Now I Can See The Moon!!

How's THAT for a cryptic blog post title?!?! :0) It comes from a very famous Japanese haiku poem written by a Samurai warrior called Masahide that I remember learning at school and it goes:

My barn burnt down,

Now ...

I can see the moon.

Personally, I've always thought it was a bit of a drastic way to have a lunar viewing and a much less permanent way to do that would have been to just go outside!! But that's just me! Tee! Hee! Hee! I guess it's really taking the ol 'silver lining in every cloud' outlook to the extreme! :0)

Why have I gone all 'Zen' on you? Well, I had a bit of a "Masahide" moment myself the other day. When we bought our Federation cottage, our assessment was ... it had good bone structure, but needed a LOT of cosmetic work. And one of those cosmetic jobs was to fix a number of cracked window panes. Since we're in the middle of our epic sewing room makeover and renovation, it was time to tackle the cracked pane of glass in one of its windows. This is what it has looked like for quite some time ...

It looks a little bit like the window is winking at you, doesn't it! Tee! Hee! Hee! Now, where that little square is, there is a piece of glass actually missing, so in winter, the wind was whistling in there, so I did a quick patch up job ...

OK ... so with cardboard and sticky tape being my repair materials of choice, I will never be a glazier! But ... it DID do the job and kept the wind and rain out of my sewing room, however, with the makeover, it was time for the patch to come off and the pane to be replaced. Did I say "PANE" ... er ... let me amend that to ... "PANES"!! Apparently, there was a little 'OOPS!' when my Beloved Geek Boy and his Dad were getting the damaged glass out.  I was pretty pleased to hear about it AFTER the fact! Tee! Hee! Hee!

So, I thought that was that ... new glass, new look window ... all's good. And THEN ... on the weekend, I walked in to see ...

EEK!! Someone stole my window ... now I can see the garden! Tee! Hee! Hee! See ... there's my 'Zen' moment! :0) Apparently, it was easier to paint the window when it wasn't actually IN the window. Since I had no idea how to put said window back into its hole in the wall ... I had to take GB's word for it!! However ... at the end of the day, I was rather pleased to see ...

The window back where it belongs and looking rather stunning with it's new glass and new paint job. All of the blue painting has been finished now (and BOY is my arm still telling me about how long it was wielding a paintbrush!!) and all of the trim has received it's undercoat, just needs its final coat of semi-gloss and then it's up to me to finish the de-clutter and putting back of the sewing room 'stuff'. SIGH!! Still sorting, tossing, re-housing and reassigning the 'stuff'. And STILL ironing and folding stash fabric whenever I'm watching TV. I'm REALLY hoping to get myself sorted in the next week or so, but promise to share some more update photos as we go.

On another subject ... thanks to all the OPAM gals who emailed their March finishes through to me or Peg ... much appreciated and always lovely to 'chat' to you ... although I DID seem to spend quite a lot of time writing emails on the weekend! Tee! Hee! Hee! Stay tuned gals, Peg will be announcing the prize winners tomorrow!! A big congratulations to you all for the biggest month of finishes we've ever had for OPAM ...

830 Finishes!!

WOW!! Mind you, there were a couple of gals stitching madly for upcoming craft stalls and over 200 of those finishes were from Sabine ... who obviously hasn't eaten or slept for the whole month of March to  finish so many projects! Tee! Hee! Hee! But whether you finished 200, 20, 2 or no projects last month (I'm in that boat!!), if you made time to do SOMETHING creative, if you made a little bit of progress on a long-term project, if you got all of your requirements together ready to start a new project ... well, don't beat yourself up ... you've still taken a step forward and exercised your creative muscles, so that's what really matters! :0)

And now ... I think it's time I went and did a little bit more de-cluttering before dinner ... or perhaps I'll sit down and have a cup of tea til the urge passes! Tee! Hee! Hee! Hope you're all having a fabulous start to your week ... will be back soon to tell you about a guest blog post that I've written on another blog ... stay tuned! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS

Sewing Room Update & A Project!!

Here I am, as promised to give you a sneaky peeky at the progress in my sewing room makeover. While I knew this would be a pretty big task, I had no idea just how EPIC it would become! Ben Hur's got  NOTHING on the makeover of my sewing room! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Firstly ... some of the photos I HAVEN'T taken would be ...

• The embarassingly-numerous garbage bags of rubbish that have been taken from the sewing room ... so far!!!
• The bags of 'stuff' that have been packed up to pass on to friends, family, the Salvos ... anyone who stands still long enough to have a bag thrust into their arms!! :0)
• The precariously leaning piles of books, videos (yes those antique DVD's! Tee! Hee! Hee!) and magazines dotted around the house
• My Beloved Geek Boy bumping into a bookcase that didn't used to be there in the dark! :0)
• Me tip-toeing around previously mentioned leaning towers in the middle of the night when I go 'walkies'!!

