Latest finishes and a close call

First, here are my latest finishes.

1.  Red House in Winter by LHN

2.  Frosty Flakes by LHN.  I got most of this finished on Sunday - the V8's were racing at Bathurst  so watched that on TV all day, then it was the final of  The Block on TV that night.  Both had dramatic finishes.  I grabbed some time last night while dinner was cooking and added the beads before I had to go out.

I'm still working on old wips.  Next is another small LHN ornament - Pear Tree.

I'll have less stitching time for the rest of this month.  I like to sit down and stitch for an hour at night when all my jobs are done, but DD has amateur theatre performances over the coming 2 weeks as well as sport and I will be out 5 nights a week with her for the next few weeks.  DH is going to be in Vancouver next week so I need to be organized.



I was driving DD home from school last Thursday afternoon when we witnessed a car accident just in front of us.  It was on a busy suburban street, lots of traffic going the same way as we were, but still moving close to the speed limit - 60km/h.  A 4WD coming the other way swerved into our lane and hit a car head on, a third car couldn't stop and hit the second car from behind, then ended up on the footpath.  We were 2 cars behind and I think I said a bad word as I was braking.  All I can remember is seeing car parts flying in the air and a car shooting across the road.  I was amazed there were only minor injuries.  The driver of the middle car was fairly shaken up.  The driver of the third car was a learner and did a fantastic job - he had some facial grazes from the airbag and his mum hurt her wrist.  The second car would have been a write off and the third car had lots of damage to the front.   Not an experience I'm in a hurry to repeat!


I'm enjoying the warmer weather here as we head into summer.  It's still a bit cool some mornings and very dry.  We could do with some rain, but not if is accompanied by violent storms like they just got down in NSW.

Blogger seems to be playing up.  I'm only getting email notifications about some comments?  Sorry if I haven't replied to you.

Wishing you all flying needles and safe driving.
Until next time.

Playing with fabric and thread

I have a finish! - but I can't show you because it is for an exchange.  I finished the stitching on Friday and made it into an ornament on Sunday.  It was posted today so should arrive at the new home within 10 days.  I'll put up photos when I know it has arrived. 
Due to the weather I was able to spend Saturday in the sewing room getting reaquainted with my sewing machine.  I had a great time learning how to make a new object - photos later as well!

I can show you this -

Sweet Flowers SAL - Gravestone 32ct linen from Stitches and Spice, DMC threads.
I have chosen my own thread combination to go with my fabric.
I'll be working on this section this week.

Not quite washed away last week. The rain started on Monday lunchtime and stopped this morning. The biggest fall was on Tuesday - 250mm (10inches) measured on Wednesday morning.  Altogether for the week we had over 425mm (17 inches) so the ground is still a bit soggy. To put things in perspective the average rainfall for January here is 160mm.  No damage, only some minor flooding in local creeks. Not like the big floods last year.

I sent DD out in the rain to run of some energy on Saturday morning. Here she is standing under the gutter overflow.

I had her retested on Tuesday - still allergic to peanuts so  I have to check again in another 2 years. The Dr gave us a practice epipen which will be good for Grandparents, cub scout leaders, etc.  I am confident she could inject herself if required.

Both kids are back at school so getting back into the homework and activities routine.  It's a struggle for me as well to have everyone out the door by 7.45am to do the school run, and also to have everyone in bed at a decent hour.
On that note I shall stop and try to get some stitching in before it's time for bed!

A Small Finish

Here is a picture of what I finished a few days ago.

A Life Lived for Others by Glendon Place

Stitched on 32ct Autumn Blush Lugana

with Caron Waterlilies, dmc, Kreinik and Mill Hill beads

This took forever to finish because I kept getting sick, it was the end of the school year chaos, and DH was overseas.  But, I am better now and the kids are on holidays until the end of January.  DH spent last week at home after 2 weeks in North America but left for Japan and Singapore yesterday.  He gets back on Thursday then is home until we all leave for our holiday in January.

Holiday Plans

We have asked DMIL to come to Canada with us so I hope she has a good time.  We are spending the first night at Vancouver then we have booked 5 days at Whistler, then back to Vancouver for another 5 days (DH has to work there).  Finally we have a few days in LA before coming home. 

Weather

It has been a cool and wet summer so far.  We have had only 2 days where the temperature reached 30C.  Yesterday I drove DH to the airport.  I checked the rain radar before we left and it looked like I might have to go through a shower or two on the way back.  It started to rain 5 minutes after we left home and on the freeway I had the windscreen wipers on the fastest setting and was still having trouble seeing.  It was worse coming home.  Of course it eased up soon after I got home!  We had about 75mm (3 inches) in less than an hour.  The only problem we have had here was water flowing over the top of our retaining wall and flooding a neighbours front yard.  I'm not sure we can do much about such an extreme weather event but DH will look at it when he gets back.  DH's plane was held up an hour because of the lightning but luckily he had managed to get a seat on an earlier flight to Sydney so he still had time to make his international connection even with the delay.

It's School Holidays!

and my life gets much easier.  This was a busy year because DS is at a different school than DD.   DS has grown taller then me now and will be 14 next month.  He has done well at school this year and got 7 A's and 3 B's on his final report card.  He entered some competions this year and is in the top 1% of the state for maths and science.   The last term was a bit of a struggle as he seemed to be constantly tired and hungry.  DD has also been busy.  She started playing cricket in October and loves it.  She had to miss a few games because of ballet concert practice but is keen to start again in February.   She does dancing, swimming, cricket and cub scouts after school.   I have more time to stitch during the holidays so I hope it's not too hot and humid this year.