Wow!

If love was measured in Christmas gifts then I would possibly be the most loved person in the world, this is my "pile o' love"

This is not including a beautiful jumper that the girls gave me because I was wearing it! I am most loved! Some people, so it has been said, do not enjoy getting "smellies" as I call them, or scented scrubs, rubs and body lotions, but I love getting them. I get enough to last me right through to my birthday when I get more, so I can pretty much get through the whole year smelling be-oo-tiful.

We started our Christmas day with our usual trek to the beach for the kids to have a quick dip, we usually have pancakes but I was really not well enough to do pancakes and a big lunch, so it was toasted fruit bread smothered with butter and a cup of tea, for me it was my beloved fancy tea from the picture above in my new Doctor Who cup, also as seen above. The waves were massive and the kids only went in briefly but it was enough to still count as a Christmas dip!

We then came back home so that I could begin the cooking for our traditional Chrissy lunch, which was tummy filling and good for leftovers for Boxing Day, even the dessert, my grandma's trifle, made it into the next day so that we could all enjoy it again! The calories don't count if you stretch it out over two days, or so my grandma used to say, I never had the heart to tell her that I don't think it really works like that, but it was still scrum-diddly-umptous!

After lunch it was time for feet up and another cuppa, fancy tea in my new cup, and some quality time with my knitting. I was able to finish up my sock and actually started another one almost straight away, but I didn't care for the original pattern that I picked because it just didn't seem to sit well with the wool that I was using so after frogging the original and choosing another pattern I have the beginnings of another pair of socks.

You can't quite tell but the new socks have little "bow ties" on them, I must see if I can borrow a camera to take the photos instead of relying on my little phone!

I hope that your Christmas was as wonderful and loving as mine was.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Christmas!

It seems hard to believe that Christmas is here already, I am aware that we have had almost 365 days to get around to doing something about it but life kept getting in the way! We did do the smart thing this year and begun buying gifts as early as September, every time we saw little things we thought the little lovelies would like we would pop them into our trolley and put it into a pile that has gradually grown to epic proportion, but the smaller things like food shopping and baking that can only be done in the few short days before C-Day has crept up quietly and is now leaning over my shoulder and whispering in my ear that I had better get a move on.

The lovelies have all been to their other parents houses these last few days which has left Lovelyhubby and myself with some time on our own, what did we do with this precious and very hard to come by time? We sat quietly in the living room watching the big t.v, knitting and reading blogs or in Lovelyhubbies case finishing a battle on his PC game sitting in the big comfy chair, and eating simple dinners except for one night when we sprang for a large special fried rice from the Chinese takeaway across the road.....yes we seem to have grown old up when we weren't looking!

Today I did manage to make 2 vanilla cakes, one is in the freezer next to the banana cake I made the other day, and the other is the base for my famous Christmas trifle, the jellies are in the fridge jellifying and the Christmas biscuits are all iced and sitting in the container ready to be devoured, minus the few that Lovelyhubby, the dog and myself munched on with our cups of tea tonight, we had to have them, quality control purposes you see.....it was for the good of the nation that we tried them....and they were yummy.....but again, it was only for quality control! Tomorrow I have to make the stuffing, peel the vegetables, make potato salad and coleslaw and put all the trifle fixings together to make the actual trifle, I have special fancy glasses for the trifles, we all stuff ourselves silly on trifly goodness and this may be the reason why I only make it once a year! The only things left to do on C-Day is pop it all into the oven and let it do it's own thing, make the gravy and remember to make the pancakes in the morning for our annual eat pancakes on the beach on Christmas morning excursion.

My mum received her cushions the other day and she was beyond wrapped with them, my dad still hasn't quite come to grips with how I made them but he seemed pretty impressed that something he helped to create can do something "pretty clever."

I hope that every one's Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice, or whatever your celebration is, is a happy family filled day of joy, if you are travelling be safe and remember it is always better to be late than be the late, at least that's what my grandma used to say.

Merry Christmas xoxoxoxoxoxoxxo

Turning a corner and seeing Harry

This has been a very busy time for us all, we have had LovelyDaughter1 graduating year 10 and passing all subjects, LovelyDaughter2 finishing year 9 and passing all subjects, LovelySon1 finishing his first year in high school passing all his subjects and then LovelySon2 finishing his year 8, after transferring to his new school half way through the year and passing all his subjects and receiving an award for his efforts.

We have had poor LovelyHubby battling the flu which has taken a rather nasty turn into pneumonia which has managed to knock him off his feet, his medication looks like something a horse should take, but with luck he should begin to turn the corner and begin to feel better very soon

In between taking the kids to various end of year events and looking after poor LovelyHubby I caved into the uber strong urge to knit some socks and have turned the heel of the first sock:

I am making the Hermione socks, the pattern is easy to follow and looks great but it is not easing the sock craving, it has made it worse, I have already got two more skeins ready to make into balls for another pair and ordered a ball last night from eBay for yet another pair, people may be getting socks for Christmas next year at this rate!

I have, as of last night, finished the front of Harry Potterpuff, I have the back part of the cushion to make and then the simple seam closing to do but then it is in the mail, finally, to wing it's way down to my mum for Christmas, thank goodness for next day delivery from our postal service!!! Without further ado here is Harry in all his bright pink glory:

His glasses look blue in the pictures but they are actually green. And here he is with his Snape Potterpuff buddy:

I think that my mum is going to like them.

I hope that all the Christmas rushing about is over for you all and that you are able to enjoy this last week before the large man in red delivers his cheer. Stay safe.
xoxoxoxoxoxo

Ta-Dah with Christmassy sparkle

This is how I spent around 8 hours yesterday afternoon, for the rest of the evening I sparkled every time the light hit my face making me look very much in the Christmas Spirit.

I had to make 15 cards to cover my list, and I am more than sure that I have managed to forget someone!

We also made a kitchy Christmas tree using ornaments that we had made at home and using a can of gold spray paint and a branch that I picked up on one of our walks, the kids and I liked it but LovelyHubby is still a little dubious.  I have always felt guilty about chopping down a tree for just a few weeks of Christmas joy so I do not buy ones that are not in pots, but this year they are asking an extreme amount of money for a tiny tree that does not look like it will hold one ornament let alone a bunch of home made ornamental goodness.

It does look a lot better in the light because you can see all the gold shimmer but we had rain today so I still couldn't get a better picture, hopefully tomorrow will grant me a better photo!

I have also done a little more on Harry so he is coming along, all be it slowly,  and I am fighting a huge urge to make some socks, I haven't made any in a long time and I am finding it a hard battle to fight. I may cave in tonight and cast on a pair......

Maybe Harry could be a Mother's Day gift instead of Christmas and then I could, without guilt, cast on my longed for socks.

I hope your Sunday evening is a calm one with lots of cups of tea and good t.v. viewing, may I recommend Mildred Pierce and Boardwalk Empire, both wonderful shows that are great to crochet or knit socks too!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoo

An unacceptable amount of time to be away!

Shame on me! I have been away for a long time and will give myself a sound talking too. I would love to say it is because I have been somewhere exotic and fun like Bora Bora - I have never been there but the views I have seen have made it number one place to visit in case we ever win the lotto - it has been because of doctors appointments, kids, family life and unfortunately a great deal of pain. Normal activities have become a longer chore than usual because I seem to be a lot slower at doing them and now require a longer recovery time, with luck the new medication regime will work and I will be tickety-boo in no time!

I haven't just been resting but I haven't been able to concentrate on the Harry cushion so he is only at the 20% stage of being but I have at least been able to do some smaller projects that needed to be done:

This is for a lovely lady at the chemist who is having a baby in the next few weeks, not the same lady who works in the same store who I made the other baby stuffs for, she had a beautiful baby girl last month.

These are just some jar covers that I made because I have more jars than space in my cupboard and I thought they would look nice lined up on my counter.

These are soap socks and a face washer that smell particularly yummy when I walk past the bag that is holding all the handmade goodies that I have been making just waiting to go to the people that they have been made for.

These are just some Christmassy coasters that I made, I have no idea who to give them too, I was just testing a pattern!

We also had a birthday with LovelyHubby turning an age that I am not allowed to repeat -this means that he thinks he is now officially old and this is why it is on pain of death that I am to keep it secret- but back to the original reason as to why I shared this event of oldness! Our LovelyDoggy loves paper and cardboard tubes and after the presents of oldness were opened she shared in the joy that is paper tearing:

This is her laying on her stash of wrapping paper so that no one could take it from her until she has shredded it all to her satisfaction, she never swallows the paper she simply tears it into tiny little strips and places said strips into their own pile ready to be rolled in and then shoved on the floor for the magic pixies to come and sweep away until the next event that requires paper and more shreddy goodness!

Weekendyness approaches and will begin with some Christmas card making and some hooky goodness to make it a weekend of resting and making sure that the lounge cushions are good and comfy just in case they have become uncomfy! I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend no matter what your plans!

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Ta-daaaaa

I am sorry for the delay in posting, I have been a little unwell these last few days and now I am back on the Auto-immune disease merry-go-round. This is just a fancy way of saying we have no clue why your body is attacking itself but it is very interesting! Maybe this time around they can narrow it down a little better so that I can get the right medication and settle myself the heck down!! It can be quite exhausting and it is quite painful but with luck the medication the doctor gave me today will help to ease the pain, help me sleep and make the simplest tasks simple again.

Well, enough whining and being a sookie lala and onto something far more interesting and fun :) I have finished making my mums Snape Potterpuff into a cushion and apart from a slight problem where I ran out of green yarn it looks fabulous, I must admit though I rather like the black stripe across the top it makes the cushion look far more dramatic than if I had used the green all the way. So without further ado here is Snape in all his finished glory:

I couldn't resist showing the front off again, sorry for the blatant display of Snapeness!! I have also begun the Harry Potterpuff goodness and I am enjoying him so very much, the pink that is his background is just amazing and really seems to make him "pop", just a small amount done but still soooooooo pretty:

And finally something to make you smile, my poor BooBoo trying to pull herself onto the lounge to rescue her ball from the clutches of the evil children!!!! lol

Take care and enjoy your day where ever you are.
xoxoxoxoxoxox

Hospitals and a ta-dah

This week has been a very trying week for us all here at HibiscusHouse, we started the week knowing that it was going to be a very tight budget week because the water meters here are only read once every seven months, which having only been here not quite a year we were unaware of, so after the initial shock of a water bill that was $321.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we buckled down and created a super tight budget to accommodate this and LovelySon2's birthday on Monday. It was all going along swimmingly until Wednesday afternoon when we received a call from LovelySon2's school informing us that he was quite unwell and we needed to come and get him, unfortunately by the time we reached the school he had gotten worse and an ambulance was called to get him to the hospital as quick as possible. We ended up being transferred to another, larger hospital that has a children's ward and the specialist equipment that LovelySon2 required.

After a lot of tests and some unwelcome poking and prodding they have decided that LovelySon2 had suffered from a Complex Partial Seizure and that we could go home with follow up treatment from his usual paediatrician, who was quite worried that his patient had become ill. We have no idea why this all transpired and he is really quite fine and back to his usual self with no after affects from his ordeal, he did sleep really well the first night back and has enjoyed a weekend of Playstation and Nintendo, along with "normal food" and a really nice day today, where some of us tried sailing for the first time with the local sailing club. He was not quite adventurous enough to try sailing but that is perfectly normal for him so we are all glad that he is feeling fine and is back to normal!

This is one of the sailing boats that we got to try, it was all free and just a short walk from our house, it was an amazing experience and best of all we could just wander down with the dog in tow and sit quietly enjoying the salty air.

While we sat in the hospital for the three days, and nights, I was able to spend some of the quieter moments crocheting and am pleased to say that, with only a few mistakes, I have finished the first half of my mum's Christmas present. I am really happy with my Potterpuff and am super pleased that I have tried something new and love it! I have even got the supplies ready for my next one which will be the other half of mum's gift.

I am turning him into a cushion, and once I have finished the Harry Potterpuff my mum will have her two favorites on her lounge!

I hope that you have all a wonderful week and that those who are beginning exams tomorrow for year 10 have luck and ease in all of your tests!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxo

This weeks busy-ness

This week has been a week of hot weather followed by cold weather followed by muggy weather which has created a "mega cold" which is sneezing it's way around school and of course at home. We begun the week with a day of 32 degree heat, which meant that after the kids came home from school we could pop down to the beach and the kids could enjoy a good old splash around in the very cool waters of the ocean that surrounds our little area.

It was determined that the water was a little too cool to spend all their time in so "sand seating" was created, but the water kept coming up into the seats so it was a battle supreme to keep the seats seatable!

It was a nice way to spend a warm afternoon and it proved to be the only day this week that we were able to do it, the next few days bought rain and cooler days and of course head colds for two of the kidslets and fever and headachey yuckiness for the other two. This is not a welcome thing as all the big exams are this week and this last week was the week of review but I have all the confidence in the world that they will be fine because at the end of the day all I ask of them is that they try their best and that is perfect for me even if their test results say otherwise.

There have been lots of doctors appointments and even a school meeting that we had to attend and then there was normal life that got in the way as well, but in between the busy moments I have been able to create this......Mum if you are reading this don't look any further down, unless you want to know what you are getting for Christmas!! It began as this, not much to look at really.

and then became this,

Still just looks like a lot of black with grey blobbies on green at this stage, but then it became a bit clearer,

It is still at the "what the heck I am making" stage, but after a bit of time on it today, the picture is much clearer!

Or maybe not, it is becoming a bit more picture and a bit less blobby bits on a green background but with a few more days it might actually look like a proper picture!

I hope that your Monday is a good one!
xoxoxoxoxo

New things

I have discovered a new thing! It is Crochet By Numbers, here's the linky to the website, and also have been massively inspired by Totallee who being a huge Harry Potter fan has made me such a long to do list that I may not ever stop! I did the test pattern by Todd Paschall and once I worked out that there was nothing to fear from this technique I was off! I started with a Christmas stocking,

But I ran out of wool so I now have to wait until I receive my new ball of red so that my stocking can continue. I have moved onto one of my favorite pieces from Totallee's inspiring list of work, and have begun a Potterpuff!

He doesn't look like much at the moment but hopefully he will look a lot better very soon! and today being Sunday I have an afternoon of hooky goodness ahead of me, so I hope that everyone has an awesome day, enjoy the beautiful sun if you are near me, but slip, slop, slap or you will end up like me!

Yep, this is almost a week later and it still looks like this!!! Slip Slop Slap people! It is the rule that you should live by!!!!!!!!!!!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxo

Ouch!

If you ever go to the doctor to get moles burnt off and everyone tells you that it won't hurt a bit, you will be just fine moments after it is over tell them from me they are a "Liar Liar Pants On Fire", I felt the need to capitalise the letters because of my extreme feeling on this fact. This morning I went down to the doctors to have 14, yup count 'em 14, moles removed from my "decolletage" or in real people speak between my boobage, I managed to get home without shedding a tear but I have been flat on my back trying not to touch the massive red, burned, inflamed skin area that was once white if not a little bumpy from the moles. It appears that instead of just freezing the moles there is skin burnage as well making me look like a very interesting dot to dot, maybe if I joined the dots it would make a pretty pattern, cause right now it looks bad enough that LovelyHubby winces every time he looks my way! I hope that you all have a better day, tomorrow is sure to be better. I will leave you with a couple of cute Christmassy things that I made on the weekend.
xoxoxoxoxoxxoxo

What a week!!!

The kids all went back to school on Monday and I don't think my feet touched the ground until today, we have been so very busy running about that I was super happy to have a quiet day today. On Monday we did have one nice little moment of peace and joy when LovelyHubby took me for coffee at the beautiful Pelican's Wharf, they have THE best hot chips ever and they come wrapped up in newspaper too!

You can see how beautiful the view was too, we watched fish jump out of the water almost teasing a man in a small boat trying ever so desperately to catch them for his dinner, he still had not succeeded by the time we were leaving and honestly I think those wee fish had no intentions of ending up on a plate for supper!

I have had time in between doctors appointments and Christmas gift lay-buying to finish some more ornaments for my Etsy store, I even ordered some new Christmas yarn from Yarn Over and they are scrummy,

My only problem is that I have knitted so much that I have managed to put a hole in my finger from the needle constantly hitting the same point! It is only a slight problem though because I have swapped back to crochet for a while, I have missed crocheting, I seem to have been on a knitting spree of late and it feels good to have my hooks back in my hands again. My knitted Christmas ornaments are looking really good and scary though it is to be thinking of December already it is a bit fun!

It makes you want to sing Jingle Bells and Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer at the top of your voice.........or maybe not!!!
Happy Friday everyone
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

New F.O.'s

I have been busy the last few days running about making sure that the kids are all ready to go back to school tomorrow, baking and finishing some knitting.

Please meet Peter the Christmas Polar Bear;

And I have begun my Christmas Tree ornaments as well;

 I hope that your last few days of holiday goodness have been wonderful too.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxxo

Damn you daylight savings!

It is, once again, time for Australia to have five -yup, count 'em- five timezones! Every year there are scratched heads as one tries to work out whether ringing Perth at 9am from Sydney means that you are calling them at 7am, 6am or probably 5am. We have lost a whole hours sleep, now the mornings are dark and the kids bodies are so very confused about what time is actually sleep time, and as they have been on holidays for a week and a half already their body clocks are not actually sleepy till what is now midnight, whilst my body could pretty much drop around 8pm even if that used to be 7pm!!

But there is one small benefit to all these late nights by the family, I still get up early because of this:

Yup, the dog has a bathroom clock firmly installed in her body and 8am is the latest she can stay in bed, so she and I get up and after she has been outside and I have fed, scooped and swept the cats house out we go back inside settle on the couch with a cup of tea and while I knit and watch t.v. she sleeps soundly on my lap. This time of the morning is so very, very quiet and almost joyful, I can watch a murder mystery on the telly and not have to turn it up to catch the clues or dodge kids to see who did the actual deed, I, or should I say we, have enjoyed these last few days so very much and I will miss this special puppy and me time when the holidays come to an end this weekend.

