A social weekend

Much socialising happened over the weekend - we had friends up from Melbourne with their six-year old son to stay , which was lovely! Hadn't seen them for ages. They came up for a mutual friend's 50th birthday which brought together people we hadn't seen for literally decades. Such a blast - lots of staring at people who I didn't-quite-remember but we sorted it out in the end. It was at a small vineyard just on the edge of town and was a super blowy windy day ... but the food was great and the wine was flowing.

Not a great photo, but you get the idea. Lunch finished at 4 which gave enough time to make a salad before heading off at 5 for another friend's 50th birthday bbq! Lots of other people to chat to, and delicious food, before struggling fatly home again. Sunday morning I slept in but my husband and the visitors went to the markets for hot chocolate and croissants.



After they left for the airport we all sat very quietly ... or I did. The boys had babysat the six year old while we were at lunch so the K'nex and the trainset and the lego were all hauled out from the shed or under the bed. But the biggest hit? Nerf guns of course. The not-quite-so-grownup teenagers spent the rest of Sunday shooting foam bullets at each other.

A kimono jacket

I made this ages ago but this is the first time I've worn it - waiting for a day at work that didn't involve any serious meetings or other events that would not suit a bright green kimono-style cotton top. I am very pleased with this jacket, it is completely different to the normal thing I wear but it is comfortable and (despite the terrible photos) quite pretty.



The pattern is Simplicity 8610  and it looks extremely unappealing, I think it was a desperation pick for one of those "4 for $20" deals. But it was lovely to sew and the cut is reasonably flattering. I think I'll make it again, but I might make the sleeves a bit narrower. They verge into cartoonish, and it's a lot of fabric to have billowing around your elbows.



The material is a cotton that I bought in my three and half minute spare time shopping spree in New Delhi. Lovely weight and delightful to sew. The pattern went together easily - sensible band arrangement and no fastenings or anything. I made it a straight size, with no adjustments, and the length is fine. All in all two thumbs up from me...

And it's Tuesday again

Another week has whooshed past, but in my defence it was a busy one. Parliament's sitting again, it was the first week of the school term and my husband was in Jakarta with work so I had to pay attention and do some proper adulting. Mostly it went fine, although he pointed out this morning that the milk I'd just made my coffee with expired eight days ago ... I'd been using it the whole time he was away, and survived.  The week actually went quite smoothly because number one son could have a car to himself! How easy it made everything. If he ends up going to uni in Canberra next year we might have to help him to buy a little something to get around in  - at the very least it will make our lives a lot easier.

My work took me out to Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve on Friday (perfectly legitimately, we weren't bludging) and we got to see koalas. With koala babies - you can't really see them in this photo but the koala mums moved around a couple of times and you could see the babies clinging on. Very cute.



Saturday we went to friends' Oktoberfest-themed drinks - it was "German costume encouraged" so we pulled on Ampelmann t-shirts! that I painted myself with poster paint. It was certainly unique ... most people dressed up but generally in variations of lederhosen and buxom bavarian barmaid. There were a surprising number of actual lederhosen worn! Who knows what people have in their wardrobes. We had a lovely time, and ate a lot of wurst.

Number two son went off to a Halloween party. He is dressed as "blue". He "doesn't like to overthink my costumes". He had fun too - we dropped him off on the way to our party and picked him up on the way home!!! So grown-up.

Scorned by the gods

I pieced this last year before the weaving took over and I was clearly in a very colourful mood. I did notice in the last few weeks when I've been using solids again that I didn't seem to have very much yellow or pink, and this might be why.



Free form wedge-type things, or possibly tumblers, and random borders too. I quilted it with allover baptist fans which is safe and boring but still one of my favourites. I like doing an allover on the solids, it gives it texture. I don't know why I called it "Scorned by the gods" but it seemed like a good idea at the time.



I took the photos in the last minutes between when the sun goes down and it gets dark. I tried five minutes earlier but just got photos of my own shadow in the setting sun - see below -  the washing line faces due west this time of year and I had to wait until the last trickle of sun had gone before taking my photos ... and even then the colours are a bit peculiar. It is super bright though.



We had a quiet at-home weekend, with just a short outing for brunch with friends that we hadn't seen for at least ten years! They were down from Brisbane and it was a great catch-up.

We also spent a couple of hours picking out appliances for our MUCH overdue kitchen renovation. I'll take some photos of our appalling kitchen, it's beyond a joke. The oven won't heat up above 180, and only on the top third of the oven, and only three of the four hot plates work, and the cupboards are beyond disgraceful. So we've got a quote for the cabinetry, and chosen some appliances, now we just have to talk to the flooring people and make the final decisions about what goes where. So many choices! So much MONEY to spend .... but it has to be done. I think our kitchen is actually dangerous.

Scarf selling .... again

We went down the beach last weekend for the long weekend - for a break and also because it was the local "art on the path" craft market and I had booked myself a spot to have another go at scarf selling. This time I was slightly pre-prepared and ordered myself a vinyl banner. Isn't it fancy? There was no cost for the stall space so I splashed out $40 on a lynley banner.



In the end it went quite well. I don't know exactly how many scarves I sold because I kept giving discounts but I left with $210 more than I arrived with, which more than covered my banner cost. It went for five hours and was very laid back - lots of chatty people, lots of people who knew each other, lots of families and generally more about the community than the buying and selling. Which suits me fine. Husband and number one son assisted me, which was lovely, and we sat, and chatted, and went back to the house for toilet breaks. I still have SO MANY scarves though. I don't think selling them is really a viable option given the mental effort and physical time it takes.



The rest of the weekend was rainy, but given I wasn't up for long walks that was fine. A bit of sewing, a lot of reading and sadly watching the Canberra Raiders lose the NRL grand final ... robbed I tell you, robbed. I must have been feeling the lack of exercise because I cleaned various things that needed cleaning. On the left, a sink I have scrubbed. On the right, a sink still to be done. It was very satisfying.

Hobbling and wobbling

Today am I at work, without a walking stick and with shoes on! Limping and not happy with stairs, but so much better... We had a long weekend here which I made extra long by taking a day off on Tuesday, but I needed it after the vigorous conferencing of last week. Here I am setting twitter alight! Five little heart things, I don't know what they are, but I suspect that five isn't very many.



The nicest bit of this conference was being invited to the Governor-General's for drinks beforehand. Government House is a cool building that, funnily enough, I had never been in before. Not usually my circles.



The GG invited us to take a stroll around the ground floor rooms, which of course I did (well, I took a hobble, but that's OK, it gave me an excuse to pause at interesting bits or flop elegantly into a sofa if I felt the need to goggle a bit longer). I don't know much about Australian political history but I know a fair bit of it took place in the study, and of course he has the best art on the walls.



And here I am enjoying a glass of bubbly. Trying to forget that I have yet to give my presentation (I don't like public speaking. Does anyone? But it went fine.)

Solids

My ankle's definitely improving, but I'm still hobbling around. Most of the bruising is starting to go yellow, but I still can't put a shoe on, which is a bit disheartening. Such a stupid thing to do... we have spare mobility scooters at work that I could borrow (and which I've been offered, several times, as people watch me lurching about) but I feel that would be Giving Up. Once you get in a scooter - do you ever get out? I will stick to lurching.

Luckily I can still sew. I've been thinking I would like to do more fabric dyeing over the summer, which makes me look at my three full shelves of dyed fabric and wonder if I need any more, which I don't, so I will have to sew it up and then I can dye with a clear conscience! I'm making 200 flying geese in different solids. I don't quite know how I'll put them together but I can make that decision when I have the geese in hand.