Presents! Day 96, Use What You've Got

Yesterday my parents arrived from England for a visit.  They brought presents with them! Lucky us!!

My favourite was the one shown in the picture above. Can you guess what it is?

A pair of 'floor cleaning slippers'!

So I can 'skate' around on the tiles and clean as I go! So much fun! My girls love them too.

They also brought out a chocolate cookbook I remember from my childhood:

This book is now my daughter's as she loves to bake chocolate things. I remember making these chocolate domino biscuits when I was a kid!

Yummy! Can't wait till my daughter starts baking things from this book!

Mum and Dad also brought a box of the cereal my husband misses from the UK.

While presents are lovely, the real gift is having my parents here for a few short weeks. So nice to catch up with them and for the kids to get time to spend time with their grandparents!

Jill

Monster Pencil Case. Day 95, Use What You've Got

We have an upcoming fun night at our swim club for Halloween. I thought I'd make something to donate for the raffle - and what better than a monster pencil case!

I've made a couple before - one large one with teeth here and another like the one I made here (here's the tutorial)

I found some fur and black fabric from my stash and whipped this up in no time!

I also found a monster stationery set in my stash - so that will complement the pencil case well I think!

Do you make things to donate for raffles and fundraisers? I have so much fabric in my stash that it's the perfect way for me to 'do my bit' - and I enjoy it too!

AND it helps me in my challenge to "Use What I've Got!"

Jill

Day 94, Use What You've Got - a new tutorial brewing

Over the past few months I've been working on a new BIG sewing tutorial, that is going to be part of an e-book I'm hoping to release by the end of this month.

It's an idea that's been in my head for a long time, and it's my major project for my 'use what you've got challenge'.

It's very exciting to see it all come together!

My pattern was sent to some fabulous pattern testers who did their job amazingly well and I had copious notes to read through and consider.

Yesterday I completed the final pattern, making one last bag to check everything. 

So now comes the ebook - putting it all together and adding more written parts.

Then more learning on how to launch and sell an ebook!

I'm enjoying the whole process, learning heaps and I'm excited about it being so close to finishing.

I've put so much time and effort into this, I want it to be the best it can be!

Watch this space - it's coming soon!!!

Jill

Earl Hill, day 91, Use What You've Got

My current challenge to 'use what you've got' has inspired us as a family to make the most of where we live.

Last Monday was a public holiday here in Queensland. We decided to have a walk up Earl Hill which is up at the beaches, just half an hours drive from our house, yet in 10 years living here we'd never been up this hill!

The view from the top was gorgeous!

If a little obscured by a bush fire!

The path was well marked and clear. No chance of taking a wrong turning here! :)

A steady uphill, but a lovely walk!

Then later in the week, we were lucky enough to have clear skies for the total lunar eclipse that turned the moon red!

I was impressed at the photos I managed to get with my little camera!

Here's what the moon looked like before the eclipse from our back patio.

Getting closer to the full eclipse.

Closer still...

And finally, the full red eclipse!

Amazing to see!

What have you seen in your part of the world this week?

Jill

A Cool Tip! Day 88, Use What You've Got

At bit of a different post today, but something cool I learned yesterday that I had to share!

It's coming up to summer here in Cairns and so it's time to check all our aircons are working. We found that the aircon in our spare room (also my sewing room) wasn't working. After a lot of pushing buttons I discovered that it was the remote that wasn't working the unit itself was fine. Although you can switch the aircon on at the unit, it is too high up on the wall to be easily accessible without a ladder, so we needed to get the remote fixed or replaced.

In Googling our particular remote, I discovered I could buy the exact same remote from China for just 1 cent! Bargain!! The only problem being they had a minimum order of 1000! Not so good.

Then I tried Googling how to fix a remote and here's where I discovered the cool bit!

A remote control works by sending out an infra-red energy wave. This comes from the small bulb part at the top end of the remote.  If you look at the bulb when you press the button, you don't see anything, as we can't see infra red with the human eye.

HOWEVER... if you look at it through a digital camera, you can see it!!

So I tested this theory, and found that was the problem with our remote. The infra red wasn't working! Take a look:

Pretty cool!

I wondered if I could replace the infra red part of the remote - apparently yes - the new 'bulb' part only costs a couple of dollars, but you have to unsolder and resolder the parts in.

 Since I've never soldered before and don't own a soldering iron,  it was simpler to buy a new universal aircon remote which cost the same as a soldering iron!

So there you go - a digital camera can see infra-red light, but we can't see it with the human eye! 

I'm sure that fact will come in useful one day!

Jill

Holloways Beach, Day 84, Use What You've Got

Continuing to make the most of this beautiful place we live in, the girls and I headed out to the beach on Friday for a lovely day in the sun!

The girls enjoyed playing about in the choppy water. I did get in for a little bit, but mostly just enjoyed the peace and quiet of relaxing on the sand!

Jill

A fail and a fix! Day 82, Use What You've Got.

3 years ago I made myself this super simple and really useful armband mp3 holder. 

Yesterday I decided to try and make one that was slightly bigger to see if I could use it to hold my phone in as I run. I've just downloaded a new app - Runkeeper, which has an audio cue that I can set to tell me every 400m I run for my interval run workouts. 

Unfortunately, my phone is too heavy for the pouch!

So much for a quick project. I shall have to rethink and have another try!

So after that fail, I needed to achieve something, so did a quick fix of our BBQ cover. Over the years it has become torn and now just a big gust of wind and it blows off.

A quick stitch and it sits securely now with the velcro straps keeping it tight at the sides.

Not a very exciting bit of sewing - but it's another thing done that has been waiting for a long time!!

What fixing jobs do you have waiting around the house?

Jill