~ Ta Da ~

It's finally finished!! My first SAL with Sandra for 2009 is finally finished .... yay!!!!

I stitched, I dyed, I crackled , I tore my hair out, I re-dyed, I re-crackled, I tore my hair out some more but then I resigned myself to the fact that I had tried my best and even although it isn't perfect, I did it and it is kind of OK!!

Sooooooo here is Blackbird Designs Autumn Song!!!!!

I made the tiny pouch for a cute little acorn waxer that Sandra sent me.

Now, here is Sandra's beauty....

Don't you just love that lining fabric and those little acorn accessories.

Thanks Sandra for doing this SAL with me . Autumn Song has been on my 'to-do list' for a long while and now, with your support and encouragement, it is done. We are now onto week two of our second SAL project for the year ~ With My Needle ~ Flowers For Lily which is a pretty little needlecase and shouldn't be quite as tricky to assemble as the box LOL!!

Thank you for your concern for us over the cyclone threat we had. Fortunately, the cyclone didn't cause us any problems personally but it did cause major environmental issues locally when a shipping container lost 31 containers overboard and up to 30 tonnes of heavy fuel oil leaked into the sea when the containers came loose and tumbled overboard piercing the hull of the MV Pacific Adventurer. It has been disastrous for the wildlife and required a huge clean up to our beautiful coast beaches.

I am also very cross with our local council at present who decided to cut down 50 beautiful trees which lined the street that our house backs onto. The beautiful weeping fig trees have gone!! We have been informed they will be replaced with 'more suitable species' but all I could think of was the poor little birds, who had nests in them, flying off when they were frightened by the noise and later coming back to find their trees, homes, nests and babies gone!!! I am thinking of putting up a sign in my garden..... what do you think??

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

~Joyce Kilmer, 1914

~ 'Lellow's' and Other Things ~

What is a 'Lellow', I hear you ask?
Well let me tell you another little bird story about 'The Lellow's'.

We have been recently been entertained by Eastern Yellow Robins around the garden and we named them 'The Lellow's'. This name stems from our little 2 year 9 month granddaughter, darling little Miss Milly, who can talk like a book and can say words of four syllables, but can't yet get her tongue around the word 'yellow'. Well the 'Lellow's' became part of our daily life and we got huge joy from seeing them (a little couple) flying around our garden every day for must have been almost a month or more. We would always be saying to each other' there is 'Mr or Mrs Lellow' as we would watch them looking for insects and grubs. We had got used to their song and in the evenings would sometimes go out and call to them and sit and watch them in the garden. When we called them they would come up and cock their heads to one side to 'size us up' We knew they must have had a nest either in our garden or somewhere nearby but had never found it, however on Saturday, I heard them singing a beautiful chorus and flying around and around the garden but there were now four of them so I think it must have been the parents and their babies and time for them to leave and they were giving us their victory fly over to say their goodbyes. I don't know for sure if that was the case or not but they seem to have left the garden now and I am happy that another generation of birds has enjoyed the use of our garden and given us the pleasure of sharing in a small part of their lives.

You know the old saying ~ 'Good things come in small packages' well, this week proved that when a tiny package arrived in the mail for me from my DF Shirley. Let me show you what she sent me and it isn't even my birthday. How lucky am I!!!!!

This gorgeous stumpwork pansy fob measures only 2 inches square and the pansy is surrounded by delicate gold work and tiny amethyst crystal beads with a deeper purple bead in the centre.
Thank you very much Shirley, I will treasure my fob.

I have not been making a great deal of progress on the stitching front myself over the last week and am even a bit behind in my SAL with Sandra. I need to catch up soon so we can work on the assembly of the box together. Isn't the Internet a wonderful thing how it can bring us together through the enjoyment of our hobby, even although we are on opposite sides of the world.

"And there is pansies, that's for thoughts."

~ William Shakespeare