Canberra Day

Hello everybody.
We had a great Canberra Day long weekend.
On Friday my daughter arrived home from Year Six camp. She was very weary but still wished to attend the kids' club run by the local church so off she went, straight off the bus.

 Here she is getting reacquainted with her pooches. The big dog was having a belly scratch. The little dog, ever hopeful, came and laid down beside her to wait his turn.

 I spent the evening practicing my newfound crochet skills. I have decided I should be able to crochet since there is absolutely no reason why I shouldn't. It's pretty much just like finger knitting but with a hook instead of a finger, and once when I was 12 or 13 I managed to finger knit with my friends Sally and Jo for something like a week solid so I have pretty much conquered that.



The next day the kid was up early for horse riding lessons. 
The Pickle rode a horse named Trenton, who was very well behaved.
 
We stopped in at the Salvos op shop in Weston Creek on our way back home. I bought some knitting needles and a pink and white striped cotton sheet, from the days when sheets were thick and long wearing. The stripes are about an inch wide. I contemplated starting a collection of handmade blue and white pottery mugs but I resisted the urge. I think I have enough collections for now.

While we were out, hubby was mowing the lawn and it really does look fantastic now.

For a special treat we went to a birthday lunch for my husband at his parent's house. I took my MIL a lovely bunch of roses from the rose bed and they really did look fantastic all bunched up together. I wish I'd taken a photo of them in the vase. 
Mother in Law had gone out of her way to prepare a lovely meal. The vegetarians in the crowd dined on felafel and haloumi cheese with assorted dips and salad. The three of us were almost falling asleep at the table so after cupcakes we made our excuses and went home.

The kid and I did about six loads of washing (after the camp there was a lot to wash). I made my hubby a special batch of brownies with dark chocolate and macadamias. I wandered around and dead headed the roses and weeded the driveway. Hubby seems to think my Etsy shop has been getting too much attention lately, so I had an Etsy free day. The pink rose is Pierre de Ronsard, by the way, and the sunflowers grew from birdseed.

On Sunday we managed to sleep in. Then we went to see 'Oz the Great and Powerful'. 
We quite enjoyed this movie. I liked the way it started in black and white in Kansas, just like the original film did. The film is a prequel to the Judy Garland version, and explains how the Wizard ends up in Oz. And of course, as everyone knows, he is not a real wizard so that is all part of the story too. I really liked the scenery in the film.

 In the afternoon I spent a few hours cutting out squares for rainbow dresses. All up I needed something like 612 squares, since I am working on three dresses for my shop. I was doing pretty well but I needed more purple.

On Monday we did not have to go to school/work. Canberra had a public holiday on account of the city's birthday. This time it was a super special birthday since Canberra turned 100.
You might think I was in the midst of the festivities held by Lake Burley Griffin, partaking in centenary delights.
Well, you'd be wrong because I hightailed it out to Queanbeyan in New South Wales where it was business as usual and all the shops were open, including the oppies. I am so used to turning left onto the main road to get to work that I turned left without thinking and then quickly realised I needed to go back the other way!
I told my husband before I left that I'd be home in time to cook his lunch, which turned out to be over optimistic.

On the way to Queanbeyan I drove past a dead fox sitting on a swing in a tree. I tried to take a photo but it did not do this macabre sight justice. One day I will jump the fence and get a close up. This same tree previously had a dead fox nailed to the trunk by its feet, as if it was running up for some reason. Weird. Farmers sometimes put dead dingoes on the fence to warn the other dingoes to keep away - but foxes are not that smart. Anyway they are certainly better off dead. Foxes are no friend to the farmer or to the native animals.
 
the fox is holding on to the rope with its paws somehow. Superglue?


First stop in Queanbeyan was St Vinnies. I found a Dick Bruna book, "I Can Count". I collect Dick Bruna books so I was very happy with this find. "I Can Count" was turned into a frieze, which I also have. 

 

I also found two Ladybird books and a Finn Family Moomintroll book. Tove Jansson is one of my favourite authors. I also collect Ladybird books but only if they are older than me.














how cute are the Moomins?

In the pattern department I found two 70s skirt patterns, one a wrap around and the other pretty circle skirt. I seem to have plenty of skirt patterns already but I just can't seem to resist bringing them home. The wrap skirt from 1977 says "Go Everywhere" on the front - I like the sound of that. 
Weren't the 70s great? You can do anything you want, so long as you have the right skirt.

The Anglicare shop was having a half price sale, but there was not really anything I needed. I did buy a pink crochet doily though, to use as sleeves on a dress or as an embellishment.

I crossed over to the Riverside Plaza where I bought two more crochet hooks from the Lions club craft shop. This is a really nice place to buy baby booties if you ever need them.

I fuelled up with a chiller drink from Gloria Jeans as it was too hot for a real coffee, and then continued to the Salvos where I bought something but I forget what it was. 

Now the main reason for this jaunt was to source fabric for my rainbow dresses and having not turned up anything suitable I was forced to visit Spotlight, our local cheap and cheerful fabric and craft store. Lucky for me they were having a 30% off store wide sale. Unlucky for husband there were enormous queues and there was no chance I was going to be home in time to cook his lunch! I bought the minimum cut of quite a few purple fabrics and a new blade for the rotary cutter.

Next destination was the hardware shop, Magnet Mart. They have a special deal, 10 tube stock plants for $20, and I was hoping to find ten camellias. $2 each is a very nice price for camellias. Sadly there was no camellia tube stock so I bought two of the smallest plants, and two Chinese elm trees and a purple hydrangea. I must have had purple on the brain because I did not set out to buy a purple hydrangea, it just kind of leapt into my trolley!

I had to visit the supermarket on the way home which added more time to the trip but meant I arrived home with more than just fabric and plants.

When I got home I planted the camellias and the hydrangea and then washed the new purple fabric. The Chinese elms are biding their time and I will plant them in the winter when they are dormant. None of the humans in the house appeared to have missed me while I was gone - the kid was snoozing in her room and the husband was killing zombies on his computer.

It being such a hot day the fabric dried in no time and I spent the evening watching an old fashioned movie, "the Ghost and Mr Chicken" while I cut it all up into hundreds of squares.

This must be a good week for op-shopping because DD and I ventured out to the Tuggeranong Vinnies after school today and found that a quilter had recently destashed her fabric collection. All of the selections were half or full yards, no skimpy odd shaped bits this time. 
I picked out some cute "calicoes" including one with little ducks. I plan to use these for appliques, I was envisioning an owl or a flower on one of my corduroy dresses, just to bump up the cuteness factor. I also found about two metres of blue and white striped seersucker which is my favourite fabric for sunfrocks. 
This fabric (right) has vintage advertisements.
I also tried to buy DD a copy of "Freaky Friday", a book where a teenager swaps bodies with her mother. I told DD that the girl in the story realises how hard her mother works and soon wishes she was a girl again. I was hoping DD would take this message to heart, but she somehow put the book down in the shop somewhere so that when we went to the counter it did not get purchased. Oh well, maybe some other little girl is reading it tonight and learning to be nice to her mother.

☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂

Shop news:
The charity sale for Pegasus is still going on, if you'd like to check out the collection of items for sale please head over to this treasury.

 Here is a cute little dress which I made just in time for St Patrick's Day. (you can click on the first picture to go through to the listing)
I am intending to make better use of my corduroy stash and sew some little overalls and pinafores in coming months. 

Isn't this pattern just the cutest? Overalls will be in store soon (I hope).


Thanks for reading my blog.