Favourite Photos 2010-2020 - Episode 12 - 'A Cast of Characters' Part 1

Above:- Merry-go-round. On the pier - Great Yarmouth - U.K.August 2011

Time to continue on with the best  of the blog project. This time I am sharing some of the wonderful photos I have taken of characters. Because there are so many photos I have broken this episode up into three parts. This first part is mainly fictional characters!

And I love taking photos of  Merry-go-rounds!   As you will discover as you read on....

Above:- Another Carousel Cologne Germany December 2017

Above:- Another Pier. Brighton U.K. New Years Day 2018

Above:- Another Pier, close  up of Caitin and Magie. The names are on the necks. 

Brighton U.K. New Years Day 2018

 

Above:- Christmas Merry-go-round at Blenheim Palace

Oxfordshire U.K. December 2017

 

Above :- Another Christmas Merry-go- round

This one has 2 levels! Leipzig Germany December 2017 

 

Above :- The same one, Christmas Merry-go- round

Leipzig, Germany. December 2017  

Above:- This ones for sale but out of my price range!

Lost in the 50's museum, Newcastle NSW  August 2018

 

Above:- My Little Friend, Mannequin Piss. Brussels, Belgium. September 2011
 

Above:- My Little Friend, Mannequin Piss in Orange Rescue Squad gear. 

Brussels, Belgium. December 2017

Above:- Mannequin Piss, this time in Belgian chocolate eating a Belgian waffle. 

Brussels, Belgium. September 2011

 

Above:- Tin Tin. Brussels, Belgium. December 2017

Above:- Character from Kung Foo Panda. Dreamworks exhibition.

National Museum of Australia. Canberra. September 2019

Above:- Do not feed the penguins!  From the  movie Madagascar. Dreamworks exhibition.

National Museum of Australia. Canberra. September 2019

Above:- Grommet's Garden. Dreamworks exhibition.

National Museum of Australia. Canberra. September 2019 

 

 

Above:- A good egg, Humpty Dumpty at Hunter Valley Gardens

NSW. September 2015

Above:- Kim Joins the tea party at Hunter Valley Gardens

NSW. September 2015

Above:- Gnomes. Floriade. Canberra. September 2019

 

Above:- Santa and Hansel and Gretel meet Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus in the manger!

Cologne, Germany. December 2017

Above:- Smurfs tea party! Brussels Belgium. December 2017

Above:- Betty Boop. Lost in the 50's museum, Newcastle NSW  August 2018

 

Above:- Waitress on roller skates!. Lost in the 50's museum, Newcastle NSW  August 2018

 

Above:- Hot chip man. Lost in the 50's museum, Newcastle NSW  August 2018

 

Above:- Tomato Koala at Ricardoes Tomatoes. 

Port Macquarie NSW. November 2016

NEARLY THERE...

 

IT'S TIME FOR THE BEARS!

Above:- Kim meets Paddington Bear.Paddington Station. London U.K. November 2011

Above:- Kim meets the Harrods Christmas bear - Freddie the teddy.

 Harrods. London U.K. November 2011

Above:- Kim meets even more Harrods Bears!

 Harrods. London U.K. November 2011

 

Above:-  A  truckload of Harrods bears 

 Harrods. London U.K. January 2018

 

Above:- Kim meets a big Stieff bear. Even has the button in its ear.

 Berlin, Germany. September 2011

 

Above:- Bears in Bern, Switzerland. October 2011

 

Above:- More Bears in Bern, Switzerland. October 201. The bear is their mascot.

 

Above:- Bears in Bern on the clock, Switzerland. October 2011

 

And finally...

 

Above:- Graham finds the Tardis and some other odd characters.

London U.K.  December 2017

Edith's 4th Birthday

 

Happy Birthday Edie, now 4!

And Florrie's a big girl too, although going through the 'I don't want to talk to you, stage.

There was a 'Bluey' themed swimming pool cake.

My Mum, got to meet baby Ruby for the first time, she now has 5 great grandchildren. The four on our side and my sisters new grandson Toby. (Cot quilt coming soon for Toby).

Sean and Rose have started their 'extension', which is about 5 times the size of the current house, so its basically building a new house on the back of the old one.

The next cot quilt! The Wiggles 'Big Red Car' for baby Ruby

Another one finished.

Quilt number 45 I think, I'll have to do a tally.

This is another great center panel with a pieced keyboard border .

It has a music theme backing and quilting.

I've taken it to show Miss Ruby, but then brought it home again as they are in the middle of renovating their house. I'll take it back when the house is finished, along with its partner quilt. 

The second quilt is amazing! The girls will be very excited about it, here's a hint - yellow and black bows - I have made dozens of intricate little cute patchwork Emma bows!

I have ALL the Wiggles on the label.

Its their 30th anniversary year.

For the first time I've in included a quilt journal. 

Although I've been jokingly calling it a instruction manual.

Here it is below with more info on the making of this quilt... let me know if there's any typos!

Introducing our new Granddaughter - Ruby! .....And remembering another Ruby...

 

Here is baby Ruby,

and above is my boy with his 3 little girls.

Here I am at Tamworth Hospital with Ruby.

 

Both the above photos were taken at the same moment. Graham took one and Sean took the other.

Well, they have run out of names...

So if the name sounds familiar there once was another Ruby in my life!

It made me somewhat sentimental...

 

Here is Ruby as an old lady.

But, I held her in the palm of my hand seconds after she was born, and I had my hand on her when the vet put her to sleep. 

I miss you Rube. 

Her ashes are in a urn in the cupboard. She died in 2010 and was 15.

Above:- Here she is with Georgie Girl in the backyard at Richardson ave.

 

 Above:- Ozzie her half brother, Ruby in the middle and her Mum Beauie.

Above:- This is one of my favourite photos ever! 

This is how to get 5 dogs to pose together and all look at the camera at the same time.

'City dogs and country dogs'

Country dogs in the tray, city dogs in the front.

 At Coranga, Kentucky, NSW

 

Oh, and the ute was called Priscilla the Queen of Coranga. 

 

Ozzie - Beauie x the neighbours  (Bashfords) black Barb Kelpie... Accident!

Beauie - Ruby's Mum, pure bred red border collie, she was part blind in one eye, looked like she had some sort of injury, hit with a spade??? Don't know how. She came with the farm. But she was the smartest dog ever! I taught her to do tricks 

 

Ruby -  Beauie and Peters Daughter. She was the best of dogs. She could run up the sheep backs in the race,,, but then she got to fat to do that! ...Know how she feels.

Peter - Ruby's Dad, pure bred, very expensive and highly strung English Springer Spaniel. His aunt was top bitch at the Royal Easter show, but I bet there's lot of people who would like to give their aunts that title.

 

Marty - Miniature Fox terrier, "Don't let the kids go to bed I have a surprise for you"  said Greg on the phone. And when he got home at midnight he dropped a tiny little puppy on the bed. Which promptly wee-ed on the bed.. We called him Marty McFly after Marty in the Back to the Future movies. Marty went on for years and didn't die until we were in Richardson ave and is buried there.

And here is Ruby as a bigger pup.

This is Sean, Andrew and Beauie with all the pups. The boys are in their school clothes.

Amy, Beth, Meg, Jo, Ruby and Hugo. One died, I think it got suffocated in the crush.

 

The pink thing behind them? 

We had a wire cage, like a puppy play pen, and that was probably their wee-y blanket laid out to air.

 

Easy puppies to give away, free to good home. Very pretty, I could and should have sold them!

But then before we had a chance to recover, or get her de-sexed, she had a second  lot of puppies. 

This is where we got Ozzie from. But this time she had all these little black kelpie puppies,,, plus one very obvious spaniel puppy. 

A mixed litter! Again the little spaniel cross went to a new home first.

Another Cot Quilt - Sesame Street

Here is my first finished quilt for 2021.

It is a second quilt for Florrie.

The first one I completed for her in 2019.

This is the first one below.

I've set a precedent now to make all the grandchildren 2 quilts to celebrate their birth.

I thought one to use on the floor or a snuggle quilt, the other to decorate the wall of their bedroom.

Sigh... these ones all seem to end up in the backyard with kids running on them in gumboots.

Never mind, its my own silly fault for putting so much time and money into something for a baby.

And the enjoyment I get out of making them is priceless, I just wished they were valued a bit more by the recipients. 

In the future, I'm going to put together a certificate to go with gift quilts to explain the process of making a quilt. 

Please use,,,, but don't abuse! 

They just don't get crafted in a weekend. A small one such as Sesame Street, took 5 or  6 weeks just to get the patchwork top completed, then off to the quilters, then another few weeks for me to hand stitch the binding!

I'll share the quilt journey certificate with you when I give the first one.

So this was quilted in a pattern named 'Furry Red Guy' (Elmo) by the lovely Sandra from Sandy Beach.

Same pattern as its sister quilt.

I did a starry center panel and the quilt features lots of snuggley flannel fabrics.

The binding was a pain, I made it in red flannel and it was really thick and difficult to hand sew.

I'm a bit worried that the red flannel will bleed into the white spotty flannel and the whole thing will end up pink!  I gave it a good wash with colour catcher sheets, but it will be its doom if it gets washed in hot water, (despite my washing instructions saying to use gentle cold wash).

For the backing I used up lots of leftovers.

And I kept the label simple.

So she wouldn't feel left out Edie received a cushion in the same Sesame Street fabric.

Goodbye and good luck to a lovely little quilt.

I thought you would be a family heirloom. Makes me feel a right fool.

At least I have the photos, they all started off beautiful....