What's a girl to do ???

I wake up this morning and see Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville has released the fabric colour selection for the new winter mystery quilt. Very exciting. 

Not So exciting is having to buy a new

Mattress cover - trip to Spotlight ensues. 

And guess what ? Fat quarters on SALE !!!

But the mattress

Protector was 40 % off so .... Mystery quilt time !!!!

Angela

A long weekend

When you work in Real Estate a long weekend is a blessing. Normally I spend Sundays cramming some need to do jobs and some me time into one day shortened by club rugby games.  But a long weekend means I get a real weekend - two days "off".

So what will you be cramming into your long weekend apart from the usual school and club sport shopping, cleaning and getting organised for the following week?

I plan on gardening - I have some plants to put into the garden - hippeastrums and agapanthusand nasturtiums.  Then I plan on spending a chunk of time at my sewing machine getting some serious progress made on two UFOS.  One that needs to be in the post and in the US by Thanksgiving this year !! ( hint hint Dawn) - and is at the moment a pile of untrimmed blocks with no plan for setting - yet.  I have a book I want to spend some time with and a crocheted cape I making for an upcoming weekend in Melbourne to finish.

People ask me all the time were I find time to do things - the answer is I fit them in here and there - I will get half an hour of crocheting done on the way to and from rugby this weekend ( home game so not much time - but last weekend it was an hour and 20 minutes worth).  My books are always in the car and I read them even if only for a few minutes while I want for kids at the train station or at lunch - even if I am early for an appointment.

My sewing is always sitting next to the machine with the bobbins wound - needle threaded and fabric in a pile ready to go.  The gardening stuff is all in a bucket that I can grab when I have two minutes and just start - gloves, seeds, plants, trowel, bag for weeds etc.

I started doing things that way when the kids were little because I was so short on an time let alone time to do things I loved and it has carried through.

Enjoy your weekend -

Chat soon

Angela

Back to Daisy Mountain

We are back on Daisy Mountain !! And we couldn't be more thrilled.

Over the last three years we have enjoyed the convenience of living in suburbia  - 800m to the shopping centre, coffee shops and train.

There has been a part of me that has been very unsettled over the last few years - nothing specific but the first morning waking up exhausted in our new home looking out at the trees I realised what it was - I missed the land - the trees - the light - the birds.  How do you live three years without those things and only realise when you get them back that they are part of your soul and make you calm??

That crazy balance I was always looking for  isn't in convenience, time management , lists and scheduling - it is in living where you feel whole and connected to your family.  Busy-ness isn't a lack of balance - its just life.

Seeing the change in my children over the last week has made me realise it wasn't just me that missed the space and birds and the peace. ( although they manage to fill the peace with kid noise !)  They are no longer bedroom dwellers they are out at the fire pit with us, or on the tennis court or just hanging out in the lounge room talking.

Once again you can follow our journey - as we build new gardens, a new resilience and enjoy our Daisy Mountain.

Until next time

Angela

Real Estate Sales Me

I know - it has been ages but I have been trying to come to grips with my new role. The new office is wonderful and the staff are all incredibly professional, caring, and generous people..it is nice to be working there.

Work -I have had some mild success I signed up my very first property to sell in just two weeks, and it will be an auction ( so if any of you are looking for a lifestyle change - watch out for a tearoom, residence and vacant block for that organic vegetable garden - all just 35 minutes from Brisbane CBD). Work wise things are great.

House - the dust storm, school holidays and me working my little behind off (more about that in a later paragraph) have taken a toll on my home - remember those "honesty shots" almost a year ago??? Well the sewing room looks not quite as bad as that but the garden is worse. One day a week just isn't enough to keep everything under control.

Vegetable Garden - what vegetable garden? I have a few stalks of silverbeet, loads of Kale - (thanks Rhonda that stuff just grows its head off!!! been using it in spinach pie type things and fritattas.) And there are some volunteer tomatoes which are the sweetest tasting tomatoes I have ever grown so not exactly sure where they came from!!!!

Garden - the roses are blooming their heads off and the hedge row roses have their first flush of flowers - they are so lovely they only flower for about three weeks a years but when they do it is gorgeous, and the jacaranda is coming out in bloom as well so the garden - from a distance- looks pretty good.

Me - I went to the agents launch of a property the other day and was sent some photos - I knew I was fat but oh my gosh so am embarking on a look after me campaign. Started eating breakfast again, packing snacks and lunch, booked in for yoga on Mondays and will walk/run five times a week. My new boss is very keen on the idea of incorporating your fitness times into your weekly schedule - so I booked myself in for a Seasonal Way seminar on Thursday this week a kick start to looking after myself and guess what ? He starts an eight week sales training session that day!!!!!

Sewing - what sewing? The photo at the top of the page is an original design put out under my business name Daisy Mountain Designs - it has sold very well and I love walking into someones sewing room and seeing it up on the wall.....but there are times when I can't believe that I designed it and found the time to stitch it and package it and well be creative.

The Moral of this Post - if health is all about balance and moderation - I am taking up woodwork to learn how to make a big box - because I am going to need it!!!LOL Oh don't get me wrong I eventually get everything done and everything under control but there is always something that has to give including blogging but mostly it is me and what I need or want to do. I think I have discovered that the purpose of my life this time around is learning to find balance - if I was a cynic I would say I might have to live this life a few thousand more times before I get it right.

But as in all large jobs it is easier to break it down so for today I will blog, I will walk/run, I will take my lunch and snacks to work, I will hand quilt tonight in front of tv, I will wash the kitchen floor before I go to work today, and when I bring the boys home from school I will plant the blueberries, cranberries and Taro I bought three weeks ago!!!!

Have a wonderful day...I know I will

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 Stitching Cow has a Giveaway!!!!!!!!!!!

Click here to discover more details about this beautiful quilt

Lenna from over at The Stitching Cow has a giveaway happening. You may have seen this quilt advertised in the latest quilting magazines. It is called "Cottages in Common".

This quilt has loads of hand stitching on it and is going to be my 2009 project (once all the ones I talked about in my last post are done or well on their way to being done). She runs it as a Block of the Month and has a tutorial that she sends via email with tips and tricks and demonstrations for those tricky bits.

So she is giving away one of those tutorials (which includes the pattern) emailed to you once a month - and all you have to do is post the picture of the quilt and the embedded link to your blog to get the word out and about.

I am so looking forward to doing this one but I put off buying it until some of the my other projects were looking closer to being finished and I could save for it. Now I have the chance to win the BOM how cool would that be???? I had to share this chance with all of you - good luck!!

daisymum

Monday

As predicted Thomas the Tank Engine drove me from the office Friday and out on to the verandah where I tidied and washed windows!!!

I also managed to get the Christmas Cake cooked because last week the piezo ignition on our stove died and while I am waiting for electrician son to look at it - I have to bake everything in the BBQ. I can light the stove top but not the oven. So because the BBQ won't stay at 150 degrees I need to be around to open the lid when it gets too hot - so while I was doing that I cleaned.

Yesterday was pretty much a perfect day for me. After Church we had a cooked breakfast then I got to go and play in my sewing room all day.

I had to quilt that quilt my sister had given me to do for her granddaughter so yesterday was the day armed with all the quilt essentials, pin cushion, coffee and carefully measured out amount of smarties I set to work.

I sat down at the machine at 10.15 and apart from getting up to iron I stayed at the machine until 5.30!!!

Daisygirl bought me tea and a sandwich at some stage but it was a misty almost rainy day and it was lovely to just sit and sew. I had been thinking about how to quilt the quilt since she gave it to me - I always like to really think about how I am going to do something before I start so once I do I can just go until it is done.


So here is a really flattering shot of my fat arm, the gorgeous quilt and my trusty sewing machine.

A word about Smarties - I am not normally a lolly person frankly I can take them or leave them most of the time but when I machine quilt I will often have a little bowl of something I don't normally have - it is a treat. And when the kids come in an invariably chat to me I have something to pop in their mouth to keep them quiet!!LOL

Here is some of the quilting detail.

One of the reasons I was able to sit so long at the machine was that a few days ago a lady from my patchwork group offered me her old sewing chair, it hurt her back so she bought a new one and asked if I would like hers. I had been using an old office chair (wooden base, wooden arms) that I rescued from the trash and treasure shed at the dump. Well I was going to keep my old chair and put the new one at one of the industrial mahcines so I didn't have to wheel up and down the length of the sewing room. One sit in the new chair and I despatched the old one to the trash and treasure shed!! I can't believe what a huge difference a chair makes.

All I have left to finish on it now is the binding a little bit of hand quilting. So sister dear if you are reading this I hope you like what I have done so far.

Have a wonderful Monday

daisymum

PS: and just to keep it real the sewing room is officially a bomb site.........in fact it is so bad that I won't even show you a photo of it. And you've seem my thistles!!!!LOL