Melbourne back yard

I did a couple of these while I was in Melbourne, the other is on my other blog. It was warm and a bit sticky and I spent a while sitting out under the pergola watching the children in the pool. There is so much more that is not my sort of clutter any more that it wasnt hard to find things to sketch.
I spent a busy day clearing up and washing yesterday, still felt pretty tired and a bit off so I think I had some sort of tummy bug.
Not at all interesting. I finally got the Journal advert done for the ponies and sent away, which meant a hot trip into Victor.
I have fiished two books, The Friday night knitting club which I enjoyed but the one I really liked was Salvation Creek by Susan Duncan an Australian journalist. Now back to no time to read!

Train into the city

I have discovered how hard it is to sketch while on a melbourne train, the person next to you wants to talk!
This was attempting to get an idea of what the train looked like from my seat when iwent into the Quilt thingy on Friday, I see Wendy has drawn all sorts of things, I was too busy looking, chatting to Dale and Ian, and buying, and finding the crush of women and people a bit overpowering.
It was great to catch up with Dale and to actually choose what I wanted, and I bought quite a lot. Lovely to see Dales quilts and to see the ATC's in reality.
About 2 1/2 hours was all I could manage so back to find my way on the train home.
I had a lovely time but fell in a heap on Sunday when I threw up and felt miserable, not what one should do to ones children.
Will catch up a bit more on this later.

From my bed

I thought I should do something in the sketch line for this blog today andwhat better than this one, what I see when I am sitting up in bed in the morning when John brings by tea and toast in.
I really shouldnt have the iron and ironing board set up in there but its about the only place in this cluttered house to put it. In early spring the camellia outside the window looks lovely with the flowers peeping in. Sometimes the blue wrens tap on the window as well.
I am packing today to go to Melbourne tomorrow, not sure what to take, could be warm to hot and sultry.
My back is still killing me, I think what I had done yesterday was rather more than needed.
I have washed, ironed and tidied today as well as feeding ponies and am about to walk the dogs.
I have finished the First Lady, a good read.

A bit more feather stitch

I was playing with different things to do with the painted brown paper and this was a bit left over to I re painted some off cuts with Stewart Gill paints and embellished them onto the paper and then feather stitched over the top. the actual bit looks better than the scan.
I am heading off to Melbourne on thursday to see the grand children and my son and his wife. Looking foreward to it but I hope my back is better as I have been to the physio again today and it is at the moment rather sore.After yesterdays long and extremely hot day in Adelaide I felt pretty flat today any way.
I did manage a short beach walk to unwind after the physio, he is such a nice young man but gosh I feel old, he is so young!

Embellished piece

I am not sure I like this, it was really trying to see what would happen when I put some stuff on to a piece of the paper I had left over from the bookcover. It worked well but wasnt quite what I had in mind. At least I know that I can embellish onto paper that has been painted etc. It started out as just ordinary brown paper. Maybe some stitching would help.
Considerably cooler by lunch time after a real stinker of a night and early morning.
This afternoon we went in for a walk at about 4 and a coffee. The sea was wonderfully calm considering the wind we have had all day, but then it was a northerly which calms the sea in this area.

Book Cover

I had to go into Victor this afternoon and the car was saying the outside temperature was between 42 and in some places 44 degrees. Awful.
I made the brown paper for this cover months ago but decided to finish it today so backed it onto felt, embellished one of my little houses on the front and hand stitched it up as it is much cooler in the sitting room sitting under an air con vent than in my work room with only a fan. Another of my Playways Module 4 bits finished.
This weather is so damaging and another day like it tomorrow, although probably stickier as they are talking about thunderstorms in some areas and a cooler (down to 33 degrees) change later tomorrow.
I get up early to try and water and feed the ponies, I feed them late as it is too hot to go outside. Bring on Autumn.

Feather Stitch

It has been awfully hot and sticky s o I have been sitting quietly and stitching, in between visits to the physio and the shopping that had to be done. I seem to have a bit of a roundness to this stitch when i do it but i do like it and use it a lot. I hadnt tried doing the wide variation before but it was fun.
I walked this evening and came in so sticky from the humidity I had little flying insects drinking my sweat. Yuk.
Worse tomorrow, 40 degrees and our air con doesnt work all that well, the fans help a bit. Probably a day to do very little.
I made some tyvek beads today too to put on my 3 D vessel I have made, pretty pleased as the colour matches well.
We also have new mobile phones, our old ones were so old but so simple, these do so many things I am terrified of them.

