Brisbane Markets @ Rocklea

David and I now have a goal to get around to all the markets at least once to check them out, and the Brisbane Markets at Rocklea are apparently one of the most popular. So the first one we have gone to was two Saturdays ago, for the Saturday Fresh Market.

There were heaps of people and I must admit the crowds were daunting for me, but I did the right thing and did not insist David take me home right away like I wanted him to. I don’t think the fresh food prices were cheap, but that wouldn’t be the reason you bought food from here. The food is fresher and straight from the farmer, or so we are told, but it’s not the place for a bargain you can’t get anywhere else.  I can get in season fresh food from coles online, I just get what’s on special so the prices are very similar. And there are no crowds to contend with! There was also a bit of traffic, thank goodness David was driving.

As I walked past an antipasto stall I got a good whiff of the mouth-watering aroma. I just love marinated artichokes but settled on some feta stuffed olives. I didn’t realise how expensive they were until I felt like it was too late to decline. I should have just been honest with the guy and said “doood, that’s too expensive!” but you know, I couldn’t do that could I? These very, very yummy stuffed olives cost me $8 for a small container. That’s $8 that could have been better spent, so I had to enjoy them! David doesn’t even like olives so I got to eat them all by myself. Oh no, what a sad, yummy loneliness!

Then last weekend, we went to the Sunday Discovery Markets, also at Rocklea. Once again the weather was gorgeous with cloudless blue skies, but there was a chilly bite to the wind as well. We got there just before 11am and they started packing up early for the midday finish. So we had about an hour to wonder around, looking at all the treasures. Besides the blue vase I posted on Monday which we picked up for $3, we also got some cute little trinket boxes which we thought were a good price for $6-$7.50 ea. I also grabbed another cane basket for $2, which was solid except for a small break in the handle which I can cover up with ribbon.

I wonder which market we will check out next?!
❤ ❤ <3!

Women's Creative Centre, Greenslopes and Lifeline Store, Mt Gravatt

Last Wednesday I managed to get myself along to a craft workshop organised by the Women’s Creative Centre in Greenslopes. I post every Wednesday to help motivate me to write about getting out of the house. Included are some photos of things I bought when David took me to the Lifeline shop at Mt Gravatt the previous Sunday, like this cute little garden charm we now have sitting on our garden outdoor table.

It was a challenge to even find out about this craft group in the first place, as I’ve been looking on the internet for a while and hadn’t found anything local. I only happened to be told about this group when I asked at the Kingston Butter Factory craft shop if they held lessons. After searching the net for “Creative Women’s Centre” I found one short page as part of some listing site which had precious little information, just an email address. So I wrote to the email address and got sent a document that I couldn’t read because I didn’t have the software. Luckily, David helped me download it so I could read a little more. Last Saturday David drove me out to Greenslopes to see the place, as I wasn’t going to go by myself without ‘casing the joint’ first! I plucked up the courage to speak to two ladies in the shop about going along to a lesson.

The lessons, or workshop which cost only $4.50, is not held at the craft shop but in another room in the shopping centre. It was nervous for me to walk into a strange room with strange people, its a pity they kept the window blinds closed. One lady went to close the blinds because she ‘didn’t want people looking at us’. I think that’s a shame because it makes it harder for new people. I’m really glad I went to the craft group, and it went for two hours which was just the right length of time. I fit right in with my wonderfully perfect cane sewing basket which I got second-hand for an amazing $3 from the Lifeline shop last Sunday.

I learnt a new way of starting and ending my crochet work, which is great. I also talked with the instructor about tension and how to better judge which wool and hooks I should be using for certain projects. I had a go at an Irish Rose and I got a copy of the pattern, which is great. I also talked about the bolero I want to make, ending up changing my mind about which wool to use. There was a lot of inspiration for me to get going on several projects, I just don’t know which to start next! I’ll be going along again today, taking my patterns and cottons to ask about making doilies and to try and use up my pile of wool … which doesn’t seem to be shrinking yet!

Perhaps I should stop buying new wool??? lol!

Flowering Lavendar and a trip to the Museum

In preparation for my solo train trip to the city for an appointment on Monday, I did a trial run last Friday and ended up going to the Queensland Museum alone! This is my post for Outdoor Wednesday which I do every week to motivate me to post something about getting out of the house. Included are some images of my beautiful potted lavender which I’m so happy is flowering at the moment.

It was my first trip alone using the Go Card. As I left the station at South Brisbane, the station attendant looked at me so I asked her if I did the card thing right. Well, that was a mistake! I thought I did it wrong so touched on again, then she exclaimed ‘don’t do that!’  I told her I was new and didn’t know how to use the thing so she helped me to the machine to clear the second touch on. Luckily, I found it funny, LOL!

Travelling on the train was fun, I used to do it all the time when I first got to Brisbane years ago, now I’m really wondering why I haven’t been doing it these last couple of years? I thought to take myself to the art gallery but they were closed, and the museum wouldn’t open for another half hour so I went to a cafe, got a cappucino and rang David on my new phone while I waited. I spent about an hour in the museum, its fairly small but still good, and because it didn’t cost me anything, I bought a little specialist book on local birds. Because no pets are allowed on our complex, lots of different birds visit our garden and I’ve started looking up which ones they are and thought this book would be handy.
Thanks for listening ❤ ❤ ❤

A trip to the Library and Lincraft

Every Wednesday I plan to post on my blog about venturing outside, sometimes tagging along with Outdoor Wednesday. Today I’d like to include some pictures of a particularly spectacular snowflake bush which is currently flowering and welcomes you as you drive into our apartment’s complex.

When I turned up for my Monday morning ‘meeting’ I was unhappy to report that I had not managed to leave the house for the week, having found an excuse not to visit my family on Saturday as planned. So after the meeting I went to my local Lincraft store, and while I was there I poked my head in the library which is in the same building.

My visit to Lincraft went ok, it wasn’t too busy so I was free to potter around in peace, and there was no waiting at the counter, which is a bonus for me. I bought some brightly coloured wool which was on special, I plan to make some children’s beanies with it. In the photo you can see my first attempt which is too big and has to be undone. I also bought some new cotton for edging face-washers! They didn’t have any white, so I chose a nice lilac-grey. I bought 1.7m of stretch velvet which I plan to make a skirt with. I also paid a couple of dollars for some crochet patterns, knowing I can get crochet patterns off the internet for free, but I liked this particular collection and want to try making the bolero.

I find going to the library a little overwhelming, which I know is silly! I went and picked up some brochures, one is a very helpful map of the local nature reserve which I hope David and I can go to soon before it gets too cold. I walked around the whole library then wondered what to do next so made myself sit down as I feel stupid walking around aimlessly! After I looked through the brochures I noticed some quilting magazines, so got up to look more closely to see if there were some crochet ones but they only had knitting. I then went and had a look at some more information displays but couldn’t find anything about the craft group that’s supposed to be there at the end of this month. I didn’t feel up to asking anyone about it so I left. I hope to go back to the library again soon, it would be great if I could sit in on that craft group in a couple  of weeks.

Wish me luck!
❤ ❤ ❤

Free Jazz and Shiraz Concert

I’ve heard of Outdoor Wednesday, which is another tag-along blog which would be good for me to participate in. Go to “A Southern Daydreamer” for more details.

Every week I would like to write about my progress with getting back outside to do stuff on my own again, and I’m happy to say last week has been a good start! The highlight of out-of-the-house activities for me last week was the free Jazz and Shiraz concert put on by the Logan City Council at the Kingston Butter Factory. I had so much fun! Although of course I didn’t go on my own, David came with me.

The mellow crowd were just our style, the food was better than your usual hotdogs and hamburgers, and shiraz was for sale by the glass so I got two! We had oven-fired pizza which was made with a portable pizza oven right before our eyes! We also tried the “roo on a stick”, which was a succulent sample of kangaroo fillet skewered and cooked to perfection. This was particularly good for me, it’s been very hard to get good kangaroo steak since moving to Brisbane. The outdoor event reminded me of Darwin, but thankfully no real home-sickness to speak of, although these kinds of concerts  are something I do miss from my old home. Even though the food was a little on the expensive side, it was well worth it, and the concert itself was free so it was a cheap night out all up.

Then of course, there was the music. We only got to see three of the four acts, we saw all of the performance by The West End Composers Collective, which funnily enough isn’t mentioned on their website. It’s a pity as I was trying to find out the name of the vocalist, with whom I was very impressed and that doesn’t happen often with vocalists! I figure if I can sing something, its a bit ‘meh’ for me, but in all my time singing, even at my most prime, I Never sounded as good as this vocalist. Her quality of tone was outstanding, like liquid honey, and she was very apt at the jazz scat, which I found hard to do myself when studying it. I thought her name was Holly something… but maybe it was Hannah? I’m not sure, but well worth the effort to get out of the house to hear this live! Another good thing about this trip was that we tried out our new Go Cards for the first time when we caught the train, and my verdict is that it was terrific! I’ll be getting back on the trains on my own in no time, I’m sure!
Thanks for listening ❤ ❤ ❤

Journey Back to the Outside

I guess I don’t have to say what happened to get me to this point, needless to say the life I’m living now is in stark contrast to the frenetic and busy life of my past which was full of people and activity.  I think posting about my progress here would really help me for a start, it’s so easy to loose track of what I’m doing to manage change. My goal is to get out of the house on my own at least once a week for a couple of hours..

Progress made in the last few days include ordering my “Go Card” as buying train tickets is annoying and an excuse to not get on a train, but now I’m looking forward to using it. Hopefully I’ll get to the point where I can get on a train by myself to go to the doctor instead of making David take the day off work to drive me and wait for my appointment to finish, which I know is absolutely ridiculous. Knowing how silly this all is makes me annoyed at myself, hopefully enough to move myself into action, but knowing its silly doesn’t make it any easier either. The other bit of progress was to make an appointment with a new local psychologist. Oh, /sigh! so boring as I feel like I’ve heard it all before, but I know I have to go and give this new one a chance. It was particularly hard as the receptionist made me wait a while, but instead of putting me on hold I could hear a baby crying in the background. It was very tempting to hang up and give up, but I didn’t.

After searching on the internet, it seems the City Councils have a lot of free activities on in the Libraries and Parks, so my short-term goal is to find something to do that is free or very cheap while David is at work. I’m going to pencil in the possibilities into my diary and see if I can get myself along to something. So far the most interesting is a free workshop with a local artist at the Logan Art Gallery. So today’s challenge is to ring them up and book a spot … wish me luck!