You may laugh ... and in fact GB and I have both spent a bit of time laughing at each other's mishaps ... but remember, if you laugh TOO loudly, I shan't be at all sympathetic to you if/when you undertake a similar makeover! :0)

So ... on to the peek of our progress. We're working a little differently to the norm (now THERE'S a surprise - NOT!! Tee! Hee! Hee!) in that, instead of emptying the room and applying paint coat one to the WHOLE room, then repeating for coat two, then attaching all skirting board, painting all skirting board ... etc ... we have been working in quadrants. There's so much 'stuff' in the sewing room that it just won't physically fit into other rooms ... which you can well imagine have their own 'stuff' in them already! :0) So, working around this problem, we've cleared half of the room, then shoved the other half of the 'stuff' against the opposite side of the room and done all work to that half (paint walls, attach skirting board and window trim, paint same) and now that this is finished, we will shuffle the furniture across to THAT side and continue the process. So ... this is the finished side of the room ...

This is where one side of the ugly built -in cupboard was torn out and it's now a nook just the right size for my new sewing desk ... which is also finished. I LOVE how it's come up and it's so sturdy that this baby will NOT be a-rockin' when I get my faithful Huskie fired up! :0) We've got two shelves installed above it and  you can see how the baskets of my fabric stash will be stored ... most of those baskets are empty yet ... except for one ... can you spot it?? It's a bit like "Where's Wally?" Tee! Hee! Hee! We'll put another shelf above these that will house some of my 'pretties' and pattern samples. Still tossing up what to do about that section of the floor ... at this point, a mat is sounding like a great solution! :0) Oh ... the doorway into the sewing room from the hallway is just to the left of this pic.

A funny story about this photo, my Huskie and my Hubby ... I had been complaining loudly to GB that I hadn't been able to sew for over three weeks now and was suffering withdrawal symptoms. He'd obviously taken this on board (or was just sick of hearing me whinge!!) and emerged from the sewing room and very proudly told me that he'd cleared the spot for my new sewing desk and set my machine up on it, so I could now sew. I thanked him very much ... then pointed out that, actually, besides the fact that there's a lot of construction clutter and saw dust around that I wouldn't want to get on my fabrics, I still can't sew because ... the machine's power cord and pedal aren't attached! Tee! Hee! Hee! They were put somewhere 'safe' during the packing up of the old sewing table and I haven't rediscovered them yet. But .. it's the thought that counts, right?! :0) What a sweetie my GB is!

Back to the sneaky peeky ... around the corner from the desk and on to the next wall ...

You can see that my made-over cupboard now looks right at home in this room ... the fabric panels were the inspiration for the wall colour. This window looks out onto our front verandah ... still deciding what style/colour curtains/blinds to put up here ... it needs SOMETHING, cos we're on a corner and have three bright street lights beaming into the front of our house at night. Since the daybed in the sewing room is sometimes used as an extra guest bed ... having something at the windows for privacy and to block the light to allow guests to sleep is a must. The window already looks heaps better than before we began ... it didn't have any trim around it and looked a little shabby ... now it looks bigger and stands out nicely against the blue. Hopefully a bit more progress will happen tomorrow - it's our Show Holiday and although I'm working (Highfields where I work has a different show holiday!) GB and his Dad are going to do a bit more on the sewing room makeover, then we're at the weekend again ... will update you some more next week ... hopefully! :0) Oh ... and if you'd like to take a peek at the true colour of the walls (it's a bit hard to get a good pic in the current overcast weather) you can pop over here ... the colour we're using is "Sea Note".

Now to the "Project" in my heading. Another of my projects has been published in "Handmade", with my complimentary issue arriving today.

The lovely Victoria has been following that up for me and it's nice not to have to chase down a copy of the issues with my projects in! :0)  And the project ...

My Scrappy Hearts sewing bag! This project (like the Shabby Chic Hearts published a couple of months ago and pictured hanging on my hutch in the wider shot above) is fabulous for using up the smaller pieces of your pretty fabrics that you can't bring yourself to throw away, plus it has pockets inside to house all your sewing goodies, so it's perfect to pack up to take with you for a sewing play date. It's in the current issue of "Handmade" Vol. 29 No. 1. And I'm in fine company this month again ... The lovely Jenny of Elefantz has a pretty rosey coffee set in this issue; embroiderer extraordinaire Val Laird has designed a fluttery butterfly bag that all little girls are sure to love and sweet Fee (Fiona Ransley) has a bag in this issue featuring a stitched saying that had me singing a childhood song under my breath for some time later!! "There was a farmer had a dog and BINGO was his name, O!" (I'll get you back for that, Fee! Tee! Hee! Hee!) Oh ... in case you haven't guessed and didn't see from the cover ... this issue of "Handmade" is a "Bags For All Occassions" issue ... so all of you 'bag ladies' out there, be sure you don't miss out! :0) And if any of you make up my little sewing bag, I'd love to see some photos! :0)

That's it from me for now ... I'm off to have a cuppa and look at the pretty pictures in my mag again! :0) OPAM gals ... the end of the month is upon us, so please update your sidebar list of finishes and drop Peg or me an email to let us know how many projects you've crossed off your "To Do" list. And even if you're like me and haven't got any finishes to add (don't stress ... life will get in the way from time to time!!), if you could just let Peg or I know, it saves us a stop in our epic blog-hop. In the meantime, I hope you're all having a fabulous week and managing to steal a bit of time to do something that makes you smile! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS

Goodies, Gifties & Still Going!

Well, here we are again at "Sunday". How on earth does Sunday roll around so darn QUICKLY?!?!? This week sure has flown by with barely enough time for me to blink, so I thought I'd better catch you up on what I've been doing.

Firstly ... I popped into my Home-away-from-home on Thursday after I finished work to lend a helping hand with Marion and Steph's ongoing Flood Appeal Quilt Drive. There may not have been many people there, but there sure was evidence that they HAD been there ... Marion told me there are now 132 quilts completely finished, with quite a few more scattered around with people working on them at home! WOW! Well done to everyone who's been involved in any way at all! What a HUGE effort! I also got to catch up with Marcia (she of the 'Girls' Stitch In' karaoke!!) and met the lovely Helen, who had travelled up from Ipswich specially to help out with the quilt drive, even though she said she still had her patchwork/quilting "L" plate! :0) I was designated "Go-fer" and did more ironing of seams and backing fabric than I ever do of clothes at home! I'm smart enough to have a LOT of non-iron clothes! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Friday then saw me jump in the car and toodle off down the hill to Brisbane to spend the day with my bestest-buddy-since-we-were-nine Lynette. She had texted me earlier in the week to ask if I'd like to go down to check out the CraftExpo. We decided it was the perfect way for both of us to avoid housework for a day, so off we went. Things with this craft show have been shuffled about somewhat. It used to be at the end of April and it used to be a lot bigger and combined with a bear/doll display, as well as a sizeable display by Queensland Quilters. Well ... I have to say, this year's event was a bit disappointing for me. It was only about half the size it usually is, with less exhibitors and less room to move, a number of classes were held in the middle of the rows, rather than off to the side to free up space and the quilt display was limited to one challenge. Not sure if this was due to the aftermath of the flooding, or whether exhibitors are just finding it all a bit too pricey to attend as many shows at a time when our quilting stores carry a much larger range of sewing accessories as well as fabric, not to mention online stores offering the convenience of shoping at home. Who knows ...

On the upside, Lynette and I still managed to have fun looking at what WAS there ... AND ... we bumped into the Lovely Lilly Linda and her Mum who were also scooting around for a look-see!! It was quite funny ... I'd read the night before on Linda's blog that she was heading off to the craft fair, but I hadn't got around to telling her I was going too. So, there Lynette and I were, in the middle of isle two and I said to Lynette ... "Lilly Linda is here today somewhere, too ..." was about to add ... " ... though it will be virtually impossible to see her in this crowd ..." ... when I looked ahead in the crowded isle ... and who should I see standing three people away from me ... LOVELY LILLY LINDA! :0) Obviously we were meant to catch up ... which we did over lunch! Now, I was PRETTY good and didn't buy TOO much ... but a few things DID follow me home ...

Here are my GOODIES from the day ... two pieces of yellow fabric ... nice yellows are hard to find, so I grab them when I can and these were in 30cm strips, rather than fat quarters, which I find more useful for what I tend to use them for. Two pretty beady bracelets ... the beads were so pretty and since I'm too lazy to make some for myself, these were just the ticket ... the green one has a dragonfly charm hanging from it and the red one has a leaf and a rose. I popped the red one on straight away, as it matched my outfit! :0) And lastly, I shouted myself a pretty new pair of stitching scissors. The blades are quite sharp and pointy, which will be great for getting into small spots to snip threads and I liked the idea of the blade guard so I don't poke myself when the scissors are in my sewing pouch ... and the little beaded chain hooking the guard to the scissors means it will be harder for me to lose it ... not IMPOSSIBLE, you understand, just HARDER! Tee! Hee! Hee! So, all in all, I lovely day out ... and housework was successfully avoided by both Lynette and I! Tee! Hee! Hee!

OK ... I thought I'd show you a few of the gifties I've been spoiled with for my birthday ... gifties are the payoff for turning another year older, right?! :0)

This isn't my usual style, but such a pretty colour green that I'm sure I'll find something it will go with. My parents-in-law gave me this flowery necklace and earrings.

This GORGEOUS hatbox was given to me on Thursday by the lovely Marion and Steph ... I LOVE it!!! :0) It will look so nice in my sewing room ... once it's finished ... !!! I have been thinking of adding a few "Paris-y" touches to my sewing room, so this is just perfect! And ... USEFUL!! In fact, I'm already putting it to use ...

As I work my way through the LOOOOOOOOOOONG process of sorting, ironing and folding my stash, I'm using it to store pieces of fabric that are still big enough to be useful for applique` or smaller patchwork projects, but not big enough to be able to fold and fit in my stash baskets. Thanks Marion and Steph!! :0) Steph and I always remember each other's birthdays, cos they're just two days apart! Tee! Hee! Hee!

And lastly ... the work in the sewing room is STILL GOING! SIGH!! It really is turning into a longer-term project than we'd hoped, mostly due to interrupted work time and things beyond our control ... like a 'quick' trip to Bunnings turning into a three hour epic exercise due to the lack of helpful staff!! GRRRRR!! My poor Beloved Geek Boy was ready to hit his head against a wall just to get some attention ... and perhaps to vent a bit of his frustration! :0) Some progress has been made, though. I'll wait til the end of today to take some update shots to share with you in the next day or so. Meanwhile ... back in the lounge room ... I spent time yesterday sorting through my non-patchwork/quilting fabric stash and managed to cull it by more then HALF! I was pretty impressed with how ruthless I was being ... Mum would be proud! She's the de-clutterer of our family! :0) The fabric I culled will go do my dancing Buddy Lynda, with some going to my Goddaughter Erin (Lynette's youngest) who has just discovered the joys of making Suffolk Puffs ... or "Sucky Puffs" as Bronwyn Hayes calls them!! ... and she is happily decorating hair clips and ties for herself and friends. Yep ... corrupt ... oops! ... TEACH ... 'em young! :0) And I've done a bit more stash sorting, ironing and folding ...

As you can see ... I've moved on from green to blue ... though I am still finding the odd green fabric mixed in with other colours. I may still be doing this at Christmas!!! EEK!!!

So ... there you go ... a round-up of the end of my week. It sure has been a busy one and I'm hoping by the end of today, I'll feel like it's been a bit more productive too. Starting to stress a bit cos there's been NO sewing happening here for the last couple of weeks ... not even any hand stitching, since the time I usually do hand stitching has been highjacked by the stash sorting. SIGH!!! I hate to admit it, but this may be the first time since May Britt and I started OPAM in 2009 that I will have ZERO finishes to report for a month!!! What a bad example I am!! Still ... Peg is such a Super-Stitcher that she makes up for my slackness! :0) Don't forget OPAM gals ... it's almost that time of the month again, so be sure to update your sidebar finishes lists and drop Peg or I an email ... remembering that the lovely Peg does NOT have an "H" in her surname.

And now ... I'm off to toss some washing in the machine and go back to sorting, ironing and folding ... GROAN!!!! Hope you're having a productive weekend, whatever you may be doing! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS

Let Them Eat Cake!!

As some of you guessed, my special day on Sunday was my birthday, which this year coincided with the autumn equinox AND the moon being the closest to earth ... busy day! Tee! Hee! Hee! Sunday was rainy and overcast here on top of the hill, but that didn't stop me from having a lovely, if low-key, birthday. The day started with my Beloved Geek Boy bringing me brekkie in bed (no crumbs! I checked!), we then pottered around the house for a couple of hours, before heading off to meet some friends for lunch ... no photos cos I forgot my camera. Bad blogger!! :0) The afternoon was wiled away chatting and watching the rain ... a rather pleasant way to spend a birthday afternoon. :0) No dinner here that night ... a cup of tea and we were good! :0)

Then today, I was treated to a bit more birthday spoiling. Most Tuesdays, I meet up with my dancing buddies Lynda and Deb for lunch and a catch up. Today when I walked into Lynda's place ... there was a mini-party waiting for me! :0) Aaaaaaawwwww!! How spoilt am I! There was a birthday banner, balloons, party punch and yummy nibblies ... as well as ... BIRTHDAY CAKE! You know it's not a PROPER birthday until you've had cake! :0)

And it was home made, too! :0) Lynda sent home what was left so I could share it with GB ... he'd already found it before I got to take this pic ... tsk, tsk! :0) Thanks Lynda and Deb for my mini-party ... it was so much fun and gave me the best birthday gift of all ... the reminder that I have some wonderful friends in my life who make every day so much richer, just by being part of my life! THANKS GALS!! :0)

And a big thank you to all of you lovely blogging buddies who've sent birthday wishes too ... I know I have been a bit slack in replying to comments and emails in the last week or so ... somehow I keep running out of hours in my days! :0) But be assured your well wishes made Sunday even more special! Oh ... and do you see the pretty green depression glass vase in the centre of the cake pic? That was my GORGEOUS birthday giftie from my bestest-buddy-since-we-were-nine Lynette. It looks great with my little collection of depression glass on the hutch and is a great size to pop flowers in, too ... oddly enough since that's actually what it was designed to do!!! Cake and gifties ... it's almost worth having to turn another year older! Tee! Hee! Hee!

The other thing that took a bit of my time this afternoon was ...

Getting up to date with my mailing! EEP! Apologies to the gals who have been so patiently waiting for their prizes! I'm off to see my Australia Post buddy Raymond tomorrow, girls, so start stalking your posties next week. Posties of the world .... BEWARE!!! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Right now, though, I think I hear left over birthday cake calling my name, so I'm off to pop the kettle on. Hope you're all having a fabulous start to your week ... even if you haven't had cake! Tee! Hee! Hee! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS

Oops! I'm Back!!

I've just realised I was supposed to do my prize draw for my "Old Ted Wall Hangings" give away on Friday ... OOPS!! Sorry about that! I seem to have lost a couple of days again ... so if you've seen them, please return them! :0) I have a REALLY good excuse though ... honest! :0) Well, several, actually, but the main one is that I've once again been trying to bring a bit more order to the chaos of my sewing room renovation. This time, I decided to tackle my fabric stash. First, I hauled it all out into the lounge room ...

There's another smaller storage tub still under the daybed in the sewing room, but I can't get to it for all of my Beloved Geek Boy's painting gear ... it's only a single layer of fabric as it was my attempt to start getting a bit organised, so not a lot more to add to my stash total. I have to say, I feel pretty OK about my stash after seeing a few pics around blogland ... some of those gals could start their own fabric shops with their personal stashes! :0) So ... time to get organised. That involved a trip to Office Works for these ...

I think the staff at Office Works thought we were a little odd ordering around 20 of these, but I wanted to make sure I had enough! :0) These will sit on some shelves above my new sewing desk. So with storage acquired, I began the LOOOOOOOONG, laborious task of ironing, folding and sorting my stash. Talk about time-consuming! You see, to fit two rows of fabric in to make the most of the space in each basket, I have to fold and iron the fabric to a certain size ... which is NOT the usual folded-fat-quarter-size. SIGH! One day I'm going to do things the EASY way and everyone will be completely shocked ... including ME! :0) I made up a cardboard template to help keep things neat and hit the ironing board ...

I think I'm going to need TWO baskets for my green fabrics!! Can you tell I'm a GREEN gal! Tee! Hee! Hee! It looks nice and neat, though ... will do some more this afternoon and tonight while I watch a bit of tele. Oh ... do you see the new blue sewing room wall in the background? It's a bit dark cos it's overcast and raining here today, but you can see we're making some progress ... SLOWLY! Liz at Teddlywinks and I are going to form the ...

"Sewing Room Renovation Stress Support Group"

... cos she and her Beloved are also renovating her sewing studio ... and our messes look very much alike! Tee! Hee! Hee! Pop over and lend her your support and sympathy! :0)

OK ... so that's how I came to forget about my promised giveaway, but I'm ready to announce the two lucky winners now. Firstly, thank you to everyone who shared their "Old Ted" stories with me. I always love to hear about people's favourite teddy bears ... they just seem to play such an important role in all of our lives somewhere along the track! :0) OK, so, the winners of a copy of "Old Ted Wall Hangings" pattern are ...

The Chocolate Cat

Pat From LF & MI

Congratulations to you both! If you'd like to email your snail mail addresses to me, I'll pop your prizes in the mail for you.

In the meantime ... I'm off to get ready for a lunch date. Its a special day for me today and I'm heading out to celebrate with GB and some friends. :0) Hope you're all having a great weekend so far! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS