Splashes of colour

Some small splashes of colour and life in my gardens... I am a little concerned that this butternut pumpkin is losing it's battle... it had started off so well too :( It probably doesn't help that the garden is now filled with this strange coloured fungi all along the sides ~ when I get a chance I think this whole garden will need to be dug over and started again. Let's hope for a better crop this coming spring / summer!

Some new pansies planted a few weeks ago are blooming ~ I love these flowers, so easy to grow and the flowers last for so many months!

My newly potted geraniums are glorious. The plants are so healthy (particularly the couple around the water tank!)

Pretty Things

After a little hiatus (heck I couldn't stay away that long) I've had some time to do some thinking. I've always felt there has been something missing from this here blog, but then I think No... this is MY space. My place to write and put what I will. It doesn't matter that I don't have hundreds of followers, or commenters for that matter. What matters most is this is my fluffy & very happy little spot on the net to post about what I want to post about.

Spending a few days in hospital, had me thinking of all the things I actually wanted to be doing with my time. I no longer have the time constraints of work tying me down and that also means I can do as I will with my spare time - as long as I complete hubby's work first and foremost. Which led me to thinking of all the things I do like to do and have been missing from my life of late. I want to live an enriched life, I want to try new things. I want to learn more. I want to make things. I want to create. I don't want to profit from my happiness and I don't want to sell. I don't need to be popular to do any of this so from here on in ~ this little space will be about what makes me happy on any given day and as you know - I am quite varied in my tastes, so you could find yourself on a tour of my (messy) craft room, little threads of creativity getting caught between your toes.

Perhaps you will see some paint splatters (let's pray hubby doesn't see the splatters upon the carpets!!!)

I'll take you on My Kitchen Messes as I do some baking (my crazy husband suggested last week that I am actually quite GOOD at baking... which in hindsight could have been a little hint to get me back in the kitchen and cooking for him more) so I have sent MIL out on a crazy mission this week to collect the mini cookbooks on offer with the Courier / Sunday Mail...

Come and walk with me in my garden as I plan out new garden beds and attempt to grow veges for the 4th time (hopefully successfully)

Some days you may find me between the pages of a book, dreaming that Eric will leave her and be mine forever more.

Others you will find me madly scribbling, filling blank pages with ever evolving thoughts and paraphernalia leaving a record of myself on this earth for my descendants.

Look closely for Rue and Ali making an appearance and possibly you might even see another Blythe joining the family soon (my little girl is smitten with my new girls!)

Join me and I promise small squares will be a thing of the past soon enough!

I have been busy crocheting up a storm for the Bette! 42 / 199 squares completed, I am nearly quarter of the way there! The best news is 2 of the 4 large (30cm squares are now complete!!!) Yay for hospitals and recovery time!

This morning I have been fondling some fabrics and wanting to complete a quilt or two this year, since last year was pretty dismal! As I can't really get down and baste any of the completed tops due to the operation, I am hoping to settle for some piecing this afternoon... tossing up whether to continue on with this lap quilt or to start the "under a mushroom" quilt kit that I have (I have decided that though that pattern is 'cot sized' 42" x 52" I am going to increase the size to make it a single bed size for my daughters bedroom (it's about time she got a quilt for her bed ;) I will be needing more fabric to complete this though... luckily I don't live far from faeries in my garden quilt shop hey?   

Wanting something a little more challenging for my mind this morning, I pulled out the Life is a Celebration Quilt I started back in January, I've had this square traced and ready to embroider for sometime and this morning while watching charmed I got started. If you've been following my blog for some time now, you will have remembered my slight butterfly issue back in January when I finally attempted reverse turn applique... I did try to fix his winged issues with a wide satin stitch, but as you can see it is very wonky :o it's actually sort of growing on me, and they way I see it the poor little thing is coming in to land and one of his wings is broken (who said quilting can't have character!!!) I am slowly getting better at french knots (well one from 4 isn't too bad I guess! Hopefully I will be able to finish the stitching on this today and work out how the heck I am going to get the borders on considering the mistake I made... I put the applique on the white, it should have been a little on the border *sigh*

This pretty little man provided some inspiration on pulling out the DLSR again! He has had an awesome couple of days curled up on the bed with me watching charmed (think he missed me while I was gone!)

These pretty flowers were on my dining room table on my return home over the weekend. My beautiful mother in law bought them for me and better yet, it's actually a plant (the flowers that keep on, keeping on!) I can't wait to get out in the sunshine and plant this later in the week!!!

Short Hiatus

I'm currently on a small blogging hiatus - unfortunately this hiatus is not on a tropical island, nor will there be any good food involved (unless you like hospital food ;)

I'm hoping to be back to this blog next week with lots of crafty stuff to show off... One good thing I will say about being stuck in bed all day, Im getting lots of crocheting done... Ive nearly run out of the few balls of wool I bought along!!! Cheeky me, told mum to stop off attangledyarns on the way here LOL (I was just kidding about that! I think I will ask DH to bring my pink scarf in so I can finish it, once and for all!

Oh and if you would like to follow my hospital adventures...(Ill be sure to be writng a food review :0) You can do so here:

http://endo-theroad.blogspot.com/

(just beware some of my earlier posts have a lot of swearing in them & are alittle graphic, might scare some people away, I dont intend on holding back over there!!!)

Lost 1 x Motivation & Learning...

Motivation last seen, sometime last week - it seems to have gotten lost somewhere between the celebrations of the weekend just gone and this grey Monday we are having. It's making it hard to get moving and all I really want to do is curl up on the couch with my new ebook...

  

O.M.G... it feels so high school all over again, but this book is set when the twins are 17, there is more adult content (correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall these books being all that raunchy in the original series, though I might just have to pull down my stash and re-read a couple just to refresh my memory) Oh and if you haven't read it yet... I know why Elizabeth isn't speaking to Jessica ;P

I neglected to follow my master list today & think this is where I've come unstuck. Instead of spending time in the office (which I had planned) I have pottered around inside & accomplished what feels like very little until I wrote it all down:

* Washing 4 humungous loads of washing (and just managed to get most of them off the line 3/4 dry before a huge rain storm blew in)

* I've sorted out the girls clothes (finally) all her size 2 & 3's are packaged up to give to my friend for her little girl;

* a bag of crap gathered up for the op shop (will have to make a trip there tomorrow);

* Made a start re-organising my files on the server (oh the joys of having 4 computers in 18 months, each one had folders copied across and it is MESSY);

* Changing my my blog layout (do you like the new look? I wanted a cleaner look & want to take this blogging thing to the next level - what do you want to see more of?);

* dinner (spaghetti and Meatballs) is in the slow cooker

* a pile of new cleaning cloths cut out and overlocked (still hate that machine!!!)

One old Cloth Nappy (flat) cut into small cleaning cloths, perfect for cleaning my kitchen benches each day. Next time I will cut them slightly larger!

Now I'm off to watch Charmed & have a coffee while folding the avalanche of clothes (multi-tasking at it's best) I should be vacuuming the floors, but perhaps I will get that done tomorrow. Does your motivation grind to a halt when the grey weather hits? Or is your motivation ALWAYS with you?

PS anyone notice the new blog layout... I am playing around with it

Borders - Great Big Sale!

Borders were having a great big closing down sale in the city yesterday and with prices up to 70-90% offf... well I couldn't very well pass up the opportunity to go check it out! Unfortunately there were a lot of books gone by the time we got there and my poor dad was lamenting that every book he picked up was book two in the series... so he didn't have much luck!

Perhaps I was feeling lucky because it was my birthday... I found a few book ones!



* Rachel Caine "Morganville Vampires" book one Glass Houses - $4.78

* Karen Brooks " Curse of the Bond Riders" book one Tallow - $9.30

* P.C. Cast "The fledgling Handbook" all were only - $7.90   

  

I also picked up a blank journal (Nora Whynot) for only $2.98 and a copy of "That's Queen Bitch to you" (only $5.98) to go with my "you say I'm a bitch like it's a bad thing"   

I love these 2 pages...

My daughter made an absolute score with a Bindi book for $ 3.30 and a couple of others... and my poor Dad... he is no longer complaining after picking up a $79.00 RRP copy of American Chopper expecting to pay $ 15.93 and paying ONLY $8.00 at the checkout! Go dad!!!

I love books... particularly CHEAP ones!

  

The story of a bookcase...

In my house - everywhere you turn there is a pile of books balancing precariously. It was fast becoming obvious we (aka ME) needed more storage space, so off I went to Sams Warehouse (cheap shop) last week and bought myself a flat-packed bookcase, all ready to assemble!

Now in my house, I have a big burly hubby that is more than capable of putting together flat packed items and generally does them with the greatest of ease.

After hearing my husband groaning about YET another flat packed item and seeing how many hours he was at work last week, I decided to help by assembling it myself.

Armed with Father-in-laws drill set, and just over 1.5 hours with only one question asked, I am now a proud owner of one brand new bookcase...

Did I happen to mention I did this ALL BY MYSELF! Me... I am a wee bit chuffed with my efforts!   

A great place to store my Vintage port and a little room for my 2 Blythes!

I am so impressed that I think I will head back to the store and buy another one or two bookcases tomorrow!   

Happy Birthday to...

ME!!!
Hubby and Miss K outdid themselves, along with my new WII, they totally spoilt me with a new Blythe!!!


Meet Ally ~ Isn't she beautiful :)



We went into the city for the day, big sale at borders, Starbucks, sushi train and a ride on the citycat, made for a great day.







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A little Help?

See that green and orange check... (bottom right of picture) would you leave it in, or take it out. I believe it must have been a vintage tablecloth & is a bitch to sew with but it does tie in some of the other squares that have orange & yellow flowers...

It's for a picnic blanket, so it's not like it will be on show everyday you know?

What do you think?

Early Birthday Gifts

Don't you just love extended birthdays? I do!!! My birthday is coming up at the end of this week (& surprisingly I am feeling pretty good about the age I'm turning ;)

Earlier in the week the husband was lamenting that one of the presents probably wouldn't arrive on time and that he had no idea what else to buy me. At the time I was using my hand me down food processor that was shuddering all over the bench & I jokingly said I would love a Kitchen Aid food processor AND mix master LOL... well he has seen the prices before so I knew straightaway that would be a no-go - perhaps a good one for the 40th! The next day I told him that he should buy me a WII... now it matters not that we have a PSP3 (a freebie with the TV we bought) as well as an old X-box (practically Vintage) that needs to be sold (please make me an offer!!!) but the deal has always been I cannot get a WII unless I sell the Xbox. Well that hasn't happened yet, but desperate times (ie my present NOT arriving on time) call for desperate measures (he needed something to give me on my actual birthday) so he agreed... sort of!

Of course as soon I got that nod of approval, off I went searching... the only issue I could forsee was I had a gift card to EB games (a doubled up christmas gift I returned) and their prices were pretty exxy compared to JB's. Except they do price match on the WII Fit Plus (not the console :) ) so today I purchased that with my gift card and paid a teeny tiny difference!

Then back I went to JB's to buy the console... luckily they had a pretty good deal going with the console, Sports Resorts PLUS Just Dance game PLUS the sports pack. YAY!

   

I'm a very spoilt girl (but remember half the present is a belated Christmas gift from ma & pa - thanks guys!) So a VERY {early} HAPPY BIRTHDAY pressie to me!!!

More regular blogging, coming to a blog near you soon!

I seem to be stuck in a little time warp... although I find myself with more time on my hands, my crafting time is still happening in very small doses. I think perhaps because I have spent the better part of the last 2 years doing small squares. Small squares of crochet, small blocks of art journalling, piecing quilts square by square that I now find myself still on that same schedule & I am afraid to just jump in with 2 feet. I need to just sit and churn out a quilt top... to get the groove back but for now, it's all about small bursts mainly layouts in my art journal.

Playing with some chalks and stencils, love the effect... however I ruined it by spraying it in hairspray (hoping to set the chalks so they wouldn't rub?) and then the back page showed through, but that's ok... I kinda like it!

Experimenting with gesso, scratching and water colours... love the effect and on the opposite page, quilted tiles and a story about nothing in particular (if you do make it out, I apologise for the rambling... I was attempting a poem, but couldn't verbalise it - instead I wrote without thinking)

& lastly some play with some water colour pencils. I've had these forEVER, but had never known how to get the best out of them, until I saw somewhere someone dipped theres in water. Awesome! They worked a treat and though it's not perfect... I really like it. This was a prompt from Sarah Whitmires Twitter prompt a day (I think)   

So my first week and a bit of 'retirement' has been pretty good, there's been lots of housework and a little bookwork keeping me busy... my house had completely fallen apart & is still a long ways to go before I claim full control over it, but with the purchase of a new bookcase today I am all raring to go on stage 2 of decluttering this place! I've been doing the groceries and actually have TIME to think about Meal plans and have stopped frivolous buys (well nearly... a magazine still fell into my trolley today ;) There's been washing almost every day, but it feels good to be on top of it for once. & most of all, I am loving having time to bake. Home cooked meals every night. There's been Zucchini Slice, Impossible Quiche, Roasted Vegetable Soup, Tomato Pasta Soup, Beef Stew, one cup cookies and wagon-wheels to name but a few. My hips are loving the extra carbs (though my husband may not particularly agree with me) and best of all, I've managed to freeze down a heap of leftovers for the weeks I am convalescing (I'm having a 2 night hospital stay at the end of the month)

All in All, I love being home by 5pm the girl & I both showered & curled up watching a movie while dinner bubbles away on the stove. I'm hoping that once this heedy feeling of TIME has settled in, I will be back with more regular blogging - coming soon!

Quiet Weekend

It was a relatively quiet weekend, I woke on Friday morning with the mother of all headaches! My sinus was about to explode & the celebratory beers the night before probably didn't help matters along. That meant most of the weekend I was popping Vit C and Sudafed tablets!

We did pop down to Sandgate for an early Mothers Day pIcnic with my mum. Rue had to come for a drive and she seemed to enjoy herself on the watefront!

Mothers Day yesterday meant breakfast in bed (well coffee), a morning tea with the inlaws at the Coffee club and an afternoon of sewing!

My little girl spoilt me with 2 cards + a bookmark made at Daycare & did well to keep the 'surprise' that she had made me something!

Two books that I had requested landed on my lap with my morning coffee, can't wait to get stuck into these!

And an afternoon was spent painting (see my new canvas in the back there... no idea where I'm going with it, but it's one of those things I've been wanting to try for sometime and finally started it yesterday. As well as some sewing, I am piecing together the vintage squares I cut out last weekend and apart from one colourway, I'm happy with the way it's looking for now!

Today is my first official day off in what feels like forever. I have stuck to my list of time management (Compliments of Skip the Domestic Guru) and have managed to knock over some long overdue paperwork for the husband! I'm not pushing myself to perform miracles and have something to show for my time off, I'm just taking it as it comes and enjoying not having to RUSH everywhere. I'm taking it slow.

News just in!!!

My leaving date {from work} has been moved forward (mutual agreement)... TOMORROW will be my LAST day!

Feeling very surreal at the moment as this is ending another era in my life and the next chapter awaits me. I've worked 9.5 years at this current company (in both full-time, part-time and casual basis... 8 years pre child & 18 months post child) to be leaving again feels weird & I know in some ways I will miss it, but the time has come to move on & my other half has a LOT of work awaiting my re-commencement next week (can you believe he actually wants me to WORK) as well as the hundred and one things around the home that have long been neglected. Once I tackle the filing in the office and get the bookwork up to date, there will be a flurry of activity in the kitchen as I get some meals made and frozen for when I am convalescing later this month. Then if you need me you will find me in my craft room... I have several Quilts waiting patiently to be finished and I may even get around to making a quilt for my daughters bed, it's only been 4 years! Excitement is mounting!!!

Meet Rue

Several parcels arrived yesterday afternoon and one very special parcel all the way from NZ had this pretty little girl in it!

Meet Rue (or Ruby as my {nearly} 4 year old calls her ;)

She is truly beautiful... I can feel an addiction to collecting them already kicking in & my daughter has been asking to play with her CONSTANTLY. It was so cute earlier, she had to come in and give her a cuddle before going to bed and has decided that she likes her with pink eyes! She likes her so much that she has requested a Blythe dolly of her own for her birthday next month with pink hair, pink clothes, pink cheeks, pink eyes, pink lips, pink shoes and also pink on her nail-polish. I'm half tossing up buying a cheaper Simply Guava especially for her to play with.

Rue has her own temporary digs set up (until we can organise a real room when I re-do the old office) I've borrowed my daughters barbie couch, retro cushion and a crocheted floor mat... she seems very comfy in her new abode!

Long Weekend

Although we had another long weekend here, I didn't get too much accomplished since I am battling a blasted head cold. I'm not that sick that I couldn't handle small jobs, so between 20 loads of washing (sick.of.the.constant.rain) there has also been...

Some rotary cutting...

6.5" Vintage sheet (& tablecloth) squares... planning a picnic rug {I totally don't need to be starting NEW quilt projects now considering how many I have as WIP or awaiting basting, quilting or binding!!! but meh who's gonna yell at me???}

  

An art journal page created from a sheet cutoff, love this fabric & love this page!!!

Another journal page of Goals for April MAY (yes my head was a little foggy when I did this page!) Spirographs compliments of hubby and his 3.11 year old helper! They just sum up my life over the past 18 months perfectly!

Baking dinner for tomorrow night as both the Boy and I have big days planned... one less thing for him to do ;)

& Juicing Apples, Celery and Ginger to knock this head cold on it's backside.

It's been a pretty relaxing weekend! If I can get all this done now while feeling under the weather ~ imagine all I can do when I finish work :O EIGHT DAYS to go!!! What have you been up to over the long weekend?