I am fine...

Soooo, I am fine. The man (so far) has turned out to be just an avid bird watcher. I have not seen him all day but I have seen the Channel Billed Cuckoo ALL DAY LONG. That damn bird has been all over my backyard. Weird how when you finally know a bit about something you see it EVERYWHERE. Oh and he does his very not romantic singing at about 0330. I did take some pictures of him this morning, they are on my Flicker set. I think last night was the first night in the entire year I have lived in this house that I have slept with the blinds closed. I slept horrible. I hate having my blinds closed. I want to see what the heck is getting ready to break in my house, by golley. But for now it is just a really big bird with creepy red eyes.

I went outside early this morning to get some figs for breakfast and lo and behold that massive bird was perched in my tree. He really looked horrible and his eyes are really red. He was looking around for other birds (I guess) but didn't seem to notice me. Must have been my brilliant comoflage (blue dish towell over shoulder and green Nigella wrap skirt. I had a tshirt on too. I don't make a practice of marching around topless, especially with my amorous Spanish neighbor and bird watching strangers loitering around the place). The bird seemed pretty comfortable, so I went back in to get my camera and cup of joe and sat out with him and his really horrendous singing. (click on that if you are curious about what Alice Springs sounds like at 0330 outside my bedroom window it may not work, but I hope it does.)

Oh I made another wristlet the other day. It is in the picture above. It is named the "Karen Wristlet". Pretty darn cute, huh? Made from one of the lower blouse pockets and 550 cord. I can put them on my new site if you think anyone would like one...for now they are goodies for my patient clients. I dig them.

Have I mentioned how much I love this little town? Yes, I know I am really on Mars and not Earth, but it really is so friendly. Last week at the butcher (yep I get my meat at a butcher shop, not the grocery store) A lady and her 2 kids were standing outside their running car. She was visably furious. Obviously, the kids had gotten out of the car while she was inside buying her meat for the week and locked her out. I do that here. I leave the 3 savages in the car while I dash in to buy a kilo of pork or some scotch fillets, maybe some croc sausages...depends on what looks good. It only takes a minute normally.

Well without even thinking I offered her a ride home so she could get her other set of keys. Would I do that in the States? I really do not think I would. I would assume it was an elaborate plan to lure me away and rape me and the kids. Nope she loaded her kids and meat in my crazy Truck and off we went to her house to get her keys. I feel so safe here (with exception to the crazy bird man...and some of the more ripe and intoxicated Aboriginies at the grocery store) I would be more than happy for my husband to retire here. It is like living in 1942 (without WWII, of course). Oh well...I need to try and finish one more wallet before crashing for the night.

xo

Tia

Just in case the kids and I am murdered tonight....

Catchy title for a post, huh? Well I had a very odd experience this afternoon. I was getting ready to make dinner and the racket the kids were making was really horrible so I cast them out into the playground so I could have a bit of quiet. As I was watching them from the kitchen window I noticed a man sitting in a white Toyota land cruiser (not unusual, everyone in Alice springs drives old beat up land cruisers). Well he sat there for some time and was watching my house. Odd....well I marched outside to see what the heck was going on and almost bump into him as he is coming up to the door. He is very excited, which immediately alarms me. Being met by excited men at the front door (who are not your husband) is never a harmless thing. He is very polite, and tells me he lives on the street behind me and has been watching my house (o goody) and have I noticed a large gray bird in my backyard? Well, this catches me off guard because Stu and I were talking about our new bird friend just the other day (we thought it was an eagle). just then the big bird we are talking about flies up out of my fig tree in the back yard. The man gets so excited and wants to film it and study it because so little is known about it...he wants to know when would be to early to knock on my door? I guess the cuckoos are more rowdy in the mornings...I begin to have this odd out of body experience and see myself standing beside this very friendly stranger happily answering all his questions (aren't sociopaths supposed to be very amiable and engaging?). So now I am torn...maybe this really was just an enthusiastic bird watcher and I am being paranoid or maybe he is a crazy man getting ready to kill us all! Strange things always happen when my husband is out of town, I rely on him to keep me out of trouble. In case you are curious about the beast living in my fig tree, it is a Channel Billed Cuckoo. They like to eat figs and lay their eggs in other birds nests and abandon their babies to the care of other mother birds. Delightful creatures, don't you think? Just kidding....another one of Australia's strange beasties. Oh and the tiny colony in Alice Springs is very mysterious....more reason this stranger wants to sit in my back yard with a camera. Would this be odd to you? I am sure I am just being stupid...the bird is pretty neat, and he is massive, it look unnatural for this pterodactyl to come flying out of the fig tree....but at least if nothing else I now know the name of the bird in my backyard. Oh and if you never hear from me again he was a madman and we are all dead...sorry about your bags, my husband will give you your money and uniform back, but for those of you who already have one they might be famous now!

XO
Tia

First day of School

So, our "summer break" is over. Back to school time! Yesterday we were laying all Emma's stuff out so she could be all ready and there would be a limited number of setbacks in the morning. When I got her old Target special backpack down it was horrible. All dirty and had big holes in the bottom where she had drug it along behind her at some point. It was awful...missing buttons, worn corduroy. Just an embarrassment for my little princess. She looked up at me with her big blue eyes and said "you said you were going to make me a new bag, but I guess this one will do." Wow. "No it WON"T!" By Golley, I spend my days sewing away for virtual strangers, and when I do take the time to sew for myself I feel horribly guilty (does anyone else ever feel this, or am I really going crazy out here in the middle of the desert?). I decided that My little girl was going to have the best backpack in her little first grade class (well at least the best backpack in her class made by me ;o)). I got an order from Superbuzzy.com yesterday and the Pochee magazine had a similar pattern to what I was trying to do...so there you go. Ok...so I was getting ready to open my superbuzzy box when the phone rings. (my kids all go crazy when the phone rings, that is the time to need to be held or have some terrible wound cleaned or get in a big fight with your sister....basically it is a free for all when the phone rings, must be like calling an insane asylum) so I answered the phone and ran outside....I was not on the phone too long, but when I came back inside from the oven that was my front yard the box was already open and everything was laying out on the table...oh thanks Emma. It didn't look like everything I had ordered, but I do alot of fantasy shopping and sometimes I empty my basket of what I really want....Anyway, back to the backpack. I march down the hall to my little studio and ask Emma what fabric she wants. She looks kinda sheepish and goes to "her fabric" stack where I see the Yuwa blue flowers that should have been in the box! Emma had opened my box of fabric and taken FIRST PICK! Little imp. But the blue flowers looked great with the Marimekko, so that is what happened with her back pack. I wish I could have gotten about 3 more yards of the blue flowers....it is just a really lovely fabric. Oh and I finished the backpack at about 2230 last night. That is very late for me.

OK, now onto my other bags....Shultz, Hunt and Profitt...yours should be ready to have their picture made by tomorrow....you are all getting something special for your patience!

Oh and did I mention that this month has been a really crazy start to 2008? 2 computer crashes (thank goodness for my husband and him backing everything up on his external drive), TDY (I am really out of practice with this single mom thing), Almost redesigned website, almost 30 days straight of 100F+ weather...kids finally going back to school, oh and my weird pericardial sack swelling is back. Some sort of stupid Austailian Outback virus I have caught from the nasty grocery store. Apparently it is only troubling to me and my family, the Docs here throw their hands up. "You are a very healthy woman...." "you don't fit any of our cardiac stereotypes...." so then I have to go all weepy on them and then they listen....dammit I don't have time to be ill. Fix me, I have things to do.

oh well that is it for now! back to sewing!

XO

Tia

heather_ross_fabrics

heather_ross_fabrics
Originally uploaded by Green Kitchen

I am so wildly excited about Heather Ross's new line...look at the movement. Man! This is from Green Kitchen's Flicker Gallery. Love it!

Dutch Baby

This is my hard times meal...a Dutch Baby. I make this when I just can't think of anything else. This week I have sewing like mad and trying to do the single parent thing again. I forget how helpful my husband when he is around, but then when he leaves...all hell brakes loose. Dinner time rolled around and we were out of just about everything except milk, eggs and flour. Bamm sounds like Dutch Babies tonight! The kids love it, I think it is great. You should try it too.

1/3 cup butter

4 eggs

1 cup flour

1 cup milk

preheat oven to 425F (220 C) While the oven is heating up I put the butter in the big skillet I am going to use to cook the pancake and melt it in the heating oven.

(make sure your pan can go in a really hot oven. alot of the pans with pretty rubber on the handles can't go in a 425F oven)

while the butter is melting, crack your 4 eggs into a blender ( I let them blend away for a minute or so) then add the cup of flour and cup of milk. Blend it all up.

Check to see if the butter is melted, pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 25 minutes. It will rise like crazy while it is cooking, so be ready to eat when the buzzer goes off. We love ours with lemon and powdered sugar, but it is wonderful with maple syrup too. Whatever blows your hair back!

xo

Tia

Written by an Australian Dentist....

To Kill an American

You probably missed this in the rush of news, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper, an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is . So they would know when they found one.

An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan . The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.
An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world.

The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence , which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan . Americans welcome the best of everything...the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least.The national symbol of America , The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America .Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself . Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

Now, the source of the above "letter written by an Australian Dentist" is totally unknown. Sorry I don't like unknown sources any more than you...Oh and a Happy Australia Day to you!

xo
tia

What a nice day.

I just love days when very little is expected of us. We can hang out at the house, the kids can work on their little projects and I can sew away on mine. It rained all day yesterday and that was so very refreshing. It really broke the heat. Wow I really can't load multiple pictures in a pretty manner. I have done the help button thing and come up with nothing. Oh well...sorry for the post not being pretty.

So I have 2 pictures up there. One is my lovely little girl being very creative, but with the WRONG fabric. I understand her love of pretty things...and she does have great taste when it comes to the medium for her art. I guess I need to stress not beginning the fussy cutting in the middle of the fabric, try to take an image from the side and draw with a pencil on the BACK of the fabric, not the front...This is a piece of Marimekko (Authentic Marimekko fabric from Finland! Hand screened print designed in 1964 by Maija Isola and Kristina Isola) well it was a special treat for me...Birthday to myself. I have been wanting to order some for ages now and Repo Depot had a sale so I bought some. I was happy it was on sale because the quality is far less than I was anticipating. I have this piece and I will not be rushing back to buy anymore. Anyway, I was not that fussed about Emma defacing it. I was proud of her for choosing something lovely to work with. I was going to try a skirt with this fabric, but now I think I will have Emma help me make a bag...or a simple quilt. It is time for her to learn the fundamentals.

The other picture (the on that looks sorta like baguettes) was taken last night on our walk to the little corner shop near our house. I laugh in my mind every time I see it because it is named "FOOD LAND". Why would you name your shop Food Land? Horrible name. It is a pretty nasty store too, but we needed butter to make cookies and I didn't feel like loading everyone up in the truck and going to town. I took my camera on the walk because I love how the Eucalyptus trees smell and look in the rain. I was hoping to capture that with my photo skills (I didn't, so don't look too hard). I found these disgusting looking Kangaroo Tails (They really are Kangaroo tails) in the frozen section right beside the fish sticks. Who eats Kangaroo tails? Is it some sort of Bush Tucker? They still have the fur on, really adding to their similarity to giant frozen Rat tails. They are quite affordable too at $3.85 apiece. At the butcher shop you can get them by the box full. Yumm, really have a fun family BBQ. I really have no clue how they are to be prepared. Any suggestions??

Well I gotta run, the tribe is waking up and I suppose they would like to be fed.

xo

Tia

The hottest drink in the most humid town

I don't know if I have blogged about the heat here in Alice Springs or not...well it is hot. Today it is hot and humid.I can tell it really wants to rain, but I don't think that it really will. We got a very small shower back in early December, but that is has been it for the "wet season". Wow...real wet. I got a sunburn driving to the post office yesterday. We have an old Diesel Land Cruiser, I just love rumbling around in it, but it takes longer for the AC to cool down than actual time spent in the truck, so I prefer windows down...well with the windows down we all got slightly baked.

So now on to Beer with ice, yes you heard me right beer with ice. Not just any beer, but Coopers Sparkling Ale. According to the guy at the bottle shop, this is the hottest drink in Darwin. Well it has been so humid the past couple days that I have been having one while I make dinner and watch the kids sweat on the playground. It really cools a gal down.

For those of you not aware, I do not like beer much. I am more of a wine lady (my favorites are Cabernet Sauvignon for the red and New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs for the white). My husband on the other hand is a Beer man. He likes beer. We were stunned when we went to the bottle shop (after 1400, mind you) and saw the price of beer. We were trying to convince ourselves that the 6 pack marked $25.00 was a mistake, or maybe represented a case. But no, in Alice Springs beer costs a fortune. The rum is fairly cheap....but I don't care for rum at all. I don't really know where I am going with this post, I just want you all to try Coopers Sparkling Ale on ice when it gets hot where you live. Of course you have to be old enough, but I don't think my target audience is exactly adolescents.

OX

Tia

Hero Quilt

In the spirit of the previous post, I wanted to tell you a bit about this latest Hero Quilt I finished this weekend. I have been making more and more quilts lately, this one I made for a lady who is expecting her first baby. I met her years ago at Christmas Bazaar, and she searched me out online when she found out she was finally expecting. Her husband was injured in Iraq while dining at the chow hall. He has been medically retired, and that just breaks my heart. My husband has been in the Army for some time, I was in for 4 years, active duty, and all my life if you count Army Brat time and married time. I have lived all over the Earth in my 30 odd years of living on this planet,(not that I have lived on any other planet, you sassy lot) I have seen other governments topple and currencies change and probably one of the oddest sites guards with AK-47's guarding grocery stores, and drunken Aboriginal men walking around with Kenny Chesney blasting from their little radios. Through it all the United States of America is there. We, as Americans, take for granted our Freedoms. We love our country, we proudly serve our nation. I ache for the families who have had to make such enormous sacrifices...this silly quilt will not make anything better, but it is a "Thank You" from a People who love freedom. The pattern is called "Box Cars"....from above, I imagine we must all look pretty darn similar, like train cars on the Island of Sodor, but each of us has something special to offer, some special gift...SFC Arp has been molded in fire. He is stronger now than he was when he left for Baghdad, as is his wife. May the Lord Bless and keep you!

Thank You Westminster Fabrics!!!!!!!

So, I went to the APO today, just like I do every weekday. And what did the dear APO lady roll out to me on a dolly? A tremendous box of the above fabric (and a little box of shaving cream for my DH). That is a bunch of Kaffe Fassett, I think the green with the big, beautiful flowers is about 45 yards alone. I wrote to Westminster Fabrics and told them I make my Hero Quilts and Hero bags without charge, and this is how wonderful they are. Even if they sent me a box of dirt I would still love their wonderful fabric, but now they have my life long adoration. This is the second fabric donation they have given me, and since I am now a Kaffe Fasset-aholic I am so stunned with this gift. I just spent over $200 on shot cottons and small prints from Repot depot so this group will make some lovely Hero quilts and Hero bags. Not that I really want to make the bags and quilts for men and women killed and injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. I want all your husbands and children to come home healthy and whole, but if the unthinkable happens I am here with my Bernina, and we will be Privileged to sew for you.

something to beat the heat

I saw this delightful little craft on Bloesem Kids, but decided to put my own spin on it and make a tiny art quilt. It is so hot here during the day that we just can't go outside for long, so I have to come up with something for the kiddos to do to keep their little minds whirling away for the greater good. I was trying to explain what I wanted Emma to do with all the pink scraps she had squirreled away in her little scrap bag, but all I got was a blank look. I decided that a picture is worth a 1000 words, and an example is so much better, so between trying to figure out how to use my blind hem foot on my husbands pants and sewing his ribbon around his sleeve and breaking up some squabbles, I made this. So this week (their last week of holiday) we will make some little quilts. How fun?

Thanks so much for the sweet comments and emails about my last post. Stu and I had a blast just being us, not worrying about the kids. It is fun to date each other. The dress was a gift from my mom in her last care package. She fearlessly stalked Belks until the time was right and bought it for me. The lining is silk and it really feels wonderful on bare skin, and did you notice my suntan??? Yep, me the whitest gal in town has a tan...I guess a month of 100+ will do that to just about everyone. Oh and have I mentioned the coffee mom sent....wonderful. Just thinking of it makes me want to go make a pot, but it is way too late and I have a really big day ahead tomorrow. I have been here so long my driver's license is about to expire. Can't have that. Oh and this will be a big week for mailing bags!!! Happiness and joy!

ox

Tia

Date Night

So that is me on our Date night, Thursday. Our good friends watched the kiddos and we went out to dinner. My date was pretty hot, but he has a thing about having his picture taken. Those horrible weeds behind me are now gone, thank heaven.

I have cut a ton of bags and this week will be a really busy one for shipping finished bags out. I will send you a picture of your bags before I mail them...don't worry. I keep trying to find a way to make myself more productive, but these bags take a long time to make. Civilian ones are SOOOO much faster. Wow. My new site will be up soon. Wonderful Marnie has been working hard on it, and I have a logo. Yahoo. That is it for now. If I can finish the little quilt I am working on I will post it, we will see.

Cheers, yall. I am returning to the sewing room.

XO

Tia

Thank You Hobbs!

What a wonderful Day! Wow, I am so happy I woke up this morning. I just got an email from Hobbs Batting and they are going to send me a roll of batting...wow. My heart is still missing beats. I have it dedicated for "Hero Quilts and Hero Bags" How generous is Hobbs? Not to mention, they have a wonderful product....the only organic cotton batting on the market. I love it so much, it is such a soft batting. My 2 year old is, in fact, sitting on the couch curled up in a quilt batted with the organic cotton. OK...now really onto sewing! Oh Happy DAY!!

Amy Butler's New Line Midwest Modern

I am so excited about Amy Butler's new line Midwest Modern I am in the process of ordering fabric from my little fabric Co-op and as I was typing away I figured I would open the ordering up to you....since you are the ones I sew for. Are there there any particular prints that reach out and grab you? If so let me know and I will add them to my list, then you can be sure that I will have the fabric for the bag you want...I will tell you one thing....I see a big wonderful quilt being made form "Ohio Sky"

Short post today, I have tons of sewing planned.

PS....On the last post, the one about the Mess Dress... Thank you so much for all the help! Yep, I am just going to pin the rank on. I feel like such an idiot for not thinking about that. But the rank he ordered was this very odd Bouillon rank, all glittery and beaded. I swear when he puts all his medals and flash on his uniform he will look like he is about to lead a coup in a Central American nation. Maybe I will get a picture of him (cut out his head, since he does not care much for staring in my blog) in it....

Ok now onto really sewing!

xo,
tia

Declare War on the Ho-Humm Handbag!

So I loved the "Dion Date Night Clutch" so much I made another one this afternoon after getting back from the post office. The Bird fabric I got from Purl Patchwork and I dyed the blue interior all by myself. You can check it out on my ETSY Shop...the link is at the bottom of the bag description.

This is a little date night clutch for just the essentials. I have created a coordinating slender wallet to assist stylish minimizing.

The interior of the bag is my own hand dyed blue linen and the exterior of the bag is a Linen/cotton print from Kokka featuring tiny birds balancing on flowers. The entire bag has been quilted in various freehand styles and a small flower is secured to the bag with a shell button.

The flower petals and bottom of the bag are a piece of ACU (Army Combat Uniform) that was worn in Baghdad by one of the finest officers the US Army has in it’s vast leadership arsenal (my own opinion, of course).

Declare War on ho-hum handbags!

For sale in my ETSYwww.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8858653

Dion Date Night Clutch

I love this bag....I loved it when I made one for myself for the big ball we went to and I smile whenever I see it. I have my bag in my little studio over on the shelf. I love how tiny and silly it is. It fits a very slender wallet and cell phone and your favorite lipstick...maybe a mint or two, but that is about it. This bag is not going to be a catchall for the kids things, you can't shove the loaf of bread you just picked up from the shop in it. This bag is all about the essentials. For me the essentials are a lip gloss, my wallet, and my sunglasses. Alice Springs is so tiny a cell phone is pretty unnecessary, so I don't carry one (in the States I was fairly reliant on mine, but that was then, this is now).

I have been wanting to make one out of BDU and ACU for some time...I finally did it! It is for a very patient lady....and I named it for her "Dion Date Night Clutch" I have another Clutch in the works...it is going to be "Suzan Button Clutch" it will be awesome too, hopefully I will have that one up tomorrow...I just can't wait to make it.

I am into small bags at the moment since my youngest is finally potty trained. I don't have to carry around a bunch of things....well I don't always have to carry around a bunch of things. I have 2 Stus packed and ready for the pool tomorrow.

I entered the Mote set into Amy Butler's Sew Inspiring contest...we will see how it goes, feel free to stop by and leave comments if you like. There are some lovely bags already entered...it was very hard for me to decide which bag to enter. I love Amy Butler and I have used SOOOOOOO much of her fabric over the years. Oh well, that is what is new in our world. Dinner is about ready, gotta go make sure my husband has not decided to put anchovies in the sauce.

xo

Tia

Quilt for Sale

This big quilt is for sale in my ETSY shop. I need to raise a but of Money for my "Hero Bag and Hero Quilt Cause". Westminster fibers and Amy Butler have donated some wonderful fabric to my little cause in the past, but now I need to restock my batting, thread and needles....You know how it goes. I do put a large portion of every bag and quilt I sell aside, but the sale of this quilt will certainly tide me over for quite some time. It is a lovely quilt, I made it back in 2005 while my husband was defending our freedom in Baghdad. The quilting is lovely and the colors are so patriotic.

I do not charge widows for the bags and quilts I make them and their children. I want to keep it as a gift to assist them as they mourn. I want it to give them comfort...that is my goal. So if you have $400 rattling around in your pocket and this quilt strikes your fancy give it a peek. "Defending Freedom" may be right up your alley.

ox

Tia

PS....a note on my post yesterday, I re-read it and man do I sound snotty. I had to run take care of one of the kids and didn't end it well. What I wanted to say was....I have lived in and among so many different people and cultures (German, American, Turkish, Italian, Honduran, Australian, and Mexican) and of all those cultures the Aboriginal is the most ancient and most "unchanged" from it's creation. It is now 2008, and very surprising for me to find myself confronted with such raw aggression. I have never seen anyone intentionally try to hurt and mutilate someone else with their bare hands. Yes, I was a very sheltered and loved child and I was lucky enough to be raised in a culture that nourished my body, mind and soul. Now that I am in my 30's my eyes are opening to others like they never have before. That is that. I should have ended my post yesterday like this.

Cheers!

Good Morning, morning!

Our yummy little chartreuse figs are almost ready for harvesting. I need to find some good recipes for them, since I have so many. Basically Fig Newtons is about all I know to make, but my neighbor has been coming over to the house for the past month waiting for them to get ready so maybe she will have some more recommendations. We have another fig tree with massive purple figs, but the fruit flies like them too, and few things gag me worse than opening up fruit and having squirmy little larva wallowing around. Yuck.

On that note let me tell you a funny story. Well not funny, kinda sad. When I first move to the middle of Australia I had big expectations for the indigenous population. The Aboriginal culture is such an ancient one and I had watched my Discovery Channel so I was ready to be amazed. Well, I hate to admit I was disappointed with in the first couple days. I know I have written to several of you about how odd and stinky they are. And I hate to sound like a raciest, but they are odd and stinky (now I am only judging the tribes that live in the Alice Springs area, since those are the folks I am familiar with). The other tribes may smell like lilies for all I know. That is some background...

I was at the grocery store the Friday afternoon, I had my little list so I wouldn't spend all day and My husband had the kids at home so I was a free agent, I was prepared to really make good time. I normally go to the store in the mornings, not the afternoon when the bottle shop is open. Too many intoxicated stinky people to be around. (now I am not talking normal body odor...this is eye watering, mouth breathing pungency. It must be a mixture of diet, campfire, bodily waste and genital infections, oh and alcohol, yes yes I have a keen nose) SO I was making my way to the lettuce display, focused, not inhaling through my nose, ready to select the best leafy green available, when all the sudden right before me Mortal combat is declared! When the aboriginal ladies really get serious about their fighting, they rip off their shirts (I really have no explanation for this) and attack with a great deal of shouting by themselves and their supporters (sounds alot like a dog fight). And Dammit it was right in front of the lettuce display. The altercation was between an older woman and a teenager. The older one was going to be the winner, because she had the young girl down on the ground and was bashing her head into the side of the lettuce stand. Very violent. Oh and you don't interfere with "women's business" or "Men's business" as the case may be. I went off to get the milk....when I came back for my leafy greens the fight was over and one of the shop stock boys was getting ready to clean up the blood. Wow...what a culture.

Now onto other business....I am mailing out a bunch of bags this morning! Oh happy day! I love it when I have a bunch finished and ready to go! Our mail has not come for a couple days, so if you have sent me anything and yet to hear from me, that is the reason. My Internet has been in and out too. If you sent me an email and I have not gotten back to you, forgive me....it is Big Pond's fault.

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. We sure did. It was party central here. Became a joke between my husband and I how long I could work on a bag before I dashed back into the kitchen to make cookies to give away or a "covered dish to share" or stir something for one of the 4 parties we had here at the house. Wow. I am happy it is just January and my slate is clean...well at least socially. I am dedicating myself to bags and Barbies and transforming Transformers. My little people are on Summer holiday here and it has been pretty HOT outside. OK, enough of this let's get down to brass tacks...

My New Year's Resolution.....

Limit My Bag orders a month and a good Yoga session in the morning.

I have to limit my bag orders for a couple reasons. I want to pour myself into each bag I make. I want to email back and forth with each of you and really get to know what you expect out of this bag I am making for you. But it is only me doing the sewing and emailing oh and blogging (which is really a dangerous time eraser). Due to where we are stationed and some of the odd laws I really can't hire anyone to help me out. So I get to stay small potatoes until I return to the states, then I will branch out. Hopefully my new plan of less bags a month will really cut down on wait time. That will really make me happy and you too (I hope). Most of the feedback I get is that the ladies I sew for don't mind the wait, but I do.

I am working on some new designs....a very exciting Clutch, which I will be making for some of my wonderfully patient ladies to field for me. I can't tell you how much I LOVE sewing for you all. I am thrilled that you enjoy my art. My New website should also be up sometime soon. Marnie and I have been working hard on it too.

I am also thinking of the next easiest bag I make so I can do a tutorial. Another blogging lady has given me pointers on how to make them in an easier manner...so it shouldn't be 10 separate posts that are hard to find again. Just one, clearly labeled. I guess that is about it for now...The boys are up, so off to make breakfast.

Happy New Year!

xo

Tia

Happy