A few new purchases...

When DH retired in 2009, he put some money aside to start a 'new car' account. The idea was that he would replace the car in the next few years after retirement. But Camille Camry just 'kept on going on'. But after his recent health scare, DH decided that maybe he should finally get that new car especially with these 'plate sales' that the dealers were offering on 2014 models...big savings. 

So it wasn't long before Carlotta Camry arrived...DH said this new car was 'racier' than the previous car, so deserved what he considered a 'racier' name! Lol. 

Now at the same time I did a bit of shopping...online from Ava and Neve, a shop at North Lakes specialising in Liberty fabrics. 

A more modest purchase compared to DH perhaps but there is a link...however tenuous :-)

I will be cutting some hexagons from these fabrics for a couple of upcoming projects and when we took delivery of 'Carlotta', DH didn't notice...but I did!! Look at the upholstery fabric of the seats...hexies! 

We've since covered up the front seats with seat covers, but the seat in the back is still hexie themed! 

Stitching...

Last Sunday the appropriately named Sunday Stitchers group gathered for the February meet up. This time the venue was a community centre in Coomera and we had a number of 'extra' ladies joining us as visitors. The lovely Maree had organised a workshop for us, with the designer, Natalie Bird. 

The venue was spacious...

Natalie is a very gracious and lovely lady...generous with her help to all of us participants...

 We had a choice of 2 projects...interestingly I chose the one which didn't require needle turn appliqué :-/.

Later in the day, Natalie came to each table with some stamped stitchery designs that we could choose from as an extra little gift from her.

I chose this one...

And what would a Sunday Stitchers meet up be without the Show and Tell session. Members who had brought along Natalie Bird finished projects lined up to show them off and line up for a photo or two. 

Then some more photos with the designer included in the group...

In one corner if the room, Natalie had set up a table with items made from her books on display as well as heaps of things for sale...

We all had the most wonderful day. As well as the fun workshop, Maree had organised the food...it was plentiful and sooooo delicious. Talking of stitching, designers and fun....

The weekend after next is Let's Get Stitched 2015. This year it is in Brisbane...long time readers might recall the fun time I had at last year's LGS which was held in Melbourne. Each participant on the Friday Bus Tour of Patchwork shops, has to make a name badge for another person. My 'person' likes green and pink, so this is the creation I've come up with for her. It's a secret so I've covered up her name which is stitched in pink. 

( When I taught Year 1, My teaching partner and I would model for the students, writing 'our names' on the worksheets. We adopted the names Fifi (for me) and Trixie. So I suppose there are some 20 something people who believe their Year 1 teachers were Trixie C and Fifi C! Not Noela and Maria! Lol) 

Torpor and FNSI...

Last night was Friday Night Sew In, here in Australia. And here at my house there was definitely a serious case of 'Torpor'. 'Huh?' you say...let's see how an online dictionary explains the word...

1. Torpor; noun

   A state of physical or mental inactivity; lethargy.

   ‘They veered between apathetic torpor and hysterical fanaticism.’

   
   

   Synonyms: lethargy, torpidity, sluggishness, inertia, inactivity, inaction, slowness, lifelessness, dullness, heaviness, listlessness, languor, stagnation, laziness, idleness, indolence, shiftlessness, apathy, slothfulness, weariness etc etc....

So you would now realise that nothing much in the way of crafting was done by yours truly during FNSI.

The last week or so I have been 'attacking' the pile of donated squares (for k4BN). After all the Christmas Swaps were posted last December, I had started joining squares again after quite a break doing other things. I tend to join the squares into a number of blankets and then come back later and neaten off any ends. So in the last fortnight I have been weaving in ends and also joining the last of the crocheted squares...just leaving the knitted ones still to do. So maybe I was all 'crafted out' after finishing off this lot?

In the 2 piles, there are 14 blankets, thanks to all the lovely ladies who continue to crochet and knit squares for our group. 

In one of my knitting bags I have a crochet hook and some oddments of 8ply yarn. At Knit and Natters I crochet squares, as well as sometimes at home or on trips in the car. These squares are then handy when I'm joining the donated squares and run out before a blanket is completed. Well I've used all my stockpile as well as crocheted donations. So last night I started on a new lot of 'spares'.

It's pouring with rain here today...as it did yesterday. Perfect weather for crafting, and I've spent part of the morning 'pottering'. The other day I visited Spotlight but later realised I'd forgotten to buy a couple of cushion of cushion inserts. So one job I did this morning was to take an old (and very flat) 'homemade' cushion insert, unpick the opening, put more 'fill' inside and then re stitch it. 

So instead of languishing at the bottom of the linen cupboard the cushion insert is now filling out a new cover...

Another thing I did this morning was prepare a beef casserole, filled with lots of vegetables and herbs, which is now cooking. DH and I are braving the weather and heading into the city this afternoon for a matinee performance of 'Mother and Son', so a beef casserole will be wonderful to come home to I think. 

Thank you to Wendy at Sugarlane Quilts for once more organising FNSI. 

Another Book Launch...

Last Thursday night I went with some friends to the Mary Ryan Bookstore in Park Rd, Milton. The occasion was the book launch for Zoe Boccabella's second book, 'Joe's Fruitshop and Milkbar'.

 Zoe is my friend Maddie's cousin and Zoe's father was a teacher at Everton Park High for a number of decades, so he also has known DH and his girls for many years. 

Zoe's books tell the story of her grandparents who were immigrants to Australia from Italy...like my father. Many of the memories/traditions/customs/rituals/foods etc that Zoe recalls are also just like my memories of growing up in a two culture family in the 1950s and 60s. Zoe's grandparents followed a similar path to that of my father; north Queensland cane fields, the Granite Belt and finally Brisbane. 

 

The fruit shop and milk bar of the title was right in the middle of the CBD in Brisbane (Ann St, not far from St John's Cathedral...people younger than me cannot believe that such things existed in the city...and fruit shops and milk bars are long gone. The old buildings that housed such shops have all been demolished and replaced with high rises. The evening started with Zoe reading to the crowd and then some of the stories that had been told to her by her grandparents. Then some mingling with the crowd...

I took this photo of Zoe with her cousin Maddalena (my friend Maddie)

There was a little Italian man who played the zufulo and the piano accordion...

While I queued to get 2 books signed ( one for me and one for my brother whose birth name was Rosario), I noticed a sign...and asked the staff if I could take a photo...

I reached the head of the line and got my books signed...

And after Zoe signed for me I quickly showed her a photo that I had taken with me...

It's a photo taken in the early 1950s, of the staff at another fruit shop and milk bar in the CBD...this time in Edward St. My father is on the left at the front. The man on the right is Jimmy, whose parents owned the shop...it was he who gave me this photo in 2001...actually this is the restored version, the originally was badly torn. Most of these people were part of my life in the early years. 

For more photos of the evening check out Zoe's website here...http://zoeboccabella.com/latest/

I also loved Zoe's first book, Mezza Italiana...well worth a read.

Grow Your Own Blog Giveaway...

On January 25, I joined in the Grow Your Own Blog Party and I have so enjoyed visiting 'new' blogs and it's also been wonderful having bloggers from all around the world visiting my blog. I had a Giveaway to coincide with the GYBP...a fabric square of Gerhard Hillmann's, featuring gum leaves and gum nuts and blossoms...very Australian. 

The Draw for the Giveaways is today! So once again I used the online Random Number Generator...

Congratulations to Maria in Western Australia. ( her lovely blog is here...

http://maria-lifeontheblock.blogspot.com.au)

And a big thank you to everyone who visited my blog and left a comment on the GYBP post. 

Another Valentine's Day...

So another Valentine's Day is just about over and done with :-)

DH actually gave me this lovely plant the day before my colonoscopy to cheer me up while I drank 'the evil brew'

This year, I took DH out for breakfast at our favourite local cafe. We breakfasted well; my Eggs Benedict was delicious as was DH's omelette. 

After breakfast I got a little Valentine's gift from DH...

I love fresh raspberries but at $7 per punnet, they are just an occasional treat...and I got 2 !

Naturally I wanted to sample those raspberries as soon as we got home...plus, blueberries, blackberries and a chopped up banana...yum!

My hair appointment yesterday had to be postponed when my hairdresser had a family emergency to attend to, so late this morning I headed off to my rescheduled appointment.  

Our next outing was at 5pm...my little great niece, Lucy, was celebrating her 5th birthday with a pizza dinner at a local cafe. This was the family party...I believe there will be a kids' party next weekend! 

There were 15 of us, so lots of people were left out of the photo! Lol.

Blowing out the 5 candles...

DH and I gave Lucy a musical jewellery box with the little ballerina who pirouettes around when the box is opened...and some 'diamond' jewels made just for little people. It was a great hit and I'm sure that the little ballerina is exhausted as she seem to dance constantly through out the evening! Lol 

Thank you for all the lovely comments on my last post. After an evening of drinking rather yucky stuff, the routine procedure next day was a 'cinch', lol. Everything was okay and my doc wrote in his report that '...this is a reassuring result for Maria.' And so the next one will also be in another 5 years...sweet! :-) Talking of sweet...

I rarely eat sugar these days but I must say that the lemon jelly that was allowed when on the clear fluids part of the preparation, certainly made drinking the yucky stuff, a lot easier. 

Just a photo...

My evening today is all organised...

And my tomorrow is also all organised...

Normal blogging will resume shortly! Lol. 

Are you guys still here...?

That was the question I was asked last Tuesday as I passed one of the hairdressers from a neighbouring shop in the walkway behind the the block of shops where the office is.

In a previous post I had described how my DH was the Returning Officer for a state electoral district in the State election here in Queensland. I have been working as an election assistant in the office. This role entailed clerical duties as well as 'working the counter' for the 2 weeks of pre poll where people could come to our office and vote before the election. Pre poll centres have always existed but this time the service was advertised more in the media and even in social media! Consequently the pre poll staff were 'rushed off their feet' so to speak.

Saturday of last week was election day. DH and his staff, worked all weekend, as the close of polls on Saturday at 6pm is just the start of lots of work in the background. Scrutineers for the political parties watch us in the office as we count  the pre poll votes. The polling booth staff bring in all the equipment they have used after they have counted their ballot papers. So bags of 'stuff' soon filled up the office...and as for that cardboard...it seemed like mountains of the stuff! lol.

This photo shows the backpacks which contained the laptops that were used by the Issuing Officers in the polling booths. This use of technology was a 'first'!

From Sunday morning, absent (declaration) votes from our district (these are votes cast by people from other districts in Qld who voted in this district this election)  are packaged up ready to be sent to the districts from which such voters came. Now our district also gets packages of envelopes from all over the state, containing ballot papers to be included in the count. When people vote outside their own district on polling day,they are not marked off the roll at the time of voting.

I got reasonably adept at putting the sticky peel-off labels on the courier packs :-) two of us got 86 parcels ready to go out by early Monday morning.

When the envelopes are back to the voter's  district these envelopes have to be checked off one by one via the computer and the voter is marked off as having voted.
(Please note...image taken from a training booklet; not a real person! lol)

There are hundreds of these envelopes, plus postal votes that get counted after the election.

The bin soon filled up with these tear off strips!

So my many and varied tasks during this last week have been, packaging up envelopes ready for the Toll man (the courier service used) to pick them up, photocopying pages of figures from polling booths, counting and check counting ballot papers, *counting counting counting, opening envelopes, checking voters off the roll, making cups of tea for the boss, working out the Notional Two Candidate Preferred Count,cleaning up the table where the urn sits, filling the urn, answering the phones.

I also removed string from the pencils that had been used in the polling booth voting screens...

Helped sort the bags of stationery items used by polling booth staff...

And that cardboard 'mountain'? My lovely BiL helped DH take it to the recycle drop at the tip...

* We count the envelopes before we open them; we count the ballot papers that we remove from them...if these don't balance we count again! We put the envelopes into bundles of 20 and the ballot papers into bundles of 50. We use a lot of rubber bands!

Only one more day of work for me and I can go back to being retired. So goodbye to this work mobile phone which completely flummoxed me at first...I hadn't realised how much I'd forgotten how to use this sort of phone since I got a smart phone 3 years ago! It was a sharp 're learning' curve in that first week! Lol

Friday Night with Friends...

The first Friday of the month when bloggers from all around the world work on projects and then share/show and tell, via a blog post. Thank you to Cheryll for organizing this monthly event.

There hadn't been much crafting going on around here in the last 3 weeks and earlier in the evening, I didn't think I would have enough 'get up and go' to do some last night. But by 8.30 I found that 'mojo' and worked on that poor neglected cushion cover that I had started back in December. 

The last photo I had shown of it was taken at Sunday Stitchers on January 18...still lots to do at that stage, as hardly any centres had been stitched in.

In the first week of working in the election office, I stitched in my lunch break, filling in the squares in the middle of the hexies. But after that first week, it got too busy to stitch at work, and at night, I was too tired. 

Last night I finished the sewing in the triangles on the 4 side edges, so only have the corner triangles to do. 

Now those white centres 'jar' the senses a bit don't they? 

That's because they are only meant as a background...

These sweet little hand dyed lace motifs will be stitched in place...

The lace comes from an Ebayer called Wattleinspireyou. This lady, Robyn Everson, 'rescues' old/vintage lace (lots of old tablecloths only suitable for cutting up) and unpicks the motifs and sells them to crafters. Sometimes they are sold as is, in the white and off white, but sometimes, the motifs are dyed...and the colours are gorgeous.before I retired, I bought a number of lots from Wattleinspireyou and they have been very useful. Robyn's Ebay site is here.

DH and I have our first full weekend off in 3 weeks now so there is a good chance I will get that lace stitched on and maybe even start assembling the cushion cover...yes I know I have to catch up on neglected housework! Lol. But stitching is 'food for my soul'! Lol

Hmmmm...

A little while ago my cat, Mr Eduardo went missing for 36 hours or so... But turned up safe and well, albeit a bit 'jumpy'.   He's been staying inside since then with little trips outside in the last few days. 

He loves to sleep on a little table we have in our room...

So this morning when we couldn't find him inside, I just assumed hat he had jumped out of our bedroom window in the night. I expected him to be at the side door howling to get in...but no! 

 Maybe he was sound asleep on the cane lounge on the veranda?

No, not today...

I walked around the outside of the house, calling out to him...nothing!

I went back inside the house and walked around calling out to him...nothing. Reluctantly, I made breakfast and continued getting ready for work as DH wanted the staff to start at 8.30 this morning. 

We were so busy at the office today that I didn't really dwell on where Eduardo was...just a few times I pondered whether he would come home.

I was the first home this evening and as I put the key in the door, I could hear Mr Eduardo meowing...he was inside the house!!! So where was he hiding, this cheeky boy of mine? Tonight I will close the doors to the spare bedrooms as I suspect he may have been hiding in there! Lol

He particularly loves the bedroom where DsD1 sleeps when she comes to Brisbane...as soon as she drives off, he makes a beeline to that bed....but I had checked there this morning...hmmmm, lol! 

(In this photo Eduardo had retaken possession of 'his bed' after DsD1 and  partner, Dan, stayed with us last Christmas) 

Oh well, at least he is safe and well!