The lovely Dubbo holiday

(I warn you that this is a long post LOL)
Last Saturday, we went to Dubbo for a short holiday since it was a long weekend here in the ACT. We packed our bags, loaded our bikes to the car and off we went.
The main reason why we chose Dubbo as our holiday destination is because Dubbo is the home for Taronga Western Plains Zoo which we wanted to take our son to.
It is five hours from Canberra. At first, this scared me; but once we left Canberra and made our way into the country side, the whole trip felt like a couple of hours.

I must say that I love the Australian country side. The rugged hills, beautiful trees, vast green lands, lots of animals, blue skies...Before I came to Australia, the sky never felt this big...
I fell in love with these beautiful yellow fields. We reckon they are oil seed flowers. I took lots of photos of this scene which continued on and off for kilometres on either side of the road.

                                                         Isn't it just beautiful?
We arrived in Dubbo around 1pm. After hanging around in the town a little, we went to visit the Old Dubbo Gaol which began as a courthouse lock up in 1847 and became a gaol in 1859.  If you are interested in history and want to find out more about the Old Dubbo Gail, visit here. There are some interesting stories there.

      Kuzey is trying to figure out what that stiff guy is doing. LOL (Cutting a huge piece of log.)

Cat-o-nine-tails. A punishment whip.

These dummies look like zombies!

If you live close by or don't mind travelling a little, I recommend you visit it. It will be an interesting experience. 
Then we let the little beast free!

And the next day, we headed off to the zoo early in the morning.

I have never been good at cycling, hence my hubby is riding Kuzey. Having said that, I am proud of myself because I could finish the day without falling off the bike, not-even-once! LOL 

Taronga Zoo is designed in such a way that all the animals live in their natural environment. They are not restricted by a metal hash all around them or a cage. (I am totally against the animals being kept in such cages under poor conditions.) For this reason, the zoo is covering quite a large area. We cycled around it for five or six hours; stopped on and off to have a look at the animals and take photos. 

There are so many beautiful photos; I struggled to choose among them!

 He was so happy to ride the rhino. Look at his face :-)

The whole zoo experience was so much fun. I was the photographer for this trip so I don't have any photos of me. We finished the day with a yummy lunch. While we were waiting for daddy to bring some food, I finally managed to capture some lovely moments with my son :-)

:-)

When did you have a holiday last and where did you go?

Hope you all had a lovely week!

Nurdan

Life is too short to worry about everything...

My brother-in-law was diagnosed with a tumor in his brain two months ago. He went into an emergency surgery; quickly it was understood that he had a brain cancer. We were all told that there wasn't much hope; the cancer was the most aggressive and fastest growing kind. We just prayed and hoped that everything was going to be fine, that he was going to pull out of this and gain his health back. Unfortunately, life had other things planned for him; we lost him two days ago...
He passed away in his home peacefully with all his loved ones around him, holding his hand...He was only 60...

But the life goes on; it's funny how the next day things are going back to semi-normal and the following day, to normal. You think about what to cook for dinner, what to wear to the shops. I even practiced free motion quilting to distract my constantly questioning mind...

I feel very confused. All this stress, rush and worries in our lives...Nothing is more important than health, being with the people you love and live your life without regrets. I don't know; this is how I am feeling right now...
And I am sorry if my post brought out some sad memories and made you feel upset. I just wanted to write and share; maybe to feel a little better...

Till next time,
Nurdan

Lest we forget...

Today is Anzac Day...The 99th anniversary of the ANZAC landing to Gallipoli. I want to commemorate them with the letter written by Ataturk; the commander of the Turkish armies during the battle in Gallipoli – Founder of the Modern Turkish Republic; which he sent to Anzac mothers in 1934 in order to acknowledge the heroism displayed by their fallen sons as well as signifying the friendship which was born from the ashes of the war.

“Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side now here in this country of ours... You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.” 

Here are some photos from Anzac Day 2009...

 The Sphinx at Anzac Cove

Got my citizenship!

Hi everyone! Or should I say G'day mate! :)

Yesterday was a very special day for me. After 4.5 years in this beautiful country, I got my Australian citizenship at a beautiful citizenship ceremony.

I was quite emotional, proud and happy all at the same time. There were more than 100 people who received their citizenship and probably more than 200 people in total with their friends, kids and other family members. The venue was such a melting pot of cultures with all those people from around the world. Watching them and seeing the excitement in their eyes were so beautiful and special. I must admit that I shed a few tears of happiness too :-)

Reading the pledge

Becoming a citizen of another country doesn't mean that you are turning your back to your country. I was born and raised in Turkey, lived there until I was 29. I am proud of my country, my language, my culture and my background. I try to keep my traditions alive by celebrating the religious festivals and other culturally important days; by cooking traditional Turkish foods, and by continuing being the same person who migrated to Australia a few years ago. However; I love living in Australia, I love this country and being a part of it. I believe that if you are living in a foreign country, you also need to adjust to that life by blending into its culture and traditions and show your respect to it. I believe I have found the right balance...

Finding the balance...

...is something I haven't been able to for quite some time. The balance between my thoughts and actions, the balance between my job and the amount of stress I create- having said that, my job is not that stressful, the balance between housework and sewing...I can write all night about this issue.
I am not sewing at all nor doing housework. You wouldn't want to visit me these days. I got my glasses, and the new walking foot arrived the other day but I haven't been able to find my sewing spirit yet. I should finish quilting the bow ties quilt but I don't want to- I am also bored with it; I should finish a quilted name tag for the secret fellow quilter at my local quilt guild by the end of this month but I haven't even started yet and have no creativity. There are many things I want to sew, lots of promises I make to myself which I don't keep; but I am very good at thinking about them. It is my favourite bed time sleep-killer activity. I am also sad that I don't pay enough attention to my blog, I don't post often enough because I am not making enough. I am not feeling motivated nor do I have enough energy. I announced a fabric giveaway for the next month on my Facebook page to feel excited about sewing again. I am hoping that this will be a "pick-me-up" thing. I will give more details about the giveaway in the following days.
To cut it short, I don't know why I am feeling this way and what can make me feel better. I decided to learn meditation- maybe this is the key to settling the struggle I am having.
I am sorry for writing about negative things. I know some of you are going through much more difficult times, have more important things to worry about and mine are just a drop in the ocean. I wanted to share it here to feel a little better because I am not feeling well and this makes me worried about my health.

Tonight, I picked up an old UFO and started ripping it apart. Do I have anything in mind-no. Just wanted to do it. I unpicked the stitches while watching my favourite Turkish TV series, Magnificent Century, which is about the era of the great Ottoman emperor Suleyman the Magnificent. To be honest, it was so relaxing.

I am hoping that I will be sewing again soon.

What do you do when you feel down and are lack of motivation? How do you get out of the blues? I appreciate your comments and suggestions/advice.

Till next time, stay safe and healthy.
Nurdan

A mini holiday

We went to the coast last weekend for a mini holiday and had an amazing four days. The Australian country side and coast are just beautiful.

And this is the holiday's contribution to my fabric stash. This selection is a mixture of Moda, Art Gallery and Robert Kaufman. They match with my fat quarter bundles beautifully. 

I got these beautiful fabrics from Steph's at Moruya. I found her shop a couple of months ago when we went to Moruya for a drive. Her shop is very nice, bright and full of beautiful, modern fabrics. As oppose to the service at Canberra fabric shops, Steph welcomes you with a warm smile and is always happy to help you if you need a hand.  It looks like I will go there often- it is only two hours away from Canberra- yayy!

Two things...

There are two things that I have been meaning to write about. The first one is about informing you about how to follow my blog since the "join this site" link doesn't work for some reason. To be honest, I didn't care much about it thinking it is not that important. I changed my mind when, the other day, a few of my friends asked how they could follow me and said that the link for this wasn't working. Here are the screenshots to show you the way:
Step 1: Click on the boxes on the right hand side of the screen.

Step 2: You will see this screen. If you cant read it, it says "We are sorry. We were unable to handle your request. Please try again or return a bit later."

Step 3: Now, click on the top right button which says "Follow". 

Step 4: Choose which account you will use and join me!

Or, alternatively, you can follow me on Bloglovin. Whichever one you choose, thank you for joining me! If you don't join and just read my posts randomly, thank you again!

The second thing I want to tell you about is an email I received almost two weeks ago from a reader.  When I first saw the email, I got so happy because a reader was trying to get in touch with me. She was saying that she liked my page, liked the design of it, etc. As I read, the excitement was replaced by sadness. To cut it short, this reader was saying that I wasn't posting often enough nor was I producing often and fast enough. And the killer punch was that I shouldn't expect being successful if I continued like this!
To be honest, I felt terrible, really terrible. I felt so discouraged, so disheartened. For days and days I thought about this; whether she was right, whether I should just give up...I shared this on my Facebook page and got some very encouraging comments from those followers.

The thing is; yes, I would love to have thousands of followers like some of those famous quilters. Actually, I am not that greedy; would be happy to only have enough to support me. I would love to be able finish one quilt per week. In fact, I have just finished the baby quilt top I have been working on for the last ten or so days and some quilters I follow and whose work I love a lot finished three quilts and posted twice in the last ten days. The reality is; I have a part-time job. I work three days a week, from 9am till 5pm. And trust me, I would love to resign and just quilt and sew but this is not possible at the moment. I sometimes sell a quilt here and there to be able to continue quilting but it is not a business yet. I have a family; have responsibilities as a wife and a mum to a 20 month-old baby who needs his mummy's attention and care. He is my first priority and comes above everything.

I started this blog because I love quilting and I want to show people that you don't have to be a professional quilter to be able to quilt. No matter what your skill level is, you can quilt. I also want to share my projects with other people and maybe inspire a few to get some fabric and a rotary cutter and just do it.  I want to thank this follower for reminding me one more time of my circumstances and the reasons why I started this blog. I love what I do, just the way it is.

I am sorry for boring you with this long vent but I just wanted to put it out here. I am sure there is someone out there who can relate to this.

P.S I will be posting the photos of my finished baby quilt top tomorrow.

Happy sewing! xxx

And this is my dirty rascal in our yet-to-be-put-into-a shape back yard :)

Patchwork of stones

I know this is a quilting blog and I know this post is not about quilting. More than anything, I am aware that I was supposed to post a tutorial long time ago on how to make the Christmas tree block in my previous post. However, I just wanted to show you all what's been keeping me busy and stealing the time that I should have been sewing.

The Wall

We moved into our own house almost four and a half months ago. Since then, our front yard has been waiting for some attention from us. Being so good at procrastinating, we finally moved our bums only 20 days before the deadline to finish this big job: building a 12 metre long stone wall and completing the whole landscaping of the front yard. The deadline is by the ACT Government and we have only a week left! Thank God, the wall is almost finished and the rest shouldn't take long-wishful thinking...

I can't tell you how much physical effort this wall demanded.

Putting the stones together, making them fit and match and making precise calculations are very much like designing and making a quilt. I must say that I enjoyed the whole process a lot even though it has been so bloody tiring. I am also very happy and proud that hubby and I are pretty handy people :-)