Friday, June 27, 2008

Lock out

When I arrived home last night thankfully the rain had stopped. I grabbed my stuff out of the car and got to the front door to find the key wouldn’t turn. Blast! The lock had been sticking a bit the last few days and I had made a mental note to take a good look at it over the weekend… not soon enough obviously! This had happened a few years back and I’d ended up replacing the lock. I cursed myself for not having the back door key with me.
I went down to the garage to find a hammer or crow bar so I could bust open one of the side windows… popping the catch on that would be easier to sort out than a broken window…. Looking around I realised Tom would have most of the tools with him on the Barrier and the rest of the “house tools” were… well… in the house.
I rang Warren who was on his way home for the evening and told him what had happened. He arrived within 10 minutes with his tool box…

“Waddya need?”

“Got a hammer?”

He handed one to me and scurried after me as I went around the side of the house…

“You gonna smash it!!??”

“Nah mate”

I jammed the claw under the edge of the window and levered it…. Pop! Inside the handle flew off and I opened the window.

“Chur… can tell you’re from Dargaville” Warren grinned, “Didn’t know you were so good at break-ins!”

I climbed through the window and got the door open after a bit of jiggling the key and the catch. The door was unlocking with the key from the inside but not from outside. We fiddled about with it for a while, gave it a spray of CRC and I decided that’d do on the lock for the evening… I can sort it out properly on the weekend, in the mean time I’ll lock it from the inside and use the back door.
That just left the window to secure. The catch was busted and I’d need a new one. After a bit of digging about in my tool box Warren found a bolt that would hold it all together. It doesn’t look pretty but at least it’s secure.
Warren packed up his tools as I thanked him for helping me out.

“Cheers mate, you’re a love!! I owe ya a beer!”

“Or 5 or 6”, Warren laughed as he headed off home!

Good on ya!

Friday, June 20, 2008

Life gets in the way of blogging!

Don't you just hate that?
So still frantically working away on the costume and eagerly awaiting the arrival of some beaded fringing I ordered through ebay. I'm not sure if it will arrive in time for me to get it onto the costume so I'll have to work on my plan b in the meantime. I've given myself a cut-off of Monday for the fringing to arrive, anything after that will be pushing my luck in terms of finishing it ready for the show!
Work has been really hectic this week. It must have been playing on my mind a lot as I've been waking up far too early and not able to get off to sleep. I've ended up getting up and going to work rather than toss and turn and disturb Tommy's beauty sleep. This morning I was at work by 6:45..... that turned into a struggle towards the end of the day and I was pleased to get everything finish by 5pm and get the heck out of there!!
So... just a quick update... now back to my costume!

Monday, June 09, 2008

Distracted

It's been a while huh? Things have been busy around here and I've been somewhat distracted by a new project.

We are performing in a show at the end of June and the costuming requires a bedlah. The only bra and belt set I have is a bit small for me at the moment so I decided to make a new set. I settled on making a gold set as I can use that with many different coloured skirts so I should get quite a bit of milage out of it.

I looked around for a gold material to use as a based but struggled to find anything suitable and was starting to consider using black instead. I tried to find some black stretch velvet but was foiled at every turn... luckily... because I finally found some fantastic gold stretch material that would be perfect. I cut the cups out of an old bra to use as a base and reinforced them with strips of webbing and felt to make them sturdy enough to take the beading I want to apply. I have some rather ambitious plans to create sequined and beaded appliques to attache to both the bra and belt. The only problem is I don't think I'll get it all finished in time for the show. I've decided to concentrat on getting the bra and belt fitted properly with some basic beading for now. I have some black and gold embroidered ribbon that I'll use as an accent and add "danglies" ready for the show. Both will be easy to remove so I can add the appliques I've planned when I have more time to get them finished. That will take the pressure off for now and I allow me to complete the appliques without rushing!

Here's where I've gotten to so far...