Now...where was I.......

Oh yeah.......lemonade by the pool on Australia Day.......lovely relaxing afternoon......early night.......because this is how I felt when I got home......a tad deflated/exhausted!

no sleep in on Friday.....had an appointment to de-sparkle my hair........greys begone.....

I love getting my hair done.....I find it very relaxing ........and I get to catch up on the gossip mags that I only read at the hairdressing salon.........same stuff in them....before and after pics of celebs who have lost/gained weight....celebs arriving at / departing from airports on their way to / home from fabulous holidays.....new ways to lose weight (always fast!)....you get the picture.....

Home for lunch.......and a sleep......so went Friday!  I needed to rest up so I would be ready for a little road trip on Saturday.......

I was up at sparrow fart to pick up Cheryl (no blog) and we hit the road to Port Pirie .....to catch up with Robyn at Country Hart......oops!  No pics.....was too busy talking/looking/shopping! 

 Off for brunch (I said we started out early!!) then back to the shop for another round!   We stopped at Auburn on the way home ....shared a scone with yummy jam and cream with a Chai latte.......

After the early start we were home by mid afternoon and I prepped a block for the Farmer's Wife quilt to sew in the evening......then as I was settling in to watch the tennis and stitch the power went out during a storm........hmmm....sewing by candle light.....wasn't doing it for me........

Thank goodness for the  iPad! 

Prepping the block was as far as I got towards stitching anything all weekend......on Sunday I woke up with a sore throat and have been a bit under the weather since then......could only manage two sets of  Rafa's match on Sunday night  :(      I  even had a half day off work yesterday after cracking hardy and thinking I would be fine and pushing myself to get out the door in the morning!  Spent the afternoon on the couch with assorted medications/tissues/orange juice and the remote.......the midday movie was actually not too bad!  Back to work today after stocking up on tissues/medication etc.......

I will leave you with a couple of pics of Rose who was more interested in what I was doing than the tennis the other night!

'Til next time.................................Lorraine

Australia Day 2012

Anyone who has read my blog for a while would know that I organise our Council's Australia Day event.  This takes the form of a free breakfast for residents followed by a citizenship ceremony and the presentation of our Australia Day awards. Even though I have organised the event for several years I don't take any aspect of the arrangements for granted and am pleased to say that this morning's breakfast went very well....thanks to all those who have input with the setting up, cooking, serving and helping out with the general running of the event.   

this was my view from the stage.......

I joined a friend for coffee after the event......not 'fessing up to which one of us had the iced coffee......................

Gotta love the tiny lamington on the side......

I will leave you with a pic of a very happy organiser with her MC for the day......Vincent recently rejoined our team at Council and did a great job as MC........

Watching tennis while I have some lunch......then off to a friend's house to sit by the pool and enjoy a couple of "lemonades"! 

'Til next time.......................Lorraine

Thanks Mary Jo...........

For emailing me to let me know I had the second row of the Farmer's Daughter block around the wrong way!  That will teach me to put blocks together at 2am!

All fixed now........

Funny.....when I posted the pic last night I thought it didn't look quite right.......(that's probably because it wasn't LOL).  Thanks again Mary Jo - I really appreciate you letting me know.

On another note.......summer........it's been nice....but I think we are done.....although I don't think you feel the same way...and will be around for a while longer. 

I am not sure about my relationship with hand piecing either.....the jury is still out on that one....perhaps it's just because it's been a long time since I did any.......will see how it goes.

'Til next time.................Lorraine

I love Sundays.......

What....Sunday again.....who stole last week?  January is fast disappearing  ......at this rate Girls Day in the Country (GDITC) in late March will be here before I know it....yay!  Really looking forward to some holidays and a road trip! 

I did get to do some stitching at work last week......and it was "in the line of duty" so to speak......I took the Mayoral chain to the local jeweller to be cleaned a few weeks ago and got it back late afternoon on Thursday....since the Mayor needed it for a function on Friday I had to turn my stitching skills to good use to re-attach the chain to the velvet "collar".......lucky I had a needle and thread in my desk......all done and ready for the function.......

Yesterday was the first get together of the Farmer's Wife variety......that's the Farmer's WIfe quilt of course.......Claire , Val and Shay were there along with non bloggers, Kaye, Denise and Lorraine....who knew there were other Lorraine's out there LOL.  Had fun and even got some stitching done....discussion was had during the day regarding each person's expectations on what size quilt they would like to make......I was thinking lap size.......but a table runner might be more realistic!   As always fabric selection is my biggest hurdle....once I get that out of the way I'm fine.  Part of the reason I made the Civil War quilt in reds/whites was that it made fabric selection easy!  Have decided to use a variety of colours in repro prints......and look...I have even used some blue!  First time for everything....

Hopefully I will be able to do a few more blocks before our next stitching day.........

And....just because I can.....I started something new during the week........this is a Lenora Jenkins pattern......it's a tablecloth....and is called Housework Can Wait.......it combines piecing, applique and stitchery (around the outer border)......I ordered it from Linda a while ago and it has been sitting on the sewing room table tempting me since it arrived in the post.......I figured some of the Ruby fabrics would be perfect .....so here goes........

Linda wrote about a new stitchery fabric she had in the shop in this post - because I do lots of stitcheries I am always on the look out for something new (or new to me) .....I ordered some and I used it in the little pincushioons I showed in my previous post......

     

 

This fabric was lovely to stitch and I will definitely be using it again.

My hexagon project (This Goes with That by Sue Daley) has been severely neglected over the past few weeks.....so this afternoon I gathered up all the packets and made ready to get busy on them again......I am doing the BOM through Hetties Patch.  Sue will be teaching at GDITC so I should get a wriggle on and get some more done! 

Have been hibernating today....had plans to go out for a while....but a trip to the bin with a bag of rubbish was about it.....too hot for me to be out and about.  Besides Rafa was on centre court today so it was worth staying home!  also watched the final stage of the Tour Down Under......had a little nap....did some stitching....checked a few blogs....answered some emails............made dinner........did some washing and ironed my work shirts for the week.....I think that's quite enough for one day.  I'm tired now!! Better get some sleep ready for the working week....it's a short  (but busy) week with Australia Day on Thursday.

'til next time........................Lorraine





Another one bites the dust.........

This could of course refer to many things.....another day over................

......a Test match won.....a project completed....someone "off the market" , but in this case it refers to another weekend which has gone way too fast and a couple of projects finished!  I took a break from the cricket this afternoon and when I came back to it it was all over!! 

Speaking of things being over.....my attempt at growing a couple of tomato plants was an epic fail....helped along by Miss Rose who thought that the plants were put there for her amusement........so went right ahead and was amused!  Judging by the dirt strewn around the back yard and the chewed remains of the plants...she had a great time!

Cheryl came over a couple of times on the weekend with Buddy......to  go for a walk and give the "kids" a chance to play. It was pretty hard to get a decent pic of them....Buddy, who is four, was in awe of Rose who was bouncing around him wanting him to play.....I have lots of pics of Buddy with Rose's tail as she disappeared out of shot....LOL  She didn't give up easily either........

The other day I started stitching some pin cushions (another Gail Pan pattern)......

and here are three of them....finished......well....two are still a bit flat and need some filling....but you get the drift.......

I bought a kit for this little wall hanging when I was in Victoria last year.....it's a Natalie Bird design.....and has been sitting on the little table next to the couch for a while now with the stitchery done....so this weekend I finished it.....yay!!  Go me!!

I have been enjoying working on some smaller projects....and have even found time some mornings after walking Rose to do some stitching or prep something to work on at night....the thing is though  I have dragged out about six smaller projects..some started....some yet to be started.......so is that any different to working on one big project?   I am thrilled with my finishes so far though....at this rate I will be ready for Christmas in about March! 

Had the kids over for dinner this evening.....thought I would go with an old favourite....Spinach and Ricotta Canneloni since last weekend I went with something new and almost killed Terri....well.....that's a bit of an exaggeration....but we did find out she is allergic to pine nuts!  So they are definitely off the menu now!  Poor girl - I felt so bad!

Well...back to the small project finishing for me.......have work tomorrow so I shouldn't be staying up too late.....but I probably will!   Rose tends not to nag me about staying up late.

'til next time..................Lorraine

All good things........

.....must come to an end.......and so my two weeks off will end tomorrow when I go back to work.   It's been a lovely relaxing time....with no routine to speak of....just what I needed.

This weekend was very social with visitors of both the human and doggy kind!  Lexi came for a sleep over and as usual the girls played long and hard.......an old sock bound for the bin became their favourite thing for a while.........

 Then it was time to retire to their own "corners" for a nap......they were either going full on or sleeping...there wasn't any in between for them...!

While the girls slept I got myself organised to host the Stitch n' Bitch girls on Saturday for lunch and and afternoon of stitching.....

I put together a Quinoa salad which was delicious.......

This afternoon I decided I needed to get some stitching done so once the kids had gone home  I parked myself in the sewing room and got started......! First cab off the rank was this little needle holder from Gail Pan....big bonus was that when I unpacked the little kit I had for it I found that the stitchery was already done - I did it while I was in Melbourne late last year.....and had forgotten about it.....was very happy with this finish..it's cute!

The finishes didn't stop there......I had these bags cut out and ready to go before Christmas.....and now they are done!  Into the "present box" they go......

Time I was in the sewing room again....I need to iron a shirt for tomorrow......and then get some sleep so I can be up early for a walk with Rose.  I must admit to some very late nights/early mornings while I have been on leave.......so it's back to some more sensible hours now......oooops .....too late.....LOL

For those who are still on holiday .....enjoy!  I will be thinking of you when I head off to the office in the morning..oh......one thing I haven't finished is the jigsaw.....it has been neglected for the last couple of days but I will get to it......although it might be still there at Easter at the rate I am going!

'Til next time...................Lorraine

Today.......

Today I played at being a domestic goddess...........it was time!  I did me  spend a bit of tion the jigsaw..and watched cricket.....a girl has to have frequent breaks from the rigours of vacuuming/washing floors, washing....well ...you know how it goes!

I took down the Christmas tree and packed up all the decorations yesterday........I caught one of the bears trying to make a break for it while I had my back turned.....and he had a little friend ....sorry guys....see you later in the year (it will be here before you know it!)

 s

The jigsaw......just the sea to go.....and isn't there a lot of it!

I did take time out to play with my blog header....the angel was given to me for my birthday by one of the girls I work with......I love it........and I love the quote!

The kids are coming for lunch tomorrow so I also shopped for food....... visited with friends while I was out and about  ....and took my library book back......not sure what comes after the first overdue notice...but didn't want to find out  LOL Pretty slack of me not to have returned it earlier...I work in the same building!

Still haven't managed to get any stitching done but the girls are coming over for lunch/stitching on Saturday so might get something done then.......maybe......LOL

'Til next time.....................Lorraine