First little stitchery arrives home!

And isn't it gorgeous? Made by Christine, (who doesn't have a blog, but wanted to play too!), who said that she had stitched Buddy and Wednesday! A big thank you, I absolutely love it!!

(I will put pictures on the side of my blog of all the stitcheries as they arrive so you can see them all in one place.)

Hope you are all well!
Carole :D

Blah blah and more blah

Yesterday I spent some of the day in my sewing room, under the pretence of creating, working on a new project, but at the end of it nothing looked right. Don't ya just hate that? I had everything figured, planned, fabrics picked. Darn.
Have to make some changes.

In the mean time, my YOUNGER sister sent me this......hilarious!!

It's a rainy old day again, back to the sewing room!!

Carole :)

A beautiful sunny Sunday and the hairdresser comes to visit!!

Today has been a perfect day, finally there is some heat in the sun! Our farming lady decided she would come and give our sheep some pampering, get them looking tip-top for the summer months ahead.
I mean, just look at them, you'd want a bit of a trim if you had hair (aka wool) getting outta control like these girls have! LOL



Do you think Shelby was laughing at them? I think it was a case of "hahahaha" in dog language!
Like, "that'll teach you sheep!"


Then it was all on! Our very slim, wisp of a farming lady, (don't be fooled by her size, she is one mean mama!!) lunged at Holly and before you could blink there was wool flying everywhere! They will be pleased to get the weight of all that wool off their backs, especially the dags and the wool caked with dried mud.



Of course this was all new and unknown to the new lambs, Magpie and Sooty, who could only stare in amazement...



"What on earth is happening?"



They were right to be a little concerned, the 2 little ram lambs were having rubber rings put on their unmentionables, and they all had to have a rubber ring on their tails.



There is a sheep under there!



Then our farming superwoman administered a dose of drench, to keep them in tip-top order and gave each of them a pedicure, so frolicking in the grassy paddocks filled with buttercups will be a joy, especially after their respective weight losses. lol




Meanwhile I think Shelby got a little bored... and wandered off to play amongst the buttercups.



A little distraction for Magpie and Sooty before the big event!



Then before we knew it, it was all over and we had 4 naked sheep! They all looked much lighter, much thinner and much cleaner while the lambs looked a little bewildered! lol
Our very capable farming lady then came in for coffee and date scones before taking our wool off, which she will sell. The wool in the sack on the left comes from the black and white sheep and is worth very little, but the wool in the bag on the right came off Tuesday, who is white and was quite clean, her wool is worth much more, and some time if I want to card and spin some wool, hers will be the stuff to go with. It's way nicer in quality.



Hope you are all having a fab weekend.
Carole :)

Catching up - bits and pieces!

Well it's lovely and SUNNY here this morning, the type of morning where you feel like jumping out of bed, and doing all sorts of things, just because the sun is out!

I can now tell you that all my exams are over. (relief!!) So now all I have to do is wait for the results. I hope that I have passed all 4 papers I was doing, which will mean that I have completed 8 papers this year, and I only have 3 left to complete in the first semester of next year. It also means I can now read some books of my choice as opposed to reading serious academic stuff for research.

The new Dan Brown novel (The Lost Symbol) was in the library and DH bought it home for me. I really enjoy his books and this one was just as gripping. It moved at a past pace and I completed it in 3 days.

I have also been working on my large Leanne's House Quilt, as I am hand quilting it, so I try and do some every night if I can. I am quilting it using no.8 perle cotton in pale green. It is looking lovely so far, but I am very much a novice when it comes to hand quilting, and I find it hard to quilt using a hoop.

Here are some ATC's from my swap with Ann, Debbi, Doreen and Annie. Our theme was flowers and what beautiful, and different cards I have! Top middle card (12 o'clock) has been made by Ann using a fab mix of fabric, paper, stamping and paint, card at 3 o'clock was made by Debbi and it looks like it has been painted, stenciled, stamped, stitched and sprayed. The card at 6 o'clock was made by Doreen, she has layered some flowers between 2 pieces of card and pounded them with a hammer to make the background and then stamped over top! The card at 8 o'clock was made by Annie and she has made hers using bright coloured paper and cuttlebug flower shapes. And the last card is mine made cut from an old doily.
They are all lovely cards, thank you very much girls!


Yesterday I decided to do some cleaning and sorting. I HAD to clean my sewing room, as things had begun to mount up, you know, when you rush in and dump stuff on your work bench thinking it will be great for a certain project, and it sits in the same place until you rediscover it 6 months later LOL!
Well, I was getting to the stage that I was too scared to go into the room, just in case everything suddenly collapsed on me, it's only a small room, and I was imagining myself buried under a mountain of fabric and paper and books and other miscellaneous ephemera! So I sorted things out into containers, put fabric away, put books away, found a place for everything. Nice clear table top! Rediscovered the things I had dumped on the table 6 months ago! haha I feel like I can start work in my sewing room again now.

While I was on a roll, I decided to go round the house as well, and cleaned and chucked out anything I thought I wouldn't need. Then I went round and picked up little piles of rubbish and vacuumed. Lovely! (By this time it's 9.30 at night) I feel like I've achieved something!

Then I discovered this wee fellow! I mean how could one not notice this???? Buddy had sneaked it in, I think it was a gift. Maybe he appreciates a clean tidy house too?
I picked it up, it was still warm, and it had the cutest little nose and mouth, and whiskers and ears....... All I could see was Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit! Ah well, at least he won't be spending his nights eating all the veges in MY garden!

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend!
Carole :)

OH NO! I missed your birthday!

This is a very belated birthday greeting to 2 of my blogging friends.
Fannie who had her birthday on the 1st Nov,
and Jenni S (who doesn't have a blog) had hers on the 25th Oct
and I missed both!!
I am thinking of you both and hope you both celebrated instyle!

Birthday Hugs
Carole

whew!

another exam done! one more to go......


stay focused!

it's pouring with rain again :(

Here are a few pics taken during a couple of hours sunshine yesterday.
My garden has turned into a patch of madness and mess!
But there are the odd patch of colour and cheerfulness!

There are these....

and some of these....

....and this is flowering like there's no tomorrow! Beautiful!

And these are growing tall and bright....

and this is full of fragrance!

But best of all, there are lots of these!!!

I hope you can see the promise of Summer! :)

Carole :)

Mail coming in.....

Cool eh!! I got this ATC from Annette in Oz. Isn't it amazing? It's an etching on brass. I totally love it! It is so different from anything I would make, as I'm not really into working with metal. Although when you visit Annette's latest post, and see her beautiful etched pendants, it would inspire anyone to try!!




I love this ATC, thank you very much Annette!
Carole :)

mail going out....

I have been trying to get all the bits together so I can post out to all those fab girls who are stitching for my blogging buddies quilt!
Envelopes are done and they will be mailed out over this coming week!



Carole :}

Go see it!

We went and saw the MJ movie today. It was amazing and yet sad, and I doubt I will forget it in a long while. This guy was so very talented, there wouldn't be many, if any musicians who would equal him in talent. His whole life evolved around music, he lived for music, he was music. He was way more than a tall poppy and a lovely and trusting guy.
Go see it if you get the chance.

Carole

Thinking about building an ark.....

We've had a lot of rain lately, in fact 40 mm in one day, a couple of days ago. It rained hard last night too. I'm thinking we should build an ark, so that the animals can go in 2 by 2....




So they can keep their feet dry while drinking!



These pics were taken from a dry vantage point on our property! LOL (not)


ROLL ON SUMMER!!!

Carole :}

here's a wee laugh for you....

Brian invited his mother over for dinner. During the course of the meal, Brian's mother couldn't help but notice how beautiful Brian's flatmate, Susan, was. Brian's Mum had long been suspicious of the platonic relationship between Brian and Susan, and this had only made her more curious.

Over the course of the evening, while watching the two interact, she started to wonder if there was more between Brian and Susan than met the eye.

Reading his mum's thoughts, Brian volunteered, 'I know what you must be thinking, but I assure you Susan and I are just flatmates.'

About a week later, Susan came to Brian saying, 'Ever since your mother came to dinner, I've been unable to find the beautiful silver gravy ladle. You don't suppose she took it, do you?'

Brian said, 'Well, I doubt it, but I'll send her an e-mail just to be sure. So he sat down and wrote:

__________________________________________________________

Dear Mum,

I'm not saying that you 'did' take the gravy ladle from the house, I'm not saying that you 'did not' take the gravy ladle. But the fact remains that one has been missing ever since you were here for dinner.

Love, Brian
__________________________________________________________

Several days later, Brian received an email back from his mother that read:
____________________________________________________

Dear Son,

I'm not saying that you 'do' sleep with Susan, I'm not saying that you 'do not' sleep with Susan. But the fact remains that if Susan is sleeping in her own bed, she would have found the gravy ladle by now.

Love, Mum

LESSON OF THE DAY -
NEVER LIE TO YOUR MOTHER

lol, Carole :D

I've been meaning to show you this.....

remember this from a while back? well i've finally finished it, have been meaning to show you


i was quite out of my comfort zone, with the use of paint and collage, haha, but you will notice i have tried hard to get a little fabric in there!!



and then i found just the right coloured bead - and an egg was born!


back soon,
carole :}

Many thanks, .. oh, and a new quilt!

Well first off, thanks for your comments on how I should go about lining my new old hat case. Some times it pays to ask around lol, as there is always someone else who has 'been there, done that'! Nathalie, I think I will take your advice and do some padding, I have some lovely fabrics and laces etc to help in that dept. I will keep you posted on progress...


Meanwhile, here is my newest quilt out of my sewing room for my etsy store!
I tried to do something a little different from the florals for a change, and I think it looks fresh, and crisp and quite vibrant. I've used all the scraps up on making a nice reverse-side to the quilt and with the binding.
It measures 51 1/2" x 62", so a nice size to snuggle up on the sofa with, cover a table with, throw over a chair etc...
I actually think it might make a nice chrissy present too!!




Now to plan the next project!!!
Carole :}

Today was my birthday, ...... so a little treat!

TA DA!!
A hat box! Gorgeous isn't it? And it's totally Nathalie's fault that I had to buy it! LOL
I thought it might be the perfect place to keep my vintage lace in, what do you think?
It's in very good condition, made of hard cardboard, but I thought I might line it with fabric, but I'm not sure how I would attach it.

Maybe I could glue it on with pva or gel medium? But I'm not sure if this would cause the cardboard to buckle? Does anyone know a suitable way of attaching fabric?

Thank you Nathalie for inspiring such a great purchase!!

Carole :)