Pin Cushion Swap

I've just this minute finished my pincushion swap gift.

I've really enjoyed this little swap. 

Not too much pressure and not too much time spent making it.

I might just have to make a few more it was so fun.

Oh I must tell you that this is just the wrapping!  The real pincushion is inside the gingham fabric.

Goodness I couldn't show you the real thing, just in case the lady who is going to receive it is watching.

Wouldn't want to spoil any surprises now would we?

And don't you think crochet flowers are just the ticket to jazz something up?  I swear by them and really should make some more.

My girls are on holiday from tomorrow afternoon. 

How exciting for us! 

We'll be making lots of craft stuff I imagine. 

Two whole weeks of not having to be anywhere at a certain time.  Not that we do much anyway! 

But to stay in ones pj's late, is a very lovely thing. 

Well this parcel will be going to the post office in the morning.  Winging it's way across the oceans.  Hopefully it will have a safe journey and will be enjoyed by someone special.  And thank you very much Kate for organising such a great swap.  You did just great!

Have yourselves a very lovely day today. 

Thanks Liz!

Goodness me, have I had some fun with my blog today!  I never knew I was quite this clever.  Just kidding, I know I'm just a beginner with all this computer stuff really.  But I have learned how to make a real proper grown up header now. 

What do you think?!!

We have Liz to thank for that.  She gave me a big push this morning when she mentioned that I could do a lot better in that department.  Well, yes, perhaps I could. 

And perhaps I have.

I've left the cute little birds off the background too. 

They are sweet, no doubt about it, but they are rather distracting all the same. 

Now I have this rather fancy looking wallpaper which I rather like.

OK now I've got that out of my system I can go and eat my lunch. 

And you sweet people can relax knowing that I've stop bugging you. 

Go in peace.

And I'll find out who thought my last blog change was dreadful!!!!!!!  You can't hide from me!  He he!

What A Weekend!

The girls and I have been playing. 

What do you think of the new blog look?

  I have a poll on the right, yep just over there, if you would be good enough to send me your opinion.  My mother is horrified that there is no longer any trace of red gingham on it!  Well I just don't know how to do one of those fancy headings everyone else has!  But I do like the cute little birds down the side of my blog now.  And my current fav colour is gracing most of the blog.

I've managed to do quite a bit more crochet this past week.  Do you see I've added two rounds of white to the grannies?  I do like lots of white in my quilt borders so thought it would also go well on a crochet blanket.  And it adds loads of extra size too which excites me!  I wonder how many more balls of white I'll need now?  Will it look good or is there too much white?

Well there hasn't been a lot of hooking this weekend I can tell you!  My goodness I've slogged it out with hubby prepping three bedrooms, a bathroom and wardrobes ready for plastering tomorrow. 

I ache. 

I really ache. 

I ache in places I've never ached before. 

Hubby's the same.  I couldn't get to sleep last night from so many sore points. 

Even my neck muscles ache.

I've been taping the carpet edges down. 

I've laid plastic protective covers over the carpet.

I've scrubbed the bathroom ceiling.  That was really, really painful!

I've cleaned.

I've sanded.

I even got to paint the wall edges!! 

(A big treat for me and only given the job as we were so pushed for time.)  Hey, doesn't everyone's painting look great in the dark?!

And the girls were left to fend for themselves.  Don't tell!!

You should have seen the house at the end of each day! 

After a while they ran out of floor space. 

They ate rubbish for tea last night. 

They stayed up later than they should have. 

They did not put a single dish, cup or spoon in the dishwasher.

Suddenly it looks like perhaps I do do a lot around the house.  It even shocked me!

I feel I deserve a little me time today.  I finished up my work at lunchtime.  The rooms are ready for tomorrow. 

Now I am going to read my new USA Country Living magazine, thank you Joan.  I really needed that today.  I also see that Spotlight is having a 20% off sale this week. 

How lovely. 

The extra white wool I'll be needing will be nice and cheap now.

Jug is on, I'm off!

Hope you lovelies have a great week.

The Black Box

Hello there!!  Nice to see all you lovely people once again. 

I've had a lovely restful break, not quite ready to come back fully,

but perhaps once or twice a week from now on. 

I have a problem with computers,

well new age things in general really. 

I mean they are great for a whole load of reasons,

they connect us with the rest of the world and generally do make life easier.  And of course some of my sweetest friends live in that black box,

BUT...

There are some big negatives for me...

The take up too much precious time, I call them time suckers.

They destroy some of what life is meant to be about.

We don't like our girls using them because we'd rather they had fun doing things children should be doing but there are the pressures from school and friends.

They are anti-social, as far as family life is concerned.

If we could, hubby and me that is, we would be living in the sticks growing food for the family and making things we needed.  There would be no TV or computer in our house.  Our children on the other hand do not choose to live this way, so we don't.  We did actually go without watching a TV for about two years several years ago.  It was great.  We spent the evenings talking, doing our activities, playing board games and generally having fun.

As they say, everything in moderation.  But I find it difficult to keep the balance between all my bits. 

I want to spend more time doing one thing but find I don't have enough time to do all the other things. 

So at the moment I will do things in order of importance. 

And that will probably mean blogging will not be at the top of the list, all the time. 

Of course sometimes my needs will be at the top of that list and I will blog!

You lovely people and your lovely ideas keep me coming back for more. 

I've learned so much in the past year.  Gosh I can even crochet now!! 

I also want you to know that I do try and read most of the blogs on my list, but sometimes I don't have time to comment on them.  Please don't think I'm ignoring you, I'm not, I'm probably just having to dash off to do something else.

I've enjoyed spending some time with you again,

but now I must leave you once again to do a little tidying up. 

I've had three tradesmen here today so there is plenty to do.

Have a happy week!

Love Sarah

Having A...

Bloggy Break!

Had enough of the little black box this week, will be back sometime, soonish.

Hope you have a wonderful week! 

Im still making granny squares so I'll have a big pile to show you when I'm back!

Tulips For Me!

Remember my Spring Surprise Swap parcel from Willeke arrived yesterday?

Shall we open the wrapping and see what's in it?

Oooh isn't this such an exciting part?!! 

And no I didn't wait until I drove home!  Well, who is that controlled anyway? 

Oh how sweet!  Look it's a tiny little thread holder and needle case. 

I can use it when I'm taking my sewing out with me.  How handy that will be.

The front is embroidered, but I can't for the life of me get a decent photo of it sorry. 

They keep going all blurry.  Of course it's the camera's fault, not mine OK. He he!

These are little motifs for the girls.  There were four of them, one each, but No.4 took an instant liking to the heart one and now I can't see where she's put it. They are so lovely and the girls can't wait to use them.

How sweet of Willeke to think of our girls.

And here are the two fat quarters we were to include in our parcels.  These are the same fabrics in different colourways.  You can't see in this photo, but there are some sweet little birds on the fabrics too.

And now, for the bestest gift of all...

Can you believe she sent me a quilt!!!  How amazing is that?  Isn't it just beautiful?  We all love it and it's looking lovely draped over my crochet chair at the moment.

The applique is just too cute.  I love how she used tulips which remind me of her country - Holland.

And check out the quilting...

How on earth she stitched such perfect flowers I do not know. 

I'd love to be able to do this!

And I just love her label printed onto fabric then stitched onto the quilt.

Now I"ll never be able to forget who made me such a wonderful gift.

My goodness I feel so completely spoilt.  Thank you soooo very much Willeke, I love it all.

I can't wait to see what everyone else has swapped.  I'd like to say a big thank you to Corry and Heleen who organised such an awesome swap. 

Please go and check out these beautiful blogs sometime.  They are sisters and share the same creative interests. 

How lovely.

I hope our girls get on this well and enjoy each others company later in life as well.

Gifts Galore

I forgot to tell you, I was the lucky winner of a fabulous prize last week.  I just answered a nice little questionaire from Fabrication about my favourite subject - fabric,

and I won the prize!

I was allowed to choose between a metre of fabric or fat quarters. 

Annie has an online store selling fabrics from New Zealand.  Please go and see what she has available, she has some very lovely fabrics.

Well after a few hours of mulling the idea over and all the possible options,

I decided upon these little fatties...

I just love the little apples!  So cute.  None of them are for particular projects, just ones I liked. 

So thank you very much Annie.

I had a very productive day yesterday. 

First up I made some dance tops for three girls who are auditioning for a talent quest at school on Wednesday.  You can see a pink one below. 

Shiny isn't it?!! 

Might very well go with my last post title!

Then I sat down to enjoy a little crochet work. 

My big girls took interest in doing a square of their own so after a length of chain was mastered, I proceeded to show them how to make grannies. 

Well it didn't go too badly, although No.1 pulled out with a sore wrist.  Really! 

No.2 however managed to do three rounds and...

ended up with a wonderful first granny!

She's mighty proud of her efforts as are we. 

I've just gone out and bought two more crochet hooks in the same size I am using,

so they can have their own personal grannies in my blanket. 

I can do with all the help I can get!  17 grannies done and many more to go still.

In the afternoon I put a dressing gown together for No.3. 

It's in the most colourful rainbow striped fabric I ever did see. 

I just need to find buttons and it's ready for show and tell.  I only bought the fabric yesterday as well!! 

That's mighty impressive.  

I even managed to impress hubby as he did think it would sit around for weeks just like all the others.

I really don't know what he means?!!

And check this out...

Yep my Spring Swap parcel arrived this morning!  I can't wait to show you what the lovely Willeke sent me.  It's just amazing and so exciting!  If you click on her name you will see what I sent for her.

Dont' you just love the windmill wrapping and the tulip card? 

I'm sure you can guess where she lives!  I'll be sure to post about it really soon.

I'm A Hooker...

and I'm jolly proud of it too!

I've found myself a lovely little sunny nook in which to crochet my grannies.

  See Liz, I don't have that Granny pose going like you do!  Do I?!!

The view isn't too bad either.  I can keep an eye out on the little people riding their bikes

or climbing trees at the same time. 

That's multi-tasking for you.

This really is the life. 

Cuppa tea on the window sill, pretty yarns at my feet,

a simple crochet pattern that I'm not getting cross with for a change,

and warm sunshine.

 

I have quite a pile forming here. 

I decided to edge all my patches in white, as I do like a white border on my quilts and crochet blankets

(she says having not even completed a single crochet blanket!!)

The colours are lovely and bright so the white sort of tones

it all down a little and it all looks more uniform.

Here we have a few of my patches so you have an idea

of what my blanket will end up looking like. 

I think I like it?

I've taught myself to wrap the ends in as I go, so sorry to disappoint you Jo,

but there isn't that awful job of threading them all in at the end. 

And the cut-offs have a good use too, as No.3's worm farm!

The prettiest worms I've ever seen.

Somehow I'm finding crochet much more enjoyable this time around.

I think the time between first learning and now has been good for me. 

My brain just seems to be coping better with it. 

It's just like when No.3 learned how to ride her two wheeler recently. 

Each weekend there was a huge improvement from the last, even though she hadn't done any practicing in between times. 

The brain is an amazing thing.

My Bag

I think some of you didn't quite see the same potential in my new red bowling bag as I did. 

Not to worry, I love it and proudly take it everywhere.

How about now?

Yes some of you are interested now, aren't you?

Oh yes, I see some rather envious eyes looking and thinking,

what a marvelous bag she has now.

Bet you are wishing you too had a fetching bag like mine.

I've been playing with wool again. 

I do love crochet grannies. 

I love the items made from these groovy little squares. 

I will try to ignore Hubby's rude remarks about the old lady look they have. 

Actually by the time I've finished my blanket I probably will be an old lady,

so it's going to suit me well, isn't it now?

Remember this post?

Well after some consulting with Dearest Liz, it was decided that what I needed was

a piece of 120 year old linen to stitch my buttons onto. 

How I didn't know myself that I'll never know!

Well after only a few days this amazing parcel arrived in the box. 

She's sure knows how to spoil a girl!

Just look at the lace rose with the button at the centre... 

Oh she's such a crafty lady, so very clever. 

I can see that rose on one of my nighties at some stage.

And look, I was lucky enough to be given one of her new tags, freshly made by her hands. 
I just love all the old bits and pieces she's used.

Gosh Liz you've spoilt me yet again. 

Thank you so much!

I really must get a wriggle on with that little project.

I nearly forgot to tell you, I located the family of the cat from yesterday's adventure. 

They seemed to find it all rather amusing and didn't seem at all concerned. 

Hopefully he's recovered from his shock by now. 

I think I have finally. 

I even missed a dental appointment for No.2 in the shock of it all. 

Funny thing was, she knew I would have forgotten the appointment

so didn't even go up to the office at the right time! 

Gosh am I that bad?? 

Yes, probably!

Oh well have yourselves a splended day and evening. 

You know what I'll be doing!

What A Morning!

Oh my goodness, what a morning!!!

Don't you hate those mornings? 

The ones when you have to be somewhere at a certain time and everything tries to stop you from getting there?

Well this was one that won't be forgotten for a while.

It all started with the exciting entrance of a butterfly.  Problem was, he really wasn't getting out of his house very well at all.  Sounds a bit like us really!

So I armed myself with a couple of pairs of tweezers and peeled the crusty layer off his wings.  Apparently I resembled a crab with nippers. 

Well things didn't look good half an hour later, and in the end I decided to pop him down the gurgler. (The sinkerator for those of you who have no idea what I'm on about.) This was most upsetting for four unorganised girls who really should have been leaving for school.

And it that wasn't bad enough, earlier in the morning I heard a noise in the garage that sounded like a person playing with one of those retractable tape measures.

A bit spooky really.

I locked the garage door and left the tape measure player to it.

It's not my idea of a good time, but I do know it can be entertaining to certain little people, so each to their own.

Spooky picture

Well eventually we had to open the garage as I needed to take two small people places so I could go to a school meeting.  I had hubby stay on the phone while I bravely went in search of the tape measure rustler. 

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing!

Oh well, we headed out down the road, past the school and waited at the traffic lights.  I did what I usually do at this time, reached in my rather spiffy red bowling bag, and took out my lipstick, only to find ladies shouting at me and banging on my window to stop.

What, can't a girl beautify herself without interuption???

It appears that someone saw a cat peeking out from under my bonnet!!

(Thank you to my model who looked remarkably like the one in my car.)

The one in my car looked a little more like this...

Giant saucer eyes looking up from the engine.

See the ginger arrow I've drawn on the photo below?  (By the way I'm quite proud that I was able to do that!)  That's where he must have stayed

since yesterday afternoon when the girls were riding their bikes out front.

Well it took half an hour for the crowds to free him, he was so scared.  I was parked in the lane with cars travelling down both sides of my car and it was quite embarassing really. 

Luckily a panel beater Dad and an a couple of Indian men happened upon us and offered to take over the rescue. After freeing him, the office lady arrived and took him to school as I thought he belonged to our neighbour who works there. 

Apparently he looks just like hers, but is missing a black spot on his nose.

So after taking both children to the loooong school meeting, I went up to the sick bay to pick up the cat to take him home.  I have no idea who he belongs to, so I just let him out after a bit of doorknocking at empty houses.  I still have his collar so will go out later today and investigate.

Here's the evidence of a bit of a scuffle, under my car in the garage.

I sure hope tomorrow is less eventful and that pussy cat has calmed down a bit. 

The strangest things happen some days don't they?

I'm just very grateful that he's in one piece as it could have been an ugly sight.

I'm happy for mobile phones too and for wonderful caring people to help in times like this.