Morning Tea

Jed and I stopped at Toby's Estate at Chippendale this morning to buy Peter some coffee.


We decided to have brunch. Great coffee and avocado, tomato and basil on toast. Excellent!



Also saw a few things I could have happily taken home with me but I resisted!

September in Sydney

The weather is seriously weird in Sydney today! This was our place at 6am this morning. The red dust from Broken Hill has blown in with some serious gale force winds.

Visiting the Gazman

We had great fun visiting Garry this afternoon. The noise down the corridor of the 6th floor was probably a little disturbing but we did have fun!

Happy Birthday Dad!

A glorious Sydney day spent out at Agnes Banks celebrating Dad's 73rd.

The expander worked

Now the top braces get fitted.

Luna Park

Been to Luna Park recently. I enjoyed my recent trip.

My favourite childhood memories are of Coney Island. It's still there and much the same. The kids did all the usual things. I distinctly remember standing in the air blast when I was about eight.

Not Crocs!

Concentrating!


Gorgeous!

Anyone for braces?

Do you wonder how people choose their number plates?


NB - SA number plate!

My Week in Pictures #2

DD1 gave us tickets for Chicago. No photos of the show allowed but I can show you the audience as seen from our own private little pair of seats on the side. A great night. Thanks Gracie.


A baby came to visit at work this week. He distracted me for quite some time. Here is a photo of him with Jenna. His name is Liam and he liked me the best.


Lozzie succumbed - she is the proud owner of a brilliant box of threads. I gave them up for her!


And one for Pennie. When I see Babushkas I think of Pennie Darling. You can see part of her collection here.


Taken with my arm out the car window this week - a glorious sunrise from Captain Cook Bridge.

My Week in Pictures #1

I went to Nic and Janine' Opening Night.


Janine's tree stump made from wool


One of Nic's quilts.


SCQers are everywhere. Janine is the orange toned one in the middle.


The gorgeous Nic.

The Wizard's Express

We took a trip up the Blue Mountains on Saturday - man it was cold!


We booked a ride on the Zig Zag Railway - special event was the Wizard's Express. Fabulous!


We all got dressed up. Erin has Peter's old school tie on - fortuitously in Slytherin colours. Erin says she's in SlythERIN for obvious reasons and she assures everyone they picked up their act after Voldemort was gone.


The train took us down the mountain where we had dinner and saw a magic show and then back up again. A stop each way including this one at Hogsmeade on the way home.


You can't quite see him but that's Harry up there under the Invisibility Cloak.

Sydney Quilt Show

My friend Pennie won first prize in the miniatures section of the Sydney Quilt Show this week. That quilt behind her measures 6"x8" and those hexagons are 3/16". That's very small and she's very clever.
PS - and yes I do have Pennie's permission to post photos

I have returned!

I have been in the blogger abyss - but I'm back. Here I am all ready to take on the world.

As you can see I have been fossicking in old knitting patterns. I have found some gems. Will share a few more soon.

Seriously - who was making these things? And furthermore - who was wearing them???

So Eurovison isn't it?

A little trip

I have had a little trip to Mittagong in the Southern Highlands of NSW. The weather there is what you might call crisp. The leaves are showing evidence of Autumn and there are some unusual clouds in the sky.

Glenelg Views

This is the view from my room on the 12th floor. Glorious.

Glenelg and around

Glenelg

Weather

A couple of my left over weather shots for March.

Weather

Di said pictures of clouds were good for this month's challenge so here is some I took from the back step. I took them while I was watching Peter do this...


I tell you - a man with a high pressure water cleaner is a thing to behold. He cleaned everything else in sight and then decided it would be a good way to do the rug from the living room. And he was right! The rug was clean and the trampoline was the perfect place to dry it as the clouds cleared away.

Star City Swimming

We spent the night at Star City after Erin's 18th and the following morning had some fun in their swimming pool.


The children had gone to bed very late so there was more lolling than swimming.

Rain is coming

There has been some excellent sunrises the last few days. I think the photos aren't too bad given that they are done with my arm out of the car window!

Godmother duty

My godson Jacob was confirmed this week - a very proud moment for a Godparent.

March Morning

Red sky in the morning - shepherd's warning. And it certainly did rain. My first photo of the month for Di's photo challenge. This month is weather.

Erin's 18th

Our eldest is now older.



We celebrated with friends.



The girls wrote a poem and a speech - very funny and lovely.



We are very proud of her.



And we followed it up by spending the night in Sydney at Star City


Excellent!

Dinner at Summer Salt

Summer Salt is one of our favourite places to go for a special night out. Such an event presented itself recently so we booked a table and had the best night.

Here's the boys...


...and the girls.

Bye Mum

14/1/30 - 06/02/09

Beware...

...massive bulk blog updating has just occurred. See below.

Quilts

I have had some quilts out recently trying to get photos of them all. I had forgotten some of them. I will try and upload a few every now and again for posterity.

This one was done as a mystery quilt for Southern Cross Quilters. Lots of fun to make and a great design.


My circles quilt which was completed as part of a challenge. The circles have frayed edges and it was very easy to make. Sew one big and one small circle onto a square. Cut in fours and sew back together randomly.


This is a quilt called "As Time Goes By". The quilt was done in soft pretty colours but I decided I would see how it looks in batiks. Different! It was quilted by Nic Bridges who did a stunning job.


This quilt was a kit I bought at the Sydney Quilt Show many years ago. One of my favourites.

Pavlova

Kath made pavlova. It was a very big pavlova. Some people worked their way through it stoically. Some gave up.

Jed's haircut

Jed hates haircuts but he needed one before he went back to school.


Phew - all done!

Gardening

Someone once asked my friend Pennie what sort of garden I had. She paused and said, in her nicest tone, "It's more of a yard than a garden". She knows me well. We go not garden in any kind of organised sense. We have bushes that grow if it rains and once or twice a year we poison weeds. A nice man mows the lawn and that's about it. The trees up the driveway have been going gangbusters of late and we realised we were going to have to do something! So.... here we are pruning. We even managed to get the children involved. They liked the idea of the gloves and the secateurs/shears and got stuck in.




Jed had a very small pair of kitchen scissors and he was very helpfully cutting the leaves off the branches!!!!

Lucy didn't want to pick anything up - she just wanted to weild the shears. After a while they abandoned us to the pool. It was hot work and there were a few rests but we got it all done!

Windsor on the weekend

We drove out to Windsor Hospital on the weekend. Walking out to the carpark you have a glorious view across the paddocks. There is a fabulous old shed in the middle of the paddock and, somewhat out of place, the motorway.


The sun was setting as we drive west and I got a good shot looking up to the Blue Mountains.

Kartatak

There's a great indoor kart place in Sydney called Kartatak. The kids love it. Here's Jayden, Lucy, Jed and Sam ready to power up and go!!!!

A night out in Sydney

We had the privilege of attending a wedding on the rooftop of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney recently. An amazing venue with some great views. A summertime late afternoon wedding meant day and night views.

Carmel's flying visit

Every now and again you manage a really good day. My friend Carmel came to town and we had a relaxing lunch with good freinds in a tranquil garden. All good.


And here's Lisa - the owner of the tranquil garden.


They are going to be sooooo thrilled I have their photos on my blog!

She's not real good in the mornings

....and she finds mothers with cameras really irritating.

Lucy's Loot

Christmas Morning

One small boy having lots of fun on Christmas morning.

Lucy's Creation

People are complaining about my complete lack of blogging! Beware - I am in catch up mode.

Lucy made our Gingerbread House this year. She had lots of fun - and it was very well done!

Zangy Graphics

Happy Birthday to ME!

Christmas Decorations

Just a few of my little Christmas things. I love having these around at Christmas time.



This is my newest thing. A quilt themed nativity scene! How could I not have it!


And this is a fabulous fibre optic number, complete with train and sled that both circle the mountain.


Without the flash it's just overwhelming :)


And our Christmas Tree.

Merry Christmas

I got all three of them to do it! Could be the last year. Thank you children.

Woohoo - our new car!

Christmas Dinners

This time of year there seems to be one Christmas function after another. Here's the most recent one - the Tuesday Night Sewing Girls enjoyed dinner out at the Kareela Golf Club.

Happy Birthday Peter!

We have a birthdays coming out of our ears in December. Peter celebrated his birthday with another pinball machine.

He says it's important to tell you that it's a 1975 Gottlieb Fast Draw.


So here's the start of our pinball arcade.

Lucy's Birthday

Lucy shared her birthday with her friend Jade. They went to see Twilight, had dinner out and then a sleepover. I picked up one very tired 13yr old.

Laurie's Birthday

Happy Birthday Laurie - it was a lovely lunch.

Presentation Night

Jed danced in the Abba item. He's the one with the green tie down on his knees right in the centre. He did very well.


And here he is winning his award. He is 6th from the left.


And a far away shot of Lucy playing the drums.


Erin got to sing the final big number but alas - no photo!

The little boys

Up early and on the play station.


Jed had Ben for a sleepover.

The Cook

Lucy has been perfecting her scones. They are excellent!

Scatterday Sunset

Di has set us a challenge for December - sunrises and sunsets. Here's one I caught recently while driving south of Sydney. Glorious!

Chess Tournament

While we were wandering though the art gallery in Melbourne we discovered a chess tournament. It was some kind of world cup of chess and, as you can see by the throngs of people, a popular event.


Actually the ceiling above the chess tournament was far more interesting.

Melbourne Graffiti

One of the things I noticed in Melbourne was the lack of tagging and graffiti everywhere. The graffiti we did find was of a much better standard than the Sydney graffiti. I think it's time the Sydney graffiti artists lifted their game.

Formals

Di challenged to post photos of how we see ourselves. Well this is how I saw myself this week. All dressed up and going to a Yr 12 formal. Not the regular way I see myself maybe - but interesting.

Yr 12 Formal

All dressed and ready for her formal.

Schoolies

Erin decided on 'schoolies with a difference'. Shopping in Melbourne to be precise. Here we are - two mother and daughter combos - can you tell by the hair colour who belongs to whom? This photo was taken after a looooong day of shopping.


And this was just the first day. Please note - none of this is mine!


Some things we did NOT buy.


We didn't just shop though. We also went to Spiegeltent and saw Spontaneous Broadway. Julia Zemiro was brilliant.


We had gelato by the river...


...and watched the gondoliers.


We saw some very odd things at the Art Gallery.


Had the best afternoon tea in the Art Gallery Tea Room.


Found some interesting things as we drove the streets by day...


..and by night.


We all came home tired and happy and have decided to make it an annual event.

And one more Pennie

I walked past this poster and thought of you Pennie. The picture and the title.


Anyone care to make a guess what Pennie collects?

The Christmas Shop

I had a little visit there recently. I had to take some photos - just for Pennie. Click here if you want to see more. It is the most glorious shop.




It's put me in the mood to start putting up the Christmas lights!