After a reasonable hiatus, I’m attempting to get back to my twice weekly schedule.
Here, a quick summary of where I’ve been.
Also, my craft space. It is to be downsized.

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones and Champagne and Socks Craft Circle Group
Instagram: girliejonesadventures
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com
Facebook: Quilt Block N’ Swap

Keep an eye out on my Instagram for pics of the items I’m discussing.

Yarns mentioned:

Jorstad Creek – Tweed DK, Turquoise
Blue Moon Fiber Arts
Space Cadet Creations – Mini Skein Club – I’ve been documenting the skeins per month on my Pinterest board

Listen to the latest episode here

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
Facebook: Quilt Block N Swap
Instagram: girliejonesadventures
www.champagneandsocks.com

I had a pregnancy related complication – nothing so rare that they didn’t know how to pick it up or what to do with it, and there are very safe treatments and tests. And I’m okay now (on maintenance and being monitored and managed) and the baby is fine. But it was quite the experience to live through. It turns out, it’s not very reassuring to have your GP call you after hours, send you to the ED and call ahead so that when you arrive, they triage you straight through and you already have 2 nurses setting up an ECG for you in the bed you are about to live in. I feel like you can judge how serious things are by how nice to the nurses are to you and they were all super nice to me the whole time I was there.

But bottom line is that what I had was life threatening and shit got really really real. You know when life suddenly tunnel visions and everything else is just a blur and you suddenly know exactly what is important in life, and to you, and therefore that everything else just isn’t? Yeah that. I was in that space for I guess about 48 hours and I learned a lot of things about myself. And about life. And even though, by the time I went home I was fine and everything was okay and had the best possible outcome, it was really hard to get my brain to change out of that gear and go back to Life. And you know, all the stupid little decisions like what carpark to choose and which milk to buy.

I also experienced some anxiety issues whilst in hospital. I discovered THE WORST place to be in a hospital is in the overnight observations ward called Medical Assessment. Especially if you’re a germophobe. Also, they don’t cope well with pregnant women who aren’t there for hyperemesis gravidarum aka they forgot to feed me for very long stretches of time. The lovely nurses did smuggle me out all kinds of tiny packets of biscuits and cakes. And once, whilst waiting for a nuclear dye scan, I got a airplane snack pack-like meal.

So, by the time I got home, my brain had been beaten about a fair bit. It felt like it had glitched into a hung screen or like it was buffering before it could stream again or something. It felt broken. I lost the ability to read fiction, to edit or proof, to slush read!, and even to sew or knit. And I couldn’t handle much TV above a cooking show. Normally my response would be to dive into a Gilmore Girls rewatch but I couldn’t face the speed of their dialogue and also the whole drama of that overarching plot.

Oddly though, I suddenly had great capacity for paperwork and book keeping. So weird. I think possibly because that kind of work doesn’t require any creativity and I suddenly had this new focus of being able to be ruthless and decisive about things. I was able to tackle two overladen and spilling all over the place in trays and just steadily work through it all piece by piece. I actually found myself using the GTD process of collecting, collating and processing the way it’s supposed to be applied. I still don’t know how someone who is starting from scratch can seriously get their whole life into GTD  in just 3 days. I’ve been at it for 3 or 4 weeks now and I’m only just almost on top of it. But I’ve been suddenly able to pick up a piece of paper, ask myself what it is, decide if I can just bin it, actually delegate it if not, or do it if it would take less than 2 mins. And my onset of ruthless decisiveness has helped me just make calls on things. Like, say, if I no longer have the ability to answer a question (like, I didn’t record crucial information so couldn’t move it forward without knowing that), then I’m not suddenly going to have this information if I leave it in my in tray (leaving it there for 2 years hasn’t helped) and it’s likely to not even be relevant anymore. So I did this thing where I just filed it and moved on with my life. OMG. So liberating. And in so doing, I’ve managed to almost completely sort out all my paperwork, finances and royalty reports. Jobs that I would rather poke myself in the eye with a fork than do instead of anything else that is creative, normally.

And in being ruthless and decisive, I’ve managed to learn how to delegate. So much so that I want to get even better at delegating. Sometimes, it’s just admitting to yourself that you’re procrastinating on actioning something because you have feelings related to that – an email you have to write or a question or favour you have to ask. I’m really lucky to have an awesome and enthusiastic team of peeps at TPP – I wouldn’t have been able to get through a lot of what’s been going on this year if I hadn’t been able to rely on them for help getting things done. And it turns out, it’s not a negative to admit the ships too big to be run by just one person these days. When you suddenly take ill, it’s actually really useful to not be the only person with access to the email accounts and other admin things as well as not being the only person who knows what’s going on. Up til now it’s been both scary to let other people see the warts and all and also, I’ve not wanted to ask people to do boring jobs. And all that does is slow you down and sabotage the potential. As you can see, I’ve really jumped on board with this delegation thing – because it also turns out, it’s easier to write someone else’s scary email for them when you don’t have the feels. I knew this, having been other people’s admin person before. I guess I just felt bad asking other people to do things for me that I was personally capable of doing (if I actually had 48 hours in every day).

