S is for ... Scatterday

Hi people ... yes there actually IS someone else reading this ... there must be - a few of you are leaving comments - LOL - I am glad you like this weird stuff I post/write! LOL

This week, for Scatterday, we are supposed to do:
Letter - S
Categories - Fruit, Things that make you itch, Gold

Yay - that was a lot of fun! ... but I guess I should really put the photos onto the computer so that I can post them here - LOL

... I was going to do that about 2 hours ago, but I kind of got lost here - http://canuvworms.blogspot.com/ (it was one of the "blogs of note" on the main page of blogger, when I went there to sign in to write this blog post ... so of course I had to check it out ... and I am very glad I did!)

anyway ... time to upload those scatteerday photos and put them in here ...

< andrea grabs memory card and starts uploading photos, and "looses" another 3 or 4 hours! >

(I wonder if those pointy brackets will vanish too? ... had to do funny things to make them show up like that ... otherwise they just vanish - because they are used to put html code inside ... so I have to type something in html that makes them show up as pointy brackets, instead of just typing in a pointy bracket ... no wonder us nerds/geeks/whatever are such odd people - LOL)



First, I had a (much needed) haircut on tuesday, so here is something that makes me itch - Short Sharp Spiky hairs Stuck in my Shirt and Sticking into my neck!

well - you can sort of see them in the photo ...


for Fruit, I was hoping to find what is a common sight at the high school I work at - squashed bananas ... but there were none this week ... so I had to Settle for Some Squashed Sultanas on a Skewer:

actually I am not sure these are sultanas (Dh did the shopping) but they look the same anyway (just didn't taste as nice as the last lot of sultanas I bought)


For gold, I figured i could photograph my gold and white Socks:

... on the floor in the shower - LOL



I also had a few other ideas that either didn't "cut the mustard" or were extras, that I didn't realy need because I already have 3 ... like this one - I found this Spider at work this week, but at the time i couldn't remember exactly what the catagories were, so I took a photo just in case it would fit into one (besides - who cares if it didn't fit into a scattagory - this Small Spider was rather cute! ;-)


When I went to get the camera (to take a couple more photos, then put them on the computer) our cat - Spook - decided to wander into the Shower ...

not that she fits in any of the catagories ... except maybe she is a FRUIT cake! lol
(actually she goes in there to drink the water off the floor!)


I also snapped a photo of the Stuff I bought on Special at the Shop that was having a closing down Sale ... some of it (braid on bottom right) Has GOLD in it ... LOL




Before I remembered about the sultanas in the fridge, I was thinking maybe I could get DD to make herself a banana smoothie so I could take a photo ... then DH mentioned that there was some other fruit in the freezer ... what a great excuse to have some desert!

- a "berry" nice smoothie - LOL - I like blackeberry/etc smoothies, but not banana ones ... btw - the pinkish bag (that has the spare camera memory cards and batteries in it, and the card reader and computer cord) and DD's purple jumper sleeve match my fruit smoothie rather well - lol

There was also a bowl,with some potatos, on the bench next to it -

... they look kind of GOLD (they tasted yummy too!)



While I was in the kitchen, I suddenly remembered the GOLD Spoons/etc that DH and I inherited from his mum:

- a teaspoon, a tablespoon, and a desert spoon.

... and while digging them out of the drawer, I found this weird banana Slicer!


... then I turned around and found a Swimming carnival certificate Still Stuck to the fridge!

it is DD's, from primary school ... she is now in her 4th year of high school! ... time to sort out the junk stuck up on the fridge? LOL
- it looks a bit greenish in the photo, but it is printed on GOLD paper ... and, for some odd reason, DH sometimes calls a certificate a "Siffticate" ... actually I do too ... probably some stupid ARMY slang we both picked up?

Then I found a yellow/gold "Something" in these shelves (next to the fridge) ... actually a bit of some kind of construction set (like a plastic version of Mechano) ... and when I was lining up the photo I realised that the Sodastream gas clyinders have GOLD tops on them!


... and it didn't stop there! - walking back past the TV, I realised that the cricket might be able to be used for scatterday too -

GOLD Stumps in front of a GOLD Sign, while the Green and GOLD Aussies are playing against Sri Lanka

and - perfect timing? - a Spectacular catch?! in the "golden" hands of one of our team ... lol

yes - that is getting a bit tenuous - LOL

but surely a GOLD Sunset isn't?

I found this in the photos I was putting on the computer - I took it a couple of days ago - not becaue of scatterday - becuase we get a lot of good sunsets and i like taking photos!

and I took this one just before I put the photos onto the computer -

a Scratch (on my arm) ... which made me ITCH - that is the only reason I noticed it was there! ... it was probably a result of a rather rough game I had just been playing, with our cat, Spook!


taking photos, of my right arm, left handed - is not that easy ... maybe I should have just taken this one - another scratch, on my left arm!

actually that is a worse photo than the other one! LOL
... but it also shows a Scab - and they also ITCH.
(which is why I tend to Scratch them)

Just before I pulled the card out of the camera (to put it in the card reader thingy) I realised I was drinking some wine (made frome grapes = fruit - LOL) that starts with an S

a Sangiovase Shiraz
... actually it is a Shiraz Cabernet in the glass, but when I went and grabbed that (empty) bottle - DH noticed what I was doing (I had told him about the scattagories thing while I was taking those other photos in the kitchen) and he went and got this bottle instead ... ok - sort of cheating ... but it looks the same and I am drinking some of that bottle now! ... well - my other glass got empty, and DH DID leave the other bottle in here ... LOL

The other funny thing is - the description on the bottle of wine kind of fits me! - "An enigma I am, straight forward I am not, my make up a mystery that shall never be got" - LOL
Yep - sounds just like me!!!

also sounds like Diesel - our GOLDen Retriever, Seen here (on the floor beside me, while I was taking photos of the bottle of wine!) Scavenging/Scrounging a Snotty tissue! - he likes to eat used tissues! (yuck!)

I was originally thinking of including a photo of him wet - a Soggy GOLDen Retriever ... if u want to see that one - look Here - a Soggy GOLDen dog with a big Stick - LOL



and now ...

... it is time for this Slightly Sozzled FRUITcake (me!) to go to bed ... lol

btw, DD had a brilliant idea ... but I don't have one to take a photo of ... a Mango ... the Skin/Sap makes me itch (I think I am allergic to it), they are fruit, and the flesh is gold ...
... and now I feel like some mango! LOL
(I can eat them ok ... just need to be careful peeling them ... or get someone else to do it! ... if I touch the mango skin, then any sensitive part of my skin (face, arms, etc) then I come out in a swollen exzema type rash ... very itchy and yuck ... and it is not a good thing to discover that fact by handling a pile of mangos and then scratching/rubbing your face ... very itchy and not a pretty sight! LOL


yawn ...


goodnight


but b4 I go ... better check out http://michellewatters.blogspot.com/ and see if the boss has posted hers yet ... oooh yes - she has ... and posted the next weeks Scattergories - now I have to start thinking of things for the letter H, and Colour, Games and Pointy Things ... that could be a bit of a challenge (hmmm - can I get some students at the school I work at to play "hangman" on the whiteboard, with coloured, pointy pens? LOL)

I think I need to sleep on that one ...

... well ... I know I need to sleep! - and i think had better go to bed before I go to sleep on the keyboard! LOL

Sorry

Sometime in the not so distant past some Australians did some pretty horrible things to some other Australians ... I wasn't born yet, but it is possible that some of those who did those things were my ancestors ... things were different back then, and I guess they had their reasons, and they may or may not have known (or cared) what effect it would end up having, but either way, those who had those things done to them have been asking, for several years now, for our government to say Sorry ...

It needed to be said.

It has now (finally) been said.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/kevin-rudd-says-sorry/2008/02/13/1202760342960.html

Now let's move on ...

and by that, I don't mean lets do nothing/forget about it, I mean lets keep going and fix what needs to/can be fixed (if anyone knows how?) and help our nation move on to greater things ... in other words, I hope today's "sorry" isn't just an empty word - hopefully we can all make it mean something ...

and, no, I am not talking about just throwing some money around and hoping it will all go away - that hasn't worked yet, so why would it start working now?

I had better stop before I start sounding political or something - I am not particularly political - I know next to nothing about most of the stuff that goes on in politics ... but I do know that politics seems to get tangled up with a few more things than it probably should ...

Andrea,
probably "thinking out loud" here ... and probably putting my foot in my mouth or something, knowing me ...

Scatter 2 days late ...

I didn't forget that it was Scatterday on Saturday - I didn't post this because I wasn't near a computer!
(I was here - http://www.4wdspectacular.org.au/ - I am a member of one of the clubs that run the thing, so I was out there helping (for some of the time) and having fun (for most of the time) all weekend, and I even slept out there - in my swag in the club's display tent! ... anyway - I can tell you more about that later - probably in my next post sometime in the next day or 5 - because I don't want to be 3 days late with my scatterday post! LOL)

btw, I am pretending I am not posting this a day or 3 late - I have not looked at what everyone else has posted yet, because that way I won't accidentally get any inspiration/ideas from them before I have posted this lot.

This week was: the letter I - Yellow, Australian, Something you would find in the air ...
... and I had already thought of (and taken photos of a lot of) stuff for most of it by about tea time on Sunday!

So ... what did I come up with?

I was hoping to find a yellow fly - then it would have done all 3 things - been an Insect that was yellow, Australian and often found buzzing around in the air ... but I didn't fine one so I had to make do with this lot:

If this was a contest and/or I had to just do 3 things - I would have chosen these first 3 ...

Yellow:

Indicator paper ...

The same stuff that has the Interesting Instructions on it - see this post.

Australian:

Indigo - an Indiginous plant ... on the Internet - LOL (in case you can't read the URL on the photo ... or you want to click on it rather than type it - it's here - http://www.anbg.gov.au/gnp/gnp1/indigofera-australis.html - the "anbg" stands for Australian National Botanic Gardens - which are here in Canberra ;-)

Found in the Air:

Insects ... 2 different moths (or maybe at least one is a butterfly?) on the lawn ... one of them had yellow underneath, that showed up when it was flying - but it was kind of impossible to get a photo when it was flying in the air!

I also had a few more ideas:

Inflorescence (which is a fancy word for flowers ;-) with YELLOW middles.

I could also call it "Infusion" - because I think this is Chamomile - which is used to make tea (which is an infusion)

In the bin ... with a yellow lid ... but using something like that is kind of cheating a bit though - LOL

A "yellow" dog Investigating (well he is sort of yellow - he is a GOLDEN Retriever after all ;-)

I am not sure what he was sniffing/looking at ... possibly the yappy dog in the next yard, or a "present" the cat left buried in the garden ...

I kind of got a bit weird with this one ... the peg is yellow, the Hills Hoist (clothesline - Ingeniously Invented In Australia) is Aussie and the undies are In the air ... I know ... a bit silly ... lol

More Insects ... not yellow though ... but they are Australian

and I could get really technical and say that because they are not mature adults yet that means the stage of development they are at is one of the several "instars" they go through (an instar is the technical name for a stage of development in an insect that hatches from an egg in an Immature (another I word ;-) form and then goes through a number of moults before the final one where it comes out as an adult). These are a species of Praying Mantis (or is that Preying? ... I probably should look that up sometime - lol) ... and from their small size I would guess they have at least a couple more moults to go before they grow up.

They are related to stick insects - which is what I used to keep as pets for a while ... the stick insects ate gum leaves, but these things eat ... stick insects! (and whatever else they can catch) ... how do I know? well, apart from the fact that I learnt that in science lesons/on tv shows/etc - I have also seen one catch and eat a rather pretty moth that I WAS trying to take a photo of until it flew away ... and landed in exactly the wrong place at the wrong time! I also found an even smaller one of these 2 or 3 years ago, and at the time I happened to have a similar sized stick insect that was not looking too healthy (sometimes they would loose a few too many legs and not be able to crawl out of their skin properly the next time they moulted) so I put the 2 of them next to each other and watched nature do what nature does - "eat or be eaten" - LOL (yes - one ate and one was eaten ... no prizes for guessing which one was the "winner")

can't see them in the above photo?

- here they are:

now you can see how small they are ...

I took 2 more photos, that I can use for this scatterday, on Saturday:

a yellow sign, In the air ...

... with Information In the tent underneath (info about the Land Rover Club - which I am a member of - which is why I was out there - this club, and 2 others in the ACT run this show every 2 years!

It is also Australian too I guess - all these pictures are, because they were taken in Australia and are of stuff we have/do here - even the one I cheated with and took a photo of a web page - it is an Australian website!

BTW - see that white picket fence - on Friday night I parked the Land Rover next to it, moved the table, and rolled out my swag inside my own little "yard" - LOL (I slept outside the main tent because the snorers were sleeping Inside it!) ... on Saturday night I didn't have the LandRover there (DS took it home because he needed to borrow it to get somewhere) and there was a snorer inside (again) - and the snoring was coming from right near the white fence, so I rolled out my sway a bit further away (out of the photo to the left, still just under the awning so I would not get rained on, but far enough away from the snorer that I couldn't hear him - luckily he wasn't very loud or I might have had to go find a vacant awning on an exhibitor's stand nearby! lol)

I also took this photo late on Saturday evening:

the slide is yellow, and the top end if fairly high up in the air, but it doesn't start with I ... but Inebriated does - and the people at the bottom, who had just gone down it, most likely were! ... I was too ... only slightly though (it's a bit hard to get too drunk on 3 or 4 light beers), but I went down the slide a few times too - and I would have done the same thing totally sober. We were also probably doing something slightly Illegal (and some might say Idiotic?) - we kind of snuck on there after the owner had gone for the night - it was a few hours after the show had closed! btw - the funnly bright white bits are reflective strips on people's overalls (the SES people who were there doing security patrols/etc overnight) - the reflective strips were Illuminated by the lights.

anyway ... it has taken me ages to do all that, and it is now way after "bed time" ... so I had better go and get some sleep ... perchance to dream ... of some good ideas for this week's Scatterggory - "... things that start with the letter S. Not just anything - the categories are Fruit, Things that make you itch and Gold." I wonder if there is a gold, itchy, fruit that starts with an S ... there IS one that, for me at least, ends in an S - Mangoes ... although it is actually not the yellow/gold inside that does it - it is the green skin on the outside - or rather the sap in the skin ... I can eat mangos ... just can't touch them! (well - is ok on my fingers for a short time, but if i touch one then touch my face or something that area will come up in a puffy, itchy, red rash!) ... which was not a good thing to have happen the first time I peeled and ate mangos in the bath with the (then toddler age) kids and we played boats with the skins!)

ahrgh ... I am itching just thinking about it ... LOL

... actually I was itching before I thought of that - I think there is a mozzie in here! - which is all the more reason to hurry up and post this and head off to bed ...

goodnight!

H2O

I'm not sure if it looks right in the post title from your end, but it looks right here - H₂O - LOL (I had to use html tags to get it to say H₂O instead of H2O, and I am not sure if they work in the post title ... although when I look at the "Preview" it seems to be ok ;-)

Anyway ... why do I need to be able to type H₂O?
... well - it could be handy for all sorts of things, but at the moment it is because I want to post about my entry for a quilt challenge - and the theme was "H₂O"!

Anyway - here is the quilt partly finished:



This was before I put the black tulle on top and stitched all over it ...

It is for a challenge being run by a quilt group in Tasmania ... I think I found out about it via a yahoogroup I am on ... and the quilt had to be A3 sized, and include some or all of the 2 scraps of fabric we were sent, and fit the theme of "H₂O"
So I came up with one of my usual weird ideas, and made this quilt, which I have called "H₂O" - Elixir of Life"

I fiddled around and did this to show what fabrics were the ones I was sent to use:

I have a little bit of the "water" fabric left (another bit about the same size as the 2 bits on the quilt) and the original bit of "snail" fabric was a smaller bit (about the same size as one of the 3 bits I cut the other fabric into) and I now have a bit with 2 snail shaped holes in it left over - lol
(we didn't have to use all of each bit, just had to use at least some of it)

Here is the finished quilt:


The quilts that we all sent in for this are going to be exhibited and probably travel around to a few places for up to a year, then they will either go into a community wall hanging or be sent back to their owner (we were given a choice - I chose to have this quilt sent back to me at the end - because I like it! ... and I am not part of the "community" where they are going to hang, and I am not even sure I would ever get down there to see the quilts hanging in it )

btw, for those wondering how to do the "H₂O" thing, I had to actually go into the html editor and type " H < sub > 2 < / sub > O " (but without the spaces - had to put those in there so it didn't do odd things!)

aaahhrrgghhh ... that did say what it was meant to, but it changed itself and doesn't want to show up with a <> in it! ... I think I finally fixed it ... for now ... who knows what it will decide to change itself to by the time I post this! ... the joys of swapping back and forth between a html editor and a wysiwyg editor and a preview thingy ...

and, because blog posts are written in html - to type a "<" and a ">" and have it show up as that in here, I have to type "&lt" and "&gt" (I learnt that one a year or so ago ;-)
and then I had to do &quot for the " in one place because the ampersand (&) symbol is used in html code and that was messing things up too!

... just thought u might like to know that - amazing what one learns while trying to do odd/silly things in blog posts and/or e-mails ( - stuff like this)

...

Z is for Scatterday ?!

Oooo ... I just remembered this ... it is Saturday today - time to drag this post out of the "drafts" (where it has been waiting since I typed it almost a week ago :-) and post it -

Ok ... I couldn't resist joining in ... MW is posting weekly letters and categories on her blog and a group of people are then spending the week finding things to take photos of, that fit the letter and those 3 categories ... (I think she explains it better on her blog - lol)

Anyway ... earlier in the evening I read someone's blog and she had posted her Scatagories photos, so I got curious (again - I was too busy to do it when I first saw it last year) and I followed the link and found out that this week is the letter Z (and because not many things start with a z there are no catagories - just have to find 3 things starting with z ;-)

so ... a few hours later - here I am writing a blog post, and putting in the pictures (of my 3 z things) that I have just taken and put onto the computer ... and at the same time I am e-mailing MW to say that I am joining in ... LOL

Anyway ... these are my Z pictures:

A pile of zips ... only some of the large assortment I have in my sewing room.

and ...

Some ZigZag stitch that I just sewed onto a scrap of fabric, to use for the photo ...

and ...

The word "Zoonoses" in my blog profile! LOL
(no I did not just put that there - it has been there for at least 2 years!)
I circled it in green on the photo, so it is easier to find.

I wanted to stand a toy zebra next to the zig zag on my sewing machine, but I don't think I have one ...






and now ... 'tis time to go and ... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

(actually it is DH who does that - he says I do too, but he must be wrong - I have never heard myself snore yet!)

Actually it isn't bed time yet (but it was when I typed most of this blog post almost a week ago).

I suppose I could have found/taken some more Zzzzzz photos too ... like the dog and the cat and the kids sleeping ... or maybe I could have taken a photo of one of the jars of zinc granules in the chemical store at work yesterday ... or taken the camera when we went out to tea this evening and snapped a photo as we went past the National ZOO and Aquarium ... but then I am happy enough with my zips, zigzag and zoonoses .... lol

Now I have to start thinking of what to take pictures of for the Letter I and "Yellow, Australian, Something you would find in the air." hmmm ... I think I might have a yellow balloon at work (is it cheating to write an "I" on it with a permanent marker?), and if I am lucky the "fridge fairys" won't have eaten all the yellow ones form the packet of ice blocks that we had in the freezer ...
(anyone else have fairys who steal yummy stuff from the fridge/pantry? ... DH bought a 24 pack of fruit ice blocks, and nobody was told they were allowed to have any ... DS says he had one, and gave one to each of the 2 friends he had visiting, DD swears she never touched them ... but there are only 9 left in the packet ... I may be bad at maths, but I am not THAT bad ... LOL)

Why u should not buy coffee from vending machines on railway platforms

... I can think of many reasons (costs too much, tastes horrid, don't always get both coffee and a cup!) - but then I DON'T buy coffee from any vending machines! (if I ever do buy coffee, it has to be the proper stuff - either an iced coffee (preferably with a shot of real coffee not syrup), or a "long black" made from coffee ground from beans, and done with a proper espresso coffee machine in a cafe' or similar ... although I also do buy coffee made in a drip filter thingy in that fast food place that starts with an "M" ...


Anyway ... while I was up in Sydney the other week, with that group of Scouts (one of whom was my DD), we had to wait a few minutes for a train, and some of the Scouts saw a vending machine and decided that they could do with a nice hot cup of coffee ... so the first one put her money into the slot and selected what she wanted ... but for some odd reason the others all decided not to have one after all ...



I guess a "cappuchino with little brown ants" just isn't that appertising!

(yes - they ARE ants - click on the photo if u want a closer look)

Am I famous now?

A year and a half ago, I posted a picture of this journal quilt in this blog post.

A photo of it is in the February 2008 issue of Down Under Quilts - one of Australia's best known quilting magazines!
The photo is one of several photos (with short descriptions) of people's journal quilts, that are part of an article about how a group of us made them, and then each chose 5 to send in to someone who organised for them to travel all over Australia and be exhibited at quilt shows/etc ...

They even mention the article on the front cover!

(I drew a green oval around that bit)

This is the page with the photo of my quilt on it:

(both those photos link to bigger ones if you want a closer look)

so ... does that mean I am famous yet?

(actually - I think it just means I know the right people and/or got involved in the right thing at the right time - lol)

btw, I have been on TV at least a couple of times ... twice on some South Australian current affairs show, back in the early 80s ... once was when they filmed some article at the university I went to - and there was a shot of me in lab coat and safety glasses, wandering around trying to think of something to do that looked like I knew what I was doing. The other time was part of an article about some project for unemployed youth - where we learnt to scuba dive and then did a clean up of the sea floor under a local jetty - so the group of us were interviewed - dressed in daggy (hired) wetsuits with salty hair! LOL
I also had my photo in South Australia's Sunday paper around that time too! - I think it was on the back cover, and I was holding an Albatross!


