Aussie Maria's Australia

First off -

Go RABBITOHS we beat them PANTHERS - YEAH!!!!!

This is a long running friendly feud between my almost-SIL and his favourite NRL team, the Penrith Panthers and my favourite team - South Sydney Rabbitohs.  And we beat them BIG time!!!!

Ok, now down to business

One of the most annoying things I find about the amazing digitial cameras - the fact that you usually don't print them to look at them!!!!.

For a couple of months now I have wanted to share some photos with you, but 3 home moves, 6 computers and 3 digital cameras later, I could not find where they were.  I was sure I saved them.  I know I never printed them.  But where were they?????

Finally found a disc over the weekend that I never look at - it is labelled photos, but nothing else, and yes there they were

So what am I going to show you????

Well it happened in the end of July 2004.  A surprise for a wedding anniversary.

A weekend away in one of our favourite areas of NSW - The Hunter Valley.  I did a post of one trip here

Yes we checked out our favourite wineries and yes the favourite food shops.  But this time hubby had organised something special.

Unfortunately it involved a extremely early start, can't remember exactly what time now, but I can tell you it was pitch black and would be for another 2 hours after we arrived at the destination.  Please remember that this is our winter time and while the Hunter Valley has beautiful spring, summers and autumns, the temperature can drop quite low (well for us anyway :-P) here.

So please don't be surprised at some of the photos and our faces - early hour remember.

We saw this .......

and we got views like this

yes that is sunrise

and a little of The Great Dividing Range

and just to prove it was us ☺

this was just prior to becoming airborne

A Bucket List moment

They like everyone to take part, so you are requested to help with the inflation of the ballon and the packing up at the end of the trip.  Lucky for me I was responsible for the camera, as the balloon looks very heavy.

Inflating the balloon

and packing it up

We then went back to their office/base and had a wonderful breakfast and a glass of champagne to celebrate.

Bye for now

SIBOL & Hen's

Hi everyone

Oh, oh, oh did anyone else notice that Sue did a write-up for SIBOL here?

Go Team SIBOL!!!!!!!

I think it is going to go viral!!!!!

Now for my weekend

First off I had a small dilemma!  The requirement to attend the Hen's Day was that

You need to wear BLACK - tick

Be in a PARTY mood - tick

and you need to accessorise with PINK - oh no, my problem

It's not that I don't like the colour pink,  I just don't like wearing it.

So I went looking for Fascinators - I am too old for them to look decent on me

Hats - nobody had anything decent that was not going to cost me a fortune

Cheap jewellery - what is it, pink is not in fashion any more!!!!

So I gave up and came home and tried to wrack my brain - I know, poor brain trying to think that hard.  But I was desperate!!!

Maybe I could make my own jewellery, so on to Ravellery.  Boy I am being fussy, I just hate fashion jewellery, give me the old classy real stuff

Then I spotted this -

Perfect, it can carry all the necessary bits and pieces that I need when I am in a crowded area.

And supposedly my winnings - well I found 5 cents before getting to the races and that is all that came home in my "winning purse"  :-(

Did I mention how warm it was on Saturday, actually still is very warm still.  It was so warm, that most of us got a touch of sun tan!!  I packed the Panadol for headaches and Band-Aids for blistered feet, but never once thought about sunscreen  ☺

The girls wanted to sit on the grassy area near the finish line, so this was my view of the jockeys and their horses

Can you see them?

Maybe here .....

Nope, being a shorty I did not get to see the finish line with every one standing up either  ☺ 

Did get to see the horses in the parade ground though

See ya!

I'm baaaccckkkk ....... well sort of

Hi everyone
Yes I am writing a post for my blog!!!
What a crazy couple of weeks with moving house, packing and unpacking (not all but most), having a long weekend for Easter and yet ..........  there is more to come.  So don't worry if you don't hear from me regularly.

Saturday we have a Hen's Day out at Randwick Races, which happens to be Doncaster Day there.  So I am sure it will be another crowded, busy and long day.  The countdown is now down to days for the wedding 22 to be exact, if you don't count the day - which I never do.  While D3 and her finance have organised everything themselves, I and hubby, still get little "tasks" to accomplish for them while they are working ☺ Just cause!!!!

To help destress and take time out I have been doing a little crochet, some completed and some not ......

This got finished last night.  Please ignore how the "fill" does not sit properly, it is a square insert in a hexagon outer, until I can find some fiberfill near me, the insert took long enough to find  :-(

I just could not wait any longer to try out the pattern and make something with it

There is a slight difference between the front and back.  This is the side I prefer and ........

and hubby prefers this side (on the right)

I have used the join-as-you-go method.  What a find for me - a century find actually.  I love making the smaller shapes, hexagons in particular at the moment, but like most the sewing together takes ages.  Not now, it can be fiddly with smaller shapes, but so very, very, very, very worthwhile.

Have a great weekend!!!!

Easter's very, very, very long and busy weekend

Hi everyone
Still here, but you may have wondered where I have been.  Well since we had a very, very, long weekend here in Australia (Fri, Sat, Sun & Mon) events were planned before we move next weekend.

Hubby's family have lunch together on Good Friday, so nearly all day was spent there.  Fairly crowded with great-great-grandparents and aunts, great-grandparents, grandparents, children and grandchildren in multiples.

Then D3 & D2 and their partners decided they would like to have dinner with us.  So we left hubby's gathering so I could get a meal together for my lot.  Baked chicken pieces with veggie trimmings ... mmmm

Saturday, we were here (sorry, not a good photo using my phone)

At the Rosehill Races for the big Autumn Carnival Race, the Golden Slipper.  A VERY BIG day and very, very, very crowded day too.  Unfortunately, no big winners were found by the group we were with .....

Sunday we walked to the next suburb and had a relaxed breakfast with D2 & her partner and then walked home.  My poor legs were so tired.

Then Monday, we decided to go the Sydney Royal Easter Show which is run by the Royal Agriculural Society.  A chance for the country folks to show off to the city folks, and for the city folks to learn about country.  And of course all the gimmicks that go along with that.

In 1822 the Agricultural Society of NSW (RAS) was formed by a group of Sydney's leading citizens with the aim of "furthering the quality of Australia's primary production by means of contests and competitions".  More can be learnt here if your interested.

So I checked out the Food Pavilion as I love the display.  Here is the one that won overall

And the one that won first for display

Then we were off the check out the craft - hubby to wood, photography and paintings, me to crochet, stiching and anything else that caught my fancy

The Winners!!!!

and this amazing find in the timber section - wink, wink, nudge, nudge dear hubby of mine

Don't you want one too????

Spinning alpaca with four different spinning wheels

Then we were off to hubby's favourite event - Woodchopping!!!!!

It is fairly BIG event with attendees from all over Australia and the world - New Zealand, Canada, USA & Ireland were spotted while sitting watching

Was planning on showing you some of the animals too, but so wearied from this and remembering the long day and very, very, very, very sore feet and calves (ooowww)- it will have to do

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend too!!!

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 ☺

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

Don't think I will make it to 2011

Hi everyone
Many thanks for all your kind thoughts and comments.  I feel very embarrased as I wrote the last bit without thought, just merrily typing away as my thoughts went zooming with mental notes in my head, not thinking that I would get comments about it.  But thank you all so much for the very lovely ones left for me.

Now to my title. 

Ok, Hubby is dealing with a lot at the moment with chemo, then his Nan's funeral within the first few days of this year, having his card skimmed (minor, but very irritating) and then .......

Friday night, about 8.30pm, Hubby gets a phone call from his #2 son to say he is in hospital and that they will be doing an emergency removal of his appendix at 10pm.  Now we both know its not a major operation, but it was an emergency one.  #2 son lives 1-1/2 hours driving from us.  Hubby really wanted to see him before he went under, but there was no way possible to get there in time and by the time he came out of surgery, it would be late (just before 12pm actually) and he would be sleepy.

So I managed to convince him, although relunctantly, to wait until the morning and then we would travel to see him.

Operation went well, as most of them do.  #2 son was home about midday on Sunday and is taking it easy.

But really, if this is what has turned up within the first two weeks of 2010 I "don't think I will make it to 2011"

One day at a time, one day at a time has become my mantra  :-)

Now with all this stress, I have been crocheting and knitting.  And I promise I will show you, but one of the projects is coming along so quickly and I so "love, love, love ...." it (the song has been going round n round in my head, now I need to find out who sings it).  But I have to warn you - BIG WARNING - cause it may damage some people.  Interested yet?????  Well maybe by the end of the week (with a teasing smile)

And now I am getting ready for Australia Day!!!!!!

Attached to my balcony, so flying 10 levels above the ground (and we are on a slight rise) with my make-shift herb garden :-).  BTW the photo is reversed so that you can see the flag correctly.

Bye for now

P.S. - Well done to the Aussie Cricketers winning the Test against Pakistan 3-0

Yahoo!!!!!!!

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

South Rabbitohs, Penrith Panthers and Xmas

Hi everyone

I had no intention of blogging this so soon. You may know that I am trying to finish 2 blankets and another ripple pillow before my early family Xmas celebration.

So yesterday afternoon, I sat down and watched this

I love the songs, the costumes and the actors.

I then realised that I was closer than I thought to a finish ...

 

This is for DD2 and her partner. DD2 is a South Sydney Rabbitohs fan - colours, red, green and white or black. Souths are one of the longest members of our Rugby League comp. Her partner is a Penrith Panthers fan and at one time their colours were red, green and black (they have changed colours a few times in their short career in our Rugby League). My favourite Xmas colours too ..... so ...

Souths blanket display, originally uploaded by Aussie Maria.

A lapghan was created to keep them warm when they go to watch their teams play

 

Details - Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 8ply in Holly, Mid Green, Almond and Raven approx. 300g of each.
Measures - 105cm x 105cm
Weighs - 1.2kg
Hook - 5mm (I would prefer to use a smaller hook next time with this wool)

And a quick answer for Mrs Twins (Sue) - I have spent Christmas at the beach over the years but I have never had a meal there. Most Aussies don't as the sand gets into everything. There is usally a headland with grass or a park nearby where a meal can be had. Those who don't like sand in everything usually wait here for those who don't care cause they love the beach.

Bye for now

Next ....

Hi everyone
Well no-one had a guess as to what the this was going to become. I did finish it the same day, but forgot to blog about it. So here it is ....... now please sssshhhhhh ......... of course its a secret ...

v

v

v

v

Hope you can work out what it is, not sure with the photo - its a Santa washcloth.

Now this is what I did Friday, I decided to do a test run with these .......

and used a recipe from the good old "Commonsense Cookery book - Basic biscuit recipe" and added a few choc bits and this is what they became ......

Now the photo was taken immediately they had cooled

- before anyone was at home

- cause by that night

- there was nothing left to take a photo of!!!!

And there was only 3 of us - ooppss. Well it was a test run, so now I know the recipe is well liked. Next time I will play with icing etc.

Now on to the next project. This one is for DD2 and is a BIG secret. She stills thinks I am not making it for her. Lovely Xmas colours, but for her they are the colours of her favourite NRL football team - South Sydney Rabbitohs. The black sort of ties it in with her partners favourite team - Penrith Panthers. So it will be a joint Xmas present for them.

I have discovered my eyes do not like dark colours. The black has become very hard for me to see stitch definition, so will probably start avoiding it from now on

We went and watched "Julie/Julia" yesterday with DH and loved it. Did not expect it to be as funny as it was. Loved the '50's fashion, especially for the women, developing from suits and skirts to the more relaxed trousers. The shoes were gorgeous!!!! Could not help noticing as she was so tall

Its raining fairly solidly here today, so a great day for sitting back and getting on with the projects running at the moment. mmmmmmmm ....... that might mean ordering for wool. Oh well!!

Have a great day - bye for now

Colour Inspiration

Good morning

Well this weekend we went to The Stitches & Craft Fair. Not enough yarn, but so many other temptations, ideas, colours. I did fairly well as I only came away with 3 Xmas decorations and a burner for Scent Logs (wax with fagrance) to make home smell beautiful. The burner was something I wanted but just never seemed to remember to buy.

We then went to see my poor Rabbitohs get slaughtered by the Panthers with DH, D2 & her partner, who is a BIG Panther supporter. It was a long trip home with him gloating.

Sunday was a very quick trip up the coast so DH could have a chat with his sons and then home.

There was also more back-burning before the start of the fire season to watch.

I have this ...

Clockwise from top - Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 5 ply Celery, Luxury in 8 ply Orange, Citrus & Forest.

Which I worked into these ....My version of the Hex Granny Blanket

Bye for now