Crochet, Knitting and ...

Hi everyone

I have been very busy over the last week or so researching a surprise genalogy project for a friend.  I finally got it into a book format and printed and gifted to him last weekend.  He was very surprised and very appreciative too - surprised me with a some bottles of wine to say thank you ☺

So what did I do last weekend, other than surprise a friend?

Well hubby's cricket team made it to the semi-finals, so that means two days of cricket, not one

So on the first day, this was made

details here from a blog I have been reading Le Monde de Sucrette  - check out her rainbow poncho's - beautiful

and on the second day, this

details here

Both items are going to an up-coming charity for this month, NSW Women's Refuges

And then I got a surprise

Something on my Bucket List, not high priority, 'just a would like one day' kinda of one

But, oh what a very nice kinda of one

I got to ride in this

A Ford Mustang!!!

A favourite car of mine from w-w-a-a-y-y back ☺☺

And yes, it is left-hand drive

And so what is planned for this weekend?

Well, hubby's team won the Semi-Finals, so that means another weekend (two days) of cricket.

Better go looking for a few patterns and yarns to while away the hours ☺

The Ashes

Well we are back from QLD, tired and totally worn out - lots and lots of walking were done and lots and lots of watching cricket too

Only a few photos were taken as I just did not feel like getting behind a camera - rather be "in the moment" - if you know what I mean.

• So, we got to see Siddle take a hat-trick the first day!!!!!! What an atmosphere in the stadium for that - the roar was unbelievable.
• Doherty made his Test debut for Australia and took wickets!!!!!
• Hussey (Mr Cricket) made 195!!!! He is one of my fave players - so down-to-earth
• and Haddin made 136!!!!!

Not bad for 3 days

Now I have to say that we had lots and lots of conversations with Pommies - Australian Pommies and English Pommies.

Absolutely amazing how many were at the cricket ☺ ☺ ☺

BTW - "The Queen" was sitting in front of us on the 2nd day, but I felt rude grabbing a photo, but "shim" did make the local papers.  She loved to go walking and often was found stirring up the Barmy Army (who were on the other side of the oval from us, a bit hard to find in the photo) when they were too quiet with her graceful wave  ☺  ☺  ☺

Nov 2010 GABBA 1st Ashes Test

And now a thank you - for no particular reason, other than its nice to say when its not prompted ☺

Well done to QLD Transit Authority (I think that's what they are called)!!!!!!

They provided FREE!!!!! buses from various points in the city to and from The Gabba

Very, very handy for us

It was chaotic at the end of the day, but moving over 35,000 people would always cause a problem

And to Brisbane Council who had a LARGE number of double bins (garbage/recycle) strewn throughout the city.  The streets were lovely and clean.  A pleasure to walk.

P.S. - Just noticed that I have over 300 emails and 300 blog feeds to read.  Oops, it will take me a while to catch up with eveyone.  But I will eventually

Bye for now

African flower pattern

Hi everyone

 

I tell you, Blogland has a lot to answer for!!!!!

Way too many beautiful projects that I keep spying on blogs and on Flickr.

I have been admiring this pattern for ages, I think I saw ElizabethCat's Flickr photos first or it could have been ............ ?????

Anyway I loved how it looked, so I put it in my queue - my now very, very, very long queue.

And then Bethel put her sunniest African Flower square on Flickr!!!!  I could wait no longer - you have a lot to answer for Bethel VBG ☺

And what do I notice this morning??????

Karin had the same idea VVVVVBG ☺☺☺☺
We must have been working on the same project at the same time!

Karin also added another project to my queue with her beautiful and bright pot-holders.  Watch out!!!!

African flower pattern, originally uploaded by Aussie Maria.

Has everyone seen the new Ravelry log in page - so very cute!!!

Bendigo Woollen Mills has a new yarn in their online shop - Melody. There is a Ravelry group for BWM and someone who lives near BWM had a look at it - the raves were great.

I already had a part order ready to go - so of course I had to order some

BWM Melody 50g Balls

Mix - 10% Cashmere, 55% Merino Ultrafine & 35% Microfibre

Colours - Crimson, Sapphire & Gold

Very, very, very yummy and so, so soft.
No project in mind, just wanted to touch, feel and see the product.

Very impressive - Well done BWM!!!!

Just re-reading what I have typed - I am all over the shop this morning?????  And I have not had ANY caffeine - or is this the reason ☺

And as a postscript - hubby did not win the Grand Final.  A great effort was put in on Saturday, but 6 days in 3 weeks was way too much for these very relaxed, happy guys (the average age is 36 and that is only cause there is one 21 year old in the team!!!!).  They enjoyed their cricket season thoroughly and were surprised that they had gotten so far in the comp.

Well done Toukley 4th Grade!!!!

