Spring!

Tuesday saw the last day of Winter, ushering in the beginning of Spring on Wednesday. On Facebook that day, I noticed someone asking people to post photos of their Spring garden. Well there wasn’t much sign of the season change in my garden…even my beloved nasturtiums weren’t doing that well. The bromeliads had had flowers but #1 GD had asked the week before if we could pick them to make a bunch to take home to her mum…which we did! 

Never fear though, our household does have another Spring display but it’s in the dining room. #2 GD helped me last Friday to ‘pack up Winter’ from the hutch. 

Holly very carefully carried the china from the shelves to the table…( my job later was to give the pieces a wash and then put them away) 

She then helped me go through cupboards to get out items that had flowers on them…

Holly was very particular where items should go…

We looked in the box where I keep the mini quilts and Holly chose a lovely one given to me by a friend many years ago.

I was sure I had more floral pieces but waited until Holly had gone home to have a look for them. 

Most of the pieces have been gifts. Occasionally I fall in love with china in shops but resist temptation to buy these days…I have enough! 

This big bowl was a farewell gift/presentation in 2001 from the staff at one of my school postings…very much loved! 

And this vase was presented to me in 1981 when I was going on maternity leave at my first school posting  to have DD1. Another much loved item with lots of good memories. 

So hopefully the garden will catch up soon and put on a spring display as well…

It's getting cooler...at last!

Officially Autumn began on March 1, but the hot weather has stubbornly stayed with us here in SE Queensland. We've had a few cold nights and mornings giving us hope that the cooler weather was on its way...but then that hot weather would be back. But the last week or so, we've had milder weather so maybe Winter isn't too far off? (Officially the season changes on June 1)

So is it time to get out my battered, heavy based pot? It's French and I bought it in the 1970s at a David Jones' sale. This pot gets quite a workout in the cooler months...casseroles and soups are the go then. 

Is it time for lunches that consist of a big cup filled with homemade soup served with some crusty bread?

My soup cup is the purple one on the left...of course!

I decided yesterday that it's time to change the mini quilt on the stand, to the Winter quilt made for me by Anthea of Hibiscus Stitches...( featuring Michelle's lovely snowman design)

 

And in the last week, I've started snuggling under a very special gift I got last Christmas...

Yes, a quilt that was made especially for me by DsD1, who started quilting just over 4 years when she went to live and work in Wandoan. When I was unwrapping my gift last Christmas, at first I thought that DsD1 had bought me some fabric, but then as I continued to unwrap the parcel, I saw that it was a quilt...it was the most wonderful surprise!!!

The winters here are very mild, so my big coat and other really warm clothes usually only get worn if we go away on holidays to places that have a 'proper' winter! Lol. 

Mothers' Day...

Here in Australia, the second Sunday in May is Mothers' Day. Yesterday DD2 took me out to lunch as she would not be able to see me today...and a lovely lunch and catch up it was! 

Today I was supposed to go to DD1's for lunch but she has a really bad cold, so we postponed lunch for another time. 

DH went off to golf and I've had the most marvellous day 'pottering'...

One 'job' I did was to change the display and mini quilt on the hutch...this time the Blue Willow came out on display...

 Perhaps a closer look at that beautiful little quilt on the hanger...

Illene made this for me in a mini swap in 2013...and I made this one for her :-)

I posted some old photos of my girls on Instagram and Facebook...

On the left, DD2 aged about 18 months with yours truly at her Nanna's Melbourne home, and on the right, DD1 aged 5 weeks at the family party after her Baptism. Her dad and I are cutting her cake but she got none of it! :-)

And what a coincidence! DD2 used the same photo of her and I in her IG post...

With a nice message too...

I see she made reference to my 'perm' and 'Vegemite eyes' brought a smile to my face...I was the only one in our family of 4 who had brown eyes. Miss DD1, as a toddler, told her Nanna that 'Mummy has Vegemite eyes'...:-/ ( Vegemite is a savoury spread similar to Marmite ie dark brown ) 

It's been a little while since I was able to spend time with both my girls at the same time...so this photo from a few years ago is very special...

I hope all mothers had a lovely Mothers' Day with lots of spoiling! 

Christmas all packed away...

Over the last week I have been steadily packing away the Christmas decorations. Some friends of ours from Banora Point were planning to visit us when they came to Brisbane this week, so that was a good incentive to get everything packed away. 

Since I've been blogging, I've been inspired by others who arrange displays on shelves, mantelpieces or hutches, so I started to do that too :-)

My hutch 'dressed up' for Christmas...

 

And since yesterday, a new display...favourite china with its pinks, mauves and blues...

A closer look at the mini quilt on the stand. Lyn (no blog ) made that for me last year...it's beautiful!

And a closer look at the vintage doily/tray cloth...

A few years ago, I saw this lovely stitchery on Ebay...I rather liked it :-). I got into a bit of a 'bidding war' with other Ebayers and ended up paying a bit more than I anticipated...but it was worth it! :-) It is in excellent condition, the colours and the stitching are beautiful and it gets used quite a lot. 

Now I thought that I had packed everything Christmassy away...then I noticed the tinsel and stars wrapped around the railings near the veranda door...oops! Lol

Swaps...

Blog swaps are an excellent way to 'meet' other bloggers as well as encouraging people such as myself, to revisit old skills and use these to create items to send to our swap partners. I had been a very keen sewer in my younger years but gradually did less and less. I started signing up for blog swaps in late 2010 and had so much fun that I signed up for some last year. But this year, I've outdone myself...there are actually very few that I don't sign up for! That's why I have 4 swaps due for posting by the end of April!

So I've been working steadily on these swap items and yesterday 3 were posted away. Unfortunately I can only tease you with photos that only show a snippet of these items as the items are still on their way to their new homes...

First the colour swap...

Something for a room in the house...

Something personal...

Something 'smelly'...

Something to eat...

Next is the Mothers Day Mini Quilt Swap

It looks like a muddy mark on that corner...but it's not! lol  I rarely work with browns or browny pinks so it made a nice change to work with those colours...

I drew up the design for this project, including a quote that I had found, but thought that my lettering looked very ordinary. I ended up writing to Jenny Elefantz and asking if it would be a copyright problem if I used her alphabet published in her eZine.

Jenny replied that the lettering was indeed under copyright but that she was very happy for me to use the letters as long as I acknowledged it...which I did of course.

Another swap is the Mrs Martin's Celebrations swap and yesterday I posted the Mothers' Day parcel away for that! Again the photos are quite enigmatic! lol

I'm just finishing off the Table Runner Swap which uses a pack of charm squares. It will be in the post in the next day or so...last weekend it looked like this...

Now swaps are 2 way things...I'm getting parcels from other people who were given me as their swap buddy. Already one has arrived! A table runner from Sue at Quilted Hugs and what a lovely surprise! It's lovely thanks Sue!

A beautiful range of fabrics...

I think that my other 3 swap parcels may come when we have left for NZ so my neighbour will be on alert ready for the postman, and I'll have some lovely surprises when I get home.