Oh No! It Can't Be Spring!

On Saturday when I walked up the drive to collect the mail, there was a bright yellow daffodil head bobbing in the breeze! I've never had the daffodils so early - I planted the bulbs late and the flowers would appear at least a month later than my neighbour's down the road. I so wanted to get a photo but my right brain isn't functioning too well at the moment - still in Jury Service mode (thank goodness we should be finished tomorrow, but who knows!).

I Wish I Could .....

ice cakes as well as I do applique! Baking them is not a problem, I just can't seem to get the colour correct and then doing fancy stuff is too far out of my league. Anyway, today is my little girl's 24th birthday. She was a 'Strawberry Shortcake' when little, and still is now! Hence my blog name Sberry (Strawberry's) Mum.
Here's the birthday cake:

Hurrah for Me!

I've had the new chook house for 2+ weeks now and everyday have been trying to entice the Blue Andalusians into it. At least they were allowing me to get reasonably close to them!
Well, last night I managed to catch all 4 of them - rounding them up, using the badminton net to throw over their flapping wings, putting my hand over their heads to stop them letting the whole valley know something 'bad' was happening, and finally letting them loose in their new home.
This morning the body aches in a few places, from the bending and hunkering down to catch them. But, I'm so pleased it is done and was relatively easy.
This is 'Blue', he's such a beautiful rooster and very gentle.

Here are 2 of the girls.

Collaborative Art Journal - Burgundy

I have finished my work in Sue's Burgundy/Wine Art journal.
The first page has a little poem by William Morris about autumn, which I thought was relevant to the time I received it. In the center I painted some gesso and stuck some muslim on top, then with watered down pva glue, glued the liquid amber leaves which I had pressed. The pva gives it a varnished look which I hope will keep the leaves in tact.

This page has a selection of my chrysanthemums which have been organised with fdtoys into a mosaic and you can add the writing.It has been finished off with buttons tied on- can you see the ladybug one?

The little runner has been painted using pebeo Setacolor transparent paint. This allows you to paint the whole piece of fabric then lay a design on top (reverse resist). Leave out in the sun to dry, take off the design and viola!

My piece de resistance is a velvet vignette. The corks have been cut into 3 lengthwise and stitched on with the machine like a button and the wee bottles are findings which just had to be used with this theme!

Oh! Oh! Antonio!

Yesterday was a very cold day in Palmerston North. Around 10:00am we had thunder and then a hail storm - not big stones but lots of them, and because it was so cold it stayed around for hours. Here is my car:

Here are the lower hills of the Tararua ranges, the view from my front door:

this is at the end of our valley (to the east) and this is looking south-east.

The hail was worse in places in town and was still lying around 2 hours later. Not a usual sight, but I guess that it is another sign of 'global warming'.

New Zealand Postcards Quilt

Another WIP - Works in Progress - that I have finished, yippee! This top I made about 3 years ago after I made the same quilt for my best friend's 50th birthday. I liked it so much I had to make another, but it's taken this long to quilt it.

This is the backside of the quilt. The central design is a feathered Silver Fern, then there is a fantail, a Maori fish hook, tree ferns and korus. Click on the photo to get a better view.