What a week

It has been a pretty lousy week. Late on Wednesday afternoon Tristan managed to pull two heavy pictures down upon himself - one minute he was where I thought he was, I got distracted by Romily, and the next moment - CRASH! Poor thing had his fingers jammed under the pictures and he ripped them out before I could get to him. He nearly ripped his fingernail off one finger and there was a lot of blood. I managed to get a tissue onto it and compress the finger with one hand while racing upstairs with him to give him a dose of paracetamol. He calmed down pretty quickly and a breastfeed made things a bit better. I put a bandaid on, which, of course, he pulled off several hours later. But it did stop the bleeding. What a terrible thing to happen to a little bubba (of course, being a boy, this is, no doubt, the first of many such accidents!)

I woke up Thursday morning with a splitting headache - not a good omen. Then when Romily was at Gymbaroo, Tristan came down with a high fever. As it was all happening, Carl arrived to take over parenting duties so I could dash off to uni to sit my exam. We gave Tristan a dose of paracetamol and hoped he would be okay. We weren't sure whether it was a fever or whether his finger may have become infected. I went off to the exam with a heavy heart and a heavy conscience, trying to put a miserable baby out of my mind and concentrate on the task at hand. Despite my headache growing steadily worse, I managed to answer the required four essay-style answers. I have no idea how I went - 2.5 hours of mad scribbling does your head in!

Tristan was still not himself when I got home, but seemed a bit better. I fed him some dinner, but it all came back up just as I was giving him the last spoonful. I got him into bed and asleep and was also in bed myself by 8pm, hoping that a few extra hours of sleep would see my headache disappear. Of course this was not to be. Tristan had a dreadful night, with a head full of mucous, waking every hour from 8pm through to dawn. He spent half the night in my bed, tossing and turning. Carl and I got very little sleep.

I woke up Friday with my brain still in the vicelike grip of this headache (I still have the residual headache as I type), but with a baby who seemed much happier. As we had tickets to Justine Clarke, off we headed. Tristan was fine until about 15 minutes before the end, at which point he became unconsolable except when I was standing up and rocking him back and forth - thank goodness our seats were in the very back row! I got the kids home and tried to get Tristan to sleep, but he just would not go to sleep. Back in the car, we headed off to the clinic and after a 40 minute wait (this was very quick!) we got in to see one of the docs. He had a look down Tristan's throat - would you believe it? Tonsillitits on top of a head cold! No wonder he wasn't happy.

A prescription of antibiotics later and we headed home. He had a much better night last night (despite a big spew in my bed after a feed) and is considerably happier today. He's mercifully asleep again and breathing much easier. Let's hope those ABs work their magic nice and quick!

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Thankfully some nice things also happened during the week! I ordered three (yes three!) birthday presents for myself and they all arrived within days of each other.

A new thimble for handquilting - inspired by this post from Jan @ Be*mused. I bought it from The Scissorman.The official McTavishing bible. I hadn't heard of this until Emma showed off her version. Can't wait to try some of this. It will be much better than my straight line quilting!And 'Story' by Hollywood screenwriting genius Robert McKee. I couldn't get to one of his last ever seminars run this weekend in Australia (he's retiring), so this is the next best thing. It will be a great read, although it will have to wait, as I have many other books already in the queue!I am very glad I treated myself. Turns out I really needed a lift after what's been a very trying week.

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One more thing. I was saddened to hear of Michael Jackson's death, but at the same time I felt a bit relieved. What a tortured life his became after such bright beginnings. Makes me all the more determined to help my children enjoy their childhood. It's so important that they be allowed to be children.

Groovy pants for a groovy chick

In a last-ditch crafting frenzy before downing tools to study for my exam on Thursday, I finally cut into the lovely cord fabric I've had in my dressmaking stash that I posted about here. I made some 'Katri' pants from Ottobre 1/2009 (#13) for Romily. She doesn't have many warm pants for Playschool, so I thought these would do the trick. They were easy to make, apart from all the fiddling about with 28 pintucks around the pants leg bottoms!She likes them a lot and thanked me for making them for her. She also told all the teachers at Playschool that her mum made them for her. God love her! It's nice to have an appreciative model :)

(Note the fog! It was the foggiest day we've had in Canberra this year to date.)

So now it's time work through my notes from the past semester and do lots of handwriting to get my hand and arm muscles used to the idea of holding a pen again. The exam goes for three hours - ouch! We have four questions to answer out of six, so it will be a word frenzy! I will be glad when 5pm Thursday rolls around and I am free! Well. For a few weeks at least :)

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And, if you're a fan of Oliver + S patterns, head on over to Novy's blog for a giveaway.

Bloomin' Lovely

A finish feels so good, doesn't it? This little baby is due in the post by Monday and I am very pleased to meet the deadline. I am very happy with how this turned out. My FMQ is a little bumpy, but, as the whole thing is pretty liberated, I don't think it matters too much. The overall effect works and, for me, that's what really counts. I've called it 'Bloomin' Lovely'.

