Tag Archives: ATASDA

Winter weather and it’s almost summer

02 Sunday Dec 2012

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I can’t believe it’s been about three weeks since my last post, where did that time go? In my defence, work has been busy, and I’ve been busy at home. Getting the garden and property in general ready for summer, cutting grass, clearing bits of dead bushes, pruning etc, in readiness for the risk of a bushfire. I added some more sprinklers to the rooftop sprinkler system, which is designed to protect the house in the event of a fire nearby, and which of course I hope I never have to use.
During last week we had two or three days of weather which was more like winter than almost summer, very strong winds, rain, and cold. Fortunately there was not much damage to my property, a couple of branches down out in the paddocks is about all. Sadly though a large dead tree which has been standing, dead, in the paddock since I moved here almost 10 years ago did fall over. By the look of it I reckon it could have been dead for 5 years easily before I moved here, so I guess it had to fall over at some point. I had planted some new replacement trees around it, and fortunately it didn’t fall on any of them, so that was lucky. They are only about 2 or 3 feet high yet though, since they only went in last winter, so they have some growing to do.
I’ve also been doing some craft stuff. I bought my new overlocker last week, but haven’t really had much chance to play with it yet. It’s a Husqvarna, here. My only reservation about it so far is that it doesn’t have a free arm, but I do still have my old Singer machine, which I think I can get serviced, and use the free arm on that. The reason for picking the Husqvarna was that the front part opens up so that you can see more easily to thread, and it also has more room to the right of the needle. Also the cutting blade is underneath, which means more space around the needle, and it comes with a five year warranty, against only one year on the Singer I was considering. I’ll write a more complete review of it when I’ve had time to play with it a bit.
Yesterday was ATASDA branch meeting, for which we were supposed to make a Christmas card to exchange. It’s been years since I did any card making, but I burrowed through my box full of bits, and found some blank cards, which was a good start. Also some tissue paper with a gold pattern on it, and some brown card. I tore the tissue to a Christmas tree shape, cut a pot shape out of the brown card, and stuck both onto a card. A few weeks ago I had picked up some flowers which had fallen from my olive trees and pressed them, so they came handyfor little stars. A gold sequin glued at the top, and a line of stitching round the edge of the tree in gold thread, and voila! I was quite pleased with the result.

Christmas cardChristmas card detail
Now I have to find something to take as a gift to Red Hats next Saturday, and I still intend to make zines to taking to writing group on Sunday, but for now, back to the garden. The storm has left more leaves and rubbish lying around, and since the forecast is for 37 degrees on Tuesday I want to get some more done before it gets too hot.

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Still here!

13 Tuesday Nov 2012

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Still here, but not posting much. No particular reason, except that the spring weather has me outside and working in the garden rather than indoors on the computer. This time of year is a busy time in the garden here in Western Australia, with grass to cut, and other general tidying up before the hot weather really hits. Summer is the time when the garden is really almost dormant, as it is in the winter in cold climates, with most plants just surviving the heat and the dry. Some are exceptions, and flourish, but apart from watering and the occasional dead heading I usually leave the garden to its own devices during summer. Watering gets done early in the morning or in the evening, and I go indoors during the heat of the day and sew or write or whatever else takes my fancy. On days when I am not at work that is.

My busy weekend was just that, and I will take photos of the kanzashi I made and post. Since then I’ve also found another tutorial, which I will try (if I can just remember where I found it!), and have said that I will show how to do them at one of our Red Hat meetings next year. Must practice a bit in the meantime.

Last weekend went with the other Red Hatters to the garden of one our our members, which she had opened as a fund raiser. Lovely garden, we’ve been there before, and lovely morning tea too. As usual came home and compared my garden unfavourably, but I will get there one of these days! I bought a couple of plants, one of which I don’t know the name of, and nor did anybody else. Also bought a bag from another Red Hatter which she had made. She had used as fabric all the selvedges cut from her quilting fabric, and it was very effective. Will get the camera out later this week and take pictures of that too.

At writing group one of the members had been to a workshop on ‘zines’ and showed us the results. I had no idea what they were, and Googled a bit, and here they are, the Perth Zine Collective.  I liked the way the paper was folded to make a tiny book out of one page, but whether all zines are like that or not I have no idea, I suspect not. Anyway, I had the idea of making a few to give to other members of the group instead of Christmas cards at our next meeitng, which will be at the beginning of December. I need to dig through my card making supplies to come up with some paper and other suitable decorations.

I also need to make a card to take for ATASDA meeting, and a gift for Red Hat Christmas function, so along with the skirts I still intend to do I shan’t have to look far for something to keep me busy.

 

Prospect of a busy and fulfilling weekend

02 Friday Nov 2012

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This weekend is going to be busy. Writing group tomorrow morning, for which I eventually submitted a very quickly written piece on blogging for the over 50s. Needs a lot more work, which I didn’t have time for, but I might do the work some time and try and find somewhere to submit it. See what comments and feedback from the group first.

Then in the afternoon I am going to a new group, new to me that is, I imagine the others have been going for some time. Having joined ATASDA I am going to a meeting of the West Australian branch. The topic for the afternoon is Kanzashi, which is a Japanese way of making hair ornaments. These particular ones are made of folded fabric to resemble flowers, and I bought some fat quarters in red and purple, thinking that it would be good to have a decoration for a hat or lapel when going to Red Hat functions. I’m looking forward to meeting the other members and having a productive afternoon.

The whole Japanese thing led me to thinking again about the Pattern Magic books, which are Japanese books of clothing designs and instructions on drafting paper patterns. At least I think that’s what they are, I haven’t actually read any of them. I’ve been wondering about buying them, either one or all, but I found two are available through the WA library, so I might try and borrow them first to see if I really would use them. I did once buy a Japanese pattern book, because I’ve always liked the look of their clothes, but the ones in the book I bought were very basic, whereas it’s really the little details I like. Obviously I got the wrong book there.

In the evening going to dinner at a friend’s place, for which I am taking the first course, so have decided to make two different pates. There will only be 4 of us so not too arduous. I plan one smoked salmon one, and the other I found a recipe for is lentil and goat’s cheese. It sounds a bit unusual to say the least, but the recipe book did say it was very tasty, well I guess they’d hardly say it tastes dreadful would they? Have to pick up a few ingredients on my way home from work, and make the pates tonight since there won’t be any time tomorrow. Also have to pack up my sewing stuff to take, and read all the other submissions for the writing group, so I can at least make some informed comments about them. I’m looking forward to the weekend!