15 Minute Challenge and another busy week

 I think I am almost on top of stuff at work, the boss wants me to aim for the end of the month to start working extra as they have only given us 3 month budget for my increase in hours but he said if we need to bite the bullet earlier we will.   Found out today another state manager has resigned so we might be in a holding pattern for a bit longer, it will also mean more travel for my boss ahhh the joys. He did say we could look at moving the office west of the city next year to cut both out travel time.  I sent him a cheeky snap of a small shop front that is for lease around a 10 minute walk from my house.  I know its been empty for about 12 months so who knows it may still be available when our lease is up.  He's wants something in Glenelg either way it will cut each of our travel time down to next to nothing, which I am all for.  

Mo had a party to go to and no dress as it was a bit more dressy than she was use to.  I admit I was at the kill me know stage of shopping after spending 3 hours at the local shopping centre going from shop to shop and back again. I worked out the sticking point was the fact that she had to pay for it and the only dress that she was happy with was $200.  At least she has scored  3 shifts this week for work so that should pay for it pretty quickly.  The problem was when we got home was that she wanted her hair coloured and she wanted it in gradients this time, navy blue through purple to magenta lets just say I slept well apart from the aching legs but she did look very pretty for the party Friday night.  

Sewing wise I have been doing more cross stitch which has slowed because I broke my magnifiers, but I have got enthused to get some more drum pin cushions made from the Blackbird book that I was collecting projects from last year.  There are 3 more in the book that I haven't made so I bought some linen online to finish off the remainder of the patterns and there is a lovely framed sampler that I may do as well.  Today a couple of easter cross stitch kits arrive so I will be ready for next year.  

Quick Quilt 2 is finished and the pattern is posted on the 2021 BOM page.  I'm still quilting it I think I have a couple of hours left to go and then binding, but I will post pictures once its done.  

We got back Mo's latest pots this week.  One was for a gift for the birthday party which came out so cool I wanted to keep it, its an essential oil pot that you put the reeds in to scent a room.  She tells me she is going to make a Etsy shop for now to put up the one off stuff that she wants to sell as she doesn't have time at the moment to set up a full on website for now which all costs money to do.  

The week didn't involve any pretty walks the weekend turned a bit ugly not much rain but windy and overcast and a lot colder than it has been.  Hope you had time to stitch or knit or do what ever creative thing you do.  Check out Kate's blog to see how everyone is going.  

15 Minute Challenge and Happy Easter

 How has your Easter been? Have to say mine has been pretty great.  Lately all I feel like is that I'm rushing from one place to another but Easter has been a real slow down and recharge, just what I needed.  

This week was another 7 out of 7.  I've done some crochet, quilting and the last couple of days I have taken out some cross stitch.  I also bought a couple of easter kits from the Crewel Goblin (which will have to be for next Easter but that's ok.  

I was waiting on a shipment of fabric markers that didn't arrive for my quilt so I got out my karisma pencil and a pounce pad to mark the feathers on the quick quilt.  I was a bit scared when I started marking the quilt with the pounce pad and it didn't iron off (as instructed).  I then tried it on some scrap and got it out by washing it so I sort of using the two methods to mark it as I go and filling in some of the areas with some echo quilting.  I was hoping to have it finished this weekend but I don't think that is going to happen.    I'll either do a bit at night next week or leave it to the weekend.  

Yesterday DH and I went for a long walk, following the local creek then up to the beach and along the beach nearly to Henley then back to Grange.  We stopped under the shade of the trees by the jetty to cool down before walking home its been lovely and warm.  Only the pub was open so there weren't a lot of people hanging around the area like there usually is on a weekend.

I got out my Christmas cross stitch, I only have the band to finish.  I should have enough linen left over to make another pin drum from the Blackbird Design book that was used for the cross stitch club last year it was one that I really liked and it never made it to the list of projects.  I have 3 more projects from the club to finish one I wasn't going to do so I will use the threads for that project on the drum.   One of the other projects is supposed to be an oval box, but i may make it into and egg like the cross stitch projects I have ordered and have a little nest of them for decorating next year.  

We went a saw Mo's pictures at the SACE Art Exhibition on Thursday, she was so nervous about seeing her work on display.  She's been a bit stressed about some of her work at Uni, doubting herself and worrying about the workload, I think she will settle down after the first semester she still is very much still trying to find her feet.  In fact she is coping a lot better than I thought she would for all the new different experiences she is facing.   I expected a lot more tears, OCD and anxiety to be showing than there is.  The first term of school is always hard for her I think she is getting better at it.  

So how'd your week go.  Head to Kate's to find out who else met the challenge this week.  

15 Minute Challenge and a Bit Healthier

The end of the month work wise has caught up with me.  Most of today was spent in a webinar which explained some of the major changes that will be taking place in our industry.  Sounds like more work and less time to do it to me.   I'm going to try not to think about it too much.  

I had a bit of a mini clean up in the sewing room on the weekend.  I've made 3 or 4 projects over the last couple of months so it was well overdue.  I got some containers to store my wool in as that little pile has grown over the last few months and really needed some organisation.  

It was a lovely day yesterday and I took the opportunity to set up a trestle table to baste the latest quick quilt.  The joy of making small quilts is that they are easy to baste quickly.  Half and hour and it was all done.  

Its been a 7 out of 7 week this week.  Lots of crochet but a bit of stitching as well.  

Over the last 5 months I have been following the Total Wellbeing Diet and have managed to loose 12kg.  Some of it was a bit of lockdown weight but the rest was just weight that has crept up over the years.  Can't say that I haven't been strict all the time but the diet is fairly easy to follow and I don't feel deprived and I have been losing weight fairly slowly which is fine by me.  I wearing clothes that I probably haven't been able to fit into for 6 or 7 years but I still have a way to go.  

So how did your week go.  Head to Kates to see how everyone got on this week.  

15 Minute Challenge and a week gone in a blink of an eye

 I don't know where last week went, of course it was shorter because of our mini break, work was pretty busy and I was a bit unwell with either a bug or the end result of the antibiotics because of a sinus infection so I blinked at it was gone.  

Thursday I decided to stay home (mostly) and make the blocks for the next quick quilt.  I did some in the morning had a nana nap in mid afternoon then went and finished the blocks.  I was able to put them all together over the weekend so I have a quilt top finished ready for quilting.  I'll need to get wadding this week.  The pattern will be available around 15 April from the BOM page.  

A couple of weeks ago we contacted the local Art Society, they hold pottery classes and offer a firing service for members.  I joined Mo up and she had a couple of things fired in the last week and we hope to pick some mugs that have been sitting in the pottery shed for weeks.  Where we were getting her pieces fired bumped her latest pots for a few weeks because they had commercial jobs to do. We finally got those pots on the weekend but they had had them a month.  The Society has done both firings in a week and they seem pretty friendly, it will probably take Mo a few visits to warm up to them but I think they will be a great resource for her.  

Here are the pots she made for my birthday, I need another plant but ones already potted.  

Hows your week been I did manage a 7 out of 7.  Think I will be doing more crochet this week I'm getting close to the of squares of the Granny Square Flair sampler (then there are 6 more repeat blocks).   I've decided I like using cotton rather than wool for crochet so I will be keeping that in mind next time I purchase yarn.  Probably need to get through the big stash of  wool to crochet in the mean time though.

Head to Kate's to see how everyone else is going.  

15 Minute Challenge and A Mini Holiday

 It was a 6 out of 7 week this week.  We had a wedding to go to at Clare.  It had been postponed a couple of times due to Covid.  The day was pretty wet, but it cleared for the garden ceremony.  

We had planned to say a couple of nights.  Sunday we did a bit of a tourist thing driving around, as neither of us are wine drinkers there wasn't a lot and places to go, it is pretty obvious that the region has been hit hard by covid and there really wasn't a lot of thing open unless it was wine tasting.  We had a nice breakfast at The Olive Bus.

We then headed to Martindale Hall.  It was used as a set for Picnic at Hanging Rock which is an Australian Movie Classic.  The interiors were beautiful, lots of William Morris wallpapers and the upstairs / downstairs divide was on display.  The most beautiful screen hand embroidered was on display in the master bedroom.  

Apparently is a ghost of a small child in residence. The room was pretty cold but I could have been imagining it.  

DH wanted to pose for a picture to send off to work as his department has  something to do with the upkeep of the of the hall.  

Mo's boyfriend's band had a great gig on Saturday.  She said the room was packed (probably with all their school friends and family), and most of them cleared out for the lead act, she felt a bit sorry for them her table stayed.  She thought they did a great job  Her boyfriend wrote most of their songs and they only did a couple of covers in the set, she may be a bit bias.   

This afternoon I managed to finish my 6 day kids blanket.  It needs blocking and the ends all weaved in but it's pretty much finished.  

How did your week go.  Head to Kate's to check out how every one went.  

15 Minute Challenge Quick Quilt 2 begins

 How has your week been.  We have had a long weekend and its been good to spread the weekend work out over another day.  I've been busy sewing trying to get a present finished for one of my girlfriends and I put the final stitches in place today.  I had a 6 out of 7 week but probably doubled the amount of time in my sewing room over the last 3 days.  

Hopefully I will get to meet up with friend soon, we are waiting on one of the girls to recover from her 2nd lot  heart surgery over the last couple of months before we meet up.  

Both the kids got through their first week at Uni, the was a mix up with one of Maestro's classes which he has decided to drop and pick up at the end of the degree.  Mo didn't like her Drawing teacher but loved all the other classes especially the illustration & animation classes.  

We head away for the weekend we are attending a wedding at Clare and have booked in for a couple of nights so we don't have to rush home.  Mo's boyfriend's band have their  first official gig at The Gov next Saturday night they did a test run a couple of weekends ago and Mo said they were pretty good.  

The one thing I can show you this week is my progress on the 6day Kids blanket and the beginning of the next Quick Quilt which is all cut out and I have started sewing.  

So how did your week go.  

Check in with Kate.  

15 Minutes and A Uni Start

Mo started Uni today.  Last week was orientation and she went with her Dad on the train, unfortunately he decided to walk her into the Uni which she wasn't very impressed with.  I told him to go straight to work from the train today she didn't need an escort.  

Most of the end of last week we were doing a mad rush to get all the art supplies they wanted her to have for the first week.  The local Art Supply shop is moving locations and will be closed for a month so I really hope she doesn't need any more stuff that we can't pick up from a normal office supply shop.  

Monday is the one day where her and her boyfriend classes finish at the same time so they came home together sounds like everything went well.  She is only doing 3 classes this semester and the rest of the class hours is taken up with Studio time.

She also bleached the bottom 2/3rds of her hair so she could put in a funky colour, she is sporting pink hair, it looks pretty cool.  I had 2nd thoughts when I was driving her to work but the supervisor said she liked it so all was good.  She has been getting asked to fill in the last 3 weeks so most weeks she has 2 shifts which gives her a bit extra money.  She is saving for a kiln.  DH is worried about how much that is going to cost to run.  I told him it will be a while before she can afford it so don't stress too soon.   

She has been making things with polymer clay for a couple of years usually earrings.  Here is her latest its to go on a necklace and is based on one of the succulent pots, she is always propagating.  Someone has already snapped this up at least it is someone local so we don't have to worry about postage logistics yet.  

 

Well what have I been up to.  Gift sewing... still not finished, finished binding on Quick Quilt 1 and more crochet.  I got a big delivery of wool this week which I needed to sneak into the house the parcel was kind of huge.  

I am going to need to spend more time in my sewing room to this gift finished there are lot of steps and I'm not even halfway to getting it together.  

So how has your week been? Check out the crew at Kate's to see if they met the challenge.