The Fogs Of War

We have been very busy because it is The School Holidays and perhaps that is why I had a migraine last night. I have to be truly bedridden before we miss a walk and Gilly and Hedy had a lovely walk with Rafa this morning. The mornings are quite foggy, and the fog is so thick you need to use your windscreen wipers.

Hedy Lamarr and Rafa conduct a series of games. There is a lot of facing off, running and then engaging.

Gilly and Hedy love the cooler weather. Gilly is especially happy and wags her tail and even “plays” with Rafa for micro-bursts. Gilly is so good, but she waits until she sees the prize before she asks with her paw. Hedy is already asking non-stop because she believes I have a treat!!

MrsDrWho took me on a short road trip to visit Auntie and Uncle Dutch and Lo, The Young Dutches and Kinder Zoe came for lunch. There are no photos of them, because, privacy, but here are Poppy, Auntie and Uncle’s dog, and new puppy for Zoe: Daisy-Belle. Daisy-Belle slept in MrsDrWho’s arms. She is such a cute puppy. 

I sewed two more tiny Hold It bins by Made by Dana. The yellow for Kinder Zoe and the Bunny outer fabric for The Dutches. 

 

I also made some Honeycomb Malteser Fudge. Auntie Dutch loves honeycomb but I thought it would just dissolve into the fudge, but the chocolate covered Maltesers might just be OK. And they were. It is such an easy recipe: melt together one tin of sweetened condensed milk and 440g of whatever chocolate you like (I chose half milk and half dark) and stir until smooth. I let it cool a little and then made layers of fudge, Maltesers, fudge and then pressed the remaining lollies into the top. I chilled it in the freezer and we were good to go. This fudge needs to be kept in the fridge, and in theory if you use a 20cm (8 inch) tin, you can cut 64 pieces.

I fixed my Star Wars dress, after Hedy’s paw ripped the neck. I unpicked the lining at the waistband and then laid the dress so that the lining matched the lining and the Star Wars the Star Wars, and then sewed a fish eye dart really. The seam is there if you know to look for it, but because the fabric is so busy, I think it works.

I finally knitted Mr HouseOf’s birthday hat. I was seduced by a Caron Cupcake, but the pattern on the label was for a child’s hat, so I worried if there would be enough meterage for an adult hat. I used some lovely black Merino Magic for a double width band, and in the end there was plenty left. I shall use it to make a striped hat. Hedy may have stolen the pom-pom from the bedside table. I am not sure if Mr HouseOf wants it, or not?

When I talk to The Nextdoor Neighbors at the fence, Hedy Lamarr likes to dig the hole she is working on. It is fine, that is the dedicated hole digging area. However, if you are in range, she will shower you with dirt. Poor Lorelai Gilmore was standing there very innocently, when she came within range:

Hedy could not care, and poor Gilly needs to have her head wipes and be cuddled. She is very patient with Hedy.

I feel so much better now the weather is cooler, even though I had a migraine. I am lucky that mine only last two days and I am allowed to tailor my hospital-at-home drugs to suit the pain level. I am even happier that I have worked out how to blog using The TypePad mobile platform. I emailed myself a video from my phone to the iPad, then I saved the video and used the YouTube app to upload it and then copied the URL. I feel very technologically competent.

Tomorrow is ANZAC Day and I plan to bake some kind of ANZAC caramel slice. I never feel very included with all the emphasis on mateship and men. I do remember those who have served in any capacity, at home or abroad, in the Forces or not. I am very cross right now that Brendan Nelson wants to spend Half A Billion Dollars on an underground hall for the War Memorial. If that much money is there to be spent, we should be spending it on people, the people who have been negatively affected by their service. If you’re willing to put your life on the line, I think we should be willing to give you all the money you need to help you transition back to civilian life. Another display won’t help anyone. They could just squoosh everything together a bit more.

I need to get my act together and sew a dress before the month ends. I have six days.......

PS When I preview this post it looks weird, so please excuse any weirdness. I don’t know how to fix it.

Come back to the Five And Dime, BillyBall, BillyBall.

