"The Craft Group" plus...

In the past... I have been to Europe. I have been to Canada. I have seen some of Australia. But... I have never really had the desire to go to any Asian destination for more than a stop over. Then, our daughter decided she wanted to live and teach in Southern Asia. So... after 9 months of her moving there, my husband and I went for 3 weeks to visit her in the Himalayas. What a fascinating experience! We are back. She is still there.   I am very thankful for modern forms of communication. There are so many stories to tell but seeing as you are all my craft friends, I will share some crafty photos... There was folk art on every single building. A newly built apartment block was being built near our daughters place. We loved watching the men perched on the bamboo scaffolding painting all the amazing designs for weeks on end.  We went to a paper making factory.  We watched women weaving scarves. We saw hand woven yak w...

It was my birthday! I had lunch with my childhood family. It was funny driving in the car with my Mother, Father and 2 sisters. We had a nice lunch near the beach. Then I had a lovely dinner  (Thai take-away) at home with my 'now' family. I so enjoyed torturing them with half an hour of watching home videos from the past. I only get to do that on Mothers' Day and on my birthday. This year even my daughter living overseas watched with us on Skype. They complain about home movie nights but I know they secretly love it ;) The next day I went, as usual, to The Craft Group and let me show you the card my gorgeous craft friends gave me!!!  Card? Looks like a box you might be thinking. A very pretty box... With a very pretty ribbon. One ribbon was easily removed on the back as it was stuck with double sided tape. I could remove it one handed like a movie star instead of like a crazy craft lady trying to undo it to keep every inch of ribbon for.....

It's nearly March! It's about time I said "Happy New Year"! There have been mixed emotions around here since 2016 started. My daughter is following her dream at last and has started as a teacher in the Himalayas. Yes, that is far, far away from Australia. We are proud of her and happy for her but of course we all miss her. This is her on the day that our family changed forever... (I'm not complaining. It's just a Mum thing.) My colourful adventurer.  There was another time of sadness. One of our faithful, much loved members of The Craft Group passed away. Valda has been coming for many years. She passed away sooner than expected after a recent cancer diagnosis.   As a group, we gave a card and flowers to her Craft Group friends who usually sit with her and will no doubt miss her greatly. Valda had a beautiful faith in Jesus. It was so evident, like a light shining in a dark room.  She is with Him now.  My life has changed in a few other...

It's a busy place here at home. Our 23 year old son, the builder, started a new job after ten months of rehab from Kienbocks disease (a wrist problem). Yay. He loves being back in a routine and I love watching him having a purpose to getting up each morning! I could write a book about how wonderful it is to see your kids face God straight on in their challenging times and come through the other end realising God is real and can be trusted. But I don't have the time. Our other son, the nurse (or murse as they sometimes say) turned 21. That is a big deal around here. We had a party here at home with about 90 people I think. Fun times! I could write a book about how knowing God in a real and personal way makes such a difference to young people - as I saw in a group of 90 kids who had fun without having to get drunk or go crazy. But I don't have the time. Our 17 year old daughter turned 18 and also graduated from High School! We went out with the family for dinner to ...

The school library are throwing out some lovely old books. They are out of date. I intercepted them as they were about to be thrown into the paper recycling bin. I ignored the rolling eyes and the "what are you going to do with all those old books?" comments and whisked away the books in the book trolley. (there were a lot!) Oh, firstly at lunch time the kids helped me to rip pages out, fold them and staple them into paper chains to decorate the library for Christmas. Then I took some home and made this… I am so happy with how it turned out. It all started with searching the web for craft ideas for using up old books. Watched this one You Tube video . Then just a few hours and materials I had around the house and ta da! Basically…  Start with a large circle of cardboard (40 - 50 cm round?) I used a lid from a fruit box. Put a point in the centre. with a compass, draw 2 circles, on with a diameter of 10 cm and the other, 20cm. Ma...

One of my many hats is playing the recorder in Bushband. Yes I know.  Random. Bushdances were all the rage in the 90's. There are still some happening here and there, now and then. Last night we played for a fundraiser to raise money for a local Scripture Teacher to be paid to work in the local high schools. It was the craziest bush dance I have played for! There were hundreds of teenagers who had never been to a bush dance before. They thought it sounded a bit lame beforehand but they had SO much fun. They really got into it and even though they really didn't sound like they were taking any notice of the caller (my Annalee), they did the dances as pros and had a ball. There is one dance where there are chocolates for things like… the couple with one bearded partner (or something like that) and they got a chocolate. I stole a chocolate myself and look what my Freddo Frog was doing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am a freddo frog. Priceless.

Yes, I am still alive! Life has been busy in the last few weeks. Mark's sister and husband are in Australia from Canada for a 4 week visit. We had some lovely days with them in the Blue Mountains and in beautiful Sydney....and a full family reunion with all the relos soon. We had 50 teens here for Miss 16's 16th birthday party. Lots of fun. Then Miss 16 got a part time job, a bank account AND her learners drivers licence. Wow, turning 16 is a big thing! Mr 19 passed his driving test and is now able to drive on his own. Hmm, we have to share a car again. Miss 23 came back from her 6 weeks in South Asia (but wants to go back and live there for a few years!) :)  :(   It is her birthday today! We are going out for lunch. She says she wants a steak. No curry. We went to pick her up from the airport. In the one hour we were away from our cars, some "person" stole all Mr 21's carpentry tools. $3000 worth. How ironic. We were SO happy that our daughter was sa...

If you have access to Channel 9 on TV (Sydney) and are home at 9pm Tuesday evening, check out the new series that everyone is talking about. "The Bible" Looks amazing. I'm looking forward to checking it out tuesday night. There are ten, one hour weekly episodes. They say it has been put together consulting many Biblical scholars to get it true to the actual Biblical accounts. Click HERE for a sneak peak! Read more about it on "The Bible Society" website  HERE. If you watch it, tell me what you think in the comments! (or email me:  thecraftgroupplus *at* gmail *dot* com) I'm not keen on images of Jesus, especially where he is a handsome white caucasian (I'm sure He wasn't!) but I will wait and see. I will even watch it 'properly' i.e. not knitting or blogging or cleaning up emails at the same time. That way I will save my family from my annoying questions like "what just happened?"  :)

There are always different things happening in our household. Annalee, 23 has a "delicious" diary and she is trying to keep up with the weekly recipes. Yum. Corey, 18 has joined a Scottish Pipe Band. He is a drummer (on the right), so this is just another way he can beat a drum.  Our origins are in the Netherlands but we found out the kids are 3% Scottish! Their great great grandmother was a Macpherson. So a day at Brigadoon at Bundanoon was a tribute to that 3%! And Jacob is now 21! We had a fun party at home with about 80 terrific young people. Oh and my Dad is home from hospital after his broken hip and is doing really well! I took Mum out for the day on saturday and Mark and the kids "Opa sat".  Annalee did a great job. She said she had a snooze on the lounge! I assume Opa didn't try and jump up and do cartwheels while she was asleep!

This has been a 2 week holiday of sorting and keeping up with appointments with Dad after his broken hip as well as a bit of "taking it easy". Firstly on the resting side of things, I have been home the whole time and Mark goes to work but the kids have been in and out and keeping up with their comings and goings has been a spectator sport in itself!  (It is very nice when they take themselves places!) Camps, housesitting, weekends away. They are all having a great time. So I have not cooked a meal for six people in 2 weeks.   :) On the broken and fixed hip scene , Dad is going home today if all goes well. I'll go pick him up and make sure he gets up the steps at his house. On the sorting front I have been going through my sewing room. This was not just a tidy up. This was a complete overhaul!  I inherit that from my Mum. She finds it enjoyable too to just be around all her fabric and craft bits 'n pieces and tidying it all up. It has taken me forever but whil...

I'm back! I'm taking some R&R. Life has been really busy but great. Except... my Dad broke his hip! He tripped and fell really hard on his right side on a concrete step and the hip took the brunt of it and busted! Mum managed to get him up on a chair. I arrived ASAP and he was sitting there saying he'll be right soon. No fuss. I rang the ambulance. 1 1/2 hours later it decided to arrive. I was obviously too calm on the phone! Yep. Broken hip. My younger sister asked if he will need a hip replacement. No, I said, sharing my vast medical knowledge with anyone who asks. They screw and pin and put plates in for a broken hip. The next day... a full emergency hip replacement operation. Poor Dad. But good that it is fixed properly and he can get on with getting better. Other than that, I have had a cold and so haven't visited him for a few days. The kids are all busy with various things this week,  and I have not much on my agenda, so I am having a home/sorti...

My blog has been very neglected, I know. I have an excuse and here she is... Gina and her husband come to stay with us for 3 weeks. She is my cousin from The Netherlands and I would just like to say that she lives too far away! So when we get together, everything else has to be put on hold while we make the most of our time together. We had a great time. She came along to The Craft Group with me one morning and now she can picture what I do every Thursday morning. It was really nice to share my life with her (as well as the crazy Aussie sun, heat, rain and floods!) (She is the tanned one on the right! The Europeans have a very different attitude towards the sun than we do!) So, life is back to normal for me and I am trying not to be envious of her as she enjoys a week with her husband in a Bali Resort.    *sigh*

Hi, you have probably wondered where I have been? I know everyone says they are busy but I have had one deadline after another and my dear little blog has had to wait. And so again today I have a long list of things to do. My first thing is to wish you and your family a very happy Christmas by making you a picture collage! I have learnt to make these photo collages and I love them. The one I am posting up next is made from some shots from around my house this weekend.  What a great weekend! On saturday I had the whole of my side of the family over for the day. That is 19 people which is a nice little crowd. We had SUCH a nice day. I took 940 photos. Well, I must say my camera was on rapid shoot and the kids sometimes took hold of it. I got some good ones. Including the chaos that came after people started pushing people into the pool! (Heidi!) Then on Sunday after church we went to visit some of the family on Mark's side. There were 18 people there but that is just...

I have mentioned the Tactile quilt project to you before. A lady from our church works as a social worker with an organisation which does, amongst other things, early intervention for babies and children with disabilities. She siad they were in need of tactile quilts for the little ones to play on. The more radical the colours and textures the better. The aim is to stimulate the senses. Making blocks for these quilts is so much fun because there are no quilting rules and no need to buy anything! We used all those bits and pieces us crafters have in the cupboard that "might just come in handy one day". Well that day has come!  These quilts are great projects which have a positive impact on the little ones we gave them to. The staff and mums invited us to a lunch to thank us for the quilts. It was rather humbling. Let's make more! They hang one on the wall and the older children walk by and feel all the different textures. The possibi...

Hi at the beginning of a new week. Do you have anything special happening? I have a puppet show to perform at school to teach some social skills to the littlies. Then, on the home front the house is going into crazy mode as we have to empty the upstairs rooms to have carpet installed. It's going to be hectic but is a great chance for a big clean up of a sewing room and 2 of our kids rooms. Here are a few photos from The Craft Group last week. Elzanne is making trendy coasters using some square wall tiles, lovely scrapbooking papers and Mod Podge.  Very nice! {Tile, layer of mod podge, paper, more layers of mod podge. Allow to dry!} Here is a typical scene from our group. People helping each other.  Here Bev I is giving a few tips to Vicki who is determined to finish a project (a really pretty quilt) real soon.  I love this photo and I love how flippin' nice everyone is to each other at the group.  Warm fuzzies all around.

Hi for those {few?} who keep up to date with the blog. I have been so busy catching up with normal life after the big Craft Groups 20th Anniversary that the blog just took a little holiday. In case you are wondering, my knee is doing really well. I am going to the physio and I went back to the gym yesterday for the first time. A bit of time on the cross trainer, treadmill and a few other leg strengthening machines while I watched the telly in front of me. Not too stressful! On the home front, we have our 3rd child doing their final HSC exams. I can't wait until they are over! The weather is warming up and our house is about to go into chaos as we get new carpet in the lounge room and upstairs. I am looking forward to clearing, cleaning, sorting and some redecorating. So that is my update. I should get off the computer now and go to The Craft Group! I will take my camera with me and take some new photos of things that people are making. See you soon!

I loved some jars in a trendy little gift shop in my neighbourhood.  The problem with me and gift shops is that I love the things I see but can't bring myself to paying the cash for anything. "I can make it" my heart tells me. "You don't have time" my head tells me. "You just watch me" my stubborn self tells me. And so I did. Like this... Materials needed:  Clean jars with labels removed Wire Wire cutters Pointy nose pliers 1. Bend one end of the uncut wire to form a little loop. 2. Bend the wire a quarter of the way around the top of the jar. 3. Make a complete loop on the wire using the pliers. 4. Bend the wire on the opposite side of the jar from the loop (three quarters of the way around from where you started.) Make another complete loop. 5.  Bend the wire back to the starting place. Extend the wire 1 cm past the starting loop (no more) and cut it with wire cutters. 6. Put...