My first 2 drops for The Toy Society

I finally did it!!! I bagged up my 2 handmade toys and went out undercover and secretly dropped them in two different places. My heart was pounding, as I was sure I was going to be caught, but managed (I think) to drop and photograph them both unseen.

Here is the first toy I made (never again...too fiddly)... a cute knitted doll in a blue dress.
and here is where I dropped her... at the entrance of our local picture theatre.
This is the second toy I made, a knitted mauve teddy bear.....
and he was dropped at our local Tourist Information Centre.
Now I have to sit back and wait for the finder to hopefully let The Toy Society know that the toy has been found and given a good home.

I feel elated and will certainly make more toys to "drop".

Until next post..

Cheers.......Jewells

What my Secret Sister sent to me and.....

On Christmas Day I dived in and opened my Secret Santa gift that I received from Tracy (if you go to her blog through this link, she explains my gift much better than I do) from the Chookyblue SSCS 2009 and this is what I found:
The cylinder was wrapped in the snowman panel and inside the tube was a wrap made from matching material as the tube, that held cottons, sewing needles and bobbins for my cottons.
On the end of the tube was a wooden stopper that fit snugly to keep the contents in. I'm afraid to say that I had to contact Tracy to find out the right use for this gift. I thought the tube was to hold knitting needles, and the attached mat was for protecting the garment and wool from dirty surfaces, but the correct use is to keep my sewing supplies in the tube and the mat to fold up the unfinished article I am working on..... very obvious once you are told! Thank you Tracy for such a lovely gift, I am REALLY happy with my present.

On my way back from taking my parents home, I called into an orchard and bought freshly picked cherries, apricots, nectarines, peaches and mangoes, so yesterday, I started bottling and made these 3 jars of Apricot Curd... never tried it before, it is something like lemon curd/spread, but made with apricots instead.
I then made the rest of the apricots up into jam and made 8 bottles. I had to return to work today after a 4 day public holiday break, then after work today I made 6 bottles of Nectarine jam. Here are the bottles ready for labelling.
I also pitted and stewed 3 kilos of cherries for the freezer. The peaches and mangoes are to be eaten, not cooked.

Must get onto some sewing now. Until next blog.

Cheers...Jewells

Belated Christmas Wishes

Merry Christmas to everyone, and I hope you all had a safe and happy Christmas Day.

This photo was taken in my lounge room before the big day!

I have just got back home after travelling a round trip of 1000 klms to take my parents back to their hometown.

I am going to show you next post what I received from my Secret Santa... I am a VERY lucky person, as the gift is absolutely beautiful.

Cheers...Jewells

Last present finished

I have been knitting this beanie for my boyfriend as part of his Christmas present. I was going very well until I got to the decreasing. I had down loaded a pattern from the Internet, but it was very abridged and the decreasing was not written in a readable or workable way, so I ended up finding another pattern and adapted the pattern to it. I nearly threw it in the bin, but it is made from pure wool, so I persisted and thank goodness it worked out.

My Mum is modelling the beanie for me, but insisted not to show her face!
My boyfriend is a dairyman and this beanie hopefully will be worn in the winter at 3am when he gets up to milk the cows.

Until next post..

Cheers..Jewells

SSCS 2009 Has Arrived

The mailman arrived today with a long cylinder and I ripped it open and found these 2 parcels. My SSCS is Tracy of Thimelinas . The large one is actually wrapped in a panel of material, with cute snowmen, tied at the ends with ribbons, and the small parcel said "open immediately", which I did, and......

This is what was in it, a hand sewn star and a reindeer made out of corks...made me laugh, as I drink a glass of wine each night with my meal and think of all the reindeers I could have made from all those corks I have thrown away over the years!
I am so pleased I joined Chookyblue's Secret Santa Christmas Swap this year. (SSCS 2009). I can't wait till Christmas so I can open my other gift.

Until next post.

Cheers...Jewells

Garage Sales

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to a few Garage Sales and had a wonderful time. There was a lady selling children's books, hardcover and soft cover and most of them have never been read, let alone have pen marks or children's names in the front pages. I have a suspicion that the lady might have owned a bookshop! I went to her garage sale last weekend and bought some sets of books and saw she was having another sale this weekend, so I phoned a friend of mine who owns a second hand bookshop. She ended up telling me to offer the lady an amount for a "bulk lot", so I did (I took every book she had for sale EXCEPT the Little Golden Books), and look what I came home with for $110! You should have seen my poor little car, the boot was full to the brim and the whole back seat was covered with books, the back of the car was visibly lower over the wheels!... I was picturing my front wheels rearing up and my exhaust dragging on the ground.

So, tonight I got them all out and removed all the price stickers off them and sort of sorted them in piles. There is a pile of Dr Seuss books, the tall pile is Disney's story books (all hardcover and perfect condition), there is the 4 Enid Blyton books of the Faraway Tree Series, books from kid's TV shows and the list goes on. Even thou the photo doesn't show it, there must be at least 200 books there... I am like a pig in mud amongst the books!

There are books there I know I could sell on eBay, but I will give them all to my friend for her shop, but I have kept a couple for my grandchildren... just asked my daughter about "Clifford the dog" and is he on TV and I got the "oh Mum!" answer, so those books have been snavelled for them.

Must get the books in some boxes now.

Until next post.

Cheers...Jewells