Sophie

   Here is Sophie, my beautiful labrador snoozing away in doggy land, dreaming about chasing possums, endless breakfasts and dinners and entering the kitchen which is out of bounds.

 

 

  Look at those big paws and floppy ears, the almost closed eyes.  What's not to love?  Is this a picture of innocence.  Nope.  The puppy trainer said Sophie was most stubborn labrador she had ever come across.  How about the fact that she is 8 1/2  years old going on 8 months.  She eats anything and has some really disgusting habits.  We won't talk about the cat litter box will we.  She has skin allergies and is forever scratching.  She has no manners and sniffs people you know where and when I'm vacuuming, she insists on being vacuumed too.  

 

 

She always tries to get in the door first.

She has absolutely no road sense and has to be walked on a lead.  She pulls me along so fast I'm almost at a trot and just imagine how funny that looks. 

 

 

I thought labradors behaved like puppies for about 2 years and then grew fat and lazy.  Not this one.  But despite her bad habits and annoying scratching, I love her.   

 

When you've been out and come home, dogs are always excited to see you.  Everyday is a good day for a dog unless they are ill.  They always have a smile on their face and wag their tail in appreciation.  And when they go missing you panic.

    Sophie escaped out of our backyard this afternoon.   I ran down the driveway to look for her and there she was up the road (fortunately on the footpath), having the time of her life.  She was having fun exciting a dog a few houses up the road who was being territorial.  She was also happily sniffing every blade of grass, tree and light post.  She's never been good at coming when called so I was expecting to have to run after her.  When I did call her, she turned around, looked at me and came racing towards me with a big, silly, happy grin all over her face, ears and mouth flopping in all directions.  I was so relieved she was o.k. and hadn't been injured.  The thought of her missing made me realise even more just how special she is to me.

She is such a huge part of our family and I'm grateful to have her.  

I love reading about animals and pets.  Have you any stories to share?

Anne  xx

Blogging

I feel a philosophical post coming on, so if you are looking for a lighthearted breezy post today, this isn't going to be one of them.

I wanted to say a few things about blogging and what it means to us.  There are many different reasons why we blog, but I think one of the main reason we do is to communicate, to have a sense of belonging to a community, to have a voice and for someone to listen.  I will be talking a bit about myself here so please tune out now if you wish.

I started blogging back in July last year, actually I stumbled into it and had no idea where it would take me or whether I had anything interesting to say and contribute.  I now find that is not the most important part of blogging for me.  The best part about blogging is getting to know other people and enjoy some of the experiences they have and their achievements.  For example Louise takes me on these most amazing walks (through her blog) and I'm discovering things about England I never knew.  Lucy and Jacquie have taught me how to crochet through their fantastic tutorials.  I'm learning just how strong women can be from Amy and  Donna even in the most difficult of circumstances.  You won't find what I'm referring to in just one post by these ladies, you would have to trawl their archives to get the full picture.  But WOW, they are amazing people, although they would be the last to say that.

So blogging fills a need for community in my life.  I find myself somewhat isolated socially because most of my girlfriends work outside the home and I do not.  But I have wonderful people from all over the world who are now a part of my community, those that I follow and those that follow me.   I'm so grateful for you and I'd like to say a big hello to my new followers here.  :)

I realise that this is a rambling kind of post but I'm getting to something else I've been thinking about the last few days and that's we cannot really understand someone unless we have walked in their shoes.  It's quite easy for us to be judgemental toward our fellow man/woman but I would like us to stop for a few moments and think how being judgemental can possibly be helpful to either the person who is being judged or to ourselves.  I'm not talking about our opinions here, we are all entitled to them, it's best they are kept to ourselves sometimes so as not to hurt others.

  I follow a number of blogs that are dedicated to having a beautifully decorated house in the shabby chic, all white style.  I like the look, enjoy seeing all the lovely arrangements they come up with on their mantels, their displays of objects from an era past, but I could never aspire to having a houses like theirs.  A little part of me would like too, so I live out those little dreams by viewing their blogs.  I have in the past viewed some blogs that always seem to be accumulating, acquiring and changing their decorations and asked myself, when will these people ever be happy with what they have?  Then I read a post by Wendy which gave me a totally different perspective on the need for some people decorate and then redecorate and it's called having a CREATIVE OUTLET.  Of all people, I should have understood that 'cos I'm in to all things creative.  I realised that I had been making judgements (silently) about people I had no business to be making judgements about.  It's a bit like me buying more yarn, or more card and papers, or another canvas and more oil paints so I can be creative.

There are some in blog land going through really tough times who see somebody elses ability (financially and time wise) to be creative, as a non essential part of life.  For them they are so hard at work keeping their heads above water emotionally, physically, mentally or financially, there is no room left for anything else.  What might be seen as a case of sour grapes, is the cry of a person who is so depleted of any time to just BE.  To have room for a little head space.  It is very easy for us to judge these people too when the best thing we can do is be empathetic, encouraging and supportive.

So I guess this post is about respecting and appreciating our differences, of realising things may not be what they seem from just reading a couple of blog posts and that we all have something unique to offer if only we'd scratch a little harder under the surface to find it. 

Have a lovely weekend every one and to those of you royal wedding watching, enjoy.

Anne  xx

Photo scavenger hunt - April

Here are my offerings for this months photo scavenger hunt.  I applied a little lateral thinking to a couple of the photos that were potentially difficult for me to get. 

APRIL SHOWERS

April raindrops on foliage.

BREAKFAST

Home made muesli with vanilla yogurt and milk.

MY CAMERA

Cannon G12, a recent gift from hubby.

A SET OF KEYS

 My house keys.

AN INTERESTING SHOP NAME

"Hair Down There", a local hairdresser who has his salon downstairs from the main street level. 

A CROSS

A jewellery finding.

A CHURCH

Kalorama Anglican church.



EGGS

 Eggs from our chooks.



SOMETHING YELLOW






Pears, in season now.



A SCULPTURE

Southbank, Melbourne.



SOMETHING TO DO WITH SHAKESPEARE

Shakespeare wrote "The Merchant of Venice" so I've taken a photo of an oil painting I did of Venice two years ago.




SOMETHING TO MARK ST. GEORGE'S DAY

 St. George killed the dragon, so here is one of Miss G.'s collection of dragons ready to do battle.



Roll on May's scavenger hunt.

Anne  xx

New winter socks

When I started teaching myself to crochet last July, I never imagined I would be able to make socks.  But I can and I did.

As I was experimenting, I didn't want to use good quality yarn so I bought a 100g ball of acrylic yarn at the Reject Shop for $2.00, not quite using the whole ball.  The yarn is 8 ply and I used 4.0mm crochet hook.   The yarn isn't particularly soft but as an experiment, I am very pleased with the results. I found the pattern for the socks here.

I learnt how to crochet a rib effect for the upper part of the socks, how to make a heel (next time I'll increase the heel by a couple of rows) and shaping by decreasing stitches.

 I worked on the first sock over a period of three days as I wasn't really sure what I was doing.  The second sock took about 3 hours to make, not all at one sitting though.  Now that I can make a decent sock, I might just buy some lovely wool yarn to make a really comfy pair.  

Have a lovely day/evening,

Anne  xx

P.S.  If you are going to have a crack at making these socks, just to let you know that I started off with 40 chain instead of 30 as I wanted a longer sock.

Virus attack

Yesterday while looking for information on a website, my laptop became infected with a very nasty virus.  I don't understand the workings of computers and their programmes but according to hubby, he couldn't get anything to run to try and find out how to fix it.  Fortunately we have another computer so he was able to get information to help solve the problem.

So this post is to say a big thank you to my clever and helpful hubby who fortunately works in the IT industry and was able to fix my laptop.  You've got to love a man who is a computer engineer and helped build this country's electronic payment systems we find our retail outlets,  fixes computers, builds pergolas, then remodels them to make them even better, builds garden rooms, chook pens, fixes cars, paints houses, builds blue stone terrace walls for my garden, builds drystone retaining walls down the front driveway.  You've got to love a man is kind, loving, caring, encouraging, loves my cooking, is a wonderful father to our girls and what's even better, he LOVES ME!  How lucky am I?  

Thank you darling for all that you are, I love you.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day.  Perhaps spend a few moments today thinking about all the wonderful qualities those closest to us have and tell them how much we love them.  :)

Anne  xx

Gardening moments

Yesterday saw me out in the garden again as I still have serious work to do before the weather turns nasty.  I'm always experimenting with the garden, finding out what grows best with an evolving garden.  We have more shade now than when we moved here over 20 years ago and after having 10 years of drought, most of the plants that love the wet and cool weather we normally experience, have been under stress.  So I put some things in the garden that would cope with the dry and now it's wet again.  So the echium has died, the banksia roses have gone berserk and the dietes is taking over and popping up where I don't want it to.

 

The echium when it was living.

I decided the banksia roses and the dietes had to go.  The banksia roses were sending triffids up to heaven and I was having to prune them every couple of weeks.  Not fun.  Nothing makes me more annoyed than plants that become invasive.  That's what was happening with the dietes and I realised it had been smothering my standard rose.  Roses win in my garden.  So I dug out the four banksia roses.  Did you know that their roots grow all the way to China?  :)

This "old grey mare ain't what she use to be" so after grubbing out the banksia roses I was rather worn out but I wanted that dietes out of the ground yesterday.  So I took big breath and got stuck in with the spade and mattock.  I got it out, finally and can thoroughly recommend hard physical work as a therapy for menopausal mood swings and hot flushes.  You also get a good aerobic workout, what a bonus.  :)

So what do you do when a beautiful echium dies?   Make new plans of course and replant the area with grape hyacinth bulbs, iris bulbs and cineraria.  I also planted sweet peas and made a tee pee for them out of the Curbside Boutique garden stakes I found and some garden twine we had in the garage.  I found a cat mint plant that had self sewn (totally different from plant invasion) and popped that in too.  Mix it all up with a little sculpture made from old farm bits and pieces scavenged from a visit home to the farm and a new garden is in the making.

I'm one very happy gardener who is now looking forward to winter and spring colour.

 Look we found on the dining table this morning.  Those rabbits look very happy considering they are going to be eaten very soon.  The bilby doesn't look quite so cheerful, I expect that is because he is a threatened species.

Have a lovely day everyone, whatever you are doing. 

Anne  xx

Animal companions

Monday afternoon of this week found me out in the garden again in a desperate attempt to subdue the garden before winter sets in.  With so much summer rain, every plant, tree and blade of grass has quadrupled in growth I'm sure.  The weather was lovely too which made being outside wonderful.

I decided to let our two chooks out of their run so they could scratch around the garden with me keeping an eye on them so they didn't cause too much damage.  One chook in particular Missy, is very tame and loves hovering around my feet in case I dig up a tasty morsel for her.  Here I was lifting up rocks so she could peck at the bugs underneath.

Can you see that hole just above my hand?   That is a hole made by a yabby. We have a lot of water just below the surface in our backyard and the yabbies love it.  After a good rain you can find their holes and mounds of dirt in many places.  In case you are wondering, I don't eat them although some people do. The chooks will quite happily toss them down if they find one.

I love hearing the contented little noises these girls make as they are scratching and eating.  They reward us with the most deliciously flavoured and coloured eggs.  Thanks girls.

As you know we have two cats Stripey and Bungee who are litter brothers and are nearly ten years old.  They are lovely boys despite the fact they leave their white fur on everything.  Stripey in particular is become very sooky as he gets older and if I'm sitting down anywhere, I'm fair game for a cuddle.  

While I was stamping labels for the linen cupboard sheets, he decided he would sit on my lap for a cuddle and a loud purring session.  It was quite tricky to continue working around him, but I didn't have the heart to put him back on the floor as he was so happy.

Loving my hand. 

The other night while I was checking emails and blogs, Stripey decided he wanted more cuddles.  Not content to sit next to me, this is what he did.

How cute is this cat?  I'm so grateful to have animals in my life, they are just adorable.

Have a lovely day and Easter everyone,

Anne  xx

Cleaning out and visiting the "Curbside Boutique".

I've been bitten, bitten by the cleaning out bug.  Last week I cleaned out my laundry cupboards and chucked out a whole lot of unnecessary stuff.  Things like two bottles of wool wash, both half full.  I tipped one into the other and recycled the empty bottle.  It's amazing how much stuff gets accumulated in a few years.
I have two big tubs in my laundry and they take up a lot of room in the cupboards underneath.  Storage is tricky, I have to get down on my hands and knees to see what's in there.  I found way too many cleaning cloths, three fly swats and cleaning gloves, some without a pair.  The cat/dog food cupboard, shoe polishing and dog bathing stuff also got an overhaul.  I found dog treats including rawhide chews, biscuits and oinkers.  Sophie is going to be a very happy dog with the discovery of all those treats.

O.K., on to the kitchen sink cupboard.  Urgh, another horrible place to store things because, you guessed it, I have two big sinks taking up a lot of room.  When we were building our house, it was suggested that I should have a 1 1/2 sink combination installed.  No way, I need big sinks to wash and rinse in.  How can you rinse a dirty great big baking dish or dutch oven in a half sink?  Of course it was a man who suggested the 1 1/2 sink option.  It wasn't my hubby who suggested it either.  He knows what a kitchen sink full of dishes looks like.  :)  So I have two gorgeous big sinks but not much storage room. 

Cleaning out I found a number of spray cleaning products purchased in the past in the vain hope they would spur me into a cleaning frenzy.  Not successful I tell you.  Cleaning cloths were also in an abundance.  I found a nice tub of Gumption, my best friend for getting rid of the kitchen sink grime and other non identifiable stains that materialise on the bench overnight.  So I pulled everything out, discarded stuff, cleaned the shelves and reorganised things into what will hopefully be a workable system.  The rubbish bin stays put, the compost bin get moved to a lower shelf etc.

The next project is to clean out the linen cupboard and I've been dreading this forever.  How in the 12 years since we built our house did it get to look like this?

(Mum, see your crochet blanket there?   Now that I know how to crochet, I'm going to mend the holes so I can snuggle up in it come winter.)

Oh the shame of these photos.  Just look at this mess below.  At this point I had started putting some things back, in hopefully what will be some sort of order. 

See the vacuum cleaner on the floor level.  It's a VAX brand and is in two parts.

Some shelves are getting a little better now.

I've been labelling some of my blankets, 'cos I can never remember what size they are.  I'm doing the same thing with my sheets as I have an abundance and I can't tell what size they are.    I'm debating whether I will leave them rolled up or put a pair of sheets inside a pillowslip for storage.  Whatever takes up less room I suppose.  Out of this mess I have three huge bags to donate to charity.

I'm hoping to rehouse the vacuum cleaner in the space in the photo below which will be much easier on my back and I won't have to put it together every time I want to vacuum.  Maybe we can add a couple of shelves above the vacuum cleaner.

See that box there, that was full of baby and toddler clothes.  When Miss C. saw me sorting them out, she was very happy when I offered to sort through another box of baby things stored in the top of her wardrobe.  It was very nostalgic going through baby clothes.  I've kept really adored items and the others are going to charity after a good wash and freshen up.  I just had to keep the bunny rugs I made for the girls though.  Maybe I'll pass them on some day, but not just yet.  I found things I had made for my  babies like fleecy cot sheets which are currently soaking in one of my big laundry tubs,  :),  a baby bouncer cover I had forgotten I had made and a number of little dresses for little girls.  I've also cleaned out the rag box which was full of old face washers and bibs.  They are being donated to hubby's garage along with a dozen towelling nappies I still have.  Yep, I washed nappies and that was before I had the laundry with the two big tubs too!

It's a good feeling to be doing this clean out.  I've got heaps more to do, especially in my bedroom, in  my wardrobe.  Cringe.

On to other things.  Last week I visited the Curbside Boutique a.k.a. local council hard rubbish removal.  I found these cane chairs which I gave a good scrub to remove the dust, cobwebs and mold and will be painting them and making lovely cushions.
 

This piece I am going to use in the garden for decoration.  It's the screen from a flywire door.  I found this in my street so went down with my screwdriver, unscrewed it and walked home.  Must have looked funny.  The screen is propped up in our garage which is currently undergoing a renovation, so is rather messy.  Actually, it's always been messy but it is going through a renovation.

Do you think I should leave it black or paint it another colour?

Finally, (sorry it's been a long post), I also found this in my street. 

 In a former life it was used as a home for pot plants.  Now it's going to be used as a bench in my back garden.  Next summer, if we have a summer that is, I will be painting it a much nicer colour rather than leave it this horrible brown.  Just in case you were wondering, Miss G. was kind enough to help me carry this home.  It was awkward, heavy and as where we live is hilly, the process was filled with funny moments.  Isn't Miss G. wonderful?  There aren't too many 17 year olds who would be happy to assist their mother raid the Curbside Boutique.

Thank you for reading this rather long and messy post.  Wish me luck in maintaining the energy and zeal to keep cleaning out.

Have a wonderful week everyone,
Anne  xx

Another cushion cover

I've fallen in love with sewing all over again and just had to make another cushion cover.  This time it's for a cushion on the sofa in what we call the chill out room.  Basically it was a room originally destined to be a dining room on our house plans but has evolved into being a space for a desktop computer, a clothes airing area, sofa bed for overnight guests, bookcases etc.  Back to the cushion cover.

I found the fabric at Spotlight in the remnant bin for 50 cents.  It is a good quality fabric and I love the colours and pattern.  This was such an easy cover to make and once again I decided to hand stitch the button holes.  I was thinking about how I would style this photo and our other cat Bungee solved the problem for me.  :)

The reverse side and Bungee's back.

Making the buttonholes.

Bungee being cute and stealing the show.

Have a lovely day everyone,

Anne  xx

New cushion cover

Yesterday I had the urge to make something on the sewing machine and decided on a new cushion cover for one of the many cushions that sit on my bed.  The current covers are 12 years old, so I think a change might be needed.  I chose some fabrics from my stash and came up with this.

 The reverse side of the cushion is made from this large polka dot fabric which I love as much as the front fabric.

 I decided I would hand sew the buttonholes.  Although I can do it on my machine, it's difficult and I rather like sitting down doing something by hand.  I chose some pretty buttons from my stash to complete the cover.

The machine sewing is not great close up as I had a problem with the needle.  I didn't realise that part of the point had broken off and wondered why the fabric kept pulling.  After I changed the needle, all was well.

Have a wonderful day,

Anne  xx

A big surprise and a day out

Hello everyone.  Friday night hubby said to me, "I've bought you a pressie."  He handed me a newspaper and I laughed because I've been asking him to bring me home newspaper to have on hand for when I do messy crafts.  He then said, "I've bought you another pressie."  I looked up and he handed me a box containing a brand new Cannon G12 camera.  SQUEAL.   I could have been knocked over by a feather.  We had been talking about upgrading from our little tiny weeny digital as we are hoping to visit Europe next year.  However, I didn't expect a new camera to come home quite so soon.

Source - Google images

Source - Google images

There is so much to this camera I don't know where to start and I feel like I might have to do a degree before I understand everything.  Hopefully my blog photos will improve, but I'm thinking it might take a while.

 Saturday I went out for the day with my best friend to the Melbourne CBD to have a wander.  The weather was lovely and warm and because the forecast for later in the day was for rain, we made an earlyish start.

After parking the car and wandering thought some arcades and pretty shops, we stopped for morning tea at Laurent Boulangerie Patisserie.

We chose to sit inside rather than out in the arcade.  My friend had a gorgeous little morsel I can't remember the name of and I had a pear puff.  I'm sure you can imagine how yummy it was.

I have two favourite arcades in the Melbourne CBD, the Royal Arcade and the Block Arcade.

This is the Royal Arcade.

I love everything about it.

The Block Arcade

This arcade has the most amazing mosaic floor.

I've promised myself I'll have High Tea in here one day.  These tea rooms in the Block Arcade have been around for a long time by Australian standards.  It looks very posh inside.

We wandered in and out of shops, down streets and around Federation Square and then made our way to Southbank to stop for lunch.  While we were having lunch we enjoyed the river view and I was quite taken with the contrast between the old and new architecture.  The dome building is Flinders Street railway station and the church St. Paul's Cathedral.

A view of the Yarra River with the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) in the middle of the photo in the background.

I found some sculptures to photograph as we were meandering but I'm saving them until the end of the month when I post my April Photo Scavenger Hunt photos.  We finished our day with a walk down by the Arts Centre and saw this old tram that has temporarily (I think) been made into a bar.

We headed back to the car and just as we left the CBD, the rain started.  Perfect timing.  We had such a lovely day taking in the atmosphere, the weather and the sights and of course spending the day with my best friend made it perfect.

Until nex time, take care,

Anne  xx