About Me

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Australia
Wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, great-aunt and friend....and fur-kid mum I love Quilting, stitching, photography, cooking, baking, gardening, blogging and making new friends...stop by and say hi!

Wednesday 22 May 2013

Fat Quarter Swap - May

This month was my first swap and  co-ordinator, Cathy from Cathy's Sewing Room was kind enough to swap with me as I had joined after the swap allocation.  This month was Receivers choice and I gave Cathy these keywords to help her make a selection:  Girly, Pretty, Romantic.  Cathy sent me

and Cathy asked me to surprise her (as long as it wasn't Childrens Novelty patterns) so after reading about Cathy's likes and dislikes I sent


 This is so much fun.  I loved finding just the right fabrics and putting the package together, getting my own squishy in the mail, oohing and aahing about the contents and adding it to my stash while I think about how I can use it. Bring on June!

 

Curiosity killed the cat

Well fortunately that is not true today but I was a bit concerned when I saw what was upsetting my furbabies so much this morning.  We had a visitor and the girls were not too happy about it. 


Neighbours who have recently moved in have a cat that is very adventurous and quite curious. The commotion woke me up and I was suprised that this guy did not take off in a hurry since an aggressive (hackles up) boofy labrador was trying to climb the fence to grab it. The barking and hissing and whining (from Lila) was deafening.

The photo above was taken when they had calmed down after I approached the kitty and was patting it.

Wonder if another visit will be on the cards any time soon!


 boofy [ˈbʊfɪ] adj Austral informal 
1. muscular and strong but silly
2. (of the hair) voluminous 
3. puffed out boofy sleeves

Thursday 16 May 2013

His name in lights

I don't normally share my families identities here on my blog but I am just so darn excited! A few months ago, my son Ted, had a short story accepted for publication in Voiceworks Magazine. It is an Arty Magazine specifically for short stories and poetry.



 As soon as the mag was printed and available, we ordered two copies.  One for him to keep and one for his very proud mum & dad.



 I haven't had time to read it yet as I got home from a very hectic workday at 6pm to find it had arrived in the mail.



 I am really so happy for him.  He has been interested in doing this for a number of years now and even though he has a published e-book, this is so much more exposure for him.


 All the published contributors names are on the back cover.....looks like his name in lights!




Wednesday 15 May 2013

Shh, secret stuff happening

Doing a little secret sewing while I watch Criminal Minds.

Tuesday 14 May 2013

Keeping Busy

I did spend most of my time in the Creation Station today. It was a great day for doing so as it was mainly overcast and a little rainy earlier on. I revisited my fabric bolt storage and, believe it or not, I have found yet another method of creating fabric bolts. I am determined to get this right!



  Not that I didn't like my spare cardboard wrapped in contact but the boxes were changed up a bit and the colour was not doing it for me (even wrapped in contact) and the contact was hard to find. Whatever happened to the stuff that my mum used to line her kitchen cupboards with??



Because of this, I decided to play with other options.  One of those options was foam core board with is obtainable from the Art shop.  I loved it but could only get 5 bolts out of one A2 board and one of those 5 was taped together scraps. You can imagine my delight when I went to Bunnings with my daughter to find HUGE sheets for the same cost as the A2 boards.

I got 21 bolts out of this board which works out at 33c per bolt. That is good enough for me so I am sticking with this option and I promise I won't revisit this dilemma again.

The beauty of foam core board is that it is easy to cut and since I don't have to wrap it in contact which is a tricky procedure,  it is much quicker to get my fabric rolled on. If you decided to follow my lead and use the foam core boards to organise your fabric let me give you a hint or two.


 Firstly, you can find this stuff at your local hardware store (Bunnings, for me) around where you find the sheets of mdf or particle board and it comes in various thicknesses as well.  I picked the cheapest of the lot and find that it does the job just fine.  When it comes to cutting, I found (the hard way) that it is easiest to make the long cuts following the natural line (see picture above) and as you can also see, I used a teeny tiny cutting knife and it was not a problem at all.


So, because of that brilliant idea that came to me in the small hours of a sleepless night (does anyone else suffer from that) I was able to get 42 mini bolts of fabric into my glass fronted cabinet.



 

 

Monday 13 May 2013

Sunday Stitching

I did it! I made a vow to finish the stitching for block 3 of Tails of a Feather on Mothers Day and it is done.



 I am so far ahead with my goals this month so tomorrow I am going to start with my secret sewing for Christmas in July swap.

Sunday 12 May 2013

Photo a Day Weekly Catchup

Yippee! I have completed another week of Fat Mum Slim's Photo a day!

Day 6 - Broken - The insignia on my car has been broken for over a year when i accidently closed the garage door while the boot was open. Darn it!

 Day 7 -Something starting with "F" - FUR. Lila's fur, to be exact.  Just after she had a bath and blowdry.  Can you see how soft and cuddly she is.

Day 8 - Shape - so many choices today but I picked this shape evident while stitching Tail Feathers. A circle of stitches.

Day 9 - Snack I had to work today. Here is the snack I had at my desk. I have a sliced apple every working day.

Day 10 - Stars - These stars were bought to decorate a quilt I made a few years ago.

Day 11 - Smile - of a sorts. Someone bought me this tin filled with M&Ms for Xmas a few years back.

Day 12 -  Mother - a very special mum! Photo taken in Hyde Park when we had a mini holiday in London back in 2010


 Monday through to Sunday.....I made everyday! and had so much fun.  








Shake your little Tail Feather

Nothing is quite so tedious as doing satin stitch using only one thread!  Tail Feather is coming along nicely.

I will be spending my Mother's Day finishing this block.

Hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day this Sunday!


Monday 6 May 2013

Photo a Day, Weekly Round Up

Now there is an oxymoron but the idea is that I do fatmumslim's photoaday on my facebook page and then a weekly round up of the photos on here. I don't want you to miss a thing! LOL!

I have tried to get involved in FatmumSlim's Photoaday project before but as usual I got it all mixed up so when May's list got posted, I dived straight in.

Day 1 -I BOUGHT THIS -  Lettuce and Chillies. Today I went grocery shopping (not very exciting I know) but in order to save using a bag for my chillies, I nestled them on top of my lettuce and couldn't help thinking how pretty they looked.

 Day 2 -MORNING RITUAL - Morning ritual for me is checking emails and facebook while I enjoy a cuppa coffee

Day 3 -THIS IS REALLY GOOD! - Twice over because hubby made me brekkie AND it was so yummy! Fried tomatoes and portobello mushrooms on an english muffin with balsamic drizzle. If you look very carefully, you can still see the steam coming off the tomato on the right.

Day 4 -IN MY CUP - Spent the day with Miss M in the city and called into THE KITCHEN at the Treasury Casino for a coffee. Here is what was IN MY CUP 

I see a trend here.......food, coffee, more food, more coffee.....good job that the last subject for the week is....

Day 5 -PAPER - I have been trying to read a book that my son bought me at Christmas but despite the fact that I have persevered for quite a number of chapters over an equal number of months (I have left it open on the last page I read) and it has rave reviews, I just cannot grasp the storyline so I have decided to go for a book that I know will be riveting - Heartstone by CJ Sansom.

If you are interested in taking part in Fat Mum Slim's Photoaday challenge you can find the details  here. If you are already part of the family, please let me know, I would love to take a look.  You can join me daily on fb by clicking the icon on the side bar.
 

Sunday 5 May 2013

Blooming Beauty - Botanic Gardens

As promised here is the post of our walk last Sunday.

It is only a few weeks since we visited here but boy, there was so much to photograph and it is such a lovely place to walk.   Be prepared for photo overload.


After smelling the last of the summer roses, we walked along the paths which led us up to the look out with spectacular views of the city. I had to take this photo with my phone camera as I did not have my zoom lens with me.

and a walk around to the Freedom Wall with plaques of fallen soldiers from all the wars.  As it was Anzac Day recently, there were still sprigs of Rosemary and poppies stuck between the names.

 And here is what I saw on our walk through the garden paths.  I should know the names of these plants but I missed some of them or can't remember the latin genus name. If I know the name (common and garden variety), I will put below picture.

Plumbago
Bird of Paradise
Bougainvillia
There were also some amazing shrub/tree specimens
Bunya Pine - a local giant
hop
Zamia Nut (Dinosaur food)

Hope you enjoyed the walk with me.

 
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