Merry Christmas everyone!

Hope you all have a fantastic day!! XX

Harry

I love Harry Potter. Love the books, love the movies. I'm watching Order of the Phoenix at the mo, the sad bit where Sirius dies and the evil Voldemort appears. He has no nose and is nasty. I shall call henceforth call him Tom, just like Dumbledore.

Birthday Boy

Carlito, mi partito, turned 3 on the 31st of October. I have only just got time to blog about it as my in laws came over for the party and we have been busy, busy, busy!

He had a fab day - it was a scorcher here in Melbourne. Superhero costume party in the park turned full-on Buzz Lightyear get-up into shorts and t-shirt - luckily i have a soft spot for super hero clothing!

His little face was smiling all day - he is so cute I just want to eat him up - and yes, I know that I'm biased!

He loved having his little mates around him - Hughie, Myles and big Charlie were all there and they sat, chatted and cuddled up 'round the cheezels, mince pies and lolly cake.

Big bro won the musical statues with his happenin' moves! Victory dance was a sight to behold!

Halloween that night, a change of costume, more junk food - what more does the proverbial 3 year old need on the biggest day in his year?!

Happy Birthday, beautiful, delightful boy! Your curly top and cheeky grin never fail to bring a smile to my face.

Vote for Katy!! (I'm a Ginger Monkey)

She's got fab ideas, is lots of fun and her blog is always a good read!

I'm back!

I've been neglecting the blog lately - not the reading of other people's but the writing of said blog.

 It gives me the snake eye every time I open it to read the blog -a- rama list and pulsates "September 11th" at me to remind me that I am woefully neglectful. It had to be September the 11th didn't it?! A double whammy.

What have I been doing with my sad self?

Apart from the usual plethora of house-ey jobs that I hate -  tidying up kids stuff, making beds, doing dishes, cooking (well, actually, I quite like cooking) etc, etc....

Sewing

Around the World Quilting Bee - latest offerings

Bags a-plenty for the shop...go check them out at de nimes in Camberwell! The girls are great and have fabulous taste in everything, including bags!

Little girl's dresses
This one is for Daisy grace - found the fabric at Amitie, had to be done.

I've also been making Goggle / Sunglasses cases and swimming bags for the boys. Photos to come!

XX

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do...

A special bag for my friend Lucimar whose birthday is tomorrow.

Fabric is vintage, from the sale at Patchwork House a couple of months ago. It was pretty musty smelling so had to soak it in vinegar then wash a couple of times.

Red and white lining - mobile phone pocket, red ric-rac and button clasp.

Fourth bag in 3 days - I'M ON FIRE!!!

Went out to our favourite kid-friendly restaurant for dinner tonight. I bought 3/4 of my seafood and avocado salad home. The portions are huge! We can usually order one Spaghetti Carbonara to feed all four of us - and the kids eat loads of it. I'm on the weight reduction bandwagon though, hence the slightly healthier option.

In and out in an hour..., home for 7pm bedtime..., me not having to cook..., Beautiful...!

Bag-a-licious!

Once upon a time (yesterday) I made a bag. It wasn't actually this bag, but another one.

I took it to Kinder and showed some of the gals. They really liked it!

Then Charlie and I went shopping. I went into a favourite clothes shop of mine. The owner saw my bag. She loved it! She asked me if I would make some bags for her shop.

 I came home and started drafting patterns. I bought some fabric and used some that I had in my stash. I cut into my Heather Ross! Glory be!

I finished up all the bits and bobs tonight, including the label, which I love.

Will the discerning women of the inner-east of Melbourne fall in love with my creations, of which there will initally be five??? 

Watch this space!

Japanese blocks

I'm having a bit of trouble with my brain today. Can't seem to get simple measurements right and have had to unpick this ruddy thing 3 times so far as it's too small. So much for simple Log Cabin! Arghhhhh!

Mind you, look at this minefield. I particularly like the Clone Wars cards that mysteriously find there way to where I'm working!

DQS7

I finished my mini quilt!

It was very hard to give it away as I fell more and more in love with each stitch.

Now I am going to make a replica for the centre of my Beehive blocks which will hopefully be a quilt for our bed.

Dance off your assets!

I'm a huge fan of cheesy pop music. Unashamedly!!!!! Everyone who knows me well knows about my sometimes questionable taste in music and movies.

I love this song!! Go Guy!

Makes me smile!

Makes me get up and dance madly around the room with the kids singing into the imaginary microphone!!

Happy Birthday, my baby!

It's official - we have a five year old!

It seems like only a heartbeat ago we had a bundle of fuzzy nuzzling and gorgeous new baby smell, wrapped up in a blue and white blanket...now he's on the first real step to Big Boy. I know now what all those other mother's who said to make the most of it, as time will fly by, mean now. I miss that baby but I adore the big boy.

I adore his quirky little facial expressions, his morning cuddles in bed, his infectious giggle, his "Mummy - i love you" 's that can fill the gap at any lull in conversation and most of all his innate sense of kindness and empathy. He is truly a beautiful person, inside and out.

I wish all the best things in the world for you, Dom - Fun, Laughter, Love.

Lovely Sunday

Tried to go to Collingwood Children's Farm for breakfast this morning - started persisting down about 5 mins into our short drive so we flagged it and went to Olmecs on Bridge Rd, Richmond instead. Sensational! Kids had a fine nutritious breakfast of pancakes with maple syrup and ice cream, baby cino with marshmallows and an OJ (oh well, at least it was freshly squeezed!) 

We are now convinced that Charlie has an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other telling him what to do from one moment to the next. Those cute blonde curls and cheeky grin help him get away with murder!

Hi Hip Hurray! Have finished my 24 Halloween blocks for the Halloween Spooktacular Swap. 12 9 patch blocks were finished ages ago but i was dragging the anchor trying to get the 12 themed block Creepy critters done - here they are! I used an embroidery pattern off the net by Fern Treacy at craftblog.com.au
So now to the Dolls quilt for DQS 7! A sneak peek...

1 Creepy Critter down...

...12 more to go...

Halloween Spooktacular Block Swap - say no more...

My Creative Space and I need motivation!

I read lots of lovely blogs every day and often see "My Creative Space" entries...this is mine. It is a bit of a tip at the moment. It was even worse before the lovely cleaner came on Saturday and vacuumed up all the tiny bits of fabric, iron- on thingummy and thread. Raw edge applique does not lend itself very well to tidiness, I have discovered, well, not anywhere in my universe, anyway.

I am trying to get this finished for a little girl who's is a special family friend. It was her birthday yesterday but instead of finishing it I just sat around the house all day eating chocolate and watching movies with the kids! Well, to be honest, Dom played games on the computer in his pyjamas, Charlie watched TV and played with toys and I watched Baby Mama and a French movie called The Dinner Guest. I ate two whole packets of lollies! 

We went to the Kinder trivia night on Saturday night and had a great time, but I drank loads of Cosmopolitans. I had a great time but was really well behaved. Woke up Sunday morning, no hangover! No dry horrors! Bloody miracle! But I felt really lethargic all day and couldn't stop eating for the life of me. I knew there had to be payback somewhere! The quilt got sold. Could've done better. Enough said.

Today I have to get  going on this! And the Halloween blocks need doing and the Dolls quilt too. And Dom's Star Wars birthday invites. No more Cosmos for me.

Finito!

The Kinder quilt is finally finished! I am so happy with it, I'm tempted to buy it myself! Sadly, big daddy has put his foot down so some other lucky bidder at the Trivia Night may walk away with it. I might have to ply him with lots of alcohol to get my way! 


After a lot of deliberation as to how much more work it would be, I decided to free-motion quilt around the kid's drawings. I'm so glad I did. They were looking a bit bereft as I'd ditch quilted (or tried to keep to the ditch as much as I could, anyway!) the pieced log-cabin borders.

Here is Dom's block - he drew himself in a Rainbow t-shirt. He was a rainbow butterfly at the dress-up day last year, so this seems to be a bit of a recurring theme!
I love the back - I had orange in mind for the sashing but when I went to Patchwork House, Kathy and I decided that the stripes made everything pop a bit more so I decided to use this gorgeousness from the Shanghai Edition Collection by art gallery quilts for the back instead. I bound it in a cute green shaded fabric called Chloe by Janet Braxon for P and B Textiles that reminds me of Murano glass beads.

I took it in on Thursday and the kids were major-ly excited to find themselves  on there. I encouraged them to insist forcefully (in a 4 yr old manner) that their parents buy it for them, so no one will be thanking me!

little people

Lots of little people are featured on the Kinder quilt I have been working on for the last couple of days! Quilts from each group get auctioned off at the trivia night on August 1st.

I got the 25 strong Frog posse to draw themselves with fabric pens and pieced a kind of scrappy log cabin around each drawing. It's sashed in black and white stripes and backed in orange. I pieced some of the fabrics from the front onto the back too.

I'm quilting it at the moment. Kids are home from activities due to more coughs and colds - will they never end??? Poor old Dom sounds like he's been on 20 a day for 50 years! I mean, it's the first day back from the hols and we're at home AGAIN! 

Still, a little outing later on to post the latest ATWQB block to Glaucia in Brazil. These are the latest offerings. 

MJ

I haven't written this in ages - who knows if anyone reads it, but I don't care!

First things first, just watched the Michael Jackson memorial, weeping periodically throughout at how human the people who loved him made him seem to me. Especially Brooke Shields, who must have known how hard life was for him in many ways that others wouldn't have known. 

I love his music, especially the early Motown stuff, Off the Wall, Bad, Thriller and a few songs from when he started to look REALLY weird -as opposed to pretty weird. My favourite songs are Black or White, The Way You Make Me Feel, Man In the Mirror, She's Out of My Life and Human Nature.

I remember watching the Motown 25 celebration on TV when I was at University - all the old greats that I love were on - Diana, the Four Tops, The Temptations, Martha and the Vandellas - and then Michael came out with his brothers, did a fantastic medley of their best songs, and then performed Billie Jean with that hat and the moonwalk. Thank God I recorded it and got to watch it over and over 'til the tape was knackered.

I saw him in concert for the HIStory tour in NZ back in the day. Still the best concert I've ever been to. He was simply electrifying.

He made some horrendous decisions sometimes and we'll never know what really went on but he had three little children that he loved and they loved him. He was their Dad and that's the bottom line really - all the rest is just static.

To paraphrase Pip from meetmeatmikes, RIP Michael Jackson, talented, fragile nutter. Thanks for being the backing vocalist in so many of my memories. X

Giveaway closed...prizewinner here!

Hi all

With a little help from my friend, the Random Number generator, the winner of the Prints Charming fabric is......sandyandcosmo, Number 67!! Congratulations! Emailing now to get sending details. Thanks to all for entering -- hope you enjoyed cruising blogland.

Great giveaway

Ravenhill has a fantastic giveaway happening - get on over there to check it out!

My Home Town -circa 1988

An old friend of mine from high school just added this video about the Dargaville Races to Facebook. When I watched it I had to do the same! 

A taste of  life in small town New Zealand. I had a lovely childhood growing up on a farm. Mum and Dad still live in Dargy as does my brother and niece. 

Lots of people I knew, lots of memories.

Lazy Sundays

My Man got up at a most inhospitable time to hit a little white ball around on the grass so the boys and I thought we'd make a bit of a thing of our Sunday Breakfast.

Pancakes are my specialty - I say this unashamedly - I have been making them since I was about 7 as they are my Dad's favourite and I've pretty much perfected them, according to my family! I used to be a strict Lemon and Sugar girl but have been swayed by the gorgeousness that is Golden Syrup. Dom's taste see-saws between GS and Honey. Charlie and the Man favour Maple Syrup. They are not the most healthy breakfast I've ever eaten but, good lord, they taste sensational!!

We are coffee drinkers. I try to like tea but I just don't get it. I like the dainty little cups I see in T2 and I just adore teapots but they would be purely ornamental. 

We bought this glorious ensemble a couple of years ago and it was well worth every dollar as I get a skinny latte every morning without having to fork out $3.00 or more for Boiled Essence of Saddled Leather. And the littlies do love a baby-cino with compulsory marshmallows on the side (it's quite embarrassing in the cafes when there are none forthcoming...!)

CBeebies is on the box, we're all still in our jamies, so I've been getting on with the next block in the Around the World Quilting Bee series. I love it so much I want to keep it all to myself!

Finished the birthday Coin Quilt on friday night. She loved it, and the Elmo cake (Elmo at 18, I ask you?!!)

Birthday party on Monday for out friend Charlie B. Robots are the flavour de jour so I whipped up a Charlie Bot for him.

Busy weeks are all the better with a lazy Sunday attached!