Pyjama Party Sunday

I've spent much of my week at various times on my hands and knees hand scrubbing every single inch of floor grout in my house. Real friends would have warned me when I excitedly talked about laying white tile last year when we renovated how much of a bitch that was going to be to keep clean. In fact real friends would have been here helping me clean the grout. I had planned to clean the grout in April and got as far as buying the cleaner and then ignored it until August.  I finally finished on Saturday with a marathon scrub of the kitchen and dining room. Nobody is allowed to walk on it. We've been stuck in the lounge room for the last 24 hours and I'm making Mr. P take a whizz out the front door so he doesn't have to use the hallway to get to the toilet. Cleaning grout has to be one of the worst household jobs ever. I dont plan on doing it any more often than I have to.

Yesterday I got all fired up about the idea of making a quilted purse from this super easy looking tutorial over at Kat's. Call it avoidance of the Flying Dutchman quilt if you like but I got me a hankering to have a pretty purse and by golly I was going to make one. And it was going to be the best darn purse in the history of purses.

Most of you know I have bag-o-phobia.  Some people are scared of spiders, or Friday the 13th , or murderers. I am scared of bags. Every single time I  make one I screw it up somehow. Either the handles disappear inside the lining at the turning stage or something crucial doesn't line up when I pull it right side out no matter how carefully I cut and sew and follow instructions. This time I was feeling confident and full of girl power. And it all went swimmingly  until I had to do the turning right side out part which appears to be my Waterloo.

In my first attempt -I sewed the entire top shut . It's pretty hard to turn a bag right side out when you do that. In my own defence I was completely surprised when this occurred since in my mind  I thought I was genuinely  following the instructions. Yes - I'm a complete dumbarse. I unpicked and decided to try again. 

In my second attempt (during which I sent Mr. P to the shops because he was looking a little bit deer in the headlights after my first attempt) the flap disappeared into the bag and decided it wouldn't re-appear without more unpicking . Which I dutifully did accompanied by some swearing. I'm not going to lie- I did contemplate using it as a flapless pouch and pretending that's the way it was designed.  

It was at this point I became paralysed by fear and  decided to go away and make cupcakes because sometimes they actually turn out and because I  felt like having a little whiny self pitying cry about being the only person in the universe that cant master basic bag making.

The cupcakes made me feel better so I ate 4 of them. 

I also re-upholstered the computer room chairs. I stripped the old upholstery off, bleached it , tea dyed it and then hated how it looked  so one emergency trip to Spotlight later  this is what I ended up with. 

I got some more Tis The Season stitchery blocks done. How pissed off does the snowman on the left look? 

I did manage to drag up the enthusiasm to actually cut the backing for the Flying Dutchman quilt and that's as far as I got. That deadline is getting closer and closer and eventually I'll be forced to do something to finish it. Or hand my nephew a pile of fabric that vaguely resembles a quilt.  He could super glue it together. It'll be character building.

Oh and that bag? I went back and kicked it's arse after my cupcake lunch. It's amazing what you can do with a staple gun and spit.

It seems I can make bags after all. 

I'm linking up to Little Miss Sunshine's Pyjama Party Sunday. Click the link below for a squizz at what she got up to this weekend.

P.S. I feel like I'm dying. Someone has generously given me a cold and accompanying fever. I'm just hoping it isn't flu but I seriously doubt I'm going to be up bright eyed and bushy tailed for work in 9 hours. 

Pyjama Party Sunday - I finished something! No ..Really...

I signed up at the very last minute to do Friday Night Sew In and then did so little it wasn't worth writing a post about. Sorry to anyone who came looking for creative inspiration. I was all out.  It was far more satisfying to curl up on the lounge with my pink chenille blanket than spend time  in my cold sewing room. Yeah I'm a slacker. Wanna make something of it?

This morning I woke with the resolve to finish something. Since I'm short on  action lately, I didn't recognise the feeling at first. I thought I  was coming down with ebola or bubonic plague. A quick check of google informed me I was feeling MOTIVATED.

Really quickly (just in case the feeling left me as suddenly as it had appeared ) I put all the rows for the Flurry quilt together and cut all the strips for the pieced border before I decided I needed a nap.  Sadly I realised as I was sewing rows  that when I was squaring up the blocks  I'd made some grievous cutting errors and that if I stuck with 1/4 inch seams I was going to cut the tops of my bows off. Presents with half bows are pretty ugly so I decided to sew 1/8th inch seams and keep my fingers crossed it'd all turn out OK. It didn't.  It looks like it's Flurry's turn to be my hated quilt this week. I'm an equal opportunity quilter. All my unfinished quilts get their turn.

 

The over achievers of this QAL have already started their borders and blogged about it. Don't you hate show offs?

