We have sewing!

I have been in a finishing mood this week..finishing a few of my own projects, not just b/fire ones!
The Secret Santa Christmas parcel is safely mailed away, to be shown to you after Christmas. I have also delivered a few bag orders and last night I had a site at the local German festival and sold over 150 cards, plus baby blankets and bags. Best result ever!
The finishes I have taken a photo of already are the 70's clothes scraps string quilt for my best friend's Mum. Yes, i know you all saw it ages ago, my BFF is in Kuala Lumpur and about to shift home, so that was the motivation to declutter that UFO.
As you may know...from a lot of photos of quilts on animals...I love Jim Shore. I bought this panel a year or two ago and now it is a finished UFO as well, why is it so hard to get a binding attached, because it is so nice to see these things finished!!
Note to self, weaned calves are NOT the best models for quilts!
#1. They don't want to come to the yard
#2. They don't like 2 dogs barking at them
#3. They see no motivation to get their head from the bucket and
#4. They REALLY don't see the funny side of blankets thrown over their back!
I should show you the "deleted scenes!"
So this is the best we can do today...


I have to run today, my Dh is showing up at 6 pm instead of 11pm as it has rained here and you can't bale in the rain so, much to my emancipated sister's disgust I am sure, I am off to get out of the tracky's into something respectable and put some make-up on for drinks...a girls goota make an effort!
Have agreat day!

Lots and lots of photos...and a new kitten!

Back again, and after those nice words of encouragement I promise I will never again consider deleting the blog! If you are happy for me to call in when i can then that's fine with me!

Arlette was the lucky commenter drawn out by the slaves, Arlette will get her prize in time for Chrsitmas ...like a few other belated ones!! Drop me a line Arlette!

I have actually had some sewing time...and can i share? No, not until after my Secret santa Christmas swap person opens her parcel on Christmas morning. How different her Chrsitmas will be from mine, parallel opposite probably! It has been so terribly hot here for November, after being so wet! It went from Winter and straight to Summer, my garden was lovely for a week! DH has been working 18 hours a day cutting, baling and raking hay...what joy!

So with no sewing i can show, i thought i would take some pics at the little country show we went to today.

This wedding ring quilt is on my list, think I will need to break a leg to get to everything on my list! It was hand quilted and needless to say, made a first place.

Another first for this, great use of photos!

I'm a sucker for a pinwheel and a kaleidoscope, loved this...received a second.

Thought the cross stitchers would be impressed with this height chart. I was! Could only snap this through the wire.

Snapped a few animals while I was there, I have picked up another shop that wants my cards, a pet shop! So i thought I had better have a few ones particularly for there to join the animal ones I have already.

Like my horse?

I loved this pig...

And this pig..

and more of this pig...

and I also have a new peregrine falcon shot. I have adored peregrine falcons since I first read Catherine Gaskin's Falcon for a Queen when I was a teenager, anyone else read that, it is fabulous! I even forgive them for the occasional chicken I see them fly away with!

This was the favourite animal of the day. After 6 months of grieving over poor drowned Tom, my girl has had another try...this is Magnum PIC, (pretty impressive cat or something like that!)... and yes, there's very few 80's TV shows she doesn't like!

I will leave you with a job...seeing I am packaging up and posting cards and SSCS gifts, I may as well add some more. I think these two last photos lend themselves to some kind of saying/verse and they may well end up as cards..or not! Give me a something suitable in the comments to go in the draw for some cards,
have a great day, Tracey

New cards,a prize and harvest already!

Back again, but feeling mighty guilty about this blogging business, there just doesn't seem enough hours in the day anymore! I am thinking, if I am struggling to get round all the other blogs, is it manners to delete mine? But I love the blogworld, -the support, encouragement and connestion -when time allows me...surely things will settle.....What do you think? Leave a comment on this, the cards or anything today...and as a thanks for "hopefully" re-enthusing me you, will go in a little giveaway draw. Gina and lady hopwood know that because I have grand plans, my giveaways don't always get mailed the next day...but I am guaranteeing Christmas delivery for everyone! LOL! i especially feel I owe those 60 or 70 people who statcounter says check in on me everyday!! Thanks..and take the time to comment, or email and you will go in the draw! Just put blog in the email title so I open you!

