As if I wasn't busy enough....

how often do you catch yourself saying this, why do we do it to ourselves huh.. well because it is just so much fun and we do all enjoy it so much!!

I have really committed myself now, just look at my sidebars. What was I thinking of... I do not know. What I do know is that I have committed myself to the next couple of months of wonderful exciting fun...

I have finished another project for the one project a month - Ben's quilt. I cannot believe how many unfinished projects I have, but certainly I am now on a roll! Cakegirl, I hope that you are reading this!and I have really been working hard on my stitching.. when we were away at Christmas time, I did quite a bit of stitching on this reject from a pre-Christmas Homespun magazine. I am getting in early for Christmas 2009!! and these are some of the stitching that I did in-flight en route to Paris and Canada. still working on this one..and still needing to finish this one.. can you notice the bead work on Santa'a beard?

and on this one also...
and this one still needs a little finishing off stitching ... poor lass has no hair!
and I am sure that I can find some fabrics from here for this Christmas quilt...and I have these fabrics (below) to work with on the calendar quilt challenge 09! I joined this one rather late, and need to do quite a bit of catching up.. so maybe this is my weekend project after the 24 hr relay 4 life walk that I am participating in for the local regional cancer society fund raiser...
So I do have lots to do, isn't it really exciting then... and did I tell you that my garden needs some attention too!!

Aren't swaps such fun!

I have had just the most wicked time,... I took part in this wonderful swap hosted by Heidi over at http://foxglovesfabricandfolly.blogspot.com, she is the most wonderful swap host. This is the 2nd of her swaps that I have participated in now, her earlier "Very Vintage Christmas Swap"was lots of fun also. Anyway, this parcel arrived from my swap partner Shannon, from California, USA, who does not have a blog unfortunately, so I cannot send you over there to check her out, no mind! This rose box is just so lovely huh..
....and all these lovely goodies inside, the heart shaped soap right in the centre just has such a divine fragrance, and it just wafts all over my lounge room so that you instantly notice it when you walk into the room,And isn't this just too cute, I shall have such a lot of fun finding homes and uses for these I am sure,This is what I sent Shannon, I think that I am safe posting this, as she should have it by now, I do hope that she enjoys opening it as much as I enjoyed opening mine and discovering all the goodies and treasures - THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH Shannon!

I visited my friend Robyn at the weekend, she has such a lovely garden, her home is a delightful 150 year old farm cottage, and it is just so quiet and peaceful, she gave me these lilies - aren't they just so beautiful.. the photo does not do them justice really, it is quite late at night (half midnight actually) and the light is not really so great to show them off so well.


Rowing man is away for the week, he is spending the week in Twizel - yep - rowing AGAIN! And I always have such trouble getting off to bed and sleep for the first night that he is away! It is the week for the National Championships, so he is off to win some gold. His first race is at 7.25 am, so by the time I get myself settled into work tomorrow morning, he should be at the start line just getting ready to take off.. I think that this race is a singles, but he is also competing in the doubles and quad (4 man) events over the next few days, with the finals on Friday and Saturday. He says that he will be home later n Saturday evening, in time to come and cheer me on as I walk around the track for the Relay for Life -www.relayforlife.org.nz/ - this is a magnificent, fun-filled overnight (24hr) event that brings people from all ages and walks of life together as teams of friends, families, colleagues, sports or community groups and take on the challenge of raising FUNds to raise awareness and celebrate survivorship.

Well, best of to bed if I think that I am going to get up at 6am tomorrow!

Have fun!

Shiree

Let's Celebrate!!

We have wonderful news, the Saturday before Christmas, my dear
son - rowing boy- popped the question to his girlfriend of 5 years. And what I really find amazing is he did it all by himself, we were all quite taken, and completely unaware that he was even thinking about this. What a surprise for us all, including Christelle, rowing boy's now fiancee.

How exciting is that. SO now we have a wedding to look forward to, and lots of planning, and arrangements and decisions etc although it is quite some time away. Christelle has family in France and she would love for them to have the opportunity to come out to New Zealand, hence the wedding date has been set for 27 November 2010. YES, a long time away! I am sure that it will be no time tho before their big day is much closer ...

They had a Christmas party with a few close friends and during this, rowing boy stopped the music, got done on one knee - the romantic wee soul - and did the proposal thing! WOW, I cannot believe that he managed to keep the ring buying and all this a complete secret from absolutely everyone.

So we have duly celebrated with a bottle of champers...

I cannot believe how organised she is, already she has a wedding planner/diary. And a great A4 ring-binder that she has pictures of dresses that she likes, and ideas for the cake, photos, venues etc etc. She is going to make this all so so easy.
Their engagement party is set for March 31st, as we also have some family coming from other parts of NZ, and Perth, Australia for the event. It will be wonderful to catch up with family and friends again, some of whom we have not seen for some time.


And today it is Valentine's day , so HAPPY VALENTINES DAY everyone, wherever you may be, and whatever you may be doing I hope you have a very enjoyable time with your loved ones,

cheers, Shiree

Melbourne fires

What a great tragedy this is, and I am sure everyone reading their newspapers or listening to the news unfold on tv or radio or whatever news media, are as horrified as I am that something of this magnitude has occured, and taken so many lives. The disaster area encompasses more then 20 towns north of Melbourne, and it is really hard to imagine just what this may be like.

There are many stories already emerging about the horror, courage and luck of the many many people involved, my daughter in Perth (Chatty Girl) has been telling me that her workplace has taken up a gold coin collection, and also a practical support measure of asking all their employees to sort out clothing and bedding and similar to be transported to the area for use by those that have lost homes and posessions, as this is what their local Red Cross has asked for. Good on them I say. And we have in our local papers a website to make donations so I am off very soon to contribute to this very worthy cause.

We were away in Twizel for the weekend, so were not aware of this disaster until our return on Monday morning, apparently the glow from the fires could be seen in the Dunedin sky, and many that saw this did not immediately link it to the Melbourne fires, even if they were were aware of them. That is some distance, and indicating how huge the area of fire must be.

It is humbling to see so many rally and provide support in so many necessary ways. I cannot begin to imagine how it may be for those that have lost loved ones, family, friends, homes, pets, businesses etc, and I am sure it will be a long road to recovery and rebuilding. I am also sure that they will be touched and remember these acts of kindness from strangers who felt their pain in very differnt ways.

Regatta weekend

my the time does disappear all too quickly, February already.

we had another wonderful weekend in Twizel on the shores of Lake Ruataniwha (which in Maori means 2 monsters).

The lake was built specially for rowing regattas in the 1970's when they were putting in all the canals and hydro electricity dams in the Waitaki Valley. Bit of an eyesore, but they do provide the means for the necessary comforts in life.

Anyway Rowing man was in fine form again this weekend, he that he is a master and competes against young 18-20 year olds. But he manages fine, and was the proud recipient of gold medal this weekend for the club quad event. (we have drawer full of these things!). It was a very close finish! (They are the middle crew - that's rowing man at the back in the grey cap/blue singlet with white stripe -just as they cross the finish line)
He didn't do quite so well in the single sculls however, but he is lucky to have his boat row worhty as when out training the other week, it got rammed by some novices in a double, and sadly was very worse for wear. Thanks to club captain John, who ran a very quick repair job!
hmmmm, I don't seem to be able to upload photos this evening for some reason, and I had some good shots to show you too. I am a bit of a nana at these events, and when not helping with rigging, derigging or getting on or off the water,

I have quite a nice spot right close by the finish line where I sit and stitch. Get quite a bit done really, and I have manged to get 2 little bags and a very nice little cushion

- these are Sally Giblin designs, which she had in a slightly older edition of Patchwork & Stitching, which I believe is an Australian magazine.

And I managed to get a bit more stitching done on my WISP ... my version of Leanne Beasley's Flowers & Flutterbuys. So it may not be as far from being finished as I had thought. Yay!!

I am quite lucky, as I can stitch while we are en route in the car, and it doesn't bother me at all, so this means that I get nearly 3 hours of stitching every time we head to Twizel for the weekend.

Photos uploaded now as you can see!

We are off again this weekend, long one as Friday is Waitaingi Day (New Zealand Day) and thus a public holiday, lovely long weekend to look forward to. T

The Twizel weather has been really lovely, and oh so so hot, temperatures right up at 38-42 degrees, and such a very dry heat also. Later on Saturday afternoon we were all swooning and looking for shade, or shutting ourselves in the house with the air conditioning on!! .

Great Giveaway!!!

how gorgeous is this??? What about this for a great giveaway then... Look at the fabulous stuff she is giving away to celebrate her 100th blog posting.

Have a look at these and her other wonderful treasures on Kim's blog Bitty Bits and Pieces
Well I'm a little slow getting over there to enter, but I'm So glad I didn't miss this one.

Thank you Kim for a fantabulous give away and Good Luck to everyone who enters!

cheers, Shiree

WOW - what a list

well, new year and fresh start huh...

I have cleaned out my sewing studio (well actually it is rowing man's study, but he is now squashed over into the corner), and made a list of projects to be completed. What a nasty thing to do, would you believe this? I have 15.. yes 15 projects that need to be completed, some quilts only need binding, and some need just a little more. I would not have imagined that I had so many UFO's/WISP's or whatever you want to call them - they all need to be finished and ticked off the list.

Thanks (and I do mean that) to Kris at Tagalongteddies for encouraging this, both Kris and May Britt have organised the "one project a month challenge" so I will certainly be challenged. And I certainly hope it will not take me all year to finish these, I have heaps more projects in mind, and I have told myself that I really need to get these done first. So action it is!!!

Mind, there is always room for a few new projects to be thinking about, and I have these lovely fabrics to play around with. Very subtle, cool and relaxing fabrics so I shall just quietly put some thought into how I might use these...

and this is a sneak peek at one of the gifts that I have made to send to Shannon, for the Vintage Valentine swap, it is on it's way to her now in the States.


These swaps are just so much fun, but I would have heaps more time, if I could tear my self away from looking at all these wonderful blogs!!! It is so so habit forming, and whilst I really enjoy seeing what everyone is up to, it is extremely time consuming huh..

catch ya later,

Shiree