Payday: not a good day to go out of town!

Mum and dad had been in Bathurst, NSW. They went to watch Australia's biggest car race, the Bathurst 1000. Mum's dream! It's a street track and over 3 days the teams do 1000 laps around "the mountain". Mum's idol, Peter Brock, was a Bathurst champion many times over, though sadly he died in a car rally accident a few years back. He was known as "Brocky" or "The King of the Mountain". The race is really just Holden vs Ford, so Australia vs USA in a sense. Holden took out 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th this year! Mum was stoked. We're big Holden fans! Personally, I don't understand why there are no other makes driving in the V8 Supercars?

Not many people know my mum used to race speedway, as did my sisters dad. I spent many a day (and night) on speedway tracks when I was little. I will always remember my sister cowering under her bed when her dad started his hotrod in the back yard as they did maintenance to it. I still love to go to speedway, though I haven't been in many years. They admission is expensive and the nearest track is 200km away. Jessica's never been and I don't think she'd like it much, she hates noise. I used to love when you'd be sitting with your car reversed up to the fence, in the open back of a station wagon, huddled under blankets and being pelted by mud as the sprintcars screamed past.

So while mum was enjoying all this, I was in Esperance with her dog in the vet. Poor dog. In recent months she's lost both her eyes. She's completely blind. But she's still very happy and able, she gets around the house, takes herself outside down the back steps. It hasn't really bothered her. As I was feeding her I noticed she was walking with her head held on the side. Worried she had some kind of problem with the eye as we only removed the stitches last Friday, I got her to Esperance as soon as I could. Pay day! Mum and dad will reimburse me, but to actually get there I had to wait until I had money. Poor little thing has an ear infection and is back on antibiotics. Looks like I might have to drive her back down next week as she's due for a check up at day 10, but mum will be back at work by then.

While she was in the vet I needed to do something, right? I started with a small grocery shop for all those things you just can't buy here. Lots of snacks for Jessica's lunchbox, some fruit because it's cheaper etc. I went into a Thingz gift shop and actually found something for both mum and dad for Christmas. Phew! One less thing to worry about. Then I hit the Red Cross thrift shop, but the little Anglican one wasn't open until after lunch. I took the opportunity to go buy Jessica a ball like Tian's as she doesn't seem to react, and to the 2 craft shops looking for pirate fabric. Between them, they had 1 bolt. I only bought 30cm as it's only for my little cousin's library bag. I decided I didn't like the sealife print I bought for him. I met up with June and Tian who were there for Tian's swimming lessons, then went back to the Anglican op shop. Then on to a pet shop to price birds for Jessica for Christmas, then Bunnings, then got the dog and headed home.

Here's what you can buy for $18. If you're anything like me, technically it was $20; I told them to keep the change :) (from the Anglican church opportunity shop)

• 5 Handmade magazines, from 1984 through to 1991
• A huge array of sewing patterns which I select individually. Trust me, there's still heaps there!
• An unusual embroidery book: Needle on the Wing by Mary Krishna (ISBN: not listed Published: Hutchinson & Co LTD, 1961)
• Mode Made magazine Summer 87-88 which I had never seen/heard of before
• Simplicity's Pillow Ideas (ISBN: 0-918178-19-3, 1980)
• Australian Women's Weekly Decorative Crafts-Stylish crafts from around the world (ISBN: 0 949892 93 9, 1988)
• 3 fabric pieces, the blue baby print there is 2m, little soccer playing bears is about 1m, and a remnant of pink t-shirt material (stretch, jersey)

By comparison, this one copy of SEW magazine (a UK mag) costs $14.95

At the Red Cross shop the choices were more limited, I think I paid $7 for all this even though the clothes were marked at $2 or more each, but they were having a sale.

• 4 00000 and 0000 baby clothes for Jessica to use for her dolls
• a couple of sewing patterns
• 1 Handmade and 1 Australian Patchwork and Stitching magazine
• over 2m of this unusual dinosaur printed fabric
• 1 outfit for Jessica

I had a $50 voucher for Bunnings hardware store burning an absolute hole in my pocket, it was a gift from a friend for helping out. I knew I wanted plants, but I also grabbed a few small things I needed like some plastic feet (my sewing machine has lost one and it wobbles!) and some rubber grips for under furniture. I was really pleased to find tubestock Australian natives for $2.50 each! Yes, they're small. But they will naturalise well and made it much more accessible for me to get some variety.

