Sunday, May 31, 2009

In Case You Haven't Realised.......

..... I've given up on daily lists. I was spending time blogging them that could be better spent completing them.

I haven't stop doing things though. In the last week I have worked on my 'picnic rug'. It is coming along really well and has even had a couple of name changes. I decided to do a hall runner instead of a picnic rug, as I actually need a hall runner. For the Craft Fair, though, its going to be a kitchen mat. What I have done is already close to the right size and it will show off what I'm trying to achieve. I'll finish the kitchen mat, put it aside but keep cutting and sewing hexagons together. I'll just sew the 2 pieces together after the fair.

My knitted wrap is almost finished.

My PJ pants for my Garment Production course are coming along, right on schedule (something new for me)

Damien has been busy, cleaning, vacumming and mopping this weekend so all I'll have to do, this week is washing.

I'm off to a Laura Benini shoe party this afternoon. Not to buy just to help with catering. I have made another Lattice Slice and tried to make an Apple Slice. (I may have to get something from Coles to replace that. I'm not real confident about it.)

Thats about it, no pics but hopefully there will be some this weeks, of finishes, hopefully

Thursday, May 21, 2009

I Know, I Missed a Day

Wednesday was almost a total right-off. I woke up at about 12.30am and that was it. I ended up playing games on the laptop for a couple of hours before going back to bed to lie there, watching the clock.

Wednesday night was the first night of working on my assessment task at CIT and I was worried that I would be so tired that I'd stuff it up. Tried off and on to get some more sleep, during the day but to no avail. Didn't get anything other than the towels washed. I didn't make any mistakes, last night though, so my PJ/cargo pants are all cut out ready to stitch and the paperwork, involved, up to date. I slept pretty well last night

Goals for Tuesday May 19
  • Clean Ensuite, mainly shower
  • Work on Recycling Project for the Craft & Quilt Fair in August (see pictures below for progress)
  • Sort out ASG Memebership
  • Ring Bernadette
  • Washing (again : / )
  • Work on Knitted Wrap (hopefully have pics of that tomorrow)
  • Iron Cargo Pants fabric
ALL DONE


Goals for Thursday, 21 May
  • Wash Bed Linen
  • Other Washing
  • Remake Bed
  • Ironing
  • Recycled Picnic Rug
  • Knitted Wrap
  • Homework for Monday
  • Tidy Folder for Wednesday
  • Menu
  • Shopping List

That should keep me busy.

A couple of times, I've mentioned the knitted wrap that I have been working on (knitting is not my forte)

Here is my WIP


This is what it is suppose to look like when its finished.
The yarn is so soft, and I like the way the wrap 'wraps'. It is twisted, once, then the ends sewn together. With the fold over, on the shoulders, I'm hoping it will actually stay on my shoulders.

Any way, so far I've done both lots of washing and tidied my folder, for Wednesday's class, as well as done some cleaning up in my craft room. Let's see how much more progress I can make today.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Not a Good Start But....

Heres how I went, yesterday. Not real good. Wasn't (and still aren't) feeling the best. Feel sick when I do eat, feel sick if I don't eat. Been happening on and off for about a month now. I suppose I should have it looked into.

Anyway...

Goals for Monday, 18 May
  • Finish Bernadette's patterns
  • Ring for Neurosurgeon's appointment
  • Wash cargo pants fabric for class, on Wednesday
  • Work on Recycling Project for the Craft & Quilt Fair in August
  • Washing
  • Photograph project's that I'm currently working on
  • Blog
Well, that doesn't look as back as I thought it would (red being what I didn't get done), considering I also had a bit of organising that needed doing for last nights CIT class. Um, I'm a bit more motivated for today now.

Goals for Tuesday May 19
  • Clean Ensuite, mainly shower
  • Work on Recycling Project for the Craft & Quilt Fair in August (see pictures below for progress)
  • Sort out ASG Memebership
  • Ring Bernadette
  • Washing (again : / )
  • Work on Knitted Wrap (hopefully have pics of that tomorrow)
  • Iron Cargo Pants fabric
I think that will do. I will quite possibly be unable to do anything after the cleaning of the Ensuite, anyway.

Other stuff

Back in January I posted about a Recycling display that 'my' chapter of the Australian Sewing Guild, Capital Stitchers, is putting on at the Craft and Quilt Fair, in Canberra, August.



There are 4 prs of jeans, an old blanket and old blockout backed curtins. Hopefully they are going to be made into a 'quilt as you go' type picnic rug.



Here is my progress. I was planning on using one of the fancy stitches on my new sewing machine to sew the hexagons together but can't find one I like so I'm just going to whip stitch or ladder stitch them. This photo was taken yesterday morning and I have done more since then.

Well, must get on with the day.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

GTG - Last Photos and a Plan

Coral said it was OK to post these photos of the actual attendees of the GTG.





Speaking of Coral, I'm going to 'borrow' one of her ideas, from her blog, a Stitcher's Life. And do it in my own Obsessive/Compulsive way.

Goals for Monday, 18 May
  • Finish Bernadette's patterns
  • Ring for Neurosurgeon's appointment
  • Wash cargo pants fabric for class, on Wednesday
  • Work on Recycling Project for the Craft & Quilt Fair in August
  • Washing
  • Photograph project's that I'm currently working on
  • Blog
Most of these will mean nothing to anyone reading this, but if you are curious, feel free to ask.

We'll see how I go, in crossing them off. A pysch I once went to once, said that we should concentrate what we do achieve rather than that which we don't. With that in mind, on Monight or Tuesday (hopefully) along with crossing things off, I'll also write down things I did that weren't on the list.

As I said, we'll see how I go.

Friday, May 15, 2009

I Lost an Hour

I went to check out Mandy's blog, Crafty Stuff, noticed the words "Cutest Blog on the Block" in the corner and 'clicked' on them and that was an hour ago. I have had a little play and know there will be many hours spent there.

Anyway, AGAIN, catch up mode, This time the Australian Girls from the 123 Stitch MB Get Together, in Victoria.


It was a wonderful weekend. I'm still rhapsodising (I know I can't spell) over it. I swear Damiens's eyes are starting to glaze over at the sound of a few words like 'the farm', 'George', 'Kristeen', 'cakes', 'alpacas', 'Wynedotts'. I think you get the idea.

I have a few pictures, none of the other girls OR stitching (I got 3 stitches done all weekend) but I have asked Coral about using the photos she has and will post those when or if I'm able to.



This is Ruby Rose. I think this is a particularly good photo. I had a 'few' attempts, with her 'up close and personal' assistance, before managing this one.



See what I mean????



If I had have pushed the button just a second or so later, this one would have been of her tongue. Calf 'slime', I was to have more en'cow'nters with it.



Here is Rodney. He was a little shy.



Like I said, more cow slime. At one stage he was sucking on all four fingers and I thought I was going to have to stay an extra day or so, to get my wedding rings back, if you get my meaning ;) When I put my hand in the water barrel, it felt like the 'slime' was about an inch thick all over it.

It was lovely to get so close to the animals. I had a bit of a hard time thinking of Rodney as a boy, though. Aren't all black and white cows, girls???? Yes, I know... not when they are bulls. But he was so sweet. Then again so was my youngest DS at an comparible age.



This is one of four alpaccas that belong to Kristeen. She has another 4 who are waiting for their owner to get a new home, after the January fires. I didn't get 'his' (I'm loathe to say 'its' ) name.



At the time, this was the newest member of the Club Yellingbo Magical Barnyarn and Circus. Megan was born on the Monday before the GTG. She is a week old here.

I had read that alpaccas were used to guard sheep, in some countries. It was interesting to see that in action.

Megan and her mum, Baa Baa Raa, were in the paddock with Kristeens alpaccas. Melisa and I went down, I was trying to get the calf pics. Where ever BBR and Megan moved in the paddock, the alpaccas put themselves between us and the sheep. I didn't even notice, but I tested it out, after Melisa pointed it out to me, by moving around the outside of the fence. They weren't at all hostile, though I'm told that would have changed if I'd gone in without Kristeen, just keeping watch.



One of Kristeens 6 cats, Cleo, right before she tried to rip my face off. Kristeen had been referring to her as something like "the wicked demon cat from hell", but she seemed quite approachable and I can never resist the chance for a cat fix. As you can see, all looks pleasant. I have my dumb "Oh what a cute puddy" look on my face, she was purring and drooling. About a minute after that she swiped me. Only got my wrist but the marks only went yesterday. I should have known that Kristeen would know what she was talking about.



