Feeling like a goose

Well I finally found a bit of energy this morning and while Carl and Romily were out of the house I started stitching my flying geese 'blocks' for baby Campbell's quilt. My back is much better, so I thought I'd see how I went sitting on a big fat cushion at the sewing machine - not too bad!

Until I started to sew - god my Janome gives me the irrites. I have to fiddle faddle with the bobbin casing every time I sit down to sew - it's either too loose or too tight - and I can never predict which. It catches and jumps and does lovely little snarls on the underside of the fabric. It drives me nuts. I finally got it resolved after about two hours, but I was feeling less than relaxed and happy by then.

Anyway, I finally got all my green bits pieced, pressed and sewn together. Only to discover that I had managed to really muck up my measurements and the centre part of the flying geese block doesn't extend all the way to the edge, so they look funny. I have no idea what I did wrong, although this just proves two things:

a) I am a novice quilter; and
b) Trigonometry is not my strong suit.

Ah well, live and learn I guess. What did I learn today? Buy yeself a pattern. Yes, a pattern. Stop trying to make everything from scratch. When you have mastered a pattern, then begin freewheeling!

I still like the effect. Next job is to colour match the light purples with the dark purples and stitch the outside flying geese. The inside green ones will be separated from the outside purple ones by orange, red and yellow sashing/inner border. Let's hope it all works out!!

Maybe I should call the quilt 'bandaged geese'?

Sore back

Well I'm certainly going through the wars at the moment. Just as I was recovering from another gastric infection, I've 'done my back in'. I was bending over helping Romily up our stairs and 'twang'! I suddenly felt excruciating pain and couldn't move. I had to yell out to Carl to come and get Rom and to help me move, somewhere, anywhere.

I spent that night in agony, finally managing to get some sleep, but waking up in pain every time I tried to move. Yesterday was spent in bed, trying not to move. Today I am a little improved, and can manage to hobble around the house. No bending over and no playing with Rom though, which is pretty hard on all of us. Poor Carl now has two children and a kitten to care for. He's not enjoying it much either.

I hope I'm much better by Monday - I don't want to take another day off before my last day if I can help it. And I am finding it very hard to not do anything. It's horrible! Not the way I prefer to spend time away from work...

Sydney delights

I promised to post some photos from our weekend in Sydney - finally downloaded onto the Mac, transferred via DVD to the laptop, edited and phew! Can finally post them here.

We had two nights in a lovely two-bedroom, two-bathroom, two-storey (noticing a theme here?) apartment, which overlooked Darling Harbour - on the 'back' side of Sydney CBD. A very pretty spot and a great view! If you look closely (click to enlarge), you can see the water in the bottom left corner. The funny looking building in the foreground is the entertainment centre.


And what a great night sky! For those of you who live in big cities this is probably a bit ho hum, but for we Canberra-ites, it's a little bit exciting!


And you've gotta love a complex with a pool and spa like this one.


Well Romily and Carl did anyway!


We had a great time visiting the Powerhouse Museum (had never been there before) and Rom certainly enjoyed the enclosed playground they have on their lower floor. It was a short but sweet visit - the best kind with an 18 month old toddler in tow!

I give you Jacqui O!

Well, maybe not Jacqueline Kennedy, but my very own Romily! She adores these sunglasses I bought her today - probably because Mummy and Daddy never let her handle their glasses!

And good news - I have a new job and I finally got motivated to start cutting squares and triangles for the flying geese quilt I am making for baby Campbell.

This is after I dragged myself off my 'deathbed' after succumbing to yet another mystery gastric viral infection - this one hit me the day after I resigned my job! I had to take almost two full days off work - it wasn't a good look, so I went to get a doctor's certificate to prove I was actually sick. Although any of my colleagues who saw me on Thursday knew I was, to use a very Australian term, crook as a dog. I felt like death warmed up. There's enough cliches for you!

