Happy New Year!!!

I know - it is way past New Year and most people have already packed away their decorations for another year (11 months) and are into sewing Valentines or Mother's Day pressies but I am still catching up!
We had a lovely little Christmas, did very little until later in the afternoon when Smellie 3 and his GF and Smellie 4 came over, along with StepSmellie 1 and his GF, and StepSmellie2. We did the pressie thing and had cold meats and salads, frozen icecream pudding, and Granma's Christmas Pudding. It was very peaceful.
My Sweetheart gave me a new camera!!! Hooray! Another Fuji - the big brother of the one I left in the bush. There are a heap of photos on it but at the moment it is going back from whence it came. When I am videoing you can tell when I zoom. And not just cos things get bigger but cos you can HEAR the little cogs and levers workign inside. Not a good thing. SO no photos of my pressies (lovely boys picked very good sewing quilty things for me) or post Christmas when we went back up to Mitta Mitta to The Witches Garden for a few days.

I was very disciplined with the tree this year - all pink and silver:
It also had lights sparkling away. These photos were taken with The Sweetheart's new iPhone which I was still learning to drive...

I found this very sweet little Advent Tree in Big W ($10) with cute hand painted decorations -  tiny brass hooks and eyelets to dangle them from.

There will be more when I get my camera back - much more interesting when you have  photos to look at!

Time flies

I have been away doing all sorts of things.
Last weekend was Labour Day long weekend. To celebrate the 8 hour day everyone in Victoria takes a holiday...

We went to Mitta Mitta to visit my brother and sister in law at their wonderful Witches Garden.
This past weekend was extremely rainy - a remnant of a couple of cyclones that have been wandering around the northern parts of Australia. So warm(ish) tropical rain bucketing down. We drove up in the rain to the Dartmouth Dam because it was too wet to do anything else:


And look at the rain pouring down the spillway cuttings (been years since there was water over the spillway from the dam, sadly) into the Mitta River:


Same as last year - the Might Mitta Muster was on. (Check out the link for last year's photos in the sunshine!).
Because of the rain all the woodchop events were cancelled, and many of the horse events too. There was a clever young bloke with a pile of whips he had made himself, and he was thrashing them around his ears, and around the ears of anyone who was brave (silly) enough to be his 'assistant'. What looks like smoke is the rainwater evaporating off the ends of his whips at the speed of sound as he cracks them:

And THEN I stayed on for a few days and helped my S2 and his darling move into their new home in Albury. This was some of the 1/3 truckload of boxes that had been in storage for the five years they have been working in Europe, and also some of the treasures they air-freighted home from Dublin. It was like Christmas for them, discovering all sorts of delights:

The bride is wearing her hen's night veil with the red devil horns...
All those boxes are now unpacked and their contents tucked away in their right places. It seems the only thing that got smashed along the way was the Man of Steel tin (sorry about the blurry pic - I was laughing too hard at this symbol of irony):


Tomorrow I shall post some pics of the quilts I have made for them and that I not only got to take photos of but GOT TO WASH (one was for his 18th birthday, the other for his 21st. Only one of them had been washed. EVER. He is now 33... And he lived under them all through 5 years at Uni. They were pretty stinky...)

Christmas IS Coming...

Yep, even tho I have been trying to believe yesterday was November 23rd it didn't happen. Never got that extra month.
I had a minor panic attack when someone on the radio said "...and only a day and a half left to get all your shopping done..." I could do with an extra few days at least.



Anyway - the tree is up and sparkling away! The tree itself is the 8' tall wire stand that usually is in the bathroom with soap and stuff on it's shelves and towels hanging off. Circled by fake pine tree garland I have had for 20 years, and lights, and lovely antique shiny red glass balls I bought in a garage sale in San Francisco in the 80s. At the bottom is a little wooden train I painted in the 80s with my boys initials as the carriages.

Jake is one of Santa's Little Helpers and he KNOWS he isn't allowed on the couch.
This is his compromise!!!! So naughty!


On Tuesday I had a Little Christmas with Smellie 4 - we met half way from where he lives in Melbourne (in time) at Sunbury. This is what he and the Gorgeous Clancye gave me.
(More photos of the Quilt Calendar following).
They also bought The Sweetheart two very appropriate pressies - "The History of Porsche" (lovely coffee table sized book full of wonderful photos), and a little Matchbox 911 that S4 found on the 'Net. It has had a roll-over, and obviously is as well loved as The Sweetheart's 911 is (tho his DOES have a windscreen...) and was made in 1978 - almost the same age as his 911. Very clever pressies, thank you darling ones. (And one can never have too much Chanel 5. Has been my perfume of choice since the 1970s and I love it. Even tho they have changed the formula somewhat. Probably used up all the rare species' juices they once used...).

This is what the Quilting Calendar looks like:
It has a quilt on one day, and the following days have the patterns for that quilt, and then there is another one! What a way to spend the year - looking at quilt patterns to start each day.

Off to finish a quilt which is a pressie, and do a few things - then to Mitta to the mighty Witches Garden for Christmas, hooray!!!!!

Stay safe and happy Christmas time to everyone!

Lovely looooong weekends....!!

How cute is this little thing! It is a possum scarf - I bought it at The Mighty Mitta Muster last weekend. It is for Moo (the grandkid) who lives in Hobart. The Sweetheart and I went up on Saturday morning to Mitta Mitta for another wonderful stay with my brother and sister in law at The Witches Garden.

The Mighty Mitta Muster was on Sunday. It has been running for about 20 years, and getting better each year!

There was show jumping!


Skye and Ellie won a prize in the Dog Jumping











And then there was the tent pegging exhibition - wonderful and exciting






Wild bull rides for little kids!! And wood chops for everyone else!










We stayed at The Witches Garden in a quilt-laden and extremely comfortable old bed in the tree tops. The best way to sleep.
Two Tawny Frogmouths belong to the garden since they were injured in accidents and can't fly.
Flowers from the garden.

And when we got home Jake was EXHAUSTED from playing with three friendly dogs, staying up all night inviting possums to come down and play, sniffing out bush rats and possibly snakes (shudder), and acquiring a whole host of flea friends to bring home with him.
Sleep well Jake!


And I still haven't worked out how to make a nice page, especially when adding photos.It is getting frustrating so I will just publish and be damned!!!

This was about 1965 I think, taken at my Auntie Pat's and Uncle Ernie's place in Kerang. They still live in the same house (different carpet tho).
Back row is Noela, Elspeth and I, with Lew, Alpal and Marion in the front row. I think Mum must have got a bulk deal on the hair cuts, we all look the same. But SHINY! There were six of us in 8 years (Dad wanted a son and heir and Mum (!) made the mistake of having four girls before figuring it out.

I have been sewing today. Cobblestone blocks in reds and blues for a bushfire quilt. It is actually kind of cool - good sewing weather to make up for the extraordinarily scary hot and horrible times we have recently had.

I managed to get an emergency appointment tomorrow with a fang fairy from Dental Services Vic - because lots of my teeth hurt I don't have to join the 3 year waiting list. Oh, the luck of being on a sick person pension - too poor to pay for a 'proper' dentist but with all the time in the world to sit and wait for one to become available...

The Sweetheart and I are going to Mitta Mitta for the long weekend. The Mighty Mitta Muster is on, and then Sunday evening there is The Wombat Gully Music Festival (invitation only). We will be staying at The Witches Garden again - always a good place to be.

Thank you all for reading me and for the lovely comments. It is only going to get better!