Two weeks holiday

We have been on a two-week holiday up to Brisbane and back to see my husband's family. We took a few days to drive up and see some places we hadn't been before. It's nothing spectacularly exciting, but we had fun. I am going to recount it in great detail on this blog because my memory is shocking ... a dozen times this trip my husband would say "don't you remember? We stopped here for afternoon tea with the kids in 2006, there was a homeless guy behind the public toilets and a seagull stole your biscuit" and I would recall NOTHING. So I am going to record what we did here, for future trips.

This could be main street, anywhere, regional Australia. It's actually Canowindra, which has some very interesting bushranger stories, and a nice bacon roll for lunch.

We spent the first two nights at Coonabarabran in an airbnb house that was rather adorable with bits untouched since the 1950s. We did airbnb the whole way and ended up in very random places - so much nicer than a motel room and much the same price. 

We did a beautiful walk in the Warrumbungles - only a few km but pretty much straight up. Wonderful view of course but this is our red little faces at the end ... happy but hot. 

After the walk we visited the Siding Springs Observatory which was another wonderful view, and some good displays. Not many people there on a cold July day. You can actually see the telescope in the distance on the photo from the walk above, so I took a photo looking back the other way, to see where we had been. It's lovely, but I can't tell which particular ridge we walked up. It felt like the very tippy top one but I don't think it was.

Another strange bug

We painted a kind of bug, or possibly butterfly. It certainly has wings - the idea is to teach how to paint iridescence, which is hard. You paint the reflection of light, not a thing itself, which I don't completely understand. It seems to involve lots of different colours. The orange dots are a sensation of dust catching the light. Hmmm.

And a river scene, with an umbrella and lots of blossoms. Thickly splootched impasto blossoms, which were fun. My water isn't right, I can't get the ends of the ripples to not be distracting. You can't make them too fat but if you make them too thin then it looks like blue noodles floating on the water. And if they are not perfectly horizontal you lose the whole effect.

Basic as dress

I sewed this a couple of weeks ago down the coast and wore it to work - boring and basic but also comfortable and patterned! Very unflattering - if I make this pattern again I might bring it in a bit through the body - but at this point who cares. 

I'll use this pattern again, it's nice and straightforward and very wearable. And it matches my new phone cover! I finally spent some money instead of just buying the cheapest case at the dollar shop and got a proper Otter box. Not only is it much prettier but now my phone bounces when I drop it.

It was McCalls 7948 although I didn't do a tiered skirt, just one drop. I thought about doing a circle version but decided not to (couldn't be arsed doing maths) just gathered a straight piece onto the waist. This rayon is light enough that it wasn't too bulky. I bought it on deep discount from a shop in Brunswick when we were dropping number two at uni 18 months ago. Seems like a lifetime! I haven't dared go back to the fabric shops there, it was so tempting and so cheap.

The angry chicken

Acrylic April 2020 continues on with a really pissed-off chicken. It's not meant to be angry, it just turned out that way, and I couldn't figure out how to change it. I am not sure how the world disappointed a chicken so badly but I feel for it. The last thing we were supposed to do was paint on an adorable little flower hat but I just did not do that. I thought this chicken would not appreciate it.

And then there were some strawberries - this did not turn out at all. The middle of my strawberry looks like someone vomited a strawberry Magnum into the hand basin ... and how do I have such a vivid mental picture? Because number one DID THAT many years ago and I am still scarred. It certainly doesn't look like a freshly cut ripe strawberry which is what we were aiming for. The leaves are odd too.

But lastly we have some European bee-eaters, which are quite cool. The best thing about this painting is that the Art Sherpa didn't know what they were "are they kingfishers? They look like kingfishers..." but when I showed my husband my finished painting (I always do that, he is very kind) he said "wow!!! European bee-eaters!!!!" which I had never even heard of. So we googled them, and what do you know, not only are they definitely European bee-eaters but we found the reference picture she must have used here .... they sound like quite fascinating little birds, I am pleased to have painted them.

More sorting

Another part of the sorting-out-and-throwing-away weekend was going through the linen and embroidered things that have been piling up a bit. I tend to rescue them from family and friends (and op shops if needed) without really thinking about it, so it was time to sort through and let some things go. It's a bit sad for handmade items but some of the older things are so badly stained that I don't think I'll be able to remediate them. I did have a 'hopeful' pile though, where I will try various washing techniques to see if I can bring them back to life.

