I hope everyone’s having a great one! The girlchild is delirious with joy, and I haven’t committed exicide yet (no-one would convict, I swear to all gods everywhere lol), so it’s all good.
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I ran out of time and oomph, so I did have to play favourites with cards – sort of, anyway. My daughter coloured in a bunch, and drew inside some regular ones, so I think almost everybody got something vaguely creative from us.
The girlchild’s father is in town for the holidays, so she’s pretty much insanely hyped after not seeing him for over 6 months, and I haven’t had time to post because neither of them ever stops talking lol. She’s chosen a few gifts for people and wrapped them herself this year, which has proved entertaining – and it’s not like I really needed to have any stickytape left … note use of pedal appendage in place of third hand; family trait that one lol. We’ve decided to go spend a few days in the tourist park El & her grands & I stayed in for BIL’s birthday weekend, so we’ll be heading off tomorrow. The ex is a bit concerned about the lack of Christmas tree (I’m sure not dismantling ours & setting it up up there!) but I reckon we can stick some cool driftwood in a bucket & string some lights & make like we’re all PoMo & shit. White trash PoMo, perhaps, given that we’re staying in what Americans call a trailer ;) I think that between the beach and the playground and the fact that her cousin will be coming on Boxing day and uncle + cousin will take her fishing, not to MENTION the bloody great mountain of loot she’s getting, El won’t give a toss about Christmas trees*. He’s probably just concerned about photo ops anyway, so pfft. Lookit how gorgeous my girl is – we don’t need no steenkin props!
silver flash trapped between 2 layers of fused crystal organza, freemotion quilting. posting photos while I take a break.
fused overpainted hand-dyed cotton, metallic gold stitching.
Gold & silver metallic freemotion on hand-dyed cotton, foil moons. Let’s all pretend I didn’t write “oh” instead of “O”, kay? Ta. hellOooo … *taptaptap* … is this thing on? more cards tonight. I need to get a spurt on or I’ll have to play favourites …
< < Here's the plan, or at least one iteration thereof. I kept fiddling and changing things around, and deciding that no X didn't work in context of Y in the next room or whatever. Still, it gives an idea of the layout - the main portion here is the fairly poky loungeroom, and the narrow L-shape is the adjoining sunroom (the other half of which is my daughter's bedroom). There are double glass doors in the leg of the L, but since they're completely insecure I end up shoving something heavy into that alcove so the bad guys can't just huff & puff their way in to steal my goodies. On to photos.
wow I’m really tired, I’ll have to finish tomorrow. … okay, I’m awake now :) design wall is to the right of the table, behind me as I sit here at my desk. Covered in crap I was just getting back off the flat surfaces, at the moment; will be cleared up & put back to its intended use.
Behind the sewing table is a tower bookcase (probably won’t be staying there, since if I take it away it leaves another path to the hall. All you can see of it in the shot to the right is the fabric length hanging from it), two pantry cupboards in an L formation (slight deviation from the plan) containing fabric etc. More fabric on top in containers. Next, under the window which looks into the very exciting carport, is a 4-bay low unit that contains quilts & partly quilted UFOs, beading supplies, and packaging supplies. On top of it is a set of plastic drawers containing embellishmenty stuff (ribbon & tape & cord, scrabble tiles, bits of metal & mirror, a pile of slide frames, keys galore, feathers & bones, broken jewellery, etc), a couple of rotating CD racks with software that needs to be pruned, a bag containing the alleged WIP (WISP?), and ebay listings in the box.
Buried on this overloaded, horribly untidy monstrosity are several containers of fused fabric scraps, cartoons, rolls of vliesofix, rolls of freezer paper, angelina & flash etc, scraps of wadding & pellon & pelmet vilene cut into postcard-sized pieces, a whacking great pile of superthin vilene, boxes & ziplocks containing stuff like feathers, a buttload of threads, wool & cotton & silk roving (and hopefuly my silk hankies), leafing supplies, cardmaking stuff, bolts of fabric, handfuls of random fabric I’ve picked up off the floor and stuffed just anywhere so I could vacuum, bits of special fabric I was keeping separate for some reason, stamping paraphernalia, and god only knows what else. This rack probably epitomises my mind, sad to say. So there you go, now you’ve seen where I spend about 80% of my time. This seems massively unfair. Not that it would be any fairer were it someone else, but it seems a particularly cruel fate to a mind like pterry’s. Plus, pure selfishness aspect – he’s not that much older than me, so I just assumed there’d be a constant stream of new Pratchett books until I was too far gone to care myself. Suddenly it’s all seeming horribly finite. Next thing they’ll be telling me Peter O’Toole’s up & died :(
back to packrattery and organisation (I knew I had a point, sort of) … I’m nearly there with my workroom. I need to get the schminky table on its proper base, and the adjustable one (currently holding up the boomerang tabletop) over in its well-lit corner, and then it’s just fiddly shit like putting wheels on the Honking Great Storage Rack Of Death so it’s a bit easier to drag around. Oh, and I need a smaller TV in here; the big one can go back out in the public room, and I’ll put a bookcase there and a wee TV in a corner somewhere. Takes up too much damn room, even allowing for the book storage its stand gives me. I discovered during my clearout (did I mention I got rid of two boxes of stuff I just am never going to use, don’t like, never DID like, why is it here? It’s here because I’m where mum & sis dump their purged stuff, so they doesn’t have to deal with *actually* getting rid of things – see, secretly they’re just as bad as me & Dad!) that the thin poly craft wadding I don’t have a use for any more is really effective as a view-blocking light-filtering window cover. Far better than stupid annoying sheer curtains, & I’ve clipped them to the holland blinds so I don’t need to pull them down (thereby sacrificing all light) in order to get a little privacy; I can prance my Willendorfian self around in the nuddy now without risking the sanity of random passersby. So not only did it turn out that I DID have a use for that thin poly wadding I’ve been hanging onto for years after all, but now I need to go buy ~4 metres more to put on the rest of the sunroom windows. I might go take a few pics to share, just so everybody can laugh at my idea of organised … listen, spam doods. I’m never going to be proud of my willy, no matter how much C1al_is or V14gr4 I take. Nor will I wow her in the sack, impress her with my giant meatstick, or regain my masculine confidence. Unless you know something I don’t, nor will I ever become the man I was allegedly meant to be, which come to think of it would in be a primary requirement for me to experience the others. I don’t have a pen1s, a schlong, a manstick, a willy, a dick (or even a dik), a phallus, a peter, or a putz (that is surely the ugliest name for the poor male member ever). Had I ever felt the stirrings of a little penis envy, I’m sure all this dick spam would have cured me entirely – why on earth would one envy such an unsatisfactory dangly bit? Seriously, even if basic anatomy is out of their reach, is it too much to ask that spammers exercise a little discernment wrt audiences? USA-only competitions and stores need to stop spamming me. Dick spammers need to stop spamming me. Pure laziness. Lazy + annoying + time consuming + costs me bandwidth = me saying piss off you barstids. Spam me with some degree of relevance or crawl off & die already!
see this?
I bought this for rust-dyeing fabric. Not for this:
yes, that’s my cat. Asleep in a frying pan. On the hottest & muggiest day so far this year; I can only assume the cast iron was cooler than anything else around. That a frying pan might be the coldest spot around tickles me silly, for some reason. I wonder if “being” sunrise means you’re supposed to be willing to get up to see one at least occasionally?
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For the last several years group of mostly-longtime online friends have a card exchange every xmas, & I this year thought I’d experiment with quilted xmas cards. Conclusion: I need to practise lots with the 6600P, because its tension etc reqs are very different from those of the 8000, with the result that my freemotioning looks like arse. I’m trying to decide whether a) I can pass it off as quirky for this purpose and b) I can actually get 20 or so done in time to post early enough.
To your left as you enter the room is the cutting table. Partly behind the door when it’s open, but there’s actually enough room there to use as a spare sewing table if required (although I’d probably have to get rid of those empty boxes from underneath first heh). Don’t you just love the divine wallpaper? Bleargh. If I get sick enough of it I may end up blutacking some white paper up over it, but mostly I just tune it out. I’m good at tuning out things I can’t change :)
rest of the design wall, work centre. The 2006 journal quilts that just came home are up on a large corkboard along with a few other things, smaller white/corkboard is ostensibly for reminders etc but at the mo just safeguards E’s preschool photos, white bookcase is both printer stand and my equiv of an in-tray, other little bookcase holds computer-related stuff (software, media, cables, packaging etc) and staplers etc. And hand-cream. There’s a 2-drawer filing cab under the desk with all the horrible accounting crap I avoid doing as long as possible. Room for both desktop & laptop on the desk, as well as several buckets of pens & brushes etc, a handful of remotes, an assortment of my favourite tchotchkes and an occasional cat.
big worktable. Source books & sketchbooks etc up one end, small bookcase containing supplies (mostly for making clutch purses from old books), Janome 8000 can be set up on it if needed. Underneath at the back there are a few 50L containers; two full of leather & fur etc from the Shamanka days, one full of upholstery type fabrics, and a case full of papercraft paraphernalia. There’s also an underlocker and my old Pfaff under there somewhere. The big brownish square underneath to the right is the big lightbox, & there’s a trolleycase & a fishing tackle bag under there that I take to classes etc. Drafting board with pinnable surface attached is at the end of the table, & you can just see the edge of the storage rack from hell and beyond that the narrow pantry containing clothing & manchester fabrics and one window & corner of the sunroom.
the boomerang tabletop, currently resting on the adjustable worktable that will go into the bright corner of the sunroom – its proper frame is outside waiting for Dad to see if he can get it working again; it’s supposed to be adjustable too, motor-driven. No problem if it can’t be got working, just potentially useful if it can. At worst the provision for wiring etc will permit much neater cabling than that tangle currently on the floor. 
6600P on top, along with a small ironing board & iron because I was messing around with xmas quilties. Fan & directional lighting in front. Small bookcase full of thread (I need a bigger one!). The elephanty hanging pocket thing needs to be hung a bit higher, so miss nibs can’t get her hands on the good scissors and my rotary cutters. There’s enough room under the table that the couple of bags & box of scraps etc are not in the way when I’m sewing. 
okay here we’ve departed entirely from the plan; the two metal storage bays are instead against the side wall, and a very bodgy bookcase is blockading the double doors. Photo is labelled, so if you care about the crap I’ve hidden around the corner where I can’t see it, click to view bigger.
Inside the main fabric cupboard, with all the hand-dyes & prints I use for the landscapey etc work. I take most of the contents of this cupboard with me to classes/workshops, which is a bit of a pain in the rear. Containers on top hold wadding etc scraps, homespuns etc, and gorgeous traditional girl fabrics I just couldn’t resist even though I’ll probably never get around to making the doona covers or summer quilts or whatever I dream of.
2nd cupboard, containing most of the glues etc and a few paints (the bulk of the paints are stored outside), UFOs, and assorted useful junk. 
okay, so here’s the infamous storage rack. One of many things picked up for free when The Warehouse closed down (geez you gotta be quick! dumpster divers round these parts are bloody quick off the mark – this is not actually the one I sent Dad down to collect; it was already gone & they were just putting this one out & he nearly didn’t get it because it wasn’t exactly as I’d described). He collected a bunch of laminated particleboard for me too, from which we made all the extra shelves for the fabric cupboards. 
I’ve been distracted & quiet & absent & busy, hence the no posting. We stayed at Urunga for a few days because it was my BIL’s 50th birthday; they put us up at a very nice “tourist park” (I remember when they used to call them caravan parks) rather than have us all underfoot. Much fun was had, especially by a certain small person. Beaches rock, even beaches with more crab holes than I’d dare poke a stick at.
I could cheerfully live in Urunga; it’s been this unremarkable & unappealing blip on the road that I’ve been driving straight through all my life, and then you make a turn off the highway one day and it’s the prettiest, friendliest little seaside town. 
CHITCHAT