Lots of Stuff–Post Christmas

This is a real catch up post!  It is lovely to be spending some time just relaxing at home over the Christmas New Year break.  The best part is catching up on some stitching and watching a few movies while doing it
Christmas Day Snaps.

Rebecca (Lilian’s mummy)  ( L ) & Bonnie                  Santa’s gorgeous helper – Bonnie

All the girls on Christmas Day ( L – R) Rebecca, Gabrielle, my sister, Lyndelle, Bonnie, Angela and Moi.

Lyndelle in her sexy apron and with son, Nicholas.
It was a lovely day with heaps of scrumptious food.
My dear friend Shirley gave me this embroidery book – I am so lucky!  It has a lot of unusual stitches in it which I am keen to try.  Thank you, my friend.
                 
Marleen had gifted me and Joan one of these very cute aprons each.  Thank you Marleen – it was very handy indeed.
            
Cute!

I made Marleen and Joan one of these pencil rolls each.  The pattern was from ‘You Go Girl’ – HERE- and was very easy to put together with easy to understand instructions. 

And I made them each a little owl too such as I had received earlier from Vicki at the retreat.
Finally, I have done some more TAST stitching.
This one is Week 21 – Butterfly Chain.  I have called this little one ‘Butterfly Love’ and designed it when we were out in the outback in August.  This stitch was very interesting and I like it done in the chain like I have used around the hearts.  I have worked it on duponi silk.

Yesterday I watched movies and stitched Week 22 – Knotted Cretan Stitch.  This one is called ‘Fish Skeleton’ and evolved from just ‘freestyling’  with the stitch.  On the border I have done it in a very controlled manner in a knotted open cretan and I love the texture this stitch creates.

The background is hand painted (by me) in acrylic paint mixed with textile medium and then rubbed with a copper coloured shiva stik over a textured surface. 
All the TAST stitches for 2012 may be viewed HERE and in the comments sections of each stitch you can view what other people have done over the year.  There are some very creative ideas for using all the various stitches.
Thank you to Sharon Boggon from “Pintangle” for organizing the TAST challenge. 
Now to get on with the next 24 stitches  I AM HALFWAY THERE!!!!!

On the Eve of Christmas 2012

It can be such a crazy time and such an exciting time too!

The most enjoyable part for me is catching up with family and friends.

Last week I did lunch with two very special and most sincere friends.  Before lunch I verbalized how much I appreciated their friendship and what it means to me.  There were some moist eyes.

We had lunch at Marleen’s house and she has it decorated beautifully (as usual) with all her handmade quilts and wall hangings and handmade gifts from her many friends.

Marleen with her latest creation.  She says this will definitely be a ‘one off’.  Isn’t it cute??

We had a delicious morning tea followed by an equally delicious lunch.  We shared some stories of 2012 and had a few laughs.

No – this is not snow in Queensland!  We had a large hail storm last Tuesday and we were stuck in the car in the car park of Lilian’s kindy.  Some of the hail was as big as a marble and made quite a din.  Luckily, no damage to the car.

Over the past couple of weeks there has been much frenzied shopping over the internet by both myself and my hubby. I am dreading the arrival of the next credit card bill!

Gift to myself – Dye-na-flow fabric paints and the Cas Holmes book, “The Found Object”, which I  purchased from Book Depository.  I love that you can order a book in your pyjamas, have it delivered for free and have it delivered to your door within a week.  The fabric paints I ordered from Susan at Essential Textile Art.  Excellent,  prompt service from Susan too!

On Thrusday night we took our little grand daughter to see Santa and the Christmas lights in Queen’s Park.  The lights were amazing – organized by the Lions Clubs of Toowoomba and sponsored by various local organizations.  Well worth going and seeing, and the delight on Lilian’s face made it even more special.

To my blogging friends, I wish you all peace and joy at Christmas time.

Another Year Passing By

As another year passes quickly by, it reminds me of my goal each year to become more organised around the home.

(Pile of magazines needing culling)
Life seems to overwhelm me sometimes and the clutter around me doesn’t make me feel any better.

(Where to start?? – June 2011) – (Love the look)

(Scrap box before)
This year, I believe, I achieved a lot in the organisation department.  Thanks to my friend, Shirley, we got into the sewing room where she introduced me to the plastic box.  Not that I didn’t know about them, I just didn’t know where to start with the sorting.  She had some great ideas and I am still working on amalgamating all of the stuff into their respective categories.

(Boss Shirley)

(Some progress)
Each year I start with the idea of disposing of an item a day and this has worked very well.  It usually fizzles out, so I have kicked it off again – right now!  I have discovered this website “The Organised Housekeeper” and she has the de-cluttering 52 week challenge right HERE, which I am gong to attempt to follow.  (Hope it goes better than the TAST challenge LOL).  Of course, we have planned trips once again for 2013, so I will have to double up some weeks to achieve the goal.

During the past couple of years I have made some of these embroidered felt pin cushions which I was going to sell at our exhibition.  When I showed a friend, she bought the lot and I didn’t get around to making any more.  Shirley has gifted me some of her embroidery wool ‘double ups’ and I have made a few more since, and intend to make some more. 

This past Sunday was our precious little princess’ 4th birthday.  Where did that time go?  Of course, being a princess, she wanted a princess party.

The princess and her princess cake her Mummy made.

Princess Lilian with her new Doctor’s set – she loves playing doctors and calls her cubby house her “Goctor’s Office”

Princess Lilian in her tiara.

Gifts Given And Received

Before I go on about gifts I have been given and gifts I have been giving, I have a special photo to share.

Shirley and I met our online friend, Linda from Billabongs 2 Bling at the Bush Christmas a week or so ago.
It was lovely to catch up with Linda and finally get to meet her.  Bush Christmas is when the bush crafters come to town and sell their wares.  It was really beautiful with lots of delicious things to look at.

I don’t think I have ever shown this piece of loveliness before.  It was a special gift from Shirley some years ago, and it hangs from the knob of my little sewing table in the lounge room for all to admire.

I made this sewing dilly bag for a friend who has left Toowoomba to go and live on Flinders Island, Tasmania.
She has always admired my dilly bag like this, so now she has her very own.  I think it is a pattern from ‘Country Pieces’.  It is a pattern I have had for many, many years.
There are some other things I have been making which can’t be shown here just yet.  I have very much enjoyed working on some collage cards which I will show in the next week or so.

Leaving you with this photo of the beautiful landscape of Middle Lagoon on the Western Australia Dampier Peninsular.  Middle Lagoon has many different aspects to it – such an amazing place to visit.

Is it a Flame Tree & Finally some TAST

 

We think we have a flame tree in our back garden.  The reason we are unsure is that this particular tree hasn’t flowered to our knowledge.  The colour is brilliant and I see other flame trees around town in full flower whereas this one is only just starting. Also, our Jacaranda trees aren’t flowering yet!!  We must be doing ‘slow gardening’.

This is the tree just starting to bloom                            Beautiful orange/red blossoms

The buds (aren’t they beautiful?)

This is the bouganvillea growing along side of it. 

Shirley and I have motivated each other and worked on our TAST pieces.

This is the stitch for Week 43,  Buttonhole cups. (Don’t ask about all the missing weeks of TAST stitches!!)

It was quite enjoyable to do and is a lovely textural stitch. My version is a new flower on the scene called bluecups.  VBG .  I am looking out of the window at a field of them.

The background is coloured with watercolour pencils and textile medium.

You can see more about the TAST challenge and view comments at Pintangle – here – and see what other people have done with this stitch on Stitchin’ Fingers – here.

There was smoke all around the city last week as bush and grass fires continued to burn in our region.  It made a trip down town feel really spooky.  Fortunately, due to the diligence of our fire crews, houses and lives have been saved from these ravaging fires.

In the pipeline I am working on a new blog – same stuff different format.