The Stars of the Show

These beauties first made light of day on Crochetvilles CAL (Crochet A Long),  I started off learning the pattern with a 6 point, then 12 and then 24 (which I won't be doing again anytime soon)  They became very addictive and I'm think that maybe I could do a rainbow one with all my yarn stash, just a little baby 6 point.. I did follow the original pattern  but then after making a few serendiptidous mistakes went my own way with them. Most of the yarn used was already in my stash and I think I only had to buy a couple of hundred gram balls for the 24 point one. I love the varigated yarn thats in the middle of the 12 point and the outer edges of the blue one, unfortunately I can't get that one any more. Its funny because I didn't like it when I bought it but needed a more masculine yarn, it crocheted up really well but the craft shop in town decided at the same time I wanted more that they weren't going to stock wool anymore and were just going to be beading, patchwork and scrapping.  A new shop has opened up that supplies all the old dears for their charity knitting and she will order in small amounts but looking through the Magnum books this one seems to have been discontinued. I live in hope that perhaps I'll find some on my garage saling and op-shop forays.

I'm trying to arrange a play date with my friend, we need to catch up, I really do need to vacumm though before I do anything else and wash a few blankets, if I'm lucky I might get stuff out on the line for a few hours. The storms have been starting early these days but if I get a couple of hours drying time that should get everything dried. 

Hex quilts

Since I've been looking at blogs with hexagon quilts on I thought I'd show you my little offerings.  I had a mad passionate affair briefly with hexagon quilts a few years ago.  This was the first one.    I also started collecting rose patterned fabric at this time. From this little darling I went onto bigger things, but just before you scroll down make a guess on how big you think this quilt is.  Okay so then I started my lifetimes work.  My late hubby would patiently follow me around craft shops, garage sales and op-shops on my hunt for rose patterned fabric, he would be amazed as each evening I would sit cutting up old chrissy cards to make the templates and then spend the next evening watching me cutting fussy cutting up perfectly good metres of fabric, then he would mumble something about womens logic as he watched me sewing it all back up again. We joked that it would never be finished until we were pensioners. It started off a hexagon, then it went star shaped and then back to a larger hex with the addition of smaller hexagon pieced hexs. Not quite sure how it ended up diamond shaped, it took on a mind of its own and I managed to slowly get it into a rectangle shape.  Other things took over our lives, the unfinished quilt occassionally brought out by a proud hubby for a show and tell session.  But it didn't get finished, there were over 7000 mini hexs in that quilt, all stitched by hand over a period of about 8 years.  The quilt made its final trip into the outside world a few days after my beloved passed away.  I gave it to the undertaker and he wrapped by husband in it. He probably thought it was very strange, but that quilt was made out of memories and I had plenty to spare so I gave it with love. I still have a few of the hexs left and might one day make a small wall quilt.  When laid flat on the floor and standing over it looking down it had a very strange effect, very hypnotic so it was called the gypsy rose mandala quilt.   

                    I'm finally getting to the end of the de-cluttering in the craft room. I decided that the tapestry frames had to go and a quilting frame. I found a quilt, dusty and full of spider poo and gubbins.  I really should clean it up and finish it once and for all.  Its a dresden plate, started when I was pregnant with my second son 23 years ago, the bets were on at quilting class wether the quilt or the baby would get finished first. I'm quite sure that if Matt had decided to arrive on time and not 2 months early I would have finished the quilt.  Every so often I get it out and put a few more stitches in, its embellished with embroidery and hand stippled quilted.  Hopefully i can finish it for when matt has kids and since there isn't even a current girlfriend on the horizon I reckon I've plenty of time. You can the first hex quilt hanging on the rail over the single bed in the craft room.

Decluttering

I have been decluttering for the past three years.  Seriously that is, being ruthless and determined.  A friend is having a garage sale to raise funds for our Relay for Life team so yet again I'm sorting out stuff for her. Over 100 craft magazines - I'm never going to make any of the stuff in there and they are just taking up room. Tapestry yarn in colours I would never use, I've kept a few skeins back for dolls hair but out the rest of them go, glasses to use as candle holders - out, lots of crafty bits I picked up at garage sales, never used - out they go.  Clothes, bagged up for the op-shops.  Where does it all come from, surely after all these years I should be getting to the end of it, my home should be neat and tidy, I'm only bringing in things that I know I will use.
Books I buy from the op-shops are read straight away and then passed on.  The yarn stash is mysteriously re-growing. I keep finding odd small balls in strange places - why did I have a ball of lime green yarn in my underwear box. I opened a unused cupboard and found three unfinished projects hidden away - cardigans started for my grandkids three years ago, well at least I know the larger size will now fit the youngest - a wool scarf knitted in lacy panels, the yarn horrible and scratchy (it was vintage, never used and came from an old haberdashery shop), so I'll frog that and use it for felting, an embroidery that was meant to be finished four years ago, the child who's birth it was meant to celebrate nearly five years old. 
I've decluttered friends and relationships, those past their best and those who have just faded away.  Sometimes that happens, we outgrow them or they move away their lives taking a different path. I no longer worry that 'was it me', I've let then all go and moved on.  Grateful to them though for the wonderful memories. I need to de-clutter a few more feelings that are not serving me well. Fear being a big one I can't seem to let go of, inadequacy another. My mind definately needs a good de-clutter, lots of unused stuff in there, locked away, very dusty and old-fashioned, very vintage.  
So this is the year of the grand final de-clutter, the big one, the ultimate upheaval. 

Thanks Tallis, the lillies are from my garden, rescued just before a big storm hit. 

Jan

CurlyPet - what every mum wants

 

Today I am decluttering - I'm going through each drawer of the craft dresser and turfing out 10 things. Found where I had stashed all my vintage knitting pattern books. Not really looked at the ads but this one caught my eye.  Somehow baby had to have a curly head of hair to be classed as a beautiful baby and wow all the young matrons could even style their own hair with it.

My First Award

Thankyou Vicky for that, now I have to find out how to get it up on my blog so I can send it out to others.

Okay so here it is, now my part is to list five things which give me pleasure and then pass it on to five deserving bloggy friends.

1)  Collecting(read hoarding here) - I must own up to being a buttonoholic, I love buttons, I have jars and jars and jars and jars. I did have over 250,000 before I had a big clear out, now maybe only about 150,000 (buttons not jars hahahah).I have antique glass ones, beautiful little enamalled stars reputed to have been from Queen Victorias dressmaker, celluloid, silver, bakelite, fifties, sixties, tiny up to Kirsty Allsops huge things.  I have a big 50 litre box of loose buttons which is wonderful to just dive into.  I promise a photo some day soon.

I also collect mustard pots, I have two wall cupboards full of them (well only nearly 50, theres room for a few more), I love the thrill of the chase.  Again I'll post piccys someday.

2)  Embroidery - my all time passion, I love threads, I love creating something that hopefully in a hundred years time will be on antique road show with a holographic Michael Aspel wondering over my fine stitches.

3)  My family - really that should of been number 1 shouldn't it.  From my sons to my grandkids, my wonderful in-laws and all my wonderful friends that are honourary family members - I love them all.

4)  I love blogging, reading blogs, cruising blogs and creating blogs - from all corners of the globe sharing our passions,  making friends and holding out the hand of friendship.

5) Reading - I love to read,  biographies, cook books, chick books, murder mysteries, crafting, blogs, metaphysical, self help, history - anything with words in fact.  I've even got a whole shelf dedicated to books on words. I draw the line though at military history books though despite having shelves full of them.  

So who do I pass the award on to, so many wonderful deserving blogs out there and I have to pick five, hard call.

Why can't I turn off italics.

http://missnance.blogspot.com/

http://michellsplace.blogspot.com/

http://vonlipisfavorites.blogspot.com/  - this will open your eyes to the world of Pyrex, believe me you'll be racing to your cupboards looking fro granny old hand me downs.

http://marmaladerose.blogspot.com/  - a wonderful post, join the 20 min a day challenge here, encourage those on this journey. 

http://lalleescottage.blogspot.com/  -  Check out the finds, lovely vintage, shabby things. I want to go stay in her guest room, without the cats of course.


Check out these wonderful blogs, give encouragement, leave a comment. Who knows where it will lead - a new pyrex collector, there are the most wonderful scrapbookers/vintage, shabby etc who are seriously tempting me to start a new craft.  Look at my blog list, make a deal with yourself to look at one new blog a day and add it to your favourites.  Try and make something from someones blog at least once a week. Believe me there are some excellent recipes out there, its worth the drool over the keyboards.

Happy blogging

A BIT DAFFY

I was all embroidered out so instead of stitching a daff I crocheted three while watching tele tonight.  Made it up as I went along, not rocket science, not much thinking out and I think they came together nicely.  I only had bright yellow. For the stems I did single crochet over florists wire.  So I completed two challenges today - Vickys flowers and 20 mins a day craft. 

Ouch

I decided yesterday that the sweet potatoes had to be dug up.  Lots of greenery around but they didn't seem to be going down into the ground. So I ripped and pulled and dug up all the beautiful little things.  There just the right size for roasting, just a quick wash and a scrub with a brush, a bit of oil and sprinkle a bit of seasoning on them, cook till crunchy on the outside and meltingly soft on the inner. Yum, theres only me likes them like that so I get to pig out.  There were a few big ones  and I suspect there a few more to dig out but it won't be me doing it.  I'll leave one plant in and it will soon take over again.  I found the ginger as well, i put the trowel through a piece of root and the pungent aroma came up out of the soil. I thought I'd lost it but closer inspection showed plenty of little knobs of new shoots, so I replanted it.  After digging yesterday I hadn't realised that I'd got the biggest blister I have ever had on the palm of my hand - from the supposedly cushioned handle of the trowel. I tried again this morning while it was still cool outside to turn over the soil but it was just too hard.  The mini tomatoes are next to go, the capsicums have a few fruit on that just need another week to get a bit bigger, keeping a close eye on them, the silverbeet is just about over. Garlic chives are ready for splitting and I noticed there are a few paw paw seedlings coming up. I've replanted two paw paws down the bottom of the garden and I might put these new ones down there as well. I've got tomato seedlings coming up all over the place, in the cracks in the paving, in plant pots, in the lawn.  I haven't bought a tomato plant for years, I just oick them out and bung em in a big pot.  The same with basil, i'm finding the little seedlings all over the place, so again they get put into a big pot. We use a lot of basil and I want to put more herbs in, I did have some coriander seeds somewhere.  I lost the oregano, it was wet for it and the parsely as well.  Somewhere I have chocolate mint and spearmint, I'll have to go sniffing around the garden for it. The Mother of All Herbs is just growing rampant, break a piece off, stick it in a pot and it takes straight away.  Even leaves that fall off take off. 
So today I ache all over, its a good ache though and while I feel guilty that I'm not doing anything at all today except bake a birthday brownie cake for my baby boy I'm going to force myself to do nothing. 
My baby turns 21 tomorrow.  He arrived after only a couple of hours in labour, two weeks overdue and facing the wrong way, the cord was round his neck and he wasn't breathing. Those few minutes when they tried to bring him back was the longest of our lives. I have never prayed so hard in all my life.  The following 24 hours were crucial, if he survived then the chances of him being severly disabled were high, on day two he had to have a blood transfusion, he had swelling on the brain and they had to drain it. He had tubes in and out of his poor little body I finally got to hold him on day three. He was on phenobarbitone to keep him asleep and I longed for him to open his eyes.  I kept myself busy, back and forth to the hospital, expressing milk not just for him but half the preemie baby ward.  A local taxi service ferried the milk to the hospital free of charge when we couldn't make it in.  He never cried, just a strange high pitched squeell, he grunted when he was touched as they reduced the pheno'b he was like a addict going cold turkey.  Finally I was allowed to try and feed him myself, he latched on, opening his eyes for the first time, squinting into the light, at last we were able to introduce ourselves.  We were allowed to bring him home when he was 3 weeks old, there were months of therapy and tests ahead of us. He was a bright happy baby, a little slow to reach the milestones but by two he had caught up.  He was slow to talk but he is a man of few words anyway, he's turned into a wonderful young man as all my boys have, kind, generous, warm hearted, helpful, funny, hard working.  At 13 he had his own lawn mowing business, he left school early, he might not be academic but he knows what he wants and he goes after it. He's a dare-devil, loves his offroad motorbiking, he's full of scars from accidents.  He hates fuss - especially his mother fussing over him, he didn't want anything special doing for his birthday. We're not a family big on parties and making a fuss anyway. I'm just happy to get all my sons all grown up and happy.  His 18th was overshadowed by his dads death a few weeks before. I'm sure wherever Mik is he'll be toasting his boys.  They'll always be the boys, ma coyles boys.

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