Thank you Shout Out

I have really got my sewjo back after Saturday.

The handquilting on Jack's quilt is FINALLY almost done, I will be able to give it to him for his Christening gift next month at this rate, I have appliqued another pie onto it's backing plus managed to take all the papers out of another 6 and pin them onto their backing ready for applique. I have read loads of wonderful blogs and have scheduled a block of sewing time every other Wednesday.

I just wanted to thank Sheridan for organising such a wonderful event, and her sidekick Donna, who did a wonderful job of making announcements and keeping everyone in line.

Also I wanted to list the sponsors, they really made the "show bag" an exciting thing to take home!!

RetroMummy
Ric Rac
Posie Patchwork
Innergreen
Hawthorne Threads
Pink Chalk Fabrics
The Remnant Warehouse
Material Obsession
Kelani
Chasing Cottons
Polly Pratt
The Red Thread
Clares Place
Craft Schmaft
Earth Girl Fabrics
Saffron Craig
Sew Vintage
Clare's Craftroom
Plushkas Craft
The Oz Material Girls
Prints Charming
Nicole Mallalieu Design
Wink Designs
Crafty Mamas

Thanks so much and I can not wait til next year.

Sew It Together 2011

I had a wonderful day today. In a room with 50+ other lovely crafty ladies from all over Australia. We chatted, we laughed, we shopped, we learnt, we observed, we ooh'ed and we aah'ed, we swapped and we crafted a little. I actually managed to applique one whole Pie onto the backing square, was quite delighted with that! I loved catching up with old friends and meeting new ones.


I can't wait until Sew It Together 2012, and next year it won't be in Sydney so I am looking forward to a 3 day adventure attending all the events rather than just the one that I squeezed in today!

I didn't take any happy snaps so I am looking forward to seeing some of the pics that were taken.

Here is my very cute badge, made by the lovely Leah


We were all given a goody bag on arrival - the contents of which are sensational!


I was lucky enough to be drawn out of the envelope in the first prize draw. We were able to choose from so many wonderful prizes...it was tough but these were my choices (links to be inserted)


At midday we all stopped what we were doing, got into groups of five, did crazy little dances and had a fab swap. Due to machine breakage, I owe 3 swap partners...which will be sent out late next week. I was so lucky to receive the following items from 5 very creative and lovely ladies; (links to be inserted) A huge thank you to the most gorgeous Juddie (link to be added) who saved me on the day with offering up a few gorgeous bags and fabric covered notebooks so I could save face!!!


And to my financial detriment (but feel good gain) here are my purchases....



After the day (sadly) ended, I headed across the road to Max Brenner with Esther, Kirsty and Alissa for a yummy mint hot chocolate. I would have loved to sit and chat with these beautiful ladies for a lot longer, but I had to vote and they had to catch a plane back to Melbourne.

Afte today, I feel all sew jo'ed again and am determined to get on with it...although it will be by hand for a while as my sewing machine went kaput on Thursday night when I was trying to get my swap items finished! I am going to schedule it into my time management schedule, just like I do with exercise and I am going to take the same attitude to crafting as I do to my exercise - JFDI!! It is so good for my sense of well being!!!!!!!!!!!

To do list (yep it is another one, but totally realistic this time)

1. Hand sew final 3 swaps and post
2. Finish Jack's quilt - hand quilting and binding (will have to beg, borrow and steal a machine for the binding)
3. Pies and Tarts - just keep plodding along!

And maybe throw a few hexi's in there to mix it up and keep it interesting as I did a Material Obsession workshop today on hand piecing and bought some hexi templates.....

When my machine is fixed....hopefully replaced with a new fangdangle one...

1. Finish Mai and Mick's quilt
2. Abby's Quilt

Well there you have it, I have what feels like a million WIP's or things in my head to make but I am going to keep it simple and achievable for now...Life is too hectic for anything else!

For now, I am going to have shower, stick on a girly movie and get on to that hand quilting of my little nephew Jack's quilt, all that after Earth Hour!

Hmmm, I wonder why I don't get it all done...

I took a cue from the lovely Nic...about spending too much time on facebook...so here is what I have been up to according to my status updates over the last month...I might need to start using the timer when I am in the computer...and use the rest of the currently wasted time on sewing!!!

Any suggestions for indoors kids party for a 4 year old other than Wizzy World?

What a day - it is a while since we had rain like this!!!

Wet day = no builders = :-(

yummy Japanese dinner...

This rain is not helping our reno progress!

