I have been to sewing today for embroidery club.  This month's project is a fascinator for Melbourne cup, which has embroidered fabric flowers, organza flowers and ribbon and feather loops sewn in the hoop.  I have done my in black, to match both my elegant eventing bag I made a few months ago, and also being black, it will go with most outfits.  I will post some photos once finished.  After this, I went and saw my naturopath.  She feels that I have got my gut infection back in a mild capacity, so has put me on a lemon and garlic medication to try and deal with that, as well as my usual supplements. I called in to a fruit and veg shop on my way home to pick up the garlic and lemon, and also called in to the organic butcher a couple of doors down, it had such a lovely old fashioned country town feel, and they were so busy. When I got home, I let the chooks out, and picked a few things from the vege garden. The beans are starting to produce, and I picked a few hundred grams of beans, a kilo or so of roma tomatoes, 7.5 kgs of rhubarb!! and a few peas. The craft show starts tomorrow, so I am planning on going as I want to have a look at sewing machines, as I would like to update mine before it gets out of date, as now that I am using it a lot, there are a lot of things the newer models have which definitely makes life easier, especially the usb stick and being able to go forward to a particular part of an embroidery quicker than by 1 stitch at a time.  I want to have a look at everything available, in 1 place, and then make an informed decision. Ann, Mum and I are going to go in on Sunday, so that will be a busy day.....I am also going to go over to Ikea at some stage in the next few days, as I need to pick up some vases for an upcoming wedding.  I am extremely tired tonight from all of the running around today, so I don't think it will be too late a night for me. I am just going to finish watching Packed to the Rafters, and then off for a shower and bed. I need to make up the lemon and garlic mix, but it needs to simmer for an hour, so I will do it tomorrow instead. The naturopath also wants me to start to come of my medication, so hopefully within the month, I will be medication free.

My cute little machine appliqued owl....

I had embroidery club this mornng. We made these lovely little in the hoop machine appliqued owls. These can be made as stuffed toys, or as I have done here, as an applique to attach to clothing, bags or quilts. I was pleased with how it came up, and this is another new technique I have now learnt.

I have also embroidered some towels with the word "Baby" for Mum, as she wants them for the markets stalls she does. I have done  9 of them this afternoon. I was having some problems with them yesterday, as I was using the stabiliser that the lady gave me free with the sewing machine, but it is really poor quality stabiliser and was causing all sorts of problems with the machine jamming and threads catching etc, as the stabiliser was tearing. I bought some better quality stabiliser today, and also the proper stuff to go over the top of the towels while the design is being stitched out, and had no further problems today, and all of the towels stitched out nicely. I have some to do for a couple of friends who have recently had bubs, so I want to do those in the next couple of days and send them off.  I still have this bad cough, and my throat is very dry tonight, making me cough even more, so I really hope this starts to clear up soon, I have started having a couple of puffs of ventolin a few times a day, which seems to help for a little while with the coughing, and helps me sleep at night. I have caught up on the wedding paperwork this evening, and touched base with a couple of brides I needed to chat to. I have to go and pick up some silk flower supplies in the morning for next weeks wedding, as the bride wants silk halos for the flowergirl, and then will get stuck in to the paperwork.....maybe.....   :)

Garlic, embroidery and the garden expo...

I ordered some garlic yesterday.  I have ordered sprouting seeds, so they already have the shoots started, which should guarantee 100% success, and because they are already sprouting, it shouldn't matter that I am planting a little later than usual. I have read that I can plant out garlic until the end of July, so hopefully all should be good. I also had a look a chest freezers yesterday, and now just have to decide between a 500 litre and a 360 litre..I want to get rid of the 2 door fridge freezer in the shed, as it is probably 20 years or so old, and probably uses a heap of power...the 500 litre will cost about $60 a year to run, and the 360 litre will be about $40 a year to run, so very cheap compared to what the other older 1 is probably costing me. I am going to pick up a power monitor today, and work out exactly how much the old fridge is costing me ro run so I will have a more accurate idea. I also got some small knitting needles for Kasey yesterday and started teaching her to knit, I think it will take a long time, and because she is left handed it is really difficult, so I can only show her the right handed way, and she finds that really hard...so I think I need to find a left handed knitter to show her. I also went to sewing class last night, and started embroidering out the flowers for the front of the bag. They are constructed using a wash away stabiliser, so will end up as lovely little individual flowers. I will finish sewing these today hopefully, and then post a couple of photos of the finished flowers, they are really pretty. I am currently making some passionfruit jam, I am just waiting for the skins to cool and I can scoop out the white pulp and add to the mix and start to cook it off. I want to make some lemon curd as well, not sure if I will quite get to that today. I am hoping to go to the Nambour garden show this weekend, they have a giant kitchen garden setup that works on the organic and permaculture principles, so I am really interested in having a look and sitting through a couple of the demonstrations.  I will have to make sure Kasey brings her Nintendo, I may have half a chance of her sitting through a couple of demonstrations that way, as she doesn't have the patience to sit through those. Ok, off to make jam and get through my list of projects for today...