New Old Floors: Before and After

The week before last, I moved out of my house for a few days while my floorboards were sanded and polished. I barely had a chance to get used to them before heading down to Denmark for Cathy's send-off.

Now I'm back home and absolutely loving it.

Before (nasty old vinyl):

Then after moving Eddie and ripping up the vinyl:


After:

RIP Cathy

The picture is of Rob, myself and Cathy in Denmark in December 2005 - almost a year before her cancer diagnosis - I was enjoying a short but lovely holiday staying in their cabin. Cathy had retired early; she and Rob were looking forward to their next Asian expedition. I had forgotten this photo had been taken, but a mutual friend sent it to me this week just after Cath passed away.

Tomorrow Jannie and I will be heading down to Denmark to say our final goodbye and take part in a celebration of Cath's life. There will be so much to celebrate - but there will be a massive gap in the gathering, of the one who drew us all together.

Visit to Denmark

I drove down to Denmark* on Tuesday to visit some dear friends and we spent some lovely time together. I don't want to talk about personal reasons for the visit, except to say that I am overwhelmed by feelings of love and respect for them, and their incredible courage and dignity in facing the most dreadful of circumstances.

I stayed in a motel alongside this beautiful river with abundant bird life and massive eucalypts:




While I was in Denmark I checked out the local galleries and craft shops and came away with some goodies: a fabulous oil painting by Robyn Lees, is now sitting above my (unused) fireplace (I need to drill a hole in the wall!)


and some fabric and shiny thread


*Denmark is a town on the south-west coast of Western Australia, near Albany and about 400km south of Perth.

Back again

It's been a while since I blogged - I've spent the last three evenings helping my neighbour set up his new computer and I've told him not to call me this weekend. I need to finish a swap and mail it out on Monday or I'll miss the deadline; plus I have other swap deadlines looming. It's late Saturday afternoon and I have a total block on the one that's due on Monday so I hope something will come to me when I relax in a hot bath.

I've just come in from a solid two hours of tidying up the garden, prepared dinner (beef casserole, which is cooking on the stove as I write) and am now catching up on email. Today I also went grocery shopping at 8am, went to the chiropractor, finished making two postcards, listened to some cantatas, and buried the contents of my bokashi bucket in the garden. I thought Rufus was stalking a mouse under the fridge, but it turned out to be a dust bunny, so I suppose it's time to vacuum. Tomorrow.

Glorious weather this weekend - sunny and temps in the low 20s. Chilly wind though. This week I had my ceilings re-strapped so that they don't cave in, and also had insulation batts installed in the roof. It's hard to tell if it's making any difference. The two bare-chested boys doing the installation were so so cute but they made a real mess in the garden with bits of plaster everywhere.

Off for a long hot soak in my bath, then dinner.

Here are the pics of two Morsbags that I mailed to California today...

Morsbags - my new craze

These are just so easy and quick to whip up in less time than it takes to drink a cup of tea! Morsbags

The first one I made with the gold hearts on it has been sent to a friend. The black and white one, well, I just don't know whether I can part with it!!

Bread

I made a lovely loaf of garlic and herb bread for myself today - the same as the loaf I made to take to Mum's. I cut a couple of warm slices and ate them with real butter and some bean&tomato&garlic soup. I will stink tomorrow; all the better to keep people at work away from me!!!

I also went for a long walk by the river, did 3 loads of washing, and had a major clean-up of my craft area but am now feeling the pull to get back to the sewing machine - the night is yet young!!!!

Stormy Saturday and a blood orange

Humdinger of a storm today - Eddie has been under the chaise for the whole day. He's terrified of thunder, the poor baby. I'm trying to coax him out, as the worst seems to be over, although it's still bucketing down on and off. This pic shows sideways rain.

It rained so heavily that a blood orange fell off the tree so I dashed out to rescue it. It was juicy and delicious, if a little less sweet than I expected, and with such lovely raspberry-stained insides.

I'm still amazed that such a tiny tree could mature three oranges in the first year of its planting.

I love how the rain makes the lavender bend under the weight of the water and take on such an intensity of colour...

Haven't had much time since last weekend to blog, although I have made a few things which I posted on flickr. They're not the best things I've done and I'm having a bit of a lull in creativity. However, today I went on a lunchtime outing to the Salvos and $2 shop and picked up these yummy things (two scarves and a tie $3; set of beads $2). Now my mind is racing with ideas for them.


Highlights of this week:
- aforementioned cheap goodies.
- post office box full of great mail all week and latest issue of Quilting Arts.
- new Swap-bot friends made.
- loan approved and possibility of travel to Baltimore USA later this year.
- this weekend is a long weekend and I will catch up with Mum one day and stay in my PJs and do creative things for the rest of the time.
- leftover casserole with extra fresh asparagus for tea tonight accompanied by nice bottle of Shiraz.

Lowlights of this week:
- washing machine hose broke, resulting in flood of ankle deep water in laundry.
- milk carton leaked in fridge, resulting in flood of (okay not ankle deep, but little pool of) milk in bottom of fridge and kitchen floor.
- I had a haircut and nobody noticed :-(
- Filled up my car and paid over $40 for three-quarters of a tank of unleaded.

HPC Artist Choice swap

The Solvy worked really well, I needed something to keep the strips in place whilst I free-motioned on top. It was easy to use and washed off quickly. I will have to get some more as I've used up the trial pack. With the addition of a few buttons, I made these postcards for an upcoming swap...for bigger pics of the individual cards, see my flickr site

Selvedges

I'm going to experiment with Solvy (dissolvable stabiliser) and do some free motion embroidery on top of this (selvedges sewn onto felt)....

Today I went shopping for fruit & veg

and Rufus helped me choose some fabric scraps from my upended rag bag for a new swap project

More Zentangles from last night....

Totally addicted to Zentangle

These are fun to do and so relaxing...

Full Moon

Went to the dentist today and got scolded for not flossing properly. They also sold me the most expensive floss I've ever had and I bought it out of guilt.
I've been sticking to my motto of "make something every day" and last night I made a dog mobile for a Swap-bot friend - I won't post it here yet in case she sees it! Instead here are a couple of pictures taken today: one of the full moon taken during my walk in the park by the river after work. And some of the wonderful stuff I got in my mailbox today from some excellent Swap-botters.

Fun with hand printing

I was messing around tonight with acrylic paint and prints, and tried printing onto some el-cheapo muslin I bought the other day - it's very lacey and girly but I kind of like the delicate effect. Here's a piece sewn onto some purple cardstock to accompany a swap.

Lots of things

So yesterday I added another row of cork tiles to the wall so that I could display all the lovely postcards I've been receiving lately.

Weather was lovely both yesterday and today so I took myself out for a walk down by the river. The autumn leaves are starting to come out and the air is fresh - the recent rains have made it quite green too.


Got home and made a couple of postcards before having home made fish curry for dinner. Might do a bit more sewing tonight but my machine needs some maintenance I think. If a bit of oil doesn't help I may need to take it in for a service :-(

Mushroom postcards

See what an afternoon of listening to the Byrds and the Doors does? I'm going to bed with a headache.....

Cock-a-doodle-doo! Meow!

Some more notecards - fabric on cardstock (it's amazing how far the fabric from a tie will go!)

Notecards in the making....

Postcard Art Art Art 2 swap - one more

I found another square that didn't make it onto a quilt but was quite at home posing on a postcard with a bit of embellishment....


And while I was sewing, Eddie was busy ripping up the bottom of the chaise and making himself comfortable in the hammock that he had created in the base (at least I think it was Eddie since he is usually the ringleader of all the mischief that is made in the house - and check this picture out for a guilty face) -

Postcard Art Art Art 2 swap

Now that the evenings are getting cold and wet, I love getting cosy with my sewing machine <3 - have decided to make fabric postcards for this swap. I love the fabrics in this one - it was cut from a quilt that I never finished making, and embellished with buttons and a piece of ribbon.

And this one came about from some bits and pieces that liked being together, with some drop-the-feed-dog spiral quilting fun.

HPC: Something Purple swap

I haven't been that pleased with my latest HPC colour theme postcards but maybe it's because I don't love any colour as much as I love purple!!! (Couldn't really muster up any enthusiasm for the green ones, but I tried!!) I decided to make the purple swap out of fabric, and maybe make another one or two purple fabric ones for other swaps I've just signed up for.....

Fabric ATCs - Spring

This poor little fellow is sad because it's just coming into autumn here and he wants to join his northern hemisphere friends in the spring celebration!

Magazine Collage ATC part 2

"Stripes"

Magazine Collage ATC part 1

This set of two is titled "Les Girls on Vacation"...

HPC: Something Green swap

These two were sent off this morning....