hot bargain

Dear Carlisle Street is blessed (or should that be afflicted?) with some half dozen two-dollar shops. Why is there such a market for cheaply manufactured rubbish in Balaclava? And nothing there ever costs $2. I don’t understand.


Really, I would be quite happy if the two-dollar shops were rationalised down to just, well, two would be plenty. And one of them would definitely be Hot Bargain (corner of Carlisle Street and Woodstock Street, open everyday until about 6:30pm), because it is the one closest to us and because it is our (Tim’s) favourite (it’s his favourite because it’s the one closest to us). I have been known to part with a small gold coin or two there myself in the past – they have a stand with Birch elastic and Güterman sewing thread and basic sewing needles which can really come in handy.

And what could Carlisle Street do with in place of all the rationalised two-dollar shops? I would love to see a second-hand book store, a Medicare office, possibly even another bar with big comfy sofas where we could hold a Balaclava stitch’n’bitch session. There I could work on some knit graffiti (did you see the Good Weekend this Saturday past?). My neighbour has incited me to produce a balaclava (what else?) to adorn the streetscape somewhere. I agreed to do so if she would climb up on the railway bridge and affix it to one of the mermaids in the Lady of St Kilda mural.

Other changes that could be made to Carlisle Street? Oh, don’t even get me started on the Subway.

elna

I think that I may previously have mentioned that I have an overlocker - well here she is, my elna LOCK (they must have gotten a consultant to help them name the model, that's what I associate that out-of-place italicisation and capitalisation with). It's been a couple of months since I bought it, but only yesterday that I actually used it for the first time. Hooray! I'm so happy with it.

The Elna lock (we'll drop the consultant speak) was one of my early ebay purchases. I think that I was very lucky that I happened to be the only person in the market for one at that time who was in the right place to collect it because it only cost me $25.00 - bargain. I did also spend $82.50 to have it serviced but I have no idea how one fits together and was afraid of causing damage if something was out of alignment. Turns out that it was all in good working order. Ah well, the price of peace of mind.

What took me so long to get around to using it? Oh well, you know, finding the time, getting it down off the shelf, learning to thread it ... yes, I was a little afraid of it. In the end I got Tim to help me out (being a mechanically minded bloke and all) and it turned out that the problem with my previous threading efforts was that the needle was not properly engaged.

Yesterday and today I have been starting out with some small projects. Baby bear is a very good independent eater but she also loves to throw her food over the side of the high chair's tray table. At a friend's suggestion I made a pile of multi-purpose cloths out of an old towel that I can use to mop up her hands and face, then wipe the tray table and the floor. The old towel is one of two that I bought for my first trip to Europe when I was 20. That was in 1995 so the towel has lasted well (not sure where the other one is) and now has a new lease of life. I can think about baguettes in Paris and appelgebak in Amsterdam while I mop up baby bear's soggy weetbix.

top of the class

It is only four days ago that the Elizabeth Zimmerman tomten jacket in Noro graduated from the 'best intentions' list to the 'I'm busy with' list and already it is at the top of the class. I have completed the back and fronts (knit all in one piece) and have the hood and sleeves to go. What is it about the tedious sewing up on the baby ballerina top fronts (yes, they are both finished) that can inspire me to power through this much garter stitch? Generally speaking, I dislike garter stitch and was only prepared to give this garment a go because I liked the construction and was sure that the result would be awfully cute. Now I can't wait to make more.

This is the first time that I have used Noro yarns - the Kureyon is a lovely weight and the colours are wonderful. I am concerned though that this colourway is a bit too dark for a little girl. When the knitting is complete, I'll consider lining it in a fabric that picks out the bright pink or light purple to brighten it up a bit. I'm very happy with the colour spacing in the yarn and I love the way that garter stitch blends the tones even further by virtue of the stitch structure. Perhaps that's partly why it knits up so quickly - there's the intrigue of what colour variation will come next? what will the next row look like?

I have to admit that I was a bit resistant to the whole EZ thing at first. Yes, 'the whole EZ thing'. I'll try to explain that later.

