Sewing Time

As a lot of you know, my sister Lisa is an avid sewer, knitter, embroiderer - well, just about everything really!  I, on the other hand, am just a sewer who can create a few bits and pieces.  My work is nowhere near the quality of Lisa's, but I do try!

I made these criss-cross coasters this afternoon for a friend of my parents in law who is turning 70 tomorrow.  I hope she likes them!  They are so quick and easy to make, you should give them a go. 

Jenny B Harris' Allsorts blog is one of my all time favourites.  I copied her sewing studio because I loved it so much.  Red and aqua together looks fabulous!  I reorganised my sewing room a couple of weeks ago because we bought a new lounge suite for our family room, so I could finally move the red sofa bed into the sewing room and it now becomes a spare room too!

This is a photo of Emma's sewing projects over the past few months.  She finally finished her initial cushion this afternoon while I was sewing.  Her chibi doll is fabulous - I hardly helped her at all.  

Shopping

I took Emma shopping yesterday as she had grown out of all her summer clothes from last year.  At 12 1/2 she's at that in-between age which makes it difficult to find suitable clothing for her.  All the children's departments in Target and Myer had clothes which were way too young looking and then you move to the ladies department and they all look too old!

We ended up at Jay Jays because all she needed was some neat casual clothes.  We bought a few t-shirts, a couple of pairs of board shorts, some denim shorts and 3/4 pants, a couple of nice tops and a cute grey shirtdress.  She also needed a new pair of Havaianas.  I think that's all her summer wardrobe bought in a couple of hours.  She still needs a new pair of swimmers, so I guess we'd better find some of those before all the shops sell out.

Ryan couldn't care less about what clothes he wears - that's boys for you, they're so easy!

Getting Fit for Summer

Here is my new best friend for the next few weeks and months - my push bike! I've finally got her out of the dusty shed and went for a ride this morning. It was a very relaxing (slow!) one around our little village. I haven't really done any meaningful exercise all winter and now it's almost half way through Spring!

Lisa and I have discussed participating in the Red Cross Murray Marathon this year, but we're still undecided. I thought I should make a bit of a start at some fitness in case we do decide to participate. The race is on between Christmas and New Year every year which is bad timing for us farmers who may not be finished harvesting by then.

It's the 40th anniversary of the race and because I'll be turning 40 in January, we thought it would be a perfect way to celebrate. I'll keep you posted on what we decide.

Ag n Chat Trip

Here are a few snaps of our trip to Yackandandah and Beechworth. We all had a great time with lots of eating, drinking and laughing. There were 10 ladies in all with an age range from 21 to almost 60 years old. We all get along really well and have lots in common but we also found out quite a few new things about each other that we didn't know.

Our first stop was the Vienna Patisserie at Yackandandah where we had a lovely morning tea in a very cute Austrian timber chalet. It was then off to Schmidt's Strawberry Winery to taste some of their wine and liqueur and salivate over their nice, ripe strawberries in the field.

We then ventured off to Beechworth where we had a look at the Beechworth Honey Experience. It's a very informative and interactive shop all about where honey comes from. Our accommodation for the night was at The Old Priory which is a wonderful old rambling building that used to be a convent and boarding school. We had a great time investigating all the rooms.

Some were up bright and early Thursday morning for their morning walk while others lazed around in their nice warm beds! The famous Beechworth Bakery was next on our itinerary and we actually had a talk from Tom O'Toole the owner. He's a very positive and inspirational speaker and we all came away in a much more positive frame of mind.

The Beechworth Blackworm Farm was also very interesting and Mal, the owner was very informative and passionate about his worms. The very quaint Stanley Pub was our choice for a very yummy and relaxed lunch. The photo of the hessian potato bag is bit risque, but we were all jealous of her abs and jugs!



A peaceful walk was then had around the gardens and buildings of the old Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum site. We were all in awe of the massive old trees. A quick final stop at the Beechworth Sweet Co. for some treats for the kids, big and small. On our way home through Albury, we stopped at Adamshurst to view some artworks painted by one of our members.

As you can see, we had a very busy couple of days. Now it's school holidays for 2 weeks, so we can all relax and unwind properly.

Overnight Trip

I'm off on an overnight trip to Yackandandah and Beechworth with my ladies agricultural group.  We call it our "ag n chat" group, and all our farmer husbands think that more chat than ag goes on at our monthly gatherings.

I'll write a post when I get back.  We're all looking forward to having a break from the farm and husbands and kids etc.

Tuesdays!

Tuesday's are a bit of a busy day for me.

Ryan and Emma both go to boarding school during the week and come home on weekends.

Every Tuesday afternoon I drive to their school and pick Emma up.  I take her to her singing lesson and then a choir session.  I get home around 9.45pm.  It's about a 460km round trip.

I know what you're all thinking - are you mad?!  Emma loves her singing and that is her only after school activity which I take her to.  We have a great time sitting in the car chatting about what's been happening at school.  She always has some interesting stories to tell.

Ryan has electric guitar lessons every Friday evening when he gets home from school and I only have to drive him 30km into town for that.

The photo is of Emma earlier this year when she was in a production of "Annie Jnr".  She played the part of Pepper the orphan in her first ever musical production.  She had a blast and did a really great job.

Rain, Glorious, Rain!!

We had 22mm of beautiful rain overnight.  After that dust storm rolled in yesterday I thought that was it for the change which was due.  The crops will soak up this moisture with gusto!

The phone started ringing at 7am this morning with calls from our farming friends comparing how much rain everyone got.

Needless to say, Farmer Phil is very relieved.  The rain came just in the nick of time for most of our crops, but there are some that have been damaged beyond repair.  The hot, dry weather of the past 2 weeks has really taken it's toll on them and they will suffer a potential yield decrease because of it.

Anyway, not to worry, the farming community is on cloud 9 at the moment!

Ridiculous Weather!

I just wanted to show you what ridiculous weather we've been having lately.  No wonder the poor farmers are tearing their hair out in frustration.

We've just had 6mm of rain as you can see from the puddles and now we've got a huge dust storm blowing in!

This photo is the view from my front path across to the next paddock.

What a Weekend!

Gosh, what a weekend we just had!  It flew by very quickly because we jam packed it full of stuff to do!  Birthday boy, Ryan had a great night camping out with his mate Jack in their swags. The motorbike shows all the junk they had for it.

We had a lovely day out water skiing and the weather was just perfect as you can see from the super smooth water.  A cheeky kookaburra decided to camp in the tree above us waiting for some scraps to eat.

We then packed up and went to watch the Mighty Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong Lions win the local RFL Grand Final (that's Australian Rules football for all you non-Aussies!)

As you can imagine, the house is a wreck today.  The kids have gone back to school so I'm madly trying to get everything back in order and believe it or not, it's started to rain!!!  Don't get too excited, it's only scattered showers and storms at the moment!

Lazy Saturday

This is what we've been up to so far today - spray painting a bike, lazing around in our pj's watching DVD's, and baking birthday cakes.  

It's Ryan's 14th birthday tomorrow and he's invited a friend for the weekend.  As farm boys do, they've been riding the motorbikes and fiddling with the push bike.  I think they're camping out in their swags tonight.

Emma didn't want to be home with 2 teenage boys to contend with so she's got a friend staying for the weekend as well.  The girls were still in their pj's at 11am!  They're on the Nintendo Wii at the moment.  Check this out at The Country Doctor's Wife - it's very funny and oh so true!

I think the birthday cake looks very yum!  It's a flourless chocolate cake because Emma's friend is allergic to wheat!  

We're supposed to be taking all the kids water skiing tomorrow, so I might have some pic's of that tomorrow.  Hope you're having a lazy weekend too!