Post card and inchies

I dont think that I have put this up before, It was the playways challenge for a postcard with inchies attached, this is what I did, not that the swap has happened yet as I think Dale is off to Broome.
I had fun doing it and they are not really colours I use a lot although I am getting more used to these deep reds etc.
A wet cold day today, we had over 17 mm of rain.
Yesterday was the opening of the new counil buildings with the Governor, very interesting and nice to be included. The funny thing was looking at the photos covering the 10 years John was Mayor and he went from quite dark and youthful to very grey and well older!!
The new Council building is very impressive and has lots of space and room and includes the library, but now there seem to be talks of council amalgamations with the three councils, again!
So what then happens to the building?

Sunset and sunrise at Coffin Bay.

I only just managed to get the sunset in the first photo as I saw it and raced in for the camera and got the last bit. John took the sunrise, he came racing down stairs and demanded the camera, unfortunatly he got the house over the road as well but it was spectacular, his was taken from the second story mine from ground level.
I spent all of yesterday washing, shopping and generally getting things sorted out after the very long, 8 hours driving, nearly 10 hours from when we left to when we actually got home after an hour for lunch and then collecting the cat, the mail and the food for the night and morning. Very very tiring when you take into account the two hours packing and cleaning before we left and the time unpacking when we got home.
A wonderful few days but it all went so quickly but also lovely to get home to rain and green grass, the place looks fantastic as it has only just started to get cold and the seeded paddocks look wonderful.
In the mail were two great books too, Dale Rollerson's book on embellishment using the embellishing machine and Ruth Issett's book, Colour on Cloth which I was lucky enough to source through Amazon.

TAST crossed buttonhole stitch

I think this looks very messy, I think I preffered the one on a curve. I have never done this stitch before and it was interesting but i couldnt get my lines straight.
It has been wet and cold and windy for the last few days, a few good breaks for walks but good weather for playing inside.
this was the first day the fellows didnt go out in the boat but went off the beach and got a few fish.
Mary and I went down to the market which was quite interesting and I bought a knitted tam.
I dont want to leave but the long drive home tomorrow.

some of the wildlife

On my morning walks this is some of the wild life I have encountered, the shags always sit on these rocks at the end of this rocky outcrop, and the kangaroos are on a vacant block next door.
My knees after two long walks are not liking me at all so I think I may be going to do a short one this afternoon.
We were part of the biggest morning tea in aid of cancer yesterday at the Coffin Bay hall, lots of money raised for such a small community. I bought a knitted hat at auction.
Blogger wouldnt let me post last night, it is difficult working on the computer on top of a bedside cabinet, I cant get close enough and it is the only place we get a signal.
Today we go shopping in Pt Lincoln as we have guests for dinner tonight.
Not much fish came ashore yesterday as although it was a lovely sunny day the wind was still in the wrong direction, and could be for the rest of the week end and then rain is forecast for next week. We will head home on Monday.

More Coffin Bay photos

The first one is taken along the inside bay and the second one along the cliff top walks that I do in the morning. Not that the cliffs are very high, just big enough to make it awkward to get down to the little beaches.
I walked across to the begining of the sandy beach in the background this morning, but it was very overcast and just as I had hung the fishy clothes on the line it poured with rain. Murphys law.
We are having a peaceful time visiting a friend for coffee, walking, sewing, knitting or painting. Very pleasant.

Coffin Bay Angels

This is the little cushion cover that I had finished embroidering the appliques to in the last few days.
Today I did an early morning walk and walked further than usual. then we went into Pt Lincoln to shop and had a lovely time wandering around, found the patchwork shop and then did some food shopping and went searching op shops and finally found a tea pot and a jug and I got another chiffon scarf.
Went up to visit friends in their new house in a retirement village, lovely spot and well set out little house.

TAST 20 Butterfly chain stitch

Today it blew a gale and rained and rained, the undies on the line nearly blew away.
I walked early being battered by the rain and wind and spent the rest of the day inside by the fire sewing and watching the oyster boats go rushing past in huge amounts of spray.
The fellows didnt get any decent fish today but enough to eat. Must go crumbing!

Coffin Bay images

I took these early this morning on my walk along the Oyster walk, wet, cold, windy, lovely, fire lit and doing embroidery, two walks today and generally very relaxed.

Coffin Bay

this is a view from the holday house we are in at Coffin Bay.
A long tiring trip yesterday. so we have relaxedtoday and it has been a bit wet too. the fellows went fishing and so we have fish for dinner.

Figure sketching

I did these last week while i was sitting by the Torrens, trying to get people, still not good at them.
A rushed few days and then we are off to Coffin Bay fishing for the fellows, me, I am going to walk, relax, sew, knit and sketch.
Probably eat and drink too much.
I saw my mother today and she was well and looked fine, although asleep in front of the tv when I first got there.
A day full of deadlines and i am glad to be home. Yesterday I cooked biscuits, something I dont do often any more, to take away. I cant find my special cake recipe so am about to search again.
I have finished Mary's bracelet, I did that last night at beading.
As I drove in last night I wondered what all the flashing lights I could see were as it was a clear night at home with no cloud, I thought emergency vehicle, but no there was a massive thunderstorm all the way around Victor but a fair way off when I got over the hill and it was the lightening I could see.

TAST Basque stitch

Late as usual. I had a lovely time doing this stitch this evening, after i got the hang of it and liked going around in circles.
I did another early morning walk after the showers had stopped, my knees dont like me but at least I am fresher. the dogs think I am mad.
I am trying to get together a few things to take away with me when we go to Coffin Bay on Friday, paints, knitting and some embroidery. The lap top is going but I dont know if 3G works over thereJohn is even talking about taking the printer/scanner as he will have some work to do on the drought application.
The weather could be wet so the scrabble and a jigsaw puzzle is going in too, we have always been very lucky with the weather but this year could be the wet one.
I actually bought some clothes today, a red jumper as black is not available, a red sleeveless jerkin and a striped skivvy. You wont be able to miss me.

Granite Island

I took these photos early yesterday morning on my walk over to the Island, a tourist in my own town again.
Today was mothers day and I had an early walk at home up behind the house disturbing 4 kangaroos, and then disturbing them again as I found them at the top of the hill. John worked out that my walk was about 2 kms. Much further than I thought.
We went for lunch today and had a pleasant meal, all the children rang and I had a very nice day.
Well I was tagged on this blog and now I have been tagged on my other blog as well. I will have to think about that. I couldnt think of anyone to tag on this blog, most people seem to have been already, but the sketching blog, well I dont know.

Greedy Goddess bag and bracelet

This is a very bad scan of our Greedy Goddess bag we made last week end, i cant believe it was last week end I seem to have not stopped.
I seem to be on a roll with making bracelets but I have had a few Birthdays and they are fairly fast to do. I love this one which is a spiral rope with shells and pearls.
I went into Victor this morning to get the papers and to go and see if i could get a black wool jumper, well I was in there at 9 am and the shop didnt open until 10 (so stupid as there were tourists off a bus and half the shops were closed!) so I walked across the causeway to Granite Island and back, did a couple of other things and when I got there, oh yes the new jumpers were in in every colour EXCEPT black!! Not my day.

My goddess bracelet.

I made this yesterday, I was given the little Goddess for my Birthday last year and have been slow in getting her onto something but yesterday this was born.
I have been tagged by both Doreen and Dy, so many have been tagged lately I feel that I will not tag any one as you have all been "done" so to speak.
Seven things about myself
1 I met John when I was 15, married him at 19 and have been married for 48 years, so marrying a farmer is good (most of the time!) I came from a city academic family (father professor of Botany, held me in good stead over the years!)
2 I breed Welsh ponies and Cobs and have done so for over 35 years, many have been Supreme of Show over the years, I am an Honorary life Member of the Australian Welsh Pony and Cob Society and have been their President.
3 All of my early married life we snorkelled and scuba dived, we camped on remote beaches with our 4 children and friends and I collected shells.
4 I have been a snow skier for many many years both in Australia, New Zealand and Europe.
5 I started sewing when I was first married, sewed and knitted for the children as we had no money. Gave it up and then began making cloth dolls, went to America twice having lessons and had many lessons by top doll artists over the years, from there I began an interest in textiles, no beading first, while in America, then textiles and going to Textile forums, started doing Dale Rolleson's Playways on the net (over the last 4-5 years). I still make dolls but much more way out ones than I once did.
6 I have a large garden(2 acres) and was in the Open Garden Scheme here in Australia for 2 years, but it is getting a bit beyond me now (arthritis in the knees etc, all that skiing, diving and horse riding!)
7 We still live on the farm I still take an active interest in the ponies and what is going on, walk daily and try to sketch daily, I didnt take up the sketching until about 4 years ago, until then I thought it was beyond me.
I think that is more than enough about me, although I could tell lots more!

alien landscape

This is done on a piece of panne velvet with painted vliesofix over the top, then burnt with the soldering iron and some organza burnt on to that, some foils added, a chiffon scarfe, a hot glue gun figure and some hand stitching.
I thought it was a bit of fun.
Adelaide tomorrow John has an early meeting and I will see my mother.
I did the weekly shopping today, my bill seems to be a lot higher at the moment, I guess the drought is kicking in with prices of fresh veg and meat.

