Bushfire Update

 This morning I woke to smoke haze and the awful smell of burning. I should be able to see the mountains opposite but all I can see is thick bushfire smoke. The birds you can see in front and in the distance are all black swans

 I now have the smoke that covered Sydney yesterday. You can see by the woman's hair how windy it was.

 Aren't people wonderful, this is at Lake Macquarie yesterday (not my lake) north of Sydney and people were out in small boats rescuing wildlife that tried to swim away from the fires. This is a wallaby being rescued.

 Yesterday's headline, now over 300 homes have been lost, mostly in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.

 Today's headline.

 Some local pics from the Illawarra Mercury. The top pic shows a fire plane at Coomaditchie Lagoon near my house and smoke over Lake Illawarra. Bottom pic. is a slightly singed but safe cockatoo.

A pet dog safe and sound. I worry about all the wildlife and pets that couldn't be rescued.                      With the exception of the top photo which I took this morning from my verandah all the photos are from the Telegraph or the Illawarra Mercury.

Catching Up

 A while since my last post but I have not been idle since then.
I looked up from my stitching this afternoon and wondered why the lake was such a strange colour. The day has been very hot and windy and this is only the smoke from one of many bushfires to the north, west and south of Sydney. The photo was taken from my sunroom at 2pm on 17th October. We are in for a bad summer.

 Charlotte was a bit unsettled by the smoke and strange light and abandoned her usual bed in the sunroom. I wish you'd told me you were going to sleep on my sewing table Charlotte, I would have checked that basket for pins.

I have set myself 'The Great Tea Cosy Challenge'. I have had lots of compliments about my first tea cosy (right) so thought I must do more. The one on the Left is a Debi Birkin design and easier to knit than it looks.

 Now I have started the one on the left here. I sent to the UK for the right wool. Then there will be another one waiting to be knitted with fluffy wool.

 I am multi-tasking and cross stitching this sampler for Prince George's birth. Another sampler to be stitched is on the way from ebay.

 I hate to see good work neglected so I bought the boy doll at the markets. His expertly knitted outfit was grubby and stained. Thought I might put his clothes on my old doll or turn him into Prince George.

But look at him now. His clothes are clean and stain free, new ribbon has been threaded through his clothes and he is such a smart boy now. I took him to the op shop and hope he has found a loving new home.

My Sydney Harbour Adventure

 Daughter Susan and family left for a 2 week cruise on Sunday night and I had to be there to wave them off. I am at the Opera House side of the harbour so I could see their cabins which are 2 balcony cabins just above the lifeboats on the left. One cabin for Susan and partner and one cabin for my grandsons aged 16 and 21.

 The ship left from the Overseas Passenger Terminal as it was too large to fit under the bridge. This terminal has seen a lot of history over the years and a lot of tears as ships left for overseas destinations and arrived carrying migrants. I left from here in the 1970's for a 5 week voyage to the U.K and returned in the same ship 5 years later. Then it was possible to have farewell cabin parties and bands played and hundreds of streamers thrown as the ship left.

Starting to get dark now and I am waiting for my emotional farewell. No crowds, no streamers and no bands.

 The ship is starting to pull away and there is no one to wave to. The small group of strangers waiting with me are joining in my phone call to Susan telling her to come on deck and wave.

There she is, that small figure on the far right. I am madly waving my cat scarf and telling myself not to cry as they will be back in 2 weeks. The rest of the family along with all other passengers are already enjoying themselves too much to come and wave.

 The ship has to pull out then reverse and turn around.

 The ship has taken so long to reverse it is now dark. I'm still waving.

 Still waving, the ship has now turned around and is going past the Opera House

 Too dark now and too late for me to return home to the South Coast. A few weeks ago I booked myself a hotel room only 2 train stops from the harbour. I needed a room that was safe, inexpensive and clean.
I didn't pay for a view and the hotel was very nice. BUT this was the view from my window, a bit of a change from the beautiful views I had just left.

I am looking after Fred, my grandson's budgie while he is on the cruise. Here is Charlotte telling me she didn't touch Fred last time he was here and she really can't be bothered now.

Prince George Cross Stitch and Doll houses

 Still dithering about which large Prince George Sampler to stitch. I do like the Riverdrift one and might buy it. Meanwhile I found this mini  Pr George ornament and the much larger Queen cross stitch on Etsy.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/AdLeones  I have started the Queen already, easy enough to stitch and should look impressive when complete. I had to hide a lot of UFO stuff away to start this one.

 Another mini cushion from Sheena Rogers. One or both the mini x stitches could be used in one of my doll houses, either as a floor rug, wall hanging or part of a bed quilt.

 A doll house portrait of the new parents with baby George.

 Remember this doll house? Sadly waiting to be renovated for at least 2 years now while others have come and gone or sometimes stayed. It somehow didn't inspire me and I could no longer 'see' what to do with it.
It went to the op shop this week, I hope it can find a happy new home.

 Then I found this one at the Saturday market last week and I feel inspired again,

 I've already removed the stairs to make it easier to paint and paper the stairs and room and the roof has been painted grey. I had thought I might put the stairs in a different place (as per Homes Under The Hammer). Or do I need stairs at all? I could block up the hole in the bedroom floor and so have a larger bedroom. Or the stairs could lead nowhere and be used for display only. I must keep reminding myself that I will not be living in this house and it won't be inspected by the council for safety.

 Stairs for display only. They did lead to the bathroom but I blocked the opening to fit the bathroom suite I wanted.

 This house has no stairs and never did, I haven't missed them.

 The stairs in this one still lead to the bedroom and are also used for display. There are no stairs to the bathroom because that was a later addition. I've also added attic space to this one for storage as I thought the bathroom ceiling too high. In my REAL house, the one I  live in I don't have a basement, cellar, attic or loft. I think I have loft envy so I am pleased to have one in a doll house.

This very pretty crocheted cloth, seen also in the house above is someone's UFO. It came from the op shop in a bag with cottons and the pattern. The pattern is from The Australian Woman's Mirror dated December 25th 1945. I'm so pleased I can find a use for it after all these years.

More Royal Stuff

 I think I have recovered from my rushed trip to London-and about time too.
Little Prince George is safely here and I approve the name and am now looking for suitable souvenirs with the name and date.
My bed is now looking even more royal with cushions and towels to match and even a matching cup and saucer for my morning coffee in bed.

My new laundry curtains, look closely and you will see matching peg bag, ironing board cover and apron which I've shown before. The curtain is made from a shower curtain. Next to the peg bag is a small bag that the shower curtain came in. The sun is making the colours look a bit different but believe me, they all match. I rarely iron anything so that ironing board cover should last a lifetime.

 My bathroom curtain and a tiny piece left over so I could frame a corgi.

 The paint was peeling off my bathroom basin doors. Solution, Coronation curtains-perfect. I made all three curtains from one shower curtain, part of Marks and Spencer Coronation Anniversary range. I think most of that range is sold out now but I have a matching beach towel on the way and I will use it as a tablecloth.

 A beautiful pure silk scarf I bought at the Highgrove shop at the Coronation Festival at the Palace. I also bought some ginger fudge from Highgrove but ate it before I remembered to take a photo. The scarf is carefully stitched onto calico which is padded underneath and placed on a board.

I very optimistically traveled to London with the small bag on the right. Then had to leave it behind and buy the large bag on the left to get all my purchases home.

Outside the hospital waiting for the arrival of the Royal baby. If that man hadn't taken over that bench I might have slept there myself while waiting.

 The back of Buckingham Palace at the Festival. I had hoped to sneak in an unlocked back door on the pretext of looking for a bathroom but had the feeling I was being watched.

Part of the Queen's back garden, beautiful and serene. I had a wonderful time at the Festival.

Congratulations Kate And William

 I'm back and suffering my usual jet lag and so disappointed that Kate and William waited till I arrived home to have the baby but pleased my prediction of a boy proved right. Congratulations to the happy couple, well done. And look who came home with me! Yes H.R.H herself. She said all this baby talk was wearing her out and she was thrilled to accept the invite to stay for a while in my Royal Household. Charlotte was thrilled to see the Queen and will try not to leave cat hairs on the royal bed. The corgis did not come.

No bling for you Bling Bear but look who I got for you instead. A Man and it's Henry 8th no less. You can be wife#7. Can we now expect Baby Blings? Royal babies are in the news and you must follow the trend.
Apart from the Royal Baby non arrival I had a perfect week in London. More of that later and more souvenirs to show. This short post will do till all the bits of me that are scattered around the world meet up again.

I'm Off on Another Trip to Royal London.

All packed and ready to go I leave in a few hours for my marathon trip. First on my list is the Coronation Festival in the grounds of Buckingham Palace, then it will be a non stop rush to see and do everything else on my list. I have left a little bit of time for souvenir shopping. Bling Bear has put in an order for more bling and Charlotte is still thinking about her list. Girls' please remember I want to travel light and buy souvenirs for me because there  might be lots of royal baby stuff to buy. I'll be back on the 22nd so you won't have time to miss me.

Vintage Embroidered Aprons on Display

Latest eBay apron for my collection, it arrived in the post this week. Now look at the pic. below!

Same apron but sadly not in my collection. This one is a work of art and there are thousands of tiny stitches. It was stitched many years ago by Audrey Lampe and was part of her estate bought bought by Retro Vintage fabrics and this is their pic. I found it while browsing apron images on google. I got in touch with Vintage Fabrics hoping there was the slightest chance I could have the apron in my collection.
There is a sad ending to this story and the apron no longer exists.

My new apron display. Daughter S had the clever idea of hanging my aprons from curtain rods set on brackets in front of the built in wardrobes in the Diana room, now called the Exhibition room. When that was done I said I couldn't reach the aprons. Was told to lower the aprons on more rods then I could put royal tablecloths on the top rod . Never mind that it is now a bit difficult to use the cupboards and the display needs a bit of fine tuning. There are over 80 aprons most with embroidered ladies and still more put away and 21 royal tablecloths. The ceiling slopes up above the tablecloths so that still leaves more sliding doors up there to be used. That would involve a long ladder and one day I will explain my ladder issues and why I can't use those cupboards. This might be where I need my very tall grandsons.

The wall opposite the apron display, note the Charles and Diana curtains which match the bed quilt. There are 2 doll houses in this room and a third in my bedroom. A fourth one is still in the sunroom waiting to be painted.

The entrance to the newly named exhibition room. I found a new type of hanger to display Diana bags.

Looking into the room. This is the bed guests would have to sleep in. Haven't had any overnight guests for a long while, Can't think why!

Found in a catalogue, an over the door hanger, perfect for some of my royal towels. This door leads into my laundry where Charlotte's litter tray is so I can't keep it closed as much as I would like to.

I loved Gina's lace on my shelves so much I found a perfect piece for the top of my dressing table mirror. Don't know why I didn't think of it before. Daughter S has another bright idea involving the built in wardrobe in my bedroom but I'll keep that for another day.

Charlotte loves her new winter bed but we've had some warm sunny days and she had to put her leg out to cool it off a bit. I think her tail is out too, hard to see against the dark wood.