Ohhh ... with this web browser the editor thingy has a spell check ... trouble is - it keeps telling me that there is something wrong with words like "thingy" and "LOL" and "btw" - LOL
I got sick of the web browser crashing - it did it 2 or 3 times while I was writing the last blog post and again while I was fixing up some things in a couple of old posts (mainly a few photos were all weird - because I still had a couple of posts where the photos were actually hot linked from my "geoshitties" page, so I did away with linking them and just found the photos again, on the computer, and uploaded them directly into the blog posts, like I have been doing for all my more recent posts) ... anyway ... after "Internet Exploder" crashed yet again, while I was checking for any more things that needed fixing ... I decided to use Firefox instead ... and it seems to work much better for doing stuff with my blog ... and I think it is probably a good thing that it has the spell checker thing (which I had totally forgotten about since the last time I used Firefox to post to my blog) - because when I went back and edited that old journal quilt post (I added a little note about the quilt being in a magazine ;-) I found, and fixed, about a dozen typos/spelling mistakes!!!

one thing has got me wondering though - I know how to spell the word "browser", but how come every time I typed it in this post (except that one ;-) I accidentally typed "browswer" instead?!! LOL

Australia Day

Hi All ... I figured I had better post something "Aussie" seeing today is Australia Day

[Andrea digs around in her photos]

hmmm

I guess Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge are fairly recognisable as "Aussie" ...

(probably not so recognisable in the photo though - you can probably see the bridge on the right but the opera house is kind of hiding on the horizon, in between that and the city buildings on the left)
This was a couple of weeks ago, while I was up there on the Scout camp - we had a wonderful veiw of a sunset from the Manly Ferry - lol

... now what else can I find?


(maybe something here in Canberra?)

Ah - here is one of Canberra's more prominent landmarks

but this day (sometime last year) it was sort of hiding! ... which makes a way more interesting photo than one on a normal sunny day, when it just looks like an odd shaped tower thing sticking up from the top of the hill.
It is actually visible from a lot of places in/around Canberra, and when we used to go on car trips interstate when the kids were little, they could see it in the distance, before we got back in to Canberra, and they would suddenly cheer up (from being so bored and grizzly from travelling) when they saw it because they knew we were almost home again.


now surely I must be able to find at least one photo of a kangaroo or something ...?


Ahh yes - I took a few photos of a kangaroo last Febuary - I was staying down at the coast (doing some volunteer stuff with Greening Australia actually) and I was walking back along the path from the beach (where I had been taking a pile of other photos ;-) when I spotted this 'roo beside me ...

it looks like he was trying to decide if he should cross the road ...

... but he decided to cross the path (in front of me) instead

... and he walked (they don't always hop, sometimes they kind of "walk" slowly on all fours) through the fence as if it wasn't there, hopped up the path for a bit, then stood in the paddock ... posing for my photo?



I also took some video of him ... including this one - when he decided he had finished "posing" for my photos, and walked/hopped away - straight through an electric fence! LOL



(actually the fence was probably just there to keep the cows in ... keeping 'roos in/out requires a much more serious effort of fence building!)


Ok ... is that enough Aussie stuff for now?

no?

then I guess you will just have to go search on google or something - I have other stuff to go and do ... lol
(like hang up the B$^%&^% washing and put yet another load in the machine ... and take what is on the line off, because that lot is dry and I need room for the next 2 or 3 loads! ... DS cleaned his room - the usual result of that is about 3 or 4 loads of washing just magically "appear" in the laundry! ... sigh)

Silly thing ...

I found this thingy on doodleblog.kaliane.com ... I don't often/usually put these things on my blog ... but this one actually sort of half/mostly fits me! LOL (especially that first bit) ... then again - if I read any of the other times of day I could have been (and I could have easily been some other time instead - seeing half of my answers were a case of randomly pick one out of 2 or 3 that were equally correct, or were equally not the answer I would have said if it had been there to chose), they probably also sort of half/mostly fit me as well - I am sure they write them like that so people will go there and use them - LOL

(a bit like reading someone their "stars" from yesterday's/last week's paper and them saying "oh yes - that DID happen to me ... then you reveal that you were actually reading out what it said for some other star sign, rather than theirs ... LOL)

You Are Midnight

You are more than a little eccentric, and you're apt to keep very unusual habits. Whether you're a nightowl, living in a commune, or taking a vow of silence - you like to experiment with your lifestyle. Expressing your individuality is important to you, and you often lie awake in bed thinking about the world and your place in it. You enjoy staying home, but that doesn't mean you're a hermit. You also appreciate quality time with family and close friends.

What Time Of Day Are You?

pity I had to fix up their crappy HTML code (the supposedly "fixed for blogger" version) after I pasted it in here! lol

anyway ... the first and 3rd paragraph are definitely ME ... and the other 2 sort of fit

... but neither of them mention the fact that I have a wonderful DH who has just brought me the bottle of cream and a toasted something he made in the new toasted sandwich maker we got the other day (the old one died).

[andrea digs spoon in to see what it is]

... mmm - apple! ... I gotta go eat this! (before the dog steals it) LOL

(DH just came back in - told me it was one of the recipes that came in the instruction book, and then he stole a bit and gave it to the dog! ... so I had better eat the rest before I loose any more of it!)

Sticky Bananas and other stuff ...

... makes a wonderful desert!

(It was actually rather yummy, so I decided to be nice, and share it with you ;-)

Yes - I have eaten some rather odd things on Scout camps ... and even though the Scouts do the cooking and sometimes produce some rather odd food - the weirdest things I have eaten are those I made myself! LOL

TAST stitches

Hi People
(I am amazed - there are actually at least a couple of you actually reading my blog! ... even my Mum doesn't do that! ... but she will if I e-mail her the posts - she just never goes looking for it on the www)

anyway ...

I have had this post, with just the pictures in it and no text, sitting in blogger, as a draft, for over 3 weeks now ... and I have been home (from my 2 weeks away followed by another week away) for a few days now - so it is about time I wrote some stuff in here and posted it!

... so why have I just spent about 3 hours getting lost in cyberspace reading other people's blogs? LOL

(er ... that reminds me I have another thing on my to do list there too - I still need to add links to all the blogs I like/read onto the side of my blog)


anyway ...



Time to work out where I was up to and what was what with the TAST stitches ...


ok ... last one I posted was ... er ... [andrea goes and looks to see what one it was, and also mentally adds "Take the Christmas decoratoins off my blog" to the "to do" list ] ... week 37

Here is the bit of felt that was the last picture on that post ( here ).



... it now has rather a lot more stuff on it than it did ... [andrea goes and looks up what all of them were] ...

I didn't get around to any more of the rice stitch/square boss stitch (week 37) - there a quite a few stitches that I never did finish playing with and would like to go back to. There are also a few I liked but because I only did them once (to do my bit of stitching for that week) I have already forgotten how to do them - lol - so I am glad I have been printing them all off ... now I just have to find where I put the first few and put them all into a folder so I can look them up while I am sitting sewing - that way I might actually get around to using them on some of the other things I will be doing this year/whenever.

Week 38 was Knotted buttonhole band ... er - that is the one I did in red on the bottom of the bit of felt in the next picture ... on this bit is my experiment with stacking it up, also in red, which ended up looking like a teepee.

Week 39 was Reversed buttonhole bar - I think that is the yellow bit at the bottom of this bit of felt.

Week 40 was linked double chain - that is the yellow bit down the left hand side.

Week 41 ... is on another bit of felt (a red bit) ... the other stuff on this one is ... a weird circular motif I made up from messing around with some of the previous stitches, some cable chain stitch (week 36) in white and yellow, and a pile of "bones" made from Twisted satin stitch ... which was week 42 (and a few odd white knots that I felt like doing at the time :-)



This next bit of felt is more of my mucking around with a few of the stitches, like running stitch, and a weird idea I came up with for doing circles with one side of the stitch used for reversed buttonhole bar (week 39), and a buttonhole wheel snail that I had already done and posted a picture of ... and the bit of red knotted buttonhole band that I have already mentioned ...




the black stitching on this bit might look familiar ...


... because was already there (that was week 14/etc) ... but it looked like it needed more, so I added some yellow knots and the red flower sometime, and I also used red and white to do some more twisted satin stitch (week 42) ... that stitch it didn't really inspire me a lot at first, but then I noticed I could make it look like little bones so now I like it ;-)



The bit of red felt on the left of this picture has some more circles of reversed buttonhole bar, and some other stitches I felt like adding to it ...

... and the bit on the right has another circle, and my bit of Lace border stitch (week 41) done in yellow ... with white knots added to it and something else done on top in black [andrea scratches head and wonders what it was, then looks at bigger sized picture - which you can also do by clicking on them] ... ah - more of that reversed buttonhole bar stitch that I was doing those circles with. The bit of stitching on the bottom is another variation that came from doing those circles.

btw ... note to self: red felt isn't so good to work on when trying to scan images of it to post to my blog ... LOL




This bit has Week 43 - Drizzle stitch (the lumpy stuff on the bottom) and a couple of bits where I did a double version (with 2 threads looped over the needle alternatelay so it is wider with 2 sides) ...



