Hobbs' Outback Adventure

We've just arrived home from our Outback Adventure to Coober Pedy to visit friends.  What a brilliant way to use up those school holiday weeks!!! Usually the kids have 'cabin fever' because thay can't get outside & I'm going nuts (also because they can't get outside & my house is getting waaaay too messy).  It was terrible weather home here in Victoria - wind, rain.......So I was glad we missed it!

The children travelled really well.  I was expecting the worst. You know "are we there yet", "he keeps kicking my seat", "I'm hungry", "I need to go to the toilet", crying, fighting, etc, etc....There wasn't much of that which was a HUGE blessing!  No major disasters to report :) We did have the jockey wheel on the caravan bust off @ Coober Pedy (oops), Wayne did get pulled over by the police for speeding (double oops), and everyone managed to get grease off the tow ball on their clothes (a thousand oops' when you haven't got much clothing anyway).  Other than that everything went well.

I know what you're thinking re. Wayne speeding, which I must say NEVER happens.  How can a people mover towing a caravan possibly speed? Simple. South Australia has a very logical(not!) speed of 25kmh (believe it) in roadwork zones.  Wayne was going @ a big 36kmh when he was clocked.  Why was he going so fast?  Well he was slowing down, but the caravan was "pushing him". Yeah...whatever!  He told the police officer that.  Anyway he got off the hook when the officer saw he had 4 kids in the car "It's a wonder you weren't doing 100" he said.
Meanwhile in my hurry to get the whole thing on video I jammed my coat in the rear door of the car & couldn't open it. I felt like a bit of a gonzo, but anyway.....Wayne got it out for me :)

In the Outback between Port Augusta & Pimba

Hobb's children stopped for lunch.

We had such a great time catching up with our friends Prudie, Damien & their children.  We didn't even do any really 'touristy' stuff until the last day.  The boys went to 'Lego Club' on Sat morn while we took the girls looking around the shops & the craft market.  We went to Church with them on Sunday morn (underground).  It was such an experience to see local Aboriginal people leading the praise & worship & singing in their own language. Absolutely awesome!  The kids all had a fab time in the afternoon riding motorbikes -guess what's on the Christmas list :P

We went on a mine tour, checked out Prudie's friend's underground 'duggout', went 'noodling' for opal, went to the Art Gallery with pebbles on the floor, had a look @ 'The Big Winch' & just hung out together.

Coober Pedy is soooo unique!  I love the crazy, humorous signs everywhere, the amount of rubbish.......??? Normally I wouldn't find rusty junk everywhere cool, but it kind of suits there.  It's just very quaint in a very Aussie way.

Noodling for Opals

In the underground Catholic Church

In the Caravan park @ Coober Pedy one night, I saw a little girl in the toilets who looked familiar. I watched her walk out & checked the direction she was heading.  I hoped no one saw me because they would have thought I was some kind of weird stalker.  I thought I knew who she was & went back to our van to tell Wayne.  I then decided to go looking for her parents, who are friends of ours living in Ballarat.  Sure enough, I found their van in the dark & was chatting away to all the girls!!! Meanwhile, the dad had worked out who he thought his daughter had seen in the toilets & was looking for us!  When we went back to our van, there he was having a chat to Wayne.  So we all caught up with Dame & Prudie for tea the next night:)

I also saw 2 ladies on my travels who had bought mini mae knitwear patterns! Amazing! One even had her grandaughter with her wearing the Crochet Trim dress.  It looked great!!! No photos, but I have it on video. We were out for tea in Hahndorf for Wayne's birthday when we saw them.  It was a great tea (all you can eat - just perfect for a Hobbs boy!!) & Hahndorf was a lovely place to stay.

In Hahndorf

Other Projects

I've just been putting a coat of varnish on my dining chairs (c.1929) before we go away on our super adventure holiday!  I've left it to the last minute because it stinks out the whole house & last time I had a headache for a week :(

I've already done the table - finished that around the 25th of May, but have had the chairs 1/2 done for a while.  So I'm putting up some before and after photos of the table, which Wayne made & my cousin's husband turned the legs for.  It was originally stained a deep jarrah colour, but looked a bit tired.  Wayne planed the top back to the hardwood & I sanded the table all over.  The top had to be re-puttied and took ages to sand the stain out.

I painted the legs with satin enamel (oil based), but it was still too shiny -looked like plastic.  So I sanded it back harder in spots to allow some of the red stain to show through.  It makes the back not so black & gives it a warmer look. I then varnished the whole table with satin varnish, which is less shiny.  The top had 3 or 4 coats.

Table with top sanded back

Ulani Sanding the table



Finished table

The other project that I have been working on over the past couple of months was the referb of our church hall.  The Hall was in need of a makeover - it had been the same dated colour scheme of pine boards with 2 shades of mushroomish pink :o  OK in 1991, when the Church was built but.....
Last weekend the boys laid the carpet, which isn't in the photo.  Two weeks before we had a working bee to paint & I was on duty with the staple gun & the help of a friend to cover the sound boards on the wall.
It all came together really well!!! The colours we used were Red Box & Braid on the walls & very cheap Polar Fleece for the sound boards.  The Hall is used for functions, cafe', kids ministry & Busy Bees playgroup- so the colour scheme had to be flexible. Really happy with how it turned out :)

Church Hall-looks a bit messy after Kids Church

Olden Days @ School 22nd June

Last week I had the fun, but slightly tiring job of helping out my year 1 &2 children & their teachers with their 'Olden Days' day at school.  Congrats to all those out there who are teachers & do it every day!!!  It was fantastic to see all but a few children dressed in costume.  Fortunately the teachers had spare shawls etc to cover up the odd school uniform.
Here we are on the way to school.  Photo by eldest son.

New Book

I was given this beautiful & very helpful looking book from a dear older friend of mine, just because she thought I might like it.  What an amazing blessing people can be! I'm really looking forward to having a go at designing garments with some of the stitch techniques pictured in the book.  Just thought I had to share it :)

Contempo Rib Feature Dress, Infinity Brooch & Beret

Well I haven't posted anything for a while....too busy I think!  I'm in the final stages of getting together my latest pattern for release - Contempo.  I can't wait to have that done & out there for others to do.  This week has been a bit crazy.  I think it gets like that as the school term comes to a close.  Yesterday I was dressed up to help out at school for the yr 1 & 2's "olden days".  Today I've been to a Council meeting to discuss the planned Town Hall/Performing Arts Centre/Art Gallery project.  I'm a community rep for that & hopefully can have some input into that decision :)
Tonight we're watching the DVD of He Chose The Nails.  Darn, I still have to do supper!!! better go & get onto that!  Tomorrow arvo I'm heading off with Friends to Camperdown to see their production of Godspell.  Getting ideas to maybe perform it here in Horsham.  We'll see.
My other knitting projects are going a bit slow.....I have a short striped cardi done for Miss Liberty, but I'm re-doing the beret for it.  It turned out big enough for my head!

He Chose The Nails

Well I'm currently gearing up for our performance of "He Chose The Nails" in Horsham in just under 2 week's time.  This is an Easter musical that I'm a vocalist in - both chior & soloist.  This is one of my other passtimes (the singing thing) which is taking nights away from my knitting:(.  Actually I was a singer, before I was a slightly obsessed knitter & I do enjoy it, although performing is always a bit scary.  I have finished a couple of knitting projects, but need to do others to test the patterns.  I'm working on a little dress 'Contempo' that I think will be a really classic design.  It will be teamed with a hat, scarf and large red flower broch.  This was designed specifically to go with a gorgeous pair of red shoes I bought Ulani.  Anyway, I'd better get moving.... too many things to do!

Wimmera Machinery Field Days

Well I've just completed my last of three days @ the Field Days!  Had a lot of interest in mini mae knitwear & really good sales, particularly on Wedensday.  I haven't done so much talking in quite a while, hence my very tired voice.  I've added the colours of the Bendigo Woollen Mills yarns that I've used onto Ravelry & my website, because a lot of customers would have to mail order them & it's hard to tell exactly what colours are in photographs on the net.  I hope that this will be helpful.