Nile adventures

What to do with a pure cotton Nile single bed sheet? I spotted this pretty sheet at a local thrift store downstairs in their furniture shed on a table labelled 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' and everything on it was $1. I had been seeking fabric to make myself a new cotton bathrobe very similar to the cotton Japanese kimono style one I have had for over 10 years. This old faithful robe is so cozy, it's lined with a light muslin but it is well past it's use by date. So with the KWIK SEW nightie pattern as a guide I embarked on cutting out a new robe, I lined it with fine white cotton voile, added some feminine frills, a generous tie and 35cm of extra length. I am so pleased with my effort, it fits wonderfully and I wore it this morning and it's just perfect for me on these cooler mornings.

This is........

..............a photo of myself in a mirror with a favourite accessory! I took this photo late Sunday afternoon after I had returned from my second walk of the day, this last walk was 70 minutes long and 8900 steps which a pretty good effort up and down hills, along roads, grass and kilometers of sand so please excuse the revolting hair and my general dishevelled state. I decided my camera was to be my favourite accessory other than my pearl earrings which I wear everyday. I have since taken 15 more photos in various mirrors around the house for this weeks meme suggested by Jhoanna of One Red Robin, me thinks I don't really like photographing me!! Now just as I clicked the button for the first photo who should appear in the shot but Dear Husband with hands on hips calling me for a BBQ dinner that was ready for eating, so I guess he is my favourite accessory! Does he count? View the many other participants post for this week from the list at Three Buttons.

This photo I am sharing with you was sent to me by my friend who celebrated his 91st birthday this last week, I suggested to him he should go out and treat himself to something to celebrate his special day. Hence the photo emailed to me, he bought himself the big new flash attachment and he wanted to show me how big it was. He quite innocently went into his laundry and photographed himself in a mirror with his newest accessory, maybe it is his favourite accessory now. My friend has been a passionate photographer most of his life and began a photography club in 1953 in the country town where he lives and was a very successful exhibitor in it's hey day. If I have as much zest for life and passion for my hobbies at 91 life will be good.

Eco friendly bags

What to do with a stash of linen upholstery samples gifted to me a long while back? I know they are a bit old fashioned and flowery but the fabric is so good I couldn't waste it. I really disliked that my stash of knitting wool, old patterns and UFO's were all stored in recycled plastic shopping bags which looked awful in my sewing room. Today I have made 12 really big simple flat bags that I can store all my knitting supplies in and they look so much nicer and probably are much better for the wool and paper than being suffocated in plastic as they have been for years. So if someone offers you a sample book of good quality fabrics................make storage bags, much better for the environment and it is recycling.

Please excuse me now I need to go and do some knitting!

Hot summer nights

I had to do it, I needed something to wear lounging around in the evening and it had to be cool to sleep in. I found this wonderfully soft crinkle cotton with a tiny pink rosebud print and then went hunting in my pattern collection to find somthing that didn't have a plunging neckline that the teenagers in this house would be embarrassed about mum walking around in. I combined the KWIK SEW 2822 nightie with the NEWLOOK 6490 top pattern to come up with a nightie that is very comfy and covers everything, I even lined the bust area with plain white fine cotton voile. It passed the sleep test last night.

Lunch with friends

The Chef's Cap Cafe

Mum and Dad

Tired little babe

I'm a little bit late posting these photos from a lovely lunchtime outing last Sunday with two friends and a few smaller friends who dined with us. A little family of Superb Fairy-wrens came to lunch they had very hungry babies so I shared my Turkish bread so mum could stuff it into the little squawking mouths as fast as she could. These birds are tiny and so speedy it's amazing I actually have any photos to show you. The cafe we went to is in the middle of our local Regional Botanic Gardens and it is the most peaceful and relaxing place to eat out and the French chef and his staff provided us with the most fabulous food and entertainment. I do have photos of my friends but I think my life would be in danger if I published them on my blog!

I love you but not that much

What is a home without the faithful pets. Today Darling Daughter is "sick, sick, sick" and we didn't have to "call for the doctor quick, quick,quick". Nurse Annie is on duty caring for her sickly friend with the pongy tonsillitis breath. This cat is much more like a dog than any cat I have ever known; she follows you round the house, talks constantly and is a great companion especially when you aren't feeling your best. Not long after I took this photo she let Darling Daughter know she wasn't happy, she swiped with her paw without her claws just to let her know to desist from any further smooching "your breath really does smell bad".............just stop it right now!

Now for some pornography............

....................my computer has been invaded lately by the most awful pornographic spam so I thought I might share it with you all................only joking, as if I would do that to my loyal readers! When I backed the car out of the garage today what did I see? NAKED LADIES basking in the sun on my neighbours front lawn, can you believe that! Now I want some of these Amaryllis belladonnas in the lawn under my copse of Silver Birch trees, wouldn't they look fabulous flaunting themselves in the dappled shade.

This is........

.................................what make me laugh out loud when reading in bed and boy does that annoy Dear Husband. He always asks what is so funny but it never seems quite so funny when I read it out loud, but once you start reading this highly addictive series by Janet Evanovich and get to know all the characters and the crazy things they get up to then you will understand why I laugh out loud. These books are so ridiculously funny I recommend them to anyone. I apologise for the really crap photo above, I stole it of the web because my collection of Stephanie Plum books are with a 79 year old friend of mine and she is ploughing her way through the 13 and a couple of novellas. She has a wicked sense of humour so I hope these books are tickling her fancy as they do mine.

My new walking buddy

I have found a walking buddy, no, not my pedometer that I have used for a couple of years now. A neighbour, and we have walked for the last six afternoons, we walk well together, we like to walk at a similar speed and vary our route around our village over sand, grass and sealed roads, up hills and down. We walk for an hour and the last two days I have worn my trusty old pedometer to count our steps. Now I have done some searching on the web to find out what sort of speed we should be walking at for fitness and even weightloss hopefully. We averaged 125 steps per minute today which is ok for fitness but 135 would be better and power walking apparently is around 150 so we have a way to go. Atleast we are in the ball park and we can only improve. Right? Do I have any experienced walking blog readers out there who can give me any more advice about distance, steps and speed I should be aiming for realistically?

Yummy brown rice for lunch

This morning I picked half a dozen beautiful ripe Apollo tomatoes and a big bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley from my vege garden. I love the nutty flavour of brown rice, so I made myself a big bowl of brown rice tabbouleh for lunch. So healthy, filling and full of flavour.

This is basically how I make mine

2 cups of properly cooked brown rice
1 cup of chopped flat leaf parsley roughly chopped
1/2 a huge tomato diced
1/2 a red onion diced finely
good splash of olive oil
good splash of lemon juice
fresh ground black pepper

Keep well in fridge for a couple of days, of course at it's best as soon as it's made.

Best beauty tip for 2008

I provide this tip for all my Australian readers. This is something I came across while doing the grocery shopping and the supermarket even included the page from Choice magazine showing the test results. This little jar of cream costs $1.80 currently and came out 3rd in the big list of creams and for my money I think it's a fabulous product. I use it liberally at that price, it's my night cream, hand cream and all over the body cream, no rashes or adverse effects at all. Click on the table above or the link to have a read about it's many virtues and the other creams it was tested against. The prices of the creams ranged from 20 cents ranked 32nd, per 50ml or g up to a staggering $93.00 which ranked 34th out of 47 products.

I have given this cream as a gift to a few close friends and family last Christmas. I removed the sticky label and tied a lovely chiffon ribbon around the tub and gave it to my unsuspecting recipients so they could try it without bias from the label. You wouldn't believe the rave reviews I received over this gift. I'm using this post as the reveal to the source of this wonderful cream.

Try it, you will be pleasantly surprised. It is of course on the bottom shelf at Woolworths supermarkets. Let me know what you think, would love to hear from you.

Voila the voile top is done

Another great pattern, Simplicity 4589, I know most of you will have read about it before on various blogs. My sister recommended it to me back in April last year after she made her first garment from that very pattern. I was skeptical that it might make a big girl look even bigger with all the gathers but suprisingly when made out of nice soft cotton voile it is ok because the gathers just give your bust room and shape the sleeves. It was very comfy to work in today and really cool to wear. I have another couple of pieces of voile so lets see what I can do with them.

I must do something about working out the timer on my camera so I can take better photos of myself, an arms length is just not enough to fit me in the lens!

Shirt love

Take one fabulous pure cotton Australian made mens shirt, wash and press.

Choose a great shirt pattern NEWLOOK 6407, view E is the one I went for.

A few hours later and it fits Manny much better than the baggy mens shirt.

Even fits me, but oh so hard to photograph oneself inside on a drizzly rainy day.

The shirt which was in fabulous probably unworn condition was spied at a charity store a while back and I loved the fabric so thought I would have a go at remaking it into something for me. I am not an average size girl so I thought about a style that would flatter and enhance my good points and also give me a waist. I think this shirt pattern is a good one for me and was easy to make.

This week I have done a bit of reading on how to get a good fit when making fitted clothes and the biggest hint I can give you is that when deciding which size pattern to buy in 90% of cases you should do a high bust measurement (well above the nipple line and hard up in your armpits) and then refer to the size chart on the back of the pattern and use this high bust measurement as your bust measurement. Patterns are made for B cup sizing so if you are bigger than this you would still use the smaller size but do a full bust adjustment of the pattern otherwise the whole garment will be too big on you if you choose the pattern size from your bust measurement around the fullest part of your bust.

