friday fluff

Going to Melbourne this weekend to see the chappy above, yay!! It was a fairly last minute decision to go and are only staying one night, but it should be a jolly good time provided we don't get caught up with any Grand Final after parties.

Although I do have to say this - carn the Cats!!

getting the better of spring rain and wind

and how do I do that? Why, go and buy a new Bernina!Well, newer Bernina.

It's brought a little ray of sunshine into the sewing room.

It's a 1230 with lots of beautiful bells and whistles. I've been asking the owners of my local sewing shop on a regular basis if they had got in any secondhand Berninas - as they advised me to check now and again. So when I picked up the overlocker/serger last week from being serviced I asked the question (for only the third time I think) and there she was - Beatrice (no not Bernadette!!). She was also a price I could afford, a fraction of the cost of a brand new machine.

We still have to alter the sewing table my Dad made for Bertie the 830, as you can see here it has a wooden plate which slots around the free-arm - rather than using the metal one it came with. I've propped up the 1230 a bit with a thick piece of foam so the plate just clears the table, this way I can still comfortably machine quilt if need be. So of course I had to start using it straight away and finish the apron (Simplicity pattern 2932) I had been working on. You can see why I needed one, the old apron was well past its use by date!
Lucy didn't want to be left out either.....

don't mock the Moke

Seriously, these people love their Mokes.

Us Northerners met up at Perth before travelling in a convoy to Campbell Town. The day was very very windy but this didn't dampen our spirits.There's our 'Yellow Devil' in the middle there. We waited here a little while so the Hobart group could meet up with us, compare cars and then move on to another location that would provide a good photo opportunity.
So in all we had 19 Mini Mokes in one gathering, the organisers think this may be a new record as the previous was 13. This is a world record mind you! Edit - this is only for the International Moke Day events. The Moke Fests can draw up to 150 Mokes (imagine that!)
It was interesting to see how each car varied. Canopies were different, some had roll bars, some had their original paintwork and some didn't. Some were a beautiful example of restoration work - these people really like spending money on their Moke. If there were awards handed out then we would receive one for the most amount of rust! Oh well, time and money ....... time and money.

friday fluff

<- Look over there, yes there, to the left, did you notice this blog now has 3 columns?

I've been wanting to do this for a while because I didn't like how everything was stuffed down the right hand side and as a marketing strategy, I felt it was important to make my Etsy shop prominent.

A lot of Typepad bloggers have this option as standard but Blogger didn't in it's array of templates. So a while ago I found out about Blogger Buster, a site dedicated to helping Blogger users customise their blogs.

To make 3 columns means altering the HTML code of your blog (and works best if you're already using the 'Minima' template). Yep, that can be daunting but if you copy the entire HTML code and paste it into a Word document before you make any changes then you've got an instant back up. The last thing I wanted was my banner in a side bar and a photo of Lucy where a post should be! Amanda's instructions are pretty clear but you really have to make sure you understand the procedures before attempting anything, and she'll always reply to any questions you make.

So no oysters this weekend, on Sunday we're off the the Moke Day at Campbell Town - weather permitting. Should be fun, providing the little car makes it there!

Oh and no post should go without a photo -

as promised ...

A better photo of Ant's shirt, pretty groovy eh?

I should also include a lovely 'before and after' photo of the Moke seats. All the cushions are completed now so the second lot just have to be put on and the seats re-attached to the car. These cars are pretty small so these seats are virtually hard up against each other. Ant likes that, as he sometimes drives with his left arm around my shoulders - aint he sweet.

And this little kitty has proven that she's a very quilty cat. She tries to burrow underneath and gets all excited if you poke and play with her while she's under there - a little too excited at times though. I recieved a nasty little jab from a wayward claw so she was told off and banished to her bed. Kitty has to learn scratching is bad. And the quilt she's playing with? It's not finished yet so you'll have to wait and see!

friday fluff

Courtesy of the Darwin Awards, this one tickled my fancy -

February 2005, Canada | Canadian winter nights are long and usually quiet, but one exception was the night Constable Morgan responded to a drunk driver call. He caught up to the errant driver and fell in behind in order to establish the commission of the crime. In a short distance, the driver missed a curve and slid into a snow bank. Morgan switched on his lights, stopped his patrol unit, and approached the driver's door.

The driver decided to flee. His tyres, mired in the snow, spun wildly but the car went nowhere. Constable Morgan thought he would have a little fun. He began running in place alongside the driver's window. The driver was surprised to see the Constable keeping up with his car. The speedometer read 100 kph.

Constable Morgan broke the window glass with his flashlight and ordered, "Pull over!" The driver's response? He jammed the pedal to the metal!

The car's speedometer had reached 175 kph yet, astonishingly, the Constable was keeping pace and ordering the driver to stop. Finally, convinced he was never going to outrun the fleet-footed officer, the drunk man let off the gas, turned the wheel, and brought his car to a "stop." The Constable escorted the man to his patrol vehicle, which had magically followed the two on their mad dash across the snow-covered tundra.

The man was charged with DWI, speeding, and failing to yield to a policeman. Brought before the judge for arraignment, the man, who had not quite regained his wits, saluted the incredible athletic prowess of the local officers.

And the reason why my ugly mug wasn't in the photo of the last post was because the camera was perched on the ironing board with the self timer going! Whereas I took the photo of Ant. Anyway, there's a picture of my head on the side bar if you need a reference - I was having a good hair day when that one was taken. :)

We're off to Bruny again this weekend to keep them pesky oysters under control. Actually, the oysters aren't the problem - only the weather and the tides.

Have a good one peoples.

ant's pants

Isn't he just dashing? Again, excuse the photo - I hate using the flash. Anyways, we went out for a friends birthday last Friday night and the boy wore his new wool dacks for the first time along with the shirt I made a few weeks ago.

When we were in Melbourne back in July Ant found a shirt in a shop which caught his eye, lots of splashes of orange, yellow and bits of red and other colours. All very random and Jackson Pollock-y. He offered the sales assistant a cash amount for less than the tagged price but she said she couldn't do that, so when we left the store I said I'd go to Spotlight, find a similar fabric and make him the shirt. I'll have to take a photo of the fabric in daylight as this one doesn't do it justice. He's already had a few compliments on it which is pretty good as he's only worn it twice.

So here's my new dog walking jacket. It turned out a bit bigger than I'd like and I had to buy a heavier duty zip just to get the length I needed. It has a hood too and I was supposed to put a draw string in that but left it out as I didn't see the point, I don't really like using hoods anyway. The next one I do I might attach a ribbed collar instead, easy peasy.

And the lovely Cathy passed on the Kreativ Blogger award to me and some other crafty people. Thanks Cathy!!

I'm supposed to pass on the award to 5 other bloggers but again I can't decide and I don't want to leave anyone out either, there's just too many creative bloggers out there!

friday fluff - which super villian are you?

Your results:
You are Poison Ivy

Poison Ivy 44% Green Goblin 40% Mystique 40% Kingpin 39% Venom 36% Apocalypse 35% The Joker 35% Dark Phoenix 34% Riddler 30% Lex Luthor 30% Magneto 29% Mr. Freeze 26% Catwoman 26% Dr. Doom 25% Juggernaut 20% Two-Face 16%

You would go to almost any length for the protection of the environment including manipulation and elimination.

Click here to take the "Which Super Villain am I?" quiz...


(for some reason Blogger doesn't want to compact the above stuff so there's big gaps - sorry!)

Recently Shannon's Friday Fluff was Which Superhero are you?, and found this one on the same site. I don't mind the idea of Poison Ivy, much better than say The Joker or Lex Luthor.

Have a great weekend everyone. We're off to Bruny Island, now it's spring the oysters are needing attention so it will be busy weekends from now until Christmas - eek!

we sew

Ant's been working on the restoration of his Mini Moke, with one of the 'to do's' being the re-upholstering of the seats - which of course is something we can do ourselves.

The seats and backrest cushions have a back that extends around the metal seat frame and are laced at the back. Ant's done most of the assembly however he's 'let' me attach the cushion section to the back. It's actually not as hard as we thought.

We'd like to get this bit done so we can take part in the Moke Fest at Campbell Town in a few weeks. As it's only about an hours drive away we feel confident the little car can make it that far... :)

So I found some lining for Ant's dacks.

As thought, these trousers have been a real challenge - but then they are proper dress pants with loads of fiddly bits. There's not too much more to do but I've been finding that I need little diversions to keep me 'sewing sane'.

That's just a taste of what's to come. I've also been needing a new dog walking track suit type jacket, so out comes the overlocker/serger and a nice simple pattern has been purchased. I already had the knit fabric.Nice.