113

We have had the most glorious rain this week getting 30mls [well over an inch in the old scale] overnight - the garden so needed it, now I'm hopeful that the folks out west will get some too, as I know they are in dire straits...
I found this little guy while I was walking this week, poor thing must of been nearly hit by a car or something as he seemed to be OK just winded cause when I came back past he had gone - I hope the water I gave him helped & that our little Mr Kingfisher is doing OK now.
Thankful... for the wonderful rain we have had...

112

I've had two great finds of the day ...
While blog-surfing today... well really I was doing a bit of a clean-up of my emails on Gmail & that's when I got to do a bit of blog-surfing & I found Manxgirl & she has a lovely idea on her blog ... at the end of each post she lists 3 Gratitudes - I so love this idea that I'm going to do something like that on my blog from now on - maybe not 3 but definitely 1 cause we really have so much to be grateful/thankful for in our life...
I also popped on by a local PostCrossing girl's blog & Katy sent me looking at Where the Blog are You? where Louisa is featuring Australian, Folks living in Oz or ex-pat Australian Blogs ... you should pop on over & have a looksee...
Thankful ... for having the time it takes each day to blog-surf...

111

I have finally finished something creative... when I went to the Craft & Quilt Show the other week, one of the WorkShops that I did was this hands-on Vintage PostCard workshop put on by Lace Cottage an internet lace & braid business here in Qld. It was a fun W/S and I got some of it done but I was a tad busy talking & looking at the books that Ann & Lorna had to show us but I have finished it all now & I'm very pleased with it - although I do need to learn to cut the frayed threads with my rotary cutter 'before' I set to sewing around it ... still in my learning curve but having a great time ... thanks Ann & Lorna...

110

Jacaranda trees don't they just put on the most beautiful of display ... my girlfriend always saw the Jacaranda tree as an indicator that end of year exams were here so she called them the Exam Tree ... & true, the kids are all moving towards their end of year exams soon so I wish them all the best with them.
It won't be too much longer before the flowers will be making a beautiful carpet under the trees. I always thought that the Jacaranda was a native of Australia but I've read where is it actually a native of Brazil.
Grafton, Northern Rivers in New South Wales, Australia celebrates a Jacaranda Festival every year since 1935 - they had their festival this weekend just gone & they have avenues of Jacaranda trees - they do make for a lovely sight. I've also read where Pretoria, just north of Johannesburg in South Africa is known as the Jacaranda City laying claim to having over 70,000 trees in it's city - now that would look spectacular. Everybody used to have a Jacaranda Tree in their house yard in years gone by so it's lovely to drive around the older suburbs & see them all in flower now... Our late but famous painter D'Arcy Doyle always painted a Jacaranda in his landscapes - it became his mark. Jacaranda is such a lovely colour too & a true jacaranda colour is neither blue nor mauve if you were to try & match it - me Mum taught me that little pearler...

109

I've had a sleep-over at my girlfriends place in the last few days - she has moved into a lovely new place overlooking a beautiful big seawater lake ... not quite the same as living near the lighthouse but still lovely. We went & saw this guy play at one of the local clubs, man, he can play a mean guitar & sing too.
Of course we had to do a wee trip to MooBall & of all the times we have been there we've never got to the place the same way twice ... ha ha but never mind we do get there as they have a great little patchwork shop in town - well that's about all it has really besides the cafe & pub [what Australian town doesn't have a pub?] but as for the first time it wasn't raining when we went, we could stop & take a photo of this sign which I just love.

108

Gosh I think I've transformed this blog into a gardening blog ... ha ha...not really. DH loves nasturtiums so he has them all over the place in the back garden behind my Gyrlie Shed ... well a couple of plants have come up near the carport in the gravel & they were growing well then we had a couple of mls of rain and they went mad & here some of them are growing up through the fence, actually up inside the pipe & here is how they look when they find the sunshine ... When walking I found this fence all covered in bougainvillea & kept well trimmed - sure puts on a good show & added privacy for the occupants.

107

Plants are in full flower everywhere I look, on my morning walk, even with the lack of rain ... This is a flower on a vine that I have never seen here before - it does remind me a bit of a pea sortta flower. It looked so pretty growing on the fence of the lane -here is a close-up of it too...

106

We have not had any rain in weeks now & the garden is looking so sad that I sometimes just despair with it ... in doing this you can often miss the beauty. I had a friend visit with me & she was totally amazed at the lovely plants we had growing in our back garden - she said 'they look like you have been down there with your paintbrush painting the insides of them' ... well it's true that's just how they do look especially those growing in dappled sunlight ... our dear common bromeliads are putting on a lovely show & my friend made me take stock & admire them with new eyes ...

105

I have not been completely idle between going to craft & quilt shows ... I've make a card or too for my family ... both of these are wedding cards - the black & red one, somewhat matches the invitation ... when I make a card I do my best to match the inside of the card with the outside plus match the envelope with just simple decoration...

104

Well I added to my stash on Sunday at the Craft & Quilt Fair - me t'inks I had better pull my head in big time & for a long while & use my stash before I go even looking at more 'good stuff' ... ha ha, famous last words eh!!! But I have got to admit that I mainly bought non-perishables, so to speak ... still accumulating the necessities of the trade I keep telling myself ...
I also went on my pat-malone on Fri.[think I told you Wed...drrr] & spent all day taking advantage of all the lectures & hands on classes that they were offering... Free workshops ... I did one on all the different types of stiffeners, stabilisers & fusibles & what the different names were for them all ... tad confusing at times when my poor old sewing machine just stitches - none of this 600/800 stitches per something or another ... ha ha but good in other ways as they gave you a sampler pack. Another W/S on free motion stitching of flowers & the like ... another on how to organise you craft room with see-through containers etc & the last in the free ones that I did was on memory quilts that you actually did all through your cp then just stitched on the lines - all so easy & ended up looking like a pieced little quilt ...
Bernina were offering a hands on classes where we made a bowl out of a soft thick cor/rope & bias strips of fabric sewn with a large corded foot ... sorry no pictures as I'm still looking for the snake that belongs in my 'strange' shaped bowl ... ha ha and the last class I did was in the Crafty Classes area where a Lace shop did a hands on class for Fabric PostCards - right up my alley.
Yesterday we had time to look at all the lovely quilts on display - there was also a Fabric PostCard display as well as Art Quilts. In another section they had the Flying Doctor Quilts - that was a great display to honour our outback service that two of my children have used in there time out west. There was also a Japanese display as well ... We tootled off home before closing time rather time & a lot poorer but we had a great day...
Giveaway:- Please pop on over to Crafty Ramblings as Dawn is doing a giveaway for having 20,000 visitors ... great job Dawn ... to be in Dawn's giveaway she would like you to put a photo up of your crafty room/area... a lotta fun...

103

Drum roll please ... the winner of my little giveaway - picked by the Random Number Generator was #7 which is Dawn ... Congratulations Dawn & thank you for coming on by - gosh my little quiltie is going all the way to Scotland.
I would like to thank everybody for entering my little giveaway, I was surprised to see this many - I do so enjoy your comments so please pop on by again & say G'day...
I have had a very hectic but wonderful w/e - hasn't been so interesting & busy in a long time ... ha ha
DH [Dear Heart] & I celebrated our 40th [Ruby] Wedding Anniversary on Sat [& to think they were laying bets on it only lasting a year or too...] All our children live a long way away now but our youngest lives on the other side of town about an hour's drive away so she had us over to celebrate with a Seafood BBQ - yummm it was lovely & the Grandies put on a little concert for us as well so all in all we had a wonderful night - thanks Love. Our other children rang us so we had some long conversations on the phone... Telstra did well out of it ...
Sunday my girlfriend Luc & I went off to the Craft & Quilt Fair for the day ... I'm feeling slightly knackered today but we did have such a fun day. I had been on the Wed as well but will tell you about the Craft & Quilt Fair next time ...

102

Myy I'm a tad behind with telling you what I've been up too ... The other w/e I got to go to a great Quilt Show called Quilt Indulgence Festival one of the days it was on ... never been to one of their shows, only to find out it's all a bit new ... so off I went armed with comfy clothes, always wear comfy shoes, water bottle & camera ... ohhh & plastic [CC] ...
The Gee Bend quilts were on display & I found they were really quite inspirational & humbling especially when you read their story... I gotta admitt I was blown away with 'all' the quilts on display, they were wonderful & the art quilts ummmmmm I got lots of ideas & inspiration there ... seeing the actual art quilts that are being used in the Down Under Quilts 2009 calendar gives them a whole new feeling & appreciation... But I was a bit sad that we couldn't take photos of the quilts on display ... but there again I can understand the legal thingos about it all but it sure was some good eye candy.
The show was put on by Creative Living but I don't think it was advertised that well which was a bit sad for the stall holders but great for me the shopper as I had time to have a really good look around [I think there was a grand total of 10 stands] didn't get squashed & shoved in the maddening crowd as there wasn't one but I did manage to give my plastic a bit of a work-out. Here is what I bought ...plus some books - well ya just gotta have more books ...
I did a free workshop by Genesis Creations about dying cloth, clothes etc & was very impressed. It's an all Australian product ... gotta love that too, so I hope to be having some great fun very soon.
Now to top all of this we have another show this w/e ... Craft & Quilt Fair & there are so many free workshops I'm actually going an extra day just to try & fit them all in ... daa drrrrr

101

Thank you so very much to all that have left comments on my 100th post giveaway ... only days to go now... 'ya gotta be in it to win it', as they say ...
Got a lovely surprise the other day when I got home from a very long day shopping with my elderly Mum ...
my flat-top sewing table arrived & I'm thrilled to bits with it - it looks good - it feels great - it fits well & best of all it works ... I know, I'm sooo easily thrilled!!! but it has come from ID. USA. I had asked my local Janome dealer if I could buy a flat-top table for my machine & with a little scoff she says ''no' not with the age of your machine' ... gosh she didn't have to rub it in, I know my sewing machine is old but she has been very faithful, sewn many clothes for me & the kids, plus curtains, etc, she still sews like a dream [she does like to be serviced regularly]& she is the last of the models they put out before they went fully computerised. She's nearly 30years old & from what I hear around the traps you don't get that age out of the newer models so I'm hanging onto to her for as long as I can... like they say 'if it ain't broke why fix it' ...
I'm am also very thrilled with the service as I had it in about three weeks - I know I couldn't be buying something from O/S at a worse finical time with the money exchange at pressie but that's OK as I couldn't get one here plus the workmanship on it is great ... I got it from Nancy's Notions - don't ask how I found them cause I really don't know but I'll hazard a guess at finding it while I was blog surfing - the weather's great for surfing at pressie ... ha ha. I did spend some time on their site as there is a lot of very useful info there besides things to buy ...

100 yaaa 100 posts = Giveaway

Yep 100 posts does equals a GIVEAWAY ... and I even have something made for it too ...



This is my little 'Thank You' for popping on over to my place for a look-see & leaving me a comment [can't get on by without your comments ... even if it's only from the 3 of you that visit me ... ha ha] - please leave me a comment as I will take the names from the comment section - if you don't have a blog that's OK still leave a comment & then contact me via the email addy in my profile. I'll be drawing it on Sat week - 25th Oct [or day after] as it is a very special day for us here - I'll tell you more of that then...
I'm giving away this little quiltie 'Shine' that I made - I'm still in my learning curve with these & loving it - it is approx. 200mm [8"] X 150mm [6"], machine sewn with a little beading. Come one, come all I'm thrilled to have been blogging for 100 posts which for me has equaled 12 months at Bethel's Place.

99

Back from a couple of little trips away to visit with the Grandies ... poor DH had to have surgery on his lower leg for sun cancer - poor thing this is a legacy of being of Danish decent with the red hair & skin to match & being brought up out west where it is so hot & before they knew about the Slip, Slop, Slap where you Slip on a shirt, Slop on some suncream & Slap on a hat... but DH was a outside worker, he often worked without a shirt or even a hat for that matter for hours on end coming home very burnt... luckily our kids know so they cover their kids but they themselves have sun damage already just by inheriting their father's genes plus I also had copper hair when a child with a fair complexion/skin SOOO please now that we are in our southern summer Please remember to cover-up & Slop on the sunscreen even just for a morning walk or school. I see they (SunSmart) have extended the saying now to Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek & Slide the 5 S's - Do click on the hyperlink & go to the bottom of the page & hear the little song our kids used to sing.
Talking of walking Gilly must of found the trips away a little exhausting, as this is how she looked at me the first day we got back - you will notice that she parks herself in the covers after I have got up in the morning ... but she still came for a walk with me then the next day one of the neighbours dogs were out wondering the streets & as Gilly is only a toy poodle I had to very quickly scoop her up as one swipe at her by these much bigger dogs would have been disastrous so we were both a little nervous going off today but that soon disappeared when a chap further down our street brought his little grandie out so she could pat Gilly - Gilly loves kids & of course loves to be patted but not them big dogs ... ha ha
As per usual I was doing some blog surfing since I've been back & found that Denise Fenton had commented on Baumcat's blog so of course I followed the link and then found Tactile Pleasures... in Fabric... Myra is doing a giveaway[I'm late it's only til Sun] & would love folks to pop on over & visit - I found Myra's Tactile Pleasures a very inspirational blog to visit with a few tuts to look at too, so even if you miss the giveaway for her 200th post I know you will find it a great blog.
Did I say that I got my sewing machine back from the dr.? So now that the visiting is over I need to get back into my 'In This House' swap... I was a tad naughty while DH was having his surgery - well maybe it was "Stress Relief" in the form of 'Retail Therapy', but I visited Spotlight[large fabric & homeware shop] & just had to bring some of the lovely fabrics home - I'm going to have a go at making some aprons for Christmas pressies - well that's what I say now ... lol but first I need to finish my swap.

98

Come on Mum I'm ready to go - let's go now - come on ... Yes Gilly is all raring to go for our morning walk & it seems I'm the one dragging the chain - so to speak...
It's lovely going for a walk now with Spring in the air - everything is either blooming or has new growth like this gum - I've photographed my hand it this photo just to give you some idea how big these leaves can be ... I think it belongs to the Bloodwood family of gums ... there are many many types of gums - the new leaves have that lovely reddish colour with the fresh green. Ohh yes I love colour ...

97

Working away on my 'In My House' Chunky Book Swap pages - all going well.
For a little R&R I have this wonderful book to read ... I do hope they will bring out another one like it soon as this one has been a wealth of info to me, while I'm in this steep learning curve. I have had it for a few weeks now but I am still reading & absorbing it - think it will be one of those books I will read and/or look at for a long time to come.

96

Well it's all systems go now that I have my fusing - thanks Luc ... fusing is all marked out with 'in my house' page templates/patterns, have my yummy fabrics sorted & the iron heated. So on with the fusing of the material... Tonight I should be able to start to cut everything out - this alone will take some time as there are to be 15 pages for each book... I know I'm in two books - just greedy I guess.
Then I will be able to iron them [my house pages] together & then it's only a matter of doing the sewing ... ohhh mustn't forget I have to print some material out with my details ... something I usually neglect to do until it's 'nearly' too late... ha ha
Hopefully I will have some finished to show you early next week.

95

I don't seem to have done anything creative to show you although I have many things on the go but not finished. I'm participating in another Chunky Book swap & this time it is In This House - the idea came from the great book of the same name ... the other girls do more mixed media when I'm sticking more to fabric as my media of choice these days so I have been drawing out the templates that I made the other week but now find I don't have enough fusing[HeatnBond] so hopefully my friend Luc can pick some up for me when she comes visit again. Not all is lost really cause I could use adhesives spray but I need to iron up what I have got done & start cutting out as it does take time. My sewing machine is still at the doctors being fixed ... getting rather anxious as it was supposed to be back yesterday but it is giving me time to have my pages ready for the sewing part. I've also had a go at painting cloth - this is a bit of a feeble effort but it's all a very steep learning curve I've put myself on this year & guess what I'm having FUN & that's the name of the game I believe...
The Grandies are on School holidays & I'll need to see what they are all doing & when they will be available to come to the movies with me - this is our special treat each school holidays - don't know what movie we will be seeing as there are several that look good. What am I going to do when they are all too old to go to the kids movies with me ... sad to see 'mature' ladies going to the kids movies alone... ha ha There again I often go to the movies alone so what's the diff I guess...

94

What a lovely day we had on Sunday... a friend I made while working/playing in New Zealand last year was over here on holidays with her DH & they came to visit with us on Sunday. Michelle I do hope you aren't having to work too hard now that you are back at work but it was so lovely to see you again.
My DH took a couple of photos of us but sadly neither are what you would call brilliant but it a lovely record of our day... My DH[Dear Heart] has given you smoking a vise that he soo enjoyed - he is doing really well & we are very proud of his efforts, sadly when he gave up, his smoking abilities weren't replaced with good photography skills - if that had of happened then at least one of us could take brilliant photos - looks like we will need to see how Michelle's DH went with his photography skills. Sooo... if you happen to look here & see a wonderful photo of us you will know it's been replaced ... ha ha
Thanks guys for taking time out of your holidays to drop on by - hope you had more success find your way back to the highway than you did getting here ... lol.