A great time to be in the garden.

G'day. I have spent most of the weekend pottering around in the garden. The spring weather here has been just lovely, to nice to be inside. 

I purchased this lovely wrought iron, three tier plant stand last Friday and it is just perfect for the three cyclamen that I have had for some years. I think they were meant for it, don't you? 

 I mentioned some time ago, that I am hosting three of the lovable characters from the Wind In the Willows series. These have been made in fabric and hand painted and they have been winging their merry way around the world. They have been visiting with Troc, Broc and Recup in France trocbroc.blogspot.com and have been having a great time and are now on their way to me here in Australia. I look forward to having some fun times with them and letting you all know what we get up to.

One of the girls at work asked me last week would I embroider a Minnie Mouse on a couple of T shirts for her nieces. After saying that I had only had the machine for a short while and was still practicing on it and didn't feel confident about doing something like that just yet, but somewhere down the track I might give it a try. I would have thought that  all of that was plain enough and  that I didn't want the responsibility of tackling it and stuffing it up. She didn't listen. Two days later, in she came with two store bought T shirts. I nearly fell off my perch to say the least. I patiently explained once again that I was still learning the machine and embroidering on a T shirt was totally different than just on a single square piece of fabric. She was not to be deterred. So, after asking various people, visiting the shop where I bought the machine, (this is an hour away and luckily we had to go up that way last Friday) I with much trepidation sat down yesterday afternoon and gave it a go.I had purposely stayed out in the garden all day Saturday and much of Sunday, so I didn't have to do the blessed thing, but in the back of my mind, I knew it was waiting and that I couldn't put if off. It took a bit of working out to get it centre, which is not as easy as it sounds and also I had to pull the back of the shirt completely up and out of the way of the needle and hold it with my hands to keep it free. This shirt is a size 4, a small size here in Oz, so it had it's problems. But, I am proud to say, it turned out perfectly. I am sure it was just a fluke, a one off lucky chance. I had spent considerable time worrying about tackling this project. But, it is not over yet, there is still the second one to do, that is a size 7, a bit bigger thank goodness, but nonetheless, still a headache. I must learn to say no and put my foot down a bit harder. Some people just won't accept that you are reluctant to do things for them.Of course it's not all her fault, I am just as much to blame for not being louder and firmer with my "No". Take care. Liz...