FRIDAY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT - MUSIC

 Today, the last of Mays' photo hunt words' is MUSIC, so joining in and linking up with Astrid.

Photos are varied aspects from my own enjoyment of music, which I inherited from my Dad.  Growing up in the 50s meant we didn't have TV till I was around 11 years old, so our radio & record player were big parts of my childhood.

The music notes Keith fashioned for me some years ago & I finally framed & now have hanging on the wall.

My beloved Cottage piano which I bought in the late 80's whilst living in Tasmania.

I can tinkle away on the piano, but not well as DH will attest to, so it doesn't get much use now that he is retired and it doesn't live in this position anymore since we had the woodburner installed on this wall.  I learnt to play when I was 5 for about 9 months till we found out the 2nd hand piano we had needed a large amount of work on it, which my parents couldn't afford. Luckily I was able to read music & our public schools always had singing & bands as part of our education. In my teen years I bought one cheap from a Scout Hall, only to find it also need fixing, then we moved & I had to get rid of it as it wouldn't fit in the new house my parents purchased.  Fast forward to a few years in Batlow, & I was given an old one, which definitely had seen better days, so that was left at our rented house we were living in while we built our new house.  The move to Tassie, then saw me purchase a "brand new" one, shown above.

My little table harp, which I actually purchased at Saltaire Mill Music shop in UK.
About all I really know how to play on it is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but I do love it.

Music fabrics, above and below.
I've collected them over the years and do have an idea, but just haven't got around to it yet.

And for the last is this.................................

Andre Rieu in concert at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne in 2009.
I actually took this photo myself so probably not the best.

This wasn't the first of his concert's we'd been to in Melbourne, having attended the one on his first tour of Australia a few years earlier.  The first one was absolutely huge and amazing and the night we were there was the one they recorded for his Australian DVD.

During my teen years I went to very few concerts and then a wonderful experience whilst living in Tassie was seeing Cliff Richard at the Entertainment Centre in Hobart.  One of my pop idols.  Keith and I've also been to some great musicals, so treasure those times very much in these difficult times.

OK, enough twaddle from me about my love of MUSIC & will link this up now.

Thanks to other Hunt bloggers who were way ahead of me.  Take care all, stay safe & hugs from down under.

Susan. 

AUGUST SCAVENGER PHOTO HUNT.

I'M BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Linking up with the lovely Kate from I live, I love, I craft, I am me............  Having only just got back from 3 weeks away to Queensland in our caravan, I'm still not quite with it, but here goes.

1.  TEA/TEE

 My great grandmother's delicate teacup, saucer and plate.  It's very old, as she was born in 1875 & passed away when I was 15.

A golf tee used to hold a small felted flower, propped in a cotton reel from Stotts Bobbin Mill in the Lakes District, UK.  I made this in a craft class, way back when.

2.  THYME/TIME

 Not what I had in mind, but last minute option.  I've no thyme growing in my garden & didn't have "time" to go looking for some 😖

This would tell the TIME on a sunny day, but alas it's been quite dreary here today.

3.  AISLE/ISLE

 The aisle of an old church at the Pioneer Village in Toowoomba, which we visited whilst on our trip.

Another photo taken on this trip at Mudjimba Beach showing an island just off shore.

4.  FAIRY/FERRY

 This flower "fairy" fabric was left over from a quilt I made for my great niece for her little girl bed, which was some time ago, as she is now 12.
I've been toying with an idea for these & had just got them out when the hunt list came through.

Taken yesterday, when we went out for a light lunch as my birthday treat.  On the way home we stopped of at a place called Corinella on Westernport Bay & spotted this little ferry arriving from French Island.  I went "aha", my ferry photo.

5.  FLOUR/FLOWER

 Another from our recent trip.  We had a day when we visited several waterfalls, one being a short walk, then a long walk down many steps & all the way back up again for the second..  The third was a bit of a let down, with not being able to see much, so drove back towards the caravan park & had an afternoon cuppa at this Cafe, then realised what it was called so snapped their sign.

A day out to the rhodendron gardens (late July), in the Dandenongs found me snapping away merrily & I thought this one would do for flower.  I think it goes by the name of witch hazel & I've actually never seen one in flower before.  It's so pretty.

6.  MY OWN CHOICE.

Another from our recent trip & also taken at Mudjimba Beach.  I had to look this one up and found it is a Pandanus Palm.  Although I knew what the top looked like, I'd never ever seen the trunk & base of this tree, and was rather amused.  We saw many more along the coast as we drove home.

OK, that's my lot for the hunt & I'm getting cold again.  Best turn the heater up before it gets dark & colder.  It's only 9° now at 5pm.
Looking forward to catching up with all again & seeing what everyone comes up with.
Take care all and huggles from Susan.

FEBRUARY FLIES BY!!!!!!!

Well, after a "hearty" February of ups & downs, both with the weather and life bits, it is now drawing to a close & I can't believe where it has gone.

The HEARTATHON was a great success with Kate's linkup and I wish to thank her very much & to two other lovely ladies who joined in.  I have one last offering as I'll be turning this calendar over tomorrow.

My Yarndale calendar sported a lovely punch needle heart & the 2 little ones above were given to each person as they entered the show.  I was lucky to be given a second one, when asking if I was able to meet Lucy, but she'd just stepped out for a break, & as I'd come all the way from Oz was presented with the orange one too.  They are certainly special.

Over the weekend we took our entries to the Jindivik Flower & Craft Show & on Sunday afternoon we picked them up again & I took these few photos whilst there.  Not the best photography as it is a very small, dark hall, but we did come home with some Prize Cards.  I donated our winnings to the CFA.  It wasn't much, but all helps.

All of these items have been posted about before, three of them very recently & my embroidered quilt some time in the latter half of last year.  I missed out on the blueberry jam & appliqued wall hanging, but am so pleased with placings.

Now, I have made a decision on the quilt drawing I showed and here it is. A small quilt which I will now quilt in an allover pattern.  It was made to finish off the jelly roll I used to make the larger one with white background.  Both shown below.  These 2 quilts have been named after 2 of my grand daughters, but I'm unable to use their names on my blog.  I've another quilt designed for my eldest GD & hope to make a start on that amongst clearing up some UFO's which I'm supposed to doing a list for & blogging about with my friend Joy.  She has a  page dedicated to Cutting our UFOs in half for 2017.  I'm joining in too, at some stage.

Reading this month has been very enjoyable.  Our local library requested the purchase of 2 books I'd been after and I've already read this one, which I can recommend.

A very touching story.

And this one which I am reading now.

Afraid I'm a big Monty Don fan and enjoy his way of telling a story.

Yesterday we took a journey to Wonthaggi to have some printer cartridges filled, which they couldn't do, so had to buy new ones, which of course  now don't fit our printer.  What a kerfuffle.
We did have a lovely day though with a walk along the beach at Inverloch after downing a cuppa from our thermos & stopping by the jetty to see if any stingrays were in.  We were rewarded with sighting two.  A small one and a whopper!
Whilst in Wonthaggi, I spotted these little cuties in an OP SHOP & I parted with a "mighty" $2 and came home with them.

2 small vases to take odd flowers, when not much is in flower.
The tiny pot because it was so cute & wee.

Other than the above waffling, I've made another start on a very old UFO.  I started it as part of a mystery quilt from an AP&Q, magazine which I no longer have.  I had made a fair amount of both 9 patch & 4 patch blocks and will now set them together, something like in the photo below.  I need to make a few more of the 9 patch.  Once done I will quilt it and give it to charity.

The small quilt on the design wall.

In the UFO tub.
  I wonder why I bought this piece of fabric?
I don't even remember buying it.
Was I planning something for it?
Who knows?
It is pretty though.

Enough from me this month.  Hope you've enjoyed my little adventures in hearts, crafts & whatever else I've blogged about.
It is the start of Autumn tomorrow (Spring in the northern hemisphere) and some trees, I've noticed are already starting to change colour.
It was warm here today (36 deg), with another few hot one to comes, so not quite autumn temperatures yet.
Take care all.
Susan.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Wishing everyone who reads me a very "Happy New Year".

Very soon here in Oz, the fireworks will start.  The first lot at 9pm for children & us oldies, so we can head to bed at a decent hour.  I do believe that people far and wide can watch them on TV & watch us see the new year in before it is finished for you.

What have I been up to since Christmas.  Not a lot, as it's been so hot and muggy.  We also had wild weather on Thursday and scored 35mm in our rain gauge in a few hours.  Some areas of Melbourne had flash flooding, with quite a bit of damage.  That same morning our hard flooring looked like this...

The humidity was so high, that our floors were wet all day.   They announced later that we'd had a 4 consecutive day record of it being so high.

I've been picking blueberries.....

That is an older style Tupperware cake container and  is the second one of these I've filled along with smaller containers, and I've nowhere finished yet.
I've started freezing, giving some away and selling to our local greengrocer.

What to do on a hot day, when everything you touch is damp and sticky.  Colouring in is good, especially after you've shouted yourself a new battery operated sharpener.  I didn't get it finished, but had good fun for a while.

Tidying.....

This cupboard where I keep my fabric stash, was slightly messy & now looks much better.  Forgot to take a photo before I started.

And it all started as I was looking for fabrics to start some sewing.  All will be revealed as they are finished.ion

TOMORROW.

This cake I baked today (Orange & blueberry), will go to our Car Club New Years Day picnic lunch on the lawn.  We are also having a Motacana, so should be a lot of fun.  I'm leaving you with one last picture of tomorrow's to do's.  

This has taken waaay...... longer than expected, as the pictures keep moving themselves all over the place and it's doing my head in.

Take care all, have a great New Years Eve and see you in 2017.

Huggles to all, Susan.

The cards will be removed and sorted.

BLOGIVERSARY WINNER-------------------------

And the name pulled from the bowl---is   HAWTHORN.
I'll be in touch as soon as we get back from our holiday. I've something in mind now that I know who it is and I will show it at a later date.

Now to some catching up with what we've been doing and where we are heading to on Friday.
I've not been doing any of my big star challenge quilt, but once we are back home, that is definitely coming out as I want to enter it in a show in October.
I've been designing (and stressing) over the two baby quilts, but have finally made up my mind to what I'm doing with them both.  These two quilts are for my nieces (in UK) and they are sisters and both first babies, due within a couple of months of each other.  For some reason I found it tough, but I think I'm happy with what I've come up with.  I'll show both lots of fabric I've chosen.

I've also made a finish with something that has waited for many years.  I photograph quite a few things on the box that you see above.  Hubby made the "ottawoman" for me many years ago and I always wanted to line the lid and use it for patterns I use for crochet or knitting.  It's finally done with a lot of help from him.  I tried to put the upholstery tacks in and they just kept bending, but clever clogs got longer ones and used a hold-it thingy and they were in.  Finished result.

The ottawoman.

Inside the lid. (and the mess).

Something I omitted the other day, was the idea for my rather bright star quilt, which is now quilted and awaiting binding.   I hate not telling if it was my own design  or if I used someone else's pattern.  I used a pattern called Robert's Bright Idea, from this book, which I bought a long time ago, in a discount shop.  They had a load of quilt/craft books from a wholesaler who had gone into liquidation, so a few of us had a good rummage and came out with quite a lot of books.

TIME OUT.
On Friday we are off in our van for a week.  Summer school holidays have finished here in Oz and we're heading to the east coast of Victoria to soak up some sun, sand, lakes and walking.  We'll go to Mallacoota for a few days and come back via the Gippsland Lakes and Warragul, where I'm booked in for a lovely relaxing massage.  I'll take both my laptop (running Vista which I can't post on, but can comment on other blogs and keep up), and my little one and hopefully maybe do a post with some photos.  Still not confident with the Windows 8 on it though.

Hope everyone is having a good week so far and take care.
Huggles Susan.

BEAUTIFUL WARM SUNNY DAY

The fabric I said I'd show which I bought on Friday. 

Well, today was just gorgeous and we made the most of it.   I prepared some sandwiches and we drove out to Temple Newsam,  on the eastern side of Leeds.  We explored the wonderful old house (no photos allowed inside), but it was absolutely amazing.  Next we had our lunch seated on one of the brick walls in the amphitheatre above the farmyard which we perused after a cup of tea in the café.  All the old farm machinery and animals kept us fascinated.  Then it was off to the walled gardens and huge long greenhouses.  Below is a selection of my photos.

An old cart.

I loved these ducks.



The coleus collection in the greenhouse.

Check out the length of these glasshouses.

Donkeys, which I adore.

Temple Newsam house.  It is huge!!!

Inner courtyard.

The walled garden.

On Friday I went to the Quilt Show in Harrogate and met Sue who gave me a lovely unexpected gift below.

Sue made a lovely needlecase  and the bus is a keyring.

 This was supposed to be a quick post, but I had trouble with the photo placement, so sorry if it's a bit of a mish mash.  I hope to get better as time goes on.
Have a great week and take care.
Susan.