definition: Menagerie = My house

Through some particularly poor planning by me (never promise that a child can buy their own pet, if they save 'x' dollars, without considering that they might actually make it,at the same time as their younger brother gets a pet for his birthday) we now own a puppy by the name of Ruby. A Tenterfield Terrier she is already showing some of the breed's 'spunk' as she attempts to take on our two cats and bunny who are all at least two to three times her size. Currently she is just getting her ears boxed. Hope that continues!i>

The kids of course are loving her to bits. Ruby is absolutely tiny..approximately the size of little J's shoe!

On the sewing front I managed to finish this block...it's for a quilt by Cherry Pie Designs

And even though I am not buying any new fabric this year, I may have conveniently signed up to a fabric club last year, so am still getting some fabric lovelies in the mail. I am really enjoying receiving these fabrics from The Home Patch.

Hope you are having a good week!

Spring, birthdays, crochet...

Wow, spring has hit with a vengeance! Between sniffing and rubbing my eyes, I've enjoyed watching the flowers bloom.

I pretty much finished my first ever crocheted blanket...if you don't look at all the starts and ends I need to weave in!.....

It's made from a merino/alpaca wool..so heavy and warm! (just in time for summer...typical!)

And I've been trying my hand at jam making with some surplus strawberries. Any hints on getting it to set more and not have the fruit float to the top??

The smell of it cooking was divine...worth all the mess!

We've also had another birthday in our family and so here's Gorgeous Girl's cake...

It's Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory in a ball pit (a famous episode for the those who don't watch the show!) We managed to survive having eight 12/13 year olds for a sleepover....thank goodness!

Have a great week!

The week that was...

Well this week we've been on school holidays and through the generosity of my parents, have been down to two kids for the week. Gorgeous Girl and Little J headed off to Nan and Pop's to ride horses, jump on the hay bales, walk in the mud and eat too many of Nan's famous ginger bickies.

So I decided to spring clean (in Autumn!) the boys rooms, make some new curtains (to replace the ones that I made from teddy bear fabric when expecting our first bub 13 years ago. Alarmingly I found out that I never did quite get to finishing those side seams!) and chase around the two munchkins who were left to enjoy their boring parent's company.


Boo doing some minor mechanics before heading off on a bike ride..

I've also been getting out my knitting needles as I've decided I would like to improve my knitting skills. I have started with a scarf to get me back in the swing of things.(Not that I recommend swinging with knitting needles...down right dangerous...)

Of course the pattern called for a very tricky 10 rows of colourful wool, 10 rows of navy, 10 rows colourful etc etc..and I managed to mess up on the first change so mine will be unique and go 10 rows colourful, then 12 rows navy..sigh...

I have also been making hexagons..

None of these puny 2" affairs for me..these are the mother of all hexagons at 10 1/2" across. see scissors for scale...


Willow, the new addition to the family is proving a delight. She prefers to be carried around like a baby, and purrs crazily every time someone picks her up. Hubby put in a new water feature for me in the garden and she was most interested to try and figure out what this thing was..

I give the water feature about 1 month to live with the amount of soccer (sorry, I mean football) balls that fly around our backyard! I've already had to farewell 3 gnomes, one ceramic lizard and a flower pot... And my brother wonders why I don't use the banana lounge he gave me to relax in our backyard...

Hope you're having a good week!

When buying online comes back to bite you...

I buy a lot of my feature fabrics online as they are a lot cheaper and mainly because I don't have to drag kid's into quilt shops...it really ruins the whole experience! And I can do it at 11.30pm at night, when I have time to think! But unfortunately there is nothing like being to hold different fabrics up together to see it they really 'go'.

I bought these three fabrics to make a quilt for my little boy. I thought the bugs in jars fabric was really cute, but not too babyish, and so I bought a blue solid and some little leaves to go with it. However, the computer screen doesn't always show true colours... And the scale is very hard to pick.... So this is the fabrics when they arrived.

As you can see that blue doesn't go at all..it's very turquoise really and the scale of the leaf print is way off! So back to the LQS I go in search of the perfect blue...and might have to rethink those leaves... *sigh* But on a cheerier note, I think I've enterred a new stage in my life! I really dislike trying to make a decent looking birthday cake, and the fact I seem to do them at midnight. Well Sunshine Boy had a birthday and my daughter not only made the cake, she iced it too! Yay! I'm intending to never make another birthday cake again (is it wrong to make a child make their own birthday cake??)

I think she did a good job..shame there is no such things as blue Skittles ..(and it had to be dairy -free so we couldn't use Smarties) Hope you're having a good week!

Rainy days..

A week of lots of rain....


Ps. The winner of the giveaway was Vanessa!

Photos from around and about.

As previously mention..somewhere, ages ago...I went with my Gorgeous Girl on a school excursion to Adelaide in late October. (quite a way away from rural NSW!)

I loved Adelaide. Every block in the CBD seems to have some kind of sculpture, so there's always something new around the corner. There are also some beautiful old buildings. Here is a couple of pictures..





On one afternoon we headed out on the tram to Glenelg to the beach. It was a gorgeous spot.


And in case you're wondering how you keep track of fifteen 11 and 12 year olds - you make them wear their bright red Conference hats. I told them that they looked like a field of mushrooms...


The kids did a great job with their presentation and had a ball going to other delegate's workshops and the dinners at night.

I unfortunately didn't get to any patchwork shops but did have fun wandering through Rundle Mall.

I was glad to get back to "my boys" and sleep in my own bed by the end of the five days though.

And just to skite, I thought I'd show you Gorgeous Girl's hat that she made for the Melbourne Cup fun at school. Made entireley from bits and pieces we had at home, she had great fun with her glue gun!


Hope to be back soon! Have a good week!

The costumes continue.....

Just quietly I am getting a little over costume making but the end is in sight, so I thought I'd show you my version of a Jewel Beetle.



To be worn by a 11 year old boy in Gorgeous Girl's class...isn't he going to be thrilled??!! *grin* Though how you make a beetle costume that looks "blokey" is (and apparently was) beyond me!! (though I doubt the teacher will make him wear the tights that my model chose to wear!)

Have a great week!

Random Photos of Spring

I love Spring. My poor sad neglected garden manages to ignore my pathetic attempts and put on a show. Here are some photos...

The kids pansies..all named..for some reason...with very pansy kind of names like Yoda, and Obi-wan, Thomas and Portia (??!!)


A Euphorbia (I think) that lives in the pots out the front of our house. Hardy little souls..I like them!!


The climbing rose that ventures from the next door neighbours place. My hubby hates it as it prickles him as he mows...he prunes it severely..it climbs on back..another survivor!!

My favourite picture of all...

Kids at work! Actually Gorgeous Girl has really gotten into being a vegetable grower, which I heartily endorse as it doesn't involve an electronic screen. And hopefully we will have lots of lovely vegies in the summer. So they've been busy filling up a above ground garden bed we've bought..lots of fun in very dirty dirt! And why the pirate hat...one of life's mysteries....

More frogs...

So you spot one frog...

..and before you know it, you turn around and they're everywhere!! LOL..



(cupcakes for Gorgeous Girl to take into her class tomorrow..oh, and some extras for friends who aren't in her class..and an extra for the teacher and the teachers aide...oh, and can there be one for the school librarian??... it was at this point that her mother said enough, as there are over 500 kids at her school and I had visions of cooking all night!)

It's July Holidays..

and, there's little time to sew. Too busy enjoying some winter sunshine...



And too busy enjoying spending some time with these munchkins....


Four kids, four glowsticks, hours of fun....

A bit of creativity..

At least someone is getting some creative time in this household!! Gorgeous Girl and her buddy, Miss C, spent a rainy morning raiding the fabric cupboard(s)and with a little encouragement, completed these little cushions.

Pretty great, hey?!

My daughter was then inspired to keep foraging in the cupboard (lucky she didn't get lost!) and came out with lots of blue charm squares.
So she laid them out...

Sewed the squares into lines and nearly got the centre finished.
Her favourite print is the little blue fish and coral print.