Some progress

 I have been stitching away n the evenings and have finished two unplanned projects, I think Lou sent her squirrels over here!

I bought this bag one day poking around on Temu, It cost about $4, thought it would be good for going down to the beach and then one day looking in my scrap bag I decided to try and cover the bag with fabric and this is the result

one side

the other side

all sewn by hand except for the top edging which I did on the machine and then hand sewed the inside bits that missed  😀

Then while I was in the scrap bag I decided to do this

machine sewn, oops this is the fabric layout

and finished. machine sewn to hold all the fabric pieces in place and the end pieces hand sewn in to create the pockets for the book cover to slot into.

I found PixxiBook on line and printed up last years blog, the covers are hard covers and the pages really good heavy paper, they have made lovely books, more expensive that I am used to getting but I am very happy with them.

I have books for 2024 coming in the mail, they have been done with IntoRealPages, slightly less expensive, soft covers, I did have a lot of trouble getting their page to work for me with with a lot of help from Jo, we finally got there. My main problem was that my book was showing from Dec 22nd on the first page to Jan 1st on the last page.....we could not work it out. I emailed the company, they said it can happen when there is a break in the transmission and the data gets muddled. They fixed it all up at their end and I checked to see all the posts were there, it is in the mail and due to arrive later this week.

I am happy to say I have finally finished my Temperature Tree

Is not perfect but I am very happy with it, my first attempt at Cross stitch. I have yet to decide how to finish it off. Thank you Susan for the motivation!

We had a special occasion on Saturday, Finn turned three!!

His birthday present from Nanny and Pa

His birthday present from this Grandmother ( he loves rabbits and has a large collection)

his birthday cake made by this grandmother

he was fascinated by the things on top, he also loves cricket!

Getting to eat one of the gummi bears players. We had a wonderful afternoon, Adam cooked a great roast dinner and then we headed home. 

I had better go check the sprinkler I left going on the garden and check also on the bike battery and see if it is charged, I was planning on a ride today 😁

Happy stitching.

Second week of January already

 Time once again is moving quickly, to catch up once again

Shane and Rilla came and stayed the weekend after Christmas, we had a good catch up, although more time would have been great!

We went over to Sorrento on the ferry and then drove to Harmers Haven near Wonthaggi to visit David's sister and bro in law

We had one beautiful sunset looking over the horse paddocks.

We drove to Grantville one day so David and Ellen could do a painting over looking the water - the tide went out fairly quickly, so we were looking over the mud flats

I went for a walk along this path and then onto the football field, behind the trees in the left of the photo - being very vary and looking out for snakes (I an very scared of snakes!)

I managed to get a stick caught in my sandal and it dug into my foot, I had to sit for a while and put some pressure on it as the combination of hot weather, aspirin and mild panic made for a lot of bleeding. After a while I wandered back to the others and got David (bro in law) to tend to my wound and clean me up. Luckily I had a new first aid kit in the car!

nearing the end of the clean up and wrap up mission

Bro in law explaining something to me!!

Hubby fully engrossed in painting

still painting

Not long after this the wind got up, David's easel was blown off the table three times, his sandwich container was blown off and the seagulls enjoyed his lunch!

No fun here in the howling wind so we headed home.

The next day Ellen took me to emergency to have my foot checked, the nurse was very impressed with the care I had received and the way the wound was dressed, I explained my sis in law had horses and she said say no more! 😀 She re dressed the foot, gave me a compression bandage and sent me on my way. 

We headed home two days later, we were going to call in on Ondrea but as I felt I was getting a cold we though better of the idea and how lucky was that! After being home a couple of days I tested positive to covid! My third bout. So we have been housebound as hubby now has it too.

In between feeling very average I have finished the Peas in a Pod quilt top

and finished a KOGO blanket

Sorry about the messy photo.

I found a place on line PixxiBook who print blogs, so I have ordered up my 2025 book, later on I will go back and do 2024, Looks like a nice book, we will see when it turns up. 

My foot is slowly healing, takes while for the inside the inside to heal, the bruising has gone down since this photo too.

I bought this bag before Christmas online, wasn't quite what I thought it would be, so now I have plans of sewing fabric strips onto it with big stitching, lets see if that happens!

I have been seeing lots of orangutan things on FB and Insta, this one took my fancy!

I have just remembered I have the hose running on the banana passionfruit, so had better go and turn it off!

Best wishes for a very Happy New Year, here's to lots of creating and having fun.

Happy stitching.