Crayons, frogs and jelly fish with the last stretch coming up!

I am not talking about fabric (or even horse racing) but the last stretch before I finish this (first) semester at uni (and the last term before school holidays for summer!) I have only had one week holiday (school holidays was two weeks) but it was relaxing and fun. I had my sister's boys over for a sleepover on the first Monday. I bought them all a white t-shirt and had fabric crayons and they drew their own design on them. I washed the shirts and two of them wore them the next day when my Mum and I took them to the Planetarium for a look see and a show. Before the show at lunch time we had a small picnic and a play at the Botanical Gardens next door. Then a play and explore after inspecting Neil Armstrong's space suit and other stuff there. Boys love this stuff!

T-shirt designing

Two finished shirts

Three boys and a planetarium

Then one sister and nephew joined us for a Bribie Island beach mini break. A friend has a house two minutes from the surf beach that he only uses on weekends and offers it for holiday breaks! Fantastic .. it was a really cloudy and overcast the first two days when my sister was there but we went to the beach anyway as the boys don't care about weather when there is unspoilt, unpopulated beach. Running and digging and screaming ... they had a great time.

Beautiful day at Bribie Island

My sister left and we stayed for another night and day and had the most beautiful day. My son started by saying he wasn't going into the water but would just be playing on the sand... I said ok just make sure you have your togs on ('swimmers' in Queensland speak). Of course we ended up staying all day and he went in and out of the water three separate occasions.

Green frog on house stairs

This is a small green tree frog (one of two we saw one night) on the stairs. One time we went up and my son screamed ... I found him in the toilet saying there was a frog in the bowl. It was much bigger (at least double this size) and I just saw him slip away. I don't know what it is there but there are always green tree frogs. This time the avocado tree was just finished fruiting and we managed to pick 2 hard but 1 ripe one which we ate on baguette toast - yum!

There are often jelly fish in the water at Bribie (or blue bottles - much smaller, tiny even, marine stingers) but none this time on the surf side, but there were a few of these beauties on the calm side. This one was about 35 cm long (13") so they are pretty big. They sting and hurt but can't kill you like some marine stingers we have!

Jelly fish

Calm side of island

The weather has been cold and really windy here the last two days (my least favourite weather is wind - everything else I can cope with fine) but we still went for a bike ride this afternoon and finished off with going to the local movie theatre to see The Smurfs of all things but my son enjoyed it.

On the way to Bribie Island we stopped at a church thrift shop that always has patterns and I bought a few so I'll show you when the camera battery is charged and I can download the photos.

Bubble O'Bill: take 2; bikinis

With some time at home, I've been sewing a bit lately and I finally had time to make the bikinis for my son's girlfriend for her birthday. I cut them out in February from some scrap fabric my friend gave me. I made my son some swimmers and I see someone has some for sale if you feel you are missing out 😆. I had to piece together the bikinis as I had nearly nothing left over. I made the top back and the briefs from the free Madelynne Noelle pattern and the front top from another Madelynne pattern I can't find a link for it but was Mallory Lane. It's a basic top with scrappy back. If anyone wants it I have the download. Looks like it's not available any more. All this piecing and mixing was purely from fabric limitations. The other fabric I mixed it with was ombre from aqua blue to purple and matched well. I asked Liv if she wanted a frill down the centre front to break up the print as I wasn't sure she would, but she loved the idea, so on the went. She tr

The saddest dress, then a few more.

Well hello. It's been a while. It was 8 months from the last post to the previous one to that and it's a bit longer this time. The last day I wrote was 10 Jul 2021. On 12 July my son and I were finally seeing Tim Minchin after booking it before we went to Europe at the end of 2019. It was going to be April 2020, but changed a few times and although it was a school night (year 12 for Alex) we went for dinner and sat in the show. My Mum had gone to hospital that morning and my sister was still at the hospital with her. Just after interval I got a message on my phone, "get to the hospital now". So we raced out and to the hospital where. although it was a lockdown and no visitors allowed, all 10 of us were allowed to see Mum as she was end of life. I won't go into the whole thing but Mum didn't die that night, but because of lockdown, we were not allowed to go and see her until a week and a half later when we were allowed just to discuss palliative care. By the n

Emergency Rashie KS2600

I go to aqua aerobics 3 or 4 times a week and I like to wear a rashie as it's outdoor and it's a bit warmer in the (not very cold usually but really warm this) winter, and I can't reach the spots for sunscreen. In Brisbane you must wear sunscreen every day even in winter as we have the highest skin cancer rates in the world and I don't want to be any more wrinkly than I am! Anyway, I went to the Gold Coast to see my friend for a few days and I left my rashie at her place and I she wouldn't get to Brisbane for a few days so I pulled out KS 2600. I saw this pattern listed on a pattern site and then became obsessed with it till I got it but this is my first chance to try it. Isn't it lovely! I wanted to test it to see how the fit was. I've made McCall's 7417 a few times but it's long between the shoulder and the arm for me and even though I have made a few it wasn't ever a great fit but it is a quick sew. The pants on the McCall's is a good fit

Sew Darn Tired

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