Taking Time Out

With so much going on around here over the past few months and the birth of a new business in the past few weeks it has become quite obvious that I need to have some down time.  With that in mind since the opening of "The Shabby Rose" I work in the office 9 -5 on week days, do my sample stitching of an evening but close the office door on Fridays and do not re-open until Monday morning.  This seems to be working at the moment.  Let's hope I can keep being so disciplined. 

On Saturday I spent a few hours volunteering my time with an organisation that I hold dear.  "The Greyhound Adoption Program of Tasmania" It was a lovely day at their annual Meet a Greyhound Day and 8 beauties found forever homes.  This is Phoenix.  He is a dog that we raced and who is now in the adoption program looking for a home.  He met some lovely people over the weekend and hopefully one of them will be his new family.

Saturday night 2 of our grand daughters stayed with us for the night.  They helped make some tomato ketchup.  They were amazed that all of the vegetables and spices went into the Thermomix and Tomato Sauce came out.  Sadly we have a generation of kids that think food comes in a packet .......

Sunday saw the remainder of my grandchildren arrive for a day of fun.  All 4 girls had a crafting afternoon in the spring sunshine.  I love that they enjoy being creative.

And now it's the start of a new week and a new design featuring these fabrics and this gorgeous thread from Threadworx which is one of the chosen threads for the THREADWORX CLUB Program.

It is stunningly beautiful and reminds me of fruit tingles

And it stitches up beautifully.

I can't wait to show you this finished design.  It will be finished and released in October.

Well I had best get back to it.  Surely it must be coffee time ?

Hugs,

Fee x

A New Love

It's no secret how much I love to stitch and I am forever drawing and trying new threads.  I recently tried THREADWORX 6 Strand Hand Overdyed Embroidery Threads that come in a MASSIVE 20 Yard Skein.  And I fell in love .......

It is not only beautiful to stitch with but has a great vibrant colour range and quick colour changes which I really like.

This one is called Morning Glories.  Isn't it gorgeous ?

So I decided that it might be nice to start up a THREADWORX thread club and share these gorgeous threads with others.  Each month participants would receive 3 threads and an iron on transfer stitchery design.  And a few other goodies along the way. 

Here is Month 1 all ready to send out.  If you want some further information or wish to sign up just go HERE.

Hugs,

Fee x

Challenging and an Update

Thank you so much to all those that have e-mailed their well wishes about Josh.  He is doing fabulously well and is now home and attending rehab 3 times per week although I'm not sure that he will be doing that much longer.  He certainly doesn't lack motivation and joined the local gym today.

He is keeping himself busy and looking forward to the final healing so that he can start to become vertical again in 2 prosthetics.

Life has been super hectic for me lately.  BUT I did find time for a little treasure hunt in a local thrift shop and found another brooch to add to my growing collection.  I decided some time ago that I wanted to collect something vintage that was inexpensive and didn't take up too much room so I decided on brooches.  I am starting to get a nice little collection now.  This one is a locket so a little unusual.

So what's been keeping me busy?  Well other than running the fundraising for Josh's appeal and my normal daily duties I have begun a new business.  I have lots and lots of plans and have spent the past 2 weeks in planning and building mode.  I can't afford to pay someone to build a web page or do my design work so I have had to put in the hard yards myself.  It has been challenging to say the least.  BUT I have to say that I am enjoying it.  It is feeding my creative soul.  I have designed a pattern cover, web page etc and have already begun a new Club, but I'll tell you about that next time.

I'm pretty pleased with how it's all going and I am hoping to share some more exciting news in the next few weeks.  Fingers crossed everything goes to plan.

Have a lovely weekend.  It's going to be lovely weather here over the next few days and school holidays begin so no more school bus drop offs and pick ups for 2 weeks.

Hugs,

Fee x

Rotten Apples

Sometimes when life throws you rotten apples you have to pick through them and find the good bits that are still usable.  Cling onto the goodness and turf the rest.  

Since being made redundant almost a year ago and travelling down the road that life has dealt up in the past year, I have just begun to see through the fog of it all and have sorted through the bad bits to see what I have left.  And I have found plenty.  We have had to come up with a new life plan based on where we are at financially and in general.  A plan that suits us at this period in our lives, combined with our financial responsibilities and where we want to be in 2, 5 and 10 years.

It's certainly not going to be easy but we just need to take a deep breath, work hard and get on with it.

This will mean some changes in our lives, but that's ok it's not like we haven't had any major changes before .....

One of our favourite things is to treat ourselves to an outing once a week.  It is so important to take time out from the reality of life and indulge occasionally. This week we took ourselves off to the local Richmond Farmer's market.  It is just 15 minutes from our home in a quaint old village.  We had brunch outside in the warm spring sunshine at the bakery.

And then wandered off to the Farmer's Market.  We purchased some lovely fresh fruit and vegetables and I was over joyed to find that Callington Mill's had a stand.  It is a local restored flour mill that only mills organically grown wheat to make flour.  I have some new philosophy's on food which I will share with you over the coming weeks but for now I have some "real" flour just like my grandmother used.

After our stop at Richmond we ventured off to the Hobart Handmade Market which is held quarterly.  It is co run by a friend of mine and I will be having a stand at this market from November so I wanted to take a look see before then.  Almost as soon as I arrived my heart was taken by this gorgeous little crocheted rabbit.  She was made by Yarn-imals.  She had to come home with me and now lives on a shelf in my studio.

And I bought this paper flower sphere.  It's not my usual colours but I love it.

So now I am going to spend what is left of the weekend on a project designed by my dear friend Jenny.  It is her new Stitch A Long which starts tomorrow.  I am of course doing a bit of a "Fee" twist to it.

So tomorrow marks a new chapter in our lives and the development of our ideas for the future.  I'll be back really soon with lots more to tell ......

Hugs,

|Fee xx

My Life

Most of my blog readers would know that back in March I became the full time carer for my MIL who was unable to live on her own anymore due to some nasty falls.  

I put my dream of becoming a nurse on hold to care for this lovely lady but in June we came to the realisation along with her medical team that we could not keep her safe from falling anymore and she moved into a nursing home just  6 minutes from us.  Sadly she passed away on the 21st August after complications from another fall.  We are heart broken.   Beryl had 90 wonderful years on this earth and was much loved, it was a very sad "see you later"

This year has not been kind to us as my oldest daughter was in hospital for 2 weeks prior to Beryl passing with a rare nervous system condition.  And 1 week after Beryl passing my son had to have his remaining leg amputated.

Josh is just 24 years old and a dad and husband.  Long term readers would remember that he had to have his first amputation back in 2011.  He has a rare disease which affects the blood flow to the extremities of the body and causes blockages to the main arteries.  He is a positive tower of strength and never lets things get him down.

Here is Josh post surgery on Friday.  Still with that positive attitude and amazing.

The surgeons left his stump a little longer this time as his prosthetic leg will fit much better.

And here he is yesterday just 5 days post surgery wheeling himself around to meet me at the car park.  He truly is an inspiration.

I have started up a fundraising drive to assist his little family and to help buy the equipment that he needs.  It's over at Go Fund Me or there is an auction site over on Facebook.  With Lots of goodies on offer.

So here's hoping that the rest of the year is a little kinder.  I need to think about what to do to earn an income and to make some decisions about 2016.

Thank you so much to all of my friends that have supported me throughout this time - I wouldn't have been able to do it without you.

I'm sorry that I haven't blogged earlier - It was just too hard.

Hugs - Fee xx