EXCHANGE INTERFACE

I'm tired and headachey, my body twinges in all kinds of places (mostly muscular aches, things that I did and am still doing), and my period turned up WITH A VENGEANCE on Saturday night around 1am, which ended my evening at Frocktails.

That was a good ending, in fact, not a bad one.

The Frocktails was up in the Blue Mountains, it was at a hotel where you could get rooms booked and everything, and while my room had the bathroom separate (like, your own private bathroom, with a number and an old-fashioned lock-key that matched the one for your bedrooms door) it was still a room in the hotel! I could just go upstairs and go to bed! So nice!

( frock(s) )

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Now it's the week and back to everything. I'm so tired. I could get a wash and go to bed early (ahahahahaha) but I shall try to write another 500 words to the main story and then a little bit to a couple of fics. Yes. Will try. It's probably the period, but I'm just MEH.

So 'meh' I ended up going for a COVID test and skipping hockey training tonight. But I suspect it's just the respiratory issue again.

Played one game of hockey in goals yesterday and we drew 1-1. I let one through - it was a really solid goal and I didn't get my foot in place in time, so that was on me. But I also stopped about four others, including one where I was basically holding the ball out of the goal with my stick while the attackers were trying to get it in with theirs. Uh. And I might have been swearing at top voice.

I apologised to the attacking players who I swore at, and to the umpires, terribly embarrassed. I think they took it okay. I don't usually get potty mouthed on the field, but my hindbrain took over and decided that it was a good time to bring out all the expletives.

The other game I played was on the field with Team 1. I'm not listed as a player with Team 1, but when they need someone to fill in on the forward line, I've offered both times, and we've won both times. This time the final score was 3-2. ( a bit more detail )

And speaking of mask-wearing: I'm trying to make masks - pretty ones of cotton - with a pocket for a protective insert. The inserts are being made from old "recycled shopping bags" material with a layer of quilting wadding inside them - for warmth and extra protection.

But, boy, is it a bit of sewing. And my brain is not fully in place for sewing just now. *sigh*

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Work is still gearing up slowly. I got paid on Friday. One week's pay, which was very nice.

Other than that, it's another day in paradise, with COVID community transmission back on the rise in Sydney and NSW. Four local cases (as in 10km, local area) one in a school, one in a pharmacy, and one in the emergency room of the local hospital. A friend took her baby daughter there that night and was seen to by the employee who tested positive, so she's in quarantine for 14 days. At least the employee was wearing a mask, but...the next month is going to be a tough one.

I've been sewing facemasks.

Not the super dooper ones that keep everything out, just the ordinary, 'don't touch your face, protects you from basic heavy spatter' ones, with space for an insert. They're not great, they won't last very long, and so long as proper clean practise is undertaken for using them, then we can do this.

Other than that, the 'old lady sewing group' (they'd have my head if they knew I'd described them like that, but honestly, they're all older than me by ten to forty years) has taken to sending pics of their weekly work to the main organiser who puts them up on the quilting blog. Tech only goes so far with these ladies.

My 'mod squad' has started Zoom sewing sessions where we're all on Zoom but sewing at our own tables. This is pretty much what we do when we meet to sew, but we're usually all in the same room, so it totally works. And yeah, it's harder to wander over and take a look at people's stuff, but it's still the social chatting and interaction that we crave from each other.

Apart from that, my local group had a Frocktails event that was supposed to take place last Saturday, but was turned virtual - you were encouraged to take a photo of yourself and your dress with a drink. So many of us did! #virtualfrocktails is the instagram tag if you're interested - and it was worldwide!

I actually posted a few photos, because I had a few dresses that I hadn't had much of a chance to show off. A hot pink 'tea dress', a silver-grey cocktail dress (that I barely fit into), and a knit that could be 'business casual' if made out of a less fancy material.


And a glam profile photo!


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Oh, and I dipped a bunch of truffles that were leftover from Christmas. And then some marzipan.

And while dipping them, I realised the spatula head looked a bit like Elvis hair. So I and my sister made Spatula Elvis. She did the outfit, I did the guitar and the photography...



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Anyway, more sewing today: I'm going to sew together a bunch of squares that have been sitting around forever. Just sew them together into a quilt top and then decide what to do with them, if anything.

Oh, and finish off those facemasks. *sigh*

I'd love to do Frocktober, but I don't know if I have enough frocks.

I mean, I have some seriously fancy ones, but...they're for wearing out to parties and stuff. Ordinary, 'everyday' dresses are not such a thing.

And there's no way I'd be able to make a dress for every day of October.

Plus, I want a few more dresses with sleeves. And sleeves are hard to fit correctly. :/

I made a bag!

(okay, I've made several, but I'm kind of pleased with this one)



I called it the 'Parisville Bowl Bag' which is a smushname of the key fabric in the bag (the Parisville collection by the modern quilting designer Tula Pink) and the design (the Fireside Bowl Bag by modern quilting designer Sew Sweetness).

( more under the cut; it's image heavy )

It's kind of nice not having to go to work. However, the mortgage and the bills loom.

I'm thinking about taking up aged care with a local Christian organisation to have something in the gap. It's not what I'd prefer, but it would be income. I've done 'in between' work before - mostly office management for a week or two while someone was on vacation - but aged care is new. It wouldn't be actual carer stuff, because that's best done by people who know what they're doing. It'd just be cleaning houses and bathrooms, which is not something I like doing.

In the meantime, I have to remember not to keep spending like I have disposable income.

It's kind of difficult; right now, everything is ON SALE! I have already bought much fabric and many clothing patterns and I must keep myself from buying more.

My current table of non-quilty WIPs:

( too many things )

One lined dress, one pair of shorts in voile, and the Fireside Bowl bag (pattern by Sara Lawson of Sew Sweetness in her Big City Bags book).

That's not counting the two quilts I need to make by May for the Sydney Quilt Show...

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But today, I have to get some winter veg out into the garden - broccoli, cabbage, caulis, and brussel sprouts. Or, if they're still seedlings, I need to get them into a planter box so they can grow a little larger and have a chance against the slugs that have begun to invade the place again.

UGH. SLUGS.