So suddenly things are moving forward at TPP in several directions at once. It would normally feel scary but doesn’t because I completely trust the team. And this being immersed in the whole paperwork thing enabled me to do some things like set in place spreadsheets for calculating complex problems for ongoing bookwork upkeep rather than reinventing the wheel each time. Something I might have been doing until now, ahem.

I am now just slowly feeling like my brain is unlocking from its screen freeze. I’ve managed to get back to some editing. I’m almost completely on top of all intrays and inboxes. I’ve not yet got back to crafting or reading yet but I think in the next couple of weeks that will happen. I’m very keen to maintain some GTD processes though. In preparing for a newborn’s arrival in about 4 months, I’d like to have as much as I can be on just ticking on over processes. I definitely learned with my first one that writing things down and preparing as much as you can when you have the time available in order to be able to pick up and action a small thing later in a small window of opportunity, you can kinda stay on top of things.  If you can not sweat the small stuff!

The Nobel Prize winners over time in a dynamic graphic

The Vanity Presses – ABC Podcast

NASA releases over 10 000 photos from the moon landing.

The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace

The oceans are getting too hot for coral and sooner than we expected

Tansy’s Friday Links

Why do we hate the things teen girls love – “Mocking teenage girls and portraying their interest as worthless can further reinforce ideas that things created for women and by women are unimportant.”

Delays as death-penalty states scramble for execution drugs

How will history remember the hipster

The big (and small) ideas changing the publishing industry

Mad Men, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Golden Age of Television

Fictionmachine reviews Legally Blonde

What women critics know that men don’t - the gendered politics of critique

Elizabeth Gilbert has a podcast about creativity and noone told me!

As book purchasing behaviour changes, so must publishers’ sales metrics

Gender discrimination in SFF Awards – Lady Business

Nicola Griffith on the Lady Business data (post above): Science Fiction prize data from 1953 to the present

Industry response to the closure of Oyster

7 strategies and 94 tools to help indie authors find readers and reviewers

Protocols for producing Indigenous Australian Writing

Author Cornelia Funke launches own publishing company

Diversity quotas are meritocracy in action -“For centuries, there was a quota for the representation of men in politics. It was 100 per cent.” … “the fact is that if you truly believe in meritocracy, you must also believe in diversity – any other position is prejudice of the most insidious sort.”

Diversity panels I’d like to see

Hard to be a god – Ken Macleod on the politics of SF

Why do so many incompetent men become leaders? - “In my view, the main reason for the uneven management sex ratio is our inability to discern between confidence and competence.”

4 rituals that will make you happy

This is what it would look like to sit on the surface of Pluto

What’s behind the good news declines in US CO2 emissions?

How to market your book after the new release buzz dies down

To stop procrastinating, start by understanding what’s really going on

Criticism of representation in YA is essential

On gender in literature

Literary luminaries: gender and the avant-garde novelist

There’s scientific consensus on guns – and the NRA won’t like it

Virtual Design board – My Virtual Quilt

Space Cadet Creations Mini Skeins Club

Check out my Instagram for photos of the jumper project!

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
Facebook: Quilt Block N Swap
Instagram: girliejonesadventures
www.champagneandsocks.com

(and singing from the toddler in the background)

More talk of the Farmer’s Wife.
And Quilt As You Go

Check out my Instagram for photos of this unfolding project!

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
Facebook: Quilt Block N Swap
Instagram: girliejonesadventures
www.champagneandsocks.com

Mentioned in this episode:

Quilting Lessons: Notes from the Scrap Bag of a Writer and Quilter by Janet Catherine Berlo

Brenda Dayne:  Cast On

Sock Clubs:
Rocking Sock Club by Blue Moon Fiber Arts
Cookie A Sock Club

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
Facebook: Quilt Block N Swap
Instagram: girliejonesadventures
www.champagneandsocks.com

I’m back after illness and a serious case of podcast block.

