Month: November 2014

Random Musings and a Finish!

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OK, so finally here are the pictures of my beautiful quilt I have been promising!

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… and the back:
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And the quilting by Quilting by Fiona :
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Can you tell I like scrappy binding? I have decided to make an effort to do scrappy now and then instead of every time from now on. Not every time I bind haha

This quilt is my Quilt Along from the Bonnie & Camille Charm Swap organised by Ms Midge.
I am soooo excited that I won a prize during the charm along! It was donated by the fabulous Keera from LiveLoveSew! The prize is a Scrumptious by B&C Layer Cake and a pattern by Keera herself, the X’s and O’s Quilt. I can not wait to give it a go! It looks lovely in the Scrumptious prints hey! 🙂
X and O quilt
It’s available to purchase HERE!

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So, I am still going on the bed stripping and re-painting. I swear I will be done and returned on the weekend!
I must. I must. I must finish so I can move onto other patiently waiting projects …

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All of this paint is now removed, it’s been sanded and the first coat is on!
… please note the safety boots. I learnt well at work – “Safety first!” 😉
Seriously tho, I can’t stress enough that safety gear really should be used when using paint stripper.
You can’t see it, but I use safety glasses and gloves … This shizzle BURNS if you get it on ur skin!

It has to be said, the flies in our neighbourhood have quite the substance abuse problem!
They swarmed to the toxic paint stripper haha

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My house is a pigsty right now!
Mr Manic is away for work and returning this afternoon. I am hooking in to finish it before he gets home and thinks we have been burgled and ransacked! haha It’s like an obstical course 🙂

It just feels so GREAT to have a purge of ‘stuff’ tho! I am even *gasp* destashing some fabric!!
I need to get rid of much more as I will never use it … but, baby steps must be taken!

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The Fault In Our Stars.

I watched this gorgeous little movie last night. Cried like a baby!
I like to watch movies cold. ie not know too much about it before I watch. I find that if I go see something that has had its trailer played over and over on tv for a month or 3 that most of the good bits are in the trailer and I am left disappointed.
This movie did not disappoint at all. Fantastic acting by relative unknowns. Laura Dern was the only one I knew. I totally recommend you see it!

Rightio, back to the spring cleaning/purging/streamlining 🙂 Have a great weekend!

KATE Sig for Manic Mumdays

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I’m Sick of Food

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I am sick to my back teeth of food! I’m sick of thinking about food. I’m sick of preparing food. I’m sick of thinking up something for dinner each night. I hate that it’s usually meat and 3 veg or meat and salad.

Since we had the kids we have a rotation of about 12 meals that they will eat without losing their shit too much argument {most of the time}.
These include sausages, chicken schnitzel, rissoles, shepherds pie, fish fingers or homemade pastry pies all with veg or salad. As well as vegie pasta bake, spag bol, tacos, lasagna … Hmm. It’s worse than I thought – 10 meals – freaking TEN!!!

It’s not just dinner. Master 8 has almost the exact same lunch every day. I can’t tempt him to change and if I try to surprise him into eating something new or different by popping it in his lunchbox, he will just not eat …

I made a beautiful lamb rolled roast the other night with a delicious salad. They sat there moping for an hour and then complained they were hungry! Grrrr!! One of Hubby and I’s favourite meals is corned beef and baked veg with yummy white sauce.
… It’s like I am feeding the kids poison!
And don’t even get me started on their reaction to a gorgeous stir fry!! Ugh!

Mr Manic and I used to eat so well!! I was vegetarian when we met but started eating meat again when I fell pregnant. I keep meaning to go back to vego but it’s just too hard with the way the kids are – I’d be making 2 meals each night or eating a plate of veg or salad … And did I mention how SICK I am of preparing even one meal per night? haha

Add to all of this the fact I am on a new diet. Again.
It’s an anti-diet kinda diet. I feel like I have been on a rollercoaster of regimented diets since I gave birth to my first baby.
Go on a diet, lose weight, go off the diet, put weight back on {sometimes even more than you lost in the first place!!}. Repeat.
Time to hop off the rollercoaster and just start making better choices.
Everything in moderation. Make the healthier choice. I am committed to eating whole foods as often as possible, and am hoping by changing my thinking and actions it will become a lifestyle change. One I can stick to and still live!

What’s the craziest or worst diet you’ve ever been on?
Do you have trouble getting your kids to be more adventurous with their eating?

KATE Sig for Manic Mumdays

“But it’s a talking DOG!”

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Watched ‘Up” last night for the first time!

Why have I never seen it before? It’s a delightful little movie! I wish we had talking dogs!
I love the Doberman’s chipmunk voice haha … I also love how there are bits in all the kids movies these days for adults to laugh at {for different reasons than the kids are laughing 😉 }

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I am almost done watching Breaking Bad!

It ran for 5 seasons and I never watched even a second of it. Then I saw a snippet one day and wondered why I had never jumped on the bandwagon. Literally the next day I saw that Foxtel was re-running it daily from the very beginning! So I set my timer and have been watching it since. There are 3 episodes left. Waaahhh!

I was on Walter’s side for the first couple of seasons but then he just started to piss me off with his narcissistic, psychopathic arrogance! The main 2 actors both play fantastic roles, but Jesse is the more sympathetic character in my opinion. He has a heart and some kind of conscience. Walt – not so much! It was a fab cast tho and I have really enjoyed it! Not my usual viewing at all.

I kinda seem to either be the first to see or read something or the dead last! haha I have only in the last couple of months started watching Game of Thrones as well! Again, not my usual viewing but I am persevering as everyone raves over it. {Foxtel has it on mid-season break}

Everyone lusts after Jon Snow but I prefer his daddy 😉

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Anyhooo … I have much to do today, so will catch you next time!

KATE Sig for Manic Mumdays

Sometimes I Learn Lessons the Hard Way …

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….. I don’t know why. But sometimes I just seem to make something easy, very, very difficult!

This last couple of weeks have been very fucking frustrating … errr … trying. I traded services with a lovely friend of mine and found myself with a bed to paint.
This is something that excited me! My friend wanted a gloss white. Her daughter wanted colour. I made the rookie mistake of talking about it with Mum in front of Daughter and ended up volunteering to paint purple under white and shabby it a little to bring some purple out.

So, I was still excited at this point!

Look how the purple looked :

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Sooooooo pretty hey!

Then I dove in and started the white. This is where my excitement ended.

It just.wasn’t.working.for.me

I haven’t touched this bed end since this pic was taken so I don’t have as much work to do as I could have … but I had done a few coats on the sides and bed head. And it wasn’t covering well. I didn’t want to use any blocking/sticking/primer type products as this would have made it harder to shabby nicely. So in the end the decision was made to cut it back and paint it in the white gloss the Mum originally wanted.
I’m so sorry Ms M and Miss A! xox I feel really awful! Usually painting items takes me a day per coat, {MAX! often I can squeeze 2 coats into a day!} then a sand and wax and I’m done. NOT this time.

I began sanding the piece back and quickly realised sanding {even with my palm, orbital or belt sanders} wasn’t going to cut it. Pardon the pun 😉 So today I bit the bullet and started with the paint stripper. There’s no turning back now! It’s half stripped and I am out of stripper – should have gotten the jumbo tin! haha Here is where I am at :

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This story will be funny one day.

Today is not that day!

The lessons I have learned are :

1. I don’t like custom work. I like to do what I want and sell later.

2. I am spoiled by Chalk Paint and Milk Paint! They are far and away my absolute favourite mediums to use when painting furniture!

3. I also learnt to use paint stripper properly. {and I learned to use gloves when using it! haha}

So I guess at least my trials and tribulations have served their purpose for the day.

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I am still waiting on time to finish a quilt back – hope to tonight since I can’t do any more work on the bed frame … Then I will have it quilted and share some pics 🙂 If I am on the ball tomorrow I will try to get pics taken of my last finish – the Bonnie & Camille – and share them. I know, I know! I have been promising this one for over 2 weeks! Can’t rush these things hey 😀

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I am absolutely loving my TAFE course right now!

I had my first classroom time last week for placement which makes a lovely change from the special work I have been doing so far.
One of the biggest things that struck me was how affectionate some of the kids are!! I got heaps of hugs just in that 2 hr session! Started before I even walked into the classroom 🙂 Bless their little hearts, they are soooo cute!

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Anyhow, that’s all I’ve got for today … fingers X’d I will get time to check back in tomorrow!

KATE Sig for Manic Mumdays