The People You Meet!!

It's been another busy, busy week ... working on a Secret Squirrel project or two, dealing with new computer programs at my 'grown up' job (GRRRR!!!), a spot of gardening, retrieving parents from Bris airport, my Beloved Geek Boy being ambushed by the nasty flu bug ... you know ... the usual! :0)

However ... there WAS time for a fun, impromptu blogging buddies catch up. YAY! :0) I was sitting at work on Thursday, arguing with the aforementioned computer program (GRRRR!) when I got a message from the Fabulous Fiona to say that Chookyblue was passing through our hilly home ... did GB and I want to catch up for dinner? No Brainer! :0) Chooky and I have been blogging buddies since I started blogging about 8 years ago and have caught up for play dates a few times ... and it's always a hoot! :0)

Imagine a country pub on a Thursday night ... the locals out in the bar and the ring-ins in the dining room ... being roped in to the weekly trivia competition. I'm proud to say that the Blogging Buddies won ... GIRL POWER! :0) Just quietly ... there were only two teams ... Fiona, Chooky and me ... and GB and Choooky's Sweetie ... stiff competition! :0) What a fun night we had ...

Here's the victorious vixens! :0) The magic of blogging is that you get to form wonderful friendships with people all over the world who just 'get' you ... they understand your passion for stitching, your urge to create, your love-affair with fabric ... your warped sense of humour! :0) And it's even more special when you're fortunate enough to meet up with them in 'real life' and find that they're just like they seem through their blogging.  Fiona and I get to meet up for play dates a few times a month, which is so much fun ... but we've broken records in the last fortnight ... impromptu lunches, dinners, sewing retreats, stitching evenings ... gosh we sound like gad-abouts, don't we?! Thanks for a fun catch up, Chooky and Fiona ... can't wait for the next one! :0)

And now I'm flagging a little from all the week's excitement, so I'm heading off to keep an overdue date with my pillow before I have to obey the alarm in the morning and crawl out of bed to pretend to be a grown up. Hope you've had a fun-filled weekend too ... and that your week is full of unexpected treats ... like impromptu meetings with friends! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

Stitching Fun & A Dinosaur!!

Are you intrigued by that title??? I promise to explain. :0)

Last week here on top of our 'hill' was FREEEEEEEEZING!! And I'm not just saying that because I hate winter ... there was SNOW and SLEET just hours from us and our temperatures were joining in the frosty fun dipping down to ZERO!! It was FOUR degrees in my work office several days in a row when I was arriving at 8:30am ... not to mention the horrible, icy westerly and south-westerly winds that were up to 45km/h ... I'm sure I saw a polar bear walk past my office window chatting to a penguin!!! EEK!

So how does a confirmed summer girl cope with such wintery weather? Why, she runs away from home to play with her stitching buddies, of course! :0) The Friday Night Sit N Sew gals had a mini retreat this weekend and although I was a sooky-la-la and didn't sleep over (I SOOOO love my own bed! Tee! Hee! Hee!) I braved the gale force winds to venture out. Unfortunately ... I was so busy gasbagging ... chatting ... laughing ... drinking tea ... STITCHING!! ... that I forgot to take a lot of photos of what was made ... OOPS! :0) I DO however, have a fun pic to share. One of the Friday Night gals, Jenny-Lee, was gifted a copy of my "Ooh! La! La! Lingerie Bags" pattern and has been playing with it ...

Isn't it GORGEOUS!!! It's a bit hard to see in the pic with the bag drawn and tied (sounds like a painful torture!!) Jenny-Lee has put a lovely lace layer over the plain pink fabric for the top panel. And what about that fabric?!!! One of the other gals loved the fabric so much she went in search of some ... and when she found it on a super special, she bought some for a few of us ... WOO! HOO!! Thank's Sue-Gail! :0)

The other photos I remembered to take were of some sweetie-treaties that Leonie's cake artist daughter made specially for our retreat ...

Patchwork cupcakes!! Aren't they fabulous! And ... DEEEEEELICIOUS! :0) And as if we needed even MORE sugar ...

... a cake wrapped in a patchwork quilt!! Not only was the icing fantastic to look at, the cake was lovely and moist ... YUMMO!! :0) No sewing finishes to share ... still stitching away on a shop sample for the Marvelous Marion and a bit of work on a Secret Squirrel project. Hope to share something soon.

Now ... to the second part of this post title ... about 8 months ago, my darling brother rang very excited to say that he and his wife were expecting a new addition to their family. When their two sons (4 and 2) were asked whether they thought mummy was expecting a baby boy or a baby girl, they delightedly exclaimed ... "A DINOSAUR!!" So since then, we've been waiting to see whether it would be a PINK dinosaur or a BLUE dinosaur! :0) Today we received the news ...

It's a BLUE dinosaur! :0) That makes nephew number 11 ... with just 3 nieces to try to balance things out between my Beloved Geek Boy's side of the family and mine. No chance of remembering birthdays, so I shall just add an entry to the family spreadsheet! :0) Congrats to my 'little' brother and his wife. 

So that's how things are toodling along here at the Meares' Madhouse. Hope you had a fab weekend and that your week is off to a great start. I'm off to peek at dinosaur photos with a cuppa before heading off to sleepy-bo-bos to recover from the busy weekend. :0) Til next time ...

BLUE BEAR HUGS!!

CHEERS!
KRIS

A Weekend Of Outings!!

BRRRRRRR!!! Greetings from the frozen north! Unless you're reading this from the northern hemisphere, in which case ... greetings from the frozen SOUTH! :0) Here on top of our 'hill' we're just starting to experience a nasty cold snap. While we haven't had snow, there's been some falls near the QLD/NSW border, which doesn't happen often, and we've had gale force winds here since last night ... NOT a day to be out and about if you can help it!

So ... it's just fortunate that I did all my socialising early in the weekend. :0) It all started on Thursday (it's my last work day for the week, so from knock-off time, it's my weekend! :0) ) with a text from my stitching/blogging buddy the Fabulous Fiona inviting me to join her for lunch ... along with a couple of  'travelers'. :0) It seems fellow-arctophile Michelle from Rag Tag Stitching and Raewyn from Farm Girl Stitching were enjoying a girly road trip and looking for company ... and FUN! :0)

Oh! Look! There we all are. We had a lovely lunch with lots of chatting, lots of giggles and lots of just plain relaxing in good company. It was great to catch up with Michelle again and pretty special to meet up with Raewyn, since she's one of the lovely ladies joining Sweet Peg and me for OPAM ... all the way from that far eastern suburb of Australia ... you know ... New Zealand! Tee! Hee! Hee! And of course Fiona and I often find ourselves sharing the naughty corner ... though we can't work out WHY?!?! Can you?!?! Tee! Hee! Hee! Thanks for a lovely arvo, gals!!

There was also an outing on Friday night for our fortnightly Friday Night Frolics ... also known as Sit N Sew. :0) Fiona was along to play there, too ... two play dates in one week - Woo! Hoo! :0) No photos though cos I was SOOOOOOO busy stitching ... errr ... CHATTING! :0)

Then Saturday morning saw my Beloved Geek Boy and me pack my parents into the car to take them for a little drive to nearby Ravensbourne for a belated birthday brekkie for Dad. Ravensbourne is a gorgeous rainforest-y area that has a lovely national park and lookout, as well as several B&B retreats ... including Sketches, which was our brekkie destination. Here's Mum enjoying the view ...

... rolling green hills, lovely lush trees. A wee bit damp, as you can see from the table there ... and more than a wee bit coolish, so we decided on an INSIDE table! :0)

... where we all ... including the birthday boy! ... enjoyed a YUMMO brekkie! Friendly service, DELICIOUS food and GORGEOUS views ... we've put this on our "Return Visit" list ... preferably when it's a bit WARMER so we can enjoy sitting outside, closer to the view! :0)

Here we all are, happy smiles with full tummies ... all rugged up for the weather. :0) We also did a bit of a drive around to see the aforementioned look-out and two dams that are a hop-skip-and-a-quick-drive from our place before heading home to do a bit of gardening ... then stoke up the fire to cope with the creeping cold ... EEP!!

Sadly, the weekend is almost at an end and tomorrow we have to go back to being grown ups ... SIGH!!! Hope you've had some lovely weekend outings and adventures, too, and that the coming week is FABULOUS!! :0) Til next time ...

BRRRRRRRRR! BEAR HUGS!!

CHEERS!

KRIS

Miss Muffet's Missing Her Tuffet & OPAM!!

Greetings from the Fridge On The Ridge! And I'm unhappy to say ... the weatherman is telling me it's going to get COLDER from this coming weekend ... EEK! I'm even more convinced I was meant to be a bear and just sleep through winter ... SIGH!!

However ... the weekend just past was a very different story. Not only was it better weather (not WARM, you understand, but not as cold as NEXT weekend promises to be and the sun was shining!) but I spent the weekend with lovely stitching ladies, pretty gardens and magical fairy-tale footstools. Are you intrigued?!?! :0)

"Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet

Eating her curds and whey.

