westozcaat is super

Here is a quick few pics from the bag swap parcel which turned up today.
My stalker was westozcaat from Western Australia and I was very lucky as the gal had been overseas jaunting around.
So I ended up with a camel and wool woven bag from Egypt and a range of goodies from the US, and the most INSANE knitted Vegemite label along with some felt and a strap and notions so that I can sew it into my own bag.
Now I'd like to quote Kate:

So the front is done and blocked, felt, strap webbing bought but only one problem remains - I cannot sew. At all. So I am passing on the pasts as a 'bag making' kit - so you can tailor it to your size and fancy

Whoot! How exciting. So I've renamed tomorrow Vegemite Day as I'm taking the day off to play.
Also in the package were food dye, buttons and badges, an itty hot water bottle with a skull cover which is MINE MINE MINE, not to be stolen by my daughter. And stitch markers and a tape measure and vintage patterns.
I'll detail everything with pics tomorrow (oh there was beautiful chocolate but it didn't make it home)as I'm racing out the door to stitch and bitch to show off the vegemite.

It is so cool!!!!!

Thanks Kate! (and I'll post links and all that stuff as well tomorrow)

little visitors

There have been plenty of visitors lately, some welcome and some not so.
Before someone left little white paw prints all through the house from the back door to the front, there were a few other callers.

Yes our friends Gastro and Flu decided to come and stay and bug us, which is why there hasn't been much action here lately.

But at least having those extra visitors in the house made us realise that we have to do something quickly about the one bathroom issue with this house. So plans are being sent back to the drawing board and hopefully by the end of the year we will have more space.

You see our house is big, well the rooms are HUGE, but there are just three bedrooms and a massive lounge room, a central hall and a closed in back veranda that serves as a kitchen and dining room with the other end turned into a bathroom.

Fine for when we moved in as a family with one child, and the plans we had drawn up were perfect for two children and were finished off the week I had the second child but were left rolled up in a desk somewhere.
So now with three children, we have to look at the plans again and work out just what we need.
We need a bedroom for each child. Simple. We need a two story 'shed' with downstairs for the normal function of a shed, in other words to store the car and the power tools with upstairs for my sewing and hiding from the family. The bottom of the shed will also contain a separate laundry and a shower and toilet as I have a huge hate of laundries in the house. Once you have the luxury of an separate laundry even if it is falling down you realise the benefits of having that drier and noisy machine outside.

The house will have a rejigged bathroom with a separate shower and bath, and a massive hallway in the new part with cupboards on BOTH sides and a large family dining area and a covered, deep and wide veranda and a study. Not to mention a kitchen that contains an oven that works, tiles that stay on the wall and maybe some room to swing a cat.

So the next few months are plotting and planning. Plotting the new house, planning how I can make the transition from full-time to part-time work in an effort to slow down the nerve damage to my arm, because if a girl is getting a new shed, she wants to be able to enjoy it.

The other pic is a quick quilt top made from chenille. Simple and only small squares so I could cut out the material without help and anyway, chenille hides wonky seams perfectly.

craft fair

For the first time ever the craft fair rolled into our town and it was a case of craft that my mother calls menopausal craft. The stuff that you do when you temporarily loose your mind. While not necessarily confined or an absolute of menopause, menopausal craft summed up what was on offer at the craft fair.

For sure I was looking at it all through the eyes of a knitter or sewer, not the eyes of a quilter, embellisher, scrap booker, button freak, fabric cloth fairy-witch doll maker, but a lot was just YUCK. And the life-like baby dolls that women were carrying and patting all the while while wearing branded nappy bags. Oh the horror. The Horror.

But there there were some lovely finds. Some Jolly Jumbuck sock yarn in Black Rainbow, which should really be called licorice all sorts, and some bright silks and we got to see Prudence Mapstone at her stall as well.

I also got to meet some Sydney bloggers, Spiraling (including the hairy part of the team) and Vintagegrrl.

And little Zgal scored big time from Spiraling, a beautiful pink and black woven scarf, the first woven piece made by Spiraling on her rigid loom, so it is doubly special! Of course it went on straight away and then was used to wave a big goodbye when the Spiraling Landy rolled out of town. Now the scarf will probably be worn to bed tonight.

Yes it is a HUGE hit. Above is a pic of the Zgal with her scarf and below a close-up of the scarf with her beautiful lizard brooch which I finally bought for her from the antique centre cafe, down the road from home where she got to meet Spiraling and her Gentleman. Zgal has been looking at the lizard brooch for years and I almost bought it for her last year for her birthday. But with this year's birthday fast approaching and she has been an absolute treasure lately, I agreed to buy it for her. Sometimes motherhood is fun.