Blogtoberfest giveaway winner

At the end of all good festivals there needs to be a speech.

So I'd like to thank the indomitable Big Cat for hosting a fun and inspirational Blogtoberfest. This was a wonderful chance to broaden our horizons by meeting new people and trying new things. There's been a veritable library of reading, as festival goers pledged a post-a-day. Fantastic work, Big Cat - it was a great idea. I can't wait to see Blogtoberfest 2009.

A special mention should also go to Curlypops for the sterling job coordinating all those festival giveaways! And finally, we couldn't forget Bellgirl ... who posted riotous festival updates and managed to misuse the Babel Fish translator in a way those folks at Altavista could never have anticipated. Nicht angebrachte Übersetzungen, jedermann?

So finally, on to the Pink Ribbon bear giveaway. Thank you very much to everyone who entered.

And the envelope please ....

The randomly picked winner is number 6: Nathalie of Récupération Nathalie Brault.

Do check out her lovely blog - especially her funny footage of peeling a pumpkin (Nathalie, are those your pyjamas? And is that some type of electrical appliance meant for the garden?!)

Pointy hats and traffic cones

Here is one last little piece of the Halloween costume for tomorrow.

I wasn't sure whether to make a hat or not, but as I had enough scraps I thought a quick pointy accessory would be fun. The hat was cut from Simplicity pattern 5927, view C.

And after reading what another enterprising three year old did last year, I'm kind of glad I went for the safe option.

Halloween sewing ... or how I went completely batty

The kindergarten note said simply:

Halloween dress-up party. Friday 31 October.
Please wear a costume.

Our first children's fancy dress. Known to the best test and predictor of future parenting.

At first I thought ...
Let's keep it simple. Mr Hoppo Bumpo's away; I'd better not try anything too ambitious. Maybe a sheet with two holes or something from the discount shop around the corner. Its just a three-year-old kindergarten party after all.

Then I thought ...
No wait -I'd better put a bit more effort in. After all, what good is having a mother who can sew if you are sent off in some cheap PVC costume. I'll make something.

Then it began to escalate ...
If I make something half-way decent, then maybe it can be reused.

And then ...
Wouldn't it be fun to have a really fancy costume?

And so it was, that I found myself sitting amongst 7 metres of fabric, poring over a number of patterns that I had purchased. Trying to work out which cape had the more impressive collar. Then wondering whether the cape lining needed to be understitched to prevent rolling out? Or if the collar would look better top stitched with a twin needle? And then wondering whether Argy would have the best costume ...

Oh no, it had dawned on me all too late.

It starts innocently as a wizard cape, but soon snowballs. By the time we reach the 2008 Christmas pageant, I will have sourced the gold, frankincense and myrrh and a flock of sheep. Then in no time I'd have poor Argy enrolled in a multitude of extra-curricular activities and extension classes. Then I'd be taking him to casting calls for big stage musicals. And have his Olympic training regime well underway.

Someone take me by the shoulders and give me a good shake. Please.


Simplicity 3595 Children's cape with collar (view E). Black cotton drill exterior and sequined lining that makes me think of this girl.

Postscript: I think wizard himself was a little nonplussed with the cape. I have to agree that it is a little bit Hogwarts meets Elvis (in the later years). Maybe a sheet with two holes would have been OK after all.

Gratitude

Thank you to all the very kind people who left nice words and helpful advice about how to get my Janome 3018 back into working order. I am very grateful indeed. There were even offers of the loan of a sewing machine. The blogging community is definitely a most thoughtful and generous one.

Anyway, you've done it! Between you all, you've got my sewing machine working again!!

I see now that I may have over complicated the problem a wee bit. In hindsight its a little silly that I took the sewing machine apart. One cheap little bit of metal was the culprit. Yup, it was the bobbin. When I looked closely it was just ever-so-slightly misshapen.

On the bright side I now have a very clean machine and loads of fantastic troubleshooting information for future reference.

So thank you again (at the time of writing) to Mama de Saga, Lisa, Diana, Beth, Big Cat, Sparkly Green Knickers, Cindy, Little Munchkins, Ellieboo, Taccolina, JustJess, Angie and Melanie.

I think my little three-year-old wizard will have an outfit for the kindergarten Halloween party after all! More details and a picture to follow ... after an evening of joyful sewing.

Janome answer?

Well, I knew something would go awry whilst the man-of-the-house was away. I just hadn't counted on the nature of the issue and how disappointingly early in the peace it might occur.

It could have been a flat tyre, overflowing gutters or a computer glitch, but no ... its my friend and ally, the sewing machine. My trusty Janome 3018 has failed me. And right in the middle of a very important Halloween project.

The machine is jamming after two or three stitches, with miles of thread getting caught inside the bobbin holder and the fabric being sucked into the feed-dogs. Its not a pretty sight - and that's just me. The computerised part of the 3018 keeps pipping furiously at me about an overload. Lo! Lo! Lo! it exclaims.

With the help of a screw driver and 5-cent piece, I have disassembled and reassembled various bits of the machine numerous times. I've careful repositioned the bobbin holder and checked its alignment with the hook race. All to no avail. The manual has shed no light on the matter.

Can you help? Have you seen this problem before? The thought of hand-stitching a Halloween costume has got me spooked!

Stand-back-and-throw while the MOTH's away ...

The man-of-the-house (MOTH) is away.

Mr Hoppo Bumpo departed on Saturday on an overseas jaunt a business trip for three and a half weeks. Even as we waved him off at International Departures, I was finalising my mental checklist. Now, its not that we want Mr HB away for extended periods, but I have say its a good opportunity to vary the usual Hoppo Bumpo family routine.

Here is what I have in mind for the next several weeks:

1. Get out all my old dolls
2. Watch Australian Idol and The Little Princess
3. Play Abba quite loudly on the stereo
4. Do silly dancing
5. Play dress-ups ... with lipstick
6. Spread my sewing all over the house
7. Prepare dinner out of tins

Actually, I'm not sure who I am kidding about #6 and #7, as these is already a common occurrence in our house.

So without further ado, grab your can opener and throw open the pantry - this week's stand-back-and-throw is Tuna Mornay.

Tins are your friends

To make the mornay I melted some butter over low heat, then added an equal amount of plain (all purpose) flour. I stirred this and cooked it over low heat, until the mixture was pale and resembled fine breadcrumbs. Little by little I stirred in some hot milk until I had a suitably thick white sauce.

Next I tossed in the posh ingredients: a little black pepper, dried chives, garlic powder and a handful of grated cheese. Then stirred. Finally I cracked open and drained a can of tuna, one of sweet corn and then something a little bit special. I chose tinned mushrooms, but you might like to use something exotic like tinned peas or carrot. So then I hurled everything in and stirred again. If you are feeding this to children - like I was - be sure to break up all the tuna until the mornay has the consistency of slop.

Et voila dinner is served - bon apetit!

Now if I could be excused, I must go and turn up Dancing Queen. Oh ... and does anyone know the best way to remove a shade called Frostiest Mauve from small boys mouths?

Pink Ribbon Day and Blogtoberfest giveaway

Monday 27 October is Pink Ribbon Day.

To mark the day, I have one last small Blogtoberfest giveaway. This little bear is Penny, a Pink Ribbon Day fundraising teddy (she is a bit like a beanie bear). If you would like to win her, all you need to do is ....

1. Visit the Pink Ribbon Day website (and maybe buy a pink product next time you're out shopping)
   


2. Visit the Cheeky Checkup site and take the quiz

... then leave a comment by 9pm (Melbourne time) on Friday 31 October. The winner will be drawn at random. Anyone can enter - you need not have a blog (I just need a way to contact you) and I am happy to post Penny anywhere.

This is ... what I'm surprised I like

When Victoria from Earl and Cookie announced the theme for the next "This is ...", I thought I'd really have to get my thinking cap on. That is, until I was in the process of packing up Argy and Bargy's toys the other night.

Ah, yes! I surprised myself, when I realised. I am quite partial to the boys' Thomas the Tank Engine train set.

Shhhh .... don't tell anyone ... but I might have been known to sit down with the trains when the boys aren't even round. To make sure the batteries aren't flat and the track is clipped together in good working order .... of course.

Let's see if there are any other secret Thomas the Tank Engine fans out there - can you identify which engine I have pictured?

Thank you to Victoria at Earl and Cookie for the fun theme this week and to Angela at Three Buttons who is hosting "This is ...". Head on over to Angela's blog to see who else is playing along.

Eleven things

Detail from skirt made by Hoppo Bumpo's House of Forgiving Garments

Some (long) time ago I was tagged by the witty Bellgirl to play Eleven Things. So here goes my eleven ...

1. Clothes Shop: Hoppo Bumpo's House of Forgiving Garments. Yep, everything that turns out of this manufacturer's is suitable for the large of - ahem - derriere.



2. Furniture Shop: Baby Bunting. Well, that's what the credit card statements from the past 4 years suggest.



3. Sweet: Chocolate.



4. City: Montreal, during the festival season in summer and under a foot of snow in winter. London in spring. NY on NYE. Melbourne anytime!



5. Drink: Sortilège a 60 proof Quebecois maple syrup and whiskey liqueur. Haven't touched the stuff for years, but used to be able to dance on tables after a couple of glasses (but wouldn't go near playground equipment)



6. Music: Too eclectic to narrow down. I have 62 songs residing in an iPod playlist called "absolute, all time favourites"



7. TV series: anything that's been on ABC TV on a Friday night from 8.30pm onward (Murphy's Law, Spooks, Ghost Squad, Midsomer Murders)



8. Film: Empire of the Sun, closely followed by Roman Holiday



9. Workout: Clinical pilates once a week and running after two small boys in the between times



10. Pastries: All of them. Together. And in one sitting. (See #1)



11. Coffee: Strong latte during the day. Espresso late at night (especially after drinking Sortilège). Iced coffee in summer.

If you fancy playing Eleven Things too, consider yourself tagged!

Winners - Blogtoberfest giveaway

Thank you very much to everyone who entered the Solite giveaway . It was lovely to read all your comments ... especially the kind ones about the mutant Elmos!

It seems a bit silly to have so much Solite languishing in the cupboard, so I have drawn three names for the competition. So without further ado, good old Random.Org says the winners are the following lovely ladies:

1. Juddie of Flightless Boyds
2. JustJess of Button Beauty
3. Louise of Lullulollylegs

Each of you have won a tub of Solite to try. Congratulations - and may your buttercream always be light and fluffy! Juddie, as you were drawn first, you will also receive a little cake decorating surprise.

If you would be able to contact me to confirm your mailing addresses, I will send your cake decorating provisions on their way.

Capes and capers

Yesterday the boys and I visited a new park. It was a beautiful inner-city oasis. Big shady trees, soft green grass and manicured garden beds. The playground was delightful, full of lovely equipment. Not a scrap of wear-and-tear or vandalism in sight.

We spent three hours at that park. Drinking in the spring sunshine and having a wonderful time. The birds sang and every now and then - much to the boys delight - a train rattled lazily past. It was a perfect morning .... that was, until the incident.

