Best in Show

This weekend we took ourselves to the Townsville Show.

We did a lap of the showgrounds, but we didn’t go on any of the rides or buy any of the show bags. The boys did get into the spirit and eat dagwood dogs for dinner.

Our reason for going was to visit the art gallery to see Pip’s painting hanging.

I am immensely proud to announce that he was awarded a highly commended in the open arts under 18 section.

Imagine that! Awarded for his first ever painting. The boy has some talent! I hope this gives him to incentive to continue. My Pete and I would love to see him pursue a creative life. This has been one of the good things about his surgery. He has had to slow down and it has given him the freedom to follow his interest in drawing and painting.

It would appear that it may well be a very rewarding pursuit…

Finished!

I did.

I finished something:

 

I started these the week before Easter.

 

Of course I was completely certain that I would have them finished by Easter in addition to working, running my house and finding time to eat and sleep.

One day I’ll learn!

For the next two weeks I am on holidays and I plan to finish lots of things. No doubt I’ll start lots of others though…

Girly Goodness

The ever tasteful Kirsty provided me with some girly goodness to even out the excess of masculinity in my home.

A personalised card:

(although Kirsty should know that I would only ever drink diet coke while watching an exercise video!)

and some beautiful sherbet-y fabric.

I may just wear this fabric around the house to ward off boy germs.

One of the Dudes

For the first time in my life I live in a household that has more boys than girls.

What does that mean?

So far it means that I have to watch Scrapheap Challenge every night of the week and Gladiators on the weekend.

It means being impressed by incredible physical feats.

Hey Mum. You know Tom. Yeah, well, his brother Jack can lick his own elbow. I’ve actually seen him do it.

Apparently it is really difficult to do. Although no one can tell me why you would want to do it…

Frog and Dizzle

Is there anything so funny as a slip of the tongue? When you know what you want to say, but it comes out the wrong way.

Last night in the news the lady reading weather said that we could expect frog and dizzle this morning.

We were concerned, but shouldn’t have been. This is what the sky looks like today…

and there is nothing froggy or dizzly about that!

Email

I like email.

Especially when they say this:

hi there,

 

Just letting you know that your Documents are ready to collect for your trip to Paris.

 

If you have any queries please let me know.

Fellow grammarians please let me know – is email the plural as well as the singular? I think it is…

Never Wake a Sleeping Baby

This was considered a rule when Ashleigh was first born.

I have not spoken to or had contact with Ashleigh for almost three weeks while she has been touring Europe. I know that she is back in France now. I know that she went partying with other exchange students until late last night, her final night of the bus trip. I know it is nine o’clock in the morning in France.

I am just about to text her so that she will have to wake up and talk to me. She may not be as delighted to hear from me as I will be to hear from her…

too bad!

Designing

I have been commissioned to design and make a quilt for a magazine. I always enjoy the process of design. I am certain that there are as many ways to approach designing as there are designers in this world. I would never advocate that the design process should be formulaic, nor that one way is better than another. Whichever way it works for you is the right way to go about it. I approach it as a process of problem solving.

I draw and re-draw. I trace what I have drawn and make little changes. I look for lines that are too straight or without character and try to get rid of them. If I want symmetry I draw half the shape, flip it and draw over the reversed shape, then trace the two sides as one shape.

I like to work at the finished size and will use large sheets of paper when I can get them. (This is the real reason I married an architect, they have lots of big sheets of paper that they don’t need any more.) I use lots of paper, lead pencils, permanent marker, scissors and sticky tape as I try to get the shapes exactly as I want them.

This process is made easier with the new purchase we made.

 

Our fancy new printer with seven individual ink pots. It scans and copies, it reduces and enlarges. It lets me crop, add a frame or take away a border right there on its built in screen. It will preview what it is about to print so that I can check that it looks right.

I’m in love with my printer…

Sleep Well?

A conversation you don’t really want to have:

My Pete: Man, I just saw the biggest huntsman ever!

Me: Did you get it?

My Pete: I think I managed to spray it.

Me: Well, where is it now?

My Pete: I don’t know. It disappeared into our bedroom.

Note: the spider in this picture is not a huntsman. I think it is an orb spider. I took the photo near Innisfail. This spider was bigger than my hand, but thankfully its web was high up in the trees and not in my bedroom!

Narnia

knock knock

who’s there?

narinia

narnia who?

narnia business…

The boys went off to see the new Narnia movie. I did not go. I have decided that I am against all sword movies. There seems to be a proliferation of sword fights on a grand scale in movies. Frankly, I blame Lord of the Rings. Since that first movie there are so many involving crowds of people with swords held aloft, running toward each other making a noise somewhere between a scream and a grunt. I find it incredibly repetitive and boring.

So they went, I stayed home and made four-patches…

and shiny silver star appliques…

and listened to beautiful music.

Not a bad way to spend the evening, actually…