Resolutions.........and breaking them

This New Year I have resolved not to make any resolutions for fear of breaking them - again!  Instead, I am calling them 'serious attempts'.
Firstly, I am going to make a serious attempt to spend a little time in the garden each day.  It is out of control since the recent heavy rain.

 
Agapanthus growing amongst weeds
I am going to make a serious attempt to finish some UFO's  and to finish projects I start in 2011.

I am going to make a serious attempt to blog more regularly and spruce up my blog.  (Will get Shirley B to help me with this one).

I am going to make a serious attempt to go down to Brisbane more often this year to visit our daughter who works 6 days a week and finds it hard to get away to visit us.  I feel like I want to go down there and spoil her. 

And last, but most importantly, I am going to make a serious attempt to not spread myself too thinly and over commit.

 Bella with her summer 'do'.
Last year I made a resolution to throw out one thing every day and get organized.  Well, I managed very well with throwing something out each day well into the year.  We won't go into the getting organized bit.  Still haven't got the house back together since the reno!!!!  We have ordered a new leather lounge suite though, which I am very excited about.  We have had our current fabric lounge for 28 years now - it is still in good nick.
We also purchased THE most divine persian rug for the lounge room.  Should look super duper with the new lounge (fingers crossed).  
 
We gave the man of the house this new video camera for Christmas. He had this JVC video camera (Left) when the children were little and he took some wonderful movies of them.  Now that we have our little granddaughter and will probably be blessed with more grandies, we have given him this new JVC(Right) to record memorable events.  
WOW, how video cameras have changed since the 1980's hey!!!??

Dang - it is raining again, so can't go out into the garden today. 

Binding

 
The hand quilting is finished and the quilt is ready for the binding to be sewn down.  This is the binding fabric, Kaffe Fassett of course!  It is going to give a nice effect around the edge.
 Binding is the part of the quilt making I love the best.  It heralds the finish and in this case it has been quite a while getting there. 

Our renovations are nearing completion too.  Here is the before and after photos of the outside pathways and patio concreting.

 
DH and I still can't decide whether to close in the area or not.  I am in favour - he is against.  So, for the time being it will remain like this until we reach agreement. 

Caution - Mundane Post

I finally got to the sewing machine today and got the binding sewn on to my Kaffe Fassett quilt.  There is still some hand quilting to be done right up to the edge so I have chosen to put the binding on before trimming this time.  It just suit me better to do it this way this time.  Hope it works out to be straight or I am in trouble.  It is not a prize winning quilt anyway, just a quilt I have loved doing and look forward to using on our bed.


 
Speaking of our bed, I have had to put another blanket on this past week.  This is a woollen blanket I bought at a garage sale about 20 years ago.  It was in perfect condition and still is.  One of the jobs I love to do is make the bed every morning.  It gives an opportunity to let your mind wander onto what the day may bring.  A mundane task, but satisfying.
 
Now, to brighten this post up, a very happy little Lilian doing what she likes best - playing in dirt.

When Size Does Matter

We had half the new renovation tiled when we decided to knock down walls.  This meant we had to order some more tiles or use carpet as before.  Fortunately, the supplier had some more of the same tiles.  They were a different batch so he advised us there may be a slight colour difference, but mixed in with the left overs from the first lot it would not be noticeable.  


Sounds just fine and dandy huh?  Well the tiler arrived this morning to finish it all off so we can get our living area back to normal (??) by Easter.  Now if you purchased a 450mm x 450mm tile you would expect it to measure 450mm right?  Nuh,  they were smaller than the other batch by about 4mm !!@@@??@??!!! (Replace with expletives.)

So people, if you are buying tiles just keep this in mind.  What to do?  We cannot lay them the same as the other area as it flows through and the line would be all out.  We can't have a big wide ugly grout either.  Soooooo, we have got around it by separating the two areas with a feature tile and laying the new tiles on the 45 deg. angle. Off tile shopping again on Monday. Whew!  Well of course this can't be done til next week now as the tiler has other jobs to go to.  It could still be done by Easter though,  fingers crossed! 


 Our living room.  Come on....you must feel a bit sorry for me!

Catch up

I have been very neglectful of my blog lately.  Since visiting my friend Shirley back a couple of months ago, I have been mad for embroidery.
I am working feverishly on my crazy blocks now to reach my goal and have them completed in 2010.  Shirley has introduced me to a group called 'Stitchin Fingers' run by Sharon B from 'Pintangle" fame, and I have loved looking over the site and chatting with embroiderers from all over the world.

It does eat into your embroidery/quilting time though.  Work on my hand quilting of KFC quilt has had to cease for the moment due to the renovations.  Yesterday we had a fine mist of gyprock powder through the house, so I can't bring my quilt out of hiding to quilt. 
It is coming along well though, and will look fabulous when finished.

Well, got the gyprock dust cleaned up when along came the tiler and decided to grind some concrete.  I can't describe it.

All I will say is, if you are going to do a reno - MOVE OUT.



Here is a photo of my friend Pam's Dragonfly quilt.  She has made this for a special gift for someone and it is her own design.  Love her background fabric and she has done lots of handquilting on it.


 A close up of her gorgeous dragonfly.


As I write this I am hoeing into a 'Lemon Myrtle & Macadamia' yoghurt.  It is the bestest most divinest yoghurt ever.  It is made by a local company called Queensland Yoghurt Company and states
" Gourmet Yoghurt".  Not wrong!  I had to stop myself from eating the whole 500g tub.  They have other yummy flavours such as coffee & walnut, mango and passionfruit, Rhubarb, apple and cinnamon and many more.  Going to roll into bed now.

In God's Playground

(Saturday) 
 It was such a beautiful autumn morning today.  There is so much to do in our garden right now, so I got out into God's playground and it did my soul a whole heap of good.  Seeing as the house in such a state right now, it was nice to get out into the garden and lose myself for a couple of hours.


As my friends know, I have to be a little bit careful not to overdo it, or my fibromyalgia will strike me down.
 

I took a few photos of my miniature roses.  I lost one of my pink ones during the dry spell, but since the recent rains many plants in the garden that I had given up for dead have sprung back to life.

This pink miniature above is in topiary form and is giving a lovely display.  I will take a full photo in better light.  The sunlight was just too powerful this morning.

 





This orange one was all but dead and is struggling along with a few little flowers to please me.




















I brought some roses inside to brighten up the space.

I also planted some basil and parsely seedlings.  It is probably the wrong time of year, but hoping to get some use out of them before our first frost hits.

Chaos Central

 
BEFORE

 One Reno has led to another - now we are knocking down walls.

AFTER




















Thought I would add some prettiness.  Some more roses from my garden.

 This one, as you can see, is the most beautiful deep peach colour, and it has a beautiful fragrance.  It grows very bushy and flowers in clusters (usually).  During the dry weather none of my roses were flowering at all!!

This one is very fragrant and grows in clusters also.  It is lovely when all the flower heads are budding and in full flower to cut and fill a vase.
Tomorrow morning, (Sat) I am going to spend the morning pampering them and giving them some tender loving care for their reward.


As you can imagine my creative life is virtually at a standstill while I cope with the mess and chaos around me.  Thank goodness on Thursdays I meet with my sewing friends and get a little more work done on my CQ blocks.  It is the only creative outlet I have at present.

A Hot wind that blows no good

Today must be about 40 deg C with a hot wind factor of 50.  A wickedly hot day which is shrivelling up our garden.  The poor old lettuce have curled up their toes and I am going to harvest the beetroot this afternoon, as it is getting a bit knocked around and ancient.

My friend's poor black sheep that I mention in my last post (pictured above) was put down a few days after this photo was taken.  She was understandably upset, as they had had him for nigh on 20 years. 

Here is Joe the Painter (our son-in-law) slaving away one hot day.  Part A of the painting is now done and the green wall you see there is now a warm white colour with the dado board a nice glossy white.  It looks so much lighter and brighter.  Then there is just the tiles to go down.  Before Christmas?  have my doubts.

All the bedrooms had this wall paper frieze around the wall.  It is going (much to our childrens joy).  Not too hard to take off, just a bit of a soak with warm sudsy water and then scrape with a paint scraper.  Very messy though.

Gee I'll be glad when it is finished.  

Lesson learnt:  Never do a kitchen reno and get the house painted at the same time!!!

This is my Life

This is my life at the moment.  The whole house is topsy turvy.  

All the kitchen stuff is spread around two rooms and it is a bit like camping but we have our very own comfy bed and our own toilet/shower.  Since this photo was taken,  the new cupboards and bench top have gone in.  Not quite finished yet though with the cabinetry.  Will show all when it is looking all spiffy (and finished!)  This may not be until after Christmas now.  Oh Joy!!  

Oh well, it will be good when it is all over.  The next step is the painting inside, tiling, and after that new carpet.  

We usually do a reno and sell the place, but this time we are going to enjoy it and ain't going anywhere.

Vege Garden and Lack of Sewing

Usually between about 4.00pm and 5.00pm I like to hit the sewing room and do a bit.  For the last couple of days my sewing machine hasn't wanted to play.  It keeps getting loops on the back.  Not lots and lots of loops, just one every now and then.  The thing is, I am doing a chenille bath mat at the moment and I want the back to be 'perfect'.  
I have de-fluffed, oiled, changed needle, changed top tension threading and anything else I can think of.  It is driving me nuts.  Maybe it is time for a new machine!  




Mr Neat has just planted this vege garden.  He assures me he is going to be responsible for watering it.  Usually he plants these things and then has to go away for work for a week or such like and I end up having to do it.  It is also a hassle if you want to go away for a long weekend or something.  Our poor neighbour usually gets landed with the job then.  He could not be talked out of it though.  Do hope it yields better than his last efforts!
Here we have lettuce in the foreground and bok choy behind it.  Behind that capsicum and out of picture we hope to have some cherry tomatoes grown by shoving some bought ones that went a bit soft into the ground.

You call this dust?!!?

This is a view from our property last Saturday when we had a similar, but not so big, dust storm as the previous Wednesday.   There is a hill in the background, I kid you not.  It was like a heavy blanket of fog.  

Whilst I was at the quilt show someone in our household (won't mention any names) left the living room windows open.

Today is the first chance I have had to try and dust every single object in the room and surrounds.  

This is not your ordinary old household dust.  No sirreee.  This is straight from the outback desert sands type dust.  

You wipe the surface of object/furniture, you wipe it again, you wipe it again, moving it from one place to another.  It is really testing my housekeeping prowess and it is really eating into my valuable quilting/sewing time.  Grrrr.

Baby Lili - bub enjoyed the quilt show but was anxious to show us all her new crawling skills.  Very cute to watch, but this new development has had me 'baby proofing' my sewing area in the lounge room before each visit.

Packin' up - goin' nowhere

What could be worse than packing up and moving?
In our married life we have done this so many times. Packing up and going nowhere is a lot worse. Not complaining though, oh no, in the end we will have the whole of the inside of the house painted (son-in-law is the painter), new kitchen, new vertical blinds, new floor coverings. All this started out as a small kitchen 'make-over'. Oh well, life will only be in chaos for a couple of months. (we hope).

Why do we need so many teapots? Especially when we use tea bags most of the time. All inherited, and can't part with them.

Recipe books? Dunno. Some inherited, some collected, hardly used, but will she part with them? No.

Living in a reno nightmare

Well, it's started. We've ripped up all the carpet and vinyl where they are going to be replaced with tiles. Can't wait. Anyone who puts carpet under a dining room table needs their head read!!

