Still Alive And Kicking!

Hello to all you gorgeous creatures out there in blogland! Yes ... I'm still alive & kicking ... & wondering where the heck the last couple of weeks went! I can't believe it's September already ... Though our weather up here on our 'hill' hasn't exactly been Spring-like.

Life here continues to be crazy busy, but things at my grown up job are starting to get sorted a bit. After four & a half months of co-managing the retirement village where I work, after the abrupt departure of our manager in April, we welcomed our new manager this week & I have a feeling he's just the right person for the job. There's still the settling in period while we all work out the new team dynamic, but I have a good feeling about it. :0)

And this week saw something else exciting happen ... I got to spend some quality time with my sewing machine!! YAY!! Between one thing & a dozen others, it had been over a month since I'd had some sewing time. Better still ... I FINISHED a project! DOUBLE YAY! :0) Remember I shared a pic of my gloomy day movie-watching project!

A little painted stitchery project designed by the lovely Libby Richardson. Well ...

It's FINISHED! :0) Now ... Those of you who know me well & have been visiting my blog for a while now will NOT be surprised to hear that I didn't make up my project by following the instructions ... I went rogue! Tee! Hee! Hee! I wanted to show off the pretty fabrics so put wider borders around my stitchery & made it as a 'book' rather than a tri-fold folder ... Which meant I had to redesign the inside of the folder, too. :0) But ... It's still a thread holder ...

... With a swatch of pretty green wool to store needles & pins.

It's turned out to be a very handy size. It can store 12 embroidery thread cards & scissors along with needles & pins. I'm thinking about making a couple more of these so I can have one per project. Of course ... It's taken me a year to finish this one, so who knows! :0P And ... It's the first ever Stitchers Dream Day project that I have FINISHED! I've finished the stitcheries for a few in the last 11 years, but never before have I managed to finish a whole project. Just in time for next weekend's Stitchers Dream Day! :0) Are any of you coming to play next weekend? Let me know so we can catch up. And if you haven't booked yet, I believe there are a few spots left for both the Saturday & the Sunday, so act QUICKLY if you want to join the fun ... A FABULOUS day is guaranteed! :0)

And as well as being the first Stitchers Day project I've ever finished, it's an early finish for my OPAM list for September ... To balance out the goose egg on my August tally. :0) I think quite a few of us were busy with non-sewing things in August, or were working on long term larger projects, as our tally was a bit lower ... But there were still 118 finishes recorded, so well done to everyone. And the August random draw winners of the OPAM stitchery pattern are ...

NARELLE C

&

ANNE MARIE

Congrats to you both! Drop me an email & I'll send you the PDF stitchery pattern so you can get stitching. Have any prize winners stitched their version of the prize stitchery yet? I'd love to see them if you have.

But right now I think it's time for a cuppa & then maybe some more sewing ... I have a few gifties that I need to work on so will get started while my mojo is in residence. :0) I hope you all have a fantastic weekend. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

SSSHHHH! It's RAINING!!

Rain has been so rare in our neighbourhood for the last four or five months that we don't want to frighten it away! We have only had a few millimetres but at this stage we're grateful for anything we receive. We rely on rainwater, with no town or bore supplies to back us up & since we're down to our last half a tank, we'll have to buy water if we don't get some good rain soon.

And despite that ... We know how very fortunate we are to not have stock to feed & water & we're not reliant on crops for our income. So many farmers & property owners are doing it so much tougher than we are. If you have a little bit in your budget to spare, why not support one of the organisations providing support for our farmers. We've donated to Drought Angels, but Chookyblue has shared a few more suggestions ... She & Mr Chooky are some of our farmers who are struggling to keep things going. 

Here on the Homefront things have been pretty quiet ... Hence no blog updates. My Beloved Geek Boy & I have been battling off the last of the nasty virus that jumped on us, so have been laying low in between working our grown up jobs. But today, after finishing my grown up chores (well ... MOST of them! :0) ) I've decided to treat myself to some rainy-day stitching in front of a movie or two ...

This is a little project started at last year's Stichers Dream Day hosted by the Marvellous Marion & Stupendous Steph of the Quilters Angel. It was a mini tutorial by the Lovely Libby Richardson in her fabric painting techniques. I just LOVE Libby's teddies! :0) The pattern is a needle & thread case that I've set myself the goal of finishing before this year's Stitchers Day (September 15 & 16). If I finish it, it will be the first ever Stitchers Day project that I've FINISHED! Yep ... I confess ... My Bestest-Buddy-Since-We-Were-Nine Lynette & I have attended 11 Stitchers Days & NEITHER of us have FINISHED a project ... OOPS! :0) Stay tuned to see if I meet my own challenge. :0)

Speaking of Stitchers Dream Day  .. If you haven't already booked & paid to come & join the fun, time has just about run out, so contact Marion & Steph so you don't miss out on the fun. It's always a fantastic day of friendship, yummy food, chatting, learning, relaxing & laughing ... & apparently SOME people stitch! Tee! Hee! Hee! Check out the Quilters Angel website for more details.

