Sometimes you need to use whatever's on hand....

..... to create the perfect curve

Something to think about

I was just reading this post over at Blog Chicks, which is originally from Cathie at The Year of the Cat, and it's something that I've never ever given any thought to before:

What will happen to our online identities when our physical ones are gone?

Head on over and have a read.....very interesting.

Confused...

I'm dogsitting at the moment.
The dog is inside. asleep on the couch.
The cat is...... confused.

Hip Hip Hooray!

It's my birthday today.... and I've officially hit the mid thirties!

I was going to make myself a birthday cake, but I went to a new local cafe / patiserrie yesterday and they had lots of scrumptious cakes on offer, so I took the easier option and just bought one instead. It's chocolate mud cake with lots of chocolate on top..... my favourite.

I'm having morning tea / brunch with a girlfriend and then heading to my sister-in-law's beauty salon for a manicure and french polish, so it should be a lovely day.

Eat or Sew?

I'm having a bit of a dilemma today.
It's a beautiful sunny day, and I really want to just stay home where it's nice and peaceful (except for some horrible dog that keeps barking in one of the neighbours backyards) and sew.

There's plenty of meat in the freezer, and lots of packaged things in the pantry, but the problem I have is that there's not a skerick of edible fresh food to be found in the house. The current fruit and veg supply consists of a plateful of old limes that have seen better days, and a few brown onions in the pantry.

Even the milk is out of date!

How long does it take before you end up with scurvy?

Farewell Cardboard Box

The drawers are finished and I finally have a bedside table again..... the cardboard box has been banished from my bedroom forever

I even managed to make the bed thismorning (with the cat still asleep in the middle).

The colour isn't exactly what it should be, but somebody picked up the wrong stain from the shelf at Bunnings. It was supposed to be more dark brown and less red, but it still looks good.

The funniest thing is that when we moved the huge cardboard box out lastnight (which had been labelled Hats and Scarves), and opened it, we found that it was actually full of fabric!

I have sooooo much fabric that I didn't even miss an entire box full........ and now I need to find room to unpack it. What a problem to have....oh dear!

Back in the land of Blog

It feels like I've been gone forever..... but it's only been a couple of weeks


This is what I've been up to!

Every single room in the house is still a work in progress.

The craft space is nearly at a level where I could actually create something... imagine that!

The port-a-cot just needs to be moved to the spare bedroom, and there are a few more bits and pieces yet to find homes, but the whole place is starting to actually look liveable once more.

I am really behind on reading emails and blogs. Getting an internet connection was a real struggle because I don't need or want a home phone. I've ended up with an overpriced pre-paid Telstra wireless plan while I wait for Three wireless to be extended into my area..... but I just can't live without the internet, so there's a price that must be paid.

I might still be a little quiet over the next week or so while I continue to unpack and catch up on all my favourite bloggers.

I did manage to make it to the Stitches and Craft show on Saturday and catch up with Cathy, Nikki, Liz, Fi, Justine, and Jenny, and I finally had the chance to meet Martine and Michelle and Johanna which was lovely. I hope I didn't miss anyone. I wanted to go and say hi to Louise and Cathy from Audrey and Maude but they were surrounded by customers. I also missed Jodie and Michelle who were over in the the other building when I visited... drats.

I have some photos on my mobile phone, but do you think I can actually find the usb cable to download them???

One more sleep

In the last couple of weeks, this is the one little crafty thing that I've managed to create.
It's a market apron for Tinniegirl to wear at the Stitches and Craft show that begins in Melbourne today.

You may recognise the gorgeous birdie placemat that I've used for a pocket. It's one of the set of three that Lynsey from Swirly Thoughts and Cuteable sent me all the way from the UK.
I'm going to make myself a market apron using one of the other birdie placemats.

I can't find the presser foot for my Janome (it's packed in a box somewhere), so I had to use my sisters Husky to whip this one up. I've never tried a Husky before, but I liked it! I might just have to borrow it at some stage so that I can send my poor overworked machine in for a service.

My new house settles today so I should be picking up the keys sometime after 11AM. I'm extremely excited! The moving van is bringing back all of my earthly possessions tomorrow (including my bed), so it's only one more sleep and I'll be back in my own place once again.

I'm daydreaming about unpacking all my fabric.....

PS - There's a great giveaway over here at Badskirt!

Guess who caught the bouqet?

My brother and his fiance were finally married yesterday.
The weather was absolutely perfect for a wedding.
The bride looked stunning in white..... my little brother looked stunning in his suit teamed with his white DC's.

The view from the reception was lovely

The Best Man made the wedding cake


and I caught the bouqet.... he he he

MIA

Sorry no photos today....

I've moved out of my old house. The new owners came to do the final inspection lastnight.

After the moving van took all of my possessions away to put into storage, I realised that they'd taken away my little red suitcase in which I'd specially packed all of my underwear. After two days of moving and not enough sleep, and the prospect of being bra-less and undie-less, I had a little bit of a teary meltdown. But, I managed to pull myself together and go shopping (I dread shopping for bras...aaggghhh)!

Now, I have some lovely new underwear so I'm happy again.

I am seriously questioning my sanity after thinking that I would be able to get any crafting done in the next couple of weeks while I'm staying with my sister. I ended up packing the craft supplies in a huge rush on Friday without labelling anything, and just throwing random things in to boxes. Suffice to say, that now I can't actually find anything. Luckily, I did actually manage to locate my rotary cutter thismorning... just in case I need to cut some fabric for some non-existent sewing.

Counting down......ten days to go.....

When boredom sets in....

Instead of packing..... you build a leaning tower of boxes, right up to the ceiling!

Two weeks and counting.

Edit: these are all still empty.... I haven't actually packed anything at all in them yet!

Conspiring

Do you ever have one of those days when you feel like the whole world is conspiring against you?

After the six hour blackout Friday night, I then had no power at home for another four hours yesterday (some sort of fault with a high voltage underground transformer apparently).

So I thought that things would be better today. I tottled off down the street to post some parcels (no queue at the post office - fantastic), and then headed to Aldi to buy some groceries. I really wanted a tuna sandwhich for lunch, so I had the tuna in my trolley, and was heading for the bread aisle when....... THE POWER WENT OUT!

Everyone had to leave their trolleys and go home......

In desperation, I got back in the car and headed for Macca's drive through, and ordered a chicken fillet burger. The nice lady asked me whether I would like seared or crispy, and I ordered crispy...... what did I get?????

We interrupt this transmission......

Six hours with no power lastnight.

There were no faults in my area..... just something the Victorian government calls 'Load Shedding'. It doesn't matter whether you have previously registered with your power company as having vital medical equipment.... you still get switched off. What year is it again?

Love Fridays....

It's time once again to Love Fridays.... and for very good reason.

Exciting newsflash - my old house has been sold and this is going to be my new house!

These photos are from Realestate.com.au and this is obviously not my furniture, but from the 11th March, this is my new home.

I have very exciting plans to turn the above room into the kitchen / dining / living area and then.....

....this dining area becomes my craft space.

Here's my sketchy vision. The back wall will have overhead cupboards, and a bench all along the wall, with drawer units underneath.
The side wall will have tables for the sewing machine and overlocker, and the big wooden bench which is currently in my kitchen, becomes the cutting bench for the craft room.

Of course, I haven't actually taken any measurements to work out whether everything will fit, but this is how it looks in my head at the moment.

This area is completely open to the living room, so I'm also thinking about either having a gorgeous curtain that I can pull across, or some sort of sliding or folding screen. I'm not sure about keeping the carpet yet, but I might just see how it works out.

The most exciting thing about the house is that there is an entire wall of storage cupboard space in the laundry. It's bigger than the built in wardrobes in my current bedroom and will be absolutely perfect for housing the fabric stash. Just think, I can bring things home from the oppy, wash them, dry them, and put them directly into the cupboard..... joy! Oh how I adore good storage solutions.

Now that I have somewhere to move to, this weekend is dedicated to sorting and packing and deciding what I actually want to take with me. There might just be a lot of Freecycling going on.

Head on over to Tinniegirl for more Love Fridays

What the?

I ordered myself a new mobile phone the week before christmas.....

It was supposed to be delivered christmas eve (I had to stay home between 9 AM and 5 PM to wait for it). It didn't arrive....grrrrr


Today, a courier driver delivered this huuuuuge cardboard box.

With this little mobile phone....

At least 80% of the space in the box was empty..... very very strange indeed!

Who ya gonna call.... Spiderbusters!

A post without a photo.... read on to find out why!

I had a terrible emergency lastnight..... I partook in my normal routine - call the cat inside, lock the front door, turn off all the lights. I headed up to my bedroom to go to sleep when I spotted a huge Huntsman spider on the ceiling above my bed. I screamed and ran to the ensuite.... and then thought to myself, "What the hell am I supposed to do now?". There's always been someone else in the house to deal with spider emergencies.

I called my brother first and he was already in bed, so I called my brother in law next. Luckily, he came straight around and sprayed it and took it outside and put it in the bin. There were a few icky moments when it ran under the bed and he couldn't find it..... but thank goodness, I witnessed him actually take out outside to the bin so I'm sure it's definitely gone for good!

I really really despise spiders......

I refuse to put a spider picture on my blog... I would just end up scaring myself.

Lessons for today

Carefully check the pattern on the fabric before you cut out the pieces for the shorts!

Strange encounters of the teethy kind

Smile Tooth Fabric Uploaded by Warm 'n Fuzzy on 19 Apr 07, 10.24AM PST.

I'm very diligent about making sure that I visit my dentist for a checkup and clean every 6 months and I've been attending the same dentist for about 10 years now.

Friday afternoon, I popped in for my checkup and clean, and for the first time ever, the dentist asked if I've been grinding my teeth. Of course, I said no, not that I've noticed. He said that I may have been grinding them in my sleep without knowing, so I should take notice of whether I have a sore jaw or a headache in the morning.

I didn't really think anything more about it until I was back in the dentists reception waiting to pay the bill. There was a pamphlet named 'Help for Bruxism (teeth grinding)'. As I read on, there was a section on 'What causes it?'. Bruxism is commonly triggered by a stressful event such as starting a new job or a new school, examinations, relationship probems, or some other personal crisis.

So now I need to focus on de-stressing and not worrying about things or I'm going to grind my teeth away...aaaagggghhhh.......... now I'm worried about teeth grinding too! It's not really working.

Ups and Downs...

Life is still a little rocky over here at CurlyPops HQ. Some days are great...some days basically suck. Luckily there's a higher incidence of greatness over suckiness (is that even a word?).

Today was a half and half day.....the morning was great, then most of the afternoon sucked and now I'm just exhausted. There's just been way too much upheavel and change in my life to deal with over the last few weeks. But, I won't let it beat me, and I won't let it get me down.

Crafting and blogging and op shopping and Blogtoberfesting have been much cheaper outlets than therapy sessions. Anyway, tomorrow the sun will shine, I'll feel better....and I'll probably go op shopping.

Photo: Op Shop find last Friday for 50 cents....

Tagged!

I almost forgot (I'm sure I'm losing even more marbles as I get older), that I was tagged this week by The Essess, Pink Licorice Life and Kats Creations (thankyou ladies).

The rules are simple:
Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write Six Random Things about yourself.
Tag six-or-so other people at the bottom of the post.
Leave comments on their blogs, letting them know they've been tagged!
Let the person who tagged you know when you've written the post.

1. I can't watch AFL football unless my team is playing. Go Bombers!
2. I really want to make myself a stencilled t-shirt with a print that reads 'Stop staring at me' to wear on my outings to the shops and the supermarket, but I'm not sure whether other people would find that offensive.
3. My favourite item of clothing to wear is jeans with a nice top
4. I hate getting out of bed in the morning...it's a struggle
5. My brain doesn't switch off when I go to bed. I can lie there for hours thinking and worrying and coming up with great blog posts that I can never remember in the morning.
6. I love blogging (ok, so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work that out).

I'm going to tag some Blogtoberfesters: Hanging with my Nomies, Bellgirl, Taccolina, Two Pink Possums, The Princess & The Monkey, and Badskirt.