Christmas Photos As Promised!

Back again and as I promised last post, I've got some photos from my Christmas break to share with you. This year as many of our family as possible (Mum's side of the family) headed to Bargara for Christmas, where Grandma lives in a retirement village near the beach. With holiday accommodation at a premium, some of us rented a holiday house ten minutes drive away at Burnett Heads and this was our view on Christmas day ...

Standing on the front patio, this view was off to our right ...


... and this was to our left. Not bad, hey!! :0) Not at all hard to handle, I have to say and we all spent lots of time on the patio reading, snoozing, eating ... we also gathered everyone there for Christmas lunch.


Here's Grandma with her party hat on, relaxing before lunch.


And here's my 'little' brother Paul, my Uncle Russell and my Cousin Samantha enjoying a few cool beverages on a steamy, hot Christmas day.


Even Mum's long-haired Chihuahua, Sunny, got into the Christmas spirit ... although he didn't really look all that impressed about his "Spoiled" Christmas elf hat! Tee! Hee! Hee!


And it wouldn't be a traditional Aussie Christmas without the invasion of flies as soon as the first whiff of food wafts out of the kitchen! Here's Mum on flyswat duty - and it wasn't ONLY flies she swatted if you were slow walking past! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Now, you'll recall that in my last post, I told you we had one day at home before heading off again to have a delayed Christmas get-together with my Beloved Geek Boy's family and that I spent that day chained to the sewing machine madly trying to get four more McGoo softy monkeys finished. Well, here's the result ...


My good friend "Google" tells me that a group of monkeys is known as a 'troop' or a 'barrel' - Huh! So THAT's where the saying "More trouble than a barrel of monkeys" comes from!! Well ... you learn something every day! :0) These particular monkeys sure did cause me some trouble! I sat down at the sewing machine at 7:30am and didn't move too far away until about 12:30am, then sat down again at about 7:30am the NEXT morning to finish them off and I swear, when I was trying to finish them by sewing the legs into the body, these tricky little monkeys were holding onto the desk, the machine, grabbing my pin tin to knock it over ...!!! Yep, more chaos than usual in my sewing room! Tee! Hee! Hee! And in the end the hard work and tough deadline was all worthwhile, cos the nieces and nephews LOVED them!! In fact, all of the monkeys found themselves in the middle of most games during the weekend, so that was great! And I know what you're thinking ... I only mentioned making FOUR monkeys and there are FIVE in the photo. I made ONE of them BEFORE Christmas, remember!! I may be maths-impaired, but I'm not quite THAT bad! :0)

And the other bit of stitching that I'd told you about but not shown you the photo of was the stacked coin lap quilt I made as a wedding gift for my workmate Tony and his new bride Elese. Well ... here it is ...


Didn't the colours come up wonderfully bright against the white borders!! And although I umm-ed and aaahh-ed about what fabric to use on the binding, I'm glad I eventually chose the bright blue and white spot that I found at my home-away-from-home, Quilters Angel. And like Mum's quilt, this one was expertly machine quilted for me by the wonderful Rosalie of Rose Quilting. Here's a closer look at the quilting designs ...


I love the Celtic knot design on the outside border (the same one as Mum's quilt) and Rosalie found a cool, slightly squarer Celtic knot pattern for the inside white borders and a groovy twisting vine for the 'coin' stacks. Thanks, Rosalie, for once again working your quilting magic for me!! :0) The wedding was last Saturday (in amongst our family catch ups), but the gifts weren't unwrapped before the happy couple headed off on their honeymoon (can't think WHY they wouldn't be thinking about anything except heading off on their honeymoon!! Tee! Hee! Hee!), so still don't know how they like it - hope they do!

I think that's enough catch-up for one day. I do still have a few more holiday photos that I might share with you later, but I dare say the I'm going to be a little swamped in coming days as Peg and I launch the

One Project A Month Challenge for 2010!

Don't forget to pop back here or to Peg's blog on Friday to read the Challenge guidelines and decide whether you want to join the fun or not. Remember, numbers are limited this year, so you'll have to be quick! :0) And a big "CHEERIO!" to Peg's Mum, too who's had to have a little stay in hospital. Sending lots of BEAR HUGS and wishes for a quick recovery!!

That's it, so til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS