TropicalSoup

Public Service Announcement (aka remember what batting's in your quilt!)

(my profuse apologies for the awful photos - not quite sure what was up with the colour and I have no idea on how to rectify it! Turns out having Photoshop on your computer is not enough - apparently you need to be able to drive it too!)

 

Thought this might give you a giggle (you're allowed to roll your eyes, point and laugh and my stupidity, honestly!)

Nearly 9 years ago I finished a second quilt for our bed - a follow up to our wedding quilt (have I shared that one here? It was my wedding present to D.) A pieced drunkard's path quilt in rich autumnal hues. And since it would be getting use mainly in the Winter, I used natural wool batting for a little extra warmth...the only quilt I've ever batted with wool. I was quite proud of this quilt, especially since I spent eons quilting this intricately. All was good.

Until about May this year, when it ended up on a small person's bed, and - of course - that small person did what small people are known to do on occasion in bed overnight and the quilt needed a wash. No worries, I just threw it into the washing machine, and then, distracted (probably by the wet greyness that was Rotovegas in May. Or possibly it was the whole packing and moving malarkey, who can say?) transferred it straight to the dryer. Erm, bad, bad plan! I remember thinking vaguely as I swapped it between machines that the quilt was a bit more ruffly than normal, but just put it down to it being wet, and not having been washed for a while. Needless to say, I got a wee fright when I pulled it out all dry and snuggly, and less than half its original size!

And that my friends, is when I said a quiet prayer of thanks that every other quilt I've made has cotton batting! Repeat after me: if there's the possibility it will be peed on, or otherwise be in receipt of bodily fluids, it needs to be machine washable!

Jo Campbell, doing stupid things so you don't need to!!!

Right now...

...I am lost in a forest of packing boxes, packing paper, and assorted piles (of varying heights) of collected detritus. Yay - our stuff arrived! Boo - the magical unpacking and organising fairies did not. I am really missing this space - and you guys - and hope to be back next week! In the meantime, these are photos I took last week of my studio, intended  for joining up with My Creative Space, but I got a little distracted!

Before (Thursday, early afternoon. The fabric bundles are a *welcome to Australia* gift from a dear friend - delicious Loulouthi and Innocent Crush by AMH - how lovely is that to receive in the mail?!?)

 

And the After...early Friday afternoon:

There are some interesting challenges and opportunities with this studio - I can't wait to share them with you...and hopefully you might be able to help me figure out how to deal with them! First though, I need to finish unpacking, and then spend a few moments with the packing company dealing with the fallout from all the breakages sustained! (insert blog-unworthy language here!)

Perspective

I was reading an article in the local paper last week (I know, paper- based news media, how old school and quaint!) and the front page had this photo and article. (The photo shows a man flipping the camera the bird, and a woman with a plastic bag over her head - they'd both just been convicted of selling dope to school kids)

Imogen saw it and was confused and perturbed: *Mama, that lady is not a kid so she should know that putting a plastic bag on your head is not safe. And also, I can't see what that man is trying to show us on the tip of his finger!*

She thought I had the giggles because I thought the lady was so silly - have I mentioned lately how much fun kids are?

Drama Queen

(rockpooling)

Really, the way I disappeared here for months on end might make one suppose that 4 moves, 3 significant birthdays, a new country, new job for D (with some seriously harrowing down-to-the-wire-do-we-wait-for-the-job-that's-taking-forever-or-go-to-plan-B dramas) and all the related malarkey that goes along with these sorts of adventures were a tad time consuming and stress inducing. One would probably be right!

 

(watching the surfers)

By rights we really should just about be pros at this moving nonsense - this is the 5th international move for Cole and Imogen after all, and they've only just had their 5th birthday, but this one was easily the hardest move for me yet, both logistically and emotionally...even if it was the shortest international move we've ever done! We're going to try and stay put for a little bit now, just for a change!!

So where did we end up? We are in the gorgeous Hunter Valley region in NSW, Australia, in a large country town, just over half an hour from Newcastle, and about 2 hours from Sydney! The move was purely dictated by D's new work, even though we were actually in Australia looking to settle up Brisbane way before we finally got word that this job was his (I wasn't kidding about the down to the wire stuff - it seems that's just how we operate!) The place though is lovely and so far, so fabulous! It is extra nice that everything else has fallen into place so well, given this was D's preferred job. Oh, and the Hunter Valley is a major wine producing area...I know I know, it's a terrible hardship being surrounded by all this squashed grape - we're doing our best to deal!

We moved into our lovely rental place 7 days ago, and whilst we're glamping it up here on airbeds and beanbags whilst our furniture wends its way to us (it's taken a bit longer to catch on to our change of plans and arrive at its final destination) it is already starting to feel like somewhere we can settle and feel like we're home. I will share some of the sillier, crazier, lovelier moments from the past few months soon, but for now, I'm back, patchy mobile internet and all! (Mr Telstra man, name your price for organising my ADSL quicksmart!)

 

(in all our rockpoolong, we never once found a starfish with *just* 5 appendages!)

 

**The photos of Cole and Imogen are from Newcastle beach, where we stayed at our dear friend - and best man - Phil's apartment for 10 days. His apartment is right. on. the. beach. Utter heaven for us all. And as for Phil - man, the definition of a best man? Someone who offers for your family of 4 to invade his 2 bedroom apartment for an unspecified period whilst house hunting. Definition of The Best Man Ever: the man stays with a mate around the corner so you can have the whole apartment to yourself. Seriously - how do you say thanks for something like that? (I'm thinking this may take more than a handknitted beanie and a couple of home cooked meals!) And then just when he couldn't get any cooler, Cole discovered *uncle fill* had a skateboard...and taught him how to use it!!! And he pushed Immy round (and round and round) the tennis court on the skateboard as well. And that was it, 2 small hearts utterly devoted to their dear UncleFill! D and I are just glad the kids love Phil as much as we do...even if I still think he is an utter pain in the arse to watch a royal wedding with!

 

(taking time out to compare war wounds, lol!)