There's a bear in there.......

........and there's another

Oh look...... a kitty, a couple of giraffes and tiny teddies too..........

They're all pretty excited, they're off on a journey today to join lots of other softies on the Victorian Variety Bash, a motoring event that raises money to support children in need.  This year they're driving from Melbourne, Victoria to Fraser Island in Queensland. The toys will be given out along the way by Car 152.  This group is one of the charities that are being supported this month through the on-line group Knit4Charities, which I belong to.   It donates to a variety of charities Australia wide, and members nominate their favourite charities, which are then placed on a yearly calendar.  Each month there's usually 2 or 3 charities for us to choose from to support.  If you like to knit, crochet and /or sew, pop along and have a look at the website.  There's no obligation to make anything, and no minimum number of items to be sent.....that one beanie, toy or scarf will keep someone warm or bring joy to a child.

........till next time.

Marcia is on the way

I started this post yesterday but was sidetracked to prepare for this 

this being a trough that's running ahead of a Category 4/5 cyclone that's heading towards the Queensland coast.  The bright yellow and dark green towards the top right of the map is the cyclone.....named Marcia, expected to make land around 7 am in the morning. I'm in Murwillumbah, about a third of the way down the picture and while the actual cyclone....with reported wind speed of 225kms/hr as it crosses the coast....won't directly hit us, we'll still feel the brunt. These systems don't necessarily follow the path ascribed to them, but it's predicted this one will head south west across Queensland, then swing to the south east towards the coast, about 40kms south of me. It'll meet up with the trough currently dumping a lot of rain on us, and between them, there's around 400mls of rain expected, plus high winds. I don't mind the rain, but the high winds worry me.  The river I live near is tidal, and with a king tide expected, there'll be flooding for sure, and although there'll be a lot of water rushing through my yard, and things will become very sloshy, my house will be safe.

I have a friend in Mackay, where the cyclone is predicted to make landfall, and I've been following along with her all day as she's prepared as best she can for a very dangerous and scary situation. Be safe, Kate and all those up north who are waiting now for the cyclone to hit the coast, it'll be a sleepless night for many.  My thoughts and prayers are with them and I wish everyone safe passage through this.

I've prepared too, for the deluge to come...mowed the lawn, done some weeding, tidied away lawn chairs and anything else that can blow around, put the chook's weatherproof shelter up, brought in lots of kitty litter and cleaned the water tank filter. There's plenty of candles, new torch batteries and tins of baked beans in case the power goes and I can't cook.  So we're all set.

Nicely mown yard, dog is pleased, she can find her ball now

A bit stiff and sore after all that hard work, I usually do the garden work in small bites, but I really wanted to stay ahead of the rain and be prepared for whatever the heavens throw at me.

***

I want to show you all the lovely things the postie has delivered lately, but first, look at this fun promotion the local library did for Valentine's Day... they had a stand of books in plain brown wrappers, with saucy labels.  I chose this one, bit of a lucky dip as to what the book might be, I was hoping not a Mills and Boon romance ....

This is the book I received, I haven't started it yet, but it sounds as if it could be quite good. "Set in WW2, Miss Carter leaves her French lover to return to England and be one of the first women to receive a degree from the University of Cambridge. She becomes a teacher, and has a mission to fight social injustice, prevent war and educate girls"  I will let you know how it turns out.

Wonderful pretty and practical gifts.

So, firstly last week was my Initial Heart Swap gift, which came from Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches in Western Australia.  Thankyou Anthea, I was absolutely delighted with my swap gifts, ( I pinched this photo from Anthea's blog, as I've left the tote bag in the car...hope you don't mind Anthea?)

On the card, Anthea wrote about my goodies....
An "N" mug rug for my drink
A pouch and bag for market day visits
Something to care for my hands after gardening
and a sweet treat.  

and here's that lovely bag after a trip to the farmer's market...the pouch worked well too

Then from Kerrie who blogs at http://www.channelbankcreations.blogspot.com.au/ this beautifully stitched and very thoughtful gift .... a diary with a handmade cover.  Here it is opened out to show the whole cover with it's fancy buttons on the front.  Thank you Kerrie for your kindness in sending this, I've already put it to good use.

Love the choice of colours and fabrics

Lastly, a gift myself, a couple of metres of lovely bright oildcloth to make a table cloth for the little table on my front verandah.  A friend who lives at the end of the lane has a pretty yellow Kath Kidston cloth and I just love it, it catches my eye every time I walk past, so I decided I would have one too.

The rain will keep me indoors tomorrow, and as there'll be no distractions, I'll be spending the day sewing.

'til next time

Grow Your Blog 2015

Welcome to my little corner of the Grow Your Blog Party ............

Hosted by Vicki at 2 Bags Full

Click on the link and it'll take you to the list of around 400 bloggers who have joined the party, and will introduce themselves, and write about why they blog, and their interests. This is a great way to find new blogs and meet new and wonderful people.  

I'm a retired social worker, and live in Australia in a small country town in northern NSW.   I have 2 children, a son and a daughter and 4 grandchildren....3 girls and a boy and 1 great-granddaughter, all of whom live in Ohio, USA.  My son lives in Sydney.  

So with family spread out and far away.....I share my home with this lot......great companions and never a dull moment.

clockwise from left......Neesa, Velvet and Molly and Mirrhi

I started my blog as a way to connect and communicate.  I was suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder, and the associated depression and anxiety, and found it hard to be in social situations. Blogging was a good way to have some social interaction,and stay connected to the outside world, but on my own terms.  Those days, thankfully, are behind me now, but I continue to blog about my sewing and gardening, ordinary things, my day to day life, things that interest me and people and places I encounter when I step outside my front gate.  I've made some good friends through my blog, and some I've now met outside of cyber space as well.

I enjoy an eclectic array of handwork......quilting, embroidery and stitching, I dabble in needlefelting, and like to make dolls and toys.  I have a Pinterest board called Creative Miscellany of Things....this sums up pretty well what I like to do.

Here's some pics of various things I've enjoyed making......

Quilts and table-runners

dolls and soft toys

 I give most of my toys to charity, and they go variously to Knit 4 Charities, Mirabel Foundation and Uthando.  I knit as well, and these items, mainly beanies, go to Knit 4 Charities  as well, an Australian on-line group which knits, sews and crochets thousands of items a year to go to the homeless and needy.

Handwork -healing doll, crazy patchwork, kantha stitching

I enjoy living simply, and as sustainably as possible and I do this by growing as much of my own food as I can, I cook from scratch and make my own bread, soap and cleaning goods.  I'm passionate about my garden and growing and this is as important to me and my life as my needle and thread are.

I enjoy travelling and posted here about my recent trip to Tibet, a deeply satisfying and life-changing trip.

Mt Kailash

I wondered when I signed up for the Party what I'd write about....obviously I had no trouble and could probably go on.  If you'd like to know more, take a wander back through my blog, or you can email me at belleg9atgmaildotcom.

To celebrate Grow Your Blog I'm having a give-away, and anyone who comments will go in the draw to win a small prize.  I have two bundles of pretty batiks to give away, and embroidery threads to go with them.  All you have to do is comment on this post, and you're in.

The draw closes at midnight on February 14 AEST and winners will be drawn and announced here on February 15th.  Please make sure you're not a "no-reply" blogger so I can get in touch with you if you're a winner.

....til next time

Swaps and sewing

I mentioned in a previous post that I'd been doing some secret Christmas sewing, for the Santa Sack Swap.  Cheryll from Stitching Cubbyhole blog organises this every year.  My partner this year was Lyn in New Zealand and we had 6 months to get know each other and make 5 gifts plus a stocking, tote or sack.  Lyn and I both decided we wanted a tote.  We were both running late with our gifts - Lyn had lots of report writing to finish and I had dengue fever, so we agreed we'd give ourselves an extra week.  Today was the day we opened our gifts and I received these wonderful gifts.

Beautifully wrapped


Cute NZ card

Tote bag.  Already in use with my latest project! 

Little wall hanging

Christmas tree napkins.....such a clever idea and beautifully folded ...too pretty to wipe the gravy off my chin with.....and  a sewing purse, here it is open.  It has 4 pockets for keeping all my sewing needs together

Thread catcher...I need this, I end up with snipped threads all over the place, fabric with NZ birds...a pukeko I think...on it and the sewing purse closed.  A purple theme happening here.....it's my favourite colour, Lyn did a good job stalking my blog :)

Beautifully stitched Christmas cushion...oh and there were chocolates too..hmm wonder where they went?

For some reason, probably trying to get everything packed up to send, I didn't take photos of the gifts I made for Lyn, but I made some very nice things.  Hopefully Lyn will take photos and I can borrow them from her blog Stitches from the Mainland.
Thanks to Cheryll for organising this swap.  Swaps like this make blogging and the internet a fun and positive place, "meeting" new people far and near, people I might never meet but still connect with.  And the gifts are a special bonus, Lyn and I were commenting that we plan and organise, choose colours and projects we think, hope our partner will like, then stitch away making our gifts , forgetting that someone else is doing the same, so it's wonderful when that parcel arrives, with thoughtfully chosen presents.  Thanks Lyn for being my partner.

'til next time

In the winter garden and a chicken bower

Winter, that's a bit of a joke.  Although there's a cool breeze today, outside it's quite warm enough for a t-shirt.  It's good growing weather, warm days and cool nights.

This is the bed I had prepared last week and is now planted with broad beans, Asian cabbage, spinach, collards, and too hard to see, calendulas and heartsease.  Radish seeds in the middle space.

 

This is a new bed I finished a couple of days ago, after breaking my back removing weeds and hauling soil.  It's now home to snow peas, a couple more broad bean plants, some bok choy and marigolds.  Radish seeds in the "holes" in the mulch.

Homemade climbing trellis for the peas, using long branches picked up on my doggy walks.

 

When the sun gets too hot for the tender seedlings, the trellis supports shade cloth. This area used to be in shade in the afternoon, but is now in full sun since the jacaranda tree fell.

Potatoes doing well, they've been hilled up twice since I took this picture, and I've nearly unrolled all the way to the top of the bags, they quite like being in the sun all day .

***

The chickens have been noticing the absence of the jacaranda as well.......not only had their run become very hot without it, but they had lost their "jungle" overhead, which made them feel safe, and so they wouldn't venture out into the open space.  So I made them a shady jungle bower from the broken branches that had to be trimmed off the mulberry tree. Not pretty but it works.

 

 Spangly Lola, golden Juno and a black blob which is Brenna, happily hidden away....I think they like it.

 

 Today, I need to check on the newest seedlings of bok choy and kale and see if they're ready to plant out, start some more seeds and I know there are tomatoes ready to be potted on.....all that and some sewing to hopefully finish off the Seed Packet quilt will fill the day quite nicely.

...............until next time

A lot of work....

 ........and still not quite finished.  Not even half way through and I was wondering why was I doing this. 

  Plenty of books still to be shelved.....maybe some culling first?

  

This being swapping rooms.......my bedroom into what was the sewing room.  Behind a huge cupboard that was in the room when I moved here was quite a few years worth of dust and cobwebs!   So there was heavy duty cleaning to be done as well.  Moving the bedroom , not so bad.....the packing up of the sewing room......oh dear!  It all took me the better part of two weeks, and felt quite overwhelming at times.  The sewing room is still not shipshape, I promised myself there'll be no shoving things in a cupboard out of the way, I want it all to be organised and everything where I can easily find it all....ha ha, famous last words?  We shall see. 

 

Overall though, now that my bedroom is organised, I'm glad I did it.  My 'new' bedroom is now at the front of the house in the larger room.....feeling quite grown up about that!....and away from the noise of one of my neighbours who goes out at 4.30 most mornings to do triathlon training.  Her car is parked quite close to my old bedroom, and I was woken by the click of their back door closing or the sound of the car starting up.  I know she tries hard to be quiet, but in the stillness of the early morning sound travels clearly.  So no more being woken too early, I'm cranky all day when that happens.  And my sewing machine is in place, as is my worktable, so at least I can step around the waiting assortment of who-knows-what and have a little fun in between the sorting and organising

 

Some of the fun included sewing for  Jewell's  Easter swap, which I joined. This involved finding gifts for your partner beginning with the letters of Easter Time. A lot of fun, and a bit of a brain stretcher to come up with interesting items.  I was very creative with some of mine!!  I can't show you the gifts as it's a secret swap, but here they all are wrapped up ready to go. They were posted last week.   I hope my partner likes them! 

 

 

 a sneak peek at one of the items I made for the swap 

 

I managed to find some time to sit and relax and do some kantha stitching on the little patched piece I showed in a previous post.  It was very tempting to just sit and work on this rather than sort out my moving mess, but I resisted. I'll get back to it tomorrow at sewing group.

  

 And during the move, before I took my work table down and packed up the sewing machine, I quickly put together this bunting for my neighbour's little girl (yes, the same one who's noisy in the mornings)  She's just had a cubby (play) house built, so this will look pretty strung across the front. 

 

 

 I'll leave you with this sweet kitty face, the last thing I see at night as I turn out the bedside lamp, this is Neesa,  stretching across to give me a kiss ..... she was treated very cruelly as a tiny kitten, poor love, and sadly, isn't keen on being held or sleeping with me, so the bedside table is as close as she gets.  

 

 

 

 Until next time............

Are you being served ?

I'm shop girl here today at the Tweed Valley Artist's Co-op Gallery, at Tyalgum.  We have a tiny room at the side of the Tyalgum Community Hall, which was built in 1908.

It's a spooky space, I have to cross this hall to the toilets at the back, that's our "backdoor" in the top picture.  The roof creaks and rattles, it smells old and musty and you can almost hear the footsteps, a background murmur of conversations and the friendly clink of tea cups of the many groups who've used this hall down the years, as it would once have been the hub of village life. It still is used regularly for meetings, wedding and funeral services, a theatre group, the local environment action group and our own art cafe.

It's quite a contrast to our cheery gallery, with it's colorful variety of arts and crafts from all over the Tweed.

I think today will be quiet, it's rather wet, but that doesn't always keep visitors away. They come over the Border Ranges from Queensland looking for lunch, or come from the south on the way to somewhere else.  But I have plenty to keep me busy and happy. When I need to stretch my legs, there's this wonderful view to enjoy.

I have my knitting...

 Or I can work on my tiny scrap houses when I've had enough of knitting.  It's a pleasant place to be, with some mellow music playing in the background and the rain falling gently outside.  I can concentrate just on my knitting or sewing, unlike at home, where I'd be aware there's dusting or ironing to be done (not that it necessarily would!).  So it's like a little holiday out of my usual routine.

Aah, there's a step on the stair, and the bell has been rung, it sounds like I have a customer. 

Shop!

Back again, sewing and knitting

The technical team did a great job searching high and low for the camera lead....how it got into a sewing basket is anyone's guess!

I haven't spent all that time searching, there's been other work of the hands as well. I made a needlefelted fabric postcard for a Stitchinfingers birthday swap, this handsome fellow went to Liz in Kansas who loves fantasy fiction and in particular, dragons. It was a bit of a headache for a while, I just couldn't seem to get him looking right. When I realised his head was too big for his neck, I took to him with the scissors and cut his head down, and re-needled him to a new piece of fabric, and with a fatter neck.  He seems none the worse for the emergency surgery.

These little 'isolette gowns' went off to the Miracle Babies' Foundation, to be worn by tiny premmie babies.

I made this sewing set as a gift for a friend who had bought her first sewing machine, and I thought she'd enjoy having some new tools, and somewhere pretty to keep them. She did!

Inside the basket, with needlebook and pincushion

Pocket in the needlebook to keep ...whatever?

 A baby beanie knitted last night while I watched the first of the new series of Spooks, a British spy show.  It's in Indigenous colours, and will go to Wilcannia, an Aboriginal community out west, when I visit next month. I hope to make a few more before then.

And in the garden, I had a eucalyptus tree trimmed and since it seemed a shame to bin all the clippings, I boiled some up to dye with.  The smell as they cooked was delightful, and the water turned an interesting mustardy yellow.

........as did the fabrics.  I popped in a couple of pieces of wool batting, some linen, and a nice piece of muslin that used to be a sling from when I broke my arm.  Some of the colours are interesting, but I think I a) had too many pieces in the pot for them all to get good coverage and b) I'll overdye some pieces again, maybe adding some rusty nails and a copper tap.

a good start

We've had some odd weather lately...very hot and wet and very hot and dry. What better place to be when you  need a cool dry spot for a nap.........

than in the washing machine of course!

I hope you all find the perfect spot to spend your Sunday.

Edited to add that once again the country is experiencing extremes of weather, and way to the south, as the rain continues to fall and the waters rise, people are waiting nervously in evac centres for word that they can return home, others are returning with trepidation to see what the water has done to their homes, and still others are waiting for that knock on the door from the SES....evacuate now! Some are isolated and inconvenienced by the waters, but are quite safe.  My thoughts are with all of them.