Flying Fifties

There is nothing on this earth more

to be prized than true friendship.

- Saint Thomas Aquinas

Boy this week has just wizzed by and my head is still turning. I have really been flat out with work, sewing, knitting, dentists, daily life and all the other things that come with life. My girlfriend Heather has been away on a lovely holiday with her husband and I collected her mail and watered the garden. We had an unexpected trip to our capital city Perth (one of its suburbs really) to visit the Orthodonist for Cory, and then this Thursday Pixie will take Brandon down there as well. There was no chance of getting them both in at the same time, unless we waited another 4 months!!

Brandon has done one week of work experience and has one more to go. His Mother survived that week fine and Brandon breezed through it, with the boss saying he is welcome back anytime. My chest puffed out with pride. Only one more week and then school holidays. Yay. Time with my little petals.

I have finished my challenge that I do with Bev. We had rabbits as a theme, and here is mine.

Bev and I had the same pattern and we had to do something different with it. As usual, our work looks totally different to one another. That's what I love about these challenges, our ideas are so different. I decided to do some stitching.....and leave my cotton pickin' fingers off my knitting for a while. lol.

I also used some of my material given to me by my most darling sister-in-law, Lee.

My bunny project is an Easter bag, it will probably go and live at Heather's house. And talking about Heather, I want to share this little bird with you. I didn't make it, Heather did. Do you like him?

It is in the colours of one of our football teams, Fremantle Dockers. This bird does a trick as a matter of fact. Inside this bird is another one....but I haven't taken a photo of it sorry! Inside is a small bird in the colours of another team and when you press the sides of the big bird....out poops the small one. A bit symbolic at football season. I will hopefully remember to take more photo's to show you what I mean.

I am going to make one, don't have any instructions to do this, but will just look and stitch. Now it's confession time.....I have been knitting. Oh how unusual. Still knitting for the young girl at school, whose Mum is having a baby. This old book was a reject from a library sale and has been whipped to death and has many of my favourite patterns in it.

The knitting needles have the stitches of a baby beanie on it. I have used a varigated wool and it is 3 ply. This should be finished tonight. Cory wanted to share some photo's of last night's sunset. My boy, the photographer. He is really very good at it.

Oh yes, we've been on the roof again.

How about the colouring in that sky? Isn't nature wonderful.

Thanks for those lovely photo's Cory, they truly are lovely.

I'm now going to rest my weiry bones. Today Cory and I went down to volunteer our time to the Flying Fifties, held every year. It is a car time trial event and there are so many different sorts of cars, from old, old to old. The trials are done in the streets and there are also stalls at the park and fun things for kids in the main street.

There were lots of  people racing and the crowd was fairly big too. That's always nice when your town draws people to it. So many people volunteer their time to help out at these things, it is good to see. This year was Cory's first time helping, and we were booked in to help for so many hours....and out in the sun. There was a hold up in finding someone to replace us as marshalls. Cory was a bit flustered for a while, but then we bought a show bag and I treated him to a cool refreshing ice cream and he was as good as new.

We will try to download some photo's from today's event and share them with you. Enjoy what is left of this lovely weekend and a cheerio to you all. Kind regards, Anita.

My plans came unstuck

A mountain is nature's

everlasting castle.

All my well planned intentions came unstuck on the weekend. I was intending to sew and catch up with a few things, but instead I was in bed and out of it with sinus and a nasty stomach ache. So my sewing machine sat right on the table where I placed it nicely. Never mind, I am feeling alot better now and there is always another day to keep sewing.

I have finished my teddy bear and I'm stoked with her. I can't wait to take her to work and leave her in the library.

I had a great time knitting away making this girl. She is called Bitsy Bear, a free pattern you can download. Just click here and have fun. Still very pleased with myself at slowly depleating my wool stash. I'm probably more pleased that I'm sticking to my plan instead of buying a heap of wool all the time. Mind you the year isn't out yet.

On the knitting front, I have also made a start on some baby gear for a young girl at school whose Mum is expecting a baby soon. The girl is super nice and always friendly, so I have made a start on some mittens and bootees.....

As Anita is still not the best photographer in the world, the wool is actually called Big Baby by Patons. It is a 4 ply and absolutely marvellous to knit with, and very soft. I might just also say, in my defence, that it is left over wool from my cupboard. At the time of taking the photo's I had not stitched up the sides of the mittens and had the second bootee still on the needles. That is going to be tonight's project. I have made a white pair of bootees and tucked them aside.

I will still make some things and pack it all in a parcel so the girl can give it as a gift to her Mum. She is a giggle pot.

On the weekend Cory and Pixie went go karting and Cory came home wagging his tail and a trophy for coming 1st. He has chipped away and chipped away, and in come the rewards for being patient. We also had a good drop of rain and yesterday down it poured. Our capital city Perth had a colourful sky show. Lightning, hail, rain and thunder.

It is time to start the tea and see how Brandon went with his work experience today. It is all a bit exciting and scarey as my oldest is growing into a man so fast. Until next time....kind regards, Anita.

What am I making?

Let your speech

always be gracious.

- Colossians 4:6.

Yippee! It's the weekend. I'm very excited as I am making a start on some projects that need finishing. Pixie and Cory once again have taken off to go karts, and Brandon and I are kicking our heels up and taking it easy. I have been busily knitting.....how unusual of me.... and I am about to finish a project. Can you tell what it will be?

Yes! a teddy. I found this free pattern on the net, so I decided to have a go and see how she turns out. It is a very easy little pattern, not too fussy. All I have to do now is stitch a few pieces on, stuff her and take her to work with me on Monday.

The teddy has a little pair of pants and a pinafore to go with it. I am really trying hard to use my stash of wool and materials that have been cluttering my cupboards, so I am proud of myself that I am sticking to the plan. As you can see the last few projects have been made out of the same colour, so I am using it up. Now having said that, I must now confess that I visited the Op shop this morning and found some sock wool. But now listen!!!...you can never not buy the sock wool if you find it sitting there in an Op shop (Anita's law). The sock wool is expensive to buy and the 2 balls I found cost $1.50 for both!!!

Once again I have to confess, I know I said 2 balls and you can see another small one. I thought it would sound better if I said there will be 2 more balls of wool going back in my cupboard, than 3. HA HA. I do knit socks so I know they will be used up. I found a couple of Pokemon books there in the Op shop and a little boy at school is Pokemon mad so I will give those to him to keep. He will be over the moon.

I also made a trip to the library during the week and these two books are really great, lovely patterns in them. So after I do some sewing! I will make a couple of things out of both books. A little girl at school is very excited that Mum is having a baby, so I will knit something up for the girl to give to Mum as a gift.

Yesterday I visited my darling niece Lisa and her two gorgeous boys, Ryan and Jarrod. As always it was such a wonderful visit and made extra special by the fact it was Ryan's 4th birthday. Hope you had a terrific day yesterday Ryan. I gave Ryan his present but also gave Jarrod a special bag of goodies too. Jarrod just loves the safari animals and I did some culling from Cory's room. So Jarrod was pleased with his little stash of animals. Straight away the hippo ate all the other animals and they were all laying down on their sides. He's so funny.

Hope you have a great weekend and enjoy yourselves in what ever you do. It's out with the knitting needles and sewing machine for me. Kind regards, Anita.

She's at it again.

Water is the driving

force of all nature.

- Leonardo da Vinci

I've decided that I might have to hide my hands off myself......I'm still knitting. I suppose I could have a worse habit, but I am supposed to be doing other things. I have been mindful of my obsession with knitting, and kept a nice flow of stitching happening.

This is such a cute design and I love the way the wording has been written.

I am right into the redwork, it is so appealing. This block is still on the go and it is almost finished. I have 3 more to go.

Now back to my obsessive habit of knitting, I found a stack of feather type of wool stashed away in a bag. I thought I might get in early for winter and knit myself a lovely scarf.

I didn't have enough of the flutter or flurry wool so I decided to make stripes in the scarf. I have used a strand of the thorobred throughout and a strand of the other wool, alternating the colours into stripes. It is coming up very nice.

 The colours have come up a bit bright, as usual with my photography, but the colours look nice together. I will probably have a bit left over to make a cute little beanie....not for me.

Pixie and Brandon have gone out shooting for a while, so that leaves me in peace and quiet...almost with Cory, to make tea, finish the washing and a few other bits, before bathtime. Pixie and Cory had a great weekend of go karting, and have come home a lovely shade of red from the wind.

I'm off to the kitchen now, the long way around so I don't go anywhere near the lounge room....and my knitting bag. Have a great night all. Kind regards, Anita.

A tiny spot of rain

March wind and April showers

bring forth May flowers.

We had the tiniest sprinkle of rain yesterday, and for a very long time that is the most rain we have had. I'm hoping soon we will get the rain we need. In the mean time my sewing weekend has been cut short, though I did manage to get some little cuties knitted up.

I was surfing the net a few days back and came across these wonderful little knitted toys.......

I had some multi coloured wool left over and thought how nice and bright this would be in the library for the kids to hold. The original pattern has a knitted white face, but I thought I might just use a piece of white felt. For the bottom of this little creature I also added a piece of bright pink felt to make it stand nicely. Oh if you want to knit this, go here.

While I was on the knitting spree, I found a great little pattern for some easter animals.....they turn out super duper!

OOps! I know.....bit bright.

The little rabbit and chick turn out so cute. It is designed so you can insert small easter eggs inside the animal and then give it to someone a gift. It is a clever idea. Of course Easter isn't that far away. The wool is 8 ply and when I knitted my rabbit and chick, I used size 10 knitting needles, but it knitted up quite firm, so bigger needles would be better. These two animals are going to live in the library. I will make some more for my two little nephews, Ryan and Jarrod.

Still on the knitting front, I made another one of those little bears.

That makes it three so far I have knitted now and they have gone to live in the library. Something interesting about the knitted toys......there are so many toys made commercially and the kids really go for them. I noticed the other day two girls sitting together on the bench in the library, one with the knitted dog and the other girl holding all the little knitted bears. They were just touching them and stroking them, it crossed my mind that the soft toys are still a favourite. It is almost like a comfort thing for children.

I love seeing the toys I make bringing joy to children, I remember all the dress ups I made for my boys went down a treat. We still have the big fluffy tiger mask I made for Cory, just out of some real chunky fluffy material from Spotlight. The best $5.00 I spent.

I went to visit the local library and found a stack of rather wonderful books. Yes I'm still not that great with getting rid of the flash in photo's.

The classic bush yarns is very funny. It is full of yarns and one that grabs me is called Satan.

Mrs O'Toole had about enóugh of her husband's drinking sprees and decided to try and scare him out of his habit. One Friday night, she hid herself behind a thick bush and waited for him to roll his way home from the rubbity-dub. When he came along the track she jumped out in front of him."Struth! Who the hell are you?'he cried.

'Satan' came the deep, disguised reply.

Bill O'Toole's hand shot out like an arrow. 'Shake hands, you old son of a gun! I married yer sister! 

Isn't that great? I just laughed thinking that is typical of some men. My three boys (husband and sons) are all pretty quick off the mark for comments and yarns.

Great book for some fun and laughter, you might find it at your local library. The other books are full of cross stitch, knitting and sewing ideas. I'm off to enjoy them. Oh I did do one piece of sewing, Pixie asked me to take up the hem of the pair of long pants he was taking with him to go karts!!! That's all I did!

Kind regards, Anita.

Our anniversary

A life has shining moments, pieces of time

frozen for always, that shimmer

from the past into the present.

Pixie and I are celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary today. Time has just flown and in our time together so many wonderful things have happened, the most special being our children. We are having a special tea with our boys and they are very excited about that. Happy anniversary Pixie.

