Watch Out For Faeries!!

 

HAPPY ALL HALLOWS EVE!!!

October 31 ... All Hallows Eve, or more commonly known now as Halloween. I know we don't really celebrate Halloween here in Australia, but being a bit of a mythology/legend/folk law buff, it interests me where these traditions originate ... so what's a girl to do but ... GOOGLE IT! Tee! Hee! Hee! I did know some of the history Halloween, but it was interesting to read more.

All Hallows Eve ... Halloween ... was originally a Celtic celebration called Samhain (pronounced sow-en) that marked the last day of the Celtic calendar ... their version of New Years Eve. And boy did those Celts know how to party! Tee! Hee! Hee! It was also the time when the veil between this and other realms was ripped aside, with the spirits of the dead free to roam and faeries wandering the land posing as poor beggars asking for food. Those who gave them food were rewarded or 'treated', while those who were too miserly to give food were punished or 'tricked' ... yep ... the original trick or treat. :0)

So ... on this All Hallows Eve, watch out for wandering faeries and feed anyone who knocks on your door and you should be just fine! :0) In the meantime, maybe you'd enjoy a musical treat from one of my fave artists ... Loreena McKennitt ...

 "All Souls Night"

Til next time ...

ALL HALLOWS EVE BEAR HUGS!!

CHEERS!
KRIS

 

 

 

PS OPAM gals ... don't forget to update lists and email tallies!! :0)

Ambushed!!

 

 

By one of these sneaky little buggers ... a FLU GERM!!! How rude is it that I managed to get through winter without catching any chills and bugs and then I get ambushed by one when the weather warms up ... SIGH! So ... that's why I've been off the air for so long. I'm on the mend and hope to get back to my regularly scheduled program soon. In the meantime ... a reminder to all the OPAM gals ... we're almost at the end of another month, so if you can update your sidebar lists and email Sweet Peg and me with your end of month tally, that would be fabulous.

In the meantime ... I hope you're all keeping well and enjoying some time to create ... I hope to be back with some quilty, stitchy stuff soon. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

Some Sewing - YAY!!

Another week has flown by ... must have a word to Dr Who sometime to work out a way to get the timey wimey stuff to cooperate to give me more hours in each day!! :0) It was a busy week at work, which meant not much energy left for stitchy stuff when I got home. BUT ... the weather is back to "proper" spring temperatures ... maybe even leaning towards summer (32 degrees here today, which for Toowoomba is pretty hot ... but I'm not complaining!!) ... so this hot-weather chick is hap, hap, HAPPY! :0)

So ... when I found myself actually AT HOME for my work-free Friday, I bunged a few things in the washing machine then headed full-speed to the sewing room ... WOO! HOO! I've started sewing squares of my Rural Jardin layer cake together to make a patchwork skirt ... but that still has some work to do before it's finished. I DID, however manage to finish another birthday gift to go with the bunting I showed you a while back ...

... A pretty appliqued pillowcase to match the bunting. I had fun with this and was so happy with the applique that I have started to design a cute baby quilt based on it ... so stay tuned! :0) This will now be a pretty bedroom set for our niece ... Hope she likes it! Actually ... if you need to make a kids' gift in a hurry and want something that will be enjoyed for ages, buy a plain pillowcase and machine applique something to it to personalise it. I've made one for a number of the nieces and nephews now, often with their first name initial plus a truck/car/icecream cone etc and have orders for a couple more ... to stop fights! ... cos apparently EVERYONE wants the 'pretty' pillowcases! :0) So ... another finish to add to the list.

 

And then I completely sidetracked myself by playing with Photoshop ...

 

 

... smudgy pastel look ...

 

... textured background, I like this one ... I could play all day! :0) But I'd better scoot back into my sewing room and see if I can't get another finish added to my list by the end of the weekend. Hope you're all having a relaxing weekend doing something that you enjoy with people you like! :0)

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

 

 

Wardrobe Malfunction!

Yep ... I'm still alive here! :0) Another busy week has fled by with not much to show for it ... how does that keep happening?!?! No sewing here this week, though ... SIGH!! The temperatures here on top of our 'hill' dropped into single figures again and I went back into hibernation mode ... good thing there aren't any bears living in Toowoomba, cos they'd end up VERY confused! Tee! Hee! Hee!

I HAVE been playing with a few new designs ... some stitcheries and a new applique quilt ... but only a very little bit of hand stitching took place. I DID, however, finally tackle a task I'd been putting off for a while ... try TWO YEARS! :0)

Yep ... I cleaned out my wardrobe! That may not seem too earthshattering, but let me tell you ... it was a HUGE job that was WAY overdue. For sometime now, a corner of my bedroom has been looking like my wardrobe spat all of it's contents out. You know how it is ... clothes that still fit ... if you just lose a couple of kilos ... clothes that have a sentimental tie because someone gave them to you or you wore them for a special occassion ... clothes that you LIKE, but just don't have reason to wear any more ... the skirt you used to wear with a top you got rid of ages ago and doesn't match anything else ... you see what I mean. Add to that a defective drawer in my tall boy which cut down my storage space and it all just got too much. But after several hours of the wardrobe equivalent of "Snog, Marry, Avoid" I had three FULL garbage bags ready to go and my clothes fit into my storage ... mostly! :0)  SOMETHING was acheived for the weekend at least.

I'm hoping that now that I've taken care of that looming chore I'll be able to settle down to some sewing this week, so I hope to be back soon with some stitchy, fabricky stuff to share. Hope you've all had a great weekend with a bit more stitchy stuff involved than mine and that your week is FANTASTIC! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

Random Catch-up Ramblings!

Oh dear! More than a week has slipped by again before I've managed to get back here! It was SUPPOSED to be a quieter week, but that didn't seem to happen and although I have some adventures from last weekend to share with you ... I'm having to dash off unexpectedly today so am just jumping in with a quick update on yesterday. Perhaps if I tackle one day at a time I'll catch up! :0)

OK ... so ... yesterday I loaded myself into the car and headed off down the 'hill' to Brisbane for a long-overdue play date with my bestest-buddy-since-we-were-nine Lynette. Due to her work commitments, we haven't managed many play dates this year, so this was a bit of a catch up ... a lot of catching up going on here today! :0) We started our play date with lunch at a newly discovered tearoom and gift shop. The gift shop was fun ... the lunch at the teashop (which didn't actually serve the advertised high-tea unless you'd rung at least 24 hours in advance ... something NOT mentioned on their web site!!!) was pretty ordinary. So we decided to treat ourselves to a visit to one of our fave antique shops ... with MUCH better results! :0)

Now ... somewhere in the last month of busy-ness (on September 19, in fact!!) my Beloved Geek Boy and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. WOW! That time sure has flown by! :0) Although we didn't really get to celebrate the event due to the extremely hectic schedule of last month, we decided we'd keep an eye out for a special 'something' for each other's anniversary gift. We don't always exchange gifts for anniversaries, but 20 years seemed like a milestone worth marking. :0) Where is all this connected to Lynette's and my fave antique shop, I hear you asking? Well ... I found the gift for GB to buy for me! :0) It jumped out at me within a minute or two of walking into the shop. I drooled. I walked away. I came back and drooled a bit more. I walked away. Lynette urged me to look at it again. I walked away ... oh who am I kidding!!! In the end, it came home with me! :0)

It was a large pendant that featured Scotch thistles. Those of you who know me know that my family tree has a LOT of tartan wrapped around it (Kippen, Menzies, Duncan, McLean, McGregor ...!!!), so anything Celtic or Scottish catches my eye! :0) The nice lady at the antique shop said she thinks this was originally a belt decoration, but has been turned into a pendant somewhere along the track ... and is now just right for me to wear and enjoy. I emailed a photo of it to GB to show him what he'd bought me! Tee! Hee! Hee!

 

And while we were antique browsing, Lynette found a belated birthday giftie for me ... you know how we are with our gift-giving ... we'd rather wait and find just the right thing for each other. Well ... this pretty caught my eye ...

 

I think it's meant to be a sugar bowl. It caught my eye because I was sure it had the same pattern as another piece in my collection. When I got home and took a look ...

 

I found that I was right ... because the piece I already had (the one on the left) is this same piece ... just missing it's lid! Go figure!! :0) So ... now I just have to keep an eye out for a spare lid ... don't like my chances! I'm guessing that like a lot of sugar bowls, the lid has been dropped and broken somewhere along the track before it came to live with me. Still ... my little collection of green depression glass is growing and looking pretty ...

 

Although ... if I get too many more pieces, I'll have to find another home for it, cos space is getting to be a bit limited here on the hutch! Maybe that will be a good excuse to buy a new, larger hutch! :0)

 

Lynette and I then finished our day with a coffee and a sweet treat (which I forgot to take a photo of!!) at our fave coffee shop, "The Nook" ... and the disappointing lunch was completely forgotten! :0)

 

So that was my Friday ... oh ... along with some yummy mail that I had been anxiously waiting for ...

 

... another Rural Jardin French General layer cake! :0) I have bought SO much of this range!! This particular layer cake will be the basis of another patchwork tiered skirt for moi, since I've already been wearing my purple version quite a lot. I just love the soft, antique blues and reds of Rural Jardin ... I'll show you the skirt when it's finished ... but for now will just stroke, pet and enjoy my layer cake! :0)

Right ... my small window of blogging time is up and I need to scoot off. I promise to come back soon and share some pics of our adventures last weekend. Oh ... Sweet Peg has done our OPAM random prize draw, so stay tuned to her blog for the winners' names. An apology to last month's winners ... I'll be posting your prizes this week ... PROMISE!!! :0) I'm off to get organised, so enjoy the rest of your weekend. Til next time ...

 

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS