Mug Rug Swap

I was recently involved in a mug rug swap with my online quilting group.  I was lucky enough to recieve this gorgeous mug rug from Bec . I love the little bunny and the tents, so cute, thanks Bec!

This is the one I made for Rachel.  I forgot to take a photo of it finished so have grabbed this one from Rachels blog...hope thats ok Rach!    Pop over there if you would like to see some photos of it in action...her stunning photgraphs and captivating writing make it a lovely place to visit!

I really enjoyed the process of making such a small manageable project, so when it was my good friend Nells birthday this week, I knew exactly what I wanted to make for her - A mug rug of course!  I grabbed a pile of scraps in her favourite colour combo, and this is the result.  I love the effect of the echo quilting around the hand pieced star.  Happy Birthday Nell!

A finish for February - 12 WIP's in 2012

After failing to finish any thing for January, I'm excited to say I did get a finish for this month. "Sweet Dreams" is the quilt I made for Jacintas 4th birthday. It is a single bed size and she loves it <3

Partially quilted...

 Drying on the line...

She slept under it that night...

a beach holiday

Last week was spent relaxing at the beach house at Pt Elliott.  We all went down on the Saturday and Sunday, then because Craig had to work all week, he and Caleb came back home Monday.  I had a couple of very relaxing days with Nathn, Isaac & Jacinta and then met a friend a Strath and picked Caleb back up Wednesday afternoon.  Thursday Ali and the kids arrived, Friday night Craig returned and Saturday morning Peter finally made it.  I had lots of photos to share, but blogger wont play nice, so if you would like to see waht we got upto then here is a link to an album Ive upoaded to facebook - enjoy!!!
CLICK HERE to see the photos.

12 WIPs in 2012

WIP challenge 2012...getting some things finished.



AJ is hosting a challenge through her blog to get a some of our unfinished items done - one a month for this year - I'm up for the challenge. Click on the button above to get all the details on how to join up from her blog.

* Nathans train and animal quilt, top completed (was supposed to be for his 5th birthday...mmmmm he is now 13 oops!)
* Scrap bag quilt, top completed.
* Purple quilt, add borders to top (was destined for Quilts for QLD, so hurry up and finish and send it, or finish and donate it somewhere else)
* Hunky Dory D9P blocks to make into a quilt top
* Dark country fabric blocks (which I no longer like) - do something with!
* Jacinta's single bed quilt - already cut (try and finish for her birthday)
* Isaac's single bed quilt - designed and waiting for the final cutting to be done
* Crochet blanket...keep on slogging away!

edited to add
* Lily & Will charm square quilt - top needs borders added

I will add to this list as I come across more WIP !

One little word

Ive been thinking for days about which word to choose as my 'one little word' for 2012.   I'd almost decided to bring Balance through to this year, I still don't feel like Ive achieved what I set out to last year in regards to this word.  This morning I commented on another blog about her choice of word and joked that I was sure my word would probably find me.  Only a few hours later it did. My word for 2012 is
EXPLORE
ex·plore

   /ɪkˈsplɔr, -ˈsploʊr/ Show Spelled [ik-splawr, -splohr] 

verb 

1. to traverse or range over (a region, area, etc.) for the purpose of discovery: to explore the island.

2. to look into closely; scrutinize; examine: Let us explore the possibilities for improvement.

2012 will see Jacinta start at Kindergarten 2 full days a week, Isaac will be in year one, and both Caleb & Nathan will be at high school.  It will be the year I need to begin thinking about my transition from being a SAHM to eventually returning to some form of employment outside of my home.  It will be a year with big changes to my routines, and to those of the kids.

My intentions for 2012...

To explore ME...  To look at ways of being a better person - a wife, mother, friend and putting these into action.  Further building my relationships with family and friends - including taking part in '40 days of love' later this year with the group we did the very rewarding 'One month to live' with in 2011.
I want to put more of my thoughts into actions, things like actually making that meal and dropping it off to a friend having a busy week instead of just thinking about it!
To explore my future work opportunities by beginning some volunteer work at the kindy, and maybe even the school (I do have a bachelor of Teaching which I should eventually make use of again!)

To explore ways of organising myself better so that all that paperwork gets attended too, and that crafty time with friends gets made, and the kids all get the time they each need, and i get the time i need for me to keep going.

i quilt

 Ive been busy at the sewing machine this week, and finally have something crafty to share.  The past few years I have joined in with a group of quilty friends and taken part in a dolls quilt swap, so on Friday (and only 2 days late!) I posted this little quilt off to its new home.  I will share the quilt once it arrives.

 I'm return we received this quilt from Rachel. 

I wanted a quilt for Isaac for his Teddy, as all the previous quilts have been for Jacinta and he dolls. Isaac was thrilled, and it s just perfect. the piecing and quilting are really well done - great job Rachel, Thank You so much.  As you can see, its the perfect size, and there has been lots of play with it already!

Obviously my quilting mojo must have returned with the dolls quilt - it was the first thing i had finished all year!  Today I spend the whole afternoon at the machine, and finished this quilt top.  Its for Nathans teacher for Christmas.  She had Caleb for two years, and then Nathan for the last two, so I wanted to make her something a little special.  I'm hoping to get it quilted in the next week.  I'm still not sure about the little red square in the top corner, but i had to add it as i was running desperately short of the white homespun, and then cut the border strip about 1/2" short - grrrrrrrrr.  Any thoughts on what to bind it with - red or black ?

im still here

...for any one that still bothers popping by!  Ive been really slack with my blogging for the past few months.  Ive had a few posts that have stayed in draft form, and blogger no longer lists them with their original date once they are posted...hence my birthday post which is dated way after the actual day.  This frustrates me to no end!!!  Blogger has also been giving me grief with uploading photos for some reason - makes popping up a quick blog post about something a time consuming and frustrating experience!  But Im still around and still taking photos and planning on finishing off my monthly photo collages - interestingly enough, late September is as far as I got last year with the editing of my photo a day shots...must be something about this time of year that saps my creativity mojo. 

My little princess will start her pre entry sessions at kindy this term, so there is much excitement in the house about that! Here are a few photos I snapped of her yesterday (straight from the camera...cant edit them on this computer!) ....love my girl... (YAY the upload worked first time!!!)

41

Im am so much more comfortable behind he camera than in front of it, but I know that one day I will wish there were more photos of me to look back on, and Im sure my children and hopefully grandchildren will love to look back (and probably laugh) at them. 

Since yesterday was my birthday, it seemed the perfect time for a few self portraits of me and the little ones, and then I handed over the camera to Nath to take a few shots of me to record the day.

I spent a lovely day with a couple of special friends, my sort of day...nothing fussy, just time spent with people who always make me smile....ok usually laugh till it hurts may be a better description!   I was inundated with facebook messages, texts, phone calls and a few visitors and then had a lovely dinner with Craig and the kids.  Its days like that which remind me how truly blessed I am to have such wonderful family and friends.  Now Im officially in my 40s, rather than just being 40.  Life is good.   I hope and pray that the next year is just as happy as my year of being 40 has been.

thoughts on being 40...

I cant believe that in just a few weeks I will be turning 41...where did that last year go?  I cant complain though, I know many people wish they were a different age, but, Ive been really happy with being 40, its been a pretty good year for me.  If I look back on my life, I'm happy with being just where I am.  If I had to choose another stage of my life to revisit...maybe about 20 years or so ago, to when I was young and life was simple and carefree might be nice...wow, this time 20 years ago i was about to turn 21, single, and studying my teaching degree at uni....seems like a lifetime ago!   But I love my beautiful family, and have surrounded myself with wonderful friends, and I am more than content with right here and now, even with the increasing amount of grey hair ( it has been around for about the last 10 years, I'm sort of used to that - but yes i still colour it and cover it up), the skin that is definitely starting to show signs of aging lol and all those other little signs that seem to happen as we age.  In general I'm OK with all that.

The past year has been one that has seen me grow as a person. Ive learned to be content with who I am, Ive tried to look after myself a little better, both emotionally and physically; Ive made a point of trying to connect with my family and friends, and to really appreciate what an important part each of them is in my life and my heart.  A lot of this was due to taking part in a programme called 'one month to live' It refocused me on what the really important things are, it made me look into myself and ask some hard questions, it made me truly value the friends that i have had forever, and cemented the place of a few new friends firmly in my life, It reminded me to dream, it reminded me to tell all those that are important to me how much they mean to me, and how much i love them, often; it focused me on believing in myself and made me realise that I'm very blessed to have pretty much always known my path in life, to have been able to follow that path and to have had the unconditional love of family and friends all the way.  It made me examine and attempt to put the way i feel into words, sometimes a real struggle for me.  Ive never liked talking on front of a group, and this involved a lot of that - cant say it got any easier, but with some gentle encouragement I did it.

As I enjoy these last few weeks of being 40,  Im also looking forward to embracing the next year of my life and everything it may entail.  Life goes on, and Im ready to enjoy the ride!

Crafty Day

Wednesday I spent the day with my friend Nell.  We planned on getting together once a fortnight this year to do something crafty - worked for a while, but then life started getting in the way!  We try to do it as often as we can though.  Today, after a trip to my local op shop, and a yummy lunch of homemade soup and pasties, Nell finished a crochet beanie, and knitted a scarf.  I flicked through some craft books and then got stuck into making an A4 notebook cover to gift to a little friend who is turning 8 in a few weeks.  I had seen one with a denim pocket on the front and knew I wanted to give it a go. 

A pair of denim shorts from the op shop - with a cute printed pocket, and a piece lining fabric in her favourite colour (purple) and I was set.  As usual, no pattern, so it took a bit of fiddling to remember how it all needed to go together.I added a little hand stitching to the pocket before I attached it.   Im really happy with how it turned out, and it looks super cute with a set of mini gel pens tucked in the pocket.

With a pile of scraps and a little time before school pick ups I decided to whip up a zippered bag to match.  I put in my first ever zip, and although its not done perfectly, it is functional and with the addition of a purple fabric ruffle, the little bag looks very cute.  Not sure if this will go with the journal, or get popped in my bag to hold my lip glosses...i suspect it will be gifted and i will make another minus the purple (which is so not my favourite colour!) for me.  

One of the joys of winter

One of my favourite things when its cold outside, and the fire is going for weeks on end, is big pots of homemade soup. Ive been making chicken soup for years, and the occasional batch of pumpkin (with varying degrees of success).  This winter I decided to try making Pea & Ham Soup.  It was a big hit. Like most things I cook, I'm not good at following a set recipe, and tend to trawl around a few variations of what I'm making and come up with a version of my own. I have been asked by a couple of people for this one, so though I may as well share it here.  This recipe fills (to the brim while the ham hocks are whole) my large oval slow cooker.

Pea & Ham Soup

3 Smoked Ham Hocks (If they are really big you may only fit two in your slow cooker)
1 1/2 packs green split peas
3 carrots - finely diced
3 sticks celery - finely diced
2 onions - finely diced
2 bay leaves
1/4 t mixed spice
pepper to taste
2 1/2 litres water

Rinse split peas and place in slow cooker.  Place ham hocks on top of split peas, and add the carrot, celery and onion. Pour over water and add spice, bay leaves and pepper.  Cover and cook on high with out stirring for at least 6 hours or until meat is falling from the ham hocks.  Remove ham hocks, cool and remove meat.  Discard fat, skin and bones, and add chopped meat back to soup.  Continue to cook until soup peas have broken down and the soup has thickened.

Wish

Star light, Star bright, first star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.

I still wish on the first star I see at night, and make a wish as I blow my birthday candles out each year.  Today as I carefully pulled the meat from some chicken bones that I was using to make soup, I came across the wish bone. 

As children, my Dad would always carefully remove the wish bone for us every time we had a chicken. It would sit it on the bench to dry, and then using little fingers, two people would snap it in half.  The person who got the bigger half, got to make a wish.   Ive set aside the two wish bones, and tonight I will share this little story with my little ones, and two lucky people will get to make a wish of their own.  Anyone that misses out can always go wish on a star ;)

Lemon & Orange Cordial

Sunday night I came home from a dinner with friends with a huge basket of lemons.  Yesterday I made our first batch of homemade cordial for 2011.  I also had a few home grown oranges Craig had been given by a customer, so I decided on an orange/lemon cordial. It is a wonderfully refreshing drink when made up with water and ice, or my favourite way to drink it is mixed with soda water for a 'real' lemonade taste.  Today I will juice the rest of the lemons and freeze the juice to make up some more once this batch is gone.

I combined a couple of different recipes for this batch.  If you want to make your own here is the recipe I used.

Lemon & Orange Cordial

7 medium lemons
3 oranges
1.5kg sugar
1 1/2 litres water
2 Tablespoons Citric acid
2 Tablespoons Tartaric acid

Combine water and sugar, in a non aluminium saucepan, and heat until all the sugar is dissolved.
Add the finely grated zest of three lemons to the sugar syrup and allow to cool.
Juice the lemons and oranges and dissolve the Citric acid and Tartaric acid in the juice.
Add strained juice to cooled sugar syrup mixture and mix well.
Transfer to clean, dry (and sterilised, if you want) bottles.

Refrigerate.  Keeps for 4 - 6 weeks...if it lasts that long!

Drink diluted to taste with water and ice, soda water or lemonade. 

everyday life | May, June, July 2011

For anyone who is still bothering to check in here.....
Finally after quite a bit of time away from my blog,  I am back!   I have been a bit slack with taking lots of photos lately, so I have caught up the last three months with monthly rather than weekly photo boards.  From this point onward, I will be back to my weekly updates, and might even have some crafty goodness to share!  YAY, and thanks for popping by!

creating memories

I look back fondly of the many precious memories I have of my childhood.  We travelled a lot as a family.  Not overseas trips or anything so grand, but simple road trips. The caravan towed around behind the gold Kingswood and later the green Monaro, parents who both smoked the whole trip, the sounds of their music from the cassette player, and the only cooling on stinking hot days was the rush of air from the windows that had been wound down.  Life was simple,  and looking back, just perfect.  We stayed in caravan parks all over the state, fishing, exploring, swimming, visiting tourist attractions, spending time as a family.  My fondest memories are those from the many, many trips up the river doing what I would call real camping.  No electricity, no running water, no shops, toilets or showers.  The toilet consisted of a deep hole dug on arrival with an old folding chair complete with an attached toilet seat, privacy was created with four long wooden steaks wrapped in hessian - I still remember that dusty smell of the hessian.  We would fish from the back of the boat, climb trees, explore caves in the cliff faces, ride our bikes for hours, kick the footy, make ponds for carp from a hole lined with a garbage bag, go rabbiting, and yabbying, wash in the back of the caravan from a small bowl of warm water, pitch our own tents to sleep in,  cook on the campfire, we learnt to bait our own hooks, gut a fish, row a boat, and enjoy the peace and tranquility of the river. 

This weekend we are going real camping. The kids, Craig and I, along with some awesome friends.  We are heading to the Bendleby Ranges, and I cant wait.  I cant wait to spend the weekend with my wonderful family and friends.  And most of all, I cant wait to start creating some wonderful memories for my own children. 

a matter of perspective

The rain fell steadily and there was a definite chill in the air, the calendar indicated in was still autumn, but mother nature was telling a different story.  The gentle warmth of the autumn sunshine had long gone, and the bitter cold of winter was slowly creeping in.  A pile of freshly cut wood lay by the door and inside the fire burnt silently and brightly, its warmth enveloping all who entered the house.  The scent of freshly washed clothes being dried near its heat wafted as you passed by.  The smell of dinner slowly simmering away was beginning to fill the house, the bread was rising, and there were apples cooking gently on the stove. The table was full of the tell tale signs that the the morning had been a productive one for everyone, small smudged paintings sat drying, the edges curling from the amount of water that had been used in their creation.  The broom lent on the wall next to the pieces of dried up rainbow coloured play dough that had been swept into a pile.  In front of the fire the kitten slept, and nearby there were a few small toys scattered and a pile of picture books that had been shared earlier in the morning. Outside the window the rain continued to fall, inside their home the hearts were full of gratitude for such a simple yet perfect morning. 


So that's been my morning.  Yep, its cold and wet and miserable today,  and guess Ive been stuck inside washing, cleaning, cooking and trying to tidy up after, and keep a three year old amused at the same time...but do you know what, I wouldn't want it any other way,  it really was a perfect morning, and my heart is really happy and content today.  Now I'm off to make a coffee, curl up in front of the fire with a magazine and then do a little more of Jacinta's crochet blanket (in some hope that it will be finished before she leaves home!)

everyday life | week 17

everyday life | week 16

everyday life | week 15

everyday life | week 14