Blogging Buddy Bonanza!!

In the three and a bit years I've been blogging, I've made some wonderful blogging buddies! We comment back and forth on each other's blogs and email, even the odd phone call keeps us in touch. And if we're VERY lucky ... we manage to arrange  'in person' play dates! :0) I've now met quite a few blogging buddies 'in person' and it is always so much fun!! It's fabulous to spend time together (often at the Village Green for coffee and a visit to my home-away-from-home! Tee! Hee! Hee!) and even better to find that after an hour or so, you feel like you've been friends forever. :0)

Well ... last week for me was a BLOGGING BUDDY BONANZA!! In the space of three days, I met up with FOUR blogging buddies! How cool is THAT! :0) Now, this could take a while to recount, so you'd better grab a cuppa, Chookyblue, and maybe come chocolate to tide you over til the end! Tee! Hee! Hee!

 My round of social engagements (sounds a bit posh, doesn't it! Tee! Hee! Hee!) began on Friday. I headed out to see Marion and Steph at the Quilters' Angel (AKA my home-away-from-home!) to see if I could help with the quilt drive they're co-ordinating for victims of the flooding in our local region. Can I say there was a FULL HOUSE of people out there helping! In fact, Marion told me she'd had to start taking bookings for people to come and help because there just wasn't enough room in the work room to fit everyone who wanted to help! Crafters are the BEST, aren't they!! :0) Now it happens that one of those merry crafters playing in the back room was Fiona from Bubzrugz. Fee is a Toowoomba area local too, but somehow we'd managed to not bump into each other until a mutual blogging buddy, the lovely Rosey, clued us in. It was lovely to chat with Fee and she's got some photos of the busy quilting bees on her blog ... including one of yours truly sitting at the naughty table! Tee! Hee! Hee! A position I'm VERY well acquainted with! :0) I on the other hand was busily removing staples from swatch samples and forgot to take a pic - OOPS! :0)

Now, the meet up with Fee was a bit of a happy coincidence ... us both being mad stitchers wanting to help with Marion's Quilt Drive, but I had been emailing back and forth for a week or so with Maree at Farmyard Crafts to line up a time for us to catch up in person for the first time. Talk about a small world ... Maree went to school with one of my Beloved Geek Boy's sisters, recognised my surname when I commented on someone else's blog and we've been chatting back and forth ever since! :0) Maree and her beloved John and their kids were passing through Toowoomba on their way to the beach, so we met up for a lovely lunch ... so lovely in fact, that neither of us remembered to take a photo! BLUSH! What bad bloggers we are! :0) I had a wonderful time chatting with Maree ... it felt like we'd known each other for years and she enjoyed hearing the Meares family news. She also made a very generous donation of a complete quilt kit to Marion's Quilt Drive before she headed off ... Thanks for the catch up and your generous donation, Maree!! :0)

That was Friday ... On Saturday, GB and I threw a few things into an overnight bag and headed off down the range, which had only been re-opened a few days earlier after the flooding. Our main range crossing was down to one lane each direction (when will the silly government work out we really do need that second range crossing!!) due to landslides and washouts, so it was a VERY slow trip down, but we were then able to take a few backroads to head off to visit the Lovely Lilly Linda and her beloved hubby Tim and their kids on their island. What fun! We always enjoy catching up with Linda and Tim!! The boys talk 'boy stuff' and Lilly Linda and I stitch to our hearts' content! Tee! Hee! Hee! That was blogging buddy number three for the weekend ... on Sunday, we headed off to Old Petrie Town where Linda shares a cute cottage shop with two other crafters for the Sunday markets. If you haven't visited Old Petrie Town you really should! It's a lovely spot to visit any time, but the Sunday market was extra fun ... just don't ask the boys ...

They seemed to spend quite a lot of the day like this! Tee! Hee! Hee! Linda and I, on the other hand had a ball! :0) And what did I buy? Well ... an old table and an old table cloth! Tee! Hee! Hee! Doesn't sound very appealing, does it ... let me show you ...

It's definitely seen better days, but I'm going to have it sandblasted and powder coated to spruce it up and then it will live in my garden. Somewhere for the faeries who live there to have picnics. :0) And the tablecloth ...

It's actually a lovely vintage cotton table cloth (bit hard to see the detail cos the flash washed it out) ... a very good sized one that was in good condition - I just LOVE vintage linens and laces! :0) And after browsing the other shops and stalls, we headed back to Coutes Cottage where Linda, Rosey and Renata display and sell their pretties. Renata wasn't there, but, Rosey was ...

Here we are ... three blogging buddies! :0) Rosey also very kindly gave me one of her crafty items to pop into the prize pool for OPAM this year - Thanks Rosey! Don't we all look GAWJUS, as another blogging buddy Joy-Belle would say! Tee! Hee! Hee!

So ... how do you finish a fabulous day when you're on an island? Fish and chips for lunch overlooking the water! :0) Although ... we DID notice a big difference from our last visit. This was the main bridge onto the island on our last visit ...

Look at that blue water! And this time ...

EEEEEEEEWWWW!! Icky brown water! This is from the flood runoff and I think it will probably stay pretty icky for a while to come. Still ... the company was wonderful and we had a fabulous break away. Thanks for a fun weekend visit, Linda and Tim!! Can't wait til we get together again for our next play date! And thanks to Fee, Maree and Rosey for the catch-ups, too.

This weekend has been a quiet one at home and I even managed to spend some time in my sewing room ... and haven't messed it up again TOO much! :0) This is what I was playing with ...

My yummy Rural Jardin layer cake I treated myself to last year. I got very brave and chopped it up, sewed a bit and this is what it looks like now ...

I had originally thought that the fabrics are so pretty that all I would do from this point would be to add a narrow inner border and a wider scalloped outer border ... but my brain has been ticking over and I have an idea for some applique. No wonder I take so long to finish projects ... I can never seem to keep them SIMPLE! Tee! Hee! Hee! Do I do it and take a while longer to finish it, or do I keep it simple and just enjoy the fabrics??? Decisions, decisions! :0) What do you think?? Stay tuned and I'll tell you when I decide! :0)

I also spent some time adding people to the OPAM 2011 sign up spreadsheet ... still a few places left and after chatting to Peg today, we've decided that sign up will close when we reach 200 sign ups or by February 1 ... whichever comes first! :0) Once that happens, Peg and I will both add the full list of OPAM 2011 participants to our sidebars so you can all start popping in to visit and encourage each other - it's a great way to 'meet' new blogging buddies and who knows ... you may end up having a weekend like I had last week! :0) If you've sent either Peg or I an email to sign up to be part of the OPAM fun, but haven't yet received a "Welcome To OPAM 2011" email ... please let Peg or me know and we'll check that you're on the spreadsheet and send a copy of the letter, as it has a few important details for you.

The other decision Peg and I made today was that we won't do a January end of month draw, because we're still adding names and people are getting themselves set up with buttons and lists etc. Instead, we'll have a double-whammy draw at the end of February ... Peg and I will each draw out three prize winners from the finishes for January and February, so get stitching/knitting/crocheting and don't forget to update your sidebar lists of finishes as we go along! :0) Thanks to the lovely ladies who have already started to send their January finish numbers through to me - so very much appreciated! :0)

PHEW!!! I think I'm all caught up again now! How did you go ... did you need TWO cuppas to get through it all?! Like my sewing projects, my blog posts never seem to stay simple ... or SHORT! Tee! Hee! Hee! I just talk too much! :0) But I'll sign off for now and wish you all a very good week. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS