Summer catch up #1

I started writing a post, hoping to do a catch up and counted over 20 photos to share!!!

So, here will be half of my catch up, in a few days I'll finish the catch up, and then I'll try to stay caught up...hopefully!!

Summer's in full force here, we've had some hot days and the farm has burned to a crisp. On the really hot days, a great place to visit is the stream partway down the farm. It feeds into the main river after starting as a spring somewhere up in the bush and winding its way up down.

It's a fabulously cool place to be, and very peaceful and relaxing. I took some friends who visited earlier in the month up there. They had their four dogs with them, and they really appreciated the spot —

A few days later, while childminding, I took the kiddies there as well. we walked up quite a way. When there are deeper pools we skirt around through the trees but I do admit to ferrying children along one particularly long deeper patch - I was in water up to my knees but the kids all stayed dry!!

Here are Kaliah, Saydee and Xavier having a picnic lunch on the 'old bridge' afterwards —

When it's too hot for much action outside it's nice to sew, of course.

I've picked up my Wings and Pretty Things project. I haven't worked on this for a long time as my evenings got busy with other projects last year.

Two more applique blocks complete —

And Miss Lily requested some clothes for her Barbie — 

This pattern is a free t-shirt pattern from Pixie Faire which I adapted to form a dress. I used a Barbie ED used to play with to check the sizing and halfway through sewing I had a sudden fear that the Barbies of 20 years ago might be a slightly different shape/size than today's ones. The dress was a perfect fit for the old Barbie —

And luckily was perfect for a 2021s one too. So perfect that a second dress *exactly the same pwease Ganma* was requested for her Barbie #2! 
I'd been happy to find a scrap of fabric in the cupboard for the dress (I made tights from it for ED when she was about 8!!) - luckily I squeezed the second dress out of the leftovers this afternoon and there's definitely only scraps left now - very satisfying to finally use up that bit of fabric that's been sitting there for so long!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some of my favourites in the garden at this time of the year are the swan plants and monarchs. I have some really decent sized plants which provide a lot of food.

And lots of seedlings come up which soon get stripped bare. Look how many are feeding off these stalks! —

'til next time,

happy stitches,