Lady Helsie's Challenge

Hi everyone
And especially to Helsie - look you have your own title in my blog ☺And to anyone that has not met Helsie, pop on over and have a look.  She is a very lovely Lady!!!!

Now Helsie found herself a bit stumped for a blog posting yesterday and stumbled upon an idea of the 4th picture in your folder.
As I was not too sure what to write today I thought I would have a look-see at what my photo was ......
Nothing like many of you would expect, but here it is

It was also the fourth photo in the fourth folder in the fourth folder of my pictures - I like to organise these particular photos

Mary Ann BOWERMAN nee Partridge 1797-1877

Daughter of First Fleeters, Richard Partridge & Mary Greenwood

Married George BOWERMAN, another convict, who may have been erronously hung for a crime in 1820, 10 years after he arrived in Australia

This is hubby's direct line.  He has links to the start of white (and black) men in Australia.

The black comes from 2 convicts, both First Fleeters, one who was an American Negro and the other from West Indies.

Now I bet you would never have thought that you would see that kind of photo here VBG ☺

Now back to our normal channel ☺

Now I know you have seen the Colineet before, but what about the BWM Luxury Ruby?  Wonder what it could be turning into????????

And lucky me, after searching for ages online and in bookshops, I finally came across this last week.  And I got it for a great price!!!!

Bye for now

and have a great weekend

I will be at the cricket ALL weekend for hubby's Grand Finals - go Toukley 4th Grade!!!!!!!

PS - Thanks Karin for the hello for Percy, he says hi back

BTW - forgot to mention how warm it has been here over the past week 28-32C/82-90

Blankets are off at night, but sheet is definitely on - it does get a little cool ☺

Bits n Pieces

Good morning everyone

I finished this last week, just never got around to posting about it.  So to prove I did two and did not just use one photo here is both the flowergirls capes

Now which one do you think is the original??????

And this guy turned up a couple of weeks ago, but I forgot to introduce him.

Say hello to Percy!!!

What a cutie!!!

I do love penguins, especially fairy penguins.  So I just had to do him when I noticed him here.

Down Cloverlaine does some very lovely work.  I find the patterns very simple and easy to do.

And an update on the weekend - 2 days at cricket.  Fairly cool and very windy with some rain on Saturday, but fine weather on Sunday with a little wind.  The end result came down to a bit of a nail-biter, so only a little bit of crochet was accomplished, otherwise I would have been frogging  ☺

But hubby's team won, almost down to the wire.  So next weekend will be more of the same.

So now I need to find a very, very, very simple project to work on to keep my fingers busy, otherwise I will start pacing ☺

Bye for now

Weekends

Hi everyone

It seems I was a bit too eager with thoughts of Autumn - bummer!!!!  We are back to sleeping without blankets and humid days.  Luckily though the temperatures have not been too extreme throughout the day.

So I may have been a little too eager to play with this pattern, Easy Victorian Shell Mitts.

The wool is Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 8 ply (DK) in the Colourway of Poseiden.

I did increase the ribbing part by 12 rows and matched the shell part with that.

They are a very quick and satisfying project.  You will probably see many more of these turning up here.

As you can see, doing nails is not my thing.  Well, ok sometimes it is, but rarely, and then it is usually a clear lacquer, so you would not notice it much

Thought you might all like to see what & where I spend every Saturday for 6 months of the year!!!!

The locations are always different, but the main scenery is very similiar.

That is hubby batting.

While not everyone is interested in sport, particularly cricket, I thought I would give you a glimpse into my weekends.  Hubby's team finished 2nd in his grade, so both Saturday and Sunday are taken up for a possible three weekends.  One down (above photo) and now he is in the finals for next week.

When I first started watching cricket, I would take a book or a magazine and read when it got TOO boring.  A couple of years ago I started taking small knitting projects.

This season I have been crocheting.

This is where the two Xmas blankets had a lot of work done on them.  Found that crocheting at the cricket was great, doing hexagons and squares, as I could watch, while my fingers and brain did the roundy-roundy part.  Must be automatic as I found there were very, very, very few mistakes, which I usually knew almost straight away and corrected on the go.

I have started the second cape for the flowergirls and finished another poncho, which I will show when it dries - the yarn was a little scratchy for my liking, so it was washed and conditioned  ☺

Hope you all had fantastic weekends!!!!

Bye for now

Sunny days

Hi everyone
For those who need a little sun cause its cold and dark, here is my weekend.

Friday night, after hubby finished work, we went down to Bobbin Head, about 15 mins drive from home, and had dinner - prawns, bbq chicken, salad and a little red wine.  Bobbin Head is inside Kuringai National Park which has the Hawkesbury River running through it

I love our bush!!!

  I love the trees, I love the scents, I love the texture of it, I love the rocks, I love the birds, I love the native flora and fauna.

Not so nice are the snakes and spiders, but if your lucky you can avoid them.

Saturday morning we were off to Central Coast for hubby to play cricket.  On the way we stopped off at Brooklyn, just to sit by the water.  This is another part of the Hawkesbury River.  The outlet to the ocean is under the bridge to the left of the photo

By the way, the clouds you see were very welcomed by us!!!  It gave a bit of relief from the very hot sun  :-)

Sunday, hubby's work held there Christmas Party at Galston, where we got to see this ........

And lastly here are some Christmas Decorations that my mother made, quite a few years ago, with a local crafting group ....

Had never seen the buttons on the Snowman before till a breeze blew at just the right moment  :-)

Bye for now

Hot days and new project

Hi everyone

Well another beautiful hot day here.  I have taken a panoramic photo of the view yesterday about 2 pm.  The temp was about 36-38C.  Washes out the colour a little bit when we have had a few hot days.

While I look over a lot of other apartments, I am lucky enough to be high enough to be able to view valleys and trees.  The purple splash you see everywhere is a tree called Jacaranda.  It is not native to Australia, but is very well loved here for the wonderful display.  The flowers are already dropping and green, ferny type leaves turn up to offer filtered shade.  Here is a view of the tree that not many would get to see.  The photo was taken about a week ago, before the heat causes the flowers to drop

Late yesterday, once the sun had truly left the balcony, a lovely breeze started, which made the temp. bareable.  So of course I took advantage of it!!

Yes and yes - that is new yarn for a new project and that is a beer bottle behind it.  But no it was filled with icy cold water.  The Grolsch bottles make excellent chilled water bottles!!!

The new project is for DD3 - her colour choice and she requested a Hexagon.  I love the combination, but I do find the dark blue and brown hard to see stitches, but that's ok as I can do it by remote.  Any chance I can get this finished for Xmas??????????   If not the wedding is only in May!!!

No, I haven't given up on the ripple, but foolishly thought I just might get this finished for Xmas - or hopefully.

I find that I can do hexagons or grannys by remote.  But I have to work a little harder with ripples.  Maybe my brain goes round and round, not up and down.  Actually sounds just about spot on - my brain does repeatedly recycle thoughts, ideas etc!!!

The only place cool enough in the morning is at the computer.  Can't wait for the shade to come to our balcony.

While I complain about the heat sometimes, I do truly love the warmth, just gets a bit much when its days on end well into the high 30's.

I would love, actually crave, to experience one winter where there is snow and log fires.  I think a week would be about as long as I can last though   :-)

Hope the heat turns down a bit before tomorrow though, sitting on the side of a cricket field when its a stinker (Aussie slang for hot) is not at all fun.  DH is finally been given the clearance to get back to his passion (cricket) after the surgery.

Have a great weekend

P.S Forgot to mention the other great thing with the weather - the washing dries SUPER FAST!!!!!  :-))

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie

I did forget to mention that we clean swept England in the ODI - YAHOO!!!!!

Don't you love the look of the scoreboard on OUR site :-)

Well done to ALL the team members of the Australian Cricket Team - thank you for flying our flag proudly

Hi everyone - this will be my first real post (intro just does not count) and I seem to be having trouble sorting out my photos, so I will just talk about them as they have loaded.

But firstly - Yahoo - Go Aussie Go - Good on the Australian Cricket Team for the win at Headingly (I think that is spelt right) bring the Ashes home!!!!!!

My baby ripple blanket - stash busting and trying out a pattern. It is made from cotton, the green is 4ply doubled, cream is 4ply mixed with the green and the white is 8ply. Did I mention it was crocheted - oops










After wanting to get to Western Australia and especially Broome for a very, very, very, long time I finally got there - Yipppeee!!!!

This is the Kimberley Cup at Broome Turf Club - not much in the way of grass, but plenty of red dirt.
Wonderful day and the people were so very friendly.










A panoramic shot of Cable Beach - the sand is very white compared to the red dust everywhere else.

And just one of the beautiful sunsets that the west has to offer sailing just off Cable Beach, Broome.

What a fantastic day we had!!! Everybody on board was out to celebrate the day!

I finally got to visit the birthplace of my grandfather - Raymond COHEN and the final resting place of my great-great-grandfather - Benjamin COHEN - Perth!!!!

It is a very long trip from where I live on the east side of Australia. A flight of about 5 hours. Driving time would be 3 solid days of driving for at least 12 hours per day.

We then had another flight of 2 hours 15 minutes to get to Broome!!! Tiring but well worth it.

Definitely a place I would love to explore more of. It was very easy to get around Perth and Broome. Public transport was fairly well defined and help was usually at hand. More photos to come

And I have to say although the trip to Perth was planned, my DH surprised me with the trip to Broome for our anniversary!!!

This enables me to now cross of two items on my Bucket List - visiting Perth & Broome!!! What a start

Bye for now