Has it been this long since I blogged?!?!?!?

Oh my goodness. I can hear Bells now saying "Yes, yes it has been that long, I've been on your back!" And of course after seeing this pic you'll think that all I'm going to blog about is pav after the last post, but I must sit and brag that Nigella's chocolate pav for Christmas day turned out magnificently and was eaten with much gusto!!! Alas, there seemed to be no raspberries in this part of my world but strawberries worked just as well.

As for Christmas, what a lovely time we've had. Saturday spent with both sets of parents and my grandma. How lucky to get two Christmasses!

Sunday night was the annual lolly run around town. Scotty wanted to be a reindeer this year. How on earth do I pull that one off, but I did and here's the finished product, along with Molly getting to meet Santa, not sure what she really thought of him!

And then actual Christmas Day was spent deliciously at home here. Seeing the kids in the morning and then lunch and the afternoon spent lounging around, eating good food, drinking good wine, and opening presents between ourselves. What more could I ask for.

Happy New Year to anyone who happens to think my blog is read-worthy and might be reading this!

Mmmmm pavlova !

Well I haven't before blogged my food and quite frankly Scotty thought I was nuts taking a photo of it, but here it is in all it's glory, one of the things I can quite frankly say has never failed me. My pavlova. This recipe truly is the easiest thing to make and looks and tastes spectacular. Try it !


Easy Pavlova

Ingredients
3 egg whites
1 1/2 cups castor sugar
1/2 tspn vanilla essence
1 tspn vinegar
1 tspn cornflour
4 tblspns boiling water

Method
Place all ingredients into bowl of electric mixer, beat on high speed until mixture is very stiff (approx 15 minutes). Spread onto a prepared tray.

This mixture makes one 28cm approx pavlova.

Electric Oven
Bake in moderate oven 10 minutes. Reduce heat to slow, bake further 45 minutes, cool in oven.

Gas Oven
Bake in moderate oven 10 minutes. Reduce heat to slow and bake a further 1 to 1 1/2 hours, cool in oven.

Happy Happy Happy

What a terrific night last night. What wonderful two friends I experienced it with (albeit one wasn't even born when some of his songs were written!!!). Billy Joel is truly magnificent. I'm tired (all up 6 hours of driving), I'm hoarse from singing and screaming, my feet hurt from dancing, but I'm happy happy happy.

Great seats, great sound, great food (we went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner), great crowd, great company, what a buzz. I feel like I've got the biggest hangover today, without the alcohol!!

Happy happy happy. I feel quite blissful right now. :-)

One more sleep to go

The waiting is over. One more sleep until my date with the great man himself. Oh ... me and a whole stadium full of screaming fans.

Billy Joel concert tomorrow.

Stay tuned for an update, big trip to the big smoke!

DMC's new poster girl

Well what can I say, my apprentice went wild on the weekend. Stupidly I left my top half of my floss box on the floor and looked the other way. First mistake! So seems that Bo decides that she liked the colours or the taste of the card or the texture of the floss and thought green was the go. Note to self ... never leave floss box on the floor again.

Second mistake! Deciding to go get the camera (because one always must have consideration as to what one can blog about) rather than immediately rescuing my DMC 549. One second after this photo and teeth marks were right through the card and her paw had the cotton half pulled out unravelled.

Ahhh ... good help is so hard to find! Till next time.

I am blogless :-(

I have nothing to blog about. How sad is that for my adoring public! te he.

I have so many unfinished projects. Two quilts that all I have to do is the binding. The flannel quilt for my stepson half done. The knitted baby cardy out of the sock wool all knitted but not sewn. A knee rug half crocheted. I really need to have a day where I just finish things instead of craving to start something new.

Are there other people out there like that? That you have worked so hard on something, getting excited working out what you're going to do, picking colours, getting stuck into the pattern be it a quilt or knitting or whatever, then getting to a point just shy of finishing and then the craving starts for something new. I must I must I must dedicate a weekend to finishing things, that can be my new mantra.

At the moment my attention is turned to Christmas stockings. I love Christmas. I adore Christmas. I cherish everything about it. The traditions, the giving, the making people happy, the singing of the Carols, the getting cards in the mail, the whole build up to it. I love it. So of course my craft at this time of year turns to Christmas things and stockings are it at the moment. I sell a few here and there, give some as gifts also, there's nothing nicer I don't think than seeing stockings hanging across a mantle waiting to be filled with all the fun little gifties.

So here's a couple of my favourites I've made both last year and this year. My special favourite is the set of 3 santas that was made for 3 brothers, can you even imagine what they would look like hanging side by side.

Cows come in all shapes and sizes ...

Is there any wonder my poor girl Molly has her eyes shut? That I would subject her to such embarrassment? The other dogs in the neighbourhood are definitely snickering! Here we are in the middle of cow country and I have her wearing a cow print coat!!!


Well what's a girl to do? She is having a bit of a time of it scratching. Very gently of course, but she still is scratching none the less and I'm worried about her stitches. Her winter coat is okay on cold days, but once those odd sunny days have come out it's way too hot for her.

So I drafted a quick pattern of the coat, got some cool cotton drill in a funky print, and recreated her winter coat, but a lighter variety. Now she can wear this during the day and even if she scratches her nails won't catch on her stitches.

Seriously, she is coping extremely well with her wound. Unbelievably well. Every day she is brighter and more back to her own good self. Although our "outside dog" has become an "inside dog" and I'm loving it !!! Although heck, it's like having children, those first few evenings I was up and down 4 times during the night to check on her. Ahhh, it's all good. We have our beautifully natured girl back almost to her old spirits and a huge relief for us.

Relief

The relief I feel right now is incredible, like a big weight being lifted off my shoulders. Three little words from the vet on the phone yesterday.
"IT WAS BENIGN"
Oh Thank you God, Thank You. The vet went on to say that they were positive they got the entire lump and she will be fine.

I mentioned in my last blog that Molly had a lump and was getting it taken out. One little lump the size of a malteser turned into 25 stitches, 18cm long by 3cm deep.

She's been very good and only scratching very softly, but during the day we have her coat on her so she can't get at the stitches which come out in 2 and a bit weeks.

How on earth did this girl get so far into my heart? And everyone else who meets her. Unfortunately dad got the message muddled up when I spoke to him. I told him it was benign but the message he gave to mum was that "Molly has begone". Poor mum spent the entire day trying to get onto us frantically thinking that Molly had passed on.

So I am a happy girl right now, with my happy girl.

We found a lump

And you know if it were on me it would probably be a little easier to handle. I mean we are in charge of our own destiny, right? But it was on my beloved Molly. Probably about 2 weeks ago we first found it, but it was so small, and almost like a bite or something. We'd lose it again when we tried to touch it, it was so small in amongst all her fur.

But Wednesday was a different matter. I was giving her big cuddles as I always do and my hand brushed it on her shoulder. WTF? It was huge. Well okay probably not huge, but huge to me. Almost the size of a malteser growing on the outside of her skin, not like a lump under her skin.

So of course straight away I rang the vet for an appointment and then I start to self-diagnose. The internet is a wonderful thing, but also a curse, so I've thought the absolute worst since then. I look at my beautiful girl who just sits and smiles and doesn't have a care in the world and think I don't know what I would do without her.

So the vet's diagnosis - nothing as yet. He took a needle biopsy which has been sent away for analysis. Then we'll know what we are dealing with, if it is a cancer, if it needs removal, or more. I'm filled with panic for her. But she just happily goes on about her business, lazing on the porch in the sunshine, piddling in the driveway, chasing her squeaky ball, rolling around on her back on the grass in glee, not knowing the doom I feel like I'm carrying around for her. It's hard. It's very hard. She's my first and only dog. And I adore her.

Not a care in the world, playing this afternoon!

Hopefully I will be able to post next week with good news. Think positively.

Over and out.

Drool .........

That's all I can say, or at least do when I think of them. Drool and dribble. Sad and pathetic really isn't it? I've entered my teenage years again at 41! But I have gold tickets for...

BILLY!!

Closely followed by ...

ROBBIE !!

I am so utterly incredibly totally overwhelmingly excited about both of them. Robbie I've never seen in concert before, but Billy I've seen 4 times before. Can you tell I'm a fan? So roll on November and December that's all I can say.

I am one very happy girl right now.

Lots of new things!

Lots of new things to talk about since my last post.

