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