Just in case ...

I was out of sorts this morning.  I'm not sure why.  An outing was in order, though I wasn't sure where to go.

After departing the driveway, we decided to head in a direction we don't usually take.  Our destination suburb had a couple of opshops and we found quite a few bargains in the second one we visited.

This vanity case didn't have any identifying marks but was well made.  It was a different style to others we regularly see and seemed a good size to hold wine bottles.  

Once home, I removed the two stiff cardboard loops and thoroughly cleaned the interior.  (As much as I like the neat mirror, it won't stay).

The case was in good condition and didn't require much attention.  I cleaned the exterior and used a magic sponge on a few white marks.  I then rubbed very fine steel wool on the tarnished hinges.   

As you can see, Nick applied some silicon spray to the lock.  It should work into the mechanism and lessen some of the stiffness.

To finish, I applied a conditioning balm to all the exterior surfaces. It's come up quite well and really didn't take much time or effort.

At this stage, I don't have any plans to re-line the case.  I bought a small bottle of hydrogen peroxide when grocery shopping.  You might be able to make out a water stain on the lid lining.  I've dabbed peroxide over that a couple of times and think the mark is becoming fainter.

I'm thinking of making a pair/set of bottle bags to provide some extra protection for any bottles in the case. At this stage though I have plans for lots of Christmas sewing and the bottle bags have a lower priority.  

We haven't given up on our port port but that project is taking longer than anticipated, so this vanity case revamp will work in the meantime - or be a useful addition.  

I should say we aren't huge drinkers.  Last trip we took several choices and most came home.  We only opened one bottle of bubbles for our Winton cheese platter!

Holiday cheer!

I enjoyed using my tea cosies while away in September, so decided the SpaceVan needed more accessories. 

When I first learned to sew, I lived in Newcastle and bought fabrics from McElwaine's on Hunter Street and Anne's Glory Box, when it was in the mall, near the food court (for the Novocastrians). 

I occasionally bought from Pooh's Corner and another shop in the main street of Belmont. Sometimes Spotlight. 

These days I pick up fabric and notions from op-shops to add to my stash - and buy a few special prints online. 

I still go to Spotlight, mainly for needles and thread, batting and interfacing and try to buy these at during one of their regular sales or when they send a voucher.  Of course, I'll rummage in their remnant bin while there! 

I wanted my Spacevan kitchen and dining accessories to be bright, like the tea cosies.

The sunflower fabric has been in the stash for so long, I can't remember where it came from. The green dots were a recent opshop find - and there was enough to make a small tablecloth also. The main fabric of the sunflower tea towels was a 50c piece! (The green tea towels are new, purchased from a different opshop). 

In total I made two tablecloths, two placemats (the reverse side is a bright llama print), four bowl cosies, a jar opener, two pot-holders (backed with yellow batik that was used for my tea cosies), two tea towels and one hand towel. 

We have a green/white melamine set of plates and bowls (originally purchased back in 2014 before the Millard van but well-used during our 18-month stint of caravan living) that co-ordinate well with these accessories. The insides of the bowls were looking sad but a few soaks with denture tablets worked wonders. I was able to salvage six of the original eight.  Given it will be mostly Nick and I using the van, I'll keep a set of four plates in both large and small sizes in the Spacevan, as well as two similarly coloured smaller plates.  (The other green plates in our larger picnic kit).  I'm liking the holiday cheer!

Taking ad-van-tage of scraps!

The volume of my infamous fabric stash fluctuates.  I add opshop finds to it, haberdashery items as well as material - and I occasionally buy specific prints, when crafting a themed gift.  

This happy caravan design was purchased to make a bag set for a friend. A different friend scored a travel tissue cover from the leftovers and then there were just two small pieces left.  I wanted to use them for me but hadn't thought of a suitable project.  

When playing with this striped op-shop remnant (a $2.00 bargain!), I realised it was an excellent match for the vans - and I decided to make a cosy for my small $2.00 teapot, which had been well used on our Wing-it Wanderings last year.

Youtube had many tutorials, though a few were declared "frumpy" by Erin!  I found one that appealed, drafted a simple pattern before bed and started creating when I woke at 6ish. I smiled hugely as I sewed and was very chuffed with the finished piece, particularly the button "tyre". The top collage shows the front and back of that cosy.

I rediscovered the second, larger piece of van fabric yesterday and made a second, larger cosy for our Roma teapot (purchased from the marvelous Ace Drapers store).  I'd used all the stripes, so the reverse is a bright yellow batik print - the same as the lining of the both cosies.  Four vans were given button tyres and when we were choosing those, Erin found a black button with a rooster etching, so that was sewn on a compass. 

As much as the cosies were made to fit particular teapots, they will fit others and I'm thinking the larger one might cover a plate of scones or similar also.  

Mat-ching!

I was impressed with the success of my hair towel project, so decided to make something else for my holiday kit - a mini bath mat!  It may seem OTT but I've often remembered the bath mats at Mortlake and thought I could BYO a smaller version.

This one is a cut-down hand towel, that had been retired from use.  I rounded the corners and then topped with more of the bed cover fabric.  

It's not perfect but will be quite fine to stand on after a shower.  Looks pretty flash, eh?!  

Hair it is!

I've previously showed the contents of my brown beauty case (purchased to pair with my Gladstone bag).  

I like all the bright, happy colours and bought a similarly cheerful towel last year from Ace Drapers in Roma.  It was labelled a beach towel but I think of it as a holiday towel!

In recent times I had a yen for a co-ordinating hair towel and spent a fair bit of time looking for one that was pre-made or alternatively a bath towel I could use to sew a custom version.  

Nothing really appealed and Nick half-jokingly suggested I dye a hair towel already here.  At first I didn't think much of his suggestion but when I was up super-early yesterday morning, I did some Googling.

Earlier this year, I dyed tea-towels with - tea!  I didn't fancy a brown-ish hair towel but thought onion skins and turmeric might have potential as on-hand natural dyeing ingredients (that didn't require a mordant).

While I was boiling those, I did some running repairs on an old, white hair towel. It's elastic was stretched and some of the stitching had failed. 

I strained the skins and tumeric powder from the dye, then returned the liquid to a large pot.  I put the repaired towel in and brought the dye bath to the boil again.  

I'd already booked several activities for the day, so turned the heat off before leaving the house and left the towel to soak till my return - around 6 hours in total.

It's not as bright a colour as I hoped but I'm quite happy with the result.  

Since our very early camping days we used a particular cover on our bed.  I had some fabric from that and cut a flower motif to applique on the towel.  

When testing it became obvious the elastic loop needed shortening and I added an orange button also, sewn with bright pink thread.  Hah - how's that for a custom bath accessory, using materials already here?!

Laundry revamp ...

My ironing board cover was part of a larger laundry revamp.  

When we moved in there was a laundry tub downstairs - and that was the limit of built-in storage under the house.  We later bought an old, $10.00 cupboard from an opshop, which provided some much needed bench-space and additional storage. 

Progress stalled after that.  A lot happens here behind the scenes and home-making generally takes a back-seat when we deal with other stuff.

This cooler part of the year is good for more physical projects though and a recent cancelled property inspection (along with a bout of vertigo) highlighted the need for much better organisation.  

As there had been no dedicated clothes sorting area previously, clean washing was brought upstairs and often left in baskets inside the back door or on the table - which caused chaos.  

Moving to Queensland prompted a wardrobe overhaul for me and I now wear dresses much of the year.  I like them to be ironed and there was no actual ironing area, so an ironing board was often set up in the air-conditioned lounge room, using a bookcase for hanging the pressed clothes.

I watched quite a lot of YouTube for laundry inspiration but most tutorials were aimed at home owner renovators rather than tenants.  I didn't want to paint walls and build cupboards. I just wanted to create a simple, cheap, pleasant work area - that could be dismantled and taken with us at some later stage.

After much pondering I purchased a $49.00 portable wardrobe from Kmart.  Once it was up, I could measure the shelf compartments as their size wasn't noted on the box.  BigW had white baskets that fit well.  I bought four baskets and two large grey tubs - another $47.00.  Everyone has a basket and clean clothes are sorted accordingly.  As the youngest, Vaughan's is on the bottom but I may change than as it's quite low and bending can be an issue for me.

We bought a second-hand dryer very recently.  It won't receive a lot of use but is a handy thing to have.  It's sitting on an old coffee table adjacent the washing machine.  I've placed one of our folding camp tables over the coffee table, to fold clothes on.  The ironing board is set up in the same area, so clothes can be ironed and hung directly on the racks.

The window had an ancient, too-long venetian blind covering.  It fell down every time I tried to adjust it, so has now been stored out of the way.  Nick put up a curtain rod this afternoon (which was part of a lot of block-out curtains I purchased soon after moving in).  I'd been given a set of long maroon curtains and we hung two of those behind the wardrobe, though I expect they'll stay open most of the time.

You can see some of the floor in the photos.  The tiles are cracked, broken and there are bare patches.  I'd like to put down a mat but in heavy rain periods, some of the downstairs area suffers flooding.  We've had ankle deep water in a former bathroom and less deep but still annoying issues in other places - hence our hesitation to use anything that could be damaged.  

I did some ironing this afternoon and folded a few clothes also.  I'm liking the ease of having everything in the one place.  Nick and I were culling downstairs the other night, so set up a bluetooth speaker and listened to Spotify while working - and that could be an option for longer ironing sessions, too.  

