apoplectic apology

The internet account migration has completely rooted (technical term) my internet access and I'm now in the limbo of waiting for a technician to drop by (at some stage, one day, in my dreams, etc) as they believe the problem is at my end not off in server heaven. 

So apologies for lack of posting and if you send an email, and it takes awhile for me to reply, I have a good reason. 

ADSL2+. Yeah, right. One day.

defective

My life at the moment is all a bit overwhelming and far, far too crowded with things that need doing and sorting and organising and ........... you know how it is.

I've had equipment breakages and stuff-ups galore, I'm down with a strange mix of allergy and cold (damn muggy weather) and when I got a new part for my industrial iron on Friday and it ended up with them giving me a dodgy part, all I could do is see the irony (ha ha) in it. It was a pressure cap and it was defective. About sums up my life at the moment- 'stand clear, she's about  to blow!'.

So, while I should be sorting and cleaning the house tonight and getting some 'homework' done, I just couldn't rustle up the energy.

Instead I had the urgent need to hunt out some more Sookie Stackhouse novels. I found that Readings in Hawthorn had some, jumped in the car, got drenched in the bucketing rain and stormed into Reading right into the middle of a book launch, everyone serious and pious and me hunting around for the Fantasy section. Let's just say I wasn't viewed in a good light. 

Hell! 

Sometimes a girl just needs a bit of Southern Vampire Time Wasting when her Pressure Cap is defective. 

autumnal gold

I meant to post this photo last week. From my trip up to the hills.

By the time I got to Doncaster all the fog was gone and hills were alive with sunshine and autumnal colours. Sparkly with dew.

If you get a chance head up Yarra Glen way and enjoy the golden tones of the vineyards and the green of the paddocks.

And remember to support all the little businesses up that way that were hit due to the bushfires.

spot on

Due to industrial action at RMIT yesterday I ended up doing an 11 1/2 hours teaching on Wednesday. My voice has still not recovered. So yesterday, when I normally teach, I got to have breakfast with a friend, run a stack of errands and get a couple of hours in the studio. I also managed to spend a bucket of money on supplies. I love spending money but I get that post-spend panic afterwards and need a good lie-down and a sharp talking to myself that I needed to spend money to make money. When you are self employed with an income that fluctuates from week-to-week (let alone day to day) it is sometimes very nerve wracking on the money front. 

But the money has been spent....... 

Some went on new wool fabrics for jackets and pleated skirts. 

Some went on shibori to stitch as patches on said pleated skirts. I spent an lovely 1/2 hour unpicking in a pile of Haori I had bought. I love the way the stitches pop as you rip the seams apart. It all has to do with the silk thread and handstitching. Whenever I am unpicking kimonos and haoris I am always amazed at their construction. We seem to think we have invented re-cycling but this type of garment construction is amazing. The width of the fabric is always maintained, except for the section cut out for the neck, and sizing and shaping is created simply by folding in and stitching up the excess. This means the garment can be unpicked and re-used and re-modeled time after time. Even the front lapels are created by folding the full width of the fabric in and this extra allows the lapel to be self stiffening (no jokes intended there). 

When I unpicked the front of this haori I discovered there were initials 'shibori-ed' into the edge (strangely in western script......).

Anyway I better stop blabbing and get ready to start my day. I'm off up country (another morning away from the studio) to pick up gloves and run more errands.

It's foggy here so it will be cold and misty up there. 

Must remember coat, hat and gloves.

velveteen puppy

Mr Porcelain dropped in with his new fur child.

Mavis.

She ran around with her tail spinning then curled up on a pile of tea-towels and fell asleep.

We lay on the studio floor and just watched her as she slept.

ps Mavis is a staffie.

sharp

The scissors are all nice and sharp now.

They sing when you use them (always the way to know a good pair of scissors).

(And for those of you that asked....... Harvey's in the Nicholas Building. 

I've been going to Harvey's since I was about 16 and they were in Swanston Street. It was a bustling business back then, lots of old drapers counters and shelves all the way up to the ceiling. I used to go in to buy linen thread for making bobbin lace and was always served by 'Old Mr Harvey' and the thread was always on the top shelf. He was tiny and bent over, think 'Are you being served?' 's Young Mr Grace, and I was always scared he was going to die climbing the old wooden ladder.)

warm flannelette

Last weekend I scored a pair of cotton flannelette pyjama bottoms........ mmmmmm.

I thought maybe I could spend the whole of winter in them. Then I thought that might be embarrassing walking the streets in grey and black checked pyjamas (although when I lived on Brunswick Street I would sometimes go to the milkbar to get the papers on the weekend in my pjs). Then I went passed Nom D and noticed they had black and grey checked flannelette pants in the window so the whole 'winter in flannelette' didn't seem so weird anymore.

If you've been in the shop you'll know that we have our 'hot water bottle' wheat bags made from vintage flannelette and that out berets are lined with beautiful garment grade checked flannelette. I've just finished the first batch of flannelette shirts. They are simple with no collar, a yoke that comes over from the back and all the facing are made from vintage floral cotton. And they have shirt tails that look great out over the top of a garment, belted around the waist or tucked in. It's not a super fluffy flannelette, in fact I don't trust anything 'super fluffy' as I know it will just pill and turn 'super awful' in a blink of eye.

Mmmmmmm................ warm flannelette.