Up date on my craft room

I have cleaned and reaaranged the craft room and thanks to Pinterest have been busy making crafty things for this room. See if you can spot some of the things that I have done.  I still don't have the extra table I need so I'm still moving my sewing machine to the kitchen table along with my craft mat and bits and pieces. This means that if I'm expecting anyone I have to put everything away.   I can't find a table that is the same height as the table that I have my computer on.   Everything I have found is either to tall or too long, I will keep looking, I'm sure I'll find something eventually.  I can't use all the space in this room, because it is used by my grandchildren when they stay.  As you can see by the photo the cupboard also needs more shelving, or maybe an extra tidy.  I'll paint the brown bookshelves white over the summer months so these will look as good as the new shelves.

View from my window

My bedroom is at the front of the house and across the street from my window there is parkland, so every morning when I wake up, I look out at trees and parkland instead of what could have been someones elses house.   This morning it was windy and  while I was  lying in my bed watching the branches and leaves blowing around I was day dreaming.  The council has told  the local residents  they have a six year plan to develop the area with garden beds, more trees and a bigger playground.  Some of the area will be set aside for tennis courts and maybe a football field and exercise course.  While I am looking forward to what this will bring to the now empty space I am also aware it will mean more traffic to this area. I'm hoping it will become a busy happy place.

Stars for Connor

One of my young grandsons, Connor, asked me if I could make him a starry quilt.  After looking through all my magazines for stars, I came across Peaceful Stars by Erica Johnstone and Petra Davies in Patchwork and Quilting Vol.12 No6.   I decided to hand piece this quilt so I could take it with me when I went to craft morning.  I finished all the blocks early this year and have put them together,  I can't decide whether to add another border, Connors mum asked me not to make it too large,  I think it might need a small border though.  I will have to shop for the backing because I used it for another project, but am undecided, blue or red.   I don't like to quilt the childrens quilts, I send them off to be quilted on a long arm machine, they get so much wear and tear I think they need it.  Hope to have this one finished very soon.

So much has happened

This is the first time since my last blog that I have had time to sit at the computer and put into words what has been happening.  Where to start, probably, with helping my daughter pack her things to move house, I had spent a few days during the week wrapping and boxing her things for her move.   Then last Thursday when she picked up the keys to her new house I said,  "why don't we just take a few boxes around and have a look at the house".   Before the day was over we had moved almost everything but the washing machine, the outdoor furniture and Deacon's swingset into the new house.  I have to say that if my son had not arrived with his trailer this would not have happened,  I'm not strong enough anymore to move furniture but the two of them did a great job. I was so exhausted moving boxes I can only imagine how tired they were.   On Friday night  I attended the Vietnam Veterans Long Tan dinner dance  it was a lovely night, the food was really good, the entertainment not so good but we still had a good time.   My daughter rang Saturday morning to say she had no power,  it had been on when we moved her things in but was turned off  during the afternoon.  Her and Deacon had stayed at her girlfriends on Friday night while it was sorted.  Well, it wasn't sorted, no, it would'nt be connected untill Tuesday.   They stayed with me over the weekend.   Friends that had moved into the mud brick house I spoke of a couple weeks ago organised a house-warming get together of old friends on Saturday afternoon, it was so good to see everyone together after so long. We laughed so much during the day that my ribs were sore for a few hours after I came home, the afternoon became evening and the bbque was lit for dinner, it was quite late when I arrived home, very full and happy.  We have promised each other that we will do this again.   Tuesday afternoon I noticed something at the door as I drove into the garage.  What a surprise,  there was a bunch of flowers on the step, they were from my daughter and grandson to thank me for being a wonderful mum and grandma and for all my help.  So lovely.

Winter melancholy

This is the wettest winter that we have had in sixteen years, unfortunately along with the rain is the overcaste miserable, dreary days.  The kind of days when you just want to stay in bed where it is warm or sit on the lounge wrapped in a quilt and knit, crochet, hand piece or just watch the Olympics on the television.  I am deffinately not a winter person, I always feel a little melancholy over these cold and wet months and look forward to the first sunshine of spring.  While at my daughters a couple of weeks ago she received flowers, after answering a knock at the door to a person delivering a large bunch of beautiful red roses she was excited to see they were from her partner who was at work and thinking of her.  That made me think that I miss those little surprises of unexpected gifts.  It has been a long time since I received flowers, except when I've been ill or in hospital.  These roses were so beautiful that I took a photo of them and now have them as a screen saver on my computer, I can look at them during the day and they make me feel good.  I can't wait till my roses are in bloom and the rest of the garden is alive with colour.  Hurry up Spring

Kitchen Compost bin

Since deciding to compost all my kitchen scraps,  I've been looking for something more appropriate and nicer to look at than the ice-cream container that sits on my bench.  While shopping in KMart last week I came across a very cute compost bucket that has a lift out liner, so much more attractive than what I have been using.  The price of $8 was also very nice,  there are also peg bins and containers for the laundry sink in the same range.

Still Juicing

My daughter asked me yesterday if I was still juicing, the answer to that would be yes. The decision to add fresh vegetable and fruit juices to my diet was made over the New Year after reading about all the benefits that can be gained from including raw foods and juice in our diet.  Then I saw the documentary "Fat sick and nearly dead" with Joe Cross and my mind was made up that this was what I would do.  It wasn't untill my birthday though, when my kids bought me a Juice Fountain that I started.   I should say that the reason for me wanting to do this began after I was diagnosed with Addisons Desease, after being ill and so thin for such a long time I suddenly gained a lot of weight, 1kg a week, as this piled on I began to wonder if and when it would stop. For a shortie like me 68kg's was very scary, especially as the other side of this desease is Cushings Desease and I didn't want to go there.  I have one juice every morning, if for some reason I miss this I have a juice at night, and for the rest of the day I try to eat well. This morning my juice consisted of Silverbeet, celery, carrot, capsicum, apple, lemon, cucumber small piece of ginger and a kiwi fruit.

I stood my ground

Today I went back to Target to claim the pillowcases that were offered as a replacement to the missing pillowcase from the quilt set I purchased on Tuesday.  I was told I would have to pay $7 for them, well I did'nt think this was fair and stated my case, the manager was called,  managers are very young these days, or am I getting very old.  Anyway back to the story, I stood my ground but she was just as determined and long story short I have paid $5 for the pillowcases that are the same colour as the ones I had already purchased. I have made the bed with the new linen and I will now be looking for a green decorator cushion to lift the soft look.  I also bought fabric for the drapes, Spotlight was having a sale 50% off the tagged price, so I'll be busy next week sewing drapes for the windows in this room, a few more little details and the room will be finished. 

Crocheted blanket

With my craft room all clean and sorted, apart from the new table, I'm ready to finish a couple of quilts that have been sitting in the "waiting to be completed basket".  In the meantime while I've  been watching some of the Olympic games on the television I have been crocheting a blanket  my mum had started before she passed away.  Mum had only crocheted a ten inch square and looking through the wool that was left in her box I knew there wouldn't be enough to go much further,  I would have to purchase more if this was going to be a decent size.  Luckily I was able to find what I needed at my local craft store,  some balls of  Sirdar Snuggly called  "Kisses" in beautiful soft greens, blues and cream just perfect.  I was a little shocked at the $8 per 50gram balls cost but I'm sure this will beautiful when finished.