This blog post has been siting in my Drafts since the 2nd of April. Tonight Australian Story on The ABC was about Emma Betts, a young woman who died from melanoma. She had a blog called Dear Melanoma, and sometimes I need something to remind me to practise gratitude. It is not that I am not grateful, but complacency is such an easy thing to slowly slip into. I haven’t used the very long time I have been ill to do anything really worthy, but life has been worth living. We are lying in bed (again) and I decided I would not wait for the right time to post to my blog, I would find some photos and do it now. No one expects The Spanish Inquisition: or decent photos on my blog!

Lorelai Gilmore and I are in bed and Miss Hedy Lamarr is off somewhere creating chaos, or in her Little Box. We are watching Caught Out about the Cricket cheating in the Test against South Africa. One of the people said that we are all sullied by the behaviour of Smith, Warner and Bancroft: that as a nation we have to live with the consequences. I do not feel sullied. Cricket is not what it used to be. It used to be on The ABC and no one wore coloured clothes. I do hope that the men are being well cared for, I am worried about their mental state. 

But I don’t feel represented by men playing cricket, or mateship or ‘if you’re not with us you’re against us’. Sadly, I do feel represented by our inhuman treatment of refugees, by the way we have decreased our foreign aid, eg.

We should be more outraged by the lies and obfuscation of our politicians. That’s my two cents’ worth on that topic.

In good news, I have sewn a new dress: the Beetle Dress. I bought four or five panels of fabric on super special at The Spotlight. Each panel had some tropical leaves, two kinds of lattice and two Christmas beetles. I managed to cut out the pieces to my satisfaction and I love the surprise beetles in the back of the skirt. I tweaked my Upton Dress pattern by moving the shoulder seam forward 2.5cm, moving the side bust darts back 5cm and lowering the under bust darts by a half. Luckily I have short legs and so I was able to eke out the skirt lengthwise. 

I wanted to wear my new dress to WeeJock and Besse’s Dad’s birthday party. WeeJock and Bessie’s Mum was very worried I would be unwell, or unable to walk the steep paths to the venue. In the end I rested and was relatively well and able to go. Jolly good thing I did, because it was a surprise wedding!!! Oh we were all Very Surprised and I had enough tissues to share with my friends when we all cried joyfully. It was such a wonderful evening and two wonderful people shared their special day with us all. Now my dress has been renamed as “My Wedding Dress”, which confuses come people and amuses me no end.

Hedy has had FlippyFloppy Ear and we bought the very expensive new $130 tablets that aren’t steroids for her. She was vaccinated too. Dr Rob says that,when she is not being excited, her heartbeat is nice and slow and she is incredibly fit. Gilly came too, of course, and they are both nice and slim. I always feel happy about that. 

This year I have been unwell, really unwell almost all the time. My immune system is compromised and that is why I am poorly. I have missed out on an Easter Day trip and other outings, I’ve not sewed or knitted very much at all, there has been an awful lot of sleeping and the one thing that is sancrosanct is The Labradors’ Walk. Five times a week we go for a walk, we love going, and I save some, or all, of my energy for that. I hope the cooler Autumn weather brings me some better health.

I have at last finished a pair of socks for my next door neighbour. The Blueberry Choc Shake Socks 2018 are knitted in Opal Fresh and Juicy. Opal sock wool is the work horse of sock wools, and though not the softest, it is comfortable to wear and lasts seemingly forever. 

Someone stole Hedy Lamarr’s red BillyBall when we were at the dam. She has a new blue BillyBall and she loves it. Thank goodness.

However, her love is ephemeral. On Friday we met Sandy’s mum and her grandsons. They had a foam soccer ball. Hedy wanted that ball so badly, that she stole it. Luckily the boys played with the BillyBall: all’s well that ends well. She worked very hard to fit the ball in her mouth.

I sewed two Hold It bins from Made by Dana. I can’t work out how to make clicky links on the iPad tonight, sorry. I am very happy with them, and I plan to sew some more.

I am knitting a cardigan for Kinder Zoe. Her favourite colour is yellow, and I love this buttery colour. I am making Pixie Dust by Lioness Arts. It is a top down raglan with a lovely lace pattern in the increases, repeated across the whole body.

I baked a layered chocolate cake with whipped butterscotch schnapps ganache for MrsDrWho’s morning tea at school. I used my cake levelling tool, so that made me happy. The day was very warm and the ganache would not set, so I had to put the cake in the freezer and it went slightly wonky. I think the women at school used the roses to make it look beautiful.

There, I feel I have achieved something positive. I only skimmed before I posted, so please excuse any errors.

ABC, Not As Easy As 1 2 3.

Oh it has been so lovely and cool. Well perhaps the pendulum of weather swung a bit too far the other way: we had terrible storms, hurricane like winds, 104mm or 4in of rain and more than 20,000 households are/were without power. At our house we had a lot of rain and a small branch fell off a small tree. Lorelai Gilmore and Hedy Lamarr are in their element, which must be water?? Well it isn't fire, wind or earth, so it must be water. Hedy loves to make splashes and waves.

Gilly is looking her best now the weather is not so hot:

And this photo is very typical, Gilly is happily trotting past and Hedy wants to play with the ball. Now!

MrsDrWho's mum gave me some greengages. I love greengages. I just cut them in half and popped out the stone and boiled them with some water and about a tablespoon of caster sugar for ten minutes. I plan to have them with yoghurt, some expensive vanilla ice-cream and maybe top some with a crumble?? When I was little we had a green and a golden gage tree, they are a kind of plum I think. It is the taste of my childhood. I am also lucky to have received a jar of greengage jam....

I have sewed a few bags already this year. I am not sure of numbers. I have a list somewhere, not sure where, but I can ask Judy-May the number of her positive word bag.

I am an easy mark when I see Labrador bags in the supermarkets. This is a Coles Easter bag and $1 of the $2 price goes to The Guide Dogs. I bought three because that is all they had!!

I saw this pattern on The Internet and had to have it. The Spotlight didn't have a copy at our shop or online and I ended up buying it from The Etsy. It is on its way and the weather is cool... Who knows, I might sew?

Now let us speak of The ABC's First Annual Public Meeting.

I booked a ticket and like everyone else assumed that we would be having a "meeting". No, that was not what happened. Most of the people there were on the north side of sixty, if not seventy. There were FOUR chairs and a couch.

Eventually they rounded up a weird assortment of chairs, not enough for everyone and for almost an hour I sat on the floor. Then we were treated to a similar amount of time of the television screen buffering. Buffering and buffering. Older people were watching the meeting stream on their smart phones. It appears my ticket just entitled me to almost watch the live stream. That's it. No discussion as promised. And we were told to both cheer when we were to have a live cross, and also to be deathly quiet. Most people couldn't hear the instructions given by a softly spoken woman on the stairs to people hard of hearing. It was not worth the bother. I shall be writing a letter to Michelle Guthrie offering my organisational skills and expertise. I can organise sitting down. I can organise chairs, and a microphone (it's the ABC for dog's sake), and someone to make sure the streaming feed is working. It did eventually work, but we ended up watching a TV backwards through glass and relying on the closed captions because there was no sound.

We are seriously considering putting Hedy's little box away. She's older now and though she naps in it, it takes up a huge part of the dining room. Well I just looked and not really a huge part. And it's not inconvenient, but one day we will have a new puppy and we don't want two little boxes. We are not sure how she will cope.

There has been much news of kangaroos/wallabies on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. My mum has a wallaby that greets her at her front door after it has chewed all the new leaves from her plants. We see lots of wallabies and pademelons.

We see them almost every day as we drive to and from the dam. If we are walking up the hill with the dogs on their leads the marsupials are quite unafraid. They know they can leap high over the wire fence and be away, even if a dog accidentally gets loose. Which they won't because we don't want them chasing the wild life, or running on the road. And yes, I did stop the car to take a photo. There is little traffic and the rule is not to stop for animals but there is no danger if you slow down and give way to them.

Autumn is coming. The nights are drawing in. The temperatures could still be high, but it is only a fortnight until Autumn officially begins. Yay!! I shall be in my element.

Some Like It Not Hot

We saw Bonnie the Labrador @randomknits had a new toy. I decided Gilly should have a new squeaky toy. Hedy wants it, Gilly has it, and so it begins.......

Oh so many things have happened. The heat is somewhat less, 27*C instead of 37*C, and the nights are often cool enough to sleep. I did have a little crisis. I heard a beeping sound in the middle the night and thought it was coming from the fuse box. I worried all night and I could feel my heart beating fast and my stomach swirling and I could not think properly. I rang The Lifeline people at about 6am because I didn't want to wake up anyone I knew!! The woman on the phone listened, and suggested I ring an electrician and ask their advice. I did. He answered the phone at 7am, and was so kind and understanding. He asked for a photo of the fuse box and I emailed one to him. He said it all looked absolutely fine and there was no sparking or fizzing or other weird things happening. I left a little gift of thanks for him, and for his dog, at his office.

I felt so much better, and that night when I heard the sound I called my next door neighbour and she said it sounded like a cricket. And over the next week we had all sorts of cricket noises because of the hot weather. I was just so hot and so tired and unwell that I could not employ any of my usual coping strategies. This year, if there are no medical or major appliance emergencies, we are going to buy an air-conditioner for the bedroom. Being able to sleep and be cool will be so wonderful!!!

I like to talk about my anxiety and/or depression because when I didn't talk about it, things became very terrible. And I don't want things to be terrible again. I also know to ask for help. That helps!!

Lorelai Gilmore and Hedy Lamarr met a new friend. Sandy's dad and mum are respite carers for Guide Dogs and Guide Dogs in training. This last week they looked after Cobie. He has some Golden Retriever in his mix. Cobie is about the same age as Hedy but he is bigger than everyone and has beautiful longer fur.

From the left you can see Hedy, Gilly, Rafa and Cobie.  Lots of happy waggy tails. All the dogs get on very well and play happily together. Cobie is on his lead because he is worth a lot of money and must be kept safe from falling into gorges or over cliffs.

Lorelai Gilmore is feeling better now the weather is cooler. Hedy is always pushing to the front and demanding attention and pats, but Gilly just stands quietly and waits. I asked the other humans to pat her too, and she was as pleased as punch.

Hedy just wants to play with her Billyball. She is more than a little obsessed.

I love back to school time, I love all the stationery and the accoutrements. I have also had a lot of therapy and I no longer feel sad when my friends go back to teach their new classes. I did some lunch and recess prepping for MrsDrWho to make the transition a little easier. In the shops I saw a lot of coffee cups, keep cups, travel cups and on a pamphlet I saw a tea travel cup, which used tea leaves. I emailed the Sistema company, but they said it was discontinued in Australia. To my surprise and joy, Tash offered to send me the showroom Twist'n'Sip tea cup. I am very grateful and it is so lovely. I put tea leaves in and it brews. I can close the top so it doesn't spill and I can click it open to drink. Now I am likely to take this to the back yard, or maybe to a picnic, not in the car. Thank you Sistema, for your unexpected kindness.

MrsDrWho and I went on a  little road trip to Latrobe to visit Reliquaire on the last Thursday of the holidays. Reliquaire was razed to the ground on Christmas Eve 2015, but they relocated and then rebuilt. It is a shop full of lovely bits and bobs, from a $1 badge to a $5500 giant bear and everything in between. We spent a few hours browsing and found lots of hidden things behind secret doors like these dinosaurs.

We had morning tea first, and later on lunch, and stopped at Ashgrove cheese for cheese supplies. I love cheese. I am glad it is chocolate I cannot eat because I could not live without cheese. I bought Harvarti with jalapenos, Double Gloucester and cheddar with cracked pepper. MrsDrWho bought matching Harvarti with bacon. I had cheese for dinner.

Artists and schools have painted the cows which decorate the Ashgrove grounds.  They amuse me.

I am well enough to have knitted a sock, using Opal Fresh & Juicy in the Sweet Chocolate Dream colour. I used my usual pattern which I cobbled together. One sock down, one to go. I love the colours, and Opal does knit up beautifully, my stitches look so nice. None of the colours are really right. maybe the first one but a little less bright than the second?? I mainly watched Altered Carbon on The Netflix while I knitted. I have also sewed a little.....

I bought two T-shirts from The KMart, one on sale for $5 and one for $10. I plan to make this raglan T-shirt in Autumn, with the Star wars picture and logo cut out and used with some green material.

I saw on The Instagram that people made a Make 9 goal. I think I will join in, but instead of nine patterns, I might choose the nine different materials I want to use to sew dresses. I bought this pattern from The Etsy. It is a trend, and I am at the very end of the trend, so far at the end that I couldn't buy it here. I like the low cut front, but even so, I shall raise it a little. I always feel my cleavage can draw the eye from other parts I would rather were not so prominent!!

It is 21*C now, so it feels about 27*C and we shall lie in bed with the cool breeze blowing and hope to sleep. I have chosen something for my Friday Food, and there's a day up my sleeve so I am very hopeful!!

If you left a comment on Lorelai Gilmore's birthday post, expect an email in the next few days!!!

January, Don't Be Hot, Don't Be Too Hot To Me. You Make Me Sad........

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, unfortunately January has been as hot as hell and is about to get hotter and we have been hiding from the heat as best we can. This year I am keeping track of the days when I am unwell and the days when it is too hot, which makes me unwell:

This is the year so far: I was sick with my throat infection, had a brief respite and then had an enforced long recovery in bed. Now we are having a run of hot days. And more to come. I do feel physically unwell when it is hot, and in Tasmania The Police have said we need to add 5-8*C to the temperature to calculate an equivalent Mainland heat. Coming up is a week of 35-40*C. When I look at this I see why I haven't really done anything this month.

I am reduced to eating instant noodles, with some hot smoked salmon and peas. And I have drunk so much liquid that I slosh when I move.

We have set up a cool retreat on the verandah with piles of old doonas and cushions, but round about now the mosquitoes come out and we have to come inside. We are very grateful that we have had some cool breezes overnight, but it was already hot when we woke up this morning.

When we went for our walk on Tuesday last week the dam area was closed. We saw a giant crane and other big machines on Monday.

When we went back on Friday we could see they had added a shiny and jagged metal edge above the new valve area. It is above where the water gushes out. We don't know what it is for. Yet.

We had to go along to another walking area where we met Rafa and his Dad. Lorelai Gilmore was in her element, she raced ahead with Rafa and smelled all the smells. Hedy was not very confident at all.

Hedy Lamarr looked to Gilly to lead the way.

When we came home Hedy could not seem to get comfortable. She wriggled and was restless and licking her legs. We went to The Vet, all of us as usual, and saw the Lovely Dr Alison. Hedy had tiny red spots and was allergic to something in the new walking area. They love going to The Vet and Dr Alison gives them treats!!! Their tails wag too fast for the camera.

$150 later we came home with a new magic spray instead of nasty tablets. Of course Hedy hates the spray. The first time I sprayed her - one little spray under each arm and two on her belly- she hid under the honeysuckle for an hour and looked accusingly at me the whole time. Now I squirt her when she starts eating breakfast. The spots and the irritation disappeared almost immediately and we didn't go walking there again.

MrsDrWho and I went for afternoon tea last Monday. I had a lemon tart and she had a cronut. I was torn between the tart and a rhubarb and apple cake. MrsDrWho bought me an apple and rhubarb cake to take home, and it was delicious.

And that is all that has happened thus far, but I wanted to take advantage of a brief moment of cool to announce the winner of Lorelai Gilmore's birthday bag:

and it is Judy Edmonds. Congratulations!!! I assigned ordinal numbers in order of comments and then used The Internet to chose the winner randomly:

I will send an email Judy!! Lorelai Gilmore and Hedy Lamarr would love to send a card to the other kind people and dogs who left happy birthday wishes as well, so we will send an email about that too!!

We hope it is appropriately nice weather where ever you are. Please send cold wishes......

Number Nine, Number Nine, Number Nine, Number Nine, Gilly's Nine......

Happy Birthday Lorelai Gilmore, eighteen months ago we weren't sure you'd make it to eight, so nine years old is pretty wonderful!!! She'd had a dip in the paddle pool after her special birthday breakfast. (And nicely obscured Hedy Lamarr with her tail) Their breakfast today was chicken breast, carrot, celery and a little rice.

Here is baby Gilly, she was so cute!!

Do not think that Hedy Lamarr was missing out. She likes to stand on your lap, dripping with paddle pool water, showing you that she really wants to play with her Billyball.

In celebration of Gilly's birthday we are giving away a shopping bag, Labrador-ified. It is bag #134 and the second bag of 2018. Please leave a comment, and then in a week we will draw out a name from a hat. And we promise to send everyone a card with Gilly and Hedy's photo!!

It is a polypop bag in my favourite lime green colour with a strip of the Labrador fabric I "created" last year on The Spoonflower.

I am feeling a little more like myself again. Antibiotics are a wonderful discovery and without them I would be dead. Thank you, scientists, for all your life saving discoveries. I know doctors counsel against the overuse of antibiotics, but because I have a compromised and suppressed immune system, any small health issue can become serious very quickly. I am allowed ALL the drugs!!!

Here's a quick review of last year's craft and cooking. I didn't knit very much at all, basically because I was poorly, had a chewed finger that needed plastic surgery and had my eye operation. I made hats and cowls and small things. And only one pair of socks.

I sewed a lot of shopping bags: thirty. I love sewing these. Someone asked if I would make them for their cool and trendy little shop, but I am not only unreliable health-wise, but I could not bear to have to make bags under pressure. I only make them when I need them, and I enjoy it immensely. I like to try and match the bag fabric to the person and it is fun looking and choosing.

I sewed a variety of other bags too.

I sewed some garments, which I was very pleased with. Two dresses for me and one for MrsDrWho's sister in Supernatural fabric.

I made a table runner, wall hanging and the final of three cat beds:

And finally the "other" category, a baby quilt, a cross stitch and some tiny bunting.

I was not very consistent with Friday Food last year, for obvious reasons. Here's what I did make:

So all in all, in spite of being chronically poorly and having extra medical happenings this year, I was very productive. I like to keep as busy as possible and to be useful. Since I can't be a teacher any more, I have to find ways to make myself productive and useful.

Today I am baking some biscuits for Gilly, going to The Eye Hospital because I have an errant stitch sticking out of my scar, I think if there is a hole big enough for a stitch to poke out then germs can find their way in, and possibly baking a cheese and spinach slab quiche.

And we shall be resting after yesterday's heat. It wasn't 47*C / 117*F, but it was too hot for us.

Still Crazy After All This Year

I saved this post as a draft on New Year's Eve, at  12/31/2017, 8:56:48 PM, but my tiredness and annoying little cough turned into a raging throat infection and temperature, so my draft continued to just sit there: unrealised. I saw the Nurse Practitioner and she prescribed the giant antibiotics and I have been getting better. It no longer feels like a thousand swords when I swallow and I don't have to sleep almost all of the day and night.

 

The time before, during, and after Christmas has been much cooler, and we have used the time to sleep. Just sleep really. Sleep in the cool breezes coming in the window. There’s one right now.

We had a lovely Christmas, even though I didn’t finish everything I wanted to. In true tradition I am now doing one thing every day. Starting yesterday, I baked a batch of the most excellent chocolate biscuits. Today I am puffy painting the General Grievous I appliquéd on a bag for MissSingapore. I may even cut out her kimono jacket ready to sew tomorrow.

I am very grateful to have such wonderful family and friends, who accept the reality that I am always late with most celebratory gifts.

I have not given over blogging to The Instagram. I intend to blog again next year, perhaps more frequently. This year had a huge chunk taken out of it, from August to the end of November, with a chewed finger and then an eye operation. Everything turned out well. Hurray for our medical system.

MrsDrWho gave me some little notebooks she thought would be good for blogging notes. Oh my word they are. I have not written in them yet, but I have a list of things including: errant apostrophes and people in the 12 items or FEWER queue with 24 items, or the ABC radio presenter who said 'arch'-ipelago. They are my Little Books of Not Calm!!!

We always spend New Year’s Eve at home. I always fill in my diary and have a glass of cider and nibbles. This year I have a different kind of diary, not the usual Buffy Diary. My psychologist suggested a Passion Planner, recommended to her by a friend. We will see how it goes. I don’t have to fill in dates and I photocopied the cover of the Buffy Diary so I feel a comforted by its familiarity.

Lorelai Gilmore and Hedy Lamarr are both well. They hated the hot weather before Christmas and have so enjoyed the coolness. This does not mean they have not been in the paddle pool morning noon and night. Especially night.

I managed to sew my Captain Kirk Star Trek dress and wore it in the middle of the night to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi. I did not know three hours had gone past. I sat entranced for the entire film. People complain, but they did not live through the long dark teatime of the soul when there was no science fiction or fantasy on TV. There was no streaming, no way other than buying VHS tapes. But this is not why I liked the film, I liked it because it was an excellent tale, told well.

I need to tweak the toile and shorten the bust darts, add a sway back adjustment, trim the front armhole and maybe fiddle with the forward shoulders?? I love the v-neck at the back and now I need a dress with a v-neck at the front.

I finished the year sewing a lot of shopping bags:

And I am sad I forgot to take a photo of all the slices I made for food gifts. My plan worked very well and I shall do it again in 2018.

Gilly and Hedy had a lovely Christmas and they had a special walk with Rafa and the returning Paris the Guide Dog in Training. Here they are, assembled, walking up the hill together: The Four Dogs of the Christm-apocalypse.

Lorelai Gilmore is very happy, she sometimes looks a bit sad, but she has the hay fever and her eyes are yucky. She very much enjoys a special treat on our walk.

Hedy Lamarr has learned to drop on command. She is recalcitrant. I am working on 'come'. She comes when she likes, if she likes, unless I say "Here you are" in my treat voice. Then she comes. Here she is being very annoyed when the Billy ball won't co-operate.

Here are two happy, wet Labradors in the backyard.

And here endeth the draft.

Tomorrow or the next day I plan to post a review of all my crafting and baking during the year.

Gilly and Hedy wish everyone a very happy and healthy 2018. We hope it is not interesting at all!!!

 

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!!!

There Is A Season (Burn Burn Burn)

We are melting, like The Wicked Witch of the West from OZ. Oh the weather has been so hot, so hot that it has broken all records for high temperatures in November for all time. I checked last year's November statistics at the BOM and the hottest day was 26.5*C, and the rest of the month was in the teens or low twenties. My brain won't work and my illness makes it much harder for me to endure the heat. Tomorrow it will be 31*C, which is really like 36-39*C on The Mainland. Wish us luck, if we can make it to Saturday it will be only 20*C.

The Labradors have remained cool. Gilly spends a lot of time in the paddle pool, and Hedy is young, so she copes far better. They went to the Vet because they had conjunctivitis. Lorelai Gilmore hasn't totally recovered. I think because she is immune suppressed, it takes longer for her to fight things off (like me!!) Hedy is fine now, though she hates me if I have a tube of ointment in my hand. We came to a compromise: she would tolerate the ointment in her eyes if it was just before she ate breakfast and dinner. Phew!! She was in denial at the Vet. Gilly's eyes were red and sore. Poor Gilly.

I caught up with my friend TinkingBell last week. We had a lovely day of chatting, drinking cups of tea and browsing the shops. It is too hot to stop and take a photo of my lovely Dalek necklace. I love it, so wait on tenterhooks for that!!! I sewed a Doctor Who bucket bag and a drawstring bag. I used this pattern for the bucket bag and I can recommend it. It's free and has only a few pages to print out and tape together. It sews up really easily and quickly. I just made up the drawstring bag. I used my Doctor Who fabric. And my photos are worse than usual.

My photo of when a woman walked into a bar was so terrible that Onyi took over. Look at her photo: marvellous!!

The Darksideknitter has a new job and so we went to a "bar" for drinks. I had 0.9 of an alcoholic ginger beer. I ordered a small ginger beer with ice and the bartender filled the glass almost to the top, added ice and then charged me less than the full price for a less than full glass. I have never come across this before. But ask me how many bars I have been in in the last 28 years?: that would be one, this one. I ordered the buttermilk fried chicken with Korean chilli dipping sauce. There was so much chicken I had to take half home. Women let other women have just one chip, and the chips were very good. They were crispy and salty on the outside and fluffy and hot on the inside. Yum.

