new glasses

Those of you who know me “in real life” or who have been following my blog for some time would know that I like to use my glasses as an accessory.  Before I got my most recent multifocal prescription, I had multiple pairs of single vision glasses that I could alternate depending on my outfit and my whim.  For the past year I’ve only had one pair.  They’re a terrific pair of glasses, multifocals with transition lenses. but I really wanted a few more pairs of multifocals that I could swap them around with.  These arrived from Zenni Optical on Friday.

So, what do you think? I’m very pleased with all of them, actually!   There are subtle (and not-so-subtle) differences between all of them in colour and shape, These are all acetate/plastic frames, although there are metal frames available, but I find acetate/plastic more comfortable.  I spent a lot of time comparing the measurements of the frames that were on offer with my current optometrist pair, and made sure that the bridge distance and the temple lengths were very similar. The problem with buying glasses online is that you can’t try them on – so you do need to pay a lot of attention to the detailed descriptions. These are assembled in China, and altogether the four pairs – with multifocal, anti-scratch and anti-reflective coatings, but no transition lenses (although these are also available) – cost me about one fifth of the price of my one current optometrist pair. No, they’re not the same quality as my optometrist pair, but they’re still extremely good and excellent value for the price. Just what I was after for spare pairs.

And no disclaimer needed – I’m just a happy customer who wanted to share the details with my other glasses-wearing friends!

bits and pieces…

Wow, that weekend flew by quickly!  We had a “home” weekend, which was needed after a busy week full of play-dates for the kids.  With Stella starting school, I thought that it was important to foster her new friendships with playdates that she can’t easily have during term time (after school care two afternoons per week and other activities on another two).  She is making friends with the sweetest little girls – but it also means that I am spending time getting to know new school parents.  Although I am often quite social, I am actually a person who really needs her alone time to recharge and reconnect.  So all this socialising and being nice to people was wearing me out!  The weekend was a welcome respite.  So, what did we get up to?  The kids watched an inordinate number of movies on TV.  They prefer DVDs to going out to the cinema, and there was a huge DVD sale on at the local supermarket.  They also spent a lot of time out in the backyard on the swing set and trampoline, so it wasn’t all about screens!  The Uno set also got a fair workout.  My husband repaired my bike carrier (broken when I fell off almost a year ago), mowed the lawn and started repainting around our deck.  We both managed to get to the gym for a decent workout.  Had coffee at a local cafe.  Read the newspapers.  I began work on getting through the mending pile (some achieved by putting the garment in the bin).  And I did other bits and pieces.

Some hooking while watching Downton Abbey last night.

Made some yo-yos for a quilt top while watching Doctor Who with the family (even little Stella who is possibly much too young to be watching it but isn’t scared as long as she is snuggled up to Daddy).

Inserted twist locks for the very first time (beautifully, if I do say so myself) while doing some secret pattern-testing.

Nothing finished, but lots in progress!  And spent a little time on Ravelry finding a jacket pattern to crochet for the twin baby girls that a friend gave birth to during the week.  Now to make a final decision on what to make for the SewcieTea coming up this Sunday – and getting it done!  But had better dash off – the week has started again, and we’re off to swimming lessons every day this week.  With some more playdates thrown in for both children.  Oh, to be a primary school aged child – my girls have a pretty good time of it!

our Easter weekend

We are usually part of the stream of cars heading out of Melbourne on the Thursday afternoon before the Easter long weekend.  This year it was different.  Both girls had their usual after-school activities happening on Thursday – Guides for Clare, Beginners On Stage for Stella – and Clare had been asked to sing a solo at church on Friday morning.  So we stayed at home that evening and let everyone else battle it out on the roads.

Clare did a beautiful job of singing “Come and see” to open the Good Friday service.  I was rather in awe – she was so poised, with barely a trace of nerves.  As she said to me, “well, I had the words in front of me”.  I am a very proud mother!  Then for another change to our usual routine we headed in to the Royal Children’s Hospital to take part in some of their Good Friday Appeal festivities that were open to the general public.  Most Melbournians – actually, most Victorians and many New South Welshpeople as well – are very familiar with this appeal.  Huge numbers of people get together to raise funds towards additional equipment and programs to benefit the kids at RCH.  When I was a child I spent many (tedious) hours watching the Appeal count on television on the one commercial television station that we had in my country town.  I think that the Appeal is ingrained in the general psyche.

There were meerkats to visit, the aquarium to see, a gourmet BBQ hosted by George Calombaris, an extremely impressive art and craft area for all kids to take part in, and numerous famous sportspeople and actors/personalities to sign autographs and have your photo taken with. Not that I recognised any of them. Oh well.  The appeal raised a record $16.4 million dollars.  Amazing!  And the girls had an absolute ball.

So it was afternoon before we made it to Grandma and Pa’s house!  And wouldn’t you know – the circus was in town!

Funnily enough, we’d been to Cirque du Soleil the previous weekend. All my life my husband has been wanting to go to the circus. Well, now he can die a happy man – because we’ve just been to two circuses one week apart! The Great Moscow Circus was loads of fun – a traditional circus that included knife throwing, juggling, clowns, horses, aerial performances, balancing, tumbling, and motorbikes inside a globe. Very different to Cirque du Soleil’s Ovo, which is an amazing visual and aural feast – but just as much excitement and just as much skill and talent.  And a quarter of the price.

After church on Easter Sunday was the traditional egg hunt. There are lots of places to hide eggs on a half acre block!

The girls were very happy with the proceeds of the hunt. Clare saves her eggs and slowly nibbles them away all year. Actually, I think that she’s only just finished last year’s chocolate haul. Stella is a different story.

Can’t…eat…any…more…chocolate…

Easter eggs are a versatile thing. Clare used them to teach Stella division the following day.

We managed to fit in a wonderful dinner with some special friends on Sunday night – the girls didn’t get to bed until 11.00pm, which is definitely the latest that Stella has ever been up! Mum and Dad looked after us beautifully, as always, and a relaxing weekend was had by all.

And then before we knew it, the time had come to join the stream of cars heading back in to Melbourne. Easter weekend over, school holidays only just begun.

At church, we watched a dramatisation comparing Jesus’ resurrection to the emergence of a butterfly from it’s cocoon. The same, but changed. It was a beautiful allegory. For the girls and I, Easter is not just about the eggs, the hunt, the Good Friday appeal, time with family and friends – and this year, the circus. It is about the crucifixion and the resurrection.

But I was still pleased that the Easter bunny came to me too.

another claim…

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Like many of you, I am “claiming my blog” with bloglovin.

Although I think that I will use feedly.  Bloglovin doesn’t have an android phone app, and that is something that I use all the time.

I wonder which readers will become the most popular once it’s all settled and google reader has vanished?  Many of us are clearly sad to see it go.

Miss Dawson’s stash

Well, here it is, Stella’s second full day of school.  She was in bed fast asleep at 6.45pm after day one, and slept for 13 hours straight.  A very tired but happy little girl!  I have to admit that I wasn’t far behind her in going to bed.  But am I twiddling my thumbs now that I am at home alone again today?  Clearly I am not!  My to-do list is incredibly long, full of things that I should do and things that I will actually do.  There’s a pair of pants to finish sewing, and a whole lot more.  But I thought that I’d better share Miss Dawson’s stash with you before I get too engrossed in projects.

Remember the wonderful old Singer 201K that I was given recently?  I was able to thank Miss Dawson in person for passing on her sewing machine, and she was equally thrilled to discover that someone who genuinely likes to sew was now the proud owner.  So she went searching through her things, and found her stash.  And passed it on to me too.

Inside a large plastic box were all the above items.  A gorgeous old tin filled with threads, elastics, bias binding and similar notions.  A box full of accessories for the sewing machine.  Wide woven ribbons, hand-printed thai silk, batiks, laces, trims, a buttonholer, and patterns!

I’m going to make up that Marion Martin one. Just because it’s cute! So there’s another sewing goal for 2013 – to sew up one (or two) of Miss Dawson’s patterns. I’m sure that she’d love to see me wearing one to church!  It was so enjoyable to slowly go through the contents of the box and find all these treasures. I wonder if anyone will feel that way about my stash one day?

the closest my kids will get to having pets

They want a pet.  Can we have a dog?  Can we have a guinea pig?  Can we have SOMETHING?  They know that we can’t get a cat – my husband is allergic.  So they plead for a different animal.  But I just don’t fancy having to look after another living thing in our household.  I have enough trouble keeping the plants alive.  So as an alternative, they practice pet ownership on these.

Many many years ago we did tell Clare that once she was at school, we’d consider getting a dog. Instead, we had Stella.

I hope that the New Year has begun swimmingly for everyone. We’re currently having a lovely family holiday in Canberra. There is SO much to do here, and in the limited time available to us we’re barely able to scratch the surface!  We’ve visited relatives and I’ve caught up with a special blog friend, we’ve been to Questacon twice, visited the National Gallery and the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition, and today will head in to see Parliament House and the National Portrait Gallery. And yes, all of these activities are indoor ones. We’re seeking the air conditioning. It’s hot here! But it cools down beautifully each night. We are lulled to sleep in the evening by the sound of burnouts and cars revving – Summernats is on at the moment too. So must dash – more touristy things to do today before the long drive home on Sunday!

2012 blogging in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

About 55,000 tourists visit Liechtenstein every year. This blog was viewed about 270,000 times in 2012. If it were Liechtenstein, it would take about 5 years for that many people to see it. Your blog had more visits than a small country in Europe!

