Sewing Projects

I haven't been blogging a lot lately, but I have been sewing. I haven't been sewing so much that I couldn't blog, but between work and sewing, blogging just got pushed to the side. Have a look at my latest projects. A quilt (my first!):
 

Some cushions for the couch:

And of course there were plenty more bags:

I haven't taken a photo of many of the latest bags but they are a significant improvement on my early attempts. They are lined, have pockets and often include some intricate patchwork. In my year without alcohol maybe sewing might just be a new addiction!

Still hanging in there

Still hanging in there 4 and a half months. I'd blog more is uni hadn't screwed things up with stupid new gmail accounts which wont let me run email and blogger at the same time. I've tinkered with the settings and it worked for, oh, 1 minute, then went south. When I get over my lazy and learn to log in and out of things with ease then I'll blog more. But on with the non-drinking show ... in the last months these are the things I've noticed:

1. I have an awfully large amount of dreams where I stuff up and drink alcohol during this year, a lot, I mean like a few nights a week usually. They include panic, then denial and bargaining, all stages and processes of loss. What does this symbolise? Fear of failure? I know dreams where your teeth fall out mean you are scared of what people think of you, and I used to have these a lot. Am I really worried about failing at this task, or another task? Thoughs?

2. I sometimes nearly do stuff up without thinking, and have nearly taken a sip out of a cooking wine/cider bottle! It's not intentional, it's just habit (bad habit I know, usually I only swig AFTER I've opened it and used it in cooking.) It is sometimes due to over tiredness because I am working stupid hours. I reach in, grab a bottle and go to open it before realising it is cider not soft drink or something else. These aren't alcoholic beverages I buy, they're just left there from having people over. I won't deny my friends the pleasure of drinking when at my house, but I guess I need to take a little more care.

3. Does eating home-cured fish count as drinking? I wanted to do my usual vodka beetroot cured salmon for a special someone but debate sprung up about whether this fit the parameters of the trial. Thoughts?

4. My bf made beer cake. He liked it, others liked it, and it was interesting, but really wasn't my cup of tea (or beer or cake). It is probably because I really don't like beer.

5. Easter = top shelf French champagne, D'Arenberg winery and much much much temptation. I did not budge, though I have developed a disturbing habit where if it is the good stuff I need to grab a smell. It looks wierd, and desperate, and I hate doing it, but it gives me the memory of the drinking without the drinking.

6. See point 5, it is food for thought. Does it show I'm still not in control of my drinking? (obviously the abstinence approach is taking some control, but it is total control?) Old me would have downed as much of that champagne as I could. Would I still do that once this year is out? Is the need to still get a smell of the top shelf champagne a symbol of me wanting to involve myself in the drinking ritual? It isn't drinking, but it is getting myself within proximity of the drinking culture.

Ok back to work.

3 months down ...

And 9 to go. I did a bit of an observational round up at the 1/6th mark so it is only fitting that I do it at the 1/4 mark. Mmmmmm 1/4, sounds like such a big slice of pie when you think about it that way. So what did I observe this month?:

1. People are so sweet! Sometimes they forget I'm a no-booze hound this year and when they realise their error they apologise. It's not their fault I'm erring against the norm, and they really have no need to apologise but it just shows how sweet and caring my friends are. Love you all.

2. Major celebrations can be done alcohol-free. There is an amazing grape and berry juice that is the colour of a crisp rose, when drunk in a wine glass it can be very convincing. But really who am I fooling? One late guest thought I'd faltered already, and wouldn't believe me that it was just juice until it was tasted.

3. The problem with celebrations at home is that sometimes people leave alcohol behind - like a mostly finished bottle of champagne. It is still in my fridge, now flat as a tack and unappetising but I'm keeping it there. Usually it would have been finished off, but now, what to do with it (besides the sink!?!) It has to be thrown out, but at the moment it is serving as a little reminder (and oddly a big temptation)

4. Easter is going to be a challenge. I've been thinking about it for a while. My parents love excellent wine, they have impeccable taste. And there will be so much of it in Adelaide. Of course they are also super supportive of me in all my endeavours, and wouldn't make me drink ever, but just having the top notch stuff around will be tricky. Of note, my brother is a full-time teetotal so there are always non-alcohol options.

Not much new learned this month, and I'm still getting sick quite often (stupid ears) but hopefully, one day soon, the health benefits of this year off booze will pay off.

Mocktails

It took 3 months, but I finally had my first mocktail last night. It was at Rrose bar in North Melbourne and included muddled mint, lime and passionfruit amongst other flavours.

Delicious. They also do a mean Short Macchiatto. I'll be back.

Thanks Rrose bar for taking my Mocktail virginity.

A typical thesis milestone celebration

A typical PhD thesis milestone celebration would involve an expensive bottle of champagne or two, and a massive hangover. This year's non-alcoholic celebration of the end of the thesis were alcohol-free on my part, but still highly decadent. We swapped the Moet for:

• Berry, grape juice
• Roasted duck
• Slow roasted pork belly with fennel and cumin seed paste
  
• Pine Mushroom and black quinoa risotto
• Dulche de Leche icecream with rockmelon, strawberries and yellow rapsberries.

A great night was had by all. The biggest question now ... which thesis colour is best!?!

So about Sewing

I lied the other day, I didn't mean to, it just slipped out, but it was a lie and it'll remain a lie. I plagiarised Mum's sewing abilities. Ok so I didn't so much copy, as take the credit for her work. She made me this amazing Dr Seuss strapless dress (I did buy the fabric and pic the dress style but the patterning, sewing and amazingness was all hers.) A fellow apartment dweller commented on it positively, and without thinking I took it. I mean who doesn't want to be thought of as talented.

The truth is I'm an average sewer. The reason is simple, I'm just not good at following orders. When the teacher said colour between the lines, I scribbled over the whole page. When the art teacher said the sky had to be blue, I painted a rainbow (or at least I envisage my 5 year old self doing something so bold when really I probably just chewed on the paint brush.) When I cook, recipes are for inspiration only. This 'method' good for something like a stew, where you can slowly mould it into deliciousness, but this laissez-faire attitude does not mesh well with baking. Get your macaron mix a couple of grams out and your mouth-meltingly delicious almond meringue treats are ploppy messes.

The same goes for sewing. You can't just whack a few bits of fabric together and say yep, that'll do. You can't cut a few centimetres off and then magically make your patchwork quilt fit. But at the present, I persist with my stubborn self-taughtedness and the result is some charming, but kinda mediocre pressies for friends. The fabric is amazing, and I'm great with colour and from afar these things look good, but up close it's sewfail central.

But just as my lovely mother put my out of the lines artwork up on her fridge, and I hung her out to dry when her fanstactically intricate wearable artwork was wrongfully attributed to me, I am going to put my creations up on display.

There are the bags:

The aprons, well ok one apron in a photo, but I've made others:

And the patchwork pieces, which will one day make a whole quilt.

A few of these have been given as gifts already and the recievers were wonderfully gracious. I wonder if they'll be so happy when the shoddy sewing gives way and their shopping ends up all over the concrete of the Vic Markets.

Ok maybe I'm selling myself short, these are pretty, and kind, and handy, personalised gifts. Though I don't think anyone will claim my sewing as their own handiwork soon.

I totally forgot about Canberra ...

I was blogging about travelling when I stopped to have a rant, and completely forgot about Canberra. Though that probably sums up my views about the place. I was pretty terribly ear infected by then (and am currently suffering from my third ear ache for the year, what fun!) but it didn't really capture me like other places we visited on our trip.

The highlights?:

The Portrait Gallery
Catching up with Uni colleagues for dinner
Realising my bf would love this statue (he loves several things about Canberra, and about this one, I was right.)

Revisiting the National Gallery and seeing the Magritte yet again, and this cool statue

Walking everywhere because it was delightfully flat.
Our deal of the holiday - 4 and a half star room at Rydges on capital hill - we could see Parliament house and it barely cost a thing! The foyer was a bit dated but our room was awesome, clean, comfy and so large.

The lowlights:
Where are the shops in Canberra?
Being so delirious and deaf I couldn't hear or comprehend much of what went on, though that really isn't Canberra's fault.
The Rennaisance exhibition, it's great, but not my cup of tea. Too many Mums and babies (in the crowd and in the paintings.)
Roundabouts (it is a ubiquitous complaint.)
The fact is was just, so, blah - it meant I really didn't take many photographs of it.
Thai food, yet another place that doesn't seem to get it right.

This was also the first time when I really wanted a drink. Indeed it wasn't just one drink - I wanted to down an entire bottle of over-priced hotel red wine just to make the pain go away. Instead I sprawled out on the bathroom floor (it was cool and I was burning up) playing matching gemstone games on my Motorola, while sporadically texting the bf at 3am. At least by retreating to the bathroom I didn't wake my poor cousin as much. So glad I didn't give in, as I don't like paying for hotel wine at the best of times given their ridiculous prices, and certainly not when I'm playing sober Sally.

So that was Canberra. Pretty forgettable really ... though maybe my trip there in July for the IABA conference will change my mind.

Then again we can't judge things purely by how little photography was taken - this is the only redeemable shot of Lake's Entrance, the last stop on our trip, and it was a thoroughly delightful place. We even had delcious fish and chips (that sadly did not get photographed.)

So that was the trip. I'd travel again with my cuz any day, she is the best travel companion. Though I am not sure she would be up for a trip with me again - if I got an earache this time, there is no guessing what tropical disease I'll concoct for an overseas trip.