💕One kind word can warm 💕

three winter months 

We have another cold winter day here, with the occasional speck of sunshine peaking out from behind the clouds.We pray for cool weather while we struggle through the last throws of our summer; it is that way every year. 😅

This last week or so I have been knitting in chunky yarns, not something I really like because it stains my hands. Every now and then it is alright knit to with. I really love the texture of chunky yarns and the fact it knits up very fast. Here I have made a woolly hat and scarf set, ready to sell at the markets. The colour is called apricot, it is very pretty.

Not able to throw any left over yarn out, there was just enough to crochet a little girl's headband. The girls at school love the winter because they can buy one off me and they do look smart.

I had to look twice here, but look what has popped up in our lawn.

         At work I had time to quickly have a photo taken for a school post on Facebook and then back to covering hundreds of books. One of my work mates commented that I look a little dangerous with those scissors. What does she mean? 😂😁😂😁

Due to popular demand in my community, I have knitted more baby items in this colour. All the huge whites, oatmeal, camel colours are being asked for, so Heather the feather and I are knitting madly to meet demand.

And here we have Frank. If you leave any shopping bags on the ground he's straight into them. The look on his face is priceless. I'm not sure if he thinks he's helping or not.

One minute he is the helper, to.....being a big cry baby and having to sleep on my legs in the lounge room.

I don't mean to laugh at Frank or give him a complex but honestly, get a load of all that fur sticking out of his toes!!!!!😂😂😂😂😂 I haven't had pet cats in over 30 years, so is all that fur really normal? I look at that photo and keep thinking it looks like an angry man face.😂😂😂 I've seen those fluffy looking bantam hens that have feathers sticking out like that!!!!😂😂😂😂

Here is our kind of normal pet.....Milo. That's very complimentary to say that about Milo because you've all seen photos and comments about him in the past. lol Now in this photo Milo is being a statue because he has spotted a mouse that he intends to bite.

So my friends, now that I've filled you all in on my week, it is time for me to do a bit of catch up around the house. I went out with my Ag Society friends yesterday to fill a trailer load of wood for our wood raffle next weekend. It's always fun to catch up with this amazing group of friends. I love catching up with you all in blog land as well. I love seeing what you all get up to with your lives and your craft work.

Ciao, Anita.
 

 Winter is the time for comfort, for good food, and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk near the warm fire: it is the time for home. ☕⛅💞 

Hello lovely friends! I welcome you to my blog, we may be in the throws of our cold winter, but there is warmth right here, so stay a while. With my slow mending pinky finger, I have been plowing through lots of commissioned crochet and knitting orders. Though the broken tendon had held me up, but not entirely halted my hobby.......I have now gone wild again. 😂 

Come with me and I'll show you what I've been up to.....✈✈✈ 

🌷 In the town I live there seems to have been several premature births, and the little mitts I have been knitting have reminded me how precious life is. These little pink and white pair are about five seconds big, they fit on a small geranium leaf. It is incredible.

Actually......😅...there seems to be lots of babies being born in our town right now. Perhaps due to people staying home more at the moment? 👀😄 Heather and I are both knitting like wild things to restock our stall at the markets. And the markets!!!!! that just went crazy last weekend. 

This little jacket and boot set is knitted in a preferred colour in our area right now. The neutrals, oatmeal, huge whites are our biggest requests. I do like making things in these colours but I am happiest when I can get my hands back on to the bright colours.

 

I love the little pattern that runs down the raglan sleeve. 

It's just a bit different and adds a nice touch.

 

Oh and I forgot......there are twins happening as well. What's actually going on? 😂😂

 

Talking about colour, here it comes. 🍑🍇🍏🍒🍋🍍  

Besides doing commissioned works, we also donate to our community. I will tell you a funny story and if you are a visual person as I am, you will understand this.

 

So, I roll up at our PCYC centre to attend a circuit workout class. I spot our wonderful instructor Rachel, and I notice something very strange sitting right next to her. 

😮...(I mean..that's not normal right?)

So, very carefully I walked by her, one of my eyes focused on my instructor and my other eye is watching where I'm walking. Phew, I am asked if I could possibly make the dolly some clothes. I was very relieved. The dolly belongs to our local Toy library place. lol. Dolly is happy now.

I hope the little ones have fun dressing the two dolls in their clothes. It is so important that children have resources to learn and create.

 

The colour train is still rolling on with this cute coloured sweater that I am working on. This is actually the project I have been wanting to make since I walked into a shop and saw a similar sweater. It seems that granny square clothing has made a come back and I'm so happy. It looks amazing on children, and the adults seem to be enjoying it too.

💕💕💕💕💕

 Below, is the cuff I have started on. The colours are crazy cute! They make me feel very happy, even though I'm more the autumn tone girl, any bright and happy colours make me feel warm.

My amazing niece was re homing an archway and of course, I see potential in everything, so it's at my house now. I'm thinking a grapevine would be nice growing up this. What do you reckon?

During our hot, never ending summer we have come out of, I decided to get an early start on planting shrubs in the yard. This weekend I purchased three grevillea bushes and hopefully they will get enough time to at least establish themselves in the garden. Hopefully Milo doesn't trample them. lol

Oops.....how did this yarn get here? Another recent purchase perhaps? 😇😇😇

It's time for me to go and spread some catnip seeds into pots for the lovely Frank to enjoy (when it grows). Have a beautiful weekend.

Ciao, Anita. 🐱🐶
 

 

 Winter has arrived....  

And so my friends, our winter has arrived. The grey clouds, the sprinkling tap from the skies, the veins of the creek beds that join our main river are filling. It is very exciting for our community that water comes, and our farmers are overjoyed.

⛈⛈⛈⛈⛈⛈⛈⛈⛈⛈⛈⛈⛈ 

I am also overjoyed with excitement at my purchase on the weekend. I was quick enough on our local buy and sell facebook page to buy this bargain of two pedestals, pots and plants. I cannot tell you how excited I was when they were unloaded and placed at the front of my house. I will be repainting the front verandah in the coming months and it will be a happy place to sit.

Since the beginning of this year I have been recovering from a broken tendon in my pinky finger and it has been annoying not to be able to produce more items for my stall at the markets and at the Visitor's Centre in town, but I have been bouncing between sewing, crocheting, a tiny bit of knitting and tidying up my sewing room. 😅 A few more cute little girl bags have been sewn and I love the Betty Boop material that I scored from a sale table a little while ago.

This magnificent child jacket was one of those wonderful projects that I really loved making. The striped just placed themselves very evenly as I completed row after row. It will fit a four or five year old.

Of course, another stripey cardigan had to be made as well and the orange colour always catches the eye.

A friend of our family who has become a father for the first time received a parcel from us, made with much love. Expect nothing more than mischief from our family, I had a father and son shirt and one piece made as part of the gift. The father's nickname is Pie, so his shirt had a pie with a slice taken out of it. The slice of pie was then put on the baby's clothing as he is the slice of the pie. They loved it. lol

The parcel was filled with knitted items made in brown tones, as Pie's last name is Brown. I think there is something quite unstable about my behaviour.😁

A cute little baby knitted top, one of the only projects I have made in a while.

So, apart from being limited in my craft work, the other past times I have been doing are the gardening and catching up with friends. Aren't these little chaps just the happiest flowers. I love pansies. For the time being,

I cannot do boxing, lift heavy weights, hold my own weight (as in push ups), but I have continued to go to the gym and do strength workouts. I'm here with one of the group who attends the gym with me. They're amazing girls. The lady at the front in the photo is our instructor and she gives us a good beating. lol

I didn't mention that while spending months waiting for my tendon to heal, I have also had chemotherapy cream treatment on my nose for skin cancer. All is good at the moment but I thought I would share a laugh with you with the new freckles that started up. At the end of the two weeks of applying the cream, my nose was like a scarlet colour. lol I didn't think it was so funny then. 

Every year when we prepare for the Poultry auction, the Agricultural girls get together to set up the pre loved items table. We always have a dress up and photo session when we finished. We are just too beautiful. 

There was also a coffee catch up with the old gym crowd. Always so lovely to catch up with these beautiful ladies too.

Well lovely friends, it is time to go once again. As my finger is now at rehabilitation stage, I'm hoping to be able to share more of my craft works. See you next time.

Ciao, Anita. 
 

 Always remember.... you are braver than you believe,

 stronger than you seem, 

💕loved more than you know 💕

 Well hello there you lovely people 🌹 I hope all is going good for you wherever you may be in the world. Our weather has slowly made the long anticipated change that we, in Australia, are waiting for. In my part of Australia anyway . The nights are cooler with a subtle breeze, and the daylight hours are leaving us a little earlier at the end of the day.

Another thing that has come to an end is my holidays, though these ones were a very testing time for me. I have had this broken tendon that has plagued me for months, however I am at healing stage and can remove the splint more and more each week. At this time also I have had two weeks of chemotherapy cream applied to my nose to kill the cancer cells that have been growing. My nose is like a big hard rock and as red as Rudolph the red nosed reindeer 😅and I am not feeling at all well. The good news is though that the treatment is behind me and on I go. 👌

There is always a balance in life, and even though I've had some challenges, I also have some amazing news.....I can crochet and knit again. 🎉🎈🎉

I'm very happy about that!!!! 😂😂

 Here is my bag collection so far, a few are missing as they have been sold.

While hunting through my yarn stash I came across some leftover bits so they turned into this cute little baby cardigan and woolly hat set.

This sweet sleeveless baby cardigan is another product made from left over yarn too. I had a ball of white and a variegated colour and put them together, so it is an 8 ply piece of work. The pattern is a free download from the internet and one of my favourites.

I must've been on a bit of a roll with using scraps because this beautiful creation is exactly that. There is no actual pattern for it though. What I did was made a few granny squares and joined them together and then found a yoke pattern from the internet and went from there. 

This will fit a child aged four or five years old. I have always been drawn to bright colours and stripes. The different coloured buttons will also add to all that brightness going on.

Another made up pattern is the Bananas in Pajamas coat hanger. I think I cast on 70 stitches and knitted in blue and while stripes and just kept going until it fit the coat hanger. lol 

Now that we have a kitten, I discover that they are a fair bit of work. Every day I have to vacuum the house. All the fluff and pieces of stuff that is chewed up and left all over every floor in the house is unreal!! Frank thinks he owns everything.....

....and when he has finished exploring and destroying everything.........😇💕💕

I have also realized that Milo has way too many balls and toys left all over the yard as well. Each ball is carefully rolled around and then promptly punctured.😂 Now it is time for me to continue my day.

Milo having a quiet word to Moses. Probably about all his toys.

My big itchy, red nose are out of here to find some sort of mischief to get into. Sending you good wishes.

Ciao, Anita.  🌺🌺