More Stitching

And the week has finished as a stitching kind of week too! I finished month number 4 of Rosalie Quinlan's "Redwork Christmas" today. I am all redworked out I think. I'm considering what to do next. I have some suffolk puff tinsel to make (I really am getting into Christmas early this year!) and all sorts of other things dancing in my head (like sugar plum fairies). My etsy shop needs some attention and Mrs 25 is encouraging me to make some patterns of my stitching designs. (Ah, more opportunities to become more computer literate!) Not sure what will be happening this weekend. Hopefully there will be sewing!

Stitching

I had a stitching kind of weekend and it's been a stitching week so far too! A couple of weeks ago I went with Miss 23 to a hospital appointment where we had to wait... and wait... and wait. (Sometimes it's like that!) For some strange reason I didn't have any stitching with me and felt sad that I had lost such a wonderful opportunity to stitch, so I came home and prepared a Rosalie Quinlan Block of the Month to stitch next time! Well, next time was last Friday. Mr 15 was helping me prepare pumpkin soup when the knife slipped and some of his finger got chopped off. (Not very much finger thank goodness) I took a look at the piece of finger in his hand and realised that we needed a hospital, not a bandaid. In the panic to get out of the house I left the stitching home! His finger required surgery (a skingraft) and an overnight stay so there was plenty of opportunity for stitching! I finished the stitchery today and will be preparing another one for more stitching tonight. I loooooooooooooooove to stitch!

Linda and Stephanie's Christmas in July Swap

Yesterday I opened my Christmas in July swap that Linda and Stephanie ran. My gift was from Maria. I was really excited when I received my package because I am a fan of maria's blog! Everything was beautifully wrapped and the insides were just plain beautiful!

My santa sack. The colours here are much more lovely in real life. I can't believe I now own something that Maria has made! (Make sure to visit her blog, she makes the loveliest things!!!)

Some of my girls watched me unwrap the gifts and we all fell in love with this "origami" Christmas tree. My kids are all into origami and studied the tree closely. Having recently moved we still have vacant hooks on our walls so we hung the tree up immediately! It's hanging in our family room underneath our twinkle lights.

Isn't this a lovely card? Perfect for those of us who love to sew! Maria bought it from an etsy shop. Such a great idea for a card!

More of the goodies that Maria sent me. As you can see I was thoroughly spoilt. Thank you Maria, Linda and Stephanie! Great swap!

Christmas in the Hills with Rosalie Quinlan and Jane Green of the Patchwork Apple

The hall that the Christmas in the Hills workshop was held was just sooooooooo beautiful. Jane has a talent for details! Here's some things I loved.

Rosalie Quinlan's new fabric !

I had a great opportunity on the weekend to see Rosalie Quinlan's new fabric range. I attended the Patchwork Apple's "Christmas in July" and Rosalie had her new fabric with her. In fact someone won a fat quarter of each of the range as a door prize! (No, it wasn't me. Loz and I threatened to mug the winner out in the carpark, but came to our senses in time. We figured we could buy some of Rosie's fabric when it hits the shops! - it is gorgeous, you are all going to want some!) Rosie is very proud of her first fabric range and is full of ideas about using it. More about the gorgeous Christmas in July soon!

Raining!

Just incase you hadn't noticed while reading South Australian blogs, I thought I might mention the fact that it has been raining here. We just love rain. We don't usually have much rain normally, but after the past few years of drought we appreciate rain even more than usual. So, we don't get much rain, but it's more that.

1. I love the sound of rain on our tin roof.


2. Rain smells so good. So fresh.


3. Puddles are such fun. And versatile. There's the kind that is perfect for little feet to splash in and the kind just made for cars to splash up onto the footpath. Then there's the kind of puddle that forms a pond and calls to ducks.


4. Being inside, warm and dry, is such a cosy feeling when it's cold and wet outside.


5. Playing in the rain is exhilarating, and fun! Especially when a hot bath or shower is nearby as a secondary activity.


6. Rain makes waterfalls gush and fills our local river with rushing water.


7. It also fills our reservoirs so that we can drink and shower.


8. Rain makes my garden green. It makes the hills green.
   

So, in short, I love rain!!! This has been a great winter for rain. We South Aussies just feel so blessed to have had as much rain as we have had. Hope it continues!

Swing Swong

This is grandson on holidays at the beach. He loves playgrounds and he loves to swing. I misappropriated this photo from my daughter's facebook because grandson just looks so happy! Some of the comments her friends made about this photo got me thinking. I never was much of a kid for playgrounds (weird, huh?). However, I did love to swing. When I was really young I remember swinging and singing. Same thing happens when I go bike riding. I don't mean to sing, it just happens, because when I'm happy I have to sing. My swing song from an early age was "swing, swong, swing, swong, swing....." well, you get the picture! I remember that I loved to swing because my imaginary friends also loved to swing and we would all sing the song and talk together too whilst on the swings. (Even more weird! In fact I would get upset if anyone else got on the (empty) swing) Did you have imaginary friends? I had two. Dingdong and Gandal. I had them from a very young age hence the seriously weird names (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!). I guess it is kind of weird to have imaginary friends and they certainly never seemed imaginary to me. They were part of the family. They went everywhere with us! Okay, embarassing admission number 58,000! What is it about this blog that makes me admit such weird things? Back to your regularly scheduled blog now.

Exploring

There's an interesting pseudo open space or park near our new house. Miss 23 affectionately dubbed it "the sinkhole" which has stuck. The kids love to go down to the sinkhole and chuck a ball around. Except if it's raining. When it rains the sinkhole becomes the drain that it was always intended to be. It becomes wet. And muddy.

If it keeps raining though (we had a glorious day of rain yesterday) the sinkhole becomes more than just muddy. It becomes a pond. And ducks appear. (How do they do that? Do they just live nearby pondless and then get all excited when it rains and they pass the sinkhole pond on their way to the shop and decide to go for a dip instead?) We have only been here for a month and I have noticed the ducks about four times. I guess it's been a wet month! After I spied the ducks the first time I knew I had to get a photo to record this phenomenon.

So today on our way to the library to get new library cards ( we moved to the other side of town and have a new library!) I made Bradley stop the car so I could take some photos. Two birds with one stone! Ducks recorded for posterity and new library cards. It has been a good day.

Mending - almost sewing!

In the time honoured tradition of this blog I am posting another blurry photo! This is some of what I got up to on my sewing desk today. Mending. (Eight year old boys provide plenty of scope for this particular branch of sewing!) It's almost sewing. I did actually do some quilting after I finished the mending, but that's all secret squirrel stuff so no showing of that here yet! Tomorrow is going to be another sewing day. Yay!

Oh! And happy birthday Mrs 24! Ooops, I mean Mrs 25! Hope you had fun!

Putting up noticeboards

Okay, it's late - which is my excuse for the blurry photos. Not sure how I can get such blurry shots, guess I'm a natural! The first pinboard is up. I decided to dress it in blue and white spots with a pretty ribbon. The second one goes up tomorrow. Dressing the pinboard was so much fun.

Here's the board in relation to my sewing space. I'm going to spend this weekend sewing so I will have a last push to finish getting organised tomorrow.

Still here

Gallery we spied when in Melbourne in May. I loved the name of the gallery. Artists here really were trying to be famous because there was a gun shop next door.

Still here, just not much happening on the creative front. Still getting organised. (Is organisation something I can reasonably expect to happen in this lifetime? Seems not!) It's school holidays here and I am enjoying having everyone home. Mrs 24, her bloke, and grandson are off on holidays with bloke's family. Grandson is having a lovely time with his four cousins! Mr 20 and Miss 19 decided not to move with us to the new house, so we are missing them a lot. I cut Miss 17 and Mr 15's hair tonight (A creative pursuit I guess!) and I made a tablecloth today to put in my new dining room. Oh! And it's July! Time does fly when you're having fun!!! I hope to get a little closer to the sewing machine later this week!