Change

After thinking about doing this for ages and ages, I'm changing my blog.

I had originally decided to start a new blog when we moved to Chinchilla which if you'll remember, we were planning to do around Easter LAST YEAR!

Obviously that hasn't happened and I've continued on posting away and quite happy about it too.

The time for a change is here though and don't worry, I won't be changing a great deal about the blog, it will still be the same sort of content that I have here.

Basically I'll just be blogging under a different name.  That's all and the only reason is that I felt it was time for a change.

So my new blog is

daydream in colour

click on the link and you'll be able to access it.

Cheers my friends and thank you all so much for coming on the journey with me for the last couple of years.  I'll see you over at my new one!

xx Susan

Do you remember.....

...me writing about my camera dilemna?

Well it would seem I have an update on the missing camera charger.

I finally got up the courage to admit to my husband that I'd lost the plot and had somehow misplaced ANOTHER charger.

The conversation went something like this:

Me:  Uh, honey.  You know how we used to have two chargers for the small camera's and I lost one about a year ago?  Well I've sort of lost the other one as well.  I'm thinking of looking through the toy boxes though, just in case Master M has decided to play with it.

Lovely hubby:  (after looking at me with 'THAT LOOK' that men get)

I told you I put it in my wardrobe.

Me:  OH!  I....um.....don't remember you telling me.

Lovely hubby:  (still giving me 'THAT LOOK')

.....obviously.....

So I now have a camera charger which is back in it's home in the drawer with all the other chargers.  It's happy, I'm happy and Little Miss R is currently burning up the battery by taking a million photos on my little camera.

That's ok though because now I can charge it!

xx Susan

I forgot...

...to show you the scarf I made for Little Miss R's teacher.

Here it is in all it's blueness.  I quite like the boxy pattern of this one, especially when it's draped around the neck.

Now all I have to do is wrap it up and put it some place I can remember when it's time to give it to her.  That may be a problem with my memory though!

Just to be on the safe side...it's on the bookshelf in the spare room.   Now it's up to you to remind me!!!!!

xx Susan

After school fun

Yesterday was such a gorgeous, hot day so after school we decided to head to the playground around the corner for some fun.

Little Miss R rode her bike and Master M scooted there but first of all they decided to play on the swings, slide and climbing things.

If you enlarge the above photo you'll see a huge open area behind the playground then in the distance a small building.  That's where the dog 'playground' is.  It's an enclosed area for dog owners which has all types of things for dogs to play over, under and around.  It's brilliant and really, really popular!

What my kidlettes love though is the above little track area.  It's made for kids with bikes and scooters and they absolutely love it.

There's bumpy things to ride over.

Different paths to take.

Things to zig zag through as well as other things to ride over to test their balance.

After the obligatory push on the swings, I got down to important business.....

...my new book which I bought yesterday.

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

xx Susan

Helping Daddy

Master M decided that he wanted to help Daddy mow the lawn.

He has his own little mower but he doesn't like the noise of Daddy's big mower.

The problem was rectified and he was very happy....

xx Susan

Knit and natter

On a Wednesday morning I usually head over to my sister's house for a knit and natter morning.  Our Mum comes too and we're all loving the fact that were finally having some regular time together.

There's always a cup of tea to be enjoyed.

And you couldn't have a knit and natter without doing some sort of crafty stuff.  In my case it's some more crochet.  I've started on a cushion cover in brightly coloured stripes from some acrylic yarn I found in my stash.

I was making it in treble crochet (UK/Aus) but it just seemed to me to be too holey.  I wanted a tighter stitch with the 5.5mm hook I was using so I've changed it to double crochet and think it's looking so much better.

I seemed to be the only one doing crafty stuff today.  There's ALWAYS plenty of nattering going on because we're a group of women who like to have a chat. Maybe we should call it Craft and Chatter or Crafty Chatter instead!

My sister and mother are working on some family tree stuff so instead of doing their crafty stuff, it was reading over a lot of the info that they've found this week.  It was all pretty fascinating to listen to and that's something I love about crochet, you can still do it while chatting to people or just watching tv. 

My favourite time and place to crochet is when the kidlettes are playing in the backyard and I sit on my lounge and watch them.  They seem to stay outside for longer if I'm there so I'm happy to indulge them and continue to crochet.  It beats housework!

The above photo is how much I got done on our knit and natter morning this week.  I was firing on all cylinders I think to get that much done!

Hope your all having a fantastic week.

xx Susan

Having a cleanout

My spare room has been driving me NUTS lately.  It's so messy and cluttered and basically a dumping ground for everything.  Not exactly a healthy environment especially when we've put a desk in there for Little Miss R to do her schoolwork.

