Counting Down.....

Only a few more days to that wonderful day we know as Chistmas. Why do so many thngs need to be done BEFORE that day?? We have a whole year to do things, but no, it has to be done BEFORE Christmas.

No matter, I'm as guilty as the next person, but for some reason all this hype makes me Happy.

I work in 2 areas (a checkout chook at a supermarket & at a Post Office) and I can assure you they are both absolute mayhem at this time of the year.

My life at this time of the year is no different, I've been busy too. I managed to do 2 stitcheries for swaps,

this one for my Patchwork group CottonTales our theme this year was Santa's Helpers.

It's a Natalie Bird Design that I rearranged.

This one was for the swap at my local shop Foothills Fabric and Threads.

It's from a stamp I had, I don't know where it got to, but I blew it up ages ago with the intention of doing a stitchery one day!

We've managed to put up the Christmas Tree, decorations and lights,

and I mustn't forget the real reason we celebrate Christmas.

I bought this Manger when we were on our honeymoon in Europe 21 years ago.

My Grandma gave us some money as a wedding gift and I wanted to buy something special,

back then you couldn't find a decent manger scene here so that was what we bought.

I tuck it into the fire place with some lights put some real straw around it, i'll get to that this week..... I hope.

As our family is very multicultural (Swiss dad, Spanish mum, Dutch my hubby's family, my sister is married to Polish/Czech, brother is married to Japanese) we try have a few different Chirtmas traditions. My family do Christmas Cookies as one our traditions. We spend an entire day baking a few weeks before, we turn on the Christmas carols to get right into the spirit of things, the kitchen starts to smells amazing and we have loads of fun.

Here is Rose, my sister with a load of  Totenbainli (Dead Men's Bones) dough.

Dad and Julia grinding up some nuts, and Hermi a close family friend who has been part of our family for years doing the Aniseed cookies

Mum and Rose shaping the Aniseed.

And after an entire day of baking this is the final result.

At the back left to right

Dead men's Bones(hazelnut and cinamon), Aniseed, Chocky(dark chocolate and almond),

Mailanderli(lemon and butter cookie), front Cinamon stars(Almond and cinamon), Coconuts(Coconut and almond)

 

Wishing you all a Happy, Blessed, Peacful and Memorable Christmas with those you love.

I've been Busy

Yep, I've actually done a little sewing. Life has been busy as well, work takes up too much time, but it's something that must be done.

I'm a lot behind in blogging, and have things to show and tell you,

 I'll do it gradually over the next few weeks.

I must begin with my Mother-in-Law Helen. She turned 80 2 weeks ago. She's had an incredible life and to celebrate her 80th year the family got together to celebrate. I would just like to mention that Helen has 9 children, 20 Grand kids and so far 4 Great Grand kids!  It was a wonderful day.

It was also a chance for everyone to meet the lastest addition to the family, Paige. Paige is our great niece and lives in Queensland, so we won't see her very often. Here she is with Laura. Isn't she cute!

Here is a Mrs Perkins, I had a wonderful time making her for Paige.

She came out really wonderful.

Enjoy the rest of your day, whatever you may be doing.

Finally! I can Show & Tell

It's been a while between posts, and I do apologise. Things are happening around here like you wouldn't believe. Remember my daughter who turned 18 a few months back, well she now has her licence....and a car....and is ending her school year. She starts final exams on Friday!!! WOW!!! As one of my lovely customers at work said, "when they are little, they are heavy in your arms, and when they grow up, they are heavy on your heart". Where did the last 18 years go!!???

We've also got some other things happening around here...........exciting house things, but I'll leave that for another time.

I do have quilty show and tell for you though.

I can finally let you in on what sewing I have managed to do.
I have had a mystery quilt planned for quite sometime and I finally got around to making it, putting it together, geting it quilted and and teaching the class.

Here is a tiny peek at what the girls saw before they started.

Here is the lovely Renee on left ( thanks for the dumpling recipe) and Yanneke (sp?) from Holland,

Willy,...... was she having trouble with her machine???

Nooooo............she was hiding!!! I can't wait to see her quilt, its Red and White, Willy is very much a blue girl like me, but, like me she too is venturing out of her comfort zone.

