Monday, December 27, 2010

SSCS - Final Reveal

The gift I made for Chookyblue's Secret Santa Christmas Swap went all the way to Loulee in the Isle of Man (her blog is called Manxgirl)..... Lou is a Knitter and once I found that out I knew exactly what I wanted to make her. A while ago I'd spotted a lovely Knitting project pouch and jounal designed by the very talented Lisa from "A Spoonful of Sugar" and I'd been itching to make it!

Loulee's favourite colour is blue.... and I just love how it turned out in these nice soft colours:



This one shows my new labels that my very clever Sister designed....aren't they great??



I was a bit nervous about stitching through the carboard for the dividers.......
but it worked out really well!
Loulee loved her pressie and her hubby was delighted with the jar of vegemite I included in her parcel!

Until next time........


Sunday, December 26, 2010

SSCS 2010 - opened!

I was very excited to finally get to open my SSCS parcel yesterday.....
My partner was the lovely Kaaren from The Painted Quilt and she not only made my pressie but she designed it herself..... A lovely stitched and hand-quilted wall hanging:

Kaaren has used a varigated thread which looks lovely and adds interest
and the hand-quilting makes it very special.
I love that she has written on the back of it.... so I'll always remember where it came from!

Thankyou so much Kaaren....I love it!
And thanks again to Chookyblue for once again organising another great Christmas swap....
I just hope those last few parcels arrive soon!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas day!

Until next time........

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Secret Santa pressie!

Today we did a bit of a Secret Santa Swap in the office..... some of the men can be a bit tricky to buy for but I remembered seeing a picture of some "Reinbeer" on someone's blog only a week or so ago (I can't for the life of me remember who's blog it was).

Anyway.... here's my version of the Reinbeer, aren't they cute?

You can just see the little bags of m&m's that I tucked in the middle:

They were definately a hit and I can see myself making them again .....
Miss 11 and I had a lot of fun putting them together!

Until next time.......


Monday, December 20, 2010

6 Items Sent

My 6 Items Xmas Swap parcel arrived safely at it's destination last week but with so much happening I here of late I haven't had a chance to show you what I sent to my partner Dzintra.

My 6 items included:
1) Something to read - Book: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare and a Book Pouch
2) Something to eat - Chocolate
3) Something Smelly - A Scented Candle and some nice soap
4) Something for the Craft Room - Effie the Elephant Pincushion
5) Somehing Handmade - Couch Companion
6) A Xmas Item - Christmas Tea Towell


The Couch Companion
(Pattern by Leanne Beasley)



Effie Elephant Pincushion
(Heather Bailey pattern "Effie & Ollie" thanks to Khris who was my partner in the FRIENDS swap)

Christmas Tea Towell
(Stitchery from "A Little Bit of Christmas" by Hatched and patched)

Book Pouch
(Snap happy bag pattern by Stitchin' Sisters - size modified)

Dzintra was delighted with her parcel and I've really enjoyed exchanging emails with her since the big secret was unveiled.... the only thing I regret is not making two of those couch companions at the same time!

Until next time.....

Sunday, December 19, 2010

6 Items swap received

Oooops! Is it Sunday already? It seems I completely lost Saturday!
Anyhow.... here are the items that were made for me by the lovely Fiona of Dragonfly Crafts for our recent 6 Items Xmas Swap:
Lots of lovely's....so very spoilt! :)

1) Something to read:  2011 4 Ingredients calendar...lots of yummy looking recipe's here...Mmmm!
2) Something to eat: Cadburys delicious hazelnut chocolate....which may or may not be empty already.
3) Something Smelly: Scented soap and cute "rubber-ducky" washer.
4) Something for the Craft Room: Adorable little button tin.... complete with the cutest novelty buttons.
5) Something handmade: Gorgeous patchwork bag with "Friends" Stitchery
6) Xmas Item: Lovely red and white "spotty" oven mits.... love spots!

I have to show you some more pics of the awesome bag Fi made:

A nice roomy bag with little pockets on the front and Lovely fabrics!
and the sweetest little stitchery.... just look at their wild hair... love it!

Thankyou so much Fiona... next up, you'll get to see what I made for my partner... Dzintra!

Until then......

Friday, December 17, 2010

Xmas Stitching

Last night was the Club Quilt Christmas Party....... A lovely night with a good turn-up of Club Quilt ladies, great food, great company and more importantly PRESSIES!

Most of us made a handmade something to include in the swap.... there were so many beautiful things but unfortunately I didn't take my camera.... If you pop over to the Club Quilt blog I'm sure you'll be able to check them out over the next few days!
This is what I made:
The pattern is "Father Christmas" by Hatched and Patched


Only one of them was for the swap.... I decided to make two at once so that I would have one for myself. 
I usually make things and give them away then never get around to making mine... I think I'll start doing this more often!

I also included a "Beaufort Bag" that I made back here and Joanie was delighted with her pressie.

These are the goodies I received which were made by Jan:
A lovely bag.... I can't wait to get this one washed up and put through the dryer so that it goes all shaggy!..... gorgeous colours!

And some great little sewing accessories.... aren't they cute?
Thankyou so much Jan (no blog)!

I also got to find out who my 6 items Xmas Swap partner was....Fiona from Dragonfly Crafts! So I'll show you all those goodies tomorrow.

Until then.......

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Teacher Pressies

This afternoon I finally managed to get the kids teacher pressies done..... and just in the nick of time since it's the last day of school tomorrow!

Miss 11 has two teachers.... so I made a jewellery pouch for her female teacher and some rocky road for her male teacher (Men can be so tricky sometimes!). I also made a jewellery pouch for Master 8's teacher.

There are six little pockets on the inside to keep all that bling tangle-free and protected!

Tasty Treats for a Truly Terrific Teacher!

Phew.... another job out of the way!

Until next time........

Monday, December 13, 2010

6 Items Swap

Well I've finally finished all my swap parcels for this year..... my last one, the "6 items Christmas Swap" hosted by Maree went in the post yesterday! *Happy Dance*

I also managed to get a swap item made for our Club Quilt Christmas party this Thursday night and the only other sewing I need to do for Christmas is to make the kids teacher pressies tomorrow!
Finally light at the end of the tunnel!

Until next time......

Saturday, December 11, 2010

SSCS 2010 has landed

Well now that the SSCS parcel I sent has arrived safely at it's destination (although not without a couple of customs queries), I can finally tell you that my parcel was sent all the way to Loulee in the Isle of Man.... you can checkout her lovely blog "Manxgirl" here!

These are the ornaments I sent, which have already been unwrapped
and are hanging on Lou's tree:

You'll have to wait until Christmas to see what else I sent!

Until next time.......

Friday, December 10, 2010

Challenge Accomplished!

On Christmas day last year I started reading Twilight.... not because it was something I was all that interested in but because I wanted to see what all the hype was about and I wanted to check it out before I let my 11 year old read it. To be honest, I thought I'd hate it so you can imagine my surprise when I thoroughly enjoyed it and finished all four books in the series in about two weeks! It was nice to make time to read again which is something I haven't done much of since having children. I decided to challenge myself to see how many books I could read in the year and promptly gave up watching TV of an evening in favour of reading...... I started out thinking 20 books in a year would be great but a couple of months into my reading challenge I set the number at 50, and last night I started reading book no.51!
So...This is what I've read:
1) Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
2) New Moon by Stephanie Meyer
3) Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer
4) Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer
5) The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
6) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
7) Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
8) City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
9) City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
10) City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
11) The Naming by Alisson Croggon
12) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
13) The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
14) The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
15) The Short 2nd Life of Bree Tanner by Stephanie Meyer
16) Evernight by Claudia Gray
17) Stargazer by Claudia Gray
18) Hourglass by Claudia Gray
19) The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks
20) Cycler by Lauren McLaughlin
21) Recycler by Laren McLaughlin
22) The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
23) The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong
24) Fallen by Lauren Kate
25) Maximum Ride: Angel Experiment by James Patterson
26) Maximum Ride: Schools out Forever by James Patterson
27) Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
28) Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
29) Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
30) Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
31) Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris
32) Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris
33) Definately Dead by Charlaine Harris
34) All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
35) From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
36) Alone: Chasers by James Phelan
37) Need by Carrie Jones
38) Captivate by Carrie Jones
39) Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
40) Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris
41) The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong
42) Tomorrow: When the war Began by John Marsden
43) Torment by Lauren Kate
44) Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
45) Tomorrow 2: The Dead of Night by John Marsden
46) Bitten by Kelley Armstrong
47) Stolen by Kelley Armstrong
48) Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong
49) Tomorrow 3: The Third Day, The Frost by John Marsden
50) Tomorrow 4: Darkness by my Friend by John Marsden
Edited to add a couple more:
51) Angel by L.A.Weatherly
52) Tomorrow 5: Burning for Revenge by John Marsden

My sister has been my main influence for the change in the type of books I've been reading and she thinks it's hilarious that she has me reading all sorts of supernatural fiction these days and a lot of what I've read has been young adult fiction which has really surprised me..... if you'd like to know more about any of these books you can check them out on my Goodreads page here.

I would also love to hear what great books you've been reading and welcome any recommendations as my to-read pile is getting quite low now!

Until next time.......

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Happy Mail

Today the mailman delivered my SSCS parcel all the way from Canada!
So now my Secret Santa swap partner is not so secret anymore.... Kaaren of "The Painted Quilt" is my partner and if my lovely ornaments are anything to go by then I just can't wait to tear into my other parcel. Hmmm.... I may just have to ask the kids to hide it for me until Christmas so that I'm not tempted to open it early!
Not one but two cute little ornaments which have already found the perfect spots in my home :)

The bottom parcel is the one I'm trying very hard not to open....
I also received a cute little snowman note pad!

Kaaren sent a lovely note with her parcel and apologised for not being able to include a Christmas card with her gifts.... she is in the process of moving house and when I say moving house I don't just mean across town but 1000 miles away....OMG!  I'm amazed she was organised enough to put a parcel together at all!

Thankyou so much Kaaren :) and thanks again to Chooky for hosting such a great swap!

Until next time......

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Water Rising!

Lots of excitement in our little town of Narromine at the moment..... this is the view from outside my parents house a short while ago:

This roof covers the play equipment which is now completely underwater.


An old steam engine in the park


Football field

These ones were taken at the bridge on the edge of town:



Yesterday it measured 11metres..... today it's 13.1 and still rising.

Lets hope it doesn't get too much higher!
Until next time........