BLESSED SPEEDY

Well its grand final day in the afl today - hawthorn are playing sydney swans. Im not really that fussed who wins but if I have to choose Ill choose Hawthorn. And what have I been doing - apart from watching a bit of the footy as its broadcast live? Finishing off stuff - this time a pair of socks hermiones every days socks  and a table topper I've made from a "Dessert Roll" that someone gifted me years ago - its my own design, nothing flash but I quite like it! I buttonhole stitched the centre flowers after attaching them with vliseofix and pieced the background from the roll strips P.S. Swans won by 10 points

Received this bill in the mail from Ambulance Victoria - for my little trip from Cohuna Hospital to St John of God Hospital in Bendigo - it took an hour and a bit to get there. Thank goodness we have ambulance cover as our annual cover which is less than $100 for a family fully covers this.  Make sure you have cover too!

If you are a regular reader of my blog you might have noticed a bit of a theme lately.  Since I havent been well, I seem to have returned to doing stuff I haven't done touched been interested in for quite some time i.e. embroidery/quilting etc. And how good does it feel! Thankfully I prepared and thought a lot ahead - years ago - and have actually been able to be quite productive without having to spend a cent - how smart am I? Today I was sitting quilting a smallish table cloth type thing that I have made with a "dessert roll" that someone gifted me years and years ago - prepared earlier????? And I was loving it! I've also been managing to post here on this blog every second day - have you noticed?  I've been trying to alternate it with farm stuff and crafty stuff and it seems to be working. Hope you readers are enjoying it too!

It's the simple things in life that give us pleasure.  Today I was able (finally!) to get the cows up for the afternoon milking from the other farm.  Didn't go on the motorbike as that is not quite allowed yet but I did drive the ute and thankfully they were very well behaved - and our dogs were excellent and helpful too!  As you can probably gather it doesnt take that much to get me enthusiastic at the moment!

I've finally made a decision after much thought and discussion - I was (a couple of months ago - before stuff happened) very keen to run for local council.  I had had many people ask me to run and offered their support and/or help which was very flattering. However events over the past little while have made me realise that now might not be the best time to take on something as time intensive as this.  So I've decided NOT to throw my hat into the ring. On the plus and finishing side - I've finished something else - this embroidery sampler that Mum gave me I dont know how long ago to do for her - I think it was a freebie in a magazine or something, I dont honestly remember as it was so long ago. Anyway its done now, and bound and ready to be given to Mum when I next visit her - btw got the border, backing and binding materials from Mum - she was so excited to go through fabric with me and choose them!

Well if there is money in mud - we are quite rich at the moment! Yesterday we had 31mm of rain - 20mm overnight and then a huge heavy "shower" at around lunch time that yielded another 11mm The result - mud! Everything seems much fresher and greener and hopefully a couple of sunny days will dry it out, enable crops to grow and then another rainfall would be lovely!

Dear Di Why are you getting so frustrated with everything? Considering what you have been through in the last two months you are doing quite well indeed. Yes, you are still not back to 100% fit - but you are achieving lots. You have got your quilting/embroidery mojo back which is a great thing - you've certainly got plenty you can work on - and what a great thing that you had "pre-stashed" all that lovely fabric, and patterns and notions - nothing needed to spend and you can have great joy in creating beautiful things. You live in a lovely place - a lovely dairy farm - and are blessed to be living out of town, surrounded by land. Your family is gorgeous - your husband adores you, as do you girls and your grandchildren. You are truly blessed. So.....stop feeling sorry for yourself, pull up your socks and move on! You have a lot of life left to lead - so do it well. Love your best friend xxxxxxxx

Who wouldnt feel great waking to this this!  This is what greeted me when I took Gary up his cup of tea this morning, while he was milking.  Yes it was a bit foggy - but the promise was there for a lovely sunny day to follow.  Makes you glad to be alive! On the knitting front - yes I've finally managed to do some knitting!  I've finished this pair of socks for me.  I've had three goes at using this lovely yarn for different patterns but the patterns just hadn't been doing the yarn justice - so went with a basic sock pattern ravelry link  which I think looks quite good with this gorgeous yarn - monsoon designs sock in colourway earth from space.  They are at present blocking and as soon as they are dry they will be introduced to my feet!

I havent been idle - but actually quite productive - its amazing what you can get done when you are "grounded" (i.e. not able allowed to drive).  I've made these 6 blocks after seeing a post on Linda's blog - granny squares I think they are called.  Im using scraps from my scrap tub that I had already cut into 2 1/2' strips so no delving etc required - and so far so good! Secondly, I've managed to finish another stitchery - this one a heart as can be seen here on the left.  I think the money for this went towards Breast Cancer research or something similar when I bought the kit.  Anyway it turned out pretty well - used the lovely cosmo embroidery threads and they are fabulous to use, they hardly ever knot etc.  Quite liking this rekindling of my love of doing stitcheries - plenty more in my stash to do!

Oh how much fun you can have burning off a big pile of rubbish! We are lucky on the farm that we can pile up all the dead branches, bits and pieces etc and burn off (when its not fire restriction season).  Today saw one of those days - the heap was huge but it burnt down well and is still smoldering due to a big stump in the bottom. Gary kept adding more and more as it was burning so the front yard is now devoid of dropped branches -which is great- and all ready for when I am able to hop on my ride on mower and mow it - dont worry Im not doing it YET - hopefully next week.

As I've hinted in my last couple of posts - I'm really reassessing what is really important in life. The past several weeks have really made me look at things differently. This morning I watched a calf being born - only 15 minutes old and already able to walk around - pretty tough these calves are from the word go. And me- well I'm not that good at resting, BUT, I have been creating and have realised that I am blessed to be able to do this.  I've been doing some embroidery - something that I hadn't been really liking or interested in for quite some time -but I've rediscovered my love....and being able to listen to an audio book while doing it is a bonus as well.  This Christmas Wreath stitchery was started more than a year ago - but its now done, quilted and bound and ready to be hung this Christmas. I have tended to do the stitching during the day, while sitting in the sunshine.  In the evenings I've been knitting a sock (well hopefully it ...

Well I'm really appreciating the simple things in life now since the goings on of the last few weeks. Today I ventured down to the "maternity ward" where the cows who are almost due to calve are spending their time.  And a very happy and contented lot they are too.  And why wouldn't you - they re eating good quality hay, enjoying the sunshine and just lazing around waiting for their calves to make an appearance.  Pretty good life I reckon.

Today I was lucky enough to have a quick visit from Sarah.  She came and cleaned, vaccummed, took me shopping and even made me lasagna for tea.  She also brought me a new cup to enjoy my cuppa in.  Was lovely to see her but she was gone too quickly! Also I've been busy working on the redwork stitchery you can see in this piccy - its a christmas wreath which I started for last Christmas but it never got far.  Maybe that is one of the good things about having to "rest" - some things might actually get finished!

Im managing to survive the recuperating (just!) by doing a few bits and pieces.  Can't do a lot and dont have a huge attention span but have managed to make a crocheted scarf (the yarn was gifted to me and isnt it just the most gorgeous colour?) Im still pretty new to crochet but Im quite pleased with this result. My stitches seem fairly evenish.  I resurrected this stitchery of babushka dolls that I think I traced off about 5 years ago -so long ago in fact the design was almost too hard to see in places - but managed to get it done and turned it into a cute cushion. Stupid blogger is loading the pic upside down and I just cant seem to be able to turn it around - so you might have to stand on your head!