Graduations one and two

Two afternoons spent in two hot school gyms - at least number one son's gym had air conditioning - watching hundreds of lovely teenagers try to co-ordinate walking and shaking hands and taking their folders while trying not to smile too much.



The college graduation was excellent; such clever children. It's a public (state) school but is very strong academically and really encourages the smart ones. The boy who was dux had an incredible list of what he'd achieved and the kids just applauded him to the skies - both my husband and I said afterwards that at our state schools in the 1980s it would not have been such a rousing chorus of approval for academic achievement.

Number one son got a really good end of year result and cleared the score he needed to trigger his conditional offer for engineering at university, which is exactly what he wanted! We are so proud of him because he set his mind on a goal and worked incredibly hard.



I held it together mostly, except he sat next to and walked up next to Thomas, who was his best friend from ages 4 - 10, largely because their surnames start with the same letter and on the first day of school they sat next to each other! And here they were, nearly 13 years later, alphabetised again. Thomas went to a different high school so they're no longer best friends, but happy to chat and share a laugh. It really did hit me with a hammer blow just how much time has passed.



Number two's graduation from high school was way more relaxed - no future careers depending on grades for this lot! He did very well too, his marks were good, and he did receive one individual award - for Personal Achievement in International Cuisine!!!! He really did love that class, it would surprise no-one to hear. But, as he pointed out, he did four years of high school in three years, which makes him super smart by anyone's calculation, and he certainly had a crackingly good time.

Trip around the world baby

Sadly not "It's a trip around the world, baby!" as an early christmas present, but a scrappy trip around the world baby quilt for a pregnant lady here at work. It is made entirely from leftovers from other projects, which is suitable, as she is very good at recycling and sustainability.

Held up by  number two son inside, because it has been obscenely hot and smokey. There are a lot of big fires to the east, and when we get an easterly the smoke rolls in. The air quality is officially 'hazardous' and Australia had its hottest ever day this week. Roads to the coast are closed and likely to be so for some weeks off and on due to active fires and trees on the road ... all a bit depressing. Luckily I have so much work to do that I'll be in the office pretty much every day until the end of January, so at least I'll get airconditioning.

This quilt turned out very pretty and cheerful. And won't show the stains!!! Babies, hahahaha....

Another melilot

I said I made two melilot shirts - the pink one without a collar and here is the green one with a collar. I made this one first and it's a bit tight around my swollen left arm.

I think I prefer without a collar, although it might just be that this one was the tester and it is a bit sketchy on the sewing. It's a printed rayon from Spotlight which drapes well and I love the colour - but it was an absolute bugger to work with. Slippery as anything and some of my cutting was decidedly dodgy.



Oh god more classy clothing shots. I am not into standing elegantly looking off to the side with my ankles crossed in the indie-pattern approved manner. However, this shirt is better than it looks - the length and shape of it is great on me - and very comfortable. I think I'll make more! Pattern winner!

Visitors

My brother and his wife came to visit us last week as part of an Australian extravaganza that included Elton John in Melbourne! I don't know how exciting Canberra was in comparison, but we had cheese and beer, so all good.

We went to the opening of a Reg Mombassa exhibition, which is a blast from the 80s and 90s that my husband loved.



We went out to Tidbinbilla to do a nature walk, which was very depressing because there is NO water. The dams and ponds have just about dried out, and the bush is tinder dry. There's not even any moisture in the soil, and you can see why the country is about burning down at the moment. Canberra has had several days of thick smoke haze and it's horrible.



This photo is over the stream where number one told his brother there were turtles and then when he bent over he pushed him in. No chance of that now - there's not any water just dirt and grass. We went to Costco (no photos, because really) and they did a bit of shopping, watched a bit of TV and played a bit of cards. I tried to leave work early with limited success...it was lovely to have them stay.

And another formal

Number two son went off to his year 10 formal on Tuesday. In the Australian Capital Territory School system you do seven years of primary school, four years of high school and two years of college so there are formals at the end of high school (year 10) and again at the end of college (year 12). It is very exciting for the 15/16 year olds, and they all looked super gorgeous.

Number two decided to rock an H&M grey suit, hawaiian shirt and one of his dad's ties (which he had picked out as a christmas present a year or two ago). We went round for pre-drinks to one of his friends' place (alcohol for the parents, thank you very much) and saw a dozen of the wee glamorous creatures. They don't wear dinner suits or formal gear by and large, just suits, although one young man looked very spiffing in a three piece with waistcoat and pocket chain. The girls were mostly in slimline full-length dresses and looked just lovely. Yes, he is much taller than his dad.

Number two had a great time, danced a lot then had an after party at another friends' house with a heated pool (!fancy!who are these people?) so they all had an unscheduled midnight swim. Today he's going into school to practice their performance for the final assembly tomorrow, which is followed by Pool Day, and then high school is finished except for the graduation next week.

December!!!!!

Where is the time going? I have spent the last few months organising a conference that will be in the second week of January, and it is starting to speed up and get a bit serious. It is all perfectly under control (or as much as it can be) but the reality is starting to kick in, and it's only going to get worse.

In the meantime normal end-of-year things go on. Last week was the Year 12 formal for number one son. He wore the same suit as for his Year 10 formal, and a new shirt from the Zara sale rack. He looks super spiffing, and he said he had a great time. Yesterday he went to play Laser Tag and today he's off to his usual dungeons and dragons Tuesday. I am not sure how much of a holiday he gets before he needs to Find a Job, but apparently there are a few things in the pipeline.



Handsome son and daggy fat mum. And we are inching towards kitchen renewal with benchtop and cupboard samples! There are forty shades of white, I should have guessed. We are comparing them over sunlight and natural light and artificial light but honestly? We don't really care and whatever we pick will be uninspired. White, off white, natural white, bright white, arctic white, soft white .... aaaaaargh.

Melilot shirt

On my beach weekend I made two shirts - nothing extraordinary about that except that I went out on a limb and used a pdf pattern. Which I have been firmly resisting, despite all the bloggers and cool people being very dismissive of the big four pattern companies, and raving about indie designers and how much better the fit is, and the ideas, and the rest. Which is all fine, except they mostly do pdf patterns that you have to download and print out yourself, and I do love the tissue paper in the pattern envelope. I know where I stand with a big wodge of Butterick brown paper. However, in the interests of life-long learning, I had a go.

I printed off forty-odd pages of A4 paper, trimmed the edges, and taped them together. I cut out the shapes, taped them some more because I had put the tape in completely the wrong places, and then cut out the fabric as normal and meandered my way through some fairly terse instructions to make a shirt. Two shirts. It is the Deer and Doe Melilot shirt which has been very popular and there were a lot of pictures and hints on the internet, which was very useful.

And it turned out great! As usual these are terrible photos taken at the end of the work day (which is why the rumples) but it was a lovely shirt to wear - a pink checked cotton with a slight amount of stretch that was gifted to me by a work friend, score! This is actually the second shirt, so it has a fit adjustment around my swollen left arm that makes it sit a bit better. The first shirt is also nice but it was a cheapo printed rayon - quite nice and drapey but a curse to sew. Slippery. The first shirt had the full collar, the second one just the mandarin collar.

This is a great pattern, simple to sew, nice shaping and good details. I measured myself and did the size suggested, grading between sizes as needed, and it worked fine apart from the unusually bulging left arm. Taping all those pieces of paper together was a tremendous pain in the arse, and while I was doing it I thought "never again, this is stupid" but then doing the sewing and wearing the finished product it has some significant advantages over the standard big four patterns I usually use. I might be a convert? Maybe?

It's Thursday again!

How did a week go past so quickly? Admittedly yesterday was a write-off with another of the hideous mini-migraines I now get thanks to evil hormonal drugs of doom. Cancer, the gift that keeps on giving. Four years of these injections, a couple of dozen migraines, ten kilos of additional weight and joint pain too, although I might just be getting old and arthritic. Anyway, yesterday I lay quietly. I did have number one son at home for company - he had his last day of school on Tuesday!!!

Unbelievable. Not sure what's going on with his hair there either. This week and next week are exams so some pressure but it's not too hideous. The exams are only for the final of his six semesters that he's done over the past two years that make up his university entrance score - it's not all or nothing like in my day! Thank heavens, I don't think any of us could cope with the stress of that. And then he will be done with school, my tiny baby. Horrifying.

I took off to the beach again last weekend because it was meant to be hot and sunny ... it was in Canberra but not at the beach. The photo above was on Saturday about 5 pm when I went for a long walk. Quite enjoyable but I had to come back and have a hot shower. The wind was biting. 

Sunday was nicer, with another long walk, but I wasn't tempted to swim. I did a lot of sewing though, made two shirts which I will photograph at some point. It was lovely to have a couple of quiet days pottering about. The kayak hire place has started selling coffee, which means lots of people sitting about happily. Including two police officers with a wagon on Sunday morning - I had hoped they were arresting riotous fisherfolk but no. Just having coffee.

The dreadful kitchen

We got revised plans and quotes back from the kitchen guy, which look pretty good, so it might really be happening! We went with slightly thicker benchtops than original, and more cupboards, and some lights in the pantry ... so it just keeps getting more expensive, but that is the way of the new kitchen I believe. We are not very creative so I can't see us doing any more revisions - it might be time just to book it in and get it done. Not until next year now, but that's fine. I am so sick of the kitchen that doesn't work, especially the oven. It hasn't worked on any setting other than "Pizza Bake" for a couple of years, but in the last few months it's got worse ... you can really only use one rack now - any higher and the food incinerates, and any lower and it stays cold. It's shocking.

Yes, those are scorch marks around the edges of the oven, and a shabby looking piece of paper covering the hole at the bottom where the kickboard fell off. Should we be using paper near such a dodgy oven? Probably not. The cupboard on the right has duct tape on the top edge, to cover the melting.

This is the worst set of solid hot plates in the history of the world. The back right doesn't work at all. The others are OK if you only have one on at a time, but any more and they all go cold. They take about ten minutes to warm up (although to be fair they have always been like that even when we moved in thirteen years ago).

Yes, the cupboards are literally falling off the walls. This set of cupboards has not just the liquor, but the glasses, cups and good bowls. If it fell down it would be quite a disaster, but we figure it's been like this for easily ten years, so probably won't go soon. Sensible? Maybe not.

Baby quilts

I've taken a break from my solids fiesta to make a couple of baby quilts for babies-to-be. This one is based on colours from the blue and red print at lower right - I like blue and red together. And reasonably gender-neutral? I don't know if young parents are still stridently anti-pink for their girls, I remember my mothers' group all tried to be until the girls were about two and started insisting on pink everything. Or some of them did, some of them never cared.

Shoo-fly blocks with a nice red dot on the border. I got sent a photo of new baby on the orange and green baby quilt  - she is a very pretty little girl with a head of dark hair. Gosh my babies were bald. Until the first tinge of carrots came through :) We are off tonight to see number two son in the high school production of "Little Shop of Horrors". He is playing the dentist, which will give him the chance to chew the scenery in complete happiness. Although I shouldn't judge him in advance, it might be a subtle and nuanced performance. I will report back.

Here are the beautiful lilies our house guests gave us two weeks ago. Just tight buds then, and they have exploded into these wonderful pink blooms. You can smell them from the driveway! Absolutely beautiful, I must remember to buy myself flowers more.

Work, beach, work

Obviously work-beach-work is much better than work-work, but still not as good as work-beach-beach-beach. Once again I struggled myself up the hill on Sunday afternoon, dreaming of the days when beach time is all the time. Will I get sick of it? Will I get bored in retirement? Will I think with fondness of Monday mornings? NO I WILL NOT. I will think about those long dull drives back to Canberra and not miss them at all. It's always much longer going to Canberra than it is going to the beach.... Although on Sunday I did have the first time ever of a train crossing! There is one point where you cross the train tracks, and there has never been a train on it in the hundreds of times I've driven that route, until yesterday. Such excitement.

I needed a weekend at the beach to lick my wounds after a truly dreadful job interview on Friday. It was for an internal promotion, and I did far and away the worst interview of my entire life; froze, blanked and just couldn't recover. So hideous, and in front of my current bosses, so super embarrassing. I spent the weekend alternately squirming with horror flashbacks and being so angry and cross with myself. Everyone I have spoken to has tanked one interview in their lives, so I know I'm not alone, but boy did I need a bit of quiet time by the seaside to recover.



Saturday was hot so I went in for the first swim of the season and the water was ICY. I had a wetsuit on, and stayed in for the best part of an hour, so it can't have been that cold I suppose, but the first dip was a shock. There was a big swell though, and I caught a few waves. So very very lovely to be in the ocean again. I'm going to be very busy with work this summer (even in my so-not-promoted role, hah) so I don't know how much time I'll get at the beach, but it will still be there for the summer after. And after that. Until retirement....

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.

Bloody feet

It's been eighteen months since I broke my toe by dropping an ipad on it, so I was probably due for more feet-related disasters. So Wednesday morning, as I was running late for a physio appointment, I didn't see a slightly lowered brick in the pavement and rolled my ankle a beauty. Honestly I thought I'd broken it, it was that painful, so let rip with some scorching profanities and dropped elegantly into the gutter. Such a STUPID thing to do, and it always happens when you're racing around with your mind somewhere else, not when you're running 10km or anything you can boast about. Anyway the construction guys across the road gathered my stuff, got me a chair and an ice pack, then I rang the physio and she came down and helped me hobble across the road, then strapped my ankle and we got on with the lymphoedema in my arm, which is what I was actually there for.

This is it yesterday - two days afterwards. Not a bad sprain (I know sprains, thank you thirty years of netball, I think I did an ankle every second year) but sore and swollen and going an interesting shade of purple. Thank heavens for a teenager with driver's license! I still can't drive so he helped my husband with the car shuffle on Wednesday, and has been running himself around ever since. I went to work on Thursday on crutches but it was such a pain I took my laptop home on Friday and worked from the kitchen table. Which was fine, but kind of boring.... the little three-person team I'm in are all in one set of rooms so we just shout at each other when we want something (there's no-one else around) and it's tedious having to email. So this weekend is going to be very quiet, no run, no shopping, no driving ... luckily it's footy finals!!! Beers are in the fridge - how's that for a silver lining.