Cheers!!

It's a very festive time in our household.

Yesterday we drank champagne to celebrate 11 years of wedded bliss.



I can't believe it was 11 years ago but we have certainly done much since then.





We all had so much fun that day, two churches and all!



So last night we had a lovely dinner at the Stokehouse, one of my all time favourite restaurants.

Happy Anniversary darling husband!!



And today we celebrated his birthday with a little champagne and cake in the garden - looking slightly more ordinary!



Tomorrow we will be having a few friends around to bring in the New Year and the following day is my husband's name day!

And it is the same every year - lots of champagne, fine food and wonderful company!

Today we had a visit from my dear friend Elizabeth so I can now share with you the present I made her as it has been very happily received.



It is nice and long to put on her bed and as she has a bad back she is thrilled with it's possibilities as a lumbar support!



I love the colours, they remind of the sea.

I also found time to take a photo of this fabulous bag my sister made me for Christmas.



And it has really lovely lining.



I can't wait to use it but I think it is more of an autumn bag.

Thanks so much everyone for your support this year. It's been so encouraging to receive all my lovely comments and feedback. I have much to achieve in 2008 and have much to look forward to.

And to all the lovely bloggers out there who provide so much entertainment, laughter, a few tears and who inspire me endlessly, cheers!! I wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Christmas Wrap Up

So Christmas is over for another year. I hope you enjoyed a lovely day with family and friends as I did. We all ate way too much and my goodness the presents were never ending - not sure where everything is going to go!

And what a few weeks it has been. I did try to do a post last week but blogger ate my photos and I didn't have the time or the inclination to redo them. So here it is - the last couple of weeks activities and some of the crafty projects I completed.

The 15th brought a mad weekend with lots of Birthday parties including Daphne's.







And look at this gorgeous creation!



A stunning bolster cushion made by my girlfriend Michelle.



Isn't it just fantastic!



I love the colours and all the little yo-yos - a gift to absolutely treasure! Thanks Michelle, we really love it.

We finished the weekend with a big Christmas party on the Sunday with my Mother's group. We provide a Kris Kringle gift for the children and I made these for two lovely sisters.



This is my more basic version of Renata Segtowick's wonderful idea. Renata's are so beautifully detailed - go have a look.

The week following was all about kinder parties, school parties, reports and finishing up the year ready for a good break. I made three tote bags for the girl's teachers but didn't have time to take photos.

Then I finally finished a commission I'd been sitting on for AGES!! Two aprons for my girlfriend to give to some special girls for Christmas.



A frilly smock for the little one.







And a frilly apron for the bigger one.





I discovered the new apple fabric at Amitie and it all went from there. It's the most lovely linen weight and just perfect for aprons. I'm really pleased with them and will definitely be making more.

And finally some gifts for my family.

A scarf for my Mum using some gorgeous Japanese fabric I had in my stash.



And a bag for my sister-in-law Sacha.



I LOVE this bag!!



I cut it from a bag I received in a swap which I think is an Amy Butler pattern (anyone know?). Then I just patched part of it, added some flowers and quilted the edges.

I also made some cushions and did a pin cushion swap with my girlfriend but have no photos yet - show you next time along with some photos of the gorgeous ornaments I have received for the Freshly Blended Holiday Ornament swap. But this lot should keep you busy for a while!!

By the way, before I forget, my pay it forward recipients are Fiona, Beth and Ginger. So can you all email me and let me know if you wish to participate and provide your address if I don't already have it.

Girls, Girls, Girls!

My baby girl turned two today!!



She wasn't quite sure what all the fuss was about.



But joined in anyway.



Happy Birthday my little pudding!

I don't have a lot to show you as I haven't been doing much other than my Christmas ornaments. But I did take five minutes to throw together this little skirt for my big girl on the weekend just for the fun of it. I quite like how it turned out and she seems happy with it.



But mostly I have been working very hard on finishing my christmas ornaments in between many social commitments. Unfortunately I was a day late so fingers crossed they all reach their destination soon!

Here are 'the girls'!



I have started to receive some of my ornaments from my much more organised swap partners and I am absolutely blown away by how gorgeous they are. I still have to takes photos of one of them and will post them next time.

And now it's on to all the other Christmas sewing!

A day for me!

I had a fantastic day today!

My lovely Mum took Daphne for the day, Lucinda had a full day of kinder and Chloe was at school. After dropping everyone off I started with some secret Christmas shopping, then legged it home to meet a girlfriend who had to pick something up from me. I then raced back to the kinder to grab Lucinda to take her to a quick meet and greet with her new school teacher, dropping her off at kinder again half an hour later.

I then took off to a child care centre to have a look around because I'm going to be working one day a week as of Feb and need to find somewhere for Daphne to go. It was exactly what I was after and they had a spot available!! My next stop was Amitie for a quick fabric fix and catch up with the girls - always fun and of course I came away with a few more bits of delicious fabric. (More about that in future posts!)

My last stop was the hairdressers for my first haircut since November 2006! I tried a new place just up the road and it was brilliant! They also offer beauty therapy services and it's all sparkly and new and I think I am going to visit often!!



Then I got the girls, thanked my Mum profusely and went home. And I just knew there was going to be a special surprise in my letter box, because I was really having that kind of a day. Sure enough there was a parcel waiting.



A lovely Violet and Rose gift from Jo. I admired her bracelets a few weeks ago and she offered to make me my very own one.



Isn't it stunning!! Thank you so much Jo I absolutely LOVE it!! There will be something special on its way to you next week!

And finally, I have finished the second and slightly different Christmas ornament. I like her much more and will spend most of tomorrow making the rest of them.



Even though it sounds like a had quite a hectic day, it was actually really productive and fun. I feel like the planets aligned and everything went my way and after a few really stressful weeks, it feels good!

Paying it Forward!

I can finally tell you who my little green quilt was for. A couple of weeks ago I had an email chat with Margaret the fantastic organiser of the Four Seasons Swap. I explained that I was very disappointed that I never received any thanks for the Autumn tree quilt I made and wasn't sure whether to sign up for the Winter swap. She then told me that the woman that received my quilt didn't send her partner Beth one. After reading her blog Modern Jax, it appeared that it was the second swap this unlucky girl had signed on for and both times she had received nothing.

So I HAD to make her a quilt - it made me feel good to make it and send it and made me feel better about my little tree quilt disappearing into nowhere! Go on over and visit Beth and say hi, she also has a very cute felt ornament tutorial to try.

I recently had the very good fortune to 'win' a Pay It Forward treat from Cathy at Pink Green. And I now get to offer the same to three of my lovely readers. So....

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

On the crafting front I am still working on lots of little bits and pieces for Christmas. Some of them I will be able to show you and some probably not as the recipients read this blog and I would rather surprise them.

So instead I will show you my ornament swap prototype which will definitely be changing.



I like her but want to make a couple of changes. She's a little too big and I'm not sure about the black and white.



We've started our Advent stockings, have put the tree up and this year we even have some lights on the house! I still don't feel remotely organised for Christmas and I also have Daphne's 2nd Birthday party on the 15th but thanks to my lovely Mum I have a fairly childfree day on Thursday to get some stuff done. I'm even getting a haircut which will be the first for some time.

Enjoy your week!

Bugs, Bush, balls and a bag!

Why hello! It feels like I haven't been here for a while. In fact it even looks different as I type this in. When did the posting graphics change I wonder!! How bad would I have been at posting every day in November....

We have been through the wars in this house this week with a stinking dose of gastro affecting every member of the household! But after a couple of days of loafing about at home we're all back to normal.



Nothing a little dancing to Hi-5 won't fix!

Before we succumbed to the nasty bug, we had a very busy Sunday with two big family functions during the afternoon.

The first was a large gathering at a park with my Mother's family to celebrate what would have been my late Grandfather's 100th Birthday. My Aunt has put together an amazing booklet filled with our family history dating right back to the 1600's. I discovered that aside from English, Irish and Scottish ancestry, my maternal Great Great Great Grandfather was an American. Would you believe I share a common ancestor with the current President of the USA!

From there we rushed off to McClelland Park. My Brother-in-law Nik was one of 35 finalists in the McClelland Sculpture Award whose winner was announced shortly after we arrived. Sadly I missed the announcement as the little darlings needed to go to the toilet!



We did a brief wander around the gorgeous park but everyone was wilting under the very, very hot sun.



After checking out Uncle Nik's work 'We Refugees', we decided to take off.





The sculptures will be there until July so if you are in Melbourne go and have a look. It really is a beautiful gallery and park and the sculptures are wonderful.

I have found some time to do a little bit of crafting.



This is for my other Brother-in-law's girlfriend whose Birthday party we're off to tomorrow night.



Carol is a beautiful Lebanese girl so I wanted to make something really striking. The floral is from one of the new Kaffe Fassett fabric ranges which are just stunning.



I have many projects underway including aprons, christmas ornaments and other gifts and will hopefully have more to show you soon. Enjoy the weekend!

Secret Quilting Business

I had a special project to complete this week.



Something that had to be done quickly.



I really enjoyed doing it.



But as it's a big surprise for someone.



I can't tell you what it is - or I'd have to kill you!!

No seriously, it's a big surprise for someone very special and I will reveal all when it arrives at its destination.

Now I'm off to start 9 Christmas decorations for the Freshly Blended Holiday Ornament swap. I have a lovely group of women from America, Canada and even an Aussie girl to swap with. And lucky me because one of them is one of my favourite bloggers house on hill road. I can't wait to see what will turn up in the mail.

And the winner is.......

I promised Chloe she could pull the name out of the bowl so I had to wait until she got up this morning!

'Nicole' you are the winner!!

You wrote "wow i love your 'apple & pear' fabric, its just too cute for words. thanks for the apron tutorial :o) you made it so easy i think im off to spotlight next week to get something pretty to make your apron, it will be the first 1/2 one i have as i usually prefer the full ones."

And this is your prize.



As you like full aprons, hopefully you will enjoy this one!

So please email me your address so I can send the apron on its way to its new home.

And I had planned to show the other apron but it just didn't get finished. I had a nearly 2yr old who refused to sleep today which put the mozz on any sewing plans I had. And would you believe tomorrow our power will be off ALL day. Yes from about 8am- 4pm. So I think I will camp out at my mother's all day.

Anyway I WILL tell you what I am working on.



This is the first of several aprons I have designed.



I plan to make some to sell and eventually want to make them into patterns.



So any feedback will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for joining in and don't forget for those who are interested, the Freshly Blended Holiday Ornament swap is open until November 9.