Ripple-a-long report and a give away

Not much progress to report sadly.  A few rows have been added so it is growing slowly.  The colours are bright and cheerful but it is not a project that pulls my heart strings.  However when I need a gift it shall be there and that is more important than thrills I guess.  There has been other things that have happened so all is not wasted.  To motivate myself I am dreaming of nicer projects to come.

Now on to the give away.  I am a great collector and starter and a terrible finisher.  I am sure the grammar police are about to fall upon me for that effort.  Back to story...Since it is the beginning of autumn and the relief from the heat and humidity in my part of the globe my heart is turning to thoughts of the woollen nature.  Hence I am going to give away some sock yarn in a bright and cheerful colour way.  It is Noir wool from Spotlight and I think it is called Pink.  It has pink, purple, orange, green and blue in it.  A veritable rainbow of sock lusciousness and it should easily make a pair of ladies socks from the one ball.  Since it is my first give away you have an excellent chance of winning.  Please reply to this post and leave an email address so I can contact you.  I will draw the prize next Monday 8/4/13.

Dementia go away

This is one of the days when I wish whole heartedly that dementia was not stealing my father away piece by precious piece.  Even though it was not designed to hurt dad has just brought mum to tears.  He simply does not remember he has/had a wife.  She has stood by him steadfastly.  What a sad thing that a loving relationship is ripped to shreds by disease.

Poor dad is just about driving himself insane trying to apologise.

Hopefully I feel better about this in the morning.  I pray that dad sleeps tonight.

Happy Easter

I cannot believe that Easter is upon us.  A few small bunny gifts are out as my children are older.  There is nothing extravagant just simple plans for a family day.  More poor father is so confused tonight and I pray he wakes a little brighter tomorrow.  Dementia is tiring for us all.

Most of all we have been trying to focus on the real story of Easter.  This has brought some interesting questions and ideas forward.  Miss 16 is busily trying to read the Bible story and put it into perspective. On that note I will wish you a very blessed Easter Day.  I am thankful for the blessings Easter has brought to my life.

Never drink lemon water after cleaning your teeth!

Oh what a silly thing to do and my mouth now hurts.  Oh well I shall remember the day.

One of my fledglings has flown the nest.

Where has the week gone?  On top of all the usual stuff my eldest girl has moved into a flat right next door to her childhood home.  Her new window looks into her old window.  Today has been extra busy as my mother gave Beth her mattress so my son Will and I dismantled her old bed.  The boy had a ton of fun armed with power tools.  I am now so relieved as I never have to lift the mattress out of the old water bed frame to make the bed ever again.  Everyone is now in campout mode as the new bed does not arrive until Tuesday.  Believe me there is enough to keep me busy for a month let alone a few days before the new thing arrives.

What are your Easter plans?  Mine are many and one is very significant for me as I plan to be baptised on Sunday.  The rest of the time will be spent quietly at home as dad copes best in his own environment.  Tomorrow night we plan to have a bayside picnic and watch the moon rise over the water.  This will be a highlight for our little family so I hope the weather behaves.

Another year older

 Every year I dread my birthday.  This year however I had a much simpler day and I liked it very much. Some favourite people joined me for lunch that very fabulous Ristorante Tartufo.  We chose the banquet option.  By the end of the meal everyone was very full.  Plate after plate arrived and each was better than the last.  I remember we started with some home made sourdough and salumi platters.  These had pate, a rabbit tureen, pickles and some beautiful proscuitto.  A fresh Caprese salad followed this.  Please forgive my spelling as I know very little Italian.  Then came my favourite Vitella Tonnato.  I know many are against eating veal but this is extremely enjoyable and most different.  It then becomes a bit hazy as the plates kept coming and I had enjoyed some glasses of Prosecco.  I know we had some lovely pasta courses which included a pea pasta. a mushroom and truffle pasta and the most amazing pumpkin ravioli.  The chef happily supplied a risotto for our gluten intolerant guest.  I wished right then that I wasn't allergic to seafood as it looked spectacular.  As you can see I was even given a cake.  It was a beetroot chocolate cake.   I dislike the earthy tasted of beetroot but this was mouth wateringly tender and tasty indeed.  It was a huge piece of cake and the left overs lasted until Saturday.

If you live in Brisbane and do not made paying a little more I would highly suggest you eat here.  The staff are excellent and the cooking sublime.

I did so enjoy my lunch out and then rushed home for stage two.

A very lovely friend took me to Robina where we went to the Kaisercraft shop.  They had a make and take night.  It was fun.  the place was set up like a party and we moved from station to station at will. I will try and shrink the photos so I can put in a few so you can see how much fun we had.

Slowly rippling along

It has been fearsomely hot in Brisbane over the last few days and progress has slowed right down. I am pleased to see that at least another band has been added to my work and hope to see and increase in production.  Much of "my time" has been interrupted over the last few days.

Once again I am irritated by the knots and joins in the wool.  I am truly looking forward to reviews of the Bendigo wool.  I like to support the Australian companies when I can.

I had the best time surfing everyone's blog last week.  There are new colour choices that are very inspiring.  Keep up the great work ladies.  I love visiting your worlds.

Later in the week I will be pack with some pictures of my night at Kaisercraft.  I had the best birthday this year and one of my friends treated me to a night there.  A scrapbookers dream.  

Nimbus

This is my darling Nimbus.  She joined our family last January.  Nimbus was adopted from a rescue organisation.  She was brought in at three days of age.  supposedly her mother refused to feed her.  This little darling gave the lady who hand reared her a few rough times and has been ill once since we brought her home.