It's early days yet but I can see an improvement upstairs and feel we've done great work for less than $100.00 (or just over $105.00 if we count the $10.00 cupboard).  Three cheers for us!

Not board!

The current cooler weather is very welcome for our reorganisation projects - hooray!  Even better, we can see progress being made.

We hired a skip bin recently, which was great for clearing out the garage/shed.  (Some stuff had survived the Great Cull of 2015 but was superfluous to our Queensland life).

Given the downstairs flooding of early 2020 (and lesser incidents since), we have become cautious about what we store - and where. More culling and organisation is on the agenda.

The various reshuffling has also prompted other projects.  Yep, I made an ironing board cover today - finally!  

I can't remember exactly when I bought the board but it was after arriving in QLD.  The cover was well-used, so I put a bright tablecloth over the top.  Easy, no-sew fix!

Last night I unpicked the old cover while watching TV.  It was funny to see the flower imprints!

I trimmed that batting piece this morning, as it had been too long for the board.  I then rediscovered an insul-brite remnant in the stash, for extra padding.  (I think the remnant was $4.00 and I still have another one for the intended use).  It wasn't exactly the same size as the original layer but covers the top and most of the overhang.  I sewed both pieces together with a zig-zag stitch.  The floral fabric was a $2.00 Dalby op-shop find from our overnight trip last September.  It had some marks and fading but I was able to use the best area for the cover.  

I'd watched a few YouTube tutorials yesterday and pretty much followed the common construction method, using elastic to fit the cover snugly over the padded layer.  It turned out really well, which made me wonder why I hadn't made one sooner! Of course, there was some fabric left over and I've used a bright section to trim two hand towels, upcycled from an old bath towel.  I'm really liking the co-ordinated look (and may also make more lingerie bags, trimmed with the same fabric).  The laundry area never looked so good!

Bee happy!

I really liked using my travel bowl cosy while away in Canberra - and decided to (finally) make a set for home.

The sunflower bee print is one of my images, printed on metal.  It's displayed in the kitchen and other bee art (including a gorgeous original painted and gifted by Kerry) hangs adjacent the kitchen doorway - so it made sense to feature this lovely bee fabric.  

I don't remember where the sunflower yellow batik came from but I'm sure it was a bargain!

I've watched many YouTube tutorials on bowl cosy construction.  There is much emphasis on using cotton fabric, batting and thread to ensure safe microwave use.  I watched a different presenter this morning, who offered an alternate view in terms of safety - and I was pondering her approach while viewing the next clip, of a cosy that had caught fire in someone's microwave!  

Although we used our travel set in the hotel microwave without incident, I'm thinking I'll mainly use this new set as bowl holders, to protect hands/laps after food has been reheated.  They fit our standard soup bowls quite well, though are a bit roomier around the pasta/porridge bowls.  I went out today and tried various Kmart and BigW bowls.  They were all quite similar in size.  It occurred to me that I could adjust the darts for a better fit around the deeper bowls but then the shallow bowls wouldn't sit well, so I'm just going to accept that's the way it is - and bee happy!

Cosy mornings!

Earlier this year I made two padded carry bags for our owl mugs, purchased during our anniversary splurge.  

The bags were a bit roomier than necessary, which has proved to be an expected bonus - now that I've added extra items to each.

Nick and I are heading off on another short adventure, staying several nights in a Canberra motel.  

Our room has a kitchenette with microwave and we've decided to breakfast as usual, so will take our preferred porridge/oat mixes.  We use large bowls at home when cooking our porridge, so thought it best to pack similar - because the larger volume bowls ensure no boil-over/less mess when cooking. 

Obviously the bowls get quite hot in the microwave.  I sit mine inside a cereal bowl when serving, to prevent burning my hands.  I've made bowl cosies previously as gifts but finally decided to make a pair for us.  They will provide extra padding for our bowls when in transit - and then serve their intended purpose when microwaving.  As it happened, there was just enough lining fabric leftover from the padded bags to make two cosies, so the sets look quite co-ordinated.

The cosies are intended to be used with the bowls inside (to protect hands/laps from heat).  When in transit, the cosies will sit inside the bowls to provide padding between them and our mugs.  The mug rugs will tuck around the mugs - and all will pack sideways into the bags.  I'm quite pleased with how it's all come together!

Glad to go shopping?!

I have bursts of sewing creativity and really enjoy having my infamous stash to work from.  It's been carted along (in various forms) to our many addresses - and made two interstate moves.  

There are inherited fabrics from my Mum and Granny, some others that I bought years ago and then more recent remnants / op-shop bargains.  (As well as fabric, there is haberdashery).  

I've made lots of shopping bag sets as gifts.  Typically, it took longer before I made a larger set for use at home.  

I'd been thinking of making a holiday pair to take away with us - and finally started on them last night.

There's considerable pondering when I make these bags, pairing fabrics together and trying to create combinations meaningful or pleasing to the recipient.  I wanted this holiday pair to be a bit special.

Our at-home set is used often and definitely brightens our grocery shopping.  The outers are furnishing fabric with brighter linings (leftover from previous projects). I've double-stitched all seams, to ensure extra strength. We're often complimented on those bags, so they're a nice talking point.  

I don't remember when or where I bought the floral denim.  I've had it a long time.  I decided it had languished long enough, waiting for the perfect project.  When I measured the piece, there was just enough for two shopping bags.

After discarding several lining possibilities, I spotted the tartan. It was quite a recent op shop find. It reminded me of travel rugs and picnic blankets, so it seemed a good choice for holiday shopping. The remnant was actually a t-shape when unrolled but with careful cutting it yielded linings for both bags. I finished them this morning.  

When I showed Nick, he commented that the tartan was a great choice as our Gladstone bags are similarly lined.  How good is that?!

It's a mega decline!

I think I started using Lightroom in 2012.  

Yep.  Amid all the other stuff going on, I took on new software.  I do admire my younger self and her optimism!

As much as I've had the program all this time, I definitely haven't used it to it's fullest extent.  I started some YouTube learning earlier this year and then was side-tracked by other events.

I've done a lot of research over the past few days.  Three cheers for YouTube and all the generous presenters out there.  Thanks to them, I've really expanded my knowledge of what can be done with Lightroom.

Of course, my main incentive was transferring Lightroom and my photos to the new laptop but in doing that, I've learned other tips and tricks as well. I'm sure I'll continue broadening my knowledge.  Working on a project is great motivation to seek better methods of streamlining repetitive tasks.

The top pic shows the automatic folder structure generated by Lightroom, when new photos are imported.  It's pretty nifty and I've never thought to adjust it.   The bottom photo shows my revamped 2015 archive, with short descriptions added to each date folder.  Many photos within the folders now have keywords also, which should assist considerably when I'm looking for a particular image.  I hadn't ever previously added keywords but times are changing!

Till now my method of finding images (perhaps for my custom diaries or calendars) is to try and remember when the shot was taken - or search Facebook and my blogs for particular words, which might return the photos and a date to search for on a hard drive.  Once found, I then put copies of the images into specially labelled folders, which requires more storage.  

Although these screenshots show the transformation of 2015, I'd started with 2014 and already made similar changes to it.  Why 2014?  Well, I had to start somewhere!  

I was able to significantly reduce the size of both years.  How did I chose what to delete?  I was quite conscious of not just keeping perfectly focused happy shots - and trying to document our history authentically.  There was a lot of household chaos and that's part of our history also.

While a picture is worth a thousand words, sometimes it's great to be reminded of the stories accompanying the image.  I did a lot of blogging when we lived at the original Hamby Home(in)stead, documenting cow rearing, caring for our chookies and our vegie gardening attempts.  I also shared progress of the Great Cull of 2015 in the last months of our tenancy.  Much of that history is available in earlier posts.  I'm thinking of PDF-ing them. This freed me to delete huge numbers of photos, knowing events were recorded more fully elsewhere.

I worked on 2014 over the course of five days.  I did other things as well.  I got through 2015 in three days.  I was lurgi-ed and not up to much else but I was more confident about my methods and had worked out a quicker system of deleting.  I realised most dates included a subfolder of previously edited images. It occurred to me that I could keep those photos, set the rest to reject - and just do a quick double-check rather than going through every image again. I mostly trusted my earlier judgment but in some cases I increased the number of saved photos.  Generally I kept around a third of the photos within each date folder.  Some dates I completely deleted.  

2014 initially had around 16,500 images (75.8 gigabytes) and now stands at 8,448 photos (40.4 gigabytes).  2015 had about 11,650 images (41.7 gigabytes) and is now a more manageable 3,675 pics (11.7 gigabytes).  I'm very pleased with those reductions.

We spent 10 weeks in Yowah during early 2014 and had some excellent adventures while there, including side-trips to Thargomindah, Charleville and Innamincka so I expected that year to have a larger volume of photos.

Shifting focus ...

During the 10-year period of 2005 to 2015, we moved seven times.  Most shifts were local but we also relocated from New South Wales to Victoria.  

At one stage I calculated we'd spent 18 months to two years of that ten year period preparing to move.  I couldn't quantify the time we spent unpacking and trying to set up home again - and I didn't want to calculate the financial impact of all those moves.  

Each move involved other acute stress. Family Court, hospitalisation and major medication changes were just some of the extra stressors.  Our life was like a soap opera. We dealt with huge, ongoing drama.  I'm amazed at how much our younger selves accomplished.  We definitely deserved more credit!

As much as my camera and photos provided a respite during our earlier years, computer issues added to my stress.  We had two major computer crashes when Vaughan was quite young and some other close calls since.  I have never given up hope of salvaging some of those lost photos.

In preparing for our 2012 move, we bought a laptop computer.  Vaughan was still doing distance education at that stage, so we needed a portable option for "school". (Yes, I was supervising his lessons amid all the chaos of considerable uncertainty, possible redundancy/homelessness - and then short-notice interstate relocation).

The old desktop was packed into one of our storage units - along with a box of old hard drives.    They travelled down to Victoria and then came with us to Queensland in 2017.  

Nick and I became debt-free last year, more or less on the 17th anniversary of our first date.  We are slowly working through our wishlist, upgrading furniture and computers and basically ticking off tasks that had been put on hold till finances improved.

My recent laptop purchase has sparked a thorough overhaul of my photo archives and better application of my LightRoom cataloguing system (ie. lots of research, learning etc). It's become a rather large project - because of adjusting to new technology, decision-making, file transferring and so on. In my significant culling efforts, I have unearthed various treasure and rediscovered many memories - so while there is a lot of work involved, it's mostly a pleasant undertaking. 

Although physical culling was an ongoing theme for us, there was little time spent on digital clean-ups.  I have a grand plan of dealing with all the digital photo archives (including retrieval of those lost pics from Vaughan's early days), overhauling photo albums and digitising many slides also.  I expect all those missions will keep me out of mischief for some considerable time.

Picture this ...

I have a new project.  It's a bit hard to show what I'm doing.  Mostly it involves deleting digital image files rather than creating anything real.  

Well, I'm creating space and increased order on my hard drive but again, tricky to visualise.  

Let's back-track for a bit and talk about cameras, cos without them there wouldn't be any images!

In 2004 I bought a very basic digital camera, from Groupon.  That first one replaced a point and shoot film camera that was probably about ten years old. 

I think I'd been camera-less for around a year between the demise of the film camera and the arrival of the digital one.

Finances were very tricky during that era, so I used that little digital camera for several years.  When I say basic, I think the file size under 1 meg.  My current DSLR has 24-meg resolution.  Even my older model Samsung phone has a 12-meg resolution! We've come a long way since those early days!

I received a Samsung L110 camera for my birthday in 2008.  (Erin had the previous model and I'd often used hers before receiving mine).  I had great results with those two Samsungs and really enjoyed playing with them, so much so that Nick did a lot of research and gifted my first DSLR for Christmas in 2009.  He decided on Nikon as a brand, with D40 as the model. It rated very highly in reviews (one in particular by a professional photographer), even against the later models (they were up to the D90 at that stage, which is very whizz-bang with in-built movie and lots of other stuff but much heavier as a result - and definitely a lot more expensive). 

The D40 was still being sold new in USA but Nick found an excellent eBay deal for a pre-loved, hardly used one, which included two lenses and various other accessories.  I loved that D40 and carried it everywhere!

In May 2012, Nick decided to "invest" in me, so upgraded my D40 to a D7000.  It was a quantum leap forward (16-meg vs 6-meg) and great timing also because the D40 failed not long after that.  As it happened, a few months later, in August, Getty Images invited me to submit 19 images to them for licensing! 

Buoyed by that success, I opened my RedBubble shop in September 2012.  My Getty portfolio now stands at 33 and I have 53 images available via Redbubble (link in the right sidebar). I've made commission sales via both platforms and sold other work also.

I can be reluctant to embrace new technology but came to love the D7000 - and the 16-85mm lens (specifically chosen for the bushwalking and geocaching we were doing then).  The D7000 needed some minor repairs in December 2015.  I felt lost without it and told Nick I didn't need any other Christmas gift, he could just wrap my repaired camera and I'd be happy!  As it happened, Nick collected my camera after night-shift on 23 December and it did stay under the tree till Christmas morning (though obviously was the first thing I unwrapped)!

My latest Nikon is a D750, gifted in February 2019 as a distraction after the death of my mother.  It was an excellent pre-loved purchase, again thanks to Nick's extensive research. I'm still learning the nuances of the D750.  As it's a full-frame camera, my lovely 16-85mm lens wasn't compatible so I needed to adjust to a new camera/lens combination but am feeling more comfortable with both, though they're definitely heavier than my D7000 setup.  (All other comparison aside, the D750 has 24-meg resolution, rather than 16-meg).

Nick has just read over this post and and commented that he doesn't see my cameras as gifts but rather necessities.  We've dealt with huge drama over the years and while some people may drink or smoke to cope with stress, I took photos.  Many photos. My camera and photos were my solace, providing some respite from all that was going on around me/us.

Bandit approved!

I made Mr Dog a present this morning.  It was a simple project, sourced from materials on hand.  I'm quite chuffed with how well it came together, though Bandit seems even more impressed!

I'd been thinking of making a dog bed and went into our garage looking for something I thought might work.  It wasn't suitable but I then rediscovered this memory foam mattress topper, which had seen better days. Bandit was happy to be measured and it was easy to cut the foam with a serrated knife. My infamous stash yielded a piece of fleece, which was pretty much the right size.  It was made into a simple pillowcase style cover.  (The short edges of the opening were overlocked but not hemmed, as I was concerned I'd lose too much length).

Nick helped work the bed into the cover.  I had another rummage in the downstairs stash and found some strips of stick-on velcro - purchased from a Romsey op-shop during our Clarkefield days!  They were even the right length.  What a fluke!  I'm not sure they'll hold indefinitely but at this stage they are sort-of working and I wasn't keen to sew them in place.  

I may find more motivation for a better closure method another day but for the moment I'm calling the project finished.  It didn't take long, definitely less than an hour - and all supplies were already here, so there was no cost involved.  How good is that?!

Weighty decisions?!

I think it was late last year that my daughter suggested a doorstop sewing project.  She'd recently moved and needed something to hold her bedroom door slightly ajar for cat access.  (A slipper was the right weight but looked untidy).

There are so many doorstop sewing tutorials online and I became a bit over-whelmed by all the options, so the project didn't advance very far.

Nissa returned home yesterday after a splendid 11-day visit.  We managed many excellent adventures - and some sewing also.  

The infamous stash yielded this piece of printed canvas, which had been purchased many years ago for a different doorstop plan.  

After some YouTube viewing, we decided on a very simple pyramid style doorstop, following directions, here.  

I'd made some of those chickens previously, so we opted to make one (non-chicken) about twice the size. 

Our fabric piece was 30 x 16 cm.  The filling was some rubber-ish pellets bought years ago.  I vaguely remember they were some sort of filter medium for medical purposes but don't recall when/where they came from.  I've used them to fill draught snakes, so knew they worked well for that. I hand-sewed the second seam closed, which took quite a while due to the canvas thickness.  I was very happy with the end result though.

Nissa sent some photos this morning of her new doorstop in place - and an action shot of her cat using the door access.  Success!

Innamincka in-my-house!

There's an obvious overlap between this blog and the original Happy Hamby Campers (which is generally more active cos I do enjoy our adventuring).  At times it's tricky to decide where to post, as is the case today.

Although I haven't shared any progress here, I started revamping our bedroom earlier this year.  Around that time I created a pseudo walk-in wardrobe by positioning two tallboys across one end of the room, opposite our bed - blocking various storage from view. 

After returning from Miles, I very wisely decided our "monogrammed luggage" should be on display at home (as well as away), so our bags sit atop the chests.

It took a little while to effect the next part of my grand plan.  I ordered an extra large (1000x1500mm) canvas print, featuring one of my favourite images.  I took the shot during our Innamincka trip in 2014.  It's an  oldie but a goodie!

In discussions with the lovely printer, I commented that as well as size etc considerations, the print needed to co-ordinate with our luggage (and showed him a pic). I knew he was the right man for the job when he said "we need to match those bags"!  Please consider using Stella Canvas for your custom printing, I'm stoked with the wonderful work they've done!

In early February we celebrated our fourth anniversary as QLDers, still at the same address.  That's the longest we've lived anywhere together!  Ordering the print then wasn't intended to mark the relocation achievement but it's interesting the events occurred close together.

In spite of having images for commission sale (some with Getty and others on my Redbubble account, which is linked on the sidebar), I don't have many hanging at home. It can be difficult to decide on something that fits space/decor and that I'd be happy to live with indefinitely.  I have a few - a Yowah rock stack, some "stairs" from a bushwalk, several geckoes, a frog, a waratah and a sunflower (with bumblebee).  I use my images for custom diaries and calendars, so have those on/beside my desk.  

My Innamincka canvas was safely delivered yesterday, which was quite exciting.  It's about five times larger than anything else I've ever printed - and stunning!  As you can see, it's now displayed in our bedroom, above our Gladstone bags, reminding us of excellent adventures we've had and the promise of more to come!  

In splendid synchronicity my huge canvas arrived just prior to the release of Nick's latest song, which is all about photographs, memories - and me! Well, us and our life together - but I'm the album's cover girl!

Dye-ing to know?!

I've been interested in natural dye-ing for a long time, though hadn't actually tried to do any.  

This week I discovered many YouTube dye-ing tutorials - which led to my first experiments in tea-dyeing.  Finally!

I had tea-towels to play with - two that a dear friend had made and gifted, as well as other, less precious versions.

Some information suggested I could dye with tea only, while others used mordants and fixatives (yep, I've watched lots of YouTube and read blogs also).  

I decided to try the most basic version first - and see what happened.  I made a big pot of tea on the stove-top and then put wet tea-towels in it.  

The tea returned to the boil for a period of time and I then extracted the tea-towels at what I deemed was a suitable interval.  The rabbit/hare pair were fished out first because I didn't want to wreck them!

I started my experiment around 10:00am.  The hares came out about four hours later.  The others stayed in overnight.  I didn't add anything to the tea.  It was just standard, strong tea (a variety that hadn't been popular in our tea cupboard)!  

The tea-towels were rinsed and then hung on the line.  (It was pretty working in the afternoon light, both in the kitchen and in the back yard).

I'm happy with how the hares have dried.  One is paler than the other though they had the same amount of time in the tea.  I think the difference is one was freshly washed, while the other had been re-wet in the sink. Maybe?!

I'm not so chuffed with the other tea-towels.  They had a lot longer in the tea and are definitely darker.  I'd read that it was a good way of revamping stained linen though and it's not been so great for that, or my expectations were far too high!

In any case it was cheap entertainment on a quiet day at home.  I bought some soy milk when shopping today, to use as a mordant for my next fabric experiment.  I'll do some more YouTube research and raid the stash for suitable test materials.  

The hare tea-towels have been ironed, folded and stored in my box of Easter mugs and decorations.  I'm deciding what to do with the other six.  Of course, they are fine to be used and washed, which will be a good test.  

It will be interesting to see if the colour holds and I guess the worst that can happen is that they fade back to their starting colour.  

Happy Easter!

Facebook reminded me this morning that in 2012 I first started using a bread-maker for Hot Cross Bun (HCB) production. I'd made them by hand the previous year with Vaughan's assistance (bottom collage pic) and was keen not to knead so much, given our multiple batches.

(Recent investigations revealed some arthritis and small ganglions in my left wrist but both wrists have had niggles for quite a long time).

The breadmaker was a $10.00 bargain, sourced second-hand.  Such a great investment!  I was very pleased to find it still going strong in 2017 (after 18 months or so in storage).  It gets a big work-out at Easter!  

Quick calculations. Ten years of home-made HCBs with batches made for all but one Easter. I'm not sure how many individual buns have been made. I've noted five dozen in 2019!  I only make them at Easter, so we indulge but we gift them also.  It's rare for Nick to be not-working at Easter and we often send some with him to share with colleagues.  

In 2014 they were made at Yowah on our Cobb Cookers and then in Lui's fuel stove when we ran out of heat beads. 2016 was missed, cos the gazebo kitchen was even trickier than its tent successor!

I've been happily pottering today, baking several batches of HCBs.  Well, technically these were Hot Cross(less ) Buns cos I wasn't feeling up to the angst of failure!

Some years I excel at piping crosses - but most years I don't do so well.  2015 was a good year (see the third and fourth collage pics). You can see Vaughan  wearing the same shirt in 2015 as he did in 2011, which was pure co-incidence!

The house smelled so wonderful as I was baking. By the end of the day I'd made three batches, 16 in each. 

I use the breadmaker to mix the dough, a cycle of one and a half hours. 

The breadmaker beeps at a certain part of the dough cycle for any inclusions to be added.  I haven't had great success doing this.  Chocolate chips have completely melted into the dough, and sultanas have been mashed to a sticky paste!  Given that experience I prefer to knead the fruit and/or chocolate in by hand when the dough is ready. 

I stood at the kitchen window dividing and shaping the dough into buns, watching the breeze in the trees and listening to a few birds. It was quite meditative.  "Mine" were the first batch. Heavily spiced and fruited. Baking in the turbo oven caused the sultanas at the top to swell hugely and candify - perfect! An experimental batch were next. White choc and cranberry. Not so spiced, which meant the dough rose a little higher before added the choc and fruit. Interesting.  

Miss Erin was the official taste-tester of "her" batch and was delighted to declare them "better than the shop's"!  Vaughan prefers a double choc version.  Lightly spiced chocolate dough with choc-chips mixed through.  The chocolate bits tend to melt when baked - which is a bonus!

From time to time my mother baked Hot Cross Buns.  I can remember her doing so at Yowah because they wouldn't have been available otherwise.  I may have made them earlier than 2011 but I can't clearly recall doing so.  Why did I start making them?  Well, I don't like orange peel and am not a fan of bland supermarket offerings. It was tricky to find somewhere that made HCBs how I liked them and then they were usually more expensive, so I decided to perfect my recipe!

Felt brooch fun ...

I like wearing brooches and have quite a few in my collection - some lovely gifts, family heirlooms, op-shop finds, retail bargains and also those I've crafted. 

During our Yowah trip in 2014, I made many owls.  The first of those were made when Erin and I joined the local ladies at their weekly craft group.  I continued to make owls once back home again (in Victoria at that time). A few sold and others were gifted or used on projects.  The last seven sold via Facebook, soon after arriving in QLD.  

Foxes were simpler creations, crafted around the same time as the owls.  I made several foxes as gifts and kept one girl for me.

I revisited felt-work in November, when Erin purchased this ice-block dress and we both agreed it needed something extra.  

I traced one of the ice-blocks from the dress and used that as a template .From memory, three layers of felt were used - and the (new) paddlepop stick was glued between layers, prior to finishing.

Based on the ice-block success, I crafted two felt Christmas brooches for myself.  One features an opal pendant I won on my 9th birthday, when we lived at Yowah!

We very recently had a family outing to a motor museum on the Gold Coast.  I had two lengths of fabric in my infamous stash.  One featured cars and the other, an opshop bargain remnant, had road sign motifs. 

I used the car material to make one a small, reversible handbag.  (I have back and neck issues, so prefer a smaller bag to avoid carrying too much weight).  The reverse bag side features dark grey denim, which I used on both sides of the strap.  There was a tiny red Herbie photo holder in the shed and Nick converted that to a small brooch, which I wore on the handbag strap.

I cut two signs from the t-shirt fabric and backed those with interfacing, to prevent stretching.  I cut two black pieces of felt for each sign - and again applied interfacing to each, for extra body.  I stitched a brooch back to the bottom felt piece, before sandwiching all three together and hand-sewing in place. You might just be able to see my tiny stitches. Once completed, it was possible to see a little of the white interfacing on the edges of the brooches, so I carefully coloured those using a black permanent marker.

This is how I looked on the day of the motor museum visit. (Nick was keen to include the luggage on the car behind me).  I really doubt anyone noticed my handbag and/or brooches but I was very happy to be wearing a themed outfit.

And yes, we all enjoyed the outing (in spite of the very wet weather).

A love-ly bag - for Valentines Day!

Erin spotted a very cute Gladstone handbag on Facebook marketplace last week.  When I made contact with the seller, the bag was already pending collection.  

Fortunately for me, that sale fell through - so Nick and I collected the bag yesterday.

Given it came home on 13 February, the bag was deemed to be a Valentines gift - and a love-ly one at that!

We were aware the bag was missing one of the buckle prongs and had thought we would replace that small part.  

When I was examining the bag on the way home though, we decided removing the second buckle prong would be easier - and the strap seemed to sit nicely without it.

As you can see from the top pic, the bag was otherwise in very good condition.  A few small marks were evident, along with light tarnish to the clasp.  It had a key and really just needed some TLC.

I enjoyed meeting and chatting with the seller at the arranged pick-up time.  She had bought the bag from a vintage shop and didn't know anything else about it.  

There is no maker information but it appears to be  quality, hand-crafted leather. 

I used saddle-soap to clean the bag today and used a damp magic sponge to gently rub at some of the marks.  I then applied a number of leather conditioning coats.  The leather was very dry and drank in the treatments.

There really wasn't much other work necessary.  I went over the tarnished clasp very lightly with superfine steel wool and think it looks better for that minor polish.  

Nick asked if I was going to put an initial keyring on it, like the larger bags.  I admitted I was thinking along those lines!  After pondering, I remembered my baby bracelet, engraved with my full initials. 

There was a long period after my first marriage when I used a different surname.  Since Nick and I married (15 years ago!), my childhood initials are again appropriate to use.

Nick removed the chain from the initial plate of the bracelet and punched small holes in the clasp strap.  

Initially the plaque was pinned to the leather, while we pondered the best method for it's permanent attachment.

At some point Nick remembered a hobby store in Ipswich, so we took the bag and plaque there to discuss options with a lovely gentleman.  Once we showed him our plan, he brought out boxed of tiny bolts and nuts.  He had so many!

Nick fixed the plaque to the bag clasp while I was napping in the afternoon.  As with the larger bolts on the hatbox handle, he made sure the slots lined up perfectly - cos I'm fussy about those details!  

So now the latest baby Gladstone bag has formally joined the ranks of our monogrammed luggage!  Don't they look wonderful all lined up together?!

I'm really not sure how this bag will be used.  It might still serve as a handbag.  In any case (hah!) it was well worth the $20.00 asking price - and I'm sure I'll have a love-ly time using it!

Nick and I called into an op-shop after buying the bolts.  The volunteer behind the counter was very taken with my little bag and praised it most highly.  We spent quite a long time chatting and laughing - so completely overlooked browsing the shop for bargains!