All sorts, but not licorice...

Ok, so this is a bit of a long term catchup on things... A bit of craft (a lot actually), a bit of house work and a birthday wish thrown in for good measure!

First, a couple of weeks ago, L and the MIL went to the Quilting and craft show at Darling Harbour. They had such a great time and here are their goodies:

Crafty Goodies

And this 'little' piece of Japanese Linen, was a hefty $5 for 15cm!

Japanese Linen Trim

Owl close up

Then, it was a piece that had been 'sitting around' for a couple of years. L got it when we were in the UK. Wye, in Nth England near Furness Vale and Stockport.

Wye Fish Tapestery

It sat for a while, before going off to an upholsterer to make into the cushion it is today.
Now, apart from L having eBay as her FAVOURITE store (it is even in her phone for some reason), her next major website is etsy where she purchased this fish after a tip off from meet me at mikes. The crafty goddess that made it must have gotten her inspiration from Sydney Water I think given it has three eyes!!

3 Eyed Fish

3 Eyed fish!

We have been really busy of late, between all of this, and repairing some cracks in the bedroom. That is now complete and painted and is looking really good. It is only the fiddly bits of painting the windows and a door and paint the ceiling (more on that in another post...)

Today, we had a busy day between doing a meat market research (a take home pack to cook and assess; tonight was Pork Belly!), and going over to Pa's birthday afternoon tea. I thought he was 94, L thinks 95 but the MIL (eldest daughter) thinks he is 93! So happy 90 something Pa!

Happy 90 something B'day Pa

After getting home, putting dinner on going to the bedroom to look at the painting to do, and thought I will not do anymore tonight, and that it time for a cuppa:

Cuppa Eye

Here's looking at you...

Thematic Photographic: - GLASS (Laundry Door)

Carmi, over at Written Inc, has created a new theme challenge, Thematic Photographic, with this week's theme of glass. Now where I work, I have lots of inspiration of cityscape glass buildings, horticultural glasshouses and the like. But, alas, I am now at home when I see what the theme is. So what do I do?

Well, I simply grab a shot of our laundry door, of course! As you may remember, we renovated this a few months back. The Leadlight glass work in the door, fights in well with our 1928 Bungalow, so it seemed fitting to put this in. L wanted it more than me though...

Laundry Door closeup

Laundry Door

Now his rules are pretty simple, he says:

1. He will post a new entry every Wednesday evening (his local time, NOT Aust EST).
2. Each entry has a unique theme.
3. We post a similarly themed image over on our blogs.
4. We paste a link to our entry in a comment on his blog in the weeks theme. If we've already posted something that fits, simply post the link to the existing entry.
5. Delirious photo sharing and happiness ensues.

So, if you want to play, leave a comment/link over at Written Inc (or in our comments as well if you like...)

Handmade Market Day... brrrrrr

Last Saturday, we were to have a very FULL day... L was going to be going to a work colleagues organic make up party in the afternoon, whilst I was to finish the repairs and paint our bedroom. You see, we live in a house that was built in 1928, and with the current drought, there are a couple of cracks. Most of them are not getting any worse, but one of the wall vents in our bedroom, was just about to fall off! I had repaired it the week prior, and stuck it back on, leaving only the sanding back and painting of the room to be done.

BUT, as she always does, L found an excuse to do more things in an already FULL day... Cheeky Beaks was having a Handmade Market in the morning over at Caringbah, about a 40 minute drive from our house, and it was decided upon that we will go further on to Cronulla for breakfast afterwards... Yes more to do... We left home (16 degrees) at around 7:30am and by the time we got over to Caringbah, it was 11 degrees!!!!

Craft Stall Day

There were lots of great things at the various stalls there, and we did grab a couple of hand made bargains whilst we were there... I will get a couple of photos this afternoon when I get home to share for a late WW!

We then left for Cronulla for breakfast, and the cold that L had gotten through the week had taken a turn for the worse (it had turned before we even left home, but it was NOT going to get in the way of going to the Handmade Market!!!), so after breakfast we headed for home, and a call was put in for the party organiser that she will not be coming and sent late apologies...

When we did get home, she snuggled up in her jammies, in front of the heater in the lounge room and fell asleep into a dozy state whilst I got stuck into the bedroom. Occasionally, I would get a "what are you up to" from her... By late evening, she was back to (almost) herself, and we gave the room a second coat!!! Sunday saw the room finished, first coat of the woodwork (where me being the 'boofhead' that I am, went and asked for a 4l tin of Aquanamel but got a 4l tin of OIL BASED ENAMEL of the colour for the woodwork... So it took a lot longer to dry, smelt really bad and left us with the windows and door to the balcony open in the middle of winter for hours!!! So this coming weekend, a final coat will go onto all of the woodwork, and I will get some more shots of it as well...

(WWW WW) Wet Wonderful Web Wordless Wednesday

These are a 'challenge' if you like to my friend Carmi at writteninc...

(WWW) Wet Wonderful Web

Wet Grasses

Wet Grasses

I believe these to be a species of Pennisetum, but unsure as to which! There are so many of them, and I was only there for a second with my camera at hand!!!

WW #27: - Under Construction, the Spa Pavillion...

Spa Pavillion

The 'de-nailers'

Spa Pavillion

wordless wednesday
And don't forget to view my fotoblog as well, for another WW hit!!!

WW #26: - My ETSY purchase, Isaac

A few words...

This is my latest purchase from Etsy, and his name is Isaac. He is handmade, continuing on my handmade theme for this year... Thanks morninglori

Isaac

wordless wednesday

prince charming and prints charming

It has been so long since I have posted here, thank goodness for B keeping the posts coming, and also thank you B for loading the following photos of a cushion I stitched up and stuffed over a couple of nights in front of the TV. The cushion was a kit I purchased from Prints Charming around easter time, it came as a silk screened linen fat quarter, backing fabric and perle threads. The whole process was very theraputic from the random running stitch, so much so that I had to force myself to stop before over embellishing, overstuffing with polyfill, to fraying the edges. It was good fun. I am now fully addicted and am looking for more running stitch and polyfill projects.

Prints Charming Cushion
I am also obsessed with silk screening so it is just my luck that Prints Charming are running their silk screening classes again. I am booked for one in August with 'the next sister down' and my mum. This time round we will be creating our own designs using the paper cut method, and will walk away with 1.5 metres of printed fabric. Oh the hours of running stitch that could be had, but for now the pressure of thinking up some designs.

Prints Charming Cushion on chairLooking at these photos, I have got to get me some more of those kits, I think they might make a nice gift and I did pledge homemade for gifts this year. Prints Charming have a new blog, go take a look.

The next project...

Now that the laundry & bathroom are complete what's next to do in the burntofferings house? Well that's easy, no resting that's for sure!!

Well, the gazebo we are doing for the spa (on order) is underway. We 'won' this wonderfull gazebo on an online auction website, and after an inspection on the day of it finishing, we placed our bid... Then came the fun part, the dismantle works began with the FIL on Friday marking ALL of the pieces of wook and the removal of the roofing and the BIL on the Saturday for the final dismantle of the structure.

Gazebo 'Before'

Gazebo 'Before'
These next shots are of the two day dismantle works...

Gazebo 'Roofless'

and a little further along...

Gazebo dismantle
Now, the question remained, that whilst we now have to dismantle the old shadehouse, what do we do with Wally?

'Wally' on Shadehouse

Old Shadehouse
So, we now have a spa, a gazebo and the old shadehouse removed, what else is there to do but to do a slab! A quick call to a concretor and an electrician saw a length of conduit installed and the slab down within 24 hours!!! WOW!

Slab formwork

Our SLAB
Now all we have to do is make sure both Jasmine & Macc STAY OFF!!!!

Pelican Post

Pelican Post

WW #26: - Pelicans on a post...

Sleepy Pelican Post

Two Pelicans

Two Pelicans

I was on my way home from work the other day, saw these, and HAD to get a shot... Enjoy!


wordless wednesday