Kindness of strangers and God.

It was a rough weekend, but God was watching out for me. On Saturday morning I fell off my scooter in Centennial Park, and skinned myself a bit. My jeans aren't too damaged. It's amazing how you can lose skin through a layer of almost unbroken denim, and also amazing how one fall leaves bruises on both sides of the body. Anyway, when I got to the gate of the park, I checked my phone and it was gone, with my keys. Horror. I decided to keep going to oxford st and meet my friends, rather than double back to search. They met me with "where are your phone and keys? haha!" and had apparently just called me up cos I was 5 min late, and spoken with a lady who picked up my phone and keys, and she was going to leave them at Randwick Police station. Couldn't have worked out better! All resolved before I even had a chance to worry, thanks to friends and a kind lady. Tricia and Pete even had a first aid kit in their boot, so I got patched up before we found a cafe.

After brunch I scooted to Bondi Jct slowly, cos my knee was getting sorer. I rolled up my jeans so that I wouldn't trip over them again, and it was a strange look with my brown woolly socks, but who cares about that in Paddington? True fashion goes out the other side and is still acceptable. Anyway, I went to Spotlight to find some black stretch cotton to make leggings, some for me and some for George, cos we're tired of not being able to find them the right length. The stuff I found is called Seaspray, it was thicker and nicer than I was looking for and about $14 a meter. Oh well. Super warm legs. This was offset by some floral cotton I found, for $7 a meter or so. Spotlight has an awesome new range of retro prints for under $15. Gorgeous, and an affordable alternative to the trendy fabric shops. It is so hard to get grown-up dress prints. Everything is either quilting, or children, or $25 a meter. So I was VERY pleased with this find. I bought 2 meters of a sort of brown with mustard flowers, and I'm going to make a shirt out of it. Photos will follow.

Feeling fragile.

So I've closed my office door and put my radio on 2MBS. Life is less overwhelming if you close the door and avoid the human voice. Do one thing at a time, and stay warm, quiet and calm.

The French House #2.

Picked up scans and took time to do some photos of bibles and e-readers in a less officey environment, which was a good excuse for afternoon tea at The French House again.

 Our food was less pretty, but the full tea set was impressive,

and this is how you get a drink of water.

The main thing about this place isn't actually the food, it's that you just want to sit there all day feeling fancy. It's lovely. Not many cafes do seating well.

Sewing Sunday.

Yes, I bought a camera. It's nicer than the old one. I did some vacuuming on Sunday and found my lost camera under the bed (of course, the day AFTER I buy the new one), so now I have 2.

To celebrate, I sewed bags for my good cutlery. The big box in the top of the wardrobe is silly; it takes up space and I can never be bothered to get it down when I want to have matching knives and forks for anyone. But I also don't want a 12 piece set in my drawer for every day use: they'll be too many, and get lost and bent. So I thought: bags. Little drawstring linen bags to fit them all in, and then keep it all in one of the middle kitchen drawers—handy, but not for everyday.

I can't post anything other than headings today. Blogger is malfunctioning. So I shall be brief. i Love swiss cheese. Tasmanian heritage. On a vitaweat biscuit for morning tea. It doesn't go with olives at all, so I keep a nice sharp crumbly cheddar at home for eating with olives/olive bread on the weekends and sometimes for dinner.

Beyond the city.

Nice article today about country towns. It's an ode, not a rant. I know cities are wonderful, and heaven is a city, and living in a city keeps you out of your comfort zone and rubbing elbows with reality, but I'm sorry that the country doesn't benefit from those things, and that at this point the country seemingly has no future. I'm tired of being only able to have one and not the other, and for the foreseeable future the city is my best option. I wish city and country weren't so far away from each other.

Pastry review.

I like pretty food, so I'm going to blog some nice outings, just so that I can relive them. Unfortunately my camera is still lost. I hate blogging without a camera.

To celebrate delivering all my illustrations at the scan lab, a co-worker and I spent lunchtime at the patisserie over the road from it. Danks St Waterloo is a hotbed of all things arty and organic. The French House is on the corner opposite Hillsong, and it has a lovely verandah and inside it is dark wood and huge windows and well-lit displays of tarts and stuff and french music.

My hot chocolate was nice, and the froth lasted well, although it cooled down very fast - only just hot enough. It came in a fancy glass. It cost about $4. I also chose an almond tart with pretty red fruit and glaze and almond slivers all over the outside. It didn't taste as pretty as it looked, but it was nice. Maybe add a drizzle of berry compote to sweeten the dense almond meal filling, or some ice-cream on the side. Em chose a sort of 3 layer custard/cream (not sure) filled slice, which was nicer than it looked, although the pastry was hard to get onto your fork because it was hard. We shared halves, and all the tarts and pastries are about $7-$8 each. Pretty expensive. But they were bigger and nicer than the cakes and stuff from The Sweet Spot in Randwick (which I'm not much of a fan of, although the hot chocolates have superb froth) and they are almost big enough if you want to share one between 2.

It's a really nice place to sit and chat. Which is why it is so popular with women. We are going back (to collect the illustrations).

WORLD FIRST!!

I am going to be a bridesmaid!! I thought I would never be asked. My first best friend (ie the girl I was best friends with from kindy to early teens) is engaged, it's lovely to be asked cos despite the strong bond of our childhood friendship and living in the same city now we don't catch up much. It's the east west distance.

Anyway, it's one of those rites of passage. I'm quite pleased.

EDIT: I really really want my braces off by October.

House of dreams.

 
Haha. The first place I lived in when I moved out of home is for sale. $300,000 is a bargain on the Sydney scale, but to me it seems a lot for an East Maitland 2.5 bedroom weatherboard cottage with an outside toilet. And the outside toilet wasn't the worst of it. The whole place was small and old and always smelled like the stuff we fought cockroaches with, and it's located close to a street called Skilton Avenue, which should tell you what kind of street. Charles Dickens must have named that street. Living near Skilton Avenue we had our toilet paper stolen and after we moved out the wheelie bin was set fire to and scorched the outside of the house pretty dangerously. We paid $215 per week (not each) to rent it, and we were grateful, because the rental market in Maitland was tight and we were the bottom of the pile. Now I know how expensive renting can be, but I don't think I would go back to this one to save money.

The best place I have ever rented was in Bowral. Modern 2 bedroom unit with views for $180 p/w. When I shared it, I paid $90 a week, which is stunningly cheap. Because in Bowral nobody who is anybody rents, especially a place with no garden. When one next door went for sale it was for $250,000, which shows you the demand for buying verses renting. Renters are treated like kings and queens. Literally, when I enquired about a place I was offered a viewing time of my choice, and a lift in the agent's car. That is what I call service.

The Sydney experience is different again. It's about speed and strategy and only getting an offer because the agent randomly picks your application off the top of the pile and you can't even remember the inside of the house because you were in such a hurry to get to the next place and maximize your chances. Once you are in, you hold on and hope your landlady likes you. She must, because after 15 months no inspections and no rent increase. Thank you, God! I really love where I live now. If rent is twice as expensive as Maitland, it's worth it. City convenience and inside toilet. I'm so blessed.

TV recap.

I didn't ONLY watch TV on the weekend. I did a lot of scootering, a lot of church, a lot of eating, and I read I shall wear midnight. I was fully tired by bedtime Sunday, mostly because of the scootering.

Royal Wedding.

• The bible was read well. Like the dude had never seen the bible read in public before so he didn't realise he wasn't supposed to know the passage or speak clearly or give eye-contact or generally communicate the bible clearly. He treated it like a very important piece of oration. Extra points for memorising it.
• I regret the loss of uniforms in modern society. Casual dress does not compare to a uniform with gold buttons and fancy hats.
• I didn't know the royal family don't have last names. How special they are.

Doctor Who. ***spoiler***
Rather strange first episode. The big event (complete death and cremation of the Doctor) happened so early that there was no emotional investment in the shock, just confusion. Has set up some nice intrigue and tension for rest of series though, and the aliens are scary.

The Logies.
I'm the sort of person who doesn't watch this rubbish, but since it replaced the Mentalist and there was nothing else on… I tolerated it for an hour. The prize announcers were of a higher calibre than the prize receivers, generally. I don't understand why Katy Perry is a singer.

Looking for music.

Sometimes I want some more music. I go on the hunt. I trawl through itunes "listeners also bought" links and listen to samples. I also listen to ABC Dig radio, and hear things I like and look them up. And also, if someone I like, like Brooke Fraser, mentions a band on twitter or something, I look them up. So The Civil Wars is pretty nice, sort of like an American Swell Season. I have bought 2 tracks from TCW to dip my toe in, but I'm not sure if they are for me. It's so hard to know, because I've realised I am very deceptive in my tastes. I have no idea if I only like something or I really love something until I've bought it. It's all good music and I like it all, but will I wear it? Is it me? Sometimes it's music I like because it's cool and cool people like it, but it isn't me, which is a disappointment. The Swell Season was that. Whereas, Hem, I just found it and loved it, even though it has some elements I find daggy. So I'm really trying to just find stuff myself and not be influenced by peer music taste, which is currently based around what I call "drummy-woo-woo music", or anything with banjos. I listen to samples for a few days in a row, to try and get past first impressions of like and see if it's love before I commit and put it on my ipod.

Much Ado About Nothing

There is at least one good DVD version out there, I remember really enjoying Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson as Benedick and Beatrice. Liza reminds me Keanu was in it. Haha. The BBC modern Shakespeare version was goodish, Billie Piper was Hero and it was set on a TV news show.

I have just discovered an audio drama version with Rex Harrison (Henry Higgins) as Benedick, it's completely wonderful! And a BBC Radio recording with David Tennant doing his Scot thing. This is a handy way to access Shakespeare. You can read it to yourself but you have to be a pretty good reader to comprehend it. It's best to see it because it's easiest to understand if you can see the action. But listening to it is a pretty good experience.

Right now you can see the Bell Shakespeare production. The music, costume and simple set are perfect, as always. The cast are beautiful, particularly the male cast. The women jarred a little bit for me at first, they seemed a bit affected, their voices were silly or they wiggled their hips too much or something, but the men were spot on - the tall guy who faked Hero's betrayal was sinisterly funny, the evil Don was wonderfully slimy, the good Don was beautifully gentlemanly, Claudio was just like Marius in Les Mis, and Benedick stole the show: his physical comedy was brilliant, it was so sweet watching him confuse himself into being in love, the entire audience adored him. So it's all very entertaining, go and see it. Tickets are $30 if you are under 30.

Risen.

Second impressions.

Well, a second hearing helps me like the hookless songs a bit better. They do make a bit more sense now. I stand by only really liking the last 2 songs. I'd say the album is OK, with 2 songs worth considering for church. This is possibly because I tend to like morose hymns (currently my favourite hymns are Hard Times and It Is Finished from Come O Spirit Anthology) better than rock ones. Eg, I hate the boppy 80s/90s version of Holy Ho-oly Holy with the "praise him and lift him up" (nananananananana) and prefer the antique version "Holy holy holy, Lord God Almighty, early in the morning my song shall rise to thee…". Because which tune actually matches the word "Holy"?? The boppy one or the grand one? But some people prefer happy songs. Some people will do Never Alone boppy and try and clap along. TO JESUS' DEATH.

I'm preferring simple, direct lyrics at the moment. Risen is quite lyric heavy. Big piles of long words wash over people, even when they sing them. That's where the modern chorus wins, because sometimes less is more. And old-school ones like Nothing but the blood or I have decided to follow Jesus are cool. Not overly poetic, just honest statements. "The world behind me, the cross before me, no turning back, no turning back". So much Christian music is surprisingly good, if you can find non-daggy versions of the songs.

I shall listen to Risen a little bit more and report any developing changes in opinion.

Risen.

A subjective personal first impressions review, while I listen through for the first time:

Risen is not another Come Weary Saints or Valley of Vision. Some of these tunes are so hookless and plain that if I had written them I'd hide them. The song structures and chords are sort of interesting, but without nice melodies they feel clunky. And they haven't broken new ground with the lyrics. Its a lot of "glorious" and "risen" and so on, and although there are a few songs that are more impactful lyric-wise, again the melodies mostly don't make you want to sing them. And maybe they don't rhyme enough, or something, because they feel off balance to me.

The first half dozen all sound the same, drums and gritty acoustic arrangements similar to the album Sons and Daughters. To Live Is Christ is the first song with a female voice and the first one that I sense is telling a compelling story. Jesus Lives might grow on me, too. The last 2 songs on the album are the ones I like the most: Behold our God has male and female vocals in harmony, which is my favourite thing at the moment, and builds into a quality anthem. Hail the Day has that military beat we all like and is melodically closest to the beloved irish hymn, so it doesn't matter what the lyrics are—but they seem good, if not heart-punching. It finishes with a bonus refrain on an old piano, and I LOVE a sweet old piano sound, so that's the highlight of the album for me.

EDIT: I missed hearing tracks 1 and  2.

Alive is all rock n rolly, very catchy and slightly naff, but I like a good bass riff. Oh What a Day is also uptempo, and confirms that "glorious" is the new "deep" for Christian lyric cliches. So the first half of the album isn't as weak as I first thought. People might like this CD after all.

Rain.

One of the books has a lot of rain in it. I was worried that it would be difficult to paint rain so I left this problem for as long as possible. Fortuitously, Stephanie started getting tips about watercolour painting from Ian's mum, and bought me a bottle of masking fluid she thought might be useful to me for rain. You paint the rain drops in liquid latex, it dries into yellow rubber, and then you can paint a wash of paint all over it, I also paint a bit of an outline around each drop and a tail above them, and when it's dry you just rub the latex raindrops off and ta-da! Rain is falling down. I experimented a bit to get this look right. If they don't have a tail they look like snow flakes. They have to be reasonably subtle though.

I tried to find some examples of rain to copy from, but in the end I had to develop my own style to suit the books. Actually, the most helpful information I could use is what I remember from watching Playschool when I was little. One of my favourite episodes, I'm sure I saw it several times on repeats. The lady drew a street in crayons, blue for the houses and cars and yellow for the raincoats, and then washed it all in grey or something, and there was an observation on how yellow looks very bright in the rain so that's why we wear yellow raincoats for safety. So I basically went with that, painted everything sort of greyish and dull, did the raindrops, and went all out with the yellow raincoat. It's as good as I could have hoped! Is this cute or what:

This is one of the better rain pages. It's not as clear when the rain is falling on a garden background, but it's still effective.

No craft for the rest of April?

I just need to get through the month. I just need to do a load of washing, for starters. I have no clean hankies and I'm as snotty as I can be without actually having a cold.

Observation: I don't like it when I'm busy, even when all the things are good things. All the individual parts are fun, but the sum of them is stressful. So I'm not in the mood for creativity.

Also, my camera is still lost. I really want to cut up a skirt, but without a 'before' photo it won't be as satisfying to blog.

But, I do have some craft potential to enjoy anticipating. I'm going to buy a crochet hook and some wool and learn granny squares. Partly because I want Kim at church to teach me: skill sharing is such a community-building thing. That might be the bright point of my week. Don't disappoint me, Lincraft.

Miranda.

It's a TV show. I think it's on the ABC on Wednesday nights? I want someone else to watch it so that I can talk about it with you and so that I can use the good lines in my everyday life and you will get them. Such fun, such fun, such fun, SUCH fun.

Boringness will rule.

Until I find my camera so that I can photograph craft some more. Or until I've got the work ebooks project out of the way so that I can illustrate again. Or until I wear another vest.

Picnic day!

My birthday was on Saturday, so instead of a last-minute dinner I seized the day and planned ahead and decided it was a good excuse for a day-trip to Bowral. This was one of the bigger organisational feats in my life so far. I had the idea in December last year, in fact. I wrote a rather extensive list on Thursday, things to do, buy, and make. This wasn't chip sandwiches in the park! It was a pretty proper picnic. 

First, I gathered picnic blankets. I bought one of those tartan ones, but then I also went to an op shop and got a bedspread and 2 lace tablecloths for a few dollars each. Throwing lace tablecloths over the blankets made everything look so much fancier.

Photos by Denise.

I took real cutlery and my cheap glass tumblers, because plastic cuttles are annoying and plastic cups have no stability and drinks get spilt. How nice it looks, sparkling glassware with Ribena on a white lace spread! I broke 2 glasses getting them home and washing them, but like I said, cheap. Completely worth the sacrifice.

Artful photo of the healthy part of the picnic.

I also made cloth napkins, by cutting squares of leftover linen from my last shirt-making and overlocking them (mum has just lent me her overlocker). 30 minutes on Thursday night.

And the final fancy thing was that I baked bread. It kind of meant that we left a bit later because it took ages to rise and bake on the cold day, but it was delicious and still warm when we got there and ate it. I made a basic white mix, split it in 3 and put LSA in one and lots of olives, garlic and herbs in another. SOOOOO YUMMMY, much better than my last olive bread.

So other than that bit of special effort, the picnic was cheap and basic and I only had to buy some deli and salad stuff, and others also chipped in with BBQ chicken, lollies, etc etc. We read some appropriate poetry, napped, whizzed through the main street to buy gumboots and fabric and coffees, and then plundered an antique shop in Mittagong of their second hand clothes. I bought some culottes! A skirt but secretly shorts. Speaking of shorts, the day was too short and we were home by 6pm (to head out to various Saturday night engagements).

Review: A splendid time was had by all. It was quite possibly my happiest birthday ever.

Another vest.

This is the second vest in my woolly vest collection. I do not wear it very much, because it is a bit unusual, but I do like it. I found it among my Grandma's clothes when she had her big downsize-from-big-family-home garage sale last year, and it was crocheted by another member of the family—one of her sisters-in-law or someone. It has a few moth holes which I have sewn up and aren't noticeable. I like the colour and the crochet, but when I wear it the openess of the crochet feels a bit weird and it's not very well shaped around the  neck and shoulders, particularly at the back. Anyway, when I wear it I feel designy and authenticly retro. And the shirt under it is one of my most favourite, but is so thin now I have poked my finger through it at the back. Vests are so helpful for delaying shirt death: it's like independent living for active retiree shirts.

Book craft.

Ta-da! A beautiful picture frame made out of a book. I put a postcard in it for demonstration. I think it looks pretty awesome and I could totally make a million dollars selling them on Etsy. Bring me your quaint hardcover books, people!

You can see by the tag and stamps it is just an old cancelled library book, I found it in my parents book shelves when I cleared it out of the bad books. I saved this pile which had nice shabby covers under the paper covers.

My mum lent me her ruler and knife which cuts at a 45 angle for picture framing. The books were pretty difficult to cut through, the cardboard was thicker than framing cardboard and the books were a bit too small for the big ruler to get a good grip on, so it was a bit rough and wobbly, but they all still look really good. What I need is a drill, so that I can thread string through the back cover and tape it to the front, to hold the books closed when they are hanging on the wall.

I also did a little bit of painting. The deck chairs will hopefully be Sarah's wedding present, although I had a better idea last night maybe, and I have wanted to paint a swallow for ages, and it was fun. I might frame it in one of my books.

Wardrobe favourites: vest.

By the way, I am loving this vest at the moment. It's the weather for light layers, and although I love a cardigan, the vest is just different. The arms are free to be cool, it doesn't matter if the shirt is clean or has missing buttons as long as it has sleeves and preferably a collar, although a tshirt works OK too, and it's woolly and all warm, and a bit smart. I got it last year from an op-shop in the upper hunter. It reminds me of the country.

Skipping church and destroying books.

Last night I didn't go to church. I very rarely skip church and I didn't even have a very good excuse, but it worked for me. I spent the entire last weekend away with wild st including church after, and this Saturday I spent all day in the church hall painting banners. On Sunday I was incredibly stiff from the painting, went to the cathedral, and in the afternoon relaxed by reading and painting and cutting holes in the front of old books. When time came to go to church I made excuses to myself about being stiff, tired, and churched out, but the truth was I wasn't that tired or people-weary. I was in a pretty happy state of mind for a Sunday night. I even regretted not being at church a little bit. But I did figure out my need to stay home: I had a nice quiet evening home alone pottering and thinking, and I realised that that was actually all I wanted. Some quiet in my own head. A break from listening to things and saying things and getting to know people and going to and fro on the earth.

I really sadly forgot my camera today so I will post the efforts of my book mutilation tomorrow. It's pretty exciting. I think I need a drill.

Home stretch!

I have almost finished the painting! I did it for a couple of weeks solid, then I had almost 2 weeks doing other things because it was print run and I'm also trying to put some ebooks together by April. This week I swung the ole brush again and only had a few to finish and a few I decided needed more done on them. For example, today I worked on some I had already done, but the people were standing on puddles of grass, with no background, and I thought they needed a bit more 'place', so I painted more grass and some garden beds too. They look heaps better now. I'm glad I overcame my laziness about backgrounds.

And so I think I only have one small picture to paint, of some toys, and I've also started outlining, because I needed the confidence boost. Outlining finishes them. I scanned in the picture I was so devastated about recently, so that you can see how it looks now. I blotted colour out of the face with water and paper towel, which rescued it. The outlining is done with some watercolour pencils, not dipped in water though. I use black and grey and peach mostly. I vary the darkness of the outline, and I do a little bit of shading and try and remember I can be a bit messy, because the more sketchy the pencil outlining looks the more dynamic the illustration is. This part of the job is easy and satisfying!

Weekend of sisterly sewing and bread.

This was probably my last bit of sewing for the next month or so. All my weekends are crunched full of stuff (although Sunday the 27th looks empty so far) and spare after work hours I'll be painting something for a present. I have to admit I'm getting sad thinking about all those busy weekends. Individually they are weekends I'll enjoy, like church weekend away, my birthday, a wedding, but, to use a design analogy, the brain needs white space.

ANYWAY! I made a bible cover for Wendy on Saturday. I luckily happened to sort of match up the pattern on the strap to the cover. Took about an hour to make, while my sister sewed new velcro onto Elsie's hat and we listened to Feet of Clay (Discwold) and let some bread rise and some spare ribs marinate.

I made half the dough into olive bread, half into plain white. It was a wet dough, so very moist and springy when baked, but the wet dough had to be kneaded which was sticky and tricky. I should have put more olives in the olive bread. Can't have too many. Saturday was not very healthy, ribs and bread. But we walked two hours as well.

Sunday lunch was a lovely BBQ with cathedral church friends in their backyard near my house. They had chickens! In Randwick! 4 hens, which provides them with 20 eggs a week. Graham brought sirloin steak oh my goodness yum I can never eat minute steak again. I took my favourite salad with baby spinach and chickpeas in it. Tish brought a nectarine crumble. Ahhh! How good is crumble! So easy, sweet and moreish. Esp when fruit is cheap.

Bad dream.

