New bag :-)

I found myself with a few hours to myself today – sure, there were jobs I *could* have done but quite frankly, I couldn’t be bothered.  I had taken the dog for a 6.5 mile/10.5 km walk, done some washing and cleaned up the hurricane that is our kitchen after the breakfast/lunchbox dash in the morning so I felt very justified in wheeling out my sewing machine for a bit

I am still plugging my way through my fabric stash so I made today’s project without having to buy anything – hurrah!  I have seen a few bags online which reuse old jeans or cargo pants and as I had a pair of jeans in my fabric stash I thought I’d try this today.

I wanted to make an ‘across the body’ bag – I have a hobo style bag that I use all the time, but I fancied one with a longer strap.

I started by assembling all the material I would need …

Hang on, something’s missing …

… oh yes, of course, whenever there is fabric on the floor, Larry isn’t far away!  (Note the blurry tail!  He was very happy to be sitting on my stuff!)

I opened the seams of the jeans, I ironed them flat and then cut out all the bits I’d need – a front, a back, two side pieces and a bottom piece then I joined two long bits together to make the strap.  I cut the same size pieces out of the lining fabrics.

I then made some bias tape out of the flowery fabric to go round the flap of the bag.  I’ve never made my own bias tape before but it was easy peasy and I was so busy congratulating myself on making it that I left it out of the picture!

I sewed the strap pieces together and then top-stitsched the finished strap.

I pinned the bias tape around the top flap pieces and then top-stitched that too (geez, ironing and pinning in one project?  I must be growing up!!  I’ll be tacking next!)

Then I did the same thing with the lining and outer fabrics - I joined the side and bottom  pieces and then attached them to the front and back to make a boxy shape out of each.

I turned the outer piece out the right way round and put it inside the lining.  I tucked the flap and the strap in there too and sewed round the top leaving just a little opening to pull the bag the right way out. 

I closed up the little hole and top stitched the opening of the bag and I was all done!  Just in time to collect the Parklets from school

Larry – the dog who knows no shame

I was uploading some pictures from my camera the other week and I found a random selection that I hadn’t taken.  It seems that Ruby had taken my camera into her room and had a photo shoot with Larry …

Larry reading a book

Larry with some friends

Larry with a school shirt on

Larry with a sunhat on

Larry ready for bed

Larry with a lei (and a ‘what did I do to deserve this?’ expression!)

Michael and I laughed ourselves hoarse at these (and the twenty or so blurrier out-takes!)

Larry is quite possibly THE most tolerant dog in the world

Meatless Month

You know how we love a themed, time-restricted challenge here at Park Towers!  We’ve had Week O’Steak, War Week, Skirtember – and probably lots more but I can’t keep up with all my whims!!

Anyway, Michael and I have decided to embark on a Meatless Month.  He often sees the cattle trucks going along the freeway and the sheep and cows are crammed in and distressed.  We both saw this picture on Facebook and it made me feel really ill – that is a living, breathing creature.  I am sure someone (probably my brother !) will have a dozen arguments about how cows emote differently than we do and that we are just imposing our emotions on their experience in the trucks and that that picture is photoshopped but really, I’m not too bothered.  I am interested in extending my vegetarian repertoire and if we do decide to add meat back into our diets then we will probably try to find somewhere like Whitmuir where we used to get our meat in Scotland.  I loved it there, I really liked their idea that the animals got to be animals before they got to be food!

So I have been collecting lots of yummy sounding vegetarian recipes and made my first dinner before heading out to work for the late shift today.

It was based on Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Chickpea Ketchup Curry … (in the original he adds chilli flakes at the same time as the garlic and the juice of half a lemon at the end – A hates anything with chilli in it and I didn’t have any lemons so I left these out)

• A glug of olive oil
• 1/2 an onion – diced
• 2 cloves of garlic – crushed
• tsp grated ginger
• TBSP curry paste (I used Patak’s Korma)
• 1 tin chickpeas – drained
• 5 TBSP ketchup
• Salt & pepper

Over a low heat, sweat the onion while you get all the rest of the ingredients assembled.

When the onion goes translucent, add the garlic, ginger and curry paste.  Mix around.

Add chick peas, mix and then add a little water to loosen the sauce a bit. 

Cook for about five minutes.

As Alexander doesn’t like rice, I left a few wraps for him to have with this and rice for everyone else.  I was fair looking forward to it because it smelled scrummy but when I got home there was none left!!!  Apparently everyone had eaten it – this is nothing short of miraculous and while I should have been annoyed because I now had no dinner, I was delighted that they had enjoyed something so quick, cheap and easy to make!!

I’d love to show you a picture of what it looked like but there was not a scrap left (and I even checked the bin in case they had all scraped their plates in there!!  This isn’t my first rodeo )  You’ll just have to make it yourself if you want to see what it looks like!!

I’ll let you know how we get on with our veggie month

Happy Mother’s Day

Today is Mother’s Day in Australia and I have had a lovely day – despite having worked for most of it!

I was brought a scrummy breakfast in bed before I had to go off to work and the kids brought me the presents that have been burning a hole in Ruby’s wardrobe for the last few days!!

Ruby very kindly bought me a list pad from the stall at school – it will be used A LOT and is far superior to the backs of envelopes that I currently use to write my to do lists!!  She also made me a lovely little heart shaped pin cushion at Guides.  I LOVE it because it will be incredibly useful – at the moment my pins are supposed to be kept in a box but that is not very handy so I have loads of loose pins on my sewing machine table, they fall off at regular intervals and despite being in the far corners of the house, they always end up in someone’s foot or with Larry trying to perforate a bowel with them and I get a row

Alexander bought a car air freshener and a little massager from school, he thought it would be nice when I got home from work.  Unfortunately, when I opened the box it was empty.  A was really upset and then FURIOUS and he will be marching into school on Monday to demand a refund (and apparently, an apology, but I told him to go easy!!!)

He also wrote a persuasive text arguing why I am the best Mum in the world and a poem.  This is the persuasive text ….

I had to laugh at the bit about cooking dinner – dinners are the cause of the most tension in this house!!!

This is his poem …

“You are the Mum of Mums, When you sing all the bling will sparrckel, when you whistle all the thistels will grow, when you hum all the hummingbirds will sigh, when you cry all the teerdrops will turn into rammbows and flurrish in the sky.  When you sow and nite (sew and knit) it is made from love.  So now my poem comes to an end I hope you have enjoyed it.  My Mum is the best. The End.”

Ok, so his spelling is a little creative but I love the fact that he made up this poem with no prompting and wrote it in his very best handwriting.  And while I don’t think he has seen me crying very often, I love the thought of teardrops turning into rainbows (or rammbows!) and flourishing in the sky

I went off to work and that was fine – Sundays are pretty steady.

This evening we went to Mum & Dad’s house for dinner.  Dad made the starter and main course (steamed dim sims and then a stir fry), VERY yummy!  And then Michael made the dessert – strawberry cheesecake, also VERY yummy!!  He had never made this before and it was fantastic – he can make it any time

Mum and I drank wine and blethered while Dad and Michael sorted everything for us – how lovely!!  It was very nice to have my Mum here this year

Personal A-Z of Victoria – B is for Ballarat

It’s been a few weeks since we took our first A-Z road trip.  To be honest, we had such a lovely day in Anglesea that we’d have been quite happy to go back there every week and we were pretty sure that no-where else would measure up.

Well, that’s not a very good attitude to have so we decided to go off on our next trip today.  I planned to go to Bendigo.  There are lots of interesting things to see in Bendigo – a great art gallery, a vintage tram tour, a historic walking trail, the Golden Dragon museum, Bendigo Pottery and Bendigo Woollen Mills (where you can buy GREAT quality wool at very cheap prices and which had absolutely no influence on my desire to visit )

As it was, we had a bit of a lie in and then a bit of a tidy up and by the time I had made a picnic and we were ready to leave, it was almost midday.  Bendigo is almost two hours drive from here and so I decided that maybe we would leave this for another day (and I would just send off for some wool instead Hurrah for mail order!) and head to Ballarat instead.  Note to self – be better prepared on other weeks as there are not many place in Victoria that belong with Q or V!

We’ve been to Ballarat a few times but always to go to Sovereign Hill – we’ve never been into the town itself.  I had a quick look on the Visit Ballarat website and found that by lucky coincidence it was the Ballarat Heritage Weekend.  We programmed the address of the trail starting point into the sat nav and we were off!!!

Ballarat is about a hour’s journey from our house and is a really nice old town.  Thanks to the gold rush it was REALLY wealthy for a while so is full of lovely old buildings and statues.

The Heritage Weekend kicked off in the Mining Exchange Building where there was a display of kid’s pedal cars from 1930-1960.  The kids LOVED them and took time to choose a favourite each. 

There was another room with old dolls, toy cars (smaller ones this time!) and children’s books.

Outside there was a free merry-go-round.  It was a bit tame for A & R these days but they enjoyed it none the less

After that there was a Punch & Judy show.  I hate Punch & Judy but a lot of the kids thought it was hilarious – Alexander, not so much – he took advantage of the paper and crayons provided and drew a picture while Ruby watched the show.

Outside there was a great display of vintage cars and caravans.  I fell in love with this ‘Teardrop Trailer’ which a man made by himself.  Inside there is a double bed, small cupboards mounted above the ‘foot’ end of the bed and in the ‘boot’ there is a stove and food cupboards.  I would LOVE to have one of these.  I wish Michael would make one for me but I don’t see that happening!

In one of the other big buildings there was a display of model planes and miniature trains.  Alexander was in heaven! 

He got to try out the flight simulator with a little guidance from a man from the club running the exhibitionand thoroughly investigated the model railway.  He said it reminded him the model railway we visited in Minnesota – six years ago – he forgets nothing that boy!!

When we came out of the display it was pouring with rain and everyone was a bit hungry so we went back to the car and had our picnic.  We were all a bit ‘displayed’ out so we just had a drive round the town and then went to a coffee shop.  A & R made up a FANTASTIC game called ‘Who can keep a lolly stick in their mouth for longest?’ it meant that Michael and I enjoyed a cup of coffee in peace and quiet while they glared, silently and competitively at each other!

So that was our day, maybe it wasn’t wall to wall sunshine, maybe it wasn’t a red letter day, but it was a great day out with my family and a nice way to spend a Saturday

Rosie’s Dolly

One of the trickiest people to leave behind in Scotland when we left was my little God-daughter, Rosie.  Rosie is the daughter of my oldest friend, Lynn, and is just four years old.  It is particularly tricky because a four year old lives very much in the moment and I do worry that out of sight is out of mind.  That said, actual hours that A & R have spent with my brother and sister in law, or Jo and Craig are minimal but both couples are a HUGE part of their lives and they are very much loved by A & R so I am hoping that the same will be true for Rosie (and now her little sister, Evie) even though I am not there.

Lynn and I have been friends since we were five and she was quite possibly THE LEAST girly girl ever – her boys hairdo and tree climbing was the perfect match for my ribbons and pram pushing – don’t you think?!  Heaven knows how we stayed friends, but thank goodness we did, I don’t know what I’d do without her!  She now has two beautiful girls of her own so finds herself surrounded by dolls, glitter and pink!

In an effort to stay in touch with Rosie in a way that is meaningful to her, earlier in the year I made her a dolly.  I looked at lots of online tutorials for cloth dolls and chose my favourite elements of each to make this little lady …

Rosie was very pleased, apparently, so I have been making new dresses for her every time I get my machine out   As well as keeping in touch with Rosie, it’s helping me to use up my stash of cotton off-cuts!

Those two were made with offcuts from neckerchiefs (now there is a word I have never typed before!!!) I made for Guide Camp over a year ago and this next one is left-over from the lining of a bag I made at the weekend.

And remember the fleecy trousers I made at the weekend?  Well, I used the off-cuts from Ruby’s trousers to make some jammies for Rosie’s dolly!

I send them one at a time and put in a little note for Rosie too. I remember how great it was to get a letter in the mail when I was little so I don’t send them all at once – that way Rosie gets the excitement of an envelope arriving more often!

I won’t see Rosie again until Easter of next year but her dolly should have lots of new clothes before then

The Princess and The Pea

Because sometimes a settee just isn’t comfy enough …