May 29, 2008

More of the Tree for all Seasons
















Hi All - I have sneaked on here quickly - I have to go make dinner in a mo .... here are a couple more pics of the Tree for all Seasons embroidery. though the colours look a bit washed out in the "complete" view! I have been busy in the studio painting bobbins today ... it is that time of the year when I spend all morning bobbin painting and then try to get some time in the afternoons to do the "fun" stuff. I took all my goodies which I brought at the Craft Fair last Saturday to my lace group yesterday and got to drool over them again and so did my friends! One of them went to the Craft Fair and didn't spend any money other than the entry fee.... no idea how she managed that !!!! I think she must be ill haha!

May 27, 2008

A Tree for All Seasons
















Hi All - I Had a great day at the Craft Fair on Saturday - Caught the train at 8 am, one lace friend already on it and we acquired another 3 a few stations closer to Perth... It was a bit showery but as we were gonna be indoors so we weren't all that worried. I went off and snoofied around the stalls for a couple of hours before settling to demonstrating some lace.
I succumbed to buying 6 more little bags of Angelina fibres.... 4 packets of "Textiva fusion foil" (had to Google it though to see what to do with it haha! - now know it is Angelina fibres when they are whole!) also a little bag of dark blue silk rods, 4 bags of little lace "flower" motifs at $2 a bag ...bargain and very useful for Crazy Patch. I also got a pack of 10 sheets of fabric that I can put through the ink jet printer...a metre of sequin braid that I may use on my Egyptian piece... I had a quick look around the Quilt Show and there were some wonderful quilts there .... I got home at 6.15pm thank goodness I had put the Slow Cooker on in the morning with a chook and Vegie soup ...mmmmm it was soooo yummy as was the glass of Vino! I spent some of Sunday, Yesterday and today - making a quilted bag for my new Asus Eee PC to go in ... I am very pleased with how it came out and will take a pic when I next wield the camera!
The two pics here are some close up shots of a needlelace and embroidery piece I made a few years ago titled "A Tree for All Seasons". It was started in a Lace Guild workshop and as usual I designed it on a rather large scale so I had a lot less to show than the other students by the end of the week! haha! but I am pleased with how it ended up looking. It is mounted on a "Silk Hankie" which I got from Dale and "mist" painted it for colour!

May 23, 2008

More Crazy belt pics!
















Hi - well I have finished the Crazy belt ...late yesterday afternoon ... I took it along to my embroidery group (this morning) "Stitchety Grubs" and they all loved it (one of my friends was tempted to pop it in her bag haha!) I have been madly working on completing it as I wanted to wear it tomorrow for the all day demonstrating at the big Craft Fair here. Which is a good thing to have a deadline ... it meant I got on with it (finally!).
I haven't actually taken some pics of it finished but hope to on Sunday and once I have finished showing the early stage pics on here will put the latest ones on. (It really isn't that long a length haha!)
I have a piece of bobbin lace to take for demo-ing tomorrow... it's all packed up ready to go as I have to be out fairly early to catch the 8 am train (I have to chuck all the ingredients in my slow cooker before I leave for a chook and vegie soup so it'll be ready when I get back at whatever time in the evening! -so hence the early start!)
I noticed on my Neo Counter that I have acquired some visitors from yet more countries ... do feel free to leave a message ... I have only ever had a maximum (per blog entry) of 5 and I would like to break this by the end of the year! Thank you Susan (Artybliss) bless you - you always leave a little comment which I greatly appreciate! :D Thank you :D
Plus all you other visitors - if you do leave a comment it will give me a link to come visit your blogs! :D
Well I have to do a few bits and bobs that I have just thought of for tomorrow (to look out my Lace Guild Group badge hmmm hopefully it is in my "Tallboy drawer!"

May 20, 2008

Crazy belt continued....


Hi
Here are the next 2 pics of my Crazy Belt .... Today I finished all the embroidery and have pinned it together with the backing fabric - ready for me to sew on Thursday ...can't do it tomorrow as I have Lace day ..... I also finished my Garden theme "thingie" which will be on it's way to Susan in USA imminently.... I took some pics and will post them once Susan has received it! I am very pleased with it! gonna have to make another for myself haha! How often does that happen to us?
I now have my Neo Counter back on my blog (I lost it last year when I updated) and I notice there are quite a few new visitors from countries who I have never had visit before ... Hello to you! and welcome to my blog.... If you would like to leave a comment I would love to hear from you and hopefully come and visit your blogs :D

May 18, 2008

Crazy Patch Belt and Pretty Whale!

















Hi All - I finally got around to loading on the pics I had taken last week with the new camera - took me a couple of attempts to master some of the settings ...It does lots more things than my old camera including having not just "Macro" but "Super Macro" settings too! I went around the garden yesterday as well taking pics as I am participating in a swap with a "Garden theme" - yep that's the piece I have been working on all this afternoon whilst watching DVD's in the studio! - I have been having a ball with beads, glittery metallic threads, sequins and all sorts! :D. This past couple of weeks I have been working on my crazy patch belt (I started it about 2 years ago and buried it in a cupboard in the studio and found it recently whilst looking for something else ! as you do haha!) - Any way I took some pics about 8 days ago and the first belt pic is here - I will pop some more on over the next few days .... and at the end of this week I will take some more as I have progressed quite a lot with it since I took these original pic! The first photo here was taken out in my garden ... some of the dead leaves of a big cactus which we have on our patio! I thought it was an interesting shot! The whale ornament I found in a local gift shop for a friend of mine for her Birthday recently - I didn't catch up with her until yesterday so now I can put the pic on here! he is about 3 1/ inches long. This coming Wednesday to Sunday there is a big craft Fair on here in Perth (We have 2 big ones each year this one and another at the end of July/beginning of August) ... I will be demonstrating lacemaking all day on Saturday with the "Lacecargot" Lace Group - last year I took a Wire Bobbin Lace Piece to do but this year I have a piece on one of my travel pillows - not wire ... cotton thread! and yep! there is a glittery "gimp" thread! - gotta have some glitz haha!
As there are 5 of us from the group going it means we can take turns to go off for a look around without having to rush back ... I will try not to spend too much! They always have some nice bead suppliers there ... I think I need some more beads! haha!and threads and ........ :-D

May 15, 2008

Busy Busy Busy

Hi -I took daughter and her friend from next door to the Domestic Airport this morning ... they have flown up to Karratha to visit a school friend who works at the mines up there. Karratha is around 1,500 kms North of Perth and it took them 2 hours to fly there!. They have gone for 12 days ... I had a text message at lunchtime to say they had landed safely and that it is 32°c there ...It's not too bad here ... a few showers this afternoon and around 22°c but we are having cooler nights around 8°c! brrrr ..The gas fire is on low most evenings now ...winter is on it's way! I have been experimenting with my new camera and was able to take quite a few pictures of some of my crafty stuff so you will at last see something in the next few days ... I have been working though of course not this morning as I was doing the "Mum's Taxi" thing! I am having trouble loading pics on Blogger - it doesn't want to co-operate :(
Poop!

May 11, 2008

Happy Mother's Day

Happy (Aussie) Mother's Day to all - My kids gave me an ASUS Eee PC yay! but as I had to work in the studio this morning and was working on my crazy patch belt this afternoon - I haven't had a chance to set it up yet! I did get a chance yesterday to have a "play" with the new camera which I got 10 days ago! (I have taken some pics of the crazy patch belt and will try and get around to loading them on this computer this week).
I had trouble with MSN today ... it wouldn't recognise me and then bumped me off! I don't think the virus checker we have is that good! methinks something has gotten under it's Radar!
We had rain yesterday ...got soaked when I went grocery shopping but it held off today when Dear Son was playing his footy game (Aussie rules footy).
I have managed to reload Neo counter back on this blog (at last) I lost it last year when I changed to the newer one (from Template to Layout!). My goal this year is to have a blog entry with more than 5 comments on it! I regularly visit one ladies and she has an average of around 14 messages each time ... :-(
I also reinstated the "Bloggers who embellish" which I also had before the new blog upgrade ... however when I filled out the "form" I couldn't see the "banner" (I assume this is the logo) so only have the wording grrr! There didn't seem to be anything to click on at step 2 when it said select the banner!
Am now not feeling brave enough to try and join any others "ring surf" thingies! :-(
Well I did have Neo counter now it has gone and the standby logo is back ! sheesh!

