Birthdays & Bombardment!

Hello all you lovely bloggy buddies! I've finally made it back here. Between travels, power outages, Telstra issues and a computer that has a mind of it's own, I've been trying to pop in for a chat for a few days now. SHEESH!! So much for computers making our lives simpler. :0)

So ... following on from my last post ... we took a trip north to Bargara to help my Grandma celebrate her 93rd birthday ... which we did with a DEEEEEEE-LICIOUS morning tea at Breathe Bakery and Cafe, where I snapped a pic of the birthday girl ready to gobble her sweetie treatie ...

She looks pretty spry for 93, right?! :0) And it was a good opportunity for a generational pic, too ...

AAAAAAAWWWWW!! What a motley crew we are! :0)

And since it was my birthday on Sunday it was a bit of a double-whammy weekend. Celebrations were pretty low key and laid back with my family, some fresh prawns and mango macadamia Weiss ice cream bars while we watched the waves roll into the beach. A very Queensland birthday celebration! Tee! Hee! Hee! And speaking of my birthday ... I received a lovely giftie from my Buddy Lynda ...

... a new tea mug! And the sentiment is DEFINITELY one I agree with! :0)

After our road tripping and celebrating, it was time to come home ... unfortunately!! And we had a rather dramatic homecoming! About half an hour after we got home we were hit with a VERY nasty hail storm ... YIKES!! It was the worst one I've ever seen first hand and lasted about 20 minutes. Thankfully, there was no major damage to our house, BUT ... the garden wasn't so lucky! SIGH!!

Let me show you ...

This is our rose garden ... that white stuff is the hail stones ... it will give you a bit of an idea how nasty it was.

The ice piled up in the gap between the shed and the tanks ... and smashed my poor watering can! How rude!!

And ... my poor pumpkin vine copped a beating too ... SIGH!! The pumpkins aren't quite ripe yet, so I'm crossing fingers that the vine will hang on a little longer to finish them off. Then, while we were inspecting the damage (cold toesies and all due to paddling around in icy water!!) the sun came out and when the warmth  hit the cold rising from the ice ...

... a mist started to rise and spread ... it was like a creepy horror movie! EEP!! :0) And in the aftermath of the storm, we were left without power for about 11 hours. This meant no showers (a COLD splash bath!!!) and no fans to move the humid air around - not fun! Thankfully it was back on in time for us to hit the shower before work, but let's just say that a generator has gone to the top of the save-up list! :0)

So ... this weekend will be filled with pruning, trimming and cleaning up the mess ... good thing it's a long weekend ... hopefully there'll be some sewing time in there somewhere too. :0) And hopefully there won't be any more nasty storms!!!

I hope your week has been toodling along nicely ... without any hail storms!! In case I don't get back before hand ... have a HOPPY Easter! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

All The Lovely Ladies!!

How about this ... two posts in two days ... WOW! :0) I really should be packing a bag to prepare for a road trip north to help my Grandma celebrate her 93rd birthday, but I thought I'd pop in to share some lovely ladies who have been part of my week. Let's start with ANOTHER lady who has just celebrated her 93rd birthday ...

Meet Miss Vera, the matriarch of the retirement village where I work. :0) She's pictured here with her special heart shaped birthday cake and my boss lending a hand to cut it. At 93 years young, Vera still attends a weekly exercise class, has her hair done each week, enjoys numerous outings with friends and catches the bus into Toowoomba to go shopping each Monday. She has a wicked sense of humour and one of the most positive outlooks on life I have ever come across. When someone asked her the most significant event in her 93 years, her reply was ... the day she made the decision to smile more than she frowned. Just think how much that one seemingly simple decision can make an impact on a life. WOW! I want to be Miss Vera when I grow up! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Now ... the other lovely ladies in my blog title are the Fabulous Fiona, Quilting Fairy Extraordinaire and Michelle Ridgeway of Rag Tag Stitching, who were my lunch buddies yesterday. Michelle was very brave and came on a little road trip up our 'hill' to visit Fiona for a stitching/tea drinking/chat-a-thon. :0) And I was very lucky to be invited to join them once I finished my 'grown up' job. Not only was lunch DEEEEEE-LICIOUS, but the company was SUPERB! :0) And being good bloggers, there had to be a photo-fest before we all parted ways.

Michelle and Fiona, looking almost as fabulous as Fiona's garden ...

... Michelle and yours truly ... oooh!! A few shades of auburn hair between the two of us there! :0) Can you tell we were giggling quite a bit during this process?! Tee! Hee! Hee! Mischievous teddy bears! :0) And ...

 ... all three of us ...the Three Musketeers ... or as my Dad would say ... Triple Trouble! Tee! Hee! Hee! You should have seen us trying to get this photo ... talk about giggling and shenanigans!! Seriously ... if any neighbours has been watching, they'd have wondered what Fiona slipped into the salad dressing! Tee! Hee! Hee! Thank you so much for a fun afternoon ladies ... can't wait for our next play date! :0)

Right now, though, I'm off to clean my toothy-pegs before snuggling into bed for a good sleep before heading off to the beach ... which, just quietly, almost guarantees that it will rain this weekend! EVERY time we go to the beach it rains! Ah well ... catching up with family and a few wet weather walks on the sand will still be a great way to spend the weekend. Hope yours is enjoyable to. :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS

Lotsa Love!!

Hellooooooo!!! How are all of my lovely blogging buddies this week? Hopefully you're well and enjoying some mild weather, whether your weather is spring weather or autumn weather. PHEW! That's a LOT of weather! :0)

Days here on top of our 'hill' have still be warm, but evenings are cooling down ... which made for some wonderful conditions for a mini sewing retreat this last weekend that I shared with the crazy crew from our Friday Night Sit N Sew group. For the first time on one of our retreats, I took my trusty Husky with me to do some machine sewing ... which resulted in many shocked expressions and exclamations from my fellow Friday Nighters! :0) I usually sit quietly in the corner hand stitching ... well ... I sit in the corner hand stitching! Tee! Hee! Hee!

I was so hard at work through the weekend that I didn't remember to take any photos - Oops! But ... as well as VERY tight neck and shoulder muscles (OUCH!!) , I do have some results to show for the time ...

Ta Da! Lotsa love! :0) The light is making the colours a bit washed out and the white blown out, but you get the idea. I've now got all of the pieced hearts finished for the border of my new VW Beetle quilt that I'm working on. The Beetles have also been appliqued over the weekend, but I haven't got a photo yet. Soon, I promise. :0)

Lots happening in the Meares' Madhouse this week, which means there won't be much sewing, and a road trip coming up on the weekend to help my Grandma celebrate her 93rd birthday, so it might be a little while before I get back here ... but like Arnie ... I WILL be back! :0) Enjoy the rest of your week. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

Batik Beetles & OPAM Winner!!

Happy Hump Day to you all!! I hope your week is toodling along nicely ... mine seems to be slipping through my fingers ... how does that keep happening?! :0)

While there hasn't been a lot of actual SEWING happening here at the Meares' Madhouse this week, I have been busily doing some prep for my latest design. It all started with ...

... the quilt I made for my brother's number 2 son. I loved it ... but it also gave me ideas ... which grew when I started to play with ...

... some pieced hearts in bright batik fabrics with a white background. And now I'm adding ...

... some batik beetles! :0) I am having SO much fun playing with this new design!! The bright rainbow colours of the batik fabrics added to fun VW Beetles just makes me smile! :0) My original design idea HAS changed a wee bit as I've worked on it ... which seems to happen a lot, as my design style is very organic ... my designs are rarely drawn out in detail from the start ... I tend to start with one element and then they grow like topsy! :0) As a result of my new direction, I need to make quite a few more of those pieced hearts and since our Friday night sewing group has a mini retreat this weekend, I've been prepping and cutting like mad to have everything ready to take with me to work on. Stay tuned for the next exciting instalment! Tee! Hee! Hee! The finished Beetle quilt will be a companion to ...

... my "Combi Conga Line" quilt ... patterns are available from The Quilters Angel. So you can make your own cheerful, rainbow quilt, guaranteed to make you smile. :0)

And speaking of exciting ... my GORGEOUS Partner-In-Crime Sweet Peg and I are very excited that OPAM is up and running for another year. It's always so inspiring to see what you clever clogs gals have been up to during the month. Things are just getting wound up for the year and there have been some wonderful finishes already ... there were 162 finishes for January and 218 finishes for February! WOW!! Well done to everyone who helped add to that tally!! And a pat on the back, too, to all of you who made some good progress on some longer-term projects. Remember ... taking some time out from your busy "Have To Do" list of jobs to be creative is one of the main reasons we have OPAM, so be kind to yourself. :0)

Now ... Sweet Peg has already done the January prize draw ... so if you haven't already popped over to visit her today, you might be the lucky winner! And with a drumroll ... the winner of the February prize draw is ...

JO B

Congratulations Jo! If you'd like to email me with your snail mail address, I'll pop a little something in the mail for you. (Michell ... I haven't forgotten you, I promise!!) You'll notice that there's only one winner per month rather than the two winners of the last few years. This is because postage charges have taken a pretty big jump for us here in Australia and since Sweet Peg and I haven't yet found a money-tree growing in our back yards (DARN it!!), we've had to make that little change ... even though we'd both love to be able to send prizes to everyone for their wonderful, creative work ... when we win lotto! :0)

Right now, though, I'm off to play Polly and put the kettle on for a cuppa, so my biggest decision will be ... Rose and French Vanilla, Morroccan Mint, English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast, Orange Pekoe, or just plain Dilmah ... oh the decisions! :0) Have a fantastic week and keep creating!! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

Spreading The Love!!

How's that for a positive start to March?! Well ... it IS my birthday month after all, so I DO think it's rather special! Tee! Hee! Hee! But that's not the love I'm spreading around. Do you remember last post I showed you my gumby-patchworker's larger version of a pieced heart block?

Well ... I actually HEARTED it quite a lot! :0) Which sparked all kinds of creative lightning bolts in my designers brain and suddenly, I wasn't just satisfying my curiosity about whether or not I could make this block ... I was using it as the building block for a new quilt design! UH! OH! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Now what with fighting off nasty, hang-y-on-y infection bugs and meeting 'grown up' expectations, there hasn't been as much sewing time as I would've liked, but I DID dig through my stash of cheerful bright batik fabrics to come up with ...

MORE pieced hearts! I have to say I really am LOVING how these are coming up. I need to make a few more ... but need to stock up on a few more batiks ... oh-dear-what-a-shame! Tee! Hee! Hee! Hee! Hmm ... should've lined the Fabulous Fiona up to bring me some back from her recent holiday. Opportunity missed! :0) Stay tuned to find out what I do with these pretties, cos I have FUN plans! :0)

Moving right along ... OPAMers ... we've slipped into a new month ... have you emailed your list of finishes to me or my GORGEOUS Partner-In-Crime Sweet Peg? Have you updated your list of finishes on your sidebar list? If the answer to these questions is "NO" then ... GET HOPPING!! :0) Sweet Peg and I will be blog hopping on the weekend, so scamper along and get caught up to help us. I'm looking forward to seeing what you've all been creating.

And as I sign off today, I thought I'd show you the view from our front verandah at the moment ...

The plumbago along our front pathway is just GORGEOUS at the moment. It's such a pretty blue colour against the sandstone path ... not that many people who visit really SEE it, because most people who visit come to the back door!! Does that happen at your place? We joke that only strangers come to our front door ... and door-knockers! :0)

Righto ... I'm off to consider our choices for dinner while I enjoy repeats of Dr Who. :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS