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.