The builder and the beekeeper

To say that I am married to a man of many talents and fabulous qualities is an understatement, he continues to amaze me with his abilities and achievements.  The studio is now finished with the completion of the awning and balustrade.  A few little bits and pieces may be added such as base boards to cover the side but other than that, it's finished.

 

 

The bee hive was opened again on the weekend to see what was happening and the second story will most likely be added this weekend to allow for growth of the hive.  It all depends whether the conditions are right for opening the hive, preferably on fine day with no wind.  Here is hubby attending to the hive.  I took these photos without my protective suit on from about 1.5 metres away.  The bees are very placid, not bothered by me at all.  If I was assisting I would have been suited up.

To finish this post, here are some roses from the garden.  I love roses.

Anne xx

Hello, spring is definitely here and this dwarf eucalyptus tree on the boundary of our neighbour's property is flowering beautifully.  The bees love it.

 

More work has been done on the canopy for the studio.  A little more to do and then it will be finished.  A balustrade is being built too.

And just because I've been thinking about our Europe holiday from 2012 a lot recently, here are two photos taken in Provence.  Such wonderful memories.

We've enjoyed a wonderful day of sunshine and warmth today.  I hope the weather is treating you well wherever you are.

Anne xx

A visitor from the U.K.

I've been neglecting my blog, not on purpose but the days have been busy and I've not taken the time to sit down and put words together for a post.  The most exciting thing happened yesterday, hubby and I went out to the airport to meet my 3rd cousin from Shrewsbury who is staying with us for a three week visit.  I've known Jane for such a long time and it's so nice for her dream of visiting Australia to have finally come true.  So the next few weeks will be busy showing her a small part of our country within Victoria.  We are having a period of prolonged hot weather, something of a difference when you've come from a maximum temperature of about 7 to 8C as Jane has.  We were sitting outside last night with a glass of wine and delicious hamburgers Charlotte had made and at 8.30pm it was still very warm.  Jane commented that in the U.K. you would be putting a cardigan on after the sun went down no matter how warm the day had been.

I've been busy doing a few things in the studio.  I finished making the curtains and they are now hanging.

I'm not as fond of these curtains.  The other curtain appeals to me more.

A few nick knacks have found their way in purely for visual pleasure.

I found these little vases (or whatever they are) while op shopping with my sister.  The painting I did years ago when I first started lessons.  Looking at it now I can see it was very early work.  I believe the photo I copied from was somewhere in Cornwall.

The pin board holds a few hand sketched illustrations I did years ago and a wintry painting on a postcard which I love.  The chrome mug holder is home for scissors and tapes of different kinds.

These two plant holders received a makeover.  They were bought years ago, were painted black and rusting.  The rust was removed and hubby very kindly spray painted them for me.  That colour is called stormy blue, love it.  With new coconut fibre baskets, I'm hoping the succulents will find a new lease of life.

Hoping to be back soon with tales of adventures with Jane.

Anne  xx

Who needs a boring black office chair?

I lashed out and bought myself an office chair for my studio so that I could be comfortable and have good lumbar support when sitting at my work table.  And it's got wheels which is fantastic. The only thing is office chairs usually come in boring black like the one below or bright blue or red.

My solution to a boring office chair is to attempt a slight makeover.

I made a semi fitted cover for the back of the chair and for the seat I sewed strips of fabric together into a square shape and then trimmed the square edges to a roundish shape.  A hem was sewn and then elastic threaded through, pulled tight and sewn.  Hey presto a fairly respectable looking seat cover.  The green fabric with circles was from an op shop as is the bold patterned fabric.  The darker green fabric with the red flowers came from my quilting fabric stash.  I'm really happy with my amateurish attempt at making over my chair.

Somehow Sophie managed to get in the photo above without me noticing probably because just at this point of taking the photo I heard a loud explosion type noise followed by a long drawn out rumble.  We apparently had an earth tremor measuring 2.7, about 10km underground occurring a couple of suburbs away from where we live.  Nothing was damaged, the studio didn't shake or move although Genevieve told me the house did.  Just a bit of excitement for a Monday afternoon.

Anne  xx

Colour

There's something about colour, I've just got to have it in my life.  Fortunately there is a lot of colour in the garden at the moment.

I've finished the first of my boho style curtains for the studio made from scarfs today.  The colours are actually much brighter than shown in the photo.

I hope there is colour in your world to brighten your day.

Anne  xx

Having fun in my new space

Today it happened, I finally got to spend some serious Anne time in my new space.  After moving a few more things such as the sewing machine, fabric and a tabletop ironing board, I got stuck into the enjoyable task of making curtains from the scarfs I've been collecting.

I bought myself a small iron so that I don't have to go back to the house every time I need to press a seam.  I already had the tabletop ironing board, it's just so handing having it set up ready to go.

I've been putting some more bits and pieces in my space, a CD player for those times when I want music.  At the moment though I'm enjoying the quiet.  I also put this display board in today.  I've had this for some time, a collection of photos of things I like.  Hanging on it is a little trinket I made a few days ago just for fun.

Don't you just love the Labrador wearing gum boots (wellingtons)?

I can't remember if I mentioned on here that before Christmas I started having swimming lessons.  I had some as a child but was never competent in freestyle or backstroke which are the strokes in which I'm being taught the correct techniques.  I am going for my first swim in over a month tomorrow and looking forward to getting some exercise after all the indulgences of Christmas and New Year.

Anne  xx

Catch up

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and New Year and from the posts I've had time to look at it seems that you did.

It has been very busy here since I left Western Australia with Mum so she could visit with us here in Melbourne.  The time has gone very quickly and tomorrow she flies home to Western Australia with my sister.  We've loved having her stay with us and the time spent with our family before Christmas was quiet which I think was very much needed after the trip over which seemed to take forever after our flight was delayed by three hours.  It had us arriving in Melbourne at 2.20am which was just little bit late for my liking.  Anyway we recovered and had a very enjoyable Christmas.  

Genevieve took control of the table decoration and I think she did a fabulous job.

Here is Charlotte well and truly getting into the spirit of things.

Boxing Day was spent with hubby's family in Ballarat where we met for a picnic lunch.  Yet more yummy food was consumed and we had a fantastic time relaxing and catching up with family we don't see very often.  It is hard being so far away from family so we certainly enjoy the times when we get together.

We spent New Years Eve at my sisters house and had the most wonderful time.  The weather was perfect and we ate outside.  Mum had a fabulous time enjoying being with family and enjoying the spirit of seeing the New Year in.  We were wondering if some of us would make it though as we were all a bit sleepy.

I've been catching up with Mum while she's been at my sister's house and we went out to lunch at a cafe in lovely garden nursery on Friday.  I came home with two spectacular plants, one I've never seen before and another I've always wanted to buy but never seen available anywhere.  So it was a good day.

I'm very excited to say the studio is finished on the inside and now all my bits and pieces are in their place.  I bought a nice long table, another storage unit and a task light from Ikea which have been assembled and set up.  I also bought an office chair from Officeworks which will not remain black for much longer.  I have much to do in completing this space and making it look how I want it, but the basics are there and it is a truly wonderful space to work in.  My thanks to my wonderful hubby who has made this dream possible and come true.  Here are a few photos of how it's looking at the moment.

We still need stairs to be made to get into the studio but we have something temporary in place until hubby has the time to make them.  The guttering also needs to be done but it too can wait.  My hard working hubby needs a good rest before he tackles those two things.

Hubby made me a key ring for the studio key, a little Christmas gift.  I love it.

I received a beautiful calendar from Louise from Ramblings of a Roachling blog.  We exchange calendars each year which I think is so lovely.  I adore the Christmas paper the calendar was wrapped in the card is just so beautiful.  Thank you Louise, the calendar is gorgeous and is hanging up where I can see it when I'm in the kitchen.

Now that the studio is completed the room that use to house all my craft gear as been removed and made into our guest room.  I was remaking the bed the other day and had to leave the room to attend to something else.  When I came back there was a very suspicious lump under the top sheet.  My suspicions turned out to be correct.

It was Bungee.  This poor baby had to have his teeth cleaned with the possibility of one tooth to be removed at the vet last week.  When I went to pick him up he had had five teeth removed.  I felt ever so sorry for him.  His teeth were in worse condition than what we originally thought.  The good news is he is back to his old self and eating well.

Just one more photo for you.  I planted this pale pink pelargonium only a few months ago from a cutting.  It is flowering profusely and looks so pretty sitting in amongst the blossoms of the pendorea just above.

It's good to be back in blogland and hopefully there won't be such a gap in time between this post and the next.

Anne  xx