perth trip #2 with the hubby!

 Since my last post I also celebrated another birthday, the cup above was one of the lovely gifts I received... Ive just realised that my other really lovely gift which was an old biscuit tin that has been lined and up cycled for a sewing tin isn't in the photo.

 So the hubby/fisherman/mamil came with me to visit the froglet in Perth.  We surprised her, she had no idea we were coming.

 Our second day took us for a walk to her workplace for a decent coffee and I had this really yummy breakfast.  We took the cat bus into town to organise our hire bikes for a few days.

 As we were coming back to the froglets house I saw this amazing yarn bombing, I think its one of the biggest ones Ive ever seen!

 We took our own helmets and shoes with us to Perth and hired a couple of bikes from the same place i used last time. this time though we got road bikes, a couple of cannondales.  They did us well for the two days.

 We managed to find probably one of the steepest roads in the whole of Perth that took us up to a great look out in kings park.

 I managed to navigate our way all around the river this time without getting lost!  I had decided to go back to the park I had a coffee and muffin at last time as it was a good halfway spot.

 We actually went back again the next day.... We got slightly lost going to leederville... ended up in the next suburb but found our way back easily enough.  Even the mamil was impressed with the paths and the lack of traffic we encountered on our rides.

 Of course Bear was very excited to see me again and to meet his granddad hahahah.  He slept with us for the first 3 nights.... there wasn't much room in the bed.

 The weather was perfect for us for the week we were in Perth.  we visited the beaches and lazed around when we didn't ride.

 A bit of shell hunting happened after brunch at this beach.

 On our last day we went into Fremantle to the market again and a visit to the little creatures brewery.  we got a tasting plate for their beers and ciders.  I got the stuff they didn't like!

 Also in Freo is a maritime museum and they have a O class submarine there.  The mamil got pretty excited when he found out they did tours on them.  So we managed to get on the last tour of the day.  He was really pleased to show the froglet and her soldier boy what conditions he used to experience when he served in the RN Submarines.  The big difference was he was on bombers, which are nuclear submarines... the subs were very different but they got the general idea of what it was like in a sub.

 Someone was happy to have me home again and like all cats as soon as the bag was empty he filled it!

And finally on a quilty note, I have started my first paper piecing project. the cactus rose.  So its all prepped and ready to sew.... stay tuned!

Great Vic bike ride

 I'm off on Saturday for my 2nd great Vic adventure!

 what more could a woman want?  hahah...   the hardest choice i have is what to wear each day.

Its all about me...... no one else to worry about for 9 days!  and I get to ride every day!

all clear

So  I went to the doc and I had the physio come see me for the last time... yep... got the all clear.  I'm going back to work after being off for 9 weeks.

I'm allowed to continue my 'rehab' and have some new exercises as well as being allowed to get back on wasabi on the road..

Of course I had to ride asap.... So this morning at 6.30am  I did my first 20km out on the road with my very own fisherman/mamil coming to keep me company.

The conditions probably couldn't have been much worse for a come back ride... headwinds and 30 degree heat even at 7am!!

But the tailwind home was sweet reward.  I felt pretty good, but didn't want to push it on the first ride... it was a slower ride, yes i could feel a few niggles but I was and am still grinning!

Need to take some new photos... this is actually about 13 bags of stuff I gathered from the girls rooms... I did a massive clean out and changed beds around etc  so savers scored big time and so did I.

Off to my guilds Christmas meeting for a while, and best of all the froglet is coming home tonight with her man for Christmas!!  woot... been 4 months since I have seen her.

my table runner

Today my 2 friends who are doing the round the bay with me in 3 weeks time (eek) and I went for what is possibly our last training ride. We did 40km in 2 hours to Craigieburn and back. It was such a beautiful day to be outside.

I mentioned some time ago that one of my friends made me a beautiful table runner for my birthday, I took some photos a while ago but haven't had the time to blog about it so here is some pics of my very special table runner, many thanks Jennifer!


Jennifer knows that I am rather partial to frogs and used a very suitable background fabric

I must say my poor table runner met with a small accident and some Pepsi was spilt onto it, the noisy one grabbed the cloth and dabbed at it and was very upset as she knew I would be very unimpressed. Lucky for her I was able to wash it and between her dabbing and my washing it has come up clean and unstained.

Life is back to normal with the laptops now working and the noisy one has a brand new computor as the old one totally died in the arse. The fisherman worked very hard to fix it but the old hardrive/motherboard thwarted him. I must say I am impressed with his willpower as all he really wanted to do was put the old harddrive on the road and run it over multiple times with our trusty 4x4!

Yesterday one of my friends and I went for our first training ride for the round the bay. We went for a ride along a path alongside the freeway. We did 30km round trip, the trip outwards took us an 1hr 15min as we had a hideous head wind. The return trip only took us 45mins! I love my bike!!! it was so comfy. my poor friend had a sore butt from her seat.

Today I feel fine, so will be doing a longer ride next time for sure....


The fisherman came home and taught the girls how to gut fish last week, I ended up with fish n guts all over the place, but they all did a great job.

Not enought sewing has been happening here, but with luck will be going to my guild night tommorrow to hear one of my friends talking about her quilting journey and hints and tips of how to produce better quilts.

taking a breath

Oh my, the holidays have raced away with me.

So much has happened in the last few weeks. My mum has gone into hospital and had a brand new knee installed, she is now hobbling around and has a new friend in her room who also got a new knee, she informed me that they are now racing up and down the corridor with their frames! She will go to rehab for a few weeks till she is confident on her legs again.

the fisherman has a lurgy and wastes no time letting me know that he isn't well, poor thing, I know he isn't well but I cant be too sympathetic to him!

The froglet and the noisy one had an incredibly busy day today, as did I, they competed in our swim clubs annual invitational. Poor girls, they swam all their individual races and then also were put into all the relays, so they swam 10 races each, I'm confident they will sleep well.

I helped also being the club secretary, and ran around the pool doing various tasks as needed. The one thing I really hate doing is asking (they tell me not to ask but to tell) the parents that it is their turn to do time keeping. I am happy to do my turn at time keeping, but really really hate asking/telling others... the parents should be begging me to let them time keep LOL.

I have also been watching the tour De France, I'm getting inspiration for my first big bike ride later this year, I am doing the round the bay, but only the 50km over the westgate bridge and back... I think that will be more than enough!

I was going to add some photo, but I think my gym buddies and work colleagues might kill me for some of the pics I have! I ha vent uploaded photos from the last few days so maybe once the girls are back at school I might catch up with stuff around the house... HA!

post mothers day photos

here is the lovely vase that the noisy one made me in material tech, I'm still smiling each time I look at it


Here is mums new quilt hanging on her fence outside her unit.


Anita from Hillside quilting did another wonderful job and finished it for me in perfect time!


Mum called me today to let me know that all her cronie mates had admired her new quilt and its now on her bed ready for tonight.

Planning on a big bike ride on Thursday... cross fingers that the rain gods don't come along

my new bike!!!

Here comes the bootcamper in me :)


OHHHHHH so shiny and newwwwwwwwwww.


As it says its a GIANT cypress, the ideal ladies bike.... wait till you see my gnarly seat!!

It comes with its own ventilation system... hope I don't get high winds LOL.

Shimano gears... the fisherman would rather the shimano fishing reels!

a shiny water bottle cage perches at the front of the bike for quick access for re hydration
An odometer all ready to clock up the mega kms!

Paul and Nicola are the people to see if you want a new bike or even if you already have a bike they can service your bike, set you up with all the gear AND they make coffee!!
Thanks guys for my new wheels!
They are called bike n bean and are to be found on 5/795 Plenty Rd, South Morang VIC 3752 (03) 9437 8501‎ They are right near Spotlight!!! I know all my crafty friends will now know exactly where they are!

I have a bell that goes BING! mind you I don't think this bell or really anything smaller than a fog horn would stop someone in a car who was cutting me off!

There she is in all her beauty :).... gunna ride her in the morning down to the gym and do an RPM class (yes I know ride to a riding class!) better not rain!!! Gosh might even give her a name... any suggestions??

bike riding

The weather has turned back to summer!! Today I went for a bike ride with the froglet, who took me up the hill just near our house. I have admired this hill for years and finally went up it today. OH MY GOODNESS! Last year I did a boot camp and they were going to make us run up and down this hill, gosh am I glad they didn't!

The view of the Northern suburbs though was worth the sweat. Sorry to say I didn't bring my camera, but next time I will (yes there will be a next time). My odometer on my bike wasn't working but I would hazard a guess that we rode about 18kms

School is back (yahhhh) and we are all getting back into routine. Guild meeting was yesterday and I took my much loved bread knife to be sharpened as we had the man in to sharpen our blades of choice. Also had a lady in to sell fair trade stuff. She spoke to us about the fair trade and explained who and how it helped, its good to know that instead of a large company gaining from my purchase that a family might be buying a cow for milk.

I just sat down and finished the binding on my nieces quilt, instead of turning on the laptop and being lured by my blogs I love to read and the dreaded face book that wastes hours of I should be sewing time!! But now its done and so is this post so now I can go and play farmville, or treasure Island or what ever it is I have been suckered into!! The hedgehog?? I just liked him!!