Ship ahoy Suzy!

Well Suzy has let her hair down and made another garment for herself! This will do very nicely when suzy and co take off on Sunday for a few days r&r in the sun and sand Fiji style!


This is a BWOF ring-stripe top from issue 0409 style #112. Fabric is a cotton jersey (not easy to find let me tell you) from Gorgeous Fabrics. Details of the pattern review will be as usual to the left on the side bar, but I thought that for each blog post that I write about sewing I would list what I learnt from each garment.

What I learnt from sewing this garment...

• how to use a fusible bias tape to stabilise arm and neck openings, and also for binding the sleeve hem. This stops the opening from gaping which can happen a fair bit with stretch fabrics. This notion, which happens to be BWOF's favourite one, works a treat.
  
• how to line up stripes, I winged it a bit using the armhole as a reference and found it much easier than anticipated
• that sewing a t-shirt is pretty simple, and well worth it. Some may disagree, but I like a certain style of shirt (low neck and 3/4 sleeve) & I think that they suit me better than other styles - but they are not so easy to find, and now I can make oodles of them
  
• that my overlocker/serger is really lacking and my lusting after the Baby Lock Evolve Wave is really not that ridiculous!
  

A bit of bloghonesty

I don't know about you but when I read some blogs, I feel like everyone's life looks so damn perfect. Rational suzy tells me that it isn't so....so I'm giving you a little bit of bloghonesty, just every now and then.

A couple of weeks ago I was frantically baking for the re-run of the boy child's birthday party. We had to can the one in November due to a bad case of conjuctivitis. Well I'd made the cake, smartie biscuits, scones and was onto the cupcakes when the girl-child decided that she needed mummy...right now and no-one else.

The man of the house took-over, I'd already creamed the butter and sugar, added the eggs and all that was left was alternate folding in of flour and milk. Everyone knows how to do that right? Well...apparently not the man of the house. Instead of adding 2 AND 3/4 cups of flour, he added only 3/4.

And my part in this? I should have known better as I poured it into the cupcake papers, it looked just wrong! As I've said before the man of the house is a cracker of a cook, but a poop baker. And suzy as chief baker-woman who has made an inordinate amount of cakes and cupcakes since she was about 10, should have been able to spot the mistake.

Well, that's my bloghonesty!

It's bottling time again!

Ever since I started my preserving journey twelve months ago I have been eagerly been anticipating the return of cherry season. I'm lucky because the prime Australian cherry growing region is around Young, which is not far away, and that means that the cherry growers come down each week for my local farmer's markets. Before I continue I should add the disclaimer that cherry season is all but over, and hence the contents of this post occurred a couple of weeks ago. But back to the cherries!

Last year I gifted some Cherries in Vanilla Vodka, which went down with such enthusiasm, that one of the recipients arrived in my house throughout the year with a new bottle of Absolut ready for more. So for this season I repeated the same successful batch, along with a new one - Brandied Cherries.

Here are my cherries looking so perfect,its like opening a box of beautiful Christmas baubles.

....and here they are after preserving in sugar, brandy and water. The recipe is from a book I highly recommend to fellow preservers - A Year in a Bottle. The liquid in the background is left over syrup which makes wonderful ice-cream topping.I think I'll give up on the water-bath method of preserving after last year's flop, and keep with boozy fruit to hold us over the cold winter months!

...and then it's all over.

Rather than blog about what we did, what I made and showcase the table all prettied up and ready to go, I thought I'd show you the afterwards. When the food was gone, and the wine drunk...and conversation and laughter continued to flow........Merry Xmas!

Finally...something for suzy

Well I've done it. Finally made something for suzy...and ta da!

Here I am off to the Brown Owls Xmas do last Sunday. It feels fitting (excuse the pun) to be wearing something I made to the final BO bash of the year. Just because I've learnt to really embraced my inner crafty self this year and joining something like BO was a big part of this process.

I'll post the details of the pattern and the adjustments that I made on Sewing Pattern Review which will then appear in a box in my side bar.

A bit late...but getting into the Christmas thing

So this time last year I was in hospital with the afore mentioned girl-child. Christmas presents were either under the tree or in the post...all hand-made by early December. Well this year, ahhh not so good.

Despite not conducting paid employment at the moment, my time seems well not my own - ever. So presents are behind, decorating also behind but I am determined to catch up and have it all done by mid next week so I can just enjoy it all. But if the truth be told I actually enjoy all the madness and catching up anyhoo, but only if I avoid anything that looks vaguely like a Westfield!

The tree is up of course, has been since the 1st that is something I would never compromise!

So to today's efforts...a bit of wrapping ready for the post next week. I decided to recycle some old Xmas cards and turn them into gift tags. A few simple strokes with the craft knife and a punched hole for ribbon and voila!

Guest blogger - Little Miss One!

Hi,

My name is Sophie, sometimes known on this blog as "the girl child" and today I'm one! So this is a first for suzy hausfrau all around, the first guest blogger and my first birthday.

So I thought I would tell you all about what I love to do now that I'm one.
I love...

• food, and lots of it!
• sorting shapes
• twinkle, twinkle little star...especially copying my mum with the hand gestures
• dancing, no I REALLY love dancing
• my big brother, and crawling after him wherever he goes
• did I mention that I love food?
• sleeping in mum and dad's bed a bit too much...hmmm
• bath time
• going for long walks in my pram with grandad
• talking, babbling, gibberish whatever you want to call it
• oh and of course mum and dad, who I can now point to and name with about a 75% accuracy rate

Thanks for stopping by....

One step closer

Yay! Today these arrived in the mail. Which means that suzy is one step closer to a wee little commercial enterprise..."wee little" being my main operative words!

Stay tuned!