....and a happy New Year!!

Well, another year over and a new one to look forward to. What a wonderful Christmas we had. Lots of family gatherings.

Christmas breakfast out on the front verandah. On Christmas Eve, we went to the six o'clock mass at the kids' school then came home and had cold chicken, prawns, ham and all the salads. It was such a lovely lead-in to the main day.

Christmas lunch, a beautiful roast meal with all the trimmings. About half the presents had been opened by this time so we needed to boost our energy levels to be able to get back into it!

Mum loved her quilt, even though I had to do the yank-back because the binding and label wasn't done. I'll pick it up today and finish it for her. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.

Four generations.

I was absolutely delighted to unwrap this excellent ruler holder. Darling son made it for me and it is just perfect. I've loaded up all my rulers, ready to go! I had floated it as a suggestion earlier this year, but didn't get much of a response so presumed it was a non-starter. I don't know why. Every time I ask him to build me something, he always does and does a marvellous job.

Ready for action! These things shoot foam bullets and for a tiny while, it was decided that a lot of fun could be had, firing at me.  I told the four of them that I would beat them all around the ears till they bled I gently discouraged that plan and they took themselves off down to the pool area.

The day after Boxing Day, still recovering!

Then my brother, his wife and two little daughters came over for yet more food for a BBQ on Friday night. They had come down from Townsville to see us all for Christmas. We have had the most wonderful family time over the past few days. Now time to clean up the mess, put everything away and start the new year.

SBS is under way! I finished Cross and Crown this morning. I wish I had used a different fabric for the small points though. They're not showing up very well and the ones in the top don't have any of the pink in them but it was all too much mucking around, so this block is also as done as it's going to be!

Christmas time, misteltoe and wine.........

Another really busy week and a couple of goodies ready to wrap.

Gay Paree apron for beautiful daughter. Each year, we try to outdo each other with a Desperate Housewives pack.  This year, Angie's pack will be this apron, some crocheted dishcloths, rubber gloves with fake fur pure maribou trim, Bella champagne and Lindt chocolates. I will pack it all into a Coles cooler bag.

Another apron, this time for darling son who has built an amazing bar on his deck. It's not very clear, but I have embroidered the Cheers logo in black at the top of the apron, which is just made out of white cotton. With it goes two black hand towels, Cocktail Parties for Dummies and a half dozen bottles of what I truly hope is cordial to put in champagne.

We took Mum and gorgeous grandbaby up to Yandina to the Ginger Factory. What a great day we had.

We visited Santa and pondered the difficulties of getting around the world on nought but reindeer power

and had the best train ride! Hannes is looking a tad more manic than usual, due to having eaten some of a lolly pop which was bigger than his head.

Good news! A giant Christmas parcel arrived at the front door and I told Hannes he could open the bag. 'But what if there's a present for me in there?' he wanted to know in typical male fashion. Told him he needn't worry but as he was unpacking the goodies and putting them under the tree, he spotted a tag with his name on it!  He was ecstatic! Inside was a present from Yinda! A Christmas badge making kit so of course, we had to get to work on it right away.

Ooooh! The concentration required!

In the same parcel was a gift to Suby from Merc. Hannes was delighted about that too but Bill the Builder was off in the Suby so we had to wait for another day. Finally!! Suby is decked out in his Christmas clobber!

And the end of an era. Graduating from kindy. No more babies. Only school children now.  How quickly this year has gone by. In nearly every photo I have of the milestones in Hannes' life, Angela is also in the frame taking the same photo.

There's been lots of sleepovers, lots of visits, lots of shopping, absolutely no lots of housework so I am totally freaking shattered am feeling a wee bit weary. Hang the misteltoe. Gimme the wine. I might wander off for a good stiff drink cooling beverage and put my feet up before making the final decision on whether or not to quilt a quilt for Mum for Christmas. I hope everyone's Christmas preparations are tootling along beautifully! I love Christmas.

At this time of the year.........

things start getting busier and slowing down. How can that be? I think that by this time in the year, everyone is starting to feel a wee bit tired and in need of a good break. I have had some happy days and some a little bit sad. All my babies are growing up and next year will see the littlest guy going to Prep. My happy days have been having all the grandbabies have a sleepover and put up the tree and decorations.

After some tense moments lively discussion, a spot was decided on for the tree. Then after much mucking around and threats of tears and tantrums sorting out of boxes, the final decisons were made on the decorations and lights. So many special things to put on my tree. Handmade and store bought decorations from dear Lynda, a special bauble I bought from the most amazing Christmas shop in New York, some bows my beautiful daughter made for me when I had my first Christmas home alone and put the decorations up by myself, bawling, chugging wine and howling along to 'I'll be home for Christmas'. A music box ornament that Hanney bought for me last year "because it looked like Gramma" though I'm not sure what part of Santa patting a lamb looked like me and I don't want to think about it;  a string of leather reindeers that Holly bought for me in Canada "because Grandma loves cats" which makes absolutely no sense to me; the most amazing little house from Las Vegas that Jack bought for me "because Grandma likes weird stuff" what makes him say that?? So after much oohing and aahing, we finally had the tree!  Taa daaah!!

My happy and sad day was when I went to Hanney's kindy concert to see the little ones do the nativity play. Happy, because they were all so beautiful and innocent and keen to get it right. Sad, because it is just a fact of life that they are growing up and things will change - for them and for me.

Hannes was Joseph, although he told me he was Joseph and Mary so I was waiting to see how that panned out.

Here, Mary tells Joseph 'we gunna haff a baaaby' to which Joseph replies 'um, well, OK'. Fairly brought the house down. Joseph tells Mary that they have to go to Bethlehem to pay Joseph's taxes. Mary says they'll take the donkey, to which Joseph replies ' yes, well, that's probly a good idea, Mary'. House came down again. The good news is, they got to Bethlehem!

When they woke up, guess what?? They had a baby! Surprise!!!

On Wednesday, 12th of the 12th 2012, we had our anniversary. Here I am, looking totally shattered after three full days of little guys. Everyone said the world was going to end. That's what Mum said 42 years ago. But it didn't and we went out to dinner at the Courthouse Restaurant in Cleveland. Bill the Builder had the Oysters Kilpatrick. If you go to that restaurant, do not have the Oysters Kilpatrick. They were minute oysters that were overloaded with finely ground bacon I think and wildly overcooked. When Bill the Builder questioned the quality, he was informed that was how they got them. Clearly, the restaurant does not make its own Oysters Kilpatrick but buys them in, ready made. Poor form.

Our household is very big on trying to keep calm and usually failing dismally keeping calm so when I saw this little stitchery on Bronwyn Hayes blog, I just had to stitch it out as a mug mat for darling daughter, after I saw this perfect coffee cup! I am going to fill the cup with homemade Russian caramel that I saw just today on the Down to Earth forum. It is a recipe that my mother made for many years until our dentist bills got too high.

Here are some of my snazzy dishcloths that are going as stocking fillers, along with some hand made soap. I've given some of these to Mum and darling daughter already and they love them. I keep the ones that are dodgy don't turn out so well for myself, and I'm thinking that green number in the background is a contender!

Moist Orange Cake that I make just about every second week and Christmas cake is finally in the oven.  Smells absolutely divine so clearly the extra extra long soaking did no harm. And what is a blog post without the latest roses?  The pink ones and some of the white ones are from my bushes and the red one and the rest of the white ones are from SIL.

Did I mention that I love Christmas??

Who's looking at me.....

looking at them and wondering what on earth they're doing?

We recently took Mum for a drive up through Fernvale, Esk and Toowoomba so she could check out the new car. We called into the Wivenhoe Dam area to have our lunch and spotted this little guy up in the tree. How cute is he?? Billy Connolly says that you have to love a country that has an aminal called a hairy nosed wombat. Well, I say you also have to love a country that has these little guys so close to a capital city. Why do we refuse to take better care of them?

Mum really enjoyed the car because it is higher than the Commodore and she was very easily able to get in and out of it. She was also able to sit in the back in comfort because there was plenty of room and she was easily able to see out. She had a lovely day out, as did we all. We certainly live in a beautiful country.

This road was closed. Do you know how I know that?  Hint - it wasn't because of the sign!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! This is my favouritest elf in the whole world or any other big place. I just adore him and while he was horrifed to discover that his elf suit from two years back had disintergrated into a handful of powder, he quickly recovered when beautiful daughter brought out this outfit. Hannes loves a good dress-up and is always so willing to get into the swing of things. Such a joyful little critter.

Bill the Builder and I went over to help decorate the tree and how can you decorate a tree without a flashing red nose? We had a lovely night. Memories are made of these, as the song says. All the grandbabies are coming to decorate our house and put up the tree next week. Each year, I buy Hannes a tree decoration and scored no points last year by getting a musical one.

The collection so far! I absolutely love this time of the year. I've been beavering away on gifts but have nothing finished that I can show at the moment. Needless to say, SBS has taken a back seat where it spends a lot of time but the new year will see it moving along again. No idea what I'll do with it when I'm done. It's very busy. Need to get a wriggle on with everything. Bill the Builder is away to Victoria on his motor bike so I'm home alone for a few days which is always good for getting lots of things done.  I just love Christmas!

Pick a spot….any spot

Generally, I am fairly neat and tidy. I usually put things away when I’m finished and I mostly work in a logical, orderly manner. And then the other times, I just lose the plot completely and the place looks like a bomb went off! Wherever you look, mess and chaos!  Just seems to go from 'not too bad’ to ‘whoa! What happened here?'

Hmmmm…maybe should have ditched the wine glass before I took the photo!

Thankfully, it doesn’t seem to take too long to get everything back in order. Very easy to mess up but very easy to put to rights again.

Remains of the jam drops I made, after leaving them to cool while Bill the Builder was home. I also made a lovely orange cake (hidden in the spare bedroom), a loaf of bread, a zuchinni slice, some pea and ham soup (found a meaty hock languishing in the bottom of the freezer) and put the fruit on to soak for the Christmas cake.

How good do I look in this apron from the M & M shop in New York?? Oh. OK. Not good at all. Rats!

 How beautiful is this rose? This poor bush doesn’t get much attention and doesn’t give many flowers (probably for obvious reasons!) but  when it blooms, they are just lovely.

Good bargains at the junk shop! Shiny purple diary for next year and three bottles for Christmas jam. Bargain! Apricot jam on the boil as we speak.

Today, Barney No Friends has to go to the doctor (again) but this time, only for his annual shots. How would you fancy having to load this into a cage?? Not one of my favourite past times, let me tell you. He weighs a tonne and also has an aversion to being stuffed into a cage and having the lid slammed shut, but then, don’t we all?

Been to Table Runner School!

Spent a wonderful day recently at a Christmas table runner class. What a terrific way to spend a morning and I'm just so chuffed with the end result.

Even better, it's made entirely from my stash! How thrifty am I?? It's quite long and is actually brighter than it looks here. I am going to make another one for my dining room table and replace the centre star with an embroidery.

Done two more SBS blocks. This is Swamp Patch, traditionally pieced,

and this is Bachelor's Puzzle. It is made with templates with a lot of mucking around and spitting and cussing which I found a tad challenging.

It is said there is no such thing as a free lunch. Well, around these parts, if you want afternoon tea after kindy, you have to cook your own!

Hannes loves a good cook up and always makes our dinner on Wednesday nights too. Spag bol. Every Wednesday night. Without fail. I made that apron for him (and both the other grandbabies) for last Christmas and put a wooden spoon, a biscuit cutter and a pair of tongs in the embroidered pocket. He loves it!

I am always amazed when this poor plant bursts into flower each year! Mum bought it for me years ago and apart from a water from time to time, the poor thing is totally neglected. Yet each year, I get this beautiful display. Note to self: look after plant under mango tree a bit better.

Beautiful gerbras from Mum's garden. She really is the gerbra queen. What a lovely day it is here today! Perfect for embroidering towels for gorgeous DIL's birthday party tomorrow.

It's a long time between drinks, Barbie!

Well, after a long absence, here I am again! And what a time it has been....

Our wonderful children and their spouses organized a surprise 40th wedding anniversary party for us. We had absolutely no idea! And what a fabulous night it was. Lynda and John came up from Wollongong, even though Lynda had come up for a visit only three weeks earlier. The kids even rounded up my bridesmaids, who flew down from Townsville, as well as Bill's best man.

It was a truly fabulous night and we had a wonderful time. Check the gorgeous ruby earrings that Bill gave me to celebrate. I love them and he gave me the matching pendant for Christmas.

Don't what was happening there, but Lynda was amused. I'm trying to protect the grandbaby so it obviously wasn't good! Lynda, John and the bridesmaids all came back to our place and stayed for a few days. Just wonderful! Soon after, it was Christmas - another fabulous few days.

Here is Hannes in his elf costume. He looked totally hilarious in it and really played the part. All the grandbabies came over to decorate the tree and a good time was had by all.

What a wonderful December we had!  The New Year is well underway and I have to thank Lynda for motivating me (again!). We've restarted the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Blocks and have already made quite a little stash.

This block has the perculiar name of 54-40 or Fight and it came together fairly well for me.

and this is Anvil. For some reason, the sample in the book was made with a central square but Lynda and I decided that this wasn't the essence of the block and we settled for foundation piecing.

and this is Album 2. They're not quite as wonky as they look and I'm really pleased with them so far. Even the dreaded Tennessee which I had a go at and it turned out! I couldn't believe it. I was ready to hurl myself off a cliff seek professional help blow up the sewing room  give up on doing that particular block and decided to give it one more try. Was so chuffed when it turned out. Here it is.

And now it's Australia Day tomorrow. Off out to our son's place for prawns, lamingtons, lamb chops, snags and a swim.  Need to go and wrap the prizes for the thong throwing competition. Actually, I expect to win because I have a pair of sparkly thongs; first pair I have had since I've been a grown up! Hope everyone has a wonderful day.