Progress in the garden...

On the first day of autumn I wrote about the veggie patch. The wildlife 'rules' much of what happens in that patch but I was hoping to actually harvest a crop of some sort before too long.

March 1...tomatoes, some herbs and an eggplant...

Yesterday...

Despite the resident possums' penchant for nibbling the leaf tips of the tomato plants, the plants have made a lot of progress. One plant had 'regular sized' fruit...

The other is a cherry tomato variety...

The eggplant has grown well too...

Lots of flowers and one eggplant...

There has been a bush turkey coming to visit but she has contented herself with just digging up a pot plant or two...sigh...and has left the veggie patch alone...for now anyway. 

When I'm back to being retired later this week, the plans are to empty 2 of the compost bins into the other end of the larger raised bed and planting a capsicum and a zucchini. Of course the actual emptying of the compost bin will be done by my lovely DH...he was busy the other day with the mulcher too...

We'd both been busy over recent weeks trimming shrubs and one of the trees in the front yard and after the prunings had dried out a bit, it was time to reduce them to mulch. It's amazing how that little machine reduces a big pile of branches etc to a small mound! 

Wool on Sundays...

Once more, joining in with Janine from the Rainbow Hare blog, for her Wool on Sundays. In the last week, I've done a minuscule amount of work on those crocheted squares that I wrote about last week. I think the tally would be 2 squares enlarged by a few rounds :-/

So I thought I would write a post about my 'knitting/crocheting themed fabric collection' instead. 

The fabrics have been bought at various times over a number of years...

This 'knitting sheep' became a favourite and has lots of fussy-cut hexagons cut out of it...

And what did I find last year in a yarn shop in Skagway?? Yes, even when I'm on the other side of the world from home, I check out yarn and fabric shops! Lol.

So plenty more of my 'knitting sheep' fabric to play with! 

I'll finish the post with some photos of how I've used these fabrics...

One year I was matched with a knitter in a Secret Santa Swap, so one of the gifts I made was a fabric basket...

And then filled it with some yarns...

And I've lost count of the times I've made the Judy Newman Dillybag using the themed fabrics for fellow knitters. 

There are useful pockets in the lining too. This fabric was in Spotlight and I only bought a metre. I've just got a tiny bit left now after lining two Dillybags. 

This bag was made in 2014 for my Secret Santa partner in my knitting group...

This is the one I made last year for the Chookyblue SS Swap...

 

And one big hexagon stitched to the front...my partner loves mice! ( The embroidery design is 'Lily Mouse' and is a design by Susan of Threads on My Socks; available from her Etsy shop) 

Next week I may have a new knitting project started; it will be good to be working on something in the evenings again! 

Wool on Sundays...squares for blankets.

Once more joining in with Janine over here at the Rainbow Hare blog for Wool on Sunday.

There's still not much happening by way of crafting here at my place, but while I'm hard at work counting votes and doing scrutinies of postal vote envelopes, I'm still finding time to plan upcoming projects. 

However, I have done a little crocheting. Once again I have been given some lonely 'orphan' afghan squares in a bag of donations for K4BN (Knitting for Brisbane's Needy;the group that I belong to which, not only knits/crochets for needy people, but also sews and provides toiletries etc.)

 The squares were only 6 inches, so I am crocheting more rounds to make them 10 inches...or thereabouts. 

And I had some other orphan squares handed to me late last year; they were a little larger and only need a few extra rows...and these are so colourful.

And my sweet DD1 has given me a bag of 10 inch squares that she has made for K4BN, so it won't be long before I will have enough squares to make a single bed sized blanket. And by then, the cooler weather will have arrived.
(The projects that I'm planning include 2 knitted throws that have been promised to two lovely people in my life who have been waiting a while! :-/ )



It's beginning to look a lot like Easter...

Not much time for blogging lately, but this morning I'm not starting work until 10 am (instead of the more usual 8 or 8.30 am). This change of starting time is so I can work much later than I normally would. 

 Today is the last day of pre poll voting at the office ( the election is tomorrow) and we are open for an extra hour of voting. And just like those in retail find, people will arrive with '5 minutes to spare', just getting in the door before we close. But I digress...starting later means I have time for a short blog post. 

One night last week, I brought out my box of Easter 'stuff'...

And I started to put out some knicknacks...

Some of the old egg cups from the 1950s, who share space with some that are much newer...

My Easter Mini made for me by Anorina in a swap a few years ago and my lovely Easter mug rug which was in a big bundle of goodies ( donated by Helen McCulloch) which I won in a Sunday Stitchers raffle last year...and the little bunny also was a gift one year! 

 

Again most of these are gifts in blog swaps. The little bunny in the white mug was a gift from my roommate Judy at last year's Let's Get Stitched retreat...the bunny is exquisite! 

I haven't decided where my new Easter banner will hang yet, and it's still too hot here, to fill the white China bunny with little Easter eggs...by the time friends and neighbours were offered a chocolate egg, they would have melted somewhat! 

Sons (in law) and daughters...

Last Saturday we had a phone call from DsD1 with the exciting news that boyfriend Dan, had 'popped the question'...such excitement abounded at both ends of the phone! You see Dan had asked DH last Easter for DsD1's hand in marriage and of course we heard no more about it and dared not say anything! Lol

The happy couple!

And in an amazing coincidence, on Sunday, DH and I were taking DD1 and her beau out to dinner to celebrate their engagement which was announced recently...

So both marriages are planned for next year...we'll be busy!!

The Nest Community INC...

Because I want my stash of yarn and fabrics to be all stowed away in the large cupboard in my sewing room, rather than boxes stacked on the floor, 'something had to be done'! So for a few weeks now, during the cool of the evenings, I've been reassessing/ rationalising/being ruthless with my dressmaking fabrics.

Asking myself questions such as for example, 'You bought this fabric 10 years ago. Every year you look at it, say you love it and that you must make that skirt/dress/blouse soon, and then put it away knowing you'll never get the mojo to even cut the garment out'. Tough talk eh? Well this time I 'listened' to myself and I soon had a rather large pile of beautiful fabrics. My first thought was that I would bag them up and place them in a Lifeline bin...but then I thought that the op shops probably get a lot of fabric and possibly some donations get rejected and dumped. 

And then I remembered The Nest Community Inc which is in my suburb. This is a place where young people can learn craft skills at workshops...and the not so young too! You can read about it here...

To raise funds the group has collected donations of craft supplies, including fabric, yarn and haberdashery and operate a shop 2 days a week. 

So I contacted them and asked them if they would like my fabric...they sure did! So on Saturday I dropped off  3 big bags (well they were rather heavy so DH did the lifting and carrying up the stairs). 

We didn't take photos of every room but just a few to show some of this beautiful old house.

Visitors/customers are encouraged to linger over a cuppa and there is a roster of baking volunteers who make goodies to have with the cuppa.

The verandah has all sorts of items for sale...

I've driven past this gracious old home for years and often wondered what views it would have...

Readers from overseas, this home is typical of the type of homes built in Queensland by modestly wealthy people in the years after World War 1...this one has been beautifully kept. And I might not want to buy any fabric, yarns, patterns etc, but I'm going back again to have a cuppa...that's for sure.

And best of all, I have heaps of shelf space in that cupboard now! 

Wool on Sundays...

Linking up again with Janine over at Rainbow Hare  blog for Wool on Sundays. Janine is celebrating 100 WoS posts and has included photos of some of the gorgeous projects she has done in those blog posts. 

Today I'm not writing about a project; more like a 'potential project' :-)

My friend Helen was recently in New Zealand and brought me back a skein of NZ wool. I love NZ yarns as they are always so soft and the colours are always wonderful.

And this lovely yarn gift is certainly soft and the colours are so pretty...my favourite colours too of course!

I have a few ideas of what I might make, so in a future Wool on Sunday this yarn will feature again. 

But for now, I'll fondle and stroke it occasionally like I always do with beautiful yarns! 

Janine is also having a Giveaway to celebrate 100 WoS posts...http://rainbowhare.com/about/

This year I couldn't Palm this off...

For a few years now, our parish has raised funds by making and selling Palm crosses ready to be handed out on Palm Sunday. ( the last Sunday before Easter) Our 'customers' are churches and church schools and it's a 'nice little earner' for the parish. I have never made a Palm cross previously as there had always been lots of others volunteering to do that.

But this year we had orders for just over 6500 crosses, so more volunteers were required. About 3 weeks before Easter there is a working bee to cut and tear Palm leaves into strips...this is some of the bundle of strips that I received.

Two strips are used to make the traditional cross...

Last Monday after work I sat down with the bag of strips and the directions saved on my iPad.

Well I was hopeless I'm afraid to say and put the strips of palm leaves aside (in the fridge) until the next night. I managed to just make 2 on Tuesday night but they looked a bit bodgy...what was happening? I couldn't follow a simple diagram for goodness sake!!!

It wasn't until my day off on Friday that I finally 'got it'...

So by this morning I had a bundle of crosses to hand in...phew! I was a bit worried there that I would be 'letting down the side' for a while!!! Lol

The organiser has said we now have enough crosses for our customers and our parish, so the job is done.

Missing...

Yep! I've certainly been missing from Blogland this last week or so as the pace at my temporary workplace has picked up a bit. 

This is the view from my spot at the front counter...

But this post is about what I 'got up to' last weekend.

On Saturday, DH, my brother and his partner and yours truly went out to lunch. It was our Christmas presents to each other for 2015. Let me explain that strange statement. We no longer give gifts to each other for Christmas. Instead the four of us do something special together and each couple pays for the other couple. We had decided to go out to a nice ( expensive) restaurant but finding a date to suit all of us had been a bit difficult, so finally March 6 was chosen.

We went to the Courthouse Restaurant at Cleveland...a lovely venue in an historic building. 

With a view out to sea...oops the tide was out though!

Later in the day there was going to be a wedding at The Courthouse, so it was all set up...

And an area inside, through the doors in the next photo, was being set up for the wedding reception meal...

We sat at a table out on this paved area and were looked after very well by our waiter...

This was my meal...it had been so hard to choose as everything on the menu sounded wonderful.

The food was delicious!

DH loves cauliflower au gratin, so he ordered the side dish to share with me...

Yummy too!

So that was Saturday's highlight...on Sunday I met up for morning tea with my friends 'The Newmarket Mums' ( we all met up in the 1980-90s and became friends when our children attended the same primary school) at a lovely cafe at a plant nursery, Eden's.

I tried a vegan slice...very little sugar in the cake but heaps in that icing/frosting. Oh well an occasional bit of sugar is okay. 

Then it was time for a walk around the nursery. I had wanted to buy a zucchini plant and another eggplant plant. But the nursery only had herbs, fruit trees and very few veggie seedlings or plants. But lying on the ground near the main path was this little fellow...

A wombat garden ornament. Just as well it was very heavy, otherwise I think he/she would have been put into my trolley, been taken to the checkout and then would have come home with me! I might have to take someone back to the nursery with me...someone who can lift heavy things! Lol

(Wombats are my favourite Aussie animal)