Another significant Birthday

2 of the boys in my life share a birthday today 30th May,

but 60 yrs apart.

Harvey 5 is starting a new era in his life begining school on Tuesday

and Eric 65 has reached the end of an era for him

and is now on Mr Key's ( Prime minster) payroll.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU BOTH

Hope you enjoy your Chocolate Birthday Cake

What a lovely day

Today is one of those really lovely winter days,

blue sky and warm winter sun with not a cloud to be seen

so here is todays view from our garden

Don't blink things happen quickly here

Yesterday morning we were quite happy with the TV unit and the TV.

Well! I thought we were...... do you see any thing different in this photo from the other one ?

Yes !! do I hear you say, your right we now have a new TV.

Some times you get an email that is just to good not to share,

so I am sharing this one today

Bill and Sam, two elderly friends, met in the park every day to feed the pigeons, watch the squirrels and discuss world problems.
One day Bill didn't show up.

Sam didn't think much about it and figured maybe he had a cold or something. But after Bill hadn't shown up for a week or so, Sam really got worried. However, since the only time they ever got together was at the park, Sam didn't know where Bill lived, so he was unable to find out what had happened to him.
A month had passed, and Sam figured he had seen the last of Bill, but one day, Sam approached the park and -- lo and behold! --there sat Bill! Sam was very excited and happy to see him and told him so.

Then he said, 'For crying out loud Bill, what in the world happened to you?'
Bill replied, 'I have been in jail.' 'Jail?' cried Sam. 'What in the world for?' 'Well,' Bill said, 'you know Mary, that cute little blonde waitress at the coffee shop where I sometimes go?'
'Yeah,' said Sam, 'I remember her. What about her?'
'Well, one day she filed rape charges against me; and, at 89 years old, I was so proud that when I got into court, I pled 'guilty'.

"The damn judge gave me 30 days for perjury.'

There it is "gone"

During this last week our lounge has taken on a new look.

Finally Mana the Chimney man ( a lovely gentle Maori chap)

found a dry day in which to remove our fire and chimney

and pop on a new roof panel. It was amazing he and his wife

who is also a little Maori lady and his workmate

removed all the chimney downwards into the lounge

and we never had a spot of soot on the white carpet,

they then removed the fire itself with her doing a large

amount of heavy lifting, she may

have been little but gee was she strong.
The hearth came up in one piece with the help of a crowbar,

and there it was all gone. The space it has created is also amazing.

So we have moved the furniture and we have a new look room.

We just have to buy new units for the wall where the fire stood,

we have seen some but are still thinking about them.

The TV has now gone to the other side of the room

and we needed a new TV stand.

We went shopping and after a some of hours

and a few furniture shops

we found nothing that would do, on returning home

and giving it thought we decided

to utilise a piece of the furniture that was going to be obsolete.

So Eric measured and decided to combine a drop down cabinet

and a small drawer unit making a new plinth for them to stand on

and by 7pm last night we had the new TV stand.

It is so great to have a husband who is handy and loves working with wood.

Brr on the cold side

Looking over the lake towards Mt Tarawera with a snow cap

Rotorua awoke today to rather cold temperatures and a dusting of snow,

now this does not happen very often in fact is extremely unusual,

but a cold front came in with the southerly winds

and the country from here down has had a large snow fall.

This is only the second time since we have been living here that this has happened

As you can imagine it causes chaos when this happens for we are not equipped for snow like the Northern hemisphere countries are ......especially here on the North Island, South Island expect it so deal with it fast, here on the North Island the first thing they do is close the State Highways especially the Desert Road a couple of hours south from us. As you can see from this picture it does not take much snow to close the road.

Today a truck on Desert Road with cows looking out over the top at the snow

Watching the weather forecast today they described the isobars over NZ on the weather map as an "egg beater" very techncal indeed what !!

Rotorua Rainbow Quilters Show

That time of year has come around again,

we are organising the Quilt Show.

Many of us have worked on the raffle quilt,

now it is all done and quilted,

it is enormous .....King Size and will touch the floor all around

on a Queen size bed.

Tickets for the quilt are available from members or at the show

For any one in NZ who would like to come along and visit the show it is on at

The Bridge Club

Neil Hunt Park

Rotorua

20th - 21st June 2009

We will be running a cafe with yummy food for Lunch plus morning coffee and afternoon tea

My Framed Hexagons

My hand stitching of the framed Hexagons is coming along

and I have decided to use the Moda charm squares purchased in Australia on this quilt.

GOOD NEWS DAY

Today deserves a great big bouquet of roses

Eric had his first PSA test since his Prostate Cancer operation

The result was that good it was untraceable.

This means no trace of cancer at all in operation area.

Next test in 3 months.

There is always an up and a downside to most things,

the downside to this one is.

He has to take a pill every 3 days for 3 months at $25 a pop which

is not on the subsidised drugs list here in NZ

so all donations gratefully received

we are happy to accept air miles or gift vouchers

or

a free trip to Disney World

Monday Morning

This morning we awoke to a foggy winter morning, now fog is not something we get a lot of in this area of New Zealand. I turned on the Heat Pumps and what joy instant heat, we are still awaiting removal of the wood burner.
The weekend gave us some really heavy showers, but Eric managed to get a fair bit of winter tidying done in the garden between showers, it was so sad to see the final remaining Dahlias cut down, but there does come a point where they have to go and yesterday was it.
Offically winter has not started yet ...but the daffodils are through the ground and some hyacinths as well, the fressias are also doing well, we still have strawberries but they are not turning red so fast now, we also have orchids sprouting new shoots.

I managed to do some sewing over the weekend and also tidy the sewing room.
Stumpwork name badge

I have finally finished a new name badge, this must be about the 3rd or 4th badge I have made, for some reason unknown to myself or why I manage to do it, they end up in the washing machine and that really does not do them a lot of good.

Vintage Pin cushion Pattern

A few people have mentioned the pin cushion, where was it from and by who?

So for all those folks:

Vintage Sewing Cushion by Debbie Magee of Always Stitchin

available from http://www.quiltersangel.com.au/

Enjoyable but hectic few days

Saturday saw us at our Niece's engagement lunch, just a small affair for older members of the family, a party was also organised for the friends and younger relations in the evening with a theme of "under the water" so everyone would be wearing fancy dress and it was also a sleep over, now a few years ago this would have been our scene but now...No! don't think so.

Steve came along with Ben and Alex as Kathryn was working, and this is a shot of Alex holding Grandads beer, he looks as though he is a seasoned drinker but I think the chocolate cake gives his age away.

After leaving the lunch we called into the Danske Moblier shop to look at furniture, we saw some great pieces, for when the fire gets taken out ( still awaiting a good day so the men can get on the roof to remove the chimney) we will have space for new furniture, we are trying to decide what we would like, may be a "Welsh Dresser "as we would call it, would be nice, (a hutch to Kiwi's )this is one we really liked at the showroom, but until we see the space we have it is just looking at present.

From Hamilton we took off for Auckland, where we stayed in a motel over night ready to take off to Brisbane Australia next day. Eric was there for a little work and also a break after a bit of a trying few weeks health wise. While he was working I did the tourist bit, but before the real sightseeing I took off to a quilt shop The Patchwork Tree in Alderly

a great little shop housed in a turn of the century house, they stocked most things but definitely was into Moda fabrics from USA, I did not really see anything that we can not get here, may be a few different fabrics, so I just spent a while there and came away with a Moda charm pack .

"Flag Day Farm"

I managed a little retail therapy and stopped at a beautiful tearooms

Keri Craig's in the Brisbane Arcade, it was so lovely, the theme was "feminine" every thing was covered in flowers and roses mainly, the china was white and good quality. The prices matched the decor but even so we had tea there, a real "treat Place" only a now and again visit would be on the cards.

We then took a trip on the river and saw Bribane from the boat very interesting and gave you a different view.

We were wined and dined by the company Eric had been to see, on 2 evenings.

Then all to fast came Wednesday and this saw us back on the plane heading home.

So a very hectic 5 days in all but most enjoyable.

Very small projects

My posts today have been about small projects, I think in fact I enjoy small projects as seen before in previous posts

There is a lovely lady at Embroidery guild who never wastes a scrap of embroidery linen, it is so expensive $ 150 a yard in most cases and more for certain types, she will work with a scrap 2 inches by 2 inches, producing scissor fobs.

I have been fascinated by this and decided to be frugal as well so I now quite often use up my scraps doing the same, here is this weeks fob, I am not sure how many I have made in the years.

I usually use pulled thread stitches and hardanger stitches.

Next project

I have seen the pattern of this "giant pincushion" around for quite a while now and have admired it from a far. One of our friends at Friday sewing is going to start the project so we have decided to do it also. Now armed with the pattern I have chosen the fabrics, I have gone away from the pink and gone for blues and creams, although the true colours have not reproduced well in the photo.

A small project, Japanese folded needle purse

My friend Mhairi and I like to look at patchwork magazines seeing all the different ideas, dreaming of reproducing them ourselves, of course most really are in our dreams.
Every now and then we see a project and say "Yes ! lets try that" We found this folded purse in an old magazine.


Mhairi did hers first and bought it along to show me, so I spent an hour or so doing my rendition of the same thing, it has got to be one of the easiest things I have made, of course the magazine instructions left a little to be desired as normal, but once you got into the swing following line by line it all worked out. As you can see from the diagram below it is just 3 folds after you have made up the main fabric sandwich.
Made up in Japanese materials it looks really neat, it also has a small needle case that fits inside but so far I have not made these. I also got a bit carried away and made 3 of them.

Autumn in Rotorua

Autumn has been beautiful this year we have an abundance of olives on the tree, not sure what we will do with them if anything, am open to suggestions.

A lovely flower has bloomed in the garden I have no idea of its name, and we only have the one, it looks like a bulb... answers please.

We are still picking strawberries and the season should have been over 2 or even 3 months ago Okay, it is only 1 or 2 a day but in Northern hemisphere terms we are in October / November.

There are Geraniums flowering and the Fressia's are at least a couple of months ahead of them selves.

Talk about a topsy turvey garden

Street painter

I just had to share this with everyone, these photographs were sent to me.
These are street paintings where the chap paints on the pavement or road, normally in pastels so they will be washed away.
I believe these were done in Netherlands, the painter said the street just lent its self to the subject.



This next one was painted by the sea some where in UK, I believe.