the fruits of my labour

Oh, my poor neglected blog. But if it comes to a choice between neglecting my partner, my kids, my sanity, my home and my blog, I’m probably going to choose to neglect my blog every time. Poor blog.

I thought this one word meme (and my first ever meme) that I saw both here and here, might be a nice way to ease back into blogging….

1. Where is your cell phone? Bag
2. Your significant other? Close
3. Your hair? Neglected
4. Your daughter? Sleeping
5. Your son? Sleeping
6. Your favorite thing? Life
7. Your dream last night? Forgotten
8. Your favorite drink? Wine
9. Your goal? Balance
10. The room you’re in? Living
11. Your church? Unnecessary
12. Your fear? Irrationality
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home
14. Where were you last night? Gym(!)
15. What you’re not? Bored
16. Muffins? Yes
17. One of your wish list items? Overlocker
18. Where you grew up? Tasmania
19. The last thing you did? Curry
20. What are you wearing? Jeans
21. Your TV? Busy
22. Your pets? Worms
23. Your computer? Dirty
24. Your life? Lucky
25. Your mood? Relaxed
26. Missing someone? Parents
27. Your car? Small
28. Something you’re not wearing? Socks
29. Favorite store? IKEA
30. Your summer? Coming
31. Like(love) someone? ‘course!
32. Your favorite color? Green
33. Last time you laughed? Today
34. Last time you cried? Recently
35. Who will repost this? Unknown

I will be easing back into blogging. I’m just going to take it one post at a time.

The photo? The kids at a bonfire with fireworks at my parents’ place in Tasmania. Just one of the things we’ve been up to in the past few months. This may have been taken by Chris. If so, thanks, Chris!

Lowlights:

• having nausea and a headache (and other delightful symptoms that come with a gastro-type bug) for six days straight
• trying to convince people that I was sick and not pregnant
• not having the strength to make hot cross buns or cook a fish meal for Good Friday (not that we’re religious; it’s just a tradition we like to uphold)
• entering the eighth week of having an unreliable oven and continually being told they’re “waiting on a part”
• finding out the property our rented house is on is going up for auction next month
• contemplating finding a new place to live and then moving (possibly my least favourite thing to do)
• not getting any sewing done
• eating too much Easter chocolate
• not getting any blogging done

Highlights:

• receiving a visit and some gifts from my parents on their way back to Tasmania after holidaying in Malaysia
• eating fish and chips by the river with Chris and the kids on Good Friday (above)
• watching the second series of Life on Mars with Chris
• eating too much Easter chocolate
• hearing Isobel say “mama” over and over again
• learning my sister Emily, who’s been overseas for nearly a year will be back home for a couple of months soon
• seeing the wonderful Wilco at The Palace on Wednesday night with my sister Anna

Well, from conception to completion it took me what felt like a lifetime, of course, but I have finally finished making a handbag for myself. It’s the Pleated Beauty Handbag from Bend-the-Rules-Sewing and my first bag (other than a simple tote), my first attempt at free motion quilting and possibly the first thing I’ve made myself. So quite an achievement, really! Even though the bag (my bag, not the pattern) has its issues. I’m pretty sure free motion quilting is supposed to allow me free motion, not the machine, so I clearly need to work on that. And why is cutting fabric (correctly) so hard?! The linen I used is quite stretchy and prone to fraying, which didn’t help, but my god, I have so much trouble accurately cutting fabric. I think that takes me longer than any other stage of a project.

Anyway, I’m pretty happy with the bag. It’s soft, nice and roomy and a lot better to carry my essentials than what I had - nothing!

I’m a little slow to comment on this (gee, what a surprise), but I’m so pleased that the craft blog that led me to all other craft blogs, and is therefore largely responsible for this (far inferior) blog has returned after a year’s hiatus. Loobylu is back and judging by the warm reception her first post in over a year received, I’m not the only one who’s excited.

Oh, and on Sunday we will have been without an oven for three weeks. I don’t want to talk about it any more.

***

I am in the process of making some improvements to the blog, but given my limited computer expertise and my even less impressive design credentials, this is a slow and painful process (sorry, Chris), so if it ever looks like I’ve lost my mind, I probably haven’t, I’m most likely going a roundabout way to make things better.

As I enjoy stating the bleeding obvious, I have to say it’s been a long time between posts. There are plenty of good reasons for this (of course!), but I’ll try no to go on about them too much. Suffice to say that between our suddenly busy social calendar, sick kids and sick Chris (nothing serious), a trip to Warrnambool, sewing, knitting, and lots of other things I’ve forgotten, helping to make the whole time a blur, I’ve found it a bit hard to find the time and energy for blogging. Which is a real shame, as I really want to be able to use this blog to chronicle this busy (but fun) time of our lives. Part of my problem has been that I really want to make some improvements to the layout and presentation of the blog, but have so much to learn before I can do that. And then I spend a lot of time reading other blogs, mainly craft ones, feeling both really inspired and really inadequate at the same time.

But what I need to do, I think, is just soldier on and make improvements how and when I can. And aim to post almost every day, even if it’s just with a few words and/or a photo. We’ll see how I go.

Right now, of course, it’s that time of year when there’s a million things to do. It’s comforting reading other craft blogs and discovering I’m not the only one who has unrealistic expectations about what can be achieved at this time and who at times feels overwhelmed by the number of things that I need to do and would like to do, and the small amount of time there is in which to do them. Like others, I just need to accept I can’t do everything (especially with two small children who need lots of attention), that I should enjoy what I can do and make this time about family, friends and fun. There’s so much I want to make, though!

Here’s something I’ve made. These were a gift for a friend’s new (ish) baby. A soft baby cube, using this great tutorial found via Nested, two bibs using the pattern in Amy Karol’s great book and a fabric card inspired by the pattern in Denyse Schmidt Quilts. (Yes, I bought some craft books. Very exciting!). This was a fun project and I hope to make more baby gifts soon. In fact, I have to, as there’s a baby coming next month. One that I’m aware of, anyway!

I hope some of the next few posts can cover some of what we’ve been up to in all this time. Now I’m off to hang out some washing, hopefully spend a few minutes on my next craft project and try to get over the fact I was too slow to get hold of Clementine for Isobel’s first Christmas. I had my heart set on it, but now have to try to find a similarly beautiful handmade doll, if possible, and I’m not sure it is. Not necessarily to play with (Clementine would have just been for show due to small parts), but something special to admire. Oh, well, I just hope she’s gone to a good home.

Well, that was an unexpected delay, but here I am after some technical difficulties and other impediments to blogging, like tiredness, kids and life in general. Not that I am complaining about kids and life. Without them, there’d be nothing to write about, right?

Anyway, the little sewing project I mentioned a while ago is finally finished and without further ado, I shall unveil it:

It’s an apron (I like to state the obvious) for Chris and I’m pretty happy with it. Excuse the creases, but I couldn’t get a photo of it before Chris used it, which I’m not complaining about, as it means he must really like it. It’s linen and it feels lovely. I was very much inspired (as I so often am) by the aprons of Amanda of SouleMama, who uses a lot of linen and makes a lot of (beautiful) aprons. I have no idea if the linen I used is like what Amanda uses, as there seems to be many kinds, at vastly differing prices, but I got mine here and I like it. I have more and intend to make an apron for both Elliott and me from it.

I didn’t use a pattern, I just traced an old apron of Chris’s and just kind of made up the rest as I went along. At times I felt I was crazy, as a sewing novice, for doing this, but then usually I would tell myself I was being an idiot and it was just an apron and it really couldn’t be that hard. And it wasn’t. I’m certainly not saying it’s perfect, but it works as an apron, I learnt a few things and it wouldn’t have been perfect if I’d used a pattern anyway. Nevertheless, I’m expecting an order of sewing books to arrive from Amazon any day now, and I think they’ll help me feel more confident. Or completely overwhelmed and out of my depth. One of the two.

Welcome to the fruits of my labour. I hope this blog will help me keep in touch with family and friends, near and far. I also hope it will be a way of recording how I spend my days, especially during this fleeting time with young children. It would be nice to have a permanent reminder, for me and them. I’ve always liked the idea of keeping a journal, but have never had the discipline and I hate writing by hand. Somehow this seems more achievable and attractive due to the flexible, visually appealing and possibly interactive, nature of blogs. I say possibly, because I have no idea whether anyone will actually want to read this, let alone interact. But that’s fine by me; I’m used to entertaining myself!

Because I’ve been inspired mainly by craft blogs, this blog will feature many of the things I make, from bread to bootees. I’m a reasonable cook and baker and a beginner (and somewhat clumsy) crafter, so my results are not always (if ever) magazine cover-worthy. Hopefully we’ll see some progress, though. Who knows, maybe one day even I’ll inspire someone to pick up a wooden spoon or a pair of knitting needles!

the fruits of my labour will not just be about cooking and crafts, though. I will probably talk a bit about parenting, music, TV, books (If I actually find/make time to read one!), world affairs and other things that interest me. Anything I think somebody else out there might be interested in too. So, stay tuned!

If you just happened to stumble across this page and are wondering who the hell (I nearly wrote heck, because I’m so used to having to edit my speech around impressionable youngsters, but I hope I won’t have to edit myself too much here.) I am, check out my “About” page for some background.