Waving madly - I'm still here

My blogging/sewing/quilting mojo has left me. I still have the will to live but that's about it.
I've contemplated a number of times about writing a blog post but just couldn't think of anything exciting enough. I've been lurking and reading blog posts but haven't had time to comment.  Thank you to my wonderful blog friends who sent emails wondering whether I was still alive. I am. Sorry Shay you'll have to wait  a bit longer for my fabric stash.

I had every intention of sewing madly over the last two weeks but it didn't eventuate.


I've been hanging out and socialising in Brisbane. I planned out my sewing before I left home. I brought down my baby sewing machine just in case, and put together a couple of bags of hand sewing projects to work on while away. It would have helped if I'd remembered to pack one very important bag in the car. The one that had the mat, rulers, rotary cutter, templates, the pattern that I was working on etc. Finding out that I had left all the important stuff at home, put me in a sewing funk. To pull me out of the funk I planned a trip to Spotlight to enhance my quilting paraphernalia and grab the tools I needed to work on my projects, that was fun and they had a sale at the time too! I only doubled up on one thing, which was another small rotary cutter. Everything else I bought including a mat and rulers, were different sizes to the ones I had at home. I even found this fabulous tool.

A doo wacky that you attach to the rotary cutter and allows you to add a seam allowance to your traced template pattern. It was really easy to use once you fiddle about to set the right distance from the blade. It made cutting out the pieces for the Circle Game BOM blocks so much easier and quicker as I didn't have to draw a seam allowance and then cut. I just had to follow the drawn line on the fabric from the template  and voila a 1/4" seam allowance was cut. I'm sorry I don't know what it's called and I've searched on the Olfa site and can't find it to add a link to it.

My spending spree should have motivated me, but life kind of took over and despite having all the stuff I still didn't sew much, at least the pieces I need have been cut out.

Last week I took a trip back home to see if the house was still there, secretly wishing it wasn't so that I didn't have to keep on getting rid of stuff so that it will be clutter free for the sale. Also to see whether the work had finished on the outdoor decking. It was and doesn't it look spectacular, sorry not the best photo as I just took a quick one with my iPhone.

While I was there I picked up my bag that I had left behind.

I'm slowly working away on anther Amitie BOM block, almost finished.


I'm enjoying the process of these blocks although it's slow going and I don't have much to show for the hours of work I put into them. I've almost finished the outer ring on this one, which I'll show in a later post.

The weather has been fabulous here. Blue skies and sunshine.




Lovely sunrises.

Favourite Things Friday

In this case it's Favourite Things Saturday, because I'm a day late, although it's still Friday in some parts of the world!
Linking up with Shay at Quilting In My Pyjamas.

As you know I love going to Brisbane. It's my favourite thing to do most weeks. I love walking along the river, even though you are in the city, it's so peaceful and the water and the breeze are so calming. You can hear the city sounds in the distance but they don't intrude. I love looking at the city buildings, but where I'm standing I'm surrounded by greenery.


The river is muddy after all the rain, this was taken this week at the Cliffs Cafe at Kangaroo Point. A very nice spot to have a coffee and look at the view.




These were taken a couple of weeks ago.

Swaps, Moving and Navel Gazing

Here's the deal-
BP is moving to Brisbane. She applied for entrance into tertiary courses last year and found out a couple of weeks ago that she was accepted into her first preference.

I'm so proud of her and very happy for her too.

BUT, I'm going to miss her.....a lot!
It's been just the two of us for quite some time now, so it's going to be very very weird not having her around to annoy talk to me everyday. Fortunately we found a solution that fits us perfectly.

I have been contemplating moving back to Brisbane for quite some time now. With that in mind, I went house/apartment hunting in Brisbane, somewhere for BP to live while studying and somewhere that I could escape to every so often.  I found a fabulous place which stretched the budget somewhat, but is just perfect, a secure place for her and a great place very close to the city for me to get my city fix!

We have been slowly moving BP's stuff down to the apartment and setting it up. It's taken a fair chunk of my time. It's about an hour and a half drive away. Plus all the sorting of things that she needs down there. We spent last week there, finalising everything.  It's finally set up and she is about to move there permanently this week.

The only thing is, I love it so much I want to move there NOW, not eventually.  I'm already wondering how I can move BP out so I can move in permanently.
I've lived in the same house for 13 years. I bought it originally as a temporary place, somewhere to renovate and then sell after a couple of years. 13 years is not what I would call temporary.

The decision has been made, I WILL sell this house, probably not straight away as the real estate market is not fabulous right now, but I'm already doing a major de clutter and getting the house organised for when I'm ready to sell.

So that's where my head has been for the last couple of months, why blogging has been sporadic and why I haven't exactly been sewing up a storm.

Having said that, I'm trying to make sure I will be very very busy, too busy to constantly worry about BP or spend every spare minute in Brisbane, after all she does need her space.

So I've put my name down for two swaps so far. The first the Mouthy Stitches Swap. I've just found out who my partner will be and I'm very excited, I'm also crapping myself, because I hope I can make a zippered pouch that she will love. Heck I'm just hoping I can make a zippered pouch, having never made one before. I've been ordering in supplies, some zippers from Zippit on Etsy and some fabric. In the meantime I'll be practising zippered pouches this week.

The second swap I've signed up for is the Name Game Swap run by Anorina at Samelia's Mum. I've put up my mosaic and found out who my partner is. At least no zips in this one. I have a few ideas already for this and have put together some fabrics on flickr that I hope my partner will like.

1. mini quilt swap, 2. finished pouch, 3. For the Love of Solids Swap, 4. Oh, 5. custom order, 6. Entrance and hall, 7. Dining/sewing table, 8. Scrappy Pincushion Swap--Round 2, 9. Doll Quilt swap 10 Finished, 10. Gerberas, 11. Dining/living room, 12. Monday - washing day, 13. Pillow Swap Round 4 Pillow Finished, 14. MT swap sent, 15. For the Birds, 16. Better shot - Finished MMM bookshelf mini-quilt

I took some hand sewing to work on while I was in Brisbane and thanks to some intensive hours of sewing, now have a finished quilt, the first for 2012 and quite a bit of progress (for me) on some other projects. I'll share with you next time.

Favourite Things Friday

This week my favourite thing is being in the city and enjoying all the things that this brings that I have no hope what so ever of having at home.

Things like home delivery of dinner to the door instead of having to drive 20 mins to get take away and driving 20 mins back home and by the time I'm home the meal is not as good as it could have been. This week we had Italian, yum, we could have had Indian, Mexican, or pretty much what ever we felt like.

I love that the local pub is only 1 block away and it's a really really good pub. It means that I can have a drink or two or three with friends and walk home instead of only having one because I have to drive home.

I can go for walks along the river on a dedicated walking path instead of walking along the side of the road, no footpath and cars and trucks whizzing past at 80kms an hour.

Image from australiaguide.com.au

I can walk a couple of mins and buy a coffee, instead of making it myself or driving 5kms to the nearest coffee shop.

I can catch a ferry to the city or to lots of other places, how cool is that? I love catching the ferry.

Image from tripadvisor.com

I can catch a taxi and it only costs a few dollars instead of driving into the city and paying an outrageous $40 for an hour park.

My friends can come and visit me, I'm much closer to them when I'm there and they don't need to pack to stay the night, they can pop in and visit for a few hours.

I can sit at night and look at the city lights instead of staring out into pitch black darkness.  I can't see the stars but it's a really nice change.

Image from brisbaneseo.com

I may live in paradise but to me having all these things at my doorstep that I haven't had for almost 13 years is my current idea of paradise.

I'm going to be torn when I have to make the decision of where I'm going to live. You can take the girl out of the city but you can't take the city out of the girl.


Mosey on over to Shay's for all the Friday Favourites this week.

Favourite Things Friday

Sometimes a change of scenery is just what you I need.











Linking up with Shay for Favourite Things Friday.

Favourite Things Friday

It's spring here in Oz and while the northern hemisphere is enjoying beautiful autumn/fall leaves, we are starting to see lots of flowers starting to bloom.
One of my favourite trees is the Jacaranda. I absolutely love the colour of the flowers and they look spectacular against the blue sky. When the flowers start dropping they leave a beautiful purple carpet on the ground. I was in Brisbane today and noticed the Jacarandas are starting to bloom. It's early days yet, another week or two until they are in full bloom.

Not the best photos, hopefully I'll be able to take some better ones in a week or two. Like the one below.

This photo taken from here

Linking up with Shay at Quilting In My Pyjamas.

River Fire - Brisbane 2011

The room was great, the company was fabulous, the weather was good, the view was excellent and the show was spectacular. What more could a girl ask for!

View from the room

Helicopter fly pass

The pontoon below our room

Storey Bridge

Firework "waterfall"

Right outside our window

Finale

Favourite Things Friday

My favourite thing this week is what is happening in Brisbane this weekend.
The River Fire Festival. We stayed in Brisbane last year and I'm going again this year. We usually make it a family affair and I meet up with my sister and her family.

Photo from Brisbane Festival web site

All along the river there are pontoons of fireworks which are sychronised. The bridge below, is the centre stage for the fireworks.
When we go to the festival in Brisbane we stay at a hotel along the river and we have fabulous views from the hotel room. If the weather is great we can go down to the river bank and watch it. If the weather is cold or wet we stay in the room and enjoy the show in comfort.

