Noice-ities (show us yours)

Noice-ities is a new gamey thingy we’re playing over at That’s Noice – Leigh and I launched it late last night… and it’s taken me until this afternoon to finish my own post. I’m nothing if not efficient ;)

Leigh has already admitted that the name of the game was my idea and that it looks like we’re saying nice tits. Oh dear. And now that the name is on our logo, it makes our logo look like a large, bright pink nipple. NOICE!

Now that’s all I see when I’m working on That’s Noice, hehe.

ANYWAY! It’s our version of games like My Place & Yours that I’ve been playing, and we’re starting by asking

If skill/talent was no object, what do you want to make?

I’m a simple girl with simple goals at this stage – my big big thing would be to make my own dress that I could wear when we get hitched… but that’s a tad unrealistic, even for me!

The most I’ve made on my new sewing machine is a cover for my toaster:

which isn’t exactly advanced, but I’m chuffed to have finished it (mostly) successfully. My first draft turned out okay, but this time I actually ironed the seams and whatnot (I think the iron is still in shock from actually being used!). And now I find I’m eating toast more often, just so I can use the cover. Sad, no?

Next, I want to make covers for Dan’s Xbox and PS3s (yes, we have multiple PS3s. Save me). Gaming consoles aren’t as square as toasters, so it’s going to be… um, interesting!

Why don’t you come along and join us for Noice-ities – you don’t even need to have a blog to take part!

Farmville

I went west for a few days to hang out with my BFF and her family. They live on a sheep and crop farm near Armatree, about a 6-hour drive from Sydney.

It’s nice to have a place to visit that’s such a stark contrast to life in inner-Sydney: out there it’s peaceful. Unless there are three small children around, of course ;)

I got home last night and had a restless night’s sleep (I think I kept dreaming about the locust plagues I drove through).

I think Elvis missed me, though:

(Don’t tell Elvis, but I missed him, too).

How to: be a sewing blogger (NOT!)

I am seriously thinking I need to start a new FAIL blog. Or at the very least, a FAIL category.

Because, honestly, after yesterday’s debacle with the giant cupcake, you’d think I’d give it a rest today.

But no. Today I decided to try sewing.

But! I saw this Lola Nova tutorial for fabric eggs and fell in love.

I’m sure I did a bunch of things that a good sewer never does. I just folded up the calico into 4 layers so I only had to cut the damn shape out once. I didn’t mark my start/stop points like the pattern said I should. I didn’t look up how to back stitch. I actually decided by the back stitch stage that the egg was a disaster and beyond help. So who gives a damn what a back stitch is.

(I actually ended up making a pretty cool mock up of an owl softie after this disaster, so I’m heading out in the morning to get appropriate owl fabric (Felt? Polar fleece? Fat squares?). Promise to show you the end result – hopefully something better than a big fat FAIL!)

How I manage to sleep at night

I’m one of those people who has an over-active brain. And it’s most active when I’m trying to fall asleep or when I wake up in the middle of the night.

It’s not fun. I can even dream about something I forgot to do in the office, then wake myself up to stress about it for the three hours until my alarm goes off.

When I was in my teens, I was able to get around it by listening to my bedside clock radio. Something that I learned from mum after seven years of sharing a bedroom with her. (I haven’t done a post on that yet, have I? OH, I WILL).

After years of living with Dan, I’d gotten used to my falling-asleep routine of almost tricking myself into falling asleep, but waking up in the middle of the night – especially when we’re on deadline at work – I could never master falling back to sleep quickly.

But finally – FINALLY! – the wonders of technology have given me the best nights of sleep in the last few months:

I plug my sound-cancelling ear buds into my iPhone, turn the phone to airplane mode, load up a podcast and VOILA! I have something to keep my brain suitably distracted until I fall asleep. Means Dan doesn’t have to hear it either. WIN!

And if I happen to wake up in the middle of the night, then I just repeat the process. Works a treat.

Also means that I literally sleep with my iPhone under my pillow.

Also means that I’m likely to wake up with earphone cord all over the place… in my hair, wrapped around my neck… or thrown across the room when I think it’s a cockroach crawling across my neck.

That’s only happened ONCE, though.

Podcasts I’m most likely to listen to at the moment include: Conversations with Richard Fidler, Is it Just Me? with Wendy and Angela, Thank God It’s Friday with Richard Glover, Boxcutters, WNYC’s RadioLab and I’ve recently started listening to the Skeptic Zone.

How do you get to sleep at night?

Laura is hot!

Someone in Enmore has impeccable taste in ladies ;)

I’m not entirely sure of the relevance of Stonehenge. But at least I’ve actually been to Stonehenge. It was so damn cold my fingers almost snapped off.

But anyway, I’m hot!