10 reasons for not blogging...

I've been so absent from my blog... not even updating my photos... so here's my excuses, I mean reasons...

... prepare for a long blog-post!...

10. so many things, so little time

The most obvious of them all - where does each day go? I notice my last post is Jan 30, and I remember being happy that I got one in for January - and here I am on the last day of April, doing the same thing! Oops. Must find more time... perhaps a new clock with 13 hours?

9.  Happy birthday Dad!

I made Dad a quilt for his 70th, and was going to give it to him at his SURPRISE party... but then he ended up being here for his birthday, so he got it with the binding pinned in place, and I quickly hand-sewed it down while he was here. Bizarrely it matches their couch perfectly...

We travelled to Rutherglen for Dad's party where we got together with the whole family... a rarity. A great time was had by all. We went via Melbourne and enjoyed visiting a fabulous swimming pool there.

8. a weekend away... and even better... a sewing weekend!

It was great!

Unfortunately I had to come back early as a friend was leaving her job at the church - she's lucky I had the weekend to work on her table runner - completed in just 10 days!

We ended up with a wonderful collection of sewing - this is just a sample. Jacqui has more photos on her blog, and she wrote about it when it happened - in March!

7. extra-ordinary jobs!

I'm so sick of "oily" spots on my clothes AFTER they've been washed! When I googled it, others described the same thing and had no idea either. But after many people said, "it's not your washing machine - I bought a new one and it's still happening", I started to get a bit concerned... am I looking at my clothes the wrong way or something?????!!!!
I decided to follow one person's advice and thoroughly clean my washing machine. I took it apart bit by bit, and just when I thought I'd got to the end of my taking apart ability, I dropped a screw, and it went right inside the machine - right inside! "****" I muttered! Obviously there was more that needed to be taken apart, and so I did. Oh my goodness - you would not believe what I found. I took photos to prove it. The inside of my machine (around the drum part) was disgusting, absolutely black, slimy and feral. That is where the water passes through to get onto my clothes... YUCK. Here's evidence of the yuck and the clean!

When I mentioned my feat to a school mum friend she said "oh yes, it's mould on your clothes - it's called black mould. I always put bleach in my machine once a month to stop it". Yuck again.
I'm pleased to report that there are now no traces of mould!
I decided to demonstrate my amazing ability to take apart washing machines to my mum as well... almost gave up when we decided that their machine didn't come as apart as mine because it was an older model. But that didn't make sense, so of course I persisted! Theirs was not so bad, but still pretty feral. My advice... be brave, take out as many screws as you can see, layer by layer, and scrub your washing machine!

6. gardening and Ms fix it

I spent 10 days in Melbourne with my kids, staying with my parents... and hardly saw my kids! Sounds idyllic doesn't it? Only problem was that I was working harder than I think I ever worked in my life. We were working on our unit before new tenants. I did so much gardening, including sawing off high branches balanced precariously on a ladder on a slope - superwoman!

This was one of the bigger branches though you can't really tell from the photo - just trust me - my pruning saw has never had such a good workout, and I am now really wanting a chainsaw - scary but true!

I was happy with what I achieved, and hubby reviewed my progress by email photos at the end of each day... he was away on a youth camp. lucky him! don't worry, I made him do some hard work the next time we went down...

5. finally finished

I can't believe that the quilt I've had on the go for more than 18 months is finished!
The quilt is Be Attitudes by Nancy Halvorsen (not The Beatitudes as my mum thought until I was doing the label!). It has been so much work, but I love it. I used the original fabrics. I machine pieced each block, then hand-appliqued the picture part and words. Then got stuck because I wanted to 'custom quilt' and I wasn't quite brave enough, so it sat and sat and sat. Then I got sick of it sitting, so I just started. At first I spent more time unpicking than I did sewing! But in the end I really enjoyed quilting it, and my confidence with free motion quilting has grown enormously.

It's now got pride of place in our front hall, and I am starting to stitch the label today.

and I've also finished...
'Farmyard Friends'
I can't give too much away about this quilt... it will be revealed after my nephew's baptism. Here's just a teaser...

4. quilt show

Why the efficiency in completing projects?
The Horsham Quilt Exhibition of course!

It was just amazing... so many beautiful quilts.
The abc and 1-10 are mine... and the one on the RHS is one a friend Lyn made for boy 2.

The LHS corner is my floor rug for my nephew, and his bag is hanging beside it, and the red, yello, green and blue one is also mine (Fiona don't look too closely)  The orange and green tree is also mine - I don't think I've blogged about that one yet, but it's a fabulous pattern.

 And the one that was finally finished... excuse the same photo again!... be attitudes.

I've embedded a slideshow of photos from the quilt show in the side bar, but let me say a few things. There's some photos of bright machine quilting on a black background. that is a quilt by Vicki Jenkin (a Horsham-ite who has won national and international prizes for her quilts). She is the most amazing quilter - you'd swear it was variegated thread but it's not. Sorry the photos are not so good, but these are the quilts I really liked. Some were completed by the group as raffle prizes, but most completed by individuals.
until you look closely.

I joined the Horsham Quilt group this year... it's nice to meet with other like-minded people! Boy 2 goes to care while I go the quilting group... perfect!

3. Boy 1 turns six

SIX?????
How can he be 6 already??? Considering we moved to Horsham when I was pregnant, that means we've been here more than 6 years. Oh goodness time flies.
We had such a fun party... trains, trains and trains.

What a cake!

I made a Thomas from a cardboard box, and linked him to some troublesome trucks! We travelled by train from our neighbours garage to our back yard station. Boy 1 in Thomas, friends and Boy2 in the trucks!

There are lots more photos of course! But in the interests of not putting kids photos on the Internet, that'll do.

2. who can have kids, without having sickness?

Boy 2 has been sick, not really sick, just annoyingly sick, and consequently not sleeping well, and grumpy and irritable - what fun for Mum!.
A couple of weekends ago we had a quick trip to Melbourne. We dropped the boys in Ballarat where they stayed in a caravan park with Nan and Pa... with the unit being right beside the indoor pool, jumping castle, playground and picnic table. What more could 2 boys want? Well they got it... pancakes for breakfast, and a trip to the Ballarat Wildlife Park where they got to feed and touch the animals. Amazing. (Thanks Nan and Pa!). Meanwhile, hubby and I went to the unit to do final jobs, spend 2 hours waiting for our dinner at an Indian restaurant (not a good night for a long wait - we were both hungry and grumpy - how romantic!). After a very full-on Friday evening and even more full-on Saturday morning, we met up with the boys in Ballarat.
Boy 2 has a cold - his nose was a tap that we couldn't turn off, and of course I had packed Neurofen, Panadol and lots of different ointments etc. but not the cold medication!
It seemed to clear up over the next few days and then WHAM! along came the gastro! on the morning of Boy 1's birthday, when I had the day to myself to set up because Boy 1 was going to day care. Oh great... I had a helper... ALL day. Wonderful timing...!
So far it's been cold, gastro, cold, gastro for boy 2 ... and then boy 1 says "I've got a sore tummy". Oh no. Yep Boy 1 got sick too. And now, guess what? I feel sick... I'm only mentioning it because living in a house of boys I don't expect a lot of sympathy at home!

and the top reason for not blogging....?

... like I need more...!

1. we're moving house, to Melbourne, at the end of June.

Moving...
Oh oh.
Packing up the house...
Oh oh.
how did we accumulate so much stuff - and two kids - in just six years?????

Hubby has a new job, so Melbourne here we come. When people ask where, I say, do you know Chadstone shopping centre? near there! The irony being that I am not a shopping centre lover at all. As in, not at all. It has been an extremely stressful process so far, and still is, as we try to sort out a house to live in. And the timing is not exactly perfect. We became aware of the possibility of this move the day before Boy 1's first orientation visit to school. He will see out Term 2, but have to deal with big changes in his first year at school, as will I! It will be so weird to do drop off and pick up and not know anyone... even for a social person like me, that will be a challenge.
Ah, but Nan and Pa are close by... and Aunty Fi and my beautiful nephew. and lots of other family and friends too. That will be great. And the amazing Ashburton YMCA swimming pool - there's a small enclosed waterslide for up to 12 year olds! Within a kind of playground in the swimming pool - wahoo! For a water-loving family, this will be fabulous. And I've already met a new friend, Jan, how amazing and small is the quilting world? I'm so looking forward to spending time with Jan... and of course, seeing Sewjourn for myself!
Fingers crossed all the rest sorts itself out soon.

Now, am I excused from not blogging?

I hope to prioritise it more in the next few months, but who knows?

Our family steps out into the unknown together...

This must surely be the longest blog-post ever. No wonder I haven't been able to get to it!

Bron.