As much as the children are happy to entertain themselves, at age two and three there are still some parts of a park that require the assistance of an adult. Mostly its the swings, but yesterday Bargy had his eye on the see-saw. A bright yellow see-saw with wide, moulded seats and an enormous spring bedded into the ground. I could see the allure; it did look fun.

So nearing the end of our visit I hoisted Bargy onto one of the seats and made some attempts at bouncing him up and down by hand. But the spring was very big and stiff; it wasn't a particularly good effort at see-sawing. At that moment, I made the ill-fated decision to sit on the other end of the see-saw. I sat gingerly on the seat and bounced up and down, being careful to spring from the knees and not drop my weight onto the seat. Bargy laughed and smiled in the spring sunshine. He gurgled away having a whale of a time. Up, down; up, down; up, down. This was fun.

But then it happened. It was all over in a split second.

I was on the ground looking up into the brilliant sunshine and the blue, blue sky. The sky ... where I could see Bargy's still smiling face, perched way up high above me. Then in slow motion the see-saw groaned and fell on its side. Bargy and I lay awkwardly in the tanbark. And other mothers stared. Oh my giddy aunt - I'd broken the see-saw.

No-one was hurt, so after brushing ourselves off (and trying to locate my dignity) we laid the poor, expired see-saw to one side. Then we beat a hasty, guilty and humiliated retreat from the park. After reporting the mangled see-saw, the boys and I spent the afternoon safely ensconced at home. We played superheroes with beautiful new capes, a generous gift from Cindy at Bug and Pop.

Of course I sat on the sidelines. After flattening playground equipment, I didn't fancy my chances of leaping tall buildings in a bound.

Check out Cindy's lovely children's wares at her Etsy store or at the upcoming Mathilda's Market in Melbourne on 16 November.

Dozer

Bulldozer, that is.

This fabulous construction fabric arrived as an unexpected surprise for Argy and Bargy last week from the very kind CurlyPops. Now there's a girl who surely knows the way to a small boy's heart. Thank you very much, Cam!

After a brainstorm about what we should sew (Argy first very helpfully volunteered "a road"), the boys agreed to something nice for their beds. With only fleeting time available during afternoon naps today, I started with a junior pillowcase.

I do feel however, as so often happens here, Argy might have misinterpreted the purpose of the new linen? (Really, I couldn't get my boys to do stranger things if I paid them.)

What am I?

One who knits is a knitter.
One who paints is a painter.
One who writes is a writer.

I like to sew. So, this makes me a .....? Anyone? Anyone?

Sewer (n): underground conduit for transporting human waste

Thank you for visiting Hoppo Bumpo, where we strive to answer the hard questions.

Brown Owls

A lifetime ago, when I was still a corporate girl and pregnant with Argy, I went for one of my regular prenatal check-ups. Everything was going well, but I commented to my obstetrician that I was feeling a little down. The grind of working long hours in a managerial job and waddling around looking 178 weeks pregnant were getting to me.

"What you need", said my lovely, down-to-earth and very direct obstetrician "is a hobby. Something where you are working with your hands. Something you can do in a group with other women. Knitting or sewing, perhaps? You girls these days don't understand the importance of doing such things."

Well pah to that I thought. I already have a hobby - its called work. I dismissed the whole idea out of hand; filing it away as old-fashioned. I thought little about her advice again until recently. Out of the workforce for three and a half years now, I've come to better understand the life part of work-life balance. So more recently, when I started to see references to Brown Owls popping up everywhere, I paid attention.

Craft. Girls. Group. And Brown Owls didn't sound at all old-fashioned.

Last night was my first visit. With my level of embroidery skill, I initially felt a little bit like a deer in headlights. But in fact it wasn't at all scary. There is something quite unique about combining the meditative quality of handiwork with the lively hum of talk and laughter. What a lovely atmosphere; what gorgeous people. Crafting heroes Pip and Kirsty, have created something very special indeed.

It was just what the doctor ordered.

Mutants and a giveaway

Our Bargy turned two today. Thank you to all who left well wishes over the weekend. We had a lovely party (complete with cake) yesterday.

This year I decided to scale down the grand cake ambitions. I needed something with the wow factor required by a two-year-old, but less work than, say, something like this. I hired a Wilton brand Elmo tin from a cake decorating shop, which happily came with an icing-by-numbers guide. The cake was very straightforward to make. I followed the instructions about meticulously greasing and flouring the tin and good old Elmo dropped straight out all in one piece, with all his smiley face in perfect relief. So far, so good.

Then it was time for the icing.

Elmo needed to be piped in 4 colours of buttercream. The buttercream itself was easily made (I used a very nice stable product called Solite as the base). The colouring was another matter. As you might see from the photo, there was black and red involved. These are really very tricky colours to get right. The black was passable after a few goes at the food colouring, but to be honest the red was really a shade of pink. I'd virtually emptied my little tub of intense gel colouring into the icing, when I realised things were looking dodgy.

I could have coped with a pink Elmo, but to be honest there's nothing more assured to strike fear into the heart of a small boy's father than the threat of a pink birthday cake. Now I'm sure Mr HB will vehemently deny this, but I did catch him frantically scraping the last eensy droplets of gel colouring into the bowl. I think he relaxed when I said we could digitally alter the colour of the icing in the birthday photos. So Elmo was iced and looked passable.

I then moved onto the all important cupcakes. First I made some butterfly cakes, which looked OK ...



... but then I decided to try and use up the remainder of the Elmo butter icing. I decided on mini-Elmos. I sort of wish I hadn't as they are reminiscent of something that you would see on Cake Wrecks. I was in a bit of a hurry.