A couple of instances of ubiquidipity before I go. Only Midge, an Australian designer handbags company, is using the ladybird fabric in their current rage - the same fabric that features in my most recent refashion. And, on Spicks and Specks this Wednesday evening past there was a question about the Pogues - what the band's name means in Gaelic. Ah, what an obscure item of musical ephemera. Well, not so ephemeral because the very next day it came up again in the novel I'm reading, The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks. I'm really enjoying it.

mccall's 2403

This is the pattern that I purchased a few weeks ago for an unlined child's coat which I will not be making from polar fleece. I intend (oh, one day) to make a woollen version from a recycled Romeo Gigli jacket and a summer version from this great 60s cotton sundress.

It's always great to find a vintage dress that is 100% cotton. I'm sure that synthetics seemed like a good idea at the time, but the number of great op shop items that I have passed up because they were made from Dacron or BriNylon ... sob. Unfortunately this dress doesn't fit me, and I don't like the zip down the front, but I wasn't prepared to part with some original vintage natural fibres. Oh, and another great retro tag.

It's also the dress that I used in the banner for the I op therefore I am blog.

big

Following on from previous posts about my best intentions and my thing about Scanlan&Theodore is yet another planned project. Let me explain.

Some time after leaving S&T, Fiona Scanlan started designing Children's clothes = Big by Fiona Scanlan. There's not really much to see on the website but I spent a bit of time perusing the collection in Myer a few weeks ago. There I was quite taken with a very simple blue and white check dress with a lovely crochet, hmm, not quite a collar because it sat only in the centre front, but also not a jabot because there was no ruffle. Oh, let's just call it an elaborate crochet motif applied to the front.

Instantly, I wanted to make this dress, mostly because I love to crochet and there is nothing that spurs a craftstress more than the 'oh, I could do that' response. Further, there is little chance that we will forego paying the electricity bill to purchase any Big by Fiona Scanlan for baby bear in the near future (although I do have a jacket stashed away for her in a size 4 courtesy of Sacred Heart Mission - $12.)

I had a quick leaf through some crochet books for similar motifs but then had a brainwave - re-use. I made some fabulous purchases at Prahran Mission Goodwill Shop a week or so a go (have a look!) and this piece of lace will make do very nicely as a collar decoration. The pattern will be a very simple one courtesy of Golden Hands . The fabric I think I will purchase - it caught my eye the other day when I had a quick browse at Cutting Edge Fabric.

It's another one to add to the best intentions list. It can take the place of the Elizabeth Zimmerman tomten jacket in Noro Kureyon, shade 148. I've cast on.

crime fiction

I love crime fiction.

It started in primary school with Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden from which was born my first career ambition - to be a private detective. I had a lot of the TB books but in high school I gave them away to Kirsty ... what was her last name? I wanted to be Honey Wheeler and considered that my hair was just about the right shade for it but although I have blue eyes, they are not quite violet like Honey's. The honey shade of Honey's hair and the violet of her eyes were mentioned in every book. As was the fact that Trixie's brother's car was a jalopy - that's where I learnt the word jalopy.

My next phase was Agatha Christie. I don't think that I have read them all but very near to. My crime fiction reading waned a bit after that, until my university days when I started reading Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta novels and remembered how much I loved it. Some of those early books scared me silly. I haven't been at all impressed with her novels after The Last Precinct when she changed her style altogether and not for the better.

I've read all of PD James' novels - these are great books, more like a novel in which a murder occurs and is solved than a murder mystery. Sue Grafton - from A is for Alibi all the way through to S is for Silence and T is for Trespass is coming at the end of this year - excellent. I started reading this series long after the first ones were written and it was great to read through it, one after the other, and watch Sue Grafton's writing develop. And I love Kinsey Millhone. Ian Rankin's Rebus novels - great reading. I've got the final Rebus, Exit Music, on reserve at the library; I'm eighth in line but hey, I can wait.

I'm currently reading my way through Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael series. These are harmless enough novels and there's always a comely maiden and a handsome youth who fall in love at first sight. I have just finished this, the fourth in the series - sixteen more to go.

my eyes are bigger

You would be forgiven for thinking that I have more ideas than I have time to execute. You would be right. I have, however haphazardly, been working on the odd thing.






















This little jumper is an op shop purchase that I have refashioned. I really liked the red and white stripes and the fact that it is 100% cotton but didn't like the bear and 'baby club' embroidery on the front. I have only shown the wrong side of said offending embroidery here - not to show you my neatly finished ends (hmph) but because I didn't take a photo beforehand. On the right is my refashion solution using a scrap of fabric kindly supplied by Di of Clementine's Shoes - do you recognise it here in her wonderful baby sling? Thanks Di!

It was a very simple refashion which, of course, was not simply achieved. I cut the piece of fabric to size (simple) and stuck it down with spray fabric adhesive (also simple). I then sewed the patch down with sewing thread (reasonably simple but the fabric frayed a tad in parts). Then after a very enjoyable trip to The Button Shop to choose just the right shade of embroidery floss (Anchor 44) I went to buttonhole stitch around the border. Not so simple because it just didn't look right so I did very small back stitch all around the edge and then the buttonhole stitch. Laborious but satisfying.

Oh, and the ladybird. Not to forget the lovely ladybird - gorgeous.

I have previously written about some materials, all recycled from the op shop, that I have collected to make a bag from. Gradually, I have been making progress on this too. The bag itself will be made from a felted dark green wool jumper. Inspired by a friend's lovely Gorman bag, I am going to do a tree appliqué/embroidery. The trunk is cut from a lambswool Esprit jumper that I bought some time ago from Josies - before cutting I stabilised it with iron-on interfacing on the wrong side.

The leaves are cut from a cotton jumper utilising the fashioning at the shoulder seams to represent the veins in the leaves, also stabilised with iron-on interfacing. Seams on cotton jumpers can be quite bulky so how did I get the leaves to be so flat? Well ... I actually undid the shoulder seams and ironed the knit fabric flat. Then I sewed the seam again on the machine using very small stitches and trimmed off the fabric beyond the seam. Then back under the iron. Very laborious, but also very satisfying.

golden hands

This wonderful book came in the mail today - it's so exciting to come home from work to a package peeking out from underneath the doormat. The Golden Hands Book of 60 Things to Sew for Children. When I first saw this book a couple of weeks ago it was an incredible nostalgia trip for me - upon opening it I realised that I already knew this book from when I was a child. True déjà vu.



I recognised the models and remembered which ones I liked best and who as a child I wanted to be friends with (the blonde girl in the grey culotte dress). The book was published in 1973 (isbn 0 600 07164 2), has a banana yellow and chocolate brown colour scheme and includes a number, well, 60 classic 70s patterns. Oh, and the terminology - 'adorable sleeveless beach robe' (in pastel striped terry towelling), 'crisp trouser suit', 'gaily trimmed pinafore'. These are patterns that call for ric-rac and a large stash of shirring elastic.


I intend to use some of these patterns to make the items that I have in mind for baby bear from my op shop purchases. The measurements are all in inches which should be fun to work with.

wip update

Actually, finally - a finished product. Five finished products in fact but the other bibs are either in the wash or have been given away already. There's one that I embroidered for a friend's little girl's birthday over at Wardrobe Refashion.

I have now used up almost all of the leftover cotton yarn that I used to knit the baby bobble jacket. That's a lot of mileage out of a jumper that I bought for only a few dollars at the op shop. The button is a lovely wooden one that I bought at, of all places, Dimmeys. I was walking past the Bridge Road, Richmond store one day and realised that I needed some sewing thread and that I might just find some there. Now, I have to hold my breath and steel myself to enter Dimmeys - the general ambiance of chaos in there is enough to give me a panic attack. But upstairs at the Bridge Road store they have a good haberdashery section with really good wooden buttons.

I'd like to make a few more of these bibs - I have some similar weight cherry red cotton unravelled and recycled from another jumper that I may use for the purpose. I think that I will shape the straps on future bibs though so that they curve slightly in towards each other.

In other recycled knitting news, I am progressing on the baby ballerina top - one front side and collar complete, the other almost there. I still haven't made my trip to the digital scales at Coles though - maybe tomorrow. And I dropped by Josies today - as I often do - and found a cotton/linen mix knit in a dark brown, sleeveless, probably just about enough yarn to knit Molly from Debbie Bliss' Junior Knits.

scanlan&theodore

I have a thing about Scanlan&Theodore. I remember when (oh, here I go again) the company opened their first shop on Chapel Street, South Yarra. I think that I was about 14 ... so 1998? Heavens, almost 20 years ago. I remember the large square label with a wreath on it that was their original tag and am sad that I don't own anything from that early on.














I just loved Scanlan&Theodore, I was totally besotted with their design aesthetic and longed to be part of it. Every season I searched for something that I could afford; I certainly didn't buy as much as I tried on but a few things here and there - a long ago favourite pair of straight black trousers, a black stretchy knit dress that I still have, another black dress, a dark blue pinstripe shirt, some t-shirts, a scoop neck black top, a red woollen jumper.

My thing is mostly a nostalgic one - I hardly shopped there when we were living in Sydney and when we returned to Melbourne I found that their prices had taken a market shift, upwards. Recent purchases are a pair of cream linen trousers and this print cotton skirt - Sacred Heart Mission $7 and Hunter Gatherer $34 respectively.

out-of-office memo

bollewangenhaptoet is on holiday in Sydney this week (and I left the camera at home - of all things). We will return to normal programming in a few days' time.

josies is my local

My local op shop that is. Situated here in Balaclava, around the corner at 255 Carlisle Street, I believe that Josies (tel. 9527 2929; M-F 9:00-4:00) is Melbourne's only Jewish op shop. Just last week they had a wooden musical box with a picture of Jerusalem's Wailing Wall on it. Not sure what the tune was though.

Josies is a small op shop - clothing, some toys, books, shoes, some homewares, some linen, some bric-a-brac, no furniture. I can't honestly say that their stock is great but I do mostly find something whenever I go in. (How often is that? hmmm, weekly.) Some good buys have been: a copy of Hanging Out with Cici by Francine Pascal* which I read as a child and am storing for baby bear; a fine knit cabled men's woollen jumper for Tim from Saba; a black wool Valentino skirt made in France and of excellent quality with a tiny waist that will be refashioned; and best of all, the boob trumpet, ah, that is, the breast pump. This device has been a life saver and cost me only $8 (they retail for around $90) - it does actually count as a best find ever. Kudos to my neighbour who spotted it in the window and alerted me.

So Josies is certainly worth a look - all that they are missing is an apostrophe.

* Yikes, I just learned that Francine Pascal was the author of all those Sweet Valley High books, which I didn't read. Cici will never be the same.

This entry is cross-posted at I op therefore I am, the op shopping blog for Melbourne - please visit!

black velvet

"Black velvet with that slow southern style/ A new religion that'll bring ya to your knees/ Black velvet if you please"






















Heavens, what is it about some (awful) songs that just stays with you for ever? Alannah Myles, 1989, apparently about Elvis. Anyway, moving back along to a decade earlier and again showing the influence of growing up in the 1970s - I love printed velvet.

The fabric above is from skirts that I have bought at the op shop with the intention of adjusting them to fit me. The skirt on the left consists of four tiers - I have removed the top tier which was plain black velvet because the waist was way too small. I already have a new tier cut out from some black cotton velveteen, the skirt just needs to be sewn back together. Somehow this seems like such a huge job though - I need to break it down into very small activity chunks. I don't plan to put in a zip but to crochet a strip of braid with button loops from black cotton and sew that along the side opening, then on the other side some maroon, vaguely heart-shaped buttons. Again, this is a ploy to avoid facing up to buttonholes or zips. I love the floral tier and the cross-stitch effect frieze on the bottom tier.

The skirt on the right is just the one piece of fabric, about a third longer than shown here. Originally the skirt was quite full and unattractively gathered at the waist (which didn't fit me anyway). So, off with the waist band and perhaps some darts will do the trick on this one.

On both of them I just intend to face the waist with a length of black grosgrain ribbon instead of a brand new waist band. The only thing about removing the waistband is that you often also remove the label which is one of the fun things about second-hand shopping (well, at least for me). When you second-hand shop a lot (and I do) you come across now defunct fashion labels time and again. And I love the design of them, and the daggy names, and the concept of leisurewear. This is the tag from the skirt on the left. When I finally get around to sewing it up I'm going to sew the tag back in, for old times' sake.

un-ravelry

I love the texture of crochet - it's heavier and denser than knitting. This is the finished bib over on the right, well, almost finished. I haven't manged to deal with the ends yet because I'm already a few rows into the next one. Crochet (particularly of small items) is very portable and I was able to do it standing in the train this morning. (I even did manage to catch the 7:40am - heavens.) Although difficult to discern there is a buttonhole there at the end of one of the straps and I will be sewing on a wooden button which I think will match nicely with the natural look of the cotton.

As mentioned before, the cotton is recycled from a jumper. Unravelling a commercially made garment is a fascinating process, it's very interesting to see how it has been constructed and where all of the ends are hidden and there is a destructive relish involved similar to that involved in pruning roses - it's all for a greater good. I have previously recommended Neauveau Fiber Arts' tutorial on unravelling a jumper but I do have a quick something to add on the topic of good seams.

A good seam has two sides, one that resembles running stitch and one that looks like a row of Vs - actually, it's a row of interlocking loops. To most efficiently undo the seam you want to orient the garment as shown in the photo, best begin with the V closest to the end of the seam, be it a hem or the juncture with another seam. Cut through both legs of the V with some fine sharp scissors or a quick-unpick but don't pull at the threads yet; instead, lift the stitch below up a bit such that it becomes free of the V that you have just cut, at the same time taking care not to let any of the cut threads pull through to the back of the fabric. Once the cut legs of the V are free of the stitch below, you should be able to pull at them and the seam will unravel all the way to the end (or to wherever it snags, but you get the picture, yes?).

Purchasing clothing at the op shop with an eye to recycling them, either for yarn or fabric, has become a new way of shopping. I now look for colour and texture and print, I look through the plus-sizes rack because really, if you're going to spend $4 on a jumper to recycle you may as well get as much yarn as you can! This pretty blue and white floral fabric is previously featured amongst my best intentions and is a Blazer men's shirt, 100% cotton. The size is XL so there is heaps of fabric there to make a summer dress and perhaps something else for baby bear. I'm thinking a pintucked sundress that utilises the existing button placket as the fastening in the back as this is a lazy way to get professional button holes (and to avoid learning to do them myself). Or maybe another smock - the pattern arrived in the post from the US a couple of days ago - love ebay!

I realise that all of my intended refashioning projects so far have been for children's clothes - yes, there is some lovely printed 1970s velvet in there that is destined for me. I'll post about that next.

locally - lulu

One sunny day, a couple of months ago, we bid at auction on an apartment in East St Kilda. Thank goodness it went for way more than we were prepared to pay and I could afford to buy a pair of Sissy Boy jeans at lulu on the way home instead (322a Carlisle Street, Balaclava; tel. 9525 8844; T-F 10:30-6:00, S 10:30-5:00, S-M 11:00-5:00). It's a great store for homewares, baby goods, accessories and more recently (umm, last couple of years?) clothing. Their stock includes Third Draw Down, Mozi, Blink Designs and iittala, and on the fashion front Penelope Durston, Indigo and Sissy Boy amongst others. A word to the wary - do not google Sissy Boy, just click on the link, unless you are looking for a men's XL sailor suit. This is a Dutch jeanswear label and I put the strange choice of name down to an unfortunate case of lost in translation (otherwise - what were they thinking?)

The baby ballerina top is coming along slowly - I've made it to the collar increases on the right front and dug out a circular 3.25mm needle so that I could work more easily on it while sitting on the train (saves elbowing fellow passengers with every stitch). Problem is that I have so far not managed to sit down on the train. Tomorrow we are going to try out a new arrangement - I'm going in to work early and Tim will take baby bear to childcare so I'll see how I fare on the 7:40am. Hmm, maybe the 7:50am. Do you think that the 8:00am would be crowded?

I have also been distracted by a lovely garter stitch bib that was worn recently by Baby C and knitted by his lovely mother over at Clementine's Shoes. Garter stitch drives me up the wall so I crocheted one instead, using left over baby bobble jacket recycled cotton and half-trebles. Crochet is great - so quick. Just the ends to deal with and we'll be ready for more adventures in independent spooning (baby bear's newest trick).

lieveheersbeestje

Today baby bear turned one. Happy birthday sweetiepie - hip hip hooray!

Ladybirds are one of my favourite things and I love the word in Dutch:

lieve = dear
heers = God's
beestje = little creature

lieveheersbeestje = dear God's little creature

What better leitmotif for a dear little girl's life? (Umm, yes, that is a container of Betty Crocker's ready-made icing in the background which I guess just makes me a ready-made domestic goddess.)

mccall's 3470

The universe and I would appear to be in harmony today - that is, I got my own way. After being disappointed that the only square neck smock patterns available on ebay were in sizes 3 and 5 when I really wanted a size 2, I did a search by the pattern title and found it as part of a lot of vintage patterns - in size 2! It's all paid for and could well be winging it's way to me from Missouri at this very moment - hooray. This will of course become the strawberry fields smock.