He's back - yippee. A couple of hours on tuck shop today then out to lunch with my love - perfect Friday!

Can't sleep - excited, my love is in the air, on the way home!

Happy St Patricks Day to you all!

is going out for dinner - 1/3 of me is looking forward to it, the other 2/3 wants to go to bed!

I know it was a big weekend when I put the kids into bed then have a shower, clean my teeth and get into bed myself - at 7.30pm no less!!!

Is it really only Monday?

The world/environment is going nuts!!!!!!

is home from another brilliant weekend south of the border!!!

has come home from Bathurst to half a roof off her house - hooray for progress!

is looking forward to seeing her beloved Nanny tomorrow.

has the headache from hell

A beautiful day, perfect for all the things on my To Do List!!! A couple of quiert moments in there though, especially looking forward to a chai and reading my book in the sun when Lilla is at ballet!

If I am this busy for the duration of the reno then I am going to end up a total looper!!!

has been up half the night with nervous anticiption and excitement...

had a fabulous day - brunch in Coogee with beautiful friends, a visit to my brother in laws where the girls had a great play with their cousins and I went to awesome close by antique shop with my sis in law and spent a bomb on great new things for the house when it is done then out to dinner with sensational neighbours! A busy but great Sunday!!!!

is having an easy weekend, given the craziness of the demolition starting and mad Melbourne coming up - I think this is a good thing!

‎'s hotmail account has been hacked, sorry if you got spam and other cr@p from me! Time I got me a "real" email address....

has no power in the laundry. Is it weird that I haven't had a kitchen for months and it hasn't bothered me one bit but now the laundry is gone I am filled with a sense of loss ?(and dread at the thought of carting our laundry to my sisters and our neighbours place to do!!)

has a "terrible" day planned today - looking forward to a catch up lunch with my beautiful friend in a couple of hours!

Demolition Derby starts at Castle C on Monday - then we will really feel like this is all happening!!! Power being taken out tomorrow - good bye laundry, I will miss you so!!!!!!!!!

is watching the prettiest of sunsets - "And I think to myself, what a wonderful world"...

just had a lovely dinner at the village with AH and family amongst other gorgeous people! Love our little community...

just had "one of those nights" with the kids. My head is pounding. Workout or wine as a stress reliever??????

is having a quiet day at home with her unwell big girl.

it is so true - CONSISTENCY IS KING!

excellent movie is The Kings Speech, I am no Oscars expert but I think it deserved to win!

and now I have another date - with my new 12kg kettlebell that has finally arrived!!!! KB swing intervals - here I come very shortly....

is going on a date tonight...Dave and I are off to see The Kings Speech.

Even If We Wanted To...

there is no going back now....


I hardly slept a wink last night, had a lot of nervous anticipation going on!!!! So relieved it is finally started and it will be moving forward to being finished! We are sick of our catch phrase of "when the hosue is done" already.

Sew It Together

In a few weeks I will be joining 50 or so other ladies to have a day of crafting at Sew It Togerher - see side bar!

I am really rather excited about it!

I have had that much drama to organise sitters for the day as my husband and I are going away for a weekend together this month and then the weekend of SIT my husband will be away....but I was determined and eventually with a bit of shuffling and negotiating I got both weekends sorted so that my girls were happy and I got my weekend away with my boy and then my crafty day a couple of weeks after that! So that made me happy!

Anyways, a name tag swap has been organised by the lovely Megan and I have to admit when it comes to be crafty I do it for the love, enjoyment and relaxation of it rather than the creativity or displaying my expertise. I am a "follow a pattern and if it comes in a kit then that is even better" kind of girl. I have oftened used the excuse that I just don't have the time to dream up patterns and spend time drafting them...but I have realised that I am just not really a creative person, I just like to do it!

Having said all that, this is my second attempt at my tag for the swap. I hope my recipient appreciates that I did it for the love!!!

Ex-ca-va-tion - Woohoo!!

Just reminds of that great U2 song - Elevation! Please allow me to indulge in my silliness!

We have about 4-5 times that dirt to come out, just waiting on he engineer. Sigh!
Friends have nicknamed the pile of dirt "Uluru of (our suburb)".

We now have more of a visual of where the house will stop, the retaining wall for the entertaining area as well as how much of a yard we will have left. So far so good, and we are happy with it all.

Now to get a move along please Mr Engineer as we are all willing and able!

Zeus coped quite well though the "digger" man wasn't coping too well with them size of him. Poor Zeus, he is so misunderstood!