Weekend Wrap-Up!

Hmmm ... it's Tuesday already. Did anyone else lose Monday or just me? Oh ... mostly me, huh! :0) I intended to share my weekend update on Monday, really I did ... it obviously passed me by, however, so you'll just have to have a Tuesday update. :0)

Well ... a really good thing that happened on the weekend was ... the sun finally made an appearance!! YAY!! I've decided that either I really AM solar-powered, or I'm reverting to the sun-revering ways of my Celtic ancestors! Tee! Hee! Hee! Suddenly, I had so much more energy and felt rather chirpy and this translated into a productive weekend of stitching.

I finished 'building' the 'No Place Like Home' block for my Stitcher's Journal block for June (oops!) and also got the little wreath stitched and a start on the dog house. And it suddenly occurs to me that I meant to take a photo of said progress and I forgot, so you'll just have to take my word for it! :0) I'll take a photo once I get them pieced into the finished block ... sometime ... hopefully before July!!!

Now, having spent a bit of an epic run stitching the house block, I decided that I really wanted to tackle a quick-to-finish project, so after a bit of thought (and the prerequisite cup of tea!!) I decided to finally tackle a little project I'd been meaning to try since ... ooooohhh ... DECEMBER! Oops! Boy, time flies, doesn't it! Tee! Hee! Hee! It was a little project shared by those nutty Gum Nut gals here which actually led you to here. It was for a tea wallet/pocket. And the tutorial was so easy to follow, so simple and so quick ... that I made FOUR! Tee! Hee! Hee! Here they are ...

Aren't they cute!! I put them beside the tea mug so you could judge the size. I don't know about you, but being a tea-drinker, I often cart teabags around in my handbag and if they get left in there a little TOO long ... well ... let's just say the manufacturers probably didn't make the teabags strong enough to withstand handbag travel!! And you end up with loose tea all through your bag ... and if your bag happens to get damp ... well ... let's just not go there and relive bad experiences! Tee! Hee! Hee! Suffice to say, this little tea wallet should save a LOT of wear and tear on my nerves ... and handbags! :0) Can you guess which one is mine?!?!?! When you open up the tea wallets, they look like this ...

See?! Four individually wrapped teabags, just waiting for a smoko break ... and perhaps a friend to share with! :0) The tea in the cup is my latest discovery by Dilmah ... Rose and French Vanilla. Mmmmmmm!!!! It's blended with a really nice flavoured black tea leaf and is rather delicious. I love to try flavoured black teas!! :0) The lovely Joy-Belle has made a loyalty card version of this handy little wallet, which I think will go on my "To Do" list, as I always seem to be searching for one membership card or another - my latest wallet doesn't have room for loyalty cards ... very annoying!!

OK ... what else did I get up to over the weekend?? Well ... since it was so darn FREEZING, I decided to cook up some winter comfort food ...

Stew and dumplings in the slow cooker. I keep forgetting to use my slow cooker, so I'm trying to remember to use it more as everything always tastes delicious and tender. This was my first attempt at dumplings and I was a little alarmed when they expanded to fill the whole pot ... I could see the headlines in my mind ...

"Toowoomba home destroyed in dumpling explosion!!"

... or perhaps an old-style horror flick ...

"The Dumplings That Ate Toowoomba!"

Hmmm ... not sure that will be a box office hit, but then I didn't get "Pulp Fiction" either, so who knows! :0) But back to the dumplings ... which are cooked after all that time spent chatting! :0)

Dinner is served! Can you see the steam rising from this plate of yumminess?? And I have to use a slight variation on a phrase Chookyblue used to talk about her scone cooking last week ...

I may not be a Master Chef ... but I can sure cook a DELICIOUS beef stew with herb and cheese dumplings!! :0)

I know there's been no garden photo update this week, but I lost Monday and today it was cold, dark and drizzly by the time I got home, so still no photo. I will say, the beans and marigolds are looking just a little sad after a second, bigger frost hit on Sunday. SIGH!! Perhaps it's a good thing that I'm not fond of beans! :0) But my Beloved Geek Boy is, which is why I planted them, so hopefully we'll still manage to get a bean or two from them.

Well, I think that's about all I can share with you today. The only other thing happening around the Meares' Madhouse is something I can't share with you yet ... some Secret Squirrel Christmas stitching is happening for "Handmade" after I received an SOS email from Editor Victoria on Friday. Seems I'm not the only one surprised by how close Christmas is! Tee! Hee! Hee! So, for now, I shall sign off and go sit in front of the heater with my secret stitching. Hope you're all having a great start to your week ... and that you're not missing days already like I am! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

Some WInners Sunshine Amongst Clouds!

