All Hallows' Eve

We had fun dressing up Amelia and I couldn't resist taking pics of her on her first Halloween. She's getting difficult to photograph these days as she is so active and never sits still for long. Halloween is not a big thing in Australia although there are a few spooky themed parties going on tonight.

Happy Halloween to everyone that is celebrating the occasion.

Cheers,
Lynda

Make a Wish!

Best wishes for the happiest of birthdays Katie. I think of you often and hope the year ahead is filled with lots of good things for you.

It's your day, colour it beautiful!
Love and hugs,
Lynda

Heart Stealer

Gorgeous little Amelia Grace at not quite 6 months old! 

Cheers,

Lynda

Amelia Grace

La vie est faite de petits bonheurs

Cheers,
Lynda

Happy Birthday Erin

On this half of the world, today is the birthday of our dear friend, Erin. I can always count on Dr. Seuss for an appropriate quote.
“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” 
Erin is just that kind of lady who is always true to herself, open, honest and inspiring in all that she does. You deserve the most special birthday ever. 

My family and I wish you all the very best for your special day and for a bright and wonderful year ahead. May all your dreams come true! You are very special to all of us and although we are not there to share in your day we will be thinking of you having heaps of fun with your family and friends. 

'Dandelion wishes blowing in space,
dandelion wishes put a smile on your face'

Keep smiling and have a fabulous day. Love you lots gorgeous lady!

Hip hip hooray to you dear friend! xo
Lynda

The Elise Shawl

First project off the hook for 2014 is the Elise Shawl by Evan Plevinski.

I used Noro Kureyon Sock yarn because I thought the colours would work lovely with the shawl. The colours are lovely but the yarn was a disgrace. There were 5 separate knots in the skein and parts were so thick that I had to cut it out because it just looked ridiculous throughout the normal parts of the yarn. There were also organic fine stick pieces in places that made it feel like needle pricks. The yarn tangled heaps also winding back on itself every time a little more was unwound from the skein. It was really horrible and slow and annoying to work with. I usually love Noro yarn but now that I have come across a bad skein myself, I know why many people don't like it. The pattern was easy and quick to complete so overall this was a great project.

I love to crochet. It's fast, easy, relaxing and rhythmical. I don't seem to do much of it but that is mainly because many of the patterns are not to my liking but this is another crochet shawl that I love. It will get a lot of wear.

Cheers,
Lynda

2013

What a year that was! Ups and downs, life and death, good times, bad times, friendships rekindled, friendships lost, vacations, new careers... With a big family the list goes on and on!

My hubby realised a life long dream to work in Antarctica.

Shannon finished her nursing course. Ben in his quest for knowledge finished a Realestate course as well as working full time. He is back to university this year to add to his teaching degree. There has been lots of knitting projects, some completed, some not yet! Books! I read lots of books. My favourite this year was The Book Thief for no other reason than it demonstrates the power of the word and stories of the holocaust must be told. Can't wait to see the movie. There are so many beautiful quotes in this book and I love good quotes.

The year was very good to us as a family and I am grateful for that. Some of our friends were not so fortunate.

This is my mum's old button jar. When my sisters and I were small children and were ill or troubled mum would give us the button jar to play with. There was somehow a comfort in counting the buttons, separating them into colours or sets. It seemed so big to me when I was a small child. Now I am big and it's small. It's only an old honey jar with a rusty lid but I've treasured it always. On New Year's Eve I had the need to sort buttons. “Some Days There Won’t Be a Song in Your Heart. Sing Anyway” ~Emory Austin

Not to end the year on a bad note though! The best news we had for 2013 is the impending birth of my daughter's first child due in January, 2014! Gosh! My cup runneth over. We love this baby girl already and can't wait to welcome her into our family.

To all my family and friends I wish you a very happy, successful and bright New Year for 2014. I read some quotes recently that I am going to take with me into the new year and try to put them into fruition.

"The pages of yesterday cannot be revised but the pages of tomorrow are blank and you hold the pen. Make it an inspiring story."
"Take the time to listen to those things that speak without words."

Cheers,
Lynda

National Service Medal

Today I am a very proud mum. My eldest son Matthew was presented with the National Emergency Medal. The National Emergency Medal is an operational service medal which recognises significant or sustained service to others in a nationally significant emergency. This medal was approved by Her Majesty the Queen in 2011.

Matthew was awarded the medal for sustained service during the 2009 Victoria Bushfires. The Black Saturday fires in the Summer of 2009 were the worst bushfires in Australia's history. 47 major fires erupted during the day on 7th February across the state of Victoria. 173 people lost their lives and many hundreds of people were significantly injured. Around 78 communities were directly impacted and whole towns were wiped out or left unrecognisable. The fires destroyed countless animals, more than 2,000 properties, 70 national parks and reserves and around 430,000 hectares of land. The weather conditions during these bushfires were oppressive and temperatures reached  more than 46.4C (115.5F) and winds were at 120 kms per hour.

The fire brigades worked with courage and commitment to protect others and those that received awards today are very deserving of recognition for their service to the community.

The centre of the medal depicts Australia's national floral emblem, the wattle, and the edge symbolises sacrifices made in service to others during times of crisis. His full name is engraved on the back.

Well done Matty, you are a hero!

Cheers,
Lynda

Just off the hook

Fibi Fox, pattern by Lydia Tresselt is my latest finished project. This was fun to work on and took two evenings to complete. It would work up faster if you didn't have to crochet so tightly to avoid the stuffing showing through. I used a DK yarn and crocheted tightly with a 2.5mm hook. The yarn is Moda Vera Merino blend in colour 202 and Moda Vera pure wool DK in white. I used scraps of leftover yarn for the black. In my DK yarn Fibi measures 33.5cms or 13 inches from head to foot and she has a little fat tummy.

Fibi is always playing around the chicken coop searching for her favourite feathers and she is always looking for ways to escape outdoors.

Now I will have to crochet her friends as there are several other sweet patterns to try.

Cheers,
Lynda

Is the Spring coming, he said

 "What is it like?"...
It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...”

Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

That quote sums it up well for us here in Melbourne. We welcome the Spring rains because our Summers are so hot and dry and water can become scarce. The garden is looking pretty and colourful with Spring flowers blooming and the blossom trees bursting into bud.

Plum blossom and nectarine blossom

It was a beautiful first day of Spring. A  perfect day for all the fathers who celebrated Father's Day.  We spent the day enjoying the sunshine and doing family activities together and in general fussing over our Dads. 

Playing fetch with Ruby

Cheers,

Lynda

Last day of Winter

I'm going to miss Winter. Here in Melbourne we had a very mild Winter with record breaking warmer weather. One of the things I love about Melbourne is the distinct seasons that we have. You won't see me holidaying in Queensland to escape the Melbourne Winter.  I love to rug up, don the shawls, scarves, mittens and the occasional hat. Everyone is still busy with their daily schedules but Winter is a season for more home time especially in the evenings, chatting around the fire, watching movies together as a family and hearty comfort food. Life stands a little stiller in Winter. I hope there are some more days to wear my yarn lovelies. I'm not ready to push them deeper into the wardrobe yet.

I recently took Stephen West's Shawlscapes class where he suggested we neatly fold all our shawls and put them on the mantle to admire. Now that's an idea! I share his passion for yarn and handknits and that they don't need to be worn to look lovely. Colour, line, shape, texture, these are little works of art.

My husband suggested that I was taking photographic evidence that I do actually fold these shawls neatly to put away but really I was trying to stop Princess Belle from claiming them as her own and in the process I now have piles of neatly folded shawls ready for the mantle!

As you can see she is persistant.

Cheers,
Lynda

Moonlit Conservation Sanctuary

Hubby and I had a lovely few hours walking through Moonlit Conservation Sanctuary recently. We took a picnic lunch and sat on the park bench and enjoyed a relaxed time among the animals. We purchased some special food to hand feed the wallabies and kangaroos. Some of the animals are in enclosures and many roam free so you can have a very up close interaction with a variety of animals. We enjoyed watching the frogmouths being hand fed and listening to the calls of the barking owls. The staff gave great talks on the dingoes, koalas, frogmouths and reptiles.

Dingoes

Swamp wallaby and baby

Tawny Frogmouth

Cape Barren Goose

Eastern Grey Kangaroos

Koala

Wombat

Unlike a zoo, this place has all native Australian animals. It's hard to look past the koalas and kangaroos but the Cape Baren Goose looks just like he is off for a walk in his gumboots.

Cheers,
Lynda

  

A Birthday Wish

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself." Neil Gaiman

I love this quote and it seems very appropriate for your birthday wish from all of us.

Cheers to you!

Love always,

Lynda

More holiday photos

Here are some more holiday snaps taken around Lakes Entrance.



Typical Aussie bush tracks

Colquhoun State Forest
White Stringbark and Silvertop Ash
 



Hubby standing by the 'danger' sign at the Stony Creek Trestle Bridge

Australian Black Swan
 

Raymond Island Ferry





This Raymond Island Ferry is one of my favourite snaps because it depicts a very common scene here in Australia. A family (not mine) eating fish and chips out of the paper spread open on a park bench and people lining the pier with fishing rods hoping for a catch, the gum trees, land surrounded by water, it's very Aussie. We were sitting in the car eating a meat pie and watching the goings on around us, also very Aussie!

Cheers,
Lynda

Time out

Last week hubby and I took some time out and went on a short vacation to Lakes Entrance. It's about three and half hours drive from home. The accommodation I chose was great and right on the esplanade so the views across the water from our room were very lovely. Being a seaside town everything revolves around the water but we also took in the sights around the area including a drive through the forest to see the Stony Creek Trestle Bridge, The Wyunga Park Winery, Nyerimilang Heritage Park and other local attractions. It was very serene and restful down in East Gippsland

Looking back to the hotel from the pier

Our accommodation, Bellevue on the Lakes

Sunset over the water, it was like a Summer's evening

Pelicans coming in to roost for the night

We had a lovely time away and I can't wait to plan our next trip.

Cheers,

Lynda

A memory blanket

When my mother died I kept her wool sweaters with the thought of felting them and making something as a keepsake out of the felted fabric. It took a long time before I could bring them out and felt them and even longer until I was finally able to do something with them. She was such a tiny lady and her sweaters were very small. To be able to use colours that went together and have enough squares to make a blanket of a usable size I added one of my wool jumpers to the mix. I left out some of the colours that didn't fit for another project.

To utilise as much of the wool fabric as possible I cut squares and rectangles. I  sewed them randomly together as I had varying numbers of the different coloured squares and placing them in a pattern or keeping the colours separate wasn't an option.

It's not finished yet but all the pieces have been pieced together.

Now I need to consider how to finish off the back and edging. That's for another day!

Cheers,
Lynds

The Lorelei Shawl

Oh what a lovely project this was to crochet. The pattern is the Lorelei Shawl by Kimberly McAlindin and  the yarn I used is Moda Vera Bouvardia in the colourway Blue Mix. I was drawn to the lovely long colour runs in this yarn. The colours are beautiful and there is enough wool in the mix to make it a nice yarn to work with and especially nice to wear.

It was good to mix it up a bit and do some crochet work. I don't do that very often but this pattern appealled to me and reminded me of the crochet shawls from years ago. It was very quick to make as the main motif is about 15 cms across. The overall size of the shawl/scarf is large. It's warm, soft and squishy and perfect for this time of year in Melbourne. It worked up very fast and the only hassle was weaving in the ends that I didn't weave in during the construction part.

It is toasty warm to double over and use as a lap blanket. I've been doing that every night since I finished it.

Cheers,
Lynda

Windward

This pattern by Heidi Kirrmaier  is one of my very favourites. For some reason it evokes special memories for me. I don't know if it was the yarn, the colour, the pattern or all of that but it was always very enjoyable to work on this project. I love the ragged edges and although I am usually ordered in my psyche and have a passion for things to be neat and even the weirdness of this pattern is what drew me to it. A clever construction and interesting to knit.

The yarn is from Moseley Park and it's a wool and bamboo sock yarn which gives beautiful drape to the scarf. I chose the colour with the thought of the rough, ragged cliff faces around some of Australia's coastline. The asymmetrical and ragged edges of this pattern bring to mind the very scenic rugged sandstone cliffs that yield to the forces of the ocean creating spectacular jagged rock formations.

It is also at home here among the Autumn leaves.

What to knit now? So many choices!

Cheers,
Lynda

Wordless Wednesday What a sticky beak!

Photos by Marnie

Cheers,
Lynda