Along came a spider ...

And sat down beside her ...

And frightened Miss Muffet away!"

Have you seen a real-life tuffet? Let me introduce you to them. The Marvelous Marion and Stupendous Steph of The Quilters Angel ran a tuffet making class taught by Terri from Gladstone (sorry ... I don't remember her surname ... but she was lovely! :0) ) While I wasn't tuffet-making, I joined the tuffet-makers to watch their progress and cheer them on ... everyone needs a cheer squad, right?! :0) It was so interesting to watch everyone make 'the same' project in different fabrics and have them all turn out so differently. Ready to see??

Ta Da! Don't they look fantastic!! I'm pretty sure Miss Muffet wishes she had this range of tuffets to pick from to get comfy on to face her spidery foe! :0) Different styles, different looks ... all GORGEOUS!! 

And here are all of the tuffet-makers ... looking justifiably proud of their tuffets. Thankfully ... there was no sign of Miss Muffet or her giant spider!!! :0)

And here are the three ladies who made the weekend possible ... thanks Steph, Terri and Marion!!

I wasn't totally idle while tuffets were being tackled ... I was stitching away on my Secret Squirrel projects ... good progress ... now for machine sewing - EEP! :0) So I can't show you THAT project finished, but I DID have a couple of finishes to add to my OPAM list ... and that's my SMOOTH segue-way into the June OPAM prize draw announcement. Yeah ... smooth as silk, I am! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Moving right along ... June was another wonderfully creative month for you clever-clogs stitchers/knitters/crocheters. There were 328 finishes ... WELL DONE!! There were so many lovely projects created in June ... how inspiring it is for my GORGEOUS Partner-In-Crime Sweet Peg and I each month to see what you ladies have been up to in your sewing rooms. And that includes all of you who may not have been able to add finishes to your list, but spent some time making progress on longer-term projects. Taking time to be creative, to refresh your heart and lift your spirits is at the heart of what we do.

So ... to the prize draw ... this month's winners are ...

Tracey A

and ...

Dory!!

Congratulations, ladies! Drop me an email and I'll pop a little something in the postie's bag for you.

Right now, though, I think I hear the kettle calling my name and the temperature is starting to dip, so I think it's time to stoke up the fire. NOT looking forward to the weekend when they're telling me there's a chance of sub-zero temps, sleet and snow in our region ... EEK!!! I can see that I will be retreating to my cushion and blanket fort in front of the fire, pulling up the drawbridge and hibernating til spring!! :0) Stay warm, southern gals and stay cool northern ones. Oh and one last VERY important comment ...

QUEENSLANDER!!!

Til next time ...

MAROON BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

How To Cope With Winter!!

G'day all! Hope your week is muddling along nicely. :0) I have to say that the last few weeks for me have been pretty hectic with my 'grown up' job ... and with some computer-related reporting/recording changes yet to be introduced in the next week ... SIGH!!! ... I see some headaches, confusion and hair-pulling-out in my future ... and that's just me explaining things to my technophobe boss! Tee! Hee! Hee! Add in my Beloved Geek Boy rebuilding my aging laptop and doing the resultant updates and there just hasn't been a chance for me to visit you much. I've missed you! :0)

I also haven't had quite as much time to stitch as I'd like ... but I promise I've been working on some Secret Squirrel Stitching that I'll share with you in a while and have managed to finish a couple of projects ... including a new flannel blankie to help me ride out winter ...

Yep ... it's REALLY handy to hide under to cope with the chilly weather we experience here on our 'hill'. You might remember I finished the top for this quilt back in January ... well the Fabulous Fiona has now worked her quilting magic on it, I bound it and it is SOOOOOOOO warm and snuggly! :0) I'll show you some pics of Fiona's magic soon ... promise. :0)

What has everyone else been working on? AND ... have you OPAM gals updated your sidebar lists and emailed my GORGEOUS Partner-In-Crime Sweet Peg or me with your tallies?? Well ... GET HOPPING!! :0) Sweet Peg and I will be doing OUR hopping in the next few days, so tally-up and let us know.

But right now ... I'm off to have a cuppa and finish solving a Who-Dunnit before snuggling into bed under my doonas ... yes ... plural doonas cos I hate the cold ... I know that's a surprise to you all! Tee! Hee! Hee! Hope you're toodling along nicely, too, and happily creating lovely things to add to your OPAM tallies. :0) Til next time ...

SNUGGLY BEAR HUGS!!

CHEERS!
KRIS