Righto ... I've got a cuppa beside me, an uplifting citrus oil blend called "Bliss" in the diffuser, a disaster movie on Netflix & a showery afternoon to stitch away, so that's what I'm going to do. :0) Have a fantastic week & til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS,

KRIS

Stitchers Dream Day

Monday Blues!

Hello to everyone out there in blogland! I've got the Monday blues today ... I've been ambushed by the third head cold this winter & I'm over feeling yucky! SIGH! It's only a cold, but it's getting me down. Everything is stuffed up, I'm wheezing & coughing, but the junk I can feel on my chest isn't budging, my ribs hurt from coughing & I've got a stinker of a headache. All of which means I'll survive, but I'm just feeling miserable. The headache means I can't even stitch. SIGH!

So to stop myself from wallowing I thought I'd share a couple of photos from our weekend away. It was This cutie's birthday on Saturday ...

And we celebrated with a weekend away, renting a townhouse from friends at Sandstone Point with this view ...

The water was Pumicestone Passage & that's the bridge from the mainland over to Bribie Island. There was a shopping play date with my Bestest-Buddy-Since-We-Were-Nine Lynette on Friday, a bit of fun driving Saturday morning, massages Saturday afternoon (not quite as relaxing as hoped since I had a bit of a panic attack when I lay face down & felt like I couldn't breathe with both sinuses & chest clogged up with cold. Very patient massage therapist found a way around it, though.) and Saturday night was time for a special dinner date ...

... With two very special friends & their hubbies. The gorgeous Kerryanne & lovely Lilly Linda were my first two Bloggy buddies ... In fact, it was Kerryanne who encouraged me to start a blog to promote my Tag Along Teddies designs. Linda was the second blog I started following & I visited the shop she was running at the time & became friends. After lots of three way chats, we all met in person about six years ago for a weekend at Mt Tambourine and although we had a blast & said we'd do it again, three busy schedules hadn't allowed it until this weekend. So much fun to catch up & chat in real life ... Even if I was starting to feel pretty crumby thanks to my head cold. And since it was my Beloved Geek Boy's birthday, there had to be candles ...

Thank you for a fun catch up Kerryanne & Linda ... We'll have to do it again sometime ... When I'm feeling a lot better.

Then it was home to our freezing 'hill' & I decided to take myself out of the mix today to try to kill this cold. Can't say I'm feeling much better, but maybe a nap or two will help. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend & that you're feeling better about Monday than I am. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS,

KRIS

Count Down To Fun!

Another super busy week has rushed by in a blur. My grown up job hours have officially extended for the foreseeable future until our head office decides what it's doing about replacing the manager. In the meantime, I'm picking up a lot of the office workload ... Which in some cases is just doing a bit more of what I had already been doing but in other things, the learning curve has been vertical! :0) 

So I'm extra excited to be heading off for a weekend away with my Beloved Geek Boy this weekend to celebrate his birthday, to rest up a bit & catch up with some friends I haven't seen for a while ... How exciting! :0) I promise to share pics. The weekend of relaxing might also kick-start my designing mojo that seems to currently be buried under a pile of adulting ... After all, I recently treated myself to something special ...

 Isn't it YUMMY!!! It's Bunny Hill & I'm thinking it will be a quilt when it grows up. I've started playing with some ideas, but this weekend might be a good time for some more thinking on it.

In the meantime, I'd better hit the hay to store up some sleep ... I've been counting down to the fun all week ... One more sleep! :0) Have fun & take care. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

A Quick Pop In!

Hello to you all! I hope you've had a great week. It's been another topsy turvy week here ... I'm starting to worry that topsy turvy is the new normal around here ... Uh! Oh! Still, I did finally get to spend some time with my beloved sewing machine this week & even had a finish to add to my July total ... YAY! :0) Wanna see?? 

It's a Christmas pouch. The stitchery is a cutie designed by my gorgeous blogging buddy Michelle & one I've had stitched up for a while & hadn't made into a project. So when I was itchin' to do some stitchin' I pulled it out of my stitching pouch & played. It's bound for the Christmas giftie box & finished with fabrics from my stash ... NICE!! :0)

Speaking of finishes ... OPAM gals ... Have you remembered to update your sidebar list & email your tally to me or my GORGEOUS Partner-In-Crime Sweet Peg? If not you'd better get hopping.

One of the bumps in our road this week was the passing of Scott's Grandma. It's one of those odd happy/sad things ... She'll be missed a lot ... But at one month shy of 103 ... She LIVED! She was very active into her 80's & always had a lovely smile & found something to laugh at. Her funeral today will really be a celebration of a life full of love & well lived. I think that's what I'd like as my epitaph. :0) 

This photo was taken during a recent visit with Gran Kent. Just as she enjoyed ... Surrounded by family.

So ... Give your special people an extra big hug whenever you see them & take some time out for yourself this weekend. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS