Ripe for the Pickin'.....

This morning while hanging out the washing with little Millie we discovered something.Just around the corner from the clothes line is our grape vine and today the fruit was just ripe enough for the pickin' so Millie decided to help herself.........

I have visions of yummy pint sized jars filled with purple grape jam in the not too distant future.... Yum-mo!!!! That's only if we don't eat them all first... :)
I battled the heat for a little while today, that was until it reached 42'C, and made a start on waxing an old table I bought at a clearing sale 12 months ago for $5....

The wax I'm using is a black one which I bought from here for $14, 1 tub will do 2 tables. It really helps to make all of the age marks caused by the years of wear and tear look extra rustic... I can't wait to finish this table as I have another one waiting in the wings for a bit of TLC too.

Do you have loads of kitchen appliances???? I do and they all usually live stacked away in a cupboard. I love using all of them but hate having to drag them out every-time I want to use them....

Once I'm finished 'waxing' my 2 tables they'll be destined for my pantry (my pantry is absolutely huge, the size of a normal kitchen), here they'll serve as utility benches. I'll then be able to have all of my gadgets out and ready to be used whenever the urge strikes, YIPPEE!!!!!

Here's hoping you're staying cool where you are today...

Take Care.... Jodie....... :)

Not Every Day....

Now it's not every day that someone just gives you a house now is it???? Well a little while ago a close family friend did just this, gave Brad and I a great old shack....

As it turns out it was one of the original homesteads off the farm next door. It was moved to town in the 60's.... We were so thrilled to be given this house and couldn't wait to get it out to 'Darling Downs'... So while Connie, Millie and I watched Brad started to prep the house...

Following strict instructions from the house removal company he got to work cutting the house in half with a chainsaw...... Yes that's right, a chainsaw, I nearly fainted when they told him to do it this way but hey who am I too talk they're the professionals after all, right???? So now the house sits in 2 awaiting the big truck to haul it out to our farm... Fingers crossed the whole process goes well.... What's been going on in your world of late??

Take Care :)

Great News on the Stove Front.....

After lots and lots of searching on the internet this week (what would we do without it???) I finally found a lovely older gentleman named Charles who is more than willing to help me out with my wood stove... He repairs them for a living/hobby and is just as passionate about them as I am...

(this pic is from Charles' website. The first one in the pic is the same model as mine.)

He thinks that my old girl is in great condition and that I'll have no problems making it look like new again. All I need is a bit of elbow grease and a few parts. He even told me that the hot water system in the back of it still works and that I can hook it up to use in my house when I put the stove in. He also said that he's more than willing to show me how to do all of this and at no cost....

How lucky am I????? You see the first man I rang told me that it would cost me at least $3500 to rebuild my stove and that wasn't including the re-enameling, that was an extra $2000..... :(

I was very disheartened and thought that this wonderful old appliance was going to have to retire to the garden and be used as a pizza oven (which is still a pretty darn good idea if you ask me, I just need to find another one for $5 now so I can do that too... LOL) This man than tried to sell me a NEW Rayburn for $10,000, was he trying to take me for a ride??? I'm still unsure......

Thank goodness I found Charles!!!! He's been so helpful and his advice has been priceless... He's not trying to flog his products to me and is even telling me to buy certain things like the new flu, paint and cleaner from a cheaper place like Bunnings, now that's one genuine guy....

He has told me that I can get my wood stove looking brand new for under $300. I was willing to spend $1000 so you've gotta be pleased with that!!!!! I can spend that spare $700 on some new bake-ware now.... :)

Speaking of ovens, I baked that tuna-loaf that I was talking about back here (the recipe is over here) and OMG it was delicious!!!!! What we didn't eat for dinner that night we had cold with some salad wrapped up in flat bread that next day for lunch...Once again a big thank-you to all of the wonderful comments I got in the last post and the oven advice was awesome.... Until next time, take care... :)

HELP PLEASE!!!! Oh, and some exciting news....

DH, the little princess and I headed over to Bourke for a farm clearing sale on Saturday. They're always such a great family day out. Here's the little princess having a spell in a bucket of nuts and bolts that DH bought...

I always manage to pick up loads of goodies at these kinds of sales.... The 2 hoes in the pic above I grabed for $1 each and the Welburn wood stove in the pic below was only $5, yes that's right, $5....

I want to get it re-enameled so that I can put in my new kitchen (that's when it finally gets started in September) but I need a bit of HELP first.... I was wondering if there were any women (or men) out there that have one of these ovens in their home at the moment. If so, do you use it????? Has anyone ever put one in there home??? If so, how did you do it??? We have one in our cottage that's built into a fireplace so I was wondering if I would need to do the same thing if I was putting one in my home???? Is it hard to get the temperature right in this kind of oven when you're baking??? And lastly does any body know where I could find an old manual for this oven??? Wow!!! That's a lot of questions, I know, but I'd so love to build my new kitchen around an old classic like this....

On the farm front, I had a new arrival on Friday last week..... This little treasure is this little girls first baby and let me tell you now, she's doing a sensational job as a mother... :)
And hopefully I will be able to too when baby number 2 comes along in December (you can just see my baby bump in the pics above)..... Yes that's right I'm pregnant with my second bub, 16 weeks and 6 days to be exact... DH and I went to the doctors today to confirm our suspicion's and we even got a chance to hear the heart beat. I have a scan this weekend over at Dubbo so I'll post some pics of the little one next week.

I found out the sex with my first baby but was thinking about leaving this one a surprise... What did you do when you were pregnant??? Did you find out the sex??? I'd love to hear your story...

Last but not least, I whipped up these cord pants for the little princess this morning before I headed to town for my 'day job'. I'm so pleased at how they turned out I can't wait to whip up another pair....Thanks for all of the lovely comments in regards to my scarf from the last post. I'll be posting the pattern for all of those ladies interested in a couple of days...

Take Care :)

I'm Finally Back!!!!

I'm sorry it's been so long but I'm finally back!! I don't know where my time seems to be going lately but before I knew it I was in full renovation mode, moving house and tending to our new merino ewe's lambing whilst still trying to work full-time and be a mother to my almost 2 year old... (o.k. that's enough of the whining)

But yes, I'm still here and eager to get my new sewing room set up so I can whip up some new curtains for my new bathroom... Can you all remember me telling you about our bathroom Reno's?? Well we're 'almost' finished..... Here's DH bogging up a few more holes (that whole wall was one great big hole, an absolute NIGHTMARE!!!)... Here I am water proofing the soon to be 'new shower'.....
This pic is of the floor and most of the skirting all tiled and ready to be grouted....
And here is the bathroom all but finished... This weekend we're putting the new light fitting up and installing the shower screen which will be one of those frame less one's that look absolutely super slick, well that's what the sales assistant told me anyway... LOL!!!
It seems to of taken forever for this bathroom to fall into place but I'm just so happy that I can now actually shower in it... You see DH and I were going to get a builder to do the bathroom for us which would of taken half the time but we decided to do it ourselves. The money we saved doing it ourselves will go towards builders remodeling the kitchen... So far we've saved $15,000, isn't that fantastic??? So now my original budget of $50,000 for a new kitchen has risen to $65,000. You gotta be happy with that!!!

So if all goes according to plan we'll be staring the kitchen remodeling at the end of Winter.... My next reno project will be the little princess's room. I'm hoping to start that in the next couple of weeks...

Now for a bit of crafting..... This is the full pic (as promised here) of the quilt that I made up for this swap... And last but not least I'll leave you all with a glimpse of one of the new little babies that I have running around my place at the moment...DH and I bought a heap of old merino ewe's in lamb about 3 months ago for a real dirt cheap price, they were practically giving them away.. They all started lambing about 3 weeks ago.... Now who doesn't love baby animals, isn't this one a cutey???

Take Care... :)

I LOVE Australia Post!!!!!!!

Yesterday morning when I went to the post office to collect my mail you can only imagine how excited I was when Bruce (yes, I'm on a first name basis with my local postman) handed me a big bright pink box signed on the back by my 'secret quilt' swap partner Kellie...

I just couldn't wait to get to the car to open it up so I opened it then and there in the post office..... (sorry Kel this pic really doesn't do your gorgeous work much justice)

OMG!!!!! It was amazing....... Kellie's work is like none that I have every seen before.... Her applique and machine quilting are in a league of there own and let me tell you now, that league is pretty darn elite.....She packed my parcel full of goodness for both me and the little princess. It really did make me, or should I say us (the little princess and I), feel like royalty for the day.... She made this....and this.......for the little princess... Her work is just sooo gorgeous!!!! I scored 2 pin cushions and a tissue holder, the little princess is just deciding which one she wants to keep... I guess the tissue holder is for me..... LOL!!!!!Now don't think that this is all that Kellie sent me, this woman REALLY did spoil me... I also got these 3 divine fabrics that I just can't wait to sew something up with....This has been the best-est swap ever, thanks Kellie!!! I really enjoy reading your posts and am so looking forward to learning lots and lots more about quilting from you over the months to come....

Speaking of swaps.... I almost forgot to mention that I joined up for the Doll Quilt Swap round 3. The deadline to post out your quilt was the 28th of April but with all of the hype from my swap with Kellie I didn't get it posted until today... Hopefully my swap partner doesn't mind too much...There was no theme for this swap so I just with a traditional block using some modern fabrics and finished off with some hand quilting....
You'll have to wait til later for a full pic as this swap is a surprise/secret too....

I know that I promised some reno shots this week but they're going to have to wait til next week... sorry :( I've been flat out and have totally forgotten to take some decent pics of the tilling we did over the weekend.... I did take a couple of macros though and here's one just to keep you interested.... :)We obviously still have to grout and if you've ever tiled before ( I haven't but have been assured) than you'll know that the grout is what really makes it look pretty....

O.K... If you made it this far THANKYOU!!!! I know that this was one hell of a post.... But now I'm off to pack my bags as I'm off to Nundle for the 'Girls Day (weekend) in the Country'... Kerry Swain has organised the whole thing and she has Rosalie Quinlin and Leanne Beasley comming with a special project for us all to do... I'm leaving first thing tomorrow morning, going via Donna's place to pick her up and meeting up with Fiona and some other girls at Nundle around lunch time... I'm so excited and will tell you all about it sometime next week....

Take Care and have a lovely weekend....