I'm Back........

Hi All,

Can't believe it's been well over a year sice I updated my blog.  A lot has happened.

• I turned 50 last year (shock, horror)
• We adopted 3 kittens - Slinky, George and Roxy.  Unfortunately, Roxy got sick with a fatal cat disease at the start of November last year and we had to have her put down - broke my heart. They're now about 14 months old and are total mischief makers and into everything. My lace curtains have been shredded!
• Neale and I celebrated our 30th Wedding Anniversary In May
• I resigned from my job to take up a position with another company.
• My elderly FIL got sick in the 2dn half of last year and after 6+ weeks in hospital and rehab, we had to make arrangements for him to enter a nursing home as it was determined he was unable to live alone.  Thankfully, he's only minures away from us and has settled in well and seems to be doing ok.
• Laura completed her 2nd year of her Secondary Teaching Degree (2 more years to go - however, she has chosen to defer for this year and is virtually working full time at a Leisure Centre in Morwell and is hoping to save up some money for next year.
• I bought a new car - A Mazda CX5, and sold to Laura my cute little Mazda 3. Laura finally got her driver's licence the day after she turned 21.
• I got made redundant from my job after 9 months.  Still a sore point - lots of tears and rude words have been shed and uttered,  and have subsequently been out of work for nearly 9 weeks. I know I wanted a holiday - had visions of Hawaii. Alas, it's not going to happen any time soon now.
• Our oldest son Thomas, has moved to Melbourne to live with his girlfriend.  He was accepted and has started studying at Deakin Uni for a Primary Teaching  Degree
• Have been applying for lots of jobs - and have been rejected quite a few already too! Trying to be hopeful, but being realistic in knowing that the area has extremely high unemployment.  I'm looking at admin jobs, accounts receivable work etc.

Have got a job interview for 2 1/2 months work (Accounts receivable work)  on Tuesday for a local company  - Recruitment Agency has just rung  Fingers and toes crossed.

Still doing lots of reading - updated my reading list for April.  Have been into Morwell this morning and picked up 2 magazines  - Vogue Patterns April/May 2017 and Sew Style Essentials Issue 1.  This is a British magazine that came with 3 Kwiksew patterns.  I buy several of the British mags each month at the moment, but will have to discontinue if I can't find work soon.

Sewing wise - Mending!  The last thing I repaired was Vee's (older son Thomas's girlfriend) denim jacket and is very sentimental to her. It used to be her Father's jacket and he brought it out of Chile escaping the  coup in 1973.  Next up, a coat to tighten up the buttons (I won't ell you how long Morgan has been waiting for that to be done and to repair a strap on Laura's dress - she got shoved by a jerk in a bar recently and the strap gave way.

Have had my trek to Spotlight yesterday and bought some Burda patterns that were on sale, woven interfacing, some pretty rayon to make a shirt and some wool blend to make a straight skirt.  I've got plenty of fabrics/patterns to keep me going  and will just need incidentals like zips, buttons, linings etc. I've also bought several of the Stylearc patterns recently and have a few in my shopping cart at the moment.  I like the fact that they cater to larger sizes  - so I'm hoping to have some success with them.

 Jen