[Sarvi]

I love the idea of feng shui for fish!

[Tamara]

You are such a comedian lattemama! I think our fish do that too! The mangled plant is now at the other end of the tank because it was constantly tipped over. I have Viking blood but I hate the cold – seems like such an oxymoron doesn’t it?

Ice skating sounds like fun if you know how – I went once and clung to the wall the whole session! I could roller skate but ice is far more slippery. Hope she had a lot of fun! Minus 17c, brrr!

Heidi I will have to have a crack at the tea party dolls dress for the Australian girl dolls we have here. It is cute!

[lattemama]

I have my moments.

That Viking blood is all just a myth really. Everyone I know complains about the cold. But at least we live far enough south to have a bit of daylight with the cold so I shouldn’t complain.

The good thing about the -17C is that it means there are not much cloud and the Sun is out so it’s really a nice day today .. the fact that I have to work is a bit of a let down, but I’m off in 2.5 hours so I will get to enjoy the light a bit before the Sun sets at 4 pm.

[Jane]

For all my Aussie friends melting from the heat, here are some pics from our snow day to cool you off!

We only had about 3 inches of snow. My son is disappointed he has school today. I suspect he may be dismissed early. We are to get more snow today starting early this afternoon. Imagine all the sewing I should be getting done stuck at home, too bad the room re-do isn’t finished yet. 🙁

Jane

[Jennifer1568]

School was cancelled here today, again. There hasn’t been the first flake of snow, yet. I hope we get some so that we can go sledding, too!

[Jane]

Some schools around us were cancelled but we weren’t. Last week our kids were sent home early and we ended up only getting rain. I think the district was hesitant to jump the gun again. Too many upset MaMa’s and PaPa’s.

Jane

[cybele727]

My kingdom for a snow day… well, not really, but… we NEVER have them. We have to get over a foot accumulation between 5 am and 6 am for them to call it. Yes, I live in Buffalo, world famous for the snow, yet ironically, we hardly ever have any. Or it has to be under 5 F with a windchill.

Or they close them in fear of an approaching event, and then nothing… sigh… safety first, I know.

Well, I am not sewing for the foreseeable future. I bought a Janome Magnolia last May. I have been so unhappy with it. It is so touchy, and the feed dogs don’t work properly, the bobbin is super touchy, and the buttonholer hasn’t worked since purchase, can’t get the tension right, bobbin thread shows up on top. It has not been pleasant. And I can’t chock it up to user error any longer! 🙂

I finally wrote a nasty gram to Janome to say, hey… I am so NOT recommending this brand to anyone. Here are my problems, here are my attempted solutions (with help from the dealer) and here are pictures of my buttonhole failure. (good thing I took advice from here and did a pattern with adjustments on a stash fabric rather than on the Japanese linen I was going to go straight too!)

Janome contacted me, and their local dealer. They are shipping her a new machine which will arrive next week and they are exchanging it. I feel like dancing. 🙂

Wow, if this machine works better, I will be a customer for life! LIFE, people! 🙂

[Maggie]

I’m glad you got help from Janome. I bought a Janome in September. So far I have been pretty happy. The dealer adjusted it for free after I broke a couple needles and knocked it out of wack. (User error as I adjusted to a new machine.)

We have no baby fish, but my daughter keeps mentioning how cute the neighbor’s new kitten is. We have a lazy old kitty who isn’t much fun.

It warmed up to about 20 degrees F today. I think that’s about -6 C. I’m in the NYC burbs.

[rastis]

justsewit- we have 2 tanks but they aren’t huge… at times we have had to impose tough water restrictions on ourselves! we actually had to buy water once because we ran out… which i’m trying to avoid again

but it seems as if the heavy rain is on it’s way- they are predicting major flooding for us over the long weekend… so i guess we’ll see what happens… we are getting prepared here today just in case!

[Tamara]

Oh crikey! That reminds me of my childhood! We had help from a volunteer fire fighter friend (he’s an old family friend really) and we would bring the water truck over to fill our tank past the bung – just – so that we’d not have to lower it with the potential of all that muck and stuff at the bottom getting into our morning coffee!

I really hope you get the rain but no flood! My Noah hasn’t build his ark yet! Nice steady soaking rain minus the flooding! I will be thinking of you and your family and prayers all round that you get rain and no flood!

Jesims that snow looks divine! (I want to make snow angels!) We don’t have heat days – wish we did! The kids only get send home if there is no electricity or running water at school and that generally means the town is out. We did have a note sent out last year about the possibility of a day off due to a severe weather warning we received but it all came to nothing!

I love Janome and I’m so sorry Cybele that you got a dud! The only problems I’ve had is a dodgy dealer who claimed to have serviced my machine and then accused me of not threading it correctly! As you can imagine, her business is no longer running!

The current one I have is my best yet! No problems other than freaking out when asked to make a button hole right next to a bound seam – I took it to the dealer I got it from and we sorted it out! Surely the dealer will get it out of its box and play with it to find out if it is a decent one. That is what I would do. I find my Janome dealer very helpful – service with a smile and they sit down with you to nut it all out.

So I hope you have better luck with the new one.

[with love Heidi]

cybele, good luck with the new sewing machine! It’s amazing the difference that a sewing machine that is working well makes to your sewing and enjoyment of sewing!

[cybele727]

Oh, Ladies… totally. I am excited. It has been rather bummer-ish. Because I was dreading sewing and the problems it would cause. :O Imagine dreading sewing.

This dealer is going above and beyond. She is exchanging mine, and running me through stuff, including buttonholes to ascertain if it is user error, although it is hard for that to be, when you just press and go, once you set up the foot and lever and stuff.

We are examining all my bobbins for potential bad bobbins, and she offered to fix my limping along 6 year old Kenmore (a store brand) for free.

OMG Janome will have me FOR LIFE if this works out. And I will sing their praises! 🙂

[Tamara]

I really hope it works for you because they really are very good machines – I believe they have copped a bit of flack so,e times but honestly some of the other brands out there are nothing compared to what you have with Janome – Brother machines, the simple ones are cheap and nasty in my opinion – my daughter has one and it is rubbish enough for her to refuse to use it and she’s a beginner! I’m glad she is going above and beyond because that is the experience that I have with my Janome dealer and I think with this level of service and professionalism you just can’t go wrong! I am looking forward to you singing the praises of your new machine.

I have had to have yet another coffee – onto my fourth and it isn’t 9 am yet. My hubby came back to the house after feeding his extensive collection of chickens. He was shaking like I had never seen him but volunteered that he had jammed a dirty great huge snake in the gate last night when locking the chooks up and wondered why it wouldn’t shut properly. Today he found the reason, a very angry huge b****r of what he suspects was a dugite stuck in the gate. It wasn’t going at Murray but striking at the chooks as they crowded to get out. It is the third encounter this summer around the chooks! One reason why I don’t like having chickens close to house and another reason why I’d rather stay in my little cottage rather than the big house right next to the chook yards. It’s head was in the pen thankfully but it could have been quite a different story. Apparently drastic measures were taken to dispose of it – it has been sighted before now and he thought it was disposed of then but the ground must’ve been too soft for the blow to have impact.

The coffee went down very well so now it’s back to sticking steam a seam pieces onto fabric and trying not to double up.

I have just been informed that my husband has decided to learn a new instrument – he’s bought a DVD to have fox whistle lessons! Thanks to a repeat episode of our favourite Sunday program Landline!

[Maggie]

I had to Google dugite. Who knew I’d be learning sewing and about the snakes of western Australia? Anyway, they look pretty serious. I’m glad we have mostly little garter snakes here.

Sadly, no chooks. Maybe we will have rabbits one day, but my town doesn’t allow chickens.

[Tamara]

Well it’s the last we shall see of that one anyhow! So glad!

There are some restrictions here as far as chickens in town also. Some places you can have roosters but only one and you have to have a breeders license to keep more – or move! They come under noise pollution apparently.

Because we are on a property we can keep lots – within reason of course. You still have the bird to space ratio to consider, like with any animal, they require a certain amount of space.

Rabbits are lovely – the domesticated variety that is. My nephew had one when he was little. It was so cute. Rabbits are on our no pet option list too! Too many wild ones running around already! They spread diseases! I love the Lop! That would be my pick if I had one as a pet. What one would you choose?