I finished The Seamwork Almada robe for Auntie Dutch. I took the world's worst photo and all Hedy's shredded tissue paper from my new shoes was on her cushion. I have covered it up poorly but it looks like clouds of snow, and that is very cooling. I met Uncle and Auntie Dutch on Monday for afternoon tea and then unexpected dinner. The Labradors had to wait till 8-45pm for their dinner. They coped. This is why they never know when they will be fed: guerilla dining!!! The robe would take two hours to sew, but I did French seams and made my own biased binding and then covered the cuff seam with purchased binding too. Auntie Dutch liked it, and wafted about in it when we went home for cups of tea and patting Poppy the dog. They brought me back a few things from Ikea, and refused to take my money, they are kind and lovely friends.

I sewed a shopping bag, bag #114, and used the off cuts for some bunting instead of a card. I have made tiny bunting before and Auntie Dutch was chuffed. I must make more.

Auntie Dutch made a fascinator to wear to a Melbourne Cup lunch, her mum enjoys the occasion and so Auntie Dutch goes with her. This is an Iced Vovo confection. She sprayed the biscuits with clear varnish of some kind, so sadly, you can't snack on a biscuit on the way home!!

My mum gave me money to buy a new food mixer, but before I could spend it MrsDrWho and MrsSingapore et al bought me this!! I am so lucky and so excited. I haven't opened it yet, but I plan to make something tonight when it is cooler for Friday Food: a raspberry swirl pavlova wreath from Donna Hay. It is very Christmassy. I am going to use the money my mum gave me to buy new prescription sunglasses.

I have some gorgeous new wool from Knits Needles & Wool: Rose Hip Knits, a Tasmanian who hand dyes White Gum Wool. The colour is Woods. It is so soft and luxurious and I will be making something warm for my neck next Winter.

This week's produce box makes me very happy. I love broad beans and I have already eaten cucumber and tomato sandwiches and an apple for lunch today. I shall have some kind of stir-fry for tea.

And now we have reached the point where we have been inside here too long. I think a dip in the paddle pool is called for. I may have to stand under a cool shower.....

Eye Am...Eye Said

Now that The Finger is doing nicely, it is time to have an operation on my eye. I can't have two very sore things at once. A cyst has been growing on my eye for some time now, and yesterday the doctor removed it. MrsDrWho kindly dropped me off and waited for about ninety minutes. It all seemed to go very well and my cyst was appraised as "giant". It was about as big as a peanut M'n'M. I didn't have sedation, just a whole lot of local anaesthetic. I could feel things happening by pressure, but not pain.

My eye doesn't hurt at all, but it is nice to keep the eye patch on because the swelling irritates when I blink. Hedy does not like me: I am some kind of evil pirate from the right, and myself from the left. If she is lying on the left and rolls over and is suddenly on the right she has to scramble to run away. Gilly takes it all in her stride and wants to lie next to me all the time.

I need to go back on Monday to have my eye checked.

Lorelai Gilmore went to the vet last week for her blood tests. Hedy came too, as she howls like a banshee if left home alone. And vice versa. Gilly's tests were excellent and she doesn't have to go back for six months. She has to continue taking her Imuran tablets every second day for the rest of her life, but they don't seem to have any real side effects. Dr David, who diagnosed her last August, is very pleased and we are very grateful.

The weather has been not too hot and we have had lovely brisk walks at the dam. The paddle pool has been in constant use at home, and no-one has fallen in a hole at the dam again!!

My produce box arrived and it has some different things in it this week. And mint! I love mint. I made tzatziki last week and I will probably make some again, but with mint. I grated the rest of the apples into some pork sausage rolls and made a leek and kale pasta bake with anchovies. This week I am making a Thai red curry and plan to use the Spring cabbage, pumpkin and silverbeet.

Esme's Patchwork has some of the Moda Cupcake Mixes for Charm Squares in stock and I bought one. It is a pad of fine paper, printed with sewing and cutting lines. I am using my Batik from the Quilt Expo and some denim-like quilting fabric.

You pin the two fabrics right sides together, paler fabric on top. Sew along the dotted lines with a short stitch length and then trim and cut along the solid lines.

Press to set, then press open and tear off the backing papers. Sew together in the formation you choose and voila:

I love it, it is pretty much perfect and the points are pointy too.

Now I am tired and need to rest again.