A new month-a new start!

Just thought I would show you these great flower pinwheels that I made heaps of at Christmas and placed them in a very large vase-looked really bright and fun.Everyone that visited took one home with them,children loved them and they really do WORK!Simple to make and fun to use. Has anyone else made these?-----Doesn't my backyard look so green!
For those that may be tempted to try one of these click on this link to Heathers blog with a great colourful tutorial---they really are addictive!!!! So have fun!

My granddaughters first day at prep school along with her goofy brother who is in grade 4.My daughter is so thrilled school is back and I can imagine many more mothers are too!

cheers

where have I been?where do I start...

I can't believe so much time has passed since my last post!!! Does anyone else seem to get lost in timespace like me?......Summer is not conducive with me to get much done due to our extreme heat we have.Spare time is either in the pool or at the beach.Today it is raining heavy due to the trough from the cyclones up North Queensland so I thought it would be a great time to catch up!!
Well I was one of the unfortunate ones who participated in a swap-worked hard on the parcel and then it NEVER made it to its intented mortal in The Netherlands (someone must have received it as it never made its way back to me!)So I sat down and commenced to make another one.....hope Anita likes it! I made a set of rose buttons out of polymer clay baked in the oven so are fully washable.I also made an Angel out of beads.These are so easy if anyone wants to make them-just ask!They are great for suncatchers,attached to scissors or even with a ring added to go around your wineglass when having a girls night or at retreats!!!

Love the Rose fabric in this basket,stitchery done with varigated threads.(my mortal loves red and pink together!!)

A small pillow for pins,needles or brooches.

Some of the parcel goodies-even has a mugmat and quilt labels.I do so hope Anita enjoys these and finds them useful to her.

Christmas was a very low key event in our family this year as my son was getting married on January 8th up in Hervey Bay.As our family had to travel great distances we all decided our family time would be the wedding and not christmas!

Leading up to the wedding had been 10 days of tropical storms causing the bride much anxiety as it was to be an outdoor ceremony.It rained up to 3 hours before the ceremony was to start and then the sun came out in force with warm winds to dry out the ground.The ceremony was so beautiful and as a mother I felt so proud!! This is my first child to be married---the rest did it all backwards(the home and children and maybe oneday a wedding!!!! Sound familiar?)

The bride looked so beautiful and radiant,my son looked very dashing in his Al Capone suit! The day before he had a HUGE head of curls and a beard and threatened to keep them for the wedding!!!!! The bride was so thriled on the day to see him at the ceremony well groomed!!! Another of my sons was a groomsman(far left)

The proud Mum with her children!!!As usual I am in Blue!!!!My new DIL is a lovely girl and I couldn't be more happy-----she even loves to learn all the crafts I can teach her!!!!

My son asked me to make the wedding cake as I love delving into this craft as well.They wanted a 3 tier mudcake,top white chocolate,middle caramel mudcake and the bottom a dark chocolate mudcake.I found the most beautiful recipe on the net for these,very easy and super moist! The recipe can be varied to make all types of mudcake without much fuss-a real hit and works.The bottom layer was 14",middle 12" and the top 10"...a huge cake but all went very quickly with 90 guests! If you want the recipe link just ask.

This is how I transported the layers from the Sunshine Coast up to Hervey Bay(3 hours away) in the back of my car

I got to add lots of me to the cake by doing embroidery,quilting and adding beading and veils to it!All the flowers were handmade out of sugar paste too.

The light doesn't do it justice but the cake looked so beautiful.Took me some time to do all the embellishments but was well worth it.Another form of craftwork so even though I haven't done too mush sewing I have been busy.

My elderly parents (77 and 90 years) moved house in the last 2 weeks.They decided to relocate to Hervey Bay.The humidity isn't as bad there! They bought a house up there when we stayed up there for a week in November last year.Their house down here sold within the week so just had to wait for settlement and then began the huge move.My sons and I did all the heavy stuff for them when the removals had left.I stayed for a week with them getting them settled before coming home.felt quite weary for a few days but now am back on track so hence the blog catchup.Will try and get around to reading all your blogs again in the next few days(have so missed doing that).

glad to be back cheers

Back from New Zealand!

