Mini Golf

We were spoilt at Christmas with vouchers for experiences/activities rather than things.  It's such a great idea. 

We have been to the movies & watched Paddington 2 which I really enjoyed.  Oh yeah, the boys did too.  

We've been 10 pin bowling.  Always fun even if we can't beat Stuart.

This time it was mini golf.  First time for the boys to play any sort of golf except for the little bit of putting they do at Grandma's on her carpet.  Interesting watching them try this golf thing though.  It is a hard course I think too, & we had no hope of keeping count.  Lots of cheating & breaking golf rules, but well, the boys don't know them anyway.  Lots of discussion over who has the next shot.  Lots of hockey type sweeping shots.  (maybe we need to try him in that game instead!)  All very interesting but lots of fun too.  

Travel Socks

Some new socks for Stuarts big feet!  These were the ones I started on our drive to the cricket at the end of December.  Trying to knock these few pairs over so I can move on to others.

Socks #2 - 2018

Adventure Time

Stuart's on holidays this week.  I'm not.  So he took the boys to this island that he has wanted them to see for a while.  It's local.  At low tide you can walk to it.  So they did.

Explored the caves, climbed the rocks & had a good time by the sound of it.

Glad they did something like that without me!  lol

New Things

Been having some crazy hot days here.  Hot like we haven't known for quite a few years.

It's been good in ways.  Swimming has been in.  Lazy days have been in.

So what better way to try to keep cool is to be cool & take up the hexie fad.  Actually it's not really a fad as they have been around for a very long time.  But I had never tried them.  So I dug out some fabric cuts I had, got some rather big hexie papers & some glue sticks.  Yeah, you don't have to hand stitch the papers in these days.  Gee, that went fast.  Magic glue & sticky tape.  Who knew.

I also know people.  Lots of crafty people.  But particularly crafty people that do lots of paper piecing.  Thank goodness I talked about it, as my friend Karen put me on the right track in stitching them in the first place.  Phew.  So that's been fun.

Now if that wasn't enough, I have been procrastinating over this heel pattern that I got probably six months ago.  It's been nagging me & I decided to just jump in & do it.  So I cheated with the sock.  Pretend sock, which consisted of about 5 rounds, just so I could get to the heel.  Experiment with new stitches & new techniques.  Wow, that was simple.  Most impressed.  So now I want to get onto a new pair of socks so I can do a whole sock with it in to see how it fits properly.   

It's good to learn new things!  What do you have planned for this year?  

Taking Stock - January

Making :  socks for the window display at work.  lol
Cooking :  almost nothing, Stuart is doing it mostly.
Drinking :  Baileys
Reading:  old books that have been on the shelf too long.
Trawling:  patterns
Wanting:  too cool down
Looking: at the tide times for best swimming conditions.    
Wishing:  I could swim in pools.
Enjoying:  the sea like I have never before!  lol
Liking:  the lazy holidays
Wondering: if the heat will be back.  
Loving:  our front garden.
Pondering: how the prep before school starts will go
Listening:  to "mum mum mum mum mum mum mum"
Considering:  zero waste ideas.
Buying:  not much.  Trying to keep out the rubbish.
Watching:  Chicago Fire again.
Hoping:  school going back is drama free.
Cringing:  at how fast the holidays have gone.
Needing:  longer holidays
Feeling:  pleased with out garden goals
Celebrating:  the birth of the foal!

Australia Day 2018

It was so good to be home on Australia Day this year.  We had the privilege of seeing this little foal being born in the morning.  Amazing to see, & now to watch him every day while he is here, will be another amazing thing.  The mother horse visits us to eat our grass over summer.  She had a nice time on her own this year waiting for Ozzie to arrive.  

How Did That Happen

Just finished a pair.  Yay.

But I still have three pairs in the works.  Handy actually.  Different stages for different times.  I can pick what I need at the time - travel socks, thinking socks, mindless socks.

Stay tuned...

Slow Socks

These were a slow pair.  Two at a time, with a pattern.

Not that they were hard or anything but a lot of thinking going on that mostly I have to do at night.  I was determined to get them done though & finally got there.  Fidget Socks are go...  Yarn is Cascade Heritage Waves & Cascade Heritage Solids.

Socks # 1 - 2018

Another Adventure

Another day, another trip out to a new place.  

We had a pick of beaches that all looked so inviting & pretty.  We picked one though & had a nice time there, in the water & on the sand.  

Another lovely time out, perfect weather & fun.  Fish & chips for lunch.  Couldn't have been much better - just needed Stuart to have joined us.  Maybe next week.  

Fairies or Pigs

We had a little time out to a place we hadn't been to before.  It was fun.  All I told the boys was that we were going to Pig Island.  I had only heard of it & wasn't entirely sure where it even was.  

We found it though & did the walk around it.  We discovered little fairy or elf doors in some of the trees along the way which was really cute too.  

Since then I have discovered it is also called the Fairy Walk.  So whether it is Pig Island or a Fairy Walk I don't know as we didn't see either of them.  

We had fun though & dropped a lot of Tas Rocks on the way around.  A play in the playground & a spot of knitting was good too.  

Can't beat ice-cream on a day like that too so that rounded it out nicely.  

Challenge Complete

Every year I try to learn something new.

This year I wanted to try Brioche knitting.

Funnily enough, it came up as the January challenge on a facebook group I am in.  So I jumped in.

I had a practice start with lots of errors but learning to read the fabric was good.  So I unravelled & started over.  A week later I had this cowl.  I'm pretty happy with it.  I didn't make it tall like the pattern said as I don't like to wear them that big.  But also meant I didn't get the colour changes in my pretty coloured yarn that I was hoping for.  Oh well, maybe another...

Unexpected Fun

This was fun!  Seven of us on the pedal buggies in the park on a lovely summer day.  What more could you want.  Oh yeah.  Icecream of course!

Fish

Three hours of swimming with their cousins was quite a feat...  They had fun.  They love hanging with them, on the rare occasions they are together.  

I get lots of a knitting done while they swim.  Unfortunately I can't go in pools.  It always looks so nice & I would love too.  But well, not worth it.  

Three hours of swimming exhausted them though.  Gee they got "crabby" later!  

Gorgeous Days

We've had some beaut days.  Lots of fun to be had.  We are so lucky to have a beach like this on our doorstep.  

Places you knit!  

Let's Bowl

A fun time bowling.  

Some kind souls gave us bowling vouchers for Christmas.  Terrific idea it is.  

New Year Break

The new year has started of quietly at our house.  

DJ finished his rather large Ninjago Lego set he got in Brisbane.  Yes, he built it himself.  The only thing Stuart or I have to do is either sort the blocks of push something on harder that he can't quite get.  But finally he put in the effort & followed the instructions & did it himself.  

My challenge for myself this year was to learn Brioche knitting techniques.  Well funnily enough it came up in a January challenge on a group I follow.  So well, here I am giving it a bash.   It's fun.  This is my practice piece.