Home From Eventful Weekend!!

PHEW!!! Well ... here we are, home safe and sound after a VERY eventful weekend!! I thought I'd do a bit of a catch up on our adventures, so this is a (sorry Chookyblue!!)

LONG POST WARNING!! 

You may like to go and make yourself a cup of tea and get comfy before you start to read ... or plan to come back later when you have more reading time! :0)

Righto .. so ... a few years ago, not long after I first started blogging, I 'met' the Lovely Lilly Linda through visiting each others' blogs, after each seeing the other's comments on mutual blogging buddy, the Gorgeous Kerryanne's, blog. Are you still with me? After chatting back and forth, Lilly Linda (so called because she has a sweet and shabby business called Lilly Cottage) and I met up for a few play dates, one of which saw her beloved Tim travel with her up our 'hill'. Well ... Tim and GB got along as well as Lilly Linda and I, so we planned a few couples outings ... which often seemed to coincide with Australia Day. It became our little tradition to meet up sometime near that special day for a day trip or a weekend gathering. Due to scheduling difficulties with two busy households, we didn't get our Aussie Day play date last year, but decided to make up for it this year ... GB and I were to travel down the 'hill' to visit the 'Lovely Lillies' at their island home. All good so far ...

The weekend began with relaxed chats over snacks and drinkies and proceeded to a visit to Lilly Linda's shop, Lilly Cottage on Bribie. OH!!! The pretties that wanted to follow me home! If you love pretty, shabby, cottage and vintage decorating styles, then you really HAVE to treat yourself to a visit to Lilly Linda's shop!!! Let me show you a peek as to WHY you need to visit ...

Pink, pretty, gorgeous wall art, lacy bunting, re-purposed vintage items ...

... cushions, chandeliers lavender, frilly aprons ...

... tea cups, bears, owls, jugs, vases ... oh the list goes on and on almost as long as I do! :0) But here's the greatest treasure I found in Lilly Cottage ...

... my lovely friend, Lilly Linda herself! :0) And you just KNOW that some pretties followed me home, right? Right! :0)

The 'dream' letters were a gift from the gorgeous Kerryanne a couple of years ago, but the fabulous enamel jug and Fleur de Lise cushion followed me home from Lilly Cottage! :0) The jug will be a great spot for long-stemmed flowers ... plus it just looks cool!! And the cushion will go on the day-bed in my French-inspired sewing room.

It was at about this point in the weekend (Saturday afternoon/evening) that things started to get a little 'interesting' on the weather front. You see, a little earlier in the month, tropical cyclone Oswald had hit far north Queensland, blew itself out a bit and was downgraded to an ex-cyclone, and started to make it's way down Australia's east coast. Ossie (every Aussie needs a nick-name!) caused wind damage, brought torrential rain and flooding wherever he went, from Cairns, to Townsville, Mackay and Rockhampton, but it was when he reached Bundaberg that things got REALLY hairy and scary.

The small beach-side towns of Burrum Heads and Bargara (where my Grandma lives!!) were hit by six tornadoes ... which while small compared to America's destructive giants, still managed to wreak havoc and cause mayhem. My Grandma is fine ... in fact, she had to be told by a neighbour what was happening as she was listening to a state radio station rather than a local one! ... but others weren't so fortunate. Instead of continuing to move south fairly quickly as predicted, Ossie decided he quite liked Bundy and stuck around for a bit, resulting in torrential downpours and flooding not only in Bundaberg and surrounds, but several hours inland ... including my hometown of Mundubbera, where they had ridiculous amounts of rain fall in their river catchment, causing the Burnett River to spill over its banks in the second biggest flood on record. (about 10cm lower than the record-setting flood in 1942) Many homes that had just finished being rebuilt after the 2011 floods were again swallowed by brown water ... as were many more than two years ago. I've chatted to Mum and Dad and seen Facebook photos and struggle to comprehend seeing flood waters in parts of the town I grew up in that I never thought would flood. The town is one of many small communities that have been completely isolated and they haven't had power since Sunday the 27th ... not that you hear too much about these little towns in any news reports!! My parents are fine ... double storey house on a hill ... but many others aren't and Mum and Dad are helping with clean up efforts and the feeding of and care for those who've been evacuated. I am so proud of my parents! :0)

Meanwhile ... back at Bribie Island ... Ossie's temper tantrum had moved southward and we started to experience the high-speed winds from the ex-cyclone, along with heavy rain. It wasn't quite blowy and heavy enough to stop Lilly Linda and I from running off to a big fabric sale at Sew This And That, Morayfield on Saturday arvo, though!! Come on ... we're STITCHERS! We wouldn't let a little ex-cyclone stand between us and a fabric sale! Tee! Hee! Hee! I was pretty good, really ... REALLY!!! :0) All that followed me home was ...

