Doing my bit for Australia Day

Jumped out of bed yesterday morning and was all wired and ready to go, although I had no celebrations in sight to spend 2009 Australia Day, I had a craving for Lamingtons. Pulled out the free reciped in the Sunday mail and after a quick skim decided it was too much hassle and too messy (remember I have to share my attention with a toddler & needed to fill that craving early in the day) so we headed to the shops and stopped off for a lamington and coffee at Gloria Jeans as well as buying (yes I bought and paid money for something I could well have made myself ) a packet of lamingtons ~ Yummy!

 

and I finally did get around to some baking later in the day. Here's my cheesy vegemite scrolls - very scrumptious and the toddler thought so too!!!

Happy (belated) Australia Day to you all!

Book Sale

I convinced Big J to take me along to the Lifeline book sale Saturday just gone. The whole point of taking him was I wasn't sure if there would be suitable pram access and I thought if there wasn't he could take Miss K for a walk through Southbank, leaving mummy with some kiddy free time to do what she does best. Browse the books for sale.

Remembering my new self imposed budget, I decided to go easy and try not to spend any more than $20...

It's a good thing we only went to the fill a bag for $5 section then huh? I walked out with three bulging bags filled with books, books and more books... made my week.

~ some reading material for mummy... mainly old authors that I remember my mum and nanny used to read in the 80's - Belva Plain, Catherine Gaskin, Vivian Stewart, Maeve Binchy, but I am assured they are good reads... I figure I can read them and donate them back to lifeline if they are no good :) ~

~ A bargain find. Two volume Webster Comprehensive "encyclopedia" Dictionary, I've been wanting to get a good dictionary for AGES, so really happy to find these ~

 

~ Thrilled to bits with this Berenstein Bears book... and of course who wouldn't pick up the Enid Blyton 'Noddy" book. I did hear a little girl across from me say "I found a secret seven book" I had to restrain myself from jumping across the table to snatch it from her hands... really that wouldn't have been a bad thing to do ~ would it? ~

 

~ and of course some golden books... ahem 18 of them! All older style ones and some classics like Tootle and Scruffy as well as Barbie (who could resist her) if I had of known... I would have grabbed more of these as at the price of $5 for a bag... Bargain Central!!! ~

In hindsight it was a good thing I did take Big J into the hall with me, he managed to find himself the Back to the Future movie book as well as a 1990 Brisbane refadex (don't ask...) and he was on hand to both feed the girl and carry her around as mummy needed the pram to fill with all the books she collected!!! All in all a good day. Looking forward to next years sale now :)     

Long overdue Updates...

Finally I have 5 minutes spare to sit & update on several things I've been meaning to do for over a week now.

Firstly ~ I was the lucky winner of this giveaway which I received 2 weeks ago. It has taken me THIS long to get around to blogging it. I feel really bad as usually I am so quick to get to these things... hopefully this is NOT a sign of times to come this year. I have yet to photograph it, but it will be absolutely perfect for Miss K next summer. Andrea was also a sweetheart and included two matching hair clips (now to get them into Miss K's hair and not have her pull them out!!!) ~ thank you so much Andrea if you are reading this, we really do appreciate the win ~

 

~ Knitting Knews ~

Although we have been experiencing a shocking heat wave the last few weeks, I have been knitting (go figure) and made myself this gorgeous head scarf as seen in my new copy of Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It was super easy to knit up and as I made it from Bamboo ~ I am sure I will get some wear out of it during the summer months too.

 

~ excuse the dodgy photo. I took it myself in the bathroom and that angle of my head looks all wrong, so the pic is heavily cropped!!! ~

~ Quilting ~

As you know I have signed up for a course next month to learn Foundation Piecing. Not wanting to be one to turn up to class without any knowledge of it, I set out to learn. 20 mins later I had downloaded some basic instructions, found a pattern in a Handmade Magazine I bought last week and Bob's your uncle. A beautifully pieced star in pinks & creams (Ruth can you spot the fabrics!) I love it and am now tossing up what on earth to do with it... I was originally going to use it as a book cover for my master sewing book, but that will require using my brain... which is vastly lacking at this moment in time.

I quite enjoyed this technique, although VERY time consuming. I am planning on making some smaller pieces to utilise in some journal covers ~ good timing as I'm nearly finished my last journal...

2009 ~ Reading...

Well Ruth started it. LWD followed suit. And now I'm in (yes, yes I'm such a sheep)... not forgetting mum who is keen for the challenge too. 50 books to be read by the end of 2009 - stay tuned.

I will endeavour to update once a month to keep track, be warned there will be lots of fluffy reads as well as at least 12 classics (I hope) 

The Finished List (to date)

1. 3 Wishes - Liane Moriarty

2. Those Faraday Girls - Monica McInerney

3. Bare Bones - Kathy Reichs

Currently Reading

Stop!!!

I need to slow the world down a fraction. I am computer-less inside the house due to DH work computer dying and subsequently him taking back my newly acquired laptop...

The good side is the house is looking much cleaner, bad side... 100+ blogs to read up on (this is after reading about 60 posts over the weekend) forums to catch up on and now it's Tuesday again - designated work day, so off to do as I must.

Promise I will be back later with an update and a show & tell (being computer-less also means more time for knitting... oooh laa lah!)

Procrastination at it's best :)

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

You are thoughtful and care very deeply for your family. A loving home is of great
importance to you and you always try to make people feel welcome. Although you have a great capacity to love, you also have a great capacity to hurt, so at times you can be
sensitive. You're firm when you need to be, but people trust your judgment and
appreciate the kind way you always handle things.

So who are you?

Quilt 1 ~ 2009

I have finished Quilt #1 for 2009 ~ Yay me!!!

I started piecing some eye-spy fabric together with the intention of making a little travel case for colouring in books / pencils for our friend. But soon scrapped that idea after Miss K had a hissy fit because her existing dolly quilt (an old prefold nappy that she steals from under the change table) wouldn't wrap properly around Upsy Daisy - I figured it was time to make a bigger dolly quilt, but not too big.

Two major mistakes on this... Must Start the quilting from the middle & I must adjust the stitch length setting...

So we have it - a very skewed mini quilt, but a good lesson learnt, as it's already in use, I'm intending on whipping up a couple more as they are the perfect size to practice FMQ on.

~ A close up of some FMQ using a decorative thread in the bobbin. I only had a bit wound on the bobbin, so have just gone with a basic flowing along the bottom edge.

~ This is where I excelled (well as much as a newbie can) I've just done FMQ in swirls and circles and just let the machine and fabric do the walking with minimal guidance... I think for a first attempt, it's not too bad.

 

Colour By Numbers

The title really has nothing to do with this post, except for the splash of colour I'm about to add...

A 2nd birthday party & a crayon roll to go with our gift for her.

I do apologise about the photos over the coming weeks, I am back to using the laptop once more (don't ask) and my good photo editing program is on the work computer which means I only have access two days a week :(