More Abby Pix

I forgot to include these photos

I have trained Abby to lay on her mat when I am in the kitchen. She always stands right by me and I was in fear of falling over her, so I put a mat down and taught her to lay there. That way, I know where she is and we hopefully will not have an accident. She is so danged cute!

I also was not feeling very well last night and it was cold, so Abby and I snuggled up on the lounge under the quilt together. Can’t blame me for the blurry picture, I didn’t take it.

Isn’t this a picture of contentment? A snuggle, a warm quilt and a scratch behind the ears.

FYI, this quilt was made from old mens cotton shirts from the op shop (thrift store to my US people). LOL, the shirts were old, I don’t know how old the men were! The most expensive part of the quilt was the batting, a cotton/wool blend that is nice and warm and soft. It is our favourite couch quilt for winter. I only wish I had used flannel for the backing…

AbbyPie

Isn’t Abby a cutie? She has been clipped, not by me – I chickened out. I had her breeder do it for me. Instead of being a ball of fluff, she now has a waistline and is looking more and more like a big girl every day.

We went up the coast last weekend to install a new A1 Longarm. While I worked, hubby took the kids for a drive and they had a great time. He hijacked my camera and took some pictures.

 Some rugged country.

What a cool letterbox!

I wish I had seen this…

We have to go away this weekend too. This time we can’t take Abby with us. She has gone to board with her breeder for the weekend. I have already dropped her off and I miss her being around. I will pick her up Monday morning. Last weekend she travelled very well in the car. She was in her crate and we stopped often enough for her to get out , have a wee and stretch her legs. We are going much further this weekend and i think it will be too long to keep her in the crate in any case.

I thought I had taken a picture of the kitchen all finished, but as it turns out, I can’t find the picture on my camera – either that or I imagined the whole thing.

To end off, here is a picture my son took with his DSi. A leaf fell onto the back of my car and landed like this!

Procrastination Queen

Yep. That’s me. Always thinking I should be doing things, rather than actually doing them. I have been working hard to try and change that about myself. I think for the first time in my business life I have my financial paper work up to date, filed and I know exactly where everything is. Still, things are seemingly in disarray in my home and it is a constant battle to keep up. I am ever so slowly learning that wishing it was better doesn’t MAKE it better. You actually have to work at it. Maybe I am maturing after all…

 

Well, it has been a tumultuous few months. We brought this little angel into our lives. This is Abby, our Miniature Poodle. She is 8 weeks old in this picture and she came to us the Monday after those horrible bushfires in Victoria.

Isn’t she gorgeous? She learned to sit on command the very first day she came here.

Kira liked Abby and Abby like Kira. I think Abby liked Kira the most and after a few minutes Kira had an expresson on her face that kinda said…Ok, take this baby away from me now. I have had enough.

This is my favourite photo of Kira.

 

Sadly Kira had been developing symptoms of paralysis in her hindquarters and one evening, she had a very swollen painful tummy. Due to her age and declining health, we decided it was better for her to have a peaceful ending to her life. There was nothing the vet could do to help her long term health and she was in some pain. She was one week away from turning 14. Labradors have a 10-12 year life span on average, so we did really well to keep her so well for so long. This was her last day with us.

Son number 2 made this floral tribute to Kira. One of the shrubs in our yard blossomed overnight the very same night that Kira left us. It was lovely.

Thank you Kira for being our little mate.

Just to liven things up a little, we renovated out kitchen. It was not as functional as we liked and as we are heading towards having 4 teenagers in the next 5 years, now was the time for us to do it. We have partially demolished the old kitchen here.

We, well, we as in Hubby, did a lot of the work. I have never seen him spend so much time in the kitchen.

He pulled out the old tiles – it is more efficient to cut out the plasterboard to do this. Less messy and it would have had to be replaced in any case.

All plastered up.

We went grape – picking and my friend’s winery. We are de-stalking the grapes before they are pressed and then put into the vats. That is about the extent of my winemaking knowledge.

But it is hard work pushing those grapes down.

Day 1 of the kitchen rebuild. I love my massive new pantry.

More cupboards in. The island bench is different than the original kitchen where there was a benchtop all the way across there.

Getting there. Waiting for the new benchtops.

Tileing is done. We love love love these tiles. They are glass and beeyoooteeefull. We (well, OK, he) laid the floor ourselves. There was no way we could match the old floor up. And we tried, we really did. This was the best match. I wanted it laid perpendicular to the original so it would at least look like we meant to have it that way.

No, I did not think this was the TV. I had just set the clock on the stove and could not get up. I had fallen down the front stairs the day before and my ankle was very sore and I was waiting for DH to help me up. Instead he grabbed the camera. Evil man.

The bad thing about this ventilation is that it is letting in the wildlife.

Aargh, it’s scary!!!

This is scary too. I am now the mother of a teenager. Yikes, where did all of those years go?

Abby has discovered the grass clipping pile.

And rolled in it.

I have been quilting as well. Honest.

My domestic duties now include being personal hygeine assistant to Kendra the guinea pig. Ahhh Guinea Pig Day Spa heaven! A nice warm shower. We (OK, he)  installed this shower hose in the laundry for bathing Abby (and other small mammals, obviously)

She really did like it. I also clip their nails. Did you know that guinea pigs have 3 toes on their hind legs and four toes on their front legs? No? Well, store this info away for trivia night then.

Abby has a new grooming table. This is the before shot. There is no after shot as I have not clipped her yet. That is my first job for tomorrow.

Are we sitting down? I actually qulted my own quilt this week. And attached the front of the binding. And I have hand stitched 1/4 of the binding down already. Impressive, huh? According to my records, it has been ready to quilt since August 2008.

I used the pantograph Fantasia by Lorien Quilting. I love this panto. Ooh, looks like Hermione has re-done her site. Looks good!

And here is one last shot of my little shadow, my new little mate, my trusty assistant, Abby. She is sitting  next to me at my desk on my spare chair. I love her and she loves me.

RIP Kira

March 5, 1995 – February 26, 2009

I Took a Break

Christmas came and went. January has gone by. Tomorrow I am ‘officially’ back to work (quilting work that is - a mother’s work is NEVER done). I have a ton of pictures to upload and some of the best pictures and our exciting news is at the end. It was great to have a long break from quilting – I think I was starting to burn out a little bit. I had planned to make a show quilt for 2009, but in the end, I didn’t want to do it without putting in 100%, so it will have to wait for next year as I have a rather full schedule at the moment.

We had a great summer holiday and did lots around the house and also had a day or two out and some visitors as well, so very nice.

The chooks are doing well. here they are sharing the nest. They all lay in the one nest and I guess one cannot wait when the other has it occupied. luckily my chooks all get along and can share. Even when one has her head pressed against the wall.

 

My dog Kira.

Kira is ‘helping’ me with the laundry. She is holding a sock for me. She is so smart…it fell on to the ground and she just knew I would be re-washing it once she picked it up for me. Never mind the slobber.

Here are the mystery gifts I was talking about in my last post. They are Schmerpis. You can buy the patterns from Helen at Pattern Press. Mine are naked…they are supposed to have clothes, but I think they looked good au naturale. The recipients LOVED them and they were a lot of fun to make. Hubby cut them all out for me and the kids all helped me turn them out and stuff them. A real family effort. They are made from polarfleece and make a great gift.

Here is the new Schmerpi family posing under the Christmas tree.

Of course, the month would not be complete without at least one kitchen disaster. This is what happens when you try to tip 12.5kg (about 30 pounds) of flour into a bucket, but instead you miss the bucket.

Major messiness all over yourself, the benchtop, the floor….

Over your brand new digital photo frame that you got for Christmas…. On your handbag….IN your handbag…not that you find that out until later…in the mixing bowl…yep, it went all over the place.

A new look for the discerning cook.

Mission finally accomplished. Next time, I will make my hubby do this so I can have a good laugh at him instead!

We had some really HOT weather. This is a local hotel in my town where it measured 47 degrees celcius. That is 117 degrees on the ‘old’ scale. Not that I was born when they used to use Fahrenheit for temperature. I digress….

We took the kids to the zoo. We parked the car under the Opera House and caught the Ferry across to the Zoo. This is a really nice way to start and end the day trip.

The view from the Zoo, looking back the the city. It is a beautiul place to visit for locals and tourists alike.

Some pretty birds, you actually walk through the enclosure, it is like a rainforest walk. Very nice.

 

PJ loved the penguins.

Everyone loves Koalas.

This may be our last Zoo trip for a while. Last time we went, the eldest was sick in the car on the way home. This time the second eldest was sick in the car on the way home…can you see the pattern emerging? We have two more kids….let’s not tempt fate shall we?

While the kids were home, I thought I would train them up to take over the business…just kidding, but they had a lot of fun quilting on a practice piece I had on there. Who knows, maybe they will be involved later on, but only if they want to.

And now for our big news.

This is Abby. She is 6 weeks old in this photo that I took last week. Next week, she comes to live with us forever. We are so excited to have this new puppy. She is a Miniature Poodle.  I have been taking grooming lessons from her breeder for the last few Mondays. I grew up with a poodle and love them. Now I am over the ‘baby’ stage of raising children, I feel that I can take on the comitment of grooming and caring for this little gorgeous girl. I know I can do a better job training this little one than I did with Kira, now that I have a little more life experience. Oh, and I am not 22 this time ’round. Looking back, at that age, you don’t even know what you don’t know! I am still no expert now, but I know a lot more than I did back then.

Of course our old girl Kira is still doing well for her age, but I need to face facts that she will not be here forever so this is the right time (for us) to adpot a puppy. I will be going grooming again tomorrow and I will find out exactly which day she is coming home with us the following week. I can’t wait!

She is just so cute!

Look at these feet!

 

So that…..is that.

This’n'That

So. I have finished quilting my customers quilts! Yippee. I have to bind one for a customer (no hurry) and quilt another for a friend (again, no hurry), so I have kept this week for me. On Monday I went to the gym and then came home and cleaned the house. Boy did it need it. I have been sadly neglectful of my home the last month or so, keeping busy working and ignoring the fact that some jobs (mostly vacuuming) need doing, but making them wait. Well, it feels great to have a clean home and now I am trying my best to keep it up. We had the daughter of one of my online friends over for dinner on Monday night. She was a very nice girl and after dinner, we took her to the city and drove over the Harbour Bridge and back again. It was fun.

I had a haircut yesterday and lunch out with a friend. Came home and vegged out for a bit until the kids came home with their school reports. All reports are great and the youngest kid won an award at Presentation Day for Academic Achievement. I am very proud of him. My eldest also came 6th out of his entire school grade (about 200 kids) in a Spelling Bee this week. I thought that was fantastic of him considering that he was out there in front of all of them spelling out loud. That is a big achievement for him.

Today I went out for lunch (again) with my friends from school – all the Mums. It was a nice lunch and a good catch up before the school holidays start. Tomorrow is the last day of school for 6 weeks. It is pretty hot today and we are expecting a storm this afternoon. It is getting windy. We are having a roof put on out the back over the paved area. Otherwise we have no outside shelter. We will even be able to BBQ in the rain unless it is horizontal rain from the east (unlikely). The frame is all up and the builder will be completing the roof tomorrow. Weather permitting.

These are the before shots of the side of the house…

Looking back the other way.

And this afternoon after 4 days, we have the frame up and the roofing will go on tomorrow. In the second photo below, part of it is done and this is how all of the roofing will look.

Now. About the Guinea Pigs. Lara was hastily re-named Seth and we have decided to have him desexed. They are now separated until he is big enough to do the operation. We cannot in good conscience return him to the store and ask for another. They are living things and I believe that once you adopt them, they are yours, come what may. OTOH I think it is quite extravagant to fork out the $$$ for guinea pig desexing in a world where children starve for want of food. However, this is my life and my decision to do the best with what I have. I do have a conscience about these things and there are many factors to consider. The most overriding factor for me in this case is the responsibility for me to set the best example to my children. I cannot teach them that animals are disposable. I also cannot teach them that it is OK to bring unwanted animals into the world by recklessly allowing them to breed. I do believe that the pet store made a simple error sexing the animals. It is hard to tell when they are so little. Seth is rapidly maturing and now the difference is blatantly obvious. So that is the story of the guinea pigs.

My dog, Kira, will be 14 in March. She is a labrador (you can see her in the above photos) and is now showing obvious signs of ageing. 3 weeks ago she got an ear infection and was miserable. She got haematomas in both her ears and her ear canals were swollen practically shut. This happenend very suddenly. She has been on eardrops and anti-inflammatories and the ear infection has almost cleared up. To the vet’s amazement, the haematomas have all but disappeared as well. We didn’t think they would go away, but they have. I was very upset the day I took her to the vets as I thought it was all over for her. She has now taken on a new lease on life and is doing very well. She is, however, very old for a labrador and I am very aware she will not be with us forever. I have had her most of my adult life  – since I was 22 and had no children. Initially I thought I would not get another doggy for a few more years, but I have changed my mind. I have my name down for a poodle puppy, which is due to be born in the next 10 days or so. I want a poodle as I grew up having one and they are gorgeous dogs. I would like the puppy to be more of a house dog. Kira lives in the backyard. Poodles do not shed and they are much cleaner to have around. I will have to spend a lot more time grooming, and I can do that for sure. I am really excited about the puppy. She will be coming to live with us in February. Now I have to think of a name for her…

My garden is going gangbusters and tonight we are having stir fry with home grown bok choy. Yum. The tomatoes are starting to fruit, the corn is growing and we have 3 melons on the vine. The first strawberries are also forming too. It is very exciting. The plants seem to grow slowly and then, bam, they take off and are growing almost out of control.

This was this afternoon, above. And below is a mere 18 days ago.

We have lots of things growing…

Heirloom yellow pear tomatoes (and other types too)

Rockmelon, another heirloom variety

 We had a gorgeous sunset last week. It was just beautiful. This is taken from out the front of my house.

My Gardenias are flowering. They smell absolutely gorgeous. I wish I could share their fragrance.

Now, what do you do with an egg that has a feather stuck to it???? You draw a face on it, of course. My 11yo son drew this onto the egg yesterday. It is hilarious. That is eggsactly how the feather was stuck onto the egg. You can’t think these things up, you know.

That is what I have been up to. I have been working on the Chrissie gifts I was talking about. I will reveal them when they are all done, hopefully early next week!

Busy Busy

Yep, I am here checking in. Heaps going on and also trying to fi nishthe last few quilts this week. I am very much hoping to finish by Friday, but at this stage, it aint gonna happen.

DS had a birthday last week, and he got some Guinea Pigs. they are so cute. We got 2 little girls, or so we thought. Yep. One’s a boy! I will elaborate a little more in my next post…it is a dilemma, but it will have a happy ending.

Here is the new ‘Dad’.

The Christmas shopping is almost complete. Still have the pile of gifts to make, but that will be done in time. DH is helping me with that.

The camera has been fixed and had had a few wobbly moments since last week, but holding OK so far. Just so long as I am careful not to bump it.

Here’s Ruby leaving us an egg!

Happy Anniversary to Me (oh, and Him)

15 years ago today I was a 21 yo bride. It was an extremely hot day, but everything went off without a hitch. Four kids, 2 houses, a dog, a few cars, lots of happy times and some very sad times too, we have made it to 15 years. I find it hard to believe how those 15 years have flown. On the whole, I think we have achieved a lot together and life is good. We went out for lunch today to celebrate.

My camera spontaneously broke itself again.

Yesterday I did the major part of my Christmas shopping. Every year DH and I usually make a big list. Check it twice, then do a big hit of shopping all at once. DH has been working a night shift this week, so I did it all by myself.

When I got home, I had to take Kira, my 13yo Labrador, to the vet. She has an ear infection, but has aged a lot in the last 6 months or so. I am dreading when “that time” comes. I know that it is inevitable, and that she has had a good life, but I am still dreading it. The vet checked her over, and she is OK for now, apart from the ear infection. She has 2 lumps in her nipple area, but they are causing no problems for now. Otherwise she is in good health. I was so relieved that I was in tears for most of the afternoon yesterday.

My friend has the most gorgeous golden retriever who accompanies her wherever she goes. Her dog has been suffering with some rheumatism lately, and my friend has her on injections by the vet, hoping it will make her life easier. Still, she is only 9 years old, but my friend is worried about her dog, too. Today her dog was ill with tummy problems, but she is much better this afternoon. Whew. I have been lurking on Penny’s blog and she lost her beloved doggy yesterday too. It is very depressing.

Monday

Thanks for all of the nice comments about my chooks and the quilting.

Today was a beautiful sunny day after the cold and miserable weekend weather that we had. I went out in the morning and took the kids out this afternoon to the produce store to buy more layer pellets for the girls. This place was much cheaper that the last place we got them from, so I will be going back there again next time.

Being a born and bred suburban girl, a trip to the produce store is still something very new. It is a bit different with the man at the store who has no words to spare, than in the ‘normal’ retail environment. Still, the chook food is produced less than 10km from my home and it feels good to ‘keep it local’. This store was further than 10 km away, but we only went there because the produce store that was closer to us was closed.

I think the packaging of this food is so funny.

When we got home, my son called me out because the chooks were all sitting together in a row. They were so cute. Unfortunatley, I dropped my camera and this was the resulting image when I took a photo. Yikes!

I knew that the screen was not busted because I could still view all of my photos. I showed hubby and was most impressed when about 4 seconds later, he handed me back my camera in working condition. He said he tapped it on the corner opposite to the one I dropped it on to. What the &*^$@??? This man fixes multi million dollar computers!!! I do not know his methodology on the job, but hey, it worked so far this time.

To test the camera, here is a preview of what we are working on for Christmas this year.

More details in the next few days…

I have been Tagged

…by Carla. I am to include a picture from the 4th month of my blog, so I have here the 4th picture from the 4th post of the 4th month of my blog.

 

birdquilt

This was a gorgeous quilt that I got to do after my room makeover. I loved this quilt. It went on the win the Amateur Quiltmaker – Professionally Quilted prize at the Camden Country Quilters Guild Show in August. Yippee. I have another quilt made by this lady to quilt in the next few weeks. It is equally gorgeous and I am (nervously) looking forward to quilting it too.

Thanks for making me look back at my blog, Carla. I am now re-enthused to keep it up.

I was pondering this yesterday. It seems that the longer I didn’t post for, the harder it was to post again. This week I had emails from 2 people – you know who you are – and it prompted me to write again. I think it stems from that horrible place in my mind that things have to be perfect or not done at all. Sometimes I really struggle with that, and procrastination is my major symptom. Oh well, I can only plug away at it and hope for the best.

I am not going to tag anyone, but if you want to participate, please do so and let me know by comment. If you want to pass it on, you are supposed to tag 4 people. Thank you.

PS: Why does ‘blog’ appear as a spelling error here on WordPress, a blog website? I think that is funny.

Still Alive and Kicking

Boy, life just goes on and on, doesn’t it? What have we been up to? I think I will start from now and go back to where I left off as best as I can remember.

Last weekend, we took a trip to Melbourne for the Australian Quilt Market – a trade only show. Tracey and I had a booth for A1 Quilting Machines and Intelliquilter. We drove down on a Thursday as far as Albury, stayed overnight and drove the rest of the way to the city to set up. On the way we stopped at Milwala in Victoria to visit Brown Brothers winery and a berry farm. It was a nice little side trip for the day. The show went well for us and on Sunday night, we drove back to Albury (about 3 hours) and on Monday morning we got up early and drove another 7 hours to home. Whew. I must say that all four of the kids travelled very well on this trip. There was no whining or carrying on. Potty breaks were minimal and mostly instigated by me. We had our more than fair share of takeaway, but it really cannot be avoided sometimes. DH did cook dinner in our apartment room on Friday night.

On the Saturday, there was the Myer Christmas Parade. To the best of my knowledge, this only occurs in Melbourne and not in Sydney. I guess it is like the Macys parade in NYC. DH took the kids to see it whilst I was working at the trade show. All but Mr12 year old liked it. They also got to go up the tallest building in Melbourne and I caught the tram to Albert Park after the show to meet them in the wave pool at the aquatic centre.

On Sunday they went Scienceworks and the planetarium which was enjoyed by everyone. On the way home on Monday, my daughter desperately wanted to see the ‘Dog on the Tuckerbox’ near Gundagai NSW. So we stopped there. I think you can see that she was happy and the boys were not. The 7 yo said, “all it was was a stupid dog on a stupid box”. I don’t know what he was expecting from visiting this Aussie Icon, but I think it was more than he got, LOL.

So the trip to Melbourne was a highlight. The weeks before that were taken up by work work work. I also had a virus which gave me headaches for a few weeks. That sucked. I hate feeling unwell.

I have planted out my first vegetable garden ever! It is going great! I have corn, tomatoes, bok choy, tatsoi, cucumbers, spinach, carrots, strawberries, melons and capsicums growing. I know it will be a bit hit and miss, but I will live and learn and keep going with it. I am already able to pick tatsoi on a daily basis for salad greens. Yum.

During the last school holidays, 6 weeks ago, we also bought a chicken coop and got our first chickens ever. Ruby, Rosie, Betty and Pearl. We have two Australorps and two Rhode Island Reds. Two of them started laying this week. We had one egg on Monday, and 2 every day since Wednesday. Last night’s dinner was bacon and teeny tiny eggs. It is very exciting to go outside and get the eggs from the chickens. It is like a little surprise each time. I know I am easily pleased, but it is very satisfying and wonderful for the children to experience. I am impressed with the care my 7yo is taking with the chickens. He makes sure they have feed and water every single day. He is really attached to them. I am proud of him.

This is Rosie when we first got the chooks.

These are the girls now. They sure have grown!

That is all the news on the farming front, LOL.

Hmmm, what else have I been doing? We have been buying our fruit and veg direct from the Sydney F&V markets at Flemington. The box of fruit is fresh fresh fresh and it lasts the 2 weeks until the next box arrives. It is way cheaper than he supermarket and you order online and can pick and choose from seasonal produce exactly what you want. It does cost $70 at a time including delivery, but just look at what you get…

I am under no illusion that my garden will be enough for my family to eat, but I can choose not to get tomatoes etc when mine are fruiting. Best of all, I don’t have to go to the grocery store so often and I am actually saving money. The downside is, you have to plan meals around what you get, but there is plenty of fruit for the kids to eat and should we be eating produce on a seasonal basis anyway? Nothing has gone to waste so far.

Mystery photo of the day! It seems that my boys love taking my camera when i am not looking and go exploring with it. This mystery will be solved next post. I hope you are not too squeamish for the answer to this one.