Memorable Movie Lines

Lately one particular line from a movie keeps playing over and over in my brain. It's said by Shirley MacLaine's character Ouiser Boudreaux in Steel Magnolias and goes like this....

'I'm not crazy. I've just been in a very bad mood for 40 years!"

Sometimes lines just pop into my head like that randomly and I can't think for what reason. It's so weird, because I can go and see a movie and walk right out of it and not be able to recall a single line at the time, perhaps ever.  And then 20 years later they come back to me. (I've told my kids to enjoy me NOW, because Alzheimer's is gonna get me, but I don't know if my teenagers are listening)

This particular line is how I feel lately.  I've been sick since the 22nd of Jan.  Been to the doctor 4 times, Emergency twice, had X-rays and CT scans, been put on a drug regime, referrred to a specialist, seen a specialist, going back to the specialist.  I am so OVER it.

But I am getting better! 

But my sense of humour well and truly deserted me in my hour of need on certain days.  Please come back to me - you make life bearable.  And never, ever leave me again.

And because I really like a picture with each post -

Í'm gonna grab a copy from the video store and watch it this weekend with my mum who arrives tonight for a visit.  I doubt she's ever seen it and I think she'll relate to lots of the lines in it.

Incidentally, here's a link to quotes from the movie - Steel Magnolia quotes.  Google is amazing isn't it!

Ciao for now x

Pets in residence....

Gypsy and Tilly in their fave spots...hanging out after a busy day in petworld.


And

Gypsy has been moonlighting as a chimney sweep.  She was filthy!

Cross Stitch Work in Progress

So I'm continuing with my list of works in (stalled) progress.  Next is the Cross Stitch Category.  Only 1 item in this category.... (lots of patterns put aside for NEW projects though) but that is going to be another category after I catalogue all my WIPs.

One unfinished - in progress - cross stitch.  It's a Christmas one.  I have 3 other Christmas ones completed and framed and hung on the walls for each festive season.  This is another one to add, when it is done.

And this is what it will look like when it's finished.

And it will join these....

Terrible photos I know, but you get the idea.  I have worked on these erratically for years. I began the top picture when I was pregnant with my first daughter (who turns 19 this May!) EEEeeeek! I remember so vividly teaching myself to cross-stitch.  I will share those in another post one day.  I'd like the entire history of my creative life here in my diary.

Talking about "chronic-ling" my WIPs takes me back to my days at Primary School as a Junior Librarian.  I volunteered in the library and learnt how to catalogue books in the dewy decimal system.  I was such an avid student I catalogued all my books at home. Wrapped them in protective plastic and stuck stickers on their spine.  Mostly F for fiction and the first 3 letters of the authors name.  Who'd have dreamt I come to live in such chaos?  Am I going back to my roots. Do I secretly long for a catalogued house?  Mmmm, dunno, but I think my blog is an online diary and it does serve to chronicle my life.  To that end I think it should not be restricted to one aspect of my life, but encompass many aspects that make up my life.

I'm a traditionalist at Christmas. Really!! You'd never guess would you? Ha.  Yep very traditional.  One of my daughter's wrote in her Christmas card to me this year, how she loves that I steep Christmas in traditions and hopes she can mimic me 'cause it makes it really, really memorable and fun and exciting.  I was touched, because I'd begin to wonder whether my teenagers, weren't really rolling their eyes and thinkin' "GAWD...here she goes again!"  behind my back and just putting up with their dotty mumma. (Don't worry it wouldn't stop me - no way.  It's my thing you know) But at least I'm conscious of the fact that I can be a bit embarrassing.  But just between you and me I like to be.  I mean if you can't have a bit of fun with them...what's the point?

Works in Progress continued...

Item No 2 is  a black and white quilt. 

The square are left over from my crazy 9 patch black and white plus one quilt, completed some time ago.  I have all these bits that I'm going to throw together.