New car .... oh how I am in love with my beautiful girl that came to live with us yesterday. I did have a quiet moment with my old girl before I left her at the car yard. We reminisced about the trips we'd done, the times she'd gotten me out of tight spots, the happy drives we'd taken. Hubby thought I was totally bonkers. For him a car is just a car. But I don't know if it's just me, or a woman thing ... we put so much emotion into things we own. So with a quiet adieu I bid her well and happy future miles with a new owner. And then drove home in my beautiful zippy silver Honda Jazz!! And I'm totally in love. Phooey to the rain that has rained on her yesterday and today though.

New project .... I went to the Quilting and Craft Show in Melbourne last Saturday and have decided that sock wool is not just for socks. I'm very much enjoying making a baby cardy for one of the girls from work who is expecting. It's kind of a modern twist on a traditional cardigan and knitted all in one sideways. This is the start, from one sleeve...

And a new sewing table. Hubby has gotten me an early birthday present, a Horn sewing table. I do dream of having the whole Horn shebang one day and apparently this will fit perfectly with it. But it will be brilliant to have here in the spare room where I'll at last be able to keep my sewing machine up all the time, and perfect for cutting applique. I'm very naughty, it's already set up and my birthday isn't until September!!!

Until next time.

Long time between drinks !!

Well I haven't posted in my blog for a while. Very slack I know. But as I sat here today doing a bit of crochet I had a big grin on my face thinking what a lucky great weekend I was having.

Firstly hubby and I went car shopping yesterday and we picked out a new car. My poor old girl has done me well but at 165,000 k's on the clock she's really struggling at the moment. Not bad driving for only 7 years! So my new car is a Honda Jazz. Hoping for a silver one, but if not, a white one. Boy oh boy, I wouldn't be a car salesman for quids. Hubby drove a very hard bargain and here I was thinking we were playing good cop bad cop, but he was so good we ended up getting free headlight protectors, bonnet protector, mica colour and roadside assistance all for free! Here is a pic from the Honda website ... hope I'm not breaking any copyright laws here, but I'm just so darned pleased with it.

Secondly one of hubby's friends arrived for a surprise visit yesterday, complete with a truckload of wood!!! Oh bliss. Some men bring flowers. Some bring roses. I get excited about wood!!!! So after stacking it up we've replenished everything we've used during winter so far. Gotta love a man from the land who has fallen branches everywhere.

Thirdly got a call from my dearest best friend in Tassie, and she's coming over at the end of August. So excited. Complete with family of course including her 5 month old baby. Cluck cluck cluck!

Thinking that was about it in the luck department, I go up to the newsagents this morning for the paper and find out that hubby had entered a losing lotto ticket into their barrel and his name was drawn for a free quick pick today.

Yep, feeling very blessed with unexpected pleasures right now. *big smile*

Introducing my two girls

Well now that I've made mention of one, I should officially introduce my two girls.

Firstly Molly. Such a soft hearted nature. Hubby got her when she was about 1, she was about to become a pound dog so he rescued her. Apparently from wherever she came from her brother lived up the road and of a morning would come down and off the two of them would scoot and chase nearby farmers' sheep. Not too pleased. That's how she came to belong to us. She's about 6 going on 7 now, we're not even sure, but I swear she thinks she's 1. Even though she's quite portly she has boundless energy when it comes to her squeaky ball. She really is a darling and there's not a mean bone in her body. The soulful eyes go right to my heart every single time. And on first meeting she'll look at you, lay down, roll over and paws up demand a tummy rub ... there's no dignity! hehe

As for Bo, short for Bojangles. Now there's a character. She was dumped in our town as a kitten, quite a number of kittens actually and she found her way to us and adopted us! Now when it comes to her and Molly, Molly gives her a wide birth. They, well let's say, tolerate each other! She's such a character, lazing all day and then like Jeckyl and Hyde becomes 'scatty cat' at night! Usually in the early hours we'll hear her pitter patter and her little bell and then kerthump, up she jumps and finishes the night off at the end of our bed. And she just gets prettier and prettier with her colourings as time goes on.

How lucky we both are to have two such wonderful pets, or members of our family. Oh and well I do have to admit, they are both computer nerds and have their own websites - Molly and Bo.

Situations Vacant --- Wanted --- One Apprentice!

Well well well, I didn't even know I had a job in the offering but I turn around from the ironing board and realise I have an apprentice! My gorgeous little girl Bo! She gets fascinated when she hears the sewing machine going and looks like she's up for the job, hehe. Although somehow I don't think she'll reach the pedal!!


Well the quilt is coming along, I'm slowly getting squares ready to put together. Nothing much to report on at the moment. Just more cutting and sewing.

Oh except I have Robbie tickets! ~~ drool ~~ Roll on December!

A quilt in progress

Follow along and watch as this quilt is born. I went along for a class today. Well actually, I could have done all this without the class, it's just straight piecing. But it's nice to get together with like-minded women, ooh and ahh over their colour choices and talk along happily to the whir of the machines and the woosh of the rotary cutters.

It was only 2 hours this morning, but I got a fair bit of cutting and some of the piecing done. The rest of the piecing gets done over the course of the month before the next class where we will learn how to put the triangles on the end. Now that's really what I am doing this class for, I've never worked with diagonals before, and even though this is really only dipping my big toe in the water instead of diving right in, it will do for now.

Must say I love the feel of working with flannel. There's something just so cosy and wonderful about it all. And I do need to comment that sometimes fate works in mysterious ways. That colour that was sent by mistake to what I ordered, it actually will fit in far better than what I had originally selected. So thank you for the divine intervention in having this err turn into a positive.

A package arrived in the mail ...

... and it was my very much anticipated and awaited flannel I bought online. And it's brilliant. I was so worried that the online colours would not be true to life, but I'm not disappointed. Although just quietly I think the yellow kind of speckled one is not the shade I ordered, I like it just the same. The speckles tie the teal in a bit better.

Do you think these colours will be suitable for a boy? I hope so. I find it so hard to visualise these great clumps of material into the little rectangles and triangles and wedges that will end up being the design.

Although the instructions on the class list was to wash and tumble dry the material before class. I washed the reds separately tonight, in case they ran. They didn't bleed, but boy did they fray!

So my first class for this quilt is Sunday. I will post pictures so you can see the work in progress.

Until then ... keep quilting!

New quilt on the horizon...

A short while between drinks here. But I have been busy. Nursing a quite sick hubby who was struck down by the flu. He doesn’t “do” sick well, actually he hardly ever gets sick, so it really hit him hard. But he's on the mend now.

Anyway, have a quilting class for my next project coming up at the start of June. A lovely flannel quilt – first time I’ve sewn flannels and first time I’ve sewn triangles and diagonals. This quilt is for SS1 (step son 1) for his 18th birthday. Okay so he’s only not long turned 16, but I hate to make just for the sake of making. I really wanted to do this class and I have a reason for it.

So I got the class list. Yep, no probs, thought it would be easy to get the 6 colours of flannels I needed. NOT SO! I have scoured the shops in this neck of Victoria. Sure there’s flannels, only small arrays in most shops, and then to get colours suitable for a boy without it being too bland. I’ve found that out of the very limited shelves of flannels, that the majority are florals or far too girly.

So I’ve turned to online and these are the colours I’m about to purchase from a very fine online quilting store Honeysuckle Cottage, which I’ve used before. I only hope the pictures are true to the real colour. This is what I came up with for my selection (bearing in mind I’ve ascertained his favourite colour is red, so that will feature). Cross fingers I’m not disappointed when I get my parcel in the mail.

Be still my heart ...

SD2 (step daughter 2) is staying with us this weekend and she has just bowled me right over. She's asked me to teach her how to knit!!!!!!!! Be still my heart.

She's just like me when I first started. I swear the needles are about to snap in half she is knitting that tight but what a great moment. We've been sitting on the comfy couch, fire is blazing because it's a cold night, 'Flashdance' is on the telly, and we're knitting together. The look of concentration she has for those darn stitches is just priceless! There's a few holes, but she's determined and proud and she wants to do it all her self.

And then of course I melted when she said (she's decided she's making a sweatband of all things) - "when anyone asks me where I got this I'm going to tell them my step mother taught me to knit it". OH MY GOD !!!!! I'm in love with her right now. (That could change by tomorrow, she's a teenager you know, hahahahahaha).

Small things amuse small minds!

Well here's something you might find fascinating ...

Did you know that at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 this morning, the time and date was - 01:02:03 04/05/06.

Okay so it won't be if you're American cause you say the day and month round the other way, but there you go. A bit of trivia for you.

Well as the weather gets colder, and today was my first day back at work after a glorious month off, and the fire is pumping, I'm turning to knitting (about time I talked about knitting in this blog I guess). I can't bring myself at the moment to doing anything huge or involved, but I've been making baby hats as gifts for some friends and then a couple besides. I guess it's brain dead knitting to a lot of the Knitsters out there, but with the gorgeous yarns out at the moment you really only need to plain knitting to make something very ordinary look out of the ordinary.

So here's one of my very simple baby hats I've been making.

No more changes!

Okay that's it, I've changed my blog template for the last time. I think heads must be spinning, I've finally decided on one. (Until at least the next time the whim takes my fancy!!)

Well hubby is still in bed (yes at 11.20am!!) okay well he's had a hard week, he can sleep in, I thought it might be time to show a few more of my quilting creations.

I did a quilting course when I moved to country Victoria. For one reason a way to meet new people which was great, and for another because I like quilting and I wanted something to give my mum for Christmas. So I made her a lap quilt in a "Fence and Rail" pattern. What a great quilt to cut my teeth on, and of course now I'm a perfectionist in wanting to get my joins exactly perfect. So this quilt was my first class effort which I was very proud of.

Whilst waiting for the final class for this quilt, Hurricane Charlie decided to blow his way through Florida and my dear penpal Myra lost her house, lost everything. So I started cutting another one, a big queen size quilt and by the time my last class arrived for this quilt I had the top all sewn together. This is the final product of the same quilt but in a different colour scheme, and this one went to Florida to help ease the pain that Myra was going through.

That's it from me, over and out. Keep on quilting!

The Grape Escape!

Some time between drinks here, but better late than never, another post!

Today we headed up to Halls Gap to visit the fabulous Food & Wine Festival called The Grape Escape. As usual, a wonderful day. Cool but okay weather. Lots of wine and yummy foods. Great music. Big smiles. Happy people.

But getting there we passed through a lot of the burnt out areas from the recent bushfires. No such big smiles for us then. Huge trees fallen as they'd been burnt through. Fencing destroyed and still in the process of putting new fencing up. A couple of cars still burnt out by the side of the road. A couple of burnt houses. Very sad making for us to see all of this at our beloved Grampians. And to see how close it got to Halls Gap. Very very scary I imagine for all those people.

But nature has an amazing way of getting back on its feet. Burnt out trees with almost the fuzz I guess you could say of green growth starting. Glad though we supported the Gap with their festival. Looked like people were out in force doing just that. Looking forward to next year.

Here's some pics we took on the way home. Pretty devastating.

Easter fun!

Well Easter has come and gone, and with it a big job is almost out of the way. I decided to paint the spare room. OMG, I tell you they don't show you all that's involved in those home decorator shows or Changing Rooms, etc. The washing of the walls, the puttying, the sanding, the cutting in, the washing of the brushes. No, they just slap the paint up on the wall and within 1 hour the show is over, decorating included!

It's been a slow process, but it looks divine, and I've done it all myself. I'm so proud. Hubby has only helped by opening the paint tin and pouring. The colour is Dulux Penna, with Glacier for the ceiling and skirting boards. It honestly looks like I'm standing in the middle of a big wedgewood plate. It's gorgeous! Pictures will be forthcoming when the room is finally completed. The final coat on the walls and then the skirting board are still to go.

It hasn't been all painting this last weekend though. Easter Sunday we went for a picnic to Tower Hill just out of Warrnambool. It was glorious weather, and we had a couple of gatecrashers who came up and ate some sandwiches right off our table. Funny things they were.

My first post

Okay well here goes. A friend of mine, Bells! has started a blog and inspired me. I can't say I'm going to be regular, but it will be a way to show some of my craftwork to family and friends and complete and utter strangers! So now to be able to post a picture, I'm hurridly looking through my files to find something ... anything ... to put up. So I've found a picture of the first ever quilt I made for a dear friend. I had no idea what I was doing, and now having had a couple of classes and a lot more sewing under my belt I'm horrified at my technique and my 100kmh sewing! But I made it myself, I was so proud, and the recipient of this quilt adores it. And that's what's important. He sees it flaws and all and loves it just the same.

So there ends my first posting. It wasn't too stressful (apart from the fact this was take 2, I lost the first one! hehe)