Birds, Trees, & A Little bit of Creating

Firstly, Joan LOVED her little memory book.

I have to share with you this most extraordinary stitchery which Alison made for Joan.  It is done on the finest linen and she doesn’t even use a magnifier.  Fantastic work! 

It reads: “ He who loves an old house never loves in vane…how can an old house used to sun and rain to wattle and flame tree and a tall silky oak ever fail to answer the heart that shows it love”.  These trees mentioned are all in Joan and her husband’s garden. 

Left to Right, Alison, Irene, Dianne, Joan, Marleen and Shirley. Vicky was the photographer!

  We had a lovely lunch at a local cafe called “Two Birds” in Duggan St.  I can highly recommend this place.  Hot coffee and delicious light meals and yummy cakes, AND BEST OF ALL, everything is homemade – there on the premises.

Now for some birds of a different kind…..

One of the hardest living things to photograph has to be birds in my opinion.  Just when you press the shutter, they decide to move.  Here are a few I managed to capture on the last trip away to the Gulf.

At Waruma Dam – I think this bird is trying to grow his neck as long as that tree!!

Peacocks at Burdekin Dam – the colours are amazing and he has his very own ‘zentangle’ © on his top wing.

Peahens – not so attractive.  Why is it so?

Red Tailed Black cockatoo at Karumba having breakfast.

One lone pelican at Warumba Dam – This photos shows the cooking and wash up area on our slide on camper. Not a bad view to have while washing up!!

I love, love, love trees and often photograph them on our travels and at home.

Our big, huge tree at the back in wintertime.  All the leaves underneath will be used in the garden as mulch.

These long tall skinny things used to be trees until they were drowned at some time in the past!

Bottle trees near Jandowae in south western Queensland.

Tall Kauri at Paronella Park near Innisfail, northern Queensland.  They were planted in 1933 to form an avenue in this most wonderful park (more about it in another post).

Our poor little mandarin tree which is badly in need of some TLC but still produces fruit faithfully for us.

This is the collage card I made for Joan’s birthday – front and back.

 

First layout of ferris wheel blocks for my daughter’s friend’s quilt.  22 more blocks to go!!!!

This is a Karen Griska pattern and is available here if you would like to whip one up.

Until next time – happy creating – Dianne…………………………………………….

Seventy Surprise & Sunsets

Today one of my dear friends turns 70. 

We met at Toowoomba Quilters in the year 2000 and when I went to work at Blue Care, who should be also working there?  Joan.  We worked together for some 5 years and became firm friends.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOAN!!
We have been sneaking around behind her back and have put together a little photo/memento book for her. It will be a complete surprise when we present it to her at lunch today.

This is the front of the book.  I did an ink drawing of Joan & her husband’s house.  It is an historic old house built in the 1800’s which they love. I used my favourite pen the Sakura sepia pen.


Page by Shirley

Page by Marleen

Page by Vicky

Page by Loretta

My Zentangle page – All the items listed on the right appear somewhere in the doodle drawing.  This concept was from my friend Kerry’s website, “All About Drawings .com”

Page by Alison.  Alison has done a colour photocopy of the actual stitchery she has done for Joan.  Can’t wait to see the real thing!!
On each page spread I have also included some photographs of Joan with her friends.

We have recently returned from a trip to the Gulf of Carpentaria.  Our first camp spot was at Lake Waruma (near Eidsvold).  We have voted it our most favourite campsite ever.  The sunsets were amazing.  There were no bugs, it was peaceful and warm and we had this area to ourselves. 


I nicknamed it “On Golden Pond”!

The mix of colours changed as the sun started to disappear.  The sky remained a beautiful turquoise blue – so many different colours appeared.  

Until next time...........................Dianne

Mother’s Day Treats, A new project, & Comforting Food

It was so nice to have both our daughters  at our house on Sunday to share Mother’s Day with me.
Second daughter, Bonnie and DH gave me a big, beautiful bunch of flowers and Bonnie also gave me a relaxing massage.


Isn’t this flower a beautiful colour???



 Our other daughter Rebecca (a mummy herself) cooked my favourite breakfast, eggs benedict and she spoiled me with a new pair of flanny pj’s and a puzzle book to take on our trips.
xxx Love you girls to bits.
Why is it when the colder weather hits, our minds immediately turn to warm comforting food, food and more food.
We noticed recently how much sugar the canned baked beans have in them, so I decided to find a recipe for homemade baked beans.
The one I chose was this one from taste.com.au, leaving out the cloves and molasses.  

They were so delicious and definitely something I will be making over and over.  Lovely to have on toast on a lazy Sunday evening. I used a ham hock for the smoky bacon taste because Coles’ didn’t have any bacon bones – I would use bacon bones next time.  The ham hock didn’t go to waste though, it was used to make a pea and ham soup.

Early in the year I had some chicken carcasses in the freezer and made up my own chicken stock and froze it.  So, last week I made some chicken noodle soup when the temps turned really chilly.  It warms the body and soul.
Now for some brayer love.  Do you have a brayer?  I find them so useful, and last week at quilting someone had the little wooden one for sale.  It is meant to be for seam pressing as you patchwork, but I thought it would make a lovely little brayer to use in mixed media adventures.  Dear Lilian has since painted the roller red one day while I had my back turned.  Perhaps she thought it should match the other rubber one.


Speaking of which, I used Methylated spirits to clean it.  It worked well, so Shirley, when you read this, we now have another use for the ‘metho’. Shirley told me how good it was to remove nikko pen from plastic and it really works!  Thank you Shirley. Everyone probably knew that except me?

Before & After
A NEW PROJECT? – am I insane??
Our daughter would love a quilt for her friend for her 30th birthday.  “When is it, I asked?” 
“September” she replied.  Yikes, can I go away for the whole month of June and meet that deadline?  Of course, I said yes and immediately started searching for something using strips and something easy peasy. 
I ended up purchasing this Ferris Wheel pattern by Karen Griska.  She has the blog :       selvageblog.blogspot.com and she designs and makes the most wonderful quilts.  I bought the pattern HERE
It takes a few blocks to get it, but it is quite fast and easy.  Be sure to check her version out – it is smashing!!!
This is a start, and I am trying to do at least one block a day. (PS the yellow one has been discarded now, too ‘in your face’)
There are also ‘secret’ projects being worked on, and one of them is nearly ready for the big reveal – after some 10 or 11 years!!
An early morning is planned tomorrow to go to Brisbane on the bus to the Quilter’s Picnic which is being held by Queensland Quilters Inc. this year.  One will have to be up and out of bed by 5.30!!!  HELP!!!
Until next time………………………………….Dianne.

A few days in the bush–Good food–Good company

We had a few days getaway in a State Forest about 2 1/2 hours north of here last week.  It was so peaceful and relaxing and the weather was delightful.  Um, until the last day when we got wet tails packing up!!   All in the fun of camping

When we arrived these guys were having siesta time.  They also found it peaceful and relaxing and they were not one bit timid.

Our camp on the edge of the creek. 

Beautiful serene bush walks.

It is such a shame this rotten lantana has taken over a lot of the bushland in this area.  Such a pest and there seems to be no stopping it.

A game of 500 was very popular and proved quite hilarious as we were all very rusty on the rules.

Beef stew done over the camp fire – delish.

There were quite a few of these large goannas about.  They look so prehistoric.

We came across this rather long carpet snake on one of our walks.  He was not interested in us – thankfully.  They are pretty harmless.


Our extremely noisy neighbours, the sulphur crested cockatoos.

This roo was carrying a joey in her pouch.

The blue faced honeyeaters were being very naughty and were relentless in their efforts to get to our honey, bread and tomato sauce.  This one is perched right at the pantry ready to swoop in.

The noisy miners were also very cheeky and one of them was even pecking at my socks to get the fluff for his nest. 
There was no technology for four days and it was blissful.  Now back to reality!
Until next time………………………………………Dianne.