And here we have Michele (left) and Robyn.

We had a fantastic evening with Pizza, Bubbly and lots of chatting and laughs, Sandra from Foothills was a wonderful hostess check out Foothills blog with more photos, she even got to participate in the class which was great

(sorry all the photos of Sandra and more of the group are on her camera).

I can't wait to see the finished tops. Everyone's colours were totally different. I will try to contact the girls in a few weeks and see if anyone has it ready for me to take a photo to put up on the blog.

OH!! Here is the Quilt.

It's called Starwheel and its for my Dad.....'cos I think he's a star!! and he likes things that proportional. 

Till next time, enjoy whatever you are doing

Finally a little bit of sewing

Last Friday my beautiful niece turned 5 or was it 25?? .
She is an avid little cook, loves to help her mum,

her grandma's and aunty(me) in whatever we are doing, especially the kitchen.

My sister said she was going to buy her a heap of cooking things - real stuff, not toys,

so I decided to make her an apron. This is Julia with her absolutely gorgeous apron.

It's fully reversible and has a pocket on both sides! I had heaps of fun making it.

I have also finished the Mystery quilt that I am going to workshop in October at Foothills, its at the quilters at the moment so it will be finished in time.
It will be school holidays here next week, DD Laura is in her final year, so exams are just around the corner.
So a bit of a stressful time coming up. I have taken a few days off work so I might get a little bit something new done, I'm really feeling deprived on the creative side of life.

Till next time, Enjoy whatever you are doing

Grrrr.........

I'm very annoyed!!!! Can you tell?? I have a frown and this is driving me insane!! WHY can't anyone leave a comment? Where did the thingy go that says 'leave a comment? No-one can answer me cos you can't leave a comment.

!!Stamping foot in frustration!!

And please accept my apologies, my blog is also boring while I'm trying to fix this.

Hope to be back on track in the next day or so.

So till then, enjoy the First day of Spring tommorrow.

Ramona

Busy in my kitchen

Over the weekend I spent some time in my kitchen. One of my favorite veges, red capsicums were in season and in abundance at a very good price, so I decided to buy 'quite a few kilos' of them.

They get washed,

they get roasted till they char a little,

they get peeled, seeded and torn into strips,

then they get put into containers and into the freezer.

They are fantastic in sauces, dips, as a side done with a little olive oil and garlic, in salads. The whole process is a little time comsuming, but well worth it.

I'm off to get my sewing machine, as last week i had to take it to get fixed, it was sewing awful. The thread was all loose, I did everything i could think of to try to get it to sew right, but to no avail, so off to the hospital with it.

In the meantime enjoy they day

Ooops!!!

I decided that I didn't really like the way my blog looked with the back ground I had, so I started to play around and move a few things around make it all pretty .............and ugh!! I've lost a few things, mainly my links to other blogs, my clock and I can't remember what else was there!!
SO, my apologies, I'll and try and fix it all up in the next few days.

Enjoy whatever comes your way today

Ramona

Little Show & Tell

Yet again the weeks are just racing by, I'm sick of asking where does the time go!

Work is one, but the rest???

I have very politely been 'prodded' by a dear freind about a bag I made.
Yes I made a Stable Bag while I was away for my weekend in Rawson. We had a really wondeful time, very realxing, a bit productive, made some new friends, had lots and lots of laughs.

We're already planning a project for next year!!

Here is my bag, I was really pleased with how it came out, and I've been using it heaps, its my hand bag at the moment.

And have a look at what has popped up in my garden...............

Which means that Spring is just around the corner. I can't wait, it's just beautiful around here when everything starts blooming and the trees start greening up.

I'm off to work, and whatever you are going to do today, ENJOY!

Something different???

What do you think??

I've had a little play with the blog this evening, though I could have been doing a million other more important things, but hey! I wanted to chill a little. Not sure if I like it, I'll give it a few weeks and then decide.

I've done a weeny bit of stitching, nothing to show off, but hopfully while I'm away this weekend I'll do some real sewing and have some show and tell for you next week. I'm off to the mountains, well mountains in my books, with my friends Gail and Sue. It should be a wonderful weekend, I'm hoping it will snow, I love the freezing cold weather, you can rug up and it's sooo lovely to go for a walk in, then come in from the cold and have a nice hot drink while your nose and ears thaw out!!! ;-D

I know a I'm mad!!!

Whatever you'll be doing this week and over the weekend......Enjoy!!

New Toy........

This is our old GIZMO, he has been a reliable friend for the last 18 years.

He's done lots of kilometers, taken us to many and varied places, watched the kids grow up and even done a few driving lessons. But sadly he has had to go. Too many things to fix now,

he has a terrible cough, he smokes too much, has a terrible rumbling in the tummy area, I think his get up and go, got up and went!!

So, i'd now like to introduce you to the new GIZMO.

Yep, a new toy...........zip zip!! Yep he's zippy!!

Hope he lasts as long as the other fellow.

I'm still trying to get some sewing done, but that's not happening.

So, till next time, enjoy whatever you are doing

It's been a while, so this one is long.........

Goodness me, Where does the time go. Its already June, winter has finally arrived, the nights are really cold, great quilting weather, but I haven't had a lot of sewing time.
I had meant to put these gorgeous photos up quite a few weeks ago, but time ran away, I've put them up anyway beacause the colours are so spectcular, unbelievable almost that nature can create such intense colour. All these pictures are from around here, where I live in the Dandenongs. I tell you, one of these days I'm going to have an accident, because I'm too busy looking at what's around rather than concentrating on the road!!!




And this is what I had looking out of the lounge room window.




I have had a little fun too, by way of a little getaway with my girlfriend back in April. We had a little road trip to Adelaide to a quilters retreat, well not really that little, Melbourne to Adelaide is about 750 km's, 9 hours, with a few stops and lots of talking. We stayed in Glenelg at the Grand Stamford, where we met up with 150 other like minded ladies! We had a ball.
This was the view we had to wake up to each morning..............bit hard to take don't you think!!??


We were totally spoiled for 3 whole days. It was so much fun meeting up with friends from all over Australia, that we only ever "see" online.

My stitching/sewing has been a bit of a non event, I now officially work 4 1/2 days so my sewing suffers terribly. But, I have been planning a mystery quilt that I will be workshopping sometime in July, August or September at Foothills Fabric & Threads. It should be fun.
I'm still working on Friendships Garden and Butterfly Garden, though not a lot of progress there.


The other thing that I want to show you, is how beautiful 'just down the road' looks. If you remember the bush fires came very close here and as the weeks have passed we've watched nature start to repair itself. The hills that looked like this in February/March



now looks like this.



Wonderful isn't it.
Well that's about it for today, I hope to be a bit more 'bloggy' in the next few months.
I'm going to experiment with dinner in the kitchen now, if it turns out, I might do a blog entry!

Enjoy whatever you doing

Ramona

What a week..........

It's here!!The day I've been dreading !!

We officially have '3' adults in our house!!!

Laura is officially 18 today, and can I just say I think we've done a pretty good job.

We have our moments, but all in all she's turned into a beautiful, caring, intelligent young woman.

We had the party last weekend and it went off beautifully. All the young ones............can I just say....'the' best behaved kids ever!!!

Here's the Birthday girl.............

and the cake..............

Have a beautiful day, whatever you are doing, Enjoy!

Ramona

Good Intentions???

My good intentions have gone out the window.


When I started this blog I had every intention of doing a post at least once a week, maybe every fortnight, but this is ridiculous.


I have been doing a few sewing odds and ends, I have something planned but its a secret at the moment, apart from that nothing really exciting. Today for example, I have spent my Sunday cleaning the oven, the stove, the range hood, kitchen cupboards and I mean clean! I pulled the range hood to pieces, that sort of clean, thank goodness that sort of thing only happens once a year. I have to confess though, I have DD's 18th coming up and I thought was a good time to do it. OK onto something interesting...........



Have I told you that occasionally I participate in a postcard swap? It's soooo much fun. It happens every two months and the topics vary. I am in a group with the ladies that I used to do calligraphy with, there are also some other, the basket weavers, some patchworkers, a few other crafty ladies, even a couple of talented young ones.



Below are the postcards I have received. They are all from different people, each one unique.

I keep forgetting to take photos of the ones I have done, except for the patchwork theme. This quilt is 4inches x 3 inches!!! on a 6" x 4" postcard

I've also had a birthday in the meantime, a few weeks ago.............. I share my day with my sister................my twin actually, Rose, I had a very quiet day which was lovely, and in the evening we got together at mum and dad's with our family's and had a lovely dinner. No presents, just getting together and mum's wonderful cooking is enough. I love family time.

I have done a tiny bit of stitching, this particular one is Friendships Garden, by Blackbird designs, I'm getting there, no rush, I have made myself a deadline so I know it will be finished,

I am supposed to be keeping up with my friend Gail Pan, but I have fallen behind, I really need to get a move on, or she'll run away with it.

My absolute deadline is my 50th Birthday, plenty of time!!(it's more than 5 years away!! ;-D)

Here's a photo of what I've done so far................. very different colours for me, but I love them.

I'm also working on Butterfly Garden, by Leanne's House, but I'll leave for another time.

That's enough from me for now, have a beautiful week, whatever you'll be doing, enjoy.

A bit of Relax time........

What a time we've had over the last couple of weeks.

We've had the fire's not too far, down the road to be precise.

We were evacuated on Monday last week and went down to my sisters house in the suburbs where there is lots of concrete. Thankfully the fire fighters and water bombers were all on hand and kept the fires away from homes.

The smell of smoke has gone through everything, but I've had a few good ideas from people to get rid of it.

All Last week we were on tender hooks, I have had all our important things in the boot of the car for nearly a month. Now I can unpack, the cool weather arrived on Tuesday night, oh!, what relief to hear the sound of rain.

We haven't had a lot, but enough to dampen things down a little, settle the dust and clean the air.

This is what we could see from our back verandah, I wasn't game to climb onto the roof just for a photo.





This is about 200 meters down the road, the day after, there is actually a house just to the left. All the hills you see in the background were burnt.

So now over the next few weeks I'm going try to get a few things done, not necessarily sewing,
but catching up on life.

Whatever you are doing today
Enjoy.

Ramona

What a week... no sewing

What a week we have had here, the worst bush fires in Australian history.
Where I live here in the Dandenong Ranges, most people were prepared on Sunday for fires, as the temperatures reached 46 degrees. Fortunatley they never happened, but sadly in other parts of the state they did, only an hour or so away entire towns have been wiped away by these massive fires, thousands of families have been left heart broken, not only at the loss of their homes, but loss of loved ones. My prayers are with each and everyone of you. If anyone would like to help go to the Victorian 2009 Bushfire Appeal Fund http://www.redcross.org.au/.

And to those of you in Queensland, my prayers are with you also.

What country we live in, fire and floods all at the same time!!!

Maybe I'll get a little sewing done this weekend......

Ramona

Ok, I'm back, ................and back to reality. School is back, I'm back to work, the running around has started. Why is it that when you arrive home you slip straight back into life? Why can't we get up in the morning and sit an the crosswords till 10.30am over a couple of cups of coffee, sit and read all day if we want to, or sew or chat?? Why is being at home such a routine thing??

This year is also a big year here with DD is doing year 12 - final year before university, so stay tuned as the stress levels rise, hopefully not too high.

Our two weeks at the beach were just gorgeous, except for one day when it was really hot and really windy, generally a yuk sort of a day. I've popped up a photo of our campsite, its really basic, but I love it, and a few photos of the what we have to endure on an evening walk!!

We meet up with friends and we have a great time together, no TV either, just lots of talking and relaxing stuff.

I have a few UFO's to finish, and at the moment i have no plans to start anything new.............there is something, but I have to keep it under my hat for now. I also have a project that I need to make as I'm teaching it later next month at Foothills Fabrics and Threads, my local favorite fabric hangout. Photos when its done, hopefully over the weekend, as its going to be hot, another scorcher coming up on Saturday 43 degrees.

Enjoy whatever you are doing

Ramona