New stuff … Like a Manic Mumdays Facebook page!!

August 18, 2014August 21, 2014 / manicmumdays / 1 Comment

Sew, I thought I might start up a little facebook page for Manic Mumdays!

You can find it HERE!

I’d love it if you would head on over and ‘like’ it! And appreciate it muchly if you shared it with your friends too! Thanks in advance 😉 😀

The main reason I did this is cos sometimes I want to share something short …

For instance.

Last night I was doing the folding. I wash for all about once a week … And last night I folded 21 pairs of my eldest baby’s jocks. Twenty one! How does one kid wear 21 pairs of jocks in 7 days or less????

….. See? A funny line or two on a facebook post, but not something I can base a whole blog post on, right?

Or this.

I have been suffering from a dry scalp the last few years {Strangely enough my hair/scalp just hasn’t been the same since having the kids – #256 on the list of things ‘they’ don’t tell you before you have kids! 😉 } So I have been researching natural treatments on Pintrest. {Follow me on Pintrest HERE!} And last week I treated my scalp with warm olive oil and rinsed it with apple cider vinegar ….. Since then I have only washed with a water/bicarb mix and rinsed with a water/apple cider vinegar mix.
My hair hasn’t looked or felt this good in a looong time! I am off for a trim tomorrow, and I am very interested to see if my lovely hairdresser thinks it’s improved from her perspective too 🙂

Or this.

{Which I am MEGA excited about!!!}
I recently won an Annie Sloan Chalk Paint pack from one of my all time favourite blogs – Katrina Chambers {of The Block fame}
See? Excitement!!!!! I am hanging out for it to arrive so I can playyyy!
I made over a tv cabinet for the boy’s playroom last week using Milk Paint, and I will share a pic in the next few days 🙂

Well, I am off to crash as I have been on the go since 5.30am – a 10hr day at work! … A big one for me and for my poor tired little babies ❤
I will be back with some updated quilt and tv cabinet pics soon!

6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon ~ Issue #2

August 16, 2014August 16, 2014 / manicmumdays / Leave a comment

Ok, Sew I told you last time I did this I found the perfect spot to launch off my next 6 Degrees of YouTube Game.

Here it is. I’m starting at a big Bookmark Of My Life song – Train, Drops of Jupiter {#1}

Second pick is from one of my fave 80’s/90’s bands! Darius Rucker has in the last few years forged a successful solo R&B and then Country Music career, but I love this one with his old band. It’s Hootie And The Blowfish, Let Her Cry {#2}

The next one I clicked just cos I like it 🙂 Matchbox 20, 3AM {#3}

Hmmm where to go now? Maybe another just cos I like it 🙂 Semisonic, Closing Time {#4}

I could go with another Semisonic. I quite like them … But here’s Soul Asylum, Runaway Train {#5}

hmmmm the final pick!
I love this band they are one of my all time favourites! – U2, With Or Without You {#6}

*EDIT* THink I have the vids fixed now, sorry! x

*Sigh* I’m off to watch some more memories while I sew! Maybe I’ll start with a funny Vid next time 🙂

Unfinished …

August 6, 2014February 7, 2016 / manicmumdays / 15 Comments

I had a shocker 24 hours yesterday!
It started when I had the battery replace on my car Monday and didn’t stop til I got home at 6pm last night! *phew!*

Interestingly, I just made a typo on the title – put “Unfunished”
That wouldn’t have been untrue either! haha

As I have mentioned before, I joined in the Australian Kate Spain Charm Swap hosted by the fabulous Ms Midge …

Melissa {Ms Midge} arranged a fantabulous bunch of prizes and a “Charm-Along” to show off our gorgeous bundles.
I had been {slowly} working towards the cut off date. But alas … the afore-mentioned shocker 24 hours has been my undoing! I intended to get the top completed Monday night and get some pics taken in the morning. Blog. Link-up. Easy … Right?
Yeahhh … not so much! When I didn’t get quite completed I was going to finish and take pics in the morning.
Nope, no go then either.

