More Reading

Half way through the year and here is an update on the reading list! 

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Roirdan
Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Roirdan
Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labryinth by Rick Roirdan
Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian by Rick Roirdan

I re-read these Percy Jackson books in preparation for watching the Disney+ series with the girls. The books did not dissapoint. Can't say the same for the series though. 

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson
Dangerous by Shannon Hale
I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
Lirael by Garth Nix
Abhorsen by Garth Nix

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter was excellent and Dangerous was pretty good too. I picked up Dangerous at the second hand bookstore near us along with I am Number Four. I think I've read that before, and while it's good, it does go off the rails a bit at the end. Won't bother trying to chase down the subsequent books. 

Seeking Persephone by Sarah M Eden
Newt's Emerald by Garth Nix
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Sprig Muslin by Georgette Hayer

Seeking Persephone is the first book I've ever read on a Kindle. It was just too expensive to justify buying it for an author I'd never read, but the local library didn't have a copy either, so Kindle was the only option left. I didn't mind reading on the Kindle, but it's not preferable to an actual book. As far as the book goes, I liked it, but the character development seems like a puzzle to me. For some reason there is no clear moment where things change between them... maybe it's a lack of actual genuine conversation, and the way the characters/author keeps trying to "wax philosophical" about the Persephone myth? Unsure. Also, wish there was slightly more to the story, but would still read again. 

Georgette Hayer I found by reading the notes at the back of Garth Nix' Newt's Emerald. She has a rather extensive collection of books, so I borrowed a couple from the library to give it a go. She writes a fiasco pretty fabulously, but her female characters are a little lackluster (or maybe it was just the two books I read?). Still, one to keep on my radar. 

Authentically Izzy by Pepper Basham
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
A Marriage of Convenience by Georgette Hayer
Till We have Faces by C. S. Lewis
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Authentically Izzy was a rom-com by a Christian author, and what I liked about it was that there was way more to the story than just the romance, there was no over-done, awkward conversion or gospel presentation, and the writing was so interesting. Would read more! I don't know how I stumbled upon Klara and the Sun, but it was also delightful. Main character was childlike but believable and genuine. 

Till We Have Faces is a C. S. Lewis retelling of the Greek myth of Psyche and her sisters, which I was really excited/intrigued to read, but unlike other retellings, C. S. Lewis did not really add his own ending, or give a satisfying conclusion which I felt like we were all waiting for, especially given that he was writing from the perspective of Psyche's sister. C. S. Lewis is good at thought provoking conversations between characters, and this gave you that, but absolutely no pay off in the end. 

BattleAxe by Sara Douglas
Enchanter by Sara Douglas
StarMan by Sara Douglas

Lastly, a trip down memory lane for these Sara Douglass books (the Axis Trilogy). I took the girls to the Life Line Bookfest at South Bank and saw these there. I've considered getting them before, but for some reason, hadn't (maybe I'd never seen all three (and all three in the same edition!) at once?). Anyway, I grabbed them and have spent 24 hours reading them (8hrs per book), so the $13.50 that they cost me was well worth it. Not sure I've read them since my early 20s (or school maybe?!). I'd read them again, but maybe when I don't have a term of school planning looming over my to do list. 

19 books in the original post (I'm outraged that I didn't count and had an odd number of books - who am I!?), and 21 here (again with the odd numbers!) adds up to 40 books thus far for 2026. It's a good year for reading. 

T Shirt Quilt: Phase 2

This is still very much a work in progress. Not sure if it's frustrating, or something I'm ok with. I can certainly see the goal though, and I don't feel it is too far off now. 

Back in 2020, after a wardrobe clean out that removed a number of Steve's humorous shirts from his drawer, I decided the best thing would be to save them for a quilt. Initially I had enough to just a single, couch quilt type thing, if I used some extra fabric to pad it out. I didn't love that idea (even though I'd spent a fair few hours on the cutting out of fabric I wouldn't end up using), so I just put it in a Work In Progress box in my sewing nook. 

Over the years, I added shirts to it as we wore out of them. Steve's, mine, even the girls. The box was getting quite full, so in May I pulled it down to do a stocktake of what I had collected. To my delight, I had actually been putting away more shirts than I remembered, and now had more than twice or three times as much as when I started. 

This made me pretty excited, because even though we had reclaimed our original quilt from Sophie (now that she had her own), it was looking pretty worn out; even ripped in a few places. I will likely salvage lots of it for repurposing, but I'm also looking forward to replacing it on our bed with a new quilt made with our fun shirts. 

I've put in the time to prep the stretchy shirt fabric with interfacing so it won't move around when I quilt it. It's also going to take a while to get the layout right, given I'll need to balance colours and themes (can't have too many positive dinosaurs or Disney references in one cluster now), but I'm actually really looking forward to it. 

Too bad I'm still in the midst of another WIP! Is it too much to hope that these school holidays will be super productive and I'll get both of these done? Probably.

Haori

I had this bolt of fabric in my draw for a number of years now - I thought three, but flicking back through the blog tells me I got it in April of 2022. It came from my friend David along with a cotton yukata bolt, and three wool kimono bolts (here, here and here). This one was a shorter length - not the 12 metres needed for a full garment, but probably half that - maybe six metres or so? It was perfect for a haori, which is a jacket worn with a kimono. 

Not only had I never made a haori before, but the fabric itself was intimidating because it was dyed with shibori techniques that left it with a texture. Obviously that's hard to explain here when you are unable to touch the fabric, but imagine it's bumpy, not smooth. Also, my friend David had given me a piece of silk for the lining that wasn't quite enough, so I needed to really think through how to make it work. 

And all the instructions I could find on the internet for a haori were for either an unlined one, or a men's style, which is actually different because the ladies version has extra spacers to allow for the larger obi that would fit underneath. 

All the problems! Should I be the one to provide instructions for the internet on how to do this? Clearly there is a gap there....

Focusing up though, I'm really trying to sew from my stash and use what I have. We were coming into winter and I figured it was now or never for this. I studied some of my exisiting haori, did a lot of thinking, over thinking and mental gymnastics figuring out how it would work and what sewing order to do and then I got to work. 

I ended up using a lighter pink cotton to line the sleeves, but everything else was with the fabrics I had. I sewed it on Sally, except for the final collar hand sewing. I think it took a week? 

And then I wore it. With my Black Yukata and a obi that I also made. I don't know why the photos of the fabric and then the final product on look like different colours. Even looking at these ones, they come out a lot more pink looking than it is. Maybe because the obi changes things? 

I've actually worn it a bunch more because it's so beautiful and fun. It feels very fancy - especially because I know the pattern on it comes from some seriously time consuming dying techniques. 

I realised after taking these photos that I'd made this entire outfit - including the undergarments that you can't see (and I never blogged about), which is pretty wild really. 

Thoughts and Previews

The girls have been sick lately. Rachel most of all - she came home from school one Thursday, was in bed by 3:30 and pretty much slept solidly for three days. Wouldn't even come out to watch a movie or read a book. It was pretty nuts. Suffice to say, we cancelled all plans that weekend and sat around at home. Sophie came down with something similar (though not as bad) the following week, so we had another weekend of laying low and resting week. 

As part of laying low, I did some reading, but also re-started chipping away at a sewing project. I've had this in the "work in progress" box for at least two years, and it's really bugging me now, so I'm making a concerted effort to get it done. It's intended to be a present, so I don't want to give too much away on it. 

But as I sat there at my sewing machine, I was wondering to myself; is this really what I should be doing? Is this the most important way to be spending my time right now? I mean, I had pretty much an entire day free, surely there was something else? 

I can't say I thought too much more about what else I could have been doing, though I'm sure there were worthy options, but my impulse response was to decide that the best thing I could do would be to finish this project as quickly as possible, and thus not have to deal with the conundrum again. Not sure that was the wisest decision, since three hours later I was so deep and focused on the sewing I clean forgot that we needed to pick Rachel up from a Guide camp (luckily Steve remembered and went for me). 

I'm finding though, that recently I've got a lot more of these existential crisis thoughts going on. Am I where I need to be? Doing what is meaningful? What is the legacy I'm leaving? Is anything I do having a lasting impact, or is it all pointless anyway? 

When I turned 25 I remember feeling funny about a quarter of a century. 30 actually felt great - lots of clarity and wisdom about things I never realised before. 40 feels much more like things might be falling apart. That I'm about to start dealing with the consequences of bad choices and that I don't have the time or ability to fix things anyway. Some days the future looks good - I've got the resources and know how to keep going, make positive impact and change things, while other days seem like there really is no point to it at all. 

In reflection too, I find that a lot of my choice activities of late have felt withdrawn or isolated. Reading, walking, sewing. Contrasted to our six months in Japan last year, when even our "chill at home days" were very together as a family (D&D). On one had I miss that, but obviously I don't feel like we would be able to recapture the same kind of (for want of better word) vibes now. That was obviously a very unique set of circumstances that led to those times.  

Anyway, instead of dwelling on these (probably totally normal) thoughts, I will just go back to my sewing project and the isolated enjoyment it offers, and tell myself that it's only for a season. 

Shoulder Bags

Even though the girls have a plethora of bags, they have taken to using an old shoulder bag I have at any possible moment. My bag has sushi print on it, and I'm fairly sure it was a 21st present from my childhood friend Alice. I had been using it as my "church bag" so it had my housewife, a pen and my bible in it ready to go every Sunday, but I'd swapped it out for a new one we bought in Japan (on Shodoshima), because it had started fraying. 

The girls had swooped it up, and were using it alternately. After I quizzed them about why their other bags were not enough, it turned out they liked the one long strap, over the shoulder, design of my sushi bag. Rachel also told me that her Falinks Bag just wasn't big enough for a morning at church, especially since she had been taking extra books to lend to a friend each week. 

So I made them bags. I let them pick fabric from my stash, copied the design and did some sewing. 

It was a little hard cutting into the kookaburra fabric, knowing I was taking 2m of potential dress down to 1.5, but better to be using it right? And I'm fairly sure I could still get something great out of 1.5m.

Similar with the cool sushi fabric that Sophie chose. 

Anyway I lined them with fabric that matched and made sure they had pockets and key clips. Sophie's lining fabric was so thin that I added an extra layer of random bedsheet-fleece that I had to give it a bit more stability. The white with small rainbow hearts fabric is a hand me down from Aunty Sue, and the other navy one that became the pocket is scraps from her quilt. 

Rachel's was lined with fabric she had left over from making Sophie a pencil case for her birthday, (Japan fabric!) as well as some dress off cuts and one of the fabrics she and I picked out for Sophie's Quilt that Sophie decided she didn't want in the end (those cute butterflies). 

I'm pleased to say that the new bags have been well received and we managed to clean out the old bags so there is a much more manageable bag situation at the front door. 

Dress Fail, Skirt Success

So I tried to make a dress. This beautiful fabric (Jocelyn Proust print bought on sale at Spotlight probably ages ago (at least two years?)) I initially got thinking of Rachel, but the more I had it in the drawer, the more I wanted something for me. Thankfully, Rachel was not excited about the fabric anyway, so I didn't feel selfish about the switch. 

Wanting to be fancy and different, I thought I'd try incorporating a cap sleeve into my usual design. I did a make a mock up. It seemed like it would work. So I went ahead, cut and sewed away. But when I had the 90% finished dress on, it became oh so clear that it had not worked at all. 

Everything had too much. Too much width across the shoulders, too much length in the bodice, too much extra in the back. Even the skirt was too long by far. Sadly, because of the design, I couldn't see any way of salvaging it as a dress. I used off cuts from making this for Sophie's Quilt, and I've used some of the fabric before in a pencil case for Rachel. It's lined with fabric I've used for PJ's before that also featured in Sophie's Quilt. 

Photos taken inside on a dark rainy day,
so the colours look strange - it's much brighter than this in reality. 

I'm trying to be much better about actually finishing things though, and so I only let it languish for a month or two before I got to sorting it out. Since the skirt (with it's excellent pockets) was still good (despite the length), I unpicked the bodice, cut a waist band and sewed it up. 

Weirdly, though I wear this kind of full, gathered skirt situation on most of my dresses, having it on a stand alone skirt seems different. Don't know why. I'm hoping I'll still get some use out of it, because I love the fabric and it would be a waste otherwise. The hem is a good 10cm deep, and actually folded three times to get the right length. I could probably lop it off and use the fabric for something else (quilting?), but it isn't hurting anyone there. 

Cultural Festival Day!

I know I say that my work has been busy, and I guess I can't complain when sometimes the extra stuff is self inflicted. Still, this day, extra work that it is aside, is totally worth it and lots of fun. I run a 文化祭 (bunkasai) cultural festival day for the whole school. It's changing gradually each year and the kids love it. That said, it always required some prep work. 

This year, I had my ninja throwing boards that I painted for the 2025 festival ready to go. I also had the set of blue bean bags I'd made for the first one we ran back in 2024. I needed two additional sets of bean bags (one yellow, one white to match the sports teams we have), but thankfully, Steve's mum came to the rescue there. Not only did she cut all the fabric, but she sewed and filled over 200 bean bags for me as well. Good thing I blogged about it back in 2024, because that post turned out to be the best instructions to follow. 

Rachel came with me to school in the holidays for a day and did some prep work on the boxes I needed for a relay game as well as the shoe boxes I used for a sumo game. 

She also helped me paint the background for this six-metre long cherry blossom mural. 

This was a collaborative art work that the year 1 and 2 students contributed to on the festival day. They added the cherry blossoms all over the trees. 

I've been asking at school if I can paint murals, but the answer thus far has been no. This, however, feels like a step in the right direction. It's hanging where the Year 1 and 2 students put their bags, and you can see it all the way from the carpark because it's so big. Really brings some colour and fun to an otherwise boring wall. Wonder what we will do next time.