Lighting Giveaway

Good lighting is a very important factor if you're a crafty person, whether you are into quilting, stitchery or even drawing. I'm very lucky; I have my sewing machine set up in the dining room in front of two very large windows, and I get good daylight for most of the day (though not so much today apparently). Unfortunately, others don't have this luxury.

To solve this problem I'm having a giveaway! Buyster Lighting have generously offered a $100 gift voucher for one of my readers to select the lighting product that best works for them. They have a huge range of products to choose from, so there is something to suit everyone.

So here's the deal. To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment for this post. But please note, this giveaway is only open to Australian readers, as Buyster only ship within Australia. So send all your fellow Aussie bloggers this way! The giveaway closes next Wednesday the 11th November at 3pm. I'll be drawing the winner, who I will then put in touch with the lovely people at Buyster. Good luck!

Bumper Harvest

Despite the crazy weather here (hot days, wet nights), the vegie garden seems to be doing well. After almost pulling the cauliflower out in disgust just over a week ago, they finally started to produce heads, and I picked the first one yesterday. Very pleased!

I also picked a huge batch of broadbeans this morning, though I don't have a pre-podding photo as it seems to have disappeared somewhere between the lens and the memory card....very odd indeed! The podded product will have to do, but trust me that they were lovely big green pods, and filled a huge colander.

I'm in the midst of another 5 day weekend (yay for Melbourne Cup Day), but I only just got into a bit of quilt stuff yesterday...cutting 320 2-1/2 inch squares which today I've cut in half (on the angle) to start piecing Mini Wild Thing. Thats 640 pieces!

It's been a slow start, but the first few blocks are coming along...just 72 to go!

BOM5

Thanks to everyone for the positive comments last post; greatly appreciated!

Not much has been happening here in the last week; we've had a run of hot, humid days, followed by thunderstorms in the evenings. Not very conducive to sitting at the sewing machine under layers of quilt! Some of the lightening was spectacular though, and worth sitting awake in the middle of the night to watch.

My only sewing progress this week is the mystery BOM block 5; its pretty cute! I'm loving how much fabric I have left over from these blocks...hopefully enough to put together a scrappy quilt later on.

It's now only two weeks till I head to the USA; for the last couple of days I've been planning how to visit as many quilt shops in Las Vegas on my free day as possible! I want to go (at least) to The Christmas Goose and Quiltique, and possible one or two more if I can. The plan is to hire a car for the day, and brave the whole "driving-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-road" thing. I've heard the outlet shopping malls are worth a visit too, so I think having a car for the day is probably a good plan.

Ups and Downs

It's been one of those weeks where things aren't quite going the way I'd hoped...

My lab missed out on funding for next year, so my job will finish up when I go on holidays, barring any money suddenly appearing....and I've re-strained my back, so my physio is working madly to fix it before my big trip....I went shopping today for stuff for dinner, forgot to by something that I needed, and got charged twice for something else (and didn't realise till I got home)!

But, on the up side, my mystery BOM package finally arrived, and I've almost got the block together. And I've finally got the borders on Imagine. My cauliflower plants have finally started to produce heads (I almost pulled them out last week). And the roses in my front garden are looking pretty fab.

Yellow standard; the flowers are always a bit floppy, like it hasn't had enough water...

Gorgeous bud...

...which opens up to this!

Another yellow rose

And another of the gorgeous standards along my front path.

Till next time!

A Little Adventure

Some of you might remember a few months ago that I'd planned on going hot air ballooning, but that it was cancelled due to weather. Today it was fourth time lucky and I finally got up in the air!

I was up at 4am for a 5am start. By 5.30 we were out in the field helping get the balloon up.

As soon as it was up, we where in the basket for a quick photo or two, then we were off! Of the five balloons, we were the first off the ground.

We travelled across Melbourne, from south to north, starting near Albert Park.

We passed over lots of familiar sights; the exhibition building (where AQC is held) and museum:

Melbourne cemetery:

And some lovely views of the city as the sun slowly came up:

And lots of houses which look so tiny (and so many yappy dogs):

We waved at some kids who had come out to have a look as we decended. And rather strangely, we landed in Fawkner Cemetery. Backwards!

Then we helped with the packup (those balloons are huge!) before heading back to the city for a champagne breakfast. Not a bad way to spend a day off!

A Little Ray of Sunshine

As the weather warms up, I find myself spending less time at the sewing machine, and more time outside pottering around in the garden. As a result, progress on Imagine has been a bit slow, but the centre is finally done, with only the borders left to do. I have never made such wonky, non-square blocks in my life, but it seems to have come together ok (with a bit of not-so-gentle easing).

My vegie garden has finally started to be a bit more productive; I pulled up my first carrots on the weekend, and I've just picked some peas and broadbeans for dinner. The snow peas have gone nuts, so I've taken to just picking them off and eating them while I potter around the garden.

I've just taken a banana cake from the oven; it smells divine! It's meant to have passionfruit icing, but I think I'm going to make lemon instead, as I've still got plenty of those hanging on the tree!

To make this cake, cream 125g butter with 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add 2 eggs and beat until combined. Then stir in 1 1/2 cups SR flour, 1 tsp mixed spice, 1/2 tsp bi carb soda, 2 mashed bananas, 1/2 cup sour cream and 1/4 cup milk. Pour into a loaf time (15x25cm) and bake at 180 degrees C (160 fan-forced) for 50 min. Cool in tin for 5 min then remove onto cooling rack. Ice as desired.

Today is the first day of a five day break from work...hopefully I can start getting into Simple Abundance in the next few days....only three weeks of work to go!

Simply Abundant

I was excited to arrive home yesterday to find my order of Simple Abundance had finally arrived...

...my excitement was short-lived when I went to put my dogs outside and found that one or both had been very unwell. I realised earlier that I've never really introduced my dogs; Jack (left) and Millie (right), both Jack Russell x Mini Foxies, aged 11 and 9 respectively. Try keeping these two still for a photo!

Jack appeared to be the unwell individual and was taken to the vet for injections etc., and sent to bed minus dinner. We separated them overnight, and unfortunately woke to find Millie had been unwell during the night. Back to the vet!

So now we have special "upset tummy" food, pink goop for their tummies mixed in with the food, electrolyte solution, antibiotics for Jack (he appears unwell while Millie seems unfased), and some lotion for the rash on Milile's tummy (which she has had on and off since she was a puppy).

Not quite the relaxing start to the weekend I was looking for! Though the weather has really bought the flowers out.