Simone's charity quilt

I received these fabrics from Simone at the weekend, they are for a charity quilt that she is organising for Dromenquilts - you can read about the quilt challenge here, and more about it here.


Stephanie has made hers and sent them back already! and just like Stephanie, I had some trouble interpreting the flying geese instructions, they were quite complicated, and it has been some time now since I have made flying geese blocks so I needed some practice....

I found Sarah's tutorial really helpful! Thank you so much Sarah...

I have had the munchies all day, and have been snacking on these, just about had the whole jolly packet all by myself! GREEDY!!!

but then I decided that if I was going to eat choc goodies, then I might bake this and take it to the BBQ we are off to with friends tonite... it is a very yummy Oaty Coffee Wedge...

I have also been a bit of a domestic char today, the washing done and back in, (we go through so many beach towels with the hot tub, I am pretty much washing them every day, sometime several times a day!!)

Rowing man's shirts all ironed and hanging in his wardrobe,

and making him some of his favourite - marmalade!!

I hope that you get your blocks soon Simone, I gave them to Rowing Man to drop at the Post Office on his way back to work from lunch, and in the rush to get them in the post, never got a photo of the finished blocks. Hopefully they will be there in a week or thereabouts, I have tucked in a little goodie for you also! You are such a sweetie organising this challenge. I am sure that it is no easy feat, especially when blocks are being sent and received from all around the world.

Have a fun week everyone...

back in the land of the sun!

Is this not the most stunning view to wake up to or what??

last Tuesday, Perth Girl and I headed over the Lindis Pass to visit my sister who has a holiday home in Cromwell,

For those of you that don't know Cromwell, it is located in the valley of the Upper Clutha, deep in the heart of the dry interior of Central Otago in the South Island of NZ . . . it is a landscape of bare brown hills, of tussock & briar, purple thyme and tors of schist, broad basins & fertile valleys, of Lake Dunstan's pristine waters and of gorges carved by two great rivers . . . it is a landscape first trodden by the Maori hunter and trader, opened to European settlement by the sheep farmers, exploited and transformed by the gold seekers and later by the dam builders . . . and now home to the merino and deer farmer, to orchards and vineyards, to artists and artisans. It is a very popular place for holidaymakers for summer water sports and winter skiing.

My nephew just loves getting out on the lake and kayaking, and the area where their holiday home is, makes it so safe and easy...

However, On Wednesday we headed to Dunedin and were greeted with this....

can you see the hailstones? it is a good thing that Dad's toms and strawberries are protected in the glasshouse huh!

it just absolutely poured with rain non-stop, no floods but constant rain... a good time to catch up on reading and heaps of stitching and the odd movie.. lunch in town with Mum and other sister, some shopping - not too much mind....

Janet left for Perth on Thursday and after spending the weekend in Dunedin catching up with friends and other chores, we returned home to this .... much better don't you think!

Now, I have joined Heidi with her Friday night sew-in - pop on over and have a look for yourself, but I thought it sounded like a pretty good idea.

Joining the Friday Night Sew-in is a way of setting some time aside to work on those projects on your to do list, and boy do I have many of those! ... And - it doesn't have to be a sewing project.. maybe a knitting project.. or some stitching or scrapbooking.. it could be absolutely anything. But I sure think it is a good chance to make sure that you get something done... now to order up a nice balmy sunny Twizel summer night, sit outside on the deck with my stitching and a vino.. or two maybe....

enjoy your week every one!

quiet day today then....

This is my December Daily album....

I did one of these last year, and I really enjoyed documenting the days leading up to Christmas Day, last years journal sits on my coffee table with other Christmas decorations over the festive season, and friends & visitors thumb thru it often... I really like flicking through it too and reminding myself where we were at last year!

it doesn't have a cover yet, as I have not really decided what I will do - procrastination at it's best? No not really, I am just waiting 'til we go to town as I need a few bits'n'pieces...

OOPS - flash breaking thru a bit here..

this is day 4, despite looking like it may be day 21 - on Dec 4th we got a letter box, our street # is 21..

there is a still quite a bit of work to do on some of the pages...

and some may just be...

Ali Edwards, Janelle Wind, Molly Irwin, and many others bloggers are the inspiration for this Christmas journal, have a look at what they have created! Also have a look here,
and here.... and here... and here... and there are so many many more creative folks out there.

my pages look quite plain really, but I am happy with them!!

now scrapbooking is really not my thing, (have I not enough to do already!), but I did enjoy putting this journal together, and will very likely do it again next year too!

and I am waiting to go to town to print some photos (Stationery Warehouse prints for 19c a print - and this is my year for being frugal - thanks Fiona!)

the most wonderful time of the year!

we celebrated Christmas Day at my mum and dad's... like we do every year, but this year we stayed with them, it was so wonderful! Family is so very important, and I am consider myself to be so lucky to have such a wonderful family, and such lovely friends

this is my marvelous SSCS present from Lynda - isn't it just magnificent! THANK YOU so much Lynda, I am just absolutely wrapped (he he - no pun actually intended), but I had to endure the whole day before opening it, as we have a big family tea (25 of us now), at my folk's place so everyone can be shared around and visit other families for lunch or breakfast, and we do the big pressie opening in the evening -

We were up at half 6 in the morning - having been awake since 5am ish, had to wait for the others to wake, and when they didn't I decided to shake them up a bit - literally (he he he), then off to my sister's to watch her children unwrap their pressies and brekky, and the traditional family photo of us all in our jammies...

Christmas down under is not complete without lots of these...

and because my Mum lives right by the beach, A Christmas Day beach walk is also on the menu, and Christmas just would not be the same kiwi Christmas without this...




I hope you all had a marvelous day too!

Sending everyone best wishes for a wonderful

and very Merry Christmas Holidays

Advent Christmas Swap

These are the wonderful gifts that Betsy sent to me for the Christmas Advent Swap organised by Jo and Fiona.

look at all these goodies will you!

My parcel to Betsy was unfortunately late, and never got to Betsy on time for the opening of the swap on Dec 1st. I was absolutely mortified as I misplaced my swap parcels when we moved - how tardy of me! I am so so sorry Betsy. Fiona suggested that I wait until Betsy let me know when her parcel arrived, and then we could open them together. What a marvel that Fiona, great idea! I have had a short e-mail from Betsy saying that her parcel did arrive, but I have not heard anything more from her. It is a very busy time of year!

This is the amazing table runner that Betsy made - super gorgeous huh! She is such a clever lady

and this is the table runner that I sent to Betsy

Anyway, I so wanted to thank Betsy for her amazing gifts, they are so wonderful, and she has been most generous. I can only hope that she is half as happy with the gifts that I sent her.

Enjoy your Christmas Betsy, and everyone else - have a fabulous time with your families, friends and loved ones,

Merry Christmas all,

come visit Mt Cook ...

look at this will you - is this not a most spectacular view - how could you not be impressed with this;

yesterday we drove along this road from Twizel to Mt Cook - takes about 20 minutes by car

now just walk this way with me, we are heading into the Hooker Valley, and up to the glacial lakes

this way!

this is just absolutely amazing, I never fail to be impressed with Mother Nature, this is a zoom in of one of the lower glacial slopes, the snow there actually is pretty thick, but it amazes me how it just sits there. Occasionally (not quite this late in the year) you can hear small avalanches, but of course the way sound travels, by the time you hear it you may be lucky enough to catch the end of the slide - not at this time of year 'tho...

there are plenty of these however, and the sounds of the water rushing down the mountain side is just so wonderful,

The walk is about 11/2 hrs one way - maybe a bit less if you walk faster then the tourist pace advertised, but you definitely do not want to rush it as it is so breathtaking, and there is just so much to take in. We do this walk several times a year - you may remember that I took you up here a few weeks back to see the Mt Cook lilies -

which sadly are pretty much all spent now, and the daisy is just starting to pop it's head up

they really are quite lovely when in full display of flowers, but I just love the colour and texture of the foliage

the vegetation here is amazing, and all just blends in so beautifully, it is so hot and dry during the day, and the nights are so cold. There has been a bit of rain 'thru here of late however, so everything is looking rather green and lush, hmmm wait for the dry summer days to really hit!

at the end of the walk is Lake Hooker, not big by all accounts, and certainly at this time of the year there are not too many icebergs, in fact this was the only one that we could see easily

let me just leave you with this one last beauty...

I hope your Sunday was fun, it sure is good having these girls home! (...and yes, I did manage some stitching in the car on the way up!)