Another job for Santa???

In 2014 my Secret Santa in the Chookyblue SSCS was Isabel from Portugal. And what a lovely lot of gifts I received; as they say I 'was really spoiled'! 

This lovely Christmas ornament was made from cork...

Isabel stitched a lavender sachet but after checking customs regulations turned it into the sweetest little pillow. There was also a ball of yarn, a gorgeous Zauberball in predominantly purple shades. And there was also a Portuguese chocolate flavoured with passion fruit...it was delicious btw!!  

The main gift was this magnificent circular needle holder which Isabel made for me...it has been such a wonderful gift...made with Kaffe fabrics too!!! 

Well, I noticed as 2015 went on that Isabel had 'become very quiet' with almost no activity on her blog or Facebook. So finally in October I sent her an email asking how she was and once more saying how much I had loved her gifts. I found out that 2015 had not been a good year for her and that she had not signed up for the SSCS as she felt she wouldn't be able to keep to the deadlines. Isabel commented that she loved the fun of being a Secret Santa with the stalking etc and might I add that she is a very effective stalker! My circular needles were kept in a ziplock bag for years before Isabel made the special holder for them! 

So...even though life was a bit crazy here for me with DH's health issues, I decided then and there that I would make up a SS gift for Isabel. Time constraints meant that I didn't sew anything myself, but I 'gathered' some gifts together ready to post in the first few days of December. The parcel only arrived late last week in Isabel's town so just didn't make it before Christmas. 

A Christmas ornament complete with a little hanging bag; a stocking in Australiana fabric and a face washer with a cross stitched kookaburra. All these items were stitched by friends who sell at markets.  

And I bought some charm squares of Australian Aboriginal designs from Tuppy's....

And an iron on fabric label...

And a fabric patch from Nature's Face...the wallaby can be easily seen in my poor quality photo but there are lots of other fauna ( and Aussie flora) hidden in the fabric patch. 

My goal was simply to give Isabel a nice surprise and let her know that others are thinking of her. And I achieved that! 

Now it would be a wonderful surprise for Isabel if some fellow bloggers could visit her blog and wish her a Happy New Year...??? Here is the link http://kraftier.blogspot.com.au/.   

Blogging Workshop Part 2....

Continuing on from my last post, now just a little more about the enjoyable 2 hours I spent at New Farm Library yesterday.
The purpose of the workshop was an introduction to blogging and Jean used her laptop connected to the library's data projector to demonstrate various features and to assist in explanations. The fact that Jean is 'self taught' to a certain extent, made her presentation very effective...'she has been there and done that' just as most of the participants hoped to do. Jean showed for example, how to start the blog, how to set up the components, how to do a layout, add links and photos and discussed tags.

Now I've been a blogger for a few years now, but I use 'Blogger' so I was really interested in learning about Wordpress which Jean uses. We had a very interesting group of people there, and the interaction was marvellous. And even though I consider myself to have experience with blogging, I realised I had learned a number of new things yesterday as well as meeting Jean and the others there. So...

• I learned all about the features of Wordpress and the systems capabilities. Naturally I found similarities, but also differences.
• I met a Brisbane author Ryll Paul, who came along to learn more about blogging. Ryll has published a book of memoirs of growing up in Brisbane 1950-1970s 'Pebbles in the Road', as well as a recently published children's book, 'Friends of the Flood'.

Rhyll Paul; a lovely lady...

• I found out that Jean has another blog which focuses on retirement.
• Met a lovely librarian who works at New Farm library, who introduced Jean at the beginning of the workshop and who loves reading blogs.
• Another participant, Wayne Paul,  draws the most wonderfully funny cartoons and now he has become inspired by yesterday's workshop, to start a blog where he can showcase his work. The link will take you to his website which features his recently published book of cartoons. 

Rhyll's husband who came along to 'support his wife' is explaining to the room 'his lightbulb moment' ...he had never thought of it before but he decided to start his own blog!!

• I met another participant who runs book clubs and I think drinking and eating are involved as well as books in these clubs :-)
• I discovered that our council libraries don't just run storytelling sessions for children or author talks, I picked up a booklet which has the most amazing list of events and sessions throughout the year. I'm now planning to go to a session later this month at my local library to learn about uploading eBooks from the library. And that is just a start...:-)

So now some views of Brisbane as we made our way home via Toowong (we had mail for one of the girls)...we went via the city so we could use the riverside expressway.

This sculpture was on the footpath on Wharf St where it meets Ann St...

Looking across Ann St, from Wharf St

On Ann St coming up to the Edward St intersection. The old Peoples Palace is now a backpackers.... On the right out of sight is Central Station...

Moving through that intersection now...

Still Ann St...King George Square is coming up on the left...the iconic City Hall is dwarfed by the other buildings (when I was very young, it was the tallest building in the city)

Crossing George St soon...ready to get on the On ramp...

The old Grovener Hotel on the right...for a time it was a McDonalds...

We're on Milton rd now. The walkway links Lang Park...oh all right! ...provides a link between  Suncorp Stadium and Milton Station. In the distance there are 4 Xs...that's the Brewery 

One view of the football stadium...

What's On at New Farm Library?...

Well yesterday at New Farm Library, there was a Blogging Workshop presented by a fellow Brisbane Blogger, Jean. I thought that it would be an excellent opportunity to meet Jean, so I went along. 

New Farm is on the north side of the river and is an example of industry moving out and  being replaced by gentrification of the suburb. We turned into James St (now very posh in parts lol) and met traffic that was hardly moving...

Traffic turning into James St, only to find that the traffic ahead wasn't moving...therefore  we couldn't either...

 DH felt that the traffic jam was caused by people slowing down to look for carparks in the trendy section of the street which contains cafes, restaurants, nice (expensive though) shops and the cinemas. And he was right, because after we drove through that area, the traffic moved smoothly.

Still on James St but  driving speed has picked up :-)

 Not the best shot but a quick glimpse of the old Queens Arms Hotel. Once very much a workers pub, now refurbished a number of times that I can remember, and more upmarket. When I worked at  Fortitude Valley, we sometimes had staff dinners at this hotel.

The sign says it all...leaving Fortitude Valley and entering New Farm

Still on James St , heading towards the Brisbane River...

New Farm Library on Sydney St

The traffic had held us up a bit, but I got to the library with 5 minutes to spare before Jean's workshop began. The library is in a beautiful spot with the huge New Farm Park over its back fence. While I attended the workshop, DH did his daily walk but yesterday it was on the path through the park, past the Powerhouse complex and down the river path...

Now because I've taken so long to 'set the scene', I'll have to write about the wonderful workshop tomorrow. I try not to ever miss a chance to post photos of Brisbane as I know that some readers enjoy seeing photos of the city as they once lived here. If you used the link to Jean's blog, you will already have read about the workshop, so I will write just a bit from my perspective and then also post some photos of the trip home! lol

A book signing...Down to Earth..

I first discovered the world of blogging after reading an article in a 'Burke's Backyard' magazine. The columnist was Rhonda-Jean and I noted that she also wrote a blog here. I visited her blog and was immediately hooked. In those early days I would read each new post and then also read posts from her archives. Then I started to click on people who left comments on Rhonda's blog and so visit their blogs. My reading list grew and then after a number of months as a reader and commenter, I decided to start my own blog. 

Earlier this week Rhonda wrote in a post that she was doing a 'talk and book signing' here in Brisbane. I emailed the book store, 'Avid Reader' so that DH and I could attend the event. 'Avid Reader' is a small (as in independent and not part of a huge chain) bookstore in the inner suburb of West End. We were welcomed this evening, offered a glass of wine and then ushered into a room at the back where the 'talk' part of the evening would be. 

Rhonda, just before she started her talk

Rhonda spoke of her earlier life and how the high pressure life did not make her happy, despite earning very good money. She explained how she and her husband Hanno moved towards a quieter, gentler life. She also talked about the gradual evolution towards blogging after being involved in a number of forums. 

The book signing; there was the inevitable queue

A poster showing the Talk and signings at the book store

Just a shot showing how many books are crammed into the quaint little shop

My turn!

She told us that years ago she wrote a book similar to the one published by Penguin this year. The three publishers she sent it to, knocked it back. A few months ago, one of those publishers contacted her, offering to publish her work...needless to say she declined. Rhonda also talked about how she came to be a Womens Weekly columnist and how the editor of that magazine sees Rhonda writing that column for at least 20 years!

I just had to get a photo of DH in front of the shop

Hanno kindly agreed to having a photo taken with me. He then chatted with me while DH went to get the car. 

An award... me?

This is how it all started... Lea over at http://livinglifenowinkiwiland.blogspot.com/, got a Liebster Award from another blogger. The idea is that if you get an award, you too must select 5 blogs from your reading list and hand on the Liebster award. The blogs that you choose have to have less than 200 followers. It's a tough one... You see I now have that task of selecting just 5 blogs, as Lea very kindly selected my blog as one of her five. She wrote, 'I love her trips down memory lane. I love her photos.'

I love all the blogs that I follow plus a number that I just read occasionally. One blog I was going to select for an award was Maria at Life on the Block...but she has 209 followers.  Polly's Porch had hundreds of followers too. So after much deliberation here are my Liebster Awards

1. Becky for her lovely photography of her area of the world and  her gorgeous pets. Becky also does the most amazing sewing and jewellery to mention just a few of her crafting skills. I've googled lots of places that she has mentioned in her blogs...so I'm learning about SC even though I'm half a world away.
2. Tanya has a blog that was one of the first that I became a follower. Tanya is someone who is sharing her knowledge of living in a more simpler way with her community. Her recipes are legendary! She wrote to me privately last year giving such comforting and wonderful advice when my DD2 was causing me a bit of worry . I really appreciated that.
3. Linn is another amazing woman. Her blog is all about family life and Linn's family includes foster children. Linn cooks her own bread and makes cheese and pasta to mention just a few items. Her and Mr Linn's vegie garden is thriving.
4. Jan has 2 blogs. The link goes to Sew Many Quilts-Too little time and the other blog is Oz Comfort Quilts. Jan has been able to donate almost 600 quilts to various appeals during 2011. People donate QAYG quilt blocks to Jan and she turns them into full-size quilts, so that's a lot of bindings to do. She also accepts unfinished/unwanted quilt tops and then finishes them. As well, Jan knits and crochets for charities,including beanies, rugs, scarves etc.
5. TGL 's work takes her travelling a bit so I enjoy her photos and posts of other countries and places. Her nature photos are very impressive. TGL takes a lot of care with the text in her posts whereas I often just dash something off. She is also Jewish and I'm enjoying learning about the customs and traditions that TGL and her husband follow.
6. Now I'm putting in a 6th blog as I believe that Jan's travelling in China may make it difficult for her to choose 5 of her favourite blogs and write a post on it. So maybe there is a tie! lol Claudia's blog (and her former one) has been a favourite of mine for ages. I learn so much about life in the US from Claudia and I've even learned about Claudia's homeland El Salvador. Claudia writes in a delightfully witty way and her pictures are always great...especially ones of her darling cat CC and her garden.
And now that's my five/six. I follow loads of other great blogs and I would recommend them all!
Now those people that I've chosen, link back to me and nominate five others with under 200 followers.

Another new blog...

This year I was thrilled to be 'found' by an ex-pupil on Facebook. Olga's sisters, Lilliana and Gabrielle were also on FB and I was able to find out lots of things that had happened to the family since the 1970s. The family lived in the house across the street from my childhood home but only my mother lived there by the time this young family moved in. (I talked about the previous owner of their house in this post and how kind she had been to me as a girl). The family eventually moved to Tasmania (Devonport area) where they remain today, including Olga's, now elderly, parents. We would have had more people to visit last year when we had our holiday in Tassie, if we had have known that the family was there.

Olga and her husband have a dream. They are re-fitting a bus into a motorhome-type vehicle and preparing to go travelling in the bus; what an adventure lies ahead of them! Olga talked about writing a blog to chronicle the fit-out of the bus and then the subsequent journeys, and finally this week she started posting. It is an enjoyable read and I recommend it :-) Following our Dream  I particularly loved the photo of Horatio the dog in one of the posts!!

I hope you don't mind Olga, but I've 'pinched' a couple of your photos to give readers a little preview...

The bus before it was delivered

Terry working on the re-fit



Pay It Forward Giveaway...

In the 1990's I spent a lot of time at university which meant lots of assignments and tutorial presentations to prepare. A lecturer in the QUT School of Early Childhood /Faculty of Education gave me some great advice on how to survive working , raising a family and surviving uni when doing more than one subject per semester. It was simple...organise yourself so that one lot of  research will give you enough material for 2 different subjects' assignments. It doesn't always work but the inter-relatedness of so many topics did save me a lot of time and effort.  I've always enjoyed books and films that that have characters and or plots that are all intertwined and inter-related. (I loved 'Marchlands' which was shown on ABC1 recently because of that very thing!)

So I've been absolutely chuffed about the link between the 2 books I've been reading. Please excuse how this photo is turned...'blogger' is playing silly games at the moment, with me any way! lol It was great to be reading both as the same theme ran through them.

I've mentioned both in previous posts. Shannon Hayes book contains a lot of research on the process by which societies changed from family units being production units to consumer units in society. The book also contains personal stories of Americans who have chosen to be more in control of providing for their family's needs.  The other book 'The Undomesticated Goddess' by Sophie Kinsella is the PIF giveaway which I won on Fee's blog. It was a bright and breezy and enjoyable read, although I did cringe at some of Samantha's early culinary disasters. Now it's time for me to send this PIF on to the next person. There are some conditions attached to being part of the PIF. Click on the scanned image below to enlarge the image and then  read those conditions. Still interested??

 Now if you are a fellow blogger and would like to have a chance to 'win' this giveaway, just leave a comment at the end of the post saying that you would . If you don't live in Australia it's still ok to be part of the draw.
On Thursday 7pm EST, I'll draw out a winner! Is this book coming to your place???

I learn a lot from blogging...

I've learned a lot recently from reading other people's blogs. I've got new recipes to try, heaps of sewing and knitting ideas, discovered just how cold it can get in the US, got ideas for gardening, found about Charley Harper and have discovered that the plants we call  'hippeastrums' here in Australia are also known as Amaryllis in the US! (And those are just a few of the things I've learned)





These 2 photos show some hippeastrums which were on display and for sale in Holland at some gardens known as Keukenhof. They were all magnificent specimums but I resisted temptation to buy any as I would have had no chance of bringing them back into Australia.


This is a view of a small part of the gardens at Keukenhof which is outside Amsterdam. The gardens are only open for 6 weeks in the year; obviously when the tulips and other flowers are in bloom.

Closer to home than the Netherlands here are some other gardens we have visited.

This photo shows some of the garden beds at Floriade 2009 in Canberra. This amazing festival is held annually (Sept/Oct ) and I had always dreamed of seeing it first hand and last year DH made the dream come true. I wasn't disappointed! The gardens cover acres/hectares of Centennial Park and none of the photos we took do it justice.

Even closer to home, the photo above is of part of the gardens in Toowoomba's annual Carnival of Flowers, held every September.

One day I plan to sort through all the photos we've taken and make a calendar of the gardens we have visited. We took photos of a number of other gardens when we went to the UK and Europe in 2008, as well as some in NZ and Norfolk Island.