End Of The Week, Start Of A Month!

Hello to all of you who 'tag along' to visit me here! :0) Lovely to have you all pop in to see what doings have been done at the Meares' Madhouse ... otherwise, I'd just be chatting to myself, wouldn't I? Oh ... wait ... that happens all the time anyway!! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Well, this week has gone whizzing by ... weeks seem to insist on doing that! With the settlement date of our selling and buying houses creeping nearer, we're about to get stuck into the business of packing ... SIGH! That's the NOT-FUN part of moving! But before I start to pack away my pretties, we invited our neighbours over for an afternoon tea last Sunday ... and it seemed the perfect chance to actually USE a few of my pretties.

Here's the coffee table all loaded ready to receive guests ... some pretty plates holding treats and rosey plates and posy napkins ready to catch crumbs. We had a lovely time chatting with our neighbours and nibbling our way through the tasty treats ... craisin and coconut slice, mock chicken with rice crackers, mini lemon-curd tarts and a pretty glass plate of cabana, olives and cheese ... MMMMMMMMM!!! Not much dinner needed afterwards. :0) It also reminded me that I should use my pretty plates, cups, platters etc more often ... and that's one of the nice things about the house we'll be moving to ... it is PERFECT for entertaining, where our cottage really has been limited in space to do so. Hmmm ... I can see I'll be madly pinning interesting looking entertaining type recipes on my Pinterest board, won't I?! Tee! Hee! Hee!

And as the working week rolls to an end, it brought with it the start of a new month ... which meant today was the day our Quilting Angels gathered at our Home-Away-From-Home. There were only a few of us there, but we sure made enough noise, had enough fun and ate enough lunch for a bigger group of ladies! Tee! Hee! Hee!

With all of our unsettled comings, goings and packings, I haven't been very motivated to stitch much, but found some interesting looking crochet cotton in my cleaning/tidying and decided to have a little play ... today with the Angels seemed the perfect opportunity to get started ... in case I needed a few reminders from Miss Marion, crochet-teacher-extraodinaire! :0) I think I made a nice bit of progress ... in between chatting, laughing and eating, of course! ... considering it had been ... hmmm ... YEARS!!! ... since I'd picked up a crochet hook. Wanna see???

Here's my granny square. Not too bad, if I say so myself. :0)

I like how this ecru cotton is crocheting up. I inherited a bag full of crochet cottons when one of the ladies moved from the retirement village where I work and hadn't really known what I would do with it. I think I'm going to make a throw rug to go over a chair or at the end of a bed. I have a white knitted cotton quilt made almost 100 years ago by my Great-Granny and although this one won't be nearly as complex or classy, I thought it would be a handy, light throw to have around. I'm now trying to decide whether to:

A) Just keep crocheting around and around and around til the throw is big enough; or

B) Make 10" squares and join them all together; or

C) Alternate this square with another treble-stitch block done in the same cotton.

What do you think I should do? I'm open to suggestions here! :0)

And ... since the start of a new month has brought around our Quilting Angels gathering, it also means that a month has just FINISHED... funny how that works! :0) And of course that means ... OPAMers ... Sweet Peg, the most GORGEOUS partner-in-crime a gal could have, and I will soon be doing our blog hopping and spreadsheet updating for the July OPAM tally. Have you updated your sidebar lists? Have you sent a quick email to Sweet Peg or me with your final tally for July?? QUICK-STICKS!!! What are you waiting for?! :0) 

I've already been receiving a few emails and, as always, there are some FABULOUS projects being created out there in blogland. The Fabulous Fiona is seeing stars this month ... pop over to visit her to see what I mean. :0) And Judy has been knitting away with some FABULOUS wools. Have you taken a blog-hop through the OPAM participants list recently? I can tell you it's WELL worth your while to make yourself a cuppa, get comfy and take a hop around, cos there are some GORGEOUS projects to be inspired by. And maybe you could leave a comment or two around the place to encourage your fellow creative spirits ... it's so nice to have a world-wide OPAM cheer squad, don't you think? :0)

Okey doke ... it's that time of afternoon where I turn into my Nan and decided that I simply CAN'T go any further in the day without a cup of tea, so I'm off to play Polly and put the kettle on. Hope you've all had a wonderful week ... and a wonderful July ... only one month of winter left to survive before my spring weather starts to thaw out this hot-weather gal! Tee! Hee! Hee! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS