Biting the Bullet

For the past 9 days I've been discovering what life was like before the internet ........ or at least the

Fogbound Cardigan in progress

home wi fi ....... yep, it's been down that long ...... apparently an upgrade for southern phones, but I didn't get notice, have had several phone calls with them ..... and been listed for needing "the backroom department to check into why it's not working" ....... so I've had to go out and purchase some Telstra mobile  internet for my Ipad, and yesterday bit the bullet and went and purchased a USB Wi Fi for my lap top so I could spend the day working out how to get that going to be able to use now ..... finally!
What a week it's been, well .... a couple - 17 days it seems since I last posted and that was late also!  We are having a fabulous lot of Autumn weather here in Bundalong this year - haven't had to light the fire yet!  Plenty of farmers have been burning their paddocks as they do each year, burning off the stubble before plowing up ...... this year though we had a huge wind storm come through which meant lots of dust from the plowed paddocks all around ....... and an outbreak of a number of grass fires when the wind whipped up overnight taking with it embers not put out from the burn offs ....... we were fine here, just huge amounts of dust and smoke for a couple of days!

Bundalong House

Pete and I have also bitten the bullet - we've decided that if the house here is  not sold by end of day on ANZAC Day (25th April), then we will put a permanent rental in here to allow us to move up to our house in Maryborough in Queensland!  Not quite what we had envisaged back in November, 2016 when we first put this place on the market after having purchased the other house, but it's certainly not for lack of trying on our part and it's been long enough!  We have 3 parties of people who have "shown interest" but not yet committed to anything over the past 3 weeks since coming through ......... so we are calling it and giving an end date!  

On the crafting side of things, the test knit cardigan (see photo at top), was coming along quite well

till I got a little thrown by having to pick up stitches from behind the pockets ..........  so while I contemplated just how that bit was going to work, I started on the scarf for Stace using the yarn we purchased when I was down in Melbourne with her.  I decided to use the pattern Therapy by Fogbound Knits (Laura Aylor) and told Stace she would need to choose another colour to go with the skein since it wouldn't be quite enough to make the scarf ........ so at her suggestion I looked to see what "white" yarn I had in my stash and found some Bendigo Yarn "moon" which is one of the  Milky Way Yarns in an off white which just

works perfectly with the "white" in the other skein.  The only trick is the Milky Way is 8ply and the other 4 ply, but it seems to be working quite well and giving a rather nice interest to it.  Apart from that knitting, I've been sorting out cupboards, collecting empty boxes and beginning the process of packing up any excess items.

So stay tuned my friends ...... the wind is changing ...............

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all ..... What a shame it's over so quickly!  I seem to be constantly playing catch up here on the blog ........  
The weekend prior to Easter I went down to Melbourne on the train on the Thursday - I do tend to enjoy the train ride down to Melbourne as it allows me (once I drive to Wang and get the car parked somewhere safe for the few days it will be sitting), time to just sit quietly and read, plan or ........ knit!  It's enjoyable to just sit there and gaze out at the scenery, of course I never can seem to manage to catch the photos at the time a mob of kangaroos are out grazing lol

 This particular sweater is one I started working on last year - it was put aside over the hot summer months, but now that I can see winter is getting closer, and needing something for the train trip, this seemed to be quite the appropriate WIP

 

- officially heading down for a work related study day on the Friday, but having the day off prior allowed me to head down in the morning and meet up with daughter who took me to a couple of the yarn shops I had heard about!

The first was a mixture of yarn and materials, but I came away with a couple of skeins (one of which Stace picked out which will make a scarf for her as a thankyou and reminder of our time together).  The other yarn shop was overflowing with all sorts of lovely yarny goodies ...... with my love for all things Echidna, I just couldn't help picking up a couple of things I was needing that had that theme

lol.......... 

And yes, the guage ruler and stitch markers have already been put to use!  

Easter Saturday I started work on a test cardigan for Fogbound Knits.  It took me 3 goes to get guage, but I really wanted to use some of the wollmeise yarn I already have in my stash, rather than purchase some sports weight (which this pattern is).  I figure there will be alot of others that will be wanting to use fingering weight yarn they have in stash - sports weight is not so common.

Getting back to my few days I had in Melbourne, Stace and I spent one evening down on the beach having fish and chips - chatting and watching the sea gulls race from one group of people to

another looking for free chips lol  Her partner John had elected to stay back after work for "time with the boys", which gave us some nice time to ourselves to sit and chat together!  During the weekend she had also lined up a trip to the gold class cinema to watch a movie - apart from having less people in the cinema and not having anyone tall sitting in front of you, I can't really say that I can see the price difference between Gold Class and ordinary cinema prices as being value for money.  I had always thought that the way it was advertised the food was included in the price, but not so and not cheap, so be wary if you are thinking of trying it! - but it was an experience.

The one thing was very excited about was being able to actually go for a run along the pathway beside the beach!  I'd actually slept in after a very late night, so I was a bit short on time, but luckily I managed to get a few kms in and back to Stacey's place before the rain started!

.

I really love this photo with the Brighton Beach cabins and the city  behind.  All too soon it was time for the 3hr train ride home (with 2 city trains to get us to Spencer St Station lol) 

Back at home again and 
We were meant to have a 2nd viewing by a couple on Easter Saturday, but half an hour prior to the viewing time it was cancelled - so once again we had a very tidy house with yards mowed and all stuff out of the way ........... a random couple turned up late yesterday afternoon standing out the front looking in so Pete went and chatted with them and they ended up coming for a look through having been sent down by people we know.  If nothing else, the house is certainly being kept clean, but I'm getting a little over it all!

One of the girls in the FB running group I joined was up over the Easter weekend and we got to go

mother and daughter time in the city

for a nice 5km run on Good Friday morning.  It's nice to be able to run with somebody who is actually a runner as she helped me get a better idea of pace and breathing - and very happy to walk as I needed breaks.  Still in the "learner" section, I find I can only do around 500mtr - 1km before I need to stop and walk - its a process which has been interrupted quite considerably by the change in seasons this past few weeks .......... I had been trying to go out around 5.45am which worked well, but now it is pitch dark and with lots of sightings of snakes still going on around here - I simply don't feel safe with a torch finding my way to the street with the street lights to practice running!  If I had an extra hour before leaving for work it would be fine ...... just not sure how I'm going to work that one out just yet as after work is when I take old Scruffy for his dawdle and then get chores and dinner going!  But right now its time to head off to work, so I better grab my bags and scram ....... have a great day!

Beach Sunset at Mordialloc

The Signature Blogging Hexie Tablecloth

It's a real Ta Da moment - to actually be able to show you photos of the finished blogging signature hexie tablecloth!!  This has been a long winded project that began with wanting a tablecloth for my "Beehive Crafting Cabin". 

I had this crazy idea of how wonderful it would be to have some signature hexies from those who frequently read my blog, popping them altogether  to make a tablecloth.  I decided to put the idea out there, asking for signature hexies,  but realised that since I wasn't offering anything in return it was quite likely that I might not get any at all - after all, most only


From Lin in France

know me from reading my blog!  I was blown away when the very first signature hexie arrived in my mail box ....... all the way from France too!!!  I was making this tablecloth completely from stash (which stayed true up to the point where I needed to purchase fabric for the hexies to attach to.   The project went into a bit of a melt down  a few times  ....... once when we put our home here on the market and I realised my beehive cabin would no longer be my crafting station; another time when I felt I just wasn't doing

Just keep stitching!

justice the lovely signature hexies that came my way ..... and again when I was trying to get them all together using the spare bed (back in May last year) - but then we decided half our stuff including  all non essential furniture, would all be trucked up to the house in Queensland to wait - leaving me with nowhere to keep the hexies in order ........  It was becoming quite problematic you might say!!!  Without the wonderful work these wonderful ladies did in taking the time to make a signature hexie and posting it out to me, this would not have been done! I could not, and would not, let these girls down!!! I used some multi coloured thread to quilt them altogether and to the backing.

 I'm very happy with the way its come out - and was most happy when I found this background fabric with hexies to put them on.  I think the blue sashing works to keep it nice and bright.  I've packed it up so it will be ready to use in the new house when we do finally get up there ...... and I'm hopeful it might even get to meet a few bloggers one of these days!  How nice would that be!! 


The Ta-Da Moment when it went on the table all finished.

Narelle - Queensland

 Even nicer when you get to realise that one of the hexies came  from the region where we will actually be moving near - who would have thought that at the time!!  So here 's a big thankyou to all the lovely girls who took part in sending me the hexies to make this.  I've linked to each of their blogs so you can go and have a visit with them.

 

Lynda from Tasmania

A big thankyou to: Lin, St Victor Quilt Blog, France ; Susan, Susan's Sewing Space from Brisbane - my home town in Queensland! ; Kerrie, Channelbank Creations from NSW; Narelle,  Pins and Whiskers blog from the North Burnett Area of Queensland - which is very close to Maryborough where we will be moving to when we sell here!!.....

Susan - also from Queensland

I'm hoping for a bloggy meet up at some point in the future!  Sheryl,  Sewing After Seven  from Spain; Ruth of Green Twiggy from USA; Jo of ButterZ , Victoria ; Maria, of Life on the Block in West Australia; Anthea of Hibiscus Stitches and also from West Australia;  And Lynda from By the River in Tasmania. 

