Bloomin' Marvellous

Please stop panicking! I haven't been washed away with all the rain we had last week - over four inches in a couple of days. Friday was the wettest, it rained most of the day, heavy, tropical rain. It was lovely to watch it and listen to it on the roof.

Over the course of the morning I watched the creek at the bottom of our property rising.

It's at the bottom of the hill, so there was no possibility of being flooded.

Due to the weather a number of outdoor events were cancelled, my Saturday market stall was one of them. I was a little disappointed as I had been beavering away at the sewing machine, whipping up all sorts of goodies, but it would've been too wet underfoot and it was meant to be a cold, windy day and who wants to be outside in that sort of weather, when you can be inside by the heater?

The weather forecast was correct, although Saturday dawned with blue sky and sunshine amongst the clouds, it was extremely cold, so I lit the heater, made soup and stayed indoors, bliss.

Playing with fabric, thread and old book pages continues.

Poppy seed heads, birds and faces are appearing and I am enjoying the process. Not sure where it will lead, but I love the look of these pictures.

It's times like this, I wish I had gone to Uni and studied art as my lack of knowledge and skill frustrates me no end, but then again imagination and perseverance sometimes help make up the gap.

Yesterday, was a gardening day, so I mowed, weeded, dug,planted and to my delight discovered the Dutch Irises in the "Wild Wood" had flowered.

Each year I forget they are there and only 'discover' them when they are in bloom. They have been in this spot for several years and are obviously very happy there. I must get some blue irises to plant with them.
Mrs Kafups, was happy to pose with them this morning. The light streaming through the curtain of greenery was lovely and refreshing, early mornings.

Don't you just love them?


Another discovery too, my Lilac is starting to flower.

Click to enlarge the photo .

Each flower has a white border around it and it's one of my favourite childhood plants.

It grows next to a Lorrain Lee rose, which has the most delightful perfume.

I made the classic mistake when I started the shrubbery - planting things too close together, trying to get the established look in a hurry.



Look what happens when you pinch a piece of a succulent and shove it in a spot hoping it will grow.
I love the contrast of the burgundy and the lime green and I quite like it being in the wheel barrow, although I didn't realise it would grow quite so high !

Ah, yes, the Wisteria is starting to flower.

I was concerned that the heavy rain would damage the blooms but they were only just starting to open last week so no flowers lost.

The Crab Apples didn't fare so well and the rain knocked alot of the flowers off, but they had put on a good show.

I shall post more photos when it is in full flower, but if you lean really close to your computer screen you can actually smell the perfume - it's delicious.

Look who I have for a neighbour. Directly across the road from my driveway is the local Iris farm and it's all starting to happen.

In a week or two this sight will be a sea of colour, absolutely gorgeous.

For the last couple of years I have purchased a few rhizomes but I think I will have to say 'no more.'

I am struggling to find places to plant them and then when they multiply and you have to divide, replant etc.

If my mum had her way, she would've had borders of Irises all over my garden, I'm so glad I didn't give in!

I have enough to keep me happy and some very special Irises from mums garden. If I need any more I shall just head across the road and enjoy them.

Well, I hope you enjoyed your early morning wander around my garden.

Thanks for dropping by and visiting.

If you have a minute to spare please leave a comment, it's always lovely to hear from you.

Till next time, take care

Claire X

To Market, To Market

So I packed the Austin Healey and headed off on my weekend adventure!

No, that's not quite true, my personal maid packed the car.

Oh, all right, I packed the car but not the above pocket rocket, the good old Holden.

I headed off on Friday morning and the further I got the gloomier it grew, hmmm, not looking too good.

The weather forecast was for loads of rain across the State and most of it falling in my corner of the globe.................

Anyway, I headed off full of excitement that goes with having an adventure.

I stopped in every little town I passed through and visited their Op shop hoping to find buried treasure. The first town I stopped in was Broadford and their Op shop was SHUT ON A FRIDAY.

Now, what's that all about? And it looked like the style Nazis had been there as well.......

My preferred Op shop doesn't look like an upmarket boutique.

My preferred Op shop is a bit jumbly with shelves and racks overflowing with 'things' .

I mean where is the thrill of the find if it's displayed on the wall with matching this and complimentary that.

You need to rummage and search and dig deep to find your treasure, well I do!

Saturday was wet, see above picture!

Main street of Daylesford mid afternoon, before the power blackout!!
I came prepared, you know how much I love this sort of weather (As long as you are prepared) but I managed to leave my umbrella back at my accommodation!

Grey and gloomy, but there were still plenty of people out and about.
There was a power blackout around 3pm! just as I was feeling the need for a coffee, hmmmmmmmm, bad timing.

The rain was very heavy and the friends I was spending the weekend with took me for a drive to see how much rain had fallen. This is the overflow from Daylesford Lake, a couple of days earlier it had been little more than a trickle.

There was a torrent of water gushing down the hillside, I felt a little nervous standing there watching it, such a powerful force.

