Woohoo it's Festival time again......

Welcome to April......Autumn....cooler days and even cooler evenings.

We've had lovely rain these past 2 weeks and the warmish days have seen mushrooms popping up in the paddock.

I cooked some up with garlic, butter and parsley this evening, absolutely delicious.

The respite from the heat and dryness of Summer has been refreshing. The garden has revived somewhat, the clover is shooting and the surrounding hills are covered in green.

The vegie garden is putting forth the last of it's produce.

 I'm cooking up pots of tomatoes, making veggie soup and enjoying the last of the pears and apples.....

There's still some stitching going on and I've enjoyed making some cards.

 Small projects.

Plus a little hanging, inspired by lots of lovely Spring pics I've seen on UK blogs...... 

Up at the new block, trees around the dam are colouring up beautifully.

 Love the contrast between the greenery, the dry grass and the Autumn colour.

The previous owner had a wonderful plan and started planting English trees when he purchased it 12+ years ago.

We now get to enjoy the beauty of his foresight. 

Old gate at the cattle yards.....love the splash of green.

There's a fair bit of work to do fixing fences etc. but they'll hold up for a little longer.

We're going to be busy for a while

Hubby has been busy weeding the overgrown garden beds.

It's been a time consuming chore, but he's making headway and the recent rain will definitely make the rest of the job alot easier.

The cockies have been enjoying, the berries in the Chinese Pistachio tree.

 They've eaten the berries and nipped off the sprigs dropping them on the ground.

They can be quite destructive and noisy birds, but I do love seeing them take flight with a stormy sky behind them.

  

Well 2 weeks have passed since our Folk Festival.

This was the main street on the Thursday before it all kicked off.

Fairly quiet, not too many people around and lovely weather.

Come Friday along with the visitors, the storm clouds rolled in to town.

We had it all, heavy downpours, wind, thunder, lightning, blackout and even a fire started by a lightning strike just down the road.

But the marquee went up, people pitched their tents at the camping ground and the sun showed itself in time for the opening parade.

Richard enjoys playing for a home crowd, but does find it a bit nerve wracking.

It was great to hear the new songs he'd been working on.

Love the 'guitar face'.....

This year we had the gorgeous Mezz Coleman (on the right) from the blog

 Mezz Makes Stuff playing at the festival.

I have been enjoying her CD since I won it in a giveaway she had some time ago.

It was so nice to see her actually perform.

She's one talented gal with such a beautiful voice, lovely personality, generous spirit and check out those gorgeous red sandals.......op shopped of course.

Also joining her over the weekend was Taz her SIL who blogs over at Butter and Buntings

. Taz is wearing a thrifted vintage tablecloth' skirt she made.....gotta love a pair of red sandals as well.

 I'm holding the 1st copy of the great,little magazine they produce called 

100's and 1000's

Mezz was also kind enough to run a ukulele workshop for the festival......her first ever workshop and if she was at all nervous she didn't show it.

 Everyone had a great time at it and got the opportunity to perform with her at her last gig.

Thanks so much Mezz and Taz and the gang ( Byron, Pete and the super cute Percy) for coming up to Yack for the weekend.

It was great to meet not one but two bloggers and share my little piece of paradise with them........

I hope you'll come back and play again Mezz.....

The weekend was a huge success, our biggest festival in the 17 years it's been running.

It takes alot of time and effort to put these events together and it's all done by volunteers.

A great effort for such a small community......

So now that it's behind us, what's been happening?

Well, we've had rain and it's been lovely.

Beautiful, gentle soaking rain.

Autumn is really starting to put on a show for us, I love it.

I have my 2 nieces from the UK coming to stay in a week or so.

It's going to be alot of fun, there'll be family dinners, day trips here and there and lots of laughter. 

They're only here for a week, but it will be a rather busy week, with Easter in there as well.

There won't be much stitching done, might have to pull out my granny square blanket and finish it off to get my creative fix.

So what's been happening in your neck of the woods?

I would love to hear about them?

Thanks so much for popping by to say 'hi'.....

It's always great to hear from you.

Take care,

Claire Xx

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

Resuming Normal Program......

Hello girls, thanks for coming over to visit......

I have a new artist crush discovered over at Playing in the Attic  and it has inspired another little brooch.

 One more to add to my ever growing collection!!.

These little stitcheries fill the need to create when time is short.....

 A wonderful parcel found it's way from one end of the state to the other and ended up in my letterbox last Thursday.

I won Little Woollie's recent giveaway.

Just love the stickers and card and then there was.....

the wool......beautiful colours and oh so soft.

Julie has just opened her online yarn shop and if you haven't yet visited her blog head over there for some wonderful, yarny inspiration.
The little basket I picked up at the supermarket yesterday.
 It's to put your Easter eggs in.
 I think it looks much nicer with yarn in it, but I intend to line it and plant some Pansies in it....eventually!!
♥♥♥

The best thing is, the weather has finally cooled enough to get my crochet out and start hooking.

Mind you, yesterday was back up in the 30's, blah and  there was another large bushfire in the state boo.

BUT today is lovely and cool and it's

 RAINING 

☁☂☁

So, after months and months of planning, organising, phone calls, emails, meetings etc. etc. etc. the Folk Festival is all over for another year......

In the 24 hours before it all got under way we had 3 inches of rain (yay!!).

 There were tornadoes in other parts of the state(boo)

One just half an hour down the road. 

Despite the forecast for good weather over the weekend, I think we all held our breath a little until Friday dawned fine with blue sky and sunshine......

The pic below was taken at 11.45pm as hubby and I left the sports park to head home for much needed sleep Saturday evening.

It's a little out of focus, but it just captured a magical moment as the moon hung in the sky above the marquee,clouds

obscuring it's face.

Inside the marquee, the music was still playing and the crowd were up dancing.....

Birds were the theme and they  decorated the streets and hung from trees.

Committed volunteers were out in the rain on the Thursday, tying and stapling and 'doing their bit'......

Friday evening crowds lined the street as the parade got under way marking the start of the festival.

For those who didn't have  festival tickets, there was free musical entertainment in the main street and games for kids afterwards.

The local schools got into the swing of things dressing up as brightly coloured birds.

A new cafe in town was added to the list of venues to be used.

Marce Howard and Rose Bygraves of Goanna fame asked Rich to join them on stage and play didge on their version of

'Solid Rock'.....

The park Saturday morning....

....and later that evening it was chock a block during the community dinner put on by a local primary school.

Good food, entertainment and company....

Sunday morning the main street was bustling with market goers.

And then all too soon it was over for another year ......

Another successful festival, lots of tired but happy people head home after seeing some great performers.

It's been such a big lead up to the weekend in our household, I thought the post festival blues might kick in but thankfully they didn't.

Tonight is the opening of the local art exhibition I was asked to be a part of along with a number of other local artists. 

So I have something to look forward to and the Easter break is almost upon us as well.

 Lots happening in this neck of the woods.

Hubby  even asked if I would like to head away somewhere for a couple of nights.

 Of course I'm going to take him up on that offer.

I'll certainly be packing the crochet hook and some wool to play with.......

Do you have plans for the Easter break or are you staying put?

 Have a lovely time whatever you do and take care if you're travelling it's such a busy time on the roads.

Till next time,

Claire X

Life's a Hoot.....

 Hello girls, just dashing off a quick post before I head off to work. If I don't do it now, who knows when you might hear from me again?......

We had a coolish week for the start of Autumn and my thoughts turned to little artworks aka brooches.

 I couldn't resist stitching up an owl to wear to work.

The number of stitched brooches is growing rapidly......they are a quick and easy little project and fill that creative craving when time is limited....

This Summer has been a stinker and the Sunflower seeds I planted never germinated (probably forgot to water them regularly!!)

 But, I have managed to grow a couple of plants very late in the season.

Summer and Sunflowers, they just go together don't they?

Happy, happy flowers......

I thought I was being watched the other day and I was right.

This little fella has found a home inside the rainwater tank between Cluckingham Palace and the almost full!! woodshed.

He's soooo cute, often see these guys on the outside of the windows in the evening. 

Nice to have them around. 

The presence of frogs indicate a  a healthy environment....

A skeletonised leaf found on the footpath in town this week.

Love that it has retained some colour......

Autumn is here, someone just needs to tell the weather!!

Now that we have our own little op shop in town, it's nice to pop in and find some treasures and yesterday was one of those days.

Do you like old books, you know the sort.....

The pages have a distinct smell to them, I love it.

It comes from another era, when life was slower. 

No internet, Face book the only twitter was of the feathered variety......

Books were the go to, for information, reference or the simple enjoyment of reading.

Well, yesterday I picked up the book in the middle of the pic

Nature Through The Year....

Old books, have to pass a check list for me......

Hard cover,

reasonable condition

interesting story or information

nice pics 

and smell of history, antiquity....

This one ticked all the boxes and more....look at that lovely 

picture on the spine.

Inside the front cover....looking good

Milking time....wonderful photos of rural life in 1946

Wood block or lino print......sold, quick before anyone else spies it.

Check out that haystack.....

This book is chock full of wonderful photos, of life on the farm,

wildlife through the seasons, wildflowers and much more.

The fact that I'm a bit of an Anglophile may have quite a bit to do with it's appeal, but I was very happy to hand over 20 cents and head home with my new treasure.

A quick browse on the net has  shown this book for sale at $15.00......I got me a bargain!!

Oh, almost forgot to say the front cover is embossed with a great pic, but it has been worn down a little over the years.

Are you a fan of old books? What sort do you keep an eye out for?

Do you like the smell of the old paper, of am I the only odd one?

Well, that's about it for the moment.

 I am still working on some projects but can't show any pics yet. 

I think closer to Easter I will be able to post what I have been up to.......

Our little folk festival is on 22-24th March, so things in this household have been a little crazy as hubby is committee chair.

Just as well he has 2 ears and can hold a phone to each and conduct conversations.....it's a much needed skill at the moment.

We are all looking forward to the festival and until then life will be a bit of a blur as everything is finalised and last minute changes/additions are made to the program.

If you're looking for something fun to do that weekend, come up to North East Victoria and enjoy some fantastic music, markets and scenery.....

Hope it won't be too long before you hear from me again and I have decided I will reply to  your comments on my post for a while and see how that goes.....

Must put my skates on running late now,

Ooroo and take care,

Claire x