Some things I mentioned this episode:

Dear Jane Quilt – and my Dear Jane Pinterest board

Farmer’s Wife Quilt

My Mug Rug Pinterest board

Closed Facebook group – Quilt Block N Swap

My Instagram: girliejonesadventures

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones and Champagne and Socks Craft Circle Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com
Facebook: Quilt Block N’ Swap

I always feel terrible when I sit down to write my Culture Consumed for Galactic Suburbia because I inevitably find out that most of what I’ve been consuming is non-genre and I have nothing to say. Yet, I’m consuming culture like it’s going out of fashion!

Australia got Netflix in March. And the first thing I did was gobble down the final season of How I Met Your Mother in case the whole Netflix thing was a joke and they were going to whisk it away from me. Then I sat through the entire series of Lost, so I could see if I hated the ending. And since then, I’ve been dipping my toe in and out of various genre pools. I figured now and again, I’d write some quick summaries.

Highly recommended: Grace and Frankie. (Netflix Original)
First up, I shouldn’t need to say anything other than Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. I’m so there and you should be too. But then bonus for Martin Sheen and Sam Waterstone. Sol (Waterstone) and Robert (Sheen) take their wives, Frankie (Tomlin) and Grace (Fonda) out for dinner to finally tell them they are gay and have been lovers for 20 years and now, since they can, they want to get married (and thus divorced). It’s, I guess, a sitcom, or a dramedy maybe? It’s funny. It’s brilliantly acted. It’s refreshing. It’s not often that older women are allowed their own show, and to be older on it. It enables all kinds of usually taboo topics to be addressed – sex post menopause, sex post marriage, issues relating to long term marriages. Plus Sheen and Waterstone offer another version of gay men to the small screen, one that is also not the norm – older men in a long term committed relationship. The two couples’ children are also interesting and funny. I’m so sad that there is currently only one season (Season 2 is scheduled for 2016) because I’ve already watched it all and I want more.

This weekend, I mainlined some Docos:

The Queen of Versailles
Real Housewives meets the GFC. This starts out as a doco following David and Jackie Siegel (owners of Westgate resorts) who are building the biggest house in the USA – it has 30 bathrooms, which apparently she needs (is it wrong that I was wondering what kind of cleaning schedule that would need, you could use one bathroom a day for a month?). It was modelled on … you guess it! Versailles. And at the height of the book, Siegel is totally really wealthy and can “afford” this ridiculous property. You get a brief intro to the family in a very Real Housewives style and then the GFC hits and it all goes to hell. Honestly, this was like watching a train wreck – the doco loses momentum and point, it is almost never about the house they are building and more about how people who have more money than they can fathom don’t know what to do when the money – or line of credit- is no longer there. Despite having an engineering degree, Jackie seems completely incapable of understanding that they have no money left. I kept watching to see if they ever managed to dig themselves out of the hole – they didn’t at the time of the end of the film – or manage to keep the house (couldn’t tell since it finishes with them in some kind of over the top house). The only point of real interest in the whole hour and a half was half a conversation they caught on camera between David and some friends where he talks about how he managed to remortgage his 11.3 million dollar loan by acting as a third party for refinancing and got it back for 3 million dollars loan. “It makes you wonder who’s making these decisions” he tells his friend. It made it clear to me a lot of the problems of US banking at the time.
Verdict: I watched this so you don’t have to.

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead
I remember when Joe Cross was doing promo for this doco in Australia and guesting all over the place with his juice only diet. I thought it was all a bit extreme at the time but was still interested in seeing how this doco played out. Cross is pretty fat, and sick with an autoimmune disease that has skin complications. He’s on a lot of drugs for his illness. And he doesn’t want to be anymore so he decides to do a detox and then only eat fruit and veggies for 60 days. He juices them so as to be able to physically consume the quantity needed for both I’m guessing caloric intake as well as recommended daily intake of micronutrients (which is a word used a lot in this film). He goes to the US to do his diet cause flaunting US food in your face when you’re trying to quit eating is the funnest. Whilst there, he finds a fellow sufferer of his illness, in a similar, if not more dire, state and he joins him on this journey.

Elements of this film are uncomfortable to watch as he travels across America scolding people for not eating enough vegetables, basically. And blaming them for being fat. I found that aspect quite unnecessary – noone is going to change the way they are just because you find them/yourself disgusting.

But Cross does drop a lot of weight, and quite quickly. As does his fellow journeyman. They inspire others to juice. And they claim to have more energy and zest for life. It was thought provoking enough that it got me thinking that I might pull out my juicer this week just to actually add some more micronutrients to my diet – but that’s all.
Verdict: Enjoyable if you like watching obese people drop weight (that’s totally a genre)

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
I’ve been meaning to watch this ever since Rivers passed away. Yesterday, I finally felt ready to and as I watched her, I realised how much I still really miss her. I don’t necessarily get all of her sense of humour but I love her for her ballsy take on of the comedy genre and paving the way for female comics. She said a lot of things that were taboo for women to discuss. And she was somethin, that’s for sure. This doco follows a year in her life and you see how hard she worked and how hard she worked at being able to keep working. Rivers is a great contrast to the Real Housewives style of fame in that her work ethic is outstanding and watching her, you understand how she built herself into a business. I’m fascinated by the reality TV stars in that really stupid people can get really rich by marrying the right people and getting good divorce lawyers (but they don’t always manage to stay rich). By contrast, I love finding celebrities who are rich and successful for who they are – and interestingly, a few of them I have found through Celebrity Apprentice, Rivers being one of them.
Verdict: If you love Rivers, this is a must view.

The crowdfunding project I refer to is – Defying Doomsday.

What did I say I would pack?

– fingerless gloves project

– hot air balloon quilt project

– Twelfth Planet Press scarf

– Rainbow bear blanket

Deadlines tea cosy (for The Blackmail Blend prelaunch):

Bit wonky but logo on tea cosy

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 27, 2015 at 8:45am PDT

Current WIPs in focus

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 10, 2015 at 11:50pm PDT

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones and Champagne and Socks Craft Circle Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com

Quilt and Craft Fair

Wonderfil thread

My loot incl two pieces from my friend since she knows I’ve been collecting coffee theme fabric for the last decade. The almost steampunk hot air balloons are for a wall piece for the baby. Couldn’t resist the Japanese pieces and must look at whether I now have enough for some Japanese inspired works. You can’t see great but the black on the end almost looks like stars and planets and I saw it in a beautiful quilt on display. Pretty quilt threads to make hand quilting more fun/exciting

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 20, 2015 at 2:32am PDT

Head to my Instagram for the pics of the quilts I loved

Here is the hexagon one:

Quilt and Craft Fair 2015

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 21, 2015 at 3:56am PDT

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones and Champagne and Socks Craft Circle Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com

Biggan Design

White for blanket borders. And Deadlines logo colours for a tea cosy?

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 19, 2015 at 2:53am PDT

Space Cadet  

Mini skein club from Space Cadet

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 19, 2015 at 2:56am PDT

One of a kinds from Space Cadet

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 19, 2015 at 2:55am PDT

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones and Champagne and Socks Craft Circle Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com

Current WIPs in focus

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 10, 2015 at 11:50pm PDT

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones and Champagne and Socks Craft Circle Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com

Tulip bulb experiment

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 10, 2015 at 11:56pm PDT

Time lapse – top photo taken about 2 hours before the second

2-3 hours difference in photos

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 10, 2015 at 11:55pm PDT

Update of the Starfish bulb

Bulb experiment

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 10, 2015 at 11:51pm PDT

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones and Champagne and Socks Craft Circle Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com

Biggan Design

Bear’s Rainbow Blanket

Current status. Running out of white

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 5, 2015 at 8:44pm PDT

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones and Champagne and Socks Craft Circle Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com

Episode 119: 29 April 2015

In which there are fast cars, ancillary swords, Vote! Helsinki! t-shirts, feminist serial killer narratives and answer the all important question: was watching all of Lost worth it, Alisa?

Defying Doomsday funded!

Tiptree Award Philip K Dick:

Alex’s plan for Hugo reading.

Upcoming episode: being ok with being feminist. Request for links! Send us vids, articles, book titles etc. to recommend to teens.

Vote for Helsinki for Worldcon 2017!

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Tansy: Avengers: Age of Ultron, DC: Convergence, The Fall (Netflix Original)

Alisa: Reign, Lost

Alex: Ancillary Justice and Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie; Incandescence, Greg Egan; Book of Strange New Things, Michael Faber; Fast&Furious 7; Avengers: Age of Ultron

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook, support us at Patreon and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

New bamboo for wisteria

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 3, 2015 at 8:19pm PDT

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 3, 2015 at 8:19pm PDT

Already nearly at the top

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 3, 2015 at 8:20pm PDT

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones Group: Champagne and Socks Craft Circle
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com

Bear’s Rainbow blanket from Purl Soho

A couple of the first squares to get sewn up

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on Apr 28, 2015 at 10:15pm PDT

Piles of the other squares sorted by colour

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on Apr 28, 2015 at 10:14pm PDT

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on Apr 28, 2015 at 10:14pm PDT

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on Apr 28, 2015 at 10:13pm PDT

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on Apr 28, 2015 at 10:13pm PDT

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones and Champagne and Socks Craft Circle Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com