Bleached velvet

These are a couple of bits of cotton velvet that we bleached using cheap rubber stamps and household bleach. We did sort of neutralise the bleach with a rinse of vinegar. I dont know how long these would last but the effect was lovely. I think one I will do some more embellishing on, and one will go into my samples book.
Cool and damp feeling today although no actual rain. I have finished the washing and vacuumed and dusted the house, the numbers of small dead flies was amazing, with the damp and warmish weather they have been breading up around the calves, disgusting.

Book pages

We are adding pages to a book of the techniques we have done during our week ends. these are two of mine, a few more to be finished. the first is my mixed media piece roughly taken from Bery Taylors book using various things and the second was rose petals sandwhiched between vliesofix and then fiddled with with a stamped saying across the centre which you cant see very well. I made a mess of the stitching on top so more or less saved it with some threads.
I am tidying the house today, getting stuff put away. John has meetings again and I have walked this morning, all looking fresh and green after a bit more rain and the sown paddocks showing where the seeds have germinated. Washing on and I have beading tonight so something we can grab in a hurry for dinner, probably a casserole.

TAST whipped and woven stitches

I quite like the whipped but wasnt too good on the woven stitches. Not something that I think I would use a lot of but interesting to do. I thought this looked like some sort of galaxy!

Grumpy womens week end, Mambray Creek

I am home, a five hour drive from
Mambray Creek to home some through drizzle in Adelaide, and home to cold and wet. Which is good as we need more rain. So do our friends at Mambray Creek. I took these photos while I was having my early morning walks, and didnt take a photo of the mad mob who was there, so busy creating! The number varied but up to 7 women on any one day.
It looks very green, and the red in the background is the colour of the ploughed earth. The shadows were really longer than I thought and I kept on meaning to go and take photos in the afternoon but somehow the days got away from us.
Not long enough, on Friday we drove up and then started making our greedy goddess bags, out of all things pet mesh which I had to get from Bunnings ( a large hardware store) who thought I was quite mad. Any way the bag was fun to make but I was up until after midnight, far too late for this e...... lady!
Next day we were really into creating and designing "stuff" from various books etc, I taught silk paper, then some one else did rose petals under vleisofix, I showed what you could do with a hot glue gun and making designs on both stamps and baking paper, then colouring them with acrylic paints and rub ons. Etching into velvet with a soldering iron and attaching synthetics. I really cant remember how many things we did.
Out to the local little pub for dinner and the locals had to put up with a gaggle of women in masks. I think they quite enjoy this yearly upheavel of their quiet little pub. The food was excellent too, Pt Germein you did us proud.
Sunday we stamped on velvet with bleach and had a lot of fun, I showed how to melt nappy liners, Wendy made tyvek bubble and how to make beads, We fitted so much in and it was great.

water water

I have just come back from my evening walk with the dogs and we went down to the creek and dam that is our biggest supplier of water and this is what we found, overflowing dam, water chuckling and gurgling, frogs croaking crickets singing and as I walked back I took the photo of the sky, with more rain about to begin.
After such a dreadfully long dry period this is music for the soul.

ATC and inchies

I made this atc and the inchies to take up to the Grumpy week end, I am not sure if my inchies are quite finished, I think they need a small something else. Amazing how many inches you get out of a not very big bit of fabric!
the atc has a hot glue shape (hot glue drizzled onto baking paper in a vague shape) painted and then treasure gold over the top, supposed to represent a woman but she doesnt look very grumpy. Quite the reverse.
Absolutely pouring with rain at the moment and howling winds over night. This is Australia, drought one minute and wet the next. Not helping the stock at all who were in not such good condition due to the drought but at least we have paddocks seeded so hope for grass. Mud will be the next problem. I find I am standing under the shower and enjoying it instead of rushing in and then out again. I actually hope the creeks flood, then we know we are recharging the underground water.

Rivington Sunsilk

This is the Welsh B filly who was Supreme Welsh at our foal show over the weekend.
she shows all the promise her much older sister has, Her sister Sunday has been many times Supreme Champion. We have waited a long time for another filly like this to come along.
A nasty windy day at the moment, I am going to beading tonight so am getting this done a bit early.
Tired after yesterday's time in Adelaide.