You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February, 2006.
The best thing about blogging so far is all the cool stuff I’m learning about my computer. And how smart my kids are. Oh, they’ve been telling me for years that they’re smart and I’ve seen the hundreds of PowerPoint Presentations on subjects as diverse as How to Care for Newborn Puppies and Disembowelment Techniques for Gamers. I’ve paid hundreds of dollars for new ink cartridges to print said P.P.Presentations in dazzling Technicolour. But I’ve always known in my heart that The Kids were really Just Playing and I used my computer for Important Stuff.
I’m sorry, Kids. I officially and Very Publicly Apologise. You know more than me. I admit it.
I should have known, really. I mean, THIS is what my son has looked like for the past three years.We can’t even remember what colour his eyes are.
So he will be proud when he comes home from school today and learns that I have, at last, only two years after he first told me that I should, abandoned I. E., that Bog-Standard Browser for the Uninformed, and have crossed to The Dark Side
I’ve even managed to add links to some of the blogs that I enjoy reading (I just can’t work out how to get rid of the double spacing!). It’s as if the great Mystery of Computers is beginning to be revealed. If only I’d listened to the kids earlier…
OK, so they aren’t diamonds but ooh don’t you love that sparkle? It’s a mystery to me why I have such varied taste. It’s almost like there are two of me in the one body (and if anyone says my body has room for two, I’ll, well, you’re right of course, but…). All of me has a NEED for strong, clear colours. Dense, saturated colours that satisfy my eye. I love the colour of fire engines, and ripe berries, and dazzling new growth after rain. Oh, and you should just see the colour in the sky here at sunset. But…
…there’s another part of me that gets dizzy at the sight of the beautiful soft fabrics that Robyn Pandolph designs and I’m in ecstacy when ever Cath Kidston releases anything new. This duplicity has always made decorating our homes a challenge, because I just can’t narrow anything down to “a look”. When I was a teenager, my Dad taught me that “My Style” had a name - Eclecticism. That truly helped. As a consequence of that revelation, I can say that Peter and I have never had a home that’s been disordered or tasteless; it’s Eclectic.
I know ONE of the reasons I’m so messy - I just get distracted easily. So you know I was tidying my sewing stuff. It took three days and I’m really not done because, um, I got distracted. A week ago I was at the local St Vinnies (thrift shop) and found two bee - oo- tiful Czech crystal buckles. Heart thumping, I drove home and put them on the table. There they have sat, sparkling and alluring.
I have tried to ignore those buckles. The dishes need doing. They twinkle. The laundry needs doing. I’m sure one of those buckles winked at me. And then, the big tidy up and I came across some fabric that said, “Excuse me? Are those buckles doing anything? Could I wear one?” Well, now I’m really gone. I can’t stand it any longer. I HAVE TO MAKE A BAG!
Colour is one of the most magical and essential parts of my life. Do you remember that “new box of crayons” feeling when you were a kid? What a high! (We won’t mention the agony of the first Broken Crayon.) For some that feeling was sparked by the waxy smell, but for me it was the lined up colours. I always arranged my pencils and markers in rainbow order. Every drawing that I started from an organised box of pencils was better than any drawing that started from a box of chaos.
Our last two houses were pretty big and in each of them I had a sewing room (ah, the hitherto unappreciated bliss!). Now we are living in a much smaller house and my sewing stuff is squished into a shelving unit in our bedroom. I know that the only way to work in a small space is to be super-duper organised but that isn’t easy for those of us who are by nature…um…casual.
Today is a Wonder Day. Today is aTidy Day. May I present, my Tidy Fabric…
This is what I call my “working stash” ! I’ve also got a few bags of beautiful florals and vintage fabrics and other stuff that I couldn’t live without.
Of course, while the tidying was going on I found some fabrics that NEED to made into bags. So I think that’s enough organising for one weekend. Time to turn the sewing machine on.
Though you might like a sneak preview of the Block of the Month…
I hear that Donna’s Quilt Studio is the place to be. SOME people even queued before opening time (did you have sleeping bags, Jan/Evelyn/et al?) just to be first past the post! I wonder if there are any batiks left??
New Zealand must have the best quilt shops in the whole world and,certainly, the most per square mile. It was such a treat to live in a town with 80 000 people and THREE quilt shops.
A new quilt shop has just opened in Townsville, too. We may have to borrow a trailer for our next visit…
OK so these aren’t the best photos (I took both of them far too close to sundown) but at least you can see a little bit of where we live. On the left is the main street of Hughenden. Some of these old buildings have beautiful pressed tin ceilings. Doesn’t it just look like a cowboy movie? We even get tumbleweeds. I’m NOT kidding!
We are here most of the time, but as you know, we also spend as many weekends as we can at the coast in Townsville and this is the beach that I frequent (check out the REAL COCONUT PALMS!!). It’s just down the road from our place so I go there most days.
So we kind of go from the ridiculous to the sublime… (sorry, Hughendenites)
We are grateful to have had the opportunity to live in different places and experience different communities. I sometimes wonder if either of us would ever have been content to live in one place for the past twenty five years.
Are we destined to be nomads for the rest of our lives?
Well, this seems like a good idea…
It did last night, anyway, but now that I sit here with bloggers block I’m not so sure!
I have been missing all of my wonderfully creative, inspiring and loving friends so much since we moved back to Queensland. Being around you guys all the time kept me in a perpetual state of enthusiasm and for the last year or so I’ve sometimes struggled to keep it going. BUT then I found the world of blogs and suddenly I was able to vicariously enjoy the company of other people’s cool friends! There are so many amazing women out there, making art, raising kids and generally being gorgeous. So I decided to get in on the action.
The best part of blogs is that you can send me messages via the comments thing at the bottom of this post. How cool is that? So, let me know you’re still there (you know I’ll be shattered if no one comes to this party) and remember me.
One of these days I’ll even figure out how to add photos to this thing so that I can show you what I’m working on (I am slowly learning how to Use My Computer For Good).
My friend, Donna, has opened her new quilt shop! YAY!!!!! I’m so excited I can barely stand myself! Anyway, I’ve been designing a Block of the Month quilt for her and then yesterday she sent me an email and said “What do you think about a Christmas BOM?” So now I’m having to fight off the urge to start something new when I already have six/seven/eight other quilts in various states of incompletion (I think I just made that word up).
Tune in tomorrow for another exciting update…
(Son says “What on earth do you want a blog for? You don’t do anything except make quilts!”) Yeah, thanks…
