I would love to have blogged more posts lately, but I've been busy with naughty children, a Kindy newsletter, a sad friend in need and ummm, I think there must be more! Thank you so much for your comments and I'll write back soon. Missing Blogland and hope to be back next week. xx
For starters, I'd like to apologise for these dorky photos. I just wanted to post my newly-sewn dress that I actually like wearing. This was not a great pose to flatter the dress but cripes, how I hate "modelling"! I feel like the biggest idiot.
It is New Look pattern number 6775 and I really like it. I think New Look is my favourite pattern brand - the fitting is always good for me. I used a very light denim fabric and added trim at the neck and pockets, and shortened it a bit to make it less Mumsy and more sixties. I'm sure I will use this pattern again, if not for a dress, then a top or even a t-shirt.
I know it looks a bit short in these pics, but I did ask my Mum, and she said it was fine! So I figure it must be okay if it meets Mum's standards. And of course I wore bike pants underneath. Although, looking at it now, I think I just might lower that hem a bit.
I must admit to being a bit of an achievement-orientated perfectionist. When I sew, I enjoy taking the time to make it neat, inside and out. I would rather handstitch a facing inside, even though you would never see it (nobody's marking me out of ten, right? Or are they?). It just feels satisfying, like I am making a quality item. I usually religiously zigzag edges but on this dress I thought I'd found a great short cut: cutting it out with pinking shears. Well, a word to the wise is....it's not a short cut. The seams frayed anyway, after a wash and wear, so I still had to zigzag . So, no cushions for cushion month, but a dress instead. xx
What a lovely day we're having, just hanging around. Planting plants (hoping they'll come back from the brink of death), sewing (yippee), driving a secretly-bought-and-hidden new remote-control car, sweeping, reading Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca", making onion jam, eating cream cheese, asparagus and tuna toasties and watching an aeroplane show through the upstairs toilet window. I have now finished a new skirt so I can change out of my pyjamas. Or maybe I should just stay in them, seeing as I'm about to have a nice nap with Jimmy. Hoping you're enjoying your Sunday so far, whatever it may bring!
We love our six chooks: they lay really well and make excellent, patient pets. They've had various names, but I think, at the moment, we might have Joyce, Gloria, Henny, Penny, Daphne and Maude. Kees has spent countless hours playing in the chook pen: pottering around, cuddling chooks and sitting in the feed bucket with no pants on. Today Jimmy had his first solo venture into the pen, and he loved it! There was much finger-pointing and many high-pitched exclamations of "Oooh!" A little while ago, we couldn't work out why our diligent hens had suddenly gone off the lay. Was it the rain? The mud? Mosquitoes? Stress caused by little people trying to cuddle them all the time? No. Those clever ladies had made themselves a Secret Nest. I feel sad that they wish they could hatch these eggs, but I guess someone's gunna have to tell them about the birds and the bees. You need a rooster for that, girls.
Ahh, it looks like the angels were smiling upon us as we walked through this lovely rainforest at Mt Mee. I love this picture.
Gigantic trees.....and gigantic mosquitoes...
accompanied us as we enjoyed a lovely stroll through the bush. We had had grand ideas of - gasp! - camping, but chickened out when we thought of a few things, namely: sleeping all together in a two-man tent (eek, memories of backpacking in Europe); co-ordinating bed times; and having to go to sleep at 6.30pm. Basically everything to do with sleep. So we drove up for the afternoon and a picnic dinner instead. We were almost camping.
After our walk we got the fire going - anyone with boys knows this is the manly highlight of the day - while friendly currawongs, magpies and kookaburras peacefully watched from the trees. We then tucked into our meal with gusto. As I held my sausage-in-bread, poised to pop in my mouth, one of those cheeky kookaburras seized his opportunity and pecked it out of my hand, swooping through like a kamikaze and cutting my hand in three places (which I couldn't quite work out). I shrieked embarrassingly of course, and there was blood, truly, not just tomato sauce. That Hitchcock movie always did give me the creeps.
Huh, Mr Kookaburra, you might have had the last laugh today, but I'll be the one laughing when you're jumping up and down with your pants on fire on the electric wire. Yes, yes.
Here is poor Kees, miserable in hospital with a broken hand and foot.
How did he end up here? He climbed up an old gravestone, the marble cross came loose and he fell, with the marble block crushing his foot and hand. It was a horrifying experience with lots of blood and an ambulance...
but our little boy was very, very brave and is now on the road to recovery.... with 3-4 weeks in a cast! What???!!! We are well-prepared with puzzles, sticker books, treats, movies, bubbles, sewing, the stroller, books and more books. Keeping Kees still is quite a challenge, but we are just so grateful as he really is very lucky to be all in one piece.
Ohhhhh. Ouch. Poor love.
