What I'm reading

It's fair to say I have eclectic reading taste but who doesn't? We all have varied interests and most of us can traverse between them consecutively if not concurrently. So my three most recent reads are/have been:

The Alchemist by Paul Coelho image

This is a book I have always meant to read so I eagerly borrowed it from a friend recently (swapping it for Eleven Minutes incidentally, which I loved). Not on the same planet obviously and I knew that before I started but as much as I wanted to adore The Alchemist I had to persist with it against my will. I found the tone condescending in its parable-like simplicity and the plot was not enough to distract me, until the climax in the last 20 pages or so which I did enjoy. I finished the book satisfied with the 'message' and it's final delivery but overall I was disappointed.




Next I embarked upon Other People's Diaries by Kathy Webb image

I didn't have high expectations of this novel, it was a gift from my mum by an unknown (to me) author (or authors as it turns out), and is packaged in a large (read pulp fiction) format familiar from the best sellers shelves in Target. I enjoyed it as a pick-up-put-down-20-minutes-at-bedtime-read but as I anticipated I didn't enjoy the writing; it was too plot driven and the plot was too exposed by the lack of good writing. I am inclined to think it suffered from being a (long distance) collaborative work - too much focus on the characters' stories and not enough on the words.




Right now I am reading (or trying to read) Murray Bail's Homesickness image

I adored Eucalyptus and on the strength of that I bought The Pages for myself for Christmas and enjoyed the writing immensely. So I was thrilled to find Homesickness in a thrift shop recently and eagerly paid $1 for it. The first 16 pages were a confusing blur but then it calmed down to boring and dense. It's certainly not a bedtime read and I am still in the first 60 pages so I will try to persist in daylight but the jury is out on this one.

Suck it up

My new red shoes gave me blisters...
...and that reminded me of a badge I once saw on etsy:

When life hands you lemons
Shut up and eat your damn lemons

Love it!
I put on a plaster and wore them again.

Welcome Autumn

photo credit

What a perfectly gorgeous day - the sky is blue and the temperature is mild with a beautiful cool breeze. I've opened up the house and the sweet smell of Autumn floats in. My washing drying on the line; I've tidied and organised my craft supplies so that the space is clear and inviting, in fact it is beckoning me; I'm wearing new red shoes (a bargain - even better); the boys are snoozing and soon it will be time to wake them and take them to music.

I had forgotten how much I adore autumn.

Applique fail

It's supposed to be a bat's wing right?

Right?

He Couldn't Care Less But I Love It

Yep, Definitely Hooked

Buoyed by my recent success on my first applique attempt (yes, I did rate it as a success) I was keen to try some more adventurous projects. I started with a mending job which I was quite pleased with - patching the knees of a pair of pants for Angus.


Next I moved onto a t-shirt potentially for a gift and liked the little giraffe so much I did one for Angus too. I'm still not sure how I managed to get it to face the other way though (well I guess I know how I must have done it, just didn't realise I had at the time).

Just need to add a tail to the little guys now.


















And then I made my favourite so far, a little grey elephant on a t-shirt for Angus. The shirt is an old one of Rohan's and the grey fabric is from a thrifted linen shirt. I'm particularly pleased with the ear which I satin stitched with the machine. Next time I think I'll try using a walking foot on the machine, I think I read that somewhere.

Shame I haven't managed my February challenge to make my own pasta but I have at least tried a new thing and I'm enjoying it a lot!

Applique

OK it may not be on my list but I've tried a new thing...


...this is my first ever attempt at applique. Yes, it is a bit wonky. Yes, the stitching is a bit average and the cotton is the wrong colour but the applique was on and I was too impassioned to wait until I had the right colour cotton. Yes, I did choose a square for the most simple sewing because I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to sew around the shape with any kind of accuracy at all.

Verdict: I think I'm hooked - I love it!

Tomatoes

What can I say... after the bushfires and the devastation they have left I am so thankful of the small things as well as the big things. Everything reminds me of what others have lost - the ducted heating coming on in the chill of the morning (so many have lost their homes let alone the comforts and trappings that come with that), the earrings I bought when I was 16 (the bushfire victims have lost their history), the tomatoes ripening despite the weather conditions even they have faced.


I am thankful for these things and so much more, at every turn I am reminded how fortunate we are.

Victoria Burns

Victoria Burns

Saturday was the hottest Melbourne day on record, it reached 46.4 degrees (115.5 F) in the city and was hotter elsewhere in the state. Marysville has been destroyed, every building in the main street gone. Kinglake was hit hard too and there are still fires burning out of control across the state. Last night it was reported that one fire had an 80km wide front. I heard the death toll was up to 108 this afternoon but they expect that could double. My heart goes out to everyone affected by these terrible fires, it's just devastating.

And as suddenly as the heat was upon us on Saturday, just as suddenly the cool change came and without rain the temperature dropped dramatically in the evening. I have heard that in 24 hours the temperature dropped 30 degrees and that hasn't been recorded anywhere else in the world.

1. Victoria Burns, 2. Victoria Burns, 3. Victoria Burns

Burst of sewing

I achieved my January challenge of sewing a cushion for the bakfiets! The picture was taken in a hurry, I would have liked to attach the cushion properly to the seat, make sure it was fluff free, have a nice backdrop etc but you get the idea. I used entirely thrifted/upcycled materials for this so I am doubly pleased. It means that the piece of foam in the back rest is not quite the right size but it's just fine for the boys and they love it.


On Saturday I made a small stuffed elephant, Olga, from More Softies (pictured) but I finished so quickly and was in such a hurry to give it to a friend's daughter that I didn't get a picture of the finished Olga. So this is the Olga in the book pictured with the fabric I used for my Olga.


And today I decided I needed a pincushion so I whipped up this one from here during the boys' nap. Cute!

Is that someone waking now? I think so.