My new babies…

That’s my sweet baby boy the one in blue! Isn’t he cute? The one in green belongs to my DS1.

Here he is perched on my finger, He is still quite young(which makes training easier) and is the loveliest shade of blue. His colouring should darken a bit more to a richer teal blue!

I have yet to decide on a name, I haven’t found one that suits him yet ;o) Any suggestions are welcome. But I have chosen names for my other new babies…

Do you know how hard it is to take a group photo of  chooks? This is the best I could do! Anyway not that you can tell from the photo I have four new chooks; they are named after the Miss March sisters  from Little Women. Meg is the wee black one in the photo, she is a Araucana and will lay beautiful blue eggs…

Like the one on the left. The other three are brown leghorns and will look something like this…

They will lay big beautiful brown eggs!

I couldn’t resist sharing this view from my kitchen window yesterday…

DD2 has been out each afternoon cuddling and stroking our new babies! The boys have been very tempted to lock her in there!

In other news I have been stealing the odd free moments to hand sew the binding on my four patch quilt, hopefully I will have photos to share over the weekend.

Keep stitching…

Michelle

Just because…

Look what my DH bought me today, just because…

He is such a sweetie! I think I’ll keep him!!! Especially since he’s agreed to let me buy 4 new chooks! My favourite chook Miss Red was found upside down with her feet in the air this morning, the poor ole dear! She was getting on and she hadn’t produced any eggs for a very long time, but still I couldn’t bear to get rid of her! She was quite the character, I remember  one dark cold night we could hear our dog crying so DH went out to investigate only to find the dog had been kicked out of her kennel and in her place was Miss Red all warm and snug! 

For our home school group activity this week we visited a local old folks home, and I have come to the conclusion that males never grow up, Lol  There were 3 gentlemen who acted up the whole time pulling faces, pretending to attack each other with there walking sticks, if they weren’t using them to shoot each other, they were real characters, and apparently they were on their best behaviour! I hope when I’m that old I can still have my sense of humor!

Tomorrow I am heading up to New Plymouth as Bernina is having a ‘moving on sale’ (I hope that doesn’t mean a closing down sale) But anyways as I need some fabric to bind three quilts I thought I’d head on up and see what bargains there are to be had;o)

What exciting things have you got planned for the weekend?

Happy Stitching…

Michelle

PS The potato(pictured above) was home grown with love!

Designs By Fee…

The lovely Fee is having a giveaway! Why not pop over and say Hi and join in the fun too!

My own little sewing party…

I am having my own little sewing party today! DH and DD1 are away for the weekend at The Horse of the Year event in Hastings, DD2 has been wanting to go and visit Granny and Granddad so I dropped her off there last night;o)

The boys are still home as DS1 is milking for DH and DS2 is keeping my energy levels up with a steady supply of Barkers Blackcurrant and Boysenberry Fruit Syrup in hot water and the odd piece of chocolate(white of course)

I am up to quilting the borders on this UFO, I am sew excited it is almost done and when I’m finished I have decided to treat myself and start a new project! Meanwhile here’s a close-up…

What are you weekend plans?

Tupare

Yesterday we visited Tupare Gardens in New Plymouth for a market day…

This is the view from the top of the driveway looking down. It was the first time I had ever been there and I have lived in Taranaki my whole life! First off we visited the merchants, I bought this book…

It’s going to be a great addition to our homeschooling library especially when we go on walks! We’ll be able to identify so many plants and insects, ooh I think I can feel a tramp coming on! And look Janet wrote a small inscription inside just for us…

We also bought a bottle of Sid’s Raspberry Vinegar…

It is made locally by a man called Sid(who would’ve guessed) and let me tell you it is delicious! I made a smorgasbord salad for tea last night and marinated the mushrooms in the vinegar, I don’t know if I can go back to eating mushrooms any other way!

I also bought a couple of packets of seeds…

From a guy who’s wife was sick of all the seeds being stored in her fridge! Lol

Can anyone help though as to what a Purple Bean Tree is??? Is it a bean or a tree??? I forgot to ask him, Duh! But it sounded exotic so I thought I would try it;o)

Tupare is a wonderful place to practice taking photo’s.

It was almost like being transported back in time and I could just imagine myself as the lady of the house taking a leisurely stroll through the gardens! 

If you would like to read some of the history of how Tupare was built click here.

This week on the quilting scene I have been working on a UFO and it’s almost done. I just have to quilt the border and add the binding, I am determined it will not be relegated to the UFO pile again!

And it’s high time I updated my Goals List, I have finished 2 skirts:o) and a pair of pillowcases so now I can add 2 more things to the list…

Goal 1     Finish painting the little wooden cabinet.

Goal 2     ‘Give Thanks’ wall hanging.

Goal 3     Log Cabin quilt top

Goal 4     4 patch quilt

Goal 5      Yoyo table runner

Hope you’re having a great week!

Michelle

Funday Friday…

Friday was sew much fun, I got to meet my new blogging friend Michelle, she is sew lovely!

One day each month Michelle and Claire have decided to get together to make a project or two for Christmas. So they had a little show and tell…

Michelle has been stitching up a storm this past month, here is her finished Christmas stocking, isn’t it fabulous? To see all the other goodies she has made this month pop over to her blog and have a look and don’t forget to say ‘Hi’ I’m sure she’ll appreciate it! Claire finished these 3 cute cushions and has a little bit of work  fun ahead of her to catch up to Michelle, Lol. 

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Claire’s Mum(Nancy) came along too, she was doing all the preparation for a Christmas wall hanging (oops sorry forgot to take a photo).

Claire made us a fabulous lunch, a silver beet and feta Filo pie with a delicious side salad       (sorry no photo of this either as I was too busy devouring it!)

This month we decided we would work on this project…

The plan is to do as many stitchery’s as we can until we meet again, this time at my place! It’s going to be lot’s of fun working on this together! I think I will do it in a similar colour way as I like this one a lot! Last night while catching up on some blog reading I also came across this Tis the Season Stitch Along I sure hope it’s not too late too join up.

Ok I’m off to raid my stash…

Happy stitching

Michelle

Thanks Mum…

Thanks to my wonderful mother I now have a beautiful new pair of pillowcases! I whipped the cases up a few weeks ago and Mum crochet the edges! I love them sew much, thanks Mum.

Don’t they look sew pretty…

I have heard so much about this book…

That I finally decided to buy it, have you read it? What did you think of it? I haven’t started it yet but I plan to over the long weekend!

The other day I came across a fun new blog called All Things Rusty And Fabric I left a couple of comments before I realised she was a local gal! And as chances would have it when I was in town yesterday chatting with Claire she invited me to come sew with her tomorrow and meet a couple of her stitching friends. Of course I said yes especially since Claire said lunch is provided, who could refuse an offer like that? Anyway can you guess who is going to be there? Michelle(great name by the way;o)from All Things Rusty and Fabric will be there that’s who! I don’t know why but now I’m kind of nervous ;o) Silly girl that I am!

I have also been spending a bit of time gardening and planning a new garden…

I like the thought of having my own little potager garden(Not sure that it will really look like one but I like the sound of it anyway!) and growing lot’s and lot’s of fresh veges for my family. And that’s just not going to happen if I stay sitting here chatting with you lovely lot!

Michelle

The Weekend that was…

I am feeling very tired tonight, but it’s a good kind of tired ;o) We had these 3 cuties stay Saturday for a sleep over while their Mum(my sister) went to a wedding…

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Sunday evening was a special Family Dinner at DH parents place as our niece and nephews(they stayed with us last week) are over visiting from Australia. And we got the chance to celebrate our nieces belated 16th birthday…

The wee lad in the photo is my great nephew ‘Jack’ he is 5 months old already!!!

Thought I’d share some photos of the cake made by these two…

They can come make cake at my place any time they want!

Love the marshmallow chimney and the daisy footpath made out of skittles, oh and the swing, and the jellybean garden and the thatched roof made from flake bars, MMMmmm…

And of course the cutting of the cake is very serious business …

Today was spent trying to catch up on my Mt Everest sized pile of washing(definitely not sharing a photo of that!;o) and pottering about in the garden.

What did you get up to over the weekend?

Be joyful

Michelle

He’s such a sweetie…

The other day when DH mentioned he had a surprise for me I had no idea it would be one of these…

He offered to take me out for a coffee yesterday(how could I refuse)sew it wasn’t until he parked outside the camera shop that I actually clicked on! He had secretly bought me a new camera(he knew I had been looking) and he got me the one I wanted! I am such a spoilt girl!!!

It is scary and exciting all at the same time!!!

I have had a little play but I have sew much to learn…

The photos seem much crisper and detailed…

And look how this flower appears to just float…

It is sew exciting!!! Thank you sew much Honey, {hugs}I think you are the sweetest!!!

Now I really need to go and work out how to use it!

Have a great day

Michelle

PS Has anyone out there got one of these camera’s who wouldn’t mind lending a few words of advice? Favourite settings etc? I would really appreciate it! TIA

Fabric flowers…

I have been having sew much fun making these fabric flowers, this one will end up as a brooch. I plan to make many more, some of them will be turned into hair accessories for the girls.

I woke up this morning with bodies lying all around the lounge, snuggled up with pillows and blankets the after affects of Youth Camp and they brought bugs back with them! You gotta love em for sharing! Lol They also brought my niece and nephew back with them too!

I think I am going to go hide out in my room and make a few more flowers. 

Enjoy your day!

Michelle

Comfort zones…

Hands up ‘Who has ever started a quilt without making sure you have enough of the right fabric to finish it?’ I sure hope I am not the only one! Anyway I tend to be the kinda girl who likes her quilts to be matchy matchy… Well enter the log cabin quilt…

I fell for these fabrics sometime ago, they were just sitting on the shelf as a fabric bundle, I brought them home unsure of what to make with them at first, then decided on a log cabin. So I start off making them all the same as in each log was in the same place.

But then I ran out of a fabric(as I had decided to make the quilt bigger) so off I toddled to buy another fabric bundle, only to find out the fabric bundle had one or two different fabrics that I didn’t want or need!

Hmm ok now I had some decisions to make, I searched the web frantically in an effort to find those fabrics I needed, and only found one of them!:o( But I still really liked this this quilt it was either make do or throw it in a dark corner somewhere out of sight! Sew what’s a girl to do? In the end I had to go outside my comfort zone and substitute a fabric, and then another and another… I am still really liking this quilt and once it’s finished it will serve as a reminder to either be more prepared and have a better plan or encourage me out of my comfort zone more often!

Happy stitching…

Michelle