Doing what you LOVE to do - before, during & after BC! What's YOUR favourite?
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haha @Annie C .... that is Brilliant! I reckon it will WIN at the show!!
We have THOUSANDS of fruit bats just 2-300m from our place!! Sometimes they roost immediately behind our back deck!
Noisy smelly things that they can be! (It's too cold for them just now - they've headed for warmer Climes ..... but they WILL return!)
I hope you have a special machine for doing that stitching!! I could see me sewing thru my fingers trying to do that pattern!!
hehe - I found this for my sister about 20 years ago!! I think you'll enjoy it!
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@arpie
I love it. I buy most of my fabric online and I have had some disartrous results with the piece of fabric looking nothing like the picture on line! But, somehow it fits 1 or more of the "10 Good Reasons To Buy Fabric". On my 6 monthly trips to Perth I always make the time to go to Spotlight to get my fabric fix. The last time, I wandered around Spotlight feeling and smelling (yes, smelling) the fabric. One of the assistants asked if I needed help (I think she meant psychiatric help), I told her that I lived 2,300 kms from a fabric store and this was my first visit in a number of years. She looked at me and then said "Go for it!" I think she understood!
Yesterday my husband and I drove 221 kms for a day out in Broome. For the first time in 11 months Mr Cancer did not figure in our travel plans to Broome. We did not have to get on a plane to Perth and go for a clinic visit.
We had a most glorious day. I got dressed up in my "go to town" clothes. Nice pair of jeans, nice top and a jacket
( bit cold - temperature got below 30 degrees). I wore my pearls (my mothers) and my "go to town" boots. Felt like a million dollars. After the highlight of our shopping
( Target, Best and Less and Bunnings!), we had a picnic lunch on Town Beach. The best bit - Mr Cancer did not figure at all!
I think we have your bats. They have come north for winter. They spend the day roosting in the trees on our neighbour's block and come 4pm they take off for the mangroves that fringe the marsh around Derby. Takes over half an hour for them to fly over. And you are right - smelly noisy things.5 -
@Annie C Oh my, your quilt is SUPERB! Just beautiful. I used to cross stich embroider like a fiend. Stopped about 18 years ago. Got too tired in the evenings to do it. I still have my embroidery kit though. Might get back to it one of these days. Good luck at the show!2
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Wow! you are SO clever!! Are those critters Hand Stitched!? They are amazing!!
haha - Good that the store assistant was sympathetic to your plight!
I am a bit like you in a store - but mine is a Fishing Store Doesn't matter how much I already have - there is always SOMETHING I will find that I 'need'!! Only I don't have to get dressed up for it! Good onya - you've got to have STANDARDS!! LOVE the Pearls for the 'classy touch'! That's a big 'round trip' for a day at the shops! But WELL WORTH IT, I reckon!
A good day of retail therapy can be the best therapy for body and soul - even if you don't buy anything! LOL
Wow! Only 30 degrees ...... I'd kill for that just now! Cold, wet & miserable here & it is adding to my aches & pains (arthritis Plus Letrozole!)
SO glad you had a great time & could forget Mr C!! That's why I love my uke & yak fishing - you have to concentrate so much - it pushes everything else out of your mind - even for a little while (or 6+hrs if I am yak fishing! )
haha - you can keep our bats!! We had hundreds of thousands the other year - a real pain in the proverbial! They shit all over our back deck, stink to high heaven & wake you up at 4am with their chatter!
Glad you had such a terrific day! Dr's advice - do it regularly! xx 0 -
@kmakm
Many thanks. I used to hand embroider too, many years ago. Now I cheat. Only because I lost the sight in my right eye and glaucoma has robbed all but central sight in my left eye.
I use an embroidery machine (2 actually -but that's a long story). I taught myself to digitise my own designs. Combines my love of all things sewing and playing on the computer ( usefully).
When I come to Melbourne in August for the conference and Field of Women I am going to have a long list of fabric shops. I will be posting the fabric home because there will be too too much for the suitcase!!!5 -
@arpie. Fishing and camping stores are a great favourite of my husband and me. They are so full of useful stuff.
Last December I had the catch of a lifetime. A 7 kg barramundi caught at the Diversion Dam in Kununurra just on sundown. Man that fish walked on his tail to throw the hook. Caught on a handline. Have the obligatory brag photo.
Now I may live in the Kimberley and have done so for 24 years
(arrived in town on 20 February 1994 for 12 weeks!), however I have only caught 2 barra in all those years. If I had to catch my tea I would starve.1 -
@Annie C Love your quilt - it is absolutely gorgeous and while I know that you have a lot of difficulties with being so remote, I can imagine why you rocked up for a few weeks and stayed for years - the Kimberley is a beautiful place.
@Zoffiel You ARE amazing - building a bathroom from what you can find is no mean feat. And if you're looking for another chainsaw to fix... 0 -
My current sanity is my knitting....even with gnarled and stiff hands, (thanks scleroderma), as well as peripheral neuropathy in hands and feet, I still manage to knit. Have had to change my style but I manage. I find it very soothing to go through my pile of patterns then through my large stash of yarn for the perfect match. I then switch off my conscious brain and go into neutral with turning basically a ball of string into something of value. I alternate projects with fancy lacework and plain knitting, depending on my mood. A little summer dress with headband
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Dear @arpie , Thanks for starting this thread. I am looking forward to more creativity and fun being posted. And what an exciting world you live in with the music and fishing and boating!
Dear @Annie C , What beautiful quilting and applique work. I love material too, and we have a Spotlight right in town.
Best wishes to all0 -
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WOW! @AllyJay That is GORGEOUS!! I am a total 'retard' (in a funny way) when it comes to knitting or embroidery/tapestry (I am all thumbs!) ... plus I just don't have the patience required! (LOL Coming from someone who sits in a kayak for 6-8hrs waiting for a single fish to jump on a line!!) Hehehe, Going thru your Knitting Patterns would be akin to me going thru my thousands of uke songs, choosing new ones to teach my group!
@kmakm I actually took a small tapestry kit on the plane to the UK in 1977, planning on finishing it before arriving .... within an hour, it was in the bin! LOL
@Annie C .... Gosh, you've REALLY been in the wars with Mr C & what a total bummer with your eyes - yet you SO UP BEAT & still manage to create these amazing masterpieces and make them! So ... you are in/near Kunnunura!! JEALOUS!!! A Dentist buddy from here has just come back from doing a Locum job there - he's been going there to cover the local bloke for a few years now. He loves it up there. It will DEFINITELY be on my 'to visit' list when we finally head off on our 'big trip'!! We never made it to Broome when we did a 'fly around' back in 2000 ..... I love the Pigram Bros songs & reckon Bran Nue Dae should be watched by every school! CONGRATS on your 2nd barra!! And on a Handline to boot - SO much harder to control & bring in!! Don't you LOVE the way they tail walk? Enjoy your Melbourne trip - you will LOVE catching up with heaps of BCNA folk whilst there!! Just get your hubby to only take a '7kg limit' carry on bag - and you can use his 'big bag' for all your 'fabric scores' (as well as your own big bag, of course!) I used to pack a separate folding bag within my big bag, for 'extras' on the return journey LOL When visiting Tassie for a week's fishing last year, my big bag was full of fishing tackle & the small carry on bag was my clothes! My fishing buddy couldn't believe it! In 2nd Form (1967) I had to do sewing as 'craft' and we had to make a top over the school holidays. I HATED it .... made a real hash of it & threw it in the bin (do you see a pattern here??) When asked to 'present' my top to the class for judging - I said that I'd donated it to the Salvation Army for the Flood Victims - and the teacher was SO impressed, she gave me full marks!! ahahahahaha!! So I'm a good liar too! LOL I don't 'do' sewing! My sister makes up for it tho - she has a whole garage sized workshop!
@jennyss Many Thanks for that - apart from anything else - I reckon it's a good way of learning a bit more about our buddies other than the Big C .... possibly setting like minded folk up with others (networking) so that when you DO travel (whether for fun or appointments) you may be able to meet up with them & have something to look forward to (as well as the appointment!) I already have my fishing and uke 'network' setup ..... no matter where I go anywhere in Australia and even overseas, I can hook up (so to speak) with either uke players or kayak fishos - and they know they can drop in on us as well, when visiting Forster.
I can hear the joy in the words written about your favourite pastimes!
Keep the pics & stories coming! 0 -
@AllyJay a most beautiful piece of knitting. You have expressed exactly what creating helps us to overcome. It is not that we forget (I know that I will never forget the shock and of feeling totally overwhelmed) but being busy and creative puts us in a quieter and soothing place.
Like yourself I have had to problem solve my way around my wayward right hand that has a mind of its own. Cans of baked beans work beautifully to hold fabric in place while I use 2 hands to operate scissors.
@jennyss sometimes I dream of being able to just pop down to Spotlight when I need that special piece of fabric. However it will only be a dream. I may "whinge" at times about being challenged with being isolated but the beauty of the kimberley and the lifestyle outweigh the negative.
All of us, in our own way, have found a way of overcoming the challenges of BC. Whether it is in creativity, being outside or looking after family, we have found our after Breast Cancer place. May we, all of us, continue to grow.1 -
Hi All my passion
is for cooking and DIY. I am at Tafe at the moment doing a kitchen operations course it can be hard work but I'm enjoying it takes my mind of all this shit !! My poor husband has a fit when I say the words "I have an idea or I was thinking we could do! !" He knows it could be hard work . 
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What I do all the time are jigsaw puzzles. They keep my hands active and don't require special skills. My other passion is fishing but I haven't been well enough to take the yak out lately with this stupid heart business. I will see a different doctor about it but not before this weekend. I am going with hubby 5 hours drive to see John Williamson in concert at his place where he is putting on a barbie for us. No way I am missing that. The tickets cost me a fortune lol. Here is a 2000p puzzle.
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