Rain drops keep falling on my head

Well they would if I was silly enough to stand around in the rain. We've had a lot of rain in the last week or so-around 3 inches, so the ground is getting all nice and soggy. I'm hoping for a little fine weather early next week and the weekend following that, because Caitlin has a school camp, and then Luke has a Scout camp.




I've started a model for Naomi of Stitches and Spice . It's called "Flowers" - you can see it here if you scroll down a bit. I'm stitching it on 32ct Belfast linen in her colourway "Hannah's Rose"-it's under Spice Blend on her website with Gloriana silk in the colourway "Jacaranda"-which is a brown strangely enough. I've got a picture here-not a good one as it's still raining outside, but I wanted something here so I can see my progress. I will be rotating this for some model work I am doing for Kirsten of The Gift of Stitching. I won't be stitching on any of my things until both are done, but I will do some knitting as a break now and again.



Speaking of knitting, I have a couple of FOs to show you. Firstly a pair of socks that I finished early this year sometime-quite a while ago anyhow.



These are knitted with OnLine Supersocke that I got from last year's craft fair, using a pattern on the Patonyle pattern book which I then tinkered with a little. It has 2x2 ribbing at the top, 4x1 ribbing for the leg, calf shaping, and an Eye of Partridge heel. These were much easier to knit than my first socks as I didn't have to work at juggling the dpns. The yarn was nice to work with, and I had a small amount left from the 100g ball.

Next are a pair of bedsocks I knit for Caitlin. I used some Clinker yarn that I picked up at Kmart and dyed using food colouring. It's around a 10 ply I think-I used 5mm needles. Pattern was from Ann Budd's The Knitters Handy Book of Patterns . I did something strange with one of the heels-it was supposed to be a slip stitch heel, but when I was stitching the second heel-noticed the first one looked totally different. Never mind!! I also found that Caitlin has a big foot-I knit the womens small size and they have a bit of room for growth but not much. And she is not quite 9yo. The yarn is fluffing/pilling where she has worn them with slippers but I'm not too fussed-they were cheap to make-and fast!!! I love the knitting with the bulkier yarns.

I'm going to go and stitch for a while before lunchtime-also need to go and block my ISE4 scarf.

A little of this, a little of that....

Thought I'd do a quick post before it gets too long since I've posted. Of course I had to then go and take a quick photo or two of some WIPs, and then download them, and then realise that I haven't posted any photos for a while.





I've finished my ISE4 scarf (except for a light blocking and weaving in the ends). It's lovely and soft, and my photos really aren't that good. It is sunny here today (which it hasn't been for quite a few days here) but also windy which isn't conducive to photo taking outside.




I've started, and almost finished a pair of "Fetching" fingerless gloves/mittens from knitty but fell short-just. I either need to get another ball of the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (colour-Teal-luxury to knit with!) or rip 1 and 9/10 of the pair and redo with smaller needles.........


I've got some more model stitching coming up-another project for The Gift of Stitching - details to remain a secret until published, and also something for Stitches and Spice. This one will most likely be a sampler of some kind, and will be used as a model at various craft fairs around Australia.

I haven't done lots of my own stitching lately but did (are you sitting down??) work on my Chatelaine's Medieval Town Mandala. I've just cut some fabric for Long Dog's St Sylvestre which I have had in my stash for a long time. The fabric is "Dawn Light" in Belfast linen and the thread I am planning to use is DMC 4240 (a blue/purple variegated cotton). For the moment I have pulled out my L&L Celtic Autumn because I am in the mood for a bit of straight-forward stitching. Here is a picture I took today-not the best but it's windy outside!







Just a few more pictures. We made a special trip a week ago to the Kernewek Lowender or Cornish Festival which is held every 2 years and which we usually attend as Ron's ancestors are Cornish. This time we weren't planning to attend as it was no longer on a long weekend. The reason we made a special mid-week trip was that Ron's great-grandfather was being featured in the "Dressing of the Graves" and his parents wanted Luke (as the great-great-grandson) to lay the floral tribute. The picture on the left shows Ron & Luke with Ron's parents next to the grave. Below that is knitwear sighted in the wild. A lot of work went into that! And also a picture of school children waiting through the boring speech part before they get to sing. We made a day of it and pottered around a couple of the towns. One of the advantages of being there mid-week was that we avoided the crowds and traffic.

I am having a quiet afternoon as we hosted the "Biggest Morning Tea" at school this morning to raise money for the Cancer Council and I was the main organiser. We have a movie night (Shrek 3) coming up in a couple of weeks and I have to print up posters and tickets for that so I am having a quiet time before I move onto those tasks.

Think I will load some of the latest podcasts onto my MP3 player and stitch on Celtic Autumn.

Stand on your head and whistle "Dixie"

Sometimes I wonder about our family.........my daughter, Caitlin, asked my husband, Ron, if he could stand on his head and whistle "Dixie". Of course he can, and so he had to demonstrate. I did take a photo but it's still on the camera which isn't here right now.

I do have several photos from the school holidays which I haven't posted yet. We went into the city (Adelaide) to see this exhibition at the Art Gallery. It was highly enjoyable-I came away with an urge to learn to write hieroglyphics. We also had to visit the SA Museum which is next door. Caitlin also had a mission to see the pigs in Rundle Mall (life size bronze pig statues to clarify) so I had to take photos.

Another thing I haven't provided (but said I would) was some links to my model work for The Gift of Stitching editor Kirsten Edwards. If you are a subscriber to the magazine, you would have seen some of the models, but you can also see some pictures at Stitches and Spice - you need to click on the "Gift of Stitching Kits" link. The two that are my work are "Stitcher's Wallet"and "Quaker Mail Art". They are always fun to do and who wouldn't love to get paid stitching with hand dyed fabric and silks!


I've read quite a bit on various sites and blogs regarding the Knitpicks needles-both circulars and dpns, and happened across this Australian online shop that was new to me Knitting Inspirations which happened to have both and with the full set on sale. The Deluxe Set is available in quite a few Aussie online stores, but I've only seen the dpns here at Prestige Yarns which also stock the smaller circulars and all the bits separately. So I've ordered the Deluxe Kit and a set each of 2mm and 2.5mm of the dpns from Knitting Inspirations (my latest model work payment went towards this). Oh, and I also bought the Egyptian Garden when Martina released it as a downloadable chart last month. Not that I will be starting anytime soon as I have 3(!) Chatelaines as WIPs.

Currently I am trying to finish off The Drawn Thread's Random Thoughts which shouldn't take long as I have decided not to do the border and hemstitching. I found a note that I started this in July 2001 so it is past time to become a finished object. Here is an old scan I found-I am a bit further along than this now though. I'm also over halfway on my ISE4 scarf-see my sidebar for a link to the exchange-I'll post more details about the scarf I'm knitting another time.

Don't faint...........but I finished something!

Really!! I did-and what is more I am posting about it. It's "The Sampler Sampler"by Brightneedle-stitched over one on 32ct lugana (what was I thinking?). There are 28 different colours (mostly Anchor) and the stitch count is 105 square. There's a lot of work in that tiny piece (it's about 8 cm square) but it looks lovely and I'm happy with it. I started this mumble years ago-well before I contemplated stitching a HAED (which are usually stitched over one and are huge).

We all survived the holidays-more about them another post as I have to go to the post office and school shortly, but one of the major things that happened here was that it rained. And rained. For a few days even. We ended up with about 100mm or 4 inches in the old measurements. There are more showers forecast for later this week so it's looking good. I will have to look up what rain we've had in the last year, but it's not been good.

Bad, bad blogger!

So it's a few (5-that long??) months since I've posted............. I regularly read other blogs but just don't seem to get around to posting on my own. I thought I would just start from today, and update what has happened in the last few months as I go.

It is currently school holidays (1 week down, 1 to go) and it's been a busy term. Caitlin is over at a friend's house for a play (it's been nearly a week since they saw each other!), and Ron has had to go into to work for some kind of upgrade thingo, so Luke and I are having a quiet afternoon/evening. I've got a quiche in the oven for a "goodbye neighbour" lunch tomorrow, but then I am all set to stitch and watch football (AFL) .

As far as craft news-well it's been busy and somewhat varied. Our group at the Embroiderers' Guild is due to put up our display next month, and I really haven't had much in the way of finishes in the past year. After rummaging through my WIPs I came up with Brightneedle's The Sampler Sampler . This has been a WIP for a long time......it's over one on 32 count evenweave so it's not that big, but I'm hoping to finish it in time for next Thursday. We also display WIPs, and I'm going to take my Chatelaine "Convent's Herbal Garden Mandala". I'm hoping to get a little more done before I take it off the scroll rods. I've done some work on Celtic Autumn as well. Since the beginning of the year I've been doing some model work for Kirsten Edwards (the editor of The Gift Of Stitching-the online stitching magazine-see the link in the sidebar). It's been most enjoyable getting to use Stitches 'N Spice fabrics, Dinky Dyes silks, and flower threads. I'll link some pics another post. There has been some knitting-I have finished my original pair of socks (last year), knit another pair, started several things, joined the International Scarf Exchange, and so on. I need to take some WIP pictures and load some links, but will save that for another post. I do have a picture of my first pair of socks for your viewing pleasure. Nothing exciting, but I have the hang of double pointed needles, as well as the way socks are constructed, and as an added bonus the socks didn't fall apart when I wore them ;)

Only 5 Weeks To Go

Sorry-but I figure you all need to suffer with me. Although, since we aren't having either Christmas lunch or dinner at home this year, and at most 3 guests staying, I really don't have that much to worry about. That is, if you don't worry about the 10 nephews/nieces I still have to shop for, or my 2 kids presents, or Ron's parents, or..........(well you get the idea-we do have some shopping done, and I have plans to hit the city on Wednesday to get most of it done)

A couple of weeks ago we, along with 320,000 others journeyed to the city for the Pageant. It is the Big One (hence the capitals lol) . We did the parent sacrifice thing and got up early on the weekend to catch the bus into the city. Even though we caught the earliest bus there was it wasn't early enough to save Ron from this.

It wasn't ideal but it wasn't that bad-coffee makes up for a lot ;)
I also want to award the person who came up with the idea with free chalk with the Saturday paper a sainthood. Just think about it.........320,000 people-so by my reckoning at least 160,000 kids (hold on-I need to lie down after typing that) sitting around for hours (we got there 2 hours before it started and look where we were sitting-others get there much earlier) and hours and hours.........really frightening! But some chalk and free run of the city streets and you get this

We had lovely weather, caught a bus straight home afterwards, and I even had a little time to visit a couple of book shops-which I will revisit this week to do that Christmas shopping as well as some shopping for me :)
Now for some pictures of the floats



I'll catch up later this week with other things-maybe even take some pictures of some WIPs.........

My Pickings

......from the craft fair. It seems to me that every year the number of quilt stalls gets higher and the number of other stalls dimishes. Being a fair distance away, it isn't financially viable for a lot of the businesses from the eastern states to make the journey over here, so we have a lot less stalls than the fairs over there. That said, I did have a nice time, but bought little in the way of stitching supplies. Since Stitches and Spice wasn't in Adelaide this year there was just about no threads or fabric. I did find some yarn (sock yarn + some extremely soft baby alpaca) & Addi Turbo circular needles as well as some stitcheries, and other bits and bobs. Since I have also put in an order with Bendigo yarns, and am still looking for fabric & thread for Paradigm Lost, I am quite happy with my haul, but I did miss rummaging through Naomi's fabrics and threads.......

This weekend is loking fairly clear at the moment (other than the Adelaide Christmas Pageant tomorrow morning) but Christmas is getting nearer and that means bbqs, concerts, dinners, etc, etc and Ron is away for work for about 10 days in a couple of weeks so I guess we should enjoy the peace time at home while we can!

I am off to have a bite of lunch and settle down with "Bones" to stitch some Celtic Autumn.

Autumn in Spring-or is it Summer??

Celtic Autumn, that is. I started her about a year ago and she has been in hibernation for most of that time. I have worked on her a little bit lately here and there, and decided she was an ideal project to accompany me on my stitching weekend with 6 other girls. Here is the current picture-everything above the skirt is my weekend's progress . She's stitched on 28ct Jobelan (Tundra) from Stitches and Spice. We had a lovely weekend, with much talking, eating, drinking and stitching. It was a little sad though-my buddy Mel wasn't there since she had the weak excuse of being in Dubai............ I did some stitching, drinking and laughing for you Mel-maybe we can time the next one for your next visit here?

The holidays went quite fast, and the last term is well under way-we have already had a working bee, Wakakirri final, and school picnic. It is extremely dry here (we apparently had 1mm of rain for Oct) already-a lot of areas already look like it is the end of summer.

I am off to the Craft Fair on Thursday-I have the kids booked into after school care so that I can go to the fair, and then on to Guild afterwards. I'm not sure what I will end up with as there won't be huge amounts of stitching supplies, but I will see what I can find ;)

A Picture of a Nun.....So Far

I finally set my mind to finishing off part 2 of the nun (aka Convent's Herbal Garden by Chatelaine) and, of course, it really didn't take that long. Matters were helped by Caitlin going to a friend's house this afternoon. Here is a (not very good) picture of my progress so far........

I am taking a break from this now, and am working on setting up a rotation (again! lol). I also want to start a new HAED. Yes, I know, another one.........but this one is special. My good buddy Annette has recently started this one, and I want to do a SAL with her as she gets through her chemo, and other various treatments and struggles to beat her breast cancer. Besides, it will be relatively small, as I am not stitching the background, and only has 50 colours, and I am so looking forward to stitching something that looks like something and isn't just background.

School holidays have been pretty good so far this week-it was hot today (well 30C seems hot at the moment) and it is supposed to be hot again tomorrow. Bushfires are a big threat this summer year-restrictions will start early this year because of the bad conditions. With so little rain, things are already drying out, and today was the second total fire ban here. Apparently there was a fire not too far from here, and lots of others around the state. Well, have to go throw some food together, and gather up my supplies for my new project (Babysitting-HAED/Ravenscroft).

We are back, and some pics

We got back yesterday-had a good time despite some extremely windy weather for a day or so, and I am attempting to catch up. There has been much to catch up-and I don't mean all the holiday laundry, or the grocery shopping on a Saturday morning at the supermarket which is being remodeled in the school holidays (still better than doing it with the kids-marginally). There has been BB kerfuffles, and the Yarn Harlot got married.

Anyhow, I haven't got holiday pics yet, as the camera is where I am not, so I have some older pics for you instead. Two weeks ago, Ron & I participated in the Bay to Birdwood Run, which is a vintage & veteran car rally. Ron's dad owns a 1926 Chev truck, but we get to go in the rally. It has about 1500 vehicles and takes about 1/2 a day. It wasn't the best weather (especially as the truck doesn't actually have side windows as you will see in the picture. Coats & rugs were the order of the day, and we did have fun.

















I have updated some of my WIP pics in my Webshots so it does look like I do some stitching....
Here is my latest pic of Patchwork Sampler-it is my Thursday night piece at the moment, as I need something I can stitch on when I am talking.........






















Not sure what I will get done over the next week (being school holidays) but I'm hoping to come up with a plan. I would like to get the part of the nun that I am (still) working on finished, and perhaps pick up a HAED for a change. But that is open to change-as usual!!

Hello-Goodbye!!

Just a super quick note that we are going away for 5 days tomorrow............hopefully, I will be back with a blog entry quickly after we get home. Just going to the coast a couple of hours from here-fishing & rock pools for the kids & Ron, and peace & quiet for me........(sounds like a good plan you think?) Lots of other things to do, including a couple of craft shops to visit. I have stitching & knitting packed-I have found that I can knit when we are travelling. Catch you all soon!!

I took some pics......

........and am going to post them. Firstly a picture of "the nun". I know I said I would take a picture of it when I was done with part 2, but I figured I would do a picture now. I have had to put it onto scroll rods, so it's going a little slower as I have MTM on rods in the stand and I'm worried that if I take it off the frame it may not go on for a while!!

I also have a picture of a facecloth that I knitted-nothing complex but it's nice to finish something occasionally. Caitlin has already claimed it! I used an Anchor cotton yarn from Spotlight and this pattern

The colours are brighter in real life, and it feels quite soft.

And just to finish off, I found a photo of Caitlin on her first day at kindy so you can see how she has grown in 4 years.......yikes-that went fast!! lol

My, how she's grown......

Of course, the title would seem more appropriate if I had a picture of her as a young child or baby............

This is Caitlin, now 8 years old, on the day of her party, which was blessed by extremely unseasonally delightful weather. This, as you may imagine, made a party of 9 children much pleasanter for all concerned ;)

Ron has been to Moomba, and returned (in time for the school performance and Caitlin's birthday).

I have picked up a sleeping WIP - Chatelaine's Convent's Herbal Garden (aka the nun, because it's so much quicker to say lol), and enjoying it. You can see what it should look like when it is finished here Convent's Herbal Garden I'm thinking that I will finish part 2 (it was originally published as a monthly mystery of 12 parts) and then reconsider what I feel like working on.......... I will also take a picture then too so you can all see just how far I have to go!

I have Luke home with a yucky cold/virus (just picked him up from school) so I am going to look after him (whilst trying to not catch the thing myself!!)

Gasp

......yes, I am posting again already. It is day 3 of week 1 but for some reason I was thinking earlier today that it was week 2 (time flies!). I have already had one meeting and have been working on kid's costumes........I have a whole bunch of things to work on at home. And there is another meeting on Friday morning although that is only a welcome to new parents.

Now, for the promised pictures of the beanie....




























Shown here modelled (somewhat reluctantly) by the recipient Ron (DH). Knitted in Cleckheaton Country Silk (very nice to knit with) with a ridged rib brim and ss top.

I think I will stop now instead of rambling on aimlessly-a coffee and some stitching or knitting sounds just the thing though ;)

Holidays are over!

School holidays that is. And we survived. We went to the museum, art gallery (an eye opener for the kids what with all the naked statues/paintings etc LOL), fruit & veg market, shopping centre, library (crafts etc here also) as well as usual fun stuff and both kids got to sleep over at a friend's house (Ron & I went to Pirates of the Caribbean 2 that night).

Ron is heading off to Moomba for a 2 week stint in a weeks time, but he will get 2 weeks off afterwards, although it won't be immediately after he gets back.

My computer has been amalgamated with a laptop so I can use the laptop in the house and take it down to my stitching room and put it in a docking station to use the scanner, printer, etc. All the photos that I have saved are still on my old hard drive (which Ron still has to transfer some things from ) but this laptop has a card reader thingo so I can post a couple of pics that were still on the camera.
















The socks are the ones I knit for Luke for bedsocks and the car is Ron's new possible WIP. His Mum and Dad are getting ready to sell one of their blocks of land and Ron would like to restore this old Holden if he thinks it is viable..........it is currently in the garage under inspection.

I have been stitching on TW Storyteller and finished my first sock-the second is on the needles but has been superceded by a beanie for Ron as he has lost his and it gets cold of a morning on the way to the bus :)

I may start a Long Dog design of some kind soon-I caught up with my buddy Mel visiting from Dubai (only saw her for a couple of hours but she still managed to enable me lol) and saw her St Georges.........beautiful!

Have to go do some housework stuff-hopefully I will updated more regularly.........

Just Do It!

.....as they say! I have been putting off posting a new entry as I want to put up pics-model, bed socks, etc, etc, but whenever I get the time to blog I am not near my computer in my stitching room (where the cord for the camera lives and hence where all the pics also live). Because of this I don't blog at all. So I am "just doing it" and will get to the pics one day.

Nothing startling has been happening-we have all recovered our health; Ron got back yesterday from Melbourne for a couple of days work. School holidays start next week for 2 weeks-I have already booked some activities at the library for the kids, and have a few other trips planned, but hopefully it will be relatively uneventful (I say relatively since we are dealing with kids here LOL).

Craft wise I haven't been doing heaps of anything-I did finish Luke's bedsocks which do fit him (with some room to spare-essential in a 10yo who's feet are almost as big as mine) and he wears every night. I am back to my sock-turned the heel and will get back to them but am knitting some bootee/slipper things for our neighbours' new baby which should have been born last night. I picked up the Yarn Harlot's (aka Stephanie Pearl-McPhee) new book Knitting Rules! which I had ordered through Angus & Robertson and enjoyed it very much. Also discovered that a shop here in town stocks yarn (mostly wool as it is a shop that stocks woollen products ie clothing, underblankets, etc) and at reasonable prices which is handy to know, I think. Stitching-wise I haven't done heaps, but I did pick up TW The Storyteller which hasn't seen much action since I started it on a stitching weekend. It will likely become my Guild Thursday night project since HAED designs can be tricky to concentrate on when much chatting is going on! Which reminds me that at the end of Oct a group of us from our Thurs night Guild group have a stitching weekend. We hire a couple of units about an hour's (??) drive from Adelaide and spend the weekend stitching, talking, eating, shopping, more talking, some drinking, etc.

OK-well that will do for now-hopefully pics will get done sooner (or later) but I'm off to have some quiet time before I have to go get kids from school..........

Been sick..........

.......not an exciting title, I admit, but says it all really. I originally had some sort of cold/virus thing, and when that was nearly done, we got hit with a nasty gastro bug. Thankfully Ron didn't succumb and we are all mostly well, except for our tender digestive systems.

Caitlin was luckily recovered for her Zoo Snooze (it would have been the end of the world if she had had to miss it!).

I have (between illnesses and after recovery) been working on HAED Owl & Pussycat, as well as HAED Snowflake QS. I actually looked at MTM (Chatelaine's Medieval Garden Mandala) as it is still set up on my stitching frame in my stitching room, and am contemplating working on it for a few hours each week-disasters aside! LOL Oh, and 3 weeks until school holidays........

I finished off a scarf in a chunkyish yarn for me today and must get Luke's bedsocks done now.

Oh, and it's been cold here at nights-like really cold!!! We expect it cold as we are up in the hills, but regularly under 0C is colder than I expect and -5C is just...........brrrrrrrrr!!!!!!! The days have been mostly clear and warm(ish)-ie 13-15C but that is the reason for the cold nights.

Must go and get kids to bed so I can have a coffee and stitch......or knit.........

Woohoo!

I finished the model-no pic at the moment as it is still on the camera and the cord is down in my stitching room. Actually I finished it at the beginning of the week, but since then it has been fairly hectic. Most of Wednesday was spent waiting for Ron's mum & dad to arrive at the airport (we didn't wait in the airport-but their flight kept getting delayed for various reasons, but we eventually got them). Thursday was spent at a seminar (it was interesting). Our group at the Embroiderers Guild has just put up a display and I dragged out the 2 Mirabilia's that I have done for that (not framed, but I am planning on getting one of them framed at least with my model stitching fee). I am planning to take my camera to take some pics next week (actually I planned to do that last Thurs..........) and will also get some WIP pics of some of the girls' (that is females-not necessarily young LOL) work. Better go forage for some food for dinner before the natives get restless.

Yep, I'm still alive

.......it has been awhile since my last entry-you know how it goes...'I will do an entry tomorrow!'. We have had Mothers Day since my last post-had a lovely day-although I still have to go to the local nursery and choose a plant for my stitching room garden as part of my gifts.

What else? Ron's parents are currently overseas-they are just going to part of Canada and Alaska for 3 weeks. Luke's camp went well-he had a great time! I have had to brush up my chess skills (what I have of them LOL) as Luke has joined the school chess club and likes to practise against me. I can still beat him-at the moment!

Stitching/knitting news-I have 3 small motifs and some border left on the model so I'm hoping to post it off by the end of the week (I haven't done any today as I was anxious about our chooks-they disappeared yesterday and were away overnight. I was convinced they had become fox food, but they had been rescued by a neighbour down the street and put over their fence into another neighbour's yard as he mistakenly thought they belonged there. The chooks will no longer be so 'free range' in the future!!........but I digress) Knitting wise I haven't really done anything....although I did start some bedsocks for Luke (his feet are so big....and they are done on 2 needles so ideal for when kids are reading to me, etc). I have also been giving some thought to what I will stitch on when the model is done.....I haven't dragged out all my WIPs, but a few that might make the shortlist are: Storyteller (Teresa Wentzler), a Chatelaine, and a HAED or three. Not sure which ones......and I do have a vague yearning to start a new one....a QS? or Scotland? Who knows?? When I am musing I might make sure all my WIP pics are up-to-date and show you.

Better go and stitch (I have borrowed a few more talking books which works better for me than TV-much harder to get distracted visually)

Oh, just a little something to share with you.....questions at the tea table from a 7yo.....after asking about worms (ie tapeworms) and being told that it wasn't a topic for discussion whilst eating, she asks "Well, then, can you tell me about how the world was made???"........sigh..........they don't tell you about that at ante-natal classes!!

Brrrrr........winter is on the way!

After some fairly mild Autumn weather, we have had some quite wintry weather in the last 24 hours or so. Yesterday was very windy (gusts of 90km/h nearby) and about an inch and a quarter of rain. Today is cold (max expected 12C) and we keep getting heavy rain showers with a bit of hail thrown in for good measure. Definitely a day for the wood fire and pumpkin soup (yes, I actually made some soup for lunch!!)

The kids are back at school (one week down for this term) and Ron is back at work, so hopefully life will settle down somewhat...........Luke has a school camp next week (3 days) so I must get organised and pack & label things for him. Caitlin will have a sleepover later this term (called a Zoo Snooze as it is in the Adelaide Zoo).

What else? Oh, if you are a regular reader of my blog, you may remember my discovery of blogs-as in how many there are (huge number) and my reading of them. Well, when reading one of these many blogs recently I clicked on a link to a podcast-a knitting podcast, Cast On , and so have discovered yet another new world of which I was ignorant! True, I have only listened to this one particular podcast, but there are LOTS out there. Oh, and also talking books are online-these are read by volunteers and are from the public domain so they are free. I haven't tried any yet, but I will for sure and let you know what I think. I have found that stitching to audio is ideal for me. Here is the link for Librivox.

Speaking of stitching, the model is coming along quite well-I really want to get most of it done this week, and since this week is relatively free (i.e. no meetings at school, etc) I think this is doable. I am looking forward to rummaging through my WIPs/stash when I am done and see what appeals!