Little Cookies

A bed and a complaint

I'm one hundred per cent sure I would get a perfect nights sleep if I was sleeping in this bed.

I would certainly keep my bedroom tidy if I had this amazing bed as the centre piece. I would also indulge in as much reading in bed as possible. (Thanks to Black Apple for the tipoff to the bed)
I'm hoping today is better than yesterday. Yesterday was a stinker. I had the unfortunate experience of being trampled on by some self centered people. It left me feeling really sad. I know ''sad'' is such a pathetic word, but in this case it fits perfectly.
I had a good long email rant about it to my friend who always knows the right things to say. She indulged with me in a bit of school-girl name calling. I also set to work making a quilt for a friend's birthday that's coming up (it's got a chicken and an umbrella on it so far). Methodical cutting of squares is always theraputic. Miles was in a particularly good mood so that cheered me up also (his feet were absolutely rocking his socks off and he kept giggling when he stuck them in his mouth.)
But I was left with a naffy taste in my mouth after my encounters (yes, there was more than one in a day. yuck people overload). I'm more than happy to do things for people, but when you get nothing but complaints (or are completely ignored) in retrun, it ruffles my feathers.
That's enough complaining. I've got a quilt to sew, a cup of tea to finish off, swimming lessons to go to, a television to turn off, a boring bed to make, greasy hair to wash, a baby's stomach to blow raspberries on, a new book to read, an exquisite bed to dream about...

Sticky fingers

*Red* things in my house

What was my weekend filled with?

* Swimming with the baby. I think when he grows up he's going to turn into a frog.
* Watching way too many episodes of the Gilmore Girls. I kinda feel like I have a sugar hangover, except it's form watching a little too much tv.
* Sewing. Sewing Sewing. I finished off a dress for my neice. This niece ( I think she's almost one) is dressed exclusively in pink, so I made a yellow sundress with a purple chicken on it. I think it's very sweat. I'm not sure I'll pass it on though. It might be something I'd dress a daughter in, but maybe not something this little girl would get dressed in.
* I also made this bean bag thingy for Miles. He's at the stage where his toys need to have something more to them. They can't just sit there and look cute. So I sewed this sack with three sections. Inside there's rice, cellophane and bubble wrap.
He gave it a good going over this afternoon. I sat and watching his little fingers checking out all the buttons (and his mouth checking out the ribbons). It was more interesting than watching the cricket. I can't say it's the best looking toy, but it's more than doing the job.
* I swept the floor.
* I caught up with two old friends - one I keep in contact with daily, the other I haven't set eyes on for ages. It was really good to sit on the floor, eat cupcakes, and let the afternoon go by.
* I had a Saturday night all to myself which involved all those things you do that annoy other people, and you can only do them when your by yourself. (Like eating plain pasta with a can of salmon dumped over the top).
*Visited a little squished up baby who is fresh out of the oven and as amazing as hell.
*And now it's Sunday night and I'm giving myself a break from Gilmore Girls, indulging in Roses chocolates, and doing that stupid thing of thinking about the week ahead.
I don't know about anyone else, but when I think about the coming week I get all down in the doldrums. Oh, all the boring things I have to do, oh all the days that have to roll by before it is the weekend again, oh the mundanity of it all! (I'm pretty sure mundanity is not a word, but isn't making new words all the rage thanks to text messaging?) I'm not very good a sleeping, but I particularly suck at it on Sunday nights. Always have. Perhaps it's my sub-concious trying to string out the day and keep Monday away for as long as possible. I lie awake getting stressed about everything and nothing at the same time. Of course I can't remember what I was so worried about the next morning, but that doesn't stop me stressing. No way, that would be logical, and I shun logic (or does logic shun me?). From the point of view of Sunday night, the rest of the week seems so overwhelming.
Right, so I'm going to pretend it's not coming. I'm going to watch more Gilmore Girls.

Night time antics

Amba woke up this morning looking bewelidered and bleary eyed.
"What happen last night?" he asked.
"What?" I answered from underneath my pillow.
I thought maybe he had heard some of the local drunks stumbling past the house in the middle of the night or the neighbourhood cats singing their anrgy lovesongs to each other.
"Last night? Did anything strange happen?"
"I don't think so."
Now I was the one looking bewildered.
Amba pulled back the doona and I instantly realised what he was talking about and promptly disolved into a gust of laughs.
"Then why did I wake up with my work pants on?"

Banished

This bag is today's crafting conquest.
It was made with one aim in mind: no sewing machine.
I have one of those love/hate relationships with my sewing machine in that I love to hate it. In fact, it's not even mine to hate, it's my mother's. But that doesn't stop my ill-feelings towards it.
It hasn't really done anything wrong. It's as old as your grandmother and still chuggs along at a decent pace and will even churn out a button hole if I ask it nicely.
But I'm an unpatient person at the best of the times. so when I look at the machine and I realise I'll have to spin up a new bobbin or fix the busted foot or even just find it under the fabric off-cuts I usually just walk away. I want everything to happen yesterday, and I hate that the machine can't turn itself on and sew the garments itself.
So the bag had to involve no sewing machine. Easy. I used iron-on bond stuff for the fabric strips and whipped out my best school-girl blanket stitch to hold it all together. I didn't worry about lining it because it's denim and the wrong side of denim is pretty good.
Like most things I make, I probably won't use it. Just enjoy looking at it. All I carry round these days is a gigantic nappy bag. Gone are the days of snazzy one-off bags that serve no greater purpose than looking splendid. People say those days will come back for me. They've said that about my figure too, and that's still up the creek, so I'm hesitant to believe them.
But I'll keep making them, and staring at them longingly.

Unwitting work in progress

This is a bag I made for a friend about a year ago. Much to my amazement, the bag is still holding up (and I know it gets several heavy books dumped in it on regular occassions which really puts it to the test.) The bag was originally made minus the three badges. The badges were posted to my friend recently as part of a package of goodies. She had the insight to pin them on the bag and I was totally chuffed when she emailed this photo to show me what she'd done. Without even realising, the bag and the badges were made for each other.
On the home front... I won a spanish standoff today. Amba and I have both been claiming it was the other person's turn to clean the kitchen. And with that there was a stalemate. Neither of us would touch the kitchen. So the mess piled up and up and up. With the heat of the last few days adding to the lovely-ness of it all.
But tonight, I won. Amba cleaned the kitchen. I told him I would not be cooking anything until the kitchen was clean. I did give him the option of cooking dinner, but once he worked out he would have to clean a fair amount of the kicthen anyway just to make room to cook, he figured it was easier to clean everything.
So now i have a nice clean kitchen and I didn't have to do it myself. I'm one happy housewife.

All I want for Christmas is...

...and that's just the clothes. Do you think that's too much to ask?

website (no longer) under construction

Okay, you can check my new website now. I've been through the hedge maze, jumped the required hoops, put my gaggle of ducks all in a row and tadah!, it's finally done. And I'm not going to talk about it, because quite frankly, I'm sick of the site of it.
(rah rah rah).

Thanks to everyone for alerting me to the fact that when you open my Beginnings Photography website that the images don't come up. Please excuse me while I go and bang my head against something hard, repeatedly.