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....