Congratulations Charlotte

Congratulations to our beautiful daughter Charlotte who today successfully passed her driving test and is now the proud owner of a set of green P plates.  She's 21 so gets to use green P's straight away.  We are so very happy for her and very proud of her achievement.

She is very excited because now she can drive herself to work, drive to the swimming pool and the shopping centre without having to take the bus or train which takes up so much time waiting for connections or have hubby or me drive with her.  I think the best word in the English language to described how she feels is FREEDOM!!  :)  It's so lovely to see her take this step toward independence.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend,

Anne  xx

Getting in the mood for French

Hello, how are you?  Today I had two young ladies (Genevieve and friend) in the house practicing for their French oral exam tomorrow.  As they were working so hard, I decided to make them food to eat with a slightly French flavour.  I made Blueberry Friands and I can tell you they were unbelievably delicious.

The best way to eat them, slightly warmed with a dusting of icing sugar,

 

accompanied by your choice of hot beverage.

Out of the dozen I made yesterday, only two remain!  It's back to good old fashioned homemade Anzac biscuits when the Friands are finished.

I also made delicious baguettes (baguettes from the bakery) for lunch stuffed with turkey, Brie cheese and lettuce.   Charlotte sent me a text message saying how much she enjoyed hers just before starting work. 

The weather today has turned wintry which has me searching in the cupboard for a warm jumper.  To think I was in shorts and a t-shirt yesterday.  That's spring for you where I live, very unpredictable.

Take care everyone and thanks for popping by.

Anne  xx

Muck up day

Muck up day is a tradition that most Australians will be familiar with.  The last day of school for year 12 students, a day when they can let their hair down and have a bit of fun.  Of course we know that some kids have gone overboard in past years, so many pranks have been curtailed.  Miss G.'s school permits a little bit of fun such as decorating rooms (which they have to tidy up later) and dressing up in crazy clothes and having an early morning breakfast at school before the final assembly.

This is how Genevieve chose to dress up on Friday.  Oh the joy of being an uninhibited 18 year old.

O.k. the fun is over for now as she is swatting up for a French oral exam on Tuesday.

In other news, Charlotte will be retaking her driving test in about three weeks.  Just a few more things to work on before they will pass her.  Her first test was a good experience for her and the examiner was impressed with her reverse parking.  She does a better job than me!

Well it's a quiet Saturday night home for me after having lunch with my sister-in-law today.  It's raining (I love the sound of rain on our iron roof) and I think after dinner I'll be hooking away on my giant granny throw or making bunting stars. 

Bye for now,

Anne  xx

21st Birthday Celebration

This past Saturday our gorgeous and beautiful eldest daughter Charlotte turned 21.  We celebrated with family and close friends at a Thai restaurant, thoroughly enjoying the food and atmosphere.  Afterwards we came back to our home for celebratory cake and general fun and mayhem.  Here are a few photos from the birthday celebrations.

 I made the cake which was a white chocolate cake with cream cheese, white chocolate and butter icing and decorated with fresh pale pink rose buds.  The cake was delicious, a first time recipe too.  :)

 

I made the table decoration, hung pink and white streamers, fairy lights and pink balloons

The birthday girl while we were singing Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday Charlotte!!

It's hard to believe we have a 21 year old daughter, I don't know where those years have gone.

Anne  xx

Yarn ply confusion

Calling all knitting and crochet enthusiasts.  I need some clarification on how to interpret the discrepancies I'm increasingly finding with the stated ply of yarn on labels or no ply stated at all.  How is it that one acrylic yarn, Marvel Premium - purchased at Spotlight stated as 8 ply is much thinner than Carnival Soft 8ply acrylic bought at Big W?  The new Panda Magnum Soft 8  (Spotlight) ply is thinner than the Carnival Soft, which is to my understanding the same yarn marketed under a different label.

The Slouchy Hat that I have remade using the correct crochet stitches is too big although I tried to judge what ply the yarn was as it wasn't stated on the label.  Apparently I got it wrong and used the wrong size crochet needle.  I have printed out some conversion charts from the internet in an effort to try and eradicate confusion.  However confusion still reigns supreme!

Most yarn labels will indicate what size knitting needle is needed but does that relate to a crochet hook size too?  Moda Vera pure wool 8 ply (Spotlight) states I need a 4.5 needle size rather than a 4.00 as indicated on the label of the Marvel Premium, Carnival Soft and Panda Magnum Soft 8 ply yarns.  I do understand that these suggested knitting needle sizes are for gauging tension, but what do you do when you are using a pattern off the internet using yarn terminology that is different and a yarn with no stated ply?

The four yarns on the left are all supposed to be 4 ply.


I know I'm sounding like a winger here, but I do not wish to be limited to buying a particular yarn for a particular pattern, the yarns which are mostly unobtainable here in Australia anyway.  Is there such a thing as a measuring tool for working out the ply of yarns, a bit like this spaghetti measuring tool?  Yes I am getting desperate. :)

 

 O.k. another gripe over with.  Any suggestions or help offered would be greatly appreciated.  A photo of the finished Slouchy Hat coming soon and will be modeled by Miss G. as I look like a dork in hats and Miss C. thinks that hat is too dorky for her.  Thank goodness Miss G. is very much an individual and loves wearing stuff that is out there.

 Bye for now,

Anne  xx

The skirt that Miss C. made

I'm absolutely delighted to post about my other beautiful daughter Miss C.  We gave Miss C. a sewing machine for her 18th birthday which she absolutely loves.  It hasn't been used much yet, but today she was inspired to make a skirt, the material and pattern she has had for over a year.  It is a simple skirt with the fabric being a dark denim.  I'm so proud of her and she is so excited to have made a skirt in 2 hours.  Here she is modelling her skirt.

There are other reasons why I am particularly proud of Miss C.   It's a little complicated.  Last night for the second time in as many weeks, her only close girlfriend stood her up.  Apparently boyfriends now take precedence.  An arrangement had been made to come over to our place for a night of chilling and general girl fun and the last minute excuse from "the friend" was she had no money for petrol.  We offered to pick up the friend and arrived at her house to find she was off with the boyfriend.  Miss C. was very hurt by this and I did my best to help her look on the positive side of things.  I haven't given Miss C. a driving lesson for some months as Dad has been responsible for getting her experienced enough that I feel comfortable in the car with her.  Last night I was in the car with her on the way to her friends house (Dad was making pizza), so now that I can see she is driving well, that means more potential lessons during the week with me and not just on the weekend with Dad.    I suppose that's a bit of a lame positive when you've been hurt badly by a friend, but you have to try to help your kids find the positive in these types of situations.  And today instead of mooching around, she got all creative (with my suggestion) and used her energy in a positive way. 

Life has some very steep learning curves for our kids, but now Miss C. will understand more fully the value of true friendship, the importance of being reliable and trustworthy to name just a few things.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week,

Anne  xx