I grew a potato!!

After waking up feeling like a bear with a sore head less than happy this morning, I wandered out into the backyard and peered at my orange tree to see whether my lone remaining orange had been blown off the tree yet, when I spied...................a potato!! Not on the orange tree. Under it.

OK. So it's not such a big potato (it's the one at the front. The one at the back is a medium sized mango) but nevertheless, it is still a potato! I'm so happy! I might be a farmer after all!

Last birthday for the year on Saturday with the party on Sunday. We all trooped up to Maleny to have birthday lunch at the Maleny Hotel to celebrate DIL's birthday. Loaded Mum, DD and gorgeous grandson into the car and Bill the Builder drove like a man possessed us all up.

What more do you need, apart from a trashy novel, a box of chocolates and a little bottle of champagne?? I know! A giant bookmark! DIL was a bit taken aback by the size of the bookmark but I liked the design and didn't know what else to do with it. Told her it was a page marker that was difficult to lose!

Some embroidered towels and a massage voucher completed the booty haul from us.

I think Bill the Builder was having a good time.

After the party, we drove up around Nambour and also called into the Ginger Factory at Yandina. Left after a brief visit there, clutching some beautiful ginger sauce, some rocky road and a bottle of lime and ginger marmalade. Yum! Arrived home absolutely shattered a bit tired but a good time was had by all.

Happy birthday, beautiful girl!

Been to Table Runner School!

Spent a wonderful day recently at a Christmas table runner class. What a terrific way to spend a morning and I'm just so chuffed with the end result.

Even better, it's made entirely from my stash! How thrifty am I?? It's quite long and is actually brighter than it looks here. I am going to make another one for my dining room table and replace the centre star with an embroidery.

Done two more SBS blocks. This is Swamp Patch, traditionally pieced,

and this is Bachelor's Puzzle. It is made with templates with a lot of mucking around and spitting and cussing which I found a tad challenging.

It is said there is no such thing as a free lunch. Well, around these parts, if you want afternoon tea after kindy, you have to cook your own!

Hannes loves a good cook up and always makes our dinner on Wednesday nights too. Spag bol. Every Wednesday night. Without fail. I made that apron for him (and both the other grandbabies) for last Christmas and put a wooden spoon, a biscuit cutter and a pair of tongs in the embroidered pocket. He loves it!

I am always amazed when this poor plant bursts into flower each year! Mum bought it for me years ago and apart from a water from time to time, the poor thing is totally neglected. Yet each year, I get this beautiful display. Note to self: look after plant under mango tree a bit better.

Beautiful gerbras from Mum's garden. She really is the gerbra queen. What a lovely day it is here today! Perfect for embroidering towels for gorgeous DIL's birthday party tomorrow.

What a beautiful day!

Days like today make me so happy! The perfect Spring day, with a cool breeze and lovely sunshine! Birds singing, branches waving gently in the breeze and ditto a ute load of clean washing. All is right with the world.

The light of my life turned 5 yesterday! It just does not seem that long ago that I watched him being born. What a truly remarkable and special experience that was for me. I went over to his house for a lovely birthday breakfast yesterday morning and to watch him open his presents from me and Grandad.

Now that he's a big boy, I thought I should introduce him to the 'socks and jocks' gift pack! Check the smile on his face. He doesn't know, at this stage, that this will be something he's likely to be unwrapping many times in his life! He is the most joyous little critter.

 

Slow progress on a quilt for DIL. This block needs something. Am thinking of doing some ribbon embroidery flowers on it. Not sure.

This is the church block from Bronwyn Hayes' 'We are Family' that started in Homespun No. 104. I made it blue because my son and DIL were married in the little blue church on Mt. Tamborine. I've traced out all the blocks in the first part and started the embroidery on them but not a lot to show there yet! Need to get my skates on.

 

Aren't fresh flowers a delight to have in the house? This beautiful bunch came from SIL's garden. Hannes told me the buds will hatch in a few days, so here's hoping! Off to do another SBS block and have a crack at doing a block that needs templates - not my strong suit! Wish me luck!

How natty is this??

What a busy week! Not without it's screaming frustrations difficulties but all in all, a good week. Spent a fabulous day at the Brisbane Craft Fair with Bill the Builder's niece and bought a little silicon mould.

Not a very clear photo but it is a mould whereby you push a small piece of coloured fondant into the base and then some green over the top, then press the whole thing out and hey presto! Gorgeous little decoration for the best patty cakes in the whole world....mine, of course!

I made these cakes for the birthday party yesterday and they went down a treat. Also made some mini-quiches and you can see one peeking out on the bottom left hand side of the photo.

Started the day off at the fair with a crochet class on how to crochet a hibiscus! That left me open to scorn and derision a questioning look from Carolyn but it was a wonderful start to the day for me. There was one hour tuition, a bamboo hook and two balls of beautiful cotton so excellent value, to my mind.

And who among you does not need a crocheted hibiscus, hmmm??? It needs to be pressed so that the petals tighten up but I am just delighted with it! I was remarkably restrained very responsible with my purchases and even came home with $20! Here is my haul.

The soap mould at the back was a tad extravagant at $10 because I have seen them in the junk shop for $3 but haven't been able to find one for a while and I want them for Christmas gifts, so bit the bullet. Carolyn and I spent a half hour with the truly talented Helen Dafter who would have to be one of the nicest people I have ever met. We did a tutorial in ribbon embroidery and thoroughly enjoyed Helen's sense of humour. Janet Samson had a display of her beautiful embroidered quilts and so the show special had to come home with me. Janet's work stitches out beautifully and she has such pretty designs. They are not showing up very clearly here but take my word for it, they are just lovely.

It was a bit of a kicker that the car blew a heater hose and had great gusts of steam issuing from the bonnet as we pulled into the carpark of the fair but at least it didn't happen on the way in. We did the responsible thing and went to the fair any way so that the car could cool down. Long story short, we came home in a tow truck! I love RACQ! Tow truck driver was a delightful young man who described himself as a former troubled child and told us how he had turned his life around. Very inspiring story.

Only one SBS block done this week. Sickle block, which went together quite well and is traditionally pieced. Need to go back to Farmer's Wife Sampler too, as well as get a wriggle on with an embroidered quilt for gorgeous daughter-in-law. And the weekend ended on a high note with the 5th birthday party for the most adorable grandson in the whole world. I love this little guy so much. He brings true joy and happiness to my life. Happy birthday, Hannes!

Blowing out the candles on his Giggle and Hoot cake. What a lovely day we had in the park with family and all his little friends.



Onya, Barbie!

Well, what a thoroughly frustrating and infuriating wonderfully productive weekend! Weather has been just beautiful and I have been beavering away in totally inadequate carport situation lovely sewing room for most of the weekend. Really motoring along with Sylvia's Bridal Sampler.

Cross and Crown - foundation pieced

Big T - also foundation pieced

Shoo Fly

Sarah's Choice

Ohio Star

The last three were traditionally pieced. Need to whack up the design sheet on the dining room wall again when Bill the Builder isn't home, to see whether I'm going too blue. I don't think so though, from memory. Lynda is going to be so proud of my progress!

Made the best pizza on Friday night. I read a tip in a forum here about having fresh herbs all year round. You just gather up whatever herbs or greens you have, add an onion,  a bucket load some garlic and enough olive oil to make a paste and then just whizz the living suitcase out of it it up to make a sort of pesto number. I used parsley, rosemary, basil, brown onion, dried thyme and dried dill and a bucket load some garlic and slathered spread it over my homemade pizza dough and let me tell you...it is the freakin' goods! really nice.

Made a carnivore meat lover's for Bill the Builder and a chicken and pineapple one for moi. Needed to get the fruit element in.

Hot pizza and cold wine (Friday night's dinner) and cold pizza and hot coffee (Saturday breakfast). Yum! And all the food groups covered in one fell swoop. Could I write a nutrition book, or what??

Spitting, cussing and snorting Mildly disappointed to discover that the perfect border for this quilt has a distinct repeat and I can't use it. Actually, I've added another two borders since the photo below.

Disregard silky smalls waving in the breeze alongside.

Perfect border in Patisserie, which I love but you can see the obvious repeat in the fabric so auditioned this one (also Patisserie) which I freakin' knew in my water wouldn't work at all suspected might not be quite right.

Totally cheesed off to the max Quite disappointed. Would have liked to have done that this weekend. Believe me, that border doesn't look as good as it does in the photo. It really is a non-starter.

So that was my very productive weekend. I was also going to iron but realized I've already done that twice this year. Didn't want to appear obessive so gave it a swerve.

Further proof......

that I have not just been goofing off for the last year. Well....maybe a little, but had productive spurts too.

I learned to make my own laundry liquid. It works really well and saves me a ute load of cash. Gotta love that!

And my own bath soap after a totally diabolical first attempt which involved a can of Draino. Whoda thunk it?

Had a double birthday celebration for two grandbabies before they set off on a wonderful holiday to America.

Taught myself how to crochet around a handkerchief.  Probably would have worked better with the right colour cotton but you know how I hate to wait around for things ie next day to buy right colour cotton.

Went on a weekend ride to Tenterfield which pleased Bill the Builder no end. B the B nearly bawled had a few anxious moments when he discovered the battery on the bike was flat but he soon fixed that and off we went. A good time was had by all!

Channelling biker chick and failing dismally. Check out the grimace! Doncha love helmet hair??

Read a great tip here the other day about cutting the bottom of a bunch of wilting celery and standing it in water to revive it. Ditto lettuce. Since I had both dying a slow death in the bottom of the fridge, I decided to give it a go. And it worked!

SIL did the pop-in later on in the day and we had a lovely chat. After he left, he came back about a half hour later with a gorgeous bunch of flowers. I was so touched.

After talking to DD later that night, turns out SIL felt very sorry for me because I was trying to brighten up with place with celery and lettuce so he went out and bought me flowers! How sweet is he?

I've had this top done for a little while now. It was from Quilter's Magazine and is in Robyn Pandolph fabric which I love. Turned out to be a bit brighter than in the magazine but I still love it.

Check out these mitres!! Am I any good, or what?? Actually, all credit goes to the every patient Lynda who helped me to do it and she hardly rolled her eyes at me at all!

It is sitting on a king bed so I'm not sure whether it will fit on my quilt frame or not. I'm working up to quilting it for Mum's birthday. Need backing and batting and was working up to getting that this week, but haven't made it so far. Intended to pick it up after I dragged ferried Mum to the doctor this morning but ended up going for coffee instead.

A loooooong time between drinks!

Blimey! Didn't realize how long it had been since I've done any blogging. But have I been slack? No. In fact, I've been a very busy little vegemite. What inspired me to spring back into print is my progress on Sylvia's Bridal Sampler. I am actually up to block 50. On the strength of that, I pinned my design sheet up in the dining room and whacked all the blocks on. Bill the Builder will never notice the extra pin holes in the wall!

Not sure about that one third from the right on the top row. Might need to check and see if that's how it's supposed to look.

I have also caught the crocheted dishcloth bug. Since I am the instant gratification fairy, I love doing these! The first obvious plus is that I can do them and the other thing is, they are so fast, which we like! Mind you, some of them are a bit squiffy so they are the ones I kept. I gave some to Mother and to gorgeous daughter. They are mildly abrasive, very quick drying and it's just nice to have something pretty to do with dishes with. How sad is that??

Knitted wonky dishcloth

 Been to a wedding in Toowoomba.......

 Been to Sydney to catch up with buddies and go to............

another wedding! What a fantastic week we had too! Nearly vomitted A few anxious moments when I discovered I'd left my brand new, gorgeous little matching (naturally) handbag in the cab. A kit of new makeup, my phone, our hotel key, a credit card and $55 in cash. Thank you wonderful cabbie for finding it and taking it back to the hotel for me. but where is my $55?

A birthday for Mother who has been whining for ages asking to go to Outback Spectacular so we took her and SIL down for their combined birthdays. FYI, that is SIL and not Mother with me and gorgeous grandson in the snap.

A birthday for Bill the Builder (note to self - never buy Black Forest Cake for B the B again due to chocolate shavings being blown all over the house when candles blown out. Stick to anchored down decorations.)

Another birthday for me. FYI, that is Mother on the right looking like a deer caught in the headlights and gorgeous daughter on the left. Need to go and get out of my jammies now and forage in the freezer for something to defrost and feed Bill the Builder. Seem to recall a lump of brontysaurus in there somewhere. I'll do something creative with that. Hope he doesn't say 'surprise me'. We all know how that one ends!