FNSI...

Last night 56 people from around the world joined in with the monthly Friday Night Sew In. I worked on 2 projects; one sewing and one knitting.
Firstly I cut out more long hexagons out of Christmas fabrics...

I sewed a few hexies over paper and then realised that I was running out of paper hexagons...so I cut some of those...

I was keeping an eye on the time because at 8.30 I planned to watch Miss Fisher's Mysteries on Channel 2. So I only stitched a few fabric hexies over paper...
Some of these were stitched in a previous FNSI, but this is the progress on a Christmas runner so far...

Then at 8.30 I moved to the loungeroom and the sofa...and my knitting...

 I've posted 2 photos of this mohair throw...one closer up and one standing back a bit. It's now 60cm long so is growing nicely. The bright orangey-golden-green variegated yarn is from The Spindle Tree in Hobart, and is the most beautiful hand dyed yarn.

This throw will go to a friend whose husband died suddenly earlier this month.

Well that's what I 'got up to' last night. Why not visit Wendy at Sugarlane Quilts to see what some of the other 55 participants worked on...or all of them if you have lots of time! lol
Thank you also to Wendy for organising FNSI :-)  .

A little while ago, I changed the settings on this blog to allow for Anonymous comments. I had hoped that this would make it easier for non bloggers ( or those without Google email accounts) to leave a comment. Unfortunately all that has happened is that my Inbox is inundated with Spam. I plan to change the settings back next week to disallow Anonymous comment. If you read my blog but are a bit shy about commenting, how about you say hello and introduce yourself before I change the settings? I'd love to hear from you :-)

September Birthdays...

My 2 girls both have their birthdays in September. Yesterday was DD1's birthday and today is DD2's birthday. Last night had been chosen as the night for the family get together, DsD3 works shifts and has very few nights free and last night was one of the 2 Thursday nights off this month. (DsD1 was in Canberra with a school excursion from Wandoan, so she couldn't make it)
Yesterday morning I made the 2 birthday cakes...the usual Black Forest cake for DD2 and a Red Velvet cake as requested by DD1. I forgot to take a photo of the Red Velvet cake but 2/3 of it was eaten and I sent the rest home with DD1.

Homemade Black Forest Cake...

'Nibblies' platters to start with

 DH is assisted by my brother at the BBQ...it's a family tradition that those 2 always cook!

 Now why do they (DD2 and DsD3) have the laptop at the table???

DH and I don't have any grandchildren yet...but we have little Jimmy Hans :-)

Jimmy with his paws on DsD3 begging for food...

In 2011, at this time of year, I wrote 2 posts about the days on which each of my girls were born... here are those memories again...

On this day 30 years ago...

Thirty years ago was a Friday. My first baby was due on the following Monday. All day that Friday I had the compulsion to clean and I did. The vacuum cleaner didn't seem to be working very well, so I convinced my husband that we should go into the city for late night shopping and buy a vacuum cleaner, which we did! (now how mad/idiotic is that?) We lived only 5km from the city and in those days it was easy to find car parking there...but it's still idiotic lol!

We came home with a brand new cleaner, a Hoover I think, and then I made us dinner. And I remember what I cooked, Steak Diane and a tossed salad. After dinner I went to bed, leaving the washing up, as I was quite tired by then. I woke up at about 5 am with abdominal pains, so off to the loo I went. These pains kept coming back and then I decided to see what the time interval was. Hmmm every five minutes..could it be...could I be...???? Husband rang the GP who said that I should go to hospital. I was there and admitted by 7am and at 10 to 1 in the afternoon, DD1 was born.

This photo has become a family favourite; at first I didn't have the knack of folding the nappy so it was small. That means the nappy came to her knee. The little booties were knitted by the grandma of one of my students.

Still looking back...this time 27 years ago...

On Sunday I wrote about what I was doing 30 years ago. Now I'll tell you about what I was doing 27 years ago on this night. It was DD1's 3rd birthday of course. Mmmm now I can imagine you're thinking...so?  All will be revealed...

We decided that we would just have a small family dinner for E's birthday with just mum and dad, grandma and her god-parents Pamela and Garry. I had 3 more weeks to go till the due date for my second child so was starting to get tired easily. DD1 and I had made some little party hats for the guests and 'Aunty' Pam had made the birthday cake. Little miss went off to bed about 8 and by 10.30 my husband and I were loading the dishwasher and tidying up. I got to bed by 11pm and promptly fell asleep.

A rare photo showing my 'baby bump'; DD1's 3rd birthday

A sharp pain woke me at 1.30am. I sat up and then realised that my 'waters had broken'...oops!! Things were happening obviously. I woke my husband and then went downstairs to my mother's granny flat to first of all tell her what was happening and secondly to borrow a pair of slippers as I still hadn't bought a pair to go in my 'hospital bag'.
We arrived at the hospital by 2am and I sat in a little office giving my details to a midwife; everything was calm and unhurried. Then she said that perhaps she'd better examine me. When she did she said that I was 8cm dilated...hmm I'd read somewhere that that meant I was in stage 2 labour. All of a sudden things weren't calm any more. Normally in those days when you came into hospital, you had to have an enema (yuck) and a shower and change into their gowns...no time for any of that, they rushed me to a delivery suite.

Then there was a problem...my doctor had slipped away for a week's holiday with his family as no births had been imminent amongst his patients.  That's no problem though...the hospital rang his locum, a specialist. But Dr Lee was also on holidays. So his locum (another specialist) came all the way from Wynumn in the early hours of the morning to deliver the baby of a woman he'd never met before. Dr Smith arrived at 3am. Little Miss DD2 came into the world at 3.20 am Thursday 20/09. She was small...only 6lb 8oz but nevertheless healthy. And it was a very easy birth.

Next day when the family came to visit, Miss 3 suddenly looked so grown up! She proudly told anyone and everyone, ' I've got a new little sitzer; her name is Demphaner (Jennifer)', eventually the baby became known as 'Demphy'.

So my girls have their birthdays a day apart; not how it was meant to be at all!

PS I'm glad that I finally  wrote those memories down, because reading back through them now, I realise that I'm already forgetting details such as DD1 and I making party hats together.

A Guest at Sisters of Stitch today...

Today, Bob and his wife Beryl, came to visit us at Sisters of Stitch. They had been invited by a member who thought that we would all like to see a tapestry that Bob had stitched. Now apparently Bob had been a keen woodworker all his life but a while ago he and Beryl moved into a retirement village. Bob was forced to leave all his tools etc and he soon became bored. Beryl showed him how to crochet but he soon became bored with that...not enough of a challenge. So he learned how to stitch tapestries...and he completed a number of kits successfully. But...you guessed it, he soon became bored! So he started making stitching charts from photos and stitched those scenes. And that's how the item that Bob brought in to show us, started.

Bob explained that the tapestry is from a photo of his childhood to adulthood church, Tewkesbury Abbey in Gloucestershire. He had drawn up quite a few stitching charts from the photo but he became increasingly frustrated by the lack of perspective that is sometimes obvious in tapestries. He decided to throw away his charts and just stitch on the Aida cloth following just straight from the photo. Absolutely amazing and now I must show you  closer up photos of this magnificent piece.

Bob described the ribbon draped over the frame as a 'scarf which he was given for the cold weather'

Yes, Bob had entered his work in The Show and he had won first prize!!! The stitchery took Bob 16 months to complete. Now how about a closer look...

Look at that perspective...the play of dark and light! (That's Beryl, Bob's wife on the right)

Now Bob has already started work on his entry in next year's show...he showed us the photo from which he is working...

Many of the ladies had questions for Bob...one was 'How young are you Bob?' He proudly told us that he has just turned 90. What an amazing, witty and clever man! Bob told us that he gets so engrossed in his stitching that Beryl sometimes has to tell him to put it away and go to bed! lol

Pride and Prejudice...

I've written posts ( here, here and here ) before about the youth theatre company in Buderim, BYTES, run by Robyn, a former student of mine. Well, now there is Company BE which is described as, ' the sister company of BYTES. This adult company aims to produce quality plays with a particular focus on classic works and high calibre musical theatre productions.'

 And so it was that DH and I travelled up to Buderim last Sunday to see the company's inaugural production of 'Pride and Prejudice'. Robyn was directing the production and her daughter Katherine was playing Lydia Bennett, her sister was playing Mrs Bennett and Robyn's mother was playing Lady Catherine de Bourgh. What a treat! The company were presenting this play in honour of the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen's famous novel of the same name.

About 20 minutes before the show was due to start...

 People who were seated early were treated to some wonderful old tunes played on the piano (see far right), such as Brahm's Lullaby...

As the time for the show drew near, the lovely pianist quickly climbed up the stage steps and disappeared behind the curtains...was she one of the actors we wondered???

Yes she was! The lovely Chelsea played Jane Bennett shown here with Robyn's sister who played Mrs Bennett. (photo from Company BE Facebook page) Peta played the role to perfection! Very OTT mother trying to get her daughters married off to prosperous men!

Mr Bennett (played by Ian Rix a Sunshine Coast music teacher) with his daughter Elizabeth Bennett
(photo from Company BE Facebook page) 

Another photo taken backstage and taken from the FB page but I just had to put in a photo of Mr Darcy. (with aunt Gardiner in this photo) 

Now anyone who is familiar with 'Pride and Prejudice' knows that the character Mr Darcy plays a pivotal role in the story. Many of us think that Colin Firth is the archetypical Mr Darcy...purr purr...lol
DH and I decided that this young actor did a pretty good job in the role.

Now my old friend Pat stole the show with her performance as Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

Lady Catherine with Mr Collins

delightfully overbearing and rude Lady Catherine! lol I'm pretty sure Pat had lots of fun with the role!

And finally the entire cast on stage to take their bows...

Later in the year, BYTES will be staging 'Chicago' so that sounds like another trip to Buderim coming up! 

The Possums have left me a 'message' :-/

In my last post I mentioned that I had discovered an attempt by the resident possums here, to eat the stockpile of harvested sweet potatoes. I had foolishly left these vegetables in 2 baskets on a table on the side veranda and these obviously quite clever possums have been 'helping themselves'! lol 

Having discovered this little scheme of the possums, I moved the baskets inside and relocated them to the laundry. That was yesterday...
This morning this was what I found on that small table near the railing of the veranda...

 I'd seen these spherical like 'objects' before...on the verandas at school before the cleaners had 'gone through'...

Here's a closer look!

 Interesting colours and sizes...yep! It's possum droppings/poo! I guess they weren't impressed that their 'all you can eat buffet' has closed!!!

This last fortnight I have been...

I have been keeping busy while DH has been away working in Rockhampton...
I have continued on my personal challenge to join donated squares into blankets for the needy... and the pile of blankets grew...although each one of these still needs all the ends woven in...

I took advantage of being alone in the house to tackle a big job...sorting out my mohair stash... it was chaos there for a while ...

But because I had done all that sorting it was very easy to put some 'kits' together for 2 upcoming projects using mohair and the waffle slipstitch design; one using a grey background and one using black as the background...
Now the 'black one' had been planned around the theme, 'Knitted Rainbows; Everyone should have some'. But things don't always go to plan. I started this project one night and was pleased that I had introduced the first colour after some plain knitting to form the lower band. But next day, it suddenly dawned on me! The rainbow starts with red and I had started with orange!! I wasn't going to 'frog' all those rows of 205 stitches so I put it aside and planned to start another one and come back to the other one some day with a different colour scheme. But I thought about it and said 'Nah!' I went to my 'browns, oranges, beiges' bag of yarns and found I had enough variety to make a throw in that colour scheme and with some 'muddy greens' thrown in for good measure! I'm so glad I did all that sorting of yarns!!

Colours haven't come out well...the first block of colour is orange not yellow/gold

As well as sorting yarns I also sorted out some cupboards and shelves and have lots of items to go to the charity bins as well as fabrics and yarns that can be used by other members of K4BN. These items are all bagged up and labelled for these people. I've also identified items that will go out for the kerbside clean-up which is coming soon to my suburb.

 I  attended  2 funerals and 1 memorial service while DH was away. The funerals were for 2 elderly parishioners who I had admired and I planned to not stay afterwards for the wakes...but I did and ended up staying for nearly and extra 2 hours!

People tend to 'catch up' at funerals...

I did some non grocery shopping too! Over the phone I had discussed with DH that, with Spring upon us, that maybe we could buy a new doona cover set to celebrate. You see I had looked through the Pillow Talk catalogue that was in my letterbox and I fell in love with one. When I went to buy it though, I changed my mind as it really had too many flowers on it for a room shared with a male! lol But I still chose one with flowers...just not so many!

Naturally I was busy each morning in the veggie garden...

 Mr Turkey came visiting early one morning and jumped over my 'fence' and dug out the last nasturtium plants and some of the seed potatoes. So I took the advice of a few people  and put mesh netting on the ground as apparently the turkeys don't like the feel of walking on mesh or wire. The potatoes should still be able to come up, but the need to mound up around the potato plants will cause another dilemma; but hopefully by then, Tim's faux turkey should be living in the garden!

The fencing is working successfully at keeping the turkey out of the other bed and the lettuces and tomatoes are doing well...

Before he went away, DH saw a book at the library that he thought I might like, so he borrowed it for me...
Taking advantage of being home alone, I read into the early hours on a few nights...I thoroughly enjoyed the book which was basically in a autobiographical style! Rachael also writes a blog and I sent her an email saying how much I enjoyed reading her book. To which she sent me a lovely email, saying that I had 'made her day'. And just like me, Rachael buys yarns as souvenirs of holidays! :-)

And I solved a couple of mysteries while DH has been away...I found this (below) on the small table on the veranda...a half eaten sweet potato.

For the past week or so I have also been finding half eaten sweet potatoes around the yard...I was puzzled as to where they had come from as all the larger ones have been harvested so Mr Turkey couldn't be digging any up.
But today all was clear! I now know the answer to another mystery...why have the brushtail possums been running up and down my side veranda each night? (the first night they did it I thought it was an intruder of the human kind, and nervously peeped through the curtains, ready to ring 000! )
Yes the possums had found an 'all you can eat buffet'...I had left the most recently harvested sweet potatoes in baskets on the veranda. Smart possums hah ?

And finally, I finished another knitted throw and it was posted this week to its new owner. A friend who has had such a run of bad luck in the last few years and I thought she could do with a surprise. It worked! Hopefully life treats her a lot better now and in the future, than it has.

Just oddments...like a scrap quilt really! lol

And DH has finished his work in Rocky and will be home this evening! I've loved my 2 weeks 'batching' but I'm sure looking forward to him coming home. 

How is that building work going?

The weather here lately might be a bit disappointing for the gardeners among us, but for the builders next door it has been perfect weather. No delays caused by rain...just sunny spring days.

In the last update, the lower 2 levels of timber framing had been completed. We knew that the next levels would be started soon because the scaffolders came in and worked over 2 days. Other than the earthmoving equipment in the first week of this project, I find that the scaffolding days are the noisiest and most irritating. There is also a tendency for these workers to use 'strings of invective'...shall we say?

Here's Brad in the front, behind him is Rich, the owner of the company and a third person...standing on the scaffolding near my kitchen window... having a bit of a conflab!

After the scaffolding had been extended upwards another level, another mobile crane came in again.

And its job was to lift the bundles of timber up to the next level...

While all that timber was being hauled up on all 7 houses, the team of bricklayers were building the common brick walls up to that 3rd level .

The top level of bricks is just about finished...

This is the view, looking back, from our front veranda....

Below is a panorama shot of the development taken on the Sunday of the week before last...the brick walls on level 3 have all been completed...

An ordinary photo taken the same afternoon from across the street...

 And turning the camera more towards the end of the street...

And this these are the photos that I took last Sunday...

Level 2 of the house next to our property at the front...

There is a small passway behind the garage of house#1 and the 6 attached houses...

 The photo below was taken from the other side of the street and shows the progress...the 3rd level brick walls have been completed

 I noted the triangular shapes propped against the walls on level 3...

I found out yesterday (Monday) that they are prefabricated roof trusses...
So that's what's been happening next door during the last fortnight...