Girl time....

What a wonderful day I had yesterday, my Mum came to visit....Yep just what the doctor ordered a good dose of Mother daughter time....We drank coffee, cried, looked at the garden drank more coffee had another cry..... you getting the picture....I some how feel refreshed having spent the day with Mum, telling her all my deepest thoughts and fears that only she can understand..Lets face it it doesn't matter how old you get you still need your Mum, I know that after all these years Mum still misses Nana and yep we even cried about that yesterday..

Today though I am turning that wonderful material above into a skirt to wear out tonight...It mightn't look like much there but O! the plans I have for that piece of fabric...Tonight I am going out with the girls.......We are off to the Empire Theatre to see Les Miserables.....Girl time, adult time, good times....O.K so I may-be a little excited about going out...And why do I have to make something to wear your wondering....The last time I bought a good out fit was to wear to Chloe's formal.......2 years ago.....Now don't get me wrong I like clothes, but when I don't go out much I find it a waste of money as you wear them once then they sit in the wardrobe....

The week-end is full of soccer for me tomorrow the semi finals then all day in Stanthorpe on Sunday.....

I hope you all enjoy your week-end.

Blessings

Mandy

This and That...

Here's a boy that loves his soccer. We had club photos on Saturday and I had to share this one of William with you...On Sunday we are of to Stanthorpe for soccer with Robbie's rep team, it be a nice early start but I am looking forward to the alone time with him.I finely got around to making this Melly and Me bag. I made this straight as the pattern says, but now I am doing my own version...I am making the body bigger and the handles smaller..This one will go into my shop supply.....

Yesterday I got together with the ladies for craft....it was so nice to catch as I haven't got there for the last 2. Not much crafting got done but alot of laughing and coffee drinking....
Today was spent taking the MIL shopping and doing jobs in town....The shopping is done for another fortnight, now I'm thinking may-be I can hold of for 3 weeks, that would be good.

I hope you are all enjoying your week. Tomorrow will hopefully see me back in the sewing room for a few hours.

Blessings to all.....
Mandy

Talk about EMBARRASSING

Sunday morning we were all up early and getting ready for church..Hmmmmm I thought that I,d wear my new skirt that I made..It was so warm Sunday that a cotton skirt and top was just the thing, nice and cool.....You know those few times when you look at the image looking back at you and you think Yeah babe today I am lookin good. Well today was one of those days, the kids said" Mum that skirt looks so nice on you", the hubby agrees even....Off to Church we go with a spring in my step. Sure was good to see friendly faces again....Meet some people sitting behind me that I think were new.....And the message WOW just what I needed....cuppa time after and more chatting, yep good morning....
On the way home we needed to stop for some fruit and veges...While admiring the size of the strawberries Alanah says.....".Mum maybe next time you should wear white undies under that skirt"...WHAT!!!!! O.k how bad can you see....."Well' she says "big pink hearts are plastered all over your bum"........As the mind is going backwards it freezes.....there I am standing up in church and casually giving my undies a pull......you know what I'm talking about here girls.....and those poor new people behind me having to look at my bright pink heart undies and not so discrete tug.....

How was your week-end??????
Mandy

Sewing for me....

I have learnt one thing this week....and that's that it is hard to take photos of the clothes you are wearing!!!!! I apologize now for the photos...

When ever Greg gets a visitor I excuse my self and disappear to the sewing room. At first I felt guilty about this, but they don't really come to see me so I'm over the quilt part and look how much sewing I am getting done!!!!! The pants above are some Lounging pants I made....They are fine 100% cotton and will be great for summer when I have finished the mowing and had a bath...Yep.... lounging around in summer with a glass of wine, I can see it now.

The skirt below is made out of a vintage sheet I got years ago and always thought that it would make a pretty skirt. This was the easiest skirt pattern I have ever done..It is across the grain and so has a nice flare to it....I made this for Fathers Day, when we all get together.
I am noticing a certain dog in these photos....Molly is my faithful companion and follows me every where....

The above photo is of my favorite top that I've had for about 7 yrs and yes it is thread bare. I took a pattern from it and made a trial top in cotton..I need to get some finer material for this top as the cotton is to stiff. The one below will do as a house shirt though...

I have also made some more banners and handbags...I am getting stock ready for our next community garage sale in October....

I am looking forward to the week-end, soccer tomorrow and church Sunday. It has been weeks since I have been able to get to church, nothing stopping me this week... Enjoy your week-end.....

Blessings.......

Mandy.

A time for sitting....

This is the back garden all nice and green, I don't know why it always stays green as I never water it. I Don't believe in wasting precious water on grass. What I wanted to show you is the paddock behind..........it is dry here, very dry...Our local rural fire brigade have already stared to burn off in the area in readiness for the warmer weather. Our house tank has been empty for a couple of weeks and I've been pumping water from the shed tanks...That is a job I have to do again today. I don't mind doing it because it means we have water..Others around have to buy there water in... Yesterday the arch was made...This is for the Kiwi fruit, so it is nice and solid. I have always wanted an arch here, and am pleased with how it finishes the area of..It is made from some old star pickets 6 of them, then the poly pipe fitted over the pickets. The poly pipe is from the shed and then the mesh is from out in the paddock that we found....Price $oo.oo now that's why I love it. All recycled materials.....

The report from the Doctors wasn't good, he said that there is nothing more they can do to help, I knew this in my heart but hearing the Dr say it, well, that makes it all the more real doesn't it? This is where you find Greg most days in the sun on the veranda, he is taking the news better than I thought which is a blessing. One thing we are learning is that life is a gift, and we must live life to the fullest each day.....even just sitting and talking drinking coffee and tea is living it to the fullest for Greg so there is plenty of sitting for me and not much doing....but I would rather sit for this time than do...

There is lots of changes to happen in our lives and things are going to be tough and different, but that to is life....We have finely put our business up for sale, it has been hard for Greg to let it go, now we pray that it will sell fast....

Wishing you all a blessed day...

Mandy

What happened to Spring??????

What beautiful weather we are having...Yesterday it seemed like we missed Spring and jumped straight into summer... All the flowers are starting to poke there faces up. Jonquils are out and there sweet scent fills the evening air.
The colours are so deep, pinks yellows white and blue.
Even my sweet peas are making a comeback after not 1 but 2 times being munched on by the cows....
The best surprise was seeing a irise out in flower. These were here when we first moved in 20 years ago and they haven't flowered for a couple of years..I dug them up last year and divided them and this seems to have helped....
Just a quick post today as we are of to the doctors....Greg has been home from hospital 6 weeks now and we still haven't heard from a doctor....now this dosn't seem right to me shouldn't there be follow up appointments? Well I rang last week and again yesterday and DEMANDED to see his oncologist.....Now Greg says I have to be nice when we get there..........we'll see......

Blessings to all, and have a great day.....

Mandy

Decorating.....

This last week as I have been looking around at other blogs I have been inspired by the different ways people decorate...Birthday decorating has always been something we do for every-ones birthday....But I never realized what a lot of waste I was making until I read Julie's post over at Towards Sustainability. Her post about her daughters birthday inspired me....So thanks Julie...For a couple of years now I have been putting a party stash together... I have the table clothes and knives and forks...Table centres and table runners in differant colors I think you get the idea...... Then I go and buy balloon's , streamers and other decorating stuff , it kind of defeats the purpose doesn't it?I made a Happy Birthday banner out of felt, you could use your scrap booking letters and cards to make this as well....With the banners I used all my scraps of material big enough to get a triangle out of. They are double sided and were so easy to make.
All I had to buy was the ribbon to sew the banners onto. And while I was in Spotlight I also saw the balloon decorations Julie used and they were on sale...$30 for a pack of 6. 3 small and 3 large, so I got them as well. When I put them up I remembered that I had some Japanese lantterns so I pulled them out as well. Chloe loved it....and so did the othes, I am sad that Chloe's B/day is the last of the childrens b/days for the year as I have so many more ideas.........

Then I remembered Christmas.....Yep after the last b/day I start to think about Christmas...Well I can make Chrissy banners and I think one would look good in No1 sons shed, so I could make him one for Christmas.....(just joking son)

I hope this will inspire others to make their decorations instead of buying them and returning them to landfill..

Have a great day all......

Mandy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHLOE.........

Today you are 20....

You are grown up into a beautiful young lady that we are all so proud of. Chloe has so many good qualities about her but the one that stands out the most is her happy nature..Nothing is to much trouble for her, and this is something that her Dad really appreciates,as he is always asking.......Thank you Chloe for all you do........

Happy Birthday my darling....

On Wednesday it is Chloe's' boyfriend Damien's' Birthday as well so....
Happy Birthday for Wednesday Damo.....

It's O.K to dream........

This mess is my sewing room........

I haven't had a chance to get up to the Dairy since I got Cassie her sewing machine. Cassie is using it more than me the only problem is this........MESS......... I have realized that I'm not good at sharing my personal space..I am going to have to make some ground rules, as to what Cassie can and can't touch....aghhhhhh...

After an hour of cleaning it was back to MY sewing room.


Then I had to sit and have a cuppa and enjoy my space..I know I am so blessed to have this space as my own and every time I come up here I give thanks for it...That's what waiting for 15 yrs for it does...When we first moved here we didn't even own the Dairy, but I always said one day that is going to be my sewing room....Dreams do come true, may-be not in the time frame we want or even the way we think they should...But today I realized that it is O.K for me to still dream....my dreams are that Greg will stay here for along time, well and healthy. I suppose I have come to a place where I know there is nothing I can do. Not an easy place to come to, but I know that God has nothing but the best for us....it just might be different to what we think....Sitting up here having that cuppa was a good thing....

I even got in and got some sewing done...I am making banners. I will show you them finished next week. This is a fun way to use my scrapes of material up....

Looking forward to a fun week -end...Robbie gets home tonight from camp. Sunday Chloe turns 20.......20 I think I might be older than I let on......There is mowing to get done and sewing of course.......

Have a blessed week-end...

Mandy

Bye Mum......

School camp.....

No looking back....

Big smiles...
I'm sure he'll miss his Mummy....
you think????

Shopping and driving.....and then more driving.

Shopping day again today... I have made a decision to go back to fortnightly shopping...

So today was a big shop and then when home I had to rotate tins in the pantry.

I have my menu planned for the next 2 weeks so i am pretty organized there. By shopping fortnightly I know I am going to save alot more money, and I won't feel like I'm always in town and that darn car.

Here is an example of my week....

Mon- home.....

Tues- home.....

Wed- Take Alanah to TAFE...

do shopping come home, back to town at 5pm to pick up from TAFE
Thurs-Town for soccer practice....

Fri- Town to pick Robbie from Community Kids.

Sat town for soccer.

Sun-town for church....

SEE........I'm always going to town........so some changes are going to happen..soccer will be finished in 3 weeks so that will cut out 2 days....shopping fortnightly will help but the rest I have to do...

O.K so I am SOOOOOO over shopping and driving as you can tell....I can here my son saying"put a teaspoon of cement in your coffee Mum and harden up"....I hear you David.....

Plus I don't seem to have enough time to blog so something has to give doesn't it as one must get her priorities right......

Thanks for listening to the ranting of a

Slowly being DRIVEN insane MUM..

The red gate and fruit trees...........

Tuesday already today. We had such a nice quiet week-end that I think it over flowed to Monday....I had all my housework done by 10am and then it was down to the garden to paint my gate.... What do you think??????

I love it!!!!! below is a before photo so drab and boring, nothing like a little red to lift things...You can even see it from the veranda,yep love it...Greg is a little worried as to what I'll paint next as there is still alot of red left. I'm not sure if there is any-thing else yet.....I think I'll go with the less is more here.....
I did get my fruit trees planted over the week-end. Not all of them were able to go where planned though.

Above is the Nectarine-goldmine and Peach-Anzac. They are only in the pots until there new home is ready, which is through the gate behind them. The green area is where the new vege garden is going to go...That will be under way in the next week or two, just waiting for the bobcat man to turn up.

Above are the blueberries one is Brigitta and the other is Northland. Not sure which is which as they weren't marked. I had to put these in pots as once I read more on them they said that if you can grow azaleas you can grow blueberries....Well I can only grow azaleas in pots, it doesn't matter as I will make a feature of them...Now behind the pots in the garden you can see my Apricot tree-trevatt.

Can you see the 2 star pickets??Look closer ......see the 2 sticks in front, well there the apple trees. They are both dwarf trees a granny smith and pink lady.These are all up at the Old Dairy in the front, so when they grow I will get shade as in summer it is very hot and glarry in the morning. Below is a better shot of the apricot tree. When it grows it will shade the other window. They will be a picture in a few springs from now...

Along the back fence is where I had planned to plant my blueberries with my Thornless Gooseberries. Instead I have just planted the 2 gooseberries here, you can't really see them as they just look like sticks, look in front of the spade. I really wanted a hedge along this fence, so will have to find something else to plant as well. Any ideas???? I also have 2 kiwi fruit to plant out..I was going to have an arch going into the pool area and grow them on that...But they will need to go into the ground soon so I may have to just grow them on a fence.

I am happy with the choices I made and am looking forward to when I will not have to buy fruit at all....There is still a few trees I would like to get yet...Next year I'll get some more. I am slowly working towards my sustainable garden.

Enjoy your day....

Mandy

We have been enjoying our week-end together.

Jessica is home as you know.....

We have drunk lots of coffee,talked and just sat around...

Sisters enjoying being together and Dad is really HAPPY to see his girl.

I hope your week-end is going as good as mine.

Blessings

Mandy

A quick Hello.....

Sorry I haven't been posting much this week. I have been so busy with sorting a lot of things out on the home front.....Today blogger won't even let me get any photos, and I had some things to show you, next time may-be....I have my Mother in-law here for a while, having her here is some company for Greg while I get things done..Jess is coming home today for a the week-end to see her Dad, so we will have a full house, that's good as I like it full. I will get back to regular posting next week, meanwhile continue to pray for Greg.......he is not doing to well, as he is unable to eat any-thing and when he does it doesn't want to stay down...Thank you all for your continual prayer and support to us....

Blessings to all......

Mandy

I see Red,.....

It needed some colour down here....

Red is my favourite colour, the brighter the better. I decided that looking down into my rain forest garden it was looking to green and needed a bit of colour...What else but red.This was the set before.......Dad made this table setting for me about 10 years ago if not more.
Hubby reckons it slaps him in the face when he looks down to the garden...Well that's what I wanted a statement.....

I love it.......

As you can see in the first photo I still have all the paint tins sitting on the cubby veranda. I'm not finished yet!!!!There is a certain gate down the back that is crying out to be dressed in red as well.

First though I have to get the housework finished, and the floors moped.

Then lookout still lots of red left...

Have a great day,

Mandy

A sneak peak......

This is what I have been doing this week-end.

Can you guess???? Thank you my friends for all your lovely comments in my last blog, you are all so kind to me....

Blessings

Mandy