Forecast...no change predicted here!

40 degrees here, with hot strong northerly winds...there's nothing cool about north winds in this area of the Southern hemisphere!
Another year about to depart...almost 2 pm, a few due here for New Year's...(perfect for the pool)..I have just got home from groceries, food to prepare,tidying to do and a wardrobe to sort because I decided today was the day to get that organized so the contents are all over my floor! I have realised that with the best of intentions the New Year will bring no change here! I am always full of good intentions and attempts to be more organizedand nothing will be different! But really, when life is good, why make too many changes!
We have had a little extra excitement here and perhaps a little extra to be thankful for as we leave the old year behind.. my darling husband was in too much of a hurry yesterdy between fixing a windmill in the heat and trying to cart loads to the silo and came off his quad bike. Of all the days he had his phone on the charger and I was returning niece and nephew to my sister, so it was very fortunate he managed to get himself up, get the bike back up and get home, of course he went back about his work and only went to emergency a few hours later when breathing got tricky!! turns out there are a fair few broken ribs, a dodgy arm and leg but he's dosed on painkillers and back working, harvest stops for no-one. They are closing silos early so he promises he will be home to put his feet up. I shudder when I think of the eventualities if he had been knocked out or the bike had fallen further and unbalanced onto him in the table drain as it threatened to, with noone home and noone with any idea where he was..in 38 degree temps!

Here is a harvesting photo from the other night for you.
My dh has become a bit of an online shopper lately as well, I started it with the fabric, but I have a feeling he got just slightly carried away! here's his purchase...


Gotta love those husbands!! Have agreat New Year and see you next year, love Tracey

Christmas round up

I am laughing at myself here..I read how not to put your weight back on over Christmas and it's apparently important to not keep eating like it's Christmas day, just to leave the excesses to the one day...well that may be fine if you hadn't made up 2 separate dip and cheese platters for the 2 different family Christmas day parties...and came home with about half of each of them! I don't know about youbut I cannot let beautiful cheese go to waste...or caviar dip for that matter...so am slowly working through the platter(s)...this is exactly what happened after my 40th as well, and it is amazing how quickly the 6 kgs I lost crept back on!!

So I am heading out after blogging to resume my mini triathlon training regime, a couple of kms up the road on the bike..a couple of kms run/walk and 25 laps of the pool...surely that will negate today's debauchery!


I photographed my first paid wedding job yesterday, i was to provide the alternate view. How cute is this little fellow..

Christmas day meant that I could finally open my SSCS parcel. Chookyblue Donna ran this swap again this year, Thanks Donna, it was great. This is the parcel from Dawn that tempted me for weeks..and it was well worth the wait!

Here are the contents...

Gorgeous dawn..I love the wallhanging..the fabric and the book is brilliant, you clever shopper! I think the jelly belly pooping reindeers (not shown) were nearly the hit of my kid's Christmas...seen nothing like that around here! They loved all of it and want me to send you money for more particular candy they liked!They only see lots of animal's real thing!

My parcel went to Norway, to Anne-marie, here is what she received..

a plastic coated moda bag and purse, Roman holiday table runner, an apron and some of my cards

My girl also received her Christmas swap from Fairy girl, Chookyblue Donna's girl.

They had to include a needle case. This is hers, it's beautiful. The other things were eaten and dispersed by the time I got the camera out!

My girl had jessie girl, daighter of Oh sew busy. She sent this parcel, we tried to make the needle case look like a bag (Left)...and added in a real bag to match.

That is the Christmas round-up and if I am to get off my ever-so-slightly-getting-rounder-as-we-speak-behind and exercise, i better go now!

Hope christmas was great! Tracey

Happy Christmas from Australia!

Oh boy! How did it get to 12.20 am Christmas morning already!! I have to get to bed! Lunch with one side of the family, tea with the other for Christmas, a busy day! Kids were in the Church Nativity tonight, DD was a narrator and did a great job, her brother was very good as chief wise man...obviously not method acting!!
I am looking forward to opening my SSCS and i actually think DH may surprise me as well...who says they don't change!!
I finished a santa sack for niece Daisy in the last week, probably getting filled as we speak...got Magnum kitten to model for you!
I also had to make smaller versions for all the pets!!
Thought you may like to see them....

The things we do for our kids...knowing our luck, next year i'll probably be appliquing over the top of the names!! Should be more optimistic.

The first 2 canola paddocks are done, the hot fortnight has affected them, 0.75

tonne to acre in one and 1 tonne to acre in other. Not fabulous but fine~we're definitely not cancelling Christmas! rained today so DH actually had a sleep on the couch, a beautiful early Christmas present!

Wishing everyone a fabulous Christmas, wherever you are around the world...we are hopefully changing our internet in the next few days..in the hope of reducing our costs from in the hundreds every month to more like $50..and with a lot more downloads~ I may get around to everyone!! Stay safe, Tracey

Linseed and coffee...break?

As the harvester arrives to do the canola, our linseed is just flowering. I love these blue flowers, unfortunately they don't last like the yellow ones.

If it rained they may last a week, but it's to be 39 tomorrow so they will only last a day. Our linseed has struggled to get to this unimpressive height, got too much heat when it was in it's early stages. Does look great when all the flowers are open, like a blue sea.

I made a few things for my girl's coffee loving teacher to add to her present. A wall hanging and pot holders.

The kids are at their grandparents tonight so I have wrapped, organized and generally sorted all the presents and they are safely under the tree with a week to go...now doing the Christmas cards..in the traditional way!! and just got a call from the kids wanting to come home and it's a 2 hour round trip...think I talked them round. I thought we were past this! We even bought a Nintendo wii for the grandies. Note to Grandies, don't keep the kids up past bedtime or it all goes to.......

Hopefully i have a day to sew tomorrow before picking them up...hopefully!!

Have a great day, Tracey

Christmas everywhere!

Such a busy time! As I have discussed a good 3 times in my bloglife...Christmas is very trickily scheduled here! (That's if you realy consider Christmas "scheduled"!) A winter Christmas would be a lot more restful!

It is summer time and the kids breakup from school here tomorrow, the hay harvest is almost done, but the canola is ready to go as soon as the harvesters get here from the warmer northern regions where they have already harvested..within the next day or two; EVERY organisation has a breakup for Christmas/holiday break...so I have been out almost every second night...and in there somewhere you are trying to fit in Christmas..and even some sewing! I am heading over to my sewing room in a minute to work on a special Christmas present for a patchwork admiring school teacher..no pressure, i have until tomorrow!

I have received my SSCS parcel form my lovely friend, Dawn...who used to be in Korea and is now back in the US...doesn't it look exciting..I am being so patient and waiting for Christmas...there are even gift bags for the kids! This is the decoration that I am allowed to open!

Thanks Dawn! Anne-Marie in Norway has received hers from me as well, it is always nice to know they have arrived safely.

We had our quilters break-up lunch on Sunday. I had been on the run after attending my High School reunion the night before...(such an interesting evening...to see people after all that time!)

We had a Chris Cringle and here are some of the gifts...

There are some good Christmas gift ideas there..the suffolk puff Chrsitmas tree, machine sewn fabric cards, the rustic card hanger...to name a few..

Off to sew, have a great day, tracey

More finishes...

Still on a finishing roll here, this little chook panel is hand bound and off the to-do list, it reminds me so much of my girl out feeding the chooks.

I have another "finish", regular readers will have seen this finished before, but I wasn't happy with the big expanses of gold left next to the star and I am not a confident enough hand quilter to make that a feature in the space, so I added more diamonds and ouline quilted them, also outline quilted some of the main lone star as well. Now I think I'm happy...every bit done by hand except the initial attaching of binding to quilt edge...you can't do that by hand!

Here magnum, the kitten, who is ruling the house after only 9 days of owning us!
About to sift through all the year's photos for entries in our local show photography competition on Saturday, that will be a busy night's work. I am also running the animal nursery, and have my "we're all 40" high school reunion that night, the the week is about to get busy!
I haven't seen most of these people for 22 years! My two best school friends wont be there, one doesn't get back from Kuala Lumpur until the next week and the other is lost at sea, perhaps drinking carona on a Castaway island somewhere, but I think that's a pipe dream. So it's lucky I'm not shy, just hoping I will be wearing the "right" clothes and it doesn't feel like high school did!!
Have a good day, Tracey

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