Click here to see the complete report.

Merry Christmas

To those of you who believe in God’s greatest gift to us, Jesus Christ, Merry Christmas!  And to those of you who don’t, Happy Holidays!  I pray that the next few days will be safe and happy ones for all of you.  I will be celebrating the birth of Christ, as well as spending time with family.  I suspect that is what many of us may be doing.  Take care of yourselves and those you love, and we will all remember those who are no longer with us.

Luke 2:10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

sew, how much did I make?

Okay, time for my Sewjourn summation!  We’ve been going to Sewjourn twice a year for about three (or is it even four?) years now, so as a group we’ve got ourselves figured out.  We roster breakfast and lunch provisions, eat out on Friday and Saturday nights, and generally just SEW!  And talk and laugh (and sometimes cry), of course.

I like to have as much cutting out as possible done before I head off to Sewjourn, and this time was no exception.  I was working hard on using up scrap fabric, leftovers from other projects.  Unsurprisingly, I have plenty of these oddly shaped and sized scraps.  Eventually I had a plastic tub full of cut out garments, with their associated patterns and notions.  Garments get completed so quickly when this is already done!  I usually take about double (or triple, maybe even quadruple) as much as I could possibly get finished in the time we have available.  This gives me options, so that I can sew what I feel like sewing.

The sewing didn’t actually start off all that well.  After a lovely lunch with the other early arrivals and setting ourselves up in the Studio – although we always make our beds in the House as soon as we arrive, knowing that by the time we stop sewing (usually after midnight) there is no way that we’ll be feeling like making a bed but more like just falling into one – I started on a pair of StyleARC Kerry cargo pants, but without the cargo pockets.  But I just wasn’t feeling the sewjo.  I constructed them, didn’t have the matching colour overlocker thread so used something that coordinated, forgetting that I was later going to roll up the pants cuffs and the seam finishing would be visible.  And then they were too long, so the turn up is super bulky.  I’m not sure whether I’ll unpick the visible overlocker threads and refinish the seam edges with something matching, and cut a heap from the bottom before re-hemming and re-turning up, or if I’ll just offload them to the oppy.  Felt quite flat after making those, really!  But moved on to a StyleARC Tilda top, a pattern I’d used before but in an unsuitable fabric.  This time around was much more successful, and I could feel some sewjo starting to return.  So I started another top, from Simplicity 2254, but went to bed before I finished it – because by then it was around 1.30am.  Some of my more sensible companions had gone to bed at 10.30pm, but I know that others didn’t make it until well after 2.00am!  My problem is that I’m not so great at sleeping in.  I tend to wake at around 6.00am, and although I can sometimes doze, generally I can’t.

But this time I did manage to get around 6 hours of sleep, hooray!  Straight back to the studio and finished off the Simplicity top.  And I liked it!  The sewjo was definitely returning.  So it was on to a StyleARC Alice top, then to a skirt, top and vest combination.  Then another sleeveless tunic.  Whew!  I was on a roll!  By the way, ALL of these garments were knits, so seams were finished on the overlocker or left raw.  It makes for extremely fast sewing.

Eventually I decided that I’d better make something for my daughters.  They love to see what I’ve made for them when I’ve been away.  An Oliver + S knit Hopscotch dress for Stella, a Hopscotch top for Clare, and then Hula Hoop skirts for each of them.  After that were a couple of Oliver + S Sailboat skirts for Clare.  Wow!

And of course, by now the entire weekend is a blur.  What did I do when?  Who was I talking to about that?  Would you like another glass of wine?  Or some more chocolates?  Oh wow, look at that dress you’ve made!  That top!  That skirt!  And that top!  And those dresses!  That bag!  That quilt!  Your crochet!  Shall we have dinner?  Would you like another glass of wine?

I finally assembled McCalls 8238, which was the 90s pattern I’d blogged a couple of weeks ago.  And I suspect that it is a fail.  I’m not feeling the love.  Despite lowering the neckline, it still feels too high.  Bummer.  However, a bias cut is rather lovely.  I might refashion this dress by removing the neckline facing and recutting it into a V.  Shall think further on that one.  The bust darts are also a bit too high.  Maybe I should just re-house it.

And just before we had to pack up and leave I finished off another dress for Stella.  So in summary, over the weekend I had:

• around 12 hours of sleep
• around a bottle of wine
• far too much chocolate
• forgotten to have some conversations that I was hoping to have
• yummy food
• the inspiration of talented women
• the support of wonderful friends
• lots of chats about lots of things
• and finished three garments for Stella, four garments for Clare, and nine garments for me.

So now I’m all stocked up with enough blog fodder to get me through to Christmas, I reckon.

back from Sewjourn

I’m back from Sewjourn.

As always, it was fantastic! I’ll be back with more about our wonderful weekend (and significant output) later.