A New Season, a New Look

This was our bedroom at our old house.  It was rather spacious with a nice view out the window into the trees outside.  Around to the right of the photo there is a large Edwardian wardrobe and a walk in robe.  It was lovely and restful. 

Our bedroom in the house we are in now is decidedly smaller – just wide enough for the bed and beside tables.  It is also painted Antique White USA.  I never thought I’d be in a white room.  However, we painted the room  for rental purposes before we decided to live here until our house is built.

We have nice big built in wardrobes and there is a little nook to the side, perfect for “Victoria” to reside.

There is even room for the big wardrobe and the blanket box at the end of the bed.  No room for the dressing table or treadle sewing machine, but that is fine. One change we made that made the world of difference was not using the foot of the bed.  It just slides in under the ensemble, so was easy to put away for the time being.  I had to hang our Wedding Sampler that Mum made for us all those years ago.

I loved the look of our bedroom in the summer.  It was really calming walking into this space.  Yes, I do like the white walls and we will use this colour (or lack thereof) in our new house.  It is good being able to try before you buy, so to speak.

Now for the change of season.

Seeing it is now autumn, I changed the quilt to the first one I  ever completed, back in the autumn of 2003.  Yes, I even stitched the label.  This class was at Anni’s shop when it was really new.  Kate Foody was my teacher.

What a difference it has made.  Rather than being a calm room to enter it is now really snug and cosy.

Victoria even has her winter scarf on.

I had to laugh the other day when Mick made the bed.  It was a cool morning so he tucked everyone in.  Awww! Meet “Big Ted”, “Ted” and “Golly”. “Garfield” just sits on the bedside table. 

Mind you, the weather has turned rather warm this last week, reaching the mid 20s.  I think it may be the last hoorah though, as it is forecast to be cool again next week.

By the way, there are lots of scraps from this quilt making an appearance in Nature’s Journey.

What’s Next?

Late last year, when I was browsing Pinterest, as I do, I came across a small TO DO list in a frame here.  It was a case of “keep it simple stupid”.

I have so much that I want to do – a list a mile long. It becomes somewhat overwhelming, so I end up ignoring it and not achieving much at all, if anything.

I have the best sewing space I have ever had in this little house we are in now, so thought it would be a great opportunity to try a “little” list.  Just a few things each month, so it would be achievable.  I might actually feel good about ticking them ALL off.  But I didn’t want it to be a “TO DO” list.  I wanted it to be a bit gentler than that, not so bossy sounding. But I did need boxes to put a big fat tick in when finished.

This is the simple solution I came up with.  “What’s Next?”  The frame is just a 6” x 4” frame from the $2.00 shop.  I printed out  the backing on my computer, so nothing flash at all.  It will never make it on an organising blog, but you know what, it works.

It sits nicely on my chest of drawers which hold fabric.  Not too intrusive, but easy to refer to.

January actually had quite a long list.  I couldn’t share it at the time as a few of the items were still secret squirrel.  The best bit is that everything ended up with a tick against it.

We were going to be away for most of February, so it only had the one task.  March had quite a few items, and as you can see, I fell down rather badly.  Not to worry. They will go back on the big list for another time.  The missed items will eventually get done, just not yet.  We were away for a couple of weeks and priorities change.

April has ended up fairly long as well.  It looks more than it is.  Some are quick, easy tasks, but they are there to keep them fresh in my mind.  Some are just a step in a project, such as the table mat hexies for our project from Nundle.  I’ll just nibble away at it over time.  Also, some more have already been ticked off since I took this photo.

Chookyblue has just posted about her To Do boards.  Hers are much prettier than mine, and also quite a bit larger.  She shared the fact that she uses Liquid Chalk markers on the glass.  I will have to track some down, as I do like the look.

I’m liking my little list.  It is working for me, however, I’m sure I will tweak it over time.  I’m already thinking I need to make a spot for the month, not just add it to the top like now.  Maybe print it on pretty paper?  We’ll see.

Quick Trip North – Part 4 – The Final Instalment

SATURDAY

We were amazed at how difficult it was to find a cafe open for Breakfast in the main street of Toowoomba on a Sunday morning, but when we did find one it was lovely.

Another clock tower was spotted.

After our brief visit to Toowoomba we continued our drive south, following the New England Highway.  We continued to enjoy the scenery of the Darling Downs.

A church spire, in Warwick.

Some stunning rock formations, the region isn’t known as the Granite Belt for nothing.

We had a brief stop at some markets at Tenterfield and bought some bulbs for the garden.  Yep, I forgot to take photos again. Doh!

Next stop was at the little town of Drinkwater, where we saw an “Antiques” sign.  It was a relatively new business and he had some great stuff.  No, we didn’t buy the Reo.

As we reached the Glen Innes area we were once again treated to wonderfully coloured trees.

We could see smoke for ages as we drove along, finally coming to the source, near Bendemeer.

Down the Moombi Hills towards Tamworth.

We had travelled from the Darling Downs to the Liverpool Plains.  Two of the best farming districts in the country.

Our destination for the night on Saturday was Gunnedah.  We have stayed here a few times and really like the town.  We usually stay at the same motel.  I’m glad I phoned ahead earlier in the day, as the “No Vacancy” sign was up when we arrived. 

I’m not sure how I came to be taking photos of clock towers along the way this trip.  Each trip seems to accidently have a theme.  In New Zealand it was pretty churches, this time clock towers.  There really were some stunners.

We are turning into creatures of habit, as we always eat at the Ex-Services Club.  The food is fabulous, as is the case in most clubs in smaller towns.

SUNDAY

There was no need to be up and away too early on Sunday, which was a nice change. This was just a nice easy drive home over roads we are familiar with.

We were amazed at the numerous jetstreams going all over the place when we were near Tambar Springs.

The countryside was looking good near Coolah.

We did make one detour.  We have been meaning to visit “The Drip” for ages, but just haven’t been able to get there.  Now we know what facilities are there (a drop dunny) and how far it is to walk in, we will try to arrange a group of us to go over one day…….we just have to find the time to make it happen.

There were lovely, wispy clouds over Lake Windermere.  Notice how dry it is looking. 

We noticed that the closer we got to home the dryer it looked.  We desperately needed rain.

And look, while we were away the trees started to change colour here too.

So that’s it.  We travelled just over 4,000kms in ten days.  We spent time with lots of people that we wanted to see, at Nundle, Kingscliff, Rockhampton and Toowoomba.  We visited new places and enjoyed revisiting others.  The weather was good, often quite hot, with the exception of one wet afternoon.

Now we will have to settle down for a little while.  We have no holiday plans in the pipeline for some time.  Mind you, we still have plenty on our plate this year with planning building our new home.

Quick Trip North – Part 3

THURSDAY

Rockhampton was as far north as we travelled.  However, our timing wasn’t great, as the area had been battered by Cyclone Marcia only a month earlier.  Our friends live inland from Rocky but still felt the full force.  Their house was unaffected , as it is relatively new and built to cyclone ratings, but a 40 foot container in their paddock was blown over.  Now that is some wind.

We spent Thursday playing the tourist with our own personal guide.  Having someone with you that knows the area makes such a difference.  Rather than just driving around and thinking “That’s nice” you actually get the story behind places and start to understand the area a bit.

We started out with coffee, as you do, in the old Post Office building.  Are you starting to see a trend here?

Rockhampton is one of those towns we have visited previously, but just as a quick stopover on our way somewhere else.  We have never looked around at all.  This time we travelled out to the coast.  We thought it was just one road out to Yeppoon and back, but there are a few little towns on the coast.  It was still rather scenic despite the recent cyclone.

I was initially wary of going out to Yeppoon as we didn’t want to be seen as rubber neckers.  However, it was a month since the cyclone, so much of the cleanup had taken place and the locals wanted people to visit and support their businesses.  Very similar to the Blue Mountains after a bushfire.

First stop was at Emu Park.  The poor palm trees looked a little sad.

Next we stopped at Kinka Beach.

We started to see cyclone damage.

Rosslyn Bay was rather pretty.

While in Yeppoon we got chatting to the owners of two rather tasty bikes.  As we talked we realised we had previously met – at the Classic Races at Phillip Island at the beginning of last year.  What a small world.

 

As we drove around we saw more of the damage caused by the cyclone.  Some houses were very badly affected, while others remained untouched.  We were unable to travel along some roads as they were closed due to land slips.  There were a few business that remained closed, mainly on the beach front, but the majority were back and open for business.

Once back in Rocky we visited Quay Street, beside the Fitzroy River.  This is in the oldest part of town and housed some rather grand buildings from years gone by.

 

 

The Fitzroy river looked rather peaceful in the evening light.   Hard to believe that it can flood such a large area of town, but it has a catchment larger than Tasmania, so can be quite a force.

We really enjoyed having a better look around this part of the world as it is not an area we get to very often.

FRIDAY

After we said our goodbyes it  was time to turn around and head back south.  Friday was our longest drive, travelling over 700kms.  We headed inland towards Mount Morgan.  We marvelled at how lush the grass was everywhere, considering it had been really dry not all that long ago.

Mind you that lush grass came at a price.  There was lots of flood damage at each river.  Quite a lot of water had been around.  Here’s  hoping it sets them up for a good season for a change.

As we had so far to travel, Friday was not a day to stop and sight see.  It was to look out the car window and soak up the scenery as we went along.

You imagine this part of the world being flat grassland, but quite a bit was heavily timbered.

We had lunch in Mundubbera, a town I spent quite a few school holidays in.  I forgot to take any photos.  I was too busy reminiscing and noticing the changes over the last 35 years or so.

I always love trying to spot bottle trees in this part of the world.  We saw a few and loved this little roadside park in the middle of nowhere planted entirely with bottle trees.

Such lovely big wide skies.

There always has to be a photo of a windmill.

The landscape changed again as we reached the Darling Downs near Dalby.

A milo crop (I think).

Cotton, looking like it is about ready to harvest.

Coal trains are rather common in Queensland these days.

As are large trucks.  Mind you, we saw very few road trains on this trip, mainly B-doubles.

And then we reached our destination for the day, Toowoomba, where we were able to have a brief visit with some of my family, which was thoroughly enjoyable.

More to follow.