Fabulous royally weddingy print by Glyn West Design on etsy.com.And I love this union jacky little brooch, too, made by landbaby and available from folksy.com ...
Of course, it's ever such a big day today!You don't have to be a monarchist to enjoy a royal spectacle with all the hats and dress-ups and smart soldiers and spotting faces and admiring all the sparkles and shiny shiny stuff.Plus, in the abbey, they'll be walking past the grave of my great(X5)-grandad, so I feel like I'm part of it all, really.I'm baking a chocolate cake to celebrate, and I'll be watching all of it on telly from this arvo.
It's a lot of fun to work where I work. Exhausting, and intense, and stressful at times — but lots of laughs as well.In the past couple of weeks we've been visited by a litter of puppies looking for good homes (I snuggled but was not tempted to bring one home);
... feasted on the world's finest pavlova, with mango and strawberries, made by the wonderful Judy in advertising on her birthday (and the gorgeous Emma, in production, brought in three cakes she'd baked on Wednesday when it was her birthday!);
... giggled like idiots at the editorial meeting when one of the reporters wrote thesbian instead of thespian;... clucked over dear old Bob in production, who was complaining of a stiff neck after many hours in front of his screen and then withdrew into his hood to bliss out with a back rub from the gorgeous Christine;
... chuckled to discover two of our team, the brilliant Lloyd, one of our reporters,
and the gorgeous Karena, our production chief, 
had both come to work yesterday with their shirts inside out, seams showing, tags flying. Well, it was a very early start after a rather long night the night before, so it's easily done.At 12.30 yesterday arvo we stopped and sat outside with Sir in the sunshine to eat teriyaki chicken from a Japanese take-away in Subi before getting stuck in again for three more full-on hours to get the paper away.It's a good job.
Flars on my mantelpiece from my best friend Shelley — many thanks!We are having the most wonderful few days doing a great deal of nothing very much here at Schloss Zed. I've been pottering, did a bit of painting, a bit of sewing, a lot of reading (Wallander on the new Kindle), some walking and some fantastic eating.There'll be more of the latter today as we're off to my best friend Dace's for lunch to celebrate her son, the lovely Max's, 18th birthday.:: My Lily has got a job in Japan and leaves at the end of July. She hasn't yet found out where she'll be placed (it's a teaching job through the Japanese government-run JET program), so she has her fingers crossed she will be sent to her first choice, which is Onomichi.I'm so proud of her — and trying not to think about how far away she'll be! David, Will and I will be planning at least one trip to visit her in 2012.:: Will is off to the US in June and gets back just a few days before Lily leaves. Everyone's going somewhere all of a sudden ...
Well, they certainly brighten up the place!
We're looking forward to getting the grandkids down again soon, especially so my lovely girl can snuggle up in the old cot — with all the new linen, of course! What do you reckon about the bite marks? Lightly sand and re-paint, or leave for posterity?
It's been a productive couple of days here at Schloss Zed.First, I finished this little baby quilt (above) that I had started before Mack was born — I suppose that'd be eight years ago now! I never finished it, partly because this was the period when we were toing and froing between Perth and California, and partly because, like a complete der-freddy, I'd started hand-quilting it, which was not the right thing for me to do at all.So on Monday morning, I yanked it down from the top of the cupboard, ripped out all the hand-quilting and within two hours had ripple-stipple-quilted it on the machine. I then bound it with some navy fabric that I hadn't bloody washed, so when I threw the whole completed object into the wash yesterday, the binding shrank. Double der.
Anyway, with that under my belt, I went on to make a little pile of bedlinen to take down south to the beach house this weekend. The linen there is all looking a bit grungy and faded, so I figured some shockingly bright new cotton pillowslips would be in order.
Thanks to my best friend Shelley for the magenta stripe fabric (it was in a whole crate of fabric goodies she gave me!), and to Sarah at work who gave me a good length of the retro-looking floral-print cotton.I'll photograph these on the bed on the weekend and show you how good they look!Also in that pile, at the bottom, is a fitted cot sheet. Last time we were down south, I poked around in the garage and found the old drop-side cot that had been second-hand when Lily and then Will slept in it, and then later their cousins, Emma and Rufus. I managed to screw it together and gave it a thorough cleaning with hot water and eucalyptus oil. It still has all the teeth marks in it where successive babies have chewed. I was tempted to sand it all smooth and perfect and re-paint it, but after conferring with my best friend Jane, I think I'll leave the old toothy patina as it is. Photographs to come when we get down there again.After the cot sheet, I decided Harper would need some sort of coverlet in the cot, so I fished out this length of blue candlewick I'd got on special at Spotto months and months ago, and the piece of Echino gauze that was left over when I made this quilt, which now lives in Wales with Emily. 
Voila! A soft and lovely candlewick-backed cot coverlet to keep my lovely girl all warm and cosy.
Last night, after the news, the ABC Perth weather forecaster told us we'd just endured the hottest March on record.Then he said: "Well, I know lots of people are getting sick of all these sunny days and clear skies, so I have the news you've all been waiting for."There's a chance it will be partly cloudy next Wednesday and Thursday."Sigh.
Fabulous royally weddingy print by Glyn West Design on etsy.com.
Of course, it's ever such a big day today!