The quilt was foundation (the sky) and free pieced (the grass). The flowers were raw-edge appliqued and the stems, leaves and caterpillar were embroidered. The free-pieced grass was inspired by Tami's 4SQS5 quilt. I heavily quilted the sky, but left the flowers and the grass unquilted to give a really textured feel. I think it really works. The backing came from one of the FQs I received last year during the EB Birthday FQ Swap. It's a fabulous print from Valori Wells. Very suitable, don't you think?

Here's a close-up of a little caterpillar.And one of the flowers. Although the binding looks a bit weird here, the quilt is actually 'square'. Well it's 17" x 18", but you know what I mean!

It's off to the United States of Obama. I hope its new owner likes it. I enjoyed being part of the Spring Blooms swap and I can now look forward to receiving mine :)

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And here's a photo of Tristan, who, today, decided to give crawling a try! Well done Tristie!!!! He's been trying for a while now, but not really putting it all together. He now does about three 'crawls' and then pushes back into sitting. He thinks he's pretty clever and gives himself a clap. Too cute!

Birthday baking and cutting some grass

Danananananana

They say it's your birthday
Danananananana
And it's my birthday too yeah
Danananananana
We're gonna have a good time
Danananananana
Well happy birthday to you!

(Courtesy the Beatles)

Actually happy birthday to me :)

I had a lovely day. A mini-sleep in (until 7.30am), woken up by Romily, Carl and Tristan bringing me my birthday present - two books: Breath by Tim Winton and The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas. Both much wanted and I look forward to reading them.

Carl headed off to work and after Tristan had a sleep and we got ourselves ready, I took the kids to Monkey Mania at the new DFO in Fyshwick. They both had a great time - so much so that they both had a two-hour sleep at the same time. Anyone who has/had two young kids knows what a blessing this is! A second birthday present :)

I spent some time catching up on blogs and baking my own birthday cake (Carl's done it the past two years, but I was more than happy to make one this year - especially with Romily's help decorating it). It's a Treacle Butter Cake with Coconut Ice Frosting (both from the fabulous BAKE cookbook I posted about here).

Then I put a lamb roast in the oven and spent a little while playing with my two gorgeouses. I also opened a bunch of birthday cards and a couple of parcels. Thank you Bill & Kate for the very generous voucher for a local day spa. Very nice! And a wrap and recipe organiser from Jim & Jacinta and the boys. Thank you!

And thanks to my parents and my father-in-law for contributing to Lily's Overlocker Fund. It's getting closer!

Also arriving by coinkydink today was my subscription to Meanjin. It's the third time I've subscribed and I hope this time I might get up enough courage to actually submit something!

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And I think I mentioned there'd been some crafting going on here (finally). Here is the design for my Spring Blooms doll quilt (excuse the magnets - I had to put it on the fridge to show up the design in the photograph!). I drew the design full size onto sew-in interfacing which I'm using as the foundation. The 'sky' will be foundation pieced and then attached to the grass, with the flowers raw-edge appliqued and the flower stems and petals embroidered. The grass is free-pieced. Here's a sneak preview! I hope to have the piecing and applique finished by lunchtime tomorrow and then to do the quilting and embroidery tomorrow night and Thursday. I should be able to get it bound and labelled over the weekend and then posted by Monday, which is the deadline. Cutting it fine, but with all that's been going on around here, it'll be a good effort!

New York Cheesecake yum!

You might remember my darling husband totally spoilt me on mothers day with a new K Mix...well, his reward was this!
It's a baked cheesecake with berry drizzle and boy it is goo-ooo-oood! You can find the recipe here and make it yourself.

YUM!

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Breaking news:
* Essay is done!
* Romily is getting better thanks to another batch of antibiotics
* I have actually been crafting - I have started piecing the top for the Spring Blooms doll quilt. Woohoo!

Nothing like being outdone by your Mum!

My mum, who is a crafty crafter from way back, decided she'd give quilting a try after seeing me muck around with fabric. Look at this. This is her FIRST EVER QUILT. She chose the design and colours and the lovely ladies at Amitie helped her choose the fabric. Mum's basting it by hand and plans to handquilt it. It's queen size and destined for one of the spare beds in the house she and Dad are currently building on Bruny Island in Tasmania. *Sigh*Do I quit now? Just kidding. But gosh it's good. Years of sewing and crafting and a great eye for colour. Well done Mum!!!

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Meanwhile, we continue our horrible run of sickness. It's Romily's turn again, with a horrible tummy bug yesterday and today (and a night in between that I'd rather forget). Meanwhile, my major essay was due today, but my very understanding lecturer has given me a week's grace. Thank goodness. That means no crafting is going on here until I get it finished. But then - boy do I have plans! My exam is on 25 June and then I have several weeks' break until studies resume. Better make a list!

Fabric Shopper giveaway - good lord!

Who wouldn't want to win this????? Crikey! Count me IN!!