March Roundup

 

We've had some beautiful sunrises here lately .... This is what greeted me this morning as I walked out my front door ready to take Lucy for her morning walk!  It's meant to be a little cooler here today which will be nice.

Since getting back from Townsville, I've been  trying to work on things ready for Scrub Stitchin Retreat in just 11 sleeps!  Christine will arrive here on Monday after lunch sometime - when we will be putting finishing touches to our secret costumes for the Saturday Night "Winter Wonderland" Theme dinner. And then we head off from here in Corowa on Tuesday morning.

However - I have finished the Scrub Stichin Sewing Roll we received last year and I'm really quite
pleased with it - I might need to put a few things in it to take with me.

Here it is all rolled up ......

And after falling head over heels in love with Rosie Rabbit that Christine made a few months back ........ I really wanted to make one as well and figured Rosie needed a travelling companion ........  

 Meet Tilly Rabbit.  I used Tilda fabric for her feet, ears and of course her dress.   Would you believe this is the very First project I've ever used Tilda Fabric for?  Hence she needed to be named Tilly!

I'm so happy with her.  I managed to make some French knickers for her and her little dress has this wonderful old fashioned button I found in my Grandmothers button collection that I felt was the perfect finish for her little dress!  We plan to make coats for them whilst away on retreat from some of the felt we purchased from that wonderful little felt shop we visited when I was down in Melbourne for a couple of days with Christine in January!

I am also keen to have a little travel quilt to take with me!  I started planning it last year with help
from Janice after seeing one of her quilts at last retreat.  Then I ran out of one of the fabrics and had to go searching for something ........ similar is the best I could do ......... and then it was all packed up out the way for a number of months whilst lots of other stuff happened ....... and then at the start of March I pulled all the bits out and tried to remember how it was set out ...... more cutting and placing and I'm making progress!  I tried putting up a planning sheet across the wardrobes .... it fell down just after this photo ..... then I tried putting it up again with hooks ....... which didn't work either .... and when I looked at this photo I actually had the blocks sitting the wrong way anyhow, so lucky it all fell down lol   I started again using the spare bed - which Christine needs to use ....... so I need to get moving on it as I don't want to be packing up little blocks again so the bed can be used lol

When we arrived back from Townsville the pool was green!!!  Naturally that was the week Pete was helping a farmer friend and the pool vacume was missing a piece .... Pete suggested getting somebody in to take care of it for us since I was also working all that week ..... at the end of the week they finally got back to us to tell us (after looking at a photo ) $550 to come out and do it but it could be more once they get out there and look in person!!!!  No way was I accepting that - by which time the pool was greener ........ So $158 later I purchased the missing bits plus a pile of chemicals and spent the better part of the past week getting it back to how it should be!!!  It certainly cut into my sewing time lol

And before I forget ....... I got to work as soon as we got home on trying to get my crochet window decorative cover done ........  I had thought of finishing it here at this point, so have had it hanging on top of the current curtain ....... but I'm thinking I might continue it down to a kind of point ..... and definitely remove that horrid curtain that was there when we purchased the house 3 + years ago! And of course the window sill will need to be decorated appropriately too!!!  I'll also need to find correct hooks to hold it in place.  I'm really happy with the colours and the size of the blocks.  It will be even better once Pete puts in the new fence which will be about a foot or so higher giving a bit more privacy too!

Well, I best get going as I have a few chores and plenty of sewing to work on today - Have a great day everyone xo

Townsville

It was pretty much a spur of the moment decision in some ways, although we'd been thinking about it for a couple of months - but we finally made it back up to Townsville to see our son Jaron, DIL Renee and Grandchildren - LJ, Jacey and Jaxson! 

We went down to Melbourne the day prior so we could also catch up with Stace & John briefly and Pete got to finally meet Benjamin Bunny and see how much Buttercup had grown.  

I couldn't resist putting this close up of Benjamin in here ......

And Carly made the effort to drop everything to have a chance to catch up with us as well and bring Abbie to see us!  Carly has been part of the family since she and Stace became best friends at 14 and she has granted Abbie to be our adopted granddaughter (which is even sweeter now that our eldest son has chosen to remove himself and Mila from us - I'm no longer choosing to apologise for his poor behaviour - enough said, but a shame Mila doesn't get to know us).  Abbie is such a sweetheart and will be 1 in May.

Finally on the plane - 3 hr flight.... and excited to be heading to Townsville .....

No in flight movies on this plane!  Thank goodness I had a book to keep me occupied ...... A Dilly Court ......

