This, and This, and That....

My goodness! I can't believe it has been a week since I blogged! It's been a very busy one though, and I am soooo behind on reading blogs too, ugh! Sorry if I haven't been by yours for a while.. I will get there!

So last week we moved out of our house and handed it over to our new tenants! It took us two loads in the station wagon to get the last stuff out of the house... don't worry, it doesn't all have to go in the suitcases, lol! We met the tenants and they seemed nice and eager to move in, so I think all is well and falling into place. We are now staying with dear friends in Ballarat waiting for our visas to get stamped in our passports.

Did you notice the pretty photo at the top of this post? I'm sure you did :) It is the most gorgeous little Tea Shop in Ballarat that we went to for morning tea on my birthday on Friday. For those of you who are locals, it used to be in Buninyong, but has moved into town.


We wandered around for a while before we had tea, and then wandered around after we had tea, and still could have looked for hours and hours, it was just lovely! And guess what? I think we are going back tomorrow for a special morning tea with other special friends... :)

So yes, it was my birthday..... Elizabeth made me this yummy Brownie birthday cake:


Just in case you were wondering how old I am ... now you know... :) Half way across the world there was another cake just for me!!!


Aren't I a lucky girl?! Alice made this one for me, go have a look at her blog to see why! This one was fat free, no calories for me at least... since I didn't eat it :)

After coming home from morning tea there was a parcel in the mailbox!! It was from Fiona with these sweet luggage tags in it:


Lovely fabric to remind me of Australia! Thank You Fiona!!! And your timing was perfect!!!!

I had a lovely birthday... just doing nothing much and resting... and I made these Lavender Bottles:


I think that is a long enough post, don't you think? Still to come... another block of the month from JJ's.... money raised for Thailand.... waiting for tickets to fly to Arabia.....

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!

Word Up

I'm a little late in posting about this :) Can I blame getting ready to move countries?! Ah well, better late than never, right? Can't "change" the fact that we are busy packing, cleaning, sorting.... should be able to "change" being late though... :)


So the idea is to pick a word to describe the year to come. My word is pretty obvious.... when I read Kelly's post the first word that popped into my head was "change". And then I thought, ugh, that is pretty boring and obvious! Not pretty like blessing, or harmony, or enjoy, or hope, or... but the word kept coming up.... Yes there is going to be lots of change in my life this year with moving countries... but there are also other changes I want to make in my life... so I decided perhaps "change" wasn't such a bad word after all :)

So what particular changes do I want to make in my life? Some apply to the blogworld and my websites... change will be coming to JJ's..... I will keep you posted on that :) Others are more personal including trying to stick to a daily schedule (hahaha!!)..... I am going to make myself a list in my journal and then I will share some things with you as the year goes by.

This should be a good year I think... After all, they say a "change" is as good as a holiday :) Does that mean my whole year will be like a holiday....???!!!!

An Early Birthday Present!

On Monday I got an early Birthday Present in the mail! A gift voucher for Gail's!! Gail had put that little heart charm in as well, which was sweet. I'll have to keep that for a special project. I was so excited! I waited three whole days before I went and spent it :) Actually, I waited till Mum came so that she could enjoy the experience of being at Gail's and watch me choose :)

This is what I ended up getting:


Some useful things, and some for pure fun!


The Birdie Honey Bun is for a very, very special project that is coming to a blog near you soon!!!! Can't say more than that, but I will keep you posted :)

Then on Thursday I got my special birthday card in the mail from Christie. Isn't it beautiful?


I have such a clever sister!!!!

Thank you Mum and Dad and Dean and Christie for my very early Birthday present!!!!

Sew, sew, sew :)

Finally, a sewing day!! Yay!!! Yesterday we went to Bonnie's house for a last (sniff sniff) sewing day. Bonnie has been my friend for 18 years, and we have done a lot of sewing together. I am glad she blogs and has email, so we can still "virtually sew" together.

We got there a little late in the morning since we "had to" drop by Emma's and Lincraft for some supplies... that's what happens when everything is packed up! Once we got there we did get lots done though. I got to play on Bonnie's Brother sewing machine and finished this quilt top:


I started sewing a quilt for the art lady, a quick stack and whack with Kaffe Fasset fabric. I got 8 blocks done:


Oh, and today Ellie came home!!!!! Here she is:



Ellie has been at Christie's house for the past year, and my parents brought her back for me... if I have enough space, she will go in the suitcase :)

We have found tenants for our house, so we need to be out of this house soon... I'm still hoping I can finish the two quilts, but we will see. At least I had one lovely day of sewing with Bonnie yesterday :)

What I love about quilting...

(photo source The Courier)

This morning the kids and I headed off to help clean up the Art Gallery. There was an amazing amount of mud, gunk and debris. In the middle of the house was the bathroom, and in the shower was a big thick branch. You wonder how it got there. The mess was disheartening and nearly everything in the kitchen and rest of the house went into the huge skip in front of the gallery. It was filled in less than two hours...

As I was thinking about what our country has been through these past two years, with fires and floods, I looked around at all the people helping out - young and old. There were so many people pitching in from making cuppas and sandwiches, to carrying out ruined furniture and scooping up smelly mud... I thought of how the quilt communities all over the world made quilts for the fire victims, and how they and bloggers are now rallying for those who have lost everything in the floods....

Possesions are just possessions. We all know that. Money helps rebuild homes and lives, and is a real necessity at this time. Where do quilts fit in?

Quilts may be seen as frivolous non-essentials, but they have personality.. they are made with love... with many stitches and often with prayers as they are being made... I find it very hard to describe just what I am feeling, but when I got the video below in my inbox this morning, it just confirmed my thoughts... It's only a few minutes long, but I know you will be blessed by watching it, like I was.



This lady asked God what her talents were and how she could use them for Him. I believe that we as quilters and crafters have a talent given to us from God that we can use to bless others. And it warms my heart to see that so many in the world today are taking up the challenge.... and reaching out to help, and give...

The Clean-up Begins

The water has gone down in Skipton and the clean up has begun. Elizabeth and I went to check on our friends' chooks while they were away and also see Julie at the art gallery to see if we could help. It was heartbreaking to see all her artworks lying on the grass in front of the gallery.... the water had been up to the ceiling and she has lost 90% of the art. I could have cried seeing it all there. I know that we can't take it with us, but it is still hard to see things like her paintings that a lot of love and work have gone into ruined. It was great to see that she had lots of people out there helping out, and we will go down tomorrow to help for a few hours.

What I really want to do is make her a quilt.... if I get time. No news on our visas or flights yet, so you never know, I might still get a chance.

I actually did some sewing today! Yay! Not much... but something... :) I borrowed an old Singer from a lovely lady down the road, and it sews very nicely. I went to take a photo, but the camera battery has gone flat!!! Ugh! And do you think I can find the charger?! Nope. I hope it didn't get packed in the container... I thought I had kept it out. Oh well. I shall have another look for it tomorrow.

It's late and we need to get up early tomorrow... so I shall head to bed, thankful that the rain has stopped for a while, and the nights are cooler.....

High and Dry

(photo source The Courier)

It has been a very interesting few days to say the least. On Wednesday we went to spend the day with another homeschooling family about an hour's drive away. I decided to go the back way rather than through Ballarat thinking that with the wet weather it'd be good to avoid the traffic. Avoid the traffic we did, but instead hit on roads under water.

After the first big "puddle" (which we thought was rather fun) they kept getting bigger and wider and then started getting scary. The worst part was when we passed the house above - there was a huge amount of water in front of us, about 20m by 20m wide. An emergency truck was ahead of me and a guy in by the fence doing something futile to try to get the water to flow I think... I beeped him and asked if he thought I could get through and he said he thought I could if I went slow. He said it was only a few inches deep (ummm... it was deeper where he was!). So with two angels in disguise (the truck in front of me and a 4WD behind me) I went through the middle of the road... slowly.....

Needless to say we didn't go back that way, and the next day they had closed that road off. We went back via Ballarat and hit locusts instead...

Yesterday we had to go into Ballarat and there were some roads under, but today it was worse. Thankfully we didn't have to go out and just stayed home and watched the news reports instead... also called up family and friends to make sure everyone was alright. This was the view from a friend's house that we had lunch at yesterday:


Glad we were there yesterday and not today!

An old wares shop that I like to visit now and then in Beaufort:

(photo source: The Age)

And this is the main street of Skipton just 10 min up the road:

(photo source The Courier)

I often go to the supermarket there if I don't want to drive all the way in to Ballarat. My heart goes out to this town because in September they were flooded too. Elizabeth has art lessons here, and last time the flood gutted the art gallery. I just noticed on Wednesday driving through that she had workmen there fixing things up, and now the waters have gone through again. It must be so devastating for her.

Having said all this, we are blessed to be high and dry in our little spot in town. Mum and Dad were coming to visit us for the weekend (and bring me my Ellie Elna!) but we decided they'd better stay safe at home rather than get caught up in the mayhem.

Well I hope I haven't bored you with news and images that you have probably seen a lot of lately. We did have a lovely day on Wednesday once we made it to our friends' house! The kids played world domination Risk together and had lots of fun. Us mums talked quilts, and more quilts, and more quilts.. and then actually did some sewing! I worked on a quick charm pack quilt, this is how far I got:


I'll get another chance to work on it when I visit Bonnie next week for a sewing day :)

Stay safe and dry everyone....

Christie's Cutesie Crafts

Now you all know I have a sister, don't you? Remember I made Gail's Christmas Wishes quilt for her for Christmas... That's it on her couch in the pic above :) Oh, now to finish mine!!!! I love it :)

Back to my sister. Her name is Christie and she is nine years younger than me. I had been praying an awful long time for a little sister and I was sooooo excited when she finally came along! I got to practice all my mothering skills on her...(poor thing, but she did survive I assure you!).

When she was a teenager we started doing craft together. Back in those days, believe it or not, I did not quilt! I did paper crafts with my little sis - we made cards and did stamping and embossing and decoupage and ... and... and... We did markets together, and looking back at what we were trying to sell.. well, hmmm,... let's change the subject shall we?!

When I had babies and not much time for crafting, I gave away the card making, and changed to scrapbooking.... Christie kept going with the stamping and card making and also took up scrapbooking. Then I got addicted to quilting! And gave nearly all paper crafts away, but Christie kept going and is now a master of paper crafts! Look at some of the gorgeous things she has made:




She is also a master baker (ahem, I think I taught her that.. got to give myself some credit for her upbringing :) ) :


Recently she has made a foray into fabric... yes!! But NOT sewing.. oh no... she does not like needle and thread! Instead she has been making gorgeous hair clips, hair ties and magnets:


Oh and she also has the most scrumptious, yummy children :)


I am NOT biased or anything.... :)

So why am I telling you all of this? It's because she has finally started up a blog! Yay! It is called Christie's Cutesie Crafts andI'm hoping you will go over there and welcome her to blogland!! She will be blogging about her stamping and card making and things she makes for market.... so I'm sure some of you will enjoy meeting her and seeing all the creative things she does. Please go say "hi" to her HERE!

Tomorrow I will tell you all about yesterday when I faced flooded roads and pestilence and got to sew a little :)

Tra la la...

Can't say I've done anything exciting the past few days. I think I have just temporarily crashed... I went to the doctor yesterday and she signed on my medicals - yay! Now I am waiting on one slip of paper from Saudi and then I can send all our paperwork and passports off to the embassy for visas... not sure how long it will take still.

In the meantime I am missing Bernie and Nina so much! Why is it that when you don't have a sewing machine in the house you suddenly really NEED it? I slipped and fell down the other day and ripped a hole in my new black pants. I was not impressed. I decided to get some lace to put on round each leg to hide the hole (it is too big to darn), but of course I need a SEWING MACHINE.... Elizabeth got some new clothes that need a bit of altering, but of coure I need a SEWING MACHINE.... I got an idea for a wallhanging, but of course I need a SEWING MACHINE....

Ok, enough whining :) I know, I should just work on my crochet, yoyos or hexies. Ok. I will. I will not whine anymore :)

As you can see from Elizabeth's blog, we went to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader on Thursday. It was really good. Can't wait to see the next one!

Thank you for all your advice with regards to dealing with my waterlogged phone. This is the way I dealt with it:

1. Said "Bother!"
2. Pulled it out of the glass.
3. Waved it up and down in the air shaking water all over the room.
4. Put it down again and ran to help the packers with something they needed.
5. Forgot about it until the next day.
6. Went to use it and it worked.

So there is another option that may work next time you drop yours in water. I seem to recall last year that I dropped my mobile into something as well... but can't remember what it was..... not water, but something else.... anyone remember? I'm sure I blogged about it... ah well.. not important at all....

No pics today and well done if you have made it through my ramblings on this post... hopefully next time I'll have something a bit more interesting to share :)

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

January Finishing Stitches

My house is looking rather sad and empty. Reality is starting to hit, and now I just can't wait for our visas to come through so that we can book our tickets. Until then... it is time to get going with some stitching! I kept a few stitchery ufos out so that I can work on them while I am in limbo, and I have noticed that most of quilting blogland is listing ufos at the moment.... ah, the joy of starting a new year!

Now this year is going to be full of changes for me.. not just in real life, but on the net too. I'll be "announcing" some of these changes bit by bit.. the first one is that Finishing Stitches is now officially hosted by Alice as well :) As usual we will have a charm pack up for grabs each month, and since I have no idea how the postal service in Saudi works, I will buy the charm packs and Alice will send them :) How is that for teamwork? She'll also be helping out with posting our finishes while I am off galavanting to different countries...

So, here is the new button for Finishing Stitches:


If you can update it in your sidebars that would be great.

A reminder of what it is all about:

Part A - Finish a UFO that has been lying around for more than a month. Really, I don't care how long it has been a UFO - whatever your definition is, is fine by me :) I just want us all to get things done that we have started. Just finish a UFO - big, small, made of paper, wool, fabric, paint, whatever.

Part B - this is only for quilters I'm afraid. It is to finish a BLOCK for ANY quilt (UFO or just started). The idea is to finish the bigger projects, we divide them into smaller goals. You can work out what your definition of a block is. Small block, big block, stitched block, applique... Again, just as long as you are finishing....

Please let me know when you finish something for either Part A or B, by leaving a comment on any post or sending me an email, and either send me a pic or point me to a pic on your blog that I can pinch.

You can join in on one or both :)

Leave a comment on this blog post if you want to join in this month or email me.

Let's get this new year of finishes started!!!

A lady of leisure...

....that's me today :) I am sitting down crocheting while all around me things are being packed! This is the view from my kitchen sink:

Yeah... I know... I need to wash my windows... :) But you can vaguely see the container on the back of the truck and some stuff in there....

Lots of these around the place:


The container slowly filling up....


Yes people, it is really happening!!! This is my poor sewing room:

Oi! Where's my fabric???!!! On the other hand... all those empty shelves,.. hmmm... what could I fill them with ?! No, I will be good, because we only have 4 suitcases of 20kg each to take on the plane... :)

So back to my crocheting... I am making a tablecloth, with DMC 10 white cotton and a 2.5mm hook:


You can't tell how small it is but so far it's about 7 inches square. I can just picture this on my table on top of a blue tablecloth... Got a ways to go still! But it is something I can take on the plane with me and alternate between yoyos and hexagons :)

In other news - I dropped my phone in a glass of water. I lead such an exciting life.

Happy New Year!

I spent my New Year's Eve cleaning out the pantry, and New Year's Day cleaning bedrooms and washing quilts :) All those fun things to get ready for the packers who are coming in 3 sleeps!!!

The kids are staying with their grandparents for a week so it is pretty quiet here. We packed their suitcases already, and I now need to pack mine... I am having trouble deciding which projects to pack! I've decided I need to pack some of my ufos and work on them, not just new projects. I didn't finish as many things last year as I wanted to! So, I think Finishing Stitches better start up soon again, don't you?

Well, can't stay and chat.. need to get back to sorting out.... I'll be back soon :)