Just a short note to say "hello" and let you know that I'm back.I ended up extending my trip by another 10 days due to my Aunt's poor health.New Zealand-Christchurch in particular put on some beautiful weather for me.I spent the first 4 nights at a hotel right in the city which made it so easy to walk everywhere around the city.It's been 20 years since I was last "home"-and as you can imagine lots had changed(although the sensational Gothic architecture hadn't) This is one of the absolutely beautiful Rose arbors in the cities botanical gardens.I spent nearly 6 hours walking around the gardens discovering all the secret gardens amongst the greater gardens.When near the Rose gardens the aromatic scents were heavenly

This is the beautiful Avon River that runs right through the city.I can remember cycling along it to the girls school I went to MANY years ago.In winter the river froze and so did our hands!!! Aren't the colours wonderful!!!-make a great watercolour quilt???? hmmmm!

More of the Rose garden-every variety possible-just wished I could have sneeked some blooms home with me)

I had a ride on the river in one of these punts which have a gorgeous young man dressed in Edwardian costume poling us up the river----really recommended as it's not only informative but also so relaxing.

When I left New Zealand we had 150km winds which weren't nice!!! We had to fly fairly low and this is a view out of the plane of the Southern Alps-no snow to be seen.Don't they look so close!

To all I owe mail too-tomorrow I shall begin.Oh yes Tomorrow The tutorial for fabric bowls will be done.See you then cheers

New Zealand here I come!!!!

Have just got back from 10 wonderful days up in Hervey Bay!It is the most beautiful place to be in(gosh Maree why did you leave!!!)Spent alot of time visiting the local LPS-and boy is it filled to the brim with heaps of eye candy and delicious fabrics.If you are going up to the Bay you must visit the Dewdrop Inn!It is right on the foreshore so partners and children can pottle over to the water and you can browse in peace.This is what else I did up there....spent some special time with my DS3 who is 2!The beach is soooo wonderful and very little waves so great for little ones.Can't tell you how many sand castles I made!!!! lol! And now I am busy repacking as tomorrow afternoon I fly to Christchurch for 10 days.I'm looking forward to the cooler weather I can tell you after the heat wave we are having(41C yesterday!)It will be fun checking out all the quilt shops there too!
I must apologise for not posting the tutorial yet on the fabric bowls but will as soon as I get back-have simply run out of time.Thanks for all the lovely comments-i do so appreciate it cheers for now

fabric bowls

Thought I would show you whatI have been working on for the past few days! -fabric bowls.So quick and easy to make and very durable,washable and Fun!They are such a good use of focus fabrics for seasonal changes.Above is one done in my most favorite colour-blue lol ! The bowl above is the reversable to the one below.These bowls can be reversed for different effects to suit the decor or mood.These are out of a 12" square and have a slight elevation to the sides

The bowl below is for my GD to place her ribbons and hair ties in-this bowl stands up alot deeper than the ones above.

Of course this is a candy bowl to have treats on hand for my grandchildren and any one else who is tempted!This bowl stands up about 6" off the table

If anyone is interested in how to make these let me know and I shall do a tutorial for you.Have a great day.I'm off to work this afternoon and only have 5 shifts left before I have 5 weeks Holidays.Next week I head to Hervey Bay for a week-have a holiday house at the beach and then 2 days after I head back I fly off to New Zealand for a couple of weeks(Christchurch).I've been checking the weather there and it's COLD! cheers

happy halloween

Happy halloween to everyone!!!! Do you like my ghostly candy bucket filled with assorted wrapped candies?Last week I ordered these cookie cutters from an online store called "sweet themes.com.au".I thought they were very reasonably priced and they had a great selection to choose from.Well I ordered in the morning and they were delivered express post the next day!Wow how good is that?

Today my GS1 and I used these cookie cutters and made 2 dozen cookies from the recipe supplied with the cutters.
These are our decorated ghosts and bats made out of a yummy chocolate flavour.It was such a special time with my GS and I think we did a great job! Happy Halloween and enjoy your treats......now i just have to wait for all the little candy hunters!!!! cheers

yikes!!!

Today I was going out to the pool area to give it a good clean after all the heavy winds we have had in the past few days and look who was lurking up out of a crack in the concrete!!!! Yikes-a brown snake!!!! I ran inside and decided he could have the pool all to himself(I'm not that brave) and the pool could stay dirty for another day! I guess I shall have to do some sewing instead-hard I know! lol cheers