as time goes by...

The last little while has been a bit tricky for me...my grandmother passed away recently. This is a hand coloured photo of her when she was 21. It was a strange mourning time because she had Alzheimer's and has not been "Nana" for some time. She hasn't recognised me in years and more recently she had completely withdrawn and become unable to communicate in any way. So in essence you grieve twice and the grieving is done slowly over years. I felt a bit of guilt as I'd not been to visit as much as I "should", I also felt very nostalgic looking through the piles of photos for the power point presentation I made for the funeral. It's a time when you are confronted with your own mortality- Nana would have been 100 in November and up until recently she had lived a full life- but death is inevitable. I helped Mum plan the funeral and there are so many choices to make, I ended up telling my kids two songs I'd like for my funeral and told them to pick the cheapest coffin available- I'd prefer a cardboard box, Such a waste of money really. Even simple funerals cost a fortune! I'm glad that I've got life insurance to cover these costs for the kids when that happens...This post is tad morbid really, but that's where I've been of late. I've also been actually doing some organising and not thinking or talking about organising. As a result I've been a bit absent in the blog sphere of late...but I find I'm not the only one. And then when I get time to spend online I'm distracted by that ever so addictive pinterest!

The case of the disappearing sheets ...and a way of solving the problem

With a house full of grown up kids with double and queen beds I have found that there is sheet confusion and "sheetnapping" occurring. So today I bought myself a couple of new sheets (the one sheet I could locate had passed it's prime and suffers from pilling hence it's uncomfortable and I threw it away.) I got out my embroidery threads and have put my name on my sheets...

 this should solve my problem.

mother and daughter weekend

We had a delightful time together. We thoroughly enjoyed everything we saw and did.

We discovered we have VERY different sleeping styles. Chicky Babe likes to sleep in a neatly tucked in bed, I on the other hand like to untuck the whole bed to be able to stick my limbs out in order to regulate my temperature. My bed is closest the window!

 This is the view from our hotel window- it was raining when we arrived. The boat you can see is the Queen Mary 2.

These photos were taken from the roof top pool area. The Hotel (The Holiday Inn Old Sydney) was an ideal spot for a girls weekend away. It was an easy stroll to the ferries and there was a taxi rank just outside the hotel. Plus the Rocks is such a nice place to spend the weekend especially with the Sunday market right on your doorstep!

The Rocks also has lovely old buildings, nice little cafes and interesting walkways.

All of the events we went to Sydney for had a No Photography rule so we will have to make do with our memories and purchased souvenirs. It was interesting to take a close up look at the costumes and props from Harry Potter and the Picasso exhibition inspired me with ideas for teaching the kids at school.

 We took the ferry to Manly and we had lunch with the lovely Fifi and her daughter.A beautiful sunny day spent at a very nice "hipster" cafe on the beach followed by a browse through the markets there and a coincidental meeting with a former student of Fifi's who had bought one of her paintings at an exhibition. So I had the privilege to see one of Fifi's paintings for real. Beautiful! She really is a magical fish!

 On our last day we stashed our bags in the hotel lobby and made our way to the botanical gardens for lunch and a walk.

 Look carefully - you can just see the bird having a bath in the fountain, he was having such fun!

Beautiful, shady, full of flowers...

and a gazillion flying foxes making a hell of a noise!

We hadn't planned to but we ended up walking all the way back to our hotel. We followed the meandering paths and before we knew it there was a sign saying Opera House 2mins. (Mind you we saw about three signs saying 2 mins to the opera house!) So we just kept walking. It was such a nice walk although by the end we were feeling a little burnt.

In all a lovely time.

Sydney

Chicky Babe and I are off on our long weekend in Sydney tomorrow. As usual I am in a dilemma about what to pack. I will no doubt pack too much... I supose layers are what I'll need. The three quarter sleeves I've pulled out of the bottom of the clean clothes pile in the back of my wardrobe are far too hot to wear here with our high 30's temperatures. I am looking forward to a cool change!

The dress is done,

Complete with a little hat for the light on the top of the TARDIS. The first photo is without a flash and is nice and soft focus, the second has a clear shot of the embroidery on the ribbon around the waist.

We are having a double birthday party, Chicky Babe is 19! and Lauren (Bantam Boy's girlfriend) is 20. Now I have to run and buy 2 birthday cakes! I hate having to do it but my oven is on the blink again. Yesterday when I tried to cook dinner it just wasn't heating up. Luckily the kids don't mind sausages in buns for the party plus a few pizzas from the local pizza place. An easy party after all. Plus all the kids are scurrying about doing big tidy ups. Chicky Babe wants to learn how to use the lawn mower too!

Tardis Dress

I used to make A LOT of dress ups when my kids were little. When they were really little I made them dinosaur costumes (hoodies with tails and spikes) they were the envy of all other children in the Kalgoorlie supermarket back in 1994!  Bantam Boy rarely wore ordinary clothing. His wardrobe consisted of a superman suit, a Hercules outfit, a pirate coat of red velvet and a magician's cape. Then both he and Chicky Babe joined a drama group and I made many costumes for their productions. Also school dress up days were a highlight and I was directed to make more and more challenging costumes, the kids never once believed I would be unable to create what they wanted. To tell the truth I think I actually thrived on the challenge and enjoyed perpetuating their belief that I could do anything. Ahhhh... the delight of being 'super mum' in the eyes of your little ones.

I actually thought I wouldn't be called upon so much now that they are all but grown up. But recently I have been required to make a Darlek dress and now I have to make a TARDIS dress for Chicky Babe's upcoming birthday party. I'm having a little break while I prepare dinner and create a quick blog post.

I started by tracing off a pattern and adjusting the neckline- a TARDIS needs a square neckline not a round one. I also drew off a pattern for a facing for the new neckline as a facing will be easier for a square neckline than the bias binding edge suggested in the pattern itself.

I've used felt to create the windows and hand stitched some ribbon around the edges, the door panels are suggested using the same hand stitched ribbon. I used a felt template to figure out the placement of the ribbon for the door panels on the front of the dress.

 I'm stitching these down before sewing the dress together as it is easier to do this flat without having to worry about the back of the dress.

Fortunately the dress is a "homage" to the TARDIS rather than a replica of one. I'm still trying to figure out what I might do to create the 'light' on the top as a little pillbox hat. 

I was supposed to have finished the dress this weekend as the party is next weekend, but I had a slow day yesterday and took a while to get started today so I'd best get back to it!

Picasso and Potter

 

This is a post about more travel plans, and as I don't have photos that relate directly to it I've posted some of my favourite ones that I took while I was in Venice...any excuse to look at them again!

When I was planning my recent trip to Europe visiting the Picasso Museum in Paris was high on my list but unfortunately it was closed for renovation. Then I learned that an exhibition of his works would be coming to Australia- Sydney though not Perth. I hummed and haaed wondering if I should or not and finally last night- after checking with my boss if it was OK to take some of the remainder of my long service leave- I booked tickets for me and my Chicky babe to have a long weekend in Sydney in a couple of weeks.
 I've booked to stay in a hotel in the Rocks- Chicky Babe's choice of a few hotels we'd shortlisted. We arrive very late on a Wednesday night and I've booked tickets to see the Harry Potter exhibition on Thursday and the Picasso exhibition on Friday then as an extra special treat for her birthday I booked tickets for "Love Never Dies" Chicky Babe loves musicals and Phantom of the Opera is one of her favourites. Then we flay back on Sunday ready for Uni on Monday. Short, sweet and lots of fun.
Apparently there is a market on saturday and sunday just near our hotel...Fantastic! And a rooftop pool with a lovely view ready for some relaxing and reading and floating! I fancy a visit to the Botanical Gardens and this time Chicky Babe has said she'd be happy to have a bit of a wander about there herself (Reminding me that last time we went she was 10- last time we didn't get to do some of the things on my list as the zoo and the aquarium won out!)

I'm looking forward to sharing this time traveling with my girl.