Sunshine, Stitching and Songs.........

Hello girls, I may be wilting in the heat but this Sunflower is loving it.

This is a low growing  variety of but it's certainly making an impact in the garden.

The heat this Summer has been on going.......my poor garden is looking a little worse for wear.......

The tomatoes are red and juicy and fruiting beautifully......and thankfully there's no fruit fly this Summer.

The beans on the other hand are growing but not setting.

There are flowers here and there but leaves are burnt.

I used some old bed sheets to make shade tee pees over them, but I'm not too hopeful of getting any beans.

On these hot days I tend to stay indoors in the aircon. and go out to water the garden in the cool of the evening.

The heat seemed to sap my creativity last week and my sewing machine sat around gathering dust which was most unusual.

But thankfully, my mojo seems to have returned and I've been stitching some little birdies......

The hotter it gets the more I dream about cooler days.

It comes out in my stitching .......

This lady rugged up in her hat, coat and boots seems to be featuring and I think she may become part of a series of stitcheries.

I had alot of fun putting them together

For some time I've wanted to try a different design for a tea cosy.
 I wanted to create a patchwork look and keep it simple.
It's certainly an 'in your face' colour combo.....
not everyone's cup of tea...
 (hehe, no apologies for that one!!)

and on the reverse side......or is this the front.

You figure it out, I'm confused!!

Outside things are very dry, the grass has browned off. 
Living in the country where our water supply is from the tank or dam, we don't waste water on lawn.

It gets brown and crunchy and when the weather breaks in Autumn and we get some rain it greens up again.

Despite the hot days the evenings cool down enough to sleep well....I think I've had a fan on only 2 nights.

Thankfully this week we did get a cool change and a couple of nights I even had a blanket on!!

Temps are back up for the weekend and windy conditions Sunday  mean we'll be on high alert for bush fires.

Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of the "Black Saturday" bush fires here in Victoria.

I remember it was still 40 deg at midnight on that particular evening......we certainly don't want to go through that again.



You've heard of Kitty Litter, well there's a new product out called Kitty Mulch!!

Tigger has his own way of keeping cool.
 Not my idea of fun, but you know what cats are like!

2014 is shaping up to be a big year for us here in the SBL household.......

We will be selling our home and building a new one.

There'll be limited time to sew but the creating will still take place to help keep me on an even keel!!

Our little Folk Festival also takes place in March.

I'm really excited about this years line up as one of the performers is a blogger from Melbourne........

Mezz Coleman from Mezz Makes Stuff will be performing.

 I won her CD in a giveaway last year or was it 2012?!!

 I suggested she put in an application for the festival and she was accepted woohoo.......

Can't wait to meet her and see her perform live.

If you'd like to have a listen to her singing

 Shelter by Eric Bogle,

 here's a link, be warned it's a powerful song

 you'll need to have your tissues handy.

Righto, girls that's it for me......time for a cuppa and ooooh maybe some stitching, better dash, see ya and thanks so much for all your lovely comments last post....♥

Claire Xx