Things have been happening around here! On Monday night we travelled to Perth to the AC/DC concert. As we only had 2 tickets, Pixie said to give one of the boys the opportunity to see this fantastic band play. The decision wasn't hard, as Brandon wasn't really interested in going. Cory was however.

When we arrived at Aunty Lee and Uncle Jack's house, Pixie and Brandon trotted off to the movies. Aunty Lee, Uncle Jack, Cory & I caught a train into the city and honestly the train was packed with AC/DC fans, all busting with excitement and all in black gear. I knew we would have fun on the train with Aunty Lee & Uncle Jack, they are a diabolical pair....like Batman & Batwoman. lol.

Once we landed at our destination the first thing we came to was the merchandise tent, and of course Cory's pupils turned into $ signs....spend, spend, spend. I purchased a few things and we were on our way.

Do you like A for Angus? There were two of these hats one on each side of the stage.

And here is my petal....Cory. I love that nose, I always press it. He is so cute. So is Brandon.

It was the best concert, if you were lucky enough to get a ticket! We enjoyed the whole night, and the different generations of people that attended was incredible. Rock on AC/DC.

Oh......the only craft I've done is this tiny little knitted doll.

Naughty me! Until next time, stay safe. Kind regards, Anita.

One more sleep!

May our house always be

too small to hold all our friends.

-Myrtle Reed.

Another lovely Sunday, all the chores are done, everyone is resting, and a soft cool breeze is blowing. We are excited because we have one more sleep......until we go to the AC/DC concert in Perth. We have had the tickets for about 8 months and finally the time has come. Cory and I are off to the concert together, while Pixie and Brandon are off to the movies. Cory and I are music lovers big time, so we can't wait. The other great thing is we are meeting Aunty Lee and Uncle Jack and travelling into the city all together. That will be great fun on its own. Aunty Lee and Uncle Jack are huge favourites of my boys.

I have been busily making heart blocks for the quilt Bev and I are working on.

We are making a row each of hearts this time, the first row was a row of chooks. Each month it will be something different. It's a great way of keeping busy and creative.

I have just noticed the hoop marks around the heart! Since taking this shot I have sewn the four blocks together. The other block is a stitched heart with running stitch in some of the sections.

It is a simple design and I'm very fond of the star material. I have had that material for ages and have only used small quantities of it at a time.

I'm a lover of primitive stitching and the simple little designs, there is something about them. I was hoping to show you a photo of my two little bears that I also knitted up, but when I tried to load the shots, the computer said no. I will take some more photo's of them and hopefully it will work next time.

We have just purchased a new laptop and I'm not getting along very well with it. Things are not in the same place as the other computer and as I have been very honest, I am not too good with computers. I will press on and keep trying to work them out.

Time to start thinking about getting some ideas for tea tonight, so I'd better put all sewing and knitting needles down and get on with it. Tuesday is a special day for me.......until next time take care. Kind regards, Anita.

Mr cute dog

Just a tiny seed of faith, watered

with love, wisdom, and hard work...

grows into a majestic tree of blessings.

Another busy week down, and a terrific weekend of sewing and knitting coming up. I have got in early this week with the washing and ironing, by Saturday I will only have a small load of clothes to wash. Yay!!

I have finished my knitted dog and so excited and pleased with how he has turned out.....

I decided to knit him in this lovely gold colour, wool left over from a jumper. I wanted to use as many of my scrappy balls of wool, to use them up and clear my cupboards out.

I also have lots of felt floating around the cupboards, so instead of knitting in the colours, I thought I would change the pattern a bit and use the felt for the dots. The pattern said to use felt for the ears so I stuck with that idea.

His under body is bright and I am pleased to say I used up about six small balls of left over wool. I also knitted the nose on instead of a pom pom. My dog will remain nameless until it gets to the library and one of the children will come up with some great name for him.

One of our neighbours has the biggest tree I ever saw....in a back yard anyway. In this tree must live every bird that lives in our town. There is an assortment of species and you should hear the noise coming from that tree! It is really nice actually. I have decided to lovingly rename my neighbours as Mr and Mrs Cooch. (from the cartoon Footrot flats).

Some of the most recent visitors besides the Mudlarks are the magpies. The magpies have nested in the tree and there are magpies everywhere. Maggies as they are affectionately known are very very aggressive towards people, animals anything that moves when they have young.

I was very lucky to get these photo's but in fact there were about 8 magpies hanging around. Unfortunately I couldn't get them all in one snap, they weren't too excited about me being there, so when I got too close

they moved. 

It might be hard to see, but the bird on the left of the picture is the baby. Their feathers are a bit motely in colour, once they get older, they are a definate black and white.

I don't know what this one was looking at but I reckon he might've been saying....."Lord, please make her go away!"

This is the feeder that attracts every bird from here to kingdom come. Mr Cooch is always in his shed building and banging away and is very pleased with himself with the finished product. This was built out of an old rubbish bin lid, a couple of bits of metal and has been visited by our local Kookaburra's as well. Of course!

I did try to take a photo of that tree...but only a small fraction of it could fit into the photo. I don't know what sort of tree it is...all I know is it's huge.

Time is starting to tick away and soon it will be time to collect my two petals from school. Next week will be very busy, as Cory and I are off to the AC/DC concert in Perth...can't wait, I love them. In the meantime Pixie and Brandon are off to take in a movie, they aren't into the same music as Cory and I. It will be a late night.

Brandon & I will have our hair cut on Tuesday night...the poor old hairdresser will probably cut my hair while I sleep. The rest of the week will just be the usually choas of working, cleaning and trying to catch up with sleep. Until next time, take care. Kind regards, Anita.

Two mice for words

A good laugh is

sunshine in a house.

- William Makepeace Thackeray.

Hello to one and all. I have made good use of our lovely long weekend. Washing hung, folded, ironed, floors washed, reading room books covered for work, cooking....and best of all stacks of knitting. I had to share my little sweeties with you. Do you like them?

I had some quiet time at night and decided to get the old knitting needles out and start clicking away at these little mice. After I finished the first one, I just had to make the second one in pink and orange. The patterns are in the book they're both sitting on. The mice are about 5 inches long and are easy to make. I stuffed them with toy filling and stitched the eyes and nose with wool.

Their little ears are just made from left over felt that I had laying around. But you know, I can't stop there....

Now I have to make this gorgeous sausage dog!! He looks like he will be a good size and I have lots of leftover wool. I think I might make the dots out of felt though, I will see what happens there. This book has some really lovely patterns in it and I got it from the local library.

Also finished is my short sleeved top, and though it looks a bit odd to me, when I put it on, it fits lovely and is nice and soft.

When I finished stitching the sleeves on, I thought..hmm. looks a little odd, but I followed the pattern correctly and when you put it on, it's fine, so can't argue with that.

The colouring of the wool has come out better in this photo than in the other postings showing the wool. The earlier photo's made the colours look like grey, black and white, but this is more the colouring with mushroom pinks, greens....

I really enjoyed making that little top and it has made me want to knit some more for myself this winter. Today being the first day of Autumn kinda puts you in the mood for knitting, even though it is still hot.

A couple of days ago, I heard a racket outside and went to investigate the noise. There sitting out the back was a Mud lark. I stood and watched it for a while, listening to all his squawking, he started to come closer to me.

These birds stand about 7 inches high and are often mistaken for Magpies. I was amazed at how confident he was to get closer to me as they are wild birds.

I thought I would be too late to get the camera and take some snaps of him, but when the back door closed and I opened it again, the Mud lark didn't even fly off. They are interesting to watch, I think this one was looking for water.

I'm off now to continue my knitting, oh better make lunch for the starving family members, they will fade away to nothing, poor creatures. Hope the coming week is a fine one for you and take care. Kind regards, Anita.