Maybe in Oz

A couple weeks ago I got one of those last minute half price concert ticket emails for Dolly Parton.  I LOVED Dolly Parton when I was young.  Loved.  She had a tv show for a couple years and I would religiously watch it every Saturday night.  I don't remember much about the show except that it involved lots of sequins and she would always end the show with "I'll always love you."  So needless to say, I jumped at the chance for cheap tickets to see her.  She might be 68, but I figured if she's been around that long it was bound to be a good show. Her sequins didn't disappoint, and it was very enjoyable hearing her live.  She told great stories in between the songs and played several instruments, even a tiny little saxophone covered in rhinestones.  When it came time to 9 to 5 we got a good giggle out of watching the 60+ in the crowd dancing along - not the normal sight you'd expect to see at a concert.  Then she finished up and several wh...

A few months ago I stumbled upon this adorable quilt on Pinterest: I'm not very good at making quilts on demand.  My brain needs time to process the fabric and pattern and I have to see that light bulb go off in my head before I start the next project.   I received a jelly roll of Asian fabrics for Christmas, and one morning a few weeks ago I woke up knowing what that roll of fabric needed to become.  I started sewing the strips together 4 at a time and then cut them into strips.  I kept sewing and cutting until I had an entire quilt top of pieced 2.5" squares. Once the top was done it was time to think about the backing.  I had purchased a few meters of this black print a few weeks ago because it was on sale for $4/meter, an almost unheard of price in Australia.  I knew I'd find a use for it some day but it turned out to be perfect for this project.  I knew I wanted to do something similar to the elephants on the original quilt bu...

Today I went to tea with some friends.  The word tea seems like a simple word, but around here someone asking me to join them for tea could mean one of several things; 1. literally a cup of tea, 2. lunch, 3. meal sometime between lunch and dinner, or dinner.  In this case tea meant lunch. We went to a tea room in Armadale, the fancy pants part of the city.  When I got there each place setting was laid out with a Wedgewood plate, tea cup, and saucer set.  Each setting was different and very beautiful.  We ordered tea and it came out in a matching teapot with a strainer.  Being the amateur that I am I started dumping my tea in my cup, completely forgetting about the strainer.  I soon figured out that those mint leaves were meant for the strainer but was still confused about the proper way to pour the tea. I vaguely recalled that I was meant to drink the tea with my pinky up but this felt a bit funny so I man handled it instead.  Then they br...

WE, the people of a free nation of blokes, sheilas and the occasional wanker, we come from many lands (although a few too many of us come from New Zealand) and although we live in the best country in the world, we reserve the right to bitch and moan about it whenever we bloody like. We are One Nation but we're divided into many States: First, there's Victoria, named after a queen who didn't belie ve in lesbians. Victoria is the realm of Mossimo turtlenecks, cafe latte, grand-final day and big horse races. Its capital is Melbourne, whose chief marketing pitch is that "it's livable". At least that's what they think. The rest of us think it is too bloody cold and wet. Next, there's NSW, the realm of pastel shorts, macchiato with sugar, thin books read quickly and millions of dancing queens. Its capital, Sydney, has more queens than any other city in the world and is proud of it. Its mascots are Bondi lifesavers who pull their Speedos up their cracks to ke...