Infinite Variety App

Does everyone remember this quilt show?



Of course you do. If you're like me you drooled over over people's blog posts about this exhibition and wished that you had the opportunity to go. Well wish no longer peeps. You can go and without leaving your loungeroom because.............................there's an app for it. Of course there is! There's an app for everything. And best of all, it's free and it's actually really good. Check it out at the App store - Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts.

Lizzie

Reading this blog you would think that I no longer sew. There has been some crafty action lately but it is slow and presently consists of lots of squares and triangles pinned together ready to be blitzed by my new Pfaff. This is hardly interesting. I thought instead I would introduce you to our cat - much more interesting.

Meet Lizzie......





Until Lizzie I had never had a cat. I have always been a dog person. Ridiculously so. My two dogs died about 6 months apart shortly after my first baby was born and it broke my heart. In April 2010 I was feeling ready for some furry love and stumbled across the Moorook Animal Shelter. Moorook is a "no kill" shelter situated in the riverland. I saw a picture of Lizzie (then called Lisa) on their website. She looked so dainty: her ears were very pointy and widely spaced; she had a serene expression and her tailed curled delicately around her feet when she sat.

I showed her picture to my husband and without much discussion at all we made the 3 hour drive to Moorook to check her out. Sometimes you just know "like you know about a good melon" Cutting a long story short....we brought her home with us. She had fleas, worms, some strange, mangy rash on her legs and the poos she did for the first couple of weeks defy description but she was very loving and sweet and she was ours.

Lizzie's days are now mainly spent snoozing on beds, nagging me for food and pacing in front of me on the desk while I surf the net, wiping her tail under my nose as she goes past. Not bad for a cat that started out life as a kitten dumped in the middle of nowhere.

Pinspiration

Last year in October my beloved and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. I use the word celebrated rather loosely - my cousins came over and slaved like Trojans at a frantic working bee to get our house ready for sale. Very romantic!

I did however make this for my husband. 5 years is wood. So after getting the idea from pinterest I made this out of some vintage Scrabble tiles, a Ribba shadow box from Ikea and some scrapbooking paper from Spotlight.



Happy day! I love how it turned out. Off now to make tea while the cutest baby alive sleeps. Oh, the glamour!

Pink Skies

We recently moved house. There are many things that I like about our new place, but best of all is the view from our kitchen window....


....it almost makes you want to do the dishes. Almost.

Pinterest

I spent the bulk of 2011 holding a baby - sounds lovely doesn't it? As said baby was mostly crying, there wasn't much lovely to be had. But eventually he would sleep and I would rig up a complicated pillow system that allowed me to hold him and surf the net simultaneously. Now we're talking. During one of my many internet sessions I came across Pinterest. Ahh, pinterest.....how do I love thee, let me count the ways.....

It sounds silly but pinterest got me through 2011 - it inspired me with great ideas, comforted me with its collective wisdom and most important of all it taught me how to make rainbow cake!

Here are some photos from Scarlett's 4th birthday party featuring the magnificent rainbow cake. I used this recipe from Count It All Joy and it was an absolute winner. Thanks Meredith!

We had a rainbow party theme....

Party favours for the kids.



The cake...I ask you where would we be without smarties? I for one would be up the cake decorating creek.



At this point I was praying to our heavenly father that it had turned out (I always turn to God for the important stuff...) On a side note the rainbow cupcakes were made using this recipe from Glorious Treats - again found through Pinterest.



Yay!! Prayers answered. The rainbow cake is a crowd pleaser...it looks so innocuous from the outside, just a plain rather tall cake, but inside it's just so pretty!



So there you have it. Thanks Pinterest....I owe you one!

Ringing in 2012

Finally, a new year. I have to tell you 2011 although you brought with you many blessings, I am glad to see the back of you. You were hard work. But you are over and 2012 is here and I "shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to encumbered with my old nonsense"



I spent the last evening of 2011 at our shack, sipping Moet out of a plastic cup. Can you feel the entire Champagne region of France cringe?

Happy New Year everyone, I think 2012 is going to be a good one. And I know about these things.

Tumbleweeds

This week my two babies and I went to visit my Nanna. I am very lucky to be nearly 40 (good God – can this be true??) and still have grandparents to visit. This is one of the many advantages to having young parents.

My Nanna resides in the first town I ever lived in. It is tiny. Tumbleweed tiny. And it seems to shrink further every time I visit it.

This is the sign that welcomes you to the town. The first time my Dad saw this he was indignant – they had down-graded the town to a village. As you can see Bute is so small they don’t even declare the population. I think it is a statement of the highest optimism to say that the population is growing.

Bute is bordered on one side by distant rolling hills and on the other by endless wheat plains…

My Nanna lives across the road from the wheat silos and, strange as it may seem, I love the silos. There is a certain majesty to the way they rise up out of the wheat and stretch into a endless blue sky.

Bute has some lovely old buildings that smack of South Australia….

The Town Hall

And the RSL hall

But the business side of the main street makes me sad…

When I was small there was a bank, a hardware store, a deli with a toy section, a supermarket and a shop selling farm equipment. Now just the supermarket remains.

Meanwhile, the nearest town, Kadina,is going ahead like crazy. They even have a Target and are building McDonalds. I was looking through old photos while I was at Nanna’s and was almost overcome with nostalgia for a lost time and a disappearing place.

Does this happen to you? Or am I just a sentimental fool?