So. I am out.
And what makes it even sadder is the fact that I have found my MOJO!! haha

~*~

…………………………………………….. Or So I thought!!!!
I was just now reading my emails {mainly blog posts I am addicted to 😉 } while I worked on this post, and I followed a link from Molli Sparkle’s Kate Spain beauty to Ms Midge’s Linky Party for the Charm Along.

And ….. saw this :

“All you have to do is link up your project at the bottom of this post before 5pm WEDNESDAY THE 6TH OF AUGUST, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA TIME, and the winners will be chosen and announced Wednesday night here on the blog.”

eeeeekkkkkk!!! I am still in this! haha

~*~

Back now!
Off I went to buzz the rest together and I am happy to announce I am DONE!
I finished!
And you are reading the blog post to prove it! 😉

Stitch the HST’s together 🙂

Sew pretty!!

Trimming, trimming, trimming!

Pretty chains!

Here it is!!! Sorry I am cutting it so fine Melissa! haha

{Geez I hope my tired brain can work out the Linky part! – this is popping my Link Party Cherry 😉 }

EDIT : I should add, she’s a Queen Size 🙂

Some Days Are Diamond

July 30, 2014July 30, 2014 / manicmumdays / Leave a comment

… some days are stone. Some times the hard times won’t leave me alone.
Some times the cold winds blow a chill in my bones.
Some days are diamonds, some days are stone.
Gotta love John Denver for ‘Where-I’m-at-today-lyrics’ haha

I don’t know if it’s because it’s Winter, {Winter gets a bad rap from me cos I don’t like the cold 😉 }
Or if I just lost my MOJO …
But I am reallllllly struggling to put a nice block together the last week or two!

Whatever it is, it always seems to happen when I am on a deadline!

As I have mentioned before, I participated in the first Aussie Kate Spain Charm Swap run by the lovely Ms Midge this last month or two.

Sew … Ms Midge has a fab competition happening that we have to enter our projects made with the Kate Spain charms! I spent a big chunk of my weekend and a few nights of last week cutting, stitching, cutting again and then trimming 448 Half Square Triangles {HST’s} for my project.
Simple, right? WRONG … I have been struggling to match points and am really regretting my whole idea now 😦

I laid out the block I am aiming for here :

Sew far, sew good.
Start sewing them and fall in a heap! Gah!!

I also made my July Bee block over the weekend. It was HST’s too and I tell ya! It took so many goes to get it right!!
I was afraid I was going to fray the seams from too much unpicking!!

Pretty block, hey? Our July Queen asked for bright happy colours. I liked the combo enough to cut one for myself in the same fabrics – Did I mention I was going to make a quilt with replica blocks from this Bee? Anyhow, it was lucky I cut mine, cos I did fray the corner of one when Betsy decided to have a hissy fit! {She is due for a service but I am pushing her so I can finish the KS project 🙂 }

A lady I know thru my other hobby – timber work/furniture make overs – is moving back to the US next month and I am hoping to buy her Janome to keep as a spare. I’ve always thought I’d love a second machine, especially when I am sewing with 2 different colours and it’s a pain to change the thread haha. Perhaps I should find a second overlocker too! 😀

Anyhow … here’s hoping a good sleep will return my MOJO and I get this quilt top done by the weekend!

Linking back to Ms Midge where you can find details on the Kate Spain Charm Along and Swap 🙂

6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon

July 16, 2014July 15, 2014 / manicmumdays / 1 Comment

Have you heard of “The 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon”?
Or for the purists, “The 6 Degrees of Separation” 😉
It’s a cool theory that suggests that everyone is a mere 6 steps from each other.

The all-wise and all-knowing Wikipedia explains it thus :
“Six degrees of separation is the theory that everyone and everything is six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world, so that a chain of “a friend of a friend” statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps. It was originally set out by Frigyes Karinthy and popularized by a play written by John Guare.”

Sometimes while I am sewing and there’s nothing good on TV, I play my “6 Degrees of YouTube” game where I start at any point I feel like – Music video, Gag reel, Cute kitten video, Movie Trailer, anything. I’ve even started from links friends put up on facebook etc …

Anyhow, the idea is that you start on the page you choose and you can only move onto a video from the choices listed on the right hand side of that screen.

Last night, reminded by a friends little one singing along to it, {Hi Holly!! ❤ } I took a trip down memory lane and searched a song I loved from my younger days – The Cranberries, “Ode To My Family” {#1}

The choices were tough this time round, cos some real favourites of mine were coming up!! But this time I chose another favourite song – Evanescence, “My Immortal” {#2}

{FYI – Amy Lee is another chick I’d turn lesbian for, after P!NK. I must have a thing for fantastic female singers! 😉 }
From there I clicked on an important bookmark from my past. This song is SO important to me. It was an easy choice even tho one of my all time favourite P!NK songs was there too lol. It’s – 3 Doors Down, “Here Without You” {#3}

Another tough choice! I went with an old favourite I haven’t heard in a while – Staind, “It’s Been A While” {4}

My next Degree was a real trip down memory lane!! It’d have to be 20yrs old! – Crash Test Dummies, “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” {5}

The last one was a toss-up for me between 2 or 3 fab songs. Love, love, LOVE the song I went with!! It’s Tracy Chapman, Fast Car {6}

Well, that’s got me started! I think I will do a 6 Degrees of YouTube every week! I love listening to old tunes I adore.
I see on the last one there’s another “bookmark of my life song” waiting to be clicked ….. so guess where I will start next week? 😀 heehee

Catch you soo, ❤ Kate ❤

Exciting Project and School Holidays Are Over!

July 14, 2014February 7, 2016 / manicmumdays / Leave a comment

I know my monsters have already had a pretty eventful school holidays, but I took them to see RIO2 at the movies the other day. The kids liked RIO but fell in love with it all over again on the ship … where they watched it ~~heaps!~~ a couple of times. We went with our friends up the road, also a mum and 2 boys.

It was pretty good. I give it 3.5/5. I have to say, some of my favourite movies of all time are cartoons!
Finding Nemo would be in my top 5. Forrest Gump and Dirty Dancing would also make my top 5. But I would have to be super selective in choosing the other 2 😉
What are your favourite movies?

Actually, Saturday night I stayed up til nearly 3am watching an old favourite – Up Close and Personal.
Michelle Pfeiffer. Robert Redford. *sigh*

While I was watching ~~Robert Redford~~ the movie I was cutting white charm squares to use with my
Aussie Kate Spain Charm Swap!
I played a double hand in the stash so ended up with 224 charms 😀
Since the quilt I have planned uses HST I had to then cut 224 white charms.
And then rule all of them in half and match it with the others.
Which means I’ll end up with 448 HST eeek! 😀

….. hmmm hope I have enough haha!!

I would have been further along except we took the Mad Mutt to the beach for his first visit. {I’ve made a bit more progress since I took this pic tho …} He absolutely loved it!!! Here’s the big goofball overgrown puppy smile :

It was also his first trip in a ute {Hubby’s new work truck} and he’s such a clutzy non-dog! – he dragged his chin on the road as he was jumping out. Small graze. Big bleed. I wore some of it on my shirt. Ugh!

School is back this week – ~~yaaayy~~ Gee I’ll miss them 😉 I have a couple of full days so I am looking forward to ‘alone’ errands.
Hope to be back in a couple of days with some progress pics from my big project!
Have a great week 🙂

Home again, home again lickity split …

July 10, 2014July 10, 2014 / manicmumdays / 2 Comments

Well.

We’re home – yaaay! {what I really mean is “Thank f*ck!”}

We had quite an eventful holiday.
It looked for a day or two like we wouldn’t even make the cruise ship!
My poor little man developed a chest infection which they thought might be pneumonia! It wasn’t thankfully and a course of antibiotics set him on the straight and narrow once again 🙂 *Phew! I can’t stand it when one of my babies is sick!