May 7, 2008

Beautiful sunset
















I know, I know, here are a couple of old pics taken back in March with the old camera I still haven't had a chance to "play" with my new camera which I got 6 days ago!!! I did take the charger out and charge the special battery ... and had a quick squizz through the instruction manual! on Monday whilst the man was putting in a new hot water system as our other one died last Thursday after 15 and a half years - and yesterday I went out all morning looking at the prices for an ASUS Eee PC (Dale lad me astray telling about her new one on her blog hehe!)
As it is Mother's Day here in Australia this Sunday my kids are giving me it! I managed to get one with the Microsoft XP loaded on it rather than the unfamiliar Linux that the first shop had. It was a little dearer but had the Mouse and a soft pouch and a 4gb SD card as a bonus ...so worked out the same price more or less!.
I also got a little external hard drive for it! I just have to wait until Sunday to receive it then try and find time next week to get it up and running!
As for these 2 pics - this was the sunset when Hubby and I stayed just down the coast at a hotel right on the beach front back at the end of March. CALM (Department of Conservation and Land Management) had been having a "burn off" (burning off the bush in preparation for next summer and the possible "bush fires") so there was quite a bit of smoke lurking in the sky all that day! it resulted in a beaut sunset!

May 2, 2008

Blogging for Two years


Hi All - I have just been visiting a friend's blog where she has posted that she has been blogging for 2 years ... I suddenly realised that I too must have been near my 2 year anniversary - and yes! I missed it! :( It was on the 19th April! I also added up the entries and I have done 129 with this one so I missed the 100 mark too! Oh well! Happy Anniversary to me haha!
Here is a pic that was lurking in a folder in this computer - a piece I did ages ago (for C&G) it was an exercise in layers (fine materials). I have been working on some bobbin lace this afternoon whilst watching a new DVD (Miss Potter) I had seen the movie when it was out at the cinema's with my bestest galpal ... she always laughs at me 'cos I get teary at sad bits (OK I confess I am a blubber bum! - I even cry when there are sad adverts!) it still made me cry! even though I knew what was gonna happen! hehe! Our gas storage water heater died last night so this afternoon I have been taking kettles and saucepans full of water down to the bath in the main bathroom - we have ordered a new one but it won't be here until mid day Monday! The water heater was 15 1/2 years old - it was installed when we built this house - so did very well as they really only have around a 10 year life apparently! It's amazing how you miss something like that when you haven't got it!


May 1, 2008

New Camera and Aussie birds!
















Hi - Well the weather during the daytime is very nice ... around 22°c but last night was a bit cold! 6.9°c brrrr! Early next week though we have a 28°c day forecast - last warm fling before the winter gets here in 31 days! Here are a couple of pics I took on my way to Lace Group at Wanneroo a week ago yesterday - these were the last few pics before my camera decided to quit working! When I came out of the shopping centre and was putting things in the boot of the car - I could hear the parrots going mad in this gum tree ... if you click on the pic you will be able to see one of the colourful little fellows! I then drove across to the Recreation Centre where we meet and there was a flock of Cockies! (White Cockatoos) foraging in the grass! (There were quite a few more than in the pic but I would have needed a wide angle lens!)
I popped out this morning and bought a new camera... I decided to stick with Olympus (as I kind of know how to use the Camedia package that it comes with!) Mju840 and whilst I was at it I got a spare Li-on 42B rechargable battery, 2 x 2GB XD cards and a new case (this camera is a bit smaller than the old one). I got it at "Hardly Normal's" (Harvey Norman's!) and the guy there gave me a $60 discount - yay! I had the choice of silver or black... as my last camera was silver I thought this time I would go with the black ... here is a pic too. (It's a skinny little thing hehe!)
I got home and spent the afternoon catching up on work (bobbin painting!) and so I have yet to open the box and have a look! :-D - then of course I will have to unload the old program off this computer and load the new one on!