It seem like only yesterday since our eldest granddaughter was born. She only weighed five pounds and in her baby seat looked tiny, we used to call her Darcey Dot. As she grew up she was a great kid, sadly she last her dad (my son) before she turned three.
Over the years weve watched grow into a beautiful young lady. She did great in school, shes in college and also working part time At nineteen now she still remains very loving and although we dont see her often as she lives in Leeds she texts us regularly even just to say Hi and how much she loves and misses us.
We are so very proud of her and I wish her dad had been around to see the beautiful young woman she has become.
Had a wonderful Mothers Day a day early this year. My daughter, son and their families and I went out to lunch on Saturday for a couple of different reasons.
We went to an old historical house that is now a restrauant.
Believed to be the second oldest house in the south east of the state, being built in 1845 it served as a homestead, stage coach depot and holding yards for the famous pioneering Cobb and Co stage coach company.
Today it sits in the grounds of Hills College and is operated by them. The atmosphere was wonderful, the staff went out of their way to make sure we had everything we wanted and the meals were just spot on.
I was blessed with lovely gifts but most of all I was surrounded by the love of family. It really was a wonderful Mothers Day celebration. Todays designs are both beautiful rose designs. Check out all eight in this theme.
last week we went on a coach trip to see the tulips we have been to Keukenhof before but we always fly this time we stayed in Valkenburg which allowed us to go through Belgium and into Germany ,we were much later than usual so the flowers wernt as lovely as before but still really pretty and where we stayed was lovely with statues of people everywhere and a fort on the hill that we climbed up to it was a lovely trip and really enjoyed it
Ive slowed down my sewing in the past few weeks because Ive been focusing on my garden. However, I did manage to make this cute purse for myself, which matches the sling bag I created earlier. It was definitely much easier to make than the sling bag.
The purse features a couple of card slots inside the main compartment, along with extra space for cash, lipstick, and other small items.
I can even fit my glasses in the front pocket. The sewing pattern I used is The Starlight Wallet by Spencer Ogg.
Last October my daughter and family were fortunate to go to Finland and stay in their friends cabin in a forest.
Now I have no idea of location other than its about an hour away from Santas Lapland village. There was no internet, and generator electricity, but they loved it.
At Christmas we were given a framed photo of the family outside the cabin, which was lovely. But the more I looked at it the more I wanted to embellish the frame with 3d trees. So months later out came the resin and moulds to cast the trees, branches and birds. I used a wuick curing casting resin which can be remoulded after 10 minutes.
It dried white so needed to be painted which I did to the trees and the birds. Once attached to the frame I further decorated with fake moss for the leaves. I love how this has turned out, its like peering through the trees to the cabin.
I am a fair-weather gardener; as soon as the sun comes out, Im outside weeding, pruning, and planting. I love flowers, but since our garden is mostly covered in shingle, I have to rely on plenty of plant pots for colour.
I wanted to create a flower bed, but the ground under the shingle is really hard and has been down for years, making it impossible for me to dig.My husband noticed some border edging, and we thought it would be perfect for a raised bed.
So we mapped it out and filled it with bags of compost and topsoil. After that, I researched which flowers to buy and had a great time in the garden centre selecting all my favourite perennials.
My husband is also growing some bedding plants from seed, which will be ready to add in the next few weeks.
While it doesnt look like much at the moment, I believe once those flowers grow and blossom, it will become the beautiful flower bed Ive been dreaming of.
Last weekend my youngest grandson Harry ran the London mini marathon for school children. Its a mile in distance and children from as young as four can take part with adult supervision.
Harry is no stranger to running distance, even at the age of 8 he can run well over a mile with great time.
He does cross country try at school and its part of his trying in boxing. There were a number from his school who participated and the weather was lovely but perhaps a bit hot. Once completed everyone gets a medal for participating.
Harry enjoyed himself and then demolished a hotdog and extra large chocolate croissant.
So its not really a wine glass but it is a water tower. Built in 1984 to meet a growing area it stood in its original form, concrete, until 155 blue lights were added to the top in 2003 to make it a prominent landmark for miles around.
Later the lights were changed and now change colours or can be lit up to different colours to support different causes/celebrations ie Domestic Violence week, NAIDOC week, even the State of Origin foot ball games.
Holding a million litres of water and weighing 400 tonnes, it was located in bushland. Now a beautiful park has been developed below so people can sit and enjoy it. We definitely know were nearing home when we see it.
I have always loved seeing it as it was built the year my daughter was born and when the area was rapidly being developed….. it has a lot of memories and I love seeing it as we drive along the roads in the area.
Todays designs are both pretty DL size designs, perfect for Mothers Day or a Birthday.
I missed the Easter post box topper this year. However, I was thrilled to see this lovely new one this week, created to celebrate 200 years of London Zoo.
Among the beautifully knitted wild animals, there is a card that reads, Celebrating 200 years of London Zoo: Pioneering animal scientific study and conservation of endangered species.In other news, I realised today that this month marks my 17th anniversary as a designer on CUP, with a total of 3,696 products to browse through on my page.
My daughter Kayleigh has never considered herself artistic, she says the crafty gene must have bypassed her as her brother was extremely arty.
Ive always encouraged her to have a go and to be honest she doesnt give herself enough credit for things she has a go at.
She has always been her worst critic but when putting her mind to crafty things she has produced some great things.
Now she doesnt profess to have green fingers as neither do so but her latest crafty session she attended she put together this basket of plants.
I think she has done a great job and should be proud of herself.
Well hubby and my new toy…….. the Log Dog. Each year weve been splitting fire wood with a small log splitter(8 ton) but sometimes the hardwood just wont split usually because there is a knot in the timer.
So that means out comes the axe, or the block splitter that have to be swung to try and get a crack in it.
Australian hardwood is just that……hard! Some logs are way to big for the smaller splitter and they too need manual attack. Hubby has a bad back and after doing a few logs he is in so much pain that I put my foot down this year and said no more.
So as its coming into winter I went on the hunt for a larger one, Ended up with a 35 ton log splitter and it slices through huge hardwood logs like a hot knife through butter.
We just put the log onto a trolley and take it up, position the log and press the handle. I love it. Ill be doing most of the splitting this year so hopefully I will get through the stacked/seasoned logs in no time.
We can store all the split logs in the shed and just bring up what we need to refill in the house.
This week my designs are two gift pockets. Suitable for money or gift cards.
Instead of driving to visit our son and family last month, we decided to take the train. This made it so much easier for hubby as he didnt arrive feeling tired and dreading the long journey home.
The only problem was that we usually throw everything into the car, like snacks and drinks, and dont have to worry about carrying it.
I realised that all my small crossbody bags were no good, so it was time to make something a bit more practical for days like this.
So I made this sling bag that can be worn on your back or across your chest.
I can even add 2 straps and use it as a backpack. I enjoyed making this until I got to the binding, which I hated! I am so happy with how it turned out and love the celestial fabric.
This is my latest book nook, The Museum. My daughter bought for my birthday back in February and its taken a while to get around to building it.
This was a bit more complex than my previous two as it has 4 lights to deal with, of course I topped my husband in for that part as Im functioning with one good eye as Im waiting for a cataract surgery on the other.
It certainly was challenging, but as Im learning from the previous book nooks it seemed to go together ok until we reached the roof part.
That was a nightmare as light had to be concealed on beams and the cross beams kept coming apart from the arches.
In the end in trying to get the beams glued to the arches two of the arches broke beyond repair.
This was unfortunate as the were stained glass acetate strips to slide in for the roof. So, after a bit of thought I attached the beams without the arches and printed off a stained glass effect on acetate and glued that to the beams.
The crafting instinct kicked in and the result was better than the original.
We always buy our granddaughters Easter Eggs, even though two of them are teenagers now. They love the big posh ones now, but we dont mind. And little Daisy loved her one with the unicorn soft toy.
Hubby and I didnt have any Easter Eggs for ourselves, but our daughter gave us both a chocolate muffin cupcake, with a mini egg on top.
Delicious with a cup of tea.
My daughter for the last two years has been a Youth Worker for RAF Benson Airplay which is run by the YMCA.
This provides 3 youth groups for the different age ranges. Ben Club is the younger ones, then there is the Intermediates and the Older ones.
That do all sorts of activities and certainly keeps the children occupied during the holidays. Each year AirPlay has an annual conference in January, my daughter couldnt attend but she didnt know she had been nominated for an award for her work in 2025.
She was shocked when her regional manager phoned her and told her she had won the Unsung Hero award for her work with the children and going above and beyond supporting the families.
Im so proud of her achievement in just two years. It was well deserved.