Start the New Year Fresh

I'm enjoying dusting off the dust and dirt from 2014 and embracing a fresh start to 2015!  I've decided this year I want to spend more time enjoying life and enjoying things I like to do.......  I will still be required to work outside the home in order to try getting our mortgage paid off (retirement would be rather good, particularly for my DH who is 14yrs older than me and I see the daily work grind beginning to wear on him).  But apart from that and the travel time involved in living in the country - it would be nice to not spend most of my "time off" cleaning house and pulling weeds!!

So yep, you guessed it......  I'm busy moving furniture into new places, decluttering and still there is M O R E  stuff ....... at some point I might get through it all, but for now I'm concentrating on the kitchen, dining and lounge room areas.  It really is nice to see some clear spots!

As for the garden ...... well, I love to enjoy the garden - the smells, the produce, the flowers and the birds, insects and critters it brings.  See the lovely crop of white nectarines and apricots we picked yesterday?  I've been busy making more apricot jam again this morning - all up I've used 5kgs of Apricots to make up the jam which should last us the whole year.  
The garden's a lovely place to sit and read, or stitch  or write a letter - when its under control.   But when it's been neglected for just a couple of weeks (like the past few where we just couldn't get out to it)...... well, let me tell you, there is grass and weeds growing like crazy and well out of control in some areas!!   So this means that part of the yard will be getting a makeover as well - that's still on the drawing board, but I'm looking for lower maintenance and something that can handle us being away for a couple of weeks here and there.

Naturally I'm looking for extra time so I can spend it in the cabin knitting and sewing.  In 2014 I took part in OPAM - a fantastic way of keeping track of just what things you get made up during the year and my total for 2014 was  48 items from dishcloths and ornaments to knitted adult sized jumpers and an afghan (6 knitted, 29 crocheted  and 13 sewn objects).  

Some of the knitted and crocheted items

 It appears my best month was January (no doubt because all the various family crisis had barely started then!) and the months of Feb, March, August and October saw no items completed.   I look forward to improving on that this year as I have quite a bit of stash I'd like to reduce and UFO's that need completing.
Right now, I've started on a tee shirt that I'm knitting up in some Wollmeiser Yarn in the Ballerina shade which is a blend of purples.  I have quite a knitting and sewing queue of items I'd like to get made up!!  

I do hope you have had time to reflect on what you would like to achieve this year.........  I'm off now to do some knitting.....
Hugs Sharm

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas, may your day be filled with love, laughter, peace and goodwill

Back in Time for Christmas

 First I'd like to thank those of you who have sent messages of comfort and support over the past few weeks - the funeral for my stepmum went as well as could be expected, and although it was a sad and difficult time,

it was also nice to spend time with my sister Kathy who lives in New Zealand,

 my wonderful Dad,

and also to catch up with other family members. 




 I should say a special thankyou to the friends who shared their home with us during this stressful time, and also to another friend and her daughter who took the time to attend the funeral and then a couple of days later made sure daughter and I got to share coffee and cake!

Now here we are back at home and it's Christmas Eve already!!   I managed to get the Christmas decoration swap hosted on my fb group of ladies (50 and over and striving for fitness and health).... I received this lovely little critter from Carol and it arrived on the perfect day - after good news and before Heather passed onto our Lord...... I think she is so sweet.....

Our grandson Jax had been on the telephone nagging Pop to get a snowman made since he had one out the front of his house up in Townsville.......  so after several reminders and being told that Grandma can take a photo to show ........ well, this was the result.........

Yesterday I received such a wonderful treat when a Christmas parcel arrived from my friend Lyn

who lives up the northern stretches of NSW.  They live on acerage that has been drying up and have been praying for rain which has thankfully come and filled their dams, including a new one not long completed!


We are part of a small  Christian ladies snail mail group of penpals that have been

writing to each other for over 7 years now........... So this is just the perfect gift ever...... it even came with a new writing pad and envelopes!  I'm so excited to have this little writing case that will be so easy to pick up and take with me when I'm away or to take in the car.  Thanks Lyn, I love it to bits!!







So as you might imagine, I'm way behind on Christmas this year.......

 


I've been out in the cabin getting this little bag finished in time for tomorrow ........ I can show you since DD doesn't tend to visit blogland too often lol

And before I finish....... Meet Betty...... My wonderful Kitchen helper!  She is the trade off so to speak for me taking on an extra shift each fortnight next year, and after washing dishes by hand for years, I have to say I'm finding her pretty useful!

So its time for me to head off now to other things.......... Before I go, I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and pray you all have a peaceful, joyful day tomorrow
Hugs Sharm xo

 

 

In Loving Memory......

I thought I had already written this post, but as I struggled with what to call it, I knew that was what happened...... You see, last week was massive, while we gave thanks on Wednesday, on Thursday we received the news that my Stepmum, Heather passed  into Gods arms.  She was very much at peace as she had such a wonderful faith in God!  I'm thankful for the times we shared, and for so much more.  The angels will certainly be rejoicing as they receive this beautiful soul! Please keep my sister and Dad in your prayers as a different chapter of life emerges.

Giving Thanks

Giving thanks to God!   Giving thanks to Family and to Friends who have supported us, Prayed  for us and for our son, helped us to remember to laugh in the midst of tears and distress.  This particular crisis which began in  January,  finally reached an outcome yesterday after a very long and trying couple of days.  While not completely perfect, and a somewhat bitter pill to swallow, it is by far and wide a wonderful outcome to what it could have been. Our DS and our family will now be able to move on with our lives.  We are humbled by those who have stepped in when we needed them most........ Thankyou from the bottom of my heart

Sharm
xo

FNWF in December

Can you believe this Friday just gone by was our last FNWF for 2014?  A big thankyou to Cheryll for hosting this all year, and she is looking to carry it on again next year! 

It's a real encouragement to get out the sewing, crochet or handiwork....... this Friday I got to work finishing off the hand stitching on this which will become a little Christmas present for somebody.......

Friday was also the day a package I've been waiting on finally arrived here from USA...

... I had ordered one of Astri's lovely clocks with her crocheted flowers ......


these colours are just the shades I have planed for our bedroom, and with limited space in our bedroom a wall clock will work really well.  It's sooooo pretty and I really love it!!  Thanks Astri for popping in the lovely ball of yarn as well :)

 

We've had storms, heavy rain, hail, humidity between them and coldness during them..... perfect for having to spend more time inside doing more stitching........ so I went on a bit of a search in the cabin and found this project I bought last year.........

So I decided it was time to make a start on it......... and sew I've been having fun with it all weekend ....  still a bit more to go .......

Hope everyone else has had a restful weekend......... 

 

Hugs Sharm

Welcoming December

Can you believe today is the start of December?  How quickly this year has flown, even with all the life obstacles our family has and still is tackling this year!  Unfortunately "life" has been keeping me so busy and in such a state of constant upheaval there has been much less time than I would have liked to be creating -

Even so, I have managed to make my first knitted  pullovers  (one for myself and  one for Pete), made various crocheted and sewn items for our home and for gifts , and thanks to OPAM, I've even got a lovely record/reminder of just how many things I have managed to complete..  a total so far this year of 44 items - 27 crocheted, 6 knitted, and 11 sewn  ....... Mind you,  I also seem to have a number of unfinished items too lol    We managed a lovely downpour of rain here earlier, so thought I'd share some of the rain with you... 

If you've visited my blog before, then you'll also know that lots of gardening, preserving, soap making, and various other activities go on around our little homestead throughout the year, just like most other homes  (smile) ... But,

Today however, being the 1st of December, it's time to put up the Christmas Tree ...... its a family tradition I began when Pete and I first became a couple .... hopefully when Pete is back next weekend (he's currently working away during the week), he will get the outside Christmas lights up :)

I'm way behind on Christmas cards this year, so perhaps not so many will get sent out in time.......

I have a few more items yet to complete the decorating, including the lovely items from Christmas in July - so I'll pop those on next post.....

What I have done though is to look towards next year, and with the current specials on Craftsy Classes,

I've enrolled in 3 of the online classes - this is the first time I've enrolled in any craft online courses, so I sure hope they will be good........

they certainly sound great and I'm looking forward to getting into them over Christmas/ New Year when I have a bit of time off work.

I'm off now to work on a bit of stitching .....Before I go, I'll show you the little dishcloth and towel toppers (crocheting the  tops of face washers  work really well as little kitchen towels)  DD ordered a couple for her new little place .....     What are you doing today

 

the brown and orange one is going into another gift.

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