In willunga today

John had a meeting in Willunga this afternoon so I came with him. It has some lovely old buildings and some have slate ties on their roofs and slate floors as there is a slate quarry near by.
I hobbled up and down the street, hobbled as my hip is misbehaving and took photos and looked in the shops.
In the Save the Children op shop I found these scarves, a silk one and a polyester chiffon one to use in my textile stuff. so I was very pleased about my little outing.

A commision

I made this small bag ages ago for my Thread Studio Playways project and someone at painting class saw it and asked if I would make her one.
trouble is I know that the way I did the lining came out of a magazine, probably the whole idea did but can I find it? I was sure it was in an Australian machine embroidery mag but I havent found that one.
I hope I can work it out as I think the sides of both the lining and the bag were sewn first and then the top edges and then turned through. Any help would be great.
A depressing day yesterday, my mother in one of her I want to go home and I hate it here but I dont have a home days. It is so awful and she insists she can look after herself, which she cant and she cant even come down and stay with me as this house would be a death trap for her. She doesnt realise she forgets things. Oh what do we have to look forward to!!

Champion of Champion's Leading Rein Pony Rivington Victoria

Yesterday we took out the Champion of Champion's Leading rein pony of the year for I think the 2nd or third time. The pony is our Rivington Victoria ridden this year by Maddie Pagan and with handler my daughter Sarah Barker. Photo is a bit grainy but it has been emailed through from Maddie's mother.
It is always a huge thrill to have something you have bred do something like this, and reserve to her was another pony we bred and sold on Rivington Hyalin so doubly sweet.

Australia Day in Victor Harbor

Not the best photos but these are of our Mayor Mary Lou Corcoran and the first is with her son who wanted a bit of the action too, then our Australia Day citizen of the year Bert Puxley and the third of our young citizen of the year Kate McKenzie.
A great early morning, cool thank goodness and with a quite large crowd having a breakfast of sausages and the town band playing its best. The background for all this is our Horse Tram Barn which my husband was instrumental in getting done when he was Mayor.
We went for a coffee afterwards and then home to feed the ponies as well as the chooks as Sarah and the girls are off to a horse show, finally after months of no shows and of course it is the big one, Champion of Champions so we can only hope they do well.
I have done nothing much for the rest of the say as I was so tired, someone said a week of painting should be fun, I found it a lot of hard work.
We are out to dinner tonight with a recipient of todays Australia Day honors so that will be great, old friends and a very worthy person to get his AO.

Tome page 5

More Tome pages, this was the fat lady and beading and was great fun to do.
Another day at painting class, today it was faces and if you look at he other blog you will see what I did, when I get it up.
No time for anything but painting, although we had the Tour Down Under day 3 finish here today, but we were all too busy to go and see it.
Still cool and pleasant down here thank goodness.

Tome page 3 stitched collage

Here is Tome page three which is a stitch collage, I remember enjoying doing this one.
I have had a busy few days and trying to get my watercolour right has not been easy.
By about 2 I want to go to sleep, we are starting at 9.30 and finishing around 4 so it is a long day.
We went out to dinner at Tab's last night and I had a cuddle of Millie before she went to bed. I cant believe she is almost 3 months old.

Patti Culea's Tome 2

I am so busy this week with my watercolour lessons so I am placing these up, they are Tome 2 back and front, with photo transfers of me at various stages of my life and some beading. the back are not my little people, the cat was from my friend Wendy and the doll from Kate so bring back great memories.
A more difficult day today but I got there and it is wonderful having these lessons.
there will be a painting on my other blog later.

Still life, tonal

Today was our first lesson with Lorraine Lewitzka, well known local artist and prize winner in our local Rotary Art show.
I have been taught by Lorraine before and know how good she is, and I need the going back to basics that she began with today. I am lucky if I get a class a year so to have 5 days is wonderful.
A still life done first in graphite pencil and then we painted it with the use of washes.
This is the first tonal sketch.
Only one other lass there that I knew from other painting classes and a couple I new of I had sold a pony to one many years before!
Much cooler again today which is great although it will heat up by the end of the week.

Kings Beach walk

We were up early yesterday morning and walked before it got too hot and sticky. this has to be my favorite walk and I have dozens of photos in a book taken at different times of the year. to get to it you walk along the cliff top and look down on a small sandy beach with what is thought to be an aboriginal fish trap at one end. That is the third photo and the last one is of the Bluff from the other side.
It always clears my head and makes me feel so good after I have been there and to come home yesterday to the news of another pony death was a bit devastating.
We went to the pictures last night, I had been wanting to see Death At a Funeral but was really disappointed in it, over acted, poor story line and not awfully funny.
Today we had some drizzle this morning and it wasnt much but enough for me to not put on the hoses. I also had to do the pony feeds, havent done them for ages.
It is much cooler so John has been blowing all the leaves away outside and I have been painting tyvek, vliesofix and placing scraps on stuff to make a box. Nothing to show for it yet as nothing is finished.
As I do a week of watercolour painting lessons starting tomorrow I have been getting together what gear I have that I need. I was going to get more in Adelaide when I was supposed to go but now I hope there is stuff at the gallery to buy. I am a bit short on paper.

Front cover of my Tome and bantam chicks

I scanned the front cover of my Tome which is Patti Culea's fabric book of various methods of textile stuff but I think I will have to take photos as it hasnt come out at all well.
I am cheating on a few pages as we are supposed to do one a month but as I have already done some I am using it as an incentive to get them all done.
Today we lost another little welsh mountain mare, Rivington Delight was found dead by the dam with her 4 month old colt foal not very happy. As the dam is at the top of the swamp we are pretty sure this was snake bite as well.
With a heap of small white mares you dont always count to see they are all there and the dam was not in full view.
I cant believe this has happened, we never lose mares unless they are very old and then we put them down. Two and the superstitious bit of me says who will be the 3rd.
I have heard tell that there are a lot of snakes around and that other people have lost cows and horses.
The Japanese bantam hen and her chicks is a bit of light entertainment, they make me smile.

Scrap City

The fibre and Stitch yahoo site are having a monthly challenge and this month it was make something from scraps. I thought I had put this up last night and I must have got carried away with the photos.
Any way this started with a bit of felt with painted vliesofix with transfer foil and then to knock it back I put a painted nappy liner over the top and then looked in my scrap bag with the odd bits left over from fusing and without cutting any scraps I came up with this. I love fanciful cities, then hand embroidered and beaded and added bits and had fun.
Today we went to a funeral, Josie Panozzo (nee Taylor) was a couple of years ahead of me at school and the eldest of the 5 Taylor girls. She like my brother in law had Motor neurone disease. Her sister Jenny who is in England was in my class at school.
It was a good funeral, as funerals go, she had been a not so close neighbor of ours for many years and I hadnt caught up with her much lately but what I found so wonderful was that her daughter Angela who I probably hadnt seen since she was a child, was the spitting image of the Josie I knew when we were at school.
So the next and the next generation come on and we are remembered in them.

Evening walk

It was cooler today and as it had been pretty messy and I had not eaten the right food I thought I had better have an evening walk. Photos taken around the farm, looking dry and dusty as it will in summer, not as bad as last year but still not good, no rain for nearly a month.
the yearling fillies stood looking at me and asking for food, but they have enough in their paddock. A part Welsh, two Section B welsh and a Welsh A.
I havent walked out here for ages as the cows have been in these paddocks and the flies have been awful, the cows will chase after me and nearly 400 odd are a bit intimidating.
We have a borrowed car, I dont like the way it drives but I suppose I will have to get used to it. I dont know when ours will come back, sometime next week I think.

What happened today

The first photo tells it all, a large lump of wood which has ruptured my petrol tank. I was going to Adelaide to see my mother with Tabby and her girls and as I came along their track I must have just caught the edge of this very old tree branch and I heard a thump but didnt see a log in my way, when I stopped there was petrol gushing every where. A hole about the size of a fist had been punched in to the tank. A frustrating morning not going any where.
I did however take the second photo of grand daughter Celina with her pony, an old pony, she was Tab's brilliant harness horse many moons ago.
The third photo is of my Cob filly, by Pennybank Domain (imp) and out of my mare Rivington Berry, the foal has not got a name yet but is really sweet.
I hope tomorrow is better and we may have a car.

Transferring using bondaweb

Maggie Grey had a bit on her blog about transferring images using an inkjet printer and bondaweb, So in between vacuuming I had a play with it and although the first one somehow transferred a lot of water splodges too I rather like the idea. I so I will play with it further.
Also in the mail today came this gorgeous red cardinal from Kate in the U.K. I think he will become part of a page for a fabric book.
It has got hot again and very windy so not a good day, I have been out side only to check hoses and put the washing on the line.
At least the house is dusted and vacuumed so I dont have to worry about that for a while and the bed is changed.
Tomorrow we go to Adelaide to see my mother, the we is Tabby and her daughters so Mummy is in for a surprise. Her latest great granddaughter and two of her older ones.

Walking the beach

froth and bubbles as the waves came onto the beach, the first was enhanced on the computer and the second as is. the third was the view across to the spit at the end of Victor, it has a name but for the life of me I cant remember it, then Granite Island and the causeway and the Bluff in the background.
Quite a reasonable little surf up this morning and the sea was quite disturbed.
we both bought of all things underpants! and went to the Post Office to have our passports organised, all done now and we just have to wait to get them back.
I look grim and old in my photo and all the wrinkles and saggy bits in my neck show up, horrid.
I am trying to diet so I can get back into some favorite clothes to take away and dont have to buy any new ones. Probably a vain hope but I am trying and trying to walk, trouble is we both got home from our walk this morning tired!
My textile stuff is not working either so I feel rather put out.

Yesterday's photos

Two shags on a rock and ripples over the sand, I took that one to use as a as a texture idea.
I am working on a couple of textile related things but so far I havent got them to a stage where I could show them
We went out to friends for dinner last night and stayed rather a long time, it was so nice to just chat without a heap of other people but this morning we both feel a bit tired.
It is a lot cooler and we actually had .08 of a mm of rain early this morning. I have been fiddling around with some painting and potted on a couple of plants, not doing the house work which I should but there is always tomorrow.
It was great to have so many nice things said about my TIF challenge and I do feel rather relieved that this months is finished.

TIF Challenge and this mornings walk

My TIF Challenge for this month is I think finished. The scan hasnt come up all that well but does give an idea of what it looks like. This is the front of a page, wether it is the front cover I wont know until I get them all done and this has to have a back which will be next months challenge.
I started with the DMC threads and then found the background fabric to go with it and then the other bits of fabric, my theme was hearts because they will remind me of those elderly relatives of mine still alive and those not and some friends who are very dear to me.
I did several sketches of what I wanted to do, but it kept changing as I went along.
The size is about 7 inches by 7.75 inches, small enough to handle and not overpowering.
I have a lot of problems getting away from squares and rectangles but tried to off set these using corners etc.
The heart was cut out of a piece of left over fabric that began life on the embellisher then had a lot of layers added and finally some free motion embroidery done on the machine.
I picked up the stamp in Spotlight and wanted to use it but my stamp pad was not very good so I ended up hand going over the top with a fabric pen.
The whole was fused down not properly stitched as you would a quilt, I am not good at that.
I loved doing the embroidery and beading, and it taught me a lot.
This morning we went into Victor early and walked across the causeway to Granite Island and back. A magic morning, not too hot, very little wind and as clear as clear so I took photos as I went.
I feel better about last nights bottle of wine and gourmet pizza now.

Out to an early dinner

We went in for the pre viewing of the Rotary Art show this evening and didnt stay for the opening, I wasnt allowed to buy anything so we had a good look and I will look again next week there were a few lovely paintings and my pick were the ones done by my some time teacher Lorraine Lewitzka who won two prizes, she is the most magical watercolour painter.
We then went around to the Bay and had Indian, well John had a curry and I had a smoked salmon pizza at the Beach hut cafe at Encounter Bay, they make the best pizza and their Indian isnt bad either. So after the Art Show and the dinner we floated home.
I had had a pretty mediocre day up until then, with the change in the weather playing merry hell with my knees and other joints. I hate taking pain killers but I needed several to quell the angry beast in my knees.
Any way the photos such as they are are the view from our table in the cafe (dont you love the whale!) and then one as we walked along the bike track, at that point my camera seized up but I have walked tonight which sort of helped with what I had eaten and drunk.

R I P Rivington Folkmusic

We had to have this little mare put down early this morning, We think the problem was snake bite but cant be 100% sure.
Now a 5 year old carrying her first foal she was the nicest sweetest little mare you could find.
All so quick, at her morning feed ok, by 5 pm a very sick pony and nothing our vet could do and too far gone to make it to Adelaide to the vet clinic.
We think it was a brown snake as one had been seen around and all the symptoms sounded right.
She was right next to Sarah's house but it was a very hot day and how do you see a brown snake, they are almost invisible.
We did all we could but by midnight it was obvious that she was in dire straits and not going to make it so a decision was made.
Rest in Peace little girl, buried next to her father our much loved and top sire Nattai Vychan.
We lose so few but when we do its gut wrenching.

Take it Forward Challenge

I have got this far with the TIF challenge, collected some fabrics and fused them together.
Now to do some stitching and adding on and see what comes out at the end.
It is not going well as I have to keep on changing my mind but I think it will work in the end.
Very hot today and will be worse tomorrow.
I have discovered that my painting classes are not next week but the one after and I have some supplies to get, so I will have to change hair appointments.
In to get the mail after throwing almost all my stash on the floor, and I havent picked it up yet, I suddenly feel awfully tired.
I was up at 6.30 this morning walking, I do wonder if my eyes are ok as I could have sworn I saw 3 cows in the paddock I was walking in, it turned out to be 3 females and 4 huge male kangaroos trying to mate with the females.
It was a beautiful morning but today is not so good, tomorrow looks like being worse so I am glad I have some handstitching to do next to the fan.

In early April we are off to California

Great excitement here as the Company which we supply our milk to has offered us an all expenses paid trip to California, we have never been offered one of these before and so although John kept on saying he would prefer the money we would be mad not to take it so in early April we are off to one of my most favorite cities, San Francisco, I took the first photo when we were there in 1999. I hope to catch up with Barbara Willis there if even for a quick meal, not much time on these trips. We tour around a bit to areas we havent seen and go to a couple of dairy farms and then hit LA and we will extend our trip for a few days and go and visit my good friend Patti Culea in San Diego. I loved San Diego as well and I couldnt be more thrilled. I went there in 2001.
this is something I didnt think we would ever manage to do but as the major part is all expenses paid it seems silly not to save for a bit of extra time, a week doesnt seem long enough.
So I am on a high at the moment.

Take it Further Challenge

This year Sharon of in a minute ago blog has set us a challenge to Take it Further and today I went shopping for the colours that were suggested, mine didnt quite relate to the ones suggested, but every printer is different and now mine are up some look right and some dont, the dmc colours I chose were333, 966, 210 3362, and 677 they were colours I felt happy to work with and were in the range I think.
While I was in my local craft shop the owner after looking at the threads I had chosen suggested that I take a fat 1/4 of the fabric shown with them as they matched so well, so I am now under pressure to get some thoughts together about my fabric book and how I am going to work it out.
Some how I think that my theme may be hearts, as the people I admire are not getting younger (my 95 year old mother, and several 81 year old friends, my now 70 year old husband for a start) and as I like hearts perhaps this is a good way to go.
At least I have made the first step now to find time to put it into practice.
Much cooler today, although warming up at the end of the week. I saw my mother today, she was a bit grumpy because I havent seen her very much but I dont think she realises that a 3 to 4 hour round trip plus two hours talking to her is tiring.

Various

I added a little house in the woods to the embellished bit of fabric I found under a heap of stuff on my work table today.
Then I had to take a photo of my latest Japanese Bantam chicks and as I had moved the three young male Japanese Bantams into a coop I thought they needed a photo too.
It has cooled down considerably today, just as well as all the Christmas decorations are now down and put away. that was an effort in scrambling up to high cupboards, and I washed 5 sets of sheets and pillowslips as well as towels now the family has gone. All in all a pretty busy day.
I am trying to sort out how to get together some of the embellished bits I have done and mount them or back them or something for this wretched exhibition I have said I will do stuff for. I think the brain is not working well at the moment.
Tomorrow I go to Adelaide, of course the weather man says it will be hotter than today, it should have been cooler but I will survive .
I do feel much better that the house is more or less in order and i can actually find things in the frig.

Birds

I am trying to be a bit productive while it is so hot and I can at least get to my embellishing machine and hand sew so yesterday these two little fellows were born.
A bit of felt, a bit of knitting, some scraps left over from other things and hey presto.
I think the Melbourne family have gone but I have left the beds made up in case they need to come home to sleep tonight, they were seeing friends today.
My chook house was put up and Simon looked at the loo to see why something was sticking in the cistern, handy having a plumber around.
It is lovely to have them but my large house always seems so crowded while they are here (probably because it is so full of my "stuff"). Will was really sad to have to say goodbye to Jake the black dog. Any way we have organised to see them in Melbourne in late February.

Textures

I took these of the path we were trying to follow on the cliff top at Cape Borda. Limestone with lots of holes in it obviously worn by stones when once this was the sea floor and not many many metres above it.
It made for extremely difficult walking and the flies were so bad you could hardly see where to put your feet.
Very hot today and not a lot being done, I did shop early this morning and the family will be home for a bbq, they have gone for a swim, I opted to stay home.
John is trying to work out what money we have and where but of course so many people are on holidays that I am creeping around very quietly so as not to disturb him and trying to see if the thing I was doing yesterday is worth going on with.
Sorry not very with it when it is as hot as this.