Special gift

Janelle and Richard, my sister and brother in law have just been on a wonderful, though chilly holiday to Korea and then to Europe. They went on a fabulous tour of Spain and saw such wonderful places such as these.

They brought me back this lovely, little bowl from Valencia. What gorgeous colours. I think I need to add Spain to my ever growing list of destinations!

National Museum

Last Saturday, Paul and Jeni came to visit and we went out and visited the National Museum. It is an amazing collection of Australian objects. There are many aboriginal artifacts as well as historical displays. I was taken by some of the bits and pieces from our more recent past. We only had time to see one section as you need a full day or more to look at all the exhibits. I have always been amused by this lovely old pink caravan on display. It makes me remember my childhood as we lived in one a little bigger and not quite as old for 5 years! I was 5 and my brother had just been born here in Australia and the 4 of us lived in caravan. Hard to imagine these days. There was no electricity or water and the amenities were very basic. My mum and dad worked very hard and saved to build their dream house on their own land! That's a very Australian dream.

These old cookbooks reminded me of high school too. I still have my old copy in my recipes cupboard and still make the Anzac biscuits from the book.

Couldn't resist these old jugs.

And here are some covers from old Home Beautiful magazines. I do enjoy seeing these kinds of ordinary. everyday collections.

Happy Australia Day

Today is Australia Day. For those who live overseas, this is a holiday to celebrate our lovely country. I am very thankful for this great land as I came here as a child with my migrant parents many years ago and it is a wonderful place to be. We went into town today so see what was happening in the park. We arrived just as the FA 18s (very, very, fast, noisy planes) flew over. They flew over so quickly that we couldn't get a photo. There were lots of flags including this one.

Many families enjoying the shade.

Jumping castles and rides for the kids.

Lot of yummy food. I love the profetjies or dutch pancakes. We just HAD to line up for some of them.

Here they are almost finished!

Fantastic clip from U tube

I couldn't resist putting Camille's link onto my blog today as she has a wonderful clip from U tube on it. Well worth a visit.  Check it out as it will make you smile...especially those of you who are Sound of Music fans.

A very cute robot

Here is the little felt robot all finished! He was such fun to stitch. Here he is sitting with some of the girls' old books. I went through kids books the other day thinking I would take some to the op shop but didn't find many to donate as they held such nice memories. So many of them were their favourites. I can use the excuse that I sometimes use them at school on the odd days that I teach (I don't do that very often these days).

Here he is again. I think he might have to visit Hobbysew and sit near Anni's lovely book.

Here are some of the books on the shelf in the spare room. I do love books!

A fun project

I bought this delightful book, "A Boy's Story" by Anni Downes, a while ago and have wanted to make this little robot! Last week I found some time and perused the pattern.

I got out the easyfix and the laminator to make the templates.

Luckily I had some lovely felt colours to play with in my stash.

Here are the pieces cut out ready to do the fun bit and stitch. Felt is so lovely to work with. I have started to stitch and will show you the results soon.

I completely forgot to take pictures of the kids crafting on Friday. It was a bit busy! I did clay with them and they had fun making all sorts of odd things. They liked making bird's nests and eggs and I ended up making birds for the nests. They could also make some great beaded barefoot thongs which were really popular with the girls, do woodwork, colour and cut, paint on fabric, make papier mache fish and make some stitched cards. They enjoyed themselves.

Bears and stitching

Hope you are all managing to cope in the heat in Australia at the moment. I am off to kids club and have still not taken any pictures of the crafts. Must try to remember to do that today. Here are a couple of bear friends made ages ago. I made quite a few grandma ones and even plaited the little hat! I was going through my raffia hat phase.The little fellow on the right is a favourite in his little felt vest. They are sitting on a miniature foundation pieced flying geese quilt. Great for using those tiny scraps that I can't bear to throw out.

There had been a tiny bit of stitching. I have finished this month's block of the Gardener's journal quilt. It is the sprinkler one...mind you we are not allowed to sprinkle these days due to water restrictions. I remember loving to run under the sprinkler as a kid in the heat of summer.

Hope you have all had a good week and that you have managed to do some stitching.