... and 3 sticks/branches (well that is what they look like to me) of Week 43 - Zig Zag Spanish Knotted stitch. ... and an odd little bit of buttonhole stitch and a knotty thing, because it needed something on that side ...




This bit has Week 45 - Pekinese stitch - in white over yellow thread ... and a whole pile of variations done over one line of thread insead of 2, and a variation of that done back to back (the other yellow and white one) and also the second row was looped into the first one. I also added a couple of circles of chain stitch, etc to fill in the spaces and make it look interesting.




Week 46 was chain braid stitch ... which I wasn't sure if I liked the look of but then had fun playing with (that seems to happen with some of them - they don't inspire me ... sort of not a "me" stitch ... but then I find a way to make them into something I like and end up liking them ;-)



I did the odd thing at the top first, then decided I had better do a "normal" bit of it too ... so it became the "snow" for my Thorn stitch (week 47) Christmas tree.



Thorn stitch was fun ... lol





there is more on here too (hmmmm - looks like a feathery tail on a chain braid creature ... I might have to have a play and design some birds using that idea).
On the top of that bit of felt is Week 48 - Knotted cable chain.
(another stitch of the too many that I didn't actually DO much of and should go back to and do more).

I think that was another bit of my weird variations of Pekinese stitch on the bottom.

This bit of felt ...

... was the rather interesting result of me patting someone's (moulting) goat and ending up with a handful of hair! - yes it is blanket/buttonhole stitch and knots done over goat hair.

This was my messing around with some more couching (week ... something ... ages ago :-)

It now has more stuff on it, and I also have the last 4 weeks stitches that I have not shown you pictures of yet ... probably because I have not taken any/scanned them yet!
(I will have to do that shortly ... after I have been to the shop for bread and milk ... sigh ... )

but I did take a picture of this ...

it is a crochet drink cooler thingy I made before I went away ... (made the right size to fit nicely around the glass that is in it :-)

I think I also have about 2 too many pictures in this post ... because when I got down to writing about/around them, it started messing up ... (it might have also been why the browser crashed about then too - meaning that I had to log in again ... gee I am glad blogger automatically saves what I am doing in here every minute or so! ... I still remember more than one ocaision some time "way back when" , where I was doing stuff to my Geocities page (yes it is still there, just not been updated for several years!) and I typed a whole pile of stuff in there and then lost it all when the internet connection dropped out ... those were the days (and I am glad to see the end of them!)

anyway ... this might have to be the end of this blog post ... hopefully there will be a few more in the next week or so ... when I have uploaded more photos onto the computer (so I can blog about my 2 different back to back holidays - LOL), and scanned the last few TAST stitches/etc so I can blog those ...

of course what I want to get done and what I do get done might be 2 different things - I also still have a sewing room to finish re-organising, the rest of the house and garage to tidy up, and a couple of small quilts that I have to have finished very soon ... one is 12" quilt for a challenge, it is half done and I have to deliver it to someone by about Feb. 8th and the other one, which is not even started actually has to be finished sooner - and that is an A3 sized quilt for another challenge and I have to post it in time for it to get to Tasmania by the end of this month! ... so I really should be doing that right now!

... then there is also the Take it further challenge and the chooseday challenge and the A4 journal quilt challenge (on another yahoogroup I am in - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Aus_NZartquilters/ )

... methinks I have plenty of sewing stuff to do this year ... especially seeing I also want to do stuff for the Canberra Quilters exhibition and the Act Textile Arts (previously known as TASDA) exhibition ... and a few other things I want to make anyway ...

but right now - time I went to the shop for bread and milk ... then when I get back I can make myself some toasties for tea ... (our old toastie toaster thingy died so DH went out and bought a new one ... but even a new one won't make toasties if there is no bread!)

hi from Sydney

I am sitting typing this on a computer at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney ... just thought u might like to know that ...

anyway - I have better things to do than sit here trying to type on a keyboard that has been so abused by zillions of grotty little fingers that half the keys don't work too well ... so ... off to go look at stuff, and see what weird things the Scouts (who I am here helping supervise/etc) are getting up to now ...

btw, I would put a photo or 2 on here, but there isn't a USB port anywhere I can get to on here to plug in my card reader thingy.

bye ...