Halloween Mantle

Boo!!!

Happy Halloween everyone. It’s very quiet here as usual, Halloween just hasn’t caught on in Oz, although the shops are stocking more & more Halloween things each year. I think it would be great fun to get dressed up & just enjoy seeing others in their costumes. Two years ago we had our first Halloween party, Harry Potter themed of course & it was great fun. Of course since then we’ve moved & our friends are too far away for a party.

You can see pics of our party here:

http://mollys-meanderings.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html

Luckily we have friends in The US, & family & friends in Canada, so we enjoy hearing about their Halloween fun.

We got into the mood decorating our mantle for the occasion. I’ll leave it there until it’s time to decorate for Xmas.

A baby Mandrake.

A little floo powder in case we decide to visit friends later.

Mum’s Birthday Pressies

Mum loves fuschias & I’d had this pattern tucked away for years. I wasn’t sure what to use it on, but as I’d already made Mum a couple of wall hangings,  I decided to make a cushion.

I’d bought the fabrics a couple of years ago with Mum in mind so I finally had a project for them.

I traced the pattern then chose crayons to match the fabrics.

I think she’ll like it.

Mum also likes dolls so I made this one.

Now it’s time to start thinking about making Christmas pressies.

Spring Mantle

I’m afraid I’ve very late with my Spring mantle!!! But I’ll go with my belief, ‘better late than never.’

I’ve been  feeling more fatigued than normal the past month or 2 & when my heart kept racing like I’d run a marathon I knew it was time to get it checked. 3 trips to the Dr this past week, for a cardiogram & blood tests, it seems my iron levels are down again so it’s back on the iron tablets with some Deralin to slow my heart. Oh well hopefully in a month or 2 I’ll be back to my normal fatigue, lol.

My sewing room makeover has taken a back seat this week as I just haven’t been in the zone, physically or mentally, but I did make a little doll yesterday, for Mum’s birthday in a couple of weeks. She just needs some hair & I’ll show you how she turns out. I bought a yummy book this week too, as seen at Attic 24. It has a ripple cushion in it I’d also like to make for Mum. I bought the wool today & will give it a burl!!!

This is the cute book, it has some lovely projects in it I’d like to try. I don’t usually crochet from patterns, I usually just faff about until it looks ok, but these patterns actually look like I could follow them. We shall see.

September Books

Three books this month.

Pride & Prejudice, again. ‘grin’ Sometimes you just need a Mr Darcy fix.

The Lovely Bones, I’ve never read anything like this, I really enjoyed it.

Cloudstreet, loved it. A true Aussie story of two families, warts & all. It’s set in the 40’s, 50’s & early 60’s. Sad, strange, funny, everything a good book needs.

A big change to my books this month, we moved our Harry Potter shelves from the loungeroom, upstairs to our Harry Potter area.

I brought my cube shelves out of my sewing room to where the HOP shelves were, & packed all my novels into them.

They are two books deep & when we get the time, & energy, we will build platforms to go at the back of each cube to set the back row up higher.

Of course Zaphod had to help with the move.

Bringing the shelves out of the sewing room meant I had to reorganise all the stuff that was in them. Truth is, the sewing room wasn’t working for me, it was just too packed & driving me batty, so I used this as a chance to rethink & reorganise the whole room.

I’ll tell that story with before & after pics in my next post.

I Nearly Forgot!!!

to show you this cute tea cosy I bought recently.

Yes they are little sandwiches on top.

I do have plans to make some tea cosies & I have been collecting teapots to dress. It was the lovely Alice who whetted my tea cosy appetite.

Alice has some gorgeous, free patterns on her blog.

http://crochethealingandraymond.wordpress.com/

This pair is so cute, the small one would only hold a mugful.

The last 3 are the tiny little one or two cup pots. My Mum has one but she uses her 4 cup one more often. I used to laugh at Mum’s tea habit but now I too am an addict. Earl Grey for me & my last cup of the day is this:

Smells great & tastes magic.  No affils, I wish!!!

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before but you can ‘decaf’ teabags. Pour boiling water over the teabag, about 1/3 mugful, jiggle the teabag for 5 seconds or so then pour off this water & then make your tea as normal. Apparently the caffeine is released as soon as the boiling water hits, so by pouring off the first lot you are also discarding the caffeine.

Vintage Finds

I’ve been scouring vintage/antique shops & the op shops & I’ve found some lovely things over the past few months. Here’s a few…..

This cute patchwork apron includes a lot of vintage fabrics.

A 3m piece of pretty barkcloth. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it yet, cushions, bags, a skirt????

I picture this tin with a big buttery orange cake in it like my Aunty Joyce used to make.

My Mum & Dad had this exact same fan. It will be good in Lucy on a hot day.

I couldn’t resist this pretty mirror.

These canisters were made in the 20’s & are still in excellent condition.

My Mum had this exact same tablecloth!!! It’s probably still buried in her linen press.

Another pretty barkcloth tablecloth I’ve bought a few now.

Samsung are Bastards - Big Whinge with Bad Language

Emma gave Paul a Samsung telephone for Father’s Day. It was locked to Telstra so she paid to have it unlocked so he could use his current SIM card. It was to be unlocked on Monday, the day after Father’s Day. On Monday Paul put his sim card in & found it wasn’t unlocked but he was able to look at the features of the phone, until it froze. Emma rang to see why it hadn’t been unlocked to be told it would now be done the following Friday. Friday came & went & the middle of the following week they finally provided the unlock code. So Paul put his sim card in to find the phone was still ‘frozen’ so he couldn’t use the unlock code. He rang Telstra, oh you‘ll have to take it to a Telstra shop.

We spent 1 hour in the Telstra shop but they couldn’t unfreeze it, we’d have to take it to a Samsung service centre. Oh how convenient just 40 mins away. So as Paul was working in the area today he took it there. Oh yes we can unlock it but it will cost you $55!!!!!! WTF!!!!!!! So although Paul is a normally a very mild mannered person, he’d had enough. There was a big sign that said “Customer Service’ so he pointed to it & asked does that mean you serve the customer or you tell them to shove it up their arse????? Oh we are here to serve, YEAH for $55!!!!! So he told them they could shove it up their arse. I wish I’d been there.

So the moral of the story is DON’T EVER BUY A SAMSUNG PRODUCT. & as for Telstra. well we already know what a bunch of $@#*%s they are.