Tast catch up

To prove that I have not been totally idle, here is a photo of my latest Tast effort.  I decided to do several stitches on the one piece.   Now all I have to do is to keep going so I dont get so far behind again.

I have called this mother fish and family, and it comprises palestrina, pekenese, up and down buttonhole, liinked double chain, oyster, algerian eye stitch, bullions, sheaf, and a couple of drizzle stitches.

I still have cast on buttonhole, pistil stitch, and knotted buttonhole and I will have caught up, but then there is another on Tuesday....yikes.....no time before I go to do these, although I have a design prepared......promise I will try to do better.

Serenity visitors

Sorry my friends for going away for so long, but some of lifes hard knocks caught me unexpectedly and as a result I have just felt like hiding in my little cubby hole. I have forced myself out into the world again, and would like to share some photos I took while out at the farm for some peace and quiet and R & R.

First of all we discovered by chance there is a little family of these darling little rabbits, although they won't be darlings when they are grown and eating everything in sight.

The ducks from the dam came to visit, although they did not bring their little family this time   My favourite birds of all below did not disappoint and turned up one morning while I was sitting out on the patio

This year we have an addition to the family of visitors.  A pair of scrub turkeys have taken up residence and are great to watch.   Of course photos of "Serenity" would not be complete without pictures of the wallabies and their babies. There were two does with babies of different sizes.  I don't know if you can see the white spot on the eye of our almost tame wallaby at the bottom, called "shorty".   It was a tick which was there for a few days and then thankfully it disappeared.

These are the only galahs which are coming in at the moment, the arrival of the lorikeets seems to have frightened a lot of the birds away.  The lorikeets are very aggressive towards the other birds, and even though we have tried chasing them they always come back.

I will just finish off with some photos of my flowers.  The iris have been magnificant, and my orchid had been in flower for about a week when I arrived.  It was so nice to be out in the country again, and I appreciated the quiet, which gave me the opportunity to relax and put the thoughts of my troubles to the back of my mind.

 This week I am off to Melbourne for the wedding of my eldest grandaughter, which I am really looking forward to.  I have not flown for 16 years and am a bit nervous.  Son is coming with me and has booked us in business class which I am hoping will be more roomy so I dont feel so claustrophobic....and also have better food..:)   Keep your fingers crossed my friends that the weather is kind..although when I lived in Victoria the saying was "if you dont like the weather...wait a minute"

Finally!!!!! Something to blog about

Sorry I have been missing from blogland  for so long, not because I wanted to just have been having a break and lurking.   Nothing exciting has happened lately since I returned from holidays, except catching up on things round the house.

Also have been in a slump and not felt like stitching.....just lurking round the internet and watching tv.

Finally I have pulled myself up by the bootstraps and finished of this which was a work in progress.   My creative mojo seems to have gone on holiday too, so all these stitches I am behind with are on the one piece of embroidery.  Not very inspiring, but they are completed and that is my aim at the moment.

This is the piece I had as a WIP, and now after adding some buttonhole wheels and beads I have completed as much as I am going to with this.   The background fabric is one that I dyed from a workshop I attended some weeks ago.

It has been so cold here still, that I wanted to know what the temperatures were...sort of a masochistic thing.....so purchased this little gadged which sticks itself to the outside of the window so I can see how hot/cold it is before I decide to venture outside.

Oh, and I should mention that I have been shopping too.  Have a wedding to go to in October in Melbourne, and decided I would wear an outfit from another wedding, but add a different top under the jacket.   After walking the length of the main street the other day, I was about to give up finding something suitable, when I spied a lovely blingy top on a rack outside a shop.   It was just what I had in mind, and it fitted perfectly on my new slim body.   The best part was it was reduced from $200 to $50 because a few of the beads had come loose.

Easily fixed with the  little bag of spare beads and sequins  that came with the top, and feel very pleased with my bargain.

The skirt is in getting the hem taken up at the moment, but is gored with a little flip out at the bottom.    The grey sequins have taken on the colour of the pale blue jacket.   It looks grey in the picture but is actually blue.  it is good to give this an airing after sitting in the wardrobe for 14 years and still looks fashionable.....well for an old lady it is.   Also just happen to have a pair of gunmetal grey shoes that will go perfectly......too bad I just recently threw out the matching handbag that was very scratched...might have been able to renew it.

Building sandcastles

It seems forever since I went away and it is so good to be back home again even though the weather has been bleak and awful since my return.  Holidays are nice but being back among my own "stuff" makes life so much simpler.   I did not even turn on the computer for 3 days and retreated to the couch under a doona to watch the Olympics.

We did get to build sandcastles and had walks on the beach.   The weather was not kind enough for swimming though although we did have some nice sunny days.

Late one afternoon the girls had a lot of fun with their father building sandcastles.  It is lovely to see them all so happy together.

On the girls  last day we had one last walk down to the beach where we again dug a moat round the sandcastle and had fun trying to rescue it from the surf.

Even the seagulls got into the act.

During the week I took the girls to see the Katy Perry movie, which they enjoyed, and there were walks down to the shops, where Georgia scored some new clothes...purple jeans and a haircut which she was so happy with.

It was all so busy, the time flew by and before we knew, it was time for the girls to return home.   Very sad for their father as he misses them a lot.

I don't know how they found us on the 22nd floor, but every morning for a few days we had these visitors coming for breakfast of apple and honey

We were even treated to the antics of some playful whales out in the ocean that was so exciting to see.

Now I really must concentrate on catching up with my Tast Stitches so I promise some photos of the results soon.

Off again

I will be away again on Thursday for about 3 weeks, away from the cold and back to the beach.  Gone to build sandcastles with the girls.

 Happy blogging everyone, stay safe.  

Holiday Fun

On the next stage of my holiday, this was the view I woke to every morning, looking out over the balcony which faced the ocean.  It had such a relaxing impact to start the day with.   Every day the view changed, so it never got boring.

Now, now, my friends, no I did not turn into a "Cougar" while away.  This was my youngest son pretending to teach me to swim....he makes me so happy. We managed to have a nice warm sunny day, and the pool was heated. What does one do without a  swimming costume...... swim in your clothes I was told....well being an obedient mother, and as we were the only ones on the pool deck why not?  I did make sure the tshirt was not see through first though. :)

In case anyone is wondering, yes I did get some retail therapy....who would be able to go to the Gold Coast without it.  Came home with a couple of nice additions to my summer wardrobe.....when and if the weather ever warms up again.  I love Robina Town Centre.

The views below are something I could very easily get used to.  I am looking forward to returning for another visit with my grandchildren in a couple of weeks.

Ah, shopping is close by

Kayakers paddling past

Another acquisition while away  was a new phone....yes the pink one has been relegated to the cupboard. My older son gave this "fancy dancy" one  to me and I love it. He is so good to me.   It is so much better than the old one.   It even has a speech feature for when txting....and I can get my emails on it too...I am rapt, cant wait to work out all the different things I can do with it.

Yesterday  did some more cooking. Pumpkin soup, and a supply of spag bol sauce.  So now I can pretend I am a lady and not have to cook every night for a while, with all the frozen meals I have now.

Still no stitching, sorry ladies it looks like another multiple sample coming up...maybe this afternoon.

Home Again Home Again Jiggedy Jig

It was so windy Beau's ears are flapping in the wind. Chloe stayed next to Nana

Hi all my blogger friends.  Well I did eventually come home, if only for a shortish visit. Yes I am returning to the Gold Coast in a couple of weeks to see my grandaughters who are coming to visit their father in the school holidays.  So that will be another exciting trip.

Well this one went too quickly, although now I feel like I have been away for months.  At the beginning the weather was sunny, but windy, then the rain set in and made everything miserable.  It was hard keeping warm.  Then the sun shone through again long enough for me to spend the rest of my holiday with sunshine and warm days.

I have heaps of photos, so will start at the beginning, with son number one, helping him to babysit the dogs while DIL was overseas.

Accompanying the pups to their excercise on the beach was such fun they are so active, and love to run in the open.

Beau gets there first

Beau gave the ball to Chloe

 I had such a lovely morning at the beach with them.  They are lovely and so active.

Back on the balcony, and worn out, the wind was  cold so they needed their blankets after sitting waiting hopefully for mummy to come up the drive.

When the rain set in there was no lolling by the pool, and the amount of rain we had caused the pawpaw tree which was laden to snap.

an abundance of pawpaws meant.........

green pawpaw (papaya) chutney!

I forgot to take a photo of the chutney all packed into jars and most of it I have given away now so just imagine this all chopped up finely and sitting in lovely little jars, looking tempting and good enough to eat.  It is very yummy but I made sure I did not overdo the chilli.....just enough to be tasty.

The day I left I had this photo (below) taken just to show that I did get to be by this pool in the sunshine, once the rain cleared.  As the photo above shows the deck was too wet to enjoy, even between showers..

Since I have been home have been busy settling in again.  Haven't had time to even pick up a needle, but guess that could be next week.  I will need to catch up before I go again.  Today I have to finish making pumpkin soup that I baked the pumpkin for, and have some meat to make into meals to freeze to make life easy while I am in my travelling mood...

Back tomorrow with the next part of my adventure.    Did I just happen to mention that I L O V E the Gold Coast?   :)  Next time I am taking my swimming costume.