Don't get them much, but last night was a corker. I got out of bed and wondered why I was so tired. This is probably why:

There is some stuff I forget, and then I'm in a hospital bed at night and a nurse fiddles around under the blanket and cuts a big bit of flesh out of my left knee. I think she's cutting bits off me to eat. I spend the rest of the dream staggering around the hospital, and it's not night anymore, trying to hide among a group of old people who are having a story time in a nice book room, etc etc, and whenever the psycho nurse finds me I fight her with whatever I can find, trying to explain to all the other patients that she's not a nurse, she ate my knee and wants to eat the rest of me too. One of the old people suggests I leave the hospital with him and stay in a cottage in the country where he plays golf, I do leave with him even though I am suspicious about whose side he is on and I don't like golf, but at least I have a relaxing drive in the country. Then I am back at the hospital and there are people being put in a big black van which is on a really high balcony, and the psycho nurse falls off the balcony like in an action movie, and so does someone else who was a nice person.

Then I woke up and forgot. But I remembered when I was walking to work.

Magnolia Square.

Boutique craft fair at Paddo last weekend. Only took an hour and a bit to check out, and $5 to get in, and it was worth it. The stalls are carefully selected and really well put together. Expensive, of course, but worth going for the inspiration, and we found some cute earrings and hair bows we could afford. Hot tip: bunting. You can make bunting out of paper, pages of books, hankies or crocheted circles: instant designy craft cred. Also, pleats are the new frills. Photos follow of a pretty stall, crochet bunting and random goats from Mongolia.

Singing.

Tonight is singing night! I am going to an 8 week community college class for beginners, this is the 4th week. It's good. Even though I'm pretty advanced in terms of musical knowledge as a piano player, I'm a complete beginner singer, so it's helpful. There are about 12 people. Mostly women. Mostly pretty shy. We do 45 minutes of warm ups and learning about the voice, and 45 minutes of singing as a choir. Currently we are learning 3 part harmonies for Hallelujah. There is a harmonica class downstairs, and another singing group after us for better singers. This is the "something out of the box" I chose to do to start the year.

Shirt #3.

I bought this nice linen half price on my successful fabric shopping trip the other weekend. I started to wonder if it would be better for a skirt because of the size of the print, but a linen skirt would scrunch up and not sit nicely, and also I don't want to always be paralysed by indecision. Stick with the original plan and make the jolly shirt. So I got sewing on Saturday afternoon. Here is the half way shot.

I didn't have the bias binding to finish the arm holes, I bought it yesterday and finished up last night. This is the nice inside detail.

Finished, photographed, and being worn by me now!

Sleep.

How good is it! I think it is one of the most important things to get right. Cos you can get it wrong. All week I've felt a bit draggy, and every night my attempts to be in bed by 10 and have 8 hours unbroken sleep were thwarted. Sometimes the heat, sometimes the ponytail headache, sometimes the sewing obsession, sometimes an engrossing TV show. Last night I prepared carefully: relaxing shower at 8, before I got too tired; lemon myrtle tea and bible at 8.30; Erast Fandorin novel at 9, unconscious by 9.45. Ha-HAAA! High energy scootering to work in the morning!

Remaking shirt project #2.

This is the shirt remake I did on Monday and Tuesday nights, with the red stuff I bought on the weekend at The Fabric Store. First, this is what it looked like on the inside before I took it apart:

Because the pattern said to use interfacing, but the vilene I used was too heavy and made the shirt stand up on my like armour.  I cut the shirt yoke open, ripped out the vilene and sewed it up roughly. I used up the leftover vilene on bible covers. That's what I've been wearing for the last year! I'm not bothered by stuff if nobody can see it, although if it can be seen I want it to look proper.


So on Monday I just unpicked the shirt to retrieve the main panels of butterfly print, recut them a little bit and then cut new red bits for the yoke and waist. The new fabric I bought is a more faded red to match the now faded fabric better, and it is also quite light. In hindsight, some light interfacing would be useful here, because the hidden seams and gathers show through a bit, but it's OK.

This is the old yoke next to the new yoke.

This is the finished shirt.

Remaking shirt project #1.

Last year I bought a shirt pattern. It is one of those puffy shapeless blouses like a skinny Japanese girl would wear well. Destined to fail, but I dream. So the first one was so large and fat on me that I sewed in the side seams at least an inch each, and it was OK but not great. But I thought it had promise (because it's a very quick shirt to make, no buttons or collar, and I like pull-over-the-head shirts that aren't t shirts, so I had good reasons for buying the pattern in the first place.). Anyway, I made another one.

For fabric for the second shirt I used a dress I made when I was homeschooled which was oversized (because I was very body conscious in my teens and wanted to hide everything) and too homeschooly even for me. I was keeping it for when I get married and pregnant. But there is no immediate prospect of that and I would probably want to wear something less Amish anyway, so I washed it to get rid of the mildew and used the voluminous chambray skirt to make a nice shirt. Recycling! What a good Girl Of Slender Means I am!