In total I purchased 12 natives in tubestock, multiples of some of the plants. I got 4 varieties of grevillea, a banksia, isopogon formosus and sholtzia involucrata. There's a lot of pink.. I couldn't resist the gorgeous purple eremophila even if it was $15 for the one plant, and a lovely yellow "Yellow Imp" or genista. I have had many yellow imps in the last 8yrs (ok, so maybe 3) and none have survived. The tag says low maintenance, yet I keep killing them? Hope this one has more luck. They're such a pretty little plant. Many more plants I would have loved to get, but as it was I breached the $50 gift card and had to supplement with my own money. By this time next year the garden should be looking a whole lot nicer :D I should be making use of the cooler weather today to go out and plant these, but I still need to deal with the pesky cat situation first. 

My mum bought me this gorgeous silver bracelet while she was away (Jessica got a pretty party dress and a Holden Racing Team (HRT) polo shirt, my sister got a HRT jacket, and my brother in law a Ford Racing Team jacket). It's gum leaves and a gum nut (gum tree being a eucalyptus). I really like it, but I don't wear silver and the leaves point out leaving them prime candidates to catch on something. The rings between aren't soldered closed, so if it did catch it might open a ring and fall off, getting lost. I will save it for special occasions. She made this big fuss about how hard I am to buy for. Really? It hurt my feelings and she's probably already telling people how ungrateful I am. Her usual story after giving me a gift. I think she feels that because she simply can't buy me sporting memorabilia, and I don't collect some kind of animal like everyone else that I am "impossible". I love the bracelet, but am I expected to jump for joy when I open the velvet bag just so she knows how excited I am? I told her I love it and how unusual and pretty it is. I hope she believed me this time. The bracelet was bought in a silver mining town called Broken Hill in New South Wales. 

The Australian dollar reached all time highs on Thursday this week, reaching $0.9994 US, there was speculation that it may breach the US$ and that by mid next year the "Aussie" would be trading higher than the US! WOW! Back in 2001 we were trading at $0.47 US.. huge differences. It really does seem to me that Australia is holding its own during this "global financial crisis". I keep hearing that term yet the Australian Reserve Bank keeps increasing our interest rates and we're trading close to all time highs.. Certainly a good time to be buying online from overseas. Shame I am back on a single parent allowance and broke. Bugger!

http://www.smh.com.au/business/australian-dollar-moves-close-to-parity-20101014-16kax.html

Thrifting is fun!

I should also add a disclaimer  -  "THRIFTING IS ADDICTIVE"

Be warned.

But back to the Thrifting is Fun part!!

A few weeks ago (ok, so it's probably more like months now) I was in Esperance. I don't get to Esperance very often and it's a lovely coastal town. Gorgeous white sands, clear waters, and freezing bloody cold! They have 2 op shops I frequent whilst in town, one is a Red Cross and the other is a little church group one. I *heart* the smaller, church based opportunity shops! I often find Salvation Army, Good Samaritans and Saint Vincent De Paul extremely over priced (in the sense you could buy that child's t-shirt new for less then they are asking in the second hand store). I understand they are employing people with disabilities as well as aiding their international organisation but heck, if I can buy it cheaper new I'm going to opt for new.

Anyways, in Esperance in the little church op shop I found 3 magnificent books and my heart was all aflutter and I just wanted to brag share with someone. My friend's and family aren't really interested in my crafty endeavours so I will share with my readers. 

Tucked away by the counter and behind racks of clothing is floor to ceiling shelves and I have learnt through many visits this is the area of the shop that I want. They have some kids clothes and a few other things but the pile of knitting, crochet and other magazines is massive, they usually have a great selection of preloved sewing patterns and so many other hidden gems. This trip I found some iron on transfers with brilliant gold embossing on the covers, a heap of sewing patterns, a near new knitting book and a handful of lace and fabric remnants. Best of all, I found these...

English editions of Japanese sewing/drafting books!!!

• Baby Wear
• Cute Infants Outgrow Clothes Quickly. 58 Tots' Clothes Paired With Dolls
• Though Girls Begin To Feel More Fashion-conscious, Nothing On The Market Is Snug And Taut. Produce A Good Fashion With Mom-made Clothes  (yes, that's the title).

In the top left corner of each book it states "English Edition - Stitch House" and an abbreviated title for each

• Baby Wear
• Infants Wear - by direct cutting 
• Girl's Dresses - 8 to 13 year olds

The recommended Australian retail price was $2.85!

They are copyrighted "1984 by KAMAKURA SHOBO PUBLISHING CO.,LTD." and printed in Japan. There is no ISBN etc listed. They are each 68pages in total.

These books do not contain patterns. They do, however, instruct you how to create the patterns. Akin to Enid Gilchrist books. (see below)

I love the illustrations that accompany the patterns! Some of the wording makes me giggle too. One or two images would look great framed, but I wont be pulling apart these darling books for such simple pleasures. I ogle Japanese sewing books online all the time (the modern ones) and they are so expensive! I feel like I've just slid up on the outskirts of the in-crowd with my little treasures. Best of all, for everything I bought that day (and it was a lot, trust me) I paid about $7. Yes, total. The plastic bag I was carrying it all in barely made it the 10m back to my car, it was so heavy and hardcover books were making holes.

I especially love how the last page on the Girls Dresses book encourages the girls to sew themselves. The below picture is definitely something I could frame. I adore the simplicity of the illustrations and yet they are so  expressive.

I've been a big fan of Enid Gilchrist books for many years. Below is a photo of just 2, from very different eras, but both are modeled on the same principals. Enid's work was all about self drafting. She gave you an axis marked as 0, then working from that point she gave you the measurements to draw out the patterns yourself, and a detailed description of assembly (rather than pictorial).

I've been collecting these books for a number of years from eBay, thrift stores etc. Some are rarer than others and sell for quite a lot, some are so common they practically give them away. I even have some magazine pages from mags of the 50's and 60's where thrifty mamma's have torn the pages with her featured articles/patterns to save for use. I have some books, like the bright Baby Book (ISBN 0 908429 17 7, rec retail $2.95) pictured below, from different print runs and the one shown below is probably the most recent of all the Enid Gilchrist items I own. You can see that not only the patterns and printing methods evolved, as did a few of the patterns and the measurements moved from Imperial to Metric. Designed back when disposable nappies (diapers) were unheard of, the patterns are a little difficult in todays society. (I have friends with clothed bottomed children, my own daughter wasn't one of them and they're definitely the exception today)

I trace most of my sewing patterns anyhow, but to draw out an Enid Gilchrist pattern I use baking paper or thin sew in interfacing (Vilene) which is far more durable. Probably cheaper too when you consider its width. I place the interfacing on my quilters cutting mat and sometimes use double sided tape to keep it in place. My quilters mat is marked in inches, and most of the E.G. books I have are imperial. I just then use a ruler and pencil to measure and draw out the shapes. Seam allowances aren't included so I use a Sullivans branded seam tracer which is brilliant. I just run it along the edges which need allowances and the handy little spacer means I just trace over the lines I drew to mark out the pattern while the second pencil draws an evenly spaced line for the seams!

An Enid Gilchrist pattern from the more modern Baby Book. The older books were on paper similar to that used in modern newsprint and contained only diagrams and sketches of designs, no photographs and no interior colour.

A couple of poor photographs of a design I have drafted from an E.G. book recently (let's face it, no one visits my blog for my exquisite photography skills!)

Self drafting takes some time, but I enjoy the process. I did really well at Technical Drawing in high school (it was a compulsory component of my elective classes of Woodwork and Metalwork). I have many books teaching me how to draft my own true designs and not just mimic those such as Enid's, but I haven't yet the confidence to tackle those.

Organised Chaos

 I owe the biggest, most belated thank you to Kali of

POPPY LANE

I won a giveaway she hosted way back in, hmm.. March? Yes, I have been a BAD blogger! I am so glad she emailed me to tell me of my fortune, as I had been such a bad blogger I wasn't even reading blogs! There is one item missing from the above photo, a lovely quilted notebook folder. Which I coveted and used right away. Jessica tried sneaking off with the little pink purse (which is for her) and I made her return it until I had taken photos.. ummah that I did not do the same for myself! I will photograph it soon!! I love everything! The fabric used for the little zippered pouch and pocket tissue case is soooo sweet, and those coathangers, omg gorgeous! The little round wooden things are buttons, aren't they sweet? Knowing me I will always be "saving them for good" then in 4yrs time wonder why I never used them. I'm terrible like that. Whether I am reading blogs, or recieve a RAOK like this, one of the first things I do is "OMG!! I have that fabric!". I have no idea why, it seems so stupid. But each and everytime I catch myself doing it. The only fabric I have which Kali used above is the tiny pink and white spotted poplin. I LOVE all the corduroy she used, it's so soft. Check out her blog, she does lovely work and shares tutorials for some of it.

I don't think winter and I really get along. I feel so drained all the time. That said, I feel worse in summer! Hmm.. So I haven't really completed anything. Infact, I've spent so much time with a friend that everything at home has been very neglected. Now I am trying to spend more time at home, she is feeling neglected. Does anyone see the trend here? It's no win no matter what I do.

Jessi had her first ever fringe (bangs) cut into her hair

Jessi's new fringe makes her look a lot older. Well, she is 7 and I guess to her that is very "big girl" but wow.. My own mum didn't even recognise her for a few moments. That made Jess very sad but it highlighted how one small alteration causes such a drastic effect. Her skin's looking a bit nasty again but she's been generally very healthy. She hasn't had any serious problems with her asthma this winter!! We still run backwards and forwards to Perth far too frequently to keep a check on how the immunosuppressants are going in her system. They (currently azathioprine) have some nasty side effects which we've managed to avoid. Jess has finally caught up in school and is now reading with the top of her class. Over the last 2yrs she missed so much due to her health that I was worried she'd lag for some time but she's a determined lil thing and works hard. She likes school. Last week she tumbled, head first, off her monkeybars. Now, that was a little scary! I didn't see it happen but I ran to her when I heard her screaming and when she told me what happened I was a bit wary as she said "my legs feel weak". I took her to the hospital, they went into "neck/back damage" mode and had her in a makeshift neck cuff (small sandbags as we weren't sure what the paediatric neck cuff was made of). She was fine, she is fine. Kids fall down. A lot of people are moving away from town and she's having to say goodbye to a lot of friends. It's been quite disruptive.

We celebrated a first birthday party for Tian (Tee-arn) and my-oh-my was Jessica jealous! We spent a good 2 days with June and Tian setting up the party and Jessi misbehaved so bad! She's usually such a delightful little person. But it soon became obvious an attack of the greeneyed monsted was in hand. She hasn't had a party since she was 4, and she let us all know it!! Because we live in a small town and you're lucky if the supermarket has milk in stock, we found decorations for Tian's cake and the cake decorating activity June wanted the child guests to do, Jess and I spent hours one night at June's dining room table separating licorice allsorts and using tiny tiny cutters to cut out shapes, and I sliced fruitsticks to create little flower shapes. June also had a kids pizza topping activity, and finger painting. Look at what Jessica did to her dress! It was only a $6 opshop (thrift) dress, but it was in great condition and we both loved it. It's now a dig-in-the-dirt-to-your-lil-hearts-content-dress. Not to worry, it's only a piece of clothing and is easily replaced. She wasn't very impressed about me recording the moment!

  

Above: I am still unable to tame Blogger! Grr! Stupid photos.

A scrapbook page sitting on my desk. Nothing is glued down, I can't decide where I am going with it. Believe it or not, it's been on my desk about 3 weeks and toyed with one or twice. Blergh!

I got a nice, new book. The plan has always been to do some vege gardening. Our house is on a 1/4acre block so we have the room, but do I have the mojo? Moving right along..

Tian's actual 1st birthday present, still a pile of fabric. I have a pattern in a Handmade magazine for a teddy bear made from towelling nappies (diapers) or old towels. June had some cloth nappies that had worn thin and happily gave me a couple without questions. My friends kindly picked me up some Parisian Essence on a trip to Kalgoorlie (they found it easily in Woolworths) and I used an entire bottle to dye the nappies. I added in some vinegar then rinsed with Epsom Salts. Will see if that helps set the colour any. Tian's bday was 10th July.. the photo was taken today, 15th August.. SHHH!

Jessi took this photo of my stepfather and I putting together her cubby house? Did I ever blog about this? I don't recall. Anyways, the house is together, the frame is together. Those 2 pieces still need connecting and the slide and rockwall to be added to complete it. This was bought for xmas 09. Yes, it's now Aug 2010 and she still can't use it.. again with SHHH

So, that's kinda what I have been up to (or not) of late. I have some hyacinths from a friend in bloom which make me smile. She gave them to me the night before she moved away. I have some other bulbs in the ground that seem to be sprouting and an order in for more. I have to go away for 2 weeks at the end of the month and I am really looking forward to it. Work's been a complete and utter nightmare and as pathetic as this is to admit, I don't want to work anymore. I stick it out, but I am beginning to despise it and the more I feel that way the sicker I feel. It's not been fun. My cousins are all pregnant again. By Feb 2011 my four cousins (they all live locally so they're friends too) will have 11 kids between them ranging in age from 12 to newborn and it includes 1 set of twins. My sister and I only have the one each. She's sort of sworn off kids but I've wanted another for so long now. Jessi does too. Well, she wants a brother or a sister lol She can wait at least 15yrs before she has a child of her own!

Once more I find myself glad I didn't share this blog with a bunch of real life people/friends/family. I feel so censored all the time at facebook and such that it's nice to have this outlet.

Overload

I will have to get in the habit of blogging more regularly, then I wont feel so overwhelmed when I do decide to blog. Maybe I should set photos to upload before I go to work so when I come home all I have to do is write!

My little teaser the other day is the most adorable cross over baby jacket. I think the back is too big, the pattern piece was missing so I traced the front, but I get the impression it should have been narrower. The jacket pattern actually used bias right the way around the neck and sleeves, but I don't like bias much. Plus I had a completely un-used roll of the most perfect coloured ribbon! Scored it in a bulk eBay lot of lace. So, avoiding bias, I made my jacket reversible. I sewed the two wrong side together leaving an opening in the back to turn it out. Sorry my pics are crap, it was late! (**see note)   The jacket pattern is Simplicity 9647 size Newborn Babies dated 1980. Will upload a pic next time I am using the camera. Thank you to my friend Toni of ChickChat for gifting me the pattern (and many more! PS. go check out her scrapbookin!).

(**note) As there was no picture people reluctantly bid and as the seller said it was a plastic grocery bag full I figured "who cares?!". Turned out to some some seriously vintage, as well as fun, laces and ribbons. Many of which there were metres and metres of, and I think I paid $6 something for the auction and maybe $6 postage.

My Amazon.com order arrived Friday last week. I bought 2 "self help" books and Carefree Clothes for Girls. Now, I was going to shop "local" on the so called "Australian Amazon" at fishpond.com.au but for Carefree Clothes for Girls alone they wanted $49.99AUD!! Ouch! Now, the photograph of the invoice to the left is in USD but I can confirm at the time of purchase my total invoice was $63.23AUD! The books totalled $40.36 Aussie dollars and the remainding twenty-two or so was postage. Hmm.. Where would you have shopped as a single mum on a shoe-string budget?

I've been meaning to sew Jessica some winter pyjama (pajama, pj's) out of flannelette. I was horrified when trying to find some online that it was all $24 per metre!! Ok, so Anna Maria Horner and co, your fabrics are gorgeous.. but well an truly out of my budget. Oh how I'd love some Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Cath Kidston, etc  :(  I love to browse online but it gets a lil depressing after a while. So anyways, can't afford online flannel and live no where near a shop. So looks like I will be either buying jammies for the kiddo or they will have to wait for our next trip to Perth where I can go in store at Spotlight and buy some boring old unprinted flannel for $3.99/m. I might even splurge on a knit to make them more comfy (lacking warmth though).

How you know your kiddo is unwell...

It's 4pm and she is sound asleep in the back yard and not climbing or hanging from that yellow and red contraption she loves so dearly (it's a dome shaped climbing frame).

Unfortunatly when we disturbed her we found she'd had an allergic reaction to who knows what! These reactions are becoming more and more frequent and she's starting to get really frustrated and upset with her lot in life. Just yesterday she was eating BBQ Shapes and both top and bottom lip were ever so slightly swollen. Enough so she'd scratched it terribly and made her lip bleed. After she had some antihistamines and it had all settled back down her lips were all peeling and cracked. Not pretty :( She was really annoyed too as she LOVES Shapes! I tend not to discuss Jessica's allergies here too much as it's such a big part of our real world that neither of us enjoy. I do sometimes wonder if I should be doing more advocacy. While she is anaphylactic (could suffer anaphylaxis) to tree nuts, sesame and latex, her allergies are much more involved. She reacts to a lot more, and her skin prick tests even say she should avoid peanuts, orange, banana and others. We have a great team of Allergists at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children who believe removing foods from her diet which don't cause her any major dramas is more dangerous to her ongoing health. Her diet actually HAS to include banana and peanuts at least twice a week. Jessica also reacts to dust, almost every animal, scented things (like scented tissues and toilet paper). Sometimes it feels like "you name it, she'll react to it". But we also don't put her in a bubble. As a child's most susceptible years are from the ages of 10-25 when they are more independent, ascerting their rights as individuals, prone to peer pressure etc I teach Jessica now that yes your lip is itchy and horrible, but go take some antihistamines and you'll feel better. Or in the case of it reacting in the form of her eczema we apply the creams or run a cool bath. It's important to me that I teach her how to care for her own needs as best I can. I can't and wont always be there for her (as much as that pains me). We have our epipens, and she takes a "medicine" bag with her wherever she goes. I must admit, it's far easier to avoid food and read labels than it is dealing with the latex allergy.

A chance to escape

I love books. I used to read far more, I just find when I am feeling glum I can't focus on anything, least of all words on a page. I finally picked back up a book I was reading, Vintage Alice by Jessica Adams (seen here) and Celebrity Bride by Alison Kervin (here), both of which were given to me by a fried who is in a mail order book club. She was away and four books accumulated which her mum failed to mention during their many phone calls. She arrived home having to pay for the novels, in which she had absolutely no interest. She very kindly offered them to me knowing I am a "reader".

Vintage Alice - Jessica Adams

I really quite enjoyed this novel. Through no fault of the story I put the book down for some weeks and really struggled to pick it back up. A love story, although not all roses with no thorns, and set in England.. it just wasn't what I needed at the time. I finally managed to get reading again and I quite enjoyed it. I was a little bit disappointed that the story of "Vintage Alice" wasn't what I had expected. It's more a journey. But the main character LOVES to sew and refashion and is planning a move to Aus. So there was plenty in there which I really did enjoy. The descriptions of Australia were just beautiful and at points I did wonder if any non-Aussies might understand some of the jargon. I guess this is the fun of novels, to lose yourself into another world..

Celebrity Bride - Alison Kervin
Admittedly, I would never have purchsed this book for myself. Infact, I rarely buy books at all. I picked this up the other afternoon after returning home from work, school runs etc. Hmm.. I had it read by midnight that night *blushes*. I barely put it down! That was a combination of enjoying the book and not feeling very well AND needing to not think about my own life for a while. I actually really enjoyed this book, even with its fairytale themes. And trust me, fairytale themes are the LAST thing I want at the moment! Just an ordinary girl getting caught up in the mayhem that is celebrity, it was really quite cute. In some cases I could forsee what was coming a bit too obviously which had me impatient for it to actually happen, but all round a very nicely written story.


I can't do photos at the moment. Kinda, sorta kind find my camera *blushes* I've sewn a few lil things and been working on a scrapbook page all week (yes, the very same ONE page!) but otherwise I have been more idle than I would like. I've pulled out a cape pattern and really want to make it for Jessi, but I am unsure if she'd wear it. I have this lovely soft soft minkee type fabric I'd line it with, it would be like wearing a big, snuggly blanket. I just get so disheartened when she says she doesn't like it/wont wear it. I keep hyping up the "you'll be the only little girl with a dress like this" and she's fine with dresses/skirts. I guess it's when I go to add in the slightly different pieces, such as capes *hehe* I want to make her some winter PJ's but looking online at flannelette for $24 a metre.. wtf?!!? I really wish I could get to Spotlight :( I am also wondering about winter clothes for Jessi. With her eczema she hates anything fleecy as it sticks to her skin (after she's scratched and it's bled/weeped) so.. hmm.. she needs some yoga style patns I s'pose, but they can't be all that warm! I don't even want to think about the impending winter just yet.


OOOOOOH back on the topic of books, I bought myself 3 from amazon.com the other day. Two of them about decluttering, then, rather ironically... a sewing book. Just to add to that clutter! I'll share details when they arrive. Haha. Anyways, enough babble out of me ;)

*edited to add in photos I took of the books on Jess's camera.. cos now I can't even find mine! *lmao*

Who Knew!

Wow.. I had no idea it had been soooo long since I last blogged. There's been so much going on in my life that I guess the ole blog got a little left behind!

I've been tatting, scrapbooking, crocheting.. all the usual. I wont bore anyone with photos ofall I have done in the last 6mths. Jessi is about to turn 5, my great grandfather had a heart attack and a pacemaker put in right before xmas (he was sent home xmas day from hospital) and is finally coming home from Perth, I have a bf now, I've read a few books, changed the house around. Just so many things :)

I managed to take a simply stunning photo of Jessi on Dec 20th, so I will share. Everyone loves to look at cute kids! I cropped out the toilet block and everything when I scrapped it of course ;)


One book I read I want to tell you about. Had I read the blurb I'm not sure I would ever have bought it. It was in a discount book order thingy at the local supermarket for about $10. The pic on the cover of 3 little blonde girls appealed to me so I grabbed the order form and wrote my details (of course buy Jessi books too!). When I read the blurb some weeks later I said to my bf that I'm not sure I would like the book, but for some reason I was still drawn to reading it. And I did. And it had such an impact on me, to the point I researched the authors online and was tempted to email them about their story. I decided that was probably going a bit too far!! The book is called "Not Without My Sister" by Celeste, Kristina (Jones) and Juliana (Buhring). They were born into a cult or religious sect or whatever other "politically correct/incorrect" term you may have called the Children of God. Now known as The Family International this cult still operates. In researching the authors I read a blog by an Australian man who had been "flirty-fished" by a group of Family girls in Sydney just last year. The lives these little girls lived were horrific. Dragged all over the world and often being raised by people who weren't their parents or in a communal environment they suffered abuse of every kind. No child deserves this no matter the reasoning behind it. These ladies, Celeste, Kristina and Juliana are fighting for the rights of children like them all over the world. Kudos to you! If you ever have the chance to read this book, do. I couldn't put it down. My life seems so "normal" and "fair" after having read what these ladies lived through. I was mortified that these things really happen, and reading it in such a way saw me in tears and constantly commenting to my bf about how dumbfounded I was about it all. A real wake up call! I'm not in anyway religious by choice, and I don't hold anyones religion or beliefs against them, but I tell ya what, abusing children I cannot accept. Abusing anyone in any unjust way really. And if your "religion" tells you it's right.. I mean, where are the common sense and morals? So, with an open and unbiased mind I recommend this book. Be warned, it can be a little graphic. Juliana, Celeste and Kristina.. if you ever happen by my humble little blog I admire your strength and will power. May your work with RISE International help many and bring you peace.

I recently started compiling a http://www.myqh.com/ webpage. I had run across a couple when hunting for crochet patterns and they were just so well organised and helpful that I thought I might make my own. So far I've used their process for copying all your links from your browser and they all need sorting. But where as in the past I was saving just a homepage or index I am now going to go through and organise more clearly. Mainly with the tatting stuff I will be trying to add in every pattern I come across as a reference point for people. www.crochetpatterncentral .com and http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/ are already such comprehensive guides to those artforms and Rachel does such an amazing job of keeping them up to date I could never hope to equal her. Tatting will be my thing :) I do have the Tatting Index in my bookmarks and use it often, so I am really kinda taking inspiration from there. I have more tatting bookmarks than I do anything else so it will be great to think "hmm.. I want to tat a 3D rose" and know right where to look. If no one else ever uses my lists I certainly wont be offended!! But that said.. if you're interested take a look

http://www.myhq.com/public/m/i/michelles_angel/

It's a slow process as I have to add each thing just one at a time and pull up all those webpages in the process. That's kinda a good thing too cos it means no broken links. For now.. Not sure how well I will go in keeping it that way!! *lol* OOOOHH!!... I better remember to add my own dragonfly tatting pattern, huh?!! Foolish me.

Enough babbling from me, I have a myhq page to work on. Take care and I should be back. I hope. Maybe....