Sew Darn Tired

We have had a busy, busy life the last few weeks. Immediately after finishing painting and cleaning, my German friends came from Köln (Cologne) for a week with us. We did lots of great things and they are so charming that they just love my house and love to stay in and we cook and eat and drink lots of wine and talk a lot! While we are in NZ, they are driving Brisbane to Sydney, through the Hunter Valley. They LOVE Sydney (who doesn't) and over the more than 20 years we have know each other, have been many, many times. When I am more flush (with money) we usually go to Germany or they come here, but I haven't seen them since 2009 when we met up in Cyprus. It is always like we have seen each other the last week.  Waitomo caves We saw some ostriches while driving and stopped. They are huge and were very animated puffing up their wings and flapping them to scare us away no doubt.  Food is playing a big part in our holiday!  Riding in the Redwoods on rente

Remember I was painting my kitchen... this is what I started with. Now I'm finished. I did the last bit of painting on Friday. It now looks like this...  I sanded the cupboards on Tuesday and of course blue dust went everywhere, so after I finished painting on Friday, I spent all day yesterday washing everything in the drawers and cupboards. It took forever. Wash, rinse, air dry, towel dry put away. That's why it looks a bit of a mess still. What do you think? These are the original cupboards from when the house was built. I kind of love the simplicity of them.. there are no wall cupboards and they are the narrow cupboards that was the standard back then. No rest for the wicked, today I washed down my deck with the power hose thing. Because of all the rain we have had the last couple of years and my studies, it hasn't been done for 18 months. It was GREEN! I had to wash every batten by hand, do the ceiling... blah, blah, blah. All the painting stuff has be

I've finished my knit top. I'm pretty pleased with it. I don't know what took me so long either... I just needed to hem it sew the cuffs down and finish the neck binding with the double needle. Some nice stripe matching above. Got this fabric at the second hand shop for three dollars and it is very nice.The colours are pretty true as well.The fit is pretty good. The fabric was just enough for length for me (I'm short) but it sits in the perfect spot (just on the hip bone). I didn't have enough for 3/4 sleeves like I wanted so I got a bit creative and I think this looks good. I'm pretty happy with it. This is the pattern I used.I've just noticed they have a cuffed version too! Some nice options there. I've also nearly finished a My Image top that is a wearable muslin - same, I just need to put neck binding on and hem sleeves and bottom. More importantly I have nearly finished the inside painting. I will be happy to see the back of the paint ti