Simple holiday times

I have been  on holiday for weeks now! I am happy for my friends who have spent the same time in Europe, visiting friends. Good luck to them!

My holiday has been spent at home.  I like it here. The accommodation is first rate-exactly my style of thing! We are so close to the beach we can walk every day -down near the water's edge and up to the reef. Me and my DH, just holding hands and walking each morning before it gets too hot.

Then we come home to do holiday things from home.

I have lots of new books to read. One of them is this cook book- and I have been trying out the recipes! The first cake I made was the Madeira cake -and it is a stunner. All I am saying is that if you have only ever known shop bought Madeira cake, you have never actually tasted the buttery, lemony sensation that it really is!

I also am learning to make pastry and pies.

There is a great sewing room here at my holiday location (smile) and I have been sewing -of course! This is a new table runner I made. 

And we have been doing holiday activities -like this wonderful Sunday evening Jazz concert in the park, where we took a picnic and had a fabulous time. 

There is still more holiday left -but the count down has begun. I will be trying to get lots of fun out of the last week and a bit.

Oh, and this week I am linking up with :

http://atrayofbliss.blogspot.com.au/

All the pretty things -a birthday High Tea

It sometimes seems that our community wants to make a big production out of every event. I am constantly amazed at the way that weddings, for example, have become so expensive.  

I like simple celebrations so when considering what we would do for my DD and my own birthday this year, it was obvious to me that we would keep it simple and small.  Even though my birthday was one of those which some people think of as a milestone (it has a zero at the end!) , I would hate to take a parachute jump, and I don't believe that I am entitled to an overseas trip for my birthday either.

I do love to celebrate however, and the picture shows what we were able to do just using what we had.  I suggested "High Tea" but done at home on our patio. My DD and I both have birthdays which fall between Christmas and New Year, so we invited about a dozen people to share afternoon tea with us. 

This is the table grandly laid out for our birthday High Tea last weekend.  

 We were so lucky to have a great summer day -which was not at all too hot. 

We made asparagus rolls, curried egg sandwiches, roast pork rolls, and hummus and crudites. 

There was a cheese platter with olives, and a compote with summer grapes.

There was a coconut oat slice, Nigella's Marmalade Chocolate cake and double choc biscuits which we also made. 

DD made the toblerone chocolate cheesecake.

We served Champagne, and also had Earl Grey and Ceylon tea.

Cold peppermint tea and iced coffee were available, and there was a fruit punch in  a pretty glass jug. 

I am quite a collector of pretty things, and this was a great occasion to show them off. 

I was able to use my 'inheritance' - the Country Roses tea set which was my MIL's, 

as was the silver tea service (not shown). 

The Royal Osborne forget me not tea set is from my elderly aunt.

My own collection of  Queen Anne roses tea set -(close up below)

The Flowers of the Month Royal Albert tea pot and milk jug above were found in an op shop in Fremantle. 

I decorated the patio with roses from the garden in a pewter op shop mug, and had some of my quilted table runners on the table and coffee table.

It was a lovely afternoon  and both birthday girls enjoyed it. 

My bed quilt finished!

TaaDaa!

I have finished the quilt I call "Dark Nightz" -an adaptation of the Jan Mullens classic quirky scrappy quilt. I love this pattern and go back to it often. This one started in February but got put aside for other quilting projects which had priority. I finished it just before Christmas.

I am proud of this because I quilted it on my Domestic Sewing Machine -and this is a BIG queen size quilt. I used a Quilt as You Go method in which I made six panels which stretched across the bed, and quilted them, and then sewed them together. It was just about manageable, although my shoulders hurt on the last day when I was connecting the whole quilt and pushing it through my machine.

I finished it with a scrappy black and white border, and the back is very scrappy panels of whatever I had that was long enough.

I quilted it in straight lines which look like the pattern used in tartan rugs!

A pile of scrappy blocks back in March 2014.

Blocks were sewn in strips and then three of the strips sewn and quilted before joining.

Now I need to make a couple of pillow cases to go with this quilt!

My new Singer -Aunty's hand crank comes home

 We have been cleaning out a relative's house after the death of my cousin.
Aunty is now very elderly and will be living in a supported accommodation unit near us.

In the linen cupboard was a sewing machine which no-one was particularly interested in.  I opened the case with the original key which was still attached, and this is what I found -a 1935 Singer Hand Crank sewing machine in the most perfect condition.  All accessories.

You can imagine my excitement! I love the gold detailing and the shiny steel fittings. I adore the fact that this precision piece of engineering works smoothly and well. I am impressed that it is entirely hand operated so that, like my treadle sewing machine, it can operate entirely on human power.

The box has a shipping label which says that Aunty brought it with her to Australia from the UK in 1967.

I am over the moon with joy.

The only thing is, I now have my lovely Bernina. 

I have a Bernette which is a 'stand by" machine -very simple for others in the house to use. 

I have my lovely Treadle. 

I also have a 1950s electric Singer.  

Lovely machine, but I haven't paid to have it serviced yet and the lock on the case no longer works.

 It is bigger than Aunty's machine -and heavier.

Too many machines for one small house! 

What would you do? 

Getting ready for Christmas

I love Christmas! Over the years I have collected and made a lot of things which can go to make the Christmas decor special for us. I try to buy or make one special thing every year. That way the collection grows. They are kept in plastic tubs. 

On Advent 1 we start decorating the house. It is like meeting old friends, as we pull out our favourites from the boxes. This ritual of decorating the house is one of those family things we enjoy, which makes it special for us.

This picture shows the Advent calendar I made some years ago.

We find our tastes change a bit -some things have been put aside for the Op Shop. 

Father Christmas (never called Santa here!) is not a big feature of our decorating, but I have a small collection on a high shelf.

 This year the Holy Family needed a new shed -my DH made it beautifully.

 A couple of Christmas Sheep representing hope and faith.

 Since we re-arranged DH's study, we now have a corner for the Christmas Tree and I have lots of shelves for Christmas decorations from my collection.

 The Christmas Stockings. This year I made a new one for our newest Grandson. 

On the mantle are figures representing the Holy Family -including one with Mary on a donkey holding Jesus in her arms, as they flee to Egypt. This is very special to me, as I work with agencies who look after asylum seekers. Jesus was a refugee. 

 We always have more than one tree! If one is good, more is better! One of our trees was found to have a stand which had broken. 

DH has undertaken to make a new one for it, then we can put it up in his study.

The view into the dining room. 

Finally, a home made Advent wreath.  A soup plate, white sand, a leafy wreath which we interspersed with artificial cherries I bought on a trip to Tasmania, and some holly picks which were going cheap when a florist supply house nearby closed up shop.  

Walk Over October - and public transport is fun too

 It is Walk Over October and in Perth we are encouraged to replace the short car trip with a walk, or use public transport.  It is good for the planet and good for us too. Perth is a large, sprawling place and people are often totally dependent on their cars, if they live in outer suburbs. There is a pretty good public transport system however, and sometimes we just need to change our habits rather than change our suburb, to enjoy it.

This is the bus stop I use when coming home from work. I use public transport unless there is a good reason to do otherwise. It saves parking fees and a lot of hassle.

I also use public transport when I travel. This is the latest multi-rider I own -from Sydney where I went to visit relatives for my aunt's 100th birthday.  My sister and brother in law were amazed at where we could go on this ticket when we loaded it with just $50.

In Sydney when you have this card, you only pay for 8 trips per week -after that riding is free.

We rode the trains and ferries and buses and it was amazing. Here are some of the sights.

 Lovely old terraces in Randwick

 Pacific coast beaches

 Elizabeth Farm Paramatta. We took the River Catamaran -more than an hour of lovely scenery for $7.50.

Quilt made by the NSW quilter's guild for a four poster bed in an historic house in Paramatta

Scenes from the lovely Blue Mountains town of Leura -the ride on the train was 2 hours each way, but it only cost us $2.50! 

I try to get a good hour of  walking in a couple of times a week, and in between there are walks from the train station to my office and so on. Most of these walks are on city paved footpaths, but if I can, a walk like this can really cheer me up.

Hope you can get out and enjoy Walk Over October. 

Visiting family in Tasmania

We have returned from a fabulous two week holiday in the island state of Tasmania, visiting our son and daughter-in-law and our grandchildren DGS  (9 weeks) and DGD 2 years old.

I took over the Paddington quilt for little DGS's cot. At the moment he still sleeps in his bassinet, but I hope one day he will snuggle under it. This is him all tucked up in the pram, during one of our sightseeing visits to a river park.

We had a lovely time travelling to Hobart, where we went to the top of Mount Wellington, and saw some snow which was still lying in the gullies there. This was VERY exciting for a couple of West Aussies who NEVER see snow where we live in Perth.

  

 The view from the top was amazing.

The harbour with all the fishing boats was so pretty! I was very excited to see the Aurora Australis in dock -the ship which takes our Antarctic team down there regularly.

That is Mount Wellington in the background, with the cap of cloud.

We also had a lovely trip up the east coast of Tasmania, The Freycinet Peninsula is stunningly beautiful.

Mostly, however,what we were there for was to have fun times with family.

Now we are back, and picking up the routines and habits of our life.

It is all good!