Saturday, October 31, 2009

Procrastination


I'm supposed to be listing stuff on eBay. I just don't feel like it.....

Gotta rid this house of coffee machines though!!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Dance Extravaganza 2009


Well the dance concert is over again for another year, and once again, I took no photos. None. Such a bad mother.

Miss R has been a Preps B since she started at this dance school 5 years ago. She was supposed to go up to Juniors at the beginning of the year but many of her peers left and there weren’t enough to make up a troupe, so she stayed in Preps B while her school friend, Miss M who is the same age, went up to Inters. So initially Miss R looked like a giant amongst all these little 8-9yo’s (bearing in mind that she’s as tall as me now) but a couple of new girls joined that were around her age so she didn’t stand out quite so much. Anyway, the result was that Miss R ended up in the front row for all dances, all the other girls have followed her lead and Miss R has actually practised all year. She has improved so much and is far more confident.

She assures me that she wants to continue next year but she’s also talked about going back to calisthenics, so I’ll wait and see. I don’t really want her to be a Preps B for yet another year, so I’ll keep our options open. I've never had a problem with this dance teacher (although I gather she has ruffled some feathers) but I'm getting a little miffed at how the "troupe" girls - those that are entered into local eisteddfods - tend to be favoured. I'm sorry, but those less talented (ie Miss R) still pay their way, and are really the ones that keep her dance school going.

I also volunteered to help as a dresser this year and despite how time consuming it was (hadn’t considered that I also had to attend all the practices) I actually quite enjoyed it. Might even volunteer again next year. Dh thought for a nano-second that meant he didn't have to go to the concert, but Miss R had invited a school friend, so he had to attend after all. Someone had to point her out in the crowd....

The only downer.....Miss R was convinced that she was getting her 5 year medal at the presentation at the end of the concert but she was forgotten. The teacher sent me a text afterwards, apologising for the mix-up and she will get her medal at the Xmas break-up when she gets her trophy, so Miss R is happy with that, but I know that deep, deep down she is disappointed that she didn’t get it on the night in front of an audience.

I'll leave you with this picture from the 2006 concert......and while I'd love to say that glossy curly ponytail is all my own work, in reality it's a hairpiece. And she wears it every year, so just imagine her 3 years older.....

Monday, October 19, 2009

Sorry, whiny post coming up

My dh has had a slight mishap and has broken a rib and his shoulder blade.

Needless to say, he is a poor patient and I am a terrible nurse. Two weeks off work and he's going to be unbearable.....he's almost unbearable already!!

Of course, he had to do it this week - the week that I have to get the car back to the mechanics (looks like the turbo has to be replaced...under warranty thank goodness!), Miss R starts her social skills group, has 2 dress rehearsals and a dance concert in which I'm supposed to be helping backstage, a visit to the GP for her and for dh, plus drama and Scouts (I think we're giving Scouts a miss.....) And to top it off, the vet rang today to remind me that the dog is supposed to go back for review this week (he had an abscess and was on antibiotics) .....I just laughed (before I cried) and said I'd see him next week, thank you very much.

And did I mention that someone tried to use my credit card last week to buy concert tickets in Sweden?? So the cards had to be cancelled - new ones turned up on Friday, but I don't have a PIN for it yet and so can't access the ATM. Oh well, at least we know that The Falcon works.....got a phone call from NAB within minutes of the transaction going through, so they were able to reverse it but I'm still puzzling over how my details were stolen. Guess I'll never know....

Hope next week is better. :-)

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Update #2

has taken me a little longer!



The pirate quilt is finished and ready to hand over to the recipient - my great nephew who had his first birthday on Friday. We've only seen him once, back in January....long story....we had a falling out with SIL and while we *think* niece #2 (the baby's mother) is neutral, we've been reluctant to contact any of the 3 nieces after niece #1 sent some very nasty texts and confronted dh at his place of work. (We've since heard that she's left the state, so perhaps I don't need to constantly look over my shoulder any more in case she pops out of the bushes screaming abuse....)

Anyway, niece #2 and baby J will hopefully visit next weekend so I can pass this masterpiece over. I took it in to work with me a few weeks ago and showed it to someone with a boy about the same age and she was in raptures over it, so I'm hoping that the gift will be used and appreciated.



I think this pattern is called "box in a box" (or similar) and I've pieced the back with 2.5" squares. I particularly like how the binding turned out - not just the stripes but I made the binding quite wide and I think it looks great. Seems to sit better than the narrow binding too, so I might use that more often.



The quilt turned out to be 48" x 71". I have quilted it in straight lines (one day I'll have the confidence to try some free motion quilting), diagonally through the squares. I learnt a great deal from this quilt and am very happy with the result.