WIP Wednesday...

Wow. It's been over a month since my last WIP report!
And actually that was a report stating that I'd done nothing.
Ooops...
So lets remedy that fact with an actual report on progress...

The month hasn't been as productive in regards to quilting as I would have liked because I've been so flat out with work & obviously having a 10 day holiday did not help! Never the less, thanks to my super awesome Sew & Bee-Happy ladies I do have some progress on at least one project to report...

Remember this: My Reverse Starbust quilt:

tutorial here...

(please excuse the pukey colours in the mock up - they were obviously a very vague guide - I gave my friends a more accurate verbal description of the colours I was after...).

Since my last report I have made my two contributions:

And I have received the following lovely blocks:

From Judith

From Kara

From Nicky

From Emma

From Cindy

From Hilary

(I'm so sorry for not linking to you ladies. I'm just so tired and there's too many of you, so I'm going to pull the lazy card tonight so I can have an early night...)

And here they are looking all cool together -
only 4 more to come... the 2 pinks, red & another teal...

Can't believe how cool it's looking to be honest! Love love LOVE it! :)
And seriously - can you believe that I've already received most of my blocks already and it's only the last day of my month. You ladies are awesome - thanks so much!

I'm also up to date with all my bee blocks, despite my holiday. So that is good progress!
I already showed you my CARE blocks for do good stitches. Here are my blocks for Sew Aussie for Claire's month...

I absolutely adore the fabric & type of block Claire chose! As you can see though I ran out of fabric for my second block so could only make half of it. I think a few of us were guilty of that mistake. Me included. It's a big learning curve having to send fabric instead of sewing from your stash!
I think in many ways I prefer stash bees. I get so stressed about stuffing it up when it's other people's fabric...

And that pretty much brings me to the end of my progress. My other 5 or how every many other projects (too scared to count them in case they've bred some more) have not even been looked at.
Told you it wasn't much - my friends were the ones that did all the work for me again bless them!!

Which brings me to this reports stats:

Finished projects:  0 if we don't count bee blocks. Which lets face it, don't really count...
New projects started: 1
Projects ignored for now:  a scary number


Can't see those figures improving for a while either actually unless I count work stuff, which will get boring quickly because there's so much of it. Hopefully come April things will settle down and I'll have some more time to sew quilts.
There's always hope right?


Linking up with Lee, as usual :)

Tuesday Tidbits... the cranky edition...

**  Today I am tired.
 Still feeling the jetlag.
And a bit cranky.

**  Just ask my kids - they know!

**  Mind you, they are pretty cranky themselves...
That's what happens when they decide that 1am equals morning and then won't go back to sleep for another 3 hours.
So fun.
Not.

**  I also started a diet today.
That's no doubt another reason I'm cranky.
But it's completely necessary... I got on the scales this morning to discover that I'm officially heavier than when I was 9 months pregnant with Hannah.
Hmmm.....! Not good!
Just the kick in the pants I needed to stop my see-food-and-eat-it diet.

**  I also had to spend over $500 at the dentist while I was in NZ getting my teeth fixed up
- that's another pretty good wake up call to stop eating so much crap!
It had been 4 years since I'd last been though.
Tut tut - that'll teach me!
But paying out so much money on stupid fillings = another reason to be cranky.

**  That means an end to my diet coke addiction as well.
I'm pretty sure that wasn't helping the teeth thing and it certainly wasn't helping the overall health thing so goodbye daily diet coke treat and caffeine fix :(
Yes, yet more reason to be cranky.

**  I also found out last night that Neil doesn't get back from working away until the 21st March.
So.not.impressed with that news!
That will make it over 5 weeks being separated this stint.
I can't even bring myself to think about it.
I'm sure it goes without saying that this little nugget of info did not help ease my c.r.a.n.k.y.

**  On the plus side I had some fabulous mail while I was away!!
That always cheers me up!...

**  Firstly I received 4 more blocks for my Reverse Starburst Quilt. But I'll show you those tomorrow in my WIP report (otherwise I'll have nothing to show you! ;) )

**  Secondly I received a fabulous parcel of Heather Ross goodness from another WA quilter friend that I know through Facebook. She was so generous to me and purchased this from her local quilt store for me. Thanks so much Waverlee!!

Ooops now that I've seen the photo I realise that I also included the unicorn which was not from Waverlee. That was actually a swap from Laura, another friend from the same quilt group, who was desperate to get her hands on some HR goldfish.
She offered me her soul but I graciously let her off with a unicorn ;)

And Yes friend who begins with S... before you go complaining at me again about hogging all the Heather Ross in the world (pfft) you may have some of this if you don't have particular ones of them (with the exception of the unicorn). Just let me know which prints you are missing and I will send you a care parcel.

**  Thirdly I received this gorgeous Laurie Wishrun print from Kym over at Fabric Fascination...

Kym advertised on Totally Tutorials (which by the way I just noticed has my scrappy quilted pouch in the blog header - how cool is that!) about a month ago for people who would like to receive free fabric. The (small) catch was that we just had to make something and release a tutorial for whatever we made.
Umm.... let me think about that...
OK THEN! :) :)
Since I'm all for free fabric, I applied and luckily got chosen.
So watch this space for a tutorial made from this gorgeous fabric.

**  Suggestions for tutorials are welcome!
(in other words I currently have no clue what I'm going to actually make... ;) )

**  All this wonderful fabric but no energy to sew.
I have officially not sewn in 2 weeks.
Hopefully tomorrow that will change because I'm pretty sure that's another key to my cranky.

**  Ok, I will stop being a moaner now.

**  Time to go fall asleep watching some TV and have a night off in the hopes that my cranky pants get to go in the wash tomorrow and I get to put on my ray-of-sunshine pants instead!

Night :)

Ahhhhh Home Sweet Home...

After a 2.30am start yesterday, 1 hour drive to the airport, 2 flights with tired children {read grumpy children} and another long drive home, we've made it home in one piece fairly unscathed from the experience.
16 hours of travel.
So boy were all three of us pleased to be finally home at the end of that!!

Within an hour and a half of arriving home I had fed the kids and fully unpacked.
That made me feel very virtuous!
In reality I was only so productive because it was 1.30pm when we arrived home and I knew if I sat down I would be asleep within minutes.
So I figured I may as well do something productive to keep myself awake!

We have survived the first night of jetlag induced interrupted sleep.
It's always much worse coming in this direction!
The kids were in bed by 5pm.
I then enjoyed some dozey peace and quiet for a couple of hours until all hell broke loose.
At 7pm littlest was bought into my bed followed by an hour of hysterical screaming and thrashing (hers not mine). Pure exhaustion and desire to be asleep I think. Very unpleasant for all involved whatever it was!
Hers weren't the only tears in the end (I hadn't slept in 24 hours - wasn't my idea fun not being able to comfort her in any way!).
The other arrived in my bed at 1am after littlest started up the hysterics again.
Luckily a cup of milk for both later & I managed to coax them both to sleep until 4.30am.
Not a bad effort.
Hannah slept the best out of the 3 of us, but it remains to be seen how she copes with school today...

Apart from that we are having a ball being at home. The kids made short work of reacquainting themselves with  their toys. In fact it took Hannah all of 1 minute to ask if she could dress up!!
As I speak they are both taking their babies for a walk around the house in their push chairs.
In their high heels.
As you do.
LOL...

After I take Hannah to school today my agenda is to start to sift through my 400 odd emails and catch up. Yikes how quickly they mount up!
Apologies to those who are waiting on a reply from me - particularly a few of my pattern testers- I will endeavour to get those replies out asap!! :)

Sunday Snippet...

Source: thedivinemissmommy.com via Kathryn on Pinterest

Update on the travellers...

Our time in NZ has nearly come to an end.
Which is good in some ways, since we miss Neil at home!
But bad in others because we have to say goodbye...
Again.

We've had a wonderful time here!
Suze & Glen's wedding last week was beautiful!
I'd post some photos but my friends would probably kill me!
They are not girls that like to be in front of the camera...
You'll have to use your imaginations :)

We have seen all the family and friends that we had time to squeeze in a visit this time.
Including my Godfather.
I was thankful to my parents who looked after the girls for a day so that I could do the 4 hour return journey to go and visit him.

My girls have been enjoying Nanny's craft boot camp which seems to have been the theme of our visit.
Lucky girls having a Nanny who works as a children's worker, with a home full of fun activities to do!
There has been much picking of flowers from the garden...

Talking to puppets...

Painting with marbles in a box...

Weaving & beading necklaces & making boxes to store said necklaces in...

And everybody has had their cuddle tank topped up with baby cuddles...

Including the Grandparents...

What have I been doing while all this is going on?
Not a lot is the answer!
A lot of visiting people and spending time with my friends without the children.
What a luxury!
Yay for Grandparents!
I'm feeling very lazy, but making the most of it while I can at the same time!
I also have a cajillion emails to reply to which I just haven't had an opportunity to do.
Sorry.
Tomorrow we have a 2.30am start off back home.
Here's hoping for smooth easy "sailing"
See you all again soon!

My Creative Space...

I have been making some challenging custom orders recently...

They have all been about the layers, layers and more LAYERS!...

The first one was a plastic lined make up pouch...

I was extremely nervous about how this would turn out in the beginning. My client wanted the bike fabric to be totally enclosed in plastic (inside and out) to make it protected and wipe-able. So each side has 4 layers of fabric - the plastic outer, the fabric outer, the lining & the plastic lining. Then there is also 4 plastic covered pockets in the inside.

That meant that at some points I was sewing through 4 layers of plastic & 2 of fabric.

*ahem* Fun!

or maybe not...

I was so relieved when it all came together though. With the exception of the top stitching my machine coped really well with sewing the plastic. I just used a teflon foot and what a difference that made from last time! (which by the way it turned out that I had a teflon foot all along - it came with my sewing machine. It always pays to investigate what the feet do doesn't it!)
The only part my machine didn't like was when I was top stitching - the plastic on the top & bottom just proved to be a bit too much for it. It coped with a bit of gentle "guidance & persuasion", just not as neatly as I'd have liked.

Second up was a cover for my client's Mac Book.

Again with the many many layers - this time the fun was with internal layers of fleece. I used 2 on each side, plus of course the exterior & lining fabrics, because I didn't think 1 layer of fleece would provide enough protection.

I won't be doing this again. My machine did NOT like all of those layers when top stitching. Neither machine did. It was just too too think. Especially when it can to stitching down the velcro...

So next time then tough - 1 layer of fleece it is!

I think I pulled both projects off in the end though. I certainly learned a lot about my machine's capacity for doing thick layers and had some words with both machines in the process!

However, regardless of the small frustrations and issues with the layers, I can see more of both of these projects in my future. They are both very useful items. Always a bonus! :)

Have you got any suggestions for sewing on velcro though? Neither of my machines seems to like doing that at ALL and I could really use some advice.

More Bee blocks...

This is our second month into the new CARE do. Good Stitches bee and I must admit that I'm really enjoying myself making blocks for great causes.

Ours is an international circle, so each month the blocks will go towards making a quilt for a cause of the quilter's choice that month.
This month was Delores' month. Delores also lives in Australia, and this month she is making a quilt for a family who lost their Wife, Mother, Sister etc... Shanean last year to non-hodgekins lymphoma. She was only 37.
You can read about her journey here in the blog that her husband kept if you would like to. Such a sad story.

So these are my contributions to the quilt. I used this tutorial here.
The colours specified were various shades of teal & green, so I thought that this Amy Butler print was a perfect match.

As well as making blocks each month of this bee, every 5 months I am one of the quilters and it is also my turn to set the block assignments, gather the blocks and make them into a quilt. We are only supposed to make 1 quilt in our month, however, I have gained everyone in the bee's permission to put the block contributions toward my Blankets of Love for the hospital. Which means that it will be much better to make a large bunch of very small quilts rather than combine the quilts into 1 big quilt...

March is my month so I've currently got my thinking cap on for a suitable block design. I've a few options but haven't quite settled on an idea... I'm not sure whether it's better to get them to make 1 big block and have 1 block = 1 blanket, or whether we make combine 4 smaller blocks into 1 blanket.
Eeek lots to contemplate. Settling on a block design in the first place would really be helpful!

Wish me luck! Not long to go until I have to make my decision!!

How I do it...

It's often the question on everybody's lips. And if they're not saying it to my face then they're often thinking it...

"How do you do it all? - Keep a blog, sew a lot, run a business, have a husband working away AND have two little kids?!!"

The exclamation points are theirs not mine by the way. I never proclaim to be super woman!!
Anybody who sticks around here for even a short while knows that, and will also know that I have my regular periods of shall we call them "rough patches"...

But despite that, I guess I can't deny that I do do a lot.
So since you asked (well maybe not you, but probably the person sitting next to you...) then I shall spill...
These are my day to day not-so-secret little secrets that help me do what I do...

I'm organised...
By nature I'm an organised person. I cope well with systems and processes. Without those I flounder. Everything in our day usually runs by routine - we eat at a certain time, we get dressed at a certain time, I do the dishes at a certain time, the kids nap at a certain time, the kids watch tv at a certain time, we leave the house & return at certain times... Some things are daily routines & some things are bi-daily or weekly.

It makes me sound very mundane and really it is. But it's how I cope. And it makes me efficient.
It also helps the kids cope. They know what to expect and when.

There are plenty of days that are exceptions to the rule and where these systems go out the window. But for the most part we try and stick to them.
I'm also always looking for faster, more efficient ways of doing things and streamlining the process of our day. Always.

I don't cook (much)...
Yep, the kitchen and I aren't besties. Particularly when Neil is away and it's just the girls & I, we eat simple meals that don't require much preparation, if any. Not all packet meals but definitely simple meals. And the girls are fussy (or at least Hannah is) so more often than not we are all happier with simple meals which are repeated often. There is nothing that drains my energy more than trying to convince Hannah to eat something new (aka something she hasn't seen 150 times. And I do not exaggerate).

They are not usually unhealthy meals but put it this way - I certainly won't be winning any awards for the most nutritious home cooked meals any time soon!
I also don't bake.
So not cooking directly = more time in the bank for other things.

The same philosophy extends to gardening. Yep - I don't do it if I can help it. Our lawn mowing is included in our rent so that's another job ticked off the list.

I touch type...
When it comes to blogging & the computer I'm pretty fluent. I touch type about 70+ words per minute and I'm pretty advanced at most of the programs I use. I've used computers almost my entire life because my Dad was a computer studies teacher. That helps make things happen speedily.
Thanks Dad & thanks NZ for making it compulsory to take typing in year 9!

I do my shopping online...
Mmmmmm online shopping. So much easier than dragging two unwilling (usually cranky) girls around the grocery store. I have a master list saved to my online store and usually I just have to go tick, tick, tick, tick.... to all my regular things and it gets delivered to my door the next day.
I highly recommend it! The delivery fee is negligible. Usually for me it's either $5 or free.
Sweet!

My girls wake up insanely early...
Usually our day starts by 5.30am. But I am in no shape at that time of the morning to actually do anything with them (other than get irritated with them). So usually I will give them each a drink of milk then turn on my computer for me & turn on the tv for them, and we all have "quiet time". It's not the best habit, but to be completely honest I couldn't care less. It helps us all function throughout the day!

We also have another quiet time after lunch. Abbie has a 2 1/2 -3 hour nap during this time and Hannah & I use that time to craft. I still get regularly nagged interrupted, but most days I can get quite a bit of work done in that time. Depending on the day and how tired she is sometimes I will let her watch a movie during this time too instead of do stuff with me.

We have a very busy week day schedule...
 It suits all three of us to get out of the house every morning. All 3 of us get very bored at home. So most weekday mornings we do regularly scheduled activities together e.g. playgroup & toddler jam & play dates. This means that when we are home the kids are usually happy to self - entertain & play together and I can get stuff done in the afternoon if necessary while I watch them play.

I multi-task...
Often I will sit at the table on my computer or outside, watching & talking to the girls whilst I blog or update my shop etc... I try not to do it too often, but most of the time they don't mind as long as I'm still interacting with them and participating in what they're doing as well. It often does my head in though - I'm not the best at multitasking and I find things do take 500 years to finish that way.
That explains why often my blog posts are filled with a zillion mistakes too. Because I'm so interrupted in my writing of them and by the time I'm finished I'm so over writing it that I can't be bothered to proof it.

Sometimes I get the balance wrong and get told sternly to turn off my computer or my phone. That's when I know I need to give them back my undivided attention!!

I am fast at sewing...
I don't know how or why, but I seem to be quite fast at it. My real life friends usually comment on it.
My sewing machine does play a factor in that too, I know it does. Because I do find myself slower on Miss Pfaff than Big Brother. I think it's that nifty thread cutter button personally - not having to pick up the scissors every 5 seconds does certainly speed a girl up! But also because Big Brother very rarely stuffs up. E.g. my other machines are slower because the bobbin thread breaks regularly or the needle becomes unthreaded etc... Big Brother functions extremely well without any of that stuff 98% of the time.
It helps.
I'm so thankful to him!

{Sorry if this is boring you - but you did ask!}

I don't exercise...
Nope not a gym junky. I know - so surprising right, since I look like a supermodel and all ;)
pfft...
In other words I should make time to exercise in a formal fashion more than I do. The only exercise I do is incidental exercise like running after my kids. Which is a fair amount during term time I must admit. But I could use some more!
Only that would take time. And that would mean that I would have to sacrifice something else to make that time.
I'm not quite that desperate to work up a sweat yet! ;)

I don't watch TV...
Doesn't really need much more explanation really. Not watching TV = time for other stuff... We haven't even had TV reception at our house since Christmas because Neil broke it and hasn't had time to fix it since. Since we don't watch TV there didn't seem a lot of point bothering anyway...

Lastly - I'm a night owl and I don't sleep much...
It's unhealthy. It makes me have bouts of grumpiness. I push my body to the limits in ways I shouldn't. But most nights I'm lucky to get 6 hours sleep. Usually 5. And that is often interrupted sleep.
It's gone on so long now that I've actually lost the art of sleep. Yep, now even if I get the opportunity to have a good nights sleep my body just doesn't know what to do.
I wish I got more sleep!
But I can also be known to actively choose sewing over sleeping. It's very very naughty!

So there you go...
That's me.
Not perfect see... stuff has to give to make it work and there are very definite flaws!
But most of the time it works ok for us.

Questions anyone?

Snippets for the Time Capsule...

These are the things I wish to remember about my girls in the years to come...

Hannah:

**  You are currently 3 years and 9 month

**  You have just started school.

** Currently (although I'm aware that it is early days) you are so excited on school days that by 7am you have dressed your own self in your school uniform, packed up your school bay and are begging me to take you. You get quite huffy when I say it's not time yet. In fact the other day you even went and 'told on me' to your Daddy in the kitchen (and 6.50am)... "Daddy! Mummy is REFUSING to take me to school!!"... what you needed to add at the end of that sentence was the vital word "yet" - because trust me, I was more than happy to take you by that stage in the morning :D

**  This is the view of you that I get on our way to school... I'm so proud of your confidence and courage. Upon arrival at school you instantly find an activity to play with and don't look back at me after our kiss goodbye. You just love it!

**  You have such a strong will and we are having a bit of a run of 'talking back' at the moment. Part of me thinks it's endearing because it shows that you are growing up to be such a strong young woman, but right now it's unacceptable and you spend a fair amount of your day by choice in time out learning that you need to follow the rules and not talk back.

** We have finally got you weaned off bottles. What a battle. You were were way to old to still be having them, but since you're not a big eater or drinker I got soft for a while and that made it SO much harder to break that attachment. But thank goodness that's over now...

**  You are getting very good with your letter and number recognition. I'm not sure what your main source of learning these is, but all I know is that it's working because you surprise me whenever you see signs or whatever by telling me which letters are which. You love to read and write!

And paint, and draw, and do playdough and glue and cut and stick and .... the list goes on. Basically anything and all things messy. But what's new.

**  You have been quite sick recently with one thing after another. But you have impressed me with your bravery and ability to cope with it.

**  It still impresses me how much you love all people and will get on with people of all ages. I hope this quality in your remains. For example when your Maia (grandmother) walked off the plane from England, even though you hadn't seen her or really talked to her in over a year, you flew into her arms with excitement about her visit and tootled off holding her hand and chatting her ear off.  Nobody could call you shy, but what a blessing.

***

Abigail:

**  You have just turned 18 months old

**  I say this every time, but you are growing up so fast and there's barely any baby left in you these days.

**  You're still my danger mouse child and are looking particularly hard done by right at the moment with a huge big bump on your forehead from falling down the front steps head first, and a chip out of your tooth from crashing into the table.

I am really gutted you did that! But I resign myself with the fact that at least it's a baby tooth not a big tooth!
** Please stop having accidents though - I feel like it reduces my life by a couple of years every time you have one or I see you have a near miss!


**  You are starting to get interested in things your sister loves. Like babies and dressing up - as you can see from the photo. You have also developed her fondness for shoes and often bring me your shoes to put on you even though we're not planning to go out. Or cuter still you walk around the house in my shoes. Or 1 play high heel - because you aren't quite up to walking in 2 high heels yet. And quite right too... don't rush these things!

Funnily enough, as I write this (on your Father's watch) you have just come and thrown my shoes onto my lap. I'm not quite sure what you expect me to do with them...

**  You love your Daddy so much. You really miss him when he goes anyway or goes to school. Which is really the nice way of saying that you whinge when he's gone. All.day.long. It wears thin I can tell you.

**  You are starting to say more words but still not a huge bunch yet. I'm hanging out for the day that you stop being stubborn and actually call me Mummy instead of just whinge at me. So far your favourites are "gone", "chair", "shoe", "good morning", and that's about all I can think of that you say very regularly. You say copies of short sentences too but I can't recall what they are. I think you're probably trying to run before you can walk again and one day will just come out with a clear sentence and astound me...

**  You still love to dance. Music = dancing in  your world. It's a simple and logical equation really isn't it.

**  I still can't quite pick what kind of personality you are likely to be. You are such an observer but you are far from shy. And then you definitely have your fiesty streak.... oh yes, it's Abbie's way or the highway (Waterworks Road). Period.

**  You are not a "touchy feely" girl and don't appreciate other children particularly encroaching on your personal space. Adults (especially Mummy & Daddy) are ok, but just not other kids. Nope - no touching or hugging allowed thanks! You actually have one little friend who you see coming and quickly back away into the safety of my legs because God forbid she should hug you. It's pretty funny to watch. Not like your sister then who walks around holding hands with her friends and hugging them to death.

**  You love to draw or paint or stick or glue etc... just like you sister & I though. Mind you anything Hannah gets to do you have to do too. Oh yes!

**  You are still very cheeky and like to watch me as you do your rat bag (danger mouse) antics with a cheeky smile on, just to see what I'll do.


Love the both of you to bits!

Love Mummy

Sunday Snippet...

Source: sayingimages.com via Kathryn on Pinterest

Today I am so grateful for friends. 

And today I'm particularly grateful to be spending time with 4 of my longest and dearest friends ever; Claire, Suze, Becki & Michelle. All girls I went to school with and who I know I'll be friends with forever.

We span 3 different countries, and zillions of miles, hardly ever getting the chance these days to meet in person, but when we are all together it's just as if we've never been apart. 

This weekend we have all come together to celebrate Suze's wedding, meet Claire's new baby and Michelle's new man.

I can't remember the last time we were all together, but it was many many years ago and it will probably be many many years until we do again.

So these are special times!

Here's to a weekend of cherishing great friendships :)

Nosey Parker in the Neighbourhood #4 - The Crafters Edition...

Welcome to Nosey Parker in the Neighbourhood!

This Edition is all about Crafting yeah baby...

If you are unfamiliar with the Nosey Parker linky then you can read all about it here...
No formal rules other than please use the button to link back to my blog {code available here} and of course please play nicely together which I'm sure you all will... no peaking through the underwear drawers thanks LOL ;)


1)  What are your preferred crafts? Do you have one primary one that you do most of or do you dabble around in many different crafts?
I have had a long list of different crafts in the past. Art was always my favourite subject at school, so in my teenage years I went through the painting & drawing phase (school), the making jewellry and collecting beads phase (early years in marriage), the scrapbooking phase (shortly after moving to Aussie 3 years ago) and the Sewing & Quilting phase (that would be now).
I still have supplies for nearly every media I've ever done, and still dabble in different artforms, but predominately I love to sew most so that is what I do most of these days.
I still have my art & photography portfolios from high school, but I'm too embarrassed to show them to you sorry LOL...


2)  What avenues inspire you most in your sewing/crafting that we might like to check out?
e.g. what are your favourite books or websites or shops to visit etc... that we *must* know about ;)

Some things that inspire me at the moment...
click on the photo for the photo credit info.

In the past I have been most inspired by school and teachers & other people. But these days I am pretty limited to books, magazines and the internet. The internet being the biggest factor there.
I'd love to go to more classes and even one day when my children are older I'm looking forward to being able to do a degree in some kind of design or textile related field. But until then I'm really very limited in stuff I can do from home. 
Yay for the internet hey! It's always there come rain or shine, come kids being sick or in the middle of the night.
I get most inspiration from blogs, {when I get time to read blogs that is}, followed by Flickr, Pinterest and an Australian Modern Quilting Facebook Group I'm part of (if you are in Australia and want to join then email me for an invite I'm sure we'd love to have you :) ).
I'm also very blessed to have a very inspiration bunch of local friends who are into crafting and sewing in lots of different mediums. If only we could meet more often. Same old usual story of time & accessibility with young kids being a factor.


3) Are you a one project at a time person or do you have "craft ADD" - OR are you somehow like me and have a combination of both?
Well... I am a curious combination in that I have craft ADD in terms of I can't make the same thing over and over. BUT I tend to be a finisher. I tend to like to work on one project through to completion. It stressed me out to have too many WIPs. Right now I have about 5-6 big WIPS on top of all my ongoing bee & work stuff and quite frankly that is my limit. I can't cope with having too many more than that.
Most of those are waiting on bits from other people for me to continue as well...
Current WIPs are:
**  My wonky house quilt (yeah so that's all on me)
**  My lounge quilt - waiting on 2 more bee blocks
**  A few donated Blankets of Love - these will all be finished together in April. It's just easier to do them as a production line.
**  My Rainbow picnic blanket - well it's only my month this month so I still have all the blocks to receive. Oh la la they are looking SO cool from what I've seen on Flickr. This is quickly becomming another favourite
**  Quilt for Abbie. That's a long long story. I won't bore you with the details today...


4)  What is/has been your longest ever Work in Progress (WIP)?
Hmmm.... I'm thinking that probably my wonky houses quilt which were made for me in my bee month November 2010. I was originally aiming to have those done by Christmas 2011 but I gave that idea away in favour of finishing the girls quilts.
I'm not sure if they can even be counted as a WIP anymore because I haven't put them back in my schedule. Hmmm maybe Christmas 2012 might be realistic.
But I will finish them. I will, I promise! 
It's not that I don't love them, it's just that they are well... tricky... and I have come to a bit of an impasse. I know as soon as I get past that then it'll all come together very quickly. :)


5 ) What are some of your crafty projects that you've made recently (or not so recently is ok to) that you'd love us to see?
Tough one for me since I'm the host and I feel like I bombard you with photos of all my projects. 
A crafty project which I have made regularly in the past & always love making (and which you probably haven't seen before) is this...

I used to really love making my own scrapbook photo albums. This one was one of my particular favourites which I made for a friend for Christmas a few years ago.
I could probably do a tutorial on these at some stage if anyone is interested. They are so easy & effective & only cost a few dollars to do.


6) Do you have a piece of fabric or craft item of any sort with a story behind it that you'd like to share? 
Hmmmm.... not a fabric that I can think of. I probably haven't been sewing for long enough to have developed that kind of thing.
I do have a make that has a bit of a story and I don't know if I ever actually told you what happened about it...
I made this gorgeous pouch here last year for my pretty little pouch swap partner...

It was a big hit in the group, and is still today one of my most "favourited" ever makes on Flickr.
Which probably explains why I grew quite attached to it. Yes - very very attached I grew, and I just could not bring myself to give it up. That's the first & last time that's ever happened to me before (although I have been known to mail things within a couple of hours of finishing them just so the same thing won't happen. Just ask Fiona... ;))
So I ended up going back to re stalk my partner and made her another pouch which luckily she liked better (phew!), and now the rainbow pouch lives with me and is the home to all my scissors & rotary cutters. 
How selfish. ;)


And that's my story. How bout you?


Look forward to reading your links :)
You have an entire month to link up, so don't panic if you haven't pre-prepared...

The Kiwi's have landed...

IMAG0880, a photo by Flutter from.Kat (Mummastimetocreate) on Flickr.

We have arrived in Wellington, NZ safe and sound after 2 fairly painless flights. Yay for the kids being on best behaviour!

Here we are trialing the new Qantas in flight entertainment system- we each got our own ipads. What a fab way to keep the kids quiet! Cheers for that Qantas! Apart from being a bit of a nuisance at mealtimes in terms of where to put them, they sure get my vote as a success.

Now since it's just gone 1am here I think I better go to bed. And so the jetlag begins...

See ya tomorrow for Nosey Parker.

Kat Xx

Guest posting & we're off...

Just a quick note tonight to say that I'm guest posting today (with a giveaway) over at my friend Karen's blog Listen to the Birds Sing as part of her friendship February celebration. So head on over there and say Hello & enter the giveaway :)

And on that note I'm off and ready to say,
Goodbye Australia & hello New Zealand for the next 10 days...

I am off to gorge myself on fejoia flavoured food, witness a besty's wedding, overdose on hugs from friends and family, and steal cuddles from another besty's brand new baby.
I can't wait :)

I have whittled and whittled my packing down to 2 suitcases and 1 carry on piece between the 3 of us. Yay me!! I'm quite pleased with that travel light effort! Now I'm just having the slight panics that I won't have enough stuff, but since I'll be probably having to carry a 12kg child as carry on then I'm thinking I'll be thanking myself for packing light!

So I will see you back here soon. I will be trying to stop by a few times to say hello and give you some holiday news, but otherwise I have a bunch of posts scheduled. So there will still be plenty to see while I'm away :)

Have a great few weeks & I'll see you back soon

Tuesday Tidbits...

**  Hmmm..... what a day....
Yesterday was Hannah's first full day at school. She loved it. But on the back of being sick last week when she got home she was T.I.R.E.D. Read; hysterical and over emotional about everything....
Unfortunately that has carried over to today.
I am not loving the behaviour.
I am trying not to give her away.
Luckily I still love her anyway...

**  I am also still not feeling great.
I finally went to the doctor yesterday.
Luckily my blood pressure is absolutely fine still - I was a little worried it was that...
So stronger pain killers, a full blood work up and referral for an ultrasound later, and hopefully I should know what is up with my body very soon!

**  I have not started packing yet for our trip to NZ on Thursday.
There is not much time to go.
I am not yet stressing, but I am thinking that reality will set in really soon and I might turn into something resembling a headless chicken. Soon. But not yet.
I've still got other things to do first.

**  We had the carpet in our house professionally cleaned yesterday
What a mammoth task - read above about having still things to do before I can think of packing
- putting the house back together after moving all the furniture around for the carpet cleaning is one of those things!
Although it's mostly there now.
What I was thinking doing that this week I'm not quite sure!
But it is REALLY nice to have clean carpet. It has helped my sinuses already & my headache I must admit.

**  Neil had a half day today and has the day off tomorrow.
He has officially now finished the electrical part of his Uni Studies for his apprenticeship.
YAY!
I think him having some time off might be something to do with why I'm not stressing about packing yet.
I know I have all day tomorrow to focus on just that...

**  Ok now on to the bit you care about - I have drawn the winners for my fugly giveaways....

Winner 1: 

Contratulations MC - you win the brown pack :)

Winner 2:

Congratulations Rhonda! You win the green :)

Winner 3:

Whoopsy - accidentally saved my random org pic as the wrong file type - but the Random Org picked # 7 who is...

Congratulations Tracey, you win the blue pack.

If you three winners could please email me with your addresses then I will get your parcels off to you at the end of February when I get back... :)

**  Lastly, thank you to all of the people that volunteered yesterday to be pattern testers for me! I have enough applications now thank you.
I haven't had time yet to make a decision, but when I do I'll be in touch.
Thanks heaps, you guys all rock!!