OPAM Winners & Long Weekend!!

Here I am ... back on the air ... FINALLY!!! My email service took quite a bit of sorting out ... My Beloved Geek Boy fixed the initial issue of a lapsed domain name (his oops!) but it took a little longer to work out that the server my email goes through had got tired of trying to send mail through and having it blocked (due to the domain lapse)  and so it stopped trying. After my complaint a full day after the domain update I still wasn't getting emails ... GB investigated further, found the problem and fixed it ... YAY! I'm once again in the email loop! :0) You don't realise how much you rely on email for communication these days until you don't have it! :0)

Sorry again to my lovely OPAM gals who tried to email finishes through and got a "Computer says NO" type reply ... I think most of you managed to either contact me again or let Sweet Peg know your tallies, so all sorted ... and I have done the random prize draw.

First, let me say a big CONGRATULATIONS to all of you ... whether you had finishes to add this month or not! If you took some time out to be creative ... or even if you spent some time PLANNING to be creative (yes, looking at pretty craft magazines, Pinterest, blogs and books counts!!! Tee! Hee! Hee!) then you are a winner  for having been kind to yourself and rewarding yourself with some "YOU" time. :0) We had a final tally of 502 finishes for May ... WOW!!! Well done!! Since I only contributed a simple scarf to that tally, I'm really hoping to make a bigger contribution in June ... fingers crossed! :0)

OK ... this month's winners are:

FIONA (BUBZ RUGZ)

CYN

Congrats, gals! :0) Now ... I've already cheated a bit and delivered Fiona's prize in person yesterday when we caught up, but Cyn, if you would like to email me with your snail mail address, I'll get a little something in the mail for you soon. A big thank you to all of you clever-clogs gals out there who have joined us for OPAM 2013. It is always so inspiring to see what you've been working on. There are so many wonderful projects being finished and so many fabulous ideas being shared. If you haven't done so for a while, why not make yourself a cuppa and go for a little bloghop through the OPAM participants list on my sidebar. I guarantee you'll see some gorgeous projects, hear some wonderful stories, meet some lovely fellow-crafters and if you leave a comment, your encouragement is sure to bring a smile to someone's face! :0)

In other news ... it's a long weekend here this weekend to celebrate the Queen's Birthday ... even though it's not REALLY her birthday!! Talk about confusing! But who am I to pass up a long weekend! :0) It got off to a lovely beginning yesterday when we had our monthly Quilting Angels gathering at Quilters Angel. I love spending time with Fiona and Bev ... they are such relaxing, fun ladies to be around! :0) And we had a new friend join us yesterday, with Cathy coming along for the first time ... we're 'corrupting' her in the ways of blanket stitch applique! Tee! Hee! Hee! Meanwhile ... Fiona was hard at work on a super-pin cushion ...

Here she is, concentrating hard on getting the rice inside the pin cushion to weight it ... so you can hurl it at husbands who interrupt your sewing time to ask silly questions! Tee! Hee! Hee! And as a nice byproduct, the weight stops it moving around your sewing table. :0) By the time Fiona had finished, it looked like we'd had a wedding in the room, with rice on the table, on the floor, in containers ... all around! :0) She was a good girl and cleaned up though! :0) Fiona's lovely creation will be a shop sample at Quilters Angel ... so if you are eyeing it off ... you can buy the pattern from Marion and Steph and make one for your very own self! :0) (Keep an eye on their blog, too, as they have some wonderful on-line-only sales quite often!!)  Thanks for a lovely, relaxing day Fiona, Bev and Cathy! :0)

Then last night was our Friday Sit N Sew gathering ... I'd missed the last two due to dropping off and picking up parents from various comings and goings, so it was lovely to see everyone and catch up on their news and stitching. And I made some progress on a slowly-progressing new design project ...

These are fun to stitch and will ... some day! ... be a garden-themed quilt called "Lynda's Garden". There are a few more blocks left to stitch and hopefully this weekend will give me a bit of time.

Today, we've had a bit of a lazy start to an icky, overcast day here on top of our 'hill', with GB and I heading out for a breakfast treat ...

MMMMMMM!!!! Hazelnut latte! Not a bad way to start the day! :0) I had some gift vouchers that needed to be used before their expiry date, so it was a good excuse to not have to make brekkie this morning. Needless to say ... neither of us have gone looking for lunch and it may be boiled eggs and toast for dinner here at the Meares' Madhouse! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Hope your weekend is off to a great start ... even if you're not lucky enough to have a public holiday on Monday to look forward to! :0) Enjoy yourselves and don't forget to schedule in some "YOU" time to be creative ... or contemplate creativity over a cuppa! Tee! Hee! Hee! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS