The Last Instalment of Christmas

Loulee and I have been sending each other Christmas gifts since we met on the Isle of Man quite a few years ago now.  The Christmas the box I sent to New Zealand, where Lou now lives, took 4 days to reach its destination.

Lou's took nearly a month.  We think it must have gone on a world tour.  It arrived safe and sound a few days ago, and was worth the wait.

Don't you love lots of little parcels.  I know I certainly do.

Lou made a cute little stocking decoration.  It will go well on our new tree which seems to be developing a red and white theme.  There is also fabric, buttons in a pincushion jar, choccies, hand cream and a wee little calendar for Mick.

Thanks so much Lou.

Now I think Christmas is over for another year.

Plans to Finish Some UFOs

Like most of us stitchers, I have quite a few UFOs.  Many won't need very much to finish them off.  

What I do need is a little motivation.  Last year I stumbled upon the Finish-A -Long, where you nominate projects you aim to finish in the quarter of the year.  Your list can be as long or as short as you like and there is no real pressure, just the incentive of being accountable. I though I might join in this year.  It will also be a great way to meet some more bloggers.

I'm only going to add three projects, as we are going to have a rather busy time in the next three months, what with moving and all.

Here they are.

The first project I need to finish.......but firstly to start is a baby quilt for a little lady that has already arrived.  I need to get cracking on this one.

Next, I just need to put the binding on my Nature's Journey Quilt that I worked on in a Stitch-A-Long last year.  The top was completed in September, my friend Val quilted it in October and I just haven't got around to that final step.  I really want to have it finished to take to Girls Day in the Country at Nundle in March, as Anni Downs, the designer, will be our tutor on the day.

Finally, I have this place mat that just needs its binding.  I made it for Mum's birthday, back in October.....didn't happen......Christmas came and went.......and it's still not finished.  Let's see if I can at least have it finished in good time for Mother's Day. Yes, Mum enjoys doing jigsaws.

These three finishes should be quite achievable......especially as I've now laid my cards on the table.  This should be a bit of fun.

If I go okay, I may even be a bit more ambitious next time.

First Finish for 2016

I'm pleased to say that I had a finish on the first day of the year.

You see, our new Christmas tree didn't come with a bag or box or anything, as it was the last one they had.  I thought it needed a bag.  I raided the box of fabric I bought years ago from Spotlight at $1/metre on clearance.  There was even a red one.  Add some Christmassy ribbon sitting doing nothing.

Ta Da!  Now to find somewhere to put it.

Review of 2015 - Part 6 - December

At last, the final installment.

Firstly, a recap of the things I've already shared.  My lovely gift from Oddbjorg in Norway for the Secret Santa Christmas Swap, we have a new Christmas tree to show off special ornaments, my gifts sent to Lou and the projects from my stitching day with my friend Anne.

Then the things I haven't shared.

Firstly, Shez shared a Spinach and Fetta Pie recipe back in October.  At the time last year's spinach was shooting to seed, so this would be a great way to use those last leaves.  It was soooooo good.

I've now made it three times.  Thanks for sharing.  Also, as we have zucchinis, we have made zucchini slice, shown here, zucchini fritters, zucchini lasagne, zucchini with tomato and cheese on top..........next the egg plants and tomatoes will be coming on.

Speaking of which, we didn't get tomatoes for Christmas, which always is the big aim here in Bathurst, but we did start picking the small ones a couple of days after.  These are called "Tomato Berry" and there are going to be loads of them.  The other plant is still a little way off, lots of green tomatoes but no colour as yet.

Testing, testing, testing, one, two, three...,

Remember I received some lovely Bonnie and Camille fat quarters in the birthday swap last year...........  Well, I wanted to make something special with them.  I decided on the "Swoon" pattern.  I purchased an additional two fat quarters to make up numbers.  Then to decide on a background fabric.  As some of the fabrics had a white background, white wouldn't work.  I tried a light grey, but it didn't do it for me.  I tried a charcoal.  Yes, the colours popped, but I was hoping for a nice, fresh looking quilt.  The charcoal was too dramatic.  I wanted something in between. I sound like Goldilocks here.  I had a grey with a small print from spotlight, so tried it with some similar value colours and I'm happy with the look.........but there wasn't enough on the bolt for my needs.  Anyway, I have now settled on a very light grey print on a white background.  I think it will do the trick.

This will be my block of the month project for this year. It hopefully won't be too hard to achieve.  Let's see how I go without a whip cracker.

In the meantime, my sample block will be turned into a table topper.

And that's just about it.

Except for one thing.......

Those of you who remember that we were supposed to be building a house this year may notice I haven't mentioned it.  Well, we had plans drawn up ready to go and then in November had a brain snap and decided not to build after all.  We have found a house that we like, still in the area we want to be in. It is ten years old and very different in style to what we were going to build.  However, it is on a nice sized block and has room for Mick to build a big shed. He has been missing his shed this year.  There is a nice, established native garden.  So much easier than having to get everything started from scratch.  Oh, by the way it has a rather nice, big. light room for me to have as  a sewing room.  We will move in during March, so things will be busy then.

Looking back, 2015 was busy but enjoyable.  Moving into town has made it so much easier to be out and about.

This year should be fun as well.  Bring it on.

Review of 2015 - Part 5 - November

Once again, if  you read my blog you would have thought that we didn't do much in November, but we were flat out.  Here's what we got up to.

As spring came along we were missing our vege garden, so Mick went and bought two raised garden beds.  That was at the beginning of October.  As we were enthused, we planted out then.  That is extremely ambitious for frost tender plants in this part of the world.  We normally get frosts up until November.  This year we had none.  Not one.  October was well above average temperatures.

Raised beds are the best.  You can see what is going on easily.  Weeds are right there, easy to pick out.  Add to that the fact that my Christmas present last year was worms, as we no longer had our chooks.  Worm wee is great fertiliser.  Maybe, just maybe, as the garden is small, just a stone's throw from the back door and we no longer have water worries we are looking after it....just a thought.

Anyway, things have thrived and we are enjoying it all.

The plants we brought from our garden at home have been doing well.  A friend gave us some raspberry canes, which we have just put in pots for now.  We can't wait to get them planted out in a proper garden.  I forgot to pick a branch of bay leaves from our old plant before we moved and we have discovered "Baby Bay", a nice compact version which is doing nicely in a pot for mow.  Our succulents are doing well up the stairs.

Of course, I had my annual outing with my friend Lisa to the open gardens.  This year we even talked Mick into joining us.  The day was cool and damp, but that didn't stop us.  Everything looked so fresh and green.  However, as October had been so hot, quite a few flowers were already past their prime.

There were a few new to us gardens which is always nice.  It finally started to rain while we were at the last garden.  We were so lucky.  A lovely day out, as always.

Next on the agenda was the Motorcycle Expo in Sydney.  We went along with a shopping list.  Our intercom is ten years old and starting to cause grief.  We came home with our Christmas gift to ourselves - bluetooth intercom.  We think we have it worked out.   I also required some new bike jeans for when we travel on Sophia the Moto Guzzi.  Something seems to have happened to my old ones while in the wardrobe and they no longer fit.  I just can't explain it.  While we were there we saw some lovely bikes.

The dealers certainly display their wares well.

There was even a display of the bikes out of the latest Mad Max movie.  I think they had a lot of fun putting these together.

While on the topic of bikes, we headed off for another weekend.  This time to the Butterball Classic Motorcycle Rally, based at Albury.  We used to attend this rally for a few years in the early 90s and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Life has since got in the way and we've never been back.  We heard that this year's is to be the last in this format, so we thought we'd better make the effort to go.  We are so glad we did.

We took the Friday off work and had a liesurely drive down (towing "Olga" the old BMW in the trailer), Young was our first stop, somewhere we normally drive straight through.  We discovered an old department store, which is now an arcade, complete with patchwork shop, with the most amazing staircase.  The weather was quite stormy on the way down and we were glad to be in the ute, rather than riding.  Lots of short, sharp storms.  There were some lovely bikes at the rally on Saturday and we were happy to see a few side cars.

The ride took us through the Victorian goldfields, ending up at Dartmouth Dam for lunch.  I had no idea that such a large body of water was in the area.  We then rode past Lake Hume on our way back to Albury.  We skipped the Sunday ride and headed for home.  We stopped at Gundagai to have a bit of a look, seeing as we had the time.  I had fun with some corkscrew grass.  Mick didn't know about it.  This was something we had fun with as kids.  First pick your long skinny grass seed.  It is actually about four seeds,  Gently peel them off their stem and pin them in your clothes.  Now watch as they curl around themselves like a cork screw.  You can see it didn't take much to keep us amused.  We made sure we left the seeds where we found them.  We don't want to introduce them to our place.  Our final stop was at the rose garden at Cowra, but they were past their prime, although still lovely to see.

I keep saying that we aren't very good at staying home.  This month certainly was a good example.  We were back in the car at the end of November, heading off to Braidwood for the annual Airing of the Quilts.  We hadn't been for a couple of years.

This year there was an extra feature to encourage a wider variety of people to the weekend.  The Vintage Machinery Club put on a display.  There were vehicles from Braidwood, Batemans Bay, Goulburn, Canberra and Yass.  They were all beautifully presented.  There were cars, bikes, tractors and vintage engines.  Well worth seeing.  Good on Braidwood for making the effort.

The markets were good, as usual and a few bits and bobs came home.

I was happy to run into Dzintra and her family while there.  We now look forward to catching up at Nundle.


On the Sunday we made a detour to Bungendore, as they had their quilt show on.  No photos allowed, but it was good to see some quilts hanging around the town.


Meanwhile, some stitching had to be done to send off to Carole in the USA for the Secret Santa Christmas Swap.  I made it on time.......just.


And, finally, the garden had progressed by the end of the month, with us picking zucchini, spinach, rhubarb and snow peas.  The feijoa tree at the back door was putting on a display and attracting lots of birds, which was nice.

So that wraps up November.  I'm tired just thinking about it, considering we were both working full time as well.  OK, we did take one Friday off.

Review of 2015 - Part 4 - October

OCTOBER

October was once again a really busy month. We seemed to be doing lots, but I didn't make one single blog post.  Very slack.

Firstly, on the long weekend Mick and I went for a drive to Canowindra to see the Airing of the Quilts.  They really look good down the main street.  It is unfortunate that there are no supporting activities, Hopefully it will grow in that respect in the future.

During the following week Bathurst came alive as people rolled in for the big race, the Bathurst 1000.  I snuck out for an early lunch on the Wednesday to see the Pantec Parade.  The parade is led by the car transporter trucks and is then followed by classic and sports cars carrying the drivers.  Finally there was the Police Aston Martin and McLaren.  Both rather tasty.

On the race weekend there was the final Bicentenary Street Party.  Unfortunately, we were unable to attend this time, but during the following week we went for a look see at the illuminations.  There was a race theme on the Court House.

The wall down Ribbon Gang Lane was once again rather psychedelic.

The final display about the future was designed by the local high school students.  They gave a really positive message.

We usually don't attend the race, but go to the Trunkey Creek Show.  This year was no exception.

We had a nice drive home, calling in at Grove Creek Falls.  The wildflowers were a picture.

There is nothing better than driving along the road less travelled.

Finally, we attended the Orange Field Days and on the way home called in to see Emmaville Cottage next to the Orange Botanic Gardens.  This cottage was moved to the site a few years ago.  It is possibly the birth place of Banjo Patterson, although that is being debated.  Anyway, the locals have done a great job restoring it authentically and creating a lovely colonial style garden.  It was featured on a television show during the year.  Well worth popping in to have a look at.

Review of 2015 - Part 3 - September

We will continue with our review of 2015.

SEPTEMBER

I did do a couple of posts in September, so here is a recap of those.

There was a blog meet at Perthville, which was fun to attend.  Everyone enjoyed doing some stitching.  We had a Swap.  I made a coathanger.  For fun little swaps, I made another butterfly and fabric tray.  Anni provided us all with a cute little kit.

Now that the weather was warming up more events were happening.  We travelled to Tottenham to the Far Cairn Rally.

Now for the stuff I didn't get to blog about.

We also attended the Sidecar Rally.  We had to travel all the way to O'Connell - about 20kms.  I was a bit off colour during the day so I drove out in the car - cheating.  Mick took "Snubby" the silver side car and camping trailer,  I was intrigued by the boat shaped version.  We had a nice warm fire in the evening.  The camping site was behind the historic O'Connell Hotel.  The old Bake House in the right hand photo was a craft shop in the 70s.  Mum was a member and I made four patch potholders and sold them.  That would have been my first patchwork, while I was still in primary school.  On the Sunday morning there was a car show as well, which was well attended.

Another Bicentenary event was "Bathex" Collectable Fair.  We went and had a bo peep.  Lots of interesting things.  Mick had to try out the rather unusual historic bicycle.  Sheep dip plungers was probably the most unusual collection.  I shouldn't laugh - we have one.

The garden started to come alive and Mick and Joey the cat looked rather settled on the lounge one day.

Spring is a truly lovely season in our district.

A major project for the  year was the Nature's Journey Stitch -a-long arranged by Chooky and assisted by Susan.  I surprised myself by actually keeping up to date and completing the top on time at the end of September.  I even had it quilted by October - no photos  taken as yet.  The plan was to have the quilt finished by the end of the year, but I have let the team down.  All I need to do is stitch the binding on.  That will be a priority for this year.