Weather here is unseasonably hot, looks like it may be 10 days of over 30 degrees and it is still Spring! This means DH is working around the clock, last night he fell into bed after a 39 hour "day'...if that makes sense! Valiantly trying to beat the weather to the hay.

So I am playing the supportive wife and getting back into the harvest swing of being available 24/7 for any job, preferably with food always on the ready!

The card range has grown to 150! These are the new ones added today to the blog site, so feel free to go over and have a look. I did a market on the weekend and sold almost 100, so am busy replenishing! Off to clean enough to "legally and morally" get in some sewing time, just feel like having a sleep on the couch really! Bring on February and the end of harvest...boy, that seems a long long way away! Cheers, Tracey

Granny Goose has received ny washcloth swap parcel so I can show what i sent! Two matching wash cloth/pot holders and the requisite seeds.

I received mine from Oh sew busy, chenille cloths in almost the same colours as I had sent to granny goose1 great minds think alike! The seeds are planted so not in the pic!

Catch you soon, with sewing! Remember to comment to enter, Tracey

To iron, fold ,do dishes ..or blog?

Start with a few Australian natives, I have been rebooked to provide the cards for a big festival next year, so am working on my portfolio.

What do you think?

As you can see on the blog title , not any fun alternatives here today, house work and more housework! Things got a little out of control around here during shearing, so I am catching up. It is also beautiful Spring weather and I am in garden and clean mode. But surely I can sneak in a little blog!

Gotta love the black sheep in the pack, even though you don't want any of it's wool getting near the good stuff.

Kids were good helpers, daughter kicked me out of the drafting yards, said that job was hers! Didn't know whether to laugh or cry! Got over it fairly quickly, I remember how proud I was when I became my Dad's #1 drafter...and some possible farmer husband in a lot of years may appreciate her training as much as my DH did!

Here she is modelling her tin dog, it makes the noise that gets the sheep moving, my Dad has a business making them.

Oops!Dh just walked in, and I am NOT doing any priority items!!-better look like I'm working!!

We did get to the Pompeii and St*r wars exhibition, I had better keep those pics for next time!
See ya!

Here comes the shearing...

How much am I loving a laptop! Mobile internet access and a card slot for the camera memory card and I can actually keep up with Flash Forward and blog at the same time...wow!! We are at Episode 3, is that similar to the states? seems like quite a good show, interesting premise!

The fridge is packed full of baking, roasts and sausage rolls ready for shearing to start tomorrow, a very busy time here and looks like uncertain weather so it will drag out. We are hoping to get to Melbourne for the Day in Pompeii exhibition and St*r wars at science works before they close, but it all depends on this shearing.

Mainly farmy stuff to share, only sewing I have done is stuff I can't show just yet.

Canola is flowering, seems I have shared photos at this season a good few times, it is my 3 year blogiversary next weekend, that's gone quick. I wonder if there will be a competition?

I have taken a few photos of my girl, her friend..and Rosie, her pup...who should have had a bath!

Rosie fancied herself a sheep dog today, the pet lambs have grown..hugely...and got out and ate my rose garden today. We wont go into the ingratitude they are showing for those 4 hourly night feeds!! The "farm" dogs and kids helped get them in the orchard, quite a circus!

Weather is only just ok, but didn't stop the kids getting in th dam to celebrate the big Holden Bathurst win yesterday!Their father was celebrating even harder!

Hatched a late duckling out in my girl's hand the other night, thought you may like to see the last stages...

Gotta love the little egg tooth on the end of the beak, that will fall off withing a day ot two. Just there to do it's job.

And, here we are! It is truly amazing how things hatch...if they have been left unwarmed for longer than the hour a day they can manage in their incubation period, they will often continue to grow in the shell, but don't have enough built up energy to get out the shell...so die with the end in sight.

That's why we kept an eye on this one, the dawdling is often a bad sign but warm hands and a light did the trick and it went back to it's mum safely out. We never interfere and hatch them ourselves, even an hour too soon can mean they haven't fully absorbed the egg yolk and what's effectively their umbilicus wont heal up properly.

Better sleep, big days ahead!

Have a great day, Tracey

Where is the time going??

School holidays are almost over and, like both dogs, the cat and about 20 roosters..I am flat out chasing my tail!