This is what the weather is like here on top of the hill ... AGAIN!!! SIGH! More of the cloud and less of the sun, unfortunately! I am getting VERY tired of our constantly overcast, icky, cold weather to the point where I think perhaps I wouldn't MIND the cold quite so much if only we could have some sunny days. This protracted stretch of cloudy weather (no rain, though, unfortunately!) and chatting to some blogging buddies from the northern hemisphere, has made me realise just how much I take our lovely Aussie weather for granted. Usually, even in winter, the sunny days with blue skies outnumber the grey cloudy ones, especially here in Queensland ... we are, after all, the SUNSHINE state! :0) Though I think I'll have a go at the tourism promoters for false advertising at the moment!! :0)

However ... in a bid to spread some 'sunshine' in the midst of my cloudy climate, I have some end-of-month prize winners to announce for OPAM. This month saw OPAMers finish a whopping great 649 projects!!! How good is THAT!! Well done, gals, give yourselves a clap! Way to go!! :0) And as the gorgeous Peg and I blog-hopped our way around blogland, we were treated to some FABULOUS projects - there are just so many clever-clogs crafters out there! :0)

So ... after the final tally was found, I popped the magic numbers into the random number generator thingy and ... it spat them back out! Tee! Hee! Hee! The three prize winners for June's OPAM draw are:

STINA

DAWN H; and

ANNE-LISE

CONGRATULATIONS, ladies!! I might point out that it was rather fitting that the random number generator happened to pick Stina's number because she recorded a huge 48 finishes for June! WOWSERS!! Well done Stina!! Stina is getting ready for an exhibition and has been teasing us with sneaky peeks for a while - I can't wait to see some photos of her finishes projects. The winners' prizes are all picked out, just waiting for snail mail addresses ...

Lots of goodies! We have one of Gail Pan's pretty patterns that was donated by the lovely Sarah (Thanks Sarah!), a fat quarter and a fat eighth donated by the fabulous Razzy (Thanks Razzy!), some four inch charm squares I found at my home-away-from-home and had put away for a rainy day, plus some pretty and practical notepads I'd also squirreled away and the handy-dandy mini-sharpies that I can't live without and like to share. I especially like the Lynette Anderson notepad at the bottom left that I again found at Quilters Angel ... rainbows always make me smile! So, Stina, Dawn H and Anne-Lise if you'd like to email me with your snail mail addresses, I'll pop down to my local post office next week so my mate Raymond can help me post your gifties out.

And to all of you in OPAM, whether you registered a finish this month or not - WELL DONE!! As well as finishes, I saw lots of progress photos on people's blogs as I hopped around, so even if you didn't register a finish this month, but made some progress on one or more projects, pat yourself on the back, cos taking some time out to relax with a needle in hand and take some steps towards finishing projects is what OPAM is all about!!

And that is just as well, because I had a bit of a slack June, I have to confess. Today, though, with the icky weather encouraging me to stay indoors, I've been stitching away on my June block for the "A Gardener's Journal" Stitch-A-Long. Yes ... I said my JUNE block. SIGH! Chookyblue will be after me with her big whip if I'm not careful! :0) After managing to finish the first two months' blocks on time, I faltered this month after having the blues and then the dreaded head cold led to not much stitching, then - I ran out of month! :0) I've made some progress today, but am still working on the biggest stitchery block ... No Place Like Home ...

As you can see, I've finished 'building' the house, have 'planted' the two tall trees and am now 'building' the fence. :0) Mind you, all of these straight lines are driving me a little batty ... I think it took me almost as long to stitch the roof as it took my Beloved Geek Boy to replace our house roof for real a few years ago! Tee! Hee! Hee! Hoping to get more stitched this weekend, and perhaps even get Woof and the wreath finished too. Will see how I go. Oh ... did you notice I took this photo in my almost-famous vege patch?! :0) More flowers on the peas and the pretty red lemon tree pot in the background ... had to add SOME colour to a grey ol' day! :0)

Whatever you're up to today, I hope been able to find some splashes of colour and that your weekend is filled with stitching and fun. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

Almost Back On Deck!

Here I am, almost back on deck and able to leave my tissue box behind long enough to type a post today ... I think I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel ... just hope it isn't a runaway train! :0) Nah ... feeling much better today, though nearly decided to cancel the day due to lack of interest and stay snug in bed when the temperature dropped to zero overnight! BRRRRRR!!! Hand in hand with that temperature was the biggest frost I can remember seeing since we've lived here! It was like a crunchy white winter wonderland outside this morning!

This is the footpath in our side street ...

... and this is GB's work van that was parked on the street. All of the windows were white with frosty ice.

{Edit: To all the lovely concerned blogging buddies who've warned about windscreen cracking if hot water is tipped over ... apparently, GB says I should assure you all it was actually luke warm water. Thanks for the concern for our windows, though! :0) }

GB had to pour hot water over his windows so he could see out to drive to work ... they prefer it if you can actually see out of a vehicle that you're driving! :0) You can see the difference between the windscreen that's still frosty and the side window that GB has just cleared. He even had to do this to my little car's windscreen ... and it was in the car port!! Then when I got to work, I was greeted with this ...

This is the car park where I work (actually I work in the office, not the car park, cos I'd need a really long extension lead for my computer! Tee! Hee! Hee!) ... all covered in crunchy frost ... you can see the tire marks where I'd just driven in! Bet you know where I spent as much time as possible today ... in my office with the reverse cycle heater going! Aaaahhhh!! 21 degrees for me! :0)

Now, with such a big frost, I was a bit worried about my vege patch, which, after 8 weeks growing looks like this ...

As you can see, it's all still growing nicely - missed last week's Monday garden update due to me feeling so icky that I forgot it WAS Monday!! After inspection, I found there was only a little bit of frost damage to the two types of plants that I thought were most frost-tolerant ... the beans and the marigolds! Still, nothing major, so hopefully all will continue to grow nicely. The snowpeas are going great guns and I discovered this today ...

A lovely flower on my peas! OK ... those of you with really serious vege patches are rolling your eyes at my enthusiasm over my little vege plot here, but I'm having fun growing veges for the first time in years, so you can just humour me ... or skip over the garden report and photos! :0)

Since I spent the weekend camped in front of the heater trying to kick my lurgy and avoid the cold weather, I did manage to do a little bit of hand stitching, which felt good after not much happening in that department for the last couple of weeks. In fact, I managed to finish three pin cushions that have been on the "To Do" list for quite a while. I'd even cut out all of the bits to make these ... then got sidetracked and never got back to finish them ... until now!

Three cupcake pincushions looking good enough to eat. :0) See May Britt ... I FINALLY got around to finishing them! I'm keeping the one with green 'icing' ... funnily enough! ... and the other two will go into my giftie basket. They were a little bit fiddly, but kind of fun to make and play with and better still ... I now have three finishes to put on my OPAM list - YAY!!! Don't forget OPAM gals, update those sidebar lists on your blogs and if you can, send off an email to Peg or I to let us know the number of finishes to pop beside your name on our spreadsheet for June.

And now ... I think I hear the heater calling my name, so I shall sign off. Thank you all for your lovely get well wishes and emails - they sure brightened things up while I was feeling icky!! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

Ambushed!!

I know I've been quiet this week and haven't even hopped around to many of the blogs I usually visit and it's all because I was ambushed ... by a nasty head cold! Aaaaaarrrrggghhhh!! Head colds are the pits, aren't they?! You're not really SICK, but you're not really WELL, either and my poor nose is so sore from blowing it. I'm sure the threat of colds and flus is one of the reasons I dread winter each year ... besides hating to be COLD, that is!! :0) So these have been my constant companions this week ...

My 'old faithful' flannel blankie, some Eucalyptus tissues and my "Midsomer Murders" DVD collection ... good thing I have about 8 seasons of them now! :0) I haven't been able to do any of the machine sewing I had planned for this week - it's too cold in the sewing room and too frustrating to just get everything lined up on the machine, then have to stop to blow my nose ... AGAIN!! And I've only done a little hand stitching, as bending my head forward to focus on my stitching seems to slosh all of the head cold stuff forward and give me a headache. So, I haven't achieved very much this week at all, except for some moaning and groaning to my poor Beloved Geek Boy ... who woke up this morning with a sore throat and a headache! OH NO!! He told me that I really shouldn't feel obliged to share EVERYTHING with him! OOPS!! :0)

I'm hoping I'm on the home stretch with ditching my bug, but I'm not sure if I'll manage to have anything finished to add to this month's OPAM list. What a bad example I'm setting! You'd better all pop across to visit the gorgeous Super Stitcher, Peg, whose sewing machine has been running hot in the last week or so - I think she's making up for my lack of finishes! :0) I am always amazed at how much Peg manages to achieve and her projects are always GORGEOUS!! Don't forget, OPAMers, to update your sidebar lists of finishes and email Peg or I your final tally for the month, cos there's only a few days left of June ... EEK!! Where IS the year going?!?!

During my week of head cold suffering and generally being a sooky-la-la, I DID manage to get hold of a copy of the current issue of "Australian Bear Creations", which features this little project ...

It's a little stitchery wall hanging I designed earlier in the year called "Sweet Friends". The writing on the hanger says, "Some friends are sweeter than cupcakes!" and it features a little girly bear holding a sweet cupcake ready for her afternoon tea. I made it into a wall hanger for the magazine feature, but it would also be great as a panel on a bag or block folder ... all sorts of projects, in fact! If you'd like to stitch this fun, quick project it's in Volume 16 Number 2 of "Australian Bear Creations" or you can wait til a little later in the year when I release it as a stand-alone pattern. I promise to keep you posted! :0)

Anyways, I hope your week has been a bit more fun and a lot more productive than mine. I'm off to snuggle up in front of the heater with my tissues, blankie and a nice cup of soothing lemon scented tea to help Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby catch baddies in Midsomer. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

PS. If you want to be enchanted with tales of a magical Mad Garden Tea Party, you should hop across and visit the Lovely Lilly Linda - her last two posts are full of GORGEOUS photos that are sure to inspire you to organise your own tea party! BH! KRIS :0)

Cheered Up By Cheerios!

Firstly ... can I say a big THANK YOU! to all the lovely blogging buddies who left encouraging comments and sent emails checking up on me after my bout of the blues last week. It was very hard to stay gloomy with so many positive and caring comments coming my way, so thanks to you all for helping me see the bright side of life again ... I knew it was there, I'd just lost sight of it for a bit! :0)

A relaxing weekend also helped to kick the blues once and for all, starting with coffee with our friends Matt and Amelia. Scott used to work with Amelia and we became good friends with her and her fiancé Matt. It's a bit trickier maintaining the friendship now that Scott's changed jobs, but we do try to catch up for a cuppa or meal every few weeks. This time, we met at a local coffee shop to keep the winter chills at bay ...

We got the waitress to clear the plates away first so we didn't look like piggies! Tee! Hee! Hee! And if we all look a little flushed, it's cos the heating was up quite high ... even for my Beloved Geek Boy and I who like heat. We had a lovely time of chatting and catching up ... and the Mango, Lime and Coconut Torte and Chai latte were pretty good too! Tee! Hee! Hee!  We also took ourselves off to the cinema to see the "A Team" movie ... which we thoroughly enjoyed! Having grown up in the eighties, the A Team was one of my fave TV shows, so it was fun to see the movie version. And yesterday, along with a few of the usual household chores, I did some stitching, so all in all ... a good weekend.

Now ... I don't know if any of you will remember, but last week, I made a little reference to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party and said there'd be more about that later??? Well ... as part of the Cancer Council's annual "Australia's Biggest Morning Tea" fund raising campaign, we held a "Mad Hatter's Tea Party" at the retirement village where I work ... and we had a BLAST!! It was such a fun morning and lots of people joined in the spirit of fun and wore funny hats. Here are a few to entertain you ...

OK ... now, when my boss says he's been REALLY busy working ... we think that perhaps THIS is what he's been up to! He SAID he was sharing the food around, but I'm not convinced! Tee! Hee! Hee!

This is Tony, also known as "Beannie Boy" who takes care of our village maintenance and grounds and he's pictured with one of the more 'colourful' characters in our village, Vera. Oh ... and that person in the navy cardy and red skirt disappearing off to the left in the background is yours truly. I DID wear a hat, which you can just see a glimpse of ... but I forgot to get someone to take a photo . Oops! :0)

Some hats were elegant and ladylike ...

... some hats were for boys (good Scottish Tam O' Shanta there!!) ...

... and some hats were for flowery girls.

And these were some of our prize winners pictured with supporter of the morning and local businessman Craig ... the one WITHOUT the hat!! The lovely Marion of Quilters Angel also kindly donated some prizes for our morning, helping to make it a very enjoyable time. (Ooohh ... don't forget to check out Marion's pattern of the week, too!!) And the most important part ... we raised over $700 for the Cancer Council!! Not bad for a group where most are pensioners!!!

I'm off now to make myself a cup of tea ... or perhaps I should make it a hot lemon toddy to stave off this cold!! Hope you're all having a fabulous start to your week. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS