Matching Pegs

This is my Dad back in 1976.  It was our second birthday I believe (I have a twin brother, Julian).  Back then Dad was 27 1/2 years old, and obviously going through a beardy stage.  I just love the whole 70’s look of this photo – the outfits, the colours, the tablecloth.

Today Dad turns 60, something I know he is not thrilled about, but it sure beats the alternative.

My Dad is a very generous man.  He cares deeply about his family, and has always worked very hard to provide for us all.  He feels strongly about social justice issues, and likes things to be fair – a trait that I have inherited, as has my eldest daughter for sure!  He helps out anyone that asks for his assistance.

He loves music, and loves to sing along with gusto – particularly to Gilbert and Sullivan.  We share a love of jazz, and much of my musical tastes have been influenced by him.

Dad I hope you have a great birthday, despite the number attached to it.

I love you, from your possum (the baby who would never sleep).

What’s in the box?

Rory’s quilt has returned home after 5 months with Homespun.  It had been on his bed for 4 years, and it was missed.  You can probably guess the theme of the quilt, but you will have to wait for December’s issue of Homespun to see it for yourself.  I am getting very excited about having my pattern published – I wonder if it made it onto the cover?

On the morning of the wedding, I had organised to meet up with Lily, of Block a Day for a cuppa.  Thanks to Lily’s generous hospitality, it turned into a luscious morning tea for the whole family.  She laid a beautiful table with fine china and linen – I wish I could show it to you, but I was silly enough to leave my camera back at the hotel.

Our visit with Lily was like a little bubble of calm, in an otherwise hectic day.  The kids had a lovely time with Abigail, and we discovered that Lily’s husband, Julian, had worked one floor up from me about 9 years ago, when the family briefly lived in Melbourne.  It is such a small world.

During our conversation we were talking about homes, and I described our house as a triple fronted brick veneer – a term familiar to most Melbourne residents – many of our suburbs are full of them.  Lily didn’t know what that meant, so Lily, here is what our one looks like….

The triple front relates to the three “front facing falls”.  It is hard to tell from the photograph, but the faces stop at three different depths from the front of the property.  Here is one way these homes have been described…..“This style dominated suburban architecture in the 50’s – 60’s. In its basic form it is a bland and unimaginative style which has been propagated by developers”. It is a pretty basic, humble home, but it’s ours, and the inside is a little more interesting.  It doesn’t compare to the beautiful “Queenslander” that Lily’s family is living in, but one of those would not really work in the much colder south.

I am always in awe of Lily’s productivity, and creativity, and her home was certainly full of examples of her talent.  Overall it was lovely to meet a bloggy friend in real life.

Have any of you met up with your bloggy friends?

This was one of the last photos I took in Queensland, on Saturday, before flying back to Melbourne.  We went from a 29 degrees C day (84 F), to an 11degrees C evening in Melbourne (52 F) which was quite a shock, as Melbourne was pretty hot just before we left.  That is the city of my birth though, always changing.

We had a lovely time in Queensland, a trip that was prompted by Tim and Danielle’s Wedding in Brisbane.

Tim (Luke’s brother) and Danielle met in London, and managed to find London Taxis for Bridal Cars, which was a pretty cool touch I thought.

The wedding took place in a marquee on the grounds of a golf course, which was lovely.

Here is a photo showing just over half of the bridal party.  Our vantage point made it a little difficult to get everyone in, as did the sleeping child in my arms (Michaela).

Here is a snap I am particularly fond of, my dressed up family leaving the wedding to return to the hotel room for pizza and bed (the kids that is – we returned for the reception, and a much classier dinner).

I am so glad we went, it was great to be there with almost the whole clan.  More about that next time.

This is a photo of my siblings and I, circa 1981.  That cute baby is my little sister Alison, who had a birthday on Monday.  We were too busy celebrating for me to write a post, and now I am too crazy busy, getting ready for our big holiday to write her the post she deserves.  Happy Birthday Alison, I love you.

We are all looking forward to sunny Queensland.  The kids are almost jumping out of their skins with the thought of flying on a plane.  Here is something that is tantalizingly, almost finished, but will not be coming on the plane – too big.

I just need to finish hand sewing on the binding, which will have to wait until we are back.

Something I will finish before I set off, is a flyer for a Christmas Carnival that I have been designing for my Church.

Here is a little Gingerbread Angel that features on it. I had lots of fun drawing up this one.

I got the latest issue of Homespun in the mail today.  On page 6, right at the bottom, where the editor talks about next month’s issue is a very interesting sentence about a newcomer to pattern design.  Me.

A quilt I designed for Rory, 4 years ago, is featured in December’s Kids Issue.  You will have to wait until next month to see what it is though.

I had hoped to have some patterns ready to sell by the time the quilt was published, but time has gotten away from me.  One day I hope to write up some patterns for the things I make, but not this week.  I have some serious relaxing to do.

I’ll be back in a week and a half.

Firstly, a winner.  I held a random draw, and the lucky peggy giveaway goes to Rachel L from Contented over in the UK.  Rachel’s favourite stationery is notepaper, the type you write a good old fashioned letter on. I have a hand full of the wooden pegs along with a couple of even smaller gold pegs I found yesterday to send her.  I am sure a few other little curios will find their way into the package as well.  I will give you all a look at what I send, once I know exactly what it is.

Lately I have been really neglecting my blog, and even worse, I have not been replying to comments.  I feel terrible about it.  Yesterday the penny dropped as to why it was all getting too hard.  That dropping penny was a bunch of flowers.

When I pulled up in the driveway yesterday afternoon, and saw them on the doorstep, my first thought was “The delivery truck must have stopped at the wrong house” as it was not a special day of any kind.

It turns out that the flowers were from my hubby’s boss.  Basically they were an apology for keeping him at work so much lately (last few months), and leaving me with the brunt of the work (and child rearing) on the home front.  Quite a thoughtful touch wasn’t it.  It has been hard, but until yesterday I hadn’t realised how much it was getting to me.  Lately I haven’t even been reading all your blogs,  I have been just too exhausted.  I will eventually reply to your comments, at least the recent ones.  Please accept my apologies if you have left a comment that I have not responded to it.  I also owe my blog roll an update, there are so many blogs I read that are not on there.

At the end of next week we are off to a family wedding in Brisbane followed by a family holiday on the Gold Coast, so I am sure we will be much more relaxed, and recharged after that.

Saturday found me with 3 bored children to occupy on my own.  I turned to 3 favourite activities; kicking the footy (Aussie Rules footy of course), making new play-dough, and of course, sewing.  Amelia was keen to keep going with her “Nesting Nellie’s” and surprisingly, Rory was eager to make something of his own.  He has sadly lost all interest in his charming little alien, and wanted to create a new stitchery.  Meet Yoda.

Rory drew him up, and after I had reduced him to a more manageable size, Rory traced him onto the fabric and coloured him in.  He is already half stitched. 

I guess you could say “Do or do not, there is no try”.

The play-dough was a great hit with all three of the kids, who were keen to make some fresh play-dough in some new colours.  I could barely prise the bowl away to cook it, as they were having so much fun mixing it.

The most enjoyable thing about new play-dough, is playing with it when it it still warm.

See, I can prove it, I even got Rory to smile on camera, thank-you warm play-dough.

The reason that Michaela looks so emphatic, is probably because she was trying to justify this…….

MIXING THE COLOURS (almost immediately)!  Much of her play-dough is now greyish brown.

The reason I was flying solo was that Luke was at his brother’s Bucks Do – quite classy actually – a day at the races; Derby Day.

Here in Melbourne, the Spring (horse) Racing Carnival is a big deal, especially the first Tuesday in November. 

While the rest of the world associates this date with the big election race in the USA, here in Australia, it is put aside for the race that stops a nation – The Melbourne Cup.  We have a public holiday, and the kids had a curriculum day today, giving them a 4 day weekend.

 Luckily, with time differences, the US election race takes place mostly in the early hours of Wednesday morning, so we get to enjoy our Tuesday, before turning our eyes, like the rest of the world to theirs.

If you are part of a sweep on the cup, I hope your horse comes in!