{weekending}

A few snippets from our weekend:

There was sunshine and rain clouds
There was laughter and tears
There were tantrums and dancing.

Our dear friends came for lunch, and stayed all afternoon.
The second-hand ride-on-mower we have been waiting for arrived. Now the jungle out there looks like a proper lawn (and Sam is enjoying the mowing job!).

I have been enjoying the sunshine, and the way it is slipping into our home in new ways as the Earth shifts, and the Autumn light changes direction.
I have been inspired by this intense colourway (above), of a page from a current read combined with a flower picked from a neglected garden along our road. {The owner - our bus driver when we were in primary school- of the garden died last year, and no-one has moved into the home. His garden blooms on.}
I made hummous after reading Kate's adventures at mid-night on Friday. (The dried chickpeas were put on to soak at mid-night, the making of was left until the next day).
We made popcorn, and gnocchi. And enjoyed brownies made by friends.

I did no stitching on my poncho, but it is patiently sitting waiting for the few moments I have to work on it. And boy does it make me happy knowing it's sitting there waiting.

What did you get up to this weekend?
I hope you had sunshine, and saw Spring time blooms, or Autumn leaves.
I hope you had some creativity - be that making a salad, stitching some fabric, drawing lines along a page, styling a shelf, taking a photograph, or simply enjoying the art of tea and conversation.

Here's to a wonderful new week my friends,
Ellie xxx

weekending - good things

What a full and lovely (yes, ok tiring also) weekend. A long weekend. Thank you Queen for letting us celebrate your birthday now.

Things we did ::
- a fairy party with face painting and a bunny. Mishi informed us that they weren't real fairies as she could see the straps on their wings.
- a beautiful grown-ups only party for my friend Kathy's birthday. What a fun afternoon of making, and chatting and eating good yummy decadent food. And looking around and realising I am making (have made) some super good friends since moving down here.
- woke up Sunday morning to gloom and rain and wet and overcast. Decided to go to Brisbane for the night. What a good thing.
- met Sylv at yarn heaven Tangled Yarns. such a delicious and inspiring shop. we did have fun. we did buy some yarn. and guess what - I have actually started making something with it. So far I have half of a pair of fingerless mittens already finished and being used as I type. (one warm hand, one cold hand - have to finish the other mitten soon!).
- we went for afternoon tea at my cousin's new(ish) little grocer cafe, Sourced Grocer. What a sweet little spot - great for some local cheese, in season fresh produce, a cup of good tea/coffee, and a bowl of very yummy (and reasonably priced) food. ok - yes, my cousin's own this place, but I'd be saying all this even if they didn't! I've seen Sourced on Instagram, and featured in The Weekend Edition. They even sell ice-cream sandwiches!

And yes, it rained and rained and was windy and cold and dismal. We stayed inside and soaked up the heat from our fireplace - and the warmth of the real electricity and television and long hot shower for one night while in Brisbane.
What did you get up to this weekend?
What are your plans for the coming week?

*my computer seems to have overloaded itself and won't take any more photos, so......

{weekending} raising the flag, cooee & cake - who could complain!

I must admit that I still cannot quite believe the beautiful weather we have been having. Perfectly glorious Autumn days and crisp clear nights.

This weekend we have ::
- tidied the house throughly
- sorted kids clothes (and found new homes for lots of grown-out-of pieces)
- stacked our wood pile bigger for Winter fires
- enjoyed the beautiful skies and the silhouettes of the afternoon shadows and trees
- visited the dam and coo-eeed from across the water to each other
- breathed and enjoyed the moments of living here. the sheer and utter wonderfulness at where we live!!
- cut three different fingers. one very deep (while cleaning the stove). big fat bandaids make hard work for typing or crochet. {well that was me - I cut my fingers. all three cuts}
- had beautiful cake for our birthday (which is on Wednesday). thank you thank you so much to Sam's parents for coming down and spoiling us. we were NOT expecting cake or presents at all. (both Sam and I have sort of forgotten it's our birthday in only a few days...)
- raised the flag* on our building - an Australian builders tradition when the ridgebeam is nailed in place, is to nail a branch of gum to the highest point as an indication of where the roof will be.

Here's to a happy week. There's lots and lots and lots to do, but I intend to enjoy it all and have cups of tea with crochet and sunshine and breath through the rush!

* I cannot find any information about this, or the tradition of it, so will have to trust my dad that he's not making fun of us (he did seem to be doing it in all honesty). If you know about it, let me know.

{sun}day-ing

What glorious sunshine. So good. It warms the soul and lifts the spirits.

I can't believe how much I love love love these sun images. I took them from the moving car (it's okay - I was the passenger!), with the full afternoon sun streaming through. The trees cut the sun into slivers of shafts of light. The iphone works for some things like that as the camera is so slow at taking photos (often I miss the shot I'm after due to the slow shutter speed), but it worked so well in this instance. I want to print some of these - once we have a wall to put artworks and such on!

Of course there was some crochet work happening. I am working on a small collection of these - planning (perhaps) to sell some. What do you think?

Also - my 10 things I love for this Sunday at up on the Hey Maker! blog if you want to check it out.