Item No 3 is my blue and brown quilt.  I have the backing and the wadding.  I'm going to have it machine quilted as it is HUGE and I'm yet to hand or machine quilt any of my quilts.  I aspire to quilting myself however, my lil ol Janome is not up to the task and I want to add a few more to my finished pile, before I embark on a hand quilting project.  I think my first will be my hexie hand pieced quilt.  Somehow I think it would be sarcreligious to do anything other than hand quilt it. It's going to be a big job for my first! 

This is a snippet of it..... and another view

Item No 4 is another finished quilt top.  My Flea Market Fancy quilt.

I just need to finish the backing.  I have the wadding and then it needs to be quilted.  So it's not far off.

Item No 5...  the centre piece is done and a lot of the fabric is cut... just needs to be put together in a couple of sessions...

This one needs a good iron!

Item/Quilt No 6 in progress. My reverie to William Morris.



Which needs backing fabric bought for it, all 7 meters of it!!

So that's the WIP quilt list.  I will list all the other projects on the go too, but for now, there I have my quilts that I aim to finish this year - oh no - I forgot Quilt No 7 - the hexie quilt.  So 7 quilts to finish this year.  And then there's all the others - in my head or fabric bought etc etc etc.. best get finishing.

Works in Progress

Years ago, when I was first married, I lived in a house with a small sleepout tacked on the back of the house.  It was MY room for projects and study and sometimes guest room.  It became a trur reflection of my life at the time I think.  Busy with babies and toddlers, lots of ideas and projects started.  It had a bit of everything, relics from my single life, craft supplies, books, sewing machine, toys, bed.  A hastily made curtain acted as the door.  Of course my girls loved it.  They'd toddle or crawl and busy themselves amongst the "busy-ness' of it.  Exploring and discovering to their heart's content! 

After a while I lovingly christened it "The Temple of the Unfinished Project".  Somethings are destined to be finished over time, others... well they pass their use by date and just represent an exploration into some new creative cupboard of my brain, but destined to stay in the cupboard or become a building block for another creative idea.  Very occasionally I'd admonish myself for so many things started and not finished, but really I'm quite comfortable having many things on the go.

I've moved several times since and again I have a room where all my ideas and projects seem to come to rest for a while.  The Witch's attic it is now, tucked behind my the mezzanine creative space.  I've been in the throes of "organising" it.  Getting things out of boxes that have been stored for 7 years through the renovation process.  I can now group them together and see exactly what I have.  It's very interesting....!

But through this process I've thought I would chronicle the current works in progress.  All of which I want to complete in 2012, so that I can enjoy them around the house and as part of my life.



 

So here is the start of my WIP list.

1. Russian/Babushka/Matroyska Doll Quilt

The blocks are in various stages of completion.  The black are the closest to being finished.  I have plains to add to the other blocks.  I think the plain borders really make it 'POP, and as usual am excited to see it coming together.

 



Sunday Baking

I quite often bake a treat for us on a Sunday.  It feels as though it rounds off the weekend nicely.  A celebration of time spent at home and in my kitchen.  An acknowledgement to the week ahead and and extreme busy - ness for the week days.  Baking has been absent whilst I've been sick and also because of the gluten free diet.  I mean I ain't gonna bake something I can't eat, now am I?  Cakes and baking being an integral part of me! (Remember, this bake a cake post, So it's taken a while to get my head around gluten free alternatives.  I've armed myself with a couple of cookbooks and scoured the web and found heaps of recipes, so now I'm armed and equipped, ready for action! First cake.. A Victoria Sandwich Cake!

Here it is posing for its photo! A very photogenic and willing subject!
(The flowers were a lovely surprise from my stepmum, wishing me wellness as the whooping cough drags on.  Aren't they beautiful? so bright and cheery - the complete opposite of how I've been feeling...morose and sorry for myself.  C'mon Susie snap out of it!  Well the cake helped.)

  It was perfect. Such an easy recipe...one bowl. Mdae with brown rice flour.

Dusted with icing sugar

Sandwiched together with my home made plum jam.  Is your mouth watering?

Served up on my favourite cake plates, with a super generous DOLLOP of cream whipped with icing sugar. Sitting contentedly watching Sunday night TV.
Really it's all good isn't it?

Hand Piecing Hexagons

 I realise I was a bit of tease yesterday talking about my hexie progress, but not sharing any photos!  Naughty for those readers interested....!  So here, just in case you're in suspense here are a few photos. 

My quilt is a completely random scrap quilt.  Most fabric is scraps from quilts I've made or in progress.  My English grandmother spent lots of time hand piecing and there are several hexies she made but never included in a quilt.  They are stitched on scraps of paper from the church bulletin.  They are absolutely precious.  So much so that I hope to somehow frame a few.

This quilt has been a work-in-progress for 2 years now!  I work in bursts on it.  I am really inspired to finish it this year though. 

Lately I've felt a bit of falsetto craft blogger with my lack of real craft posts.  But I'm over that...musings about life and things that inspire and happen on our own journeys are all part of me and my creative"ness".

The benefit of being ill...

is that I've snuck in a bit of crafty time for the first time this year - my hexies are starting to turn into a quilt!

I have been sick for the last 3 weeks, no energy, constant coughing.  All sorts of tests, something suspect going on, more tests...but the worst has been the coughing and trouble breathing at night - just means I'm exhausted.  I have to sleep upright.. feeling a bit like Gypsy in this photo after one of her fits...just need some TLC and comfort that everything will be alright again soon.

Sitting quietly, recuperating doing hand piecing.  What a luxury! It has kept me sane over the last few weeks.

Coco Chanel

January is close to being over.  I confess to all you amazingly productive creative peeps, I haven't spent any time on any creative projects, but immersed myself in summer pursuits instead.  Lots of swimming at the beach and in the pool at our villa in Bali (yes we had a luxurious week in Seminyak) - so soul renewing it was fabulous.  I indulged in massages, manis and pedis, sundowner drinks by the ocean or pool, great food, snoozing, day spa-ing, some shopping, some tailor-made cowboy boot shopping, people watching. Absolutely divine.  I feel like a thouroughly pampered pooch! I would head back to Bali any time.  I now understand why people love it and go there over and over again.  It was hot, really, really humid hot, with lots of drenching downpours that simply soothed away the heat with their noise and smell.

The heat back here in Perth has been absolutely stiffling, without the relief of rain, so lots of flopping watch movies over the weekends has happened!  I'm sure I've watched more in this last month than I have in the entire past 2 years.  Evenings at Somerville, the outdoor movie theatre that shows foreign films from December to April.  A different one every week.  It's a highlight of summer in Perth, sitting in deck chairs under the stars and rustling pines, soaking up foreign films, preceded by a picnic if you choose.  DVD's etc on the couch at home

I became engrossed in a TV series called "True Blood" about mainstreaming vampires living in Louisiana.  It is hilarious.  Not usually my style at all.  It's great watching an entire series at your leisure, without ads and episode after episode so it really flows.  I don't watch commercial television, apart from cricket and tennis occasionally.

Anyway the real reason I was inspired to post was the movie  "Coco Chanel" with Shirley Maclaine and Barbara Bobulova.  I saw it for the first time on the weekend and loved it.  Watching her creative journey was really heart-warming and if you haven't seen it and if you're a fashion history fan, I thoroughly recommend the movie.  There are scenes where she is working on hats and then putting herself on the line, right out there with her creations and believing in herself.  In another scene she is asked "why hats".....I can hear people thinking out loud when they see my bags..."? why bags" ...who knows why we're drawn to specific mediums, we just are us creative peeps.  And we can jump from one to another to keep exploring and learning and buzzing!

I love hearing, watching other people's creative journeys as I just so get it.  Fame follows some like Coco, however, fame didn't drive her, her creative passion did.  Fame and fortune don't drive any creative people I know, their passion does.  And I love that at that base level we're all the same.

Gratitude

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXDMoiEkyuQ

Louie Schwartzberg is an award-winning cinematographer, director, and producer whose notable career spans more than three decades providing breathtaking imagery for feature films, television shows, documentaries and commercials...