Farewell, faithful companion

My eldest son, the 15yo future architect, has been rearranging him bedroom in readiness for the double bed we have promised him. At 5'9" he really deserves to have a bigger bed!  In the midst of the clean up on Sunday he walks up and deposits this in my arms:

Ambulance Bear, his faithful companion. Sigh! 
He was given this as a toddler by an ambulance officer as he was being rushed to hospital with a severe bout of croup. I gave him a heap of Elmo toys as a newborn , and one of these became his constant teddy bear until he was about 2, when he decided he didn't need him anymore. It was only a few months later that he was given this one and took to it immediately.  For quite a few years now he has floated around the bedroom (to be honest, he is usually tucked into bed after I change the sheets; until the master architect gets home and he is piffed onto the floor!).  But not anymore. So Ambulance bear has joined my menagerie of stuffed bears, and will be looked after by me.

I am not sure I like this growing up that is happening in my house!!! It was always inevitable I suppose.   :-)

one scarf finished

I managed to finish this last night, i started it over Christmas and have recently put it down to do other things (which are as yet unfinished!!). But as i didn't have much left to do i have been working on this during the past week and am happy to say it is done.

It is a lovely scarf, done in a 2ply baby alpaca (gloriously soft; and no scratching).
 I knitted it in a basic feather and fan pattern , on 4.5mm needles to get the lacy effect.

I am very happy with it and happily have seen that Monday should be a perfect day to wear it in to work, nice and cool and just right for a soft scarf.

This afternoon i have been embroidering some baby singlets for a friend. I promise to show you when  they are done.

Heirloom dress mend

i know, it has (again) been ages since i have been here. I blame the whirlwind of kids going back to school (I have to blame someone!!).
I mentiond this dress the other week so thought I would pop in and show you what I was talking about.
A lady brought this dress into the shop where i work and asked it if could be fixed. It was very old, she explained, and she wanted the smocking repaired where the thread had disintegrated.

Now, I feel I must tell you that I hate hate hate doing mending of any sort (ask my hubby!).  I said yes, for the only reason that she was desperate for it to be done and I knew i could do it.  So do it I did.
She wanted as much of the original smocking left, but i told her I could not salvage the bottom row of cream and it wasn't worth saving the next one up, the blue. But she was adamant that she wanted it left. So i found a blue that matched, better than I originally thought and the repair is barely noticeable. 

The back was quite simple, although again, matching the threads was crazy difficult so i did the best i could. I am happy with the result.  But her wish that I leave as much original thread as i can meant that one of the rows on the side back is new thread, and it's matching row on the other side is old thread.  So one is bright and one is dull. 

She was talking about it being used for some new baby in the family. I really hope this doesn't happen; the material is so old it is fraying  under the collar.  What would I do with it? I am not sure but I think I would have left it as is and framed it. 
My last word on this piece is this: she sent her husband to come and pick it up, which he did, and paid me for it, but I never got a phone call from her to say whether she liked it, or God-forbid, thank me for it. I think after all her fuss and bother with various things, I think a thank you was not out of the realm of what is reasonable.  Makes you wonder why you put yourself out for anyone.  I am glad it is done, I am satisfied it was done well, but  I am not happy at being snubbed.

So to better news; a snippet of family news before I go-
my son has just umpired his second basketball weekend competition; a statewide comp with over 130 junior teams playing.  I just want to say how much more confident and capable I see him growing. I am proud of the way he was confident enough to tell more than one coach to be quiet and that they cannot speak to the umpires that way. He wouldn't have done that in Bendigo.  And I see him more confident with his calls of fouls.  He is growing up, and I am so proud of what he is achieving. It is nice to see your kids achieve things in life, and become adults that you are proud of.

Growing up

I can't deny the fact that my kids are growing up; the signs seem to be everywhere lately.  None more so than this past long weekend when my eldest went away for three days (two nights) to referee in a junior basketball tournament in Bendigo without parents present.
What a hard thing it was to let him go away for three days without parents and not being on a school camp, and staying in a motel. So he was essentially in an adult world where he had to sort himself out, be ready for whatever he needed to do, sort out what (and how) he was going to get for meals.  And be at each game that he needed to be at, on time and ready.
I am very proud of him and what he has achieved this weekend.  He umpired eighteen games of basketball in three days; quite an effort and has been passed for his first official referee level, so is no longer considered a trainee and can now wear the proper black and white shirts.  I am proud of how he has coped, making adult decisions.  And I am relieved that everything went well.  It is so hard to send them out into the world without us.  I think this was much harder on me than on him!!

So at the end of the three days, here he is, very tired, very hot, but happy.

A perfect day

for some of this...

And more of this...

We travelled for two hours to get to Lake Eildon, just to have  a look really.  We took the fishing rods, and spent a few hours catching nothing; mostly laughing at the kids who seemed determined to get wet in one way or another.
It was too nice a day to stay inside, I mean, look at it, beautiful!!

We are home now, kids are outside throwing ice at each other out of the esky; what else would you do with it I wonder???
I have a mending job to finish tonight, I will show you photos of it later.  I would rather be back at the lake!!

finally some sewing

In an effort to appease my need to sit at the sewing machine and also my inner baglady-ness, I managed to spend these last two days combining both passions, and this is what I came up with... (voila!!)

This bag was given to me by a friend a few years ago as a souvenir from a trip she made to Bali. it is great as it folds up into a neat little square.

 
 I have used it and used it and it has been wonderful. I found a tutorial here and so have been making my own. And this is what I came up with:

Folded...

Open...

I have to tell you what I did differently. I see that at Sew Mamma Sew she lined hers (what is with the need to line bags?) but i didn't want the bulk (as with my strawberry bags), so I yet again made a casing to go around the top, and ran a French seam down the side seam.
I also have had some difficulty with the smaller size zip catching on the fabric as it folds up so the second one (with the very cute bugs and butterflies on it) has a chunky zip which I like much better. 

My original Bali bag is easy to fold into sections to put into the case but I have found with these it is just as easy to close the zip half way and then just stuff the bag in (hence the crumpled fabric!!)

Such is my bag obsession currently that I did toss around the idea just before of making a bag to put these bags into but thankfully common sense prevailed and these three will be making their home in the pocket in my car door.

Speaking of my car, my nice new, shiny blue car, this is why idiots should not get licenses:

This is what we found after the boys and I went out on a shopping expedition yesterday, in the car park.  Thankfully after I backed my car away the front grill has popped out quite nicely.  How this so-and-so did not know they had hit my car is beyond me.  You can see the bottom of my bonnet actually over their bumper, and my front grill sticks out even further than my bonnet, so they are actually in my car. 
Not happy, but I am very happy and thankful that no damage seems to be done.
Today's outing has seen a child try to trip not only me, but both of my children over in the supermarket; and a checkout lady in spotlight who must have decided that I really didn't want a nice white dish, and she has swapped the box and given me a green one; Grrrrrrr.  i do not live close to spotlight, and didn't appreciate her offer to hold the white one for only three days!

But these things are sent to try us, and now i get to relax with the family, and enjoy the evening.  Tomorrow is work (yippee!!) and then tomorrow night we are going to go and watch some live cricket at the MCG.I am looking forward to that.

I also managed today to get my engagement ring into a jeweller to get the claws fixed. On a whim I also left them my eternity ring (don't I feel bare without either of them). After getting the quote back just before, I have decided to get my engagement ring fixed as I have not been able to wear it for a couple of years now for fear of losing the diamond, and my eternity ring will have to wait.  It is the ring I have been wearing but I have been told that is not wise, so it looks like I will be swapping one ring for the other!!!  It will be nice when both are done and I can wear all of them again.  It is something to look forward to anyway.

More bags

Okay, I realise i am developing quite a keen bag obsession. I am hoping it is a phase (as does my husband!LOL!), but am happy to indulge it while it lasts.  Luckily for me I have friends who know about my obsession and are happy to fuel it (you know who you are ladies!!).  Due to one of these friends I found myself buying this last week, which arrived here on Tuesday.  I haven't had much time to have a thorough reading of it, something that I am planning on fixing tonight!

These are two of the patterns in it.  Not sure about the frills, I like pink and pretty but frills? Not sure.

I have been doing a lot of knitting lately (well, since starting work in June really) and have missed sewing, and just sitting at the sewing machine. I am also missing smocking which has been my major obsession but that will have to wait for a month or so.  But in an effort to just sit and sew, I may sit over the weekend and make a new bag. I bought some oilcloth recently and am waiting to find a use for it. 

My other plan for the weekend is to pull apart my new Acer tablet bag and make it wider. Grrrr. The plan was always to buy a little keyboard to use with it to make it a little easier.  I knew it would be wider than the tablet but didn't really care, in my haste to make a cover, and thought it was a bridge I would cross later.  That bridge is here!! I was going to make a new little pocket for it, I mean really, how often would I use it? But today have been wondering if I shouldn't just pull this apart and add a new strip.
You know, as I sit here and type, I am thinking of possibly going back to plan one and just make it it's own little pocket, and add some velcro to the back of the first bag so it can be joined if I so desire.   Oh, what to do?? i really should have waited!!But do i want to be carrying them both around together?  I am sure I will work out something.

P.S. I spent an hour tonight unpicking the side of the tablet bag, and adding another strip to the side. Now it fits everything in that I want it to and I am happier. I am glad I did that instead of starting over.
So now I can concentrate on the next bag!!