... some dusty blue/gold combos. This will be a very special project that I'll tell you about soon. :0)

To continue my tale of weather woes ... when Lilly Linda and I went racing off to catch the fabric sale (arriving just 20 minutes before closing!!!) my beloved had to move our car so Linda could get hers out and he parked it on a gravelled area beside the driveway ... a move we were VERY happy about in the morning when this greeted us after a night of winds that reached 95km per hour ...

The basketball hoop had taken a tumble and landed right where our two-month old car WAS parked before moved for our fabric sale dash! PHEW!! Can I tell you ... Lilly Linda and I will be getting a LOT of mileage out of the fact that we can now say that buying fabric is a REALLY GOOD IDEA! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Now ... along with the nasty high-speed winds, there was LOTS of heavy rain pelting down, all through the region, which led to widespread flooding and road closures ... Uh Oh!! We couldn't get home on Sunday as planned!! Thankfully, the Lovely Lillies were happy to continue to offer us their warm hospitality and apart from a dash through wind and rain to hit the shopping centre for some extra food supplies ... and a couple more pairs of new knickers! Tee! Hee! Hee  ... we proceeded to have a very enjoyable time catching up with Tim and Linda. Isn't it nice when you find another couple that you and your hubby can both enjoy spending time with. :0) Linda and I even did some tidying and rearranging in her creative cave ... well ... maybe more rearranging than tidying ... but you could see the desk surface when we finished! Tee! Hee! Hee! Which is more than I can say for MY creative cave! :0) Thank you Linda and Tim for a very enjoyable (if slightly longer than planned!) play date weekend!! We'll have to warn the weather bureau next time we plan a get-together! Tee! Hee! Hee!

We were finally able to scoot back up the 'hill' yesterday afternoon via a back road past Somerset Dam ... which was not only handy, but a pretty, scenic drive, too. We quite enjoyed seeing that area since the last time we passed through it was in drought and a VERY different picture! I think that was what is known as a 'silver lining' to the nasty weather cloud! :0) We were also very thankful to arrive home to find that our house was intact (without power due to the safety switch throwing, but easily remedied), no water or wind damage and the dogs VERY happy to see us! :0) (Feed me! Feed me! Feed me! I'm STARVING!!! What?! GB's sister checking up on us to make sure we had food?! No ... I don't believe so ... really ... you need to feed me!!! Tee! Hee! Hee!) Thank you to everyone for your well-wishes, thoughts and prayers for safety ... they were very much appreciated. While we are home safe and dry, though, there are still so many people affected by the flooding and storm damage ... not to mention those to the south of the country affected by devastating bushfires ... please keep them in your thoughts and prayers and maybe keep an eye out for some way you can give them an Aussie helping hand.

And speaking of Aussie ... I come to a very special happening that was part of our eventful weekend ...

On Saturday January 26, my brother and his wife welcomed their second son into the world.

Thomas Joseph Kippen

was born at 2:47pm NT time and weighed in at a very healthy 8lb 6oz. Mum and bub both doing well ... father still slightly shell-shocked! Tee! Hee! Hee! This very patriotic little Aussie bloke is welcomed with joy into our family. Congrats Paul and Ella!! So you see ... that dusty blue and gold fabric I bought with Lilly Linda will be part of a special new quilt for our latest family addition! :0)

So ... how did you go? Did you make it to the end of my marathon weekend wrap-up? Well done! :0) And just before I sign off ... a quick reminder that Sweet Peg and I are still taking sign-ups for OPAM 2013, so if you think you could use a little bit of encouragement and motivation to FINISH more projects this year, why not read a couple of posts back to find out what it's all about and join in the fun. We have quite a few 'repeat offenders' who have been with us from the start and they say that the low-stress, no-pressure, gentle nudge of wanting to have something finished by the end of each month to report to Sweet Peg or me has really helped them finish a LOT of projects ... not to mention receiving lots of wonderful feedback and encouragement from other participants and making lots of new blogging buddies. What's NOT to like about all that! :0) Sweet Peg and I would love to have you join the OPAM fun, so just drop us an email and we'll tell you how to get started.

In the meantime ... I definitely feel my fingers have earned a rest. I'm off to play Polly and put the kettle on for a cup of tea. Hope you're all well and that my fellow-Aussies ... especially the storm-tossed QLDers and northern NSW gals are safe, dry and well. Til next time ...

AUSSIE! AUSSIE! AUSSIE! BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS