State of things here .............

Daisyson20 - is in hospital, he had a cat scan last night and may need an operation to clear his very infected sinuses - he went in yesterday - truly the day from hell........had to leave the lunch I organised for the new prep parents for next year early, got him to hospital, arranged for someone to collect daisyboy7 from bus, take him home and then take him to school concert, where daisydad met him with orange shirt that I had to buy yesterday (Year 2 had to wear orange - tried to buy an orange shirt this summer??????????????) Daisyson21 came home early to be here for daisygirl and dasiyson12 to get off bus, left them and went and did stuff he had to do because he picks up his new car today. Called and organised for someone to collect daisyson12 and take him to the year 7 mass and farewell supper. met with doctor at 6.35pm did I mention daisyboy4 is with me ? we arrived at the hospital at 2.30 and he was PERFECT not good, not quiet just absolutely PERFECT!! talked to doctor got daisyboy20 settled put daisyboy4 in car drove to college - rang daisyboy20s father and tell him what is going on on the way - met daisyson21 who took daisyboy4 and car seat on the rest of his errands with him - where is daisygirl????? - she is home on her own apparently washing up - arrive at mass only 5 minutes late get to stand outside - yay at least it is cool, do the supper thing remember I haven't phoned daisyson17 to tell him his brother is in hospital do that he has enough of schoolies and is ready to come home oh and he is out of money - note to self put money in his account tommorow on the way to dropping off patterns, before I pick up daisygirl and her friends oh wait can't do that going straight to hospital, note to self message daisygirls friends and make sure they have an alternative way of getting home, remember client who didn't show up this morning is coming tomorrow at 8am note to self get friend to collect daisyboy7 for school in the morning - oh pack patterns to deliver to quilt shop! On the way home stop and get groceries daisyboy12 is off to Wetn Wild tomorrow buy ham etc for good lunch, finally get home daisyboy4 passed out on the couch, daisyboy7 wants to show me the orange shirt fits and the flashing hats I ordered three weeks ago have arrived for the concert so everyone has a flashing santa hat on - make sandwich pour wine, daisydad in bad mood loads of work coming in (boo bloody hoo)

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

Progress Report....

I was finishing these off yesterday afternoon at my machine and I realised that things were getting way out of control I needed to clean....so I began.....it is still a bit untidy but at least I have all the fabric that needs to be folded and put back in one place, all the pieces for the quilts I have to quilt and bind in one place, all the BOMs in one place and all my business paperwork in one place. So another hour or so and it will be done.

Cleaning gives you the chance to sort and throw and collect your thoughts I always find so I have finally started my secret santa gift for the my patchworking group.....well it is cut out and I found the coat hangers so I am way ahead of where I was yesterday morning (still deciding what to do!!!)

I also came across the list for this year the things I had decided to make -

-a quillow for each child (daisyboy4 has one, daisygirl's needs to be quilted and bound)

- Be Attitudes BOM (only 3 done so far out of 10 - and I still have hand stitching to do on them)

- Journey of a Quilter (block one finished nothing else)

- Angels Story (three blocks finished, two with appliques fused ready to hand sew, and four together with no applique on them yet - I did much better with this one)

- Carolina Crossroads (from Quiltville) the top is finished just needs quilting and binding

- Orange Crush (from quiltville) same top done quilt and bind

- Old Tobacco Roads (from Quiltville) first units together just need to make the blocks.

Other things that got added along the way:

A strip twist quilt for daisyson21 top together just needs borders and quilt and bind.

Shabby Blooms - top together needs borders and quilt and bind

Finished:

A tablecloth I made ages ago quilted and bound

A baby quilt for a friend

Another baby quilt (the pink heart one) for sons friend

Gardeners Journal quilted and bound

and countless tea cosies, lunch packs, tea towels, hand bags, shopping bags for my market stall

Christmas decorations for the kids and one for the family (minus the hand sewing to put the eyes and features on!)

Two table runners for the stall at the quilt show

A quilt for my friends new home (I won first prize at our local show with that one)

Pj pants for the kids (10)

pj pants for me (1)

pants for me (1)

Still to do:

evening pants for me for daisydads christmas party

2 more pairs of pants for me

a dress for daisygirl

and everything unfinished from above..............................

BIG SIGH -

All I want for Christmas is a week in my sewing room uninterrupted!!!!

Listing it out helps put into perspective what I have finished this year and just how productive I have been in this area of my life whilst not ignoring the other parts. Having a tidy sewing room will help me get all this done faster - but I can't guarantee that it won't be just as messy by the end of it!!!LOL

Off to finish the tidy up I have four clients coming this morning to drop off alterations so I need to look like I am organised!!!!!

daisymum

A new addition to the family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is my stove - a bit sad I broke the glass in the door sometime ago and when I got the quote to fix it it was almost the cost of a new stove. So we have lived with it and cooked in the BBQ. Now the piezo ignition has died in three of the burners at the top and the bottom of the oven has a big rust hole in it. (well that was there when we moved here five years ago - the stove hadn't been treated well - or cleaned for that matter)

The other week a friend of mine was saying she was getting a new stove - and she offered me hers - but - I had to get the hinges on the door fixed as the door didn't close properly and there were scorch marks on and around the knobs.

So amidst another horrible storm last week my wonderful daisyson21 went to their place on the way home and pulled out their old stove helped put the new one back in place loaded her up and bought her home.

I couldn't resist playing with it and I flicked a little taggy thing on the hinge and the whole door came off in my hand!!!!!!!!!!!!! So after a big lecture from daisyson21 about leaving things alone until it is daylight and not flicking things until I know what they do...he got the door back on, then we realised the door was bent not the hinges so with a few strategically placed taps with a hammer the door is fixed!!

Here is my new stove all ready for someone to come and connect up....so why isn't it?? well the oven is electric I have never used an electric oven before - I might have to actually pre heat! So anyway now we wait until pay day next week and get the men (one electrician, one gas guy) to hook her up.




How much did I pay for this miracle??? Well nothing really I have to do some ironing at my friends house for a few months and that is it. I love bartering for things it makes so much sense - this stove would have ended up on landfill somewhere I am sure instead of in my kitchen looking fabulous and cooking something for my family every day. I will post a photo when it is installed and clean and with the glass lid on it etc.

I know posting about a stove is strange but it is an integral part of the tools that I need everyday to do the things I do - don't get me started on the washing mahcine - I almost had a nervous breakdown when our last one died - seriously as long as my laundry is clear I can function but two days without a machine around here is like being buried alive.....but I digress.

Gavin from the Greening of Gavin is talking about greening the home today in his Zero Footrpint series - this is an example of how by just paying attention to what people tell you - things can come your way without costing money, just some time and ingenuity and maybe a bit of ironing!!

happy day

daisymum

Okay okay i'm it.....

I am a bit slack picking up awards and things as my time this week is very limited so please don't think I don't appreciate them I just don't have the time to do anything about them yet but I will I promise.

However Cabbage Heart has tagged me to write 6 things I am happy about and then nominate some other to do the same:

so.....

1: I am happy I am married to the greatest guy I have ever met. We started dating at 15 and after a 17 year break we reconnected so I feel very blessed.

2: My children - this week I have one buying a brand new car because he works so hard is so responsible. One who is sick and needs his mum to look after him even though he is grown up. One at schoolies who I pray is doing the right thing but I am confident in the way he was raised so I am sure he will be fine. One who is in her last week of a very very long first year of high school. One who is in his last week of primary school, one looking forward to free dress and mission day tomorrow (cancelled due to storm damage last Monday) and one who decided today that he wants too many things for Christmas so he will let "santa" decide what he should have.

3: I am happy in my work and that my little Saurday job will turn into a three day a week job next year so i can still have my family, my home, garden and some money coming in.

4: I am happy that I have wonderful friends who keep in contact with me and support me no matter what I do and who love me enough to be honest and give me a lecture if they need to - then we can have a laugh and a glass of wine together

5: I am happy I have some time to sew and some time to work and some time to volunteer and that at least for the moment I seem to have all that in balance

6: I am happy blessed and joyful being at home and being a mum, treading lightly on our earth by creating, growing and recycling, repurposing and reusing. Taking pleasure in the little things, the simple things and knowing they are important to me and that really when it is all said and done that is all that counts.

So I tag (when you have time)

mandy from the old Dairy
caroline at the simple things
Tracey from Frugal luxuries


daisymum

Monday - back to the vegetables....

Apart from a few lettuce and tomatoes and herbs planted in between everything else in my cottage type garden I haven't been much of a vegetable gardener.

When I started last year in a proper dedicated vegetable bed I grew lettuce, silverbeet, tomatoes, beans, snow peas, rosellas and eggplant.

One of the eggplant bushes came up again so I left it and this is the result, little eggplant!!!! I posted a photo a few weeks ago about one that looked gorgeous tasted divine but was really really little..well they are all really little. The big yellow things are what they look like if you leave them on the bush in the hope they get bigger...they don't they just go yellow.

So a few questions, is the soil lacking something? (although the leaves look really healthy and it is still flowering)Or does this always happen to two year old plants??

Can I eat the yellow ones or should I give them to the chickens??

Has anyone got a good recipe for marinated eggplant?

daisymum

PS: The little yellow zucchinins would get bigger if I left them but I like them little and crunchy I just blanch them really quickly and toss them through a salad - a bit like asparagus.

Glass half full weekend...

Graduation:

I was awol this morning from blogland because we had to go to daisyson17's graduation mass and parade. Then tonight we are off all dressed up to the graduation dinner.

It is a strange day we are only half way through our boys going to this college three more to go!!we finish in 2021..... and then there is daisygirl and her high school journey she will graduate in four more years.

Daisyson has loved school, at the end of mass we got to walk down to the morning tea through the school grounds with the students and teachers from the school lining the way. So many spoke or called out to him it is a lovely thing to see.

One of the nicest things was his new girlfriend came with us, she is a lovely, lovely girl and I hope she will be around for a long time as they seem to have fun and have a lot in common.

Storms:

On cue this morning the sun came out and we were blessed with a beautiful day.

The SES, army, council and volunteer workers are still plugging away trying to clear as much as they can before the next round of storms comes - sometime tomorrow afternoon they are predicting. Say little prayer for them or if that isn't your thing then offer a wish to the universe to smile kindly on their efforts and their generosity, or perhaps be safe in the knwoledge that kharma will bring them all good fortune for their toil. However you do it - think of them.


Which brings me to another theme for today....Someone I know through one of my children asked me what the cakes in the car were for....so I told her I had cooked some cakes for the SES guys and she looked at me really blankly, and then asked why?

So I answered because they are doing a wonderful job and it is my way of showing appreciation -

then she asked "was your place damaged?"

no

blank look - "then why cook for them?"

So I answered because they were hungry and got in the car and left.

Today at the Mass Fr Jim's sermon was about meeting people who never look outward he said something like "for some reason they have turned in on themselves". Instantly I thought of this person - and there was my answer she was so busy worrying about her new shoes and her daughters new curtains that she never looked outward.

So Glass half full weekend is about looking outwards and upwards and onwards...you don't have to do anything just look outside yourself, and try to find the silver lining every time.

Have a wonderful weekend

daisymum