Missing In Action!

Hello everyone! Yes ... I'm still here ... Alive & kicking! 😁 Thank you to the lovelies who have messaged & emailed to check on me. 😘 It's been a busy, tough few weeks with my grown up job after my boss left very suddenly. As well as the extra responsibilities, there has been quite a bit of "calming the waters" to be done, so I've been a bit slack on the blogging front. And, I confess, on the stitching front. OOPS! 😜 I HAVE been making some solid progress with editing pattern templates for my "Vintage Market" BOM design-in-progress, though, & am REALLY hoping it will be ready to reveal in the next month or so ... Stay tuned! 😉

I also managed to fit in a wonderful catchup with an old friend from my uni days last weekend. After a false start with a year of primary teacher training, I undertook a Bachelor Of Arts, majoring in Journalism at the USQ in Toowoomba. In my final year, I shared some classes with two fellow-crazies ... The three of us just 'clicked'. And though I kept in contact with Anthony & Kate for the first few years after uni, we all drifted along our different paths & lost touch ... Easier to do before emails, text messages & Facebook ... WOW! I'm older than Facebook! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Fast forward to about a year ago & it was FB that helped us reconnect & after 'chatting' back & forth for the last year, Kate & I got to catch up in real life last weekend when she & her Sweetie had a weekend at a local B&B. How wonderful to chat in person again ... & discover that not only did we have lots to chat about, but so did our Sweeties. 😁 NICE! And catching up with Kate & Mark gave us the perfect excuse (like we really needed one!) to visit our recently established local distillery ... Pechey Distilling Co ... Literally 'just down the road' ... Less than FIVE MINUTES! Ooh! This could be dangerous! Tee! Hee! Hee! The distillery has been established by one of the founding families of our little corner of the Great Dividing Range ... In fact, the area shares their surname. 😜 So as well as enjoying the tasting (VERY smooth gin & vodka!!) it was fun to see the old homestead & hear some of our local history.

Chief distiller, Ben Pechey, giving us the background on their enterprise. The rustic building you see behind him is the original cream house that has been moved & restored to house the stilling equipment.

Mmmmmmm ... A Moscow Mule to taste & enjoy the Pechey vodka.

A pretty vignette of lavender from the Pechey homestead garden, shiny copper distilling Doo-dad & a tempting gift pack of gin & vodka.

Yours truly in weekend dag mode & Uni partner-in-crime Kate.

The Pechey Distilling Co is open for tastings a few times a month, so check their FB page for dates & drop in ... It's well worth it if gin or vodka is your tipple of choice ... & they will be starting workshops later in the year to let you custom flavour your own tipple ... With whiskey distilling also soon to be added to their repertoire ... Did you just hear GB cheer, 😂

Now ... As well as being a slacko blogger, I'm late to announce the July OPAM draw winner. There were ...

320 FINISHES 

... for July! WOW! Well done, everyone! And if you were like me & plodding along slowly, but steadily, working on longer term projects & you made some progress ... Then well done to you, too. The winner of the random draw is ...

CHRISTINE MAC!

Congrats, Christine! Drop me an email & I'll send your PDF prize pattern. And ... That's it from me for now, though GB & I are VERY excited to be starting a two week break today ... WOO! HOO! So you'll probably hear a bit more from me in the next couple of weeks. We haven't had a break since Christmas, so this will be much appreciated. 😁 In the meantime, be kind to yourselves, take care, stay well, keep stitching & keep smiling! ☺️ Til next time...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS,

KRIS