A Hard Day’s Night

Backup, Backup, Backup.  It is drummed into us.  Still we sometimes become complacent.  Which is what happened to us. 
Since we have got back from our trip to the south several things have gone awry.  One of them was that we lost all our business data going back to last financial year (June 2012).  I guess we weren’t too worried about our computer crashing as it was only a couple of years old.  AHem.  They don’t make ‘em like they used to apparently. 
So, my friends, I have been busy trying to get back on track and waiting around for technicians to see if they could retrieve anything. They retrieved some, but not a lot.  Now we have a new computer and it is a matter of re-entering as much as we can.  Nearly there……

(Some soothing photos!!!)
In between the madness and mayhem I have been doing a little crafting and surfing of the net.  My latest addiction being ‘You Tube”.  It is so amazing what you can see being done on ‘You Tube’ !!
One thing I have been watching is very talented people art journaling.  So I thought I would like to do some pages and make a little booklet.  Then I had the bright idea of covering it and giving it to a friend who just turned 70.

My messy dining room table.  Oh how I would love to have another space just for fiddling around with art stuff.  No more room left in this house!!

Linda’s journal cover (opened out).  I am loving doing some fabric collage at the moment and I think hand stitching  makes it look very unique.  It was fun to practice going around the flowers and doing the embellishment on them with the free motion.  Gotta do more of that!

The magazine page which inspired the journal cover

The little journal inside.  I used pamphlet stitch to sew it all together.  It was easy peasy and such fun to make.
Another friend is turning 50 soon.  Yvonne, if you are reading this log out now!!!!

She is having a blue and red quilting party on Thursday so I made her this collage card to go with her blue and red fabrics I have got for her.
Last week Toowoomba’s annual show was held and we went along with our daughter and little grandy, Lilian.
Here are some photos of her enjoying her day and entertaining Nana and Grandad!

Back to it

Our holiday to the Great Ocean Road is beginning to be a bit of a haze now, but it was so much fun.
  (Bay of Islands)
 Since we have got home and got back into it we have had nothing but misfortune with technology  grrr1!!@##@  Firstly our main computer bit the dust (had to buy a new one), then Telstra decided to cut the phone service in our area for 22 hours with no warning (no internet).  After this it just kept happening.  We thought our router was broken  when we lost the internet the very next day.  No… our server was off the air for 24 hours.  Then…..there is more…. our electricity supply was cut for a whole day.  Still we have not been able to get hold of a technician to retrieve our files and set us up properly on the new computer.  Will try again after Easter.  Just gonna chill out now.
What can a girl do when the electricity gets cut.  Answer – not much.  She did manage to paint and play around with some up coming journal pages. 
On a brighter note, here are some pictures of the magnificent coast line of the Great Ocean Road.  Our trip was magical and my 5 star sister announced after about 10 days that she ‘loved camping’!!  Very funny, but good in that we can now organize another trip with my sister and b-i-l for the future.

London Bridge                                               The Arch

Mutton Bird Island                                          The 12 Apostles

The Grotto
As soon as the power came back on Wednesday afternoon,  I got to and sewed up this little Easter bag I had cut out.  It is for Lilian and we will give it to her Sunday morning with some little goodies inside.  This will be a one off as it was very fiddly diddly.  A very cute pattern by ‘Melly and me” designs and the pattern is just the size of a postcard which has all the details and pattern pieces inside.

Does anyone else suffer with ‘stumbling at the finishing line’ syndrome?  It seems that when I am on the last leg of a project and just want to get it done before any more distractions come my way, all manner of things go wrong!!!  Finally I got the fiddly part of the top of this bag done, but don’t look close – Don’t, I said!!

Our garden has managed to survive in our absence due to the massive amount of rain Toowoomba had.
One of the loveliest flowers we have in the garden at this time of year is this deep red dahlia.  It never disappoints.

Down in the back yard (where I rarely go these days) my husband discovered this tree flowering.  We don’t know what it is but it is so pretty and unusual.

I am not a zoo person, so when I see our native animals in the wild I get very excited.  We were lucky enough to see heaps of koalas in the Otway NP (Victoria).  One might say they are far from extinct in this particular area.
We didn’t see them til early in the morning and they were all asleep.  Even so, doesn’t this sleeping koala look the cutest??  He has his little arms crossed  awwww.


Black Kangaroo, Griffiths Island near Port Fairy  Vic. She may have a joey in the pouch, but the trees got in the way when I photographed her.  Hard to photograph wild animals!!! 
Lastly a couple of camping scenes for your entertainment.

Sister blowing up bed and in her fashionable fly hat (the flies were extremely bad in the dry heat!!)

Brother in Law trying to stay dry in Mt Gambier SA

Too short for this camp. 

Bad smell at this camp.
Gotta love the great outdoors.
Til next time, happy stitching – I hope to be doing much of it in the coming weeks. (if I can get away from my latest distraction ‘you tube’.)

Back Soon

What have I been doing?  Not much,  but I seem to busy all the time.
Piecing is not my forte at all but I did this Jewel Box Block for a secret project.  The recipient doesn’t have a blog or read blogs so I am pretty safe to show it here.  She is 70 years old in April.

The background is a tone on tone black and we were to use jewel colours in batik or similar.  It was a fun block to make and should look stunning when all the blocks are together.
This past Monday I celebrated another birthday.  Wish they would stop coming around so darned quickly.  Anyway, we can’t stop them, so we may as well enjoy them.  I had a lovely day with my friends doing coffee and then lunch with Shirley, followed by some retail therapy.

We went to coffee on Valentine’s Day so all the coffees were presented with the heart motif.  Too cute.

Tomorrow we are off on another adventure in the company of my sister and her husband.  We are going in our camper and my sister and hubby are tenting it.  They haven’t camped since about 1970 when they were just teenagers.LOL  this is going to be really funny.  My sister is a 5 star girl normally.   (She is looking a bit worried here  LOL)
It should be loads of fun.  Back in about 4 weeks.  Ciao.

Joys in Life

It has been so darned hot this past week it has been difficult to think about picking up sewing.  Soon I will have air conditioning in the sewing room so that will help in summer. My sewing room is on the western side of the house so is very very hot in summer. 
Some of the joys of summer though are extra day light  and blooms in the garden.
Our agapanthus are still putting on a nice display and they are such a glorious colour.

Here are some other things still blooming regardless of the heat wave.

Hubby has started up a vegie garden again now that he has a bit more time on his hands.  We have beetroot growing and that will be a joy to eat.  We enjoy it just grated raw onto a salad, but also love it pickled.

We also have lettuce, zucchini, cucumber and tomatoes growing.
The biggest joy in our life at the moment is our little grandie, Lilian. 
Lilian loves to paint and draw.  Here is a bird she drew and I think it is fantastic for a little girl who has just turned 4.

Isn’t it wonderful?  It has a beak and eyes and wings and even a crest.  Perhaps she is going to be artistic and crafty – I would love that!
Here she is in her fave dress at the moment, her ‘ballerina dress’.  She has always had a cheesecloth wrap with her at bedtime and when she needs it for comfort.
She calls it ‘sooky’.  Sooky goes everywhere!

Sorry about some of my close up shots.  Still getting used to the macro etc. on the new camera.
Until next time (when I hope to have something stitchy to show you), enjoy the joys in your life.

Habits & Goals

No resolutions this year but there are some goals-
Goals – not necessarily all this year!
1…… Finish at least a couple of UFO’s
2……Take a Learn to Draw Class
3……Get all my TAST stitches done
4……Let go of the fear and let the creative side take over
and some Bad Habits that need to be broken-
There is one bad habit I have conquered last year.  Since I was a small girl I have always chewed my fingernails.  I know, yuk, yuk yuk!  Gross!  As a child I was very shy and very self conscious about my very thick glasses.  Of course it didn’t help that I was teased mercilessly by the other kids at school. This made me very nervy and I just chewed and chewed. Fifty odd (very odd) years later on our Western trip last year, I found that my fingernails grew because I wasn’t chewing!!  You are always dirty when you’re camping out in the bush, so even I couldn’t bring myself to chew.  So….. haven’t chewed since.  HURRAY!
1……Stop starting new projects before finishing old
2……Stop hoarding and buying art stuff that goes into the cupboard to just dream about
3……Stop getting on this bloody computer so often and make some limits.
Well, there you have it, I have exposed publicly.

My friend, Marleen, gave me this journal for Christmas.  Inside it has a type of recycled paper and some of the pages in the back are graph paper.  This should be really handy for doing some designing.  I love it!
So, I am designating this book to creative ideas.  Thank you, Marleen.

One of my loopy sister in laws (sorry Cath, but you know you are :  -)) has a beautiful Australian chocolate mist cat called Levi.  In amongst all her old clothing was this very 80’s, very ugly denim skirt.  I suggested we cut it up and make a little snuggle rug for Levi.  Something he can scratch the billyo out of if he likes!  It is backed with the black velvety ‘stuff’ you see here in the windows of the front.  Cathy loved it hope Levi does too!

Here is Cathy aboard her partner’s boat back in November.  Love ya Cath!

A really random photo, but this is the plum pudding I made for Christmas and it was my best ever!!
Forgot to take an after cooking photo but it was quite spectacular!
Also made a new dessert which everyone agrees will become a family tradition.
It is from the pre Christmas edition of “Delicious” magazine. Cold Rice Pudding with Hot Cherry Sauce.  Out of this wooooorld.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!!!

Lots of Stuff–Post Christmas

This is a real catch up post!  It is lovely to be spending some time just relaxing at home over the Christmas New Year break.  The best part is catching up on some stitching and watching a few movies while doing it
Christmas Day Snaps.

Rebecca (Lilian’s mummy)  ( L ) & Bonnie                  Santa’s gorgeous helper – Bonnie

All the girls on Christmas Day ( L – R) Rebecca, Gabrielle, my sister, Lyndelle, Bonnie, Angela and Moi.

Lyndelle in her sexy apron and with son, Nicholas.
It was a lovely day with heaps of scrumptious food.
My dear friend Shirley gave me this embroidery book – I am so lucky!  It has a lot of unusual stitches in it which I am keen to try.  Thank you, my friend.
                 
Marleen had gifted me and Joan one of these very cute aprons each.  Thank you Marleen – it was very handy indeed.
            
Cute!

I made Marleen and Joan one of these pencil rolls each.  The pattern was from ‘You Go Girl’ – HERE- and was very easy to put together with easy to understand instructions. 

And I made them each a little owl too such as I had received earlier from Vicki at the retreat.
Finally, I have done some more TAST stitching.
This one is Week 21 – Butterfly Chain.  I have called this little one ‘Butterfly Love’ and designed it when we were out in the outback in August.  This stitch was very interesting and I like it done in the chain like I have used around the hearts.  I have worked it on duponi silk.

Yesterday I watched movies and stitched Week 22 – Knotted Cretan Stitch.  This one is called ‘Fish Skeleton’ and evolved from just ‘freestyling’  with the stitch.  On the border I have done it in a very controlled manner in a knotted open cretan and I love the texture this stitch creates.

The background is hand painted (by me) in acrylic paint mixed with textile medium and then rubbed with a copper coloured shiva stik over a textured surface. 
All the TAST stitches for 2012 may be viewed HERE and in the comments sections of each stitch you can view what other people have done over the year.  There are some very creative ideas for using all the various stitches.
Thank you to Sharon Boggon from “Pintangle” for organizing the TAST challenge. 
Now to get on with the next 24 stitches  I AM HALFWAY THERE!!!!!