December Again?

Maybe I should go back to school, time went sooooo slowly then, now it just flies by in the blink of an eye. Now my youngest has finished school, & has just finished his first year of work, it's going even quicker.

The past month or so has been a write off. Never really picking up after a routine colonoscopy, the symptoms the doctor described as 'normal' finally proved to be my first bout of diverticulitis. Not fun & what was even less fun was 7 hours in the local hospital ER waiting for a scan my doctor had phoned ahead & arranged. 16 1/2 hours waiting for pain relief was no picnic either. My many food allergies meant the kitchen, 'that takes allergies very seriously,' were able to offer me a glass of water. I finally managed to arrange to be transferred to the local private hospital where they had no difficulty giving me lovely meals. 4 days in hospital, it is very nice to be home.
Whinge over.

I started decorating the last weekend in November, I planned to do quite a bit this year so thought it best to start early. I couldn't decide what colour to use on the tree this year & dd Emma suggested going rainbow, so we did. I have to say I think it looks great.

  I usually fill the foyer with all sorts of cutesy Yule stuff but this year decided to go a bit more grown-up & I think it looks cool.

My tree collection. Dd Emma snuck the little teal one in while I was away wondering how long it would take me to notice. It was only a matter of seconds after I actually sat down & looked up & saw it, lol.

I fancied having a green tree too this year. :-)

I haven't done much pressie shopping but I'm not buying much this year. Nobody really wants anything, I think so many are trying to cut back on possessions, so what I give will hopefully be useful & not just get shoved in a cupboard.

My vintage stalls are ticking along, I gave them both a makeover & changed direction a bit. Deciding whether or not to continue with them next year, we'll see.

This is my stall at The Vintage Emporium Tyabb, next to the Vintage Shed.

This is my facebook page if you'd like to pop over & 'like' it. 

I only post occassionally so I won't fill your newsfeed. :-)

https://www.facebook.com/carryonvintageoz/?fref=ts

I have a new charity project I'm working on, I'll tell you about that in another post.

Here's a link so you'll now what to expect:

http://uthandoproject.org/

I started writing this & saved my draft. An unexpected trip north to NSW when my bestie from high school suddenly lost her husband. We drove up for the funeral & stayed on for couple of days. It was hard seeing all the changes to a town I lived in from age 10 to 16. We decided to continue north & visit my mum. After living with her, & then near her for 50 years, it was hard to realise it was 5 years since I'd actually seen her. We chat on the phone all the time but of course it's not the same.

Here we are going through all the family photos.

I also got a copy of this photo, a fave pic of my dad.

Dad loved cats. :-)

Out & About.

For the past few weekends we've had some beautiful Spring weather here in Melbourne. A couple of weeks ago we headed down to one of my fave places, Mornington, for a picnic. It didn't take long for the seagulls to discover us. They had us totally surrounded & thoroughly enjoyed sharing our lunch. The noise was deafening & they became braver & braver & were actually taking food from our hands.

Today we headed into the city, we visited the Finders Keepers market at the Royal Exhibition Building, the beautiful building in the background, it was very enjoyable,

then we sat out in the gardens & had a picnic lunch watching the ducks on the water. 

Then it was time to head off to the airport to pick up Rowan who has spent 2 weeks away. The first week doing a work course in Sydney, the 2nd week visiting my Mum on the Central Coast. It is wonderful to have him home again!

I've lived in Melbourne for a little over 5 years now & I've seen so little, agoraphobia has kept me housebound for as long as I can remember, & I've decided I've had enough & I'm really going to push myself to go places! Next weekend I'm hoping to go to the Miss Fisher Exhibition at Ripponlea. I managed to get there last year & it was fabulous, I'd love to go again.

Alice in Wonderland

It started out so simply. I happened to read that Alice in Wonderland was published 150 years ago this year & I thought it would be fun to have a Mad Hatter's Tea Party. It was also my birthday coming up, & as I hadn't had a party since my 18th, which was a 'few' years ago, I thought why not?
Of course as with anything, give me a theme & I'm off, lol. Well with google & Pintrest there are millions of ideas out there so I started searching. Here are some pics of the day.

Poor Alice floating in her sea of tears.

Painting the roses red!

The singing flowers.

The baby who turned into a pig in the kitchen. 

I crocheted a bonnet for the pig, as you do.

Which way?

I caught the white rabbit. :-)

  

I made my dress & apron, it was fun doing some dressmaking for a change. 

Paul going clubbing, lol.

I used some of my vintage tablecloths.

The food, lots of yummy treats. 

I made placecards for the guests using old playing cards.

The dormouse.

:-D

Finally back blogging, again!

I did it again, locked myself out of my blog & today, with the help of ds, I finally got in again.Yes I'm writing down how I got back in. :-)

So what's been happening all these months? Well I have been busy & I will show you a few things I've made. I won't try & catch it all up in one post though.

Last year I started a monthly sewing group in my home to make quilts for Aussie Hero Quilts. These are the three quilts I've made so far.

This quilt was pretty quick & easy, well as quick & easy as a quilt can be! I used this tutorial:

http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/how-to-make-zig-zag-quilt-without_30.html

The best bit, no triangles!, It's a very clever technique & I can definitely see more zigzag quilts in my future.

Things I will be blogging about to catch up:

I've also been busy crocheting this year. I'll take pics of some of the things I've made in daylight & show you.

Pics of the Alice in Wonderland party we had for my birthday.

Our new bathroom, we finally ripped out the old bathroom to deal with the leaky shower & almost have a beautiful new bathroom.

I'm so glad to be back!

YAY! I haven't blogged in such a long time & I'm finally here. I keep forgetting my password & google logs me in on another account so I can't post, but I finally got it sorted!

I have been busy since my last post when I told you about the poppies I was making, well yesterday was ANZAC Day & the culmination of all that poppy making. My Mum also started making poppies & she sent about 60 down to me to add to the collection. Mum is 85 & still a very keen crocheter. I gave some of our poppies to the 5000 poppy project with dedications to my relatives who fought in both world wars, I also sent some to Parramatta RSL for their collection, & the rest I attached to camouflage netting, & my husband draped it over the front of his 1952 FX Holden. He drove a WW2 Air Force veteran & his son in the Melbourne ANZAC Day march.

It looked lovely & I was so pleased to be able to honour my relatives, & indeed everyone involved in all the wars. I hope you had a chance to see the hundreds of thousands of poppies in the Melbourne display, & all the beautiful displays around Australia, New Zealand, & I'm sure other countries too. There are so many photos on the internet it's hard to miss them. 

I haven't just been crocheting, since October last year, a lovely group of ladies have been meeting in my house once a month to make quilts & laundry bags to send over to our Servicemen & women. We have a lovely time & have formed real friendships & are now meeting for craft days to work on our own projects. I was simply looking for a group to give some of my excess fabric to, when I remembered the Aussie Heroes Quilt project & got in touch with the organizer Jan-maree. She put me in touch with ladies in my area who were either already making quilts for the project, or keen to start, & our group very quickly formed.

Here is a link to the Aussie hero Quilt blog, perhaps you'd like to make a quilt or laundry bag. :-)

http://aussieheroquilts.blogspot.com.au/ 

I'm currently sewing the binding on a quilt to send & will post a pic when it is finished, I then have another quilt layered ready to quilt & 2 more on the go.

I won't try & catch up everything in one post, I'll be back soon to show you some pics of my fave quilt at the Melbourne quilt show last week, & the fantastic book & yummy fabrics that begged me to take them home.

So good to be back!!!