Shopping

Since moving to the country we have been shopping (quite a lot).  At least the banks will be happy with us...not to sure I am.

So what have we bought?

Acreage (17 of them...because I need a bigger garden or so Mr Little says!)

Northern View...think rose garden here

Western view - The Little's are off for a walk to the nearest tree

A new car (sorry best photo I had) because we need the extra seats (seven of them now)

Southern View

 And fabric and food (as can't have enough)

We drove the Ballan (in the new car) to Mill Rose Cottage (which is my idea of heaven) because it has all this wonderful fabric and books and cottons and .......

And it also has this fantastic place to eat and drink right next door.......(you can come and stay the whole day)

And the rose garden would have to be just perfect...now that I have some room in my new garden I will be aspiring to achieve something similar (Oh no!!!! says Mr Little)

  

And I couldn't leave empty handed...so I snapped up some of the French General range to add to my collection....I can feel another quilt coming on.

And on a lighter note "The Little's" have opened a hair dressing salon...which might come in handy (somehow) - might need to receive some customer feedback from our first client before investing too much capital (not sure if that is a smile or a grimace).

What have I been doing?

I am still here.  I have started work at my new job and we have a lot of visitors. It has been really great to see everyone and as a result all of my usual activities have been shelved (but not completely).

What have I been working on?  I have been hand quilting (Yes Auntie M you read right).  Never thought I hear myself say that.  I have been using pearle 8 cotton and the fantastic Jenna Kimble's redwork needles (size 9).  I am liking this sort of quilting.  Here is a sneak peak of some of the blocks I have yet to do.

I have finally got a home for my sewing machine in our new home.  For the first few weeks it lived in the hall way..now we have moved it into the lounge and I can get going on all my embroidery projects I have in my mind.  More to come on that later.

I have also been crocheting the hexagons and working on some more Georgetown Turnaround circles.  I have to take some more pictures to show you next post.

What happened

Do you remember our gingerbread houses from last year.


Well all I can say about this years tradition is "What happened?."

It started off so well.....

then there was a lot of this required

Then disaster struck both the girls and the boys creations.

Conclusion...something went fatally wrong with the glue (oops icing)

Christmas Craft

As we have just moved I did not have the energy to get out the boxes (yes that is right.... boxes) of Christmas decorations...so the "littles" and Auntie Kate and I set out in making the decorations.  We used paper and felt.

We decided that poinsettias was the theme.  So we had a Poinsettia plant as the centre piece of the table and made some felt poinsettia's for the table and the tree. 

We used the pattern from the Christmas edition of Family circle

Next Auntie Kate made some felt decorations.

Even my "littles" made felt decorations

And to finish off various paper chains and paper Christmas shapes like stars and trees and candy canes to yield the finished product.  (excuse the freezer - we are lacking room these days).

We've moved

Earlier this year we decided to do a big move to the country and therefore bought 16 acres of sheep grazing land in the states north near apple and wine country.  We are going to build our house this year.  So in the last month I have been busily packing up the house and moving it approx 150km north.

How did it go?  I was very stressed (in terms of stress my Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale score was/is 177 which suggests  Risk of illness is moderate).  Well not sure about the resulting score and what it means.... but on moving day I the biggest headache that would not respond to any medication...I even got the big guns out.  Anyhow what stressed me out the most was watching the guys helping us pack put my Georgetown circles in a box (I hadn't packed this as I was working on it at night when I got a chance).  Forget the crystal cabinet, TV and my Villeroy and Boch tea set...I just panicked about my sewing and my cameras.

We have moved in to our rental house and this will be our home for the next year.  There is not enough storage and we will be living out of boxes this year ..but what an incentive to get our house built.

I start my new job next week and the boys start at their new childcare on the same day.

The "Littles" are growing so fast.  We can now walk around our new neighbourhood as a family with the dogs and the best bit is that the streets are very quiet...good for wondering children and dogs

Technical Issues

A lot of you have told me that you are having trouble leaving comments.  So I have just had a look at the settings of this blog and I think I have made some changes that should let people comment.  So have a go and let me know if it still isn't working

 

Pressure Cookers

I've just bought a pressure cooker.  I have never used one and have the memory of my father making caramel and blowing up the pressure cooker in our kitchen when I was in primary school. 

I bought the 10L Tefal Clipso.  I am a bit nervous.  Think I might start with something easy like Risotto.  Any one know any good recipes?