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

It's official!

It is official! I am a business woman, an entrepreneur even! I have made my shop on Etsy, it has taken much longer than it should have but it was a little trickier than I thought because I am still not quite savvy on all things technical when it comes to computers and computer gadgets. My shop name is angbel and it contains some of my knitted goodies for sale and some things that I can make to order, I am very excited and I hope that someone, anyone stops by too have a look.

In the last few days I have managed a bit of tv whilst I have been knitting, the normal Doctor Who's and Torchwoods, and Jeopardy's have been there but I also saw the Emmys which I thought was really good and the new episode of Two and a Half Men which I thought was excellent and I hope that it does really well and goes for a long time. Now I just have to wait till next Tuesday when Survivor starts here and my viewing pleasure will be complete!

I hope you all have a lovely evening
xoxoooxoxoxo

What a weekend

What a beautiful week and even beautifuller (not really a word but it works) weekend! This does bode well for our coming Summer months although some people have told me it's a bit hot I think it was nicely warm. On Saturday after the sun had lost some of it's sting LovelyHubby and 3 of our 4 children went to Norah Head for a couple of hours too cool off, Daughter2 was with her friends for the day at another beach, and it seemed that a lot of other people had the same idea as us, the beach was chock full of people and children and even a cute puppy all enjoying the cooling waves and ocean breezes.

Somewhere in this picture is our boys waiting for a wave with their boards, this is just a thumbnail size portion of the beach there were probably a hundred other people in the water at the same time and a whole lot more sitting on the beach. There were also a lot of girls who were so lobster red that I bet they spent today laying on their tummies wondering how sunburn could hurt so much, it always astounds me why people don't heed the slip, slop, slap message but I am sure that once they have been that sunburned they will remember to do it from now on. About a half an hour before we left the waves really started to pick up and I was able to get a couple of pictures of the waves slapping against the rocks.

I also managed to finish a cardigan for one of the lovely girls from my chemist who is having a baby in just a few short weeks, I made it using a cashmere and silk blend that feels so light and soft that I wish I could slip it on myself!

I made the puerperium-cardigan after I saw it on The Yarn Harlot, I did leave off a lot of the buttons because I was worried that even though I sewed those suckers on really well that they would fall off and could possibly prove to be a choking hazard, call me paranoid but I wanted to be safe.

My love to those lost and surviving

My love to all those who became heroes on that day, to those who were lost, those who survived and those who are fighting for us  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

My eggs are now cosy!

Today, being a Saturday, I decided that instead of cleaning like I usually do I would do almost nothing at all except the bare minimum, this for me is quite unusual because weekends I am usually cleaning and baking or running about with the kids. I quite felt like a day off so after a few quick jobs and a run to the dvd store for some old movies to keep everyone happy we sat down for a day of movies and knitting. Our movies consisted of Planet of the Apes, Mean Girls, Brokeback Mountain, and one of my choosing Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus! My love of B grade movies is the stuff of legend in my family and I have been called upon many times to answer Trivial Pursuit questions that no one else has the vaguest clue too all because of my love of the crappest movies on this planet, possibly all the planets!

So whilst watching the above mentioned movies I knit using my new Addi Circular needles that my LovelyHubby bought for me, truly one of the best, most amazingly nice set of needles I have ever used, and I knit an Egg Cosy. Please allow me to introduce George:



Isn't he lovely! I really enjoyed making him and I plan on making a whole family for him. He only used up a tiny bit of yarn and no stuffing at all so he was very economical and when Daughter2 had egg and soldiers for dinner it kept her second egg very warm and toasty until it was ready to have it's head chopped off and toast dunked into! 

Well I am off to watch my Dr Who with a cup of tea and my new favourite biscuit the HobNob, my goodness they are a bit pricey but I have made one packet last me and the dog nearly two weeks, she is rather fond of a HobNob too especially if I dunk it in my cup of tea before she eats it!

Enjoy your Saturday evening xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

I'm a little teapot

My teapot may be short and stout but she is really pretty now, I have been wanting to make a tea cosy for ages and I finally decided to delve into the wonder of the "tea cosy". I was worried that they were a bit tricksy and would make the teapot look odd sitting in it's spot, but I am happy to report that it was not only a pleasure to knit but the decorating bit was really fun to do! I actually had to hold myself back a bit so that I didn't turn my teapot into a flowerpot. I have got thousands of ideas from my foray into the cosy and I can't wait to write them all down and add them to my list of things to make. The cosy took me only a few days to make and I think that without all the holdups of general life and kids I probably could have finished it in a day and a half, I knit the basic cosy in one day and spent the rest of the time trying out different leaves and flower designs until I found ones that I was happy with, I still may tweak the flowers a bit to give them a fuller appearance.

I was knitting the leaves when we went fishing: 

And my teapot in all her glory:

A little close up shot, I will tweak the flowers now that I can see them in this picture, they do need to be fuller:

Have a lovely Friday evening
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

What a day!

Today at HibiscusHouse we had a day where the alarm clock did not have to go off, and I was so very excited to sleep in a little, (no Etsy today as the sleep in one the toss!) it was truly amazing to sleep past 6:45am on a weekday! So after a little sleep in it was time to be up because Daughter1 was off to the beach with her set of friends and had to be ready to leave by 9am and Daughter2 was off to the beach with her friends and had to be ready to leave by 10am. So once they were safely off LovelyHubby and I took the two boys out for a spot of fishing and knitting -them fishing and me knitting, I love to go fishing but it is for the quiet and the beautiful vistas not the bait, hooks and fishy guts smell. The Entrance was very busy for a weekday because it seems that everyone had the same idea to take the kids out for the day instead of just sitting at home and although the weather man predicted rain it held off so it was a little cloudy but still quite mild. We had a walk around the mall to check out the park area and then went to buy bait from the Pelican's Wharf, where we became rather fascinated by the fish tank that had huge and huger (I know there is no such word but it is still quite descriptive) crabs in it.

Meet crabby 1 (huge)

Now meet crabby 2 (huger!)

I really hope that he doesn't end up on someones plate because he really was rather cute in a crabby kind of way. Then it was back outside where I had a slight encounter with a scary pirate!

Not scary really but it did require a bit of tricky maneuvering to get into his armpit! So with bait in hand a reels to the ready we headed to the spot we had chosen to fish from, I had my chair and knitting bag ready and while they fished I knit some more leaves for a teapot cover that I am making, hopefully I will be able to post some pics tomorrow of the finished cover. The boys did not catch anything but we did feed some fish because the bait did keep disappearing, after some lovely quiet time we did head home empty handed but very happy with the day, and a promise of more fishing on the weekend if the rain stays away.

I hope that everyone had as lovely a day as we did!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxo

Ummmmm why?

Just a short post today, because I have one of horrible headaches that linger and linger no matter what I do. I have a question rather than a post about my day, I went grocery shopping and bill paying if anyone wants to know, on tv I watched a short story about Ikea's new super store opening and I noticed that they hired a company to build them shelves and whatnot to display their smaller items, why? they are Ikea home of shelves, shelves and more shelves! Maybe they worked out that most of the time there is always a screw missing at the end!!!!

xoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxo

I love to knit

On some days I don't pick up my needles at all and I miss it, then there are the days that I can sit down after dinner is finished and everyone is settled watching the telly or playing games and knit for a few hours until bedtime. I have my little corner, in hubby and my bedroom, where I have my comfy chair, my table for my cups of tea, coffee or if it is beer o'clock the beverage of choice is, of course, beer! And I have the telly with lots of Marple, Poirot, Dr Who, Young and the Restless and Home and Away,  yes I know my lovely hubby has the patience of Job with what I make him listen too but you know they are great shows to knit too, and he has his computer to keep him occupied so he doesn't have to watch them ( he can tell me the name of the characters of my soaps though so he is paying some attention).
I like to knit anything and everything, especially my animals because the pattern is my own so I can make it up as I go along really, I have written down the basic pattern but I like to alter it as each animal comes to life. And with this in mind please meet Wally Wombat:

He is the latest to add to my growing animal family and he is pretty darn cute too! He fits in well with his "brothers and sisters"

These will all eventually go onto Etsy for sale, but I have to wait until Thursday to set up my store, why Thursday? I hear you ask, because the schools in this state are going on strike for the day, so with luck I will have a bit of time on my hands because the kids will more than likely sleep in and I can get it done before they get up.........unless of course I sleep in too!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxo

A very busy day

What a busy day we have had today, after waking up early because someone was using a leaf blower at 7am and then two idiots had a fight because one said the other cut the him off at the roundabout outside our little Hibiscus House, and they had to argue loudly about it for about 5 minutes! this, I decided was natures way of saying "Get up lazy bones, you have baking to do!"
So with coffee to fortify my little self, and a quick run to the supermarket across the road, I began to do my Sunday tradition which is to bake several different things for the kids to take to school along with their usual roll and piece of fruit. I began with lovely hubbies coffee cake with coffee glaze and some thicker coffee icing in the centre and some yummy walnuts for a little crunch.

It was then onto the brownies, I always make these brownies if I don't there are complaints from people that I forgot the brownies! and these people are not my kids they are other peoples kids! so the brownies were made, iced and sprinkled with little dinosaurs and bluey green sprinkly things. They are small squares but they are very rich and very gooey so a little really is a lot.

It was then onto little vanilla cakes and this time I iced them using a mixture of white icing sprinkled with different flavoured jelly crystals and a few plainer ones with the little dinosaur sprinkle mix.

Then my eldest daughter and I went for a walk to the beach, we have both since regretted this as we are now both very tired and very sore, taking a rather reluctant dog with us we began the 25 minute walk there. Once we arrived to a very busy beach we took the opportunity to dunk the dog into the salt water because it is good for her skin condition but she thinks that it is akin to torture and that we should all be smacked for doing it to the poor wee thing!

This is the poor wee thing trying to run away from the dunking, she eventually got dunked and then ran to me as though I was her saviour unfortunately for her I bathed her when she got home so she got a double dunking, she has since spent the afternoon curled up on the lounge not "talking" to any of us and sleeping off the trauma of a double dunking Sunday!

This is her in a much better mood!

I hope your Sunday is as enjoyable as mine
xoxoxoxoxoxo

Happy Fathers Day

                       Happy Fathers Day!!!!!!!!!




To all the wonderful Dads, Grandpa's, Stepdad's, Carers and all the other Daddy kinds that I forgot!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo