Raspberry Ripple Bags

I made 2 of these bags yesterday.  It is a Melly and Me pattern, and is really, really easy. The pattern is very well written and very easy to follow.  I made 2, production line style, and I did piping on the pleats of each one, which probably added about 40 minutes each to each bag, so without the piping they could be made in a couple of hours from start to finish per bag. I can't see me ever buying a handbag again!

It's getting quite cool here at the moment, so I think I will go and fill up the firewood box, and light the fire for tonight.  I went and purchased my 500 litre chest freezer today, and it is being delivered on Monday.  After doing the calculations with how much power the current large fridge/freezer out in the shed in using, I have discovered it is using basically all of the power being generated by the solar panels! So the new freezer will only cost about $60 a year to run, which is about 1/5 the cost of the old fridge/freezer. I also went to Spotlight and purchased some Dupion silk, which was on special for just under $15 a metre, which was half price,  to make up the 2nd Swirling Roses quilt I am currently doing as a block of the month project. I will post some pics of this in a later post. I also have the climate smart people coming out on Monday, to wire up the wireless power monitor, and provide new bulbs and an enery report etc, so that will be an eye opener, look out, I will be the nazi power monitor very soon, turning off all the appliances as soon as someone leaves a room.  It will be nice to know which appliances are guzzling the power though, and try to improve on that so that we get the most value we can from our solar system.  Water tanks will be the next major purchase, so will start looking in to this soon, we are looking at concrete ones that can be put in the ground.



Solar, Library and Sewing

We had the energex people come out today and hook up our solar meter in the meter box, so we are now officially making power....yippee.....also got the power bill in the letterbox.... :(
I don't know how much difference the solar system will make in the grand scheme of things, but hopefully it will cut our bill down by about a third.....that would be good. We have plans on adding more panels as we can afford it, and possibly a larger inverter, so we can add even more panels. It would be fantastic to eventually get to a point where we are generating enough power to cover what we use, but I don't think that is a possibility at this point in time with kids, a pool and an inside fridge, an outside fridge/freezer for bulk goods, a bar fridge and a flower fridge (even though this is only turned on when I have a wedding to do)
I am feeling much better today, I have only had to take 2 lots of painkillers today for headaches, and the sniffles seemed to have cleared up.

I dropped Damian back at the airport this morning, after this I called in to Spotlight and picked up a zip to continue on with the MAKE sew along project, and a new jeans zipper for a pair of jeans that the zip keeps coming down on. After this I went up to the library, I haven't been in ages, and I picked up a few goodies:

I am really looking forward to the "how to crochet" book. I can crochet, but I only know the very basics, and am really wanting to learn all of the stitches that I can do, and be able to construct more than a crocheted flower! It has lots of projects in it to work through as well, so that should be fun. I am going to try and do some sewing shortly, and work on the MAKE project, depends how I feel though, I am pretty tired right now, but I am keen to do some more on it. I have a demonstration to go to tomorrow afternoon at the sewing centre, they are telling us all about some dressmaking courses, so I am looking forward to that. I also have to take Kasey to the doctor, she has a sore on her arm that doesn't seem to want to heal, so I am going to go and see what that is, and get her 2nd swine flu needle. So, it will be another busy day tomorrow.

Solar happenings at last and our new Caravan.....

Today has been very busy so far.  This morning by 8am  I did the washing, put a red wine beef casserole in the slow cooker for dinner, had the caravan people out to value the Coromal caravan, and had the solar people finally arrive to put up our solar. We have been waiting just on 12 months for this to happen, and it finally has. We are just waiting now for the electricity company to come out and hook up the meter and we are ready to go, goodness knows how long that will take....

We have also finalised the purchase of the new caravan today, we have decided on a triple bunk Galaxy Odyssey offroad caravan. It is absolutely beautiful, and has a shower and toilet as well....(quietly clapping hands) The triple bunk takes up the same amount of room as a double bunk, and means if Michael comes he has somewhere to sleep, or if one of the girls wants to bring a friend when we go away, that they can do that also. They gave us a good trade in on our Coromal van, so overall we are quite happy, and saves the hassle of selling it privately. I also went out this afternoon and sorted out wireless access for Damian while he is working away, so he can check his emails and go online when he needs to. I had a lady come out this morning for a wedding quote, and have done that one up and also one from Saturday and sent those off, as well as ordering the flowers for next month's weddings.  I have flowers arriving tomorrow for Friday and Saturday's weddings, so will get started on the Friday one tomorrow and Thursday. It is going to be a busy week, but by Saturday afternoon, I will hopefully be able to have a break for a few weeks, as I don't have any weddings until mid June. I also need to unpack our current caravan tomorrow, so that it can be taken to the caravan yard on Thursday when we pick up the new one.  I also ordered Toni's formal dress today...she is happy about that, don't think my wallet is though.....