Happy Australia Day 2011

      -MY COUNTRY-

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!

A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die -
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold -
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land -
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand -
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.         - Dorothea Mackellar -

            

Today I am having Vegemite on toast for breakie.  

If you are curious about our Australian flag, you can go here.  

You can go here to check out a template of our flag as to placement, sizing and names of the stars that make up our beautiful flag.

I love this flag, I am proud to wave this flag.  I am proud of where I come from, I am proud of the hard work that built this country under this flag.  This morning I saw the sun rise over the water and tonight I will see it set over the trees.  I wouldn't live anywhere else in the world.  I hope I never have to move from here.  


I was born under this flag, and I hope to die under this flag.  


Thanks for stopping by my place today.


Have a happy Australia Day at your place, from this little Aussie girl.


Oh and thanks Wikipedia for your help today.

It's A Little Bit Vintage.

A few weeks ago there was a little vintage fair/market/exhibition in our town.  It was lovely.  I managed to pop out there and took my camera with me in the off chance that I was permitted to snap a few shots.  Lucky for me, yes, I was allowed to take some photos of a few items that were on display.  

I know it's not much at all really, but gosh as I walked around checking out all the wonderful goodness that vintage is, I kept having flashbacks of photos of my Mum and Dad when they were courting, then engaged, then married.  

Photos like these below:

 I remember a picnic set with a hard cover, it was a steely grey/blue in colour and had little snap latches and almost resembled a little suitcase.  The picnic set inside was set out very much like the one above.  

 Don't you just love these swimming caps.  I 'heart' the white one down the bottom with the flowers on it.  The yellow and black would fit me too.

 They just don't make swimmers like they used to.  The little red and white on the end is just so very pretty.  I would wear the orange one as well you know.  I am sure they are both my size.

The yellow and white I could have worn today at the beach along with the white cap above.

ohhhhh I do hope my dance card is filled tonight.  I would love to twirl and swirl in this little number.

You know one thing that amazed me, is the detail into all of the clothing, some of those dresses are heavy, heavy, heavy, with lining and detail and such perfect stitching.  For them to last as many years as they have, and be in such perfect condition.  

There were no grubby hemlines, there were no markings on them, they were just like they had been made the day before.  

There were lots of items for sale, there were also replica dresses for sale as well.  I didn't buy anything, however, there were a few dresses that called out to me to take them home with me.  *sigh*  

Do you like vintage dresses too?   

Thanks so much for stopping by my place today.  

   

Crochet A Rainbow - Grab Your Hook!

This is awesome, this is fabulous, this is what I want to sign up and do too.  I made a comment about making blankets, or writing sets or sending crochet face washers with soaps up to QLD to be donated to those who have lost so much (blogged about here), but then I decided to make library bags instead.  This I have done, but I know I can do more.  


Thanks to donate granny squares I can go through my seemingly never-ending stash of yarn and hook up some squares. 


Be sure to check it out, sign yourself up and send a little hooked square of love.  


Thanks for stopping by my place tonight.  Sweet dreams to you and yours.

Lately. . . .

Summer fruit platters. . . . 

 Busy sandy beach days. . . . 

 Operating on puppies that eat the strangest things, and other games. . . .

A bit of revision, colouring, home schooling, preparation. . . . 

 Ooodles of fun, backyard cricket and bubbles (in and out of a glass!). . . .

 A rainbow of ribbons, cut and ready to thread. . . .

Dinner prepared by my Man, oooohhhh, how I love my food. . . . 

Street Party Auction invites printed, scrolled, tied and delivered.

What has been your 'lately', lately?  

 Thanks so much for stopping by my place today.

Oh and a P.S. Update on money raised from my madeit store is now $16.00 to be donated to the QLD Premier's Disaster Relief Fund.  

Old Shoes - New Shoes

Old Shoes

New Shoes

Most times I love new shoes, 

I love they are so new kind of new, 

I love how they have no creases in them, 

I love how there are no scuffs in them, 

I love how they have that new smell, 

I love how they feel on my feet.  

Most times. . . . . . . . . . . 

then there is the time that the new shoes happen to be runners,

when they are bright white new runners,

when you know your feet are singing and dancing in those bright white new runners, but still. . . . you know. . . . 

they are bright white new runners.

I felt like a geek this morning in my new bright white runners.  I felt like a new kid who joins the school mid-way through the year with new everything.  So I went looking for mud to stomp in, but found puddles of sand instead, and stomped through them.  

Don't get me wrong, I love my new shoes, they don't hurt my feet like my old shoes have been lately.  The old shoes are 3 soccer seasons old, lots of caravanning, walking, kicking balls, chasing kids, working at preschool, they have served me well, very well, except for the last few weeks when they started hurting and digging into my heel.  It's time to move on, I avoided this task for as long as I could, but the day arrived when I just had to purchase the new shoes.  

Do you feel like a geek in new bright white runners too?  Does it feel like you are a first time runners-wearing-person when you get new runners, or cross trainers, or all terrains, or whatever on earth they are called these days? (that is a whole other post one day when I am bored out of my brain and strangely enough find nothing to talk about - zzzzzzzzz).  I had a choice of leather or the stuff I got.  I got the stuff that I got because apparently they 'breathe'!  *ahem* I like to know that my toes can 'breathe' while I am walking, cause you know, it's a backup just in case my nose forgets.  *sigh* 

Have a lovely weekend at your place.  I hope your toes can breathe, it would be a worry if they couldn't, apparently, according to the sportshop dude, it's fairly important stuff - toe breathing.  

Thanks so much for stopping by my place today and toe breathing blessings to you all.  

My Creative Space

It's back on, and I am ready to play.  Pop over to kootoyoo and check out what other crafty peeps are up to or add your own craft share.  

It was actually a little strange taking above photos now that my 10 x 10 x 10 project is finished.  I set the top lot of library bags up on the inside airer to take their photo.  After the last 10 days of point and shoot and no cropping or putting items at a 'just so' position for the photo, this was different all over again.  But fun.  Change is good, change is about learning, expanding and most of all having fun in the process.  The second photo is of my current batch of library bags being cut and sewn.  I am doing them in colour batches which makes it  easier for changing thread on the machine.  Tonight I will relax in my fave chair and thread the drawstring ribbon through them.

For those that don't know, I am sewing drawstring library bags to donate to a primary school in Queensland that has been affected by the recent floods.  I have called it Task Force Library Bag.  

There has been huge amounts of damage, not just buildings being inundated with water, but buildings ripped apart, as well as loved ones lost.  What it left behind is stinking brown mud sludge, the sad part is that there was another storm last night and predicted bad weather to come for alot of these towns.  Parts of Victoria and Tasmania are also evacuating, sandbagging, and trying to protect livestock, crop and home from torrential rains, and swollen waterways.  

Aussies are a tough bunch, we work together, we live together, we laugh together.  It's going to be hard work for many months, it's going to be very emotional, but every little bit helps, that's what I believe in anyways.  I don't like sitting 'round doing nothing, I hate feeling helpless, and I have fabric sitting here stashed away in a cupboard when others have not even a toothbrush.  

Initially I aimed to make 20 library bags from bright fabrics that I already had.  I have managed to exceed that number simply by stretching my fabrics and using the smaller bits to make pretty pockets on plain fabric bags.  I hope these will be ok, even to just start off with.  I also have some new story books to go into some of the library bags to post.  Whether the school uses them to share with the students and keep in the bags I have made, or if they are given to the children to keep, I do not mind.  When I finish sewing up this lot that I have cut, I will have 39 library bags.  I still have fabric to possibly make another 8, but will see what I can do to increase that number.  

Thanks so much for stopping by my place today.  

Have a lovely evening at your place.  

10 x 10 x 10 - Day 10

Day 10

Good Evening from my desktop.  I did have grand plans for my last day of this project, however, when I arrived at Spotlight (the location for my 10 x 10 x 10), I realised that I didn't have my camera with me !!  So with the impending thunder storm about to break loose above our heads, I didn't wish to turn back home either, and with the boys doing swimming lessons this afternoon thought I would be cutting it fairly fine with time.  

As it turned out, we arrived home just as the thunder storm hit *phew*, which ended up being a bit of a storm in a teacup, because it lasted a rather short 20 minutes or maybe even less.  There is still a storm out there somewhere, because we are the lucky ones to have been gifted with a stunning night show of brilliant flashes across the sky. 


Never mind, I can get back to Spotlight another time.  (I still have visions of taking photos of rows upon rows of fabrics, ribbons, curtain rails, and yarns.  *sigh*)


And so yet again, you are being *ahem* 'honoured' with photos from my day.

Main photo - goggles ready to go into swimming gear bag.

Collage -

1. Part of afternoon tea.

2. Bunting which hangs near our dining table.

3. Another part of afternoon tea.

4. Yes, again afternoon tea - we sort of didn't have lunch today because we returned a play date favour and we had lots of fruit and carrot cake which was from about 9.30am through til just after 12pm.  So a big afternoon tea of more fruit, cheese and bikkies and a sweet treat of coconut ice. 

5. Hem of the dress I am wearing today.  

6. Quack.

7. More library bags made.

8. Ribbons purchased earlier at Spotlight to be used for the library bags.

9. My comfy seat which was used as part of the cubby house built by the kids and their friends earlier today, of which the cushions are still very liberally scattered about the lounge room (!).

Thanks so much for coming along for the ride.  I totally enjoyed this little 10 x 10 x 10 project, and I think I am going to do this again later in the year.  I have met some lovely bloggers doing this project as well, of which I am very much looking forward to getting to know.

Let me know if you decide to do it, I would love to see what makes your world turn.


I am off here now to cut more fabric which I hope to sew up tomorrow for more library bags.


Thanks so much for visiting my place today.  Sweet dreams to you and yours, or depending on where you live, rise and shine to a wonderful day at your place.