Phew!!

Christmas is over for another year.  I'm kind of sad it's over, we had such a lovely day.

Some Christmas gifts for friends.  You can find the recipe here.

Christmas presents opened in the morning.

Yummy Christmas breakfast at my parents house.

Quiet midday time, relaxing.

Drive to Brisbane in the afternoon.

Great Christmas dinner in Brisbane with all the relatives.  We had a blast.  My voice was hoarse and my face ached from laughing so much.

Sorry this is the only photo I had of the buffet, it was too dark and I was shy and didn't want to be the only one taking photos of the food.

I remembered to take this photo. This was a plate of fabulous seafood, prawns, crab and salad.

Moi and my dad

BP and me

I hope Christmas was a wonderful time for you and now you have some time to relax and  enjoy the next few days.

Next party -  New Years Eve!

Favourite Things Friday

For FTF this week my favourite is my baby, Bitchypoo......... again, as it's her 18th birthday in the next few days.
In Australia, turning 18 is a big milestone, it means you are legally an adult, you can vote and legally drink.

She has blossomed into a really lovely young adult, she is strong willed,  has a keen sense of justice and will stand up for what is right,  is responsible,  level headed,  a bit of a worrier, has a wicked sense of humour and is very mature, (except when it comes to being photographed).
I have very few photos of her as she loathes having her photo taken,  I've had to find some by stealth. She'll probably kill me for putting them on here.

So for this post only .............

Happy Birthday Emma.

This one taken by a friend quite a few years ago.

This photo was taken when she was 13,  I had it mounted on canvas and hangs in my bedroom.

I had to search through lots of My Space type photos, these are a couple of the very few ok pics of her.

Lovely child, not!

Her 17th birthday last year. She looks so young.

After  her braces were removed.

Last year at her school Formal.

She had her makeup professionally done, she looked beautiful, it was understated and looked fabulous. She hated it, she thought she looked like a drag queen so took most of it off. I did say she is strong willed.

A very recent self portrait.

I wish the very best for you in the future, I'm so very proud of you and love you heaps.

I really do hope you let me take some nice photos of you next week.

Linking to Shay at Quilting In My Pyjamas for Favourite Things Friday.

Edited to add: I can't believe I forgot to say, she was born on Mothers Day, the best present ever for Mothers Day!

Tuesday tidbits (and tails)

Another quilt finished. After a very shaky start on this one when I thought it looked, umm, well,....... crap,  you can read all about it here if you really really want to.  Apparently I was the only one who thought it looked crap, so I persevered and I am so glad I did, as it has turned out beautifully even if I do say so myself.  Which proves two things.
1. The beautiful picture in my head of my finished quilt may not necessarily be the best and only option.
2. My fabric/pattern choices are not crap most of the time, and I need to embrace this.

My mum popped by one day and saw the fabric, not the quilt top, and said she really liked it, so that was the incentive to finish it and give it to her for her birthday. Unfortunately all that procrastinating earlier meant that it was a rush to get it finished. I was very lucky to find someone who could quilt this for me at short notice, so that it was ready for my mum's birthday last week.

I chose a simple all over quilting pattern to compliment the floral shapes in the fabric.

My mum loved it and has put in an order for a matching quilt for my dad.  I have picked out all the more masculine patterns from the range and have chosen a different pattern design.  I'll start it sometime between now and next year, when I get my quilting mojo back again.

Much to my surprise, my sister loved it too and has asked me if I could make her a quilt for her **th birthday.  I have two years to finish that.

In other news, I couldn't resist a couple of bargains. The first one is so cute, however it's knit your own dog, not crochet your own dog. I'm either going to have to knit again or try and use the patterns to crochet dogs, yeah I can really see that happening!  But they are soooooo cute!!!!!!

The second one is 125 Japanese Quilt  Blocks, absolutely fabulous blocks in this book but it will probably take me years to be proficient enough to make any of them. In the mean time I can dream about them.

Update on the puppy.

It chewed through Bitchypoo's phone charger cord so she has had to buy a new one. Hmmmmmmmm.

The next one comes under the heading eeeeeeeeeewwwwwww.
I have stood in dog poop ( bare feet) three times so far, not happy. Mrs P has suggested that it could possibly be an as yet undiscovered miracle ingredient in keeping looking skin youthful. In that case my feet should look like a 20 yr olds. Until I know this for sure I will be looking at the floor at all times when walking.

ETA - Today we only had a few mms of rain, but from Friday afternoon to yesterday afternoon we had 328mm of rain (just under 13 inches),..........we are still here!!!