Beautiful things............

This Glorious Frangipani took up residence in my garden about 18 months ago at the height of the drought. I bought it for $5 from the local markets, put it in and crossed my fingers, we don't water our plants (except the veges) as we are on tank water. 18 months later and this is what she rewarded us with......This is probably my favourite shade of pink well it is today anyway.

Have a wonderful day whereever you are. I am off to plant some seeds and do something in the vegetable garden and start building a third one to prepare.

daisymum

I think this is a..................................

Sweet potato - but then maybe it is just another opportunistic weed that has come to live in a corner of my yard.

So the question of the day is........................is it a sweet potato?????? I had a few left over from a box of organically grown veges and it sprouted at the eyes so I cut it up and put it in this pile of lawn clippings under the cubby. Well the cubby got pulled down at Christmas time and this little thing has grown and grown.

I didn't know if sweet potato grew from eyes like real potato but if this is one then they do - how cool is that??? I think that is the amazing thing about potatoes you can cut the little eyes out and hey presto in a few months potatoes.

BTW Stewart if you are reading this - those freebie ones surprised us all - I thought they had gone to the garden god but no - they gave me a nice bucket full of potatoes just yesterday little but enough for a few meals.


daisymum

The Fluid nature of our lives.....

More changes on the way here at Daisy Mountain, work changes this time. Very soon I will be working five days a week from 8.30am until 2.55pm (so I can race down the street and pick up the little boys from the bus stop in the Village) This means the daisyboys won't even realise I am at work I can drop them off to school, go to work pick them up off the bus and still have a few hours in the afternoon to get some gardening, sewing, cleaning, organising, and cooking done. The best thing is I won't be working Saturdays!!!!!!!!!!!! (well not every one anyway)

And in a few months I will find someone who I can train to do Wednesdays (Patchworkers Day) and Saturdays for me and then I will only work four days a week, which will give me a day to help out at school, or just chill out at home.

The other change is the closing of my little alterations and mending business, I have taken the ad out of the local paper, am referring my clients to someone else and.......................I sold my industrial machines! Now in my little sewing room there are two big holes where the monsters used to reside. I am very excied to be able to have more room and finally a cutting table in the room and space for the ironing board which has been living a "nomadic" existence since they arrived.

It looks bare but full of promise - Thursday I will get in and clean it again and re organise things.

My sewing room was the project I worked on as my mother was dying, we had it built it and in the days before her funeral I undercoated it and for weeks after I painted and painted and organised and shuffled, it became a real haven for me. Once I started working it became more of a house of horrors, every time I walked in there I felt guilty and a tad panicked as I looked at all I had to finish. Now that that pressure is gone it has become my haven again and I really really enjoyed sewing that quilt last week I am inspired and motivated and relaxed. Sewing once again becomes my refuge not my source of guilt.

So as with all things my life is flowing and changing into something quite different. And there is at leat one other new challenge that may come my way in a few weeks time but more on that if it happens. I would never have believed that once daisyboy4 was off to prep my life would take such turns and twists! I feel very alive.

Have a wonderful day

daisymum

Finished!

Quilting

The back

The front

Quilting detail

Sewing on the binding

This is the view from my chair where I sat on Saturday morning hand sewing the binding on.

Here it is finished at last.

The little fine red strip of binding looks better than i hoped.

The party was fabulous my SIl was surprised and delighted and now I am off to work!!!

happy day everyone!

Daisymum

The green bits connected to the red bit.........

Or how daisymum spent her day........................

First you make a really long string of one inch squares trying not to put two the same together..

Then you sew them to the quilt centre with your trusty sewing machine.

Then you add a green check border......

And lay it out and have a good look at it.......




oooh look - my toes match the quilt!!!!!!!!!!!

Then stand further back....and notice that it looks a bit "washed out".........so..........

Add a slightly darker green border and stand back and see that it gives it some more definition.

A bit closer so you can see it better

This little gem of a fabric I bought very cheaply at my favourite quilt shop I think it was $6 a metre and it matches the front perfectly. I sewed it together so it was big enough for the backing, joined several large pieces of batting left overs together for the batting layer and now I am ready to quilt!!!!!!!

I also managed to shop, vacuum, and pop in to the library ( ALL BY MYSELF!!!) and collect a book I had on hold.

My day was blissful but boy is it HOT. Storm on the way hope we don't lose power I need to put the pedal to the floor to get this baby quilted and the binding sewn ready for me to hand stitch before we leave tomorrow at 1pm - yeah I'll get it done...................................

Daisymum

The great lap quilt in five days challenge.......

Wednesday last week we got an invite from my SIL to her 6oth birthday - wondering what to get her I settled on the idea of a quilt.

I had a few handpieced blocks from a hand piecing course I did (4) so I only needed five more to make a lap quilt. Sunday I got stuck in and made another five blocks (machine pieced of course) and last night I added some sashing (thats the reddy coloured strips between the blocks). This is what it looks like so far.

Plans are for a scrappy one inch border then a wider greenish one then quilt and hopefully bind it in the car on the way to Bundaberg this Friday. I might if I have time add some flowers to the edge of the basket block but I think might be just a bit too ambitious given the time frame!!!

Now that I have given up my sewing business I am rediscovering how much I can get done in my sewing room in a short time. And the pure joy of sewing because I can not because I have to.

Have a fantastic day

daisymum

Camels and the pursuit of calm

Here is another shot of those wonderful camels, on a different day just loping along the beach without a care in the world. Reminding us all it is about the journey not the destination.

I have spent a lot of time lately getting "organised" so I can juggle work, the kids and our home. But somehow I lost sight of some of the most precious lessons I have learned.........time to slow down and refocus.

Yesterday I listened to myself for the first time in ages describing the things I had to do - that list in my head - first this then this then this and then maybe this...I haven't had that internal dialogue going for quite some time. And it can be so destructive.

Once you make your whole existence about the need to get things done, about things that have to be ticked off the "list" then you lose sight of the fact that doing those things accomplishing those tasks - is your LIFE - not in a definitive way but in a you breathe and move through these moments, this is what it is and you must find the way to love it or all you are doing is going through the motions.

I bet not one of those people is sitting on those camels thinking "hurry up I need to put the washing on, and then vacuum and cut the beans up".

I told you camels are a good visual - now I have identified my thought processes - I need to refocus and get back to the basics, so I can enjoy working, my family and my home again and find joy in all the things I love to do becasue I love to do them not because they must be done.

I found this sign in a shop in the village a few months ago I have put it on the wall leading into the kitchen/dining/family room and for a few weeks now I have walked past it without "seeing" it.

A calmer me sets forth this morning to attend the daisyboys school mass, do some cleaning, washing, cooking and sewing.

And remind myself of those camels and how they glide through the journey leaving barely a footprint - and seeing my sign that tells me the joy is found in the simple things, and in keeping things simple.

Have a fabulous day

Daisymum

How we are coping three weeks on.................

This is the last bunch of hydrangeas off my bush a little bunch of colour peeking out - nothing too surprising there except this is the first time in weeks I have been able to see it -I am sure some of you know what I mean.

So what have we been up to........

daisyboy4 has settled in well and after a few days of teary farewells (him not me) he now rushes off to the classroom and gives me a kiss and tells me "to have a great day". In the second week of school we decided to put him (and some of the other preps) on the bus from school into the village. They were so EXCITED and they loved it they even managed, as a little group, to talk around some of the more reluctant to let go parents into letting their other little friends join them. It is so satisfying to be able to give your kids this hint of freedom, this first little bit of independance, they feel so important and grown up ( and lets face it you don't have the hassle of the school parking and pick up!) I need to say here the bus is a privately contracted bus that bring the kids straight from school to the bus stop in the village no other stops along the way, they have the same bus driver "Karen" every day and she is a marvel. So now they catch the bus every day, in a week we will be able to drop them off in the cul de sac and they will walk to the big shed for assembly each day so no more out of the car , walk to the classroom, etc etc it always seems to make me late for work!!

Daisyboy7 is in heaven football sign up finally arrived last weekend pre season training starts this Wednesday his little mate from school didn't sign up this year but another one did so he is as happy as they are all outside now doing pre tackling drills ..... the ARU changed the age group for tackling to under 8s this year so new rules for some of the ages groups.

daisyboy12 is loving high school, and he has also signed up for club football, turns out a kid who lives down the road and goes to his school also plays for this club so things are looking very good for shared driving to and from training (YAY!!)

Daisygirl will be 14 next week and apparently we are going shopping with five of her friends for her birthday - I am hoping this means I get to sit and drink coffee and read while she and the girls hit the shops, not a bad way to spend a Sunday might take the laptop with me and update the blog then too!!! Oh by the way ipod nanos don't like a 60 degree whites wash.......yes my helpful girl put her school uniform in the wash and turned the machine on...good thing I ticked the "accidental loss" box on my insurance policy ....... the guy at the insurance company told me that it was common, and the other common one is those hand controllers from the wii thingys smashing big screen tvs !!! Our kids don't have one but if they did I would give them 100 points for being able to hit our little screen tvs!!!!LOL We are so technologically challenged in this household when all the stations go digital we will be sitting in the dark!!!! (note to self must get one of those set top thingys one day)

Daisyson18 is happily working, waiting for uni to start and helping me with the house and child care in the afternoons. Oh and doing up his car - no he still hasn't gotten around to getting his licence...........

daisyson20 's has started up a landscaping business he seems to be busy and happy and hardly ever here so I think that is good news.

daisyson21 will be a fully fledged electrician in just 3 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he has been offered a job with the firm he is currently working for and we are keeping our fingers crossed they will give him a fuel card - all his jobs are on the southside of town so he leaves home most mornings at 4.30 - 5 am. His best friend is off overseas today for 12 months but he has some plans for the next few months to keep him occupied.

daisydad isn't getting a lot of work lately so our frugal ways are helping a lot, plus my work. But he is happy and finding more time to potter in the garden (lucky me) Trouble is he thinks everything that isn't a tree or a well established shrub is a weed - so I go around in the afternoon after he has been out there and take cuttings of everything he has chopped down or pulled out!!! The thing is I have been so busy spending Sunday getting organised for the week ahead I haven't been in the garden with him - but it is nice to have the help so I am not saying a word!!

And finally to me - (sorry this is such a novel!!!) Work is fabulous I just love it, the house is pretty well organised, I am on top of things mostly and it gets easier every week. We are in the throes of making quilts for the fire victims at the moment and my SIL turns 60 next week so decided this morning to add a few blocks to some I have already done and put a quilt together for her for next weekend. ....yeah I know but you know me it will get done ( and to be fair we only got the invite to her birthday on Wednesday - good thing there are UFOs in my sewing room).

The vegetable garden is well turned over and full of manure and compost, ready for planting probably next week I have some potatoes and beans in already but the new bed won't be ready for another couple of weeks.

As for the home front well meals are done for next week, cakes are cooked and frozen for lunches, I just need to do some fruit shopping and I am once again ready for the week ahead

SO blogland that is the update from daisy mountain - I loved everyones Friday camera Grab photos from the other week. Have a great Sunday

daisymum

gifts from the garden.............

Yesterday I packed up my carefully nutured batch of seedlings, some lettuce, some tomatoes, some marogilds and nasturtiums (not as big a variety as I would have liked but lots of them ) and I dropped them off to a friendly old bloke in a street in a suburb nearby that was hit really hard by the big storm last year. I explained to this complete stranger that I felt so helpless and there was nothing I could do for them at the time but that I planted these and looked after them so that he and his neighbours might have something to plant now that their gardens are somewhat recovered.

I thought he would think I was nuts all these trays of seedlings and then his wife burst through their front door and announced another twenty deaths in Victoria from the bushfires. Then I thought instantly of the floods in North Queensland .... then he hugged me and thanked me and as I drove away he was handing a bunch of seedlings to his neighbour and the woman from across the road.

It seemed like such a clever idea when I thought of it but in the light of all that happened yesteday in our big country it seemed kind of pathetic................

daisymum

A weekend challenge....

No matter where you are when you read this grab the camera run outside and find something that sums up your mood....kind of like the photo of our dam on Monday restful,tranquil that was how I felt then.....it can be a photo of anything BUT it has to be something from nature - no photos of rude words scribbled on pieces of paper!!!LOL

I would love to be blogging more but I am off to work again today so that will be six days in a row by the time I finish tomorrow afternoon - and although it means I will spend my one day off on the weekend geting things clean and organised for the coming week, and I would dearly love to be home today to just potter about...I still LOVE IT!!!

Hence my photo for today.............................my frangipani just a little too far away to really appreciate the full beauty of it and too far away to smell the perfume...which is exactly how I feel happy, but removed.

daisymum

quickly......

Good thing I was organised this week - my three day week has turned into a four day week already and I still have to work Saturday.

daisymum

A Brand new week..................

You can probably tell from the title I am somewhat calmer this morning than I have been for a few weeks.

I spent yesterday washing, folding and daisydad did the ironing for the week (bless him). I went and did some shopping (at Aldi - for the first time it isn't too bad they had everything I had on my list so...and loads of orgnaic stuff that was a very reasonable price - I will probably go back again)

Then I came home and got cooking so I have three meals cooked for this week and one containner of marinated stir fry meat in the freezer as well as an extra container of chili in the freezer.

About the only thing that I am behind with now aside from the vegetable garden but I this will happen tomorrow afternoon, is the sewing work that has come in. By the time i get home from work and do everything that I used to have all day to do there just aren't enough hours. i will be glad once I finish off these jobs that I can just say "no" from now on.

I took daisygirl and daisyboy12 to the train station this morning (and picked up a few of the commuters along the way who were waiting for the bus to take them there - it isn't exactly like picking up hitchhikers because I know they live in the village and mostly I have seen them around - but I guess people think it is strange to stop and ask if they are off to the station and if they want a lift - but it is catching on someone told me the other day she does the same thing now - ahh my own mini revolution!!!) The I got home and dsaiydad took daisyboy4 abnd daisyboy7 off to school so I have these precious moments to catch up with all of you until I leave for work.

Getting up early is great I got a load of washing on, the dishwasher unloaded, the rubbish out , changed our sheets , hung out the load of washing and swept the floor. The FABULOUS thing is - when I get home from work the house should still look like this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

okay my friends have a fantastic day -(she says feeling very superior, organised and calm!!!!LOLOLOLOL)

daisymum