Australia Day Flashback

I know it was a few days ago, but it's been a funny few days.  So I'm slow!  I gave you a sneak peak of BJ with his Aussie hand the other day.  

Here is BJ with the ice balls I made.  I got this idea on pinterest I think somewhere.  Basically it is a balloon filled with water & frozen.  I did put colour in them too but won't do that again.  It just didn't disperse through the water.  So the colour came through & made a mess!  I didn't really want to ruin all the kids clothes with the colour!  But they did look cool & they played with them briefly.  They turned them into Fairy crystals!  lol  

Spot of digging in the garden bed.  

My Australia coloured Seaglass Jelly.  I love how this turned out!  Looked really cool & seemed to impress even if it was just jelly!!   lol 

Happy Days!  

Crochet Squares

I have been in the mood for the squares already so at home I have had a little bit of time to play around with these.  The first one is Earth Tones from the book 50 Fabulous Crochet Squares.   

Next is one that really annoyed the stuffin' out of me.  I didn't like making it at all!  I won't make it again!  But I do like the look of it!  So at least there was some reward for perseverance.  Grannies Quilt style square in square.     

This is the first square from our CAL that has started today.  It's Pretty Petals.  I made it last night while watching the women's final in the Australian Open.  It's a great square.  I would make a whole blanket out of this pattern.  There are not many patterns I would say that about but this one is just so effective!  

If you are interested in a crochet along with a bunch of squares like this then pop into the discussion thread won't you & play along!  No rules except have fun with it!  

It was Australia Day yesterday!  We had a great time!  25 people at our place having a great day!  

Crazy Days

Well the days are flying by!  I am way behind on the month of moments but oh well, there isn't much I can do about that.  I've been doing lots of driving back & forth to a hospital for long extended visits.  I started a new knitting project which is my "hospital project" for the moment.  My mum broke her leg - Again!!!  (Hi Mum, when you get to catch up reading these!)  So we'll see what happens & how long the stay in her special B'n'B lasts.  

I did battle with a new square though.  I started this one Thursday.  I had great fun with the flower.  It's really cool!  Wasn't hard or anything.  I really wanted to finish it that night.  I probably should have then & there but thought I should get some sleep instead.  So it was only Monday when I finally got back to it.  Seems my head was in a different zone completely though.  I did the light green & the white & pink & then lost the plot completely.  I had a tough time of the end few rounds.  But I undid them & then it worked out after some time out...  lol  It's pretty.  It's called Strawberry Blossom.  It looks like one.  It's from the Julie Yeager Designs group on Ravelry.  They only have squares posted monthly by her but that will be fun for something different.  (in between all the other squares from the CAL I do!)  

I don't know if I can even bother with the rest of the Month of Moments right now.  Too much going on suddenly...  I'll see if I get re-inspired in a day or 2.

Busy

OK so DJ didn't nap today but I got this done while he was in bed pretending!  lol  

This is actually the last square from the CAL last year!  Oops.  But I couldn't be bothered back then anymore.  So here it is.  Pumpkin Patch Square.  It was a bit small though so I had to add a few rows.  

Month of Moments 17 - Busy

Today was busy.  Out the door at  8.40am.  Made it to 9am appointment at about 9.01 but the others only got there about 9.15 so that's good!  

Home again, home again, jiggety jig.

Tried to get DJ to sleep before we had to head out again.  Out to do more stuff this afternoon.  But BJ now has school shoes!  

Phew, tired & hungry boys.  Better go feed them again.

Playing

It's been ages since I have done any crochet squares.  I have to get back into it though.  I am running a Crochet Along on Ravelry again.  I joined one at this time last year & played along all year & now I am running it as the mods are busy people.  We did enjoy it last year.  We have a lot of new ones joining along this time so it should be lots of fun!  Some of the member have submitted a design they want us to make.  But I think we need to start off with something simple as they have picked some doozies that is for sure!  So today while just hanging out, watching tennis, making the most of a napping boy etc etc, & generally being lazy, I did this square.  It was the first one in my Rav queue tagged with 12" so that was good!  I think it will make a good one to start off the CAL next week.  It's Winter Dream.  Quite nice.   I have no idea any more how many squares I have in this colour way already (& I can't be bothered pulling them all out at the moment!) but I will do a few more & try not to look at the other colours at work too much.  I picked some cool colours last week for when I have done with this lot.  But I won't buy any yet.  I am still on a yarn & fabric diet.  It's working!  So I will keep going with this yarn while I still have plenty in these colours.  I will have a great blanket when I have done the squares that we do in the CAL that is for sure!  

If you are interested in joining a world wide crochet along of a 12" square every fortnight then follow this link.  There are no rules.  If you manage to do one great, if you don't like it or you are busy that's ok too!  Play along again when you want too!  It's just fun!  

In the meantime I haven't blogged for a few days & I am more behind on my Month of Moments.   

That's because I don't have much to write or post pictures of at the moment.  

So ummm...

Month of Moments 13 - Late

Yep, I am 3 days late with the 13th!  But ...  I don't really care much!  

Moment of Moments 14 - Pretty

Emily VanCamp

salon.com

I've been watching season 2 of Revenge.   It's great & I am loving the second series.  Emily VanCamp is so pretty.  Such an attractive girl.  I think so anyhow.  

Month of Moments 15 - Quiet

Quiet day at home today.  We aren't going to have many of these days as it's not long before school starts so  I am making the most of the chilling out time.  

Month of Moments 16 - Nostalgic

It's 3 weeks today until my big boy starts school.  I'm feeling all nostalgic today knowing how soon that time is coming around, with the thought of buying school shoes, uniform, bag, lunch box etc all comes by.  Where did the time go.  He was only just born wasn't he!  

Well there you go!  I managed to catch myself up!  Cool!  Have a great day!  

New Stuff

Month of Moments 12 - New

Well today is a new day!  I think I could come up with a few things in the category today!  

I just tried a new recipe!  These Applesauce Muffins are good!  Really good!  So good in fact I just noticed there are only 3 left!  Granted I did send 4 of them over the fence to the neighbours working in the paddock.   BJ even liked them.  I suggested we make some for his lunch when he goes to school & he was enthusiastic about that.  I am really trying to hunt down some new things for him to have for school lunches.  He's pretty fussy.  I don't want to give him chocolate spread sandwiches for the next 10 years.  I don't want to see us get stuck in the lunch rut!  Yes I am already thinking about that & he hasn't even started yet!  He's just hard to find enough variety for.  If you have any ideas let me know!  I am not going to be one of those mums that makes pretty pictures in the box with the lunch though!  I don't think I can go that far at all.  There are some cool ones on Pinterest, but no, that's just too much for this mum.  Have a look at the link!  There are Christmas stockings, Hello Kitty, lady bugs, frogs, you name it!  Nope, not me...  

Edited to add this list I just found...  Lunch box ideas printable

I am going to start this new book tonight.  At the moment the only reading I do is when I go to bed.  

I got the book at the second hand book shop last week.  So much for not buying any more!  Bother.  But, I have a good stack building to take there sometime soon so I can get some store credit for this exact kind of thing.  

I have been struggling through another book for a bit but decided the other night to ditch it.  It was this - 

So disappointed.  I have read all her books but really didn't like this.  I read about 100 pages & it was turning out predictably.  It was really annoying me the whole story line in the end.  So I skipped a few hundred pages over to where it got to where the Prologue had been set.  I read a bit more.  Still annoying.  Skipped about a bit more to get an idea of stuff going on & that's that.  Still no real outcome as I can see but I just don't care. Fortunately another good buy that it doesn't matter that I don't read it.  I finally gave myself permission to not waste time reading stuff I wasn't liking or enjoying a few years ago.  It was quite something to do that!  I hope the one I start tonight is better!  I really need a good book!  

Also new is our power pole!  Bother stuff & nonsense but we had to have a new one put in our yard.  You can see in the picture the old one in the front which is rather crooked.  Looks even worse with the new one in straight behind it!  lol  It was a whole afternoon of entertainment for BJ & myself.  We had front row seats on the deck.  Quite fascinating the whole process including the bit of having to take fence down to get trucks into the yard!  Next I guess they will send us the bill!  

The pole guys will be busy before too long having to go & replace the burnt out ones down south.  There are about 600 burnt out there.  Lots of work!  One of the guys told me they only can put in 4 or 5 a day!  I guess there are a few companies that will get called in to do it.  It's not something you think about first up though after a fire!  But without the poles they won't have any power so it's rather important!  

I'm still knitting a bit!  Nearly done some sleeves at last!  

But right now I think I will go cut some scrap fabric for some scrap quilts being made for fire victims!  

Happy Saturday!

Wow! It Rained!

What a nice thing to hear in the night, that bit of rain.  We could have used a whole lot more - not all at once, but it was lovely.  Hopefully it helped to calm the fire threats.  I don't know anymore what is going on here with the fires.  I need to go & check, but I am sure it's all fine now else I would know it wasn't.  

Month of Moments 11 - Early

Oh the joys of motherhood huh?  I get reminded of that every time I chat to someone about the crazy things the boys do!  Like not sleep!   Last night the big boy was awake at 12.30am.  Up & down a couple of times to him.  Also checked on the little one a couple of times.  At 4.30am I had to check on the little one & saw the big boy still awake!  Arghhhh....   Of course it is on a work day where I will have to wake him up when he is eventually asleep!  He tells me he had a bad dream.  About fires...  no surprise there I guess given the week it's been.  It's the topic of conversation everywhere.  Hard to avoid when you have to shut up the house tight because the smoke outside is so bad & turning the sky orange & it all just smells.  Poor kid.  Can't blame him though.  He may just take after his mother & have a fear of a house fire!!!  (yep, I do, though not as bad as I used to be!)   

Now because I just have to add a picture & I don't have one of us all in the wee early hours of this morning, here is one of BJ with the bubble sprinkler from the other day.   He had quite some success getting the bubbles on his hands.  That is one fun machine!  

I'm Behind Again

Month of Moments 9 - Pattern

10 - Wordy

I am going to take this on a different idea than I expected.  I'm back to knitting my cardigan.  Yay!  It's been ignored for a couple of weeks while I had other stuff going on like Christmas!  

Some knitting Patterns are hard.  Not hard to do the actual knitting.  They just don't make sense! 

They are much too Wordy!   

I often wonder what the people were thinking when writing up a pattern.  I know they generally have pattern testers too.  Usually these yarn companies have their regular knitters that I guess would become quite familiar with the way these people write their patterns & what their little phrases mean.   I just think some knitting patterns can be written so much clearer than they are.  The writers need to keep in mind that not all patterns will be read by professional knitters that just get what you are going on about.  

I have to try to figure out the joining up of my cardigan soon.  What I have looked at so far just doesn't make sense!   Pick up stitches & add the edge around from top to bottom but without joining one shoulder seam?  HUH?  I'm sure that makes sense to someone.  I will figure it out I hope!  Else I will just wing it & try it like I think it should be done.  I've never done it before though so that could be interesting!  

OK, that's my whinge.  

Here's a picture for the post just cos I like to have one there!  lol

Touching Moments

First off I can cross another off my list of things to finish.  Yay!  The tree advent calendar is done.  

It's a nice one but I do like the mantel one better.  But this is a nice one all the same.  I did this for my brother & sister in law.  It was their engagement present.  Well it still is, but now it's finally finished!  There wasn't any hurry as they still don't have any really fixed address where they can settle in & use it.  One day hopefully they can.  

Month Of Moments Day 8 - Poignant

I must admit I did have to check the meaning of this in the dictionary!  (online of course!)  It's one of those words that can be tricky to use correctly I think.  It does mean a couple of different things though I see, so that's interesting.  

This time I am going with the one that means - 

a. Profoundly moving; touching: a poignant memory.

I got these pictures Monday afternoon after we got home from the beach, hence the barely dressed big boy! lol   The little one had never had an icy pole before.  But he did a jolly good job of it!  You know what ever the big brother has the little one has to have too.  

I love the series of photos.  It was just a joy to watch them at the time & now just gorgeous to see the pictures again & again.  They are my Matching Pair.  

I especially love the last one...  notice they have swapped by this point...  

awwwww........

Hat Time - Again

I had a busy weekend.  Sewing hats.  It's OK, I just fit them in when I could.  Saturday saw 1.5 done.  Sunday saw the rest done.  Wow!  I thought I would be finishing up today.  

I have some relatives over here at the moment.  We caught up last week.  It was great fun.  It's nice to see my cousins with their kids.  BJ had the best time playing with them all & loves all his cousins!  lol  

I asked the mums & dads if they thought their kids would like a hat.  Like maybe not.  Love - Maybe more so.  So I had to come up with 5 - 2 boy & 3 girl.  

Top L - pirate sharks revisited but with a plain inside.  Looks pretty cool.  But there is something about that shark fabric, it doesn't sew nicely!   

Top R - A good one revisited.  This is such a cute design.  I think we are nearly out of this fabric at work so I had better keep an eye on that.  

Bottom L - This one with the light purple is so pretty!  Love it.  

Bottom R - Pirate ships revisited with a plain inside.  Looks so cute.  

This one below is just so very pretty.  I really love this one.  Very impressed with how this came out & this is definitely one of my favourite girl designs.  

Yes there are 2 pictures of it.  But I had to let DJ have a turn modeling too.   & for the benefit of one of their grandmothers I had to take one of both of them so she can see the difference between them.  hehehe...  

So we will do hat delivery today!  Hope they like them.  

Month Of Moment 6 - Distant

Oh this is a tricky one.  I think it's going to just get trickier some days though.  Which angle do you take for some of these words is half the battle I think.  

But having just posted about my cousins up above I can post about them being distant too.  Not distant in how they behave with us.  But they live quite a distance to us.  One family lives in QLD, not so far.  The other family lives in Finland.  That is Distant isn't it!  (yep they are the ones that come bearing Angry Birds lollies & bag tags!  lol)  

But the distance doesn't matter these days.  Being connected through the internet makes it all such a small thing.  They read my blog sometimes, so they knew I was doing hat production.  Plus when we do see them every couple of years, nothing really has changed, you don't realise there has been such a time between.  The only noticeable thing is that the children are all getting bigger!  

Month of Moments 7 - Quick

The holidays were much too quick!  Stuart went back to work today.  Crap, stuff & nonsense!  The wee one that is DJ will really miss him that's for sure.  He just follows Daddy around all day long.  I think it could be a long day!  DJ was up at stupid o'clock this morning & I had to get up as Stu was leaving.  No sleeping in for me anymore.  When is the next holiday?  

Have a great week!

Missing Moments

 I've been contemplating a couple of the Month of Moments for the last couple of days.  

I'm up to Day 4 which is Cool.

Unfortunately this country right now is anything but cool!  We have all been very very hot.  That's OK, it is summer after all.  But the problem is the bush fires that are currently burning everything down in its way.  The loss of home in this state has been huge.  Just watching a family on TV this morning talking about their experience of being stuck in the water for 3 hours to stay out of it but still having embers & smoke over them is quite heart-wrenching to watch as they share their experience.  Harrowing I think.  

So given that we are all hot I think cool regarding the weather is not the way to go... 

So I will make it Cool Lego!  

The big boy was very excited he.  He plays on lego.com quite a bit but the down side of that is that he also looks at all the products available & he wants them all.  So on another of these conversations about "want" I did say that he had money saved up so if he want to save a little bit more he would be able to buy one he wanted.  He was almost up to a second small size box of Lego   So he desperately wanted to do some more jobs to get that last bit of money he needed.  So he did.  He "helped" Daddy wash the cars.  That got him his $2.  (not much money you say?  No not much, but it is all the actual cleaning was worth. lol )

So with his last $2 in purse we set off to the store.  He carefully considered which set he would like to buy & he did.  A pile of change on the counter for the sales girl to count.  I explained it was his money he had saved up.  I wasn't changing it to big money or anything silly.  I wanted BJ to see that HIS money in his purse was buying it.  He did it himself.  So I am really pleased for him.  Some of the money was from his birthday which was 6 months ago so that is good.  He carefully considered the whole thing.  

So I find all that rather COOL!  Plus some cool Lego too!  

Months of Moments 5 - Gathered

Oh my this can be tricky!  Some of these words on the list are going to be very interesting.  

But last night we had a little late Christmas party with my other parents that just returned from 6 months caravaning around the country.  So we were gathered having a light meal.  What we didn't know was that there was a dinosaur gathering with us for a meal.  He promptly ate some chicken & then some watermelon. He did lots of growling so I am not sure whether that is because he didn't like it or because he wanted more!  

We did have a little DJ drama earlier though.  You have never seen the likes of it.  I had red food colouring on the sink.  He got it.  He was red from top to toes...  It took a moment to register what it was & that it wasn't blood!  Arghhh!  You can see on that picture how pink his forehead still is.  He did have yet another bath after dinner that faded it a bit more.  His shirt was covered in colour so when I pulled it off him it just spread further over his head & hair!  What a mess!   I have just got most of the last pink off me this morning.  I ended up nearly as red just trying to get him stripped off.  

Warning - children & undiluted food colouring aren't a good mix!  

Have a good day...  Stay cool if you are sweltering in the Aussie summer.  

One Off The List

If you are a regular visitor to my little blog world you will probably have noticed the list I put up of the things I want to achieve.  I was going to write it all down the other day, you know, with a pen & paper.  But then I thought I would stick it up in plain view.  Might give me a bit of a boost to achieve some of these things.  I am not going to stress entirely about it.  Some haven't been started but I would like to see them done.  

I finished the hand stitching of the binding on my mantel piece advent calendar.  I'm giving this one away at Christmas.  So wow, I have one thing ready!  lol  I actually bought a couple of Christmas presents today too.  Can't tell you what or why as that will give away something that the person is sure to find out about.  But I feel quite organised today!  I really love this advent calendar.  If I didn't have my huge tree one already I would love this one.  The pockets are the "Christmas cards" on the mantel.  Plus the tiles at the front & the couple of extra things at the bottom.  The candle on the left looks like I have done it out of place but it is only because that pocket is pleated so it sticks out more.  (all the better to hold treats we say!)   The bottom corners are puckered a bit.  Don't care.  Have to work on that bit but the top 2 turned out fine!   Weird!  lol  

Month of Moments day 3 - Sweet

We were out for lunch with some friends & family today.  The luxury of holiday time still.  A friend brought over a gingerbread house.  Sweeeeeet!  Well it was pretty good actually.  I enjoyed the roof with the white freckles.  The boys took turns bashing it with a spoon to break it.  That was fun although it didn't work really.  I just pulled at it.  Much easier!  They are made to break!  It was good fun!  

Also my little one DJ is 18 months old today.  BJ wouldn't let us have a half cake.  He said we would have one when he has 2 candles.  This is DJ on the left.  On the right is our little friend.  The same size.  But wait for it.  He's little.  He is 18 months older!  He just turned 3.  OK.  So friend is a bit small but DJ just might be freaky tall!  

Oh & the raspberry rocket icy poles weren't sweet enough for the boys.  I will have to refigure that recipe.  Add more sugar or just find something else.  There are plenty online so I won't run out of options to try!  

Have a good one!  

Todays Variety

I haven't done a Mill Hill ornament for ages.  But I had to do this one.  It's actually for work.  A sample.  So I will get it when we finish with the kits to sell.  Love it.  I hope they sell because it was my idea to get them!  I thought they would do well.  Of course once you have a sample they go even better!  I enjoy these kits.  I don't usually get any of the Spring ranges, just the Christmas ones.  But this is cute for a stitcher, sewer, quilter.  These don't take me long to make either which is good.  It's just a matter of fitting it in around everything else!  

Today's Month of Moments moment is Sleepy.  

Or not as the case was when DJ was playing in his bed.  This is me sneaking a peek through his door.  He was busy doing his upside down person!  He spends a lot of time that way at the moment!  But I am afraid that he will start to drop his naps.  Big boy did at 18 months.  I'm not ready for the little one to stop yet!  

A bit of experimenting with some icy poles too!  For you guys in other places of the world, an icy pole is an ice block on a stick - popsicles.  So you will know from that what I mean.  I have had these rocket shaped holders for a few years.  Just waiting for boys to get big enough & to be interested in such things.  The time has come!

  

These are made from fresh raspberries.  I am hoping they are good!  I want to make a few different sorts over the summer.  If you have a great recipe for iced treats like this I would love to try them, so point me in the direction of the recipe thanks!  

Stay tuned for the verdict!  

A Month Of Moments

Well it's 2013.  How about that then!  I hope your 2012 was memorable for all the right reasons.  

Lets make this new one a great one.

I thought I would try this Month of Moments challenge.  

It's hosted over on the JustB blog & this one was put up by Pip yesterday.  I have been thinking about it.  The thing with this stuff is that it doesn't matter.  You aren't accountable.  It's just fun.  No pressure.  

I am going to do it here on my blog though.  I don't tweet, instagram & want to keep of facebook more.  (yeah right!)  So in a combo of words & pictures I will give this a go.  

Being that today is no 1 I have come up with this for my "brand new".  

Just look at that beautiful wool!  Such pretty colours!  I am going to use some!  Yep I am.  I have a plan for that one in the middle in purple/greens.  The one you can see at the top in green/blue is my favourite though (Sweet Georgia yarn!  My new favourite kind.  The blue one on the left is one of those too).  I should have got loads of it.  I want to do a jumper for DJ in it.  But maybe it's too girlie.  Maybe I need more of it for me.  But not yet.  I haven't been able to get more of it yet.  One day.  

But this is my beautiful Brand New wool!  Luxurious wools. It is a treat to buy it.  I do need to use it though.  

Now humor me while I put up these pictures of DJ with water play out on the deck.  He gets so soggy & doesn't even care.  Just loves it!