What I HAVEN'T Done!!

I know I usually pop in to tell you what I HAVE been doing, but in the last little while, I think I've got a longer list going for what I HAVEN'T been doing ... if you see what I mean! :0)

Let's see ...

I HAVEN'T finished my August block for the Gardener's Journal Stitch-A-Long - sorry Chookyblue!!
I HAVEN'T written the instructions for the project I'll be teaching at a retreat in November
I HAVEN'T added any finishes to my OPAM list for two weeks
I HAVEN'T posted for almost a week
I HAVEN'T got the foggiest idea how I'm going to fit everything in over the next three months! Tee! Hee! Hee!

SIGH!! What a slacker I am!! HOWEVER ... today is the last day of Winter, so I'm really hoping that the warmer spring weather (notice my optimism that turning a page on the calender will suddenly turn the temperatures up a few degrees! Tee! Hee! Hee!) will recharge my batteries so I can get myself organised and motivated. Fingers crossed! :0)

Now, I may have quite a list of things I HAVEN'T done, but when we were treated to a bit of a preview of spring on the weekend, my Beloved Geek Boy and I headed out into the garden ... where I DO have some things that I can show you that I HAVE done!

First job was to revamp the herb garden and I forgot to take a photo ... which is a shame, since a couple of canine vandals have since dug up one section and used the new basil plants as a sunbed!!! GGGGRRRRRR!!!! I CAN however, show you some of my other new plantings. In the vege patch, I now have ...

A couple of tomato plants - two different varieties ... which was actually an "OOPS!" at the nursery! BLUSH! I actually meant to get two of the SAME variety, still, it will be interesting to see how the different types go. They've replaced the mutant carrots, so who knows WHAT might happen! :0) And replacing the frost-burned beans ...

A couple of different varieties of Zucchinis ... which we'll train up the trellis ... in theory! :0) And there are also a couple of cucumber plants ... the smaller ones to the left in the photo. Will keep you updated on how they go. The triffod snowpeas are still producing buckets of snowpeas, so lots of spring salads will be on the menu for a while yet ... YUM!!! :0)

In other parts of the yard ...

This was the first garden bed we put in when we bought our house (the only things in the back yard at the time be bought were the big gum tree you can see the trunk of here, a frangipani tree that has since gone to plant heaven cos it had been planted WAY too close to the house and a couple of 'ugly-shrubs'!) and while the grevilleas up one end (the right side and mostly out of the photo) have thrived, the shrubs up this end hadn't done so well and I decided it was time for a makeover. So now we have three Marguerite Daisies (light pink, dark pink and white), a Federation daisy (pale yellow), some white allissiam (spelt wrong, but spellcheck had no suggestions!!) and a nice thick layer of sugarcane mulch that looks great but is also a fabulous way to keep the moisture in the soil.

Meanwhile, in another part of the yard ... (sounds like an old Dragnet lead, doesn't it! Tee! Hee! Hee!)

... GB was busily re-vamping the pond area. The pond was the second thing we established after moving in and after 8 years, was looking a little tired and was losing a lot of water through root-holes in the plastic ... but there were some REALLY happy ferns!! :0) As you can see, this task requires a LOT of serious thought! Tee! Hee! Hee!

OK .... so ... that's what I've been doing instead of stitching in the last little while, but I'll be back into it next week after a couple of other time-consuming events are over and done with.

Have you remembered to leave a comment on my last post to be included in my pattern give-away??? If not, you have til midnight!! :0) I'll draw a winner and be back in the next couple of days to let you know who'll be adding to their "To Do" list, so stay tuned!! Thanks so much to the gals who've shared so far - I am LOVING the stories you've shared! Some have made me laugh out loud (there's a 'homely' teddy that tiptoes back into the house whenever he's put in the op-shop pile!!) and some have touched my heart and made my eyes leak. I have always felt that teddy bears were super special (I am a bit biased, though!!) but these lovely stories have convinced me all the more. In fact ... unless anyone who's contributed a story objects, I'm thinking of adding these lovely stories to my web page ... a "Teddy Tales" page, perhaps, to share the magic of 'real-life' bears with visitors to my web page. Will let you know when it's up so you can take a peek.

