Another day in paradise

Crazy

Time. It can make you go a little crazy sometimes.

I was at Anglesea with the boys by myself again today - and that would normally be fine. Normally. Ir was a hot day and a phone call set me off. A flippant reminder about a fire plan. 

I had no fire plan - no plans at all, and I should. I was wholly responsible and totally ignorant. Anglesea is a costal town, yet surrounded by native bushland, with only the great ocean road as a way in or out. I have seen how busy that can get with the Lorne Pier to Pub. Additionally, fire, or more specifically bushfires really scare me. I am all for my friends who live in at risk areas, to leave on days of total fire ban. Yet here I was not heeding my own advice. 

So, I set to making a plan. A way out - depending on which way the fire was coming. Packed some long clothes and towels as we didn't have any blankets. Drinks in the freezer. Downloaded the fire app. Then my mobile dropped out of range. With no land line, no one could contact me, nor could I get internet to find out what was happening. 

I filled my car with petrol and set off - toward home to get reception, but also see what was going on. Mum and Dad had doctors appointments and we planning to come back. 

Finally we managed to get hold of them. There were no fires, but also the news from the doctors was not good. Good and bad in one call. The tumour is still growing, despite chemo and the chemo doctor suggested no more treatment. Quality of life over quantity. I am not really sure the diagnosis on quantity, but there is talk of months. 

While none of this is a great surprise, terminal is terminal, it is still not fun. To be told that you are going to die and its a matter of time......  I can't imagine how that is to hear, but I do know how hard it is to live with. Just to sit by and watch.  

The hardest part is thinking that this may be the last time. The last holiday, the last celebration, the last conversation, the last hug. Not making them overtly special, but still not forgetting the significance. 

They are back for a few days holiday and that is what we'll have. Special time. 

Lighthouse

 After dinner tonight the kids and I went off adventuring! We drove to Aireys Inlet to look at the lighthouse. The light was so pretty so we took some pics, and had a bit of a play.

Anglesea

Apologies for the gratuitous bathers shot but we found this beach and it is just fabulous. Point Roadknight is a patrolled surf beach at Anglesea and it is great for kids. There are rocks on one side where I imagine there are rock pools and the like. I didn't see them as the boys and that also means me, were in the water. It is shallow and while it is a surf beach, the waves are not to big. It just makes for great fun. I think because the boys are that little bit older, they can do things and entertain themselves more at a surf beach. We had so much fun.

In the swim

Step back in time...do you remember when bathers did this? The arm holes dropped and the legs were higher than your hips? I found this pic on the internet which is circa 1989. I turned 16 and lets say my body didn't look like this. Ever. My voluptuous thighs emphasised the high of the leg, and my bountiful bossom blossomed out the armhole. Not a good look - or rather feel. At the time this was really the only style you could get and out of necessity, started making my own.

For most of the last 25 years, all of my bathers have been home made - with the exception of 2 pairs of speedos and a recent pair as a birthday gift. I would often make bathers as a gift. I know it seems strange, it wasn't to me. I could guess a size and make them in secret to suit the wearers body. I made one for my boss, and she was cross at me for being able to whip something up when she had spent days looking for a pair, and couldn't find anything any where near as flattering.

I don't know why but I had fallen off the bathers wagon of late. With the exception of some trunks for the boys and a leotard here or there, I haven't been very productive. But, a girlfriend has a new fella she is trying to impress and asked for a pair and they were the only ones that flatter her body.Flattery, it seems, will get you everywhere. I have ventured out the shed and found some lycra - I couldn't get in to the back to get at the vintage stuff - and dusted off the patterns ready to commence.

How to - Easy Square Bean Bag

I popped outside to my crafting shed to find some fabric for a friend. It is a bit of a post christmas mess, and I couldn't get in enough to find it - but I found something else and promptly changed tack.

Beanbags. They had been on my pinterest radar for a while. I actually had them on my list to head out and buy some fabric - but as luck would have it, I found I already had the perfect stuff. (let the record show that this was the only luck for the day!)

Rather than the classic bean bag shape, I wanted something that would take up less floor space, but free up my couches. I like both these designs -

crashmatstore.com

cabbageroseblog.com

With my research done, and settled on the rectangle design, I easily whipped up three beanbags (with a little time out for a trip to emergency) and you can too.

