Vintage Lane Stitches

Its been awhile

Life has been quite busy since my last post , which I cant believe was six weeks ago. This year has flown by faster than any other year Im sure, its getting close to the middle of 2009 already and It feels like I have just posted about christmas only a few weeks ago.The change of season has been lovely with lots of crisp mornings and  refreshing rain, enabling us to light our wood fire to keep warm. Our view from the back of our house changes to show the different seasons . 

 

This is probably the last of my roses for the year before I cut them back again too.

Easter, School musicals (which I will post about later),craft fairs, weddings, Mothers day, netball, planning a long awaited holiday and every day life has filled up my days, but one thing in particular has replaced reading blogs (jut for a short while) and that is these books.One book of the series is missing as I have leant it to a friend who is also enjoying them as much as I have.

 

 As shown in my previous post my daughter is a huge Twilight fan and recieved the DVD for her birthday, which I watched with her and enjoyed. She nagged me for ages to read the books knowing how much better they were than the film and she was right. I cannot believe how this beautiful love story ( well yes I can actually because I love a good romance story wether it be a movie or book) has had me reading every spare minute. I usually read a book about once a year, if that , but I have read all of these books in 1 week, my family thought I had gone nuts. Not only that, I am now rereading them again. I wont even try to explain the story to you other than say its a Romeo and Juliet type story with different type of characters. I also enjoyed the movie and cant wait for the next to come out in November. I would love to hear from any other Twilight addicts. From what I hear there are lots out there.

Mothers day was lovely spent with both mums and some lovely gifts from my daughters

These came home with me after a trip to the Easter craft fair

 

 

That reminds me Easter was spent with friends at the Clare Valley in South Australia, we had a lovely time catching up, unfortunately this is the only photo I took. Us all enjoying  a yummy webber roast on the Saturday night.

And last of all I will soon have a tree full of ripe lemons does anyone have an easy lemonade recipe I could try or anything that uses lots of lemons.

 

Happy Easter and I have a bit of catching up to do

 

First of all I would like to wish everyone a very blessed Easter, I hope you all have a great time with family and friends. 

Now to catch up with whats been happening in the last few weeks, life got very busy there for awhile with work and lots of birthday celebrations.

Our youngest daughter had her birthday a few weeks ago, and judging from the pictures I think she was pretty happy with her presents.

 

she is a huge Twilight fan

 

and she was pretty excited about getting a new mp3 player and also a lovely pretty pink Billabong jacket amongst other things.

 

It was also our cute little nieces 1st birthday and she celebrated by having a smiley face party. When she was born we gave her a smiley face balloon, which she still has by the way, and now she loves anything with a smiley face on it. 

The birthday girl.

she has just started walking 

with her cousin and  I.

Her party food table with all the happy faces on the food.

   

We all had a great time.

 On the sewing front I made a few purchases from spotlight the other day as the girls and I would like to make an apron each to hang in the kitchen. If you go over to Netty's blog Thats Graphic she has done a post about the history of aprons with some great pictures.

 

Won't they make up the prettiest aprons with a striped coordinating pocket on the front.

Finally, thanks for hanging in there if you have got this far, it was our 23rd wedding anniversary on the 22nd of March. We went out for a lovely lunch and  I thought I would post a wedding photo to mark the occassion, my goodness we looked soooo young.

 

I would love to see some more wedding photos from all you bloggers out there so if your brave enough to post one let me know so I can come visit.

 

One year anniversary

Lots to share from the happenings at our home over the last couple of weeks. First of all it is my 1st year blogging anniversary, I cant believe it has been that long, time flies when your having fun.Thanks to everyone out there who has visited and left such kind, encouraging comments,when I have stitched something for a gift I am planning on having a giveaway to celebrate, so stay tuned.

 March is a very busy month for our family with 8 birthdays and two wedding anniversaries to celebrate, not all in our immediate family of course. Last Tuesday was our eldest daughters 20th birthday, here are a couple of her presents her sister made for her.

 

Also this little hanky she thought she would embroider for her to try out her newly acquired embroidery skills, isnt she clever?

 

Her little sister is having her birthday next Tuesday so this is the gift she has made for her. It is a jewellery holder, the idea is to hang necklaces and earrings from the little round silver rings. She found the pattern in a magazine and adapted the title on it to suit her sister (she is a big Hello Kitty fan.)

 

  

Had a visit from my dear friend Netty from Thats graphic last weekend ,we had a great time catching up over a few wines.

I dont know if regular visitors remember a couple of chairs I bought awhile ago for a few dollars each from garage sales, here they are all painted up.

I made these rag balls awhile ago

 

and this is a gift I recieved for my birthday from my sister, isnt the little patchwork sugar bowl so cute.

 

Finally just for a bit of humour, or embarresment I say, my dear husband wanted me to post a picture of his new work shoes,BIG DEAL you will say until you see the photo directly after of his old faithfuls he has been wearing for awhile now.

  

He said the holes were great ventilation for his very sweaty feet. Now thats embarassing!

 

   

What I have been up to

Today was my day off and what a perfect day it was. First of all  after months of no rain it finally happened, it rained just about all day, how nice and fresh it made everything feel.

 

and we are expecting more showers over the next few days which is great. I sat inside and stitched most of the time which was wonderful considering I havent picked up a needle since before christmas.I finished another block for my Leanne Beasley quilt.

 

and also started a cross stitch. I havent done one for years, but at the craft fair before christmas they had this one finished and framed on display, which inspired me to get this kit out I bought  years ago and make a start, I really enjoyed crossstitching again after all these years. 

 

and my new chooks have started laying which is good so had to show a photo of their work.

Vintage sewing,monte carlos and chooks

  A funny combination I know but here are some photos I hope you will find interesting. First of all I was appreciating some of the lovely work that has been done on some of the vintage linen that I have bought .I had to show you this french handkerchief (well thats what the guy told me it was) that I purchased at an Antique shop at Victor Harbour, probably about 10 years ago,isnt the lacework beautiful .

 

and these flowers are so perfectly padded and sewn onto this hand towel.

 

these cupboard knobs were bought from a garage sale by my MIL. At the moment they sit out on display on top of our T.V cabinet ,anyone have any suggestions as to something creative we can use them on or for.

 

Middle daughter has been down spending time with her Grandparents for a couple of days and her Grandmother has been teaching her some embroidery stitches, this is a sample of her first go at it

she also gave her some of these old embroidery transfers that she found at a garage sale

   

 

Daughter no.1 has been passing the time away before going back to Uni by baking these yummy monte carlos biscuits

 

and finally after a long wait introducing two more additions to the  family, our chooks, Addie (short for Adelaide) and Maddie ( short for Matilda) Maddie is the darker one( you needed to know that didnt you). My husband thinks Im a bit nuts naming them that, but I think after his effort at naming the  canaries, Kev and Trev, I did okay. Anyway here they are

 

I have only had them a week and havent had any eggs yet but I am presuming that this is normal? can anyone tell me, I figured they needed time to settle in.

 

Cool change

Thank goodness for the cool change and I am praying that it won't get that hot again for awhile especially for so many days  in a row. It has been awhile since my last post so I will fill you in on some of what we have been up to other than working. To beat the heat we spent a bit of time here 

 

and did a bit of this

 

stayed indoors in the airconditioning and did a bit of rearranging.

My brother had this lovely HUGE coffee table that he needed to store somewhere so we offered to look after it for him ,even though it takes up most of the room I think it looks quite good in here and is very useful for a footstool ,games, homework and pizza nights in front of the T.V.

  

also here is a photo of my beehive collection that I was supposed to post awhile ago 

  

On Friday it was my mums 70th birthday which we celebrated with a lovely meal at the hotel with family.This is a photo of my  sister and myself giving my mum a birthday kiss.

 

and three of her grandaughters, our two daughters on your left and our niece on the right.

and last but definately not least our thoughts and prayers are with all the people involved in the bushfires in Victoria.

 

  

Giveaway and its far too HOT

First of all Jo Jo over at Home sweet home is having a 100th post giveaway and to enter we needed to show a photo of our three favourite crafty things we couldnt do without so here are mine

1. My sewing machine which in this old photo is under its cover and I dont have it here to take a new one as it is at the shop being serviced.

2. My fabric stash of which there is alot more of and gets added to frequently.

 

and 3.my crafty magazines for loads of inspiration,and no this is not all of them.

Also as has been shared on many other Aussie blogs we have had a heatwave here in South Australia, with days of weather over 40 degrees, definately not my favourite time of the year and whats worse is there is probably still another week, at least of the same temperatures to come.I really dont like summer!!!!!!!! To have a break from the heat we ventured down south to my inlaws today for lunch .They live at Victor Harbour where the temperature was 10 degrees cooler than here in Adelaide and they also live on a lake so we could have a swim and enjoy  lunch in this nice cool setting.

 

and yes I could live here its so much cooler.

I also recieved my birthday present from them while we were there, I was very lucky to recieve this beautiful quilt that my MIL had made for me isnt she wonderful, I love it.

 

One more piece of news, I discovered while visiting Chookyblue she has found a website where you can order your blog into a book, does that make sense?? anyway go over and visit and you will see what Im trying to say. I think it is a great idea as a keepsake for our children and grandchildren etc as a  type of journal for them to look back on, thanks for the info Chookyblue, good find.

Anyway thats about it for now hope to have some sewing to share when I get my machine back.

Very Spoilt

Last Monday was my 44th birthday,arent I pretty good telling you how old I am! It was a lovely day followed by a few days back in Loxton catching up with friends.(thats why this post is a bit late sorry.)I was very spoilt with a nice tea made for me and a birthday cake

 

and some lovely presents.One of the very special parts of my birthday this year was participating in the birthday fat 1/4 swap organised by Maree over at on my verandah, thanks Maree, how much fun was it recieving 6 parcels in the mail with lovely fat quarters of fabric inside ,and also a few extra bits and pieces included in some. Thankyou so much ladies i felt very spoilt and I look forward to wrapping up some  goodies and returning the favour over the coming year.Here is a photo of what I recieved

 

aren't I lucky I love it all. Thanks again to Mandy over at the old dairy, Vanessa over at Flutterby Angel, Shelley over at angels come to play, Jo Jo over at Home sweet home, Kerry over at forever Friday and Rachel over at four wise monkeys.

School holidays are fun

They are for the kids especially, but even though I still have to work I do get to spend more time with them shopping,sewing,cooking etc.With it being summer here in Australia we can enjoy some of the yummy fruit that ripens now. We have  a peach tree in our yard which is great because we love peaches.

Lauren made this upside down peach cake today.

 

We also are growing strawberries which have just started to fruit ,I think this about the 3rd strawberry so far, with lots more on the way.

and soon we will have  our own fresh eggs. For christmas my husband built me this Chook house for a couple of chickens that we will be getting in  about a weeks time. I cant wait, I love chooks and we eat lots of eggs at our house.

   

Hannah has been busy stitching her blocks for her Truly Scrumptious quilt that she recieved for her 18th birthday this is how many she has done since the end of November.She puts her mother to shame.

 

 

 

also I thought I would show a picture of some cute little chrissy decs I bought half price after Christmas for a few dollars each

 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everybody and I hope that you all had great Christmas and New Year celebrations.We had a wonderful time with family ,but didnt it all go way to fast.We have been up to quite a bit over the last week so have lots of photos for you but first of all I must mention that before Christmas I recieved a christmas blog  award from Maree over at On my verandah, thanks so much Maree sorry I havent posted about it before now,I  forgot to put in my last post ,probably something to do with the fact that I did that post about 1AM christmas morning. Anyway pop over to see Maree at her blog she always has lots of interesting things to share.

Now for some photos of our Christmas Day,I always plan to take heaps and heaps but never seem to do it ,to busy enjoying myself probably.Here we are preparing the Christmas Lunch

 

Here is my nephew and his son participating in the traditional cricket game

 

My sister in law and my little niece trying to pull one end of a christmas cracker

 

my sisters granddaughter isnt she a cutie

 

My sister, BIL and their DIL

 and my mum and auntie

 

and some photos of a couple of the presents recieved, this was Hannahs gift but we all had fun using it, mmmmmmmmmm lots of chocolate.

 

and finally these were gifts from Hannah ,slippers she made from the pattern in the Sew pretty christmas homestyle book

so much more to share but willl leave that for the next post