and the winner is....

THANK YOU! to all your lovely comments and messages. I wrote the 10 names on pieces of paper......

...then I folded them up and bunched them together.....

...then I pulled out one name... and the winner of my giveaway is LINDA!!

So Linda, please snail mail me your address and I will post off the kit.

Until next post...

cheers...Jewells

Anyone out there? & GIVEAWAY!

Hello... I have been a bit slack lately with writing up my blog, but I have been oh so busy!
I have been trying to clean up my "stash" and this is what I have had to battle with:

This is a sneak photo of some of my stash in one of my built in cupboards. These 3 shelves are crammed with kits that I have bought. Most were bought on a trip over to Paducah, USA, 2 years ago...believe me, I have made up some, but they seem to be multiplying!

I have also finished reading these 2 books by Kate Jacobs: The Friday Night Knitting Club & it's sequel Knit Two. Near the end of book one, I had trouble reading through my tears...I won't let on what happened but it was an ending that I didn't expect.

Now lastly, the GIVEAWAY!!... as I love reading comments left on my blog, and I haven't had that many lately, I thought I would spur you on and ask you to leave me a message, and I will put ALL your names in a bowl and draw one out to win this kit by Hugs 'n Kisses. I will draw the winner on Sunday 18 April...that's 4 days away... so pass the word... Overseas entries welcome!

Until next post.

cheers...Jewells

I've been away

I have been away for the past week, visiting my daughter, SIL and 2 grandchildren. I had a wonderful time most of the week...except when we all came down sick one by one with a tummy bug.
The one good thing about getting over being sick, was the knitting I got done. I took one 200gm ball of the wool I plan to knit into an aran jumper for my BF, thinking I wouldn't get much time to knit it up.... I wish I took another ball.. as you can see by the following photo, it knitted up just great...



Until next post...

Cheers...Jewells

Silver Spoon Garden Markers

After reading Bunny Tails blog a couple of weeks ago, I loved the idea of the silver spoon garden markers and decided to have a go at making some, so here is what "I" did (more like what "others" did for me!... hey, I organised it all):

I went to our local op-shop and searched through their silver spoons and only found one, so I bought it for .20cents and went home dejected. The next day I showed my boyfriend (BF) the blog and told him I wanted to make these but was unable to buy enough spoons to "play"... he disappeared and came back with a plastic bag with some silver cutlery... a couple of dessert spoons and few soup spoons.... ain't he sweet?...I was ready to play...(I mean with the spoons not my BF!... get your minds out of the gutter!)

Next morning, while I slept, my BF flattened all the spoons. I then took them home and armed with a bottle of Silvo, polished them clean.

The following morning, I took all the spoons to work and sweet talked one of the mechanics to imprint the spoons. I wrote out the list of words I wanted on each spoon.... I had to keep the words no longer than 6 letters each. He returned with all spoons imprinted. While at work, (naughty! aren't I?) I coloured in the letters with black texter, and wiped them clean.

Viola! spoons for my friends and maybe one for myself! ... I feel bad that I can't send a "name" one to a friend in the States, as her name was too long to engrave...sorry Regina!

Without mentioning it, I sent 2 spoons in the mail to my friend Toni at Red Boots.... good move... she emailed me and at the same time wrote about it on her blog... if you click on the above "Red Boots" name, it will take you to her blog and you can see the 2 spoons I sent her...silly me forgot to photograph them before I sent them to her!

I seem to be doing other crafts instead of my much loved patchwork, but hey! why worry?

Until next post..

Cheers...Jewells

More Cooking

When I came home from work today I made this mango cheesecake to take to my boyfriend's place tomorrow night. My daughter gave me the simple recipe... you cheat by buying a frozen sweet pie case... looks yummy. I also made a coconut ice to take with me, BF loves it, but I can't stand it..all that sugar!

and yesterday I came home from work and made this ginger cordial... I got the recipe from a book called "A Year in a Bottle"... full of preserves. This cordial is to be mixed with one part cordial and 4 parts soda water or lemonade. I had to buy root ginger, enough to have 6 tablespoons of grated ginger... why is root ginger so expensive? I had to pay $24.99 a kilo for it...is it hard to grow?
Until next post..
Cheers..Jewells

More wash cloths

I recently celebrated a birthday, and one of the gifts I received from a couple of American friends (along with other craft books) was this knitted wash cloth book, called "Baby Washcloths to Knit". I received the parcel on Friday and I have already knitted 2 of the cloths from it.
They are a rabbit and a duck.. it hasn't photographed too well, but if you click on the photo it becomes bigger and easier to see.

I received another book at Christmas time and have already knitted every cloth out of it.
I intend to make a set of a "wash cloth, tea towel and pot holder" with these...that is a duck set and a bunny set.... was even thinking I might make up these "sets" to sell, so I can buy more cotton and fabric to make more... as I really enjoy making them.

I have used 2 strands (knitted together) of Bendigo 8ply cotton on 4.5mm needles to make these cloths. That sounds very thick, but that equals the 4ply worsted American yarn that the book mentions to use. I found the Bendigo cotton knits up VERY soft and nice.

Until next post.

Cheers..Jewells

Garage Sale Bargains!

Look what I found this weekend while going around the garage sales on Saturday morning!
My SIL is a tow truck driver and I just thought this Tonka tow truck would be so apt for my 16 month old grandson...$5

My 5 year old granddaughter is madly in love with Barbie at the moment, so when this Barbie aeroplane was wanting a new home, I just had to buy it...$8

Then I saw this new idea in books and puzzles...you get to read a story on the left page, while you put together a jig-saw puzzles on the right page. There are 6 puzzles in this book...just love the idea, and so does my granddaughter, as I have bought a few of these books for her already....0.50cents

So, as you can see, I bought all 3 items for under $14!
Now I have to work out how to get them into my luggage, along with other treats, (let alone my clothes) and onto the plane when I fly up to my daughter's place in a couple of weeks time.

Until next post.
Cheers...Jewells