A new look!

You might have noticed that I have changed the look of my blog! Finally the dragon has arrived. I didn't even realise that that was what he was going to look like!

I have always wanted a dragon of my very own, for nearly as long as I can remember. I even named my blog with that in mind. I have almost no drawing skills (except stick people and stick animals; you want stick people, I'm your woman! :D) so this magnificent dragon comes as a complete surprise, even to me!

Gabi wanted a new applique for her plain doona cover. So we talked about what she could have and she wanted a dragon, a butterfly and a bow and feathers for the pillows. So I designed what I thought the dragon should look like. And I was surprised by how good my tiny sketch looked. Gabi liked it, so I scaled it up and cut it out of paper.

We gave him a precious orb to hold on to, but he didn't look quite finished. Gabi suggested a nimbus for him to sit on, so he got one and looked like this:

Now, we were down to the tricky parts: fabric selection and then the sewing. We riffled through my fabric stash and Gabi chose the materials that appealed to her the most. When that was done we had this:

Then I ironed the pieces onto some iron-on adhesive and steadied my nerves for the sewing ahead. I was so scared that my good-looking dragon would come out crooked or warped! I tested my stitching on lots of scrap pieces to get the tension and stitch width right and then I committed!

I was so glad in the end! I think he looks fantastic and I am so proud of myself! :D (Don't worry, this is most likely a fluke and I may never do this well again! :D) But here, take a look for yourself and tell me what you think in the comments!

Things I've been working on No.2

Okay, here are the pictures! I'll explain more later. I just wanted to put up the pics!

Frustration

Aarrrgh! I've been frustrated in my plans this weekend! Well, not all of my plans, just some of them. I found a post on how to print your own fabric last week and I really, really wanted to try it. I was patient, however, and waited until I had to do the shopping to get the last vital piece of equipment: wax paper. I found wax paper in the supermarket, and got it home. After finishing up some other things, I got out the wax paper, iron and a test piece of calico. I let the iron heat up and applied it to the paper (wax side down against the fabric, I'm not THAT silly!) and then...nothing. There wasn't enough wax on the paper to melt and stick to the fabric! Grrrr! Now I have to hunt for really waxy paper. I'll let you know how I get on...

Crafty

stuff. I've been finding heaps of it lately!

First of all there's CraftGossip(http://craftgossip.com/) which has loads of awesome stuff on it. Heaps of freebies and links to tutorials to stuff I'd have never thought of doing at home! Okay, I mostly just watch the tutorials, or flick through the pretty, pretty pictures, but if I ever wanted to do any of them, now I know where to go!

Thanks to CraftGossip, I have found the blog of an inspiring woman. She's 82, and loves to sew and quilt. You can find a link to her blog in the blogs I follow. Her blog name is Funoldhag. She's got some amazing projects up there. Check her out. Please.

On the topic of crafty stuff, my husband made me a light box! Now I can trace patterns without having to hold them up to a window. Way cool! Thanks, honey!

News!

Hello again. As some of you will know, Gabi has been diagnosed with scoliosis, or curvature of the spine. It's not a painful condition for her, it's just that she's twisted. No, really, her spine is quite curved but everything else is in perfect working order. There's no nerve issues or anything like that and her back is otherwise fine. We don't know why she's growing crookedly, she just is. However, we do have to go and see a scoliosis specialist because of the degree of the curve in her back. So we're off to Melbourne next month to see what treatment she's going to need! Before we can do that, Gabi has to have an MRI, so we can have a complete picture of her back. We've been told this will take about 45 minutes and that she's welcome to take a CD to listen to while the MRI is in progress. So, what suggestions do you have for a Gabi's Scoliosis Scan Session cd? I was thinking Twisted by Brian McFadden...

I know, I'm mean! :P

I must confess...

...to several things. Number one is that I'm jolly slack when it comes to updates.

Number two is that I have more photos of stuff I've made to upload, but again, I've been jolly slack about it.

And number three is perhaps the most embarrassing. I'm a Rick Astley fan. Again. I was one in my youth, when he was big in the '80s and here I am, nearly wetting my knickers over his new single, Lights Out. I adored his Cry for Help and Sleeping (okay so that one's much more recent and I may never have stopped being a fan!) and this new one is great. You should check it out. Really. One of the best things about the '80s is back and I'm a fan, and I don't care how naff it is. :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMau-DXAeMU is where you'll find Lights Out.

Things I've made recently No.1

Here are some pictures of cross-stitches I've finished recently:

Mum's Mothers' Day picture.
A ninja because I thought it was cute.

A vampire that doesn't sparkle. (Although I could have done that, and may do it on request :D)

What do you think?