Sadly it meant we had a shortened trip to Seaworld and the other 2 boys went off to Movieworld without us 😦 We spent the day warm and sleepy in the hotel room {I was sick too, but not as bad as Ryan} And it was far too cold to go to the water parks! There was, however, an awesome water park at the resort and Mark n Harry had a couple of plays in it … Crazy buggers!

Above, starting from bottom left : At the airport – We’re on our way!; Q1 from below; North from the top of Q1; South from the top of Q1; That’s the Qld/NSW border – we crossed over into cockroach country!; Coolangatta Beach.

Above are some bits and pieces from our fractured Gold Coast visit.

We had to be at the port to board Pacific Jewel between 10.30-11am and man! There are some lines you have to wait in to get on those ships!! We finally boarded and were supposed to set off by 3 or 4. We ended up having dinner still in port and after some safety talks, we were at last on our way by around 7pm ish!

Above is a pretty picture heading out on the Brisbane River; Us checking out our cabin and donning our safety vests while learning what to do if the worst was to happen 🙂

We were at sea for 2 days and got into port in Noumea late afternoon. Which sadly left us only a couple of hours daylight to explore 😦 Oh well … We made our own fun in the city and visited a gorgeous old Cathedral, had a quick snack of twisties and coke in the park.

Clockwise from top left : Ryan’s favourite place to watch the ocean {they claim to have seen flying fish one morning and a shark one afternoon haha}; Park fountain, Noumea; Archie, our fantabulous steward made towel animals for the kids a couple of times 🙂 ; Me on Mare; The boys sitting in the window again; Ahoy Captain Ryan!; ~~Some~~ ALOT of DS was played; Ahoy Captain Harry!; And a cute little tug boat I couldn’t leave out 🙂

Leaving Vanuatu at dusk; All of us at a lookout on Vanuatu; We parked next to a kindy and these little ones jumped up to the fence and started yelling “Take my picture! Take my picture!” lol; Harry with a gorgeous Iguana on his hat; We got our picture with the village chief; Coming into Mare; The boys holding a Green Turtle; The warriors were very scary! 😉 ; And the boys on Mare with Jewel in the background.

I, for one have decided I am NOT a cruiser. I didn’t much like it. I was bored and on the last 2 days seasick {despite taking seasick tablets} It was exceptionally AWESOME to not have to cook or clean tho! 😉
And I really enjoyed checking out the islands. The kids loved the kids clubs and the food was lovely.

Walking to the plane we glimpsed our ship heading off on her next adventure! Little dudes look deceptively happy to be on the plane heading home … I say deceptively because on that short flight they both {at different times} had sooking fits of “I miss Pacific Jewel” and “I miss my new friends” haha funny little dudes!

Now we are home, things are getting back to normal. Husband is back at work, kids are still on school holidays for another couple of days and I am getting back into my sewing 🙂
It reeeeaaalllllly helps that I came home to a gorgeous bundle of Kate Spain charms from the swap organised by Ms Midge! 😀 I have chosen the quilt I will make with them and am keen as mustard to get elbow deep in it!
Sew, hopefully I will have a few pics of some blocks for it in my next post … Stay tuned 😉

June Bee Block … AND … We’re going on HOLIDAYS!!!! :D

June 20, 2014 / manicmumdays / Leave a comment

I finished a gorgeous Bee block last night for our June Queen.

Perfectly named the Scrap Jar Star, it’s a wonderful scrap-buster and I have one cut out for myself too
{I am slowly catching up on making myself a block from each Queen Bee’s reign with the view of mashing them all together at the end of the 12 months for a gorgeous throw for my couch!}

~*~

Only 4 more sleeps until we go on our longed-for Holiday!
When I say “longed-for” I really mean it … we booked this in Feb last year! That’s right 16months ago!!!

This time next week we will be here :

And while this is my plan :

I am sure I will be overruled by the 3 males
Along the lines of :

But that’s ok!
Cos after our Gold Coast adventures we move onto more sedate, relaxing adventures!

To say our family is excited for this holiday is a complete understatement!

Sew … If I get a chance before we scoot I will come chat again. If not, see you in a couple of weeks!!
Squeeeeeee!

Latest Finish and Something that changed me this week.

June 16, 2014June 16, 2014 / manicmumdays / Leave a comment

Hi Everyone!

I’ve been pottering around but haven’t really had much to talk about lately.

I need a new computer 😦
My lappy is on the blink and since Mr Manic left his job a couple of months ago we can’t afford it right now …
And when I have someone hanging round the house I feel lazy and lethargic myself.
Cross your fingers for me that he gets a positive answer to the latest job he is shortlisted for!

Anyhow, here is the gorgeous quilt I just finished!! The front :

The back :

I used the pattern “Playground” from Camille Roskelley’s book Simply Retro and pieced a few more for the back 🙂
I used a scrappy binding and finished last night! 🙂
It was professionally quilted by Fiona from Quilting By Fiona who has a facebook page HERE!
Fiona quilted the most amazing animal design with lions, giraffes and elephants – perfect for this project!
And she also made me a gorgeous Owl softie with some left over fabric. This gorgeous bundle went to an even more gorgeous little man today.
Which means my design wall is almost empty and I get to start a new project in the morning! Squeee!!

~*~

In the title I promised something that changed me this week … You may have seen it, even!
There is the most amazing clip doing the rounds on the internet.

It’s a 62 second snippit of pure beauty and genius from Jim Carrey. Extracted from a 26 minute graduation speech he recently made, it seriously changed me. Here it is!! :

Absolutely INSPIRING!

Here is the best bit {I made this myself and it’s now my facebook pic! 😀 }

I hope you all take a chance today and do something you LOVE!

Random Musings

May 2, 2014February 7, 2016 / manicmumdays / Leave a comment

Hi everyone!

I don’t really have much in the way of sewing to share today, so I am going to share some random thoughts.
Don’t be too scared, most of the time not alot goes on in my head, so it won’t be too deep 😉

~*~

Am I the only one over Facebook?
Saw this today and it pretty much sums it up for me :

I have to admit, it really is shitting me lately! It’s so tedious getting thru all the crap in my newsfeed.
And don’t get me started on just how freaking hard it is to get any traffic on little sell pages! They are trying to get everyone to pay the ridiculous fees to advertise. Not sure they’ve done their research properly. All that will happen is the little guys trying to eek out a living or make a little extra for their families are going to be the ones who pay the price and close down. {cue shameless plug} My own little page – Two Little Rascals has just over 700 likers and I have to say, things are slow. I have seen market nights not doing well either *sigh*

~*~

Speaking of Two Little Rascals, I proudly donated this Raggy Quilt :

to The Oz Material Girls Farmer’s Relief Fundraising Action last week!
The poor little fella sold 3 times and was cancelled on 3 times
So I was extremely happy to see him go to a loving new home the other day! 😀

~*~

It’s still pretty hot here. I am fearful we won’t get much of a winter this year.
Does global warming scare you? I know Mother Nature goes thru ebbs and flows … but when she is going thru them,
do the Earth’s inhabitants realise it? Maybe I am more sensitive than I thought! haha

~*~

I witnessed a lovely dose of Karma the other day!
I was watering plants, feeding pets, etc at my petminding gig and one of the 2 little girls next door got up on a chair at the fence and started taunting the dogs I was looking after. The dogs, to their credit ignored her. If I had been in my own home I would have just squirted the little shit with the hose I was watering with … but I wasn’t *sigh* … so I was just about to say “Don’t tease the dogs” when she fell off the chair and started screaming bloody murder! haha
Broken chair = $10
Doctors visit for concussion = $90
Petsitter laughing at karma’s sense of justice = Priceless 😀

~*~

I’ve noticed something lately. It’s irritating me … why do people say “My son is almost 6 and my daughter is nearly 4”

Why not just say “My son is 5 and my daughter is 3” ?? They are that age for only a year. Why round up?
Some adults do it sometimes too.
“How old are you?”
“I’ll be 40 in February”
ummmm so short answer is “39”?? o.O

~*~

Anyhow … enough of my thoughts. I hope to have some progress shots for you next time!

Catchya on the flip side! 🙂

Kate x

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