From the Random File

From time to time I have a few things to share that don't really fit in to any particular theme. Since it really upsets my illusion of order and control to write random posts they often remain unshown. 

Today I'm busting out and putting them all in this completely themeless post. I just hope my head doesn't explode from breaking one of my own self imposed blogging rules. 

Spring has sprung here (finally).  I managed to coddle my bulbs through winter and have the most glorious display of tulips and hyacinths to show for my efforts. Little P was very excited to finally see the flowers we planted in Autumn, and took some home to give to his other Nanna. 

I achieved baking greatness on Tuesday (after a full day at work no less)  I did have moment of madness thinking I could give up work and become a cupcake queen. 

Showcasing a quilt my Mum has just finished. It's been sitting in her WIP pile for a while but the end result is stunning!

I had a birthday on the weekend and Little P gave me this bonsai as a present. Now I just have to become a bonsai master to keep it alive.

Saw this at the local greengrocer on Sunday.

Left it on the shelf because I'm not partial to anything made from ass. 

Slowly but Surely ....

2013 will go down as the year that felt like creative groundhog day. Since I last bitched and whined showcased my creative efforts I've been moving along one very small step at a time on a number of projects. The theory is that at some point I'll have a plethora of finishes to show. Goodness knows there's enough WIP's lurking round here to sink a battleship.  

Since I last showed you the chaotic creativity that was happening at Maison Pyjamas I've moved along a little bit on a few things and this post is mainly a motivational record!

I've put together half the hexagon flower quilt top and made the binding 

I've been playing with 16 patches from my scraps for a postage stamp style quilt. This is far from finished because I need another 78 of these to actually finish a decent sized quilt top. Unfortunately all the scrap busting I've been doing lately doesn't seem to have made a discernible dent in my scrap bin. Do those suckers breed in there or something? 

I finished the last two rows on Mr. P's T-shirt quilt and then whacked it together into a top. Just showing you a sneak peek today so I can do a big reveal when it's done and amaze you all with my brilliance. The back is done and I'm at the quilting end of the process. I'm aiming for that to be done today. I've got the cutest binding in mind and cant wait to see it on the quilt. 

I finished the clamshell mini top and I'm hand quilting it with perle thread . My hand quilting skills need a ton of refinement but it's all part of the learning experience. I'm going for finished not perfect . The best part is that this has completely knocked the will out of me to ever make a large clamshell quilt. 

And I've been basting and appliqueing peels for the Seville quilt. If this doesn't come together like I've been imagining I'm going to shoot myself. 

There's a wild rumour running round Adelaide that my Irish Chain Quilt may just sneak in under the wire for an actual September finish ...stay tuned. 

Victory!

This past weekend Nephew of Pyjamas played in the A Grade SAAFL football grand final which is a pretty big deal here in our corner of the world.  It's been a long time between major premiership wins for his club so our entire family turned out in force to cheer the boys on to what we hoped would be an eventual victory. 

From L to R - Mr. P and I chilling, Ms. G and Other Nephew of Pyjamas, Mother of Pyjamas, Father of Pyjamas, My lunch (gotta love footy food)Sister of Pyjamas and her best buddy Jim Beam, SOP and her husband, SOP photobombing Ms. G and NOP. 

It worked. Go you Doggies!

To say the team was completely thrilled would be just about be the understatement of the century. 

And to the victors go the spoils...the  babes, the beer and the medals. 

Nephew of Pyjamas kicked 4 goals in the last quarter. I'm one very proud aunty!

Playing with Pinterest

This week I've had an overwhelming urge to bake. Mostly I avoid these urges because generally speaking baking and I aren't all that friendly. Hand me a hunk of meat and I'll make you an edible meal. Hand me eggs, sugar , butter and flour and you'd better break out the kindy pasting projects to use up all that glue. 

Pinterest has been great for me. I can pin things I like the look of and not bother about making them. Somehow in the process of pinning it's like I made it myself, so I don't actually have to. I should have held on to that thought. 

But I pinned a recipe for orange cinnamon cookies a while back and they just got stuck in my head, and so I braved the pantry and pulled out the ingredients. 

I don't like recipes you have to coddle. By coddling I mean anything that takes longer than about 15 minutes to do and get in the oven . This recipe calls for resting the dough in Step 1 in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Then you have to add the cinnamon mix from the second step and give it another rest for about an hour. By that time I was completely stressed out and I needed a rest too. That should have been my first clue that this recipe was high maintenance  and headed for disaster.  

So here's the original recipe and picture. 

Aren't they cute and delicate looking? Link to the recipe can be found here

And here are mine , looking for all the world like their guts is spilling out....

I sent them off to Mr. P's work to poison the masses (all part of my dastardly plan to get my husband a promotion) He told people they were orange toffee shortbread and apparently people thought they were fabulous and that I am a legend. Obviously nobody has twigged yet that they are eating epic failures....suckers.

P.S. I pinned a recipe for Cronuts this week.  Got the urge to bake them this morning and read the recipe. Apparently those f*****s need to rest 23 times between kneadings and lay about doing buggerall in the fridge for so long that my great grand children are going to have to finish them. 

A Fairy Tale of the Holiday Kind

Once upon a time there was a stupid Princess who suggested her Prince host a boys night at the castle. The Prince took her up on the offer and started to plan the boys night to end all boys nights that involved tequila shots and huge hunks of barbecued meat (and questionable music too) The Princess started looking for somewhere to spend the night because she didn't want to end up like Cinderella, cooking and playing bar maid and cleaning up the inevitable mess made by 15 middle aged men acting like 18 year old boys. 

So the princess decided to escape to a kingdom far far away where nobody knew she was a Princess, but where she could still feel the royal vibe and so she hopped on a magic flying dragon and headed for Queensland. Because they have actual sun up there and she hadn't seen the sun for about 5 months. Oh and because Little Miss Sunshine lives there too.

And at the other end she found the magical kingdom of Max Brenner which is a lot like Willy Wonka's chocolate factory for grown ups. 

If the Princess lived in Queensland permanently she would be the size of a castle. 

There were lovely vistas in this new and strange kingdom where nobody appears to wear long sleeves and the sun shines almost constantly.

The Princess went on a ferry for the very first time and thinks this would be a very cool way to travel to work every day. 

There was lots of eating. Breakfast really is the most important delicious meal of the day. 

A little bit of cocktail sipping ...

The Princess raided Little Miss Sunshine's scrap stash. Has anyone else ever noticed other people's scrap stashes are so much more interesting than our own? In the end every time the Princess picked up another piece of fabric Little Miss Sunshine was giving her the chippy slap.

The Princess wonders why she toted three different projects two thousand kilometres when she only managed this tiny effort for the whole time she was there. 

The Princess tried to crochet once and it was an utter disaster. That doesn't stop The Princess from pinning all things crochet-y on her Pinterest account and Little Miss Stalker Sunshine had seen this pinned and decided to crochet it up as a surprise. The Princess was thrilled because it's just so pretty, and everyone knows the best gifts are the ones made for you by friends. 

There was some retail therapy. Ok quite a bit of retail therapy.  Some of the retail therapy is already in the wash ...the urge to shop in another state is magical -you just can't resist. 

And Little Miss Sunshine made the Princess eat salad three times in four days ...so now the Princess can cross healthy eating off her list for the remainder of 2013.

All too soon it was time to come home to the royal kingdom where The Queen had popped over and tidied up the castle before the Princess arrived home. The Princess suspects the Prince may still have been a wee bit hung over though.