Secret Christmas business

I am a bit late in posting this, since I planned to post something on Sunday. I got all caught up with making Christmas presents that I lost track of time and had to walk Jack in the dark. This is always awful since the mozzies are horrendous and I always end up looking like I have some sort of horrible tropical skin disease with the huge number of bites I get (and yes I do use aeroguard- which is its own horror after I found it had leaked and melted the plastic bucket I keep it in).
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Anyway, the point is that although I would really love to post a picture and share my latest crafty endeavour- I can't because it will ruin the surprise for pretty much all my friends and family. So I will wait until after Christmas before I post the pictures. I am thinking I will do my first ever tutorial on how to make these really great... items (am I hyping it too much?).
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In the meantime I thought I would share this great recipe for bircher muesli. I don't know what is going on with photos in blogger since they keep coming up sideways. I figure it looks much the same sideways as it does the right way around so I am not going to bother trying to fix it.
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Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats (I use the quick cook stuff)
• 200mL apple juice
• 1 green apple, peeled and grated
• 2 big desert spoons of greek yoghurt
• 1 small handfull each of hazlenuts, pistachio and wall nuts- chopped (or any combination of nuts you like, just make sure they are unsalted)
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar (if you like it sweet)
• Honey

Method
The night before; pour the rolled oats into a bowl and soak it in the apple juice
The next morning; mix the grated apple and yoghurt into the oat mixture and pour into two bowls. Sprinkle the nuts, sugar and honey over the top and serve immediately.

The ugliest skirt in the whole world II

A while ago my work changed uniforms because the colours were wrong. I ended up with a heap of ugly work shirts and thought I would make something out of them since I was never going to wear the shirts again (I was told they are great to wear to the disco because of the reflective stripes, but I don't think thats the look I am going for). I was thinking of making a bag out of them, but after a troubled week looking for a skirt to wear after work, I thought I would have another go at making a knee length skirt out of my work clothes.

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I chopped the green bit off the bottom of the shirt and removed the reflective strip. I cut off all the bits that weren't a skirt and stitched it together. Viola! Ugly skirt take 2. For about 5 seconds I pondered stitching it back on along the hem so it could be a disco skirt, but it is already ugly enough.

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I didn't use any patterns or anything, I just made it up as I went. I even re-used the buttons to make up the waist band- a complete accident that worked out quite well. The whole thing will be a lot easier and less stabby when I am able to construct my own dress form out of old newspapers and duct tape. I'll be waiting for the Chrismas holidays for that though, since I don't know anyone here well enough to ask them to wrap my up in gladwrap and sticky tape...

My kingdom for a plot

Its 7pm, I am tired and just want to eat chips in front of the tv. Why did I start this NaNoWriMo? Why is it that I can only ever seem to write the beginning of the story and not the middle or the end? Is it really only the third day? Argh! My plot has abandoned me.....

Later that evening...

Its 8.30 pm and I have somehow managed to get the wordcount goal of 1667 words done for the day. Not only that but it only took 58 minutes, and I was stuffing about updating my ipod at the same time. Ahhh, smug mode :-D

Puns with buns

The weekend was an almost-got-it-right weekend. I tried to make some bread rolls, unlike last time I tried this I actually got the dough to rise. However, I baked them too hot and ended up with little bullets of something that is hard on the outside and squashy on the inside (I was thinking a knight, but that's a little bit tasteless). So I tried to convince the dog to eat them and he gave me that unimpressed look he gives me whenever I try to get him to eat something strange and slightly inedible, like tomato or small pebbles. He looked at it then started scratching his bum (I was going to say buns, but it was a terrible pun). He is a hard food critic but honest. Next weekend I'll try baking them at a lower temperature.

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So I moved on to my quilt project I started last weekend. I learnt that although polar fleece is cheap, it is hard to sew straight. It moves around, a lot, while you are trying to stitch it. As you can see from my wonky block, its not all that straight. I figure I'll cut the wonky bits off later. I am kind of out of the instructions and into the wild making it up as I go territory. I am sure it will all work out fine.

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Being impatient I have put the twirly blocks (as I call them) with the ducky blocks to try to get an idea of how great it will be when I make another 11 twirly blocks. I am sure quilters must do this all the time in order to admire the work in progress... or perhaps they don't procrastinate like I do. Anyway, here is my procrastination, it is starting to look like the picture in the magazine...

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I also wanted to mention that as it is November 1st, I have started my first unofficial attempt at NaNoWriMo. I am also pleased to be able to smugly announce that I have achieved the daily word count goal of 1,667 words a day. Not bad, and I even have a plot planned this time. They say that's important in a novel. And, I won't even post the crap I write here so you don't have to be subjected to my terrible story writing. How lucky!

Something to do with IKEA throw rugs

A while ago I bought a patchwork magazine and wanted to make just about everything in it. Once of my favourites is this quilt called 'Just Ducky' (if you are interested, you can buy the pattern from designer Bonnie Sullivan). I am not sure why the picture is coming up sideways, but if you tilt your head you can see what I am attempting to make out of my cheap IKEA polar fleece throw rugs.

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Although this blanket is supposed to be made out of woolen fabric, I thought polar fleece would make an okay substitute. Its also cheep enough that I won't be too upset if I completely muck it up.
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This is the first time I have attempted applique, but it seems to be working out okay. All that time procrastinating by reading patchwork magazines seems to have paid off. So after cutting out all the shapes, I now almost have the first six of the ducks...

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There was a surprising amount of off cuts- which found their way to the dog to play dress-ups in...

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Word in the trees is...

News of the shredded wheat appears to have spread throughout the bird world. I wasn't sure why the little green bird had shown up since the biscuits aren't really suited to a little bird with a small pointy beak...




And this is why you should eat with your mouth closed...

Banana pants

I prefer to think I am getting old rather than acclimatising to the heat up here. I have begrudgingly given up and bought myself a pair of slippers to wear around the house on the cold floor. It is a chilly 21 degrees inside! I had planned on crocheting a pair of slippers, but I just couldn't wait that long, and besides I was having troubles getting two the same. So, going along with my decent into old age, I have even taken to wearing pyjamas. The horror!

A little while ago I bought some pyjama pants online and paid a small fortune (which I have later found is about right for adults pyjamas). Shortly after sleeping in them, they have turned themselves into a twisty licorice all-sort and started to fall apart. So,I finally got up the nerve and cut into one of the pieces of fabric I brought back with me from Sydney. Today I made (and finished) the first ever piece of clothing that I will probably be able to wear- Pyjama Pants!

TaDA!

I am quite proud of my sewing attempt. And because they are for sleeping in, I don't have to worry about anyone commenting on my lack of sewing skills (see the worlds ugliest skirt if you don't believe me). There was a scary moment there when I had to do some button holes (elastic is a little bit beyond me at the moment). Luckily with some phone support from my Nanna, I was whizzing up buttonholes all over a scrap piece of fabric. Too bad they weren't as good on the actual pants.

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Anyway, I am off to pack up my mess (not as bad as the crape incident) and bake some banana bread for the week...