Spooooky

Halloween came early for us, we're special :) we go to our church car park and have a 'trunk or treat' so it is nice and safe. Doing the make up was so much fun, the kids were impressed so that was okay :).

Cat Girl

A mummy

Zombie

They had such a blast, it was very fun and they are still on some horrible sugar high. ughhhh Oh well :)
I am about to start a youtube channel with free motion tips and reviews on products. Pretty excited about it and will post a link as soon as I am up and running.
Jane

Light Box and Review of Brother NX400

Now I am pretty excited about a few things. Obviously my new sewing machine, which I love love love. Thought I would give a little review as when I tried to find some on the net there wasn't many.

So the sewing machine is a NX400, and first off, great price at $750, I went to a place called Echidna sewing supplies in Brisbane and they gave me a trade in on my old clunker, very handy not many sewing shops do that, and so I got it for $650. It was on special from $1000. So that is brilliant. 

Then there is the fact that it is so easy to use, just turn it on and the screen shows you what stitch you are on and you can just change the width with a press of a button. There is even a button with a question mark on it, press this  and that has a manual built into the machine :) shows you how to get around the machine. I can save my stitches and load up multiple stitches for embroidery, which I thought was cool since it isn't a specific embroidery machine. 

What I also like is that it is quiet :) nice. And it sews so smoothly. I know that in about 4 years time I will wish this was still true hehehe but right now it is smooth. So far, I am very happy with it. 

Now onto  another thing, my desk is glass and my latest idea needed some tracing onto fabric. I drew it onto butcher paper and I wanted to have it transfered onto the fabric. I usually stick the design on the window and stand for ages tracing it onto fabric that way. So then now that my desk has moved and there is more light ( don't ask me why I didn't think of this earlier)  I came up with a great idea, why don't I put my lamp under the desk and tape the image and the fabric to the desk and trace!! well of course it worked :) duh :)

So quick too and I could leave it there and come back, because of course as soon as I sit down someone needs something or fights :) I wonder if I stood up would they bother me??

The other thing that is cool is the garden, I know I have been swamping the blog with photo's but it is cool!!

Zucchini and pumpkin

My corn :)

Look it's growing corn!!! :)

All those capsicums

Zucchini's again

So anyway, I am doing a new wall quilt thingy, and I have decided to try sewing the outline first then paint after. See if it works. 

Jane

Back

Well i got back a while ago, but life is so busy I don't understand what is going on. I cannot tell you what I have done, other than the normal school routine but oh well, maybe it will slow down next week :)

We had a great trip in Japan, the blog was a great way to share it. Have a read if you haven't already. We did so much walking that it took a week for my legs to stop hurting and my right knee will never be the same :) I feel old!

A couple of things, one, just a little thing but cute, Sam and I were on our daily walk and we saw a tawny frog mouth baby just sitting on the footpath :) it was soooo cute and adorable, we did the right thing and didn't touch it and when we came back it was gone, so mum came and got him/her hopefully :). We need to take a camera, the amount of wildlife we see if incredible.

The other thing is, my vege garden is bringing in the goods :) not a bucket load but enough. I had a big bumper crop of broccoli coming and while I was away the bugs got at it and decimated it. Darn. So I have pulled them out and will plant some spring onions I think.

The tomatoes taste amazing and there are so many so thats great. And the zucchini tastes yum but are really small,  I am interested to know how the farmers get their zucchini's so big :) I think my potatoes are nearly ready too so that will be fun and I am hoping they taste yum :)

Beetroot... hmmm not sure about this, tried one, didn't taste good so I will cook the next batch and see if that improves the taste :).

On another note, didn't win anything at this years QLD quilters show. Oh well, still selling quilts on etsy so that is cool. OHHH nearly forgot my other news......

This is my new machine :) after a huge amount of research, I got this. It is a Brother NX400, at first I was going to go for a very expensive model, over $2000 and then the more I thought about it, the more I thought that it was too much for a machine. So I looked up all sorts of machines around the $1000 mark and came up with some great machines. Then I saw this one, and thought it had all I would need, found out that it was only $750!! and went and had a look. When I used it, I found out that it has all the bells and whistles that the $2000 machine had that I was thinking of buying, wow! so I got it. Brought it home today and have been so busy since I haven't sewn with it, so tomorrow is sewing day :)  The neck is wider than my old one so that is a bonus too.

Also, back on the losing weight track, lost a kilo in Japan walking everywhere and not eating any snacks :) so that was a good start for me, so I was shown My Fitness Pal by Sam on the iPad and I love it, tracks all your food and exercise and is a great program to use for losing weight, so so easy. I do not like counting but this is not like counting at all, you just put your food in and it works it all out. So that is making the healthy eating plan easier :) Made the kids choc chip biscuits today and had to eat two warm of course :) best thing to eat ever! so it will be interesting to see how much that will be :).

Now I am off to relax, so so tired, and see if there is anything to zone out to on tv. I am sure there isn't :)

Jane

A different Outlook

I have hit Japan, we are doing a travel blog, so I thought that I would just post the link here instead of doing this twice :)

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chameleon.saint/2/1349427408/tpod.html?view=preview