I have been able to make a couple of things whilst we have been up and about, I have made a lavender trio to hang in the bathroom,

They smell really nice when the breeze blows through the window and I also have a new friend looking at me from my knitting bag waiting for the rest of him to be made so that he can join his fellow animals in my Etsy  store,

He is a Christmas Bear and I hope to have him in store in a week and have ordered some natural fibres in Christmas colours so that I can start to make ornaments and other decorations for the Yule season, which for every ones enjoyment is in 81 sleeps! Yup aren't you just thrilled that I have shared that little gem of information with you!

Now that I have rattled everyone who thought there was plenty of time until Santa pops in for biscuits and whiskey (that was what Santa had at my house) I will leave you with another photo of Holly enjoying her sleeping time xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Hello Possums

Recently my Lovelymum and Lovelydad went on a trip to New Zealand and before they left they asked what gifts they could bring back for the family, Lovelydaughter1 wanted no gift instead she wanted to carry their luggage and be the quality controller for their hotel! Sadly she was not needed for this position and decided that a Tiki would sort of make up for the lack of travel and helpfulness that she was willing to provide, everyone else was in agreement that a Tiki sounded like a top gift to get and were eagerly awaiting for the arrival of their loot. I, on the other hand, was really specific about what I would like for my gift, I have for a long time coveted one thing from the Land of the Long White Cloud, something that feels like a soft fluffy cloud actually, and thanks to my wonderful and very patient Mum and Dad I received my prize, so here without further ado is my gift!

If you can't read the label, and I can't blame you I took nothing but shocking photo's today, I have in my hot little hand a ball of Possum Yarn in Brilliant Red!!!!! I have read how soft and amazing this yarn is but I never realised that it would be this soft and amazing, I cannot wait to start knitting something with this yarn but for the moment I have it sitting in my knitting bag just waiting for the right inspiration to hit me, I am thinking one of my animals but I am worried that making a possum out of yarn made from possum might be a little mean.

I also thought I would share with you my latest purchase, it is no secret to anyone who knows me that I lurrrrrves me a cup of tea, and I particularly lurrrrrves me a big, huge, mahoosive cup to drink from and today I found a cup so big that Tinkerbell could swim laps in it!

And to make it even better it was for the bargain basement price of $2.00!!
And now my cup of tea is calling my name, enjoy your Thursday.
xoxoxoxoxoxox

Golden Guitars and Baby Goodness

These past few days here at HibiscusHouse have been very busy and fun and very different to what we are used to, LovelyHubby, LovelySon1, Lovelyson2 and myself went on an adventure. We had to take LovelySon2 to his mums house for the two week holidays, she lives about 7 hours away and we decided that this time we would drive him instead of catching the train which is a ten hour journey and a long walk to the hotel. We awoke at 3:30am in the morning and after coffee and a quick shower we were on our way by 4am mainly to miss all the other people travelling for the holidays as well as the normal truck traffic that need to use the roads, it was a good journey and we all saw the sun rise up over the mountains and the steam seeping up from the dams the cattle were drinking from, it was a beautiful view and the towns in between were so clean and graffiti free that they were a pleasure to drive through. We arrived at our destination at lunch time and after a nice lunch with the boys and LovelyHubbies Daughter we left them to go on their holiday adventure with their mum and went to our hotel.

The hotel was just perfect for the three of us and even had a comfy chair for my knitting pleasure, I wanted to put it into our suitcase but there was just no way I could get it in there unless I borrowed Mary Poppins magic carpet bag, but I did take a picture of it just so I could remember it.

After a good nights sleep it was homeward bound and LovelyHubby took us home via Tamworth so that I could get my photo taken at the Golden Guitar, it is on my bucket list to have my photo taken at every oversized tourist statue that I can and this was a cracker of a way to start, please excuse my knobby knees it was going to be around 32 degrees that day and shorts seemed the most sensible way to travel.

 
Sorry for the sideways action I can't seem to flip it around for the life of me, but you can at least see the size of it......huge!! The car journey there and back did make for some awesome knitting time and I finished the baby things I was making for our friend who is due in about 2 months, I was inspired by the beautiful things that the Yarn Harlot was making and just had to get my needles out for the sweet little things that I found.

There is also a pair of booties but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get a clear enough picture of them but there are a pair to be included in the small bundle for the small bundle to be named Sienna.

I hope that all of you have had wonderful days as well, enjoy your Sunday xoxoxoxoxoxox