Wedding Quilt

Farmer Phil and I received a wedding invitation this week. We haven't been to a wedding in years, so we're really looking forward to this one on Easter Saturday. I've decided to make a quilt as the gift and I was searching on the internet yesterday for a quick and easy one to make. I decided on Garden Wall by Anna Maria Horner. I just love the bright colours of her Garden Party range. I ordered some of the fabric from the US yesterday, so hopefully I can make a start on it soon. I'm going to be busy over the next few months - I just hope Farmer Phil doesn't have any jobs planned for me!

Birthday Quilt for Graham

My mother in law visited yesterday with a bunch of photo's and a bit of a sketch of a quilt she wants me to make for her brother Graham's 70th birthday which is in May. Graham has been a farmer all his life, so she wants me to applique pictures from his farming life onto the quilt. She has suggested pictures of sheep, the cow he milked for years, a paddock of wheat, bees, the farm house and a picture of Graham sitting on his header. Here is the photo of the header she wants me to copy. The header is 30 years old and it's front is only 12 ft wide. Compare it to our header which is 3 times bigger with a 36ft front! How times have changed!

Present from NZ

I received this cute Christmas card and mirror butterfly brooch from my very dear friend Andrea who lives in New Zealand. The card features a fluffy red reindeer with his antlers sewn on and embellished with beads and sequins. It lends itself to being copied by all you crafty people out there! The little butterfly is so delicate too - I just love it!

I sent Andrea and my other dear friend Adrienne this cute tea towel from Wagga Wagga.

40 + 2 Weeks!

I turned 40 two weeks ago while we were on holidays. Everyone keeps asking me what it's like being 40 - I can honestly say that it feels no different to being 39! I've still got a wonky knee and a shot back, but I don't feel any different in myself. I just think that my kids are lucky that they've got a "young" mum who can still keep up with them physically and mentally. I know what is in fashion, I know most of the music they listen to and the movies they watch. So, instead of groaning that I'm 40 I'm very appreciative that I'm still here and healthy!!!

Lisa gave me this lovely pendant - it's just perfect!

Christmas Sewing

I meant to blog about some of the presents I sewed for Christmas.

I made some initial pillows for 2 teenage girls - "n" for Nicole and "k" for Kirstin. I made a cute handbag from the Better Homes and Gardens magazine for Ange, Daniel's girlfriend. I've made quite a few of these and they're just so easy. I get lots of comments about mine.

I hope the handmade presents were appreciated and I'll continue to do more "handmade Christmases" from now on.

Back to the Real World!

Sorry for the long absence from blogging, but we decided to stay away for another few days. We were having such a blissfully, relaxing time that we weren't ready to come home!

The caravan was absolutely fabulous, but the only complaint I had is that the air conditioning was too cold!!

People often ask us why we travel 700km to Renmark every January for our annual holiday. It's a long way to go but so worth it once you get there. Emma took a photo out the car window while we were going across the Hay Plains and as you can see there's not much to look at. There's hardly a tree or any stock on the paddocks. Then you come across this wonderful oasis, the Murray River!

While I'm driving I like to imagine what the lives of the farmers wives who live on these huge properties is like. They have to deal with isolation, terrible drought at the moment, helping their husbands with the farm work and trying to keep their husbands from getting too depressed. Normally their paddocks would be full of big, wool-producing Merino wethers, but due to this unending drought, they have de-stocked their properties as there is no feed for the animals.

We had an unscheduled overnight stop in Hay on the way home when the u-bolts on the boat trailer broke about 70km west of the town. Farmer Phil did a patch up job on the side of the road and then we travelled into Hay at about 60km/h where we got some new bolts the next morning to fix it properly.

Since coming home we've been busy getting the house and yard back into order. The lawn had gone berserk and it took a few cuts to get it down low enough. Farmer Phil had the bright idea to clean the shed out which took us 2 days! I should've taken a photo of all the junk strewn across the back lawn. We did 3 trips to the tip, so now the shed is very tidy!

Ryan and Emma go back to boarding school next weekend and we've still got to re-label all their sheets, towels and clothes, and cover their books etc. I don't even know if their uniforms still fit them!

Holiday Time

We're off to Renmark, South Australia tomorrow for a 2 week holiday with the new caravan. We camp in a caravan park right beside the beautiful Murray River and water ski everyday. We also drink and eat too much and generally have a very relaxing time with our friends Andrew, Michelle, Lucy and Hannah. We also catch up with Farmer Phil's extended family who all live in Adelaide. I hope you all get to have a nice break over summer, and I'll be back blogging in a few weeks! Bye!!

Thrifting

Whilst shopping at the local thrift shops for crockery and cutlery for the caravan, I found these very stylish cut glass salad servers for $2. I guess they'd be from the Depression era - 1930's? My sister, Lisa has always been a savvy thrift shopper so I'm glad I finally found something decent!

Happy New Year!

We had a quiet New Year's Eve with our good friends Gavin and Tania and their 3 girls, Brooke, Olivia and Georgia coming for dinner. Farmer Phil struggled to stay awake until midnight as he's been getting up at 3 am every morning to spray paddocks for summer weeds which have grown with the recent rains. Squirt had a fun time with the popper remnants this morning! Happy New Year to you all!!

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

It was Daniel's 20th birthday on Sunday and he stopped for the night with 8 of his friends on their way to the coast for a week's holiday. The group of 18-20 years old's will have a great time there. I just told them to behave themselves! Do you think they'll listen to me?!