Mothers' Day & OPAM Winner!!

Hello to you all out there in blogland on this Mothers' Day Sunday ... and a special hello to all of you who are Mums ... including the Mums of fur-babies, cos they count, too. :0)

Things here have been pretty low-key, with a bit of Secret Squirrel sewing and not much else. My Beloved Geek Boy is finding his feet in his new job and I'm still doing battle with the nasty head cold bug that ambushed me ... I'm really hoping it gets gone soon, cos I'm over stuffy noses, sore throats and asthma flare-ups. GRRRR!!

However, since today IS indeed a special day, I hit the kitchen to prepare a special lunch for my Mum. We're fortunate enough to catch up with Mum and Dad most weekends when they have lunch with us after attending church in the country town near us, but I wanted to make today a little more special for Mothers' Day ...

Since it was a lovely, mild autumn day we sat out on our verandah and enjoyed lovely tender steak from a local butcher topped with QLD prawns in a garlic and cream sauce, accompanied by home made potato salad and some crispy fresh salad. Here's Mum ready to tuck in ... you can see from Dad's plate that he's a meat and potatoes kind of bloke! Tee! Hee! Hee! This feast was washed down with sparkling apple juice and followed by ...

Pavlova ... YUMMO!! :0)  You can see Dad's not too sure about Mum being given a big sharp knife! Tee! Hee! Hee! I confess that the pavlova was a bought base, but I chopped up the fruit in the centre and whipped the cream topping it, so that should count for something, right?! :0) And that's home grown passion fruit on top. Can I tell you ... we all waddled away from the table and there MAY have been some post-lunch kindy-kips taken to digest our feast! :0) Mum's gifties were of the plant variety, as she loves to potter in the garden. 

I have to say that not only do I love my Mum dearly, she's one of my heroes. She is so generous with her time and caring of those around her ... growing up I watched her cook meals for people who were unwell or just home from hospital stays, send cards and gifts to people who needed a little cheer-up boost, invite folks with no family to meals for special occasions so they weren't alone and our house was like grand central station with family and friends coming and going, knowing they were always welcome and that there was a spare bed if they needed it. I've always said that if I turn out to be HALF the woman my Mum is, I'll be doing pretty darn well! :0) 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MUM!! I LOVE YOU HEAPS!!

So ... after the post-feast kindy-kips and Mum and Dad heading off home, I realised it was my turn to do the random prize draw for OPAM. OOPS! I keep losing days! :0) So, for April we had ...

146 FINISHES!!

WOO! HOO!! Well done to everyone who had a part to play in that tally. Isn't it incredibly satisfying to look back at our finishes list and see how that tally grows month by month? And to those of you who didn't get to add to your tally, but made some good progress on long-term projects or just took a bit of time out to read inspiring magazines, books, blogs or Pinterest to recharge your creative batteries ... well done to you, too, for remembering to take some time out just for YOU. When life is busy we need to protect those little pockets of "ME" time to catch our breath, recharge and re-energise before diving back into life's crazy whirlwind. :0)

Having done the random draw, the name bouncing up was ...

INGER!!

Congratulations Inger! Please email me with your snail mail address and I'll pop a little something in the mail for you soon. A big thank you to all of you who emailed your finishes to me and my GORGEOUS Partner-In-Crime Sweet Peg this month ... it is a big help to us! :0)

That's about it from me for today, but I promise to be back soon with some exciting photos of some BIG CHANGES that have happened behind the scenes here at the Meares' Madhouse ... I wonder if you can guess what has been happening??? :0) For now, though, I'm off to have a shower and snuggle into my dagging-around-the-house clothes, then curl up under my blankie with a bowl of hot soup to enjoy a quiet evening with my Sweetie before we're into a very hectic new week. Hope you've has a lovely weekend and may your week be full of random kindnesses ... both received and given! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS