The old woman

I shall become

Will be quite different

From the woman I am now.

Another I is beginning.

-      George Sand.

We’re all zonked here at Hayestackhayes!!  The weekend has been full of action and it has gone all too quickly. Yesterday I went out to see how the boys were doing at go karts only to meet one of the mum’s I had never met before. I remember thinking this woman looked a bit worn and perhaps older than me by years. As I sat and spoke with this very friendly and nice woman I was to discover that she had actually attended the same school as me and was in the same year!!! It was amazing how many of the same people we knew and we had a blast catching up on news. The most interesting thing however was, the more we spoke the younger she looked. Can you make sense out of that? I hope to meet up with her again.

I had hoped this weekend I could finish most of my projects as I was going to have all this time up my sleeve....didn’t happen that way. I will show you some of my half finished projects. Here is my cloth doll that still needs some clothing. She stands quite tall and is a pattern from Homespun.

 

A project using recycled items, an entry for the show. I just loved making these mushrooms out of old egg cartons. Put some folk art paint on it, glue it to old wine corks and there you have a mushroom.

 Can you tell who this is? I'm not telling. I will show him when he is stitched up and stuffed. I can tell you he's going to a special little boy. That's all.

 

This project I have finished. It’s a scarf and the photo didn’t do it any justice at all. It is a very nice scarf, but with my photography skills, I can make anything look less!!!! Lol.

 

My poor old Chester was beaten up by Heckle and Jeckle and I managed to save him from certain death. The younger roosters were hand raised and are very friendly to people, they even jump on my back and left me hand feed them. They both decided to attack Chester, so I put him in a different cage with a couple of his girls until I find a home for the other two.

My poor boy

He still has dried blood on his head and his right eye has only just opened up this morning. I just adore his tail. It isn’t like most rooster tails that come out to a point, but a big fluffy ball of black feathers. That’s it from me today. The weather is sunny and warm, but the rain winds have started up and we are supposed to be having some rain tonight. Fingers crossed for the farmers.

Cheerio, Anita.

Lucky me.

All you have to do

is ask

-Randy Pausch

Hello there! I have finally finished a simple project off, that somehow seemed to take forever to do. There is good reason however, for my tardiness. I have been given so much ‘stuff’, that I have had to spend lots of time going through and sorting. Anyway I found a cute little Father’s Day banner in a book? net? And couldn’t help but make one. I do intend to attach each of these little ties to a long piece of bias binding after it has finished being on a book display.

Great way to use up scraps of material.

I’m not complaining here, so if I come across as doing so, forgive me, it is not my intention. I have now been given 12 boxes of everything we craft people would gouge each other’s eyes out to get and my sewing shed is filled to the brim. Suez, you’ll love this.......I had Heather over yesterday and let her have a pick at the boxes. All you could see of Heather were her feet dangling out of the boxes!!! She was all tired and needed a cup of tea after all the hard work.

Once again, no complaining being done here, but these are just two of the boxes of goodies. Tell me the person that gave them to me wasn’t a hoarder!!!

Perhaps she owned a shop?

Look at those boxes with zebra’s on them. There were at least 30 of them. I’m actually very thankful to have them because I will line them with tissue paper and fill them with sweeties for the Father’s Day stall at our school. Yes, there was wool too!!

This is a scarf I am knitting for a friend, the wool comes via one of the 12 boxes. It is an interesting textured yarn but God help me if I were to drop a stitch. Talk about knitting, I’m excited but sworn to secrecy....there are more babies on the way again. I guess the clicking sound of knitting needles will be well and truly happening here.

A couple of good bits of reading. A fantastic book from the library to help use up all the material I have and also a Homespun magazine to keep me out of trouble.

Well it’s been go, go, go, around here lately and I promised myself this Sunday afternoon I would give myself some time off.

Cheers, Anita.

Vision is the art of

seeing things invisible.

-Jonathan Swift.

This last week has seen sunshine, warmth, cold mornings, wind and rain. Today the rain has set in and I just feel like snuggling up and having a snooze. That’s pretty unusual for me to do of an afternoon, but today I want to.......and I still might. I made a quick trip to the library yesterday and came across an interesting book called No Angel by Jay Dobyns. It is a book about a policeman’s undercover journey to the dark heart of the Hells Angels. I have only just started reading this book but I keep thinking about it all day, along with hubbies addiction to the show Sons of Anarchy, it seems to be the topic of conversation around here.  Still I have had time to sew and knit. I have finished my pink baby top I have been working away on.

Pretty in pink

I have made it a short sleeved top due to the fact I was running out of wool!! A rather simple pattern to remember, so it didn’t take long to throw away the pattern book and knit away. It is knitted in 8 ply and no need for a cable needle. This will be a show entry for the Annual show this year.

Mr. Snake is just a scrap piece of material that was left over from a previous project. Sew on a tongue, eyes and nostrils and there you have a snake. No pattern sorry, I know some of you email me asking for the patterns but sometimes I don’t have a pattern. I free hand a lot of things I make and just go with it.

Mr. Snake

I was surfing the net some time ago and came across a fantastic idea for using old beer lids to make things. Do you like my lady birds? I love the real ones most of all, but these guys are cute. I have painted them with folk art paints, but the good paints to use would be the acrylic paints, it doesn’t chip off. The lady birds are going to be part of a display I’m making as an entry for the show in the recycled section. Our show isn’t too far away so I have to get a chug along!

That’s it, I really want to lay down somewhere with that book!!! Hope you have all been enjoying the Olympic Games, I know I have. See you all next time.

Regards, Anita.

Remember the tea kettle: when it’s up

to its neck in hot water, it sings.

-Early American Folk Wisdom

Finally, I get a turn on the computer!! My hubby has discovered the show “Sons of anarchy” and is finding it hard not to watch it all day long. Our disc will not play in the dvd recorder but will play on the computer, so I have been kicked off! Lol. I have spent most of today out in my sewing shed and have managed to complete an I-spy table cloth. At the time of taking the photo I was still sewing the blocks together, but since I couldn’t get anywhere near the computer.......I finished the project.

We enjoyed this lovely tray of cooked prawns, green capsicum and garlic sauce for lunch. Hubby cooked it out on the BBQ and it was yummy. A nice, light and tasty lunch.

We have had an ongoing flow of young lads at home this weekend, friends of Cory and Brandon. They are really a nice bunch of lads and are a pleasure to have over. Our town celebrated the Avon Descent festival on Friday and Saturday, it is a white water race held annually and people worldwide enter the competition. We don’t know who the winners are at this stage, but I bet they’re tired from all the rowing and paddling.

Our winter is coming to a close,  Spring  is just around the corner. The weekend   has been spent pulling those weeds that have managed to grow without us knowing about them. I purchased this native bush at our local nursery. It is called a Grevillea Carramar Orange and grows 2 metres tall and  the same in width. I have made a good clear space to plant the Grevillea in. It will attract birds into our garden and have lovely flowers when in bloom. Our yard has many native bushes and it attracts so many birds that at sunset in summer it is so noisy with busy bird calls.

Before I sign off I just want to say that I have really enjoyed the many emails I get from people out there in blog land. I have made so many friends and chatting with you via email is a delight. I’m sending love to Linda and Vicki, fantastic blogger mates, who need a few extra hugs just now. Take care girls. Next time I blog I should have finished my cute little girl jumper that I am knitting. Until then, peace be with you.

Cheers, Anita.