Holiday scars.

I slipped on wet pebblecrete on Christmas day, crashed to the ground with great force, and have the most stupendous purple bruise the size of an apple on my bum, but high enough up that I can actually show people if you want to see it. Yesterday I went swimming in the middle of the day, putting my expired sunscreen to the test. I think it half worked. My arms went pink but it certainly could have been worse. I forgot to do my back at all because I forgot my swimmers don't cover my back as much as they do my front, so it's slightly sore. I also got a cut on my toe from the rocks in the pool. Trophys of time away from my desk!

Flatmate got a coffee pod machine for Christmas, the most exciting thing about that is she also got a milk frother machine. Home made frothy hot chocolates and chai lattes! I had a very delicious hot chocolate for dinner last night. Yes, for dinner. Holiday!

Today I am at work, wrapped in a blanket and hugging a hot water bottle. This isn't living. So I'm taking Tuesday off.

Ender's Game.

I saw this on Sunday, by myself, because a) it was a facebook special and b) it was airconditioned. The cinema was pretty empty though: there was one young couple, there was me, and there were maybe 6 solo men of various ages scattered around the room.

Some things about the movie were good. The actor who played Ender Wiggin was perfect (apart from being a teenager instead of a primary-aged kid). It looked great. It was succinct. But, compared to the book, it was so abbreviated. None of the kids (teenagers though) had an interesting story or a personality, there was no sense of the loneliness and cruelty Ender went through to become a military genius before puberty, the vocabulary was watered down, the time-frame was shorter, and most of all there were hardly any games in the battleroom and that was my favourite part of the book. And there is a whole side-story with Ender's brother and sister that's gone, although I wasn't satisfied with where that went in the book anyway. It's basically very very compressed.

The film is a good way to get a handle on the Themes of the book though. It's a sci fi classic because it has Themes. It's the kind of book kids would study in year 12.

Ending.

It's getting hard to be at work. The days seem eternally long. I can't break it up with snacks because I'm not snacking, and now even cups of tea are fewer because it's hard to get my retainer out. One day of work next week and that's it!

This is my roundup of 2013.

• At work: legwarmers, stopping using skype, stopping using the dishwasher, and starting and finishing early made my life better.
• I exercised consistently! Jillian and walking.
• I went to church and bible study regularly. Took a few stabs at a bible reading habit.
• I started using a tiny smear of styling mousse to thicken my hair and make it hold better.
• I stopped snacking. This was a major obsession because it took some difficult adjustment, but I think it's a better way to eat.
• My mealtime cut-offs are nothing before 11.30, nothing before 4.30, and nothing after 8pm, except when I break them.
• I finished my big cross stitch. It's now framed and on the wall. I still think it's the nicest cross stitch I've ever seen.
• Tried internet dating for a month (well the internet part but no actual dating).
• I finished a quilt, which I'm actually using to sleep under this summer.
• Jelssievision. Episode 2 is my favourite.
• Went to the land of Westerra, to the cities of Perth and Busselton.
• I cried the most when I signed up for another year of braces.
• My mint and lemongrass are still growing!
• I started breathing through my nose more.
• I bought a lot of nail polish. I don't know how many I have. I love my current newbie a lot, it's blue like TARDIS or willow pattern.
• Started using BB cream.
• Started recording the Cost Per Wear on my clothes.
• Experimented with Herman sourdough starter.
• Went to Bowral, Katoomba, Cabramatta and Eastwood just for day trips.
• Started a walking group.

Swimming season.

I'm finding myself too hot and lethargic to "enjoy" Jillian as much as usual so today I'm going to swim after work instead. The last few times I've done Jillian I've been wishing I was frolicking in cool water and fresh air, but when it comes to it I find it harder to motivate myself to actually get down to the beach, especially on my own. Using the medibank ad to reinspire myself. And the thought of doing Jillian in a stuffy room.



I think this is the year I need to bite the bullet and get a new set of togs. I've been attracted to a lot of fancy retro one-piece suits, but then remembered the inconvenience of the one-piece. I'll stick with the tankini, even though it costs more to have the same amount of fabric in two pieces. I'll wait until the end of summer I guess, I want the price to come down. And, I think I can just get a new top, and get away with the same pants a bit longer. Maybe I should go for sun protection and get a rashie.

My retainer is driving me bananas. It doesn't hurt but it's tight.

I really want to watch TV tonight. I taped Miss Marple on Sunday. But Big Bang Theory would do.

The Secret.

I would be hopeless at poker. But I managed to keep a secret apart from my parents, flatmate, Elsie, Anna, and one sister. That counts as a total secret in my books. I was burning to tell other people but I was able to just tell the same people over and over again to relieve myself.

Today at 9.30:

Today at 11.30:

For real!

My teeth still have their original character, they aren't perfect teeth, they still carry the shape of my clumsy childhood and a discoloured veneer (I fell over a lot and did weird things to my baby teeth and developing adult teeth). But they are straighter. They seem somehow BIG without braces. They feel normal though. I'm keeping the news off facebook because I want the surprise reveal to carry over to different situations. A lot of people have known me for fewer than 4 years so only know me with braces.

I'm eating my first uncut apple right now.

I get a free photo shoot!

Bird-sitting.

I have been looking after a parrot for a few days. He was grumpy at first, but after I took the nail polish off my nails he was a lot calmer and more trusting. I took these selfies watching TV with him. He likes to snuggle up into your neck, kiss you on the mouth, and cosy into your hand and have his face scratched. And then he got obsessed with chewing my glasses.

Feet.

What exciting things have been going on! Podiatry! Here are all the details of my feet, because I'm interested (if not obsessed).

I've got high arches. Lovely dancer feet, or, the feet of a true lady because water can run under them, or, an evolutionary throwback from when we used our feet to hang upside down from tree branches. Possibly all true. Anyway, that means less stability while walking, and I walk a lot. Many years ago I had sore knees and hips, got custom-made orthotics and have been wearing enclosed shoes and walking without pain ever since. Earlier this year I switched from my standard Jillian DVD to one with more cardio, ie, jumping and jogging on the spot, and after a couple of months I had plantar facilitis, which is an inflamed tendon thing. So I tried to rest and ice my foot and it gradually hurt less but still lingered and it was probably time for new orthotics anyway, so I got my feet checked out this week, casts of my feet were made, and have new orthotics. Off-the-shelf arch supports wont work for me, I asked, but my feet are too unusual. I just have to get expensive professional ones every 3 years or so. But the cost per wear is good! And the cost of being pain-free is totally worth it.

First time I wore them they felt lumpy, unbalancing and made my left foot hurt after half an hour. The second time, they felt a bit weird still, because it's walking at a different angle than normal, but no pain. Full transition takes a week or two.

It's surprising how much maintenance a HEALTHY body needs to stay in tune. I'm so grateful I can get orthotics and braces so that I can walk and yawn and eat normally.

And the other end of things, my fingers, are getting treated to 4 new colours of OPI that were on sale. 4 of these are mine: the two at the front, the blue and the almost black.

Twelve Clues of Christmas, a Royal Spyness Mystery.

http://www.audible.com/pd/Mysteries-Thrillers/The-Twelve-Clues-of-Christmas-Audiobook/B00A9VCE4U/ref=a_hp_c1_1_t

This was $5 on Audible recently. I think it's currently $10. If you like Midsomer Murders and Phryne Fisher you will like this book. It's fun, predictable, and stupid, and just well-written enough to be slightly addictive. Like Midsomer, there are a lot of deaths in a village and nobody is really sad about them. I did like all the ancient English Christmas traditions and playing sardines and doing a panto and charming things (it's set in the 1920s). I hated the Irish accent the reader used for the love interest (only a problem if you get the audiobook obviously). One thing that surprised me in myself was that whenever Lady Georgie fights off the advances of sleazy posh men, I don't think it's that comedic. There's some line somewhere where outrageous behaviour goes from amusingly inappropriate to technically criminal, and I don't tolerate it any more. You don't go into a girl's bedroom at night while she is a bit drunk and try to "have your way" with her against her ladylike protestations. Another way to describe that is attempted rape. You see? somewhere between amusingly inappropriate and criminal. But it's all OK in the end because the hapless maid Queenie saves the day with a big water jug. Anyway, a book in this series MAY be made into a movie, which I would like to see, but I doubt it will happen. And the love interest is called Darcy. That's all you need to know. $5 well spent.

Cushion repair #2.

Flatmate brought home cushions with pink linen covers, fraying apart. I whizzed around them with the overlocker but within a day they had frayed apart again. So I used the leftover green binding from the quilt I recently finished to sew over the edges, and this way there is enough seam allowance that they wont fray. It's kind of redundant using the green stuff to bind the edges instead of just sewing with a big fat seam allowance, but I had it and wanted to use it.

I also repaired a shirt. I think that's the last sewing for this year.

Audiobook happy!

I'm listening to Ender's Game at the moment, it's a page-turner. I heard it was like Harry Potter in space, but it's a lot more dry and intense. Poor Ender is more exhausted and traumatised than Harry. More like Katniss in the 3rd Hunger Games book. The games in the fleet school are really fun to listen to though. Mostly all they do is play army-style laser tag in anti-gravity rooms. So much better than quidditch.

I wonder if I am becoming too lazy to read a book with my eyes. But audiobooks are so good for multitasking, I can "read" them while I sew, or fall asleep, or on public transport (I get sick reading on the bus and also the ipod is so convenient). And a good reader doing all the accents is fun. I worry that I'm missing out on creating my own version of the world though. My dilemma is, should I download the new Discworld book from Audible (and if so, the unabridged version or the abridged one read by the wonderful Tony Robinson?), or get the actual book and enjoy the pure read. But it might take a while to get the book, whereas the audiobook is available instantly. Although I need my Audible credits for Christmas presents and if I spend them on a book for myself I'll have to come up with another idea for someone else, which is to be avoided.

Random update.

 Feel like I want to blog, but haven't got anything remarkable to say! My new cardigan came this week from woolovers.com. It's long, black, merino. Not as soft as my other merino cardigans. Useful to have a long black cardigan though. Wearing it over a black and white stripy dress today. With a bright pink nail from the library of Elsie. And that's a braces face.

I have to say that I don't think wearing a lot of black, or black and white things, is really me. I normally use grey as a base for bright colours. But everyone wears black in the city. It's just work clothes. I think of black as a uniform.

Did some market research survey online for money, about study. Over 3 days. I thought it would be an interactive forum with other people but it was just with one moderator, so it was private. First time doing paid market research.

Made a dentist appointment and a podiatrist appointment. Sore foot, so maybe I need new orthotics. Getting stuff done before the end of the year! bam bam bam. Have also been looking at private heath insurance options, registered as an organ donor, and need to renew my driver's licence. Getting stuff done! Nobody thinks about doing things this late in the year, everyone's distracted. It's actually not very hard to get appointments and things. It's kinda quiet. I remember doing this last year, having a final burst of productivity and sneakily getting a lot of stuff done.

Because of sore foot, have switched back to No More Trouble Zones, because it is low impact, but it's longer, so I feel congratulations are in order for getting myself back up to an hour session of Jillian after only one week.

Working on converting all the women in the world to use BB cream.

Doing some Christmas shopping, bit by bit.

Spending time with old people! This is lovely. I go to the movies with old people now. We have the same taste in movies. Tomorrow I'm seeing One Chance.

Quiet hymns.

My music share this week is Daniel Martin Moore. He has an album called "In the Cool of the Day", which is some the calmest and most peaceful music I've ever heard. Piano, fiddle, mandolin, so basically bluegrass genre I think but very low key. There are some familiar hymns and some songs I don't know and some instrumental bits. It has a really nice atmosphere.

Circle of 5ths.

I had a very full week. So on Sunday I stayed in bed awhile, then did Jillian, then watched Doctor Who, then made shortbread for the first time, then went to piano-teaching and music practice and church.

It was my second week as a piano teacher again. I'm the girl's second teacher, there is some good foundation work done by the first teacher. She checks the time signature and counts herself in to every song. She doesn't practice much though. I drew a table for her to tick the days she practices this week. I think I'll have a sticker system to reward practice.

Best thing was, I taught her her first scale, C major, right hand, one octave up and back, which she liked, and then I explained the circle of 5ths, which made her eyes just light up! I didn't learn that until high school, but young kids will really grasp onto concepts like that, it's a simple pattern so it makes sense. And making sense of things is important. I'm going to teach her scales in order of the circle of 5ths and she'll always be able to remember that and have a big head start on key signatures.

Back to the shortbread. I used less butter than the recipe and also used glutinous rice flour instead of normal rice flour. It worked. Mainly I need to work on rolling it out not too thin. It's very delicious though.

Meg Mac.

Triple J Unearthed artist I heard about today. She's only got two songs out so far, you can download them on http://www.triplejunearthed.net.au/MEGMAC or iTunes or hear them on Spotify. Love it.

Finishing Quilting.

Much sitting at the sewing machine sewing back and forth all over the quilt.

Then binding. Cutting longs strips, sewing them together, folding it lengthwise and ironing it, sewing it around the edge. Realising didn't fold it around the corners properly (this isn't a picky detail thing, it's a stupid impossible-to-have-corners-at-all thing) so unpicking 3 quarters of it, sewing it back on with correct corner folding.

Then a few hours of hand-sewing it over the edge. Finished it on Sunday night after church. And it is done!

Quilting.

 Last Monday night I made quilt sandwich on the floor.

I sewed the layers together by hand with big basting stitches to hold them together for machine quilting. Hard work.

On Sunday I watched Captain America, got out the sewing machine and did a whole lot of quilting. I found the top layer was being dragged even with the all my basting and using a walking foot. I tried to start in the centre and work out to minimise twisting the layers. In the end it doesn't matter. I'll finish it tonight probably.

Made: cake, paintings.

Every year I take my turn on the office birthday cake roster. I picked a recipe a bit more complicated and rich than I expected. It's a Nutella cake from nigella.com. It is flourless, with 6 eggs, a jar of Nutella, a block of chocolate, lots of hazelnut. I took some photos before I took it to work and the icing fell off on the way and I repaired it when I got to work. I think I like rich cakes better without icing anyway. I just always forget that.

Yes. What a good cake. 

Also I did a set of paintings for Elsie, in her colours.

Also I went to officeworks and bought a pencil caddy, which is a makeup organiser. I think I need another one maybe, it's quite a success.

Lemongrass

My herbs are alive! And although the mint is dying off a little and growing back, the lemongrass has done nothing but grow.

Apron etc.

I had 2 meters of nice printed cotton that I bought in Bowral a few years ago to make a shirt out of. But then I thought I'd look stupid in a shirt made out of it, because it was too pretty and flowery. It would make something cute, though. It's a reasonably thick cotton but soft, from memory it's Japanese. So I didn't want to waste it. But while I pondered, it sat around being a complete waste of space and money.

Used an apron as a pattern, adding an inch around it as I cut, for seam allowance. Hemmed all the way around it, cut strips and sewed them on for the neck strap and waist ties.

Success!

As a reward for being so creative, frugal and productive, I went to Spotlight in the afternoon. I took with me a single bed sized quilt front that I pieced maybe 8 years ago. A few years ago I got around to sewing the borders around it. I went and bought some cotton batting, some backing and some green stuff to bind the edges with. $80. Craft is such a financial drain sometimes, which is ironic given that quilting in particular was originally about using scraps and recycling things. Sometimes that works out, but sometimes vast expense is unavoidable. I recall now that the front was made from fabric I chose for free from the stash of a friend, back when I was unemployed. It will be pretty. I used to call it my Jane Austen quilt. And although I will have some leftover stuff from this quilt, I have managed to make three quilts without getting fully addicted and gathering boxes of fat quarters. My secret is, buying nice material for an unspecified project in the unspecified future is a big NO. Decide the project, make the time, then go and buy the right quantity of materials. Even then you can be left with awkward unused stuff as per the apron story.

Scripture Songs Vol 1 and 2.

I've found a song writer called Sherri Youngward on Spotify. She puts bible passages almost directly into song, and they sound quite good, and that's really hard to do. She isn't aiming for church singing music, just personal listening music, which I think is why they are good. It's all that popular sweet folky style. I haven't come across many people putting music to the bible (compared to, say, updating hymns), and she is actually quite word for word. Some in modern language, some in King James. So look her up if that's your sort of thing.



I've done loads of walking this week. Hours and hours. My feet are rather sore now and I'm looking forward to an early night and some well earned junk food. Tomorrow I am craving a trip to Bondi Junction Spotlight, but I think I'll stay at home and sew instead. If I sew what I already have, and tick some things off my list, THEN I can go to Bondi Junction and I'll even shout myself a BUS RIDE instead of more walking. Alternatively, a movie on my own.

Coast walk, sculptures.

Lots of walking this weekend. Walked to Coogee, met my walking friends, we walked to Bondi. Here are some photos because sculptures by the sea was on.

Ate our lunches along the way, and the 4 who made it to the end got ice creams. We caught the 362 bus back to Coogee. It's a weekend only bus from Bondi to Coogee, very handy. Then I walked home. Did some stretching. So much walking. I wore my hat, it was good.

More walking on Sunday, for the maroubra fun run. Watched The Fellowship of the Ring in the afternoon so that I could watch people walking across Middle Earth. Surprising how many lines I still know off by heart. "Eight there are here yet nine there were set out from Rivendell. Tell me where is Gandalf, for I much desire to speak with him." I also ate many lollies I bought at the fun run. And defrosted the freezer. Then church. 

Today I am tired. Must have walked 12km or so over the weekend.

Photo wall.

I redid my collage doors last week. I threw out some tatty posters and put up a lot of photos instead, in a nice grid, with holiday postcards and some drawings and other little posters as well.

Step 1.
Collected the best photos from the last few years together and printed them at a shop on matte paper, MOST IMPORTANTLY paying extra for a white border. The white border frames each photos and makes the display of photos more uniform and designy.

Step 2.
Buy Scotch sticky squares. They are on the officeworks website but not instore. They are better than blu-tak cos they don't stain or damage surfaces. I found I could cut each square in half to stick a photo to my glass door surface. They stick better on smooth surfaces, I found they didn't always stick on my concrete walls cos they are a bit rough.

Step 3.
Stick photos up in a grid pattern. I organised them in columns.

Now I just hope the photos don't curl.

Dress alteration: secret waistband.

I have a dress made of stretch fabric and it's got lots of layers so it's heavy, stretching down from the shoulders under its own weight, so I feel like I have to keep hitching it up. That kind of annoyance hinders my cost per wear. I think it was $70 and I've had it almost a year and only worn it half a dozen times.

BUT I found a solution on the internet, I think it was called "hidden stays" or something, but I can't find it now. Basically, a secret waistband inside a dress to pull the weight up around your waist instead of all off the shoulders/bodice. The one I found had a ribbon you tie around your waist on the inside of the dress. Since my dress has layers, I could easily sew things to the inside layer without it showing.

I got a piece of elastic, safety-pinned it snugly around my waist. Waistband.

Then I put the dress on over the top, and pinned it to the elastic around the waist. Then took it all off in one go, fixed the pins a bit straighter. So the waistband is pinned to the inside of the dress.

And sewed the elastic to the inside of the dress, to the inside layer only. I tried hand-sewing, but elastic is really hard to get a needle through so I ended up getting out the machine and doing a zig zag stitch.

Now it doesn't all hang off the shoulders, it hangs off my waist! Also the elastic kind of holds my tummy in a bit. Not in a corsetty way but when you wear a dress with no waist your tummy feels no resistance so it takes advantage of the freedom and lets itself go, but with a waistband it knows there is a limit. Like the difference of putting on jeans after you've worn track pants. I maybe should have wrapped the elastic in something soft so that it isn't so scratchy, I'll have to see how I go when I wear it for a day.

So I'm proud of that, I've made a dress less annoying and more wearable with a clever hidden elastic trick. I'm not proud that I watched Big Brother at the same time.

HAT!!!!! My beloved hat.

I collected my custom made and fitted hat on Saturday! I also gave the maker my details in case she runs a hat-making class. She's a really nice lady. We bonded over neither of us liking fascinators very much. Both times I went in, once to measure and choose and once to collect, she said "do I know you?" and turns out I look like a friend of hers called Boadicea. She also likes my eyebrows. But importantly, she listened really well to what I wanted. So she said that a high crown and short brim would look best, but I wanted a wide brim for sun protection (rather than fashion), so then she helped me with that.

We narrowed it down to either a grey straw hat or a brown panama hat. Straw hats are a braid of straw that is sewn in a spiral. Panama hats are woven from some kind of flaxy fiber. Panama felt smoother and softer, but the grey straw had more height and the colour looked better on me. Could choose the ribbon and the shape of the crown and the width of the brim, and she fixed it up during the week.

It fits firmly but well. Although by the end of the day, the firmness felt annoying, just too much pressure on the head for too long. Like when your hair done professionally and all the bobby pins start to ache. But that was a lot of wearing and I suppose it will stretch a little over time. It really just felt comfortable yet secure in the wind for most of the day.

Hat: Grey straw, square crown, 13cm brim, narrow grey ribbon and band.
Cost: $155. So I have entered it in my closet app to track CPW. Aim is $4 per wear by the end of summer.
Maker: Rosie Boylan, in Newtown.

Sore.

I've gone from one sort of sore to another since the long weekend. I don't know if resting/inactivity or movement/stretching would be the best thing but whatever I do seems to be wrong. One thing leads to another, so my hands and wrists and various things are super sore today, possibly from the yoga I was doing for my hips which were pinched on Friday. GRRAAAH.

I went to a hat shop on Saturday and got a hat to fit my head, the hat is being adjusted this week. My head is 60cm. That's above average enough to make it hard to get a hat to fit. It was expensive, as in, more than I would spend on a pair of shoes. But I think it might be a hat for the rest of my life. Unless I become a milliner, which is rather tempting. If I didn't have to earn a living, the world would be a better place.

Write it down.

After my holiday I had some really nice ideas in my head. But I was afraid I wouldn't do them once I got back into normal life, so I wrote a "todo list", even though they were fun things not jobs. J saw me and said "well done! writing something down makes you 70% more likely to do it, whether it's a fun thing or a boring thing!" (I forget the percentage but it was a lot.) This is extremely useful to know. I wonder why writing things down is so powerful? It vents emotion, calms stress AND helps you achieve your dreams. What magic is this?

Whether it's because I wrote it down or not, I have actually accomplished one of the fun things!

I bought some herb babies! Peppermint and lemongrass. $5.50 each from Heritage Gardens in Maitland. I will try and use them to make my own fresh tea.

