though Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in on TV this weekend.

For Your Ice Only, Only For You.

I can't eat chocolate and so Onyi selflessly volunteered to test the Recipe to Riches chocolate fudge biscuits for me. I received this excellent review. Sadly, I couldn't work out how to make the review appear here along with the picture, so I used a photo I took at home instead. I am sorry I am a semi-Luddite Onyi!! I am not quite sure how that apostrophe works: Sweet Billie's whats???? She isn't owning anything really.

 

The  Sweet Billies were $6.99 for 4 large biscuits. They are fudgy brownies, 7cm in diameter with a yummy “frosting” in between. They had to be defrosted for one hour before we could eat them, it was hard to wait. I shared them with some colleagues for an end of term morning tea treat. Overall it seemed the males enjoyed them more than the females.

The Wiz has been learning how to critique food and was able to describe his experience in detail. He felt trepidation at his first look, The Wiz expected sickliness. However, this was quickly replaced with joy at its lightness and that the chocolate flavour had not been skipped on. He wanted to keep eating it rather than put it in the bin as he’d expected to do. The sugar sprinkles gave a nice crunchy contrast to the softness of the biscuit. He was very disappointed I’d given the other three away rather than giving them to him.

 Captain Awesome described it as “Sex on legs! I would not hesitate to buy more.” He thought the price was absolutely worth it and they’d make a great dessert substitute with a cup of coffee after a meal.

 The Lovely Lunching Ladies, three older ladies ending up sharing one biscuit, they misunderstood and thought I’d baked it. They thought it was okay but a bit too rich. The frosting was the best part in their opinion.

 I thought they were quite nice but they had a bit of a weird after taste. I’m guessing it was to do with the additives that were in the factory version. I’d love to try the original non-factory created version as I am a big fan of home-made cakes and biscuits. I’m also keen to see if I can find a recipe for the apple pie dumplings that came second.

And on to other frozen treats: ice-creams that are a tad special that I can eat. They are coconut ice ice-creams. The vanilla ice-cream is coated with raspberry ice-cream and then dipped in coconut. They are small, eight to a packet, but moreish and The Labradors love them!!! Not that they are allowed to have one, but I let them lick the stick.

Yesterday (Saturday) was the football grand final, AFL, and there is always a party next door. Peri and Gilly went to the party all afternoon. There were no treats to be had, but when I looked for them, Gilly's ears said that if there had been treats and she would have eaten them regardless!!!

Peri peeped through the greenery at me. Her eyes look worried, she's a funny girl.

Tasmania pays millions of dollars to Hawthorn to play a few games here each year and because they won, we are giving them an extra $300,000. I am very cross about the whole football money thing, becasue I think at least the $300,000 could go to nurses or police of teachers. But once again men's sport is king. I do understand the tourism and business benefits, but not the bonus.

Today (Sunday) I finally got my sewing act together and made a toile for a new dress. I followed carefully the Craftsy Adjust the Bust class I bought and I think the bodice fits me very well. Except that the side seam is not sewn up. It's easier to get in and out of that way.

I made a toile and a half actually. Whether I am an Inverted Triangle shape (veering towards and Apple) or not, a gathered or pleated waist just doesn't seem right to me. I drafted a full circle skirt pattern and attached that to the bodice and I think it works. I MUST clean the mirror, but the second and third photos were taken at dusk. At every photo session I was ably assisted by Peri and Gilly.

I think the whole dress sits better, even though I am holding the sides together. I think the length is not too bad either. Of course the material is not helping, but I think I am going with this style. I have a lot of the material I am thinking of using so I won't run out. I also want to make a petticoat to help the circle skirt be fuller. I found this tutorial, and I love the ribbon trim, it's my favourite part and I can have a green petticoat!!! I would like to point out that I am getting much braver with my photos, still won't show my face though.

I subscribe to Amy Herzog's newsletter and there was an invitation to be part of Custom Fit, where you input your measurements, and those of your tension square, and out pops a personal pattern for a cardigan or jumper. I am terrible now, if my iPad 'bings' after 7am I check my emails. IN BED. I know, it is very bad, but I am beastly careless. I am modern. I sent back my reply almost immediately as the email arrived after a little time had passed.

On The Ravelry people were posting to the thread about their number in the queue. I was very sad, as I didn't have a number. But wait, I read backwards and found out that if you didn't receive a number, then you are in the first 250 people. Excellent!! Of course that means I have to dedicatedly knit something....

OK, at this point last night my keyboard gave up the ghost. I tried to continue by cutting and pasting individual letters with my still-functioning mouse, but that was a Herculean task. I have a new keyboard and mouse now. Yay.

I am also one of the 10,000 founding members of the new Climate Council, replacing the organisation shut down by the new government. I feel happy about that. Happy and empowered.

Teachers are like vampires, they can't have lunch in the real world with real people in the Sun during term time. But it is the school holidays so I am catching up with friends. I am having lunch with Bella's Mum today. Our friend MrsMauritius is in Tuscany.

MrsDrWho has left Niagara Falls and is in Washinton. I begged for a photo of the Lincoln Memorial with apes from the end of Planet of the Apes 2001. No apes, but a photo anyway. I shall imagine apes....

And a photo of The White House from ID4. I am all about the blockbuster sci-fi films, and not government!! Washington is going into shut down so MrsDrWho and friends have to try and fit all their activities into one day.

Wow, that was an unexpectedly long post.

Weather-wise we are expecting 20*C, sun,wind, rain and then snow: four Seasons in one day.

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.

Mama, Just Quilt'd A Man....*

Pulled a needle and a thread,

This Quilt is doing in my head.

Mama, who knew that I was done??

Now I've gone and sewn it all away, ay, ay.....

Mama, ooh ooh ooh ooooh,

Didn't mean to moan and sigh,

I sometimes thought I'd never be done at all,

Sewing on, sewing on, as if nothing really matters..........

(* I am singing along to part of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen)

Yes, I have just sewn the last two blocks for the Craftsy Block Of The Month quilt. I made the Executive Decision that we would not be making the sewing-on-paper or the curvy Drunkard's Path-esque blocks. So last night and this afternoon I sewed the last three blocks. Block 18 is still at MrsDrWho's house with the first 17, but here are blocks 19 and 20: untrimmed.

And now my blocks are going to be put away until next year. I am going to quilt-as-you-go. Maybe when school goes back I will do one block every day and it will be ready for Winter. In the meantime I have two Jelly roll quilts to make and here is my new Kaffe Fasset Spot On jelly roll.

While I have broad beans from MrsDrWho's mum's garden, (Yum, I love them as a kind of salad with home made mint sauce)

Peri has a carrot she's worried I might want,

and Gilly has her happy silly expression on. She's such a funny girl.

I also have two little Secret Knitting items which, I swear, have more ends to sew in then rows. It is a good thing I have become addicted to Modern Family, and can while away a few episodes on The Apple TV while I sew them in. Season 1 is done and I am making my way through season 2. I didn't think I would like it, but it is laugh out loud funny a few times every episode.Who knew???

Here's the material Jubbly'sMum aka MrsReno gave me for my birthday. It is enough, with some purchased lining, to make a dress the same as the one I made last week. It is washed and ready to go. I am going to 'fussy cut'  it so that the border is the hem and the fancy-schmancy centre piece is the bodice and skirt front. I could not buy the exact colour green for the lining and decided not to go for gold!!!

I have new sock wool, some Dream in Smooshy in a gorgeous emerald semi-solid and some fun Opal in a lovely teal/aqua colourway. I think these will be sitting in the sock wool tub until next year too. My sock knitting has ground to a halt lately.

I have had to spend quite a lot of time reading: at first none of the books on Hold at The Library came, and then eleven mostly big thick books came all at once:

• Dominion
• Thirst
• The Blinding Knife
• Traitor
• Airmen
• Oblivion
• The Isles
• Sharp Objects
• Night of Masks
• Catseye
• Winter of the World

I am down to just The Isles, a History of the British Isles. I wish I had some new books to read now. I keep checking my Holds every hour or so to see if a book has arrived on the shelf for me. None today.

I have two tickets to go to the cinema burning a hole in my pcket. MrsDrWho and I must see the new James Bond film ASAP. I hope she has finished editing her school reports and sewed her last two quilt blocks so we can go. It has been getting very good reviews. I love a good Bond film.

Tonight I am braving my favourite Bill Granger curry for tea. I have not had a proper curry since I was first sick in September and I am just making enough for one serve, with not much curry, and I will see how I go. I have lots of coconut milk to dilute the heat and my stomach-settling tablets at the ready.

I've no idea what I am going to cook tomorrow for Friday Food, it will be just as much a surprise to me as to anyone else. And now I am just pressing the Publish button and being damned.

Bond, John Paul George & Ringo, Bond.

Fifty years of The Beatles and James Bond films on the same day yesterday: an auspicious day indeed.  As a toddler I apparently loved to sing She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah, but I have no recollection of seeing James Bond films till much later on. I think Roger Moore, of the terrible puns, was the first Bond I saw at the pictures of my own accord.

I am an enduing and loyal fan of both: no Rolling Stones or other spy franchise for me. It is scary to think that young people these days probably don't even know who The Beatles are, or recognise their music. James Bond they may have seen, but it will have been the Blond Bond, not my all time favourite Bond- Sean Connery, of the terry towelling playsuit!!

Despite my fandom, I own very little Beatles or Bond memorabilia, a few records, a piano book of all the songs, a poster book for films. That's about it.

Monty Python (and now for something completely different: a man with three buttocks) turned 43 on the same day. I remember watching Monty Python's Flying Circus when I was in C class. I enjoy reciting lots of the scripts, endlessly,and I only have to say a few words and my mind flies off into Monty Python heaven ( Spring surprise, Elderberry wine, Run away, run away, This is a contradiction, It's an ex parrot, I'm a lumberjack, What have the Romans done for us?? She's a witch, Knights who say 'ni', See the violence inherent in the system, the machine that goes 'bing') not to mention all the songs. I have to stop listing things now, or it would just be a post of lists. I once owned a lovely boxed set of all the Monty Python records, yes records, along with a similar set of The Goons, but I lent them to someone in a mining town and they took them with them when they left to go back home overseas.

I have been Le Poorly this week, I ended up going to the doctor on Thursday when I had a fever, felt swimmy in the head, jittery and pretty awful and sick all round. It's a virus of an indeterminate nature, but I always have to have antibiotics as a precaution. Normally well people would scoff at the virus, but because I have a compromised immune system I need extra precautions. So I have been sleeping, or lying on the couch watching Burn Notice and Monk. There has been a little sock knitting, but not much. I have almost finished the My Cup of Tea socks.

Wednesday is Rubbish Day and I took the kitchen bin outside as it is easier to tie up the bag and lift it out. When I came home, someone had done this:

I think it was Miss Lorelai Gilmore. No matter what I do bits and bobs still seem to migrate into the bottom of the kitchen bin through the lining bag. When I came home it was suspiciously clean inside. Luckily it was a $12 bin from The KMart and easily replace and not too dangerous to chew.

Peri has been trying to laze in the Sun, but Gilly is always there, ready for a game or to have her photo taken first.

Peri Pumpkin eventually found a quiet spot.

I am all up to date with Doctor Who, I've watched the last proper episode, saying farewell to The Ponds, on iView and now I am waiting for the Christmas episode and then the 50th Anniversary next year.

Here are two funny things I saw. The first was at the corner bakery. It is open to several interpretations, all of them very strange. The second was at The Black Spot of Doomlight. It's not their fault, they import these, but I have to ask what kind of clause he is - standard, relative predicative??

And now because I still feel more than a little bit under the weather and Daylight Saving starts in the early morning, we must go to bed early and try and sleep. The time change always plays havoc with The Labradors' sleeping patterns.