Time for tea...........and some renos in the pipeline!

Yesterday I received Stephanie's thank you gift for participating in the Time for Tea swap.........it arrived with a sticker on it saying it had been opened by Australia Post for inspection by Quarantine......there were a couple of leaflets inside explaining the procedure and letting me know that detector dogs and x-ray machines are used to screen items and that this one was opened as it was thought there may have been an item of quarantine concern in it..............it went on to say that nothing had been removed.

I have to say that I am impressed by their diligence......and if it stops something coming into the country which may potentially be harmful then I am all for it! I can only think that on the xray machine it may have looked a little "dodgy" with the pocket on the back "concealing" an unknown little packet!.....

Thank you Stephanie....what a lovely gesture - it was a fun swap to particpate in and there have been some fabulous gifts revealed to date.....Further to the above inspection by quarantine the brand on little tea bag was "Stash Premium"!!

It may be of interest to those sending parcels to Australia to find out about product requirements and import conditions here - might save the disappointment of having items confiscated.

We have lived in our house now for a little over four years......it is an old house and we love it...there are are few maintenance issues that need to be addressed which we are hoping to do soon....but one of the things I have wanted to do since the day we moved in is take up the carpet and have the floorboards polished............the Prince has been putting this off and has been suspicious of things like joins in the carpet between rooms suddenly becoming more obvious....I blame the vacuum for that...LOL.........but on Thursday night of last week this happened..............................

........yes.....those are cuts you see in the carpet......it happened because I organised for a tradesman to come and quote on having the floorbboards polished.....this is what was underneath............

......ok this may not look like much but for me it is a major breakthrough!! Apparently the boards are in good condition and we have decided to get all the rooms downstairs done.....but before we do that there are a few maintenance jobs which need to be addressed......but it's a start!!! I am not a huge fan of carpet and when it is covering up lovely old boards .........well.............it was always going to be on the list of things to be replaced.......the Prince of course is NOT on that list.....!!

I have been doing a little stitching during the week and have been working on the first block of the Breast of Friends quilt from Homespun magazine......my needleturn applique is a little rusty (to say the least!) but I am sure it will improve with practice.....the fabrics I am using are from the Quilters Angel. I have also ordered some of the In the Pink II fabrics (which is the fabric line used in the blocks featured in Homespun) from Hetties Patch.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend and getting some stitching done..........!

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