A Wonderful Weekend and a Milestone Anniversary

This weekend was the first of several quilt retreats I attend every year. I have been going to Collingully Cottage at Meckering for as long as the shop has been up and running. It was established on the farm by my lovely friend Lynne Burges who sadly passed from this world in October 2010 and I miss her very much. The store and retreat has been taken over by her younger daughter Nahrae whom I have known since she was just a peanut in her mum's tummy and who is now a mum herself.

My sewing space for the weekend

It was a great weekend spent with my bestie and some of her ex- quilting students. I started tagging along to this retreat about 6 years ago and while I do only see most of these ladies once a year I am forming some firm friendships. 

My productivity on these weekends is very erratic. Some years I manage to churn out quilt top after quilt top. Other years I may not even get a needle out! (or a stitch in) This year was between those extremes. 

I started the weekend off mending. Yes. You read it correctly. Mending. Jeff had 'done' a zipper in one of his favourite cycling jerseys and set me the challenge of changing it. I spent Friday evening trying to put in a new one and semi succeeded. Not the best job in the world and I was not happy with it. Nor was my bestie Gill. Gill is a seasoned seamstress and can work wonders with anything so she took the jersey off my hands and spent the rest of Friday evening unpicking the zipper I had installed and a good part of Saturday morning resewing it. Even she was not happy with her results. The fabric was hideously stretchy and on top of that, very slippery. Jeff had to be happy with the results. It was as good as it was going to get. Happy to report, he was. 

I also made a block which will become a cushion cover for the lounge room and did the finishing off on a dress I was making. 

I rewarded myself by starting a new project. I was asked by a friend over on Instagram if I could source an Australian pattern for her by Aussie designer Jen Kingwell called Gypsywife. When I found the pattern, I loved it so much I ordered one for myself. I am proud to say I have only bought a small amount of fabric for this quilt with most of it coming from my stash. I completed 4 blocks over the weekend and cut out the fifth. 

First 5 blocks of 'Gypsywife' by Jen Kingwell

As always the weather for this weekend was superb if a little warm on Friday evening after the day's maximum temperature hit 40'C. Saturday and Sunday were much more pleasant in the high 20's. Sue and I went out on Saturday evening armed with our phone cameras to take photos of a stunning sunset. Both of us are avid photographers and both of us failed to bring our 'real' cameras with us. Sue does amazing underwater photography while I stay firmly above water and preferably keep my feet dry.

Saturday night's sunset

To finish this post off, today is Jeff's and my 30th Wedding anniversary. Who would have thought we would have made it this far. After many years of moving house more times than I care to count (but have - its 11 times in the 30 years of marriage and I have moved a total of 34 times in my life) having two wonderful boys and working together for 15 of the 20 years we had our business here in Northam we are still going strong. I love Jeff more than ever and my heart still jumps when he walks into a room or looks my way. 

We don't usually give gifts and Jeff never wants anything so I didn't get him a thing so I was wonderfully surprised when he presented me with this beautiful pearl pendant this morning. 

My beautiful surprise!

Jeff, I love you.

A year has gone by...

and I am not going to do a catch up post!

That was my down fall December 2012. Trying to catch up and it was just too hard.

A quick run down on the last year is as follows:

• Two years post work and I don't miss it!
• I discovered Instagram and love the casual and friendly community and it gives me excuses to take pictures.
• I didn't go over seas in 2013.
• I did go to Darwin for 4 days in September with my bestie Gilly.
• I had photos in the local photography group's exhibition in November.
• I was invited to join the blog group Lets Stitch Together which has prompted this post!
• I was spoiled by my hubby and was allowed to purchase a Husqvana Sweet Sixteen mid arm quilting machine.
• Christmas was fun. The whole family was here and it was a lovely day.

This year I plan to do more with my quilting and my photography. I had a good start with photography with a "Highly Commended" for my photo of the skater below.  Jeff is encouraging me to do more with my camera too as he gave me an Advanced Photography course for Christmas which I went to at the end of February and learned a lot. Now to get my head around the maths side of things and I will be fine!

That will do!

First quilt completed on my new machine

Photo from the Northam Photography Group Exhibition 

My first ever sold image 

Photo from the Northam Photography Group Exhibition 

Photo from the Northam Photography Group Exhibition
First foray into street photography

First NPG meet for 2014 at the Northam Skate Park

The first half of 2012 in review...

I know I have been a bit slack on the postings this last couple of months. I blame the discovery of Instagram! I have to admit, I am hooked! I drive Jeff crazy by whipping out my iPhone everytime I see something I would like to share. I have also been following a couple of "Photo - a - Day" challenges.
Both are fellow bloggers and here are the links to their blogs:
FatMumSlim and Kootoyoo.
These two ladies have really inspired me to get creative this year.

I am posting a few of my favourite pictures and projects for the year. Please enjoy!

The beginning of 2012 saw some rather stormy weather in Northam!

January 20 -Lightning - couldn't believe I managed to capture this!

January 20 - Storm Clouds

January also saw me tagging along with Jeff to his cycling events. These photos are in January in Toodyay for the Mark Weber Memorial race that goes from Toodyay to Gidgegannup.

The end of January saw the inaugural meeting of the Northam Photography Club. It coincided with the opening of the Northam Sound Shell in Burwood Park where summer concerts are held. Thanks to Jenny Utting and Martin Carter for making this fun club happen with lots of fun meetings.

February saw our first critiquing for our photos of the sound shell. I learned a lot!

March was my very first beginners DSLR workshop with Seng Mah from Venture Photography. I can thoroughly recommend this workshop!

April saw me getting up at ungodly hours to go to cycling with Jeff. Since I have finished work, I have been doing volunteer work with Jeff's main club Australian Time Trials Association (ATTA). Unfortunately apart from a few meets around Toodyay, Gidgegannup and Chidlow, this means getting up at around 4am to be at the other venues in time. It is not fun in Winter though it is the only day of the week I do have to get out of bed before 7.30am!

Bibra Lake at Dawn

Bibra Lake at Dawn

In April, we also had the pleasure of hosting friends from Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. Jean is one of my online quilting friends with whom I have been 'chatting' with via email for the past 15 or so years. Her lovely husband Blaine is a physics professor who manages to swing a teaching gig at Hue (pronounce 'whey') University in Vietnam ever few years. This year they extended their visit to Australia too. It was so much fun having them around! Jean is besotted with Australian wild life and says the highlight of the trip was getting to pat Big Bub the Wombat!

At the Bell House Cafe in South Perthon arrival in WA with Charlie the Koala

Blaine put his feet in the Great Southern Ocean in Augusta

And the Indian Ocean in Dunsborough

International Quilting Buddies

Jean and Blaine with Big Bub the Wombat and her handler - oh! and Charlie the Koala

Charlie the Koala from Virginia meets one of his Australian relatives

Blaine impersonating the Kangaroo or vice versa!

Reflections in Fremantle

May saw my best friend Gilly and I head to Hong Kong for a few days.

Hong Kong from the Peak Lookout

Gilly with her new camera bought in Kowloon

On the way to the Exhibition Centre

Kowloon by night

The smallest escalators in the world!

My bestie Gilly hamming it up at Disneyland Hong Kong.

Wintry June didn't let us down with some pretty spectacular skies...

and that is the first half of this year for me in Pictures!
Second instalment to come soon!

To be continued.... :)

October will be on Instagram

I have decided to try and do most of this month's FatMumSlim Photo a Day challenge for October via Instagram.

If you would like to follow along, my user name (Ha! typed Usher instead of user!) is tusherau.

I may miss a few - like I have already as I am off on my holiday tomorrow. The other side of this, is I might get some really different pictures to what I would have taken in I was at home!

The list of photos is as below:

Cheers!

October Photos

I have made the decision not to do the daily photo for October because it will be too hard for a couple of reasons.

1. I am travelling (yep - just have to remind everyone that I am off overseas again!)
2. Blogger unfortunately does not make it easy to upload photos from an iPad.

So I will resume my daily pictures in November.

So to add some colour to today's post, here are a couple of photos I took at a recent trip to Araluen with our local photography club.

The theme for the 1st of this month was  "You, now". Today, the last day, is "You, then." As I missed the first four days of this month before beginning this challenge, I have posted both today.

The first photo is of 'Me, now." This was taken earlier this month while at lunch with my school friend Stan and our year 7 teacher.

The "Me, then" is me at about 12 months old with war wounds. The story behind this photo is that apparently I thought the best way of learning to ride my trike was to head straight down the front steps of our home at the time! Ouch!

Now

Then (1962)

Now lets see how I go for October!

Errand

Today's topic is "Errand". I didn't have to go out anywhere today and as most of what I was doing today I class as chores, not errands, I was wondering what I was going post.

I have spent the morning in the kitchen cooking up a storm for lunch guests. They have just left. 

I came into the office to see what I can cross off my 'To Do' list for today and I had to pay a bill. In the old days before internet banking this would have been an Errand but these days it is a few quick keystrokes on the computer and a number from my banking doo hickey!

What a great day it was today. The weather was fine and sunny and I baked and baked all morning. Jeff had invited two of his cycling friends up for a ride this morning followed by lunch. Ali and Dave arrived about 9.30 and the three of them headed off for a ride through Toodyay and Coondle and then back to Northam. While they did that, I started on lunch.

First on the agenda was to get the bread dough started and doing its first rise which is about 6 hours long. Then I made delicious Lemon Butter cakes for desert for lunch followed by a batch of scones for the freezer. I then made the main course for lunch. Spinach Lasagne Rolls which is a spinach and ricotta dish. Yummo. I got that in the oven and started on the salad. Rocket and spinach leaves with tomato, avocado, basil and black olives. 

I pulled the Lasagne rolls out of the oven just as the cyclists walked in the door after their ride. A very entertaining afternoon ensued and not one word about football until it was time for the guests to head back to the city. Then it was just that the roads should be quiet because every one would be watching the grand final!

I have since learned that Hawthorn lost to the Sydney Swans but my care factor is pretty much zero!