Simple ways, simple days

Last week DD16 spent the first week of her school holidays at Youth Parliament here in Victoria and she had a wonderful time. Eleanor had no idea what she was in for or what to expect and then at the last minute found out the she would be representing her team Korin Gamadji Institute on her own. After having a little nervy turn she then settled and thought okay I will give it a go. So she needed to present her Bill and a speech to support it which aims for "increased access to health services for small communities" on her own and then had the great support of fellow chamber members to help her debate it. Guess what, she had her Bill successfully passed. Yahoooo. Eleanor also made an Adjournment speech asking for funding to build a high performance purpose built training and playing facility for Netball Victoria to house our Vixens and Victorian Netball League teams. She could not stop talking about this wonderful experience and the incredible character of the other young adul

Well here is my Stitch-a-long update, a couple of days late, however given that I changed my colour theme and had to redo blocks I am really happy with my progress. Part 5 completed. Part 4 completed Part 3 - 2 small circles to be completed inside circles not squares, oopps. Part2- some stitching and more circles needed. Part1- just some stitching Hooray I feel as though I am somewhere in the ball park again. Cheers, Maxine

We have a really, rascally rabbit who is most of the time really luvable, but sometimes really naughty. Molly is her name and she was DD24's Christmas present from her Fiance and is beautifully housetrained, I can not believe how easy that was. Molly has a 2 storey condo but roams around with us when we are home. Molly was only weeks old when she came to our little family then about a month later she develoed glaucoma. After numerous visits to our fabulous vet and long term eye drops we have managed to holt it's progress, however Molly has lost probably 70% of her vision. So we were grateful that she had been able to at least make a map in her mind of our home which has really helped her to be the happy affectionate bunny that she is. Initially we had a few issues, nibbled phone chargers, handbags straps and shoes until we learned to properply rabbit proof things, she has trained us well. However Molly has a nose for chocolate we have discovered and an amazing talent for unwrap

Well I had been working along on Stitch Along but just found that I was going through the motions and not really enjoying it, I had no idea why as hand stitching is one of my favourite things. I persevered for another month, but just the same thing, then I started looking longingly at another project, you know the one that calls out to you until you cave in and start it. I kept trying to ignore it "no stay with the stitch along you have always wanted to do one, don't drop out". But alas the call was too strong and I ventured over to the other side and began this other project and the joy returned with each stitch. Then the light switch moment, I was not happy with my background fabrics on other project and the needle turn  and the reverse buttonhole stitch circle just did not sit right with me. So lesson learned, if your fabric, stitches or heart is trying to tell you something, listen you idiot. Hence new background fabrics, stem stitch around circle and buttonhole appl

Well the day begun with a jolt, whilst we were all having a sleep in, too many Easter eggs. The phone rings and for once I can actually find it and it is the Personal Alarm Company, letting me know that Nan has pushed her button three times and they can not get any response. So I call to girls and in record time everyone is dressed and in the car heading to Nan's, we only live one block away. We race in through back door expecting to find her on the floor, but oh no she is watching her toaster waiting for the toast to pop up. She looks casually at us and asks "where are you off to this early". Once we had turned off the radio so we could hear ourselves think and got the hearing aides in we told her that the alarm company were worried because you pushed your alarm three times and then they could not hear any response over the radio, " oh is that all ". Well all was well, and seen everybody was up early off to Bunnings we went and we took Nan with us just to be s

Yeah. March blocks completed, have been for past week but I just kept forgetting to post, so here we are at last. Yours in Stitches  Maxine

Well it has been a few weeks since last post and I was going to tell you all about them but something better happened over last couple of days that I thought I would start with. ( Me being unwell, the pending engagement party and its preparations and the GOAT incident will just have to wait.) Both of my girls are creative and have artistic abilities but they fight that urge like the plague, "one craftaholic is enough for one house" they will say, but they dabble and interfere ( sorry they give advice freely"). Last year I got very excited when DD23 decided she wanted to make a baby quilt for her friend at work and she did a great job and the friend loved it. But this was it, nothing more, so I slumped back into my shell and got on with my creating occasionally hearing orders being placed and whose turn is it for the next quilt. Anyway DD24 now, is a Nursing and Midwifery student and as part of their course they have to recruit and follow women through their pr

Yep, just when you think things are all systems go Thunderbirds the computor has a melt down, so here we go take two. February Stitch Along blocks complete,Yeah!!! Well that feels better I am off the blocks with my part 1.

Finally some quilting and stitching, I am a huge fan of Craftsy.com and have purchased numerous classes across many craft genres.  Whilst watching a class called Simple Fresh Quilts by Joanna Figueroa I felt that the spool block quilt was perfect for this jelly roll that had been kicking around my craft room so I thought why not let's do it. So early December I set about stitching the top and here it is as I was making the sandwich, this was also the first time I have tried spray basting a quilt and I must say I really like this technique. My furry, four legged helper is Mimi who just loves to help make the quilt sandwich and tries to take ownership over all quilts, she will only sleep on a bed with a quilt on it. Maybe I should make her one of her own. This quilt is also the one that I decided to bite the bullet on and started to free motion quilt it myself, my previous quilts I have quilted in the ditch and basically with straight lines. I found the free motion side

Slowly getting back in the groove. Trying to settle back into the groove after our camping holiday. One of the first requests was " please Mum can you make some bread", isn't it funny the things you miss , the smell and taste of homemade bread has to be right up there. I hope to step up the bread making this year and branch out into fancy plaits and rolls etc, Sorry about the photos, I am not to smart with the phone and I have not located the camera in the unpacking yet. I was pleased with these 2 light rye loaves and somebody else was also as a slice was missing when I returned, they were still hot. I was also very relieved that the vegie garden had looked after itself whilst we were away it is always a worry during the heat to leave it to it's own devices, but it seems to have coped. I will need to get busy over the next few days to deal with the over sized zucchinis and the apricots look not far off either and I am very curious abo

Reflections on 2014 Well we have just returned a day earlier than planned from our camping holiday at Lorne in Victoria, some unexpected heavy rains for Friday and Saturday  convinced us to pack up camp and return home with a damp tent rather than a drenched one. We had a lovely time spending days at the beach and nights playing Phase 10 ( card game ) and Rummikub along with spending time with my eldest daughters fiance and his father. Over Christmas and New Year there was a bit of discussion about the year that was and how it had at times challenged our resilience and that we were grateful for the good times amongst the struggles. Both my girls and I live with a genetic medical condition that impacts us everyday but we make the most of what we can and are happy with life, There is no treatment or cure we just need to manage and adapt as necessary, according to our Specialists we are experts at this and constantly surprise them with what we manage. Having said all of that there is