Little Hotshot

Pattern:  Hotshot by Julia Stanfield

Yarn: Heath 8ply by Panda

 I made up the sailboat.

I thought the jumper needed a little extra.

 My model wasn't keen on staying still.

He likes his new jumper but wants mummy to add a star to it.

A little fashion designer in the making.

My cheeky baby boy is fast becoming a little boy.

Visitors to the garden

I was sitting out on the front veranda this morning watching the visitors to the garden.

It's a peaceful place to sit, have a cuppa tea and do a little crochet.
Certainly quieter than house full of kids.

Isn't he/she beautiful?

Is it a ringneck parrot?

There were four of these beautiful parrots.

The wattle birds were also around chasing off the sparrows.

The butterflies were busy in the Lavender.

As were the bees.

Gladstone and Laura

 Another afternoon of geocaching.

This time in Gladstone and Laura.

Gladstone has an old gaol, which you can B&B in, if you ever fancy locking the kids up.

Gladstone also has THE best op-shop, 

I found an extra bowl for my Kenwood, a K beater and balloon whisk there for $5.

Laura is the home of Golden North Ice Cream and the kids had to sample some.

A couple of the cafes do a sample bowl with a pile of different flavors.

Laura has a great play ground for the kids to let off some energy.

 We went looking for 6 caches and found 5.

I thought that was pretty good.

One was a Mystery cache so we had to solve the clues  

to work out the  co-ordinates to find this one.

 The one we didn't find was in Laura.

Will try again another day.

 The statue is of CJ Dennis

CJ Dennis spent some of his schooling years in Gladstone and Laura

Triantiwontigongolope was part of the clue for this geocache.

 Another cache found at a long ago school site.

It took a little bit of dirt driving to find this one.

Fern was navigating, so I got directed to the wrong road.

We're running out of near by caches!

Another Geocaching adventure

We're getting a little geocaching addicted around here.

A pretty good addiction.

Costs nothing, you learn lots and get active too.

The perfect family pastime really.

Yesterday we headed out to find two more caches.

One we were successful at and one we didn't find this time.

We found the traditional cache by accident looking for the Mystery cache.

Traditional caches are found by using the GPS coordinates.

While Mystery ones require you to solve a couple of riddles and problems to get the GPS position.

I loved this old school, it had a clue to the Mystery cache.

The photo was taken on my iphone late in the afternoon.

It looks rather spooky!

Geocaching - Taking us places we've never been

 After our morning walking in the forest.

We decided to do a little geocaching in the afternoon.

 This time we were successful.

Rose found the one here quicker than I got out the car!

It was a fascinating place.

Hard to believe that for 45 years children went to school in this little building.

 The chalkboard was still there!

Many of the names listed on the board we recognised as local names.

We found 3 more caches today.

Lilly found her first! One that we had failed to find on another occasion.

I'm Mumto7 on the Geocaching Site, if you'd like to add me as a friend.

Conservator's Walk - Bundaleer Forest

Rose. Lilly and I so enjoyed our walk yesterday

that we wanted to do another walk today.

We decided on the Conservator's Walk, 

it's a similar length to the Scenic walk we did yesterday.

I think there was a little more hill climbing but it wasn't too steep.

This is the Conservator's Hut.

People camp here while traveling the Mawson and Heysen trails.

The walk was wonderful.

There were plenty of birds and we even spotted a couple of Kangaroos.

We passed a couple on bikes rding part of the Mawson trail.

I was once more blown away by Lilly, she didn't whine at all.

This was a bit of a surprise.

I didn't expect it and the funny part was I'd been thinking, as we walked,

how like a church the forest was.

I felt so peaceful.

The views were certainly worth the climb.

We could see all the way back to town.

 There were information boards along the walk.

Telling us lots about the forest, trees and wild life.

 The trees were beautiful.

The poplar leaves have changed colour and are falling.

I love Autumn.

A walk in the Forest

 

 Rose, Lilly and I went for a walk to work off all that Easter feasting.

We live close to the Bundaleer Forest.

There are many walking trails through the forest and

the Heysen and Mawson trails also pass through.

 It was a nice walk up the hill.

The view from the top was worth the climb.

We could see for kilometers across the fields.

The wind turbines were far off in the distance.

I think they are ugly and you have to question how green they are 

when they take so much to construct and transport across the world.

 South Australia is littered with tumbed down stone buildings.

Makes me wonder about all that time, hope and effort put into constructing these buildings.

And why they were eventually abandoned.

 The trails are well sign posted with information boards along the way.

 The old stone walls, built so long ago.

All that time and effort. 

Did the builders make a go of this harsh land?

 The walk was 4.6kms and a fair bit of it up hills.

Rose and Lilly did well. 

Lilly got a little tired towards the end.

I really enjoyed the girls company on the walk, they loved it as much as I did.

 Another abandoned house.

It would of looked lovely in it's day.

It had 6 rooms, bigger than our little cottage.

 I think these are the reinforcing bars to keep the walls straight.

And this would of been the kitchen, I think.

The fireplace is different from the other rooms, 

probably to take a wood stove and oven.

Egg Hunting

 I for one am thankful that Easter is but once a year.

 It may be a lot of fun.

But all that excitement, mixed with a lot of chocolate, 

usually results in over tired, hyped up children.

 And this wasn't all the Chocolate.

I also made them eggs.

 Heather and Michael were busy ensuring they got more than their fair share.

Michael not only ate all of his chocolate he also stole a lot from his siblings.

Which started many screams and tears.

Heather's favorite place to be is on the table.

She is strong enough to drag the chairs out to climb up on.

Michael and Heather don't just look alike!

Playing with scraps

 I'm terrible at keeping scraps.

Today I decided to use up a few of the off cuts.

 I dug out a  t-shirt of Heather's and traced around it.

Then I played with flaring the side seam.

I changed it to a raglan. 

Once happy with the shapes I got to work digging through the scraps.

 She really did like it!

But while modeling fell off the mini tramp.

 I rather like the result.

Heather quickly brightened up once in the sandpit.

I top stitched the seams for added strength so this top should survive the wash well

(unlike my Bras!!)

When the going gets tough, it's time to go sewing

 I like to escape to the shed when stressed.

It's either that or eat!

I played around with the Sew Simple Dress I drafted for Heather.

I altered the front, making a crossover neckline.

I traced off my original draft and played around with the line.

If you do the same, remember the seam allowances!

Did anyone want a copy of my neckline variation?

Send me an email if you do and I'll email it to you.

 The brown stretch was another op-shop find.

There's not enough for a matching pair of pants, I may have to play around with the pant pattern and put a stripe down the side so I can use the remains of the brown.

I like brown, it's a lot softer than black.

I think brown like black slims a silhouette.

I joined the pieces at the shoulder.

Then I used a three step zigzag stitch to finish the neckline.

I overlapped the top pieces and attached the skirt.

Then completed the dress as for the original

 My model wasn't cooperating today.

She doesn't like to stay still.

 Why stressed?

I'm the mother of a teenager.

Is that enough of a reason?

Hormonal teenage daughters and hormonal middle aged women,

should not be living in the same space.

And to top my day off, Pete threw my new Bras in the wash without putting them in a bag!

Two bras that are no longer wearable.

Lucky for me it's Easter so I'll get to eat Chocolate for a day or two.