Clever little fox

I'm struggling t0 be clever this morning. Crafty, rather. It's taking most of my morning concentration to start laying out and cutting the fabric for the dress I'm making. I keep telling myself that the fabric was super-cheap, and so this is an experiment, with not much to lose. But it's all a bit daunting.

So I thought I'd share with you a drawing of a clever Mr. Foxito (he's Spanish) who popped up in my sketchbook the other day. I think he likes jazz, don't you? And goes to lots of opening nights at art shows (when there's free food). He's keen on sushi, too.

Ah, Mr. Foxito, I'm rather glad we met!

When the going gets tough, the tough make....

Icecubes.

It's been pretty horrid around here recently, as evidenced by the chorus of flat sighs from Southern Girls. Hottest since 1908. But I can't even imagine how bad that must have been, with no cooling, no fridges, and no icecube trays in the shape of plastic penguins.

I came out of the (sweltering) bedroom into the (sweltering) living room this morning to find a listless dog lying on the floor, imploring me to make the heat go away.

He objected in principle to being dumped in the bath with the cold remains of my (cold) shower, but only for a moment.

'Oooh. Aaah. Mmmm, pleasantly interesting....'

And then the bucket of water was dashed over his head. Followed by wet dog racing through the house - oh well, it'll dry off in a jiffy. Like ten seconds.

So, that's why I was glad to have made Doggy-poles last night. Dogpops if you're Canadian. Dogsicles to the British, they are:
- dabs of vegemite
- scraps of ham
- slices of hot dog
Topped up with water and all frozen together in an ice-cube tray.

The little furry guy loves them.


PS - in case you don't consider this crafting news, the news is that the baby quilt is all finished and awaiting a photo shoot on the weekend before it's off in the post to Canada. We love the stripey binding!

The last photo taken; before the binding was on.

Striking gold at the oppy

With Victoria's heat wave now expected to be the worst since 1908, on Saturday I was ahead of the game: I had my wary eye open at the oppy for hot-day clothes.

Something suitable for work. Because, you know, that stash of lovely linen fabric is being a little slow in making itself up into some loose linen trousers. (How remiss it is!)

Here are a couple of delights from Savers. The truly gorgeous shirt was found when I picked up a wad of interesting-looking fabric dumped on top of the racks, thinking, hmmm - nice fabric - I could make something out of-ooh! It's my size! I'm rather in love with the shirt, 'though a thin elastic band around the bottom is unflattering. It's a work of mere moments to take it off and hem the shirt, and I've worn it twice already anyway, so clearly this is not going to hold me up.

Two shirts and two pairs of trousers for the grand total of $26. I'm just annoyed that I left behind an extra-large Mason jar that would have been just what I need for a batch of preserved lemons. Maybe next time....

What do YOU say when you see a large spider?

I was editing a primary school textbook yesterday, and the lesson I was reading was all about using exclamation marks.

The students were supposed to fill in the blanks by writing down what they would say in several different situations, such as;

What would you say if you scored a goal in footie or soccer?
____________!

And then:
What would you say if you saw a big spider in the bathroom?

____________!

Two things came to mind:
1. The blank for my response isn't long enough (or big enough), and;
2. I don't think I'm supposed to use words like that to answer questions in a primary school lesson.

Foiled again. I'll never graduate!


PS: The photo above is definitely not a spider. Which I suppose means I also fail in image recognition. It's a helicopter, but don't you think it looks like a bug? I've always wanted to use this image (taken by Mr Tacc) in my blog. Hoppo Bumpo, this one's dedicated to Argy and Bargy.

He's Here!

And I am an Aunty!


(If you want to goon, head over here...)

The accidental quilter

So. Have you ever felt responsible for drawing an innocent bystander into something?

There was that woman, just minding her own business peacefully in the fabric shop. While over at the cutting table, TinnieGirl and I were throwing bolts of fabric around and having a big discussion about the best colour for the sashing for a quilt.
We had about twenty bolts out, and all the blocks on the table, and it went something like this:

- Should it be luscious?
- How about dramatic?
- Mm, this is sweeter.
- Nah, that's too dull.
- Ick.
- Eek!
- Choose something totally wild and unexpected.
- No, silly, not that!
- What about - er, no.
- This one or this one?
- That one. No, this one. No, that one... No, ...

You've probably had those conversations.

That's why I invited TinnieGirl for my industrial-strength bargain fabric shopping extravaganza. To provide moral support and colour theory. Oh, and because it was lots of fun! Being a wise op-shopper, she chose a great cafe to tank up on the coffee and pancakes first, so that whilst I had a fabric rush in Rathdowne Remnants, she could run around with a nicely-timed sugar rush. (Ms. Pops, you were missed. We needed you to be the voice of reason.)

My low-carb long-distance maintenance diet of eggs got me through a massive - for me - purchase of fabrics to make a dress, a shirt, four pillowcases -- and sundry haberdashery items. Yippee!

Back at the castle, the dragon guards the loot. (Some of it)
Dragon: (Thinking) Can I come out yet? Are there biscuits in this for me?

Anyway, back to the innocent bystander in GJs. There she was, minding her own business while we haggled cheerfully over quilt choices. That is, until we dragged her into the fray.

"What do YOU think? Black.... or china blue?"

She was pretty game.

Heck, I think she'd been hovering, so perhaps she wasn't so innocent. Within moments, there was a heated discussion again, Stranger Lady and TinnieGirl gave me a (much-needed) lesson in colour and in wedding quilt etiquette (which about boils down to: Don't presume). We ummed, we debated. We settled. I paid.

As I was pulling out the plastic, our not-so innocent bystander sidled up to the assistant. "I think I need to learn quilting," she said.

Ha. Another one bitten!

(- And what was she hanging out in the quilting fabric section anyway, if she wasn't just ASKING for trouble. Right?)

Right.

Tomorrow: striking gold at savers. And a nugget regretted.

Just to set the record straight

When saying I was going to 'have words with the kitchen help', I meant me.

Just in case you misunderstood (ahem).

x
B