aren't holidays great!

Mike 'n' Me 'n' Karen 'n' Rowing Man trying out a beanbag at the World Rowing Champs at Lake Karapiro just having watched the Melbourne Cup on the big screen. 'Dis da life! 

look at what I am doing come January 2011

This is Sue Spargo's seventh annual BOM starting in January 2011. Sue's newest BOM is inspired by Central Asian Folk-art and will be constructed out of hand dyed wool and textural fabrics.
The finished size of the quilt will be 42” x 42”. It will make a fabulous embellished wall hanging (Suzani) focusing on being heavily layered with textural fabrics and embroidery. Each month will use 4 different embroidery stitches to embellish the blocks. That will be a total of 44 stitches throughout the year.  How wonderful is this? Sue has limited sign ups to 300, and already these have sold out, lucky lucky me I say!

wedding plans on track

try if you might, but this post was such a long time ago so you could easily be forgiven for not remembering, Rowing Boy and French Chic got engaged  immediately prior to Christmas 2008, and then we had a fantastic time celebrating at their engagement party , well the big day is less then 5 weeks away!

... yesterday Rowing Man and I were in town, but part of the day, while Rowing Man was busy elsewhere, I managed to get round a few dress shops, and try on some gorgeous creations ..... and finally with Rowing Man in tow...last shop of the day, 5pm.. I managed to find just what I had been looking for,

you know how it goes, you're not exactly sure what you do want, but you certainly know what you don't want,

and you try on several  pretties, too many to mention really.., all looking pretty good, .... but they just don't have that zing, that WOW factor, that feel that the minute you slide the fabric over your head, and pull it down over your body,

...and look in the mirror, that this is what you have been looking for  the whole day! ...this makes you feel good... and that makes you look good!

it might not be the colour you thought you were going to wear,

or even the style that you had in your head,

but this IS the dress that makes you feel a million dollars, and still doesn't take any magic away from the bride or her bridesmaids, (not that you could ever do that anyway) or the Bride's mother, everyone is going to look and feel great!

now I just have to not wear it for the next 5 weeks, and keep it clean and spot free, I have already had it on twice today!

YABADABBADOO!!

well wonders of wonders,

today has been fantastic

after weeks, the website for The Rowan Tree Quilt Gallery & Workshop has finally gone live - YAHOO!!

you can see it here and here... and here!

so go on, what are you waiting on.. go here.

Hey I am just kidding guys, thanks to all of you who have been so helpful and patient and kind and understanding (have I greased enough brownie points yet??)

There is still a bit of work to do but only some light editing, and getting the class list finalised for 2011 (that sounds scary), but I can see daylight.

Time now to spend with Rowing Man, but hey he is off to Dunedin, he is on an early flight to Wellington tommorrow for a meeting, then back to Dunedin late tommorrow evening, off to Queenstown on Saturday to check out some medical centres, back to Twizel on Sunday morning, so we can drive to Dunedin on Sunday afternoon -so we can catch up with family - French Chic's birthday on Sunday, 

Rowing Man can do some minor surgery on Monday, I can attend my Dunedin quilt group Monday evening, and then we can come back home again to Twizel on either late Monday evening or the wee small hours of Tuesday morning - talk about chalking up the miles...

I hope you guys are all having a fantastic day and looking forward to your weekend, 

 

 p.s. this post was to have been posted last night but internet access was playing up so lucky this post stayed here all night and now I have just hit the publish post button...fingers crossed!

OUCH!!

WARNING!! This post contains graphic images of clumsiness, sillness and sheer stupidity. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!

Whilst I was rushing to do this quilt, which is another story in itself, (this quilt was pieced by our local group), and I will leave for later, I managed to get my finger in the way, and the needle from my quilty machine and I became very well acquainted indeed. Hmmm need a manicure!

One might how ask how on earth I managed to do this, but I did. Somethng about trying to multi-task with my man-brain in gear


But talking about man-brain, thank goodness Rowing Man was home and able to put on his Mr Rural GP hat and find some forceps (just what you have lying round in your socks drawer I am sure), and pull the darn thing out -

 
from the bottomside of my finger, the jolly thing went right thru! (cleaned up version)

So I have had a rather sleepless night with finger throbbing, but up and at em, that quilt needs to be finsihed today, and binding done this evening... I hope there is something at least halfway decent on TV tonight,

..and you can see how close to finishing the quilting I was too!! . Guess I won't be doing too much gardening this weekend as planned, need to keep this clean and uninfected...

Slightly difficult to tappety tap these keys with my finger pointed in the air, keeps getting in the way and hitting the wrong keys, going to be  slow day methinks.. Oh well, nothing a morning cuppa can't make right

Have a great Friday everyone...

weekend just past...

 we spent the weekend just past in Christchurch and caught up with #1 daughter - Ecogirl, who had been at a week long course, it was wonderful seeing her, and catching up with all she has been up to,



we spent Saturday at the Arts Centre, wandering amongst all the colourful stalls, eating some fantastic food and listening to the local flavour music, then wandered over to the Art Gallery

Sculptor, Ron Mucek had the most wonderful exhibition on, absolutely fabulous!!! It is a must see, this man is such a  very clever sculptor, if you ever get the chance to see an exhibition like this you definitley need to see it! It runs at the Christchurch Art Gallery until Jan 2011.

 

He makes a clay model first (from a real life model), and then makes a silicone/fibreglass mold, they just look so jolly real, it is amazing!! ...altho' most of them are slightly larger then life...

this man sleeping, whilst is really quite large, is very life like indeed, the stubble on his face is quite the real thing, 

 and this is a giant of a sculpture of his wife lying in bed, 

 

 and these 2 old ladies are rather cute..

to end the weekend,we ahd a wonderful breakfast on Sunday with Deb and Darlene and hubbys and friends, it was  great!!! Thanks heaps Miss D for organising this

... and the last 2 days we have been in Dunedin, catching up with family and doing all the town chores

I hope you are all having a great week,

the post that wasn't...

 well blogger is at it again, went to download my pikkies and it just won't do it, I have tried every which way and not a goer,    

off to have  a shower and come back and try again soon!!

OK so maybe this  time huh...nope and too busy to be playing around with this today, adding to my new website which is soooooooo close to launching!!!

have  a great weekend everyone and will post later!