knitting

Last week after knitting Aidan's hat, I made the boys one each. They must have liked them as they wore them for most of the afternoon. I thought that I should make one for Ryan as well so my first day at BH, I completed Ryans and I will have to look out a small pattern for Lindsay to make. I started my jumper, its dragging already and this is only day three. I decided to measure it so I know how much I am doing each day. I suppose its not too bad as I have dome 20 cms of the back but its so boring just knit and purling, I need to do 43/46cms before anything else, I guess at this rate, it should only take a month, not sure that I like the colour after all.

Yahoo!

While checking on my emails this morning, I decided to check on the bank as well. Yahoo, my lump sum was paid in and so we are no longer in debt! We went to lunch to celebrate, at Matildas.

Burrum Heads

Having the week off before the holidays we decided to head north for a few days and after much thought we checked into BH. It was a cheaper place BUT it had a swimming pool and a tennis court. It took longer to get there than I thought but it was a nice park lots of shade. The toilet block was adequate (in an ATCO hut!) many many permanents but they were on the other side, it was like two parks really, perms one side further from the water and the temps on the other near the river. The shops were about 500mts away which was a nice walk. Tennis courts were to be hired and didnt look that good, while we had taken all the gear, we didnt use it. i went for a swim yesterday while warren drowned little fish. Nice relaxing time, probably will go back. Only $26 a night but goes to $45 a night over Easter and Christmas, thats a rip off.

Easter Egg Hunt

Last year I organised a EE hunt in the garden for the grandkids, it was a hit! so much so that I asked (badgered) to have another this year. The kids are of course one year older and more cunning in finding the eggs. I dont think anyone ate any eggs, the fun is in finding them. This year we had two bigger eggs and some little ones and they had small baskets to gather them in. Afternoon tea was of course Hot Cross buns and dinner was a curry and rice plus a spinach and feta pie, couple of salads, sausages and sticky chicken legs. 

Salads

Woo hoo, my garden is taking off, have some tomatoes setting outside and have picked lettuce a couple of times. I bought ten plants and they are the ones that dont head, just use the leaves are required. i use the herbs quite a bit, basil, parsley and mint, they are growing well have several plants of those outside as well as the window sills ones. my first capsicum that I planted in about November, I picked three, back in Feb , two had gone rotten and the other was okay and I thought that it had finished but it has produced another three greens one, first pick were red. plants snow peas on the weekend and also put in supports for them to grow on.

Window sill garden

Dont have much space outside and I wanted to grow some herbs so I bought some pots at K-mart for 25 cents each, what a bargain, just couldnt leave them there. The pots came first, then the herbs. I now have mint, basil and parsley growing nicely in the window sill, they get the morning sun and because of where they are, I dont forget to water them. I also had two tomato plants but they grew too big and are now in the side garden outside the kitchen window. The pot on the right is one I put together after seeing it on BH&G, just three small plants of varying heights in the same pot. I havent had indoor plants for years.

Sewing room

I love having some where to go to sew and when we moved here that was one of my requirements,  a sewing room. However, due to other committments, I dont have the time or the inclination to spend as much time in there as i would like to and it has become a bit of a dumping ground. The pictures of it dont actually show an inviting room to spend time in and most times the door remains shut. last week I started to tidy and get rid of some of the clutter. I'm pleased to say that it looks much better and I even did three little mending/finishing jobs that have been lurking in there for quite awhile waiting to be done. I took out three bags of rubbish, unuseable things, an armload of sewing patterns books that I havent used in five years and unlikely to ever use again. I also have a box of clothes (from elsewhere) and three bags of stuff to go to Salvos. The floor is clear but I still have the table to do, am considering doing away with the table as I have never used it to cut out on and it seems to invite stuff being put on it. I hope to be able to post tidy photos in another week.

Wool!

My wool collection is under my sewing table and as I have spent some time in there tidying, I have been astounded how much I have. Some came from Mum as she can no longer knit and so I bought all hers home as well. I am determined not to buy any more wool until I have knitted it. last night I started on Aidan's wool hat that he asked for and picked out his choice of wool. It is a multi coloured red, green, blue and yellow. Football was telvised for the first time this year the NAB cup so settled down to watch and then today was "Win it in a minute" so that was an hour for lunch and knitting and so I have finished AD's hat, the predominate colour is red. I have another one just started in the same colour but I will only use it as stripes and use another colour to tone it down as it is a bit in "Ya face". yay, I can now add a photo! Thanks to some family help.

Clowns (2)

During the week, I put the wheels that i had made together to make up two little clowns and a big one, using up all the circles/wheels that i had made. The heads are on and I need to make the hats and they are finished. I still have three small heads and lots of circles cut out so will be sticthing for awhile yet. Any left over materials, i cut them up for circles and i do have heaps for the big ones but after that i will concentrate on the small ones. While I was in Big W the other day, I found hat elastic which I use to attach all the circles and bells together for $2.97 for 10 metres, i have been buying 4 mts at Spotlight for that price, I know where i will be going in future. On the lookout for different colours as the clowns are very pink or light colours, not sure how that happened. The local Lifeline has cot sheets and baby pillow cases for 50 cents and it is amazing how much circles, I can get from a small pillow case.

Impluse buy

Its not often that I buy things for the house on an impluse but yesterday I did. I took Aidan to Big W after his hydro session to see his poster. Didnt think that I needed anything but had a look while I was there, $62 later I am leaving the checkout. Wool was on special or cheaper than other places and there was a nice mens jacket on the balls of wool. I bought enough to make a jumper, hummmm how long is it since I have made an adult jumper and finished it. ( I will need one for China!) and a hat! Aidan thought that Grampy would need a hat too. I bought a couple of books and wrapping paper to top up my supplies at home then I saw it! A self closing screen door that can be put up in seconds, what a great idea as some-one at home likes to have the laundry door/ back to garage open most of the time. I bought one hoping to install it, said it was easy and only took a few seconds. Yep! heard that before. Drove home with my purchase and lo and behold HE steps out of the garage thru a self closing screen door. Has also been shopping and thought what a great idea, actually neighbour had told him about them, he had bought two and installed both. I will keep mine and put it into the random gift cupboard that I have started. Could think of a couple of places where it could find a new home. Many many times we have bought things and they have sat waiting to be installed, put in place, planted or what ever. We noticed the other day that we are getting better at that type of thing. We bought plants at the market and actually planted them that same morning, what a break thru! 

Day Off!

Aidan has to have his port done today and Sheri has taken the day off so she said I might as well have it off as well. he has rang me and he and Jordan have both put on weight this week so that is good. he sounded happy to go to hospital and he will ring me after. Wanted to have a sleep-in so I turned all (3) of my alarms off but set one for 7.30am, didnt want to sleep the day away BUT of course my sleeping partner still had his on for 6.30am. he went to tennis about 7.45 and i got up and had a leisurely shower, breakfast and catching up on some computer stuff. About to catch the last of the morning show on TV while i finish my coffee, then I am going into my sewing room. Hopefully by the end of the day, it will be tidy! One can hope! It looks like a bomb blast ATM as everything just gets dumped in there. may I will post before and after photos if I could work out how to get photos across to this.

Picnic at Mapleton

It seemed to be a long week and there was nothing planned for the weekend. I decided I wanted to go somewhere and so suggested a picnic. When trying to lose weight going out for lunch is not a good idea hence taking a picnic. Several places on offer, Redcliffe, Bribie, Coolum Beach or Mapleton. Years since we had been to Mapleton and its only an hour or so away. Prepared lunch, a sald, poached chicken, hot cross buns that were in the freezer and off we went, the long way thru the mountains. There had been a road slip so had to go around but we arrived about 12 noon. The park where we intended to go was awful, I think it was just to park the car and then walk to see the waterfall, nowhere to eat so we went back into town, its only a small place and on the way to another national park we saw lilyponds ands seats and shade so we had lunch there. i had taken a flask and makings for coffee so we ate and watched the birds, quite a few kookaburras and Ibis getting worms and the like. We headed home via the highway and I wanted to visit the Ginger factory to buy some ginger sauce that we like, had a nice walk around the gardens bought hand creme (to take to China) and the sauces, arrived back home about 3pm. I had taken too much lunch and scones jam and cream at GF was not an option as we were too full. Excess picnic was eaten for lunch on Sunday.

Clowns

Have been working on my clowns, sewed together six heads and stuffed them so will need to make that many. I prefer to make the smaller ones, I think they look better and they are quicker to do.

My Book

Yay, I finally finished editing it, now has gone to the proof reader (Warren) and i saw him scratching some comments so it seems that there is further editing to do. Three days over my schedule but it seems harder to get motivated to go over it than it is to write the thing. Still not that happy with the middle but I am not rewriting it.

Visit to the Threatre!

Have not been to a live performance since we lived in Yass. Kiss Me Kate was being put on at the Mouse trap threatre in Redcliffe. Tiny place, held about a hundred people, tickets were $15 and $18. Lots of singing and it was a pretty good show. One guy was sorely tested in the singing department and I felt sorry for him when he had to sing, def not his thing. Very hot and I felt sorry for the actors.We had coffee at Maccas after and it was an enjoyable night.

Meat!

Our freezer was getting empty as I havent bought much meat lately. I asked Warren to go to a new place in Caboolture to buy some stuff, chicken, lamb chops and a little bit of good steak. They advertise 10 % off for pensioners on Mondays and Tuesdays and I thought that we may as well make use of his card. Wow!, I came home to the freezer full of meat as it had been packed into indivual meal packages and labelled. I dont think we will need to buy meat again for 6 weeks or so and it was only $61 with the discount. Then dinner was almost ready, gourmet sausages and steamed vegies. Hope the rest of the meat tastes as good as those sausages.