Favourite Things Friday

Welcome to the first Favourite Things Friday for 2012 !

Favourite Things Friday is my version of a linky party where all you have to do is write a post about something that made your week a little brighter and share it with the rest of the Favourite Thing Friday crowd. It's a way to reflect on at least one positive in the week and to float blissfully towards the weekend. I'd love you to join us. 

Unless you're from another planet you wouldn't be ignorant about the fact that I'm on holidays. Looooong holidays.  Let's face it , I think I mentioned it in just about very single post I did pre-Christmas and I had grand plans for my holidays which included a long list of things to do.

I've been on holidays now for just a smidge over two weeks and nothing on that list has been finished. Of course I'm not being helped by Little P, who doesn't understand I have a master plan. I spent most of yesterday changing Little P's jocks since we're hitting the toilet training pretty hard and he is currently having an accident approximately every 3 minutes. 

One of the nice things about being on holidays is that there is always another day to do the things on my massive list of things I hope to eventually achieve. Another day to clean my house , another day to shop for a new car seat, another day to bind that quilt, another day to work out how to change that halogen recessed globe in my kitchen that burnt out a month ago. Holidays are meant to be as different as possible from your real life or what's the point?

So my favourite thing this week is chilling ...doing nothing, achieving nothing and dreaming of the day I'll start ticking things off my list ...eventually... because right now I have to go watch Shaun the Sheep with Little P and then make a triple layer chocolate cake. 

Hello 2012

Happy 2012 to each and every one of you! 

My final sewing finish for 2011 happened yesterday afternoon. It was inspired by Little P showing great promise as a budding chef with mixing cinnamon bun pancakes this week. I'm secretly planning to enter him in Junior Masterchef in 2012. 

And every junior chef needs a special apron. 

So here's a recap of what I did with the other 364 days that made up 2011. 

I grew a lot as a quilter this past year. I tried things I hadn't done before like paper piecing and hand stitching and more complicated blocks and it didn't kill me nor was there more swearing than usual.I'm still avoiding free motion quilting quite successfully and will probably continue to do so as long as there is breath in my body. Some things are beyond even my capabilities. Fiddly baking also makes that list. I was mildly obsessed with quilting last year and here are my finishes for 2011. 

There was lots of other craftiness going on at Maison Pyjamas too. It makes me wonder when I had time to go to work.

And as usual I'm starting the new year with plenty of WIP's. I'm not even going to pretend I'll finish all of these before my ADD kicks in and I start something else.I swear my Dresden quilt is going to be vintage before I get the binding on. 

I publicly bragged I  was going to buy under 100 yards of fabric in 2011. At last count I was up to about 310 yards for the year so I don't think we can call that an unqualified success. Needless to say I wont be making the same vow in 2012 because I obviously have no willpower. I really admire people who do (I'm finger pointing at Kate here) 

I participated in my ever first swap hosted by Kat and my first ever quiltalong hosted by Becks in 2011. Both were a lot of fun. I'm joining in a Farmer's Wife Quilt Along this year with some fabulous people which I'm sure will teach me patience while I try to make 100 different blocks with seams that actually line up.

Little Miss Sunshine and I visited back and forth between her house and mine. It's always fantastic when you meet a blog friend in real life and they even awesomer than they are in the virtual world. 

I finished a computer room makeover, a dining room makeover and a sewing room makeover and there wasn't nearly as much bitching and whining as when we did the kitchen and laundry in 2010. Maybe I'm maturing.  

That just leaves the bathroom (which is truly hideous) and the garden, which I didn't touch in 2011. In fact many plants suffered from involuntary planticide at Maison Pyjamas in 2011. 

I keep waiting for the plant police to knock on my door and drag me away to be locked up for cruelty to plants. I already have my defence prepared and my lawyer on speed dial.  

We lost a car because some peanut wasn't looking where he was going.

 and I almost lost a finger trying to make Assaggio root vegetable soup. 

2011 was the year of the never ending haircut. Every time I went to the hairdresser I got another 3 inches cut off. I started the year looking like this. 

and ended it looking like this. Thank goodness the year ended because another month or two and I would have ended up with a mohawk. 

My Dad managed to be in hospital or requiring medical attention for his birthday, my birthday, my mother's birthday and my sister's birthday. Pure attention seeking. Thank goodness we ran out of birthdays. Kidding Dad. I'm glad it was nothing seriously serious in the end. 

But if you pull the same stunt this year we're going to Grandpa dump you at the hospital and leave you there until all the birthdays are done. 

Miss P  thrilled my heart by stitching something. I had high hopes she had been bitten by the crafting bug but alas she used up all her crafting mojo in one hit for the year. 

And finally, in 2011 I got my arse kicked by a sock monkey. That frigging thing was never going to get finished. It was a blessing when I lost it's face and had a legitimate excuse to put it in a plastic bag, although a demented sock monkey without a face staring at you accusingly is the stuff nightmares are made of.  Susan offered to come on over and help me stick pins in it voodoo style while we drank wine and chanted a spell to rid my house of the demon monkey vibes but in the end I decided death by binning was the kindest thing to do. Sometimes you have to know when to fold. 

Meantime since I had visions of becoming the queen of sock monkey making I'm stuck with these two pairs of socks.

If you're impervious to the possibility of demonic possession I'll send them to you  so you can make your own sock monkeys. Otherwise they'll just sit round here mocking me.  

So, as the sun has set on the old year I have created this pin up board of 2011 memories to remind me of the wonderful people who have shared  my life in the past year. Thank you for being one of them. 

Here's to a fabulous 2012 !

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....

Merry Christmas

Some of you may have been wondering if I'd been kidnapped by Santa's elves and made to work in a North Pole sweatshop for the last two weeks but the reality is that work and home life in the lead up to the holidays has been kicking my sorry butt. I'm tough- I survived and as of yesterday I'm officially on almost 7 weeks holidays. That means I'm planning to annoy you all far more regularly since I'm officially a lady of leisure. Last time I was this leisurely was in 1995 when I had a 4 year old.

As I write this post it's Christmas Eve morning here. My presents are all wrapped and under the tree. The house is decorated.

My fridge and pantry are  full of good things to eat , all the grocery shopping having been done yesterday. It was a complete zoo. The shops are shut for three days here from tonight and it's like bread and milk have become the most precious commodities on earth.

I need to bake my ham today and prepare a chicken salad for my chicken croissants tomorrow night. (Thanks for the recipe and inspiration Kirsten!) 

Two remaining jobs include cleaning the house and picking up Miss P who is staying the night. We're going to do a Webber chicken for dinner and then take Little P for a walk round the neighbourhood to see the Christmas lights after dinner. Then it's home again where he can open one present which will coincidentally happen to be a picture book edition of "The Night Before Christmas" and we'll read that and then cross our fingers that he'll go to sleep before we do. Little P went into a big boy bed 10 days ago and has been coming out of bed 1275 times and falling asleep at 11pm every night since.  He told Miss P at 4.30am the other morning he was coming in to my room to play with me. I think we need to work on getting him to tell time and to clue up to the fact that anyone who wakes me at any time is really taking a risk of having their head bitten clean off. 

So, I went out and bought Little P this bedtime buddy yesterday and also on the agenda for today is to make up a photo story about the big bear that stayed in bed when it was dark outside. And then he can take the bear to bed with him at night. Wanna bet the bear starts coming out of bed 1275 times a night as well? 

I have aback up plan. If the non aversive bear idea doesn't work I'm going to super glue Little P into bed.

In my absence, I've finished a double sided baby quilt,(one side was for a boy the other for a girl because we don't know what my friend is having) 9 bibs, the Dresden cushion , and a pincushion for my mother in law. I've ignored my Christmas bunting and my Christmas quilt. Now I have a jump on my 2012 Christmas projects.

Somewhere in amongst all that crazy Miss P and I decided it would be an awesome idea to make a gingerbread house. I have discovered gingerbread house making is not among my many talents. I'm hoping this note in my 2012 diary will remind me of the agony of 2011 and save me hours of angst.

I'm still scraping icing off my bench tops. That stuff sets like concrete. And the result of all this labour? The sorriest looking gingerbread house you've ever seen...

I'm going to stick to cooking hunks of meat in future. I rarely bugger that up. Fiddly and I are not friends. 

And so, on this day before Christmas, from all of the Pyjamas clan to all of you and your families I wish you a very Merry Christmas full of wonderful food, laughter and the creation of some very special memories. 

With love,