SOME MORE JOURNALS

Today I had a nice quiet day. I always tell myself I am going to play with paper or fabric, and it never seems to happen. But today, I made sure it happened, and I covered these two journals for gifts. Both very different, but I was really happy with the finished look of both of them.

By the way, I am still hand quilting my quilt, and I am still trying "To Be Kind To Myself", but life has been very busy, and sometimes it has been a little difficult. But today, that is exactly what I did.

LATEST DESIGNS OF GIFT CARDS

Thought you might like to see the latest gift tags that I have made.

I have made them to give to a friend for her birthday, but I can't tell you who, cause she might see them on here before she gets them and that will spoil the suprise.

I bought this coloured twine from the Craft Queen, and I just love it. I will be using lots and lots of this stuff. They have so many different colours. It is devine.

MAKING A GELATINE PLATE

Yesterday afternoon I went to a workshop at "The Artist is Home" in Beeac. It was a workshop on printing without a press with Gaye Nieuwenhof. It was so much fun, and my very next trip into Colac I will be visiting the local art shop to buy some supplies so that I can get cracking on some printmaking for my cards, and to use the gelatine plates that I made yesterday.

I love the look I got with lace, and I know that I will use this one lots and lots. So many ideas are going around in my head I can hardly wait to get going on it.

Here are a few other images of what I played with yesterday. The only thing that will stop you is lack of imagination. There are so many things that can be done with this. I will even be able to print my own fabric. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH WHAT FUN I'VE HAD OVER THE PAST FEW DAYS

Well, the family have all gone back home to their respective homes. My Dad and his friend Norma to Wagga Wagga, my sister Dianne and her family have gone back to Port Macquarie. We had so much fun whilst they were all here, and we miss the fun and laughter they bought to the house. This is a photo of my Dad and my great niece Abby in the old tractor. It bought back lots of memories for my Dad, being a retired farmer, and a new adventure for Abby. In the background is my great nephew Will and my husband Patrick. They were too busy looking at something on the otherside of the tractor. By the way, this is not the tractor that Pat uses on the farm as an everyday tractor.

Here are the three gorgous children outside our driveway. Don't you love the bright pink rubber boots. We went into Colac and bought Will some rubber boots too. Not that they really need them, but I guess you can't be on a dairy farm without rubber boots. Abby was playing silly games and pulling her hoodie over her face so we could not see her, Will was quite happy to have his photo taken, but Ella was not quite sure.

Yep, I am at it again, a lovely sunset photo taken on Friday night as I drove up our road on my way home from work. And, yes, I did stop to take the photo.

AUSTRALIA DAY

Well, today being Australia Day, I thought I would share with you some of the traditions that we have every year. For quite a few years now, I have been making these Australia shaped biscuits. They always seem to be a hit. We always have pav for dessert, which we are having tonight as well, We usually have a BBQ for our evening meal, but as I have fed an extra eight to ten people the last two nights and we have had BBQ, tonight I thought I would make meat pies. (I am only doing dinner for 15 tonight.) I will make some little egg in toast bakes for the kids too. (The big kids can have them too if they want.) I am going to make some damper as well, so I had better get going and get into it.

But before I rush off and start on the dinner, I will tell you about our day. We have enjoyed a lovely day in Lorne with my sister Dianne, her hubby Robert, their daughter Erin and their grandchildren Will, Abbey and Ella. Also, by dad Gordon and his friend Norma and my two beautiful daughters Gillian and Eleanor. Gillian's friend Jesse dropped in to say hello too. I bought my hubby Patrick home some yummy treats, like raspberry dessert topping and passionfruit dessert topping (I thought I might like that one too) and some humbugs and some yummy fudges. Lucky I don't get to Lorne very often otherwise I would spend way too much money.

FRIENDSHIP QUILT UPDATE

Yesterday I got stitching again, and the friendship quilt started to grow and come together nicely.

I just had to get a border made and sit it next to the quilt to see how it was going to look. Coming along nicely. Then it was time to go to my job at Corangamarah again, but I will be staying up tonight until it is finished.

Then, by 11.30p.m. last night, this was the quilt top finished. Now to get it quilted. That will be a few days away, as my family from Port Macquarie and Wagga Wagga are coming down to visit for a few days today.

I may even share some photos of them on here too.

TODAY'S WORK

At 2.15 this afternoon, I got my sewing machine out to start on a quilt for a friend of my daughters. This is what I started with.

Then by 3.40p.m. it was time to pack up and get changed and head to my paid job at Corangamarah. This is what stage I was up to by that time.

Keep checking in to see how I progress.

10 LITTLE SUPRISES APPEARED IN OUR GARDEN TODAY

This afternoon whilst I was enjoying having my hair done, my daughter Gillian had the pleasure of coming across these surprises in the garden. Mrs. Hen had been clucking around for a couple of weeks and I had only commented this morning that I had not seen her for a couple of days. Well, now I know why. She was gathered up with her new little family and put in safe keeping so that Mr. Fox would not get her and her chickens for dinner tonight. She is lucky to have not been taken, as she was nesting in the trees out the front of our house.

Then, there is Dotty. She is in safe keeping with Mrs. Hen and her chickens as she has a sore leg.

THE LAST WEEKS PHOTOS

Well, I have finally got around to uploading some photos for you. It has been a busy week, but hoping that life might begin to get back to normal (what ever normal is) soon.

We did have a lot of rain here between the 10th and the 14th January, and this is a bit of the water that we have had lying around the farm. Mini flood really compared to what has been happening in Queensland and other parts of Victoria.

This is my back garden. You probably can't really see, but last Thursday morning, it was raining and the garden was getting a good soaking. It just looked so happy and lovely.

Well, the cat has been at it again. How is this, relaxing on the stereo and enjoying the view outside at the same time. I just never know where I am going to find him next.

And of course, he wore himself out being too relaxed, and here he is asleep. Don't know how comfortable he was, but he stayed here for quite some time.

We received these beautiful flowers during the week, and so I poped them on top of the stereo

in front of the window. So, poor puss cat could not sleep there anymore.

The next sleeping place I found him was in the lid of a wasgij puzzle that my sister gave us for Christmas. We have the puzzle set up on a card table in the lounge room, with all the bits in the box, but the cat has decided this is the next resting place for him. How are we ever to get the wasgij finished with him sleeping all over it.

By the way, I am still hand quilting my quilt. I have almost unpicked all of the machine quilting and requiled by hand, and I am much happier with it. There is something about hand quilting, I know it takes longer, but it is very theraputic.

WHAT A WEEK

Well, I am having trouble uploading photos today. I started trying this morning, at it is now 9.00 p.m. and I am still having trouble, so guess what, I give up. I will try again tomorrow.

What a week it has been with all the floods. Who whould believe that on the East side of Australia there would be water lying in peoples homes, from the top to the bottom of this great country. Especially, after the years of drought that we have had to cope with.

On Friday evening, I went out for a short walk and could not believe, that after days of rain here, there was dust following a car up our dirt road. How quickly the surface dries out.

I have been taking photos still, but just haven't got to upload them. We had some family sadness last Sunday night, and so life has just been a little busy this week, but with a bit of luck we will start to get back on track this week. And, tomorrow, I will try and upload my photos. One of them is of our cat in his latest sleeping hole. Why do they find some unusual places to sleep.

I have also been trying to be 'KIND TO MYSELF' this week, but it has been a little difficult, but I have tried and reminded myself from time to time. This week will be another start, or should I say a pick up where we left off.

See you soon, Marion.

I'M BACK

Well, one week in to the new year, and I have missed a couple of nights of uploading photos.
Yes, just for the sake of it, some more sunset photos. On Saturday night I was driving home from work, and I had picked my daughter up from a party, and this is the beautiful skyline we were driving into. Eleanor actually took this photo for me. Isn't it magic.

This, this was later in the night. One bright orange sunset. What is it about sunsets?

Then tonight I took this photo of our gateway. Last night we had some lovely rain, and the trees look absolutely so fresh.

Oh, and by the way, I am still hand quilting, and I have been given a reprieve on the timeline, which is so wonderful, as we have had a little stress in our family lives over the past couple of days. Thanks Danielle for being so understanding.

AND NOW I AM HAND QUILTING

Before I tell you about my quilting for the day, I just have to add another sunset photo I took tonight. It is quite warm outside, not that lovely cool breeze that we normally get. So, I was still KIND TO MYSELF and went for a 2km walk instead of a 3, 4 or 5kms. I figure a short walk is better than no walk.

Now, for the quilting. I got back on the machine today and quilted another block and a half, and decided I didn't like the quilting. I love the colour that I am using, but it is just too heavy on the cream, plus it shows up every little imperfect stitch, not that there are too many of them. lol.

So, I have decided to unpick the machine quilting that I have done and do it with hand quilting, which I am liking a whole lot better. I am just annoyed that I did not try the machine quilting earlier and then I would have been well and truely on with the hand quilting. Nevermind, every moment I have for the next few days I will be sitting with the fan infront of me, if it stays hot, and quilting. Wish me luck, I am on a timeline here.

QUILTING DAY AT LAST

Well, finally today I got to my quilting, so as you can probably guess there was not much else got done. I did have a little friend Tara join me for the day whilst I was quilting, so that was nice. She was finishing off a shaggy quilt. I will tell you more on that later. I am not off to get some meat onto the BBQ for tea and a salad made. See you tomorrow.

TO MARKET TO MARKET

Well, you just never know what I am going to take a photo of next are you. So much for the quilting today, I ended up going up to Ballarat Pig Market with my hubby. We took this load of piglets up there. Well, they are not quite piglets anymore, and they are not fully grown pigs.
So, that was the end of my quilting day, but never mind, I will get to it tomorrow and work twice as hard. Then back to it on Friday and some over the weekend and hey presto, hopefully it will be done.

MOTHER'S LOVE

Today's photo is of some beautiful roses that I picked to bring inside last night. They are off a rose that my girlfriend Kaye gave to me when my mother passed away in 1994. Sadly, Kaye passed away last year too, so these roses are very special to me. The name of the rose is "Mother's Love".

Well today I got myself into gear and I am all set up to start machine quilting a quilt tomorrow. It is my Simply Red quilt, but this one is in green and cream. So, guess what I will be doing tomorrow. I also baked some choc chip shortbread and a cinnamon tea cake, which the family have almost gobbled up already. Lucky I hid the choc chip shortbread.

Right now, "I AM GOING TO BE KIND TO ME", and take myself off for a walk

SUNSET ON THE 3RD JANUARY, 2011

This is the beautiful sunset that I had the pleasure of walking into tonight on my evening walk. Isn't it beautiful. You will get to see lot of sunset photos probably as I do love them, and love taking photos of them.

Today was another busy day, with some gardening, getting rid of some weeds followed by some mulching. After lunch I sat for a while and sorted some pieces of a jigsaw that we were given as a Christmas gift. After that, it was time to get the sewing machine out and have a practice run on a quilting design that I am going to put on a quilt.

Sadly, that had to go away as I had to get the dinner organised. Tonight I made Rich Lamb and Bacon Pies. They were quite delicious. Now, I have been for my walk and I will not be far off going to bed. Just have to cook some gift cards before I go to bed, but I do have to remember 'BE KIND TO MYSELF".

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED ON THE 2ND DAY OF THE NEW YEAR

Well today, I did some more cleaning of the back verandah. Yes, it was a bit grotty. Hubby got into the front verandah, so I wont have to do that one for a while. We had a lovely visit from Kelli a niece who lives in Wodonga. It is always great to see the kids and find out what they are up to. Earlier in the week we had a visit from two other nieces, Natalie and Ria, who live in Melbourne. Sadly, I had to rush off and leave her and go off to work, but I love my job and it is different every night. Tonight I did a little dancing with some of the residents.

The other thing I did today, was I managed to put two years worth of photos off my camera onto CDs. My cousin Rhonda will be so proud of me for doing this. It didn't take all that long, but it was just another job that I had to get around to doing. Well, now it is done.

Well, today I have managed to take another photo, and this is our Border Collie Kelpie cross called Kevin and his Mum, Lucky, is in the background. See, random photo every day

WELCOME TO 2011

Welcome top 2011. I am not sure what happened to 2010, but it is gone, and I hope that 2011 does not fly by so quickly. Have you made any New Years Resolutions. I haven't really, because usually by the end of the first week they are forgotten. I have made myself a promise though, and that is to 'BE KIND TO MYSELF". I am not sure how long that will last, but I will try and remind myself every morning when I get out of bed. The other thing that I decided that I might do this year, is to take a photo every day of something. Not sure why I decided to do that, but I will see how I go with that one too. Today I took a photo of the fabric that I am going to make my next quilt out of. It is just a sneek peek. Usually I have trouble giving my quilts a name but this one I have already decided that I am going to call it "Square Dance", without giving too much away.

We had a very quiet night here at home last night, and today I took down all the Christmas decorations and packed them away until the 1st December 2011.

Then I got the cleaning bug and made a start in cleaning our back verandah. After all of that and a bite for lunch I went into Colac and fed a friends poodles and watered some of their garden, then went and had a lovely coffee with my dear friend Heather, who is part of our family. I always say that she is my sister that I don't have here. I have two sisters, one lives in Port Macquarie and the other lives in Wagga Wagga, so Heather is my adopted sister who lives here. Then it was off to work at Corangamarah.

Well, if I am going to stick to what I say, and that is "BE KIND TO MYSELF", I think it is time to head off to bed. Goodnight all.