In between showers I managed to take a couple of pics of local residences that appealed to me.

Love the blue and white of this little cottage

Not sure of the history of this one, but it has a school house/ church look about it, very cute and they certainly would've appreciated having a wood heater this weekend!

Now where are we?

France?

Italy perhaps!

No, still in Australia.

Daylesford has quite diverse architecture, once you start looking
I could have taken 100's of photos but it was a bit too wet and I didn't want to bore you (too much!)

I used to holiday at my aunt and uncles farm many (more than I care to remember!) years ago , so I am quite familiar with it. But there have been many, many changes over the years .

I attended the Makers Market on Saturday morning, oneof the reasons for my visit. Due to the rain only half the number of usual stall holders were there, which was a bit of a shame, but I do understand.

There were some fabulous, clever, crafty people there, displaying their goods and I was very impressed.

I did feel a bit self conscious about taking photos just in case they thought I was some sort of 'Craft Spy' so I left my camera in the depths of my bag. Here's a link to their website if you want to check it out http://www.makersmarketdaylesford.blogspot.com/.

I had a lovely weekend, despite the weather and lack of buried treasure! Thanks to the lovely, wood heater where I was staying, we had heat, a warm dinner, a cuppa and some nice mood lighting during the blackout.

A lesson learnt that I would like to share:- if you don't have candles get to the shop quicksmart before they sell out, as birthday candles really don't last very long at all !!

All up 80mls of rain fell in Daylesford, so it was quite damp.

I stopped at the Hepburn Springs General Store on Sunday morning for a bit of a look. It has all sorts of bits and pieces in it and I found this saying on a blackboard, click on the photo to enlarge. Next time you are planting vegies in the garden, you might consider some of the above . I thought it very clever and quite thought provoking.


I also picked up a couple of loaves of bread that they have baked one of them being Polenta and Pumpkin.

Made the mistake of cutting it when I got home and of course then I had to toast it and eat it ................

What else was I to do.

My little adventure has come to an end, it's nice to be home, by my own heater, toasty and warm (sorry 'bout the pun)

Whilst I was away alot of rain fell here. There was 117 mls in my rain gauge and there are floods nearby, I would venture to say that the drought may very well be over!

If you would like to check out some photos here's a link to the local newspaper http://www.bordermail.com.au/

I know two furry little people that were very happy to see me after being locked out of 'their' house all weekend.

If you received some of this torrential rain I hope you are safe and dry. I certainly feel for those folk who had flood water running through their homes and hope that things can get back to normal as quickly as possible.

I hope you all had a good weekend and maybe even an adventure or two. Thanks for stopping by, if you have time to leave a comment, I would love to hear form you.

Have a great week, till next time,

Claire X

It Won't Hurt A Bit I Promise!!

Scissors at the ready, will I won't I?!!

It didn't hurt a bit, honestly. Make sure you use doily's that haven't been handed down from your great great great grandmother! Can't remember where this one came from, but it does have some mildew marks on it. I should be able to get another cover out of the other end. The embroidery was lovely and I am more than happy with how the cover turned out.


Here it is front and back, once again using the fabric from the Butterfly Journal Cover. I thought it was a nice match with the embroidery.

Ah, Violets, "how could I " you ask, "quite easily" I reply. Love the colours, purple and green two of my favourites and throw in some polka dots and there you have it. Wasn't sure about all the blank space on the doily, but I decided to leave it alone and not muck about with it.

Two together, I think they look quite nice and certainly a different use for a doily. Instead of having them in a drawer being eaten by silverfish, or worse still completely forgotten, give them a new lease on life.

Thoughts please, do you like them or not, be honest now.

Aha, recognise the flower variety, I hope so!! Zinnias, I love them, the gorgeous colours they come in ,light up the garden in summer and it's soooo nice to cut a bunch and bring inside. "Earth laughs in flowers" is the quote.

Front and back view

For those living in the Northern Hemisphere where it's a little chilly at the moment, I thought you might like to see what 's happening in gardens down south. I hear your Spring is on the way, so be patient. All good things are worth waiting for. These are Belladonna Lillies or Naked Ladies, usually you see the pink variety but these are the white ones. They are veeeeeeeery special, dug up from my mum's garden after she passed away. She loved her garden and as we were going to sell her unit, I didn't' want everything to be lost if the new owner was a non gardener!

I dug them up and gave them a home in my garden, it has taken three years but finally they have flowered.

Haven't they put on a beautiful display, the perfume is divine and off to the right is "Curtsy Girl" also belonging to mum. Don't know if that's the correct name for her or just what mum referred to her as.

Mmmmmmm, delicious colours, so bright and clear. Love the yellow around the centre. Zinnias are so cheery and hardy, they make me feel happy and it's always a surprise to see what colour the first flower on the plant is going to be.


Oops, I clicked something and the photo has completely disappeared, so you will just have to take my word for it (hmmm, scratches head thoughtfully!)

Another cheery, happy flower, Sunflowers with the Zinnias in the background. These are a small variety of Sunflower but still lovely and the chooks love the seed heads if the sparrows leave any for them!

Speaking of chooks, my rooster and Mrs Rock were happy to pose for me unlike the other somewhat camera shy girls.

It has been awfully humid this past week, which is not the usual summer weather. It is usually a very dry heat here, but there were tropical type storms brewing, so what do you do, grab your didgeridoo and go outside and play it of course! You can see the storm off to the right, someone is already receiving a good downpour. Our air conditioner is now fixed, hooray. We are soft aren't we, but being a winter person, I dislike the heat and humidity.

Mind you I decided to clean windows during the week and the perspiration was just pouring off me. Once I get an idea and am in the mood it's better to go with it and get it done than to put it off .

We have just had another down pour this afternoon about 6pm. Down came the rain in buckets, the tank was overflowing , the garden certainly got a good watering which is fabulous. In about 10 minutes or so we received 10.5 mls. Nothing to compare with the downpour in Melbourne last week, but we are grateful for every drop.

So what does the coming week have in store? I am planning to make a crochet hook roll, to keep all my hooks in one place. I have nearly finished one wrist warmer/ sleeveless glove, (you choose) I am very happy with how it is coming along and have managed to do quite a few rows whilst waiting to upload all these photos to my blog!! No doubt there will be more book covers in store. I must hand sew some brooch backs onto some sweet little "Kombi " brooches. I think that's enough to keep me going for a while, don't you?

Whatever your week has in store for you I hope it's a good one and you find time to create something that makes you smile and your heart sing.

Chocolate cake does that for me every time!!

Until next time

C X

Is anybody out there?

If there's anybody out there and you may have just stumbled upon this by accident, any chance of leaving a comment, just to say "hi"!!

Well today was my second Friday at my Tafe course. Once again watching talented ladies work their "magic" with fabric, thread and dye made me want to disappear into oblivion, BUT I perservered and by early afternoon I had something happening with my little fabric sampler.
I had sandwiched together three pieces of fabric and then free hand machine embroidered a pattern taken from a drawing of some bark. Exciting stuff , stay tuned! then I cut through the two top layers of fabric to reveal the underneath and in so doing had 3 or 4 different colours coming through.

Not earth shattering stuff, but I could see where I was going and my sampler was saved from the rubbish bin and my dignity also.

Of course everyone is very encouraging, but when I got home and showed No1 son, his comment was a very enthusiastic " that's cool, i really like that mum" and that's when the shoulders straightened up, the chest was thrust out and I could really feel good about it.

Surprisingly, I trust his opinion more than most other people and if he thinks it's cool , then that's a big thumbs up in my book. Obviously, we are quite alike and share the same tastes in some things, but being a muso he's creative in his own way and is not mainstream in the way he sees some things, so it's interesting to hear his views on what I do.

We've just had a big thunder storm which dumped about 20 mls of rain in a short space of time. Fantastic to see the rain as it will top up our tanks and dam and give everything a good drink.
It was quite heavy and was blowing in under the door and at the window sills, but nothing compared to the poor folk on the Mid NSW coast.

Floods at one end of the country and bushfires at the other end, guess where they should be putting the pipeline!!

Well, school hols are on the way that means 2 weeks away from Tafe so I will have to do some homework, that will include a lino print and some other samplers, so I better get busy and get drawing, sewing and general crafting.

Hope to have some photos on my next post if we can find a simpler way of doing that.

Bye for now.

Hold on tight, here we go !!

Welcome to my blog. Hopefully this will be the first of many posts, thankyou for stopping by. I hope to share aspects of my life with you and let you know what I am up to as far as my craft goes. I am not a prolific crafter more a sporadic crafter when the mood and the inspiration hit me and time is available. I admire more those people who work full time and then find time to craft into the night.
I haven't been to Uni or studied fine arts, but if something takes my fancy, I like to have a go and see what eventuates. I am actually starting a part time course at Tafe this week and it is called Visual Art and Contemporary Craft. It sounds like everything I am interested in rolled into one course - screen printing, painting, fiber art etc. etc. It will be very exciting to see what comes out of it. It runs till November, just one day per week, so fingers crossed I learn lots and get to "play".
It rained lightly for most of today, probably only 5 or 6 mls in total but it was lovely to hear it on the roof, see it falling outside, to walk in it and when I finished work I went into town, sat outside my favourite coffee shop with a coffee and a yummy chokky biscuit and watch it fall . The oak trees lining the street were dripping wet and the water was trickling down the deep, stone lined gutters, a sight we don't see often enough. Autumn is one of my favourite seasons and grey ,gloomy, wet days are some of my favourites as well.
Once I get this Blog up and running and all the hiccups ironed out, I hope to get into a bit of craft and show you what I do, so please come back and visit me soon.
Bye for now