Nothing Much to See Here

I can't believe it's August already. Before we know it we're going to be knee deep in Christmas. I'm going to tuck that alarming thought right back deep in my brain until at least December 1st ....and then assault Christmas ninja style. 

Not much going on here at Maison Pyjamas. I don't have anything wildly exciting to say and I don't want to be one of those people that you groan at when you see one of my posts pop up in your reader so I'm keeping a rather low profile.  

In actual news: 

Mr. P had his birthday last week. If you ask -he'll tell you it was his 30th. He actually got away with that for three straight years from 30 to 32 by celebrating with different groups of people every year but I have his number now and I gleefully rat him out every time he tries to make that nonsense fly for another year. For the record-he's well past 30!

Little P came to celebrate with us and we got to give him his presents and his birthday cake. Ice-cream cake is the way to get any 4 year old to love you forever.

He eventually had to be pried out of his Leonardo costume with a crowbar three days after putting it on. I'd say that present was a hit Aunty Brooke.  

In July crafty news, the flower hexies are all appliqued, the Irish chain top has gone off to the quilting fairy and Superheroes 2 got gifted. So far in August the triangles are driving me mad merely by existing and the recycled shirt quilt is being ignored...I've been cutting some more 2.5 inch strips, and started playing with shapes for an orange peel quilt. I've started a test piece but I'm not convinced about the results. This was my third unsuccessful attempt at making it come out like the vision I was seeing in my head. 

Hit a T-shirt front with the iron this week without realising it was something synthetic and it shriveled like a shrinky dink coating my iron with black crap in the process. That's one less T-Shirt I have to put into the quilt I'm making for Mr. P. 

I'm making this the only quilt I'm working on this month ...maybe then we'll see some progress. 

Mish Mash

With our departure drawing closer, I've been working long hours so I can go on holidays from work with a clear conscience. Not much else that's blogworthy has been going on here unless you count the batch of cakes I made that I forgot to put eggs in (they were like little rocks and tasted very strange) or the fact we've been living on takeaway for about a week. 

Mordecai is firmly ensconced back in usual life after his near death experience. My credit card is not so much dented as completely smashed into tiny pieces. But it's nice to have a happy (breathing)cat.

He is minus a lot of fur , and all the neighbourhood cats are taking the piss out of him. I told him to tell them this is the "half poodle" cut and it's very chic right now. 

While I'm bitching and moaning about how poverty stricken I am I'd like to show something I ordered before the cat decided to suck the life out of my credit card. I haven't bought shoes in weeks so I went on a bender.

There are actually two of each shoe but I was trying to be arty with my photography. I Love Billy is my absolute favourite brand of shoes and since I bought three pairs on sale for the price of one it would have almost been sacrilege not to buy them.

I've done a bit of sewing lately but it doesn't feel like a huge amount of progress is being made. I've pressed all the bits for this quilt that is making it's debut appearance on my blog. I stupidly announced to Little Miss Sunshine that I was  aiming to have this top together before we went away and once I have an idea out there I find it hard to change it so watch this space.

And I finally sucked it up and basted Flurry yesterday because it's been sitting here mocking me for about a year now. 

I was assisted by my helper , Little P who has obviously been watching me baste quilts for so long that he knows how it's done without instruction or prompting. And yes- he did it in his pyjamas. I'm so proud. 

The plan for today is to quilt that darn thing. I'm already plotting about how little quilting it really needs to remain stuck together! If you hear crying- that will be me. 

P.S. 9 sleeps!

The Aftermath of Christmas.

Pigs of the world can breathe a collective sigh of relief. I swear I don't want to see a slice of ham again until at least April. 


Christmas is done for another year. For the Pyjama family it was a day where we ran around like hairy goats trying to see everyone to keep them happy and then it was done in the blink of an eye. I think next year I might just hibernate out at home like a bear. However, Little P (who has that curious supermodel quality of being able to knock out an engaging smile the second I say"Cheese") had a bunch of fun on the actual day despite telling Father Christmas the week before he didn't "think much of Christmas ". 

