How many versions of "me" are there?

Do you ever get the feeling that there is more than one version of you lurking within your body? Do you like one version of you more or less than any of the other versions?

Recently I've been pondering this and have realised that there are at least 4 distinct versions of me that come out to play at different times. (That there are so many distinct versions of me is probably a sign that I'm going a bit crazy but oh well - a little bit of craziness makes life interesting I think!). I've loosely defined the versions of me as "partner and mother me", "professional me", "social and recreational me" and finally a version of me that I've dubbed "the dragon lady".

Generally all the versions of me are just permutations of the same theme but with her own particular focus and strengths, they all get along well alongside each other and I can transition from one to the other fairly seamlessly or even better, pull aspects of each version out and utilise them as the situation requires. The one exception to that harmoniousness is the dragon lady and it's her that has me most intrigued at the moment.

Dragon lady tends to come out when I'm stressed or under pressure  She appears ultra rational, well spoken (or written as the situation requires), organised and assertive but she also has a tendency towards spitefulness, holding grudges and can rant and rave a bit. Usually she's ice cool on the outside but I know that just under the surface she's got steam pouring from her ears and is ready to breathe fire at the slightest provocation.

She's been coming out with increasing frequency and I know that without the dragon lady's help over the last year-and-a-bit I would probably be a blubbering, shaking mess in the corner by now, but even so I'm not sure that I really like her all that much. I certainly don't like feeling that spitefulness and I can hear myself getting ranty and I hate that - but darn is she good at getting others to see things her way and  getting things done!

A work colleague (someone who I had worked with previously and am now working with again after a break of a couple of years) recently commented to me that ever since she's known me it seems like I've always been talking about "going through a process of working on myself and making changes" and although I laughed it off at the time I've realised that she is right...I do always have something about me that I'm working on.. but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing - it's not that I'm unhappy with my life but I think if you ever get to a point where you consider that there's nothing at all in your life or in your person that could be improved then you've settled for less than what you could have and you've reached a pretty boring and pointless place in your life - there would never be the drive to search, change, learn or grow.

So here's to embracing the good things about me, while constantly striving to make things better! And right now I  think working out how to make friends with the dragon lady and finding a way to utilise her strengths without letting the negative aspects of the dragon lady personality take over is a good thing to add to my personal improvement "to-do list".

K

Happy New Year: resolutions, a new addition and home improvements

Am I the only person who loathes new years resolutions? I totally understand the desire to make changes in your life - everyone has something they want to change whether its losing those few extra kilos, quitting smoking, finding that dream job, whatever; what I don't get is why the decision to take action has to coincide with the beginning of a new year... If you have reached the point where you have identified your goals and are ready to take steps to make them happen then it shouldn't matter whether it is the beginning of the year - why not just get out there and make it happen whatever the date! <end rant>

So after all that happy new year! Welcome to 2014! Obviously I'm not making any specific resolutions; what I am doing however is planning on a big positive 2014 with lots of good things on the cards for the year. Hopefully that will include continuing on this blogging journey (and blogging more regularly), plenty of happy family events, more crafting and sewing and a successful year at work. I wish the same for you and yours. Love, happiness and prosperity all around is my hope for everyone.

In our house we've started the year on a high already by welcoming a new addition into our home...

Introducing Charlie the budgie.

We're assuming that Charlie is a boy however because he's so young we won't be able to tell for sure whether that is actually the case for another couple of months. But even if Charlie does end up being  "Charlotte" rather then "Charles" it's not a biggie.

Charlie joined us on January 2nd and already feels like part of the family. He's doing so fantastically already with his training, is showing real interest in what the family is doing as well as making sure (sometimes quite vocally) that we remember he's part of the family now and wants to be involved in everything too.

Also on the home front we've been having a few bits and pieces done around the place so there's been trades-people traipsing in and out for what feels like weeks (in reality its probably only been just over a week since they started coming in quoting on the work but it feels like longer). No major renovations or anything, just replacing some old light fittings, switches and fans that we've been putting off doing for ages and installing a split system aircon in the lounge. It's amazing to see how much of a difference these little changes really make.

Of course once you start these little changes things start to snowball so there is now a growing list of further  'little' bits and pieces that are being added to the to-do list. Next on the list will probably be repainting so I'm looking forward to choosing colours and getting some paint splashing around. I find there is something very satisfying about painting a wall - it probably has something to do with my constant need to see something tangible as a result of my efforts and you definitely get that from painting. And then of course you can't repaint without also replacing the soft furnishings.... cushion covers,  curtains,  rugs... I'm getting excited thinking about all the things I could make!

So much to do, so many options. What are your favourite / least favourite DIY home improvement jobs? What little touches do you think make the most impact in your home?

K

Lucy Pevensie - the costume finished

This blog was started, in part, in an attempt to keep me focused on finishing projects... I'm getting the projects finished, but not getting the blog posts finalised. D'oh that's not how it was supposed to work!

Lets get this one published so there is one less project on my "yet to be blogged" list.

The monster's school festival of stories really well and the costume came together beautifully.

Drawing the pattern for the dress.
Yes - my kitchen bench is my sewing work space.
The banana cake you can see cooling here was
really yummy :)

I used a lightweight pale blue corduroy for the bodice and skirt of the dress and almost identical colour satin and some other gauzy material (can't remember what the label said it was) for the sleeves.

Making the muslin for the dress was a great idea and really helped me to get the sizing right (except for the sleeves - I really struggled with them and they ended up being a bit wonky but they were mostly hidden under the cloak anyway so no biggie.).

Georgie Henley as Lucy Pevensie
wearing the inspiration
coronation outfit.

The cloak I made with a red velveteen fabric, lined with more of the pale blue satin. There was no way I was going to be able to find a suitable cloak fabric with a similar pattern to what Lucy has so on the outside of the cloak I just used gold fabric paint and a stencil. I also, despite searching craft and dollar stores, couldn't find a suitable gold medallion closure for the cloak so we used gold rope and tied a simple bow.

Overall even though it's not exactly accurate I'm really happy with how it all turned out.

More importantly, the monster was thrilled with her costume, even when the best costume award (to be honest I had no idea they intended to give awards) went to one of her classmates who arrived for the parade dressed in a large cardboard box; she came as the wardrobe! personally I thought it was a rather clever costume choice, but the monster just kept saying "But mum... it's a box! She was wearing a cardboard box!". Oh well... another life lesson for the monster... the important part of the whole exercise was getting her to read the book and ending up with a costume that she was happy with, not to win awards.

Grr! another sideways image! Darn blogger!
The finished costume on the monster as she headed off to school
(Ignore the hideous blue and yellow pokemon bag -
that's not part of the costume! )

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Gift quilt

I had been considering making something special and personalised for our niece's 1st birthday, but in my usual style I forgot until the week of the birthday came around. Oops.

In a mad panic and with a zillion ideas in my head but nothing concrete to work off - quilt, clothes, soft toy - off I went to Spotlight. Of course they had the perfect fabrics to inspire my creative side - gorgeous Eric Carle quilting fabrics! Panels and patterns of caterpillars, butterflies, food and dots all in the same brilliant colours and styles used to illustrate the children's book!

What toddler (and parent) doesn't love the story of the very hungry caterpillar? Its a classic that never goes out of fashion.

With the birthday fast approaching I didn't really have time to get too intricate and I didn't want to risk trying too many new techniques in case I mucked it up so in the end I went with a  fairly simple improvised strip layout quilt.

I took one of each of the thee large panels that show the progression of the caterpillars' life - a tiny caterpillar on a leaf, a large caterpillar and a butterfly;  added wide strips of caterpillar pattern either side and then alternated these wide 'focus' strips with narrower strips of the coordinating food pattern (one red apple, two green pears, three purple plums...). I had initially planned for it to be a cot or lap sized quilt but in the end it came out at something pretty close to single bed size which is fine in this case.

I think it would be pretty difficult to make something ugly with these fabrics, but even so I'm really pleased with how it turned out. It's busy with all those patterns competing with each other, but deliberately so.

The finished  Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt (front view)
Grr! blogger keeps rotating it on me - just tilt your head to the left :)

I wanted something reasonably dark on the back of the quilt (compared to the mostly white front anyway) so it could be thrown on the floor or on the grass at the park without worries about stains. I ended up going with a single piece of red fabric with rainbow circles.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Quilt (back)

The quilting was kept really minimal - just stitched in the ditch on all the strip and panel seams plus a couple of extra straight lines following the patterns on the fabric. I hope that's enough. I probably should have done some more quilting, maybe outlined the large image on the panels and some random pattern on the expanses of panel, but it seemed to hold together pretty well.

A solid, bright red binding (machine attached) and a fussy-cut rectangle of the caterpillar fabric for the label completed the quilt.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt (coordinating label)  

The finish of the quilt is still not quite at the quality level that I want it to be, but it works and I'm getting better with each quilt I make.  I learnt a couple of things from this quilt:

1. I really need to practice and improve my hand stitching - that label probably took longer to attach than it took to make the rest of  the quilt and the stitching is nowhere near invisible (or even particularly neat); and 
2. I need to try to get closer to the edge of the binding fabric when I'm machine binding.

 I'm told the quilt was well received and has been getting a ton of use over recent weeks which makes me super happy - after all what's the point of a quilt if not to be rolled around on, snuggled with and used? I hope the special little girl that received this quilt continues to enjoy it and gets lots of use from it.

K

Costumes

Lets get back into some clothes sewing. It's not Halloween yet (not that we actually celebrate Halloween in our household) but it is costume time again!

This week the monster's school will be holding their "Festival of Stories" and the children are being asked to dress up as their favourite character  from the book they are studying in class.  I love that they have specified the class study book this time around - previous years it has been open to whatever their favourite character is from any book. With the monster being as indecisive as me it becomes a drama just choosing who she will go as.

The class is currently reading the C.S.Lewis novel "The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe" and the monster has nominated Lucy Pevensie, the youngest of the siblings, as her favourite character (I was dreading that she would choose Aslan or Mr Tumnus!).

Georgie Henley as Lucy Pevensie
wearing the inspiration
coronation outfit.

After looking through some images from the 2005 movie adaptation of the novel together we've decided on Lucy's coronation outfit.

It should be a relatively simple project - a fairly plain, pale blue long dress embellished with some jewels and a red cloak with gold stenciling.

This project has given me an excuse to visit Spotlight for some supplies and now I think I'm ready to make a start. Living in the tropics as we do I won't be using heavy velvet for this dress but I think the fabric I've chosen will still work reasonably well and give the look we're after.

I haven't found a pattern for the dress that seems exactly right so I'm going to try to draft my own and then make a muslin before attempting the actual costume. I'm using a tutorial from ikat bag for the body sizing and the monster has been very patient standing still for almost an hour as I took all the various measurements.

Now its time to draw it up and get sewing. Watch out for more progress on this costume over the next few days.

Have fun

K