Sleepovers here, sleepovers there, a new calf to feed, 10 new ducklings, 6!! more clucky chooks...to bring the total to 10, playdates here, playdates there. an hour's trip to catch up with my friend home from Kuala Lumpur..and BIG Geelong grandfinal win and celebration day. The sewing room is meant to be clean by Friday night quilters and unless someone is coming here tomorrow with a heap of Oompa loompas and a large truck or two that is NOT going to happen!

Today was start day, kids were at Holiday Bible Adventure all day so i was to get the tax stuff done, go to pilates and then all go! I haven't managed pilates for 5 weeks, surely today was the day...no, a phone call from the Landcare group who need a slideshow of photos of the land killed that next 2 hours. That got me to lunchtime...all ready to start..until a phone call from the Bible Adventure, the boy wanted to come home after getting wood or sawdust in his eye...went to get him, only to find out that he was now right! Then home and handed bills to pay in town..the other direction! Back for pickup, thinking i had a clear 3 hours to start before tea...the boy shows me the 3/4's of a front tooth he has left after an accident with his knee, so find a ride home for the girl and head 100 kms to the dentist who will see us!! Pretty unlucky day for a boy who was at a Bible adventure!

An hour, a rebuilt tooth and $160 later (not too bad I thought!) we headed back home, to organize 200 cards for a big wildflower show! See why the oompa Loompas would be handy?

I'll leave you with what my darling niece and nephew got upto on their farm adventure-they never wanted to leave....I could make money hosting farmstays-IF they invented a 30 hour day!..DN woke up at 5.15 am the second day, ready to see of the ducklings had hatched and to feed the chooks some more!

Have a great day, Tracey

ps, the calf's name is Hagrid!

Here comes Spring..kind of!

All the signs of Spring are here....
my chooks just keep walking out of any bits of undergrowth with babies.

These are the latest...13!
I found this nest today..fortunately noticed the hen cluck clucking around the yard and followed her back to this icanthus..right outside my bedroom window!
The bees are going just crazy! Never seen anything like it, they really must like pigface, they had no interest in me putting the camera virtually right up against them, they were only intent upon their work!


The only thing slightly unspringlike, well not in the last 10 springs anyway...is that it just keeps raining! We have had close to an inch again in the last few days, with much more due...and all this while NSW and Sydney areas are enveloped in dust storms..it's a strange country!
This canola is slightly struggling under the weight of water
.
Gotta go...gotta sew!
Have a great day, Tracey

So much for a quiet Sunday....

10.30 pm and the day still isn't over, a funeral in another town tomorrow and a Church meeting here tomorrow night mean I really have to clean!

Day started early with Church cleaning and flowers before Church, with Sunday School teaching thrown in, then bought a friend home for the kids, helped Dh cut up and pack two sheep for shearing,then performed the Dalek operation on 9 unwanted and ugliest looking roosters. You see I did a census last night and found I had 29!!! I probably only need 4 or 5!

After that clean out the kids and I went and bought a trio of pekin bantams...working on the one in, one out theory!! Takeaway tea and choosing videos, then home to work!!

Cleaned up things I seem to have ended up with from my DMIL's kitchen. Thought you may be interested in some...

.

I actually know the story of these cooking slides. i wish I knew more of the stories, but you unfortunately don't always ask. Grandma always fed the workers until about 20 years ago when they werent living on the property any more, Between 50 and 60 years ago one of her workers loved her kuchen and fashioned these slides with 3 flat sides and just a lip, and with the holes, to help with the elaborate kuchen process. I asked grandma to teach me kuchen last year but I think i left it too late, she said it was too hard, too time consuming and I should forget about it! My German grandma was well into alzheimers and Parkinson's by the time i was a teen, so she never taught me either. But I am glad I have the slides, fabulous for my bulk cooking.

These extra long spreading knives have come my way as well. They aren't pearl handled, not quite sure what you call them. You can see the top two are discoloured, I have some more like that, does anyone know any maintenance techniques or anything I can do to improve them?

These seem to be some kind of pearl handled set. Don't quite know what the wide one is for, any ideas?

Now I really need your help... Any ideas what these would be for? They are wooden, they were in the retired shelf, so not been used for a long time. Are they a kuchen thing? They are definitely kitchen related.

I think my Dh may feel they should all be going to the tip, but I can't get rid of my stuff, let alone my Dear MIL's! What do you think? And any help?

Have a good day, Tracey