Tiles will be so much easier to keep clean and hopefully will make the area look bigger. The GREEN carpet just became too much to bear. Everything in this house is green (previous owners choosing - not ours). Green carpet, green and cream lino, green vertical blinds (oh yes - they did once exist), green wallpaper frieze ( commonly known as interior decorating graffiti). There is also green in the kitchen splash back tiles and not forgetting the green laminate on the kitchen and laundry benches. Oh God, we are sooooo over green.

We are going neutral with everything, which seems to be the best way these days. We can accent with colour then, and anyone following us has that option as well.

It seems what started off as a simple kitchen reno has built up to a whole house reno, and hubby even had the audacity to suggest we might start in on the sewing room carpet today.

Whooaa - not today buddy..... there is much preparation to do in there first, like hiding
everything in the already over-stuffed cupboards


When we pulled the carpet up, even the underlay was GREEN.

Soon to get my home back

Well, the pre-fab buiding is in it's place and over Easter Hubby and I will set it up as his new office. It was a bit scary when it was swinging over the house on the crane, so I got out of the house and took some photos.
Yippee, I have the guest room back, and the formal dining room back. We don't use the formal dining room - it's just for show-LOL - but it looks very ugly at the moment with building plans all over the table and hanging off every bit of furniture.

Guess who loves loves loves her bath time?







Here she is talking to her rubber ducky. Awww, she is so cute !

New Arrival

This is what arrived on the back of a truck yesterday. I'm excited!!!....

Why, you might ask would I be excited by a pre-fab building being dumped in our front garden??

Weeell, for the moment this building is going to be used as my husbands office for his business so

a) I can have my house back as a "home". (Currently it looks like an office, even infiltrating the formal dining room grrr)

b) I can just see it being a great studio/sewing space in the future. (Have to wait til hubby retires.. ) But, believe me quilting friends, I am very very patient.

The building is going to be moved to the back of the house behind some other sheds, so it won't stick out like a sore thumb.

Stuff

We recently had a show here on our ABC 1 channel about STUFF.....
It got me really thinking about all the STUFF we have in this house and what a nightmare of a job it would be to have to move.
Sooooooo, I decided on Monday that I would throw/give away one article each day.
It has been very easy to do, and quite liberating.

If I answer NO to any one of these self-imposed questions, then out it goes.

- Is this article enriching my life in any way
- Have I used this article in the past couple of years
- Do I like this article at all?? (there are some things you should never have bought!)
- Realistically, am I ever going to use this article again??
Now for the most important question of all
- would I ever be able to use this article in craft & quilting. (This is where it becomes difficult)

There are just too may things I have hung on to for craft & quilting and I have not ever used them, buuuuut how do I know I won't ever use them? Oh God, is this an illness? I can't seem to throw anything the slightest arty or crafty out, so all I can do is concentrate on all the other stuff for the time being.

One thing I can do towards cutting down is not purchasing any more mags. I really have cut down, honest I have, just getting Quilting Arts Mag at the moment. Perhaps I may just get the odd good quality book every now and then. (I so want the Thimblelady's applique book).

Flying Thingys

These flying thingys came to us courtesy of a small bag of brown rice. (they are now dead - after a good spraying). We hadn't opened the packet yet, but when I went to the cupboard last night to search for some noodles all these flying moth-like thingys flew out at me. The brown rice was unopened and on close inspection these animals were in residence. Oh well, I know what I will be doing this morning. BTW - the rice was "packed in Australia". Don't know it's exact origins!!

This is our daughter's doggy "Wilbur". (He is the one in my profile picture). He was sold to them as a "spoodle" but we have since found out he is a "Tiboodle" - cross between a tibetan spaniel and a mini poodle. It is this gorgeous fluffy tail that gave it away! He is highly intelligent, cheeky and frisky and absolutely adorable. Pleeeeeese Santa, can I have one for Christmas?