Beach Break!

Hello everyone! I hope you've had a great weekend. Ours has included long walks, waves, sea breezes & family catch ups. Yep ... We're at the beach for a short break. And do you want to know something surprising? It's NOT RAINING!! :0P That's somewhat of a record for us, as it ALWAYS rains when we go to the beach. While we could actually use the rain ... At home as well as here at the beach ... We've enjoyed the cloud-free views ...

... Beautiful blues ...

... Radiant reflections ...

... & verandah views. Not a bad way to spend a few days. :0) I'm not sure we'll want to go home! :0)

Have a wonderful week ... We sure are! :0) Til next time me ...

BEACHY BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

Playing Ladies!

Hello everyone out there in blogland! I hope you're all having a great week so far. I meant to pop in before now, but that time thief has been here again & I seem to have lost another couple of days. Before I know it we'll be singing "Jingle Bells" again ... SHEESH!

While my current sewing is part of my Secret Squirrel project & being kept under wraps for now, I thought I'd share some pics of my latest play date with my Bestest-Buddy-Since-We-Were-Nine Lynette. 

With a birthday looming on the horizon, we decided on a special pre-birthday treat ... A day of playing ladies & high tea! :0) So after some research, we took ourselves off to Dinmore Cottage. What a FABULOUS decision that was!

We arrived to find it is indeed a pretty cottage decorated with lots of pretty china, vintage treasures & bits & bobs. We were shown to a table by the friendly hostess & found lovely china ready for us ...

You just KNOW the tea is going to taste better when sipped from pretty cups. :0) And the tea was even more special ... It was BLOOMING tea. It started like this ...

It's a bit hard to see in the pics, but each pot had what looked like dried flower petals scrunched into a wad about the size of a golf ball floating in it. As we watched (glued to the unfolding spectacle like a Master Chef addict to the tv screen!) the balls unfurled to form ...

An underwater flower! WOW! And ... It tasted good, too. What more could you want? Tea & entertainment! :0) But wait ... There was MORE! As well as a nice selection of general menu items, Dinmore Cottage offers three different types of high tea ... Since we were celebrating, we went with the Decadent High Tea & it surely was!

Look at all those tasty treats! There were sandwiches, salmon mini wraps, petit fours, scones with jam & cream, sweeties & fresh fruit. WOW! We made a pretty good dent in this lot ... But had to admit defeat & took our scones home with us. :0) Here's Lynette trying to decide what to try first. :0)

And did I mention that the decadent high tea also includes celebratory bubbles? :0) Definitely a lovely way to spend a day ... Decadent deliciousness & a Bestest Buddy to chat & giggle with. Thanks for a lovely celebration Lynette! :0)

That's been the highlight of activities since I last popped in to visit with you all, the rest of the time has been taken up with grown up chores & work ... Sadly we still haven't been given the chance to prove that we would make benevolent millionaires with a lotto win. Tee! Hee! Hee! We're madly getting our grown up jobs in order this week (hence the even busier than usual state of things) as we're off on a little road trip this weekend, followed by a week's staycation to tackle a few jobs around the house ... & to catch up on some sleep, hopefully! :0P I'm looking forward to some relaxed time with my Beloved Geek Boy & some designing time to tackle the next block of my Secret Squirrel project. I'll pop back with some road trip & staycation updates, I promise.

But for now, I can hear the kettle singing my song, so I'll sign off & wish you all a wonderful rest of the week. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

Down The Rabbit Hole!!

Hellooooooo! Yes ... I'm still here & haven't forgotten that I need to do the January/February OPAM prize draw ... In fact, I had intended to post several days ago, but as my title says, I fell down the rabbit hole! :0) No ... We don't have giant rabbits burrowing in our yard (although I now have a rather funny mental picture of Wallace & Grommet's Were-rabbit burrowing away in our garden! Tee! Hee! Hee! ) Falling down the rabbit hole at our place means spending time at the computer ... You know ... When time somehow disappears between when you open the computer & when you surface again. I blame Dr Who's wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey theory! :0)

Sometimes falling down the rabbit hole involves YouTube clips of funny dogs or favourite musical groups, or cruising through Pinterest for inspiration, but for the last three days it's involved hours & hours of editing the next block of my Secret Squirrel design-in-progress. I know a lot of designers don't spend as much time editing their sketches as I do ... Their hand drawn sketches are ready to stitch as soon as the pen ink is dry. Sadly, my handwriting/penmanship skills are lacking ... Something my year 1 teacher told my Mother all those years ago! :0) ... I think I'm just too impatient. :0P So photoshop is my friend, but it's quite exacting & time consuming. I'll show you a little example. Here's part of my current sketch at the hand drawn stage ...

You can see the wibbles & wobbles. Now the edited version ...

Aaahh! Nice straight lines, even curves & no wibbles or wobbles. :0) It's worth putting in the time ... But it sure makes a weekend disappear quickly!

But ... Here I am now ready for the double prize draw. A big thank you to everyone who emailed their tally through to me ... It's a wonderful time saver for me! And thank you also to those who have their tally listed clearly on their sidebars ... This is another great help to me. Well ... Our OPAM numbers may have shrunk this year, but there's obviously still lots of crafting & sewing happening out there in blogland, because we've recorded ...

73 FINISHES 

... for January & ...

134 FINISHES 

... for February. Well done everyone! Sadly I haven't contributed anything to those tallies, what with falling down rabbit holes. :0P The prize this year is one of my Tag Along Teddies designs ...

The Daisy Drawstring Bag is a really handy project that is quick to whip up & can be used for all sorts of things ... Project bag, lingerie bag, shoe bag, toiletries bag ... The uses are many. :0) I'll email a PDF version of this pattern to the draw winner each month. And our first two winners for 2019 are ...

JEANETTE G

&

KAREN M

Congrats, gals! Drop me an email & I'll send your prize. But right now, I need to go & contemplate the contents of the fridge to find inspiration ... & ingredients! ... For dinner before GB starts gnawing on the furniture. Tee! Hee! Hee! I hope you've all had a fantastic weekend & wish you a wonderful week. Til next time ...

RABBIT HUGS! :0)

CHEERS,

KRIS

Buried Treasures!

Being a bit of a Dr Who fan (Tom Baker & Christopher Eccleston ROCK, but they lost me with Matt Smith!!) the concept of time & time travel fascinates me ... Whilst sometimes doing my head in a bit! :0) I always seem to be losing time ... My theory is that a crack in the universe leads to at least an hour or two leaking away each day, so by the end of the week I've lost a day or so, by the end of the month I've lost a week or two ... And by the end of the year I've misplaced a couple of months! Well ... This is MY reasoning for why I never seem to achieve as much as I plan to. :0)

Today time was on my mind after Mum rang to ask a favour ... Dad needs some sheet music to play for an ANZAC Day sing-along . Yes ... We're getting in a little early, but given my above theory on time, we need to! :0P Mum knew that when they were moving house a few years ago I had rescued a box of Dad's old sheet music & asked me to have a look to see if there was anything he could use. So, donning my Indiana Jones Fedora & tying myself to the door frame so I didn't get lost ... I bravely ventured into the depths of our sleep out (where all things with no definite home go to languish in limbo!!) & uncovered ...

... Buried Treasures! A shoebox time capsule! :0) Dad used to play piano for Saturday night dances in his home town of Mackay, so the contents of this box represent the music of the 50's/60's. I had fun rummaging through ... Here's a selection ...

... Some of the legends of music ... Roy Orbison, Louis Armstrong, Bill Halley & The Commets, Peter, Paul & Mary, The Seekers, Elvis & The Beetles ... To name a few. It's kind of the ultimate 50's/60's party mix, isn't it? :0) I didn't find much to help Dad out for his sing-along, but I had fun. Tee! Hee! Hee! If I was putting together a similar time capsule of music for myself, it would be hits of the 70's/80's ... Bon Jovi, ACDC, Billy Joel, the Eagles, KISS, Queen, John Farnham, U2, Pat Benetar, Cindy Lauper, ABBA, The Rolling Stones, INXS ... Ah ... The ultimate driving music soundtrack ... You know, where you turn the music up to eleven & sing along at the top of your voice! :0) Who would be on YOUR ultimate time capsule playlist?

And speaking more of time ... It's time for all good OPAMers to update their sidebar list of finishes for January & February & email tallies through to me. I'll be doing a double draw for January/February in the next few days, so stay tuned.

Right now, though, I'm off to have a cuppa then tackle the things on today's "To Do" list that was put on hold while I traveled back in time ... & have now lost half a day! See! My theory on time is RIGHT!! Tee! Hee! Hee! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS