 To finish this little christmas decoration I added a Santa Charm to the crazy.
After stitching the square right sides together with a backing and with the hanging ribbon inserted into the seam and turning it right side out through a gap in the seam, I used Gold Metalic thread, stitched so that it formed little loops, around the edge.
A big gold bead threaded onto the hanging ribbon and a bell on each corner complete the decoration which I will give to a young friend for christmas.
|
 Large parts of Australia have been in draught for years, The dams are low and we are on permanent stage 3 water restrictions…Some water saving habits, such as shorter showers, are obvious, but I found it amazing just how much water simple changes of habit can save like when I come in from the garden I used to wash my hands in hot soapy water, now I rinse my hands in cold water only using soap if it is something other that soil on my hands…Stage 3 water restrictions mean that we can only water the garden between 7 and 10 am and 7 and 10 pm on alternate days of the week which is worked on an odds and evens system, I have an even house number so I can only water on the even dates.
The watering times are fine for the established plants in the garden but it can get difficult with the seedlings which start to wilt if I go out or miss my watering day for any reason…to help I have a dish in the shower and use milk bottles to catch the water that comes through before the hot water…When we did start getting some rain last month a friend, who drinks a lot of milk, started saving the bottles for me and I collected extra water in buckets left out in the rain so that I have a small supply to rescue plants that need a drink on my off watering days.
When it kept on raining every few days I was catching more water than I could bottle but I still caught as much as I could in buckets and watering cans which I used on the garden in the days following the rain…I had, half jokingly, eyed my garbage bins off for their potential to hold water and when after a few weeks it continued to rain I did wash out my recycle bin (the photo of which started this post) and put it under the hole in the guttering, it holds 300 litres of water which has meant that I havn’t had to turn on the outside tap to water the garden…and I don’t even mind carting the water around, I carry it small amounts at a time so that I don’t hurt my back lifting it and the walking is all good exercise…When I need the bin to put the recycling out I put whatever water is in the bin under the trees and bushes where it can soak deeper into the soil.
|
 These candys are 3 straight stitches with holding stitches on each side of the middle to hold the sides out and a holding stitch over all 3 threads a little in from each end to form the candy shape.
They are a copy of the little candy that I found on this 3 inch square that a stitched several years ago and is all done except for sewing it into a christmas tree decoration.
|
 I have finished the stocking that I was working on last week.
When it came to the embellishments I liked the way the Santa Button looked and a bit out of character for me who likes lots of embellishments I thought that the Santa Button was all this one needed.
See this post of how to construct a christmas stocking.
Keeping with the simplisity of useing minimal embellishment instead of putting lace around the top I have used a few stars and beads to hold the lining in place so that it doesn’t creep out over the top.
Still keeping the embellishments simple I attached the bells and hanger with a single red button and gold bead.
|
Tonight I had a quilting friendship christmas party, one where we all take a plate and have a wonderful meal.
I decided to do a Chocolate Mousse, this is a small portion that I left at home for my Daughter.
We call ourselves the Allsorts and usually have Liquice Allsorts at our monthly meeting, I decided to have a little bit of fun and used premade icing and melted chocolate to make Chocolate Allsorts to go on top of the Mousse…
|
The flowers on My sister’s Cactus were a delicate pink colour…This one, on a Cactus plant that my son left here when he moved, has the same delicate structure but is a vibrant orange colour.
|
In 1995 I made tiny Christmas Stockings for my kids, neices and nephew. I blogged my Son’s tiny Stocking last year and tonight I found my daughters.
|
I put the Miniature Nativity Scene on a miniature table and put it together with the miniature Christmas Tree on a display stand that I made when I was a member of the Brisbane Miniature Enthusiasts in the early 1990’s and in subsequent years I have added miniature bits as I have found them…With the extrabits, the dolls surrounded by toys and bits of wrapping paper I have created a Christmas Morning Diorama.
|
 A couple of years after we decorated our Miniature Christmmas Tree I found a christmas tree decoration which was a string of tiny charms of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus…Just the perfect size to make a miniature nativity scene.
To form the base of a stable I used 2 matchbox trays with one side of each broken out and overlapped and the end flaps folded out to widen the floor area. I covered the base with grey paper and made a tree from a twig and scrunched up tissue paper.
The angel was an earing, the camel, donkey and cow (which I painted) where on the glass rim of cocktails in the 1970’s.
The pig was in a bag of second hand toys that I got in the early 1980’s, he must have been a part of an old farm yard set, he must have had a hard life because he had lost half his paint and was missing 3 legs (replaced with match stick legs), I kept him all these years because there was something appealing in his character and he found a lovely home here.
The sheep is a felted lump of fleece and for the shepard I redressed a guacamole worry dolls.
A sattering of straw completes the scene.
|
 When I bought my new camera I knew that it would put pressure on my computer system as the image file size is much bigger than my old camera and my computer resources have been low for a long time, today my hard drive reached capacity…fortunaly for me a friend, who knows more than I do about computers, was staying and knew exactly what I needed…If I had known that it was as simple as purchaseing USB Portable harddrive I would have got one months ago, as it is we went shoping and I purchased one that has 4 times the capacity of my internal hard drive so I have space for a good many more images..and I love the racey red colour of my new storage disk.
|