A couple of not so great photos from last year, taken on my phone from the hotel room, as I forgot my camera! Crossing my fingers that I remember my camera this year.

I'm planning to meet up with friends while I'm down there so it should be a pretty good Saturday night.

Linking up with Shay at Quilting In My Pyjamas so hop on over there to see everybody's favourites this week.

Tuesday Tidbits (and tails)

I'm making up for yesterday's post. I suppose I could have eked out all of this over a number of posts, but I'm finding it easier and quicker doing it this way, which gives me more time to quilt and crochet, and that's a good thing!

The backing for Strawberries and Champagne (pre-pressed).

I used most of what was leftover from piecing the front, 12 inch squares and a vertical and horizontal line of 2" x 6" strips.

Bitchypoo has sort of tidied part of her room. She bought the comforter and a couple of the cushions on sale with money she has saved from her part time job and she commandeered a couple of my cushions.  The rest of her room still looks like a clothes bomb has exploded but at least her bed is made and looks ok.

Friday we drove down to Brisbane to see Wicked on Friday evening, it was fabulous, I spent half the evening drooling over the fabrics in the costumes, looking at colour combinations. I especially loved one of the Emerald City costumes. Unfortunately I can't find an image of it.

Photo from The Age newspaper.

We stayed in Brisbane Friday night and came back Saturday. Instead of shopping we opted to go to the Museum and had a look at the Science Centre. It's quite small compared to others we've been to but it was fun.

A couple of photos of my "angel" pulling faces.

On the way home I picked up Fanny Pfaff as she was back from brain surgery and now should be like brand new. I haven't set her up yet as I'm really enjoying using the Jem.
Quilting has begun on the Strawberries and Champagne quilt, it's going ok, not quite as well as I hoped but it looks ok, and as the pattern is so busy the mistakes are not going to stand out, phew (I hope!).

Beautiful morning light and little wispy clouds this morning.

I've picked these for the next monochromatic challenge - guess what colour, lol!

This gorgeous stack of deliciousness is for something I'm designing. Cross your fingers for me please that what is in my head will work and look just as good if not better once it is pieced.

Finally, we can't have a Tuesday post without my wonderful Bailey.

This is his current favourite spot to chill out when he's resting from being Keeper of the Quilts.
Excuse the mess in the background, that's my pile of stuff that's ready to go out to the recycling and rubbish bins.

Social butterflies

I have survived a whirl of social activities in paradise this last weekend.

The social outings began on Saturday. Bitchypoo and I had a very nice lunch with my mum and dad at the Boathouse Restaurant in Noosaville,  the view from the restaurant was just beautiful.  Look at that sky, I love spring, beautiful weather and not too warm or humid.

In the afternoon we went to see the new Lexus LFA. It was invitation only and guess who scored an invitation!!!

Now apparently this is a  REALLY REALLY REALLY BIG DEAL, just ask any testosterone filled car enthusiast.  It is THE latest Supercar.  There are currently only 6 LFA's in the world. This one is on it's way to Sydney for the Motor Show then off to Dubai to it's new owner. We weren't allowed to touch it, only look at it. Bitchypoo is a bit of a car enthusiast and thought it was "pimp", I assume that is good, she took lots of photos on my phone as we left the camera at home....again. It's worth, from memory, roughly $750,000 Aus dollars which is about the same $US  or approx 450,000 British Pounds.  I can think of lots of better ways to spend that much money. As you can guess, it didn't really float my boat, but now I can tell everyone I've been this close to an LFA!!! Ha!

On Saturday night it was a girlfriend's birthday get together. We had a really lovely evening with a great bunch of people.

Sunday we drove to Brisbane to go to the Brisbane Food and Wine Festival. You might remember I won tickets to the Cupcake Class and entrance to the festival. Of course as usual, I left my camera at home so only had my phone to take photos, and they are not very good. As it was I nearly forgot to take any photos at all.

 Cupcakes in progress. Neither of us were feeling particularly creative.

We spent the rest of the time at the show taste testing and sampling an awful lot of the products, entering competitions to win cars and all sorts of things I can't remember.  It was a fabulous day out and I'm going to make sure I go next year.

Sunday night we went to Ahmet's Restaurant at Southbank. It's a Turkish restaurant, the same one I went to a few months ago.

A couple more of these were consumed by me, (not bitchypoo). Turkish Delight Martini.

Monday morning we went to the GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane) to see the Valentino Retrospective.  A fabulous display of Valentino gowns from 1959 onwards. There were some amazing creations in the display and some not so fabulous too!

All in all another great weekend, and I'm going to need the week to recover!