Anthea from West Australia



Jo from Vic (who actually made 2 hexies when she moved during the time)  and Maria from West Australia

Ruth from USA who also made 2 so I could choose which one to use.

Sheryl from Spain!

Kerrie from New South Wales

10 hexies in all - 3 International and 7 Aussie ones!
Naturally I'm onto other projects - old and new and way too many and even more going through my head that I'd like to get started on!!  My project time this weekend is short as I concentrate on extra cleaning and dusting ...... we had a house inspection yesterday, another today and another one booked for tomorrow afternoon ..... so fingers crossed!!  Let's be hoping
 we get a sprinkling of St Patricks Day Luck and some prayers answered.
Enjoy your St Patricks Day weekend my friends,
Hugs,
Sharm

Old Fashioned Loveliness

It's been a long weekend here in Victoria for Labour Day - After the usual chores of cleaning ect and after getting a longish walk in on Saturday to make up for having done little walking or running during the week, I decided to settle down to some  stitching of various kinds ....... worked on some knitting, worked on the hexie tablecloth which I will share in a separate post and I was finally able to get to work on the woodland tablerunner stitchery.  The hexie section was made a year ago and has sat until the pattern was able to be purchased without doing a class ...... I decided to use some of these lovely little felt pieces I had which are

working so well for the mushrooms and hearts!  I've started on one end and quite happy with how its coming along.  It's been a long time since I sat and did some embroidery and I found it quite relaxing and it made the weekend seem to slow into an old fashioned simplicity

We heard news of an antique shop closing down in Benalla, which I knew had a number of those lovely old fashioned lamps we love - she agreed to open the shop especially for Pete and I to head over for a visit on Saturday ........ it was worth her while!   Pete was excited by the types of lamps she had there from an old

estate ...... ones I'd been trying to tell him about, but its never the same until you see things in their splendour ........ we came home with 7 Old Fashioned pieces of Loveliness that will eventually be finding homes in the rooms of our old queenslander home up North.  The white is milk glass.  With these additions that should take care of lamps for a very long time!






  Two are large double burners that stand quite tall.  I think we definitely have a lamp for every room now!

Koi Fish for the bases

I also found a lovely wooden blanket stand that just had to come back home with me as well - I

plan on having it in our bedroom up north.  Unfortunately you get to see my ironing pile and any number of other bits sitting in the current sewing/crafting space of this house ......  WIP that need more emphasis on the "Work" bit of it lol  I'm missing not having the extra bits of furniture to be able to put things away in, but when we sent them all north back in June last year I hadn't anticipated how much more stuff we might accumulate between then and whenever we do end up selling!!   There are things jammed everywhere as you can see from the white cupboard below!!

 Before I finish here you get one last photo of the lamps, since Pete enjoyed putting them all into a line I just couldn't not get a photo of that!  Have a great week everyone, Hugs Sharm

 

Farewell February

I'm finding hard to believe that not only has another month gone by, but with the close of February comes the official close of summer down here! Not only is Feb my Blog anniversary month, it's also my wedding anniversary - Pete and I celebrated 33yrs of marriage this year.  With things as they are, we didn't get to go away - but Pete took me out to dinner to a lovely little Italian restaurant in Yarrawonga which was very nice! No photos taken unfortunately - but we did give each other some lovely little gifties!  With all the fishing Pete has been doing, I figured it was about time he had a decent filleting knife and ended up finding a lovely tinned set for him which also had a lure as well.

  I received the most wonderful lamp with a pink base (we don't have any pink bases) with a lovely decorated glass ......... and knowing how much I love fancy wrought iron - he found a lovely key holder which I've put aside for the new house! 

 What perfect gifts for each other!  Pete even got to try out the knife a couple of days later when he caught a couple of cod - this big one was released back in, but a smaller legal size was kept and turned into fillets for me to cook up.

85cm Murray River Cod

 
OPAM 2018 is now underway and I have 4 finishes the months of January and February!  Thanks to Kris and Peg who continue to keep this going. As you can see they were all fibre related even though we were in the midst of Summer!  Cotton yarn is great to work with in hot weather and all but the blanket were made using the cotton.  The blanket is the one made for a work colleague who is expecting her first baby.  I plan to share the pattern here on the blog sometime soon - it's quite easy, but I was pleased with how effective the pattern is.  It's also nice to have a few items finished as we get into the year!

 Before February came to a close I also managed to walk/run my way virtually to Sydney!  I think I've previously mentioned that when I decided I was going to take this learning to run thing seriously back in October last year - I joined up with Run Down Under which gives you a virtual map of Australia showing just where you are.  Everyone starts in Canberra and runs/walks their way around Australia (using the free Strava running app, it automatically syncs to RDU).  I find it fun and encouraging.  Another friend was also due to "run into Sydney" the same time as

me - so we co ordinated our times and phoned each other so we could chat over the mobiles while we walked the last couple of kms into Sydney!  It was a bit of fun which really added to what could have been just another boring walk!   I've realised how important it is to ensure I keep up / increase my fitness and muscle tone as I'm in my mid 50's and it's very easy to loose bone density, fitness, and endurance for even everyday things!  At some point I hope I'll have a nice selection of active things that I can participate in and enjoy that also help keep me healthy!
Of course all good fitness routines need to have balance...... so lucky I have all that fibre and material to keep me balanced!! lol
With the beginning of March, I joined in with lots of other ladies

from around the world for Friday Night With Friends  .......  I felt like I needed something else to go with the baby blanket, so decided to knit up a little beanie.  I started on it last night and finished it off this morning.  It's one of Woolly Wormheads called Beamish.  I'll be making a slightly larger one as well as her partner has a little boy who spends part of the time with them and I don't want him to feel left out.  Emma tells me his favourite colour is yellow, yellow and yellow ...... I guess his will be yellow lol.  I do love the little top of this beanie and I very nearly did the top in a green to kind of resemble a pumpkin - but then thought better of it - not

everyone likes that sort of thing.
I'm afraid I have quite a few things sitting on my needles ...... and a number of WIP material and stitching wise that also need attention........  I just seem to be jumping from one project to another to another so far this year .......

Well, it must be time to sit with a cuppa and contemplate what's next on my agenda for today ..... yes, yes, the house has been cleaned, washing done and on the line drying, went to Corowa this morning with hubbie who was swapping a boat propeller over whilst I did the groceries ...... finished

off the above little beanie and actually got this post written up!  We have been letting Cliff (the rainbow lorikeet now 17yrs old that was originally our son's when he was 15, but left him with us when he moved out and couldn't take him to where he was living, then got married and had babies who we wanted to keep all 10 fingers and toes intact) - Anyhooooo - this very crazy bird who enjoys ripping out his feathers and loves his cage - has finally been adventurous ..... right now I found him up in the tree out the back calling out for a treat thankyou very much!!

I don't know about you, but I'm off to make that coffee I mentioned earlier ......... and some sort of stitching ...... or perhaps a book  hmmmmmm

Wonderful Weekend

What a great weekend its been - a little short perhaps, but you get that .... I got distracted from doing much work on the knitted shawl Friday night as Pete suggested we head into town for a pizza and we sat out and a couple of drinks while we waited - a nice distraction to the ordinary ...... Saturday morning and we headed out with the boat (and Scruffy) ..... down to Lake Nillacootie which is between Benalla and the turn off to Mansfield. 
 We spent a few hours out on the water fishing and enjoying the time out! 

Naturally you need to see the fish I caught!

And yes, I did catch a fish - a bass which unfortunately was 2cm too short to be a keeper which saddened me a little ........  Scruffy seemed to enjoy himself, although he did spend quite a bit of time sleeping lol  It was just sooooo relaxing .  I won't bore you with a whole lot of photos from the day out ......

Pete sitting back while Scruffy and I were walking around the banks

Earlier in the week I did manage to finish crocheting that baby blanket I told you about last post.  It's a design I made up and will share here later in the year. I'm really happy with the design and although it took a few different goes before I found a binding I was happy with, I think it's come up well.

 This morning it was market day ...... this time the bus "Seriously Crazy" from Charters Towers was back again ...... I just couldn't resist ..........  I think these will end up making a nice table runner.  The Bee theme is based on what was my little sewing cabins name "The Beehive" which you might

remember (until it all had to be packed up ....... mostly into boxes now in Qld and a few remains kept out and moved back inside to one of the bedrooms.  I've always had a bit of a thing for bees, but not gotten into collections or bee keeping as such .........  I do enjoy watching various bits of nature, which is why I try to have lots of flowers and shrubbery together with watering "holes" to keep the good insects happy and have the little birds visiting.
Did I mention I finally found some material I was happy with to be the background for the signature hexie tablecloth??  Well I decided this fabric with little hexie shapes would work.  I've kind of attached the hexies to it ...... but I have a bit of quilting work to do on it ....... and might also add some other bits to it before it gets its binding
 

I managed to get some more walking and a bit of running done during the week with a walk in Yarrawonga finishing just in time to catch the Queens Baton coming through town on its way up to the Gold Coast for the Games later in the year!

 

I hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend and your week goes well.

Hugs, Sharm

 

On Lake Nillacootie in the back section