SOCK, a SOCK!!!!

foot model is the extremely handsome Lewis!







After many years of threatening to do it, I've done it!!
I've knitted my first sock, modelled above by Lewis (isn't it sad when you're 11 year old son has bigger feet then you?)
I've the partner of this beauty on the needles at the moment and hopefully will be able to wear them by Monday!!
They are so nice and toasty!

If you never knitted socks before, may I recommend: How to Knit Socks, Three Methods Made Easy by Edie Eckman?
easy to follow and lots of photos to make it even clearer! oh and also if you are a more visual learner look up verypinkknits on Youtube

Edit:

I'm happy to announce both socks are finished!!! Both feet are nice and toasty as we speak!

Is it Spring?

Does Mother Nature know?

Is it Spring or is it still Winter?

Yesterday evening the weather was nice enough to haul my crochet, cup and cake outside, but today I'm sitting rugged up on the couch.

I wish we knew what season it is.

It's not easy to get dressed in the mornings!

Ta DA!!!!!

And here is the after! 

Not much you caned with a 1 inch circle. This will look nice on my bedside table!

What to do when Hubby takes a kid to the dentist!

Ok I admit I'm terrified of the Dentist, so unless I have to go for myself, it is Mr J's job to take the kids to see her.

Mr L needed a filling done so his strong and handsome daddy took him to the Dentist after dropping Mum off at the nearest Op-shop! (See I did give some support! I was in the same town!)

I spend an anxious 45 minutes shopping at the Boort Op-shop (if you're ever in Boort, well worth a visit!)

And thought I'd died and gone to vintage glass heaven! 

I spend up big( $4!) and came out with 6 pirex dessert bowls, 3 cut glass dessert glasses, 2 different ice cream glasses, a cut glass bonbon dish. And finally this darn cute cut glass hair pin dish ( see pics above!)

As you can tell there is something missing from the lid (no idea what, but I'm guessing some sort of stone)

I thought it wouldn't bother me so much, but it did so this morning I'm making something to stick there!

Stay tuned!!

Hello Old Friend!

While putting everything back in it's place after the floods of last week, I found an old box that I hadn't looking in since arriving in Australia! (shock horror, that is 21 years ago!!)
And I found in that box a familiar old friend: my Tunisian crochet hook!! (also know as Afghan hook)
After this find all plans of housework, cleaning of the outside went out the door, as I got to reacquaint myself with this long lost friend!
I dug out my Bendigo Wool Mill cotton and have added another WIP (work in progress) to my list.
I see lovely tunisian crochet dishcloths in my future!

What a Difference a night makes

As of today the flood water are receding at a rapid pace and or town will be the lovely quiet town we love!

Flood waters peaked about 6pm last night and then started to go down steadily!

All in our household are safe and dry!

under water one day, as pretty as ever the next!

looking up the road from my front yard

water is receding

Flood update! (photo heavy post)

you got to get from A to B somehow! (bloke peddling down the street in front of my house)

view up the road from my house

from back door to garage

when the water wasn't too high yet! (it got up to the veranda)

The Floods are coming!

Updated pics of the floods!

Someone is gonna get wet feet!

Our Swaggy waist deep in water

Road Trip planned and canceled

                                                                                                                                    

For weeks I planned a road trip with Ms M to go and visit Ms K

Ms M would get to do some driving and be closer to getting her licence and I'd get to spend quality time with my 2 eldest girls!

Bags were packed and hotel rooms booked! 

Then Friday came and lots of rain was forcast! And we said HA a little rain isn't going to stop us from this 3 hour trip! NO WAY!!!

Saturday morning was here and we're listening to the TV while getting dressed and eating breaky.

What is this?? Flood warnings on our route? HA HA HA we laugh in the face of flood warnings!!

We haven't seen decent  rain in this area in 10 years!! we're not going to let a little flood warning stop us! Ms K is waiting for us! we WILL go!!

So in the car we get and we're driving off in to the Sun rise (after all it is 8am!)

Ms M is doing well driving  in the pouring rain. And we see our first real water on the road! HOLY BATMAN there is a lot of it! and we crawl through it time and time again!

Then a friendly farmer "swimming" home with his news paper (ok he wasn't really swimming but he sure was knee deep in water!) stopped us to tell us it is not a good idea to go on the way we're going coz there is a lot of water on the other side of the bridge!! But if we turn that way and go down that street then left then right we should be right!

So we do! And with his parting words of Should be right ! in our minds we drive off and low and behold the streets get better less water and then: YAY no water at all! YES!!! we're gonna make it to Ms K after all!

With a sigh of relieve we drive on! A good 15 min of nice hardly wet road we come to another bit of road under water!! Are we going to brave it and drive through?

Good thing I checked the side of the road and saw the Floodway sign  and the stick that tells you how high the water is! It was almost 1 metre deep! 

Ms M and I looked at each other and said: OK time to turn around and go home!!

So sadly we did! 

At home we worked out a stretch of road we usually take an hour to travel took us 2 hours in the rain.

Better luck next time we hope!

Wordless Wednesday

The Knitting and Crochet Motherload!

I have rediscovered 2 of my favorite crafts! Knitting and crochet
I was talking to a friend the other day and I worked out I've been crocheting and knitting for 41 years (I know I know! I must have started in utero!) My now 25y old daughter used to wear many a jumper knitted by me, and slept the first 2 years with a Blankey I crochet for her while I was pregnant with her.
So now I've dug out my knitting needles and crochet hooks and have searched the web for patterns, and now I've hit the motherlad of pattern pages! I hightly recommend you all check out the ravelry website and check out the gazzilion patterns there!

Start of a new era!

This is how you do it Son!

Yesterday was the start of a new era in our baby's live! Mr. L will be 12 in Dec and his Dad decided it was time for him to start mowing the lawn! 

After Mr L. donning all the safety gear, Dad showed him how to do it.

Life will be more easy and relaxed for us Mr. J tells me!! We can sit back, enjoy a cup of coffee while watching The Kid do the work!

Relax?? did he really say relaxed??  Does he not know all that can happen with a lawn mower??

Sigh!!!! It isn't easy to let your baby grow up!!

Dang, that lawn looks even better then when Dad does it!

Play Time!

        

 We bought a new camera for a trip overseas  we're planning for next year Sept. So now I'm going crazy taking all kinds of pictures!

By next Sept this little beauty and I should be firm friends!

(image borrowed from the Nikon website)

Wordless Wednesday

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!! OI OI OI!!!

Aussie Jazy with her family and the Mayor!

Another chapter closed! as of 5:30pm today I gave up my Dutch citizenship and took on the Australian citizenship!

A new chapter in my live has started! 

And I'm all signed up to vote in the Aug 21st Election too!

BLISS!!!

What better way to spend an afternoon then with a cup of Lady Grey tea and a slice of freshly baked Apricot Loaf?

We're having beautiful Spring weather here! The sun is shining and I've picked my first bunch of Lavender from my garden this year!

Oh the smell of the fresh Lavender make that cuppa taste even better!

The recipe for the Apricot loaf:

1 cup dried apricots- chopped and tightly packed

1/2 cup sultanas

1 cup boiling water

2 tbsp butter

3/4 cup castor sugar

1 egg

2 cups self raising flour

• Place apricots,sultanas & butter in a mixing bowl, add hot water and stir gently until butter dissolves
• mix in sugar, egg & flour, combine well
• put into a greased loaf tin & bake at 200C for 40 min, cool on cooling rack

( I found this recipe online ages ago, unfortunately I can't remember where! If you do know, email me and I will edit my post to include this information!)

(138 days until Christmas!)

Only 142 days until Christmas!!

Are you starting to panic yet??

I can't believe we're this far into the year already!

I've started to make ornies and presents as well.

I'm hoping to avoid the rush that usually happens in December around here! (and having 2 birthdays in that month as well, doesn't help either!)

I decided to use up some scrap wood and make some wooden ornies, I might even put a few of them on eBay.

 

Spring is springing!

While I'm not a BIG fan of Summer, I do love Spring and a quick look around my garden this morning showed me that Spring has sprung. On almost every tree there are green leaves popping up! Bulbs are starting to show their little heads.

And of course my Potato Vine is in full bloom already and my purple climber thingy ( I know, I know! I don't like using the plants technical names, but I don't know what else to call it! LOL)

I love my purply daisy too!

And Oh My!! what is that wet stuff om the plants??

Let me dazzle you with my knowledge again: it's called RAIN!!

We don't see a lot of that stuff here in this Sunny Dry part of Vic!!

Silhouette! And make it quick!!

Today at work I was asked by a Lady (Hi Nicky!! just in case she reads my blog!!)

could you do me a favour?? I've got a American friend married to an Aussie and it is her birthday next week, and as she decorates her house in Prim Americana I would like to give her something hand made. Could you make one of these( showing me a picture of an Abe Lincoln silhouette)?

Of course I said Sure!! I wasn't really sure how to, so I just had a good think and came up with this!

So Nicky will pick this one up tomorrow at work!

I've been bitten!

Since some time in January I've been reading about the Klosjes craze sweeping the world and now that most of the girls who's blogs I've been reading have finished theirs, I've jumped on the Klosjes (Klosjes is dutch for spools) bandwagon!

I went to Melbourne this weekend for my Mother in Law's Surprise 75th birthday party and decided a girl needs something to do on the 3 hour trip! So what better thing to do then start a new quilt project!!

I've drawn the pattern and am now happily making klosjes!

My blocks are 2 3/4" unfinished and I have 8 done.

I'm using any old scrap I can get my hands on for both the back ground and klosje.

I don't think I'll make 510 blocks like SuperGoof did to make a quilt, but then again who know??