Today I fell in love.

With this book.

Today the boys and I joined the library and I discovered Mary Engelbreit's Home Sweet Home. It is so beautiful. I have included a couple of my favourite things from the book. I think I am in love with red rooms at the moment. I think I need some red in my life. It is truly a wonderful book. The library doesn't want it back until April, but I think I will still want it in April! I'm going to have to buy one for myself I think.


It's hard to believe that today is the last day of February. I have lots to do in March. I'm looking forward to it!

Snappy Friends Challenge - starting with Y

Young.

Starts with a"Y"

Check out the Snappy Friends blog for more.

Sewing at my new house.

This is my sewing room. The room is quite nice. It's just the furnishings that leave a little to be desired! I have my little sewing machine (The one I take to classes. We all have several, don't we?) and my little iron. I have been sewing with a camping chair, but managed to pick this one up from Kmart today for $8. Much more satisfactory. Not as low as the camping chair! I also picked up a fat quarter pack of flannel from Lincraft today and I'm in the process of making a shaggy flannel bunny rug.

That's just like a shaggy flannel quilt, but without the batting. Eventually, this will be a very nice sewing room. Once I put all my good stuff in it. Well, maybe not ALL my stuff. This living without stuff makes you think that maybe you have too much stuff. And maybe you will be careful about what you put in your house when the stuff actually gets here. Maybe.

Baking today.

I'm baking today. Banana bread. I thought I had everything I needed. Then.

No salt.
No scales.
No loaf tin.
No cake cooler.

Hopefully it will taste good despite the deficiencies! (Hey, I had bananas! I think they're most important!)

Home again

My Bradley and I drove home to Melbourne on Tuesday. It took all day because he had some work to do on the way. Some work on the shores of Lake Alexandrina (it was such a pretty day) and at Wellington in South Australia.

These flowers were just so pretty. Like jewels. Like something old fashioned that Rachel Ashwell would put in her "shabby chic" home. I spent a lot of time taking photos and stitching while waiting. Oh. And getting sunburnt.

It was good to be home again after 5 nights away. All my Melbourne kids missed me and told me individually yesterday that I should never go away ever again. Of course, I did miss them, but it was good to visit with my Adelaide kids. (I got to see all four of them and their families.) Yesterday I spent the day washing. Sounds humdrum, but it was a pretty thrilling day for me. I have been without a washing machine since we left Adelaide so my Bradley and I picked up the washing machine just before we drove home to Melbourne. We have all our things in storage in Adelaide and are "camping" in our house in Melbourne. It makes for an interesting life. Last night I was cooking stew and it wasn't until I was reaching for the pantry door that I realised that I didn't have any cornflour to thicken my stew! I so miss my "stocked" pantry! Something we usually just take for granted. Hopefully we will have our things in a month or so. Until then, we improvise! (Or send Bradley to the shops!)

Snappy Friends Challenge - Brown

If you must know (truth in blogging here) I skipped a challenge. Chookyblue tells me this is not exactly kosher. She pointed out the word "challenge" to me. Ahh yeah. Animals. There are none round my house. Brown, however we had in spades. So here it is. Brown.

(Yeah, check out the rest of the Snappy Friends stuff. They take amazing photos!)

Today.....

Got up at 4am this morning in order to catch a plane to Adelaide. Tired now, but it has been a great day. Watched Miss 18 and granddaughter do things like this. Going to do that some more tomorrow too.

..... and from the back. (And an adventure)

I think his tail is very cute!

So, today's adventure in Melbourne involved a quilt shop! We have been here in Melbourne for some time now (a month? ish?) and I haven't been to a quilt shop. I have googled quilt shops and looked in the yellow pages and had not really "found" any quilt shops. I asked someone in Spotlight if they knew of any ...... and they didn't. I asked someone in Lincraft about quilt shops and she did know some. In fact she was very helpful. She wrote the addresses of three on the back of my docket. Very helpful. But I didn't "know" the areas of those three and whilst I am very adventurous for the kids (Lab coat needed? Oakleigh? Sure I can find that! Text book supplier? Hawthorn East? Yup!) I couldn't quite talk myself into it for me. I was discussing my plight with Loz via email the other day and she gave me a link to a shop's blog. When I checked it out (Foothills Fabric and Threads) it turned out it was on a road I often travel on! Of course, it was some 10 kilometres further down that road, but I felt brave enough to find it. So, I have been to a quilt shop. Thank you Loz! Whilst I was there I picked up the book for the latest Chookyblue stitchalong and am planning to stitchalong this year! I can't wait!

make it bunny

This is the fellow I was stitching in the tent. I finished him today. Hmm..... just realised that this is a pretty scary photo. A bunny on a stove! (It was getting late and the stove had the best light!) Rabbit pie anyone? I bought this kit from Spotlight because I really wanted some stitching to do. He was great fun and I even have someone in mind to give him to, so a win/win situation all round. Oh! Just realised I didn't photograph the back of him, and it's the cutest part!!!

Progress

I have been making progress. My stitching from the tent is almost finished. I have taken Leanne's advice and bought some glue to baste the hexies so I can get more sewn. (It's working a charm Leanne. Thank you for the link you sent me!) And I have been creating some fabric to make a bag with. (Photos of everything to come)

We are getting settled into our new house. We not only hear Kookaburras singing in this new house but also frogs, and last night as I hung out the washing we saw bats flying overhead. We are also beginning to discover our new area. We visited the Heide Museum of Modern Art yesterday. I really liked it and think I will go back again. So many truly beautiful things to look at there! Today we visited the Queen Victoria Markets and Lost and Found Market which Miss 18 fell in love with. She wants to move into that market and live there!

Not sure what tomorrow will bring. I want to stay home and sew. We'll see!

Saturday night at Bunnings

We were in Adelaide last Saturday night and went to Bunnings for a bit of fun. (Bunnings is a hardware store and Mr 16 has a gift card to spend there) We walked up and down every aisle until I noticed this wonderful sunset happening over the timber yard. I stopped to admire it and Mr 16 and Miss 18 wandered up and down without me.

Snappy Friends Challenge - Water

Rain at our new house last Thursday. Then Friday it rained enough to cause flash floods. I missed that rain though because I was driving to Adelaide. See more of the challenge here at the Snappy Friends blog.

February? How did that happen?

I took these photos last night in the tent, but was too tired to post them. Tonight we are sleeping our first night in our new house in Melbourne. Weird, huh? I did some stitching whilst in the tent. The new house is different and strange. There are some lovely things about it. Tonight we heard kookaburras. We are right next to a creek and the kookaburras are, hopefully, the sound of birds to come!

Hexies

We moved to Melbourne, but we didn't have a house to move to so we have been staying in a caravan park in our tents. My Bradley has started work and is enjoying it. I have been lazing around with the kids. Playing games and playing games. Oh. And stitching hexies that I bought from Jane (the patchwork apple) in her closing down sale. You can see them above. January is nearly over and they are the only stitching I have done! It has been a lean month craftwise. Today has been a good day though because we got a house! We move in a week so goodbye tent!

Snappy Friends challenge - bark!

Over the weekend we moved to Melbourne. (Finally!) It's quite strange being "between" houses. We are staying in a caravan park in our tent. (The kids think we are on holidays, but it feels a tad "homeless" to me!) Chookyblue has started up the Snappy Friends challenges again and my caravan park has "bark" so I am off and running.




The gum trees with all the bark hanging off them are amazing. Birds love these trees because the hanging bark offers a wealth of homes for insect life. The last photo shows the casing of an insect of some description attached to the bark.

Favourite things Friday

My kids at the Chinese Gardens in Darling Harbour in Sydney
Picklesticks on the left, Miss 18, Mr 22, Miss 20 and Miss 24 on the end.

I have been meaning to join in with Quilting in My Pajamas Favourite things Friday since she began, but never quite got there. Right now I am supposed to be moving to Melbourne (Never mind that the road to Melbourne is flooded as we speak and there is no way we could have driven there today) but I have been sick and have held up the moving process single handed. I have spent a week in bed with temperatures of 39C plus and am not back on my feet yet. So, moving is postponed a bit. (Next week?)

My favourite thing this week is family holidays. We have had so much fun! Once we move to Melbourne only one of those little children in the photo above will be living with us. Seems strange to be abandoning such little children! Of course, then I think that this photo was taken about 17 years ago and I feel O.L.D. We have travelled to Brisbane, Sydney, Alice Springs, and everywhere inbetween. Exciting adventures!

It must be boxing day!

Lots of boxes were filled today. Everyone helped. Everyone from Mr 10 through to my Bradley. We have been in this house for 18 months now and Mr 10 has grown so much in that time. He is hoping that he is gearing up for a Paton boy stretch. Both of his brothers began the stretch at 12 and then were taller than the 6 foot Bradley when they were 13. Mr 22 is 6'4" and Mr 16 is 6'5". I'm not sure how tall Mr 10 hopes he will grow. I think he will be disappointed if he is not taller than his Dad. But we will see. I tell him that we are all different and even though his height is already prescribed by his DNA none of us know what that height will be until he finishes growing. Anyway, a good day of packing. More tomorrow!

Goals

One of my goals for 2010 was to make some things for myself, and for my family. If you came into my house before then you wouldn't necessarily know that I was a quilter. I had made a lot of things, but had mostly given them away. Not like Loz's house and Claire's house. They have the most beautiful quilty homes. I'm sure most of you do because I see your homes on your blogs. As I was busy considering some goals for 2011 (a bit slow I know, but I will get there) I came across this photo. I love it! My table with the runner I made and the china I use every day that I collected from three different op shops! It makes me so happy to use this china every day. I had to convince my Bradley that it was a good idea. He was worried that since I love it so much it was too precious to use every day. We even put it in the dishwasher! So, some of my goals of 2010 were accomplished. It must have been a pretty good year!

Welcoming 2011 with a bang - 600th post!

Gum trees at Hahndorf

January. Another year has begun. Hard to believe because I don't think I'm quite used to writing 2010 yet and it's over! 2010 was a fairly uneventful year for me (Perhaps not. The birth of a granddaughter and the wedding of a son have just sprung to mind.) and 2011 looks to be a little more action packed. We are starting with a move in January. Where too? Not sure yet. Have to pack and move though! I'm sure we will find something! - Gosh! That's very glass half full of me. Perhaps that's a confidence I'm not actually feeling in real life. The "blog me" is just a tad superhero I think. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound and overcome crippling doubts in a single post! So, I'm packing. It's three weeks till moving day.

I am also excited about 2011 because I am going to do more art quilting. This is something I have longed to do for years now, but was too afraid to try. (What's with that whole scaredy cat thing? Why do we do that? It's so crippling!) I have discovered that if I want to produce some art I need more visual input. More inspiration. I do get plenty of input here on the internet (that's my excuse for all this surfing and I'm sticking to it!), but I think I need to take more photographs and see more exhibitions. I haven't produced a comprehensive list of "want to"s for 2011 yet. I'm still thinking about it. I have loved reading everyone's 2010 wrap ups and their 2011 lists. It has been inspiring!

Oh. And this is my 600th post. I thought I would hit this milestone in 2010, but a case of uninspireditis kept me from posting much in December. I had a bit of a slump in December. Too tired and too headachey to be too cheerful I think. I have had a pretty good week this week though. Glad to be finished with Christmas (Bah Humbug!) and with two kids away holidaying in Sydney (Misses 24 and 18) life is simpler. It's a numbers thing. Much easier to be fewer than more, it's not a reflection of the kids who are away! We have had a fun week with the three youngest kids left at home. Just the five of us.

Bottlebrushes

Don't ya just love bottlebrushes? I do. I love the colours! I spent this morning cleaning the kitchen. We had guests for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Christmas day and every meal was cooked. I do clean as I go, but the kitchen ended up trashed! This afternoon I started drawing. Planning for my silkscreening. Drawing is so much fun! I haven't drawn for such a long time. I plan to draw for the rest of the week!