I've previously tried to grow herbs from seed in my kitchen, and they sprouted but never grew properly and the soil in the pots went all manky so I had to give up. I don't believe that lame cliche "I'm so hopeless every plant I get dies lol lol!", it's just that I have very difficult circumstances to grow plantlife: most herbs need a lot of sun, and my apartment gets only occasional morning sun. Maybe I'll have to be very dedicated and carry them out of the house regularly to give them enough sun. Which is a pain but I guess it's still less work than a pet. Mint is very tough so it might survive. My aim is to get at least one cup of tea from each one before they die. If they survive the summer and actually grow bigger, this will be a roaring success beyond my wildest dreams.

Maitland blanket shawl.

We did a Jelssievision on Saturday morning and then I went to Maitland on the train. Maitland was relaxing and productive. I shall list below.

• Spotlight with mum to buy new curtains, and I bought some fleece for a wearable blanket for my fridged office.
• Tax with Dad.
• Mum cut my hair.
• Brother came out for lunch at Billabongs.
• Church.
• Cut out my wearable blanket using mums as a pattern.
• Read.
• Went to garden nursery with mum and bought plants (I got lemongrass and mint), did gardening.
• No snacking.
• Caught train home, the 4.15 from Morisset on Monday. It took 2 hours to get to Central, which would have been well quicker than the F3 because we actually hit that traffic at the Morisset exit. A 17km traffic jam apparently.
• Did some grocery shopping for the week ahead, and broke my no takeaway rule. You gotta know when to break a rule.
• Sewed my blanket shawl!

Only complaint is my body got all weird and achy on the train ride up on Saturday so that was super uncomfortable, and it hung around on and off, I think I'm still achy today actually but I've also got some sore Jillian muscles so I cant tell where one ends and the other starts. But it's like how your body feels when you have the flu, but only from the waist down. Achy back and legs.

I saw my cross stitch framed! It looks very amazing. I couldn't bring it home on the train. But I took a photo on my ipad.

How to make a blanket shawl.

Buy some fleece. It is usually about 150cm wide, so buy 1.5m of it so that you have a square. Buy 1.5m of 2 colours that go together nicely. Or 3 metres of one colour. Or if you want the cheaters version, just 1.5 of one colour. I went with dark navy and a medium brown. I spent $22.

I used my mums shawl as a pattern to cut around because she'd done all the hard work, but the idea is, cut the fleece (both pieces) into a square. Then cut about a 90cm square out of one corner of the square so you have an L shape (layer the two pieces on top of each other to make sure they are the same). HINT: round the corner so it sits comfortably around your neck. Use a dinner plate to draw the round corner.

If you're doing the cheat version, once you have one L shape you are finished. You have a blanket shawl to wear. But the reason not to do the cheat version is, fleece will curl around the edges. So keep going.

Put your two fleece Ls together with the fluffy sides facing. Pin them. Sew around the edges but leave about a 20cm gap somewhere. Then turn your L inside out through that gap, and now you have an L which is fluffy on both sides. Handsew the gap closed. 

The last step is just to finish it a bit nicely, top-stitch all the way around the edge to keep the edges flat. That means, sew all the way around the edge about 1cm from the edge.

Tada! It's also reversible.

Part 3.

I had the worst cold sores ever. My one stupid cold sore triplicated over night so I woke up on Wednesday morning with my lower lip twice as pouty, and I'm already endowed* with pout. Things on your face are so annoying cos your face is sensitive and you want to avoid being seen, not that it looked really terrible. We drove back to Armidale via another cafe in Bellingen that has nice views, a piano and homemade lemonade, but a limited menu. I had nice banana and coconut bread though.

The rest of the week past quietly. I did the rounds of the op shops in Armidale with A, and the tea shop got some economic stimulation. Watched Smash on DVD, read a light romance about a gardener/illustrator set in Wales, ate, drew some wrens while J did her invoices.

The above is my bounty of treasures! Tea, an egg ring, honey, op shop things.

* word of the week is embrowed. It means well endowed with eyebrows. Well-enbrowed.