Medals

Dinner with good friends last night, and in a moment of flippancy it had been decided that "medals" would be worn (being Anzac Day) - look what they came up with...

A Paul Harris Fellowship Rotary Award, Air Force Wings, An Order of Australia, a Centenary of Federation Medal - and a school Lifesaving Award! Distinguished company indeed!

Scatterday T - Week 35

Last Wednesday, while waiting at my local TRAIN STATION (which is In My Neighbourhood) I snapped this photo - then realised I had the Trifecta!!!!!


The TILES on that pillar were Blue and Square - and there were more Square TILES underfoot.

And the front of the TRAIN, when it arrived, was sort of Square .... sort of .....

I wonder what the other waiting train travellers thought of my unusually excited reaction to the mundane elements of railway station architecture?

April Garden

Autumn's mellow colours are beginning to creep into the garden, and the Virginia creeper is an absolute joy to behold.

Berries and seed-pods abound, and there is beauty even in dead flower heads.

Several summer survivors - a lone gardenia, and lots of frangipani buds - bravely bloom on and on when all around the summer-flowering shrubs are going to sleep.

And the spring-flowering rhododendron is as impatient to get blooming as it was last year! It provides a welcome splash of colour outside my back door. (Please, nobody tell it that spring's at least 5 months away).

"Cheer Me Up Swap" ATCs - my first ever!

After my last post, I think we all need a little something to cheer us up, and here it is -

This week I've sent off a set of the first Artist Trading Cards I've ever made. The Southern Cross Quilters are holding their annual retreat in Perth next month, and the "Cheer Me Up Swap" was organised especially for those of us not attending.

The guidelines asked for bright, cheerful ATCs to make us feel better, and I couldn't resist joining in. Apart from learning quite a bit about the process of creating these fibre ATCs, I'm looking forward to
the week of the retreat when I expect to receive four assorted ATCs from other Scquilters, something that I hope will put a smile on my face.

As convention dictates, the ATCs are 2 1/2 inches x 3 1/2 inches.

I've stitched the flowers from 1/4 inch hexagons, the sun's rays are gold bugle beads, and the butterflies are iridescent shapes.

Scatterday K - Week 34

You know how this works by now. One letter each week (this week it's K), and 3 categories (this week we have things you like the smell of, hobby, and office things).

Something you like the smell of...
For a Kris Kringle last Christmas one of my quilt buddies gave me a pretty pink drawstring toiletry bag containing deliciously scented Crabtree & Evelyn Rosewater products - hand cream, body lotion, shower gel and soap. Ahhhh....

Hobby...
Knitting is a pretty popular hobby, particularly at this time of year.

Office Things...
In my office/study you'll find a pink leather envelope from stationers Kikki K. I keep my bragging photos of you-know-who inside it!
And there are several styles of knobs - on the door, cupboard and chest of drawers.

...and one more Office Thing

A keepsake that sits on my desk and is very dear to me.

My name, carved into the soft wood of a fallen palm tree branch, by Sarah, a troubled but warm, funny, gifted, intelligent and sensitive young woman I knew for 10 years.

Sarah was very careful in her choice of friends, and sometimes it wasn't easy to work out why she opened up to some of us, and remained stony-faced to others. Sometimes it was quite clear, though, because she could detect "do-gooders" and pretenders with the sharpness of radar. She wrote poetry, read vocariously, and lived in the shelter of St Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney. She also drank too much (but was vehemently anti-drugs) and when she became a Christian and gave up her daily cask of white wine the demons of her unhappy childhood came back and were just too much for her to handle. We only half believed her when she told us she just wanted to go and be with God who would take away all the pain, but on 3rd September 2003 she took her own life.

This little name plaque on my desk reminds me of Sarah daily - and I feel privileged to have been counted by her as a friend.

Hyacinth Bucket, eat your heart out

A get-together of the ABCs (quilting buddies) at my home today gave me the opportunity to use some special pieces of Royal Doulton "Pansy" china that belonged to my grandmother, and which my mother has only recently handed down to me.

I love the vibrant colors of these pansies dancing on the sandwich plate, and the elegant angular shape of the cups and saucers. The height of 1930s sophistication.