AND this is George! Isn't he beautiful??? I'm usually quite scared of large dogs (let alone huge ones like him) but from the first time I saw him, I felt safe with him. We had a couple of nice long pat sessions (by my standards, probably not his) over the course of the weekend. I almost 'wore' more than one cup of tea from him coming in from behind me, as I sat at the table, and sticking his nose, followed by the rest of his head, under my armpit for a hug.

Well, that about covers my photos. It was a great weekend. It was wonderful spending time with likeminded people, seeing everyone projects and just putting faces to names. If there was anybody who didn't have a good time and feel a part of it all, they mustn't have been trying.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Sorry about the Formatting

I forgot to delete some of the code used for the pictures.

Part 2 of "A Day at the Zoo" - Sue Meets a Cheetah

These are the best of my 'meet-a-cheetah' pics. Damien bought me this experience for my 40th birthday, January. You get 15 mins in with the cat. The zoo has 2, 1hr sessions in a day, and they take 8 people through each session. The young guy with me, got his for his 18th birthday.

The zoo is privately owned and recieves nothing from the government in the way of funding. The money they get from general entry, this and a couple of other one on one things, is what they have to run the zoo as well as try to do their part in bringing some species back from the brink of extinction(sp). The keeper was telling us that they would like to try breeding the cheetahs but if they do, they'll have to stop the 'meet & greets' for awhile. At 16 people per day @ $165 per head, thats alot to lose out of your budget.








As you can see, I was pretty happy to be there. She was beautiful. She was purring at one stage and she sounded like a Harley going down the nearby highway.
Its something I'll alway remember.

My friend,Bernadette, made me an album for my birthday, so I'm going to get the best pictures of the day printed and I'll put them in that album as a memento of my 40th.

Back again tomorrow, still in catch up mode.

I have pictures from the Australian 123 Stitch message board Get ToGether (GTG) to post. It was a fabulous weekend.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Long Time, No Blog

A little bit has happened this I last wrote. One of which was my visit to the National Zoo & Aquarium. Damien had bought me a gift certificate for 'Meet-a-Cheetah' and we decided to make a day of it. Here are some of the photos and goings on.


This guy hadn't been there when we walked past about 20min before. We had searched all the trees in the enclosure and didn't see him. The box he is in is on its own in a tree a little separated from the rest. The look on his face had me imagining thought bubbles above his head. "Yes, I'm here now.", "Yes, I'm cute.","Will you hurry up with the photos already","I don't get enough leaves for this."," 20mins every 2 hrs, is it the end of shiftyet?"

Yes, I realise that I humanise animals to much, but they don't seem to mind and I have fun.



Obviously Lions and Snow Lepards. The ledge the lepards are on is appartently one of their favourite daytime spots


This tiger was absolutely beautiful, and he knew it. He had a path he was parading up and down earlier and he would pause and the end where the people were, like he was posing for photos. There was another tiger in an enclosure next to him that I tried to get a picture of but I'm sure he was playing games with me. I would spot him, get into position for a great shot, he would look straight at me, then turn his back, lift his head and just saunter off to stop with a tree or something between us. (Whats that saying about being ignored by a cat???) This happened twice so I'm sure it was deliberate on his part. I took the hint and let him win.




These are a few of the 'Brat Pack' I think there are 7 of them, all male white Lions.


If they are the 'Brat Pack', these 2 could be the 'Bratz'. 2 White Lion girls which the zoo hopes to breed with the boys. They weren't actually on display but I have a good zoom on my camera.









The height if the giraffe, is a real eye opener. This one was Rosie, apparently. There was a little boy and his Gran, standing near us and the boy asked Gran,what the giraffes name was. They went through, Geoffry, Jeremy and Gerald but then he decided on 'Rosie'. She looks like a Rosie to me too. For all their size, they seem to be a very elegant animal.




"You lookin at me??!"
This fella was quite a character. We could have watch him for hours.









"Cheeessse".
The bears seemed very happy to have their photos taken. This one just lounged there, changing the angle of his head once in a while, all the time with that cheeky grin on his face. His mate was at the other end of the enclosure with one of the keepers. The photo was taken through perspex so its not the best.

And so must end part one of 'Our Day at the Zoo'. With uploading photos and trying to format, this much has taken 2 hrs. Maybe if I spent more time blogging, I'd learnt how to work it better. I hope this has published in a format that will make sense.

I'll be back with the cheetah pics when I can.