20 MINUTES A DAY - Update

A little each day, sometimes  3 lots of 20 mins in one day. Some days it felt like the world was conspiring against me, phones ringing, visiting calling, dog pestering. But I got there. Here we are Vicky, challenge flower number two finished. Okay so it isn't the parrot tulip I intended to do. I doodled with threads, tweaked a basic crewel design and this is what was created. Yes, I did enjoy it, yes I did forget about the world outside for a while, yes I did forget to do dinner one night and yes I did have moments where I just had to do one more stitch and one more and one more. It was only when the last stitch was in that I realised that the overall design was actually tulip shaped.

So, Vicky whats the next flower going to be.

Sorry the picture quality is off, I've got my camera instructions out and going to try and figure out how to do it better. Some days I get them perfect, others I can't seem to just get it right. 

Sunny Wednesday

Hurrah.......we have blue skies at last. Still windy but everythings finally drying out. Got the washing on the line for the first time in weeks.

Inspired by Vicky at Angelsey Allsorts and Her Geoffrey I thought I'd show you my froggie. He's a regular visitor to our place, occassionally ventures into the house and occassionally wraps himself round my ankles at 2 a.m. when the dog decides she wants to go out.   We have little apple green tree-frogs with red bellys and big tree frogs, all protected.   He's a real cutie, but I draw the line at sitting on my clean washing (or the toilet bowl).  Sometimes he sits in the down pipe and croaks away which of course echoes like mad and sounds like a whole army up the pipe.

I love the way the flash caught his eyes, he looks like some mutant sliding down the back wall over the potting table. He'd actually been hiding in a plant pot and I don't know who got the bigger shock, me or him. He jumped higher though.

2 a.m. FROGS

The sun came out for a short while yesterday afternoon so feeling a tiny bit energetic I walked down to the servo for fuel for the mower. There we were chatting away while she filled the can for me when we realised we were getting wet feet. I'd sprung a leak.  So that was an extra $12.00 for a new can, $3.00 worth of petrol spilled all over the floor and $5.00 to fill up the new can.  Not a happy jan. I'd filled up over a week ago and had noticed the other day that the can was empty. I'd accused my son of taking the fuel for his car.
Oh dear, better go apologise.

I started the mowing on the driveway side just to make it look a bit neater, the holiday home next door really needs doing but the owners are in Japan and I don't know what they want me to do. I mowed a bit round the back of the house and then stopped for a rest.  Then after an hour I got stuck into it again.  Matt came home and said he would finish it off for me the next day.I didn't mind doing it but I realise that maybe its something I should leave to the boys.

Mum just phoned from the UK so I've not got chance to even mention the 2 a., frog. Maybe later.
Got to meet friends over in the next town for morning tea. Goota dash

jan

WET AND WILD SUNDAY

......it certainly is.  Not a day for going out, its a day for staying home and being creative. That is if I can get my act in gear.  I've been very good with the 20 mins a day, I can crochet one strawberry and get it all finished in 20 mins.  Once I get going I find it hard to stop - I just need to get going thats all.  The 20 mins helps me do that.

On Tuesday I got a crochet book from the library and made a comment about I'd whip up a few of the things in it and they could have a display on the shelves. "What a great idea" was the reply. OOOps, mouth running away from me again, I really should think things through before I say anything.  It fitted in quite nicely with my 20 mins a day and I soon had a orchard of fruit, couldn't stop myself.  So this is what I did this week when I got bored.  Last night I played around with motifs from the 250 Crochet Motif Book and using a rose as a base made up this pot holder, I was going to make it up into a cushion but got bored with it so I folded the corners to the back stitched them  up to make a double fabric and there we have it.  This took the last half  of The Bill and the first half of Taggert last night.

I haven't been and bought new yarn, I really should, I actually have to despite saying I wouldn't buy any more till the yarn box was decimated.  But (what an excuse and its a valid one ) if I submit the ami doll design I have to put in what yarns I used and since the ami's were made with scraps that I am not sure of the origins, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and go to the craft shop and buy more.  The stash box is getting down, though, the lid still won't stay on of its own accord yet so theres a way to go.  I've been making flowers and leaves with the smallest balls of yarn and just throw them into a box when done.  I felted a few that were made with wool to make into brooches when the mood hits. 

I drove around Atherton yesterday looking for garage sales and didn't find one, which is good really since I didn't have any cash on me. So frustrating to find something and not have the money.  Theres a really nice antiquey place outside town but its not open, I was going to call in on the way home just for a browse and a drool.  Thwarted at every step.  So I'll just placate myself by drooling over blogs.


Jan

Handkerchief box

I found this pretty little hanky box this morning, its about 1 inch deep, burgundy covered board sides and the lid is covered by a etched and embossed tin sheet. It was so pretty and perfect for the hankies I bought for 5c each at an op-shop a few years ago.   The lady in the op-shop wanted the grand sum of 50c for it and as I only had a $50 note on me she let me have it for nothing as I am a good customer.   I rummaged around at the bottom of my bag and found 35c in change so I handed over that.

I haven't even crafted at all today so far, rushed into town and managed to round up enough money to pay the rego on the car for 6 months. Phoned Telstra and pleaded poverty and got an extension on the bill. I really should join the circus as my juggling skills are getting better.  I've managed to pay a little of each bill to keep them all quiet and have till middle of Feb to pay the rest.  With careful budgeting I should just make it.
All the departments I dealt with wanted to know why I couldn't pay with a credit card - cos I don't and won't have one. The only money I owe is for immediate bills.  Why is that so strange. If I can't afford it I go without or if its something I really want I save up - by the time I have the money I usually find I no longer have a need or deisre for it.

Just realised I haven't had lunch yet and its 2.30 p.m. already.  I was so good in the shop I hesitated over the chocolate, should I shouldn't I and I was so good and walked out with just bread and milk.  I'm denying myself all the goodies and yet the weight still refuses to budge. I park the car the opposite end to town that I want and walk everywhere.  I'm happy though that over christmas I didn't gain anything which is a plus. I think I'll just have a couple of crackers and a piece of low fat cheese and hang on till dinner.

Jan

20 mins a Day (Tulips)

Well, maybe not full blown parrot ones, but they are tulipish.  I'm going for jacobean style, that could change but at the moment its going okay.  I spent the day looking for stitch ideas and colours which of course led me off course.  Found some stuff I had been looking for.  20 minutes extended into a couple of hours and since I was all fired up after the drawing out, scrapping, drawing out again I put the first few stitches in.  It felt good knowing that all I needed to do was 20 minutes. I was allowing myself those 20 mins to craft anything after that was a bonus.  No guilt over me time, no feeling that I had to do it.  I still really would like to do the parrot one, but that would be a big job, one that would take me a while to do and I haven't found the right flower yet anyway. The design I'm doing now I feel could develop into one for submission.  So when finished it will go into my design folder.

Nothing much else to tell today, still raining, grass is still growing like mad and I'm lounging about in my jami's as usual.  School went back today after the long summer break.  I don't have kids that young anymore but we live just a few hundred yards away from the little village school so now I have my time keeping back. I know when to eat lunch and when I should be getting dinner on etc.

Jan

Tulips

I love tulips,  especially the big flashy parrot ones. When I was a little girl in the UK I used to go to a big park, I wasn't supposed to go there on my own but I did. I loved the sunken italian gardens, in spring full of tulips, I loved how the rows and rows moved in the breeze, if I squinted all the colours blurring together. One year there were builders in one part of the park - they were going to build a miniature village.  All the rubble lay for months. Then come spring out of the grey broken pathways and piles of earth came shoots of green, in the midst of all this upheaval came colour. The parrot tulips bravely reaching skywards, I managed to pick a couple of the blooms and took them home to mum, telling the smallest of white lies that a lady had given them to me from her garden.  I have loved them ever since. 
When I asked Vicky to choose another flower for me to do, I was saying over and over - please pick tulips, please pick tulips. Thank you Vicky.

Well my time here today is short. Its Australia Day today and I was going to go down town for the big barbi but unfortunately we have rain, lots and lots of rain, thank you ex-tropical cyclone OLGA (who despite fizzling out and moving towards the Northern Territories is still causing us grief). Its thundering and lighning now so I'm going to switch off the puter, grab a shower and then look through lots of garden books to find the perfect tulip.  There is a design in one of my craft books that I have always wanted to do. Maybe I'll do that, maybe I'll scan a picture and make it into a crossstitch.  So much possiblities. OKay I'm off before this storm gets any closer.


jan

SNOWDROP

It took 30 mins and I'm not happy with it but its done.  I tinted it with crayon and really it should be washed out so that just a hint of colour remains. But I wanted to get it photograped and out of the way.

So Vicky whats the next one.

20 mins a day

I have joined marmalade Roses '20 minutes a Day challenge' marmaladerose.  Theres actually a fair bit you can get done in 20 mins, its not just hands on crafting job,- weavng in loose ends on crochet, winding yarn, cutting out fabric and if the 20 mins wants to go on a bit longer then let it.  Some of us have lost our mojo, our passion. We've just got a little bogged down in everyday life. For me I created because it helped me get through the hiccups, speedbumps and upsets of a not so normal life. I could lose myself in the stitch.
My life is now normal after years of being a wife, mother and carer. The only person I am responable fr now is ME.  My health is doing okay.  My finacial situation sucks bigtime but apart from needing to pay this months bills and get my car rego next month I owe no money to anyone.  I have a craft room full of material, threads and yarn.  I have wonderful friends who are always there for me, my family support me in anything I do.  So, life is good.  What I need to do now is get back my passion for crafting without the drama and stress I escaped from by immersing myself in stitching, just plain old simple passion for the stitch, I need to do this for me.

The SNOWDROP will be my 20 minutes for today, theres probably only 20 mins left to do on it.  I've gone back to the simple outline stitch. I tried to do it in thread painting but despite two attempts that looked like they were going to work it refused to allow me to do the flower.  I tried crewel, it didn't just look right, I couldn't get the correct tension on the shading on the thread painted one, I frogged and frogged.  I'd chosen a silk fabric for the thread painting, the light was so bad yesterday I had to turn the lights on, which reflected off the fabric, then the bursitis started.  I gave myself a good talking to, it was no biggy if this wasn't going to work, if the the basic outline stitch works, then go for that.  Why did I have to do something I was in no mood to do.  The snowdrop made the decision for me, as soon as I redrew it on a tatty piece of fabric, as soon as I put those first few stitches in the flow happened.  Its basic stitches, its just four colours, it gives me pleasure to sew.  I know I can thread paint, I love crewel work, but it just wasn't the time to do it.

Olga like Neville fizzled before it hit the coast.  Its now a LOW, but we are getting plenty of rain from it. I put back all the verandah furniture and rehung the plants,   en I was woken by the house shaking and banging. My heart raced, the dog was quaking, then the room lit up followed closely by roaring thunder.
The wind howled and the rain lashed the house. Okay, I thought, so its not a cyclone just a LOw, don't panic.  We were just on the edge of the weather system, if this is what we were getting from just LOW, what were the poor things who were in its path getting.  It was 4 a.m., I did a quick tour of the house, laying down towels on the window sills in case the rain came through. The furniture I'd replaced on the verandah had blown over, the cushions soaking wet, I just threw everything in the house, some of the plants had blown over so theres soil to clear up this morning. JUst a normal monsoon storm, something that we get a few times a week during the WET. The thunder and lightning stayed around for a few hours gradually moving away. I read for a bit and then dozed off again.  The BOM says we will get a lot of rain and storms out of this system, doesn't bother me, I'm going to stay curled up with my book and my stitching.  I'm not venturing out today. 

Jan

Wet Sunday

One of the things that annoys me when there is cyclone around is the uncertainty. The one time I will get complacent is the one time a big one will hit - when 'LARRY' was heading straight for us nearly four years ago we were on a plane flying to Brisbane.  (is it really nearly fours years ago that our lives were turned back upside down again). That was a pretty scary plane ride, we must have hit every pot hole in the sky. Especially when the pilot came on and told us we were flying right past the eye of the storm.  That time we left all the preperations to our sons, we had other things to worry us.  We watched news reports as the far north received a battering like no other, at the hospital when my beloved was waiting for his PET scan we listened on the mobile phone as we called home, hearing first hand the noise of the area being ripped apart.
Then all phone coverage was lost, no way of finding out if our loved ones were safe. 
Flying back in later that night was so eerie, no lights at all in the City, drving through it was an impossible task to even drive on the right side of the road, constantly swerving round fallen trees.  We couldn't get back up the mountain till the next day, one range road had been cleared but the winds had shredded all the leaves and they lay like a sheet of ice making it perilous to drive on.   We had to drive through 3 towns and the closer we got to home the worse the devastation got.  Innisfail on the coast was the worst hit, the banana industry totally ruined, our little towns on the Tablelands up in the mountains got off fairly easy compared to the coast but it was still the worst cyclone the Far North has ever seen.  There was no power for days, a neighbour plugged in our fridge to his big generator and on alternate days we did the washing, I cooked on our gas barbi for the neighbour on the other side, the boys were out every day helping with the clean-up. Roads down to the coast were blocked and the coast roads that brought all our food up were cut-off by flooding for weeks.  The damage to our house was minimal, a leak in the roof where the tin had lifted and the whirly bird blew off, a couple of broken windows where flying branches had hit, the big soursop tree broke in half (luckily falling away from the house narrowly missing the sheds) and since it was dangerous had to be chopped down.  The big shed got flooded and the beer fridge was the only casualty.  So if I get complacent over this latest one I just remember LARRY.   OLGA is going to make land further north now, but we will still get the gale force winds and the driving rain and our rivers will get flooded.  The good side is that if the power goes off I can't do anything, no telly to watch, no cleaning to do - all that spare time to sit and sew.

Every morning I try to read through at least one blog on my list.  Who needs books when there are so many wonderful ladies who can weave magic with words.  If I need a recipe or an idea for dinner - just go to the blogs, the same for a crafty idea.  There is soooo much inspiration out there, so much so that I tend to just look and not do, filing it all away in the "ONE DAY" basket.  Scrapbooking has never really gotten hold of me (I'm still annoyed that the one craft shop in the area went over to the darkside and doesn't stock anything other than beading, patchwork and scrapbooking items) but I am drawn to all the vintage cards being used in the blogs.
So i phoned home and asked mum if she still had all the cards from the 40's and 50's - YES.  I don't care what you leave me in your will mum, just make sure I get those cards. I've instructed my bro to scan them for me as well.  Just in case one day the scrap booking bug bites of course.

Another little part of my craft room.  All my ami dolls wanted to pose so I had to let them, they are getting quite fond of the camera.  I had made a few granny squares for a cot blanket but gave up after 10, the pink was tooo dark. They lay in the UFO box for weeks until I made 9 of them up into a little doll blanket for one of the girls.  Now I have one little square left, all on its lonesome, what shall I do with it.