FNSI

Last night was meant to be Friday night sew in.......it turned into Furniture night sit in... After we packed a heap of gear into the trailer straight after work......Can you see my glass of wine sitting there.......we packed DD stuff into the furniture moving trailer we hired to help her and her partner move to Melbourne.....about 300 Kms (3-4 hrs drive) from here.  We had a 2nd lot of furniture and boxes to pick up in Wangaratta at her partners parents place and then off we headed........ 

A pretty good trip down........during which time I finally managed to get some stitches done.......car rides equal crochet work for me as it's easy to quickly pick up or put down.  I managed to get one towel topper completed except for the flower, and start on a second one!

While I didn't get my Saturday walk in, I did cover 19 flights of steps with taking boxes and items up stairs to the new unit :)

They are in a lovely area, and very close to the beach and to shopping and trains......  But we didn't get much time to sit down as we had to get back on the road in order to return the trailer to Rutherglen before the 24 hr period was up.  Mission accomplished!

I'm looking forward to a sleep in tomorrow lol

Tomorrow is Friday!!

Tomorrow is the 3rd Friday of the month and its time for FNSI .... click on the link to find out more about it!  It's going to be a busy time for me...... after work, I'll be picking up a furniture trailer as we have to help DD and her boyfriend/partner move to Melbourne on Saturday - approx. a 3 - 4 hr drive from here, so I expect DH and I will be rather tired and exhausted by Saturday night!  I'm hoping to get a little stitching time in to keep some sanity....... perhaps even take the crochet hook with me during the drive!  It will likely be Sunday before I get to post about it, but I'm sure there will be lots happening with all the link ups down so far!  I'll catch you all Sunday xo

A bit of Stitching at last

Finally I'm back doing a bit of stitching ........ I made a start on one of the Sally Giblin designs I purchased on the weekend..... "Miss Bossy Boots" using some of the fabrics already here in my stash.....

 

 

I've also managed to get a little Christmas decoration stitched up ready for a swap I'm organising for one of the online groups I run....... I'm pleased with the way it's turned out.......

 

Last year I purchased a number of face washer with the intention of making them into little kitchen and laundry hand towels...... I managed to get a couple done by sewing some fabric tops to them, but I decided this time to try a crochet top, especially after seeing what Astri did with some kitchen tea towels.......... so here is my version which I'm pretty happy with and plan to make a few more of them for stocking fillers.......

Monday I took a drive 170 kms along the Murray Valley Hwy to Echuca to meet up with a friend who was down from Brisbane.  We've been doing this for a few years now each time she comes down to Vic to visit her Mum who lives further up the Murray around Swan Hill.......... here's a little pic of the Murray River at Echuca for you to see ....... it's famous for its paddle steamers.....

 

Visit my Garden

Before I take you for a look around my garden, I thought I'd mention I went into town today with hubbie ....... he was getting a hair cut and I had a crochet hook  to pick  up, (size 10mm- can't seem to find the 19mm I really need for the rag rug).......... well, since I had a few more minutes to keep occupied I had a bit of a look around "The Material Girls" patchwork shop (also has knitting and crochet supplies)   I found these wonderful patterns, and these 2 fabrics I think will work in nicely for the quilt top I want to make for our bed.........   The little sewing caddie you can see in the corner of the photo is an embroidery I made up a number of years ago when I was learning stitches.  It fits nicely over a chair arm.
Now onto the garden....... after talking on the phone to my mum today, who lives about 2000 kms from here.  We were talking about various things in the garden, and I thought it would be easier just to take photos and put them on my blog to see....... and at the same time you can all visit the garden lol
We have approx. 1/3 acre total which includes the house, sheds, carport, water tanks, my little craft cabin, vegie patch, pond area, fruit trees (white nectarine, apricots, peaches, plums, apples, pomegranate, lemon, lemonade, orange, mandarin, various berries, grapevine, passionfruit vine,  and ornamentals and flowers and herbs........ here is some of it

This is my favourite tree - it along with 2 other types of trees, a couple of bottle brushes and 5 gum trees were the only things here besides the carpet of prickles instead of grass, when we moved here 4 1/2 years ago!   Here's the tree from a different angle.....

Hope you enjoyed the visit.......... I'm off to do a bit of stitching now,
Hugs Sharm

Shooing Bunnies....

I've been busy shooing Dust Bunnies the past couple of days...... my goodness they've been busy over Winter and it seems like they have pretty much taken over the house!!  I have a huge allergy to them, so they need to go ....... 

 and after visiting Apple Blossom Dreams blog and seeing how neat Astri has her home looking, it inspired me to get back into the decluttering I had started on at the beginning of the year before we had all the changes and side tracks with various life crisis here.  It's certainly been an intense year and we still have a bit longer to go to see how a couple of those situations work out....... prayers over the next 2- 3 weeks would be most welcome for our family.



So a start has been made and I feel like I might actually be

able to start working out where things should go.  The house seems rather dark with  our dark furniture (which was bought for our house up in Townsville that was almost completely white including white floor tiles, which were already there when we bought), and the dark aubergine feature wall here, and same coloured architraves and skirting boards throughout (also already that colour when we moved in here 4 1/2 yrs ago) ............. I'd like to lighten it up a bit........ I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to do that just at the moment.  We won't be purchasing new furniture

and I know DH will not be wanting the good wooden furniture painted....... the wooden floors are still waiting to be sanded back and done properly (perhaps a lighter colour on them would help??) 

I also need to get a nice white lace tablecloth for our table as that would help too.  Extra furniture is sitting in the living rooms until the adult children move back out......... speaking of which..... our daughter looks like she will be making the move to Melbourne in just a couple of weeks and is sorting through her room as we speak ..........
The bedrooms in the house are very, very small, and we even extended out under the eaves to manage to get a wardrobe built into our room............. Our bed needs a nice cover for it.......I feel some stitching coming on lol......... I'll be doing something for our bed and I plan on using whites, lavenders and greys I think ....... based on a lovely little clock I've just purchased...... but I'll wait till it arrives to show and tell.  I've also just purchased a great pattern for a crocheted rug which I hope to get made up very soon........ stay posted!  Thought I would leave you seeing the lovely bunch of flowers I just brought in from the garden..... some of the roses have the most amazing fragrance!

A bit of produce

As many of you know, our little cottage sits on about 1/3 acre which includes the area the house, sheds, water tank etc take up.........We do enjoy the garden, but we also like it to be productive, after all we still have a decent mortgage that we are trying to pay off.  While DH works full time, and I go out working 3 days a week, it's important to me to do as much as possible with what God has given us......... The veggie garden is a great example......it's one thing to grow fruit and veg, but you have to also be prepared to put in the time so it doesn't go to waste!  Yesterday I picked 4 lovely beetroot that were ready and boiled them & sliced them to  have beetroot ready for salads and sandwiches this week.  It was really quite simple.....I used the woman's weekly recipe, but made a slight alteration......since I only had 1/2 kg of beetroot, I only needed half the amount of vinegar, water, sugar, and peppercorns, and I added a small sprinkle of chille powder .....( oh,  and I didn't use the star anise either)....I love how this turned out.  I've used various other bases in previous years with minimal success......this is by far the best!   We also pulled some of the red onions that were ready & once they dry a little I'll hang them ready for use.

I thought you might like to see my girls......  They were just getting themselves settled down for the night......they work hard providing eggs, eating pests, turning over the garden and depositing fertiliser for the garden.   Goodnight Girls!

Weekend Stitching

The weekend began with Friday Night Stitching with Friends , a wonderful opportunity since I've not managed to get much stitching done at all over the past month!  I had a loose chair cover I had started making for Pete's Chair, which has been sitting waiting for me to do the hand stitching around the outside.  I've put cotton fabric (2 different ones) on one side and made the other side with a flannelette for the winter months.  This chair was my grandmothers recliner which she gave to Pete and the head area has worn, so this seemed like a good solution for now!
Once that was finished though I was pretty keen to move onto a little project I started a long time ago, and recently discovered when I moved all my sewing, yarns and crafts to the little cabin....... its a cute little pincushion in the shape of an English cup and saucer (or it will be once it's finished).  I did a little more work on it yesterday afternoon....... and I'm hoping to pick it up again later today to do a bit more.
It's been a lovely weekend thus far......... of course it's that time of year here where we need to be out and tending to the gardens - vegie, fruit trees and flowers........ that's going to continue on for a bit yet.  Maybe if I didn't keep finding new plants and making new garden beds, but then, where is the fun in that!   But I do think Sunday afternoons are for finding a nice spot to sit and read, or stitch or perhaps pen a letter to a friend...........  

Happy Thursday

I've been keeping busy this morning out working in my garden.......just on a morning coffee break right now... hmmm, or I was when I started this post, but now its almost the end of the day lol.... Yesterday I worked on getting the veggie garden fenced off since the small fence was an invitation to the girls to jump in and have a scratch around.........so I've made the fence to also enclose the berry patches.........




Today though I've been working on the Pond Garden, and a small area just beside it.   Pete  and I dug this little pond during the first year we moved here......which is now over 4 years ago! Wow but time flies!!  

I'm also looking at a few other spots in the garden that are inviting a bit of enlargement of the area.....you know, a couple more plants here or there, a little bit of garden ornamentation or whimsical piece to add interest.......perhaps moving a bench to a new spot?...........and of course weeding......hmmmm, yes I'm dealing with quite a bit of that as well lol, as you can see by the wheelbarrow.  I've ended up getting some little plants into this spot this arvo, but missed getting a photo.
I had thought I might have got it all done by early afternoon to sit and do a bit of stitching or such........ but I ended up having to make an unexpected trip into town with the boy..... but I picked up a couple of plants while in there, so........
What were you up to today I wonder?
Hugs sharm ........ almost forget to mention my little garden buddy.....he's kinda pooped after an early walk this morning followed by kms walked around and around the garden today....

It's on ..... It's off..... it's in debate!!

Gardeners Blend

So you might be wondering just what I've been getting up to since my last post??  Well, wonder no more...... apart from getting stuck into the garden fighting a good fight against the weeds, and getting the vegie garden planted up for summer...... hmmm, well it was summer a couple of days ago, but today its been freezing again...... makes me want to get out the knitting to keep myself warm lol     But most of all, the thing that's been keeping me busy has been the pull to get my little homemade soap business budding again....... soap, candle melts and homecare products like furniture conditioner made from local beeswas, cold pressed olive oil and yummy essential oils....... but

Choc Mint

of course there is always an obstacle or two (at the very least)....... I'm currently finding out all about soaps coming under the Australian  NICNAS legislation and the crazy thoughts of having to actually get insurance in the case of those very few horrendous ones who like to sue....... yes, soap is a chemical it seems, even with natural ingredients it creates a chemical reaction (or there would be no soap!!) 

Orange Cinnamon

 It's a bit of a shame given how popular my soaps seem to be with friends, relatives and coworkers......... but we shall see how it pans out...... perhaps I will just remove soaps from my list of products :(  Meantime we've been lucky enough to have a little café open up here in Bundalong!!  So exciting to be able to have somewhere local to purchase a cuppa!!

Vanilla Coffee Bean