Over the last 14 months this little ball of fluff has become my substitute baby.  Unfortunately for me Miss Nimbus is not a cuddlesome girl. Instead of cuddling she chirps and talks to me.  My youngest is recipient of most of the cat's affection.  At 3.30 every afternoon there is a joyous reunion. She does spend most of her nights near me though.  For this I am grateful.  Nimbus has brought so much joy and love into our home and I am very grateful for the lady who spent so much time raising her.

The phone mystery deepens

Overnight my house phone has disappeared too.   Now if you were a black and silver handset where would you hide?  Mine was not flat last night when it was last used but has joined the silent brigade today.

The Joy of Alzheimer's

Caring for dad is my primary occupation.  Most days are fairly routine with the odd twist or two.  Like many who have this disease dad hides and hoards and loses things.  All his life dad has been a collector and hoarder and this has worsened of late.

This afternoon we have been fruitlessly searching for the house phones.  There are two phones and neither can be found.  To complicate things both have obviously been well hidden, off the property or flat.  The positive is that one missing camera has been located.  I have run out of ideas.  I have looked under mattresses,in the fridges, in the cars, in the garage and so on.  I am perplexed.  One benefit is that the house is blessedly quiet.

Just as well he is well loved.  The photo is old but the kids adore their grandad still.

Life ripples along...

I am moving slowly along with this blanket.  My tension seems to have tightened up over summer.  Bit by bit I will relax into crochet again.  The photo is not the best.  My camera is still not right so I used my el-cheapo mobile. Oh well I think I have just about doubled it this week.

Now on to some confessions.  I dithered about joining the ripple-a-long.  There is a huge bedspread under construction.  I am up to sewing in a zillion threads and joins.  Then it will be time to add a lacy border.  The pattern has a border but this person finds patterns so very confusing.  I like the colours in this work and once I sorted it all out it has been an easy project so far.  Please meet my Flowers in a Row afghan.  The pattern is from Red Heart with a few alterations.

To finish off I went hunting and found the first ever ripple I did.  Long ago I gave my then 6 year old son time to choose some yarns he liked.  Basically he chose the brightest rainbow hues ever seen.  This was a challenge and I fiddled for hours before I was happy with the effect.  The blanket is 15 years old now and the acrylic yarn has certainly seen better days.  It lives in storage and hopefully one day it will be loved again. I had no idea how to join and decided that a fringe was the easiest edge.  In retrospect I would skip the fringe and stick with a better quality pure wool yarn.

Thanks for stopping by.  I will be visiting a lot of blogs over the next night and day.  God bless.

Weekly Money Tin Weigh In

I am miles away from serene right now.

So to distract myself I have weighed my money tin.  It now weighs 3076 g.  That is heavier than two of my babies.  My tin has increased by 207g.  I wonder how much is in there now?

God bless.

Miss 16 borrowed my camera to take to camp on the weekend.  She has had issues too.  I wonder if it is the card more than the camera?  I say this because it is shy of a year old and there have been no issues before.

While I am out today I shall by a new card and see if that helps.

I want to take some pictures.

A few weeks ago I decided that I would join a ripple-a-long hosted by Mel at http://www.melissagoodsell.typepad.com.  I was so slow to start.  I also feel guilty as I have another blanket that is almost finished.  It is bordering on king size and I am waiting for cooler weather to do the edges etc.

Anyway I have heaps of wool as I can never resist a bargain.  It needs to be used.  So I hauled out a bag of blues and set to work.  It is proceeding slowly.  But it went with me on the Queen Mary 2 and I did some during travel time and my quiet time.  It has grown a little since I took the photo and I am becoming adept at taking it places with me.

So is anyone else crafting away?  I have promised myself two things this year.  The first is to work on Christmas presents on the 25th of the month and call it Rudolph day.  The second is that I have informed many that their gift will be hand made if at all possible.  This is two fold as I need to shrink the stashes and I need to save much more than I have been.

Thanks for popping by.

This afternoon I returned from my long awaited trip on the Queen Mary 2.  I would highly recommend that if you get to cruise on this ship do so.  It is expensive but if you like charm and being treated graciously it is the experience of a life time.

I did take pictures and somehow I deleted the lot.  So I have five little images.  However knowing how great I am with technology the ship's cookbook was purchased.  It is filled with beautiful images as well as recipes.  Below is an image of the first dish served to us in the Britannia Restaurant.

My personal highlight was the afternoon in the Queens Room.  This is a stunning venue for a start.  The wait staff are so friendly and keen to make your tea an event to treasure.  To top it off a string quartet was playing.  I love days at sea and this "ticked all the boxes" for me.

Sadly my trip was only for two nights and this morning we disembarked in Sydney.  The liner made the Opera House looks so small.  But Sydney turned on a perfect day.  I dragged the suitcases to the train station at Circular Quay with great reluctance.  The Jetstar staff treated us nicely too and all too soon we were home in humid and drizzly Brisbane and in a taxi finishing the journey.

I have joined Saving for Travel's sealed pot challenge for 2103.  I have been running two pots since new year.  One was specifically dedicated to stashing $2 coins and $5 notes for a trip I will take on the Queen Mary 2 this week.  I will travel two nights and fly straight home.  Due to family circumstances etc it is a much time and money as I can spare.  This is definitely a bucket list experience thing for me.

On Friday morning I took my pot to my son's work place where he used the industrial can opener to reveal the contents.  Will was so pleased and excited.  Firstly he asked if he could have all the notes.  Then he wanted to open the pot I have for the rest of the year.  Both questions were answered in the negative.  My attempts at putting aside cash for this trip have yielded $245 (AUS).  I am well pleased.  February was tough.  We will also have to catch taxis to and from our grand adventure so I know the fares are covered too.  There will be something there to buy a little treat and a memento of this trip.