Inside Day!

Hello & happy Friday to my Bloggy Buddies! I hope you've had a great week. Mine has been a little busy (if I find my week ISN'T busy theses days, I start to worry that I've forgotten something! Tee! Hee! Hee!) but today I'm having an inside day, with my trusty Husqui keeping me company. :0) The wind here on top of our 'hill' today is HORRIBLE! With gusts of up to 45 km/hr & clouds of dust blowing from our country's drought-stricken western areas, I decided the doors were staying shut & it was a good excuse for a sewing day ... As though I really NEED an excuse! :0)

Now, all my Christmas mad friends have started torturing me with blog & Facebook posts counting down to Christmas (EEK! Only 32 more sleeps! ) so I decided it was time to start making a few bits & bobs to go in the giftie box. Some time ago I pinned a free tutorial from HERE on my Pinterest board to make a carry bag for a wine bottle, so today I decided to have a go at making it. There MAY have been a bit of muttering & swearing along the way & the pattern says to do things a little differently to how I would have, but the result is ...

Ta da! A wine carry bag that looks like it's supposed to, was made from fabrics in my stash & didn't take too long to make. I think I'll make a few more of these to tuck away for gifties. Oh ... And the box ... Well ... Apparently some wine from our favourite cellar door tasting followed us home from the Adelaide Hills! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Well ... That's been my morning of hiding from the nasty wind, so I think I've earned some lunch. Whatever you're up to, I hope you have a fabulous weekend. Til next time ...

BOOZY BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

Christmas Is Coming - EEEEEK!!

There's a line from one of the "Lord Of The Rings" movies that is uttered as the heroes see the massive enemy army pouring towards them & war is inevitable ...

"And so it begins!"

Well ... I found myself muttering this line ... Just as grimly!! ... yesterday as I walked into the supermarket ... And heard them playing ...

CHRISTMAS MUSIC! AAAARRRGGGHHHH!

Those of you who have been visiting me here for a while will know that I usually bury my head in the sand like an ostrich when everyone else starts the Christmas countdown. It's not that I dislike Christmas ... It's just that I always seem to misplace November & find myself being inexorably pushed toward Christmas & I have NOTHING organised. :0P

So ... Today on my day off, after a few necessary grown up chores were done, I decided to bite the bullet & start some Christmas sewing. I think my Christmas-loving friends (you know who you are!!) just fell off their chairs in shock! Tee! Hee! Hee! I decided to start simply by making a few new decorations for our tree. And in case you're needing a bit of a Christmas kick-start, I thought I'd share a quick tutorial with you. My project ...

Some more of these ..

Mini Patchwork Stockings 

These little stockings are fun to make, quick to make, easy to make & can be made from off cuts & scraps. 

Step 1. From your scrap fabrics, cut strips that are 5"x2". The 2" measurement can be varied if you like. You can cut all strips the same, or mix it up, make them thinner or thicker ... It's up to you & how many strips you want to sew ... The wider the strips, the less you need. :0) 

I chose white & gold as my colour scheme & cut my strips 5"x1 3/4" or 5"x2". I like the mix of widths. I also laid them out in the order I intended to sew them together & cut four of each colour. You can cut more if you need to, or make more stockings if you have strips left over. :0)

Step 2. Cut a strip of leftover wadding into a 5"x20" strip.

Step 3. Lay the wadding lengthways. Sit your first strip of fabric at one end, right side up. Lay your second strip face down on top of the first, pin in place & stitch using a scant 1/4" seam, sewing through both fabrics & wadding.

Step 4. Fold your joined strip out flat so it lays along the wadding & gentle press flat. Repeat this step until you've covered the length of the wadding.

Step 5. Turn your pieced wadding over. Make a small stocking template to trace. Mine is 4" high & 4" at its widest point. (I just played until I drew a shape I liked, but if you're not confident enough to freehand your stocking shape you should be able to find a clip art shape or google a template.) I have made slightly smaller stockings previously ... Just don't make it too much bigger or your pieced strip won't be big enough. Trace around your template onto your face-down pieced strip until you've filled the whole length, leaving a 1/4" gap between shapes. NOTE: You can trace your stockings straight, or on the diagonal, depending on the look you want to achieve. 

I also flipped my template for a few stockings so they face the other direction when hung.

Step 6. Cut a backing strip of fabric 5"x20" & lay your pieced strip right sides together & pin your layers together.

Step 7. Stitching ON THE LINE stitch around your stockings, leaving the tops open.

Step 8. Cut stockings out, cutting a scant 1/8" from stitching & cut ON the line across stocking tops ...

Step 9. Clip carefully into & around curves & turn right side out, ensuring the curves are sitting smoothly 

Step 10. Fold edges of the top opening inside the stocking (fold 1/4") & press.

Step 11. Cut a 5" length of ribbon for each stocking. Bring ribbon ends together to form the hanging loop, inserting ends into the stocking at the back & pin in place. Using a small machine stitch, topstitch all the way around the stocking a scant 1/8" from the edge. This will close the top of the stocking & secure the hanging loop. You're FINISHED! :0)

Sets of these make a great gift. You could sign & date one of the strips or write someone's name on it. You could make all strips a different colour or use just two colour. It's up to you.

I hope you have fun with this simple little project ... I'd love to see pics if you make some. :0)

And this project is in keeping with what I'm aiming for this Christmas ... Summed up nicely in this chart ...

Maybe this will be helpful to us all when we're searching for Christmas gifties ... So you don't have to join me in being a Christmas Ostrich! Tee! Hee! Hee!

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend ... There's gardening & sewing on my agenda ... We'll see how I go. :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

Back To Reality & OPAM Winners!

Hello all you lovely creatures out there in blogland! I hope you're having a fantastic week. It was back to reality for my Beloved Geek Boy & I this week after our extremely enjoyable three week road trip. Did you enjoy traveling with us via the blog? I hope so. :0) 

As is the way after holidays, I have started the unpacking process ... Which is never as much fun as packing. And as I went through bags & boxes, I popped our accumulated treasures from our travels on the dining table & thought you might like a peek ...

OOPS! It looks like we collected a few bottles of adult beverages! Tee! Hee! Hee! Wine, liqueurs, port, mead & gin ... I don't think we will need to buy drinks for a while. :0) But there were other things, too. Leather belts, a new Acubra for GB whose old one looked like it had been stampeded by a herd of buffaloes! :0P Matted prints from our two favourite gallery stop-offs, my lovely large recycled timber cheese board (to the right, blending in with the table a bit), silver & opal jewellery, a pottery zebra from Monarto Zoo, some yummy products from Maggie Beer's farm shop, along with the big hessian shopping bag. Lovely keepsakes to remind us of our adventures.

And with all of our adventuring, it was just as well that I had a finish before we left ...

... A stacked coin table runner. This was a giftie for my Aunt to thank her for having us take up residence in her spare room for a week & she loved it. This was made entirely from my stash & since it didn't 'cost' me anything, I decided to get it professionally quilted by the very talented Quilting Fairy, the Fabulous Fiona ...

Can you see her fantastic feathers on the sashing? I love Fiona's feather quilting! And a sort of abstract flower design on the coloured blocks. Thanks for squeezing my project into your busy schedule Miss Fiona  :0)

So that was my October OPAM tally ... Good thing a few other OPAMers had been stitching more! The tally for October was ...

116 Finishes

YAY! Well done everyone! And the draw winners are ...

CHRISTINE B

& 

ANGELIKA

Congrats ladies! Drop me an email & I'll send you a PDF of the stitchery outline to play with.

And that's me for now. I'm hoping to do some sewing over the weekend ... In between the washing & cleaning that we need to do to catch up after our holiday. SIGH! I hope you all have some fun stuff scheduled, too. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

Day Twenty-four - Home!

Hello all you gorgeous creatures! How are you this fine Saturday? I am sitting in my very own lounge chair, contemplating that although the last three weeks of adventures have been fantastic, Dorothy & her ruby slippers had the right idea ... There's no place like home. :0)

So ... This will be my last holiday report ... Day Twenty-four. After we packed ourselves into Big Blue, we had one last place we wanted to visit in Lightning Ridge ...

The name of this attraction doesn't really give much of a clue as to what you will be seeing, but let me tell you a little story ...

Once upon a time, there was an opal miner who was waiting for some friends who wanted to visit his mine to see what he was doing. His friends were running late & the miner was bored, so he picked up a bread & butter knife & began carving a "welcome" sign in the sandstone near the entrance to his mine. (FYI the layer of sediment that contains opal is found under a layer of sandstone) The miner was so pleased with the result of his carving that he decided to continue it in his spare time. Word of his creative endeavours spread & he soon found he was spending more time showing people through his mine then he was digging. At this point, he went into partnership with someone who turned a carving hobby into a thriving tourist business. It also gave the miner more time to create. :0) At 76 the miner is still carving, though he is no longer working the mine for opals. 

I took over 80 photos ... & that wasn't even taking a photo of every carving! Are you starting to get an idea of the scope of the underground gallery? And all 11 metres below the surface. Let me share a glimpse of this special place with you ...

This shows an opal miner & gives you an idea of the gallery. The tunnel winds around & widens in places to form larger chambers, all covered in carvings.

Some are representations of famous artworks, like this one of the last supper.

This wounded lion is also from a famous statue.

And this one.

Then you find yourself in ancient Egypt with a sarcophagus.

And hieroglyphics.

Or a sacred scene.

Or you might recognise a historic figure.

Sandstone warriors stand guard.

And a tribute to miners. But one of my favourites was ...

The dragon guarding it's egg. There were tv characters, movie characters, musicians, acteors, creatures from mythology, legends & so much more represented. You could walk around all day & still find something new each time you went around. It was a bit pricey to get in, but well worth seeing. With the final attraction crossed off the "to do" list, it was time to fuel Big Blue for the trip home ...

And look what was behind the bowser ... One of John Murray's murals. These emus crack me up! :0) And it was particularly fun to see this one as I had followed the progress on John's Facebook page as he was working on this. Then it really was time to head home.

Our three weeks of road tripping has been fantastic. We covered 6846km, passed through four states, visited some magical places, saw some wonderful sights, had some once-in-a-lifetime experiences, spent time with family & friends, met new people & were reminded that Australia is a land full of contrasts & contradictions ... And concluded that you could travel around it for the rest of your life & still not see everything there is to see. So ... It's wonderful to be home again ... But we're already making a list of places we want to visit on our NEXT road trip adventure! :0)

I hope you've enjoyed traveling with us virtually. I've found doing a daily post of our adventures a bit of a challenge ... I've never kept a daily diary cos I'm too lazy! :0) ... But I've also found it a good way to keep track of where we went & what we did. I'm sure I'll be referring back to these posts to settle arguments in the future! Tee! Hee! Hee! Enjoy the rest of your weekend, ours will be all about unpacking, washing & generally organising ourselves for the coming work week ... SIGH! Take care. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS 

(Backup) Day Twenty-three - Lightning Ridge!

Well here I am, relaxing in the lovely air conditioned comfort of our cabin at Lightning Ridge with a cool adult beverage after Day Twenty-three of our holiday was spent exploricating in & around Lightning Ridge. For those overseas gals (or Aussie gals who may not be aware!) Lightning Ridge is famous as the only place in the world where black opals are found. It's an outback town with a character all of its own & in turn seems to attract people who are "characters". :0) Since we only had one day to explore here, we decided to take an organised half day tour with Black Opal tours ... If you're thinking of visiting Lightning Ridge, I can recommend this. Before I go on ... Have you got your cuppa ready to sustain you to the end of this post?? :0)

So ... Bright & earlier than theses night owls prefer, we were picked up from the caravan park we're staying in by 'Mappo', who explained that most people in "the Ridge" are known only by their nick-name & took us touring. First stop was a marker of the original point of settlement for Wallangulla, which then moved slightly & was called Nettleton, after the miner who first recognised the potential worth of the never-before-seen black opal ...

Very little remains of Nettleton after the town's name changed again to Lightning Ridge, except the old post office, which is now home to local miner "Soapy" & his aging blue healer, Hugh ...

It's a bit hard to see, but Soapy is sitting in the shade. Next stop ...

This was the largest open cut opal mine in NSW & the richest source of black opal ever found. (As an aside ... Lightning Ridge is full of signs written on old car doors & bonnets ... Recycling?!?)

The name originated in the first decade of last century when opal mining was concentrated on the flats. Some blokes decided to follow the ridge to the top of the hill & were dubbed lunatics because they would have to dig much deeper to get to the opal bearing level. They had the last laugh, however, finding the richer seam. By the 1960's it had been dug to the extent of becoming dangerous, but as mining methods improved, it was felt there were still opals to be found, so open cut mining started. There is no mining on this spot now. It shows how sometimes it pays not to follow the crowd. :0) Next stop ...

Fred Bodel's camp. A bit of a local legend, Fred came back to Lightning Ridge after the war & stayed until he passed away. He once met the Governor General who wanted to meet an opal miner when he visited Lightning Ridge. Fred agreed on the proviso that the Governor came to him, not the other way around. Fred actually found large amounts of valuable black opal, but continued to live in his camp, which was preserved after his death as a kind of time capsule ...

The kitchen ...

The bedroom/sitting room. These rooms were set up in two small corrugated iron buildings with a covered breezeway between. Nobody knows what happened to Fred's fortune in opals, but he sure didn't blow it on home decorating. :0) Apparently, like many of the old timers, he liked the simple life. We then climbed back on the bus to see a mining camp a bit different to Fred's ...

You're not seeing things ... There really is a stone castle in Lightning Ridge! :0) In fact we were told there are two, but the other is smaller & a copycat. This is Amigo's Castle & was built stone by stone by hand. Apparently, Amigo would come home after digging for opal each day with the back of his ute full of rocks & add to his castle. The rocks are ironstone so very heavy & each was placed carefully to fit snuggly. In fact, if he didn't have a rock that fitted neatly into position, Amigo would stop adding to his castle until he found the rock that fit. He doesn't live in the castle ... He just wanted to see if he could build one. I told you Lightning Ridge attracts characters! :0) 

On with the tour ... We headed underground into a played out opal mine. I commented to GB that we should be fonts of knowledge about mining, having been down a gold mine, a silver mine AND an opal mine during our holiday! :0)

Here's GB in his safety helmet going down the steps ...

Here's our guide, Mappo telling us about the mine. There was a lot more room to move than the silver mine we went down! We watched a video presentation about opal mining in Lightning Ridge before climbing to the surface again to finish the tour. 

After grabbing some quick lunch, we then took ourselves off to see a collection of opalised fossils ... Yep ... Fossils that have opalised. No pics, but they were very interesting to see & we heard how the local community is fundraising & lobbying government bodies to build a national opal museum here in Lightning Ridge. We'll have to come back to see it. :0) Our last stop for the day was one I was looking forward to ...

We visited the new gallery of local artist Jihn Murray. I first met John & was introduced to his quirky artwork when we lived in Bourke. He really has a knack for capturing the colours & feel of the outback & sometimes puts a humorous slant on life in the outback. You can pop over to his web site HERE to see what I mean. This mural in the lane beside his gallery will give you an idea ...

I love this! Wrens have a habit of thinking they're 10 feet tall & will take on anything & cows are incredibly curious but not very bright ... This just seems to capture the humour of the meeting to me. We were fortunate enough to find John at the gallery & had a chat & he signed a calendar for us, which was lovely. This gallery was only opened this year after John's previous gallery was destroyed by fire. I follow John's art adventures on Facebook & saw photos as the new gallery was built, so was extra keen to visit. And wasn't disappointed! :0)

So ... All in all, we had an enjoyable day in Lightning Ridge. We'll see one more attraction before we head off in the morning, as we couldn't see it today. We ran into a funny situation here, where most tourist orientated businesses in Lightning Ridge scale back operations during the summer months. This is party because it gets VERY HOT here (it was only 37 degrees today, so we hot-weather lovers were fine! Tee! Hee! Hee!) & some of the activities are uncomfortable or unsafe in extreme heat ... & partly because less tourists visit Lightning Ridge during the summer months ... See previous comment about high temperatures! :0) The catch for us is ... Lightning Ridge "summer" starts on November 1 & we arrived on ... November 1. So two of the main things we wanted to do dropped back from a morning & afternoon tour to just a morning tour ... & we couldn't be in two places at once. :0)

So that's it from your roving travel reporter for today. One more holiday report tomorrow & the adventure is over ... Neither of us is ready to go back to being grown ups ... BUT ... SIGH!! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

Day Twenty-Two - Bye-Bye Broken Hill!

Hello to you all! Reporting in from today's landing spot ... Lightning Ridge ... Which My Beloved Geek Boy & I will explore tomorrow, since it was dark by the time we arrived tonight. It's been a big day of driving today ... Over nine hours & we got a bit of a late start ... But it was a really good reason to get on the road late! :0)

Our day started with packing all of our stuff back into Big Blue ready to hit the road, but before we farewelled Broken Hill, we had one more special thing to see ... A former convent ...

Isn't it fantastic! This wasn't a typical tourist attraction, but we were fortunate enough to be shown through it by GB's school friend, as it is currently owned by the Church Of Christ. But let me start at the beginning ...

The convent was founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1889. The sisters ran a school & orphanage as well as helping the needy. While the duties carried out by the sisters varied through the decades & their numbers dwindled, they continued to have a presence in Broken Hill until 1979. On October 4, there was a fire in the convent, which caused extensive damage to the top floor, the sleeping quarters. 

You can see the damage to the roof in this photo of a photo on display in the former convent today. The fire was started by a faulty electric blanket & when the building was restored ...

... A little window into the past was preserved ... The scorched floor where the electric blanket started the blaze. The building was purchased by the Church of Christ with the goal of providing crisis accommodation for young people & many original features were preserved during the restoration ...

This stained glass window recently received some more TLC & is stunning with sun streaming through it.

As is this leadlight fan light. Another special feature that has survived the fire & time are a number of fan light stencils ...

Apparently when a heritage adviser was brought in during restoration, they were in fits of rapture over the stencils. Apparently there was only one place in England that made them & it was bombed during World War One, so there are very few examples of their work still around. Here's a couple more ... It almost looks like quilting fabric! :0)

This one has flowers ...

Other original features that have been saved include ...

... Two wall sconces beside a door that would have originally held bowls of holy water that the nuns dipped their fingers in before they went to pray ...

... The alcove that held the alter in the convent chapel ...

... A white marble fireplace mantel & original tiles ...

... And a few others that I went a little nuts photographing, but won't share or my blog ap will have fits over the number of photos I've shared. :0)  Have I mentioned that I LOVE old buildings?! :0) I also liked the knot garden that has been kept at the front of the convent ...

This was taken from the balcony outside the room in which the fire started.

So ... That was why we were late starting off this morning! :0) I'm so grateful we had the chance to look through it.

Now, though, I think it's time to hit the shower & then bed ... GB is already sawing off logs. Tee! Hee! Hee! I wonder what adventures we'll find here in Lightning Ridge tomorrow??! Stay tuned! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS