At my house

Nothing spectacular - especially with painters trampling across flower beds! - but I'm surprised and delighted by the little treasures I find in my late summer garden.

What's going on at your house today? this week? Pop over to Buttonsbyloulou and add your name on the link list on her blog so we can stop by and check out your place. Ordinary things, special things, give us a glimpse...

Look who’s giving away a quilt!

You’d have to be crazy to make a quilt this scrumptious and then give it away - but that’s exactly what Jasmine’s doing to celebrate her blogaversary.

Just saying :-).

Off you go, take a look and enter her giveaway!

Brazen!

The valuable items inside our church are secure behind sturdy oak doors, and the Sydney sandstone walls have stood solidly for almost 160 years withstanding rain, hail, blustery winds and (mostly) burglars. 

So the thieves who struck this week took us by surprise removing items from the outside. 

Here’s a quick puzzle for you.  What’s missing in these pictures?

If you said copper downpipes and guttering you’d be right.  Apparently there’s a thriving black market for the stuff.

[Warning: Very bad pun ahead!] 

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We’ve called in the ‘coppers’.

Here’s another one

This one’s even easier.  Can you spot the two items missing here? Look a little closer.For generations two handsome carriage lamps have illuminated the great West Door of St Mark's Darling Point (Sydney, Australia), part of the fabric of Colonial Architect Edmund Blacket's original building.

They are of huge historic value, and have lit the path for worshippers of all kinds, including royalty and prime ministers, to say nothing of their sentimental value to us all. 

Only this morning did we realise that, along with the plumbing items, they’ve been stolen too.

So if you’re given to fossicking in antique or second-hand shops may I ask you to look out for these very distinctive painted carriage lamps?

Please ring St Mark’s Church Office (02 9363 3657) if you have any information that can help.

At my house

My house is getting a bit of a spruce-up at the moment.

You can’t move without bumping into scaffolding, paint tins or rubbish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes it seems as if there’s a workman around every corner.  

Laying new garden paving.

Outside my bedroom window. Inside my bedroom window.  Outside my bathroom window (he’s hiding). Even outside another little window  :-)  But let’s not go there!

What's going on at your house today? this week? Pop over to Buttonsbyloulou and add your name on the link list on her blog so we can stop by and check out your place. Ordinary things, special things, give us a glimpse...

Generosity

An older lady in one of my stitching groups recently gave me a bag of treasures – quilting books and magazines dating back to the 1970s.  An avid embroiderer but no longer quilting, she had held onto these precious books for many years, but when we had known each other a little while she offered them to me.  What a privilege.

I’m having a lovely time perusing the pages of the old Quilter’s Newsletter Magazines, seeing which designs were popular back then(definitely sampler quilts) and being intrigued by the pre-rotary cutting methods quilters used.

I know this dear lady wants no thanks, but I wanted to show her my appreciation by making her a little gift, a pouch for her embroidery scissors.I’m a self-taught embroiderer (with all the bad habits that one accumulates), and I thank P for recently showing me some of the finer points of shadow embroidery, so it seemed fitting that I shadow-embroider her initial on the front of the pouch. And just because I love pink (and bows!) here’s how I embroidered the back.

I’ve popped a little pair of embroidery scissors in, and will give the pouch to P tomorrow.

These designs, by the way,  came from a beautiful book – Stunning Stitches, by Primrose Andersen - given to me by my precious friend Moo several years ago.

Aren’t I blessed to have such generous women in my creative life?

…and he’s off!

Blurry?  Of course the picture’s blurry! 

Putting aside my obvious shortcomings in the photography area, have you ever seen an 8 month old labrador who’s delirious with excitement at being both out of his cage and off his leash for the first time in 6 weeks?

Round and round our back garden Chester ran at full tilt!  (Sorry, Dr David, he just couldn’t be stopped – until I waved a liver treat at him!)

Chalk up another success for Dr David Lidbetter.  We’re so very grateful!