My Pantry

What happens when the daughter of one of the ladies you work with, decided to become a Tupperware sales person?

Apart from spending far too much money and getting a set of incredible knives that slice your hand open (true story and now baby bear #1 who is 14, won't let me touch knives)...you get this

A really clean and tidy pantry that needs restocking because you have found all those nasty out-of-date items that filled your bins to the brim when your children giggled as they threw them out, laughing at the 4 packets of bran cereal that had been purchased to cleanse the family and yet mysteriously, remained unopened...anyone else have nasty surprises in their pantry or their fridge?

Finished

These have been in the works for a little while but are finally ready for the tada moment.

 

 

These little babies are off to somewhere special, but they are waiting on the 3rd one to be bound.  Why do I always put off binding my quilts?

Sunny Days

The weather here the past couple of days has been just gorgeous, perfect holidays weather for the school holidays.  We've had visits, reading, sleeps overs, movies, bowling, shopping, cooking, walks and a teeny tiny bit of crafting.

We've had lazy, cuddly mornings which are a real luxury these days, especially with weekend sports requiring early starts both Saturday and Sunday.  Oh and breakfast in MY bed.

We've worked on my car, checking water levels, oil levels and cleaning the windscreen - inside and out.

We've even been a little bit naughty and had one of these - it was very yummy for something naughty.

I've almost finished this one.  I am loving this series of novels and think this is now the 5th one I've read.  Can't wait for the end of the school year to read more.

And finally this little baby is almost finished and will be going somewhere very special.  More on that once it is done.

So that has been what's been going on around here since my visit to the hospital and the kids are keeping me busy to make up for the 2 lost days.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

A Productive Weekend

I have been busy.  It's amazing what you can achieve when there are no interruptions...more Great Granny's and I think I only have 5 or 6 more to put together before the trimming and corners go on and then...YES the piecing it all together.  At this stage I am going to sash each block with white.

I think this one is my favorite of this batch.





 

And then there is this little sneak peek or a tease of something special I am working on that I hope to finish tomorrow before I go into hospital.  Thank goodness for school holidays I say.

My Friday Night Sew In

I think my first FNSI was successful.  I decided to continue working on my Great Granny.  I continued to chain piece all of the rows and then bagged them so they didn't get mixed up and ended up with this:

I continued to work on them and put a few more together - ready to trim and place the corners on.

I'm using Tapestry by Joanna Figueroa for Moda and bought it from here.

 

 

I think this one is my favorite of the blocks I created last night - pity the photo is less than perfect.

 

 I love how the red really jumps out in this one.

Well this one...it will be ok in amongst all of the others.  It's funny how after spending so long putting the little squares together in bundles that I liked, they somehow look very different once they are sewn up.

I then picked up my stitching and finished off this one:

Before beginning on this one:

and it was at the second t that I decided or rather my eyes decided that I needed to call it a night.

Thank you FNSI - can't wait for the next one.

Wishing it was Friday...

Oh boy am I ever wishing it was Friday, because not only is school out but I am participating in this for the first time.  I have seen this picture

 

 

on a few blogs and have wondered what it was all about.  After reading Simone's post about the last one I decided it was just what I needed.  So as I will be kids free this Friday night I am planning to sew up a storm.  I can't wait.  So what are you doing on Friday night?

Twice - are you kidding me?

                      

June 4th 2010 - playing What's the time Mr Wolf?  Grade 1

September 18th 2012 - morning run Grade 3.

How does the same child fall twice and use his face to aquaplane along the bitumen?  How sad is that face?  How does the side of his face cop all the impact?  Whatever happened to putting your arms out to stop yourself from falling?

Sunday and a birthday...

Yep...my turn for another birthday - in my head I am 28...lets leave it at that.

I spent the day sewing and watching movies.  Not a bad way to be (oh and with some sort of stomach bug) on your birthday.  I popped out to Spotlight and grabbed a few things, one being the necessary items for my bag for the black and white swap.  Can't wait to get started on that.

I did manage to finish off 3 quilt tops.  A blue one for a boy...

A floral one for a girl (don't you just love baby bear #2's little legs poking out underneath?)

And another pink and blue one for a little girl.  These little babies are going somewhere special, but more on that once they are finished and ready to go.

 

So that was my day...another weekend gone.  2 more days and then 2 weeks off including a trip to the dentist and a trip to hospital, oh and a love affair with my Janome.

Ah Saturday, sweet Saturday...

Groceries done.  Cleaning done.  Washing done.  Stitching done.

 

Now for a movie and a snooze on the couch as the kids have blown my Internet allowance and it is running soooo slowly.  Thank goodness it resets tomorrow.

Maybe there is hope...

Australian researchers develop genetic test that may allow early treatment of autism

A GENETIC test to predict a child's risk of developing autism could be available within five years after a medical breakthrough by Melbourne researchers. 
  
It's the first known blood test to indicate the likelihood of a child developing the disorder with approximately 70 per cent accuracy.
University of Melbourne researchers say it could allow doctors to detect and treat the disorder earlier.

Clinical neuropsychologist Dr Renee Testa said early intervention reduced the burden of the condition on children who can struggle to communicate, learn and interact with others.

Lead researcher Stan Skafidas said the study of more than 7000 US children found 237 genetic markers for autism spectrum disorder in 146 genes. Researchers found that while some of the markers increased the risk of ASD, many protected a person from developing it.

Prof Skafidas said the protective markers could one day allow researchers to try to develop drugs to treat the disorder, which affects approximately one in 150 births.

The test involved measuring both the genetic markers that protect and contribute to the risk of ASD.

A higher score increased the individual's risk of developing the disorder.

Prof Skafidas said the discovery was exciting. The current accuracy rate meant a third of children would be incorrectly diagnosed.

He said the test was not designed for prenatal screening, but rather to help identify at-risk babies and young children.

The study involved children of central European decent, so further research was required to determine whether the test was effective in other population groups.

Amaze (formerly Autism Victoria) acting CEO Diana Heggie said the research was brilliant because it brought us one step closer to understanding the genetic links of autism and developing a genetic test for the disorder.

"Currently it takes a long time for a lot of children to be diagnosed with ASD as there's no medical screening or diagnostic tests," she said.

"It's purely based on behavioural patterns.

"It's a very promising piece of research."

They will now trial the accuracy of the test by monitoring children who are not yet diagnosed.

The research was published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

vandenbergL@heraldsun.com.au

To these very clever men and women working tirelessly on this research, I say thank you.  Maybe one day there will be a cure.

OMG!

Oh my goodness!

I'm booked in for BOTH days...can't believe I've done that as I'm such a homebody sooky-la-la.  I say its all Sharon's and Shez's faults as they have convinced me to pull up my big girl pants, to suck it up and leap into the world of the unfamiliar...

Should be a great weekend and I am thankful that I am going.  So anyone else want to come along?

Sunday

It was another slightly productive day here.  I did manage to get 4 and 3/4 more great granny blocks done before the bobbin ran out (only 17 1/4 to go).

Baby bears 2 & 3 came shopping with me for supplies for camp - baby bear #2 is off to Ballarat tomorrow for her final primary school camp.  She is pretty excited.

Baby bear #1 played in his baseball grand final and won.  This was his first season of playing baseball and he has really enjoyed it.  He even won the coaches choice award for the under 16s.

But the best part of the weekend was tonight when baby bear #3 tied his shoe laces for the first time.  I know for many of you reading this, this must sound unusual that a 10 year old boy is only just mastering that skill, but this boy has had so many hurdles to over come in his life.  Every skill that you and I take for granted is a major challenge for him.  He has so many things to deal with along with of his Autism and he is such a champion - he never gives up, no matter how frustrated he gets, his persistence is faultless.  He is my hero.

I'm hooked...

Yep, I've joined the Granny revolution, the Great Granny army that is.  I've been watching these little beauties pop up all over the place for the past few months and as a fan of the original crocheted Granny blanket, how could I not but make one?

I purchased 2 jelly rolls - all that cutting of  2 1/2" squares just made me cringe, so I decided to cheat a little and not use scraps but rather a Tapestry jelly roll.

I cut it all up and then packed it away for a couple of weeks. I pulled it out again this morning and started to put the rounds together - that was fun.

I now have a nice pile of left overs for another project that will be scrappy.

So then I knuckled down and chain pieced one square - it didn't take that long and was made easy by having it all laid out in order first.  I've been a little OCD with this project and have put each pile of colours with their whites into little plastic bags so that they are always ready to go, no matter how many times I get interrupted or have to pack it away.



Great Granny 1

 

Great Granny 2 - complete with iron droppings (why does it always do it on whites?)

 

And there you have it, the first two of my Great Granny's and only 22 more to go.  She's going to be a beauty, I can feel it.

Italian Day

All week at school we have been celebrating all things Italian for "Italian Week".  We finished up today with our dress up day.  The kids love it and get very excited. 

For me it was all about making sure baby bears #2 & 3 had the costumes that they wanted.  #2 was easy, she borrowed a top off a friend and went as a soccer player and was happy.  #3, not so easy...Autism rears its ugly head and eventually he decides he wants to be a pizza delivery guy.  OK, that I can manage.

All was good until the parade at the end of assembly.  Again that awful Autism rearing its ugly head as baby bear #3 struggles with the whole social thing and refused to show his t-shirt which was actually a bit of a joke for our Principal as it was about him.  Sadly nobody got to have a good look at the t-shirt and bag but I did manage a photo.

A little blurry - sorry but all I had was my phone

Ah what a little champ he is - despite all of his special needs and challenges he really does make my world a better place and I love him to pieces...and at the end of the day this costume was covered in chocolate gelato, lucky I took the photos before school started.

Oldies...but goodies

I've haven't been sewing much of late - for a number of reasons and don't really have anything to new show but thought maybe I would post some quilts I made way back...before blogging.

I made this after seeing a picture on the internet 2009.

 

 

Glace 2009

Rounneries

Firefighter Quilt

 

 

...and of course no quilt I make is ever complete until Lucy has sat and helped.

Wild

We had some rather violent weather here today.  So violent in fact that we lost a door at school.  Thankfully there was nobody near when it happened.

 

We have since found out that the door can not be repaired and we have to have a new one made.  Makes you appreciate how quickly things can change and how little control we have over things sometimes.