The buttercream was starting to warm too much in my hot little hands at this point and the piped stars were indistinguishable blobs. The creatures' eyes were are all over the place, their noses askew and their mouths made them look crazed. And in an unfortunate accident (involving my elbow) two of the Elmos lost an eye.

So may I present my Mutant Elmos ...



Luckily small children aren't that discerning. They cheerfully consumed all things sweet and colourful. I might, however, make some more of these cupcakes for Halloween ...


Mini giveaway

I'll call this one a Blogtoberfest giveaway .... but realise that it won't be of interest to everyone.

If you think you might like to try Solite for an icing project, I have a 250g tub to give away (due to customs regulations regarding foodstuffs, I'll need to limit this to Australia this time). I will also throw in a little sparkly cake decorating surprise.

The Solite has a long shelf life (August 2009) and will make more than enough buttercream icing for a cake like Elmo (I'd estimate about 5+ cups, as its 250g Solite, 250g butter and 750g icing sugar). I think Solite is probably similar to the US-manufactured Crisco shortening.

To be in the running, all you need to do is leave a comment describing what you'd like to ice, by 10pm AEST on Friday 24 October. Oh, and I am not secretly working for the manufacturer of Solite ... I simply overestimated how much I might need to keep in the pantry for icing projects over the next 12 months!

Biased

I did it. But the question is should I have?

This evening I tried making my first bias binding. I'm embarrassed to say that it took me nearly two hours to come up with a scant 1.5 metres.

Do you see what I mean? Just because you can, doesn't always mean you should.

This is ... my favourite film

I was delighted with Hokey's suggestion for the "This is" theme this week. I don't see many movies these days, so its nice to think fondly back on my favourites!

My very favourite would have to be Empire of the Sun (1987).

This beautifully filmed wartime story, follows the journey of young English boy Jim, during the the Japanese occupation of Shanghai International Settlement. During the chaos, Jim is separated from his parents. He is first left to fend for himself and is then interred into a POW camp.

Although it makes me sad, I never tire of watching this film. Its a poignant story about the loss of innocence. I love the cinematography and the opening is accompanied by a most ethereal piece of music.

Watch the trailer for Empire if you have some time - it is accompanied by the beautiful piece of music, Suo Gan (a Welsh lullaby). The cast included a 13-year-old Christian Bale, along with Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers and the incomparable John Malkovich.

Thank you to Hokey for the great theme this week and to Angela at Three Buttons who is hosting "This is ...".

Panic stations

At least the birthday cake passed the initial taste test

Tomorrow is Bargy's second birthday party. The pace is frenetic over here at Chez Hoppo Bumpo.

I wish I could find my "to do" list"; I don't cope with stress very well. There's still a house to be wrapped, food to be cleaned and children to be baked.

Getting to the bottom of the pile of the holiday schnapps ...

Here is another of my German holiday photos, in honour of Big Cat's Blogtoberfest. This is the BMW headquarters in Munich.

I'm the first to admit that whilst I am quite quick to correctly identify construction equipment, I'm not particularly knowledgeable in the car department.

So when we visited the BMW museum Mr Hoppo Bumpo ogled the cars and took lots of snaps, as I wandered aimlessly looking for information that didn't use perplexing terms like wheelbase, horsepower and turbo-diesel.

So, today I finally get a chance to recall these amazing facts:

• The BMW logo is based on a airplane propeller (as the company originally manufactured engines for aircraft)
  
  
• The nickname beemer actually refers to BMW of the two-wheeled variety. Apparently you may call your motorcycle a beemer, but your automobile is in fact a bimmer.

Yup, the visit to the museum was probably wasted on me.

Join in the fun of Blogtoberfest over at Big Cat's Emporium.

Unfaithful

I have strayed. But I can explain - really, I can.

Mr Hoppo Bumpo, if you are reading this (hmmm ... like that's ever going to happen), keep your wool on - I'm talking crochet here.

A couple of weeks ago I started crocheting granny squares in earnest. A somewhat slow process, but an enjoyable one. I adore the yarn I am using. Its called Wendy Pearl Luxury Cotton and is 75% cotton. The remainder of the composition is viscose, which I assume produces the pretty little glints twisted into the fibre. Its so soft and beautiful, that I think I might be more in love with just holding the work, than the crochet process itself.

By this weekend past, I had completed 6 largish squares. Granted, not many. So at this point I either had a graceful exit (a set of coasters) or a lot of work ahead of me (an Afghan rug). I decided to press on with the rug. That said, I realised that I didn't have enough yarn.

If you read my earlier post about this particular yarn, you may know that I picked up 9 balls in an end-of-line special. Being as I'm not a crocheter, I guessed at the amount of yarn required.

Estimating the number of balls needed by weight was clearly a misguided strategy. Usually I am prone to under-estimates (e.g. Was that really a kilo of chocolate I ate? It seemed like so much less), but in this case, I think I went the other way. I've discovered that each ball will produce only three and a bit squares, which means that at around 30 squares, my sumptuous Afghan would be little more than a knee rug.

Sadly by now, I had it in my head that my future rug would be so beautiful, that it would be heirloom stuff. Clearly I am not talking from a technical point of view (all of the squares are wonky and no two appear to be exactly the same size). No, I was envisaging future generations running their hands over the rug, as they admired the soft cottony loveliness and the glint in the sunlight.

I needed more yarn.

So armed with product numbers and dye lots I started looking for additional supplies. It appeared that there is indeed a little of the West Yorkshire Wendy Pearl about. Some in Australia; more in the UK. And different colours too. Sadly none of it quite as cheap as my original purchase (especially if you factor in a £30 freight charge quoted by one online store in England). I was doing the sums and mulling over the next step, when we decided to take our road trip.

And that's when it happened. I have to blame it all on Trev.

I was visiting Hamilton in country Victoria and popped into my favourite shop Trev's Bargain Emporium. Rummaging in the back of the store with no particular purpose in mind, I spied it. The bargain yarn: generic yellow label; 62% cotton, 38% nylon. It was a funny crinkly texture and in a multi-colour palette that seemed awfully close to my Wendy Pearl. It was a bit shiny. And just $1.

I was seduced in a moment. Without hesitation, I piled the balls into my arms and hot-footed it to the counter to pay. I never considered whether I could possibly crochet this yarn up into similar sized squares. Or whether its just plain wrong to mix yarns of different compositions in one rug. I went home and started a new batch of granny squares. For two days, I loved the novelty.

But now a week on, I've realised, I don't love this new yarn like the old. I don't think its going to stand the test of time. I don't think its going to be there for me - or future generations - later. I don't want caress it and hold it up in the sunshine. And I rather have my doubts that its really who it said it was: 62% cotton? I don't think so.

Oh, I feel so cheap.

Blogtoberfest Fave Friday

I'm joining in Drewzel's Blogtoberfest Fave Friday, which asks you to give one of your favourite songs ever. I have very eclectic taste is music and lots of favourites , so I thought I'd dig out the one that I thought was most suited to Blogtoberfest.

This is a lip-synched version of Harvey Danger's Flagpole Sitta. If you haven't seen this before ... the story is that it was filmed in one take in an office (at an after-work happy hour, of course!). Love the song and the fun - I want to work there!

Still wheeling out the holiday schnapps ...

We'd heard that teddy bears were very big in Germany.

Another German holiday photo, in honour of Blogtoberfest. This was taken at the Steiff factory in Giengen an der Brenz.

Join in the fun of Blogtoberfest over at Big Cat's Emporium.

And the holiday schnapps continue ...

I am lion, hear me .... um ...

Here's another German holiday photo, in honour of Blogtoberfest.

I spotted this lion in the Bavarian town of Bamburg. I'm sure back in the day, this King of the Beasts did a fine job serving as guard and protector. But more recently the poor chap seems kind of ... worn out?

Join in the fun of Blogtoberfest over at Big Cat's Emporium.

Blog Action Day

I'm taking a pause from the usual frivolity, to participate in today's Blog Action Day 2008. An opportunity for blog authors and readers, like you and me, to reflect on world poverty.

I realise that its only by accident of birth that I live the comfortable life that I do. Almost half the world's population live on a few dollars a day ... or less. That is the amount it costs to buy just one of those little spools of thread above.

There are things we can do. Small things that will make a difference.

If you have ever scrolled towards the bottom of this blog, you may have seen a link to Kiva.

This innovative organisation facilitates micro-lending to people in developing countries, so that they can create a sustainable livelihood. Its very quick and easy to become a lender: you can lend as little as USD$25 and can make the loan through Paypal. You choose the entrepreneur you wish to loan to and are repaid as their business succeeds. It feels good to know that my micro-loan has helped someone buy a sewing machine and fabric to generate income from a tailoring business.

If you can, do take the time to visit Kiva and the Blog Action Day 2008 website.

Stand-back-and-throw: apricot chicken

When asked to assess this week's stand-back-and-throw-meal, here were the unedited comments of three leading chefs:

Jamie: Eat real food instead of packaged lies

Nigella: This is an unabashed lazy, unctuous, luscious, oozy dish .... mmmmm (dips finger into casserole and licks the sauce suggestively)

Gordon: What the ... bleep... this is .... bleep ... lazy ... you really should be ... bleep .... embarrassed

Embarrassed? Yes, maybe. Just a little. That said, may I present the laziest easiest version of apricot chicken you are ever likely to see.

To make this dish I started by slicing some mushrooms and spring onions. Next I opened two tins: one of apricot nectar and the other of apricot halves (which I drained). After this I tore open a packet of powdered French onion soup. Finally I threw the lot in a covered casserole dish with some chicken thigh fillets and popped it into the oven until cooked.

This dish really is exceptionally versatile. Don't like pieces of fruit in savoury dishes? Omit the apricots. Don't like vegetables? Omit the onion and mushrooms. Don't like the sound of this much work? Omit all the ingredients above and dial for take-out.

Blog Action day is tomorrow ...

Blogtoberfest: winner of the potholder

Do you know that funny feeling you get sometimes?

The persistent feeling that you might have forgotten something? Something kind of important. But you just can't put your finger on what it is. I've had that feeling tonight.

Its only just occured to me that I was supposed to be drawing a giveaway. Nearly two and a half hours ago. I hope I am not struck from being a Blogtoberfest participant, for forgetfulness. I really should have taken more notice of this very salient post at Big Cat's Emporium about mindfulness and being more present in the moment.

So without further ado (and before I forget what I am writing about) the winner according to random.org is #19 The Essess. Congratulations!

If you could drop me a line with your address, I will make sure that your gingerbread man potholder will run, run as fast as it can ....

Some more holiday schnapps

I sort of fell off the Blogtoberfest wagon over the weekend. A "post-a-day" went out the window and there are now 306 unread items in my blog reader. So here is another holiday picture from Germany to try and make amends.

This photograph was taken in the very beautiful Bavarian town of Bamberg.

There's nothing vaguely amusing about this lovely detail from the Romanesque cathedral ... other than I thought it was a gargoyle. Gargoyle, you say? Yes, well my architectural knowledge is clearly sketchy.

What kind of evils did I think this would ward off? Well, if the interior of this little building is anything like the state of my house today, then it would be very scary indeed. Must be off now - housework to do!

