Geeee, can’t believe it’s been 8 weeks since my last post!! Just when I was falling into a bit of a blogging rhythm it all went in a different direction again. Oh well that’s the way it rolls. So here I am today…
Things changed on the work front, I had a call about 8 weeks ago now, from council, who I have worked for on and off over the few years we have lived up here asking if I was available to work a couple of days a week in their Human Resource department for a couple of months filling in for someone else. It was quite unexpected and I wasn’t really prepared with Leo, but they were really accommodating and I could go to childcare and feed Leo at lunchtime etc, which was great. I did my Diploma in HR Management in 2011 but hadn’t actually worked in that area, so I didn’t want to say ‘no’ as being in the country, these opportunities don’t come up very often. So already I have been working Tuesday and Wednesdays for the past 6 weeks and have still managed some sewing and knitting but just haven’t made the time for blogging about it, so here I am catching up.
I have however, found that Instagramming and linking this to my Facebook and Flickr pages is a great quick way to share what I am up to on weekends and when the kids are around so plan to do this more and try and then blog in more detail in between. Even though the work at council could finish at any time, I have really enjoyed it, although I do miss Leo lots. The kids have been great too on the busy mornings of the days I have to work, getting organised early so we can be out the door by 8am which is always a mission in itself with the 4 of them. I have finished up working for the local business around the corner from us too, so that when this work at council finishes, I can just enjoy the time off with Leo and then take the work again when it comes up.
So back on the sewing front, I have finished the quilt for our bed which I wrote about here and here which I really loved at first but wasn’t sure of at the same time once I had finished the binding, Mmmm.. I am not usually big on the colour purple and mauvey type colours, and I have put some in this quilt, but I think it’s warming to me now. I have ordered some fabric in a black and white chevron pattern to make some big square cushions to sit on the bed with it, which I think will look better. As I have probably mentioned before we really need something on the wall but that will have to wait for now.
I made some new cushions too, in Anna Maria Horner’s Velveteen range, the fabric is lovely, however I quickly took the purple colour one off, I will sell that one, too much purple on the bed. I have the original pillows on the bed again with the quilt as pictured in this post. The yellow coloured one sits on a chair next to the bed.
So that’s it for now, there are other pics of what I’ve been up to on my Instagram and Facebook Pages.
What have you been up to lately??
See you soon
Ren xx
Well after my happy little post yesterday about how great my quilt was coming along and how I was about to go off and make the binding for it, my day basically all turned to shit! Grrr. And it was the computer’s fault.
I published my post and it was meant to then link to my new Love Sundays Facebook page, and when I hopped over there to check, it was there but with the incorrect thumbnail. It wouldn’t show the thumbnail picture specifically for that post. Very very frustrating, so of course I then spent hours googling and checking settings etc trying to fix it, and yes there were tears of course, because I am a mum of four kids, one a baby, hubby away and suddenly I felt like nothing goes consistently smoothly or right for me, and I certainly didn’t have time for this, I could be sewing and finishing my quilt!! Then it was school pick up time, and any time I had was over, until the kids were back in bed, who I promised to the two older girls I would not go back on the computer and frustrate myself more, but I did!! Then everything else arose from beyond that I felt was upsetting me and well that was my day yesterday. Arrrgghh…
Anyhow, feeling slightly more at ease now, as Leo and I caught up with a good friend and her baby daughter for a cuppa and vent this morning about other things, not even the stupid computer stuff, so much better now.
Making some new cushions for our lounge room couches, more to come but here are some pics of one made so far, not photographed on the lounge room couch as I don’t like our lounge room couches, however they are here to stay for a while yet as there are plenty of other things we need to spend our money on first.
The fabric is from Cloud 9 Fabrics bought from here.
So now it’s nearly the weekend and looking forward to a wine with my hubby when he returns!!
Have a great weekend all as I am determined to have one and hopefully sneak in some of that lost sewing time, fingers crossed this post publishes correctly!
Ren xx
Another quilt nearly finished and this time it’s for us!
This one is for hubby and I and I cannot wait to throw this quilt over the bed once finished, our room needs a bit more colour as we still don’t really have any prints or artwork on the walls in our bedroom yet. This quilt will definitely brighten the room up though, and I have some new cushions to make which will mix in nicely with the ones already on the bed. All the fabrics used are Anna Maria Horner’s last range, Field Study. The quilt is made in her cottons and I have some of her velveteen to use in the cushions.
This quilt is quite large, it measures just under 225cm square so will hang nicely over our bed. I have only quilted in the ditch along the seams of each square as I just love the fabrics and how vibrant they are. I didn’t want to take away from this with quilting all over it.
What do you think?
So all I need to do now is piece the binding together and attach it, so will get going on that now while the baby boy is sleeping…
Bye for now
Ren xxx
Remember this post? Where I basically stuffed up joining the side seams of this jumper. Anyhow as I mentioned in the original post, I took the jumper and paid someone to join the seams of the jumper for me. $15.00 it cost me. I think this is very reasonable for saving me time and stress of fixing my mistake. I still knitted all the pieces myself.
Here is the finished result..
As it turns out though, the jumper fits Leo now, yep real handy when everyday is over 30 degrees at the moment!! So this one might be going to my new baby nephew due in May and I will buy some more wool to knit a bigger size for Leo.
Hope you are having a great Tuesday!
Ren xx
We never celebrate Valentine’s, I am not necessarily against it, but I just think it is another money making day for retailers and well, I still think it is nice to do nice things on any particular day. On the flip-side to that thought however, if you need an excuse to go out for dinner or buy someone a gorgeous bunch of flowers then by all means, Valentine’s Day is as good as day as any, take what you can get is what I say.
I cannot actually recall going out for dinner with the hubby on actual valentine’s day, but maybe we have, I can’t remember. We do go out for dinner from time to time when we can get the kids looked after or sneak in a lunch etc, we are pretty good at that.
I did however buy Matt a pressie this year, but there was an underlying motive, I found these mugs here at Lark in Daylesford and loved them and wanted them. It just happened they were ‘his and her’ mugs so ‘bingo!’ a valentines present for Matt but really for me. When he opened them this morning, he knew straight away, but he liked them and I gave him a really tacky card too! We had a laugh.
Pretty cute mugs aren’t they?
And even funnier, the girls saw them when I had ducked out to work this morning for an hour, and thought they were really silly because they didn’t make sense!! All fell into place when I sat the mugs together.
Yes they are cute and a little corny, but love a bit of corn!
Hope you all have a lurvely Valentine’s Day whether you celebrate it or not.
Do you celebrate Valentines Day?
Ren xx
I have finally finished this quilt as blogged here and here! As previously mentioned it is a wedding gift for my hubby’s brother Chris and his wife Siobhan who were married in 2010. We gave the quilt to them over Australia Day weekend when we all caught up at the beachhouse.
Yes it’s a couple of years late but they loved it which is great.
Here are some pics of the quilt at home on their bed….
My two eldest daughters want ones exactly the same now, they loved it, so we’ll see. Off to finish a new one for our bed first.
Have a great day
Ren x
Woo Hoo
Now I love my kids, all 4 of them, love them stacks! But hey, after hanging out with them for nearly every day since December 20th – last year, I am ready for them to head back to school, and you know what I think they were too. We have had a great break, which we all needed.
We camped on a river at Christmas for 5 nights, followed by another 5 nights down the beach. We had a couple of lazy weeks at home before heading back down the beach for another swim in the ocean and before you know it the holidays are at an end. I have had a real break too, no blogging, a little sewing and a bit of work snuck in here and there but thats about it and I feel fully refreshed for the year ahead.
I am busy today filling out our ‘family planner calender’ bought here. With 4 kids, a hubby who travels a bit with work and all our extra curriculum activities we all need to see what is happening each day. Lucky there is enough spots for us all, there isn’t enough room across the top of each month of the calender for more than 6 people so lucky we have stopped at 4 kids!
So hopefully the planner will assist us in keeping a better routine at least Monday to Friday anyhow. I am all for a bit of flexibility here or there depending on how I/we are feeling day to day but at the end of the day, we need some planning to actually achieve things a lot of the time, well I do anyhow.
I am really looking forward to the year ahead after the whirlwind of the past couple of years. We have really settled into our own home now and where we live. Life with 4 kids is busy but in a funny way we are all a lot more settled, Leo has certainly brought us lots of smiles and a whole lot more love again to our lives, mushy mushy but its true.
So this year I plan to
- once and for all ‘blog more’
- sew lots and lots more
- knit a little more
- save more money so we can finish our house and continue to go on lots more holidays and adventures together, oh and buy fabric
- And remain a very calm and collected mother of 4! Yeah right!
- And most importantly, lots more great fun times
There’s a lot more things floating around in my head but that’s a good start since my day minus 3 kids is already nearly over. Would it be so bad to ring and put them in after school care on their first day back for no reason other than I could extend my day of peace and quiet??
Maybe not today, they would not be impressed but it is tempting..
Bye for now
Ren xx
So, I have been knitting this jumper as blogged here and was on the home stretch and well as you can see in the picture below, I stuffed up. Not sure what I was doing but aligned the sleeve so it was a little out of whack! Don’t worry I ain’t kicking myself too much about it as it is my first jumper and thought I didn’t do a bad job really. I started to try and unpick the sleeve and that was proving to be a little frustrating for me as my seams were pulled together too tightly, I should have left a little more give in them, so I have taken my unfinished jumper here and paying someone to fix and finish the seams for me.
I will knit this pattern again and give the seams ago next time, however I just didn’t need the added frustration in my life this week and wanted to have it finished. I love and am hooked on this knitting thing, just not sure on doing the tricky bits!
Have been busy quilting this quilt, so stay tuned..
Have you paid anyone to finish off a project? I am sure there’s plenty who have!
Ren xx
Latest edition of Inside Out arrived in the post this morning. I love getting magazines in the post. I get both Inside Out and Real Living delivered to me and at no cost, both have been redeemed through my Fly Buys which I mainly use with shopping at Coles Online, yes I get my shopping delivered to my door as well! Don’t worry I do get out of the house still.
I have been playing around with editing pictures on my desktop this morning, using both Snapseed and Pixlr Express. I loved using Pixlr Express and how you could add text to the pictures. I have also worked out how to embed a picture from my Flickr account into my blog post. It has only taken me all afternoon to do this but here we are, success at last!
Now its nearly school pick up time already!
Ren x
Fabric all cut and ready to go.
Probably won’t be sewing the quilt together today though, long night with Leo last night, he was a wee bit unsettled, but I did just manage to spend an hour cleaning out my emails in my inbox, funny how a chore so mundane still makes you feel better once done.
So back to my hazy day Thursday.
Joining in at Creative Space.
Ren xx
