Random Friday

I've been feeling a little rushed today.

It's the last day of the school term and I've been zooming about trying to get some things done while it's just me and I don't have to worry about organising kids as well. 

 I'm half successful as I've found that I keep starting things then next moment I've got side-tracked doing something else and I'm not crossing much off my list at all.  Hence why I'm now writing this which wasn't on my 'to do' list but seemed more fun than scrubbing the toilet and paying some bills.

Not a lot has been happening here these last few days either.  Hubby went back to work yesterday so it's just the kidlettes and I until mid next week.

I've started a new project using some of the Rosabella Threads yarn I bought earlier in the year.  I LOVE working with this yarn as it's so soft and gorgeous and doesn't split.

I've got a bit of an idea of what I want the final piece to look like but I'm trying to work out what other colours I'll need to make it happen.  For now though I'll continue making the motif's in the Rose so I know how many I can get out of one skein.

Time to rush off again.  I have a meeting at the Primary school soon and then Master M will get an early mark on the last day of the term as I don't really feel like heading there again a few hours later.  

Enjoy the rest of your week and I hope you all have a fabulous weekend.

xx Susan

15 Years!

Our 15th Wedding anniversary is finally here.

Since we celebrated it a couple of weekends ago, the day itself seems to have taken forever to arrive.

It's also one of my favourite kind of days with torrential rain pelting down on our tin roof.  That would truly have to be one of my favourite comforting sounds but it has meant that we've changed our plans from having one of our Date Days where we go for a drive and a bit of an explore.

Instead we went out for breakfast once the kids were at school and will be celebrating with the kids tonight, enjoying a wonderful slow cooked meal and perhaps a little something special for dessert.

I won't send a gushing message to hubby as we're not really gushing kind of people and to tell you the truth, I don't think he's ever read my blog.

But for the record, Happy Anniversary honey.  Lets hope there are many, many more to come. 

xx Susan

mid-Winter

The solstice nearly passed me by this year.  I don't usually do much to celebrate except light a candle and reflect a little on the previous six months and work out what bits of my life I might like to give a little polish to over the next six months.

When I think of mid-winter, images of dull, dark, grey, cold and rain usually come to mind.  Those images are pretty well the opposite of what we are experiencing at the moment.  With so much bright light about, I didn't even think about the solstice so thank you to Miss R for reminding me.

I have to say that we are pretty blessed to live in a beautiful part of the world where the winter's are very mild and most days reach around 20 Celsius.  There has been some sneaky breezes keeping the temperature down and making me very happy as I get to wear my scarves, shawls and wraps for a brief time.

We're even putting the heaters on of a morning as the temperatures have been getting down to single figures at night!

The kids keep telling me how freezing they are so I keep telling them that a family holiday to the snow is out of the question then because if they can still walk around in t-shirt and shorts right now, then it's not really cold!  They don't believe me of course.

Enough of the weather, I'm sounding very British aren't I? (sorry to all my Brit friends :)

I've been without a car for the last week as well since hubby's car is still at the panel beaters after the accident about a month ago.

That meant he had to take my lovely beastie to work this week and the kids and I have had to rely on family for the school runs.  Thank goodness hubby's cousin lives in the same street as us and hasn't needed his car during the day so I've been able to borrow it for a brief time of a morning and afternoon.

No car on the weekend meant we couldn't get out and about to enjoy the gorgeous weather.

We had to make do with a couple of meandering walks to the shops for supplies which I always enjoy.  It's not far but it really is a pretty little walk in parts and I love that you can see some of the Glasshouse Mountains peeking above the houses and shops.

Since we weren't able to get out and about, I ended up getting a bit more done on the wrap I'm making.  I'm really enjoying this one and am very happy that the green is starting to subtlety make it's way through.  A few more rows and it should be more pronounced.

Have a wonderful week everyone.  I'm off to do a speed run of housework so I can get back to my wrap.

xx Susan

One W.I.P finished

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I was getting a bit of a basket full of wip's (work in progress).

I'm happy to say that I've finished one of those projects so now I have another new bag to use.

I haven't lined this one yet either and I'm thinking about adding some kind of embellishment to it but I have to stop using it first.

It's the perfect size for throwing in my phone, keys and purse for when I do the school run or pop down to the shop for some milk.  I've also made it big enough so my journal will fit in as I rarely go anywhere without that.  My journals are always A5 size notebooks and fit in my new bags perfectly.

So now I have two different looking bags using the same pattern but changing colours and stripe sequences.  I've still got enough yarn leftover to make two more bags so I'll see what I can come up with to make them look a little different too.

Then I'll have to line them although the way I'm going they'll probably be nearly worn out before I get around to doing that!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

xx Susan

Anniversary weekend

Our 15th Wedding anniversary is not until the 26th of June but we had the opportunity to go away for a couple of days last weekend while the kids had sleepovers with family members.

Our plans of going somewhere a little different, spending a couple of days exploring and making sure we went somewhere that had a fire place was abruptly put on hold because of a little drama with Patch.

He is fine.

He also has never had the chop so to speak (I wanted to get him done but hubby didn't), and the neighbours lovely little border collie happened to come on heat in the week before we were going away.

Of course hubby wasn't home and I spent the week trying to fix fences to stop two amorous dogs getting to each other.  I wasn't successful in stopping them because they kept finding some way to get through to each other and neither the neighbours nor I could work out how.

I had to keep him on a lead for most of the time when he was outside or in a side room we have as well as inside on occasion.  That resulted in the other problem of him crying nearly all night and me getting about 3-4 hours sleep each night.  I was a bit tired and grumpy by the time hubby got home.

Hubby found a spot at the back of the shed where they were getting under the fence so got to work and fixed it up and then we had two dogs running along the back fence crying to each other but at least they couldn't get through.  Patch then dug a hole next to the fence and lay there during the day and refused to make eye contact with me when I tried to take a photo of him.

So as much as we wanted to go away, we couldn't leave the neighbours always checking to make sure he wasn't getting through which meant a weekend at home was on the cards.

I was a bit upset at first but in the end we absolutely loved it.  We decided that the main appeal about going away was that we got to spend time together and we could still do that at home.

We went on picnics and outings.

We went out to dinner and the movies.

We went out for lunch and another movie.

Then after a day of being out and about, we really wanted to be at home so we ordered takeaway and built up the fire in the back yard and enjoyed some beer and wine and just really enjoyed each other's company for the weekend.

Looking at these photos it would seem our weekend revolved around food because that's about all I took photos of!  It was all good though.

The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves as well with Master M staying at my parents for a couple of nights and spent the whole time with his cousin R who also happens to be his best friend.  Miss R spent the weekend with my sister and had the best time with her favourite Aunty so it was really a little mini holiday for all of us.

Thank you to my wonderful family for your help with the kids over the weekend as we absolutely LOVED our weekend together.

xx Susan

This week I'm loving.....

Crochet.... plenty of crochet!

I've finished another version of my Venetian Shawl.  This time I used a Scheepjes Whirl which has a lot more yardage than the pattern calls for so I made a few adjustments and am loving the Cherry Pie colours of this one. (adjustment notes are here).

I've been good in recent years to contain myself and have no more than two projects on the go at once.  I usually have a main project and then a portable project but right now I seem to have forgotten how to count as my basket has a few extras in it.

I've still got plenty of the cotton I bought when I was on my city jaunt back in April so decided to start making another bag while I was finishing off my shawl.

Then of course I started making another one in a different colour!

Then I started faffing about and began making another shawl!

Perhaps all these projects are a reflection of my scrambled mind at the moment.  I'll see how good I can be and try to pick just one project to work on over the weekend.

Strawberries

It's winter and that means sweet, juicy strawberries. Not that I'm getting to eat a lot of them as Miss R seems to be going through them at a rapid pace.

Spur of the moment picnic

Hubby and I are celebrating our 15th Wedding anniversary this month and thanks to my family who are looking after the kids, we get to have a couple of days to ourselves.  Of course there's been a bit of a drama surrounding it so we've had to change our plans but we've started it off with a spur of the moment picnic lunch on a gorgeous, warm winter's day.  

(and yes, I did say WARM winter's day as it was 27 Celsius [80.6F].  Perfect for a picnic!)

Yarn

More yarn.

I couldn't help myself.  It was on sale! :)

I hope you are all having a wonderful week wherever you reside on this little ball of ours.

xx Susan

Yarn Trail - The Patchwork Angel (and Yarn Angel)

The Patchwork Angel is probably the closest shop that sells yarn to me and is only about a 15-20 minute drive.

As the name suggests, it is a store that focuses mainly on fabric, patchwork and sewing supplies and I've been here a few times over the years when I've wanted a special fabric for a project.  I always know I'll find exactly what I need here and plenty more that I want!

The range of yarn used to be quite small but I'm now happy to say that in recent years they have added to their yarn section and the signage on the building reflects that and says Yarn Angel as well.

I was especially excited to see that they stock some of the Rosabella Threads range which you may remember me writing about back in January when I bought some yarn directly from the producers farm.

I wasn't expecting to go there on that particular day and only got the chance to spend 15 minutes or so looking around but I saw plenty that I would love to work with and now have another 10 or so projects whirling away in my mind.

The Patchwork Angel also holds regular classes ranging from quilting (of course) as well as crochet and knitting classes.  All the classes are held in the back room of this converted old church where you're surrounded by so much inspiration.

I didn't leave empty handed either even though I knew hubby was waiting (very patiently) in the car park for me.  However it wasn't yarn that I bought but some fabric so I can line the bag I was working on when Miss R was in hospital back in April.

The bag itself has been finished for weeks and the fabric for the lining has been cut out and pinned together waiting for me to actually sew it up.  I know I'll get to it fairly soon because it's sitting on my ironing board in the middle of the lounge room and everyone has to constantly walk around it.

It won't take me long to get sick of nearly falling over it, then I'll sew it together and wonder why I procrastinated on it for so long!

So if you're ever on the Sunshine Coast, the Patchwork Angel is somewhere I would really recommend, especially if you are a quilter.  The staff are fantastic and extremely knowledgeable and don't hold it against you if you crochet instead of quilt  :)

I hope you're all having a wonderful week.  Master M is much better after our quick visit to the hospital last week but life around here has been pretty hectic and I'm trying to find some sort of balance.  Small steps is the key and dealing with what's in front of me and simplifying things seem to be working for now.

xx Susan

Weekend scarf

I wanted a quick project to work on over the weekend that would use up a lonely ball of yarn that I had sitting on my shelves for years.

It was not quite a full 200g ball of 8ply wool from the Bendigo Woollen Mills that was leftover from another project and this particular yarn is no longer available.  The perfect thing to make with it was a scarf for myself as I knew it wasn't going to be long enough to give away or sell.

I seem to have a thing for a turquoise strand running through the things I'm making lately but that's okay as it's one of my favourite colours.

The timing for finishing this one off has also been perfect as we had a bit of a cold front come through last night and the westerly winds and cold weather has really hit this morning.

I put it on to take a photo and haven't taken it off yet!!

Have a great week everyone.  Mine hasn't started on the best of notes as we had a hospital visit with Master M last night.  All is okay thankfully but it could have been much worse which really hit home to me when we were in and out of emergency after having all kinds of tests in a little over 3 hours!  

That's pretty well unheard of and I have to thank my wonderful doctor for phoning the hospital and telling them we were on our way and speeding up the process.

He's home from school today and snuggled under the blankets (crocheted of course), and in a pretty happy mood otherwise.  That makes this Mum happy too.

xx Susan

Naughty dog...

We were loving our usual walk the other morning after we had dropped the kids at school.  It's really cooling down here now so it was the perfect time to be walking without getting too hot.

When I turned to head back, I spied something in the distance and knew I was going to have a bit of a problem, especially as I don't generally take a lead with me as I prefer to have my arms firmly in their sockets and attached to my body.

Can you see them? (There are actually 2).

A couple of kangaroos were having a morning snack right beside the road and I kept trying to distract Patch while mentally pleading with the animals to stop gawking at us and hop away.

Eventually he caught their scent and saw them and then he was off with me screeching at him to come back.  Thank goodness they're faster and can hop off into the bush easier so he never catches them but I do dread it if one day he did.

You don't mess with kangaroos as they have sharp claws and can do some damage (I won't go into details).

Thank goodness he did come back fairly quickly this time and I have to say in recent years he has been pretty good and stays with me when I make him.  This time he obviously didn't so there was no treat when we got home.

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.

xx Susan