Anyway, although I am not 100%, I felt much improved today - sufficiently compus mentis to start cutting fabric anyway. I will have to use some fusible webbing on one piece I accidentally cut 1/2" too short! Oops. By the time I quilt it, no one will ever know...I hope!

I also discovered that I need more fabric. Shame that really!

Oh and for any Aussie quilters or those further away who may be looking for some new fabrics... visit http://quiltfabricdelights.com.au/store/Default.asp

They have good prices and an amazing collection - most of which I haven't seen before (not that I get out much!).

We had a good weekend - yesterday we had about 1o adults and 6 chidren around to help celebrate Carl's birthday. It was madness and mayhem and we had to put poor little Bashkaa away in our bedroom for the day - and endure his plaintive wailings (I did go and visit him a couple of times to make sure he was okay!). But Carl and Rom had a great time - I was a trooper and tried to keep my distance from everyone so I didn't cross-infect.

Am pretty tired now, and the new season of CSI is about to debut on telly, so off I pop for a bit of choc and relaxation.

More about the new job in my next post.

Smoochy smoochy

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Today is also our 3rd wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary honey!

I just had a flick through our wedding photos and picked out a few (one or two!) to share.


Awwww, smoochy, smoochy :)

Happy Birthday darling Carl

Happy 45th my darling Carl.



I love you and our life together. I am a very lucky woman to have found a man like you.

Bashka is here!

Just had to post some photos of our beautiful boy, who finally arrived today! Bashka is settling in beautifully and he is just gorgeous. We're all in love all over again. Especially Romily, who has said 'mau mau mau' about 5000 times today!

New toy!

We're back from our lovely but short weekend away in Sydney - we had a fantastic two-story apartment that overlooked Darling Harbour and the cityscape. I'll post some photos during the week - I haven't had a chance to download them yet.

But I have downloaded some photos from my new toy ... er camera ... and you'll never guess the subject matter!

Romily of course!






Did I mention how much I love my new camera? It's fab!

Dropped off the face of the earth

Well not quite - I can't believe it's nearly two weeks since I posted. Have been planning to show off some photos from my new camera, but have only just got around to loading the software. And I still have to download all the photos to our other computer because we still don't have a new one and this one's USB ports are busted. So I have to transfer everything via CD. A very big pain the bum!

Very busy indeed at work and at home - I've had hardly any time to myself, although I have started yoga again. It's been 18 months (yes, just before Rom was born), and I really need it. I just love yoga (I just do hatha) and have missed it a lot. It's good to be back into it again - although I've realisd just how weak I've become!

I have done absolutely no stitching or anything crafty for two weeks. What a shocker. I've just been so tired and struggling to keep my eyes open after putting Romily down for the night. Too tired by half.

Romily is going really well - she speaks about 40 words consistently at the moment, understands just about everything we ask her, answers yes or no to all our questions and has finally started saying 'ta'. She had her last jab the other day until she's four - the chicken pox vaccine has just come onto our 'free' inoculation list. I say 'free' because you still have to pay for the doctor's appointment! She is so gorgeous at the moment - 18 months is the most gorgeous age!

We're off to Sydney for the weekend after I finish work tomorrow afternoon - we haven't been there since before Romily was born. (Well I had a day trip with Rom when she was five months old, but Carl didn't come). I am looking forward to just getting out of Canberra for the weekend and just mooching about with no firm commitments, no timetables, just random, leisurely wandering!

Bashka - 13 weeks (photos from the breeder)

And to top it all off, our Bengal kitten Bashka arrives in Canberra on Monday afternoon - I can't wait - I am so excited about having a pet - it's been 10 years. I think I may even be more excited that Romily will be when she realises the 'mau' is a permanent fixture/captive target!

Sorry I haven't been keeping up to date with everyone's blogs - I have hardly been online at all.

Hopefully I'll have some stitching to report next week! Until then, take care my little chickadees!