The day wasn't all doom and gloom and quilts that give me the shits. I showed you this pile of fabric on Tuesday. 

I'm happy to say that today I worked my bum off so that pile of stuff could end the day looking like this.  

Originally this quilt was going to be for me because Larri sent me the fabrics as a gift. Then I was going to make it for my sister in law. Now that it's made up I don't think I can let this one go. I love the way it turned out.

 

It has the cat inspector seal  of approval. Mordecai must roll all over every new quilt top . It is the law. 

I'm pleased to say there was very little mo fo-ing during the putting together of this top since it was so easy trained monkeys could have done it.That's just what I needed though - something fast and easy to kick start my mojo.I think I'm back !

On my list for this week is to make Little P a placemat for when he comes to visit because I'm over having to wipe whatever he's eating off my white pristine dining  table. I'm also planning to make a start on the Christmas stockings I've been avoiding for fear I'll stuff them up. It involves sewing and turning things inside out which usually ends in tears at Maison Pyjamas.

For more creative weekends pop on over to see Little Miss Sunshine and her crafty peeps.Better still, link up and show off your creative side!

Pyjama Party Sunday

Little P came for a sleepover Saturday night and I had to sing "Roary the Racing Car" at least 673 times along with the Bob the Builder theme song.  I flashed back to when  Miss P's made me watch Aladdin at least 1092 times between 1995-1996. Robin Williams is hilarious but even his comic genius gets old after the 400th viewing. Ditto Roary the Racing car ..Roary you're my number one star ...see? I still have that song running through my head.

Aside from singing myself hoarse , it was Party Central on  Sunday with the family here to celebrate Little P's second birthday.I took very cute video of Little P riding his birthday trike up and down our hallway and chattering away like a magpie  but I  can't show you because Mr. P is in his underpants. I'm sparing you the agony and showing you a carefully selected photo instead.

Miss P made this birthday cake all by herself. I think she did a brilliant job.

And as a testament to my brilliance I even managed to  get in some sewing. My bizarre sleep patterns continue to throw a crimp into my sewing/blogging/life mojo and I'm heartily sick of it. I have a plan to turn it all around this week.

I just had an epiphany that I've sewn some of those blocks together wrong...bugger. At least it's fixable.

I hope your Sunday was full of creative things. After two weekends of social activity I'm looking forward to spending all of next weekend doing nothing...in my pyjamas.

Pyjama Party Sunday

Fueled by 9 Little Debbie Snack cakes and a pack of Hershey's nuggets for breakfast  (those things are as addictive as crack I swear )  I spent some of today making a test block for a Christmas quilt. This is based on a Kate Spain design called Flurry.  Mrs. Seams Inspired , Little Miss Sunshine and I have decided to do the same quilt at the same time as a kind of mini quiltalong. You can get the pattern here as a free PDF download if you want to join in.  

And because the test block was not a disaster I decided to forge ahead and start cutting fabrics for the  real blocks. Yes ! It's July so that must mean the start of some Christmas projects....Thea and I are planning a Christmas stocking assault in a couple of weeks.

I finished the Dresden quilt top which was not without swearing when the sashing didn't line up and I had to unpick it. Several times. I hate sashing that has to match up.

I sewed all of the sashing onto the BWR quilt too.  I just keep liking this quilt more and more.  Maybe I'll keep it for myself.

Mr. P made me a light box so I can trace my stitcheries without taping paper and fabric to the one window in our house that gets good light for about 15 minutes a day. It works beautifully!

I've been thinking lately I'm utterly sick of myself. I look like a dag, I dress like a dag and I'm turning into a middle aged dag. Gone is the bloom of my youth and I'm firmly stuck in frumpy-ville. Time for drastic change.

That is me...raw and without the benefit of makeup, my straightening iron or photoshop yesterday morning. Even I didn't know how bad I looked until I saw this photo.

I've been contemplating a new look for the last 18 months but haven't had the guts to do it . Yesterday I took the plunge. 3 hours and many bucks later this was the result. Now I just need to start wearing makeup.

And that sums up my weekend. To check out other people's weekends hop on over to Marg's for a peek at Pyjama Party Sunday.

To all my American friends Happy July 4th for tomorrow. Have fun eating fried chicken and hot dogs and watching fireworks.

P.S. This post has absolutely no sparkle. I'm down with a rotten cold and I'm completely devoid of vim and vigour unless it's Hershey fueled. Oh! Did someone say chocolate?

Pyjama Party Sunday

This post is  brought to you by Little Miss Sunshine and Pyjama Party Sunday. The hottest Sunday linky party. Pyjamas optional!

 

Our hot water service exploded in the small hours between Friday and Saturday so when I went to jump in the shower early Saturday we had no hot water. Joy! You may recall our thermostat went in October and we spent 5 days without hot water during which I whinged loud and long. Thankyou-it's a talent.

Saturday was spent in a frenzy of trying to get someone to come and tell us that our hot water service was completely stuffed and that it was going to cost several thousand dollars to replace. I completely understand  that we need to do something about carbon emmissions and switching to more ecologically friendly energy for the fate of the planet but when the price of a hot water system goes from 1500 bucks to nearly 4 thousand because of it - Im less concerned about the environment and more concerned about my exceedingly slim purse. To add insult to inury we only replaced the hot water service 6 years ago so I'm not a very happy camper. If it wasnt about 5 degrees here at the moment I'd give cold showers a go but unfortunately that's not an option since I dont want my bits to ice over. Meantime I'm popping over to my in laws to get clean and ensure my hair remains cootie free. It's just like camping and we all know I'm a 5 star resort kind of girl.

My plan for Sunday was to sew like a crazy demon. Pressing seams makes me crazy so that part of my mission was accomplished early Sunday morning. Scarily, my iron kept making cracking and snapping noises. Im going with the idea that the iron  thinks it's really rice bubbles (snap , crackle, ) and will wait for the POP before I really worry.   If I stop blogging unexpectedly  it's not because I've decided you aren't worth the effort- it's because I've been electrocuted.

Lots of pressing, cutting and  sewing later and  the BWR quilt was finally laid out. There's more sewing to do yet ...but I'm making progress.

For one awful moment I thought I'd sewed the cat to the quilt  but he was just being nosy and putting his cat stank on it. Apparently it got the Mordecai stamp of approval.

And voila! The cupcake project is done.

Mid afternoon  I got distracted by the idea of a table lamp for the loungeroom.  Those kind of thoughts usually mean we spend the next fortnight  running round looking for a mythical lamp that only exists inside my head. I guess the universe decided to cut me some slack because I found this at the second store we went to.

And I bought these beautiful sparkly lights too. I now have so many lights in that room that the drug helicopters will pick up abnormal heat patterns on their infa red scanners and we'll probably be raided in the middle of the night by the drug squad.  

Dinner was home made pizza...rosemary with  sea salt and lightly drizzled with olive oil

And proscuitto  , potato, spanish onion and rocket

I'm going to leave you with something I bought with Little P in mind yesterday . Does anyone else see the irony of us making and eating T-Rex cookies or is that just me?

Enjoy what's left of your weekend.

Pyjama Party Sunday

This post is brought to you by Pyjama Party Sunday. Pop on over and have a look at how other people spent their day.

I hope you haven't dropped by to see any amazing craftiness emanating from the weekend because you're going to be really disappointed. I know people think I live a wild and crazy life but I spent most of my weekend organising things. It didn't leave much time for crafty pursuits. BORING!

My day started early by  turning on the computer when I got up which is what I do every morning. I ended up fluffing  around for two and a half hours on Blogger commenting on posts , seeing what people had been up to and then responding to emails. Sometimes I think blogging is like having a second full time job.  However I love reading your posts so I keep coming back. Plus when I get up at 5am it's too quiet to do anything else.

By 7.30 I was ready for action. I tore myself away from the computer and did some sewing for an hour.

Confident in the knowledge I'd get back to sewing after I'd done some chores, I pressed on and did 30 minutes  of tidying up. Someone wanders around this house making mess....enough said.

Inspired by Sara who cleaned out her wardrobe this week I decided to do the same. I felt the hour spent would be a worthwhile investment since I've been wearing the same 6 outfits for weeks because I cant find any of my clothes in there. So dragged it all out and chucked it on the bed ...the floor...the chair...and discovered I have way too much stuff.

3 hours later ...

Somewhere in there somewhere I stopped for brunch so I could find the strength to continue.

Then I spent 15 minutes coming up with my menu plan for the week. Can you tell I wasn't feeling creative? 

Then I rewarded myself with 30 minutes on the computer...fabric shopping. I figured I deserved it. Plus I hadn't bought anything for two whole weeks which could just be a personal best. 

I cleaned out my handbag (which is actually more the size of a suitcase) And then I really lashed out and checked that all my pens work ....I counted them. I have around 200 which is probably more pens than I'll use in my lifetime.  These are just the ones I dragged out of my handbag.

Then I defluffed and sticky papered all the dog hair off just about every piece of knitwear I own  and sewed some buttons on things that I haven't been wearing because they were button-less. I know - you're asking yourself how I could hack this crazy pace.

I never did get back to  any fun sewing and this post was about as exciting as my Sunday. I fell asleep at 8.30pm on the lounge,  exhausted ...

Let's hope slightly more crafty activity occurs next weekend  because frankly this weekend was a bust.