I managed the right size perfectly, but it looked all wrong at the back because the gathers were now puffy at the top and pulled flat at the bottom. Hard to explain, but it looked like I had boobs on my back. If I was going for a more fitted shape, I didn't need gathers on the back anymore. So after 9 months I unpicked the back, undid the gather, recut the armholes and fit the whole thing back together and resewed it. Now it looks really good, and I've marked the pattern to update it, so I'm ready to make another one very easily, if I find another funky fabric.

I've also just rescued the fabric from the first shirt and resewed it, so that it is more wearable, because the fabric I used there is a good japanese design. I'll put photos up of that too.

I get good value out of sewing, because of all the recycling and refitting and resewing I do.

Spoils.

On Saturday I managed a trip to The Fabric Store which is near Central Station and I found 2 good cloths, which I'll show you later when I've started the projects, and even better there was 50% off! It was my first visit to The Fabric Store, and I liked it. The staff were very friendly, and I was given some bonus cloth because I wanted 2m and there was a little leftover on the roll... this is good fabric store etiquette. It's bad form to keep the last 30cm strip or whatever is left and sell is as an offcut. Give it to the customer, and she'll be a friend for life. Tessuti has been good to me in the past with pretty japanese fabrics, which TFS didn't have much off. But they had many useful things I still liked. It's handy having both shops so close to each other.

And I found my camera so I can show you my bible covers. One is a small hardcover, which was a challenge. I made the inside flaps a bit bigger and sewed them on in a sort of gathery way. It doesn't look as good as the paperback covers do, which really fit nice and flat. Still very effective though.

 Then I made a big sized bible cover for my flatmate. Unfortunately, I cut the fabric wrong, it was the same size as the vilene, so it didn't fold over the edge. I was crushed, and I had to ruin the lovely blue look with a contrasting colour because I ran out of blue. I used brown, and it's a bit masculine looking now, but my flatmate still likes it. And I'm proud of how I worked out how to put the strip in the middle and also turn it into the button flap, in one piece. It was a feat of engineering, and Fi who came over to sew with me last Saturday was very helpful, because I wasn't able to think ahead very far.

Sewing to come.

It was the sort of week where just turning up and plugging away every day feels like a major achievement. Not that I was struggling terribly, but I had a strong desire to go AWOL. If the weekend goes as planned, I shall have recovered my energy and have some sewing to report. It looks like good weather for swimming and being outside, my parents are probably going to visit, and I'm determined to do some fabric shopping. I'll be back Monday, fully sunned, fully hugged and with something pretty, I hope!

I have decided...

To get an iphone with the internet on it. But, I'm anti-upgrade, so I'll only get one when my current phone dies. Don't hold your breath. But I still feel like I've made a significant decision, and when my Nokia dies I won't be agonising, I can just get one. And I'm looking forward to being able to look up 131500 at home, and have apps, some day.

So that I can really put this post under the "feeling good about" tag, today I've also been enjoying that it's the third day since I washed my hair and I've got it out, not tied back, and it looks OK. Yaaaay!!! Good hair day!

anxiety

From The Rag Doll.

I've been painting for a week, so I've made progress on one book: painted all the clothes and some other stuff, then the skin. Now I've compared it to the work from the last books, and it doesn't look as good. I had some suspicion, but I thought it was just that they look weak until they are outlined. So I compared to the drawings from last year (not the books, but the drawings, which look 300% better than the books, not that I want to boast, I'm just disappointed at how much gets lost in scanning and reproduction processes) and the verdict on my current work is bad: my skin tones are heavy and flat, my shading is crude, and I haven't been as careful mixing the colours.

Today's work.

Allowing for the difference in the scan quality and lack of outlining, you can sort of still see inferior painting evident in the below example of today's work compared to last years better work. There's a bit of a test there as well, I'm wondering if I can photoshop the skin into a better tone, which does sort of work. Otherwise, I may start again, and just lose a week.

I think I've gotten complacent and lazy. Last time I was so insecure about illustrating actual books that I really laboured over them, but now I'm already an illustrator, so I must be good at it.

So I have to stop and think about it for a little while, go on to other stuff. It's partly also to do with work cycles I think, to use a hormone analogy. This is the PMS stage of the project where I've sunk my normal confidence, I think I'm fat (untalented), I have no perspective (everything looks terrible) my life (work) is crap and boring and I want to take a day off (a day off). Just need to let the cycle move on. I'm sure in a week it will all be better.

