About Me
- Kris
- I am a mother of eight and grandmother of four who loves to make and create. Rosemary Hill is the name of our home where we live, work, learn and create together
Monday 31 December 2007
"Sewing Reigns Supreme During Heatwave"
My Mum is busy rearranging her garden and these two statues are having a rest at the moment. They were named "Tommy" and "Angelica" by my children many years ago. (You can tell which tv show was their favourite!) I took this photo on Christmas Eve and can't believe how cool it was then!
Most of the kids are participating in a "Stargate"athon. Series after series after series! I'm not much into spaceship shows and fortunately my sewing machine is in a room where there is an old movieathon happening! "Daddylonglegs", "Calamity Jane", "Meet Me In St Louis", etc, etc. Today I am sewing pinafores for Mrs 23 and nighties for me. And this evening I will be cutting out dresses for Miss 10 so that the sewing can continue tomorrow! I actually don't mind this heat because I can stay at home and sew without getting a hard time from people who think I "should" be out doing things or who want me to take them out! Hmm.....I think I hear the pool calling my name......................
Saturday 29 December 2007
Swimming & Sewing
Eventually our maximum hit 41 degrees. So we hit the pool a few more times! My Bradley went to the shops and whilst there bought a Pooh Bear calendar for 2008. It's very cute! It's hard to believe that in just 3 days it will be 2008. This year seems to have flown by. I am looking forward to the new year. I want to sew more clothing, more home furnishings, and more quilts. I love the calendar Bradley got because it just seems so happy! I want that to rub off onto me this year. More happiness and more fun, especially more fun with the kids. I guess those are my New Year's resolutions. More sewing and more fun. Mmm..... a little hedonistic I think, but definitely what I need at the moment.
I can't wait for January and "a happy sort of day"! Hope yours is happy too!
Thursday 27 December 2007
What day is it today?
We have been doing all sorts of little jobs around the house since Christmas. It's good to get those things done! I hope to spend next week sewing. Hopefully the next time that I talk to you there will be freshly made things to show you.
These grapes are from the pergola at my mother's house. Aren't they beautiful? I love gardens and gardening, but since water restrictions were introduced several years ago my garden has gone to rack and ruin! I think we are on level 3 or 4 restrictions at the moment (can't remember), but I had trouble watering with level 1 restrictions (The watering times were really difficult for me. They were at my busiest times.) and everything died. Perhaps 2008 will see me concentrate more on the garden. It must be the end of December because my head is full of New Year's resolutions. More about them soon!
Tuesday 25 December 2007
My 50th Post!!!
Can you believe that this is my 50th post? To celebrate I have brought you some flowers. Some Hollyhocks from my Mother's garden. We spent Christmas Eve at my Mum and Dad's house together with my sister's family and my brother's family. This is a tradition we keep to each year. We eat a meal together in the evening and then we share and open presents. When we go home we each have one present to take with us. Each year we draw names out of a hat, and those people are who we buy for next year. I really love this tradition because it means we don't have to take so much stuff home!
My Dad cooks chickens in the webber and roasts potatoes in the oven. My Mum makes salads and a Christmas pudding and we all bring something that our family would like to eat. Mum also provides ice-cream and jelly for the younger members of the family who don't like pudding. Some rather rude youngsters refer to the fruit in the pudding as "dead flies". ("No thank you Grandma. I don't eat dead flies. They're not good for you.") Badly brought up hooligans! Their mother ought to be ashamed!!! (And I would be, but Miss 21 first uttered this phrase at 2 tears of age and it's been a long time and this phrase is now part of our family history and we're quite fond of it now.)
Saturday 22 December 2007
"Once there was a snowman..."
Thursday 20 December 2007
Musings in the middle of the night.
Tuesday 18 December 2007
Reno work.
This photo shows the finished product. I'm going for a "beachy" look. A sort of casual, modern beachy look. On the way to Christmas I'm hoping to paint.
New doors. Having pretty doors can make such a difference to your home! I love these doors. I already have a few in place and hopefully these will be installed by the new year. (I know this will shock you, but I'm going to paint them with Wattyl Orchid!)
Monday 17 December 2007
I won something!
Thank you Kirsty! We love it. It has already been to heaps of places with us! Most interesting is little kids' reaction when they see Mr 13 with the bag. One little guy even called out "Hey! There's a monster on your back!".
Sunday 16 December 2007
An air of creativity!
Miss 10 made a bag. Miss 15 started the creativity today. She spent time making softies and then started a quilt. It's her first "grown up" attempt at a quilt. She has made some quilts before when younger. They were not very successful because she didn't want me to look at them in order to help her. Today, however, she asked for advice and how I would do it. Just mechanically, she made all of her colour choices herself and all her placement choices too.
I have been knitting today. I forgot to take photos of my knitting! Rest assured, there's plenty of time to see it! I am knitting a jumper. I am notoriously slow at knitting anything that requires more than one piece knitted!!! And this jumper requires 4 pieces. I am nearly finished the back.
This is what I have been doing whilst knitting. Yes! Watching "White Christmas". I am an old-movie-aholic and my favourite kind of old movie is the musical. So I was incredibly surprised to find that I hadn't seen this movie before. I watched it today with and without the commentary. I love commentaries! Do you like them? I love all the stuff you find out!
Friday 14 December 2007
Printing and lights!
The kids have been doing some printing. Mrs 23 made some of the stamps they used in her textile course this year. These two pieces of fabric were printed by Mr 13. He made the flower stamp himself from a black custard tart tray from our local bakery. They used an acrylic paint/textile medium mixture to print on some calico. I really love the stuff that Kirsty does with her kids. You should pop over to her blog and have a look! They don't just end up with pieces of fabric, they have finished items! We have yet to get to that point. It's something we have to work on.
Another important development this week (well, according to the two youngest members of our family) was the puting up of the icicle lights. Bradley and the kids put the lights up on Monday night and then we went for a drive to look at lights in our neighbourhood. Fortunately, there are quite a few really impressive displays nearby. Ours is kind of mediocre, but the little kids are easily impressed! (young kids are such good value for money!) It was quite windy when I took this photo. Our front yard looks like we are renovating (Well!!! We are!!!) so I'm hesitant to call any attention to it, but as long as we only turn them on after twilight it's all good!
Tomorrow I'm hoping to fill, sand and paint. Well, I have to fill and sand. I'm hoping to paint! We're working on the "big couch room" at the moment. (That's REALLY how we refer to it! We so have to "name" our rooms as soon as we finish them! Do any of you name your rooms???????????)
Wednesday 12 December 2007
More on the kitchen
Sunday 9 December 2007
The start of something big.
Friday 7 December 2007
I finished something!
It's still sort of a scarf. A scarf and a hood all rolled into one. I'm sure there is a name for one of these but I don't live anywhere cold enough to know the name!
This scarf/hoody thing is for Miss 21 who is overseas in the snow as we speak. But I got Miss 10 to model the scarf for you. She thought it was a huge joke. Modelling a warm hat in summer!
I also made bunting. Bunting is one of my most favourite things ever, despite the fact that I have never owned any! I don't know if you noticed or not, but our stall at Art at the Hart had bunting. That's because Mrs 23 made some for markets. I'm not sure why bunting appeals to me so much. I think it has something to do with tv. Every great tv show has bunting. Like "As Time Goes By" when they throw the Christmas party for the old folks, like "Ever Decreasing Circles" when they are setting up for the Vicars and Tarts dance, and like just about every "Darling Buds of May" episode! Maybe I just love it because it's so British and it's sooooooo happy.
I have been collecting inspirational bunting photos from all over the net. But it wasn't until I saw Tiel's bunting (OK. I think it was Tiel. It was a while ago.) that I thought I could actually make some. She made some small bunting that was "pinked" around the edges and I thought, "I could do that!". So I did. I made some for a friend, but made so many triangles I ended up making some for me too! I love it when I accidentally get something like that.
Sorry for the marathon post. I just had so many photos! My camera wasn't working for a while, and now it is so I am taking it everywhere and snap, snap, snapping! (Gosh I missed it!)
Thursday 6 December 2007
Funky Hairdo!
I have "put my back out". Not really sure what that phrase means, but it's what people say. My definition involves pain. Pain and not enough sleep. Can't get comfy. So there's not a whole lot of crafting going on. Actually, if buying fabric doesn't count as crafting, there's NO crafting going on!
Tuesday 4 December 2007
Art at the Hart
The day started out with quite a few of us there. We brought a tall boy to help us with our setting up, which meant we had to bring a small boy too, because you can't leave 7 year olds at home on their own!!! Miss 10 came too because she had her basketball game at 8:30am. Fortunately her game was at Port Adelaide and you can see the stadium from the Hart's Mill complex, so even Basketball SA was smiling on us that day! As the day wore on we dwindled in numbers because Bradley came to pick up any children who were bored.
This was the view from our stall. I'm refering to the water view here, not the guys!!! Hey! Miss 17 is a photographer, and we gave her the camera. She's 17, there were always going to be photos of guys! Don't you love the fly on the lens!!! There were so many flies in the morning. They thinned out as the day went on (perhaps they got bored too!)
It was an interesting day on the Port River. There were yachts racing and rescue craft and dolphins.
Now that it's Tuesday (ie a long time since Saturday) and the photos look so beautiful here on my blog I remember the day as a lovely day! On Saturday afternoon, however, it was HOT (38 degrees) and sunny and the flies were buggy and the music got louder and louder as the day went on and my head hurt! (In fact it hurt Saturday night and Sunday and Monday too!) All of us decided that we are not outdoor market kind of people. I remember a fervent discussion we had on the way to the car after packing up. We discussed the idea at length and came to the conclusion that we are etsy people. Cause you don't get sunburnt (aka skin damaged) from the light of your computer, and all the people you meet online are so nice, and we decide to open an etsy shop instead of doing another market! We just aren't outdoorsy people!
Of course, that's not to say that we didn't meet truely wonderful people at Art at the Hart, cause we did! It was a wonderful day and next year (Yes! It's on again next year!) I'm definitely going to go. As a customer only. There were so many beautiful handmade items there. It's a brilliant place to go Christmas shopping!
Saturday 1 December 2007
Ding dong merrily on high!
This is Mr 19 watching "Heroes" with his sister in his new room in November. We all had very busy days today, so we went out to dinner together this evening to celebrate. It was so nice to be together. Now we are going to hop in the pool for a "midnight" swim. Okay! It's not midnight, but it is dark. Splash!!!