JANUARY IS GONE ALREADY!!

A quick thankyou to all of those who have visited my little corner of blogland through the Grow Your Blog Party - there are over 400 blogs to visit and enjoy!! If you are visiting as part of the party my GYBP post is here

The last day of January already where has the month gone?? The last week has been busy with back to school - Karah is now in Year 6 and the first week has been good for her.

 

 

We have also been busy getting her dancing requirements and the first classes of the year (Tap, Jazz and Acrodance). Next week we will also be fitting in touch football.

 

So with 3 evenings a week being at after school activities it means that Ma-ma has to be very organised - thus today meals are being prepared to go in the freezer for those nights we are late home - cook some mashed potato or rice or pasta as soon as I get home and we will be dining within half an hour!!

 

 

First meal off the block - Beef casserole - a bit more to add to it yet but smelling good at the moment!!lol Sweet and Sour Chicken along with Curried Mince are next on the agenda!! Tired of grabbing take away on the way home.

Friday morning saw me having breakfast with these two - Oliver was having a serious discussion with Nanny!! He gabbles away non stop - mum answers with the really, is that so and he is happy!!

 

 

I did get some creative time to myself - I finished 9 Journal/Diary covers that have been sitting in my sewing room for a couple of months looking at me. That certainly felt good.

 

 

I have been working on hand towels that have been looking at me for a couple of months but just not quite finished yet!!

Last weekend I spat the dummy and went and hired a pressure cleaner - after very little being done around our house and my mothers for the last 12 months both houses needed a really good clean. Our house in particular was covered in webs and spider were multiplying at a fast rate. My dummy spit didn't do me any good because the pressure cleaner was too big for me to handle. Anyhow the MOTh came good and spent 3 (yes I said 3) hours cleaning our house down!!!

 

 

This shows you how bad the spiders and their webs were!!!!

 

 

Now we have to wear sunglasses so we aren't blinded by this new look house!!! Not only looks great but feels so much better. Now I am on another throw out in the house!! I have plans of painting inside this year and also replacing the 40 year old carpet with floating floor boards so the more I can remove the easier it will be!!

 

 

Time spent last weekend at mums cleaning up another part of her back yard. That is my sidekick, Little Nathan, back again helping me. Hopefully I will finish the backyard this weekend and then move out to the front yard - that is going to take a bit longer - lots more garden beds and weeding out there.

 



 

3 hours weeding and we could see the garden bed soil!! Success!! I have mulched it down heavily with rice straw since then. When it cools down we will be doing a big plant up of geraniums, lavenders, succulents and a few roses in all of the garden beds for her. All hardy plants that don't take a lot of maintenance but are green and flowering on and off throughout the year.

That is about it for me today. To bed early tonight - I hope to put in a few hours in mums garden again in the morning.

have a great weekend everyone!!

GROW YOUR BLOG

 

GROW YOUR BLOG PARTY

 

 

http://vicki-2bagsfull.blogspot.com.au

 - just click on this link to visit the 400+ bloggers who have joined in - it is a great way to find new blogs and meet wonderful people from all over the world!!

 

GIVE-A-WAY - at the bottom of this post I have a little give away - anyone who comments is eligible - so keep reading, comment and you are in ith a chance of winning a gift from me!!

 

Welcome to my little corner of the blog world. My name is Kerrie I am a daughter, mother of 5, and grandmother of 11 (5 natural, 6 step grandies - al great fun and very precious young people) - if you stick around your will meet them all on and off. I am a 'have-a-go-at-anything crafter', particularly love sewing, knitting and crochet - lots of other crafts have passed through the realms of my corner over the many years I have been creating (since I was about 8 years old).

 

 

The most recent photo ( I avoid photos as much as possible) of me at my son, Rheis' wedding last November.

 

I live just out of the town of Griffith, NSW in Australia. We are in an irrigation area here which make life that little bit easier when the state is in drought - it also enable the production of all types of crops, livestock and manufacturing (grains, fruit, vegetable, grapes, sheep, cattle, poultry, and all associated manufacturing and supply industries). 

 

 

The women of my family. The top photo is one taken of my sister, mother and myself at my son wedding in November. The bottom photo is of my two granddaughters, Abbey & Karah. We are now bringing up Karah as he

r mother (our daughter Naomi) passed away in July last year - and aren't I finding it hard going back to being a mother of a school age child!!!!

 

A few of the items I have made during the last 12 months. My crafting/sewing time has been cut back quite a bit now that I am running around with school things, sport and dancing again. I also spend a lot of time with my mother - she is 82 and has not been well for a while. We do sit and crochet together when I am at her house with her.

 

We live on 50 acres - my husband, Greg, works a full time job as well as growing Lucerne that we sell. We also sell grains, chaff (that we make) and rice straw (a lot locally and a lot we take down to Canberra). We have all the paraphernalia that goes with a hoarding farmer husband!! The usual animals of course - dogs (too many) cats (way too many - no mice or rats though), horses (only 1 is ours, the others belong to our sons), sheep (out in the paddocks of course).

Our life is as simple as we can make it - we have our own meat, grow most of our winter vegies and a few summer, we have planted fruit trees which are just bearing fruit this year (yummo) - I always try to cook all our meals at home but the pressures of raising a 10 year old and looking after mum get a bit much time wise at times and the good old takeaway pizza or fish and chips appear on our menu occasionally.

That is probably enough about me for now - don't want to bore you all silly!! Please click around my blog posts - and me, well I am off to start checking out some of the 400 other blog party goers!! Luckily Vicki is leaving the list and links up for the rest of the year so I can keep going back until I have checked them all out!!

 

GIVE-A-WAY

My giveaway to thank you for visiting as part of the Grow Your Blog Party is pictured below - 3 giveaways in fact. Anyone can be in the draw just by commenting on this post (you do not have to be a follower!!!)

 

Prize 1: Diary/Journal Cover with 2015 Diary;

Prize 2: Diary/Journal with 2015 Diary

Prize 3: Appliqued Tea towel and 2 Face Washers

You only have to comment once to be in the draw for all 3 prizes and as stated earlier you do not have to be a follower to enter!! The winners will be drawn and announced on February 15th.

The close off time for entering will be 12am (midnight AEST) 14th February 2015

 

Oz Day and Fabric Chosen

 

My parcel from the lovely Janice arrived yesterday and what wonderful swap presents were inside. I was Janice's 'To Make For' partner in the Australia Day Swap organised by swap mumma JEWELLS - we had to send our partners a gift for each letter of the word AUSTRALIA.

 

 

All the little parcels beautifully wrapped and individually tagged!!

 

 

A - Apron; U - Unicorn Stickit notes, S - Stitchery pattern, T - Thread Catcher, R - Red & White Ribbon, A - Apple Applique, L - Lollies (yummo and now all gone), I - Ink - 2 pens, A - Aboriginal FQ.

Such a clever girl is Janice - THANK YOU so much Janice - love them all and enjoyed opening each parcel!!!

 

2015 SAL NATURES JOURNEY

I have joined the 2015 Sal being organised by CHOOKY

 

 

Today, after a road trip to Narrandera where I purchased the background fabrics, I plunged into my stash and chose my applique and squares fabrics!!!

 

 

The colours in Anni's, while they look great, are just to pale for me, soooooo I decided I would go bright, bold and beautiful!!! lol!! And that is what I did. The background fabrics are the spots on the right, and the applique/squares are the brights on the left.

I have left them arranged like this on the bed and been back to look at them a couple of times and am happy with them each time - so the decision time is over - now to get started!!

 

 

 



GARDENING AND SWAPPING

 

I have found muscles and joints that didn't exist before yesterday!!!

 

8 bags of green rubbish cleaned out of mums pothouse and side garden!! This is why I know I have new joints and muscles today!!

 

Pothouse nice and clean and accessible. Still have to get heaps of potting mix to repot quite a few plants and to top up some pots.

 

My gardening offsider, Little Nathan, head down b... up in mums side garden. We couldn't walk down there without fighting the branches etc. I let the hose just run for half an hour in 4 different spots - the water just soaked away - mum hasn't been able to do anything for about 5 weeks and probably won't be able to do much outside again - so I have the job of getting the front and back gardens into shape (more soil, mulching and watering systems) as she loves to look out and see her plants.

 

 

These hibiscus flowers are on the one bush - it flowers for months every year and always has whole white and whole pink flowers - sometimes even 2 toned. It has been in the garden for about 20 years and catches the eye of everyone - especially if you park in the driveway next to it and have to climb out through the branches!!! I actually was twisting out the drivers window to get these photos - it would have been much easier to reverse the car back and get out!!!

 

On their way to someone somewhere in Australia - my Australia day Swap presents - this tested the brain cells - that was until I have seen what others have sent and I wonder if I have any brain cells working at all!!! Something for each letter of Australia - so easy when you see others efforts!!!

You can read all about Julie's Australia Day Swap HERE - I am all organised for the 2016 Australia day Swap Julie!!

 

Pledgging, Partying and sewing!!

 My first complete start and finish for 2015!!!

 

The January project for the SAL 2015.

 

Completed stitchery made into a gift bag!

 

I am participating in this again this year

There is only a few days left to sign up - which you can do HERE This is great way of finding wonderful new to you blogs and make those beautiful blog friendships!!

 

 

Shimika had another stay over and made another pillow case - she is the 3 child in a family of 4 girls and 2 boys - I think she gets lost in amongst all the goings on at home - she likes coming to stay as she has our full attention and gets to do some of the things she likes and there isn't time for at home.

 

Swap Pledge!!!

 

I, Kerrie - Channelbank Creations

.. will try my utmost...

· To always swap on time.

· To always email a THANK YOU to my partner.

· To be considerate and thoughtful when choosing a gift.

· To give my partner the quality of gift that I would like to receive.

· To communicate when it’s required.

· To NEVER over commit and let a partner down.

· To advise the swap mama when I receive my gift.

 

This I sewomly pledge....

 

 

 



Back Into The Grind!

 

24th December 2014 came and I shut down anything that required me to exert any energy!!! Christmas Day was spent at home - we went from being on our own to having one son and family for lunch, another son and partner during the afternoon and a third son and tribe (6 kids) for dinner. It was still a quiet and lazy day which we both needed. Boxing day I spent in bed because Rheis and Ollie in true Christmas spirit shared their tummy bug with me that they had the day before xmas!!!

 

Since then I have done a lot of nothing much. Staying home and doing a bit of sorting (doesn't matter how much I get rid of there is still a lot that can go), spending a lot of time with mum as she has been quite ill but is on the mend now.

 

So some photos of my shut down time!!

 

 

The extent of my Christmas decorating this year - two little displays in the loungeroom featuring the beautiful swap gifts that Peg and Illene made for me!! Thank you ladies!

 

Not much to pack away this year!!

 

 

Stewing fresh apricots for the freezer - jam to come next.

 

This why I hate summer - see that - 3.30pm and 47deg under our back porch; 6pm and it had dropped to 44deg!! This was on the 2nd Jan. I truly am a winter person - cool, damp and dreary that's me!!

 

 

A fresh ripe peach off our own tree - planted 18 months ago - we had enough to last Greg and I one week!!!

 

The only sewing I have done since well before Christmas - Granddaughter Shamika stayed overnight and wanted to make something - so a pillowcase it was. She was only half way through making it when Nathan came to pick her up so I finished it for her. She and her eldest sister are coming to stay overnight through the week so I guess I will be doing some more sewing!! I have decided from this little effort that I will make a pile of novelty pillowslips for the birthday box this year - the kids love them.

 

I have been doing a couple of rows a day on this crochet blanket - I started it 2 years ago but Adam's pup tangled up the big ball of wool and I couldn't be bothered doing anything with it back then. I sat and spent 2 hours untangling the wool and have started working on it again. I am using 2 yarns of 8ply so it is heavy and a little slower going than what I am used to.

 

 

And this is what I started on New Years Day!! I have been planning to do a Ripple Blanket for a long time so I am doing it now!! This I also do a couple of rows a day on - I have completed 2 colour sets now.

I have been cruising around everyone's blogs and watching everyone getting right into their stitching this year - some even finishing quilt tips and stitcheries. Not me, nope, this little black duck has really had a shut down period - but all of that is about to change!!!

 

 

I have joined Chooky's SAL - a new quilt from Anni at Hatched and Patched which hasn't been released yet - I am going to have to get myself organised to meet the monthly deadlines on this one.

I have also joined Cheryl's initial heart swap and Jewells' Aussie day Swap. That will keep me busy for a while I think.

 

 

This is the baby of the family - he was a bit bored on Christmas day and found my new camera - just a bit pleased with himself I think!!!

 

A selfie with dad who was snoozing away!

 

And poor little Sasha didn't know what was going on. I would often find selfies of this child when he was younger on my camera or phone!!

 

That about wraps it up for me. A busy week this week sorting out a couple more rooms and spending a fair bit of time with mum. I may even get a little sewing done - my sewing table is clear and I can actually walk into the room and just sit down and sew!! It happens sometimes.

Have a great week everyone!!