It is risky though to discover new things that you can search for and find on ebay. Sewing patterns, vintage sewing patterns - it hadn't occurred to me before. I bought another one too - McCall's 2403 which is an unlined child's coat. I will certainly not be making it in polar fleece which I am allergic to (albeit aesthetically allergic). This is the pattern that I plan to use to make a child's coat from the Romeo Gigli fabric that I bought a couple of weeks ago. The pattern and postage (from the US) is only US$5.98 which comes to less than the $10.95 (I think) that it would have cost me here. I'm delighted to have found these two great patterns that I wanted.

In other harmonious knitting news, I have completed the back and both fronts of the baby ballerina top, although I still haven't made it to Coles to weigh how much yarn I have left. I have started on the neck band and collar - perhaps I will finish this and then weigh the yarn in an effort to determine whether long sleeves would really be pushing the cosmic relationship.

strawberry fields

I'm not sure that there are actually any strawberries on this fabric, but that is what it makes me think of. I wonder where the it came from originally? I bought it at the Salvation Army op shop in Elsternwick in the form of a home-made wrap skirt. I'd be tempted to keep the skirt intact and wear it myself except it's not my size and doesn't wrap quite enough to protect my modesty. So, I'm thinking about cutting it up to make a smock for baby bear.

No-one else seems to be thinking about smocks though – I’ve had a look through a few pattern books and on websites and can’t find anything suitable. There are a few vintage patterns available on ebay, most of them from the 1970s - oh dear, can you tell which decade I grew up in? The issue is about choosing a square yoke or a rounded yoke. I had envisioned a square yoke but the older patterns appear to come in single sizes and the square-yoked smock pattern is larger than I had in mind. I have size 2 in mind.

reticella

For a couple of years there I was a member of the New South Wales branch of the Australian Lace Guild. Yes, there is such a thing! My interest in lace was sparked by my discovery of Irish crochet lace and quickly grew from there.

The fabric on the left is embroidered so as to remind me of reticella, an Italian needle-made lace dating from the 15th century. Reticella has "a characteristic geometric design of squares and circles with various arched or scalloped borders" (thank you Wikipedia). I have lots of books about lace including designs for reticella just like this - the white on black makes for a striking graphic in itself.

The fabric itself is a miniskirt from Fragile, a maternity and baby store for the, um, very well heeled. Yes, a maternity miniskirt (?!). I picked it up at Camberwell market a couple of weeks ago, not because I have any use for it myself, but because the fabric caught my eye. I'm thinking of a skirt for a slightly older baby bear, box pleated with the waist elasticised at the back.

best intentions

So what is it about motherhood that sparks your creativity? I suppose that children's garments are a smaller project than one for an adult so less intimidating. There is perhaps a bit more leeway with fit and not so much demand for tailoring. Also, if you're the sort of person who likes to express their love by making and giving then there is no more deserving recipient than your own little darling. And it is lovely and rewarding to see your baby clothed in something that you have made for her.

I have always wanted to have a practice, as in the sense of an artistic practice although I don't mean that I want to be an artist. Certainly I have tried my hand at a few things - drawing, painting, printmaking - and have all of the materials to attest to it! I mean a practice in the sense of an occupation, a creative practice at the least, perhaps even a textile practice. And I feel like I am developing that now. Maternity leave was enough of a break from work, a free space in the business part of my brain that I could really get thinking about making.

Then there's also the urge to make and get something done, to complete something, to actually get something finished in the face of the relentless domestic churn that child raising involves. Sometimes motherhood feels like a chronic condition.

I mentioned a week or so ago that I had been doing quite some opshopping, much of it with projects in mind, be it a complete remake or just some alterations. And I also thought it time to expand and get honest about the 'planning stage' section over there in the sidebar. There are some who blog about their piles but this always makes me think of something for which you might need a cream. So above I present you with an array of (semi-)recent purchases, all of which I have plans for. My first plan is to declare them all over the next week or so, in the belief that this will compel me to take action.