nest

A Look Back Into Last Week

 
Last week was a long time ago. Well, it certainly feels that way. This time last week I was baking and delivering fruit cake cup cakes to the school for the mothers day stall...

...it maybe wasn't the most effective way to use my time...

...but heaven forbid anyone think I don't contribute!

I probably could have chosen to do something a bit less time consuming... with a few less steps in the process...

I was pleased with how they came out, even though I only produced half the amount I had intended due to the fact that I RAN OUT OF TIME.

As well as doing this baking I was also preparing to hand over the organising of a stall at the school fete in 6 weeks time. How did I think I could manage this and go away for 5 weeks before the fete?

Another job on my to do list was packing our bags for the afore mentioned 5 weeks away. A HUGE job.

This was ONE of my lists that was operating during last week...

...you may notice there's one item not marked off...

Ahh, minor detail! We've hired a car, worse comes to worse we can sleep there! No problem. I think.

ALSO, Tom and I were working on a presentation board for his last show and tell session at school explaining where we are going... PERSONALLY I would have arranged the pictures differently. They aren't really in order of itinerary items and dates, really, they're not, and I was at risk of taking over in a very uncharacteristic *cough* control freakish way. I had to STEP AWAY FROM THE GLUE STICK!!!

It ended up looking great.

And that magpie? We'll be taking him with us and photographing him in front of iconic European places to email back to the class. Hopefully that will last the whole trip... it's quite a commitment.

SO we're here. I'm writing from London. The 26 HOUR plane trip was quite simply horrible even though the kids were great and amazingly well behaved. It's a long way from Australia to London. A. Long. Way. We're not looking forward to our trip back, but that's not for over a month. We here, and it's fantastic. We have wonderful hosts and we're enjoying every minute.

 
 
 

Best Laid Plans

I was going to use those zippers. I had planned to have 2/3 patterned fabric and 1/3 calico on the front and full pattern on the back. They were always going to be lined... just executed in a neater fashion. I had plenty of time... and then all of a sudden it's ONE WEEK before we go on our overseas trip!

I am referring to the 'smalls' bags I bought material for.. ooohh... AGES ago and blogged about here. I don't know how I thought I would have the time or inclination to complete this project to the standard I usually expect of myself.

Anyway, they're done now... well, you know, in a manner of speaking.

The whole zipper insertion was quietly FREAKING ME OUT. I could have worked it out but I wanted these bags finished in a couple of hours. I didn't want to have to put much thought into them. I'm getting old and Brain Strain's a killer, you know. So I decided not to do the 1/3, 2/3 thing, easier to just cut out two squares and then cut 1/3 off one square then.... ohhhh, it's getting complicated again.

The other night I woke with a start at 2am with one thought, 'BUTTONS!!!' Why had I not thought of this before! Buttons! But it's so simple!

Then I thought, 'PATTERNED FABRIC BOTH SIDES! CALICO LINING! BUTTONS! THATS IT!' Yes, I meant those capital letters, I was shouting manically to myself by this stage. So there it was, my REFINED DESIGN. Two squares of calico and two squares of patterned fabric. Sewn together in the form of an open topped lined bag and then 5 button holes, 5 buttons, in contrasting colours and.... where's that button hole foot for the sewing machine? But do I HAVE to go to Spotlight?

tick tock tick tock tick tock (That's the clock. Ticking. Or a bomb, or that volcano in Iceland, I'm not sure which.)

The epiphany struck sometime between threading the machine and realising the calico bit was bigger than the patterned bit (no, I'm not going to explain, you either get it or you don't. All I'll say is that I sit here now with a heated wheat bag draped over the muscle tension in my shoulders.) The epiphany was... VELCRO! Thankyou, George de Mestral, you're the greatest.

SO, it's a lined open topped bag. With Velcro. Class all the way.

Then I came over all crafty and covered over a logo on a toiletries bag for Tom's toothbrush etc.

 

See. Matches his smalls bag.

I'll be ticking that off my list then.