And So it Goes .........

 Time marches on and we are almost at the end of  yet another month and well into our beautiful Autumn Days here.  The mornings are cooler but the days can still get quite hot and I've used the pool a few times to cool down after working in the garden!   Dad had a fall the morning we were leaving for our trip - he had a good skin tear which I put steri strips and bandaging on but unfortunately he got it infected while we were away so needed a course of antibiotics when we got back and I've been having to attend to wound care 2 -3 times a week since getting back.  With aging skin healing takes longer but after being there today for another dressing change it looks like its not too far away from getting better (depending on how much other "imput" it receives).  I was surprised the last visit on Saturday that it didn't have the scabbing I'd expected and wondered what was going on with it (luckily today I discovered it wasn't the way I've been tending to it - the scab was sitting on the bedside table with other bandaging.......... so perhaps it will take a bit longer to heal than expected ).  

Knitting has become my sanity time -   I finished knitting the shawl but made it smaller and I'm happy with how it turned out - useful for wearing around the neck with shirts.

Currently I'm working on a test knit for a cotton t-shirt style by Laura Aylor (Fogbound Knits) - If you click on the link it should take you to my project page on Ravelry.  Using cotton to knit with is hard on the hands and shoulders as it doesn't slip along the needles the same way that wool does.  

I sent the beanies for Stacey and John up last week and was surprised when they received them the very next day!!!! They took a photo with them both wearing them which was great to see as I was a bit worried about the fit for John, but it seems to have worked out just fine!  I'm so looking forward to seeing them when they come down in May for my "big" birthday!

Can you believe we pulled 12.5kg of carrots from our garden beds?  I've never had such a crop like it ever before!! 

They are sooooo sweet too.  I've sliced, grated and top/tailed them all and placed them into bags in the freezer to use over winter.  I've kept some in the fridge to use the next week or so - I've made some yummy carrot cake (recipe at the bottom) and plan to make some carrot and ginger soup as well.

  I still can't believe the sweetness - just sooooooo different to supermarket ones - but then nearly every supermarket vegetable and fruit tastes pretty much the same these days and goes to rot before you get time to use them! 

 The vegie garden has been well worth the initial effort we put in when first moving here as it will save us $$ (particularly with the price increases) and be better for our health.

We enjoy our trips to the markets and the occasional garage sale - it doubles as both an outing where we often see people we know and have a good catch up ........ and sometimes we find a bargain or two ............ like this old Treadle sewing machine base - Pete will tidy it up and put a piece of redgum on the top to work as a lovely table

I picked up this little tin for a couple of dollars as its just the perfect size for me to use to put some of my knitting stitch holders and a large sewing needle into it to pop into knitting project bags that I take with me when we go places (you never know if you might just want to do a bit of knitting while you are waiting or sitting having a cuppa with a friend who happens to have knitting or sewing to work on as well).

Pete tried this old hat on - I think it suits him and told him he should buy it but alas it didn't come home with us .........   And now I best get going with a few other things needing to be done.

Take care my friends.  May God answer your prayers as we head through the week ahead of us!

Hugs Sharm xo      Here is the Carrot Cake recipe I used - I divided it into a bar cake and a ring cake and froze the bar cake which I took out and used 2 days ago and it was just fine having been frozen.

TA DAAAA

 I worked hard on Sunday to get the borders all sewn in and do a bit of hand stitching around the hexies so that during the week...............

 I could sit after work and quietly stitch down the final border ........ 

I have to say it was worth all the effort as I really do love it.  The original design is one of Lynette Andersons called  Hexi Woodland Table Runner 

I feel like its a real Ta Daaa moment given the number of times it's been packed up for moving house  ............... and it also makes it feel like I'm able to finally work on making a house our home for a tad longer than the past 3 moves over the past 3 years!!!  It gives hope to getting that Bunny Quilt finished as well!!

So much sew that when I found myself in my old stomping grounds during a client visit at the start of the week,  I decided my lunch break should be spent visiting the sewing shop I used to frequent when we lived in Bundalong and found some lovely material that I plan to make into project bags for my knitting ......... and just because I mentioned the word knitting these two adorable skeins decided to jump right into the bag with the material!!!!  I have a couple of ideas for them but that could be subject to change lol

Midweek I had to drive a couple of hours North to Neranderra for a work meeting - most of the drive between Corowa and there is quite flat and open

And on the way back in the afternoon ................... Emu's were out - we don't get to see them as frequently as we see Kangaroos, so it's quite exciting and with no traffic to see I stopped to grab a quick photo from the car!

Coming through a small township I couldn't resist taking this photo to share ............ 

and now here we are at the weekend again!!  I'm hoping to get a bit more homemaking completed but I have several tasks listed (including some mowing and weeding so we shall see!)  Enjoy your day

Hugs Sharm xo

FNWF Achievements

Friday Night With Friends (FNWF) was hosted by Chez - which is a great way of putting aside some time to sit and stitch (be it sewing, knitting, embroidery or whatever takes your fancy) - just time to sit at some stage between Friday and Saturday evening working on projects and knowing others around the world are doing the same thing.  If you click on the link you'll get to see lots of projects being worked on by others taking part that have blogs in which they can share.  I had to work Friday as well as fit in taking Dad to the Doctors and decided it was high time Friday night to pull out my embroidered table runner that has been a WIP that began back in Bundalong!!!  This is where I was up to when I pulled it out ............    I worked on it a bit more Saturday and was so excited to actually get the embroidery finished on it!!  It's a bit hard to see it all with it needing a good iron but you'll get to see it ironed soon enough as I'm hoping to get time today (Sunday) to get the edges sewn on and have it all finished to be able to put on the table.

After a bit I needed to put down the needle and thread and pick up the knitting needles and began work on yet another new project (a shawl KAL being run with Fogbound Knits on Ravelry  during March and April and for everyone who completes the shawl they get a free pattern of their choice from Fogbound Knits - so its a great way of knitting up a shawl and building up your knitting patterns at the same time!  You are allowed to make alterations to the pattern to a degree (which is often referred to as being disobedient ....... for this shawl though, I prefer the word Whimsical and that's exactly what I'm doing!)   Let's just hope the finished Whimsical notion looks  good enough!!  I guess we shall see lol  And I wanted to add a touch of colour here and there with random stripes ............ again, we shall see how the end result turns out I guess  but  after Friday night and some time yesterday I got this far with it

The Knitting Pattern is called Miss Potter as the designer thought it would be something you could imagine Beatrix Potter Character to have in her wardrobe!  Anyhow, I'll leave you with that thought  - enjoy your Sunday my friends and may God shine His favour upon you

 

Goodbye February and OPAM finishes

It's nice to go away but it's just as nice getting home ...... although the backyard was quite the jungle after just a few days (not mowing before we left probs didn't help lol). 

 I discovered I can't knit or crochet on winding roads so not much of that happened at all till we got back home and I spent a good part of Saturday afternoon sitting on the lounge chair relaxing after not getting much of a sleep the past 3 nights ...... But .................

  

Before I get onto my OPAM finishes I want to share with you these lovely additions picked up on our trip ........ Stopping at Bega we had plenty of time in the afternoon to check out the shops there ...... we ended up in a lovely antique shop and Pete bought me this lovely set of 2 cups, saucers and plates that I fell in love with!   As well as a set of old canisters that we both really loved and needed to come home with us!  I love using canisters and enjoy having older ones that bring memories of older days  .............. I've spent yesterday fixing up the sideboard unit (it was left here in the house so it's being used, but its likely to get replaced in the future at some point), and had pretty much been the dumping ground as I unpacked boxes ... so getting these new additions for our anniversary was great encouragement to getting it sorted (the very top needs a bit more sorting out yet) ......

Moving onto OPAM and my finishes for February it looks like it was pretty much spent with the knitting needles  with my pair of knitted socks; the Haywire Cowl; and the knitted Houndale Beanie for Stacey.  I did have plans for getting some sewing and embroidery completed but spare time in Feb seemed to go towards putting up the preserves from the garden and extra medical appoints and other needs with Dad and trying to sort out the ongoing saga with our Ute (purchased 2 yrs ago new and having had endless backwards and forwards in an attempt to fix the problem with it ...... I don't need to go into it here but its got to the pointy end of the stick lets just say!). I can't believe how quickly the months are going by - nor how busy they seem to continue to be ......... or does it just take me longer to do things these days perhaps??  I'm really hoping to get a quilt made up before Easter as well as getting that embroidered table runner completed!!  I've just finished baking some Muffins and a Zucchini Loaf in the oven so now I'll head and pick up that embroidery!!

 With all the flooding around Australia at the present time - I hope you and your loved ones are all safe.  For those who may be wondering- Our daughter and SIL in Brisbane are ok - although the place was leaking they were not flooded out!