I kept anything that looked familiar from my childhood, or that was beautiful workmanship, or that I just liked. Or that I made myself!!! Check out these dodgy owls. I've shown the little people before, this is from a similar time, I must have been going through a phase. Also beautifully edged by my very patient grandma.

Bleak weekend

The weekend was cold, cloudy and windy with rain gusts blowing in. Perfect for sitting by the fire, which I did! And went for a walk on Sunday morning to get the cobwebs out, it certainly worked, I kept my beanie on and my hands in my pockets.

Other than that the weekend was very quiet. We continued in our aim of getting rid of stuff bit by bit ... went through a couple of tubs of kids' school stuff that had been poked into the shed. Hilarious! We kept a lot of the creative writing / projects and turfed many maths workbooks and dodgy 'art'. We did not consult the children in this process.

My husband found this relic from the past in one of his bedside drawers. I bought him this fancy high-tech 'personal organiser' in possibly 1995 or 1996 - we had a friend who had one and we thought it was the absolute latest. This one might not be the original, he upgraded himself at some point for more memory!!!! 32 KB!!!!!! What on earth can you do with that.... it was really just a fancy address book and calendar. But still about $300 from memory, which wasn't cheap back in the day.

Bad landscapes

The next couple of paintings in Acrylic April 2020 are landscapes ... and I do not think these are currently my forte. First up a tropical sunset, that looks like the world is about to end. Or perhaps a five year old painted this, could go either way. Those clouds are just wrong, the splashy waves are wrong too and the scale is completely off. The palm trees are OK but palm trees are very easy to suggest - the brain fills in anything you leave out. But what is that grass at the bottom? Is it eight feet high? The teacher's painting looks much better than this, it is not a fault in the design but in the student.

And next is a lavender field in a sunset. This is not so apocalyptic, but I am still not 100% sure it is exactly true to life. Have I been in any lavender fields at sunset? No I have not. This might be why I am better at wine bottles. 

And back again

Despite being in Sydney for three days I have exactly zero photos to put in this post - it was rainy and I was staying in the very non-photogenic business end of town. We did go over the harbour bridge at one point to get from A to B and that was nice but other than that it could have been any city anywhere! There are a couple of photos of me in a lab coat and hairnet (medical manufacturing) but they are not going to be posted publicly. Not a good look. But it went well and I had some delicious food (we were at the Chinatown end of the CBD). 

So here are some pants that I made ages ago and have never worn - this is the 'you are on your last chance to remain in my wardrobe' test wear - and they were good! Wide-legged pants with a high waist are not at all flattering on people with big tummies but they were surprisingly comfortable and it's a nice heavyweight brown twill that falls well.

Yes, those are extra pleats at the front JUST where I need some more bulk. On my fat roll. And a zip up the back to emphasise those bulges. But, generally fine, will keep. Has lovely pockets. This was the pattern - Vogue 9302. Looks better on the models. 

Weekend at home

I had one of those weekends where little things just kept going wrong ... I dropped my hairbrush in the toilet, I didn't sterilise enough jars for the preserved lemons so had to start over, the sunscreen exploded all over the wall, my paintings looked dreadful and people were just irritating me beyond measure. I got halfway through my walk and couldn't be bothered any more so hired one of those electric scooters again to take me most of the way home ... which was actually an awesome dopamine rush, I love them. So dangerous on the broken footpaths of Canberra, but fun.

I have a short work trip to Sydney today so had to pack ... of course I carefully took all my black jackets to the drycleaner on Saturday morning because Parliament is on winter break, then realised Sunday afternoon I had to figure out three days of work clothing that would fit into carry on and didn't include any black jackets ... which is harder than you'd think. The cat fell asleep on the lid of the suitcase and stayed until the sun went down two hours later. 

Another plaid skirt

I know that I don't need more than one tartan type skirt in my life, but this yellow check is very happy and it needed to be sewed into something. I think I bought this in NZ in October but I am not 100% sure .... I am on a no-fabric-buy year because I have WAY TOO MUCH. Especially material that is probably suited to work clothes, and I am not going to be working for too many more years. So I am on a small mission to sew it all up, and wear it all. 

This is the yoke / circle skirt pattern I have used many times before, and it is the same as the previous green plaid skirt. But a bit longer, because that one goes whoop to the sky in any wind. Awkward. It is a much nicer quality fabric than the green - I did think about a simple dress but I don't know how often I would wear a yellow check dress. Delightful, but a dress might have been a bit much.