In other news, today my entry in ABC 702 Sculpture by the Desk was judged today and won equal first People's Choice! With 5 votes! Thankyou, staff of Matthias Media, and thankyou 5th voter who doesn't work with me.

Neat is nice!

I realised ages ago that neatness is nice. It requires HUGE discipline to straighten your hair, tidy your room, hang up clothes straight away, and sort out paper rather than leave it around to decide later, etc etc. But the reward is personal satisfaction, good first impressions on others, fewer times when you can't do something because of the mess, and more chance of being calm and organised.

Then I forgot my enlightenment, got obsessed with something else, and my default blindness took over for various reasons. There are particular areas of messy I now want to fix, though. My bedroom, and my desk at work. Housesharing demands that common house areas remain neutral, if not sparkly, so it's just the personal spaces that I let go a bit. And it would be nice to be neat. It doesn't cost money, it doesn't require imagination.  I don't want to be self-righteous about it, like I am about punctuality, maybe I can just take a little of my analness from timelyness and put it to good use in tidyness.

I confess I am a little bit inspired by Emma Pilsbury, but I don't want the OCD. Just some general neatness.

I've discovered that Emma Pillsbury on Glee is a total fashion icon, and now I can't stop noticing the clothes—it's half the reason I watch the show, along with Sue Silvester's bizarre meany lines. EP wears frocks, brooches, cardigans, beads, pencil skirts, and is in every way cute and vintage. Her hair is pretty unique as well, although she has lately lost the curly side fringe, and it's overall more flat and normal now. I'm getting obsessed enough to read What Would Emma Pilsbury Wear and look at the prices of my favourite clothes.  but this is such wishful thinking. I'm not a fashionable enough person. This is just a fad.

Wet paint!

Today I wet the paper! This is my workspace: the office kitchen. You can see I spread out, and I have a lot of things. Paint, piles of paper, glass of water to wash brushes, paper towel to dry and clean up messes, digital radio to listen to 2CH and James Valentine and WSFM PLUS Billy Joel month, water to drink, books to check work against.

This is my actual painting in progress. I have been angsting for weeks about what colour dress for Emily, since I'm avoiding pink and I've already used red and purple, and the boys are always wearing blue so it's all a bit too much blue. Today I had a brainwave: orange. I made a bit of a mistake and put red frills on it, I think it should have been all orange. But it still looks very cute with the pink stripy leggings!

And this is my plate of colours. This plate is often used for eating cake off. I've decided to leave all the skin tones till last, so that I can keep it more consistent. It's hard enough remixing strong colours, but subtle colours can vary so easily, and I think I did some correcting in photoshop last time. Hooray for technology! Nothing is lost (well, if not Nothing, at least most things can be clone stamped, retrieved or hacked from a pdf).

Happy 199th birthday Charles Dickens!

One of my favourite authors. A bit harder to read than Jane Austen because he waffles so long, probably because he wrote books as serials and was therefore paid for the length. But what a storyteller. The modern equivalent are TV shows like Lost, which start off with a simple premise (orphan boy, Scrooge at Christmas, death of a nameless man) and gradually expands on the lives of lots of side characters and weaves them together in backstories and so on, gets really engrossing, and brings everything to a big end. And good characters. With really good names. Lady Deadlock, the Artful Dodger, Bill Sykes.

Chickpeas.

Since the $2 a day grocery challenge I have stuck to eating more veggies and less meat. I like meat, but I don't particularly enjoy cooking it, and I'm happy to eat it when I'm out and not bother with it as much at home in my own food. I mostly cook with mince, actually. Mince is easy and yummy, but not the most gourmet foods, I can let go of it. And the more veggies the better.

I think chickpeas are just fantastic. They are so plain, but so versatile. I've been putting them in stews for a few years, and I recently tried to make hommus when I got JKs old food processor. On the weekend having dinner with some friends I discovered the chickpea in salad. Oh so good! with fetta, baby spinach, and red onion and some other stuff. I could eat it every day! I had no idea there was so much potential in chickpea salad. Analise tins are only 75cents each at Coles this week, and when their shelves aren't empty I'm going to stock up. Dry ones are cheap but never as good, so cheap tins are like gold, or anti-gold, because they are cheap.

SCULPTURE BY THE DESK: Pencils, brush, flux.

SCULPTURE BY THE DESK: Pencils, brush, flux.: "Jessica Green is a graphic designer and currently an illustrator. The two photographs here showcase her sculptural work in a more int..."

Here is another bible cover I made last week. I bought the fabrics in Leura, at the place we book our house for conferences. It is so cute, and makes my $5 NIV look very ladylike. I got a nice retro fabric as well, brown with green shells on it, and it will look lovely once I get an accent fabric, green, for the lining and closure.