Australia's Most Livable City 2014

My hometown, Canberra was today named Australia's most livable city according to an annual survey by the Property Council of Australia. We have nudged Adelaide out of the top position which it has held for the past few years.  As we were out and about this morning I thought I'd take a few pics of our lovely city to share with you.

This first picture was taken from the spot where my daughter is to be married in April. If you look hard you can see the Telstra Tower (one of our well known landmarks) on top of Black Mountain across the lake.

The next three pictures were taken in Nara Peace Park in Yarralumla - some wedding photos will be taken here.

You can also see the Telstra Tower in the background of that last shot - I zoomed in for a closer look.

Its hard to believe that all those pictures are within coo-ee (Aussie talk for very close - about half a mile or 1km) to the CBD and our Federal Parliament House. Here's the city zoomed in from Nara Peace Park.

Before I go, my youngest DD bought these lovely flowers from our local supermarket on Sunday. Aren't they gorgeous?

I love the shades in this next picture ..

Well, that's about it from me for now.

Til next time .....

xoxox

Productive weekend

Not in a crafty way, but I did achieve a fair bit this weekend. Yesterday I picked up my outfit for my eldest daughter's wedding which is in April so all I need now is to get my shoes and bag.  After that youngest DD and I visited PetStop for some supplies for Quincy and a little doggy chocolate for him. Its such a wonderful place and you could easily be tempted to part with lots of money - but we resisted. There was a little toy poodle there doing a bit of shopping too. Its fun when the dogs accompany their owners and this little guy was such a happy puppy. By dinner time, with DD's help, we had managed to sort through my wardrobe (to make room to hang the wedding outfit) and ended up with three big garbage bags of clothes that are now too big for me. Yaay ...

This morning my grandson came to spend a few hours. He and his aunty did a bit of cooking ...

Pizza Pull-aparts almost ready to go into the oven - looking good already.

Sorry I can't give you a recipe as this came out of DD's head. I do know that it contains ham, cheese, capsicum, tomato sauce and herbs and of course butter, flour and milk. We tested a small piece each and it was delicious.  Ryan will have these in his lunchbox next week.

Now for a recipe that I had saved from the 4 Ingredients people on Facebook - its called Chocolate Slice and is very very easy and very very nice.

Here's our little chef about to put it in the fridge for a few minutes before adding the finishing touches - then voila ...

If you'd like to make some, you can get the recipe here.

In the tidy up of my room, I came across some lovely yarn which I was using for a Queen Anne's Lace scarf but you know what ... I've gone off that pattern a bit so I frogged the whole thing and am now trying to find a knit pattern that I think will be good for this yarn. Also have a couple of almost finished projects which I want to get out of the way this week.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you all have a lovely week ahead.
xox

Show and Tell

First I'll tell you about my latest FO. That beautiful wool I received from Maria's blog give-away was just screaming 'scarf' and so I decided on a simple V stitch as the colours in the wool are the real feature of this scarf. It drapes well and I'm very happy with the result.

And now for the Show ... I was able to get some pics of the crochet and knitting exhibits at the Canberra Show which was held last Friday to Sunday. There are lots of different sections which explains why there are many awards. I'll just show you the pics without any comments other than something that my daughter pointed out to me in this first picture. Can you spot what she noticed? Leave a comment if you can.    (Click on the pictures for a closer view)

That last pic is a blanket knitted by the president of our branch of the CWA (Country Womens Association of NSW).

Lovely Surprise

Maria from The Next Stage blog recently had a give away and guess who won ??  Woo Hoo ... yay .... I was the lucky recipient of this cute bag that Maria got from the California Design exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery. If you'd like to read all about this very interesting exhibition, Maria blogged about it here.

I could feel something squishy inside the bag and discovered this gorgeous ball of wool hiding away just waiting to give me a very unexpected but very pleasant surprise. As you can see it is 10ply 100% wool and is just on 100g - I'd like to make something nice for myself with it and would welcome any suggestions.

Thank you so much for having this very generous give-away Maria - receiving your lovely surprise today really made my week.

My daughter and I are going to the annual Royal Canberra Show tomorrow. We're planning to get there when the gates open so we can get a showbag that one of our local radio stations are selling. The bags contain lots of great things to the value of $1,000 for just $20 with all proceeds going to the Cancer Support Group. They only have a thousand bags to sell so you do have to be early. Hopefully I might also be able to take some pictures of the crochet and knitting exhibits to show you.

Dorothy
xox

Free to Crochet

Long time no post .. must fix !!  I'm treasurer for an organisation and have just had to do the books and financial reports for two months (Dec and Jan) for our meeting this coming Friday. All done, all balanced and I'm now all free to enjoy the rest of the week.  Whoopee !!!!

I haven't been totally slack since my last post. Not overly productive mind you but I did manage a few little things. I made this little doily for a swap I signed up for - I don't think my partner reads this so showing you won't spoil her surprise.  This is the Hipster doily and its a quick, easy project. Oh, there is a unique design feature in my doily - can you find it? I can't but its there somewhere.

I received my package from this exchange today and I can tell you, mine really was a surprise. My partner sent me a beautifully knitted baby's dress, jacket and bonnet set. With no babies in my life at the moment, it was quite a surprise !! I'm sure my partner won't mind if I pass it on to one of the charities I support.

Also made a premmie hat ... I did the larger size which was supposed to be newborn but mine is definitely premmie size. Its a nice Aussie pattern though and uses 4ply. I used Koala Joey 4ply yarn which is an acrylic bought from Spotlight.

A long time ago, one of my lovely bloggy friends wanted a pattern for a little birdie ... here's one I found on the net the other night. Its super easy and super cute. You can find the pattern here.

See ya next time.
xox

Easiest hat, hooks and another new book

Hi everyone

I've been a bit slack with everything lately and now that we're in the middle of a heatwave, I feel even less like doing anything. Today we had 40 celsius (104 F) and its going to be like that for the next 3 days.

The only crochet I've finished is this hat ..

This would have to be the easiest pattern - with yarn doubled throughout and a hook to suit, you just make a chain the length from the top of your head to where you want the hat to finish (allow for a brim if you want one) and just half double crochet (US) in the back loops till it fits comfortably around your head, sew the back seam, make another chain to thread through the top to gather.  I can't remember where I saw this but I have a feeling it was on the BobWilson123 YouTube channel. 

While looking for something else, I found my lovely 'special' crochet hooks which I don't think I've shown you before. The gorgeous blue one at the bottom is a Graydog hook which I've had for about 12 years. Isn't it pretty ?  The two above it are sterling silver Celtic Swan hooks custom made by John Swan-Sheeran. They are entirely hand forged from solid sterling silver. Second from the top is a lovely wooden hook but I can't remember its origin. The colour is a lovely jade but it doesn't show up in the photo.  Finally, the top hook is one of the new square hooks being made by Kollage Yarns. I was a bit disappointed when this arrived from the US as I was expecting something like their square knitting needles which are lovely to use. The only thing square about their square crochet hooks is the handle which is hard plastic. 

Have a closer look at my 'special' hooks

Another book from UK arrived this week - a little sample of what's inside. 

I like this pretty table mat and aren't these kitties cute ?

How about this brooch

That's about it from me for now. Thanks for dropping by. My stats tell me I have readers from all over the place - mainly in the USA, UK, Australia and Europe. I'd love to hear from some of you lovely people.  xoxox

Happy New Year

Its almost midnight here in Australia on 1st January so I'm a little late but then I suppose its never too late to wish everyone lots of happiness, health, wealth (if that's your thing LOL) and of course heaps of time to do whatever makes you happy. I know that with many of my friends that will include crochet and/or knitting.

I've started the year off well - sleeping !!!  My back neighbours had the party of all parties last night. It started at about 7pm and finished at 5pm today. All this time, we (the rest of the neighbourhood) enjoyed put up with the loud thump thump of music, loud voices, pretty bright lights and even fireworks (yes, they are illegal for private use). Then the cat woke me up this morning at 5.40am so I figured the best thing to do was to feed her and the dog then go back to bed - which I did, and woke again at 3pm.  Needless to say, I'm not the least bit tired at the moment and will probably read till all hours !!

Have you made any New Years resolutions?  I made a list a few days ago but can't find it - so much for my resolutions eh? Broken before I can even make them. I did find something which I feel is very 'quotable' and that was one of Mike Sellick's resolutions and he said .. "I will continue to make charity giving a priority with my finished projects. It can make a difference in a stranger's life and give my heart something to feel good about. (Michael Sellick from The Crochet Crowd)". I think that's going to be one of my aims this year as well.

Currently I'm working on a scarf called Forever 21Knock-Off  and I just love the way its turning out. Easy textured patterns are my favourites and this is a beauty. The wool is Classic by Bendigo Woollen Mills and I'm using a 4.50mm hook.

I'm also going to get back to my Wool Eater blanket as part of a 2014 January CAL on the Australiacrochet yahoo group.

Wish me luck on this as its been a UFO since July 2012 - in fact I don't think I've even touched it since then !

Thanks for visiting.
xox