Jacey and Jaxson up early before we left

It was sooooo nice to see them again since we haven't seen Jaron since he made it to Melbourne in March 2023 when Pete was having his quadruple bypass and the others we haven't seen since we left Maryborough in October 2021 a week after Stacey and John got married!  Jaxson, now 14, in particular ha grown heaps!!!  

LJ with Pete and I - he was on night shifts the whole time we were there, but he still spent time to sit and chat with us before needing to sleep xo

We were only there for a few days but we had such a lovely time with them!  We flew out from Melbourne as it was a direct flight saving 5 hrs of sitting around another airport.      Much to Lucy's horror she was left with our friends up the road - We had just had Bella here for 5 days whilst they were in Brisbane so it worked out well .... for us .......  Deb sent me this via snap chat lol

Saturday morning Nay had to work, so Jacey and I went to visit the Arcane Bookshop ..... look how

clever the set up of it is!  I very nearly purchased a book, but instead got a bookmark that not only looks good ..... it actually has a lovely feel to it if you can imagine that!

So many cool and amazing ideas that give this shop character ..... check out this photo with the butterfly's coming out from the books ......

It made me think about my little reading corner with my rocking chair ........ there is or are a few seeds I can feel fluttering around looking for something to grab hold of and turn into an idea that can be used in my space ...... the painted wall definitely helps 

Little whimsicals  everywhere

Jaron and Pete picked us up and we went to the shopping centre where Renee was working to catch up with her for lunch and do a bit of browsing/shopping ...........  And Pete bought me this lovely heart shaped Ruby Ring for our 40th Anniversary!  We decided to make Townsville our Anniversary Trip!  Pete bought some much needed shorts and singlet tops we haven't been able to get locally and I ended up in QBD coming out with a book from there and another from Big W lol

The shopping Centre  is using the focus of Womens Week to promote women who work within the centre ...... Renee is manager of City Chic in the Stocklands Centre.  Jaron did his "adoration of wifey pose" lol   We showed her all our photos which she thought was pretty cute xo

Me with my daughter in law - poster size and real life hanging out in the kitchen the next day lol

The boys went fishing on Sunday and Pete came home with a new rod which then had to have a homemade cover/holder made to be able to come on the plane with us .....Lucky Jaron has a good shed and the two of them got to work sorting it out.  Even LJ managed to hang off sleeping and went on the fishing trip getting to spend a bit more time with Pop which was pretty special given he is 20 now!

I love this photos!

All too soon we had to say goodbye to Townsville ....... (I realised as Jaron dropped us off and drove away that I didn't get a photo with my son! He was having to fly out to Phillipines for work a few hours after we left)    

                          And then into Melbourne - although we had a brief touch of the wheels to the ground before they took off again doing a lap of Melbourne before coming into land .... properly this time ......I can tell you everyone in the plane was a little anxious!

And then our 31/2 hour drive back up to Corowa!  We left at 5.20 from Jarons place and got to Corowa at 3.30 pm! But at least we made it!!!

I'm missing them already!

February Round Up and Celebrational Milestones

 

I was on a bit of a "downer" at the beginning of February and have just realised I actually celebrated my Blogs 15th Anniversary on the 5th February!  For some unknown reason, I tend to remember in January and again at the end of Feb!  The other Milestone for February was Pete and I celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary on the 23rd.  With all the fires and floods that were on we didn't end up booking to go away anywhere - so instead we are heading to Townsville next week for a few days to catch up with our Son Jaron, DIL Renee and our 3 wonderful grandchildren up there!  I'm so excited to be going up to see them.

Meantime, Pete has finished the Carport off and moved all the trailers and boat around so that everything is now undercover with plenty of room and some wonderful shade during summer and cover from the frost during winter........

On the day of our Anniversary neither of us felt inclined to go out as the weather was not the greatest so Pete spent time sorting out the carport to make everything fit nicely (whilst I did the sweeping bit lol) ..... and then I spent the time sitting and stitching Tilley the Rabbit!  I fell in love with the Luna pattern when I saw Christine's Rosie Rabbit and when we stopped in the felt shop that day I made sure to get some supplies to make one.  She has yet to have her dress made - but here she is picking out which Tilda Fabric she prefers ......

As usual, when I want Buttons I check out my button tin first.  It began with my Grandmothers collection when she passed away and I've added to it over the years

 - any clothes destined for the bin always have their buttons and zippers removed before going out and then get used for various other items ect ....... but this time while I was looking I happened to come across this one that I'd forgotten was in the tin .....

We managed to get a lovely crop of Apples from our 2.5yr old tree - our first real crop (I think last year we got 1 apple) ....... So I  made Apple Pie and Apple and Walnut Turnover and then have some cooked up in the freezer with just another dozen or so to pick from the tree sometime this week

More progress was made on the knitted jacket which I was working on as part of the Scrub Stitchin Group Challenge for February.  It's a different construction than what I've ever done previously

More progress is being made on the decorative window covering in the sewing room ...... (block pattern is by Bautawitch)

And I decided to have a go at one of the patterns I purchased whilst in Melbourne in January and make some of these little cuties.....

And that pretty much rounds up February .......... 

Hugs Sharm

February - keeping the momentum going

 I joined in on Friday night with the girls from Friday Night with Friends hosted by Chez ..... 

I was wanting to keep working on the knitted jacket I'm making as I have a bit of a time line I'm trying to stick to ..... This project is my "Owl" in the Group over on Ravelry that I'm playing along with and so I need to get to the 50% mark by the end of February ...... its proven to take a bit more time than other knitted items I've made for a while and it has a tighter tension, so the fingers get a bit sore ......... so to break it up - I also did a bit of crochet adding more blocks to my window covering

I've been having to take on apprentice work to help Pete with the carport project ...... all was going
rather well  ........ its a little bigger than I'd expected but with the heat we get here this will make a huge difference ....

I've had to help with the measuring and then standing on one of the ladders holding one end of the beams while he gets the other side in and bolted down .......

One more beam to go .... of course it didn't fit like all the others - just needed a tiny bit cut off the end ......

And then before he got to cut it ..... the disk on the grinder broke - thankfully he has only used the

4inch grinder since the big accident with the 9inch one in Queensland ....... still ....... he managed to slice his wrist - the one that has a huge lump from the way a broken bone was set in another life time - we are used to it looking like a massive lump but it sure threw the hospital staff into a frenzy!

We headed to the hospital at 10.30 to just get a couple of stitches ....... they thought he might have chipped the bone so it was then a further wait for the xray person to arrive (after waiting 1.5hrs for the doctor to come!!!) and then photos and calls to the orthopaedic surgeon in case he had to go for a surgical washout (prevention for bone infection if he had chipped the bone - thankfully he didn't) but the ortho suggested a back slab be put on for a week to minimize movement ......

I had dropped Lucy to friends when I thought we might have to head to Wang and be gone for hours on end - so we called back in and had some recovery drinks and debrief lol

The Chookshed Challenge is Number 10 for February and I'm pretty lucky with my list since I've left it open to any project for both knitting and sewing - so I'll be working on Kore - my knitted jacket and the crochet window covering for the yarn work and for the sewing - I'm working on a few things which I'll show you next time.

Until then

Hugs Sharm

Heat Wave

 

We are in the midst of a heat wave here with daytime temps in the 40s celcius ..... the other day it got to 46 degrees!  We could sure use some rain which is crazy since the north of the country is in flood! Great sunrises, and its always nice to walk down to the river early in the morning and get home before the heat builds up.

Look closely and you can see the kangaroos having a feed

Here we are in Feb but first let me do a quick recap of my projects from January since I had a few finishes which is something to celebrate and I'll take all the positives I can this year!

Being part of a group on Ravelry which has various challenges during the month to gain "house points" has helped get a quite a few of these smaller projects done - especially the dishcloths - I never seem to have enough made on hand as I give them away as gifts and thankyous, ensure both ourselves and our daughter have sufficient on hand and now has a little shop that has asked for some.  The sewing room got a clean up 

Work has progressed on the crocheted squares to make the window covering for the sewing room

And I made more progress on the Scrub Stitchin project ...... and I did work out what to do with my Number Chookshed Challenge project but it is awaiting material to get it to the next stage so you will have to wait for photos of that one

My medal arrived showing the 1483.11kms I managed to walk during 2024.  I'm hoping to improve on this for '25.  Note that this is not daily steps but dedicated logged walks!  Lucy should have one as well lol

So that's a wrap for January ........ And now its February ...... Today being Dads birthday which has been a little sad but also happy since he really had not wanted to be celebrating another birthday - instead he celebrates in Heaven .

Today was Apron making ........  My own pattern that I have used for years ..... The newspaper pattern I cut out is yellow with age and this is the 3rd one I think I had to renew .... the date on the newspaper is from 2012 lol

Until next time, Hugs and Prayers to you all my friends - May Gods Blessings be upon you.

Hugs Sharm