Another long absence from the blog

And for no good reason. I am just downright lazy when it comes to getting my act together to blog to you. I don't think it's because I'm boring (although I probably am!); I just don't tell you about my boringness.

Life is not quite so boring at the moment though. Mike is away on a bushwalk; Gabi is going to Melbourne on Friday for a Young Leaders Day (being run through the school); Ben is rehearsing to be part of a choir (they're performing some of Handel's Messiah) and we have a house guest! One of our cousins, Nicole, is staying with us for a few days while she does some nursing coursework at Monash Uni in Churchill. And I'm back to looking for that highly elusive, externally paid employment. :P Other than that, it's pretty run of the mill, regular life here.

Catch y'all again later. Maybe I might do some crafty stuff and blog about that... :)

First day back

and Mike left his notebook at home. *facepalm*

I asked the obligatory :"Does everybody have everything?" as we exited the front door to get to the bus.
"Yes Mum!" they chorused.
"Ok off we go then, " said I as we climbed into Gus. (Gus is our Ford Territory; it's short for Angus, because he's just a little bit fancy.) The children head over to the bus stop, with their friends, to wait for the bus. I have a quick chat to some of the other mums and then go and do the grocery shopping. As I pull up in the driveway, I get a text from Mike asking if his notebook is on the table. And it is. He says he can manage for the day without it, so we'll see how his first day back was when he gets home. Lol.

It's good to be home...

Oh, alright, I haven't really been anywhere that would explain my looooong absence from blogging, but I like the quote. Yes, it is a quote (from ST:Enterprise). I remember silly things like that. I have the mind of a steel trap...a trivia trap!

I'm currently waiting anxioulsy to see if I have managed to join the ranks of the profitably, paid externally, employed. I saw an advertisement in a local shop window and put forward my application. I was interviewed. The sign is now no longer there, and I am waiting for the call!

School starts again tomorrow. The holidays went quite quickly! Too quickly for Mike (my son) and not quickly enough for Gabi (my daughter). :D One of Gabi's school friends rang her yesterday to find out if they were going to be in the same class! Remember when that was your biggest worry? We're all set to go here; lunchboxes are clean, bags are packed and uniforms have been tried on and found fitting.

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!