Join in the fun of Blogtoberfest over at Big Cat's Emporium.

Deere to my heart

This weekend the Hoppo Bumpos took a road trip to the beautiful Western District, four hours drive west of Melbourne.

I rather enjoyed being ensconced as passenger and self-appointed navigator for the four hour drive each way. I made quite a bit of progress with my crochet, whilst voicing contradictory driving instructions over the top of Mr HB's clueless, but resolute, GPS (I don't think I much care for such gadgets after this trip ... that GPS lady is very persistent).

We spent the weekend visiting my sister who lives in a lovely regional town. Argy and Bargy had a fabulous time with their auntie. They were also quite excited to see sheep on an adjacent property. Bless my little city slickers: bunnies, yelled one, while the other exclaimed ... dogs.

I took the opportunity to do a spot of craft shopping in town yesterday. I almost fainted with excitement (on Argy and Bargy's behalf, of course) when I spotted the fabric pictured above. Oh, the possibilities! (They may be clueless about farm animals, but those two know a thing or two about farm machinery). I rushed the fabric to the counter, prepared to head-high tackle anyone who even made a sidelong glance at the bolt. I am now the proud owner of two metres of John Deere Tractors by Daisy Kingdom.

The perfect end to the perfect weekend.

This is ... my current reading material

When the theme for "This is ..." was revealed by Missk from My Champagne Dreams this week, I knew I'd better not peek at anyone else's entry before posting this one.

You see, I was sure that everyone would be showing their fabulous selection of tomes. And that I would feel a bit embarrassed.

Most of my reading these days is comprised of magazines and children's books. (It hasn't always been so. Back in the day, I was known to have read interesting works like Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment". I blame it on Argy and Bargy - they just aren't into Russian literature. Especially at bedtime.)

So here is my current reading material:

• Metric pattern cutting for children's wear and babywear (top left)
  I'm not really reading this cover-to-cover; more just meandering about, trying to wrap my head around pattern grading concepts.
  


• Duck in a truck (top right)
  I have actually read this one cover-to-cover (about 95 times).
  


• Australian Stitches (bottom right)
  This latest edition features a beautiful evening gown on the cover ... made by my very talented dress-making teacher.
  


• Assorted quilting magazines (bottom left)
  If you have read this blog before, I doubt you'll have seen a single reference to quilting. Ever. So these magazines are clearly an aberration. Or the faint spark of a distant plan. Or maybe a sign or someone who just can't kick the magazine habit.

Thank you to Missk at My Champagne Dreams for the great theme this week and to Angela at Three Buttons who is hosting "This is ...".

Stencil along: more on using Microsoft Word to prepare a stencil

I seem to have conveniently forgotten my own freezer paper stencil-along timeline. The goal of a "decent stencil in a month" has fallen by the wayside, as I digress on assorted experiments.

This week I have been fighting exploring Microsoft Word a little further to see if it really is possible to prepare stencil images without the assistance of nice graphics programs like Photoshop. Using the scale model digger pictured above (its not mine, I promise) and a little persistence with Brightness and Contrast in Microsoft Word's image editing features, I have a new stencil underway.

The downside of flattening an image to Black & White

Last week I used a very quick and dirty method in Microsoft Word for flattening an image down to two colours (Format picture > Recolor > Black and white). It was simple and works well with simple, high contrast images, but I found that I lost a great deal of detail in the picture of the tractor that I was using.

To demonstrate, here is a before and after showing what happens when I flatten this digger ....





It becomes sort of a black blob with a scoop. Depending who you are creating the stencil for, this might be perfectly fine. For example, I'm sure my Argy would still see a John Deere digger clearly in this image!

Using brightness and contrast

A better way to go, is to adjust the image using the Brightness (adding more white or black) and Contrast (changing the difference between lightest and darkest areas) features.

So first I increased the Contrast ... right up to 100%. You can see that this reduces the image to just three colours - red, yellow and black. This is perfect as this week I am trying out a multi-colour stencil.



Next I played with the Brightness levels. Someone may be able to help here, but I found this to be a very inexact science. I simply adjusted it by eye. If the brightness is increased too much, I found a lot of the image disappeared (see below).



Likewise when the brightness was too low, a lot of detail was lost (and below again).



I thought that I what finally came up with (below) probably gave a suitable level of definition to the stencil. (An increase in brightness of about 40%).



Applying further image effects in Microsoft Word

And now a quick piece of advice, based on experience. Even though you are making visible changes to the image, every detail about the underlying graphic remains intact. (You may notice in your travels that there is a Reset picture option you can select). Microsoft Word applies many of its image editing features to the underlying graphic and not to alterations you have made. For example: after altering the brightness and contrast, I thought I'd change the image from colour to grey scale. Whoosh! All my work gone. Grey scale was applied to the original photo.

To get around this you can do a little hack workaround like this. Copy the altered image from Microsoft Word into something simple like the Paint accessory that comes with Windows. Then copy it again and paste it back into Microsoft Word. Et voila! You can now continue making changes, like I have done below.





From here ...

Sometime after the weekend I hope to have a finished stencil to show you. I am going to be using this digger and trying out a number of colours. Argy is going to love it (he's my least critical audience). Rather than the Speedball screen printing ink that I have been using I've purchased some acrylic paint and textile medium to mix up.

During the week I read some instructions about creating a multiple colour freezer paper stencil. They said that you should only place the different colours adjacent to each other. Never over one another. Shhhh, don't tell anyone .... guess what I'm going to try and do ....

Be sure to look at the sidebar for the latest on other stencil-alongers. There's been some great stuff happening.

More holiday schnapps

Never mind the steins

Another photo in honour of Blogtoberfest.

At this place in Munich the amber stuff was served in champagne flutes. Can someone tell me if this is usual?

Or do you think someone said Hey look more tourists ... what shall we serve their beer in this time (guffaw, guffaw). And if so, is there someone, somewhere, with an equally unusual picture of their Becks in a martini glass?

Join in the fun of Blogtoberfest over at Big Cat's Emporium,

Holiday schnapps

And the match ended in nil all

In honour of Blogtoberfest, I thought I should dig out some of my photos from travels in Germany.

This one was taken near the Olympic Stadium in Munich. Yes, that is the side of a hill .... and a very steep one at that!

Join in the fun of Blogtoberfest over at Big Cat's Emporium,

Current affairs and frocks

In my home town we have two evening TV shows purporting to be current affairs programs. Apart from regular investigations into family rifts, neighborhood spats and e-mail scams, there seem to be a host segments dedicated to cosmetic surgery, diets and wonder garments. Seemingly every other month there's also the Next Big Thing in frocks. You know, the sort that supposedly flatters all figures.

Yeah, well have I got news for them. Wheel in Exhibit A (me).

I'm not quite the same woman I was four years ago. I was never svelte, but I think I looked fairly regular. Normal-ish. But two pregnancies later, my whole shape looks a bit weird. Baby No.1 weighed in at 10lb 1 oz. And during the last trimester with Baby No.2, my obstetrician cheerfully announced that the baby was going to be Huge. At about 36 weeks, bub was measuring the equivalent of 47 weeks baked. Of course it was a bit hard to be accurate, as by this time my poor tummy muscles were giving way - my abs had a separation of a hand's width between them. Mmmm .... giving way, yes. The idea of anything whatsoever snapping back in place after all this, was laughable and frankly, impossible.

So as a result, everything seems to have reshaped, resized and relocated. Which makes buying store-bought clothes demoralising. Prêt-à-Porter is clearly the French for "disappointment". I'd like to tell A Current Affair and Today Tonight, that their showcased frocks, wonder undies and uplifting bras just aren't going to cut it.

I do have a little hope, however, after my Sundress post last week. Thanks to some lovely readers, there were some great suggestions about flattering styles and even a pattern recommendation from Lara over at Thornberry. So I have taken her advice and purchased Simplicity 3867. The description on the back of pattern says simply Misses' dress, but its a lovely sleeveless empire line dress, with a gentle v-neckline. There's a slight gathering at the shoulders and in the bodice and the nicely draped skirt is A-line. It does look as if it will be very flattering. In fact the pattern itself looks pretty versatile, also including a top, shorts, jacket and bag.

So, if you're one of those people who said you'd like to find the same illusive sundress pattern, stay tuned. I'm starting a toile next week and will do the occasional post as I go, showing what the dress looks like. I know already, that I will need to make some alterations for my special figure, ahem, "features" ... but if the dress works out, expect to see me on a A Current Affair sometime in the near future.

Winter apron swap

If you like making and wearing aprons, why not join up the Sassy Apron Swap? The Winter 2008 swap is cookie themed. You will have the chance to make and receive an apron with a cookie/winter/holiday theme. The swap also includes at least one favourite cookie recipe and a cookie cutter. Fun!

Sign-ups close on 10 October.

The last swap was a Fall and baking theme. I'm hoping that my faraway swap partner, in the northern hemisphere, will receive her apron and pot holder any day now. Here is a sneak peak.

Blogtoberfest pot-holder giveaway

Disclaimer: Sewn with love; made in haste.

This is a little giveaway in honour of Blogtoberfest, which is being hosted by Big Cat's Emporium. The cotton potholder - pictured above - is filled with insulated batting and adorned with four gingerbread bloggers.

Did you know that in 17th century Germany it was illegal to bake homemade gingerbread, other than at Christmas and Easter? Gingerbread was very popular and gingerbread-making a recognised profession. The gingerbread makers even had their own guild - they must have been one heck of a lobby group. Clearly the pretzel makers weren't as well organised.

If you fancy a new potholder, all you need to do is visit and comment upon one of the Blogtoberfest posts at Big Cat's Emporium sometime between now and Monday 13 October.

You'll also need to leave a comment (and a traceable link - blog or e-mail) here to let me know. The giveaway will be randomly drawn on Monday 13 October at about 9pm Melbourne local time and I am happy to post anywhere in the world.

A rose by any other name ...

... would still be a rose. So I think we all know what these self-sown floral beauties really are.

They look so pretty in the bright spring sunshine, it seems wrong to go pull them out. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it).

From the stash ... the also-rans

Enlarge view

This is the sixth day of Mike's lovely Share Your Fabric Stash.

Today's selection, didn't quite fit into previous days' posts. They are motley bunch: various sizes and colours. I love them all.

The beautiful paisley cotton was a treasured birthday gift. The stained glass a precious scrap of Liberty. The blue FQ with the workman a prize find at a discount store. They all have their own little histories and some have destinations. The brights are are shortly teaming up to become construction equipment appliques.

Thank again to Pip for the idea of sharing our stashes - its been great fun (... and prompted me to reorganise the uproar that I call my stash).

This is ... my favourite kitchen tool

The theme for this week's "This is ..." asked us to show our favourite kitchen tool. The clown in me, considered showing a picture of the telephone (which is oft resorted to in our house!), but in fact I really love cooking and have a pretty good array of gadgets.

One of my all-time favourites is the slow-cooker my parents gave me last year. Its a 6.5 litre beauty, that I use to cook a good portion of our weekly meals. Slow cookers are wonderful for busy people. Set in the morning and forget; dinner is ready and waiting in the evening - I love it. However, for the week's theme, I thought I would dig out something that fewer people might have seen.

This is it: the Sticky Bowl. Its a relatively new, chef-invented, Australian product. I saw this on a TV program called the New Inventors and then patiently waited until it became commercially available, to snap one up. The Sticky Bowl is effectively a double-sided suction cup that you can use to secure a mixing bowl to the bench. If you have ever made custard from scratch, you'll know how attractive this idea is. You can whisk and pour at the same time, without having to worry about steadying the bowl. (You can see a demonstration here).

Its also a fantastic gadget to have on hand when cooking with children. By securing the mixing bowl, you have two hands free to avert any potential culinary, ahem, incidents. I have also used it on the odd occasion to affix an evening meal to a high chair tray!

Thank you to Sharon at Handmaiden for the great theme this week and to Angela at Three Buttons who is hosting "This is ...".

The special bit of the stash ...

Waterhen and Orchard by Pippijoe

This is the fifth day of Mike's lovely Share Your Fabric Stash.

I have been really enjoying looking through everyone's fabric this week. It really does get you thinking about the psychology behind collecting vast quantities of fabrics. I saw a funny article a while back in a sewing magazine that presented the stash as an "emergency stock-pile". You know ... just in case all the stores run out of fabric and you really have to sew!

I don't think I have quite reached this line of argument ... yet. I think more along the lines of ...

• Scarcity - I might never see it again.
• Time management - It'll save me a trip out another time.
• Economy - Its a bargain; I couldn't possibly pass it up
• Art - Its beautiful. I have to have it.

Today's fabric falls into the last category - these two are my very favourites from the stash. I know the designer, so that makes them even more special to me. This fact has, however, made me extremely indecisive about what to make: it can't just be any old thing.

Of course, I'm not really sure about the merits of saying I love your fabric so much that I am afraid to cut into it and instead keep it in a dark cupboard. Its time to start some projects!

Stencil-along: making a stencil from a photo (without Photoshop)

Earlier today, at Chez Hoppo Bumpo ...

Me: What do you think this is, boys?
Bargy: Hammer
Argy: Tractor
Mr HB: Freaky

Although a bit offended, I do admit Mr HB had a point (though I won't even try and work out what Bargy was thinking). I couldn't find a suitable digger image to try out this week, so settled for a funny little toy tractor. For reasons that will become apparent, the tractor stencil ended up being rather abstracted. Something that looked better from far away - far, far away. Still, I don't mind sharing my warts-and-all stencil with you - its all part of the fun.

Creating a stencil from a photo
So to give a bit of background ...

This last week, my goal has been to create a stencil from a photo. There are lots of great tutorials about that advise how to do this, should you be the proud owner of Adobe Photoshop. As I don't have Photoshop, I decided to see if there was something else I could make do with.

When creating a stencil from a photo, the aim is to flatten the image back to just two colours - black and white. During the week I read that Microsoft Word might be suitable.

Here's what I did ...

First, I selected a photo image of a vintage tin toy tractor from the Microsoft Clipart gallery (which was disappointingly light-on for good diggers, exacators and backhoe loaders). You could, however, insert any photo into a Word document.


I am using Microsft Word 2007

Next I used a quick-and-dirty method for converting the image to two colours. After selecting the picture and selecting Format picture > Recolor > Black and white, the image was reduced to black and white. Nifty, huh?



Well, actually the image was a little flat, having lost some its highlights. You'll notice this around the tyres in particular. Depending upon your image this may or may not matter. In this case, I think it would have been nicer to have a bit more definition around the wheels. (I suspect if I'd experimented with brightness and contrast - found under Format picture - it might have made a difference too). Never mind - onward ho!

EDIT: More on brightness and contrast at this subsequent post (10/10/08).

Tracing and cutting
Next I traced the image onto a piece of freezer paper.



At this point I manually smoothed out the image and dispensed with teeny dots all over the place. I could have taken the opportunity to redraw some of the stencil in parts to give more definition to the wheels ... but didn't! I also took care to try eliminate islands wherever possible. An island is a blocked part of the stencil that isn't connected to the main stencil in any way. It "floats".

In fact islands aren't too hard to manage when you are using freezer paper, as they are effectively stuck in place during the stencilling process. But they are easily lost during cutting out and annoying to position. So best to get rid of them by creating "bridges" to them in the main stencil. I was able to do this in all but two places. The steering wheel has a number of tiny little bridges just a couple of millimetres wide.

Cutting out the stencil was the lengthiest step in the whole process. Its so hard to watch Law and Order and cut out at the same time. You're sunk if you don't pay attention at the start; you'll have no idea what is going on. This applies to both Law and Order and the stencil.



Fusing and painting
I was very pleased to find that with the iron temperature nice and hot and all water emptied from the iron, that the freezer paper stuck down nicely this week. I did however need to take care to really press down on the fine little bridges and not accidentally move them sideways with the iron. After this the painting was a cinch.

Another stencil completed; another cushion for Argy (who after all, was the only member of the family who correctly identified this as being a tractor. But then, going by recent history, maybe that's not saying much).

Goals for next week
I am still aiming to find a decent digger to stencil. I wouldn't mind carrying out some experiments to see if it is possible to get a better result using just Microsoft Word to edit a photo. Any suggestions welcome. It might be nice to try multiple colours in one stencil. Can you believe how amazing this one is?

So, this is what I am hoping to do for the last week of the stencil-along:

1. Research the function of brightness and contrast in creating a successful photo-derived stencil
2. Create a digger stencil
3. Create a multiple colour stencil

Have you been stencilling too? How are you going? I'll pop round to take a look! To see more stencils, head over to the sidebar and check out the links.