The da Vinci Machines

These photos are not brilliant but give a bit of an idea of the wonderful models that are presently on display in the Museum. We left there and almost immediatly we were hit on the side of the car by a light truck, just more damage to the bit the kangaroo damaged and the door as well this time. I have a sore neck and shoulders and was probably in shock, came home feeling very precious. I am glad John was driving but oh heck didnt need this to happen.

Yesterday at Goolwa

I finished off this sketch with a bit of paint this morning. It is warming up again and I came in feeling very hot and bothered after feeding the ponies.
It was done at the Hindmarsh Island marina, a lucky couple going out for a few hours on the river.
I havent done a lot today apart from washing and cleaning but I have had a few minutes to hand sew together my vessel for "Playways", this is a 3 dimensional fabric one, not a boat! Made from layers and 'stuff' great fun to do but now I have to think of a clever way to finish it.
Tomorrow Adelaide and see my mother and have hair cuts, later in the day which will be interesting.

A wonderful morning

This morning John had a meeting in Goolwa so I got up early and fed the two mares who always nicker at me that they are hungry, my two old ones, and then we went over to Goolwa and I went wandering down to look at boats, see the sights, wander the town and finally walk along the beach, magic. It was such a lovely day.
When John finally rang to say he was ready I was still on the beach but collected him 10 minutes later, back to Victor where we had a coffee and a baguette at our favorite eating place and home. I had bought a black cotton voile top to wear over bathers, a yummy necklace, some offcuts of curtains to use with the embellisher and some thread.
My youngest daughters 15th Birthday today so raced the half hour over to her place to give her her present, collected one of my grandsons off the bus as his mother was collecting his father from the plane, he had delivered my oldest grand daughter to Armidale in NSW where she is going to the University doing science.
I have also just bought tickets to go to Melbourne next week, I will go to the Quilt show and visit with grands. Whew.

Algerian Eye stitch finshed

This is my finished sampler of Algerian eye stitch that I had up yesterday, I quite enjoyed doing it and played with beads and things tonight. I think it looks nicer than in the scan.
We had a great dinner party last night, sat outside and ate good food, lovely wine and lots of chat.
Glad it was last night because this morning we woke to drizzle, wind and cold. Not much in the drizzle infact by the time I walked tonight the ground was dry and the wind very cold.
After doing the dishes and feeding all the ponies I had a quiet day as I was tired.
Thrilled to hear that my little Welsh Mountain pony Rivington Victoria for the third year running won the leading rein at the very prestigious Horse of the year Show today, photos are apparently coming.

Algerian Eye Stitch

This is my work in progress using Algerian Eye stitch for Sharonb's Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge. I had thought it looked a bit boring and as my sampler is being worked on a small piece of felt it doesnt work all that well with something that is used on counted stitch. Any way it is still in progress but this is what I have done. Another new stitch for me but I did like working it over sequins as that gave me a hole to work in to. I also liked using varying stitch lengths to make stars and flowers.
A busy week and not a lot of time to hand stitch but I grabbed an hour this afternoon to sit as we have people for dinner tonight.

Wonderful wools

Yes I knit but these were being thrown out at Spotlight yesterday and they are just a few off the odd balls I bought to use with my embellisher. Only one ball each but made in Italy and some yummy colours and textures. I think the average price was $2 as against about $7. The scanner doesnt really show the colours.
I had a flat out day yesterday as John and I went to Adelaide, after I was up at 6 am to feed ponies, and I was to see my mother but for the 3rd time in 7 months she is down with a tummy wog and I wasnt allowed to see her, not happy and rather depressed (hence the retail therapy).
A longish day in town and a lot of driving, thank goodness for Paddy who gave me coffee and time to chat.
Home to shop as people for dinner tomorrow night and then out again to a noisy cheap eatery that I had never been to before to farewell Nell my oldest grand daughter who is off to Armidale university, she and her father left early this morning for the long drove to central NSW. I hope she does well and enjoys it. She has been home for a year working ponies and I will miss having her around and about even if she doesnt say much.

Base fabric

This is a small piece of my base fabric for a three dimensional vessel, lots of layers and stamping and embossing and xandaprint, I had lots of fun. I am still trying to work out the shape of the vessel.
Felt pretty tired today after yesterday, I think too much wine was drunk.
Not helped by half the dairy herd getting into the garden and orchard at 4 am. What a mess.
Today it is cooler and I have been watering the pots, a small black snake by the back door, John reported it and I had wondered why all the little blue wrens had come to look and carry on, so far I havent seen it and hope it has moved on.
Tomorrow is Adelaide and a visit to my mother.

48 Years ago

This is our 48th wedding anniversary,hard to believe but that sticky eared fellow and that skinny girl are still married, a bit fatter, he has a beard, but its still us. Happy Anniversary John and may there be many more.
I remember my father giving me a lecture about how marraige was for life and waking up on my wedding morning and thinking"Life!" how long was that, well through thick and thin we are still together and still enjoying each other.

Wireform and fabric

This is another of my Playways on the net samples for Module 4, manipulated fabric with wire form enclosed in it, zapped and hand stitched. More fun than I thought it would be. I did zap right through the fabric at one place but you can see the wire mesh. today I have been playing with more fabric making,layers of "stuff' and then xandaprint and paint. Not sure how it is looking but fun to do.
Much much cooler here today, but very windy so back to winter clothes, well not quite but a bit that way.
Made a mess of my walking painting, too over confident. ah well.

Goddesses

I have had the little base for this doll made but not fully stuffed or stitched up for about 3 years! Could be longer. I had a yen to play with some polymer clay and make faces so I did a few over the week end, then painted them. Yesterday in the heat I put head, hair and ear rings on and today I made a little cloak on the embellisher for her. She is not finished yet but nearly there.
As a doll maker who hasnt made a doll for ages I feel quite pleased with this and may make a few more, somehow I always like small and rather primitive dolls, although I can and have made some pretty up market ones in my day.
The red on the back is a feather I found on the work room floor and wondered if it would stay on, it did.
Adelaide is apparently stinking hot but we have been cool all day with clouds over the sea slowly coming in. Thank goodness as yesterday was not nice. A friend rang to say it was awful in Adelaide and John who is up there for meetings also rang to tell me how horrid it was. I felt quite smug for a change.

EDM Challenge 104 salt and pepper shaker

This incredible thing actually is a salt and pepper shaker, given to me by a dear friend who thought I would see the funny side. So kitch I love it, a frog and presumably unfolded lily flower on a lily leaf. All my other ones are very boring so I had fun sketching these. Then trying to match the colours in paint.
I see on the computer weather page that it is 41 degrees in Adelaide, a bit cooler here but not much.
I am inside not doing a lot while John is off fishing.I got everything done very early this morning knowing it was going to be hot, the air is coolest over John's computer so I have been looking at various blogs etc, havent had much time to do that for a while.

Chevron Stitch

This is another of Sharonb's TAST stitches. I have never done this before and it shows. It is pretty wonky but at least I have tried various ways of doing it so another page of my sampler is done.
Very hot today a walk along the beach but then I sat up until late watching Robert Redford in a movie and tried to work this stitch out. An awful lot of unpicking went on but I think I have a fair idea of how it works.

mistletoe flowers

John brought these in for me the other day and I took a photo, ( he does still bring me flowers!) he said that the particular tree had taken them from had three different varieties of mistletoe flowering on it. The mistletoe birds must have been busy, they are lovely bright coloured little birds and we dont see them often but there is a lot of mistletoe around so I think they are there.
It was hard to get the flowers with the ends and stamens to show up. I think the little horseshoe honeyeaters probably get the nectar from the long narrow flowers.
Another night of broken sleep but this time because we were expecting a pony to arrive at about 10 pm and he didnt get here until 2 am, the driver spent the night as he was so tired.
Heating up a lot today and it is very uncomfortable, you just get used to pleasant weather and then another burst of heat hits. The hoses in the garden are back on.

Little houses

Oh I love these little houses, One is finished and the the two need some hand embroidery. Done on the embellisher, I broke a needle today and then couldnt find the how to book, I have now thank goodness.
These are like the ones Dale has been making and I love them,I have a few ideas on how to use them.
A bit tired as I was up half the night with cramps in the legs,one of those things that are sent to try you, so I wasnt as with it as I had hoped I would be. I really wanted to get on with my bit of Module 4 using wire mesh but couldnt get my head around it so left it and embellished instead.
I went into Victor with John today and painted by the river again while he did some jobs, getting hotter and stickier again. My lawn mowing fellow came today and couldnt get over the amount of grass that has grown, I have had to put on a few hoses again, amazing how dry it all gets.