Better Late Than Never

It is the last day of the month and I had nothing finished for OPAM.  I just don’t seem to have had the inclination to be sewing, which will never do.  There seems to have been too many other things occupying my time and mind lately.

However, I refuse to have a month go by without a finish, be it only small.  I left it to the very last opportunity to think about what to make.

I have wanted to make a little boxy pouch for quite a while.  I think they are super cute and would be handy for carrying my few necklaces when we travel.

This was to be a project that was to only come from the stash.  Firstly, I raided the box of zippers I grabbed from Mum, before she threw them out.  Not a lot suitable, but there was an aqua one that might do.  It was too short for the pattern in the tutorial, but that was easy fixed, I just jiggled the pattern size, the principle is the same.

Next to find some fabric.  A cute spot was found and a brown for the lining and little tabs.

I was going great guns putting the zip in, turned it out, only to find I had put the zip upside down.  Doh!!!  Oh well, we ended up with a brown boxy pouch with pretty spotty lining and tabs. 

I still think it is cute and will do the job.  It is a good size for what I want.

It would probably have been less fiddly if I had made a larger version, but when did I ever take the easy road?

The tutorial I used was from It’s a Pretty Modern Life, but there are several versions out there once you start looking.

At least I can go to sleep tonight with a clear conscience.

Orange Classic Rally and Heavy Duty Sewing

This weekend we took Olga out for her final test run before being sent overseas.  To her credit she behaved perfectly.  We breathed a collective sigh of relief, I can tell you.

The weather was just ideal for motorcycling and we travelled through some lovely countryside.

There was a terrific variety of old bikes.  This sidecar was gorgeous and won the section. It was being ridden by the owner’s daughter.

Here us a closeup.

There was a good roll up of side cars, which was good to see.

Lunch was at the delightful village of Carcoar.  There are some lovely old buildings there.

However, it is rather sleepy on a Saturday afternoon.

It was hard to make a decision as to which bikes were the best.

Our mate Norm won a trophy with his lovely old Velocette.

The day was completed with a yummy dinner, eaten outdoors as the evening was so lovely.  The rally is based at the Scout Camp at Lake Canobolas and we camped overnight.

Today, after we returned home, I actually did some sewing.  The first for the month, which is a bit sad.

I sewed some more badges onto Mick’s leather bike vest.  Some of these have been waiting to be sewn on since 2008!!! You can’t rush into these things.

It isn’t my favourite type of sewing and is a bit hard on my machine, but the job is done, in time to send the vest with the bike in a fortnight.

I’ll now see if I can finish some other little thing so I can put in on my side bar for the end of the month.

A Visitor

On Friday evening we were headed back into town when I noticed this up our driveway.

He/she was very patient while we stopped the car to get out for a closer look.

It is quite rare that we see lizards this big around our place, so was quite a treat to see so close up.

Another Busy Weekend

Yesterday morning was supposed to be a time of domesticity as a result of being out all the previous weekend, but on the spur of the moment we decided to go up to Oberon to the Steam and Vintage Fair.  They were having a street parade and we like a good parade. 

Oberon usually does this well. 

There was a good variety of vehicles.

 

 

After the parade had finished we headed over to the main display area where there were more vehicles of every description.

I had fun taking photos of grills and emblems.

We took Olga out for the run.  She went well.

She is now sporting her name on the rear of the sidecar.  Please just ignore the fact that she needs a bit of a clean.

We headed for home at lunch time as the weather was starting to close in.  We didn’t worry about the wet weather gear as it isn’t that far.  We were watching it all the way home and trying to work out if we would miss the rain or not.

This is what it was like while coming down our driveway.

We rode into the shed, it started to spit while walking to the house and then, within a minute, the skies opened.

Boy, were we blessed. The gutters were overflowing in no time. Apparently Oberon copped four inches of rain in that storm.  We only got about an inch.

We were out and about today as well.  We went to another Swap Meet, this time at the village of Newbridge.  It is always a nice friendly little Swap.  Once again we had a stall.

We are having a good time cleaning some “stuff” out of cupboards and the shed.  Mind you, there is still quite a bit to sort through. We were happy with the amount that sold, as the morning was fairly quiet this year, mainly due to the weather being a bit iffy.  It ended up being just right, cool and cloudy, but the rain held off all day.

I was very strong, I only bought a box of old buttons and some patches to sew onto my new camping blanket.

We hope to do it all again at the Oberon Swap Meet in a month’s time.

As you can probably guess, no sewing has been happening.  However, I look at it this way…….I have more spending money for my trip to Nundle next month.

Just Playing

My camera is just a little pocket point and shoot, but for what it is, it takes some great photos.  It does also have quite a few limitations.

I went outside this morning and just played.  There were lots of rubbish photos, but a few that I liked.

Just random things in the back yard.

Sometimes the macro just won’t focus, other times it works well.

I’d love to sit in Mick’s old chair with a cuppa, but I’d better get ready for work.

Have a great day, whatever you are doing.  I’ll be popping into Anni’s shop at lunch to buy a birthday gift for a dear friend.  Plenty of inspiration there.

Tuesday Treasures Once Again

I haven’t played Tuesday Treasures for a while, but when I was getting things ready for our Swap Meet stall I found this wonderful old treasure in a box at the back of a cupboard.  It is now on display in a bookcase, where it should be.

We found this on our honeymoon in Tasmania nearly twenty five years ago.  As usual, there is a bit of a story behind it.

On our first day in Tasmania we were in Launceston and visited the “Penny Royal Mill” which was very well publicised at THE place to visit.  When we got there, it was expensive and more like a theme park.  Mick was NOT impressed and declared on the spot that he wasn’t going to any more touristy things.

While planning our trip I had used a wonderful booklet put out by “Tasbureau”, which listed every town and village and I had marked all the places that I thought would be worth visiting. I had hoped to visit one the next day.  Mick declared that he would wait in the car.  I finally convinced him to  give it a go as I thought it sounded really interesting. 

The place I wanted to visit was an old gold mine. It was in a small town and very simple. The wonderful old buildings were being maintained by the National Trust, with the workings and museum in the front of the building and a big glass wall looking over the back part, which had crumbled, and had been turned into a sunken garden. It cost the princely sum of 50c each entry.

Well, as you might gather, it was one of the highlights of our trip.  The ladies from the National Trust were delightful and informative and the place itself fascinating.  The garden was just lovely.  In the little gift shop (just a couple of shelves) they were selling these original crucibles used to process the ore.  What a great souvenir, not cheap plastic junk.

When we returned to Tasmania in 2006 this was one of the places we were definitely visiting again, which we did.  It was still lovely, but was now a lot more touristy with a great big gift shop. Since our first visit it had gone much more upmarket and the old mine was also working again.

You can imagine our sadness when only a couple of weeks after our second visit we heard of the Beaconsfield Mine Disaster, as this is where we had visited.

I did a quick Google search here and found that the museum has gone on to win major awards in the last couple of years and has had some funding to expand the centre. It would still be nice to visit, but we are so pleased we visited all those years ago while it was not touristy.

Pop over to Melody’s and see what other treasures are on show this week.

Sunrise

On Thursday morning on my way to work I just had to stop and take a photo of the glorious sunrise. It was like the sky was on fire.

I had no sooner snapped a couple of quick pics and the colour faded.

Swap Meet Weekend

The first Sunday in February always heralds the Bathurst Swap Meet hosted by the Bathurst Historic Car Club. We are quite involved in the organising committee, so spent a very busy weekend down at the Showground.

It was a really busy weekend in town.  As well as the Swap Meet, yesterday there was a rodeo at Rockley and a motorcycle show in town, and all weekend there has been racing up at Mount Panorama with the big 12 Hour Race.

Yesterday was terribly hot and windy for setting up stalls, but after a couple of short showers in the evening things cooled down nicely for this morning.

This year we had a bit of a cull in some of our cupboards and had a little stall of our own.  We have collected just too much for our house.  Mick also had a bit of a clean out of the shed.

We took our camper trailer down and set the stall up in front of the awning.  It was a perfect setup for us.  I am delighted to say that most of our bits and pieces have found new homes.  I will do the same again soon with some more “treasures”.  We were so very lucky with the weather.  It was cool, which brought out the public, with just a couple of tiny showers, which didn’t affect us. 

I was extremely restrained and didn’t spend any money on collectables.  I didn’t even go for a walk around the other stalls (the first time in nearly 20 years of being involved in the Swap Meet). I just won’t think about the wonderful treasures I missed out on.  The only thing I brought home we actually swapped for one of our items.  It is very rare for an actual “Swap'” to take place at a Swap Meet.

Unfortunately, I was never a Brownie or a Guide when I was growing up and I always coveted the wonderful camping poncho/blankets that the girls had with the badges they had earned for various achievements. I now have one of my own, albeit showing someone else’s achievements.  Sorry about the poor photo, but it is quite grey here at the moment.

The young lady who originally owned this must have been quite active  as there are a large number of badges, dating from the early to mid 90s.  The blanket is only polar fleece and rather worn, so I may transfer the badges to an old grey army blanket I have, and covert it to a poncho more in the style of the ones I remember from the 70s. 

A friend in the Car Club has offered to give me some more Guides badges that he has at home to add to the collection.  I think it would be a great blanket to have in the camper trailer and could even be used sitting around a camp fire as originally intended.   It would also be fun to add some badges to the back from places we visit with our camper trailer over time.  We’ll see what happens.

Mick did get a couple of spare parts for the bikes and was given Edition Number 1 of Road Rider magazine to complete his collection.  He was more than thrilled, as it is in mint condition and so terribly hard to obtain.

The Toowoomba Swap is always on the same weekend ours and it was interesting to see that Kris attended that one.  Pop over to see what lovelies she took home.  I was rather jealous when I saw them.