Creativity in the Family

I think creativity must run in our family. I have a beautiful embroidery of some birds made by my Aunty Anne (mum's sister). I never got to meet Aunty Anne as she died during the war but I treasure this embroidery that she made.

Growing up I remember my grandmother and my mother knitting but it wasn't until about 15 years ago that mum started making painting china dolls and making cushions, stools and pictures all decorated with flowers made from silk ribbon and beads.

All of us girls are creative in our own way.

Susanne can sew anything. Wedding and bridesmaid dresses, Christening gowns, skirts, tops and dresses. Everything she sews looks tailor made. Susanne also embroiders, quilts, knits, smocks. This is Lachlan in an outfit sewn and smocked by Sue.


Jenny sews tailor made curtains. She makes them to order and sells them in her shop. These are some curtains that Jenny made for one of my Aunties.




Rhonda made the most beautiful flowers out of silk ribbon, tassells, cushions, handbags, decorative stools all decorated with lace, silk ribbons and beads. She has also made pictures using old photos and memorabilia that she collected from antique shops. Her work has been sold in shops and markets. This is a picture that Rhonda made for me.

My brother John was also creative in his own way. He was could draw anything and especially good at drawing cartoons. He also loved making things with his hands. This is a a magazine rack that John made while at school.

A Cardigan and Quilt nearly finished

The cardigans I am knitting for Sarah, Hannah and Olivia are going well. I have finished knitting all the bits for Sarah's cardigan and will be starting on Hannah's today. With all the colors there are so many ends to sew in so I am trying to sew some ends in each day.

I have also been working on Peter's quilt. It's all black and white circles cut into different sized squares. The pattern is pretty 'busy' with all the circles so I'm hoping that the next row of bigger circles and a thick plain back border will tone the pattern down a bit.

This will definitely be a 'one of a kind' quilt!

It's Raining, It's Pouring, Charlie is snoring..

It has been raining for most of the weekend now and my garden is absolutely loving it. The rain gauge which holds 40ml was overflowing this morning which is something that it hasn't done for such a long time.

Charlie doesn't like getting wet so he spent most of the weekend inside. He spent most of Sunday afternoon curled up on the bed sleeping and snoring.

My seedlings are all doing well. I love going outside and seeing which bulbs have come up this year and seeing the new winter flowers coming out.

My favourite flower is the Winter Rose (Helebouros) which was also my grand mothers favourite flower. I have two varieties in my garden -Helleborus niger and Helleborus foetidus. The Helleborus foetidus grows a lot taller than the Helleborus Niger. It also has long thin leaves with small green flowers which grow on the top of the plants. This year I have a lot more pink flowers coming out which I really love.

I recently dug out a Dianella that I had growing against the back fence and replaced it with a Lord Byron Fuchsia, helbouros and some of my Danish Flag poppy seedlings. It had grown so big and was spreading too far so I divided the Dianella into several clumps and gave them away to some other gardeners on Freecycle. The fence looks a little 'bare' at the moment but I'm sure with all the rain we are getting that it wont be long before the Fuchsia grows.