Life in Colour.

Once again joining in with Jude over at her Travel Words blog for the monthly feature, Life in Colour. This month’s colour is green. This week, Jude has written a post here  about trams/streetcars, with their stunning  green paintwork of course. Her photos of these lovely old beauties are just wonderful! 

My post this week features an eclectic/hotchpotch of ‘greens’. 💚🟢🟩

Once I had a very bright fresh looking tablecloth for our rather large outdoor table...

The grandchildren liked to count all the different greens in those stripes.

I still have that cloth, but time has taken a toll on that brightness...

Here we are one afternoon last month. Miss 5 has joined us after school for some afternoon tea. The cloth may be faded but look at that very new school uniform...yep! Greens! 

Next, is half way around the world from here. The lovely green painted metal ( and shopping baskets) at Borough Markets in London. 

Lovely memories of a holiday in 2019. We took cheeses, breads, deli meats and fruit from the market back to our holiday apartment in Chelsea. 

And here is another  green in my life...
With Covid-19 came library closures and suddenly I became a lot more enthusiastic about ebooks. I’d bought such books over the years but now I started to borrow them from the library. And BorrowBox is the app that most of the titles I was interested in were available. ( a few still used Overdrive as the reader) 


For me I still love the so called traditional Christmas colours which certainly include green. Last year I made some knitted wreaths as little gifts for friends...some were green...well maybe most were green! Lol

A few years back I was shopping at a Christmas Market at the Karuna Hospice here in Brisbane and spied this elf. The amount of work involved in its making was impressive and the price quite rightly reflected this. But I’d fallen in love and it was a good cause, so the green elf came home with me. 

And I once pinned this next photo on my Pinterest Christmas board...

Now this next photo may look like a big pine undecorated Christmas tree, but looks are deceiving. It’s actually a phone tower in Hawaii. I took the photo through the window of the bus that had taken us on a tour of the island of Kauai. 

What a great way to disguise a phone tower! 

And there will be some more ‘greens’ from me next week. 

A Secret Santa delivery from 'Across the Ditch'...

I found out this week that my Secret Santa in Chookyblue's SSCS this year is Michell from New Zealand. Yes a parcel arrived...always exciting!

Inside...

In this swap, participants send 2 parcels...a small one with a Christmas ornament and a larger parcel containing a handcrafted gift; the smaller parcel can be opened immediately but the other can't be opened until the traditional present opening day...for example, for some this is Christmas Eve, others it will be Christmas Day etc. 

This is what Michell had put in the smaller parcel...

Lots of lovely goodies! Another big thank you to Michell!!

Now also on Monday I found that Tonje in far off Norway had received the gifts that her Secret Santa ( me!!!) had sent her as she wrote a post on her blog. 

I had made the ornament after I made her main gift...it was a day or so before the posting deadline...so I was cutting it a  bit fine! Lol

It all started when early this year I pinned this ornament on Pinterest...the link went to a site that said the pattern was sold out...

I pinned it thinking I could make one just by going by the photo. But a few months ago the pattern became available...so I bought it. And then printed off the pattern pieces and cut them out of felt ready to assemble...

I enjoyed making the elf and it wasn't long before he was finished....and my elf looked like the photo!!! Lol

  And he went all the way to Norway, to his new home...my goodness, it's almost at the North Pole there and we know who lives there don't we??? Lol

There's a rumour...

Must be that time of year...I've been busy stitching...

On looking at our dining room table DH just had to remark, 'There's a rumour that there is a table under there'...

This comment made me think of a cartoon I remember having seen once but had had no luck finding it again. This time I thought I'd try Pinterest, and I found that cartoon straight away. 

I still love it! Lol

Our dining room table is only used for eating at, in the coldest weather. The table is very handy for cutting out and stitching is easier there as a power point  is close by to the table, so my Daylight lamp complete with magnifier can be close too. And in the day time the window lets in lots of natural light. 

Unlike the family in the cartoon, our 'alternative' table is quite a big one!!!

So why was DH 'having a dig at me'???? Lol

That dining table is nearly cleared now and craft items have been returned to where they are kept ready for next time. The large boxes underneath the window are DH's btw! 

I cleared it this morning as I want to spread out my latest knitted finish so I can weave in ends and check it all over using the Daylight. That project will be unveiled in a few days after it has been given away.

I'm quite excited !

It started with a phone call...

Then some searching on Pinterest....

Then there was a trip to Bargain City...( thank you for telling me about the wonderful stocks of craft supplies at the BC at Chermside Markets, Margaret B...it was a real treasure house!) 

On the way home there was a stop at our local council library...

The phone call was from my niece to say that my great niece Lucy ( who will be 5 next Feb) had asked if she could go to Aunty Maria's place without mummy or Max (little brother), and do craft. My niece was flummoxed as Lucy has never wanted to go to anyone's place on her own before. 

So next Tuesday, Miss Lucy is being dropped off for a morning with me! That is the nice thing about this little family moving from the Sunshine Coast to 2 suburbs away from us...it's much easier to drop over. 

I had given away all my children's art/crafts  book when I retired but then I remembered Pinterest...so with a few ideas from there plus 'tried and true' old favourites from my classroom days, Lucy and I will be making some decorations and little presents. 

Sunday Stitchers Celebrate Christmas...

We had our Christmas gathering the Sunday before last.

Projects were worked on...

Birthday girls had lots of little parcels containing fat quarters to open...

We had a scrumptious spread of food for lunch and afternoon tea...

Cheryl had brought decorations for the table...

Secret Santa gifts were exchanged...my Secret Santa, Lynda, gave me this magnificent table topper. It was such a lovely surprise; the fabrics are gorgeous and the design is one I've liked for quite a while. Clever Lynda had looked at my Pinterest Board of Sewing ideas, and she guessed rightly that it was a favourite of mine. 

I was Secret Santa to Maree. As well as being a member of Sunday Stitchers, Maree also belongs to K4BN, so when I drew her name earlier this year, I had decided to make something with the knitting theme...yep! the Dillybag...here's Maree with the bag and the other goodies I popped in it.

And of course we had some show and tell, with some beautiful items shown...

Teresa's quilt...

De's

Ladies with the lovely bags they had made...

The Christmas QAL quilts' progress...

All year these ladies have bee doing the 'paper bag' row by row quilt...swapping each month. We finally saw the progress as this was all secret stuff! Lol

We were all spoiled by some of the Sunday Stitchers; these lovely people had extra gifts for each of us!

Gifts from Teresa and Maree J. 

Lovely decorations that I received from Susan, Debbie, De, Helen, Jeanette, Cheryl...

A great day I think you would agree! 

Hexies

Last month I missed out linking up with Sarah's Help for Hexaholics monthly post and link up. I was running late this month too, on account of the sore wrists/forearms that have bugged me a lot of this past week. But a little late nonetheless, I have made progress with those Hexies from the kit I bought at the Liberty shop.

I didn't manage to use all 30 hexagons but Lin gave me an idea that may assist in using all 30 rather than just 19 :-). I plan to make a cushion eventually but I have only made this motif so far. I ended up using an idea I had seen on Pinterest ages ago and pinned it.
It involves arranging the 2 colours in a swirl pattern rather than the traditional Grandma's Garden motif.

My brain was in a bit of a fog the other night when I was trying to layout the hexies like the pinned diagram from Pinterest...when I finally got it right, I labelled each hexie...made it so much easier!

Now a little bit of Trivia. I worked on this project yesterday at Sunday Stitchers and one of my fellow Stitchers commented that the design look like a swastika...I remarked that that was a bit unfortunate but I couldn't really see it myself....I could see swirls. :-) I was a bit appalled actually....:-:

 But then I remembered something I had read years ago...the swastika was actually based on an Ancient Greek Symbol. A little research today showed that the same symbol is featured in many cultures including being a symbol of auspiciousness in Hindu culture.     http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika

 So that explains the crocheted insert on a vintage table centre that came in a bundle of old linens that I bought on EBay many years ago...when I saw this design, I thought hmmm...maybe I won't bother to clean this up and reuse the lace...it obviously was a design that was around long before the Second World War...

Visit Sarah's blog here...http://sarahdidit.blogspot.com.au

Red Food; Green Food...

In my job as a classroom teacher we would discuss with our classes, foods which were healthy versus foods that were not so healthy. Foods designated 'red' were usually not able to be sold in the school tuckshop but could be a 'once a term' treat such as a pizza day, ice cream or sausage sizzle. 'Green' foods were 'allowed' all the time. (Some foods were Amber too)
Well last week those terms came to mind as DH had a bit of both!
Last Wednesday night we went out to celebrate DsD2's husband's birthday. Karl loves carbs so we went to a Pizza and Pasta restaurant. DsD2 provided the birthday cake...

Now that is definitely a healthy cake!

 So that was Wednesday night...then on Saturday it was McHappy Day at McDonalds restaurants. One dollar from every Big Mac sold is set aside, raising money for all the Ronald McDonald houses in Australia. These houses provide accommodation close to the hospital for families of very ill children who have to come to the city for treatment.

 I have some friends (2 sisters) whose great niece/granddaughter is seriously ill and waiting for a heart transplant. The family had to go to Melbourne and while little Miss A is in hospital, her mum and dad and big sister are able to stay at the Ronald McDonald House there.
So naturally DH and I visited a local Maccas for lunch and ordered 2 Big Macs!

It was the least we could do!

Now more about that cake. As soon as I saw it, I said 'I saw that on Pinterest!' I've got quite a collection of ideas for healthy 'green' foods that I've pinned. Here is the link to my board.