The big hit of the day was the almost life sized fire truck we bought him. Too bad it didn't come with some hunky firemen for his Bella. 

My family continue to give me gag gifts.These will join Planet Cake on my recipe book holder so it looks like I can bake worth a damn. Perhaps one day in a moment of madness I will attempt to bake a recipe from one of these books.

My love of gorgeous hair was satisfied. My old GHD died several months ago and I couldn't justify the 300 buck price tag when I had another functional hair straightener worth $220. I know I sound vacuous and like a complete airhead. For all of you muttering "A hair straightener is just a hair straightener" that's simply not true and you obviously haven't experienced the sheer bliss of a GHD. I didn't just do a happy dance people, I practically danced a whole musical. 

Mr. P almost did a wee when he got a Wii. He refused to believe it was an actual Wii until he'd opened the box and pulled everything out because Im the type of person that would cruelly stoop so low as to put a Christmas dustpan in a Wii box. The Wii was an investment in ensuring many happy hours of uninterrupted sewing for me .Worth every cent. 

Christmas night was very relaxed and full of stupidity as evidenced by these photos of my sister doing a  Popeye impersonation.

(SOP,  if you're gonna post incriminating pictures of me on Facebook you better know I'm going to get payback) 

We move on to Mother of Pyjamas doing jelly shots.

And deciding she didn't think they were all that. 

but later actually believing she could sing like Barbra Streisand (so the jelly shot had it's desired effect) 

My parents dancing after a few beverages. It was just like Dancing with the Stars but without the costumes. Or the official judges. Or the class. 

And I laughed. A lot. 

 

Boxing Day included moving slowly, a three hour nanna nap and letting my liver process several different kinds of alcohol. Thank you liver- you did an awesome job and I am eternally grateful. 

We hosted a recovery dinner on Boxing Day. Thanks to Kirsten's recipes I had plenty to feed everyone.

Mini chicken salad croissants 

These are spinach-less because my sister spat on all the spinach the night before being a cartoon character. 

And a galette which is honestly the most idiot proof dessert I have ever made.  

The day after the day after Christmas I woke with a burning desire to start my annual house clean out. That's where I pull everything from every cupboard in my whole house room by room and get rid of things that haven't seen the light of day since the last clean out. I started with my sewing room which used to look like this.

And now thanks to Ikea..looks like this

Wednesday night I tried to kill myself by eating a chocolate ball that had ground up almonds in it. I survived due to quick thinking and an epi-pen. 

I hit the post Christmas sales and bought new bed linen. I cant help myself. That makes 7 quilt sets of bed linen I own ....

Mr. P looked very dubious about all that pink but tough cookies. 

And this appeals to my minimalist nature. 

I have spent the last three days entertaining Little P and having him "help "me. This is him pulling every pin out of every pincushion I own and putting them in a basket. The basket was subsequently emptied on the floor and then he got tired of  "helping". 

I have listened to twinkle twinkle little star about 2385 times and have sung "galumph went the little green frog" (minus the sadistic verses ) at least 93 times. And I'm still trying to get the black sparkly nail polish off my cream ottoman but that's another story. 

Enjoy your New Years Celebrations! I'm off to check out what you've all been up to while I've been held hostage by a 2 year old with a pin fetish.  

PS. My Mum is so gonna kill me for those photos....

Domestic Bliss

I started the week with a bad attitude and more WIP's than you could poke a stick at. I'm happy to say I'm ending the week exhausted but happy. I found my quilty mojo (and flogged someone else's too I think) 

Its been the very picture of domesticity in the pyjamas household this weekend. Quilting, baking and decorating. I didn't touch a single cleaning product all weekend, and I didn't wash clothes and I don't feel one bit guilty. But I might feel like a tool tomorrow when I'm forced to go to work naked.

On Friday my blog disappeared. Yes- totally disappeared. People who visited got a message saying that it had been deleted. Apparently there was some suss activity on my account so my blog was suspended.  For one brief moment I wondered if google counts the swear words on your blog and cuts you off when you reach 1000 or something.

After my whiny Tuesday post about lost mojo and my quilt avoidance (yada yada yada) all of sudden the quilting fairies decided to smile down on me and throw a ton of motivating quilty type feelings in my direction. So on Friday with 4 seams left to go before I finished the Merry Go Round quilt top I discovered I'd sewn two blocks arse up in the middle of the quilt . It was a real slap yourself in the forehead/send-an-email-to-little-Miss-Sunshine with bad swear words in it kind of moment. 

Doh!

I'm lazy and thought about leaving it but sanity prevailed and I spent some time  cuddling up to my unpicker and muttering bad things under my breath.  For the main event I cut the backing for this quilt all wrong which meant I had to use 4 pieces instead of 2 . And for the finale when I was squaring the backing I managed to somehow neatly slice my backing in half ...Hi my name is Shay and I'm a dumb arse.  Anyway it's finished and off at the Quilter so she can work her magic because as far as this quilt is concerned I used up all my brilliance matching up the 4726 seam on the half hexagons.

The Wonky Block Quilt has been quilted and I'm thrilled with it.  I've attached the binding to the front and am planning a finish this week but I can't resist giving you a sneak peek. I've decided to call this quilt "A Day at the Beach". My quilting guru is a goddess. Plain and Simple. 

And the Blue and Brown quilt (which I have decided to name "No Frills") is about 80% quilted. 

I am a bad sewing machine mama since this is what I found today when I finally went to clean out the guts of my machine (it's been a while ) . Thank goodness they don't have a department for cruelty to sewing machines ...on the positive side I now have enough fluff to stuff a cushion. 

In between all this frenzied activity I managed to put my Christmas tree up, decorate the outside of the house, bake a chocolate tart, do some Christmas shopping, go to the quilt store, nick into Spotlight, buy some more Christmas decorations (like we need any more )  and I squeezed in some Bella time with this little guy who is sleeping over tonight. And Mr. P changed his first ever crappy nappy. Alert the media.

Gratuitous Grandchild Shot . 

Work is about to get insane for me for the next couple of weeks because it's the end of the school year. So I may not be around all that much for a bit. If I dont comment or respond to email it's not because I dont appreciate each and every one of you - it's because I've fallen asleep face first in my mashed potatoes at tea time. 

Accolades, Op Shopping and a Crafty Dilemma

I went shopping on Friday to finish the Christmas presents, get a haircut and find an outfit to wear Christmas day.   The shops have started getting awful, people are being insanely rude,  and there  are going to be punch-ups in car parks because of all the stress. Everyone is starting to act like they're the only people who have to get things done. It's a jungle out there.  I like to keep it simple and avoid all that madness. I'll be posting the last of my Christmas haul over at my not so secret blog  (family not allowed) on Tuesday, so come on over and have a look then, but I wanted to show off some of my other finds from Friday.

I have wanted a soup tureen  for 22 years. You don't see them round much anymore and the ones in the op shops are often missing the ladle or the lid  or have nasty chips. My infinite patience was rewarded yesterday when I found this ...I was seriously doing the happy dance, and then I saw the price and it was like angels started singing. Now I just want to make a bucket of soup so I can use it.

I also saw this ceramic pumpkin and bought it for an autumn table decoration. Yes..I am turning into one of those "I must change my house every three months with the seasons" chicks. Nah ..I'm not. This'll probably sit languishing in a cupboard or get put on the table  when I remove this years Christmas decorations and get moved again when next years go up...

My Christmas outfit is taken care of. White capri's, white strappy kitten heels , jolly red top, and a scarf for some style.  All I need is some new jewellery. I'm thinking green so I really look like a walking Christmas tree. Most of this outfit was op shopped aside from one item. As usual my photography skills stink .

And I was gifted with some calico  bread bags this week from Freecycle.  I said I'd take them with only a vague notion that I could do something crafty with them . I don't know what I'm going to do with 40 of them. Ideas please? Anyone want a few? I am insane to be thinking about making a picnic rug or something out of these? Can any of you come up with something better?

Melissa graced me with a cherry on top award this week. How appropriate since I had cherries appear on my tree also. If you haven't met Melissa pop on over and have a look at her blog, clothwork. Melissa is insanely talented and her blog is like eye candy. Thank you Melissa.

Part of the deal with this award is apparently I have to tell you about three things I love and then tag three more people for the award.

I am not a big chocolate eater but I love Rum and Raisin Chocolate. This is my favourite. Love Rum and Raisin.

Obviously I adore both of these guys.  

And today I love this cat ...which doesn't happen very often because normally she is quite feral. Maybe it's a sign the world is about to come to an end, because she's being really cute and loving instead of trying to rip my face off.  

I'm tagging the following blogs because I think they're an uber-cool read. You should go check them out. They're all very different but eminently enjoyable.

Kirsten's Cooking -if it wasn't for Kirsten my family would get the same meals week after  week. Plus she just made 700 cinnamon rolls for charity.

Lisa at Git Down Kitty - one funny lady. She sews, she crafts, she finds weird things under her couch cushions.

Marg at Sunshine?Paradise? who is my soul sister in crafting disaster. It's so nice to have  friend who is as imperfect as I am in that department and doesn't mind sharing her flops (and many successes)

I just wanted to let the world know I love you. Don't feel obligated to tag along if you don't want to.

And now I'm off to sew some things. I may achieve greatness today  or I may not...probably not...meh.

Thrifty Christmas Tuesday

Larri at Seams Inspired has come up with a brilliant idea for Christmas 2010. The Thrifty Christmas Challenge . You can read all about it here ...

And she has a page where you can link to your blog posts and show off your finds/ creations here . Feel free to play along!

The deal was I opened my big mouth and said I wanted to do some handmade gifts for Christmas. In public. On my blog. I am an idiot.  It snowballed when Larri said she was doing Thrifty Christmas. I said "What a great idea" In public . On her blog.   I am an idiot. Just kidding. I'm really excited about this idea.

By that time I was committed to the concept, so   I created this  blog because I don't want family and friends snooping round looking  at what I'm up to. My family are sneaky that way. My friends are even sneakier.

So here are my rules:

• I'll try to make , thrift and use whatever I have wherever I can.
• I want the gifts to be meaningful for the recipients so I can't  buy/make any old trash. Bugger. This is going to be hard. Kidding!  
• I have a budget and I have to stick to it. I can buy supplies to make my creations or I can buy presents outright.
• Augmenting or embellishing gifts  with additonal purchases is OK as long as the budget isn't exceeded.
• I can re-gift , recycle or use things I already have stashed and it doesn't count towards the budget limit.
• I will not make my Dad a tie for Christmas. Or an apron for my sister.

This week I'm showcasing Little P's presents  ...most of which you will have already seen.

Love U Quilt - Handmade from Stash (by Quilting in My Pyjamas)

Marvin the Monster- Handmade (by Kris of Life at Rosemary Hill )

Car Playmat - a garage sale find a year ago. Meets the thrifty criteria.

Crayon Roll  (handmade by moi)

I'm planning to make another one of these and fill it with pencils. And I bought some art paper so Little P can scribble to his hearts content . At his place. Not on my white floors. Yeah I'm the world's worst Bella. I'm waiting till he moves out then I'm going to buy him litres of poster paint. That stuff never washes out despite what they say on the container.

Anyway , I'm still under budget , and appear to be batting 100% so far!

Happy Thrifty Christmas Tuesday for this week.