This project has been very satisfying, the shirt cost $4, I used everything except the cuffs, collar and pocket. I have recycled the old brown buttons into my button jar and chosen 3 cream squarish buttons from the jar to finish the shirt. I had some iron on interfacing scraps in my stash. You know the best thing is I made a fairly fitted shirt that really does fit me very well. I don't usually wear fitted clothes unless they have stretch as they are just too uncomfortable if you want to move. I recommend this pattern to you all, it's one I will be using again I'm sure.

Now back to the sewing studio, I have another top ready to cut out, this time from some lovely cotton voile in my stash.

Click on the photos for a closer look if you want to.

A fresh start

I know you all want to know what I have been up to lately. I have realised I seem to have been missing in action with my blogging but there was a good reason really. I have a very small crafting space in our home which is a glorified corridor from our lounge room to our main bedroom and it is 2m x 4m and it had become the most horrendously messy and unorganised space ever. I hate working in a mess and I had ground to a halt with my creativity it seemed. So the time had come for a major reworking of that little room I call my sewing studio and do you know how long it took me to sort out. FIVE DAYS! As you move along in your crafting activities, fashions change, tastes change and you move on to different crafts and this all leads to a room of chaos. No more for me, it's all sorted and stowed. I have thrown out a lot of stuff for the local charity shop, some for Ebay selling later and given some to friends. Today I am heading back into my new tidy creating space to sit and work away at redesigning a mans shirt into one for myself which I am itching to get to now the weekends worth of washing has been tackled. So until I have something to show for myself I will be in my Sewing Studio!

This is........

............my Sunday lunch made for me by Surfer Boy, Darling Daughter and Other Daughter (a regular visitor to our home) and it hit the spot after a morning of 'Nippers' (junior life saving). We don't have hot dogs very often but yesterday while doing the weekly food shop Darling Daughter spotted them in one of the deli cabinets and had to have them. Not a gourmet lunch by any means but everyone was happy to have something filling in their tummies until we started to discuss the ingredients of a savaloy..................don't go there, nothing nutritious at all. This weeks 'This is meme' was brought to you by Allison from The Lark blog.

This is...........

................my collection of knitting and crochet books, actually not the whole collection in it's entirety! The first photo were my inspiration for this post today which is technically a day late for the "This is meme". I am in the middle of a major sort out and cleaning of my sewing room and found these books in an old expanding file this morning when I was shaking it out. These 3 little books were mine in the very early 70's and they were the begining of my lifelong passion with knitting, crochet and all things textile...........no glue allowed in my sewing room! The next photo is of my current collection of knitting and crochet books that I regularly refer to.

The final photo is a very special little part of my collection, my grandmothers knitting books, her first are the two at the front and they are from the very early 30's when she began knitting for her firstborn. Nana arrived from England in 1929 as a sixteen year old to look after her widowed father and older brother who were living in a tent and working to buy a place of their own. My grandmother hadn't seen her father or brother for 10 years, since her mother had died and she was left to be raised by family in England while he and her brother headed off to Australia to make their fortune. I have included a photo of Nana on deck with other travellers bound for Australia, she is in the centre wearing that wonderful hat, appearing to be very happy but she actually suffered with sea sickness for the entire journey of 5 weeks to Melbourne.

I have spent many hours sitting beside my grandmother watching and learning many and various yarn related crafts and I guess you could say she was my inspiration for leading a creative life whether in the garden, kitchen or sitting and crafting something from nothing.

Guess what.........it's my 300th post

I can't quite believe I have written that number of posts and my blog isn't even 1 year old. I have been a bad blogger so far this year but the distraction of family home for the holidays really ruined my creativity both on my blog and in my sewing room, even knitting at night in front of the TV.

Now I'm back on track, Surfer Boy and Darling Daughter went off HAPPILY to school yesterday and again today. I was smiling too! A visit to my hairdresser and then a few hours in town doing bits and bobs. Today I have been fiddling around in the vege patch and cooking up a mini storm in the kitchen. I made some really tasty passionfruit cordial, so much fruitier than any store bought cordial without all the additives and colours.

I just went for a stroll down to the river and found a single piece of old china and this made me really happy as I haven't found much lately with all the tourists flocking around down there. When I got home I knew I had another piece of the same design and guess what.................they fit together. Now this is good news as this confirms my suspicions that I know the actual site these come from, they haven't just floated in on a tide. They are both fire damaged and from much reading at our local library and online I have discovered there was a timber mill in the late 1800's alongside our river and it burnt to the ground around the turn of the century bringing timber milling to an end in this area. Was this the lunchroom at the mill maybe or the owners kitchen, still more questions.

So thank you to my regular readers and anyone new. I love hearing from any of you, it brightens my day to make contact with fellow bloggers and blog readers as I live out of town and work from home, I need adult converstaions to keep me going. I promise to get my blogging back on track so you have something interesting to see and read regularly. Thank you also to a kind friend who this morning phoned me before she went off to work to check that I was ok because I hadn't answered he most welcome emails and I wasn't blogging, so very kind.