Happy Birthday Tahlia!!!

It just doesn't seem that long ago that this little girl was sitting on my lap while I read to her ...... it seems like only yesterday ;o).......

Today my beautiful first born turns 27. Happy birthday my darling girl, love you to bits!!!

My First Finish for 2010!!

Here’s the wallhanging I gave you all a sneaky peek at in my last post. All of these gorgeous stitched blocks were made for me by my lovely stitching friends from Among The Gumtrees!!! They each made me a block for my birthday last year ……… and this is how they all came together.

This one is done by Cheryl, I love the colour shading ;o).Jenny did these lovely roses ……Vicki did the terrific foundation piecing on this one ……. Cute little applique’d birdies from Dawn ……. Vikki added this pretty ceramic button…… And this sweet heart from FionaJudith sent me a pack of delish “Somerset Cottage” charms which have become the beautiful border and the 9 patch blocks. AND this adorable little birdie who’s flying across the top of the finished wallhanging!! I love how this has turned out …… thank you so much my “gawjus” friends :o) … I’ll think of you all everytime I look at it :o)!!

**WARNING** Seriously CUTE piccies in this post!!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!

Okay, so you’ve been warned!!!!!!!!!…..

Now, how cute is this!!??!! This is Lucy, she belongs to my dear friend and neighbour :o) ….Isn’t she simply adorable :o)… yes I know Bear’s cute too, but I’m talking about the puppy ;o)!!!!She’s a miniature daschund and Bear just couldn’t resist her ……. he he he … neither could my DH!!! I think she’s seriously won a heart here LOL.

Well I haven’t only been playing with puppies, although that WAS fun!!! I’ve done some stitching too, mostly for Bear in her new revamped room. Firsly a new ‘skirt’ for her birdcage to catch all the messy seeds Bert and Ollie kick up!! And also a cute topper for her bedside table with pockets to keep her remotes and phone in …… I’m also working on something rather spesh, I’ll give you a little peek but you’ll have to wait to see the whole thing ….Do you love the fabrics??? They’re “Somerset Cottage” from Moda, so soft and pretty, I LOVE them!!

I’m off to “batten down the hatches”, big storm coming through!!!

Bye for now …………….

Gawjus Gifties from dear friends!!

Can you believe it’s the last day of 2009!!!??? Oh my goodness that crept up on me LOL. So, before the year has disappeared entirely please indulge me a little while I ‘show off’ a few more lovely pressies from some very spesh people!!

View Full Album

I can’t believe how lucky I am!!! So many wonderful thoughtful pressies. I’m so grateful to each and every one of my dear, dear friends :o)!! The beautiful bag on the right is a Christmas swap pressie from Dawn, we were swap partners last year and decided to do it again ... what fun!!

I was quite spoilt this Christmas and I just HAVE to show you this pressie … it was from my brother and SIL …… Now they couldn’t have possible known it but I was admiring these gorgeous measuring cups here while blog hopping just before Chrissy and thinking to myself that I just might buy a set after the festivities were all done with. So you can imagine my surprise when I opened the wrapping to find the exact same set!!! What an amazing coincidence, and aren’t they SO CUTE??!!!

Another nice surprise was in my mailbox. My Patchwork and Stitching magazine arrived last week and look what’s on page 40!!!! How exciting!!!!!This is a wallhanging pattern of mine, and I just LOVE how they’ve photographed it, doesn’t it look pretty :o)!!??!

Well before I go I’d like to wish you all a very happy new year and I hope that 2010 is a fabulous and stupendous year for all of you!!! I’ll probably sleep through the fireworks he he, I’ll celebrate tomorrow after a good night’s sleep LOL.


PS ….. Thanks so much to all the lovely bloggers who bought my patterns … the “Sale” finishes tonight so I’ll be removing them from the sidebars later this evening, so if you still want one at that special price be quick before they disappear :o)!!

SSCS and other Chrissy goodies!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!! Ours was terrific, spending time with family and sharing lots of laughs, creating tomorrow's memories :o). I missed having the older kids here, but I know they had a lovely time with each other in London, so that makes me happy :o)!! I got totally spoilt, I show you some of my goodies in the next post, for now I want to show the SSCS goodies!!!

What a treat it was when I got to open all my gorgeous pressies from Trashie ~ my SSCS swap partner all the way from UK, the absolute other side of the world!!!! I've been reading Trashies blog for a long time now so it was really nice to find out my swap partner was someone I was so familiar with :o)! Here's what she sent me ................... how spoilt am I!!!!??! Do you see those adorable yellow buttons?? They're "Dorset Buttons" and they're little hand crocheted darlings, just exquisite!!! I love this table mat that Trashie made .... my Mum and I were fighting over this one, I won of course LOL!!!.....

This gorgeous reindeer had a candle in his back on Boxing day and he was centre-stage on our lunch table :o)! Don't you love the snuffer??!! I've always wanted one of those!!!!!

Poor Santa sustained some pretty drastic internal injuries on his journey down under .... rest assured though, it didn't affect his deliciousness!!! All good :o)!!! Thank you SO much Trashie, I really love all of my fabulous gifts!! And also huge big thanks to Chookyblue for arranging such a fun swap!!!

Trashie wasn't the only one from UK who was kind enough to send me lovely Pressies!!! Look at this incredibly beautiful scarf that Maria knit(ted??) for me!!! Oh if only you could feel how soft it is, it's to die for!! And I love the colours too!!! Perfect!!! Maria was my Stitcher's Angel partner in 2008!! Maria and I have become great friends and I can't wait to meet up with her when I visit Tahlia in UK next year ... what fun that will be :o)!!And that's not all, Maria also made me this fabulous coffee pot cover, and popped in some delish choccies, a cute coaster for my coffee cup and some pretty tape!! Thank you so much Maria, bless your heart!!!!

I can't believe I forgot to take a piccy of the goodies I sent over to Maria .... but she's emailed me to let me know she liked them, so that's good :o)! If you hurry, you still might be able to enter Maria's 100 post giveaway so pop on over and visit Maria's Blog!!!!

Here's what I sent to my SSCS partner Missy in USA ..... Missy emailed me when she opened the decoration, and the Tim Tams were in with that .... according to her email they went down pretty well LOL ;o). Mmmmmmmm ...... Who can resist Tim Tams??? This is the bag I made for Missy ...........Hope you all have a happy healthy and wonderful New Year that is filled with good times!!!

Thank you so much to all the lovely bloggers who've been buying my patterns, I'll leave them up for just a little longer ....... just until the end of 2009 at that price.

Last Christmas Special!!!

This has been such fun to bring you a daily post!!! It's been a nice excuse for me to chat to you each day instead of every few days!!! Thanks to all of you lovely bloggy friends who have been visiting me and commenting on my ramblings .... it's been so wonderful to get to know you a little bit ... what a terrific place blogland is!!!

Well here we are on Christmas Eve .... goodness gracious, where has 2009 gone???? Is it me getting older, is time really going so fast lol??? So here it is, my last Christmas special ... and "special" it is, because this is a quilt that I made for my darling Mum for Christmas a few years ago :o).

This is another lap-size (54" x 62") made pretty much entirely with scraps!! I just found all the 'blues' in my stash that went together (cos my Mum loves blue) and this is what I got. Again I've made it quilt-as-you-go as I find it SO much easier to quilt small sections at a time. Here's the centre panel .... pink hearts :o).................
and the sweet flying geese around the border :o).....................

This is the very last of my JoyPatch PDF specials ... this one is also just $5.00 and will be emailed to you on receipt of payment, just click on BUY NOW, easy peasy :o). I'll only be leaving these specials on my blog for a few days more then they'll be back to normal price of $10.50 each (PDF). So grab a bargain while you can LOL!!!



I'd like to take this moment to wish you all a fabulous Christmas ... I hope you're surrounded by love and happiness at this blessed time of year. I also hope that 2010 brings you all good health and many blessings, and I'll look forward to chatting to you again after Christmas.

Please pop on over to the Among the Gumtrees Blog to see our Christmas greetings to you all :o)!!

Sending HUGE yuletide hugs to you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More Christmas Shopping, More Christmas cooking, More Christmas mail and Christmas special No; 6

Oh my goodness, the title of this post is almost as long as the post itself LOL!!!!!

Bear and I had another really lovely day together. We got some last minute Christmas shopping done in the morning, bought some more lights for DH to put up in the pergola [[which he did that afternoon!!! What a Sweety he is :o)!!]]. Also couldn't resist these pretties ....

to sit on the dinner table on Christmas Day :o).

Once we got home it was back to baking Christmas goodies. Is there anything that smells yummier than delicious buttery shortbread baking???!! Mmmmmm, I LOVE that aroma :o)!! And they turned out so well ...........I can say that quite confidently as I was the official taste-tester. YUMMMM!!!!!

We also made these .........These are scrummy ... just melt some dark choccy, pop a glace' cherry in each tiny patty case, then pour the melted chocolate over the cheery into each little cup, then you just pop them into the refrigerator to set. Mmmmm, irresistable :o)!! Today I'm making my special Ice-cream with macadamia nuts, macadamia cookies, red and green licorice and coconut in it. The kids LOVE that ..... and the grown ups too LOL.

I've finished all my Christmas sewing now ... this was the last item to make. Just a pretty journal cover for my gorgeous Mum :o).The "M" is also for "Margaret" .... works for me ;o).

I got a really lovely surprise in the mail yesterday too. I was a lucky winner earlier this year in Sandi's giveaway. She sent me a beautiful handmade stocking - you can see it in the piccy below hanging on our fireplace ready for Santa to visit ;o) ...............

(and it was full of Christmas fat quarters!!!) . And dear Sandi remembered me again this Christmas and she sent me these ....Both of these adorable tree ornaments have my name on them!!!! What an incredibly thoughtful lady you are Sandi!!! Thank you SO much!!!

Okay ... well here's the 6th JoyPatch Christmas special!! Today I've chosen a pattern that pretty much sums up how I feel about housework!! I do it, but I don't like it he he!!! This bag has cute stitcheries on it that say ........

"Dusting :o( Ironing :o( Washing :o( ~ I'd rather be Quilting :o)"

and on the other side ...

"Sweeping :o( Cleaning :o( Cooking :o( ~ I'd rather be Quilting :o)"

So if you're like me and would rather be stitching than doing your chores, then this bag has to be on your "to do" list lol!!! It's nice and roomy, 15" x 13" with pockets inside for your phone and other little items you'd like to keep within easy reach. Nice long handles too so you can sling it over your shoulder. And just like the others, this PDF pattern is just $5.00!!! I can email the pattern to you as soon as payment is received, no postage costs and no waiting :o)!!!!

Well I'd better go and wake Bear, she's off to do her Christmas shopping today!!