Some crafty photos :)

Firstly thankyou to everyone that took the time to send me an email or leave a comment on my last post.

I've decided for now I must be meant to stay at home with the toddlers - so will enjoy the luxury whilst it lasts and continue to pursue employment outside of the home for the hours that I can work... the toddlers will be off to school soon enough and I will be able to seek work during normal hours. I doubt that babysitting would be an option for me as my 3 toddlers wear me out and wear me down - ya know??

We need to $$ that my income would generate but at the moment we have a roof over our heads and food on the table and thats the most important thing!

I've decided to dedicate a part of my day (EVERYDAY) to entering competitions and treat it like a job. Competitions have always been a hobby of mine. In the past I have won lots of little things over the years, cash, cds, dvd's, game consoles, store vouchers, dvd players, hampers etc. Entering takes time and effort and its a game of chance... but if you enter enough you will win :) The old saying that you have to be in it to win it certainly applies... and for those people that whinge about never winning anything - realistically how often do you enter?

In the past month I've won $2520 in cash and store cards, a movie ticket and a box of huggies nappy pants... so realistically probably earnt more than a part-time job anyway?

Craft-wise I will continue to work on whatever takes my fancy and if I make something that has no real purpose or no-one to gift it to then I will place it into an online shop for sale... I decided after listening to your thoughts on the subject that I agreed - my craft should never be considered work as thats when the enjoyment disappears. (which is what happened years ago with my crochet)

Anyway enough of my ramblings for today and on to the promised photos....

We know SEVERAL people that are either pregnant or have just had their babies so I decided that I would make some baby cloths as gifts. I bought the pattern from here. Since the exchange rate is so good at the moment I also bought both sets of Christmas cloths and the wedding set. I just LOVE the ideal behind these cloths!!! Hoping to make some as gifts for Christmas and my brother is getting married in January - need to get those needles clacking??

Here is my first cloth - I'm on row 34 of the baby footprints :) Working out very cute :) and the pattern is written extremely well and is so easy to follow. Hopefully a finish off photo to follow really soon....



I have not done any cross stitch since living in Melbourne - but here is where I am at with "friendship" by the sweetheart tree. Sorry for the poor quality photo - the light just would not co-operate this morning.

It reads

Is th...
binds two hearts
together

I'm still loving stitching on the evenweave - but the over 1 nature of this stitching is killing my eyes!!!


And lastly - here is seaside treasures... sadly another I have not placed a stitch into in forever.... but I do think this photo has progressed since the last one I posted?

Anyway - my happy lil washing machine has sung to me that the load has finished so I had best go hang it out - have a great day wherever you are in this world.

IDEAS NEEDED?

Hi Everyone...

I've been looking around for a part time job since we arrived in Victoria and as yet have not been able to find anything that suits the hours that I am available to work...

As some of you know we have 3 toddlers (aged 3 and 2) so I can't work normal hours... ie between 7am and 7pm... as those are the hours that Andre is out of the house at work. Daycare for the toddlers is not an option simply due to the high costs involved... paying approximately $90 per day per toddler would really defeat the whole purpose of working to earn extra cash?

So I need a job that I can either a) do with the children or b) that is between the hours of 7pm and 7am... and don't forget I have to sleep sometime as everyone knows you can't sleep when toddlers are around...

I've got no formal qualifications... but have experience working in kitchens, supermarkets and can type at over 65wpm. So I have applied at all the usual places that you would expect to find work at night - Macdonalds and other fast food outlets, the supermarkets etc. NOTHING! There seems to be a distinct lack of available work at the moment for those hours and I suspect its because there are lots of families that are in similar situations to ours... and of course its always cheaper to employ the teenagers for these hours...

So - I am thinking maybe I could sell my craft work... ??? I'm thinking ETSY and MADEIT ?

I set up a MADEIT store about 6 months ago - listed some dishcloths and have had no interest? If you would like to have a look you can click here.

Now my question to you dear readers...

What types of things do you feel would sell well? what craft? What site is best... etc etc etc. ?

The thing that worries me most about selling my craft work is that I am unsure how much time I can commit to making things... and many years ago I used to sell my crochet at a local market and in a small craft shop. After awhile I got so bored with making the same thing over and over that I had to take a break from crocheting as I simply wasn't enjoying it anymore and I have only this past year been able to sit and crochet again... though when crocheting I still get alot of those feelings...

Although its fast and it looks great it just doesn't make my heart sing?

Please comment/email and give me your honest thoughts and opinions - thanks :)

Finally some photos :)

Hi everyone... sorry that I have taken forever to get back to you with some photos. Its hard to believe that we have been living in Victoria a whole month!! During that time we have had our ups and downs. We are still settling into our new environment on so many levels and we have still to replace 90% of our possessions and rebuild our lives. I also admit there is still one set of RTA (ready to assemble) drawers to assemble.... after doing one set of these I just can't face them!! LOL Maybe they will still be sitting there when my dad visits in December (grin - love you daddy if you are reading this!) We also have some stuff on order that he will probably get the job of assembling too...?

BUT we are functioning on a day to day level and I guess thats what is most important. Although I am not promising - I am going to try to post a bit more often... dare I even say daily? We'll see how things pan out - like I said I am not promising :)

Anyway - here are some random photos of our house/yard/street and our time in Victoria so far... (I had to download them from my husbands facebook page so the quality is not that great sorry)


Here is a photo of us enroute to see my best friend Brooke in Ballarat. Some kind passerby offered to take the photo for us :) Left to right is Eamonn holding my hand and Andre.... Liam and Xanthe are in the pram. Photo is taken between Etihad Stadium and Southern Cross Station...

We caught the V-line train up... which travels at 160km per hour - not that you notice as its VERY smooth.

It was great to see Brooke and her family again... I have missed her so much and it was like we never left :) We had a brilliant time - rather too much to drink but hey :)


Here is a photo of me at Southern Cross Railway Station!

Here is a photo of our house :) We are living in a LEAFY suburb in Melbourne called Beaumaris. We are across the road from an oval that has cricket and footy played on it (we can sit on the porch and watch) and there is a playground over there that the kids have really been enjoying :) We are also 500M from the beach, 500m from 2 sets of shops and a bus route to Southland (shopping center previously mentioned!)

This is our street... well our house faces this street but our address is that of the side street that you can vaguely see (behind the tree)

This one is of the backyard standing at the garage looking towards the house. You can see some of our gardens... lots of plants, trees and flowers :)

This photo is taken from the back porch walking towards the shed and clothesline. I look out the kitchen and dining room windows on all this greenery! Andre took this photo one day it was raining - after living in Western Australia for so long seeing rain was a novelty - for the first day at least - haha! Then we started to remember how damp and cold it can be... esp when we were having overnight temperatures of 6c!

This week the weather is lovely... Topping 36 today :) Much more what we are used to!!

We've had a bit of a lighting issue in the house... all of the fixed lights in the living area are USELESS... BUT I think I have it sorted now so I hope to be back to doing crafts asap... I feel like I am going CRAZY!

Anyway - take care - I'm off to catch up on some blog reading and I will chat again soon! Hugs to all!! xx

A new project

Yesterday whilst we were out and about I spotted LINCRAFT inside the shopping centre :)

For those of you that don't reside in Australia LINCRAFT is a SUPERMARKET devoted to Craft · Stationery · Fabrics & Quilting · Haberdashery · Home Furnishing · Knitting & Crochet · Needlecraft · Patterns.

As Andre had ask me the night before to knit him a scarf in his favourite football colours... I had a great excuse to go have a sticky beak!! It was just as I remembered it :) I had a VERY quick browse and obtained the yarn and needles to make said scarf and also picked up some nice big fluffy bath towels that were on special.

LINCRAFT has always been one of my favourite shops and its the type of place that if I want to go window shopping well - I head in there!! They always have lots of free project sheets and eye candy for the crafter!

I will post some photos when I find my camera - Its somewhere in the stuff that is yet to be unpacked... I could use Andre's camera but his flash decided to die somewhere between Exmouth and here... so the photo quality would sux...

New House :)

Hi all...

Long time no chat :) But as you may have figured out I have been busy relocating :) Yes I am typing to you from my new house in Beaumaris Melbourne Victoria :)

Its been a long few weeks... and I won't go into it too much but let me tell you a few of the events.

We left Exmouth on Saturday the 10th of October after selling all of our worldly possessions and leaving with just a few suitcases containing our clothes and a few precious memories.

We met our new landlords on Monday and obtained the keys to the house then went furniture shopping. We picked out our house load of furniture and the neccessary electricals (fridge/washing machine) and then had to camp out in the house and wait for the deliveries...

We got the fridge and washing machine delivered on Wednesday and the furniture arrived yesterday... in flat pack boxes. Everything is in a box! I could not believe that they delivered to us flat packed things like chests of drawers and breakfast bar stools!!! Everything is put together with allen keys - and nightmarish instructions that are in every language BUT English... and you need to have an engineering degree to be able to figure the jigsaw puzzle out! We tackled the kids beds first, then ours ... and then the dining setting and still have 1 dining room chair to go... 2 bar stools... and 4 sets of drawers! We had the best nights sleep last night in a long time ... could have just been that we were exhausted! We will see tonight?

Today we looked at each other and decided that we couldn't face another allen key... so we went shopping instead :) My new favourite passtime!! The shopping centre is HUGE :) 750M long and 4 stories high.

After living in an area with no shops for so long - I am in HEAVEN!!!

Anyway - just wanted to touch base with you all - say HI and that I will be getting back into the habit of posting on a regular basis once my home internet connection is up and running next week sometime.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Hugs xxxxx

PAY IT FORWARD!!!

I won a PIF from CJ of Tea and Stitches It sounded like fun, so I signed up. So now it's my turn to Pay It Foward!

This is so easy. No sewing involved, and you get 365 days to send out your PIF's :) The "rules" are as follows:

1. I'll send no less than 5 stitching related items per person within the next 365 days.
2. Items can be DMC, other threads, stitching needles, straight pins, buttons, scissors, ribbons, etc. - a combination of items such as 3 threads, 1 pack of straight pins and 1 pack of stitching needles or just 5 threads.
3. The items must be new and not used. (Send things you'd be happy to receive.)
4. If you win, you must be willing to post this PIF on your blog and do the same for at least 2 people.

If you are interested in Paying It Forward, please comment on this post with your email address so that I can contact you. I will PIF three readers. If there are more than three comments, the names will go into a drawing to determine the lucky ones :)

As you all know I am in the process of moving... so I will announce the PIF winner when my internet connection is re-established - probably around the end of October - or beginning of November (gasp if its that long)

So what you waiting for? Leave a comment and get in the draw :)

Dad's progress..

Dad had his cancer removal operation last Monday - Things didn't go to plan and he ended up in Critical care for a bit... but I am pleased to report that hes pregressed so much that they have released him from hospital today :) YAY! The surgeon is confident that they removed all of the cancer and it had not spread to the lympth nodes or any other organs. Not entirely sure what the next step is but I just wanted to say thankyou to everyone whom has been praying and thinking of us! I appreciate it - as does my dad.

Hugs xxx