Summer Sunday

Hello there!  How are you? 

How has the week started for you? Mine is looking good! 

I like to do the odd post about other non crafty things we have been doing, and thought it would be nice to share the  sunny and happy Sunday we just had......

This last week we have been having some lovely Summery warm weather, almost hot actually, which is nice, as I don't feel we have had a real Melbourne Summer this year, it has been far too cool.   On Sunday we had a little road trip down the West Coast looking for 'real' surf beaches. (Apparently the surf beaches we have locally don't rate!).   My middle son Andre likes a bit of a surf, so we took his board and went looking for waves.   

Max at Torquay

Our first stop was Torquay where I did some people watching while the boys had a swim.......

......I thought it was funny how these people looked ready for a walk in the snow while the water was full of swimmers :) .........

......this little plane flew over a few times, it looked good against the blue sky......

.....there were loads of learner surfers at this beach, it was very choppy though, so not a lot of wave catching was happening, but every one was trying hard and having fun! :)

Then we drove on to Anglesea where the beach was a little less crowded and the waves were better....

....I love the cliffs around this beach, this is my husbands hometown so we have spent a lot of time here when we were younger and it's always nice to go back for a visit.......

.....Andre took his board out and had some fun catching a few waves, he is getting quite enthused about surfing so we might come down here again soon......it 's a nice change from gaming! 

.....he was very happy with his new wetsuit, he stayed completely dry inside it and said he was not cold at all.......

It was a lovely day out, and I got a lot of crochet done on the drive! Bonus! :)  We used to do day trips much more often when the boys were younger, but as they have gotten older doing their own thing more, it has become a rare treat to have them with us. Even though we were without Jesse who had to work, it felt a bit like old times, so nice!  

Do your children still do day trips with you?  

Or are there becoming rare family days, like for me? 

It does make me nostalgic for the time when my family where little, but then again it is great seeing my boys grow up and become more independent.  I think I will just really enjoy spending fun days with them when they happen, and maybe plan them a bit more often!!

I'll show you my crochet progress tomorrow, I think I am still on track to have this blanket finished for the market :) 

Have a lovely day everyone! 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Back in the swing of things.....

Hello there!  

Well, 2015 is over a week old already and this is my first post for the year, my 'post more regularly' resolution is kind of out the door before we even begin the year! :)

It has been hard to get out of holiday mode if I am honest, I love the slow mornings and unplanned days of holidays, with no real routines and lots of chilling out at the beach or daytime crochet without the guilt trip.  January is often not a very productive month around here, February and the return to 'normal' life seems to arrive very quickly! 

This year I am trying to be productive and stay in that 'holiday feeling' zone.  I have a couple of markets in January and not much to sell, so really need to get cracking on some stock!!

And I have bitten the bullet and made a schedule for crochet classes, workshops and crafternoons for the first few months of the year, starting this weekend!  Eek!

(so if anyone is around the Crib Point/Mornington Peninsula area and would like to join us, feel free to get in touch!  More info in the last photo, sorry about the fuzzy quality of the image!)  

This is a new project I am starting, my Summer Hearts blanket, so far it is turning out how I imagined, so that is a win.  Hoping to finish this one quite quickly, I am going to try and make more blankets this year.  I was quite pleased with making 9 blankets last year, and then I saw a post by the fabulous Patchwork Heart showing the 43!!!! blankets she made last year, how is that for productive! Amazing amount of work, and she works full-time as well!  I think I will take a small step towards this level of productivity and aim for 12-15 blankets this year, I hope that is doable for me!  :)

( My problem is that I get side tracked, spending too much time at the beach and in the garden, who could resist when this lovely spot is 5 minutes away! ;)  )

Somers beach yesterday. Beautiful!

....this is the little schedule I made for my crochet classes, I'm hoping there will be someone local on the Mornington Peninsula interested in joining me! :)   

I am also doing something very exciting for my little yarn shop, I feel that I have out grown the room I have been using for my stock, it is far to crowded and I can't really expand my range until I address the space issue.  So we are creating a proper yarn studio and workshop space just for me!!  

We have a large garage attached to our house that has been place where all our junk ends up.  We are having a huge clean out and then I am turning most of it into a gorgeous studio for all my lovely yarn, and there will be plenty of space for more yarn and for classes too! Yay yay!!  

It should be a win win situation, as the house will be much tidier and easier to look after without all my crafty things spread throughout the place. 

So that has also been keeping me busy, I really want to have this finished in a month or so. 

Ok, I better stop there, starting to ramble a bit too much I think, I had so much to catch up! 

I hope you are enjoying your January and getting lots of hooky time too! 

Talk soon, I think I will be starting my Friday Finds for 2015 tomorrow, so I will be back with that. :)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Winter beach walk on Philip Island

Hello. 

Last weekend we went to Philip Island for the night, which meant we got to have an early morning beach walk on Sunday, ( well ok, it was around 8.30am, so not really that early).  This is the beach at the end of the street. It was a beautiful winter day complete with a washed out sunlight that is so typical of the winter sunlight here.

I took a some shots of our walk and thought you might like to come along for a stroll, it was lovely and peaceful with only a handful of people on the whole beach, quite idyllic.  Who doesn't love a beach walk on the winter sun?

look at that sky!! 

xxxxxxxxx

weekly stills....

1. Sneaky bit of crochet.

2. New blanket on the go, back to a favourite colour combo.

3+4+5. Last week was all about keeping cool and the beach featured heavily on our agenda, we are lucky and have several lovely spots to choose from, all close to home.

6+7. There was also quite a bit of pool time at my parents place, followed by food and drinks and more swimming.

Joining in with Emily at The Beetle Shack and the other weekly stillers.

Cool.....

Well, if you live in Victoria, pretty much everyone has been preoccupied by the weather and in particular how hot it has been!  Today being the fourth day in a row over 40 degrees, our house has really warmed up and the only place to be was in the water.   So that is where we went.

And it was divine.  We are lucky to be close to the beach where we live, so some very relieving cool water is less than 10 minutes away.  It was particularly clear today and like a mill pond, we just submerged and soaked away the heat.

These photos make it look like we were on a secluded beach, but there were actually quite a lot of people around, it's just a long curvy piece of coastline so it's easy to find a bit of space to yourself.

....And then the cool change finally hit, cool wind blowing through the house, such relief!

I hope you found a cool spot to spend the heatwave!

Holiday ramble

Hello, how are you all today?  We are onto the last day of the school holidays here, the time with the boys at home always seems to fly, even when we are doing nothing much.

It has been lovely and sunny and clear the past week ( but very cold!) so my friend and I took our boys for a bit of a walk at the Cape Schanck National Park.  There are lots of different walks you can do from the carpark, but the kids wanted to do the Pebbley beach one which takes you down a long boardwalk of stairs and ends up down on the beach at the point.  We have done this walk before and it is fun and not too long.

........this is looking to the right of the point and starting down the stairs.....

....then the path turns and and you head down the left side of the ridge.......

....and you end up on this stoney beach.......

....the boys had fun doing a bit of rock climbing, and we went for a bit of a clamber around the cliff bases checking out the rock pools and jumping from boulder to boulder, it is a great area to explore.....

....more rock climbing......

.....I don't know how they managed to get up there!  Adventurous boys!  It made me realise how safe our everyday lives have become, I was having a quiet freak out seeing them so high up on the rocks, but I tried to let them have their fun without too much interference from me, I think it is good for boys to learn how to take risks within reason, ( although I couldn't help myself telling them the consequences of slipping would not be good!  I got the ' Don't worry mum we'll be careful' line in return)

 It was a really pleasant way to spend a couple of hours, and the boys enjoyed the bit of extra freedom, even if I had to bribe them to come with fish and chips for lunch!  This area is really spectacular and rugged, you can see right around the coast line, it was good to visit mud week, as the weekends can get very crowded and there is not the same sense of peace and islotaion.  I think we might do a longer walk next time and visit some of the other secluded beaches along the coast.

.....in other news, we had a new little character join our family last week end, this is Attila the Kitten! 

(Andre named him)  We promised Andre that he could get a kitten for his birthday, so it was time to make good the promise.  I have to say, I didn't think I was a cat person, (they used to give me hay fever so I'd steer clear of cats), but this little guy is very cute!  He has a real personality, and does lots of funny things that keep us amused, I think I might be converting!  The boys love him already, Andre especially.

We got him from the RSPCA centre in Pearcedale, so it feels good that we can give him a home, otherwise his future might not have been so clear.  He seems to really like people and likes sitting with the boys on the couch and fighting with my scrap box of wool, many hours of entertainment to be found with a box of wool!

So what have you been up to this week? 

Getting any crafty action?  I've been doing a bit of crochet, but I haven't taken pictures yet, so I'll show you all next time.

Have a great day!

xxxxxxx