And since it's the end of another month ... OPAM gals, make sure you've updated your sidebar lists!! Thanks to all of you who've already emailed the number of finishes you've had this month to Peg or I - this is such a big help to us!! Peg and I will be blog-hopping tomorrow to collect finishes and it's my turn to get the random number generator cranked up to choose winners, so stay tuned for that too! Boy, I sure am keeping you in suspenders this week, aren't I! Tee! Hee! Hee!

And now ... I'm off to find something yummy to cook for dinner, so I shall sign off. I'll be back in a couple of days with some prize winners. Enjoy your creation! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS

New Patterns = Giveaway!!

Well ... after many interruptions, many side-trackings, many bouts of procrastination and a few technical hitches, I'm very pleased to announce the launch of two new Tag Along Teddies patterns! YAY!! The crowd goes WILD!! :0) The patterns are for two of my appliqué quilt designs, the first is ...

"BUTTERFLY HUNT"

This is the quilt that was published in last December's "Homespun" magazine and I'm very happy to offer it as a pattern packet now. The second pattern to be launched is ...

"MOON DANCE"

This is the quilt I made for my nephew last month. My Mum says it's her favourite that I've designed so far ... but she may be just a LITTLE biased! Tee! Hee! Hee! The patterns will soon be uploaded to my website and Marion at my home-away-from-home has both for sale, too, along with a few of my other patterns. And if you happen to visit Marion and Steph's fabulous fabric shop, you'll be able to see "Butterfly Hunt" and "Fairy Bears & Butterflies" quilts in person ... er ... in the flesh ... er in the fabric?!?! :0)

Now, everyone knows that the launch of a new pattern ... or two!!! ... means a give away ... or two!!! :0) And this time is no different. I'm going to be giving away two copies of each of these fun quilts so that you, my blogging buddies, get to have as much fun making my designs as I did.

Here are the prize patterns, all ready to be sent out to four lucky winners! You might notice I've made the swap over to my new cover design - nice and fresh in time for spring ... which must be coming SOON!!! Right?!?!

So ... what do you have to do to be eligible for the give away??? Super simple! All you have to do is leave a comment on THIS post. There's just ONE, SMALL catch! Isn't there always?! Tee! Hee! Hee! The catch is, when you leave your comment, you have to share a story with me about one of your favourite bears. Aaaaaawwww ... see ... that wasn't REALLY so hard, was it!! :0) To give you some time to think about it, I'll leave the giveaway open through to August 31. (Australian Eastern Standard Time) It's my turn to do the OPAM end-of-month draw, so I'll do all my mailing at once - won't THAT make my post office mate Raymond happy! :0)

Put your thinking caps on to come up with bear stories to share and I'll look forward to reading them. In the meantime ... I think I've earned a cuppa, so I'm off to put the kettle on! :0) Hope you're having a fabulous week so far and managing to find some time to be creative. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

Stitch-A-Thon Weekend!

After deciding that I REALLY needed to get myself into gear and make some progress on my "A Gardener's Journal" blocks for the Stitch-A-Long, I've spent a very pleasant weekend stitching ... in between the usual household chores of course. SIGH! How much more stitching could I get done if only those housework faeries would come and visit me! :0)

Now, our recent holiday gave me a bit of stitching time and a wet day this week gave me a bit more, then yesterday and last night we played "Let's Avoid The Election Television Coverage" and the resulting movie marathon helped me make even more progress. So this morning when I headed for my sewing room to add some piecing, this was my little stockpile of stitcheries ...

After a bit of head-scratching over the flower wreath blocks (remember, while I LOVE stitching, I'm not overly experienced at patchwork techniques!! Plus ... I think I missed some important instructions somewhere! Tee! Hee! Hee!) I managed to piece two more blocks ... June and July's blocks, so I guess even though I'm still behind on the Stitch-A-Long schedule, I'm no quite as FAR behind! :0) So here's the results of my head-scratching and piecing ...

Block C, "There's No Place Like Home". And boy oh boy was 'building' that house a marathon! I think I could almost have build a REAL house in the same time!! :0) That's June's block and ...

Block H Garden Tools was July's goal block. Considering my patchwork inexperience and the missing instructions (OK ... so maybe there WEREN'T any instructions missing and it just SEEMED like it cos I'm instruction-impaired! Tee! Hee! Hee!) I was pretty pleased with how the flower wreath and violet wreath came together.

So far, this is how my quilt is shaping up ...

Hmmm ... for someone who isn't really a patchworker, I seem to be doing quite a lot of piecing, don't I?! :0) I'm loving how it's all coming together ... and was even inspired to head out into my own garden this afternoon ... at which point, I probably resembled the lady in the block I'm stitching at the moment for block D ... without the hat! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Well, I'm now off to watch the "Dancing With The Stars" semi-final and help the poor lady just mentioned with her weeding. Hope your weekend has been a productive and enjoyable one too. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

Seriously Twisted!!

No, no, no!!! Not me! Hmmm ... well ... actually ... now that I consider that, there HAVE been people who've said I'm a bit twisted. Must be my warped sense of humour! :0) However ... in THIS case, I'm talking about my vege patch.

I've already told you that my triffod snowpeas are plotting to take over the world, right?! Well, the other day when I popped out to pick some more snowpeas for our dinner (Yum! Yum!!) I decided it was time to deal with the mutant alien carrots. They're not really getting any bigger and so I thought taking them out would give the garden a little rest before I plant some spring veges in a month or so. (Have to wait until I'm sure there will be NO more chance of frost after the bean and marigold disaster!) I know it's usually Dr Who that's called on to deal with troublesome aliens taking up residence on earth, but since he didn't answer my summons, I had to deal with them myself. So, appropriately armed (does a colander count as being armed?!?!) I ventured forth to do battle with the vege-patch aliens. (Insert Dramatic Music Here!) Tee! Hee! Hee!

After a half hour or so of wrestling with the triffods and uprooting the aliens ... and being interrupted several times by Brainless-But-Loveable Border Collie Wombat wanting me to throw the tennis ball (Dr Who never has to deal with this problem!!!) ... this was the aftermath ...

The snoweas wrested from the triffods are lovely and crunchy, but under their innocent camouflage lurks ...

... Some seriously TWISTED mutant alien carrots!!! Don't know how well you can see in the photo, but the two on the left are single carrots that have just mutated and grown tentacles, but the other three bunches are multiple carrots that have grown twisted around each other! The one second from the right looks like it has indeed grown tentacles and is now trying to strangle it's Siamese twins! Who said gardening was boring! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Overcast showery day here today and I can't do the regularly-scheduled washing, so I'm off to make myself some lavender tea and will be curling up in front of a DVD or two with some Gardener's Journal stitching. (Nothing in this quilt about mutant veges!!) Hope you're having a great Friday and that your day is free of invading aliens! May the force be with you! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

Holiday Goodies!

I was going to be back on the weekend to share photos of the goodies I bought during my holiday shopping sprees, but got a little tied up with two projects that had deadlines ... neither of which I can share photos of for completely different reasons. The first was the sample for the pattern I will be teaching at the annual Creative Craft Retreat at Somerset Dam at the beginning of November ... Retreat Co-ordinator Janelle needed a photo of my project to include in the pamphlet which should be printed this week. Once she has the brochure printed ready to go, I'm sure she wouldn't mind me sharing a photo, as it's a retreat where people see the projects before hand and sign up for the one they want to make, not a super-surprise one. (And I'll release this pattern generally after the retreat, so never fear!) The second project was another stacked coin quilt for a wedding gift for one of my cousins - the third one of these quilts I've made - they are just so QUICK to stitch and so effective. It had to be dropped off to the lovely quilter extraordinaire Rosalie today and while I COULD share a photo ... I CAN'T now. I  um ... lost ... the photo! BLUSH!! I think it was deleted with a few other older photos - OOPS! I promise to show you a photo when it comes back from the magic quilting cave! :0)

OK ... enough of photos I'm NOT going to show you and on to some that I AM going to share. Now, you just KNOW I went hunting for patchwork shops wherever we went on holidays, right?! And of COURSE some fabric followed me home from each stop ... SHHHH!! Don't tell my Mother, who says my stash is out of control! Tee! Hee! Hee! OK ... first fabric fuel up was at Gympie where we had to do a bit of searching to find the Gympie Patchwork Factory - but we were determined! (Well ... I was determined and my beloved Geek Boy was resigned! Tee! Hee! Hee!) Purchase number one ...

None of these are earmarked for specific projects, they just looked interesting! :0) One can never have too many spotty dotty fabrics ... so I added a couple more to my collection. I hadn't seen the red fabrics before and need a few for some Christmas ideas I'm toying with ... I'm always looking for nice yellows that aren't too orange and always on the lookout for bear-coloured fabric, too.

The next fabric fix came in my home town of Mundubbera at Lemon Jo's Country Crafts. Alicia, who owns Lemon Jo's, and I went to school together, so it's always nice to have a chat, too. And this is what followed me home from there ...

OK ... not too much damage done there ... my Mum was with me and kept asking what I was going to DO with these fabrics! I did try to explain that one of the rules of fabric collecting is that you don't necessarily have to have a project in mind, you just collect fabric ... but being a dressmaker and not a crafter, she didn't really get it! Tee! Hee! Hee! Well ... the brown spot (yep, more spots!!) is for the binding on the quilt that I lost the photo of, the ladybirds were just TOO cute to pass up and the navy and yellow just tagged along with the others! :0)

Now, I had to travel about 800kms to reach my next fabric fuel-up spot in Mackay at Needleworx. This was one of the biggest patchwork shops - area wise - that I've seen in a while, but it also housed lots of makings for a large variety of crafts, so I guess the room was needed. The additions from here were ...

Some yummy tone-on-tones that will be incorporated into my Butterfly Garden and Gardeners' Journal blocks and the bottom fabric was just so darn cute that I had to have some. It might end up being a dress for a bear, or a new sewing bag for me, or a sewing machine cover or ... well ... the possibilities are endless, aren't they - that's half the fun!! :0)

And my last fabric stop was in Rockhampton on our way home. After confusing Pricilla (the iPhone navigator program ... she just sounds so PRISSY that she was dubbed Prissy Pricilla! Tee! Hee! Hee!) and making a false start, we tracked down a shop that several people told me I HAD to visit if I was in Rocky ... so I did! :0) Patchwork Paradise is housed in a lovely historic building that has so much character that I would have enjoyed just looking at the building ... but of course there was all that FABRIC to look at! :0) And this is what followed me home from my last stop ...

The red floral is to make a bear dress when I make another version of Annie-Rose Bear for Mum's birthday later in the year, the next two are for borders for a quilt I need to make my sort-of-sister Tiffy for her 21 in November and the "Pure charm squares" ... Weeeeeeeeeeell ... I've been eying off this range for a while and just had to have some, even though I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with them yet ... a few ideas are kicking around, so we'll see what brews in my mad imagination! :0)

So ... that's all the fabric (I don't think GB will let me add any more to my stash for QUITE a while now! Tee! Hee! Hee!), but a couple of other treasures also came home with us. From the Eumundi markets, we bought this ...

Its a large whirligig. It may not look like much when it's still, but when the wind catches it and it spins, the optical illusion of the spiral makes it look like the glass balls are moving up and down the spiral - very cool! We stood mesmerised for ages at the stand that was selling them and in the end decided one would look perfect in our decorative arch that leads into the lounge room. Wonder if we can use it to hypnotise people?! Tee! Hee! Hee! And I spotted a sale sign in a lovely little gift shop in Montville that led me to adopt this ...

Hmmm ... perhaps I need to clarify which "THIS" I mean. :0) The cast iron book stand "THIS". It's perfect to keep my place for me when I'm cooking so I don't end up with sticky finger marks on the pages every time I have to find my recipe when the book shuts itself midway through. Do you like the picture in my cook book?? I don't think I've cooked anything from this book yet, but it has such lovely photos! Tee! Hee! Hee! And in front of it is the latest snow pea harvest. We came home to find our triffod snowpeas COVERED in pods and flowers and BOY are they YUMMY! :0)

I think that's all of my holiday treasures. Oh! I do have one more photo to share with you ... when we arrived home, I discovered a parcel from the lovely Mary (whose blog I can't find the address of - Aaarrgghh!!). Wondering why I was getting a parcel when it was closer to GB's birthday, I opened it up to find ...

A cute little teddy bear kit, a sweet Thumbelina sized bear and a card from Mary to say she was sending this as a RAK gift ... a Random Act of Kindness gift. Aaaaaaawwwwwww .... what a SWEETIE!! Thank you , Mary! What a lovely surprise to come home to!! The little bear has found a spot amongst the bear-hug troops in the lounge room and the little teddy kit has been added to my "To Do" list ... oh dear! That list just keeps GROWING! Tee! Hee! Hee!

PHEW! Well, that's it for today ... I think that's finally all of the photos from my holiday that I needed to share. And now ... I just have time for a cup of lavender tea before I need to think about dinner, so I'm off to put the kettle on. Hope you're all having a lovely start to your week and managing to find some time to be creative. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

Part Two Of Holiday Adventures!

As promised, I'm back with part two of our holiday adventures. A big BEAR HUG to all of you out there in blogland who said you missed me!! It's nice to be missed! :0)

OK ... after our time at Noosaville, we headed inland a bit to my folks at Mundubbera to spend a couple of days with them ... and do some washing so we had clean knickers and jocks for the next leg or our holiday! Tee! Hee! Hee! While I was there, Mum mentioned that she really needed a new, largish tote bag to take on the plane when she and Dad head to Alice Spring to visit my brother in a few weeks. I said I was sure we could come up with something ... so we had a scrabble through Mum's stash (and she says MY fabric stash is out of control! Tee! Hee! Hee!) and found some light denim and a bright, funky stripe. Mum then worked out how big she wanted it, where she wanted pockets and between the two of us we soon whipped up ...

The Perfect Travel Tote!! As well as the handy large pocket on the front, it has a smaller inside pocket for keys, mobile phone etc. Not bad for some 'left over' fabrics and an afternoon's work! :0)

OK ... so, fortified with Mum's DELICIOUS home cooking and with clean underwear in our ports, we again piled into our valiant little Ford Festiva and headed about 8 hours north to stay with my Beloved Geek Boy's Aunty Annette and Uncle Don. This is the first glimpse of their place ...

See that rounded 'hill'? A large section of that is the property they own and the most peaceful spot for a holiday. Our visit to north Queensland was prompted by GB and Aunty Annette's efforts at researching their family tree. They'd each done a bit separately and it made sense for them to pool their resources and since both sides of GB's AND my families are from the Mackay area, this seemed like the spot to be. And this is how GB and Aunty Annette spent most of our visit ...

Huddled over books, papers, documents and the laptop deep in research mode. In fact ... if you look behind them to the pool table, you'll see that it is also covered in photos and documents. Apparently thorough research requires a LOT of space! Tee! Hee! Hee! We had such a fun time with the family tree climbing and not only did we unearth little bits, bobs and connections for each of our family tree branches, we found a LOT of places where our family trees crossed paths! Things like ... GB's great-great-uncle worked for my great-great-grandfather; my Gramps and his siblings went to school with GB's Grandma; Aunty Annette and my Mum were in the same class for a couple of years; our two families lived in the same street (at different times, but the same street!) and this street was just around the corner from the house where my Dad grew up! How cool was that!! :0) We still haven't tracked down GB's elusive great-grandmother, but we've made some headway and ... we're still looking!!

Now, our Mackay visit wasn't ALL about being buried in books and family history notes. There were also some enjoyable get-together with some of GB's extended family AND we did a little bit of sight-seeing. Some of this was re-tracing family steps, but some was just for the sake of it, including a visit to the recently developed harbour complex.

Here we are in front of some of the fancy boats in the marina. Can you believe those COLOURS!! They were all so vibrant ... and this photo actually doesn't do justice to the gorgeous deep teal green of the water ... I wanted to dip a paintbrush in to capture it! :0)

This was the seating outside a cafe at the harbour. We didn't actually eat there, but the setting was just so darn cute that I had to take a photo ... do you ever do that? Take random photos cos it makes a cute scene ... or is that just me! :0) After enjoying a walk along the waterfront, picking out which unit in the high rise complex we would buy when we win lotto and which boat would be our 'weekender run-around', we drove up Mt Bassett to get a longer-range view of the harbour and islands off Mackay's coast, but also to see where Scott's Dad, Aunty Annette and their family lived for a time. The housing area where they lived has been demolished, but there was a goat path (really STEEP goat path!!) down to the area so we could take a look. We hopped out of the car to snap this view ...

Isn't it great! The little 'bumps' on the horizon are actually giant container ships waiting their turn to go into the terminals of Hay Point to unload or load. I think there were about a dozen when we were there. It was after admiring this view that we suddenly discovered something ... Uh oh! ...

SOMEONE had locked the keys in the car!! This photo's not the best, but it was taken through the closed and LOCKED driver's side door! :0) GB was a little red-faced and had lots of excuses, but I think I'll rub it in a little since he teased me so much when I did the same thing a while ago! :0) All I can say is thank goodness for RACQ! Tee! Hee! Hee! This little hiccup didn't spoil Aunty Annette's stroll down memory lane and she told many stories about growing up at Mt Bassett and pointed out lots of landmarks to GB when they walked down the goat track ... while I waited for the RACQ man!! Tee! Hee! Hee! All will be recorded to add to the tapestry of our family tree ... the stories from Aunty Annette, not about me waiting for the RACQ mand cos GB locked the keys in! Tee! Hee! Hee! OK ... I'm done teasing him ... for now! :0)

Although GB and I had both spent time in school holidays with family members in Mackay when we growing up, it had been over 19 years since we'd been north and I really wanted to see one of the nearby national parks at Eungella ... up in the 'hills'. So, one fine, sunny day, off we went. We wound our way up a rather scary range (poor Baby car was not overly happy about the steep ascent but managed it like a trooper!!) and were rewarded for our efforts with these views ...

There's the winding road we climbed up ...

And looking into the valley. The Great Dividing Range at this spot forms a sort of horseshoe shape and this pretty, fertile valley is in the middle ... it reminded me of a fairytale setting. :0) When it came time for lunch, we were again treated to some wonderful mountain views when we chose a cafe owned by a slightly eccentric German lady. While we enjoyed the yummy chicken and mushroom pasties, this was our view ...

This is another spot that I think it's best I don't move to cos the view would constantly distract me from DOING anything! :0) Now, one of the cafe owner's eccentricities was her way of decorating her garden ... and her outdoor fire pot and ... well ... EVERYTHING, really! :0) Everything had been coated with coloured decorator pebbles ... you know, those glass pebbles that go in the bottom of vases to add colour? Well ... here's a couple of examples of what SHE used them for ...

This peacock met us in the car park ...

And these colourful butterflies fluttered near the entrance to the cafe. I don't even want to THINK about how long it must have taken to create these things, let alone how many litres of GLUE she must have used! Tee! Hee! Hee! After lunch we had a little look around the township of Eungella, a lot of which was closed due to building damage incurred during the last cyclone season, like this poor forlorn church ...

My overactive imagination couldn't help thinking it would make the perfect scene for a murder in a whodunnit novel! Tee! Hee! Hee! It seemed funny to see many buildings in the area that were built in more of a European style, but out of north Queensland's number-one building material ... Fibro! :0) We decided there was just time to visit one more lookout before we headed down the scary range road again ...

Here's GB trying to capture the panoramic view with the video camera ... possibly not his most flattering angle! :0) And this was the view ...

Again, the colours took my breath away! Country/folk singer Graeme Connors (who fittingly lives in Mackay!!) sings a song called "Blue Skies" and the first line kept running through my head while I enjoyed these views ...

"These blue skies ... tell me I'm home. My journey is over, I'm where I belong ... So whatever I do, I will always return to these blue skies."

OK I think that's enough to bore you with for one day. I'm almost done with the holiday snaps and long posts ... well ... longer than usual! :0) I'll pop back soon with the last few happy snaps and show you all the yummy fabric that followed me home from my quilting shop hopping ... you knew I'd do that, right?! Tee! Hee! Hee! Wishing you blue skies in your part of the world, wherever you are! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS

Back To Reality!

I'm BAAAAAAAACK!! Did you miss me??? I'll pretend you said yes! :0) Well, my beloved Geek Boy and I are back from our holiday travels of the last two weeks - and almost decided we were going away again, since the night we arrived home saw the temperatures dip to 4 degrees! Now, that may not seem too cold to some of you and it wasn't even the lowest we've hit in Toowoomba this winter, but after two weeks of coastal and northern warmth, it was a bit of a rude homecoming!

Still, we had a wonderful time away - saw lots, did lots, caught up with lots of family and friends  and (much to GB's dismay!!) ... SHOPPED LOTS! Tee! Hee! Hee! I won't try to tell you all about it in one post (did you just hear Chookyblue give a sigh of relief?!? Tee! Hee! Hee!) but over the next few days, I'll fill you in on a few of our adventures.

Firstly, though, I'll apologise for dropping off the radar for the whole time. I had planned to post a couple of times and keep up with emails, but we just didn't have reliable internet for most of our time away - The best laid plans of mice and men  etc! Thanks to all the OPAM gals who emailed their finishes to me. Never fear - even though you didn't hear back from me as you usually do, your finishes were added to the OPAM spreadsheet. And on that subject, I'd like to give a HUGE ...

THANK YOU!!

... to my OPAM partner in crime, the gorgeous Peg, who carried the bulk of the OPAM load this month due to my patchy internet access - thanks Peg! You're a Wonder Woman! :0) OK ... now on to our adventures ...

After much scrambling to pack ports, check lists, convince dogs they were NOT coming this time, write lists for house-sitter, get dogs out of the car, check lists again ... you get the picture! The usual 'going on holidays' chaos ... we headed north east to Noosaville, where we'd booked a lovely unit for five days of beach bliss. So, of course ... IT RAINED! Though there were patches of ordinary old overcast to break up the rain, it was WET! SIGH! This always happens when we head to the beach, but we figure it's still warmer than Toowoomba and rain is a bit of a novelty, so being veterans of wet beach weather ... we did other things! :0)

Our days started with a 'weather report' ... which involved stepping out on to the balcony to see what the day was like ...

Here is our balcony view - it's a tough job, but SOMEONE had to do it! Tee! Hee! Hee! Our unit overlooked one of Noosa's canals and that meant that some of our neighbours had weathers and webbed feet ... do you see that little torpedo speeding into the bottom of the frame?

He had friends! :0) It was a lovely way to start the day, communing with nature. :0)

Since it was a bit grey and cold at the beach, we headed inland a bit and up into the hills to visit one of our favourite places - Montville. If you haven't been there and you're ever in the vicinity, you really should include it on your itinerary. Set amongst rolling green hills that remind me of photos of Scotland and Ireland, you'll find a cute little village that has lots of wonderful shops to browse through, coffee shops to get your caffeine fix and restaurants to relax and enjoy a delicious meal. The best part? You can do all of these things while enjoying this view ...

Isn't it great!! I think perhaps it's good that I don't live at Montville, though, cos I'd spend so much time admiring the view that I would never get anything done! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Here's GB checking out the scenery from the deck of the restaurant where we had the YUMMIEST barramundi lunch ever! It's a bit hard to see due to the haze, but on a clear day, you can see the ocean from here too - the best of all worlds! :0)

This is one of the great buildings at Montville - very soothing to listen to the water splashing over the waterwheel.

So ... after a day of enjoyable browsing, view-admiring and shopping (forgot to take photos of my purchases! Oops!) what better way to end the day than ...

Feet up, canal views, a glass of my fave berry wine and a fave book .... AAAAAAAHHH!!! Life doesn't get much better! :0)

The next day was a quiet one, we slept in, communed with the ducky neighbours, checked out my Uncle and Aunt's new home in the area and generally kicked back - we have to do a bit of a balancing act when we're on holidays, cos while I like to be out and about having adventures, GB just likes to kick back and sleep/read/play on his computer ... So the quiet day was balanced by dinner out at a lovely restaurant where we met up with someone who I think many of you will know ... Lynette Anderson and her beloved Vince!

Here we all are, after enjoying a DELICIOUS meal at Lynette and Vince's fave restaurant ... the Blue Fish ... I think ... I'm not 100% certain of the name! Oops! We had a wonderful evening of good food, fine wine and LOTS of chatting! The boys exchanged geek-speak (techo talk!) and Lynette and I chatted about ... hmmm ... well ... EVERYTHING! :0) Definitely NO awkward silences! Tee! Hee! Hee! Lynette and I have chatted via email a bit, but this was the first time we'd met up and we had a fabulous time - look forward to catching up again soon, Lynette and Vince and thank you for a really enjoyable evening ! :0) Actually, Lynette and I will get to catch up a little in September when she comes to Toowoomba as one of the guest tutors at Marion's Stitchers' Dream Day Out event ... can't wait! :0)

After a VERY rainy night, we tossed up whether to go to the markets at Eumundi or not (they're only on Saturday and Wednesday and we'd missed the Saturday ones) but finally decided to brave the mud ... and mud there was ... in ABUNDANCE! Hmmm ... they really should consider paving their car park!!! While the Wednesday markets are a little smaller than the Saturday event, there was still plenty to do and see, including this guy ...

He was tickling the ivories on this spinet and it reminded me of the old western movies where there's a guy off in the corner playing a slightly out-of-tune piano. As you can tell by the photo ... he was a real character! :0) After picking up a few birthday gifties to put in my birthday basket, we enjoyed some freshly made Dutch pancakes with fresh local strawberries - YUMMO!! - then headed back to the unit when it started showering again.

And having come to the end of our five days 'at the beach' we headed inland the next day to my parents at Mundubbera for a couple of days before heading further north ... but I'll tell you about that next time! :0) Right now, I'm off to answer a few more of the 88 emails I found in my "In box" when I got home ... EEP! And there were over 100 blog posts in my RSS feeds folders, too - WOW! You blogging buddies sure had been busy while I was away! :0) I'm gradually catching up with my blog reading and answering the emails, so if you haven't heard from me ... hang in there, I'm getting to you! Tee! Hee! Hee! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS