Nature is so special!

 

Matthew grew this rose from a cutting. And now she is rewarding him for taking good care of her!

Slowly l am getting the back stitching done. I am doing one or two strands a day, as Anna @stitch roadies says. 

We also bought a smaller car for us last week. 

Our Amaryllis is now flowering and it looks so beautiful.

I have finished a pumpkin for my autumn collection. 
 

 

Life has its blessings!

We have a very small garden but all the gray is not my idea of living. I bought these hanging containers to have some height and not much on the lawn. Well we thought this beauty was nearly dead. Its now, with hubby's green fingers is blooming to its fullest. 

At last completed this Owl project after it was designed by Lesley Teare in 2019. Yes 5 years ago now done. Need to fully finish it later. 

A dear friend Anna @stitchroadies from Portland USA always says when finished a project start a new one! I have been reading a very old book, slowly and enjoying it immensely, my sister sourced it for me, l saw a flosstuber @Sarah'sstitchyspot had cross stitched it and l just had to start it. So here l am starting 'Little Women' designed by Micheal Jolly! 

Now this beauty this morning! We had it for many years now and it just brought us so much joy seeing it flower every year. So hubby has repotted it here and now she is showering us once again with her love. This morning we had a very light spray of rain and the drops look like diamonds on her petals. Thanks to The Lord for these special seconds in life for free! 

 

Time!!!!!

 Well time sure goes by quickly! Wish there was a shop where one can buy some extra time! Days seem to run from me. 

Now am busy with doing granny duties. Getting up, making lunch box, getting him dressed and last not least driving in the morning traffic and getting to school on time is exhausting. Luckily he is in after care and enjoys it so much. We only get a visit once a week now, just to have him around a bit. We had him by us every day and last year we noticed he needed to be with kids his age to learn to socialize. Since relocating and adjusting to new way of life he needed this, other than just school time! Its quite boring here. But still a privilege to have them still close to us. 

Big brother is now doing apprenticeship and working outside in the big world. He is doing well and its been an eye opener for him to be in a big city too. Traffic and also experiencing that its a rat race out there. Luckily he is still at home and not in his own place. Hehe recently started making the sums of what needs to be paid to live on ones own costs a lot of money. So he is saving up every penny now to get a head start. Grandpa just keep reminding him of not having debt too early in life. 

Our eldest grandson is getting married end November. Wow time sure goes by quickly. So now we have a kitchen tea coming up and luckily for us,  both her grandparents still live here in town. So we are going to the one on her parents farm not far from here. We don't travel far distances anymore.  Hubby's back and neck is slowly getting worse which we expected and he can't sit longer than an hour at a time. I do most driving now. Hehe seems he needs to give me driving lessons still after 50 yrs of driving!

Life has changed so much in these few months we have been here. Living in a big city is an adjustment but we need the specialists closeby with ageing. Also lots more driving to places and getting to know the area takes time. 

Went to the local nursery and found these cute frogs and had to bring them home. 

After being busy all day l needed some relief and with grandson visiting for a few days while his Mom is away, we got to have pizzas. His favorite!

I had to stitch 42 scrappy blocks for a charity quilt. The small quilt group 'Ragdolls' that l have joined get donated lots of fabric. They then make charity quilts and hand them out wherever they are needed. Took 2 days stitching on my machine. I don't like spending so much time in front of my sewing machine. I am a hand stitcher most of the time. But when its got to be done in a few days there is no way l am going to do it by hand.

Very slowly working on my back stitching on Kitty's Sewing Lesson will get it done sometime hopefully by end of year. Still big stitch quilting om my hexi quilt. Trying to do just one large hexi at a time. I do stab stitch and have to push through multiple layers and that tires my fingers a lot. But seems to be getting better by the day. 

Amber is enjoying some sun time, we had a few days of cloudy weather.

And of course Coco had a pamper day at the doggy palor which is needed as her hair grows so quickly. I have decided to rather have her hair cut at the dog palor here near us. Now only noticed she is also ageing, all the grey now that her face is cut neat. 

My fingers were too sore after straining these  muscles pulling something heavy. Using the scissors would be damaging them even more. 

She came out and l could see she was so spoiled by the wonderful staff. 

Well thats enough chatting for now. Till my next post have a blessed, creative time! 

Happenings in my life!!!!!!

Joined my local guild on 1 st June.

Its the Dais Quilt Guild and stepped in with Show and Tell of my very precious Crazy Quilt.

It was nice to show more people this special quilt.

I don't transport it anywhere because of the damage it might cause with moving it, but l had to turn it onto another side as it so heavy that I am afraid it might cause some damage if hanging on the one side only. So hubby helped me to get into into the car very carefully to take it on a trip. 

I have  now completed all the 50,200 stitches on this Kitty's Sewing Lesson and just started the backstitching. 

I have competed another owl' designed by Lesley Teare

Still busy big stitch quilting this hexi quilt.

Here is my quilt tester Amber

This is my big stitch quilting

Just found out yesterday that our Coco has diabetes but its not bad but still not going to be easy. So its onto insulin for the rest of her life. It comes with old age. Will be starting on Friday. She is very sensative to things happening in her life and is a real drama queen. so we will see how it goes. 

Well thats about it for now. I must try and keep this updated because one can miss out on the daily special things in life.

 

Thaankful!

Found a very nice fish añd chips shop nearby us. 

Its my Birthday month and I started a new small cross stitch pattern. Its very easy to stitch while zooming. 

My Kitty's Sewing Lesson is much more counting so l am stitching that at night when all is quite.got part of the sewing machine done! Slowly its coming along.

l have also finished emptying the last of the boxes. 

We had to get a front loader to fit in the kitchen and its only a 6kg. So l cannot wash my quilts in it. Luckily we have a nice laundry close by that takes care of that. 

Somehow living in a small town makes one forget how to handle busy traffic. But am now getting used to that and also getting to know the city Port Elizabeth.  Lots of interesting places to explore, especially with google maps. 😀 

A little more about life here

 

Daily life here is going at a snail pace at the moment!

This huge ordinary garden snail was just outside the main gate, wow its really big.

At last the sewing machine is coming along.

Placing my cross stitch stuff is taking time as l have less wall space here. 

At least we took a trip to the sea but it was misty and cold. So we couldn't go for a walk.

My daughter brought me some lovely gifts from a trip they took through Clarens.

This is my sewing chair corner and my Sitching Angel designed by Joan Elliott found her place!

Hubby's small lawn is up and growing green. 

This quilt also has found its wall

This week l have been working hexi's on my quilt. Nearly done then its sandwiching and quilting. Need to get this out sewing room to have a bit more space to arrange my stuff neatly. 

While l sit stitching l let my mind run with ideas of how to get my little sewing room all nice and cosy!

Our New Home!

Here are some photos of our new place. 

We had a carport and patio added.

Also needed a cupboard in the kitchen. We found the right place, in front of the fridge with lots of space to open the fridge door and see whats to eat, the guy that installed it did a fantastic job.

Now its just a case of finding the right spot for all my art work hehehehe

 

At last!!!!!!

 I have not been here for ages and its been a very busy time in my life!!!

We decided to move to Port Elizabeth and very quickly sold the house in Port Alfred and also got a townhouse that we loved and also bought. 

Daughter has also relocated to Port Eklizabeth because she needs a bigger salary to survive and also needs some challenges in her life. Well she has been continuing studying while Matthew was writing Grade 12 exams and she reached another goal and passed that exam with over 80%. Also Matthew did really great with his as he received so many awards and stuff and was also 4th place from the top 10 students well with the year end he moved up to 3rd place and has 2 distinctions and did very well with all his subjects. He has the world now and is ready for this next phase of starting his life's journey. Matthew is the tallest guy on the right!

  

A few finishes at last!

I have been so busy lately and enjoying every minute. I really feel so thankful that l am able to still afford to do all these crafts. Also am able to sit in a warm cosy room and have snacks to enjoy while stitching. We had a lot of rain lately and its so wet that we can't have the lawn cut. Luckily it grows slowly in winter. Loadshedding is really bad now. Had a 2 hour daily now up to 10 hours daily. Anyway l am all prepared and working on completing my ufo's. I am resisting buying anything new. Just if l really need something to complete a project! I have a lot of stash scraps that need to be used up and also have lots l still want to make. So now that l have finished all 4 grandson quilts l can get all the small projects completed!

 Finished this owl in diamond dot art! Frame from a branch of tree in garden

Nr 8 owl done!

Another cross stitch completed.

Mr wise owl done for hubby. It also diamond dot art.

Finished the cute angel. I won this pattern in a draw!

Finished this large tomato pin cushion today.

Every stitch!!!!

Every stitch l do gets me closer to the finsh line. Am nearly finished with the tomato pin cushion! I am now a monogamous stitcher. Makes me less stressed having to change my project every week. It then feels like l get nothing completed. I prefer to do one at a time.