I've got another couple of pics to upload later (I have to take them first!) of some more things I have underway and completed.

It's been an age

since I last posted! I can't believe how slack I've been about blogging! Bad me! :D

We've still been doing heaps of stuff; we've had quite a few trips to Sale lately. Mike had a recital a couple of weeks ago and Gabi's year put on a couple of plays last night. (They're performing them again today for the rest of the school.) Junior Jazz band is going well; they even let me sit in and play too! :D Mike's getting a new clarinet today, and we're going to be on the lookout for a trombone for Gabi too. Ben's got new suspension for his car and he's thinking about doing a hill climb soon. As for me? I'm looking for a job and I went into a florist's yesterday and handed over my resume. (There was a position vacant sign in the window, I didn't just pick a florist's on a whim!)

Holidays are upon us from Monday. The kids are ready for a break and we're going on a road trip! Well, the kids and I are anyway. We'll go and catch up with my grandparents for a couple of days while Ben slaves away at a new coal face. No, really, he's moving over to a different mine.

GTG. Be back later with a new post!

How time flies

when you are busy living!

We've been busy with soccer and music and running around like chickens with our heads cut off!

This last week has been really quite hectic. (Now I'll list everything and it just won't seem very busy at all! *rolls eyes*)

On Friday last week Mike and Ben went down to Melbourne with most of Mike's soccer team to see Kevin Muscat's Testimonial match. (Kevin plays for Melbourne Victory and has spent 10+ years at the club, so the club threw him a celebratory match. Nice, eh?) It was Melbourne Victory against a Come & Play XI. At the second last minute, Ben called and said I'd have to go instead of him, because work wasn't going to finish in time. Then at the last minute he called again and said he was done for the day and he could go. Where was I? Had I passed him yet?

No, thank goodness, I had not! I took my car and the kids in it to meet him and swapped out. I picked up his car and came home and had a nice quiet evening with Gab. Gab, interestingly, got hooked by the movie that was showing that night, The Lakehouse. She'd like to see how it ends, sometime. I found this quite amusing, as Gab normally isn't one for girly chick-flicks. She doesn't like all that gushy romance stuff, and hides whenever kissing scenes come on to the screen in other shows. I think it was the time shifting that caught her attention. We shall see when we get to watch it all!

Tuesdays are now looking to be quite busy. This Tuesday Gab started playing with the Junior Jazz Band at her school. Tuesdays are also soccer training days. I have to pick Gab up by 5pm from rehearsals (which are about 50kms away from home!) and Mike has to be at the soccer ground about 1km from home, by 5pm. There is no late bus for Gab to catch, which means I have to drive to get her. To get to her rehearsals by 5pm, I must leave home no later than 4.30pm. Which is also the time Mike arrives in Traralgon on the regular bus. So I must have afternoon tea ready for him and all his soccer gear out, before I go. It also means that Mike has to get himself to the grounds. Which isn't so bad, except for when notices have to go out. I'm the team manager for Mike's soccer team, so I have to prepare all the notices. *sigh*

Thursdays are also quite busy. I help out the daughter of some friends with her maths on Thursdays, from about 4.30pm until 6-ish. Mike also has soccer on this day, and Gab always has a vocab/spelling test on a Friday, which means revision on Thursday. Just a bit busy on a Thursday...

I know that it doesn't sound that busy when it's all written down like this; but when I'm in the middle of it, it's just go, go, GO!

GTG now. Stuff to do!

Awesomest concert ever!

Last Friday, Ben and I went to see Jamie Cullum at the National Theatre in St. Kilda. It was just amazing! (For those of you who don't know Jamie, check out http://www.youtube.com/jamiecullumworld; I just love his cover of Don't Stop the Music and We Run Things Another Way is *sigh*)

He was just great to watch. Very energetic and involved with the audience. Towards the end of his show he came up to the back section of the theatre and performed Cry Me A River, and mixed in some of Justin Timberlake's Cry Me A River. His band came up too (a snare drum, trumpet, sax and double bass) and Jamie got people to get closer and dance and then we all went down to the front section of the theatre and moshed to Mixtape! It was just so much fun that I was sad to reach the end of it... but we had a great time and look forward to Jamie returning so we can take our kids to see him!

I've been away for a long time

and I don't really have a good excuse! I just got caught up in living that I didn't stop by here and tell you all about it.

Oh well. I'm going to do better; I really will.

We've had a fairly good year so far. We've visited Tassie and had some of Tassie visit us; some of us have been to Canberra and visited some art; we've even just stayed in the one place for a time!

This is just a quick post to let you know I am still here, and I will return!