The below photo was taken when  I was about halfway through cleaning so it was a lot worse before this.

I cleared out the wardrobe and rearranged things.  I even went around the house to find all my stashes of crafty stuff which included material, yarn, habberdashery stuff and lots of things I didn't even know I had!

Having it all in one place made me realise just how many goodies I do have and now my mind is full of a thousand things I can make.

Now the easiest place to put things when I want to sort through them is my bed.  I can spread everything out on it and there's less chance little fingers will find their way into it to make a mess.  I do say LESS chance rather than NO chance as I do have a curious couple of kidlettes.

The other reason I like to sort things from my bed is because I know I'll finish the job as I need to sleep somewhere at night!

Since I decided I was going to be in my room awhile, I thought it best to listen to some tunes.  My bedroom stereo is pretty old so I can't use my ipod with it so I resorted to the good old cd.  I have eclectic taste and chose from the 3 cd's that were in my room at the time.

Evanescence, Adele and Mumford and Sons.  (Waaaay different from each other I know).

Mumford and Sons won out as I was in a bluegrass mood.

The spare room is now much cleaner and tidier.  Unfortunately some of the larger items do need to stay in the room because we really have no where else to put them in the house.

Little Miss R's desk is there to the right where the red chair is.

You can see one cupboard door only but there are 3 doors altogether and inside them is now relatively clean and tidy.  Maybe I should really say that it's slighty more organised.

There's also a bookshelf on the wall to the left which is now much tidier and full of books as well as crafty stuff.

During my tidy up I found heaps of safety pins.  I used an empty powdered stock container to hold them in and it's worked out perfectly.

 

I also sorted through my sewing basket.  I've got fishing tackle boxes and tupperware holding plenty of sewing things in but I always use this basket because it was my Grandma's.  When she passed away I was given her sewing machine, sewing table and of course her sewing basket.  Even though it's now 20 years since she passed away which I can't quite believe, I always think of her when I see this basket or use my sewing machine.

Inside the basket were these interesting tidbits too.  I'm not sure exactly what they are but I have a vague recollection that my Mum once told me that one of them is a lace maker.  If anyone out there knows what they are then please let me know.  Thanks!

Once I'd finished tidying everything, resorting and putting it all back in happier places, I ended up with a bag full of fabric and yarn to send to school with Little Miss R for their craft.  I've just got to remember to take it with me!

So everything's much tidier, neater and I'm much happier for now. 

xxx Susan

My camera dilemna

I'm lucky that I have a pretty good choice of camera's in which to take photos.  I have my Canon Digital SLR which I absolutely love, especially as I have another 300ml lense that I can attach if needed.  This is definately the camera of choice when we go away camping so I can snap away at any scenery to my hearts content.

Then I have my everyday Canon IXUS which is great to grab at whim and take shots about the house or when I'm out and about and don't want to take my big camera as this slips in a handbag nicely.

I haven't been able to use this for awhile though because I seem to have lost the chargers.  I say chargers because hubby has a similar camera so he's got a charger for his as well.  I lost one charger about a year ago and recently the other one has gone missing.

 

I have looked everywhere and am completely stumped as to where they could be.  (I also haven't admitted to hubby that I've lost them yet.  He probably won't be surprised though!)

It's lucky I have a new phone so I'm taking most of my photos on that lately but it's not the same as my little camera.

I may have to go search ebay for another charger and then I'll probably find one or both of the other ones.  A spare one would be good though....or just one at the moment.

xx  Susan

P.S  I've had a thought.  Recently I lost about $450 in cash from my bedside table for about two weeks.  I thought I was going insane and couldn't find it anywhere.  I felt sick, scared (because I'd finally lost the plot) and just plain worried.  Then hubby found the money in the bottom of one of the toyboxes.  Master M had got hold of it and hidden it.  Maybe losing the camera chargers is NOT my fault and a search through toy boxes might be in order!

Yarn on the menu

It seems an AGE since I've blogged about any crochet or crochet projects.  To some of my friends and blog readers that's not a problem at all... others they may miss it (I can live in hope!)

I've decided that I'm a person that needs TWO major crochet projects on the go to be happy.  As long as they're both a little different in style and stitches then it helps if I get bored with one and can easily switch to the other for a day or two.

Lately I've been doing just one project and that's the old fashioned cotton bedspread for my bed.  It's the biggest project I've attempted and I am loving it but I do get bored doing the same stitch pattern over and over again.

So over the weekend I decided to do something a little different just to switch things up a bit.

I went through my stash, found a ball of yarn I wanted to work with then  decided to make a scarf for Little Miss R's current teacher.

This may be a little ahead of myself because I made scarves for her Prep teacher and teachers' aide for Christmas last year.

Stay with me though people because our house is on the market!

Yes finally.  After a year of talking about moving, we've finally decided on an area where we may be going to and have actually contacted the real estate and started the process.   Finger's crossed about selling because the housing market's pretty slow right now.

So how does putting our house on the market and a crochet scarf go together?

Well I thought that if we do sell the house then it will be pretty full on packing, looking for a new place to live, moving, finding a new school for Little Miss R, changing all the necessary over to a new address, all the other stress added because I know hubby won't be here for most of it.....then me having a bit of a mental breakdown before we get back on track again.

Once we got to our new place I would then realise that I wish I had made something for Little Miss R's current teacher as a Thank you for the work she has done so far this year.  That's why I've started on this particular project now so even if I finish it before the house is even sold, I can put it away and bring it out at the last minute for Little Miss R to give to her teacher.

So for a couple of days I crocheted away when time allowed using a great pattern called 'snapdragon shells'.  With the multicoloured yarn it was really turning out quite well.

Then I got to the end of the ball of yarn and realised I made the scarf a little bit too wide and a little bit too short!  It still wraps around but it's not a nice comfortable scarf the way it is now.

Do I undo the whole thing?  Probably as I would like to fix it up but just not at the moment.  So what to do?

I ended up tidying up some of the spare room and in the cupboard I found another box of yarn!  I was sooooo excited, like Christmas morning excited!

I found some nice purple (which is her teachers favourite colour) and decided to try a different pattern again.  This time the boringly titled 'side bars'.  I'm liking the square, mesh effect this has though but we'll see when it gets a bit longer.

I only started this one after the kidlettes were in bed last night while I was watching the cricket.  The above is how much I got done BEFORE the power went out.  Yes the power went out when there was only 2 overs left to go!!!  I couldn't believe it and had to bump, thump and crash my way through the house to find a torch and my radio to find out who won.
(Australia beat Sri Lanka in the last over by the way...)

So today it's absolutely pouring rain again and in between doing some more crochet, house tidying, crochet, washing, crochet etc, I'll be checking the internet for flooding around the Gympie area as hubby's on his way home again.  Last stint it was flooded in Gympie (one hour's drive away) and he had to back track another 4 hours to get home.  Instead of a 9 hour drive it took him 13 so we really don't want that again!

Hope you all have a fantastic week.

xxx Susan 

The barbeque:: Take 2....

WE HAVE GAS!!!!

For the BBQ that is....

Thank goodness because even though it still wasn't quite the same perfect kind of evening it was the night before, it was still a lovely time to be outdoors.

There were some clouds, and a bit more of a breeze....but it was still wonderful.

The kidlettes spent the late afternoon on the water hopscotch or 'opquotch' as Master M calls it.  They got extremely wet and had a fantastic time running around doing it in the process.

It gave me the chance to work on a new project while they were getting as wet as possible but I'll tell you a bit more about that soon (if I remember to that is..you may have to remind me).

Then it was time to try the barbeque.  My gorgeous dad came over today to help me swap the gas bottles over.  It was a very easy and completely painless process which I had pretty well worked out for myself but I decided that I'd better get an 'expert' to help me the first time in case there was one small step that I missed.

Nope.  All was well and fired up just like it should.

This time it's marinated honey soy chicken kebabs so first I put down the baking paper.  I personally believe baking paper is a MUST when cooking anything marinated on the barbeque because it's so less messy.

As you can see by the photo below, this is what the baking paper looked like when I finished cooking. 

 (A note to people about ALDI baking paper.  Lots of things stick to it and it's pretty well crap.  I have similar results with other things cooked in the oven too so I'm putting this lot in the camping gear and getting the better quality stuff for home).

....and the results after the baking paper (even bad quality) has been taken off....

...so nice and clean.  That's something to really love.

I will end by sharing a quote from Little Miss R (age 6 remember) on her dinner...

"...that was BLOODY great!..."

(Oh dear...I really hope she takes after her father and not me with those comments....I really can't be sure though.   On second thoughts, if it was her father maybe it could have been a lot worse....)

The end of a LONG week

This week has seemed to go for a very long time.  It may have something to do with the fact that I haven't been well since about Tuesday afternoon so have spent a few days in bed.

I'm lucky Little Miss R has been at school and family members have done the school run for me or looked after Master M for awhile to help me recover better.

I'm feeling MUCH better now though, in fact I really perked up Friday afternoon and because it was such a lovely day, we spent as much time outside as possible.

I decided to crank up the barbeque to cook some snags for dinner.  We do use the bbq a lot over summer when lovely hubby's home but I haven't used it myself in about 6 years! 

Time to start using it again as I love being outside with the kids and not inside slaving over the stove..it's much more fun.

So dinner's cooking away, the kids are having fun on their scooters.....

...and kickboards on the slippery slide....

...when I realise that the gas has run out with the snags only about a quarter cooked!

I have no idea how to change over the gas bottles so I took dinner inside to finish cooking then brought it back out so we could still enjoy the gorgeous evening.

 

Lovely hubby's not home for a couple more days yet so my gorgeous dad's coming over today to show me how to swap the gas bottles over.  Yay for Dad's!

It's going to be another nice day I think so I'm hoping to be able to crank the barbeque up again tonight and for that we need gas...

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend.

xxx Susan

A gorgeous evening

Yesterday we had to head up the coast for a late appointment with Little Miss R.  It was at Point Cartwright and by the time we had finished it was  after 6pm and almost dark.

Almost is the word.  I took these photos of the Mooloolaba River from La Balsa park before we left.

It was just so beautiful and I was wishing Master M was with us so we could've had a picnic dinner in the park.

Such a lovely evening to help lift my spirits.

xxx Susan

Mexican and Margaritas

Friday night was just the loveliest night.

It was my friend Jodi's birthday and we were having a girl's night out at Mooloolaba.

Now the last night I had a night out was for Jodi's birthday last year.  Shocking to know it's been a year since I've been able to be free of kids (and husband) and have some time with the girl's.

The weather was VERY different this year though.  Last year it was the most perfect evening and this year it was raining and stormy.  When I say raining, I mean RAINING!  Torrential.  Downpours.  MUST really concentrate on driving or the water will shoosh you off the road type rain.

So where did we go?  Well Mexican was the choice this time so we headed to Montezuma's at Mooloolaba.

A dip and corn chip platter is always good for starters...

...and of course a Margarita had to be sampled.  I didn't even think about a photo until I was nearly finished.  (Oooohhhh it was sooooo delicious!)

Then there was the HUGE meal.  We really shouldn't have had a starter even though we all shared it.  We couldn't eat all our meals so it's lucky they give you a doggy bag if you want one.

As Jodi and Crystal picked the meal I was intending to order, I decided to try something new that I thought sounded pretty interesting and Sandy had the same dish that I did too.

It's called a Mole Poblano and I'll quote from the menu here:

Centuries old chicken dish invented by the nuns of Puebla for the Bishops visit, served with a spicy Aztec nut sauce, 32 herbs and spices, coconut, banana and pineapple.

It was DIVINE!   Then again you'd expect a dish made by nuns for a bishop to be pretty divine wouldn't you?

After dinner (and collecting our doggy bags), it was off for a coffee at a nearby cafe.

More chats and catching up before we decided that the rain really was getting heavier and that we'd better think about heading home while we hopefully still could.

...and home we did get.  We weren't flooded out which was a possibility considering the water laying around everywhere but it was a bit of an interesting drive home.

I'm glad I was in the 4x4 because the water was rushing across the road most of the way and there were a few nasty potholes that we hit because you just couldn't see them in the dark and the rain.

Once snug in my house I enjoyed listening to the rain on the roof and knowing I wasn't going to be dragged out of bed early because the kidlettes were having a sleep over at Nan and Poppy's so I had the house to myself!  Bliss.

xxx Susan

In need of colour

I've found many of my pictures in my recent posts to be a little dull.  That's dull in colour although you may decide that they're a little dull in content too but that's my life...

As the weather has been rainy and stormy, I decided to go through my photos and find some with a bit more colour.

The ones below weren't necessarily the brightest, but they were colourful in their own way and had some special memories attached to them.

Enjoy!

I hope this has brightened things up a bit.

xx Susan

Summer Storms

Oh how I LOVE storms!

We have some truly fantastic storms where I live and Tuesday was no exception.

It was at least 34 degrees celcius, possible higher that morning and that means steamy, sticky, tropical weather.

Just after lunch the clouds built up and then the rain came....

...less than 5 minutes after I took the next picture you couldn't see the hills in the background from the rain.

Maleny is up behind those hills and I found out later they had about 50mls (2 inches) in half an hour!

No matter which direction we looked, there were storms.

Lots of thunder and lightning and torrential rain.

It was sooo wonderful!