Today's Daisy #21

Today's lonely little Daizy was left over from my Daizy quilt. As this is my 700th post I thought I would give the daisy away if anyone would like it. I will include a pack of scraps left over from the Daizy quilt also. So if anyone is interested please leave a comment and I will draw a winner next week. Fingers crossed that somebody does leave a comment or I will have to pretent and add some fake ones from myself.

Back to the Past

I had a brilliant evening gossiping with a couple of good friends last night. The topic of conversation got round to when I used to be a craft worker, and my friends requested that I put some of the photos of the work I did up on my blog. So here they are. The pic above is of my next door neighbour's daughter modeling one of my reversible dresses and matching hat. One side of the dress was a red check and the other the lovely red daisy fabric. The dress could be flipped inside out depending on what mood you were in or if one side got a bit grubby. I also did lovely bright and colourful reversible dungarees, little padded jackets, sun hats, waistcoats, fleecy hats and scarves and cot quilts. The above snap is of my stall at a special market day in Berwick. I usually did indoor craft events or craft tents at Agricultural shows. The lovely quilted pics were done by my best friend Sheena, and they sold like hot cakes.

I stencilled the chickens on to the fabric of the above dress.

Today's Daisies #20

Today's daisies are on a glass pendant Peter bought for me a couple of years ago. Quite soon after he gave it to me the loop that held the pendant on to its chain broke, so it has been languishing in a drawer ever since. A couple of weeks ago Peter spotted it in my jewellery box and asked why I did not wear it. When I explained it had broken he said "Don't worry I can fix that easily." and he did. There are some benefits to having a husband who is a Dentist. I now have my pendant back in working condition, after being drilled, cemented and given a new loop made out of a bit of dental wire (I think, I did't question him to much as to what he usually used the wire for).

Today's Daisies #19

Today's daisies are on some cushions I made yesterday. Since finishing the horrible daizies, I have been able to get back to what I really enjoy doing. Messing about with scraps and colour. Below is the type of quilt I really enjoy doing. Very scrappy, very straightforward and a lot of fun. The Daizy quilt has been a really good learning experience for me. I know now I am not a pattern following person. Patterns do not give me the pleasure that messing about with scraps does.

Today's Daisies #18

Today's Daisy, some Shasta Daisies from my garden and some friends.

This is ...... what scares me

What scares me is horror in any form, though I did manage to listen to the original "I am Legend" when it was serialized on BB7. I have even had to leave the room while watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek and Dr Who (pathetic). My family find it very funny. I am basically a very rational person who is rather stupidly and easily scared by anything that goes bump in the night. Even possums making that weird laughing possum noise outside our bedroom window at night, can convert me into a shivering wreck.

Things I am afraid of is a very different and much longer list. Ranging from Global Warming, GM Crops, Nuclear power, the power that large corporations have over us to the rather personal fears like heights, flying and getting my kids through to adulthood in one piece. These are fears that cause me stress, but do not reduce me to a quivering, incoherent wreck like the things that go bump in the night.

Breakfast on the Veranda

For the past couple of weeks I have craved the above breakfast. Drop scones (picklets) with strawberries, yogurt and butterscotch and macadamia nut parfait. Each time I attempted to cook the this lovely breakfast feast, there would be something missing. Either no eggs, or no milk, or no strawberries. This morning at last everything including the weather was perfect. Yum yum. My plateful is the one with yougurt, Peter had the very healthy squirty cream with his. A big thank you to my brother Bryan for the bottle of butterscotch and macadamia nut parfait that arrived in a lovely basket full of goodies at christmas.

The long wait is over

After months of waiting for my lillies to bloom, the flowers opened today. I thought they were Christmas Lillies, these ones are just a few weeks late.

Evening Walk

This evening we had to leave the house and go for a walk after tea. The house was so full of annoying little flies, which needed to be zapped with a lethal dose of fly spray. So while our home turned into a fly death zone, we had a lovely walk up the hill. Here are some of the snaps I took. And some more Agapanthus filling up the verges.

Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks

While away on holiday last week I read the above book. I had given it to Peter to hide before the holiday so I would not be tempted to read it. I love Christopher Brookmyre's books. I like his style of writing, kind of a cross between Carl Hiassen and Ian Rankin. I particularly enjoy the way he has a good rant, I also like to have a good rant about things that worry me, so far his rants have been a spot on match to my own (just done with a lot more eloquence). This particular book did not make me laugh out loud as much as some of his others did, but this did not make it any less enjoyable. I thought I knew where the plot was going, but did not get the last twist at all. Beware if you are new to this author, his books are not for the feint hearted.

My 2007 Book List

The books that I have read list is getting a bit long. So I thought that I would transfer the books I read last year to this post. Then I will still have a record off what I have read and the list will only contain books from 2008, how sensible is that, way to organised for me really.

The Magic Apple Tree by Susan Hill
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J K Rawling
The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper
The Wolves of Savernake by A.E. Marston
A Killer in Winter by Susanna Gregory
The Night Watch, The Day Watch and Twillight Watch by Sergi Lukyanenko
Country Quilts by Linda Stewart
The Right Attitude to Rain and The Careful Use of Compliments by Alexander McCall Smith
Exit Music - Ian Rankin
Monseiur Pammplemousse Takes the Train by Michael Bond
Making Money by Terry Pratchett
One Good Turn, Case Studies, Not the End of the World and Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson
First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde

Not to long a list as I only started recording them in June. I was going to name the best and the worst. The worst ones did not even make the list. And I can't make my mind up what is the best book. It could have been Exit Music or the last Harry Potter. Then again it could have been the latest Terry Pratchett. All of the books I have read have some reason for naming them as the best book. So I will give up on that idea.

This is ....... My Favourite Cup/Today's Daisy #18

While surfing around some crafty blogs the other day I found a really cool site called Three Buttons. Lots of wonderful ideas and pics. One of the ideas is a meme "This is .....", follow the link for a fuller explanation. But basically each week a theme is suggested, then on the Sunday you post pictures on your blog relating to the theme. This week it is "This is my Favourite Cup". I thought it would be a good idea to join in, so here I go.

Above is my favourite cup, a very large tea cup. It should be used every morning for my breakfast cup of tea, English Breakfast Tea obviously. Problem is, I never have time during the week for breakfast, at the weekends it is usually lunch time by the time I get round to breakfast and to cap it all I can't drink tea regularly anymore (shhhh don't tell anyone but ....causes me bladder problems, no idea why, but not pleasant). The cup though is beautiful, covered in Dasies, even on the bottom of the saucer. I bought it from Abbey Ceramics at the Hersil near Coldstream on the Scottish Borders.

Being the greedy girl I am I could not just have one favourite cup, below is one of my recent bargins. A red spotty mug (really into spots at the moment). It was reduced to half price in a Christmas stock clearance sale, $5 or about £1.50 GBP. It came in a lovely red spotty box, which was worth the $5 by itself. I am looking forward to drinking hot chocolate out of it when Winter comes round again.

Moonlight

Moonlight through the clouds two nights ago. I need to read my camera's instruction book and learn how to take night time shoots. As I am just not getting the sharpness and quality I would like. Yes, the colours were as seen above I have not messed about with them.
More moon pics from last night. I also need to get myself some decent image software. In the pic above you can just make out the leaves on the tree, but it would look so much better if the image could be lightened a bit and I have no idea how to do this. Maybe I should take a night school in Digital Photography this year.

Today's Daizies - Finished

At last the top of the Daizie quilt is finished. It still needs to be backed, but that can wait. I want to put the quilt away for a while until I like it a bit more. But I am feeling so much happier knowing that I will never have to do another small Daizie again. Back to some old projects that need backing also.

Butterfly Mix

My youngest's garden is in full bloom and looking great. We planted it with a packet of seeds called Butterfly Mix.

Frustrating Thursday

On Thursday morning we had a visit to the Beehive, the seat of the New Zealand parliment. The tour was excellent, we had a great time. But we were not allowed to take in cameras, everyplace I looked I saw something I wanted to take a photo of, so very, very frustrating.

Then in the evening we went to see the Police in concert. Again I was not allowed to take my camera. So no pictures.

Mount Victoria

A couple of views from the top of Mount Victoria, down over Wellington CBD.

Wellington Zoo

Here are some snaps of the animals at Wellington Zoo. How laid back can a Kangaroo get.

City Agapanthus

Even in the city the Agapanthus are in flower. Told you there would be more Agapanthus popping up on my blog.

Stingray

From the bridge over to the quayside we spotted this stingray in the water. It was following the people in boats.

Wellington Harbour

Some views from around Wellington harbour.

Grace Cottage - Wellington

We have just been on a very short holiday to Wellington. We stayed in Grace Cottage, a city batch. I had a great time, it was a brilliant break and a brilliant place to stay. Right in the centre of Wellington just off Cuba St.

Tuki Tuki Valley

Ever since we moved here I have wanted to take some snaps of the Tuki Tuki valley. This afternoon I had to transport a bunch of teenagers down to the river so they could cool off with a good swim. They were not behaving well so I thought I better hang around to make sure they did not get up to mischief. The ideal opportunity to have a wander around taking some snaps.This is the view looking down the river towards the ranges. The view looking up the valley. Wish I had taken my togs with me, I was so tempted to just strip off and dive in in my underwear, but after reading Posy's blog I am glad I didn't. Plus I think my teenager may have died of shame.