I finish something, and a weather report

 

I finished something! I need to start using my sewing machine on a regular basis, as I need the practice to improve my skills. This pattern is called 'Little Wallet' by Valori Wells Designs (I bought it from Ballarat Patchwork) and it turned out well-even for a novice like me. I used fabric from my stash and even used some vintage snaps I picked up somewhere. The pictures aren't the best, but winter really isn't the best for taking photos, and I invariably decide to take pictures when it's dark! I have other small patterns stashed away, as well as ones earmarked on the Internet, and I plan to start trying them out on a regular basis.

Today was strange weather, with the temperature up here getting to over 20C, before thunderstorms, rain and hail moved in. I managed to get into the garden before the weather changed (and the temperature dropped 10C).

A 'helper' in the garden

The change moving in

I have other WIPs on the go, but I'll update those another day when I can get better photos-and maybe have another finish to report. I'm enjoying watching the Tour de France, although I usually watch a lot of it the next day when I watch my recording. We've had a fairly quiet school holidays-only a few days to go, and Caitlin and I are planning to head to the city tomorrow. 

What a month!

It's been a busy time since my last post.  Everything we are involved in seemed to happen in late August/September.  I completed my 1/2 marathon-not in a fast time, but my main goal was to finish it, which I did!  We also had Tournament of Minds for Caitlin, Ron had training for work in Sydney, the 24 hour Pedal  Prix race in Murray Bridge (including all the co-ordination/preparation for this), and then last Friday we had the school's biennial Long Walk which replicates the walk pioneer women did each week to sell goods at market.  I also had an assignment to hand up somewhere along the line.  Last weekend we had our first free weekend for a long time, and were able to get into the jungle garden and tame the weeds and growth that have flourished while we were busy.  

I have managed to get some crafting done, and even finished a couple of things.  I finished up the frilly scarf, but am undecided whether I will keep this for myself-I think it might be a bit too frilly for me.  

I also finished up the Santa stitchery, and stitched it into a wall hanging.

 I have been working on a few other things, but I might save those details until another post.

I've joined the Australian Fat Quarter Swap, and since it only involves shopping (from the stash or the shop) it should be great fun, and no stress from having to get things stitched by a particular date.

I do have another assignment due in about a month(ish), and school holidays start next week, but I'm hoping to blog more regularly (really, I promise!) now that other things have settled down somewhat.

Now With Added Photos

Look, a photo! Actually two of them. It's our Hawthorn tree (I think so anyway-I did some searching on the web last time it flowered) and our ornamental cherry tree. Spring is definitely here-it was warm today, and should be 36°C on Sunday.

Otherwise-quite a good night sleep wise. Had some more sleep once I had got the kids off to school and had breakfast, coughed up a lung and had some more medicine. Had a quiet afternoon. I'm finding that towards the end of the day I'm getting the tickle thing in the throat which sucks, but generally I am getting better-slowly.

Tomorrow I would usually spend the morning at the primary school helping with the newsletter, and then going to knitting in the afternoon. I have a feeling that I may have to give both a miss, as they are both social events and involve quite a bit of chatting which seems to irritate my cough...... Luckily I can stay at home and read or knit or stitch.

Best Laid Plans

That's what this picture represents-my best laid plans that didn't happen (yet). My plans today were

• food shopping mostly not done-this will get done tomorrow when Caitlin has softball practice
• washing done for today
• knitting dalek washcloth the picture above shows how far I've got-sunshine in the garden=weeding and such, and then visitors arrived-hopefully I can make a start shortly

Tomorrow, therefore, will include:

• Caitlin to softball practice in morning
  
• food shopping-see above
• more weeding/gardening if weather permits
• some knitting/stitching
• booking somewhere to stay for Fri/Sat night

as well as all the usual.

Round (and round) the garden

I did no actual gardening today, but decided to take the camera out around the garden while it is still green here and take a few snaps. It's been so wet here that our local reservoir is full and they've been letting excess water back into a river (sadly not the Murray). I am sure that when we get some finer/warmer weather everything will dry off, and the wetness and greenness will seem a distant memory.





There's a selection of flowers, including my last dutch iris, my vegie seedlings (Roma tomato, basil, chives) and Copper (a very curious chook who wanted to know what I was doing and did it involve anything edible).

Tomorrow-food shopping, washing (scout camp went well, but as with any camp=washing), knitting a dalek washcloth (Caitlin has a friend from Brownie's that is a big Dr Who fan as well, so this will be part of the gift-pretty sure it will be unique).

Cindy-I wanted to leave a comment on your blog, but it wouldn't accept it. Any ideas what I was doing wrong? I just wanted to say that perhaps rolling hills would look nice on the cardigan( or maybe a fox stalking....or maybe that would traumatise the poor child).

Day 4

So it's day 4 and I've run out of catchy post titles already. Luckily with Blogtoberfest I can use the day number when inspiration fails me.
Sunday summary:

• Daylight saving started-most clocks changed-still need to change mobile phone time
• washing done
• some weeding done
• grand prix watched
• craft photos taken

All in all, a quiet day, but that's how I like my Sundays. The photos are not great-it was either too dark inside, or too glarey outside. First is my progress on The Drawn Thread's "Sampler Gameboard"-stitched with DMC on some natural linen of some kind. This is a long time WIP so most details are sketchy in my mind........


I even took some photos of one of my knitting projects. The colours are not at all accurate-it's a much darker green/purple/blue combination (called Vineyard). It's the "Forest Canopy Shawl" in a hand dyed 8ply wool that I picked up at the local Spinners & Weavers Market Day earlier this year.




Tomorrow is a public holiday here, so Ron has a day off work, and we have nothing particular planned except collecting Luke from his camp.

Shopping Score

We survived shopping. I am not one who looks forward to shopping for the sake of it. I do not say "Let's go shopping!" as a rule, but we needed things. As is usually the way, we found some of what we were looking for, didn't find some of what we were looking for, and even found something we weren't looking for.

The one thing I "found" but didn't even know it existed, is this:



It's a (sideways-thanks to Blogger) ticket to a talk & book signing by one of my favourite authors, Diana Gabaldon, at my local library (sorry that the picture is so dark, but it's laminated, and it's very dark & gloomy here today). It's the only one she's doing in the state-I don't really know why it's going to held there rather than anywhere else, but I'm not complaining. I'm going to be doing some rereading of her books (although I have the first three on audio book so I can craft at the same time) so I will be up-to-date when I get the new book.

Tomorrow is a free day, and hopefully better weather so I can spend some time in the garden, before stitching or knitting whilst watching the Japanese Formula 1 Race. Maybe I'll take some craft photos as well-maybe......

February Dragon*

It's been about four weeks since I last blogged, and the main reason it's taken so long has been the bushfires in Victoria. Our worst natural disaster, the current death toll is 210 people, and at least 7000 are homeless. Fires are still burning in Victoria weeks later. There are stories of great tragedy and great heroism as well as wonderful generosity which outweigh the stories that might make you despair of the human race. Being too far away to help out in a physical way, we've donated (over $100 million has been raised so far). Just about every school, business and group seem to be raising funds-I've never seen anything like it. There are also various initiatives in the craft/blog world to make handmade things for survivors as well as restash our crafting friends in Victoria. At the same time as the bushfires, around 60% of Queensland was under water. What a country we live in. We've had similar conditions to those in Victoria, but have been lucky so far to avoid any major fires. We've still had no rain (the odd shower) since the middle of December, so it's extremely dry here.

On to other things (briefly)-I've spent the last 4 weeks stitching on the model. It's mostly done-the magazine has it for photography for the next issue (it's being released in parts), and then it will be back to me for a few more days stitching. I'm planning on using the next few days to go through my WIPs (both stitching and knitting) and work out which ones I want to be working on in the near future. Maybe I'll even take some pictures.

To finish, here's a picture of our Easter Lily. This was planted in a garden bed that is basically dirt-no other plants (they had been moved) and consequently hasn't been watered (I think we forgot that there was anything else planted there). A couple of days ago I noticed a shoot, and it's now flowered. Ideal plant for there conditions, really.

* February Dragon is a novel by Sth Australian author Colin Thiele about a bushfire (aka the February Dragon)

Dormant or Extinct?

Long time, no see........... So how do you write a post on a blog when you haven't been near it for 11 months? A blow-by-blow description of each month's events? (supposing, of course, that I can remember what happened) Or perhaps start with what is happening now, and if something occurs to me, or nothing exciting happens (?) I might return to the past. I'm going to go with the latter.

I stopped blogging in December last year when things got hectic (as they do at that time of the year), but did not get going again when I ended up with Tennis Elbow which meant that for some time I was doing little or no crafting or using the computer. I'm not back to 100%, but it is about 90% and I can stitch and knit, but not for unlimited amounts of time, and with lots of stretching.

I've found a few pictures-"Flower Sampler" model that I finished just before Christmas last year, and a couple of ornaments that I finished up recently for our stitching group's yearly exchange with an English stitching group.

And here's some irises from our garden.

I'm feeling the need for a list or two, and maybe a vague plan to organise what craft I want to get done in the next couple of months.........We'll see how long that lasts.

I also have to have a plan of attack for the craft fair that I plan to visit on Sunday. There's nothing worse than wandering about, overwhelmed by all the stalls, desperately trying to remember what you wanted to look at or buy.

I'm off to keep stitching on more Christmas ornaments-I'm really enjoying the quickness of these at the moment.

Where I go on and on....

I'm not going to do a holiday post at this time, since it's been about 2 weeks since we got back, and I have more recent events to chat about. I'm thinking I will find some photos each post and give a summary - but in snippets.

We did have a great time-were away for 10 nights and covered quite a few kms. I did get to Bendigo Woollen Mills, and Caitlin started knitting. She's not done so much since we've been home, what with school and other distractions. Here's a couple of shots along the way. We have Luke in front of several the the Twelve Apostles. You can probably see that the weather wasn't the best for coastal sight-seeing. Caitlin is posing on some beach area we found just out of Apollo Bay, just before we headed north towards Ballarat. The kids had a great time on the beach and rock pools, and found a friendly Border Collie to loved to play fetch. The final photo is in the Grampians. Caitlin is "posing" and Luke is looking his pre-pubescent self when asked to look at the camera.

Now, back to current events..... Since we arrived back: Ron has had his 20th school reunion, been up to the Cooper Basin for the week, kids have started back at school for the final term of the year, we had a school working bee on a day when it was 33C, followed a couple of days later with 15mm of rain and a max temp of 13C. Coming up we have a wedding this weekend (someone from Ron's work who's not been there all that long so I haven't met) with not many people I will really know-but at least Ron isn't in the wedding party this time. Oh, and before that we have the school's "Long Walk" which is held every 2 years and retraces in part the journey many pioneer women walked from up here in the Hills down to produce markets to sell and buy produce sometime several times a week. This year it is being held on a school day, so it's been structured so the younger children have easier and smaller sections to walk. Luke & Ron are doing the longest part, while Caitlin & I will be doing the intermediate section. The weather (considering what we've had lately) looks to be good. Later this term we have a camp for Luke, Ron going over to Papua New Guinea, Christmas Pageants, Christmas concerts, a 60th birthday party for my mum, and who knows what else.

Having got the other things out of the way, I will turn to craft (as I usually do). Most recently, we went to a garage sale that had advertised "knitting yarn" in the newspaper ad. Generally Ron pops into local garage sales looking for parts and tools for his car restoration project. He had standing orders to look out for ball winders, but had so far been unsuccessful. I didn't have my camera with me, but i saw what happens when stash goes bad. It was quite sad-most of the garage sale was in a garage (funnily enough) and the lady (who we found out later had been the knitter along with other arts and crafts) just kept dragging out boxes and garbage bags of wool and yarn. It hadn't been stored all that well so there was some dust and dead bugs to deal with (not that bad), but it was tragic-there was so much and it was such a mess. I wasn't the only person scrummaging through all this-there were quite a few. I ended up with 7 balls of older Patonyle (yellow, red, bright blue + one ball of navy), 27 balls of 25g Heirloom 4ply in teal, navy & red and a couple of balls of 10ply cotton. I also happened to ask her if she had a ball winder-and she did! I'm yet to test it out, but Ron has lubricated it with a silicone lubricant, and it seems to wind fine. Caitlin got a small bag of yarn odds and ends and we got this for $10. I was thrilled as I never seems to get any bargains from op shops or the like. I was fairly restrained and only got what I thought I would use for sure. I've finished Caitlin's socks (I'll post pictures next time with more details) and am currently working on a little cardigan for our latest family addition. Our nephew and his wife, Paul & Kristen, had a little baby girl, Holly, while we were away on holidays. I also have to stitch up a Christmas ornament for our annual Christmas exchange-I have found a kit that should be ideal-just need to go start it.

Talking of exchanges-I'm participating in a Tea Cosy Exchange-in which we knit a tea cosy for our secret partner, and maybe other kitchen accessories, and send it off with some related goodies for their enjoyment. To assist our partners, we are showing photos of our teapot, so they can knit something that will hopefully fit. Balls of Bendigo 8 ply, and Patons Patonyle added for scale ;)

And I've worked out one reason why people show close-up pics of flowers in their gardens (other than they look pretty)-it's so no-one can see the weeds.........