one of my favourite music videos

Tara posted one of her favs and it inspired me to do so too.

TISM (This Is Serious Mum) is a Melbourne band and no one knows what they look like as they always wear masks. They've been around for years and I've only just remembered to see if this brilliant video was on YouTube. Filmed at an old Melbourne warehouse (or docks?) too -



Still makes me giggle.....

pumpkin harvest

We've had our first real heavy frost for the Autumn, which is very pretty but so so cold. It was also a good excuse to light a fire in the sewing room, I had no complaints -

Today was one of those days when I really had to drag myself away from sewing, I could've stayed there and kept that fire burning. Instead I rugged myself up to the max and jumped on the deadly treadly and peddled to work. *sigh*

for Miss Laura

Laura turns 4 (going on 14!) this Sunday and I thought I'd make something other than a bag. I didn't have a pattern to hand but managed to find this pattern. There's even a group pool on Flickr where people can show off all their twirly skirts, very cute. I cheated a bit as I didn't have enough of the pink spotty fabric for a tie so I used elastic instead, and added ric rac to the hem for a bit of fun. If I have time I'll make a bag to match, probably a simple tote with the same fabric combination. I said 'if'.

The main fabric is by Prints Charming called 'Follow your Imagination'. Prints Charming is from Melbourne and have just started a blog of their own. Hmmmm, yummy fabrics!

Unfortunately we won't be able to make it to the party on Sunday. Yep, we'll be on Bruny - tides are too good to miss.

more adventures

The Bruny Island Boat Club, of which we are members, booked 2 of the Bruny Island Charters boats for the day last Saturday. So Ant and I took some time off from oyster farming and climbed on board. The weather was perfect despite the forecast and the atmosphere on board was very jovial to say the least. The picture below is going past Fluted Cape -

And this one is of The Finger, which we had just sped through. So cool.

I've even uploaded some video footage I took of Breathing Rock onto Youtube, another of the sights to see. Oh and that's not me talking in the background! edit - finally worked out how to post the video here, not as hard as I thought! -



So, after all this frivolity it's time to get back to the sewing room.

Before I forget, whatever became of skirt #7? Have a look over here.

mothers day on the Walls of Jerusalem

Not your typical Mothers Day but this just made it all the more special. Ant's Mum is in the lead and mine's bringing up the rear, with my Dad in the middle. I think Ant's Dad is obscured by those in the foreground which is a shame, for a 60 something he's incredibly fit - cycling, running and volunteer SES (State Emergency Service - mountain rescue division) so he was carrying an enormous pack with cooking stuff and provisions for any eventuality.

The Walls of Jerusalem National Park is one of many beautiful sights in Tasmania. We had excellent conditions on the trek up to where we could see one of the walls and stop for lunch on a large plateau. This area is dotted with ponds and small lakes, with stands of pencil pines and eucalypts scattered across the landscape. Just as we're about to make our descent the weather turned and the clouds gathered round us. Fortunately there was no rain but I felt like we were walking through a Peter Dombrovskis photo.

This is one of the small ponds we passed. You can see how the landscape would be completely covered in snow during winter.

Presents for Mothers Day are fairly simple, as I usually do more for their birthdays instead. My Mum received some fabric coasters from Last Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts. Mum gave me the book for my birthday last year and this is the first chance I've had to make something from it.

I blogged a while ago about ordering this pattern, which I made for Ant's Mum. When I showed it to Ant he asked for one too, his birthday is in July so I should be able to bung off another one by then.

So happy belated Mothers Day to all those mums out there, especially my Ford Mum too. Hope you all had a special day.

more 'before' than 'after'

I uploaded these photos on Sunday and I've only just found the time to write something about them. Well, not even found the time, more like pinched it from other things I should be doing. Anyhoo, this is me preparing the lounge room wall for painting. It got water damaged when the hot water cylinder on the other side blew. This was about 4 years ago and the water got trapped in the old wall cavity with the end result of rising damp. Our exterior walls are double brick and the interior are single brick with all being rendered. There's some bigger holes than the ones shown, now I'm just waiting for it all to dry out (which it has now) so I can re-render - then paint!!

It's the last room to be painted and then we'll finally be free of the apricot which is 20 years old, and it shows. I'm sorry but back in the 80's when apricot decor was popular I still hated it, it always made me feel cold and depressed. I'm really looking forward to painting this room, we just have to borrow the scaffolding again though, our ceilings are too high for comfortably painting on a ladder.

So here's another 'before' photo, yeah it's messy -

And here's the 'after', still a bit messy -

One of our latest purchases from a farm auction, a lovely old meat safe in the same style as our other dressers. It's so gorgeous but the only problem is that the doors open the wrong way and we have to try and find some opposite latches as these ones only work one way.

This means we've only got the sink unit left to replace, yay. We have an old house, so do a lot of people in Launceston and they're really beautiful and some are being restored while some are being renovated. My problem is that people are spending a lot of money putting a brand spanking new kitchen in these houses but what's going to happen in 10 - 20 years time? They'll be old and outdated kitchens again. What we're trying to do is create a new 'old' kitchen. We hope to replace the sink with a nice big porcelain one, so this means a unit custom built to house it. That's fine by me!