Busy times ahead

Goodness me!!! Where has the time gone?? Its been nearly 4 weeks since my last post and I was going to try and do one a week!!

With our holiday well and truly behind us things are really happening around here. Justin is back at school, Laura starts Uni this year and a new project has begun, so my stitching will be taking a back seat for a while .

The NEW Project...............An Extension to our house!! And I am the Project Manager??? roflol, DH Theo is labourer and our friend Graham is builder.

We've already started taking down/demolishing the back patio and deck and last weekend Laura's room and the study were demolished!!

All this will be replaced with two new bedrooms, Justin's existing room will become the study, I get a new little sewing room, a new family room and a new laundry and loo. And out the back a new deck area too. I am very excited.

Here's how the back looked about 4weeks ago, the deck and Laura's Room back wall.

Patio and part of the garden.

Laura's room!!

So now, just waiting for the real construction to begin. Hopefully the stumps will go in this weekend???

Just waiting for the surveyor now.

Whatever you do today, ENJOY!! 

Holidays are over..........

The holiday is over, and we had the most wonderful time. We've been home for a couple of days now, the washing is done, most things are put away, but I have beautiful memories.

The weather was not on its best behavior for us this year, but we still had a ball.

We've been going to the same spot for 14 years now, its our little piece of paradise, sadly

our 'neighbours' of as many years are opting out next year, and it won't be quite

the same (won't you reconsider, pleeeease :-(   ).

We have lots of fun, did lots of reading, sewing, walks along the beach, played games in the evenings,

went to a couple of markets,  The best thing is we don't take a TV, so we  have plenty of family time.

I frittered away many hours on the beach some evenings, there were some absolutely divine sunsets.

I took heaps of photos, but I'll just put up few.

This is the view that for the last 14 years I can't get enough of, it just hold my breath as we drive up over the hill and then ............... that first glimpse of the beach/ocean that tells me, it's holidays. BLISS, no matter what, for the for the next 2 weeks!

a few km's further along at Kilcunda, this. When the weather is moody you should see the waves through here!!

       Steven, one of our friends with our daily visitor, a blue tongued lizard.(I wouldn't be picking it up!!)

This is what makes Barney (another camping neighbour) happy, he goes fishing!!!

aaaah bliss!! It was a beautiful evening.

Little gifts scattered along the beach for us to admire,

maybe be inspired??

The end of the first week brought us a couple of cold, wet windy days.

We went out for dinner to the local pub, and this is the view I had right in the middle of dinner!!

Even on the worst day there was something beautiful.

Hubby tells me that there is definitley the pot of gold at the of the rainbow, this photo prooves it!!! lol

These next photos are taken just a few minutes apart, but the change is just breath taking.

(The shadows belong to Millie, Eoin & Laura)

the evening before we left

 

Simply beautiful ......

this taken directly over our campsite, quite scary don't you think??

I'll leave it at that for now.  I hope you've enjyed them. I have a few more to share with you, but I'll leave those for another day.

Whatever you do in the meantime, Enjoy it, Love it, Live it.

Holiday Time......soon

Its that time of the year............HOLIDAYS, Well half at least. I'm on holidays form my supermarket job at the moment, and as of the end of the week from the Post Office too. Then its off to the beach for a little R & R. I've tried really hard to catch up on some sewing - mainly Butterfly Garden, but I can't get motivated. Justin is working on some jigsaw puzzles and I can't help myself, I have to join him. It's a 2000 piece and I just have to have a little dabble. Even DH can't keep away.

and as I had a stroll around the garden this morning, look what I found, a ??Tiger Lily. I'm not a gardener by any stretch of the imagination, but I do so enjoy a stroll around it.

That's it for me for a week or so. Hopefully I'll have lots of photos for you when I get back.

Whatever you do in the meantime, Enjoy it, Love it, Live it.

Happy New Year

Happy 2010 to everyone.
I wish everyone, all that's wonderful, happy, healthy and peaceful.

2009 went out a little bit damp, we had a lovely evening, spent it with wonderful company (Thanks Sandra & Graham and Happy 18th to Millly!! we did that too) and we welcomed in 2010 with some lovely well needed rain. Hopefully its a sign of things to come and we won't have a repeat of last summer. I personally like the cooler weather, it keeps everything fresh looking........me included :-D

I've started the year with a little sewing, but I know its not going to last long as there will be a big project happening this year. We're going to extend!! Yep! BIG project!! And I'm going to get a little sewing room just for me too. The kids a new bedroom each, a new family room and a new laundry. I'll do some photos soon before it all starts some time in March/April. I'm going to hold on to the wise words my friend Glenice
said when I mentioned what we were planning in an email.
"Extensions are fun, exasperating, fun, drag on forever, fun, messy, fun and you will be so glad when it is done." I'm going to focus on the word 'fun'.

That's it from me today,
Hope whatever you are doing today is lovely.

Its over again

Well Christmas has once again been and gone!! How fast was that. All the hype, running around like loonies, the preparing and everything else that sent us mad.............But it was fun wasn't it. I wouldn't have it anyother way.

We have all the Christmas festivities at Mum and Dad's. It starts on Christmas Eve, my brother and his wife who live overseas (currently in Sri Lanka) were here too. Though this year my sister and her family were at her inlaws as they too celebrate on Christmas Eve. We have a special dinner, I would say this tends more to the Swiss side. A fondue with special sauces, dried fruits and nuts, a salad and a few other yummy bits and pieces, not to mention lots of Bubbly. We then open our pressies and towards the end of it all, usually midnight-ish we try to fit in a coffee and some of those yummy cookies.

 Christmas Day we have a simpler day, Rose (my sis) her DH and the kids mid morning  and we do the rest of the Pressies with them. We then have a much simpler lunch, this tends to lean more towards the Spanish(mum) side. Starters is Huevos Rellenos (translation- filled eggs, a tomato, tuna and boiled egg filling). Main is some Spanish ham (Jamon) and smoked ham, spanish chorizo (the cured variety), spanish tortilla and a salad. Then coffee served with some Turron(Spanish nougart) and of course the cookies. (I'll get some food photos next year!!)

The rest of the day is usually spent playing cricket playing with the kids or just plain out doing nothing.

Then on Boxing Day we do it all again!!. This year there were 24 of us, as we don't have any 'real' extended family here, we do have some friends that are close it. We have been celebrating Boxing day with them for as long as I can remember. And on this day we do the Turkey!! Mum makes the bestest Turkey and filling in the world...........well we think so!! My brother is in charge of basting while the rest of us prepare all the other yummy things.  Then the everyone relaxes, watching or playing cricket or both, or just relaxing with a glass of bubbly.

So that is Christmas with me, 3 days of festivities, family and food and I love it. I hope  yours was special too.

Now I'm one holidays from one job, that gives me a little sewing time, which I

am off to do now. Might do a little project first and then I may work on my Butterfly Garden quilt for a bit.

See you all in the New Year.

Have a wonderful New Years, stay safe, and above all Enjoy.

 

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