Being A Lady of Leisure

I've been on holidays for 12 days and have spent it doing pretty much whatever I wanted, which so far has involved a fair amount of sweet stuff all. Usually I'm trying to pack 30 hours of stuff into a 24 hour day so being able to move at a snails pace if I choose has been seriously refreshing. This being (temporarily) unemployed thing is working out pretty well.

The first thing I did was go on holidays for a week. And drink cocktails with Little Miss Sunshine. In Queensland. That's really far away from where I live. 

Dessert and cocktails in one glass is very special (or a sign of alcoholism..or laziness - I'm not sure which) so this one gets its own photo. Citron vodka and a pine-lime ice cream combo. I highly recommend it. 

I had high hopes that LMS would have given up on the idea of trying to get me to eat vegetables and salads and my first meal was very heartening in this regard ....yes..chocolate is a meal. And there's fruit in there so this is actually healthy. 

However it was all downhill from there . I was force fed REAL healthy food. Every time this occured I had a (not so) subtle whinge about how my body was going into shock from lack of Maccas...

And eventually I turned my captors over to the dark side. 

Stockholm syndrome in reverse. Those psychology classes really paid off...

I had the amazing pleasure of meeting one of my long time blog friends, Michelle from Rag-Tag Stitchin' for brunch and she is about ten times as awesome in person as she is in emails and on her blog. This was one of my favourite parts of the week because it was just so much fun. 

See that gingerbread house? That's living at my house now. Hand made by Michelle herself. Look at those little gingerbread man buttons! That pattern is for quilt labels and is one of Michelle's too. And the hanging plaque was made by one of Michelle's super talented friends. I was thrilled and blown away by this little parcel of goodies. Thankyou Michelle. 

We went to the farmers market on Sunday at o'dark o'clock - seriously who leaves the house at this time of the morning for FUN? Freaking crazy people - that's who. 

And since I was still half asleep I can't recall much of what we saw but I'd woken sufficiently by the time we got round to these so I took a picture...

Queensland is an awesome place - or it would be if not for the sucky humidity which made my hair look like this for my entire stay ...

So once I got home I decided the time was right for a bit of a change. I've left the purple behind and gone for something more grown up. 

  

And finally - Drumroll please ....a couple of you suggested that my big exciting news might be that I was pregnant. Come on people - I'm 48 - that's not very likely and if I was I certainly wouldn't be celebrating it. So without further ado or stuffing around,  the second thing I've done since being on holidays was to buy my dream car, which screams mid life crisis but I don't care. I was too busy being a sensible sole parent when I should have been buying one of these and now I don't have to be sensible anymore.  

That is all -  you can go back to doing what you were doing now. I'm going for a drive....

Sock It To Me

When I woke at 4.30 this morning it was about 5 degrees Celsius. Just as an aside, I'm not sure where Spring is supposed to be because it isn't here this week- I think the Queenslanders are hogging all the sun again which is just selfish since it's not like that they haven't had it all winter. Some states are just not very good at sharing. Bastards.

Anyway, normally that level of cold at that time of the morning would bother me since we have a lot of tiled floors but this morning I had something warm and fluffy to help me ward off frostbite. 

You will notice in this picture that Im fully dressed and ready for work - or so it would appear. Sadly I am not that organised - I fell asleep in my clothes last night. I do that a lot. On the lounge. Lets not make a big deal out of that OK?

Anyway ...I had warm and fluffy socks this morning to keep my toes from falling off. Why am I writing a post about that? Lots of people own socks. Au Contraire mes amis - these socks are the biggest of big deals. 

You see, I know the Queen of hand knitted socks. And I've been watching her knits socks all winter. Red socks, and blue socks, and purple socks and neutral socks. (If I start channeling Fox in Socks-someone slap me) And every single pair has been completely unique and utterly gorgeous. Truly hand crafted amazingness. 

And eventually Ms. Mistea got fed up with me telling her how wonderful her socks were and how cold it is down South and she offered to knit me some fluffy goodness of my own. Because honestly even though I can knit - I don't do socks because they have heels and toes and all sorts of other complicated things I have no idea how to do because the only decreasing of stitches that ever gets done with any of my knitting is when I accidentally drop stitches and then I have to post my knitting to my Mum so she can pick up the stitches and send it back to me so I can keep going. Hopeless. 

So I swung by the post office yesterday after work, and couldn't contain my excitement at receiving a parcel that I knew contained AWESOME socks till I got home and ripped it open in the car , at the front of the post office, and scared three little old ladies by screaming at a pitch that could be heard two suburbs away when my socks fell out. 

Even the bottom of the socks are a masterpiece. Look! Little paw prints! 

I seriously cannot believe how gorgeous these socks are. And that they're hand knitted. I know some seriously talented peeps. 

Thankyou Mistea- they really are one of the most beautiful  things I own. 

I'm trying to work out a way I can wear these to work today so I don't have to take them off...do you think they would look OK with a dress and Mary Janes if I pushed them down to look slouchy?

P.S. Dear Queensland , I don't really think you're Bastards. I just said that for dramatic effect. But I bet you're wishing you had some cold right about now don't you? 

Tumblers, Strings and Other Things

I went back to working on a few things this week . My sewing ADD kicked into full gear over the weekend and I drifted from one thing to another quite happily. 

I learned that the sky wont fall when I change my mind about a project. I'm pretty much over the string quilt blocks so I decided it was OK to finish that quilt at 48 x 60 inches for a lap throw instead of the mammoth 72 x 72 I originally planned.   I'm 17 blocks from being able to put it together, having completed 10 more this week. 

The reason for the change in the string selvage quilt was because I had the brilliant idea to make  selvage star string blocks instead. This was my test block. I think a quilt made from these in all the colours of the rainbow will look gorgeous and much prettier than a plain string quilt. It's also a but more of a challenge for me. I could make plain string blocks in my sleep since I've probably made 1000 of them in my quilting lifetime. 

Out of nowhere on Sunday I decided to make this for Rachael at Blue Mountain Daisy who has done a shout out for people to send her house blocks. 

I stole the idea for this block from here. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it.

And the tumbler quilt got basted, and is half quilted so I may even have another finish soon. Happy Days!

So I blitzed the weekly 15 minute challenge over at Kate's this week. Pop over and see how other crafty individuals spent their time. 

Farmers Wife, Fudge and a Finish

I spent Saturday in the company of my lovely Farmers Wife Quilting Buddies (Claire, Val, Denise, Kris, and Tara) at the House of Loz. Much gossiping, eating and a little bit of sewing ensued.  My contribution to the day was my signature fudge because I figure if I'm going to get fat in my old age I'm taking my friends with me. By the way I didn't do a darn thing on my FW blocks. And as usual I forgot my camera.

Loz presented me with a stitchery that she made just for me. Isn't this one of the most darling things you've ever seen? Thank you Loz. I ADORE it. The quandary is whether I make it into a cushion nobody will ever be allowed to use , a wall hanging or whether I pop it in a frame under glass and hang it somewhere I'll see it often.

I finally rocked up to the post office for my tri-weekly pick up on Friday and the post office guy asked if I had a trailer to take home all my packages. He's such a comedian. Most of it was fabric that was ordered three weeks ago for quilt backs but in amongst all that was this package of selvages from the lovely Erin at My Patchwork Life. Thank you Erin. I keep worrying about running out of selvages and this will keep my concerns at bay for another 5 blocks or so. 

And Little Miss Sunshine donated to my Hometown fabric fund.

And she sent me some other cute stuff too...that I'm going to make into other cute stuff (eventually) 

I basted the jelly roll race quilt this morning. It's half quilted. Not a bad effort considering we went out for a large chunk of the day. 

Crinkly look courtesy of Little P who thought it was great fun to jump all over it just before I took this photo.

And while we were out for lunch today I managed to finally get the last  bit of binding down on the Contrary HST Quilt. My sister in law commented that it reminded her of Strawberry Shortcake and so the quilt gained a much groovier name than it's had throughout the production stage. This one is going to be gifted to a friend.

Yes- I have functioning oven again. No I haven't used it to bake a cake yet. But two hunks of meat have been slowly roasted in it and they were both wonderful. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mum's out there!

Moving Right Along ...

It's officially the first day of Spring Down Under. Get ready to hand over the sun Northern Hemisphere-ites!


Thank you to everyone who commented on the Flying Dutchman quilt. At 80 x 80 inches it was the biggest quilt I've ever made. It was a real challenge to push that quilt through this space on my little sewing machine. I bet you're all even more impressed now that you know I sew on a very basic sewing machine aren't you?

Mental note to self: Always send massive (by my standards) quilts out to be  quilted by my quilting Yoda in the future. 

Since the Flying Dutchman quilt had been taking up so much space (both figuratively and literally ) I decided it was high time to concentrate on one of the other four quilting projects that are  lurking round here laughing at me.  And since the sewing room looked like it had been ransacked by marauding goats I decided that needed to be my first order of business because seriously people I can't find a damn thing in there when it looks like this. 

I feel much more creative now that I can see my grubby carpet. 

In other news, I've had very exciting mail in the last week from amazing people. 

Melissa from clothwork did this post a while back about some prototype purses she made.  I fell in love with the linen and lace one and following my comment and series of emails, during which I promised her my next born child, cried, pleaded , begged and cajoled, she sent me the purse as a gift. 

But that wasn't all...the parcel was a mite bigger than I was expecting because it also contained a pincushion (with Babushka's - I love Babushkas!) . And can you see that little pin that looks like cake? I wanted to eat it up. Thank you Melissa. It's all so beautiful. I really need to find a talent so I can swap pretty gifts with people instead of copping out and sending them Haigh's chocolate.  

And from Helen(who doesn't have a blog) who I met through Nanci , this gorgeous hand knitted mohair hat all the way from Canada. Check out that colour!  She also thought of Mr. P  and sent him a black Fisherman's cap which I am going to have to prise off his head come wash day. I really wanted to get a picture of me wearing my hat but I'm having a bad hair day and I'm not wearing any make up. I don't want to scare anyone. Thank you Helen. I love it. 

And a fabric delivery this week. I have been looking at Soul Blossoms FOREVER and finally jumped on the bandwagon and got some. This is not my "usual" type of fabric and now that it's here I have no idea what to do with it. I just didn't want to want some in 6 months and not be able to get any. That's addiction for you.

Lastly, I have officially turned my Mother In Law over to the crafty side. We went shopping for a sewing machine for her yesterday. Sadly, she now has a better machine than I do. And I've already told her she needs to leave it to me in her will. 

Sunshine in a Cloudy Week

For context for this story you’re going to have to read this post  so you can truly understand the obsession love I have for Oreo’s. (Isnt that strikethrough thing nifty? - I've been itching to use it )

Sometimes people do the most lovely unexpected things that make you all warm and gooey inside. And when you’re having a less than stellar week these things are even more special. I had two such occurrences this week. Surely that’s more than my fair share, but I’ll take it because some weeks the universe gives me nada.

A while back I did a giveaway on my blog and I duly sent off a parcel to the other side of the world, which also contained Australian junk food because I like to hype kids up as long as they aren’t mine and the lovely Lisa at Calicos in Bloom  has three of them.  I used to play a similar game with my sister annually called  "Who can give each other's child the messiest,  most parent aggravating birthday present" but thats another blog post- I won by the way with the barking seals game which was declared after 60 minutes because nobody could stand the yapping seal noises anymore.

This week, on arrival at the post office, my PO Guy handed me a parcel from Lisa and her very talented daughter Miss Calicos. I’m pretty sure my PO guy has hours of fun trying to work out what's in my parcels because he always comments like he’s asking a question "? Fabric? Food? ?Soap  ?Crack Cocaine. It‘s a game we play. It's keeping him amused and gets me preferential treatment from Australia Post . Win, Win.

Since I was on my lunch break I took the package back to work and opened it just as we were starting a team meeting. I was toast for the rest of the meeting because inside was this lovely lot. So rather than talking about SERIOUS work related topics, I just looked at these babies and sighed a lot. It was a fun way to spend team meeting because usually I talk the hind leg off a chair. I know you're all probably shocked that I talk a lot in real life. Try to suspend your disbelief for a minute or two.

Miss Calicos made me this beautiful hot pad for my kitchen. Miss Calicos  is 5 years old! Pretty clever huh? This was my favourite thing in the whole parcel.

I got socks with Moose on them. (Is there such a word as Mooses?)  I can wear these in winter with my Yeti slippers. Do Yeti's and Moose get along?

Oh My goodness. Oreo Fudge Rings . Yum! You can't get these in Australia.  I promise I'll share. Miss P is already nagging me to open them. I'll be doing that at 3 am and then hiding what 's left.

Lucky Charms. And they came on St.Patrick's Day . It probably doesn't get any luckier than that. I have wanted to try these for YEARS. We see them on American TV shows all the time.

I would like to point out , I had to fight off my co-workers several times  to keep the Oreos and Lucky Charms. And I told Lisa I’m thinking about varnishing one of those Oreos for posterity.  So a HUGE thankyou to Lisa, Miss Calicos  and the rest of the Calicos Family for thinking of me, and doing such a sweet thing.

I've posted recently about making friends in Blogland. I haven't been around for long, but there are a couple of people I feel I've really connected with and could actually be friends with in RL if that was possible.  You never quite know if those people  feel the same way and you dont want to come across like some creepy  stalker by saying how much you like them and the way they think, so I was completely tickled pink to be part of a post over at Sarcastic Quilter this week, which  is titled "Ask Yourself,  Who am I in Blogland?" which echoed and expanded on  some things that I had also been thinking and posting about.

I want you to walk no ...run over to Beck’s post at Sarcastic Quilter to have a read because she and I have a mutual admiration thingy going that we want you to be a part of. Plus her post was honest, heartfelt, and really thought  provoking. Plus for all you quilty types- she's one of us and does lovely stuff.

I'm off to vote tomorrow morning for State Elections, which is  like  voting in a  Governor but we call him or her the Premier. It's my civic responsibility. It's also illegal not to vote in this country and you can get fined if you don't vote.   I guess they figure Australians are so apathetic they wouldn't bother turning up unless they were required to do so by law. And they could be right. We tend to take democracy for granted which is pretty ironic for a country that was founded on convicts. If they gave out a free beer, people would be there at 8am.

30 Days of Frugal Christmas Gifts- Peppermint Candy Cane Bark

This is one that should be in everyone's "quick, easy and dirt cheap christmas gifts " repertoire.

Perfect for a pot luck, shared lunch, individual gifts, or just for the table as a pretty colourful addition to the festivities.

You will need

1 pack (around 12 ) peppermint candy canes

250 grams white chocolate

If you prefer you can make this with milk or dark chocolate as well, or substitute the candy canes for smarties or something similar. Candy canes are nice because they are so christmassy.

Break the candy canes into pieces and then put them into a bag and run a rolling pin over it. You dont want candy cane dust you want discernable but small pieces.

Melt the chocolate,  and pour onto a large lightly greased baking tray until it's around 2 mm thick. Evenly sprinkle the candy canes on top. Set aside until set or even pop it in the fridge.

When set break it into pieces and pop it on a serving tray, or into individual cellophane bags. Go here for  a picture of the finished result.  Gorgeous!

Total cost - $1.99 for the canes , and about $4.00 for the chocolate

You can check out a candy cane cake as well here. I love candy canes.

30 Days of frugal Christmas Gifts -Cookies in a Jar

"Things" in a jar are among my favourite gifts to give.

Last year I did cookies in a jar and they were a massive hit. I wish I'd thought to take some pictures but I didn't, and since Im not doing cookies in a jar this year you're just going to have to use your imagination.

These are fast to make even if you're doing a lot of them. I did three different types and everyone asked me for the recipes afterwards. You're going to need jars, basic cooking ingredients, some fancy ones if you decide to go that way , fabric and pretty ribbon.

Recipes are here , here and all the ones I made last year are here

I searched EVERYWHERE for cranberries here and couldn't find them , and we also dont have butterscotch chips here either which was kinda disappointing because I couldn't make those delicious cranberry hootycreeks or any of the butterscotch ones.

Donations of butterscotch chips will be gratefully received since I've found tons of recipes that use them. Just like that marshmallow creme fluff stuff I keep reading about. How come other countries have all the good food I want to try?

30 Days of Frugal Christmas Gifts - Let them eat cake

Or at least bathe in it.....

These soaps DO look good enough to eat !

Cute and kitsch. The size of a real slice of cake. And they smell like the actual cake they're made to represent. These are lemon meringue pie and coffee cake.

I got these ones from Darwin at a market stall called Dragonfly Lane, and they cost about $8.00 each. 

I can't bring myself to use them!

30 Days of Frugal Christmas Gifts-Sweets for the Sweet

I'm the first to admit I am no photographer. My second confession is that I'm not great at cooking. Thirdly I'll own up presentation aint my thing either. That being said I'm going to post this anyway!

Sweet treats are so easy to make at home and I don't know anyone who doesn't love confectionary. So this makes them perfect for Christmas gifts!

I did some experimenting today and came up with black treacle toffees , chocolate fudge squares and home made honeycomb. All from internet recipes.

You could try  coconut ice, rocky road, a fudge selection or hand made chocolates.

Go forth and make sweets !