For a child or a junior size I had a finished rectangle of approx 1m x 1.4m. This is big enough for me to sit comfortably, but for an adult I would suggest increasing the width and the height proportionately.

The beauty of this size meant I could run the fabric across grain - meaning purchase of material for each bag was 2 meters of fabric which is 145(ish) wide. This is a canvas weight furnishing fabric from ikea. I had bought it (discount price) to cover some chairs some time ago, and when I found the remain, there was just the right amount for 3. In fact I had an extra 20cm.

Truly - this is how easy it all was.

Here is my fabric - yes it needs an iron, but the wrinkles will fall out later so I didn't worry about that.
It is 2 meters wide here and 145 high (in this picture)

Then I fold it in half - now 1m wide and 145 high with the right side inside. Then I simple sewed a straight line along the top, down the side and along the bottom - leaving about 30cm open to put the beans in. I decided - thinking of safety - not to put a zip in but to sew it up. If over time it needs more beans, I will simply split the seam a little. I sewed it with a slightly shorter stitch just to give it a bit more security.

 Then I turned it in the right way. Take time to push out the corners for a lovely rectangle. Now would be a good time to press it. I did some top stitching for additional security around the edges. I did a seam on the very edge - right the way round and then another one 5/8 on inch in - except for the gap.

This size bag takes 200 litres of beans -= or 2 bags each. I got mine from Kmart. Once the beans are happily in there (this is probably the hardest bit of all),

you simply pin up the gap and sew it up

I simply matched my 2 rows of topstitching. One of the other additions I made to this was adding handles. I put these in the gap I'd left to fill them up, because I thought I may end up hanging them somewhere to put them away.
















Happily, they were all put to use straight away!

Ear Ear

Seems we embarked on another little adventure with our boy Benji.  I was making the boys all beanbags. To be extra safe and make sure the beans couldn't come out, I was sewing the bags up - ie no zip. 

Once all the bags were sewn up ready, we went out to kmart to get the beans. 7 big bags came home with us and we started on the first one. Each bag took 2 bags of beans to fill and on our first attempt a few beans fell out onto the floor and I asked the boys to pick them up.

Lets also have a bit more information. My boys are 9, 7 & 7. Not babies. I was sewing the bag in the same room as them. Infact I was no more than 3 metres away and actually FACING them. 

Fast forward a couple of seemingly mundane minutes and I tell Benji not to put the spoon in his ear. His reply was he was trying to clean it. I said go and get a cotton bud and come here and I will do it. It was then I made the discovery. A big polystyrene ball now wedged in his ear. No cotton bud would help - and I am sure the spoon didn't help much either. I had some tweezers but they weren't thin enough to get in so I decided that we needed to go to the gp. This is where the comedy of errors began in the early evening. 

The GP lacks, how would you say, hmm, bedside manner. She had the tools, but was obviously a little stressed by the idea and panicked my little 7 year old. He started to cry, she suggested hospital, I tried a couple of times to explain what was happening. She wouldn't let use her tools (I know- Biatch) so after everyone screaming, and the people in the waiting room horrified, we left.

At home with it a little further in, I was reluctant to go to hospital. I went and bought some "tools" and started operations at home. I further traumatized the little bugger. We put the olive oil in as the dr suggested and I think the weight of this only pushed it in even further than she did. Then a rigged up a straw on the vacuum - macguiver style. This at least sucked out the olive oil! It was only after all of this failed that the big squirrel took him off to hospital.

First stop was the eye and ear hospital. I figured this would be the place you would go for something shoved in your ear. Apparently not if you're a kid. They attempted but they suggested a general- and we figured this was a little OTT for the little polystyrene ball that was just out of reach. So he was referred on to the Childrens'.

So - the upshot is the Royal Childrens' Hospital is the place to be. He sat in the waiting room with all those other kids, and once he got attended to (at 11pm - he was really not a priority given he was just stupid and in no real pain) they gassed him up and promptly grabbed out the offending item. Home safe and happy with dislodged ball at 12pm. He vows never to do THAT again. 

It does however make me wonder what the next adventure will be?