Pin Cushion Swap...

In this swap I received a lovely pin cushion from Leanne...

And  the pin cushion that I made was to be for Tatyana. Now Tatyana does the most exquisite petit point style embroidery and amazing beading, so it was a bit 'scary' thinking of what I could do. I looked through lots of sites for ideas and ended up making up a pattern of my own :-)

Sewing notions' fabrics, long hexagons and 2 novelty buttons...and that is my pincushion! 

Thank you to Maree for organising this fun swap.

A Guest Blogger...

A little while ago I wrote a post about a craft group that I belong to called Sisters of Stitch which meets fortnightly at Chermside library. I showed some items that I was taking in to hand over to another member, Karen.

Cloth nappies...

and some soap...intriguing isn't it? 

Now Karen is a Guide leader with the Chermside group, and I invited her to be a guest blogger and write a post to explain why the group is collecting such items...plus many more items. Karen ends the post with a plea for help. Many of you live too far away but if any readers feel that they may be able to help in some way, I will put Karen's email address at the end.
Here is her story...

My name is Karen Little I am a Girl Guide Leader at Chermside.  We recently had two Leaders from Mt Hagen, Papua New Guinea visit us.  Rachael and Sarah asked our assistance in a Service Project they are running.

Rachael and Sarah with the Chermside troupe (media permission has been granted for all minors in this photo) 

In the New Guinea Highlands a lot of the men are polygamists.  When a second wife is brought  into a household there  is a lot of  jealousy between the two wives.  What begins as a bit of push and shove often ends up as a tragedy when one wife kills the other.

She ends up in jail in Mt Hagen, often pregnant, sometimes with a small baby.  The husband will have nothing to do with her and her family disown her.  If her family acknowledged her they would have to pay restitution to the murdered wife’s family of a lot of money and pigs which they simply wouldn't have, as they are from a subsistence farming community.

In jail the women are supplied with the barest minimum to survive.  Things we take for granted like underwear and soap they do not get.   While they are allowed to keep their child with them they do not get anything supplied for that child.

Rachael and Sarah asked if we could collect second hand items to help these women.  Among the most needed items are:-

• cloth nappies,
• clothes for babies and small children,
• Bras and knickers for the women.

I ask for your help.  Please check your drawers for unwanted items of this nature.  If you are able to help us collect these things you have our heartfelt thanks and the knowledge that they are going where they are urgently needed.

Karen's address is as follows but is written in a form to discourage spammers...karen dot little58 at yahoo dot com dot au  or you can use my email button or the comments section.

The vegie patch...

This part of the garden has been sadly neglected this year but amazingly I have still been able to pick produce every now and then. The new garden bed that I made last winter needed replenishing of soil and nutrients, so DH helped me dig it over. It had been filled with bags of potting mix last year and this medium tends to flatten out after a growing season. This winter we put in bags of compost, manure, garden soil and potting mix to raise the soil levels again. I planted one end of the bed and we also put in a large barrow-load of homemade compost at one end of the bed. Just leaving this bed alone then... and with some showery and some unseasonably warm weather about 5 weeks ago, this is what I noticed...

Yep! Lots of little tomato plants from my homemade compost...

So that was then, since then even more little tomato plants have come up in that garden bed and I've had to thin them out. These self sown tomatoes always do really well, I've found and I'm hoping that this year's lot will be just as productive as other years. 

A little while ago, DH helped me retrieve some strong looking tomato plants that were growing in the strip of our land still behind the temporary fencing. Those 2 plants are growing really well in my vegie patch but the plants still seem to be springing up ...this spot was where my compost bin used to sit before the builders moved in. I'm itching to dig some of these up and plants them somewhere in our patch. Maybe I should ask the builders when the new fence is planned...if it isn't for a while, I might just stake these plants and let them grow!

In the photo below, I've thinned out many of the seedlings but realistically I  should take some more out. The large plant was transplanted from behind the temporary fencing and is thriving. I have lots of stakes in this garden bed to deter the (new) bush turkey and a tabby cat who lives a few doors away and thinks this garden bed is a cat loo! But the cat is digging my plants out too :-/ Eduardo has 'spoken to' this cat about this!!

At the other end of the bed, the potatoes are growing well...I envisage a fair bit more mounding up of the soil will be needed...that way I'm building up the level of the bed too, as the potato plants grow.

I emptied and then refilled some large black pots with premium potting mix and transplanted some of the stronger looking tomato seedlings. Last year I also grew potatoes and sweet potatoes in large pots like these.

And talking about sweet potatoes or kumara as these golden fleshed varieties are also called... for a few years I've let sweet potato vines grow all over 2 other vegie beds throughout the hot summer months and right through into early winter. This vegetable doesn't seem to mind the heat and doesn't bolt to seed or have any of those issues ( insects, powdery mildew etc etc) that so many other vegie plants have in the sub tropics in summer. 

Now Jean, over at Allotment Adventures with Jean, and I have been lately comparing notes about our respective sweet potato crops. Jean has dug her's all up and replanted. I commented to Jean that my crop wasn't as good as last year's I thought. I think I based that comment on the fact that the sweet potatoes seemed much smaller this year. In the last week I have dug one of the 2 beds over and harvested my kumara crop... remember, it's just one bed so far...I seem to have a few...

Some of them are ugly, some are small, some have been bored into by unknown creatures, but the ones we've eaten so far have all been delicious...

If I should invite you to dinner, you can be sure that sweet potato oven chips, or baked sweet potato or steamed sweet potato will be on the menu.  Lol!

Just a few things...

Firstly a big thank you to those of you who left such lovely comments on my post entitled, 'What a difference six weeks makes...'   All of your comments  encapsulated what that experience taught me...

Live life to the full!!

*March 7, 2011: DH and I get around and have met quite a few people on our travels...

As Janice said in her comment...'There is no doubt about it.... live every day to the full....make the most of every opportunity and enjoy whatever chances that come along'  

Or as Vireya commented...'Thank you for posting this. It's a lesson I need to learn.' 

And Helen made the observation...' Thank you soooo much for reminding us all how fragile our lives are and not to take them for granted :-))))))'

And Helen's comment reminded me of something that happened last year that 'quite shook me up'. You see as the years have gone along since 2002 I had started to dismiss my family's assertions that I had been so seriously ill, but last year the daughter in law of a couple in our parish died rather suddenly. I asked M whether her DiL had had cancer. Her answered 'floored' me! The young mother had been struck down by a mystery virus, it had attacked her organs and one by one these organs had shut down...deja vu!!! I was obviously very lucky that my liver was able to repair itself and no other organs were affected !!! 

Moving on now...
 I own a rather small car which I've named, Mitzi Micra. This car doesn't have a very big boot (trunk) space and lately those old sayings like, 'loaded to the hilt', or 'packed to the rafters' ,'loaded up to the gills' and even 'loaded to the gunnels/gunwales', have sprung to mind! lol
On the 3rd Wednesday of the month,  I collected the donations from our (K4BN) Albany K&N...the boot was already filled with a large box of blankets ( for the needy) given to me by a lady at Sisters of Stitch. Sharing the tiny boot space with the box was also a big bag of yarn that a friend got from an op shop for me...so those donations that Wednesday went in the back seat area!

Lots of knitted and crocheted items including some beautiful toys!

Then last Saturday I was able to hand over over all those things at that Knit and Natter, and I had room then for more things! lol    And I needed that space because, on the last Wednesday gone, I picked up many bags of yarn from Judie at SoS and some bags of squares and other items from 3 other ladies there. 
Look how generous these wonderful ladies are!

There are several bags of yarn here, plus a bag of beautifully knitted beanies.

 The wonderful thing about yarns and items made with yarns...they're rather 'squishy' and so even with a small car, I can get lots in! 

Now Tuesday this coming week, I can hand in all those bags of goodies ready for their distribution to those who need them. I will also have 4 knitted/crocheted blankets that I have worked on to go as well...3 of these blankets were just either sewing up other people's squares or finishing off an op shop buy  which was too small and obviously unfinished. My friend Jenny over at Justjen Knits and Stitches is also sewing up squares and she is brilliant at getting funny shapes and sizes to fit! lol

These 4 should be able to be squeezed in the boot too!!

And there may be another blanket sewn up out of squares by Tuesday too! 

* at Madame Tussauds' in Hollywood

Work continues next door...

The last time I updated about the building next door, I showed this photo...
Slabs all poured...

Well things certainly moved rather quickly after that...a few days later...

The walls of the little houses are going up...

Houses 2-6 all in a row...

Yet another delivery of bricks...

Ha Ha! he doesn't know I'm watching and photographing from my kitchen window...
I had noticed previously that the bricklayers are all mature men... good on you Brad and Rich for using older tradies!!

 This is the view from the little bedroom near the kitchen that we use as an office...those walls are sure growing!

 Another view from the kitchen window...note how high that wall in the foreground is growing....

The other walls are growing taller by the hour...

Remember that wall just outside my kitchen window...it grew in that last half hour...

And grew!!! And that is my new view...

This is what that wall looks like from the back steps of our side veranda...

Once the walls are built up it's time for the truck which pumps concrete from the cement truck into the wall cavities...

Photo taken from front veranda

 Obviously the first level (bricks) of all the houses is now finished...

A bit of a break for Brad and one worker as the cement pourer sets up at the back of the block...

 Looking through the kitchen window while the 'concrete man' pours into the brick cavities...

The plans show that this wall is part of the garage...and that's the loophole that allows it to be a mere 20 cm from our boundary

 Here he is standing on the wall of house #2...

So as you can see by the photos, last week saw a lot of progress on the site next door... 'stay tuned' for the next update! :-)

Christmas in July...

Well the day dawned...July 25... and the day we could open our parcels from our swap buddy in the Christmas in July Swap. And wasn't I spoiled!!! Thank you so much Peg!

Some of the parcels were wrapped in this paper...don't you just love this Santa Bear???

So here are my lovely surprises from Peg...

Beautiful fabric and ribbon on this journal cover...

Such a cheerful fellow on this mug rug!

A sweet lot of reindeer around the Christmas tree....

That reindeer fabric is just so cute!

Look at all that work in this Santa mini quilt!

This table centre is gorgeous!

And a lovely hanger for the reindeer wallhanging...

But that's not all!!!

Most of the family are coming over for dinner tonight...I don't think these will last very long! lol

Now the items I made in this swap were for Vickie... and these are what I sent her...

One of my little hexi decorations with a Santa button in the middle...

A reindeer table runner... and a little nuts/sweets dish

And a length of bunting made out of 'holly fabrics'...

What a fun swap! Thank you to Cheryll for her superb organising of this and so many other swaps!

Do you ever...?

Do you ever stride purposefully into a room of your house and then stop...because you realise you've forgotten the reason why you wanted to go to that room???
Do you ever open the fridge door and realise you can't remember what you wanted to get out of the refrigerator?
Do you ever go grocery shopping with a list and then not get the item first on the list? (ha ha! I now write that item again somewhere else in the list!)
Do you ever drop in prescriptions to the chemist and then do some shopping...and then drive off home without going back to collect and pay for the medicines???
Well I do, and have done, all of these things and more! But last Thursday was a first...
I had had a lovely day with 2 friends at the Queensland Art Gallery and after I had been home for a while, I realised that something was missing...I found this disc in my handbag...

Yep! I had not collected my bag from the cloak room. I had put an umbrella and a pair of sunglasses in my bilum to cover any eventuality in the weather and had checked the bag into the cloakroom when Cheryl and I had arrived at the gallery.
So on Friday, after a call to the gallery, I had another trip into the city to collect my bag and hand back the disc! Luckily, because I had rung, my bilum/bag had been put to one side and not sent to Lost property; that would have entailed a bit more work to get my property back. DH drove me into the city, dropped me off near the museum, and then drove around South Brisbane while I raced inside.

The bilum that DH bought me while he worked in PNG for AusAid...

Umbrella and sunnies back after spending the night in the QAG! lol

Dear DH then detoured a bit on the drive home...we had never been to the Police Barracks Redevelopment at Petrie Terrace, so DH suggested a stop there...it's very nice there with a mix of shops, cinemas and some very interesting looking cafes and restaurants, including a favourite of ours, The French Twist...I love their cafe at Chermside...so we went into the Barracks' one for coffee. This cafe is on the ground floor of the historical former police barracks and the building has been beautifully restored.

Here are some other photos from a website...

The old brick building sat unused and unloved for so many years...

So I guess if I had have remembered to pick up that bag from the cloakroom on Thursday, I would have missed out on spending a pleasant half hour or so at 'The Barracks' on Friday afternoon . :-)