One Xmas Item A Month

Late it is, but finished it is before the end of the month!! (she does a little dance and punches the air!)

 

 

Pop over to Narelle's Blog and check out what all the other talented bloggers have created for xmas.

Have a great night.......



I certainly Know Wgat I Have Done Today!!

When I first got up this morning I thought I had a reprieve from the gardening - not to be though. The frost and fog soon disappeared under the beautiful sunshine. So into the local market I went - bought my vegies for the week, a nice LARGE cupaccino, to the supermarket for some lunch supplies and back home just as my offsider arrived! So to work we did go!!

 

Yes, it was back into the vegie garden again. Little Nathan (my offsider as opposed to Nathan Paul my 30yr old son) and I did manage to work out today that although the weeds look really thick they aren't - when you get underneath them it is the tops that are spread out and lush and underneath isn't. 

And this is after the big 'weeding'!

 

 Amazing what the weeds covered up - we found some lovely surprises!!

Beautiful spinach - so we picked some of that!

 

Succulents that I was sure I had lost through neglect; parsley and asparagus; and heaps of basil.

 

 

'Black Velvet' overstayed her welcome and tempted fate once too often - she even managed to snitch a freshly planted spring onion as she was being pulled out of the vegie garden - she is now safely away from the vegie garden tied on a long leash with a kennel to sleep in, next to the damn - lots of water, heaps of green feed and company - what more could she ask for!!

 

 

Cauliflowers, spring onions, pakchoy, bok choy, spinach all planted and mulched.

 

And this is the next section to be cleared.

 

 

 
 
 



 

and this

 

 

and this!!

 

Now I am off to the shower - to get rid of the dirt and grime and hopefully beat the aches and pains. Although they set in just after lunch. But a good day otherwise and I should sleep well tonight - dreaming of all the nice fresh vegies we are going to have!!!

 



Best Laid Plans

I awoke to the tail end of a frost this morning and the sun starting to shine. On with the days plans thought I!! Firstly into town to buy our grand daughter a sewing machine (local Lincraft had a basic Singer for $129); then onto watch said grand daughter play Tag League (3 games today) - she scored a try in the last game because I wasn't there!!), then to buy vegie seedling for tomorrows gardening day, then home to do some other gardening and then some cooking.
This is how the day really went - Sewing Machine bought; one game of Tag league watched; seedlings bought......and that was all of my plans completed!!
Said grand daughter decided that this afternoon would be a good time for her to start sewing on her new machine. She sat through the obligatory setting up, threading, bobbin winding and stitch demonstrations and rules and then got straight into making a pillow (straight seams - good practice).

 

Here she is completing the first seam on her very own very new machine.

 

Now she is onto the borders of the cushion front.

 

Very happy girl! I fixed up 1 seam for her and the rest of the sewing was all her own!

 

The finished cushion (ma-ma made the insert too small, so next time I will be making a nigger insert for this cover and Karah will be making another cover for the small insert). This fine delicate child is the one that played 3 games of tag league this morning, got tackled and ended up on the bottom of a pile of girls, and scored a try.

I think I had the biggest score of the day - spending the afternoon with her and watching those fine long fingers create exactly what she wanted to, and then following her outside while she showed her Pa-pa and favourite uncle what she had made. She refused their generous offers of putting a brand on it (greasy thumb marks)!!! I was just a little bit proud of her effort and finished product also!

And I sat at her machine when she left and nearly finished my xmas item for May!! - that was my bonus for the day!! Photos tomorrow.

Hope your weekend is working out' just fine like mine has!!



Just In The Nick Of Time!!

Today is gloomy, cold and WET!!!! loving the weather here today - the fire is stoked up, soup will be bub ling away on the stove shortly and the ground is soaking up this wonderful rain.

I finally got to the vegie garden last Sunday (with the help of a 14yr old friend) and cleared the fallen branches away - it has only taken me 2 months to get the job done!!).

Remember a couple of months back I had great intentions of cleaning up this mess:

 

 

Well here it is all cleared, partly weeded, vegie bed all manured and dug up.

I can even get into the pot house (and amazingly after a couple of months neglect there are plants alive in their still!!

 

 

So by the weekend when I have bought the seedlings this bed will be all ready and moist to start planting. I am only about 5 weeks behind with my winter vegie planting. never mind it is all on track now. And my 14yr old helper is coming out again to help weed and prepare all of the big container beds for planting also. It is nice to actually see where I have been for a change!!!

 

 

 

 



I Felted A Bit More!

After creating the Hat Masterpiece we then set about creating a scarf. A little bit more work at home and it will be ready to wear!

 

Laying out the 'silk' fabric - the base of the scarf. 

The raw wool fleece and pre felts placed ready for the elbow grease to be applied - the actual felting!



 

 Above and following are some of the other scarves ready to be felted - all very diverse. The finished products were really lovely - I think I will be doing some more of theses!!

 

This is my scarf after felting. It turns out the 'silk' fabric wasn't silk sand it of course didn't felt to the wool fibre so I discarded that. I am happy with the end result but will do a bit more felting of the scarf and maybe some embellishment later.

 

 

I have found the silk scarves that I ordered last year to have a go at making scarves - now that I have done one I am full of ideas to try. Today I am off to town to spend the day sewing with my mother and later this evening we will be sewing with a couple of our crafty friends. What more could I ask for!!

 



 

 

 



The Start Of A Masterpiece

Today there was no housework, no yard work, no sewing - Today there was creating!!!

Twelve ladies gathered at Narrandera today to make a masterpiece - I was one of those twelve!

 

These are the raw materials I chose.



 

Next is the finished preparation - looking a bit like Cousin It's cousin here!

 



Now the hard elbow grease is applied

 



 

Checking if the elbow grease is paying off



Here I am trying to seal the edges without a seam - that huge wrinkle of excess felt is a bit of a worry...



Now I have cut the base and taken out the plastic pattern and still trying to smooth the edges!



and here is the masterpiece stretched over the shaper

 





and from the other side........ are you ready for the big reveal...... here goes

 

TAADAA!!!!!!!! My very first felted hat!!! i will be doing a bit of shaping and more felting over the net couple of days, adding some..... something anyway........ I promise it won't look like hillbilly hat but it will be a MASTERPIECE!!!

 

Well that's the plan anyway!!!

 

Have a GREAT weekend...........y'all come back now!!!

There will be further updates on the progress of this masterpiece!!



Mother's Day 2013

A lovely Mother's day for me this year - slow, lazy but I did achieve something!!! For the whole of today I had our youngest grandchild with me (mum, dad and siblings were all working on their farm) so we went into town to see my mother (Ruben's great grandmother). Here he is looking all innocent waiting me out so that he could get back into the drawers behind him - you see he found that they opened today!!

earlier in the morning I awoke to the MOTH and friend doing a bit more cleaning up around the sheds (since having a shed very close to our house burn down during the night 20 years ago I have had a great fear of fires and smoke!!), so I just had to go out and check it out and of course take a photo for proof in the future. I now find I sometimes get a great deal of pleasure from some fires!!

 

And aren't the flames of a fire full of emotions - they can be gentle, brutal, mesmerising, vicious and so much more!! This fire had the lot including satisfaction because it meant there was another heap of rubbish gone, gone, gone.

Wandering around today before Ruben came I started to notice that the change from autumn and winter is appearing. Time to gather the pumpkins now that the leaves and stems are dying .... a bonus here as I found a lot more pumpkins than I thought I had... lots of pumpkin soup ahead!!

Weeds, pumpkin vines and stray sorghum or Doc weed are changing colour and drying out - another sign winter is on it's way.

I am thinking this is one of the mandarin trees I planted a few years ago that is finally establishing - look at the fruit coming on it!!

And this is my latest companion (not by choice tho). this is black velvet, who belonged to my youngest son's girlfriend. She had her as a tiny baby, who unbelievably grew up and started getting out of their town yard into the neighbours. velvet greeted me one afternoon, tied to my clothes line. Now she follows me everywhere I go, along with a couple of cats and the dogs - talk about the pied piper!!!
Here she is checking out my big achievement for the day - stacking all the wood from the scattered wood heaps onto pallets and actually convincing one male to shift them nearer the house and in a straight, neat tidy row!!





And I have big pieces around the outside of each pallet and all the little pieces on the inside (that is because I stacked them and I am a crafter and can think ahead to how easy it will be to get the required size I want!!). Now all I have to do is get a chain saw and axe into the hands of the MOTH and get all the pine boards laying around chopped into chips and small pieces.

And now at 11.13pm it is steadily raining here - such a lovely noise on the tin roof - for how long I don't know but it is such a lovely finish to a different but lovely Mother's day.

I do hope you all had a wonderful day shared with your biggest treasure - your family.

Home.....

I am home after 6 days away in Moree for the CWA State Conference.  I had a lovely time catching up with people and meeting lots of new people.  As usual the strength and abilities of the women of our country shone through.
Not too impressed with spending 8 hours on a bus on 2 days - but we had to get there somehow - I do like my creature comforts and pit stops whenever I feel like it!!lol
Spent the first hour at home dealing with 3 cats trying to tell me how neglected they were while I was away - they had to spend each night outside and feeding was hit and miss. I had to really slam the hall way door to keep them in the kitchen area - because 3 times they got the door open and landed on our bed thinking they might spend the night there!!
And here are the silly pair of the 3 this morning - you could be forgiven for questioning the sanity of this pair - no fire going but sitting there gazing at it!!



 

 

You could be forgiven for thinking they were vain - staring at their own reflections! But no..... they were staring at the fire door in the hope it would magically open and let out the bird that had come down the chimney yesterday. Poor bird is doomed no matter what he does.

 

Hoping you all have a lovely weekend. I will be back tomorrow after I have got the dreaded washing and cleaning done, etc etc etc .......

OPAM

Only 2 items for OPAM 2013 being run by 'Peg' (http://happyinquilting.blogspot.com.au . It has been a month where I haven't been at home and not much of anything has been achieved. Oh well, one more week and everything should be back to normal and I will be home everyday and getting everything up to date and lots of sewing and craft done (well that's the plan!! anyway).

 

 

 

I am all packed for my week in Moree next week at the CWA of NSW State Conference. Early rise on Sunday morning to catch the bus (4.30am!!). Looking forward to meeting and spending time with all the wonderful ladies of CWA.

 

Saturday will be another early rise - I am the organiser of a market day the Griffith branch of CWA are holding - setting up tomorrow (Friday) afternoon. Lots of stallholders having clean outs at home and selling their wares - that could be dangerous to my wallet!!

 

Tomorrow night sees our eldest son making a flying visit. He is coming down to pick up a truckload of hay and grain and heading back home again. Of course I have to stay up to see him and his family, guess I am going to be a little tired by saturday evening!.

 

Hope to find the time to post with photos of our trip up and the week in Moree - taking my laptop with me - have to keep up with all of blog reading don't I!!

 

 

Cheers Kerrie