Silver Anniversary.

Well, 25 years ago today I did the best thing I could have done. I married my darling husband.

Happy Anniversary, T.

When you look at the photo, just remember it was the 80s! Why, oh why, did I not shout myself a new pair of glasses, instead of those daggy ones. And that perm! I did that for a wedding 8 weeks before ours. Boy, did it stay curly.

We were not going to swap presents. Instead, we went to town last Friday and bought ourselves 2 pieces of Georg Jensen. They are not silver, but look close enough.


Because they weren't, my DH broke the rule and gave me this lovely piece of silver this morning.

Thank you, T for 25 good years. I'm glad we have gone through them as a team.

Kayly

Productive Weekend.

Amidst the chaos that is work at the moment, I have been able to find some crafting time. It is my sanity time.

I finished my Nellie's Needle Book by Anni Downs. It was one of the projects from Girls Day in the Country (GDITC) 2010, at Nundle NSW. I did the pincushion on the day - this took a little longer. These 2 projects were my first experience with wool and I really enjoyed working with it. I have kits for Anni's pincushions waiting to be done. I gave away a Larry the Lamb one at GDITC 2011 as a swap present.
I have finished my first block for the SKoF Stitch Along. I think I should have reviewed this DVD and reread the Thimblelady's Applique book before starting.


I've done that now and I am better prepared for the next block.


I had to sneak in this last photo of my Spring garden. This hoya has climbed through my mango tree. At the moment it is full of these hanging flower heads.


Off to start the umbrella block.

Take care,
Kayly.

Found Them!

Didn't think I wiped them. Mind you I have made a big mess of my bedside cupboard looking for a small plastic case and its SD card. Tidying that was on the to do list, just not today. Well I had better go and finish that job or I won't be able to crawl into bed tonight.

Kayly

In My Garden - Spring 2011

I haven't shown you any of my garden lately.
This Spring has seen the gardens in our part of the world just flourishing. We have had the best flowering for many years.
I have a Chinese jasmine climbing over part of my front fence. I'd show you it in flower if I could find the photo on my camera, but it seems to have disappeared. The scent was heavenly.
Another photo that has gone walkabout is of my Cascade lillypilly. It had its first flowering this year with big pom-poms of delicate pink. The bees loved it and, so, I'm now waiting to see if we get any lillypilly fruit. They'll be small berry-sized fruit, maybe red in colour.
My tough old crucifix orchids did well again. They really are the most forgiving plants.


As is this Dancing Lady orchid. I have said before things have to be tough to survive in my garden. I don't do delicate and fussy plants.


I have a number of bromeliads for this very reason. I had told myself no more I have enough, but we visited my husband's cousin a couple of weeks ago. She had some truly unusual ones that I admired. So when I saw the Queensland Bromeliad Society Spring Show advertised I had to go. These four new ones came home with me as well some specialized fertilizer and a great book on Broms. The two on the right are more sun tolerant. I'll be able to put them out on show, away from under my trees, an area that is getting a bit crowded with the broms.


My daring hubbie is putting in another garden bed for me. Along our western side, we have 2 neighbouring houses that face the next street, so their backyards abut our side. Both are rental properties and over the years none of the tennants have been gardeners. It's a bit unsightly. So we are going to extend our hedge of Aussie Compact lillypillies to hide them. The bonus will be that we create for ourselves a private courtyard like area - just have to encourage the new plants to grow quickly before I'm too old to enjoy it!
Anyway that's my garden for this Spring. I will pop those photos in if I find them.
Take care and make sure you make time to smell the flowers of life,
Kayly

Organised Chaos...

Or at least I think it is organised.
I've started preparing my first block for the 'My Favourite Things' quilt in Anni Down's book 'Some Kind of Wonderful'.
I think I'll prep one block at a time as I'm not sure the non-permanent pen I've used will stay around for very long.
These blocks don't seem as easy to prepare as the ones for the 'Gardener's Journal' quilt.
I am going to do needle turn applique....so that should be interesting. The little I've done using this method was okay, but there is lot of applique on this quilt. We'll just have to see how it goes.
Take care,
Kayly

Storey Bridge Climb

Dad turned 80 back in August and although we had a family gathering, I didn't give him a present. I wanted it to be something special and maybe different.
So we climbed the Storey Bridge last Wednesday. There are only 3 bridge climbs in the world - ours, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Auckland Harbour Bridge (NZ). My DH and I did it about 2 years ago, so I knew Dad would be able to do it. He was a bit unsure but said yes anyway. We had an understanding that he would pull out if he felt uncomfortable. He was not sure as he has had a hip replacement.
We got there and filled out our forms - medical problems, indemnities etc. The rest of the climbing group arrived and Dad leaned towards me and said, 'I don't think I'm the oldest." He certainly wasn't.
We got changed and run over with a metal detector. The first 5 made it go off with all their replacements, including the lady with 2 knees and a hip done!
Of course, Dad had no problems. The climb is very well organised with plenty of chances for a rest and a good look around, and of course opportunities for a wind blown photo.
Till next time,
Kayly