Back so soon?

It's only been a week since I was here last - I shock myself!

So-the last week in brief......

• Ron's growing a "mo" for Movember - pics to come soon, but he already has quite a good one already, but there is some grey.


• We sold our Jayco camper trailer (for about only $500 less than we bought it for 7 yrs ago) , but have got our eye on a pop top close by that might be just what we are looking to upgrade to. We're in no rush, so we will see what is around.


• Caitlin was able to miss a softball game to go to the Christmas Pageant so the kids and I (Ron stayed at home to sell our camper) braved the crowds to sit in the rain (well it was only showers, but still...)


• I decided that I deserved a day off so I journeyed to the showgrounds for the Craft Fair. There was very little in the way of knitting or embroidery supplies, but luckily I have also become interested in stitcheries/patchwork/quilting etc. I took a class from the Thimblelady in hand quilting which was fun-I must do some practice soon. I will have to take some pictures of my purchases soon too.

I've finished some stitching on some ornaments-I will need to work out how I want to finish them and get that done so I don't end up with too many to do at once.

Please excuse the oddly cropped pictures-I'm still working on using the software that came with our new printer/scanner. The snowman ,white ornament, and the Peace tree are all from last year's Just CrossStitch Ornament magazine (I actually stitched the snowman earlier in the year, and the white one in Oct). The Sampler Tree (I will look up the proper names for these designs and the designers later and edit the post) was from last year's ornament issue of The Gift of Stitching magazine .

I'm off to the city tomorrow -mainly to meet Ron and look at bathroom tiles and setups (did I mention that we are looking to get our bathroom renovated in the next 6 months?) - but I'm sure I'll get some browsing done too. Maybe even some Christmas shopping-although I have already done some.

I'll have some pictures of the pageant next time-they are still on the camera and I'm not going to go hunting for it now.

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.

Mystery Revealed

I have a feeling that I won't be suddenly posting on the blog everyday. The November experiment (posting everyday or nearly everyday) ended up with the grand tally of 6 posts. We live and learn.

Since my last post we've had several events, but the first of these was our trip to the South-East to Kingston SE for my mum's 60th birthday party. Luke had a sleepover for scouts on the Friday night so we left home early on Saturday morning, picking him up along the way. The weather was just lovely, which was a change from the weekend of my dad's 60th nearly 2 years ago when we had temps around 40C. I don't have a lot of photos as I have never been in the habit of snapping everything. Some people seems to view a lot of events through the lens of their camera or video camera. Some moments are ideal for photo taking, but a lot of the time I prefer to enjoy the moment or event without worrying if I got a good shot of it. I also spent a lot of the day organising food and chatting to people (some that I haven't seen for some time). The younger kids had a great time as Mum & Dad have a cubbyhouse in their new backyard, and we really didn't see too much of them. They played quite well together as young kids do, even when they don't know each other well. Luke helped out with setting up and serving-he's at the age when he doesn't want to play with the younger kids, and there were no other kids his age there. I am also able to reveal the mystery project that I have been working on-a knitted lace scarf for my mum. It got favourable comments from quite a few people, and I was happy with the way it turned out. The yarn was 2 ply 50% silk/50% wool from The Knittery in the Denim colourway. This yarn is just lovely-the loveliest yarn I've seen. The pattern was "Scarf with Clarence Border" from Victorian Lace Today, and I really had to stop myself from casting on something else from this book for myself. It was a fun knit, and it only took me about a week, I think. Yes, I do tend to leave things to the last minute, but I went for something simple because of that.

Now, some pictures.....

The birthday photo shows Ron and my mum trying to get the candle to stay alight in the breezy conditions (and the lovely cake that my SIL LeeAnne baked & decorated for the occasion). The various pictures of the yarn and scarf are not the best in terms of colour-some were taken in bright sunlight, and others with flash. I think the picture of the yarn is the closest to the true colour.

Last week, Caitlin and her Brownie Guide group participated in a local Christmas Pageant, with the theme being "Nursery Rhymes". She was dressed as a cat for their nursery rhyme-The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, and Ron drove his parents' vintage truck as their "float".

Only 1 week and 2 days before the end of school-we have 2 BBQs and one concert to go before then and then we have some quiet time before Christmas. This year we are having Christmas lunch at home by ourselves, with dinner at Ron's parents new home with his family.

Craft wise I've been busy finishing up the model I'm doing for Naomi from Stitches N' Spice, which should be done by the end of this week-I will take photos when it's finish. I've got a tea cosy to get finished for a knitting exchange, as well as some Christmas ornaments for the kids' teachers. I'm itching to get back to some WIPs-both knitting and stitching, so maybe there will be some more progress on some projects that haven't been seen lately-but not for a couple of weeks.

Please forgive the strange set out with the photos-I have great trouble with Blogger and the way it decides to display pictures-I don't seem to have much trouble uploading them-just getting them to line up in a halfway normal manner. I'm giving up today, and going to do something more productive.

How many days?

Only 4 more weeks of school to go! The year's just speeding by. The weekend's just about over too; just dinner and end of day things to do. Yesterday we spent most of the day in the garden weeding, mowing, and generally tidying up. Luke has been initiated into the way of the mower, so maybe the "normal" lawn will become his domain? We have about 1/4 acre that is basically paddock that Ron mows with a heavy duty push mower (it's too rough for a ride on). There's still more to do outside, but we got a good amount done-luckily it wasn't too hot yesterday.

Today we went into the city to the Botanic Park for Ron's work's Christmas Picnic. Even though the weather was hotter today, it was very pleasant in the shade. Everyone had a great time-Caitlin had her face painted, got a temporary tattoo, got a balloon animal from one of the many clowns, and went on one of the bouncy castles. Luke & Ron both went on the Circotron, and I had a nice back & shoulder massage. There was plenty of yummy food & drink, and a good time was had by all.

This week should be fairly straight forward-I was going to say "normal" but I'm not sure if that applies. Saturday will be an early start as we head down to Kingston for my mum's 60th birthday party. We will head back sometime Sunday in time for work & school.

I've been working on the secret project, which is coming along nicely, and have just realised that I will get a big chunk of knitting time in the car this weekend (at least 3 hrs each way). I also need to start Christmas decorations that I make for the kids' teachers each year, as well as my Embroiderers Guild Kris Kringle gift, and then there's the advent calendar that I need to sew.... Luckily I'm not planning on making lots of homemade gifts for Christmas this year!

The next couple of days are going to be much cooler than first thought-we were heading for 37-39C days, but now we've got 31-27C. Much more comfortable-and the forecast so far for the weekend looks to be warm (30C) but not overly so-thank goodness.

It's Heating Up

Well, so much for good intentions. First I had a day where nothing happened-well, nothing interesting anyhow. Then it got busy and I didn't have time to blog, and before you know it-here we are 9 days later.

Here's a few shots from the pageant-held through the main streets of Adelaide. We had a lovely day, but to get a good spot and allow for street closures it meant an early start for us (Luke & Ron left home at 5.15am, and Caitlin & I left at 6.15am). You can see the streets at dawn, and then later as the street began to fill up. We actually got to hear most of the bands (last year we seemed to be in a spot where every band had a break from playing).

Luke's camp went well, but he was very tired as he got home from camp on Friday afternoon, had scouts that evening, and then up at 5am for the pageant.

This weekend we hope to spend Saturday getting work done in the yard. Sunday is Ron's work family picnic in the Botanic Gardens. It's usually lots of fun, but the forecast is going to be fairly hot (36C) so shade will be at a premium. We've got another few hot days after that with 39C forecast for next Tuesday. We're hoping it will cool down after that as we have my mum's 60th birthday in the South-East at the end of next week.

Tomorrow will be me getting housework out of the way early so I can work on a secret project in front of the a/c and cricket before the kids get home from school, and the weekend begins....

Shopping!

I was going to take pictures of my purchases from our shopping trip today, but Ron had snagged the memory card from the camera, and now it is dark, so you will have to wait until tomorrow. Bobbie & I went to The Yarn Barn, which happened to have everything on sale, as they need to make room for new seasons stock. I picked up 8 balls of Jo Sharp DK Cotton in a nice blue, a skein of Filatura Di Crossa Centolavaggi (laceweight merino) in white, the Harmony Aran book, and a Fibretrends Mobius Scarf pattern. We next went to the Button Bar which stocks KnitPicks, and both stocked on up a few accessories we needed. Apparently the owner is also getting lots of Clover accessories-depending on the suppliers, maybe by the end of this month, or perhaps in January. We browsed Borders, Dymocks and Angus & Robertson, but didn't buy any books. It was good to see a lot of titles in print-some I thought I would like were not to my taste, and I did see one which I have ordered through Fishpond at a lot cheaper price. We also squeezed in a coffee and lunch break, before heading back to pick up kids, etc. All in all, a lovely day.


This afternoon has been busy with baking (supper for Luke to take on his camp) and packing, but tomorrow should be fairly quiet, so I should be able to catch up before a busy end to the week.













Here's a few more pictures from our holiday-kangaroos which would come and feed on the grass in the caravan park in Hall Gap (in the Grampians in Victoria), and various pictures around that area, including one which shows some burning off far in the distance.

Don't forget (especially those of you who don't read lots of blogs and may not know) that you can click on the photos to see a larger version.

Nearly every day

I knew I would miss a few days-because I've been blogging at the end of the day, it can easily forgotten with all the activity that happens.

Sunday was a quiet day as predicted, especially as we had a maximum of 14C and some more rain. The rain is more than welcome, but it does make strange to have the fire going in November.

I got organised and took some photos of some of my knitting-finished and in progress.

The pink/black thing is a lace sock (knitted in TOFUtsies-a soy/cotton/chitin[something to do with shellfish] combo). Next is the beginning of a log cabin blanket-similar construction to the quilted kind-the pieces are knitted together-not sewn. The somewhat bright item is a short-sleeved jacket I'm knitting for Caitlin out of Lincraft Bamboozle- a bamboo/cotton blend. Lastly is a cotton dishcloth-commonly known as the Ballband Dishcloth.

Tomorrow I am off shopping with one of our knitting group. Should be fun browsing craft and book shops together before the "fun" of Christmas shopping starts. Luke has a 3 day camp starting Wednesday and the weather looks great for that.

My Boyfriend's Back

Well, my husband's back. He got back this evening, and things are getting back to normal.

I took a look at my blog archives, curious to see what was happening a year ago. The main events early November were the craft fair, and the Christmas pageant. This year I have decided not to attend the craft fair. I told one of my friends at our knitting group this, and we decided that we would rather go shopping in the city, and also to the Yarn Barn, a LNS that is not so local to us. So hopefully this week we will be off to shop! Weather permitting, the pageant will be still on-next Saturday, in fact.

I was going to add a few more holidays photos, but blogger isn't co-operating at the moment.

Tomorrow should be a quiet day at home, with maybe some gardening and knitting.

Every Day?

Firstly, I want to thank those who read my blog, and those who leave comments. I am planning to write very regularly this month. In the US (and anywhere else that wants to join in, I guess) a thing called National Blog Posting Month, where participants post to their blog each day for the month of November. Being realistic, I don't plan to post every day, but would like to give it a go for most days. We'll see how it goes.

Ron is currently in PNG (Papua New Guinea), and has taken the camera with him, so I will have to use photos already downloaded, rather than taking anything new, for the moment.

Since I last posted we took part in the Long Walk. The weather was particularly nice-around 23C and sunny.

Here are a few photos I took during the day-vineyards, walkers, and a picture of the kids outside the Bridgewater Mill which was built by an ancestor, John Dunn.

The next day the weather was not so kind, with very nasty winds and rain which almost caused disaster at the wedding of Ron's workmate that we attended.

This tree top fell during the ceremony, but as it was on the other side of the winery, no-one knew about it until afterwards. Somehow it fell between all the cars, and hit nothing and nobody. We had a lovely time, and did much dancing, although many of our muscles protested with the aftereffects of the Long Walk.

I promised last post that I would have pictures of Caitlin's socks, and as it has been a while since I had a FO (finished object) to show-here they are.

They are knit using a basic sock pattern by Ann Budd from her book "Knitters Handy Book of Patterns" using Sullivans sock yarn. The yarn is quite thin, and as I have a fairly loose tension, I used 2mm needles. The first time Caitlin wore these, blue dye stained her feet, but after a wash (in the machine) the colour lightened and the yarn "bloomed" a little. The ball is a 120g ball, and even though these are a women's small size, I have quite a lot left. The main thing is that she likes and wears them, and they wash in the machine.

I think I will end off there-one of the advantages I can see about posting every day is that the posts won't be so long. All that "catching up" makes for big posts.

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.........