A Gift of Flowers......

My Father-In-Law brought these beautiful Gladioli to us on Friday.

He apparently has 400 plants flowering at the moment. All colours of the rainbow.

They remind me so much of my dear Grandad, who also loved to grow Gladioli and also Dahlias.


They are huge, so I had to find the biggest container to stand them in.
It's been lovely having them in the house over the weekend.


We have also been blessed with some beautiful rain this week. Around 50mm in all during the last week. Everything is looking so much happier as a result.

Life........In General

It's been over two weeks I think since my last post. I am not sure where the time has disappeared to. Just generally busy I guess.

Early in that time, this is how Mitchell came home from school one day. I was not a very happy Mummy when I saw this hole in his pants. The story that came with it was one that made me cranky and laugh at the same time!! (Only because Mitchell is a good story teller)!

This is a "Tech Shed" incident. Tech is where the kids learn to make things with timber. This is what happened to Mitchell when another child was being really stupid with an electric drill!!

There was this hole in his pants, a hole in his shirt, several holes in his undies and lets just say broken skin on his rear end!!!! As a result Mitchell was screaming, the teacher was screaming and the kid on the end of the drill thankfully turned the thing off. Joy oh Joy! What fun it must be teaching a room full of 14 and 15 year olds with power tools!!

So I patched it the best I could and of course Mitchell couldn't care less about how it looks. Lucky it's winter and is covered by his jumper most of the time.

The last week or so has been quite cold with some nice days too - it is so nice to think that Spring is only around a month away now. This row of lavendar is looking great. It is one side of our vege garden. I hope it fills in nicely to finish off that side of the garden. We have had a lovely time planting the vege patch this past weekend. Lots of new things like Chinese cabbage, Bok Choy, Rainbow Spinach, Squash and Beetroot along with peas, beans, corn, radish and lettuce. We have left some room to plant some potatoes soon.

Last Monday was one of the coldest Winter days we have had for a long time. It was freezing and raining. Each time a shower came across is rained ice! Some said it was hail and others said sleet. I am not sure which. I would more likely say sleet. It was quite unusual for our part of the world. Two areas, one about an 1 1/2 hour to the north west and another about 2 hours to the south both received a light dusting of snow that day. So when it snows in Queensland - it's most definately cold!

Late in the afternoon, the clouds cleared away and I thought the garden looked really nice. We have had some heavy frosts since then, so the grass is not as green as this now.

These are two of the gifts I sent to the winners of my Anniversay giveaway. The third was a little different, but dummy me had wrapped it before I thought of photos!! I am sure Lisa might show us on her blog when she gets it. Sue and Ineke have already received the ones shown. I hope they enjoy their little gifts as much as I enjoyed making and sending them.

Not too much happening on the stitching front at the moment. I have started the needlepunch from Rosie's book and enjoying that when I can catch a moment for myself.

My little girl is eleven tomorrow and looking forward to having some friends over on Saturday afternoon. I had better get her gifts wrapped now, so we can enjoy birthday in the morning.

I must just say I must have been having another dopey moment before my last blog entry too. It was pointed out to me by my dear friend who often lurks around this blog , that I have shown the wrong quilt - so I am sorry to those two ladies - I must have been off in a different land!! When I get some time to photograph the "Love Is" quilt, I will show it to you then.

My Boy Joseph......

Just look at my beautiful boy Joseph. My doll Joseph that is! I remember the day he arrived at my home. I was around 6 or 7 years old. Up the road from our home lived a family who had three daughters and I guess at that time they would have been in their late teens to mid twenties. The youngest of the family, Gayle had decided that there were some of her childhood things that she didn't want to keep and that is when Joseph came to live with me. I have loved him for the past 35 years or so. He has never had a large wardrobe as he is a large doll. He had a couple of singlets and a matinee jacket or two and alway a nappy to wear. He has wonderful eyes that open and close but the most unusal thing about them is that they move from side to side!

My Mum has been busy smocking and he is wearing his beautiful new smocked bubble suit and his darling little beret! Isn't she so clever. I wish my little girl was still small enough to wear pretty smocked dresses.

He has just had a trip to hospital - the dolly hospital that is. His hand needed fixing and his face was a little worn, but he is all better now!!

I think he looks a darling sitting up there in his lovely vintage high chair (a recent find) with his Bunnykins bowl and mug (that belong to Alexandra) .

We recently took him to a valuer and were quite suprised to find out he is worth at least $200! I was astounded.

Another recent find is this lovely old mirror. I just love its' oval shape. It looks wonderful above the sideboard.

Can you see my mannequin wearing her new "fur". I was so pleased to find it also in the local thrift shop.

Also at the thrift shop last week I found this beautiful cake plate. It has delphiniums on it. It was meant to be I think as I have just planted quite a few punnets of dephiniums in the garden. I am going to hang it on the wall in the kitchen.

My dear friend "B" has been spoiling me again. Look at this lovely trailing vine she bought for me. It certainly did the job of cheering me up during a few weeks of feeling a little low.

I made this "Vintage Tag" a little while ago. It was a lovely little project to work on. I had a lot of fun going through my old lace collection and choosing just the right pieces. It has some embroidery and also quite a lot of little beads and pearls too.

A little more pottering around the house this weekend I hope. The children are on school holidays now which means a little more leisurely pace around here for a few weeks. I just had a phone call to say my two pieces of furniture have had their makeover and will be back tomorrow - so that will be exciting to play with.

So, with some lovely thrifting finds and some very nice pottering in the garden the last two weeks have been a little more bearable.

I visited the lovely Penny McKinlay in Pittsworth this week and bought five beautiful Old Tea Roses. The two I have already, Mrs. B.R. Cant and Rosette DeLizzy are growing beautifully, so hopefully these new ones will perform just as well.

Looking forward to a wonderful weekend.

Bits and Pieces.......

An adventurous few days for me. We had a most enjoyable time away, just the two of us! We had won a prize package to stay at the Casino at the Gold Coast - not something we would have ever chosen for ourselves! It was certainly a different weekend than we've ever had before. The room and the food was wonderful. The show was not quite my taste in music, but not unbearable! The casino - an eye opener!!!! :-)

It made be feel quite sad that from very young people to quite old ladies were at 11 p.m. on a Saturday night in a place like that with obviously nothing else to do with their time or money!! Oh well, each to their own I guess.

We stopped at Ikea on the way through Brisbane. Just loved all the bits and pieces there. I hope to go back and get a couple of pieces of furniture soon. BJ thought we had finished on the top floor but I gently explained to him that the things to buy were on the next floor down!!! I made sure he was fed between floors!!!

I enjoyed some time shopping on Sunday before we came home and thankfully, I finally bought some new shoes for winter - I can tell you, it was becoming quite embarrassing to go out!

Charcoal Flannel with Black Patent Trim!

Just Black!

The last couple of weeks I have been able to get small snippets of time in the garden. I got all the bulbs planted and found a couple of jonquils popping their little heads through this morning. I have done quite a few pots and baskets up with pansies and other bits and pieces.

I found this wagon in one of my favourite places and got BJ to drill some holes in the bottom so I could plant it up too!!

I was a very lucky girl a couple of weeks ago when Leanne was having a giveaway of her new pattern "Two Brown Chickens". Thank you Leanne - I hope I get to stitch it soon! It's just like my Scoot and Trixie at the bottom of my garden!!

New shoes, a new pattern and flowers in my garden - what more could a girl want - well, maybe just some time to stitch and then life would be just about perfect!!!!

In The Mail......

Lovely mail in my mail box today. Isn't it fun when postie brings lovely things instead of bills and junk.

Last week I won a giveaway over at The Beehive Cottage. Maryjane is a lovely lady and it is so nice to meet her in blogland. My parcel arrived today and it contained some lovely bits and pieces. Look at the cute paper covered in bees!!

I received a pincushion, some dishclothes that Maryjane has crocheted herself and a pillowcase. Thank you so much Maryjane, your gifts to me are very much appreciated.

Also in the post today was the May issue of Romantic Homes. I just love this magazine and it is so worth getting each month. I have only had time for a quick look through and will look forward to getting back to reading it from cover to cover.

This page jumped out at me and I thought it was just lovely.

Also I noticed another lovely project from Cathy Penton. Just beautiful once again.

It has turned into a beautiful rainy day here. The children picked some lettuce from our garden this morning, it looks beautiful.

We are off to see a show in Brisbane tonight and then tomorrow is a public holiday here for our local show.

It will be nice to spend the day at home pottering (I hope). We have more turf ordered to finish the footpath in front of our house, so that will be Friday afternoons job.

A Gift.......

At the end of February my dear friend Barb arranged for me to meet a lovely lady Angela and to see her garden. I had the most lovely morning that day. Barb had also arranged for me to choose a beautiful charm that Angela made for me.

This week, I met up with Barb and received my beautiful gift. Thank you so much again my friend.

Angela paints the lovely little water colours onto old papers and then solders them into the beautiful charms. I just love the beautiful minute details. The little box that it was delivered in is also an absolute work of art. Covered in lovely old music and then waxed and tied up with a sweet pink ribbon - all just me to a tee!!!

The lace in the background was a recent find at the "thrift" shop!!! Just beautiful.

So glad the weekend and the school holidays are here. I so look forward to the weekends at the moment when I hopefully don't have to venture very far from my home and garden.

A trip to the large Bunnings near us last night produced some lovely purchases that will need to be planted out tomorrow. I will show you more next time. Looking forward to a great weekend.

So Excited

Just a quick hello in amongst the madness of this very busy weekend. Our week ended with sitting through three separate Speech Day/Night sessions. At this very moment my sweet Alexandra is on stage performing in her ballet presentation of Snow White. We are going to see her tonight. I am so looking forward to next week when all the end of year things are over - just have to concentrate on our business then.

Last week I put my name into the draw for Rosies new set of patterns for her beautiful new quilt. My dear friend Barb sent me a little message this morning to ask if I had checked out the newest post over at Melly and Me.

Well I clicked over there as fast as my little fingers would take me and guess what! I am the very, very, very lucky winner of the patterns.

I am sooooooo excited - my first blog win, PLUS it's from Rosie - YAY. What a wonderful end to a very "bumpy" week!!!! Thank you Rosie and Melly for your kindness and generosity with your giveaways - I feel truly blessed.

Cath Kidston....... in Toowoomba!!

I was making a mad dash through Target last week and something caught my eye. Could it possibly be something Cath Kidston that I had just seen. About face..... I couldn't believe it and it was even new product from her latest catalogue.

At first I thought it was a take off of her name and product and wonder how on earth that would have happened, but sure enough it was for real!!!

Anyway, I was excited, Cath Kidston all round for all the lady teachers in our life!!!!!

Another Parcel.......

I have had an horrendous morning getting my children off to school. They missed the bus, so I had to drive them into town which made me so cranky!! As I drove into the driveway I saw on my top step a box - delivered by posty!!! Yea, mail always makes my day.

Closer inspection made my day even better - Leanne from The Stitching Room had sent my PIF gift!!!

Look at that cute paper - hundreds of buttons.

Look what was inside!

Thank you so much Leanne.

Two lovely gifts!! How spoilt am I? The stitching and handwork is absolutely beautiful. I was overcome with emotion when I opened the parcel and saw this beautiful gift. What a lovely group of people I have come across in this land of blogging. I am so glad I started my blog and read so many lovely blogs from all over the world.

I think this little bird looks so cute in amongst the pansies and daisies.

Thank you again Leanne - How many days was that now that I have to get my gifts away?