OK ... I Give In!!!

I give in, surrender, acquiesce, admit defeat ... I QUIT!! It really is Christmas in two sleeps!!! SIGH! Like Snoopy, I think I'm just going to lay down and let it happen around me! I've tried very hard to hold it back this week cos the list of things I wanted to get done before Christmas Eve was long and the hours each day seemed to be short. I tried NOT changing the number on my Santa Countdown Blackboard ...

... but everyone I spoke to corrected me. :0) I tried starting a petition voting to postpone Christmas until February ... and I had a LOT of signatures!! :0) But  ... alas ... we were defeated ... not enough time for it to go through Parliament to be applied this year! Tee! Hee! Hee! So in the end, I've looked at my "To Do" list, crossed off the things I've managed to accomplish and then crossed out the rest, cos really, in the big scheme of things, they weren't that important. :0)

Of course ... one of those things on my list that got scrapped was showing some pictures of the plethora of GORGEOUS gifties that have come my way from friends and blogging buddies. I promise I WILL do this ... but it will now have to be after the podgy dude in red has been and gone. Sorry about that, but I'm sure you're all in the same boat as me and it is named "Overestimating Time Available"!! Tee! Hee! Hee!

We've booked the house sitter, the dog sitter, the mail collector and the garden waterer and will be packing ourselves up tomorrow to head off for a few days with my folks in Mundubbera, so we're looking forward to a few quiet days ... unless my Mum has been writing her own "To Do" lists for us! Tee! Hee! Hee! I'll have my laptop with me though, so might even get time to finally pop in and visit a few of you, my blogging buddies during the break and of course will be able to answer emails and collect OPAM finishes. Yep ... almost THAT time again, too. HOWEVER ... it's my turn to pick random winners, and since I'm approaching holiday mode, don't stress too much about emailing right on the last day of December. By all means update your sidebar list when you finish things, but if you're emailing, you have an extra day or two leeway this month til I'll get around to the draw, so GET STITCHING! :0)

Before I scoot off to put my weary feet up and enjoy a cup of tea, I'd like to take the opportunity to wish you all a Christmas full of lots of family, lots of friends, lots of love, lots of laughs, lots of special treats and lots of GIFTIES! Tee! Hee! Hee! And wish you and yours a FANTASMAGORICAL 2012 full of wonderful new adventures!! If you're travelling, please take care so you can come back to play in blogland again and remember the Reason for the Season ... the most precious gift ever given ... God's Son!

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

BIG SQUOOSHY CHRISTMASSY BEAR HUGS!!

CHEERS!
KRIS

Flying In Like Santa's Reindeer!!!

Oh dear! Oh dear! OH DEAR!!! My Monday didn't just go pear-shaped ... I had the whole pear TREE!!! :0) Nothing drastic, you understand, just ... well ... a MONDAY!!!! SIGH! Not enough hours in the day, too many things on the list and several disruptions to the plan mean it's now rather late on Monday for me to be posting the winners of my Santa Sacks/Christmas Pillowcases as promised.

But ... I've finally got to sit down with a welcome cup of tea at the computer. These two festive pillowcases are ready to go to their new homes, so without further ado, the winners are ...

LYN

and

Quilts By Cheryl

(No blog & 'no reply' blogger)

If you lovely ladies can please email me with your snail mail address, I'll pop your prize into the mail ... I know it won't arrive in time for Christmas 2011 , but you'll have it early for Christmas 2012 ... or you can test drive it with some Christmas in July celebrations! Tee! Hee! Hee! Thank you to all of you for sharing stories about your favourite Christmas decorations ... it really is a magical time of the year and I think most of us have at least some fond childhood memories attached to Christmas. Thanks again, too, to the lovely Kerryanne for inviting me to be part of "Simply Christmas 2012". I hope you'll all continue to be inspired by Kerryanne's Christmas offerings this week as we count down to Sunday,

I have so much to share with you and so much to show you ... my poor Postie has been working overtime and I have been SPOILT with special gifties in the mail. But right now ... my eyes are being held open with matchsticks, so I shall sign off and go keep a long overdue date with my pillow. With today being all about the "Pear" tree, I sure hope I don't get woken up by "Turtle Doves"! Tee! Hee! Hee! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

(from the pear tree!! Tee! Hee! Hee!)

CHEERS!
KRIS

Christmas Is Coming ... EEK!!!

Don't get me wrong ... I LOVE Christmas ... the food ... the gifties ... the carols ... the food ... the family gatherings ... the food ... holidays ... the food ... Hmmm ... I think we're seeing here why I will NEVER be a catwalk model! Tee! Hee! Hee! But this year, I just feel somewhat swamped by everything I need to fit in before the podgy dude in the red suit comes rattling down our chimneys. (BTW ... our chimney leads into the outdoor LAUNDRY! The only thing Santa will find there is two bewildered doggies wondering who is invading their bedroom! Tee! Hee! Hee!) Believe me, there is a LOOOOOONG "To Do" list that needs to be addressed before December 24 ... guess I'm giving up sleeping for the next week or so! :0)

One thing I HAVE crossed off the "To Do" list, though was to put together a fun tutorial that is being featured today over at Shabby Art Boutique. For the second year, the gorgeous Kerryanne is hosting "Simply Christmas", which aims to get us all into the Christmas spirit with lots of tips, trick, tutorials and yuletide fun and I am today's guest blogger over there. Remember this photo?

Well ... if you want to see how to turn this odd assortment into some quick, fun, budget-conscious Christmas gifties, then don't delay - hop across to visit Kerryanne!! And see how the above turned into this ...

Ta Da! Santa Sacks/Christmas Pillowcases! This is such a great project for anyone wanting to make gifties, but who doesn't have much time ... can be done and dusted in an hour or so. If you DO hop across to visit Kerryanne and make one of these from my tute, I'd love for you to email me some photos. :0) And if you aren't at all fabric/sewing type crafty or you'd just like to see someone else do the work for you ... you're in luck! Leave me a comment on THIS post telling me what YOUR favourite Christmas decorations are and you'll go into the draw to win one of these Santa Sacks/Christmas Pillowcases. And since there are TWO sacks/pillowcases, then I will draw TWO lucky winners on Monday, December 19 ... QLD time! :0) You won't get your prizes before Christmas ... cos Australia Post doesn't have as good a delivery system as ol' Santa!! ... but they'll be ready for next year ... or Christmas in July celebrations! :0) So ... GET COMMENTING! Tee! Hee! Hee!

And with that little job crossed off my "To Do" list, I found that Kerryanne's Christmas Magic was working after all ... or perhaps I'd tasted one of Michelle's Mum's famous rumballs! Tee! Hee! Hee! Whatever the starting spark was, I decided it was time to toss a few Christmas decorations about. Now, I don't go too overboard ... simply because we don't have much room around the place to add decorations etc and our tree stands just 20" tall to fit into our small lounge room ... one of the slight drawbacks of having a heritage cottage to call home! :0) But I managed to add enough Christmassy cuteness to make me hum carols, so I thought I'd share some of my favourite decorations with you to brighten you day, too, and get you thinking about your comment for the prize draw! :0)

There's the Christmas stocking that I painted my very ownself ... under the careful and patient tutelage of a good friend, cos I am no Michelangelo!! :0) Give me fabric any day to get creating ... but I loved this and wanted to say ... "I made it myself!" :0)

Then there's my Christmas angels ... that actually stay hanging above our bedroom door all year round ... too cute to take down! :0)

There's my Rockin' Santa (he's on a rounded base, so he rocks back and forth when you poke him, like one of those children's toys ... not that I poke poor Santa very often!!!) but my two favourite decorations would have to be ...

My countdown Santa, painted from one of Kerryanne's patterns by the same lovely friend who patiently guided me through painting my stocking, and a lovely Christmas candle that the gorgeous Kerryanne gifted me with last Christmas. This little display reminds me of the wonderful friends God has blessed me with and the warmth and light they bring to my life all year round. Plus ... it's just so darn PRETTY! Tee! Hee! Hee!

So ... how are YOU decorating this Christmas? Are you a bit hit-and-miss like me? Do you go all out like Kerryanne , Lilly Linda and Michelle? Or do you have just a few favourite, sentimental Christmas decorations to celebrate the season?

Right now for me, though, it's back to waving my arms in the air like a lunatic, running around in circles and frantically trying to cross the rest of my jobs of the ol' "To Do" list! :0) Hope you're having a great week ... don't forget to pop over to Kerryanne's blog to see what I've been up to and to catch up on so much more wonderful Christmassy goings on. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!CHEERS!
KRIS

Christmas Stitching!

PHEW! There went another week and yet again I don't feel like I got as much done as I should have. In my defence ... weak though it may be!! ... we had a weird weather change that threw me into a spin. We went from GLORIOUS summer temperatures last week of between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius, to this week where we had several days of overcast skies, fog, rain and gale force winds with top temps of 14 to 17!!! EEK!! How rude is THAT in the middle of summer! So as those of you who pop in regularly would know I was NOT a happy camper and went into hibernation mode for a few days. BRRRRR!! I'm happy to say that today is a bit warmer, though the sun is still hiding, and my mojo seems to have come out of hibernation again so I've made some good progress on a few things.

Most of my attention today was focused on these things ...

Well ... this was the STARTING POINT! :0) The results will have to stay under wraps for a few more days. You see, I've once again joined in the fun of the gorgeous Kerryanne's "Simply Christmas" and I will be making a special guest appearance (Ooh! That makes me sound like someone important, doesn't it! Tee! Hee! Hee!) on Kerryanne's blog next Wednesday to share a tutorial for a quick, fun and fabulous Christmas gift idea. So, don't forget to pop over to Shabby Art Boutique to see what I've come up with ... or maybe you'd like to pop across right now to catch up on all the fun Christmas stuff that has been shared already ... make a cuppa first cos there's lots to read and look at! :0)

I've also been doing some Secret Squirrel Christmas stitching that I can't share with you, but will give you a couple of teasers ...

This is the 'makings' pile for another lingerie bag for a friend's gift. Don't you just LOVE that French inspired fabric!! The colours don't match my sewing room, mores the pity, but they're perfect for my friend. This time I've stitched the little stitchery with a Cottage Garden thread ... "Viola". It's the first time I've played with a Cottage Garden thread and quite liked it ... I love the colour graduations ... so pretty! :0) And I've started stitching in some very different colours for another gift for a friend ...

Rainbow colours for this one ... a Cosmo thread ... I have to say, I'm enjoying working on stitchery projects of just ONE colour ... not as much stopping and starting ... just stitching! :0) 

Something else I CAN show you, is how I'm being thoroughly SPOILED by Chookyblue in Fee's Advent Swap! :0) Now, I showed you my goodies from Day 1 in my last post here, so this was what greeted me in the parcels for Day 2 and Day 3 ...

Not the book, silly!! Or the pencil! The GORGEOUS "Spring Magic" sweet roll/honey roll (??? I get so confused with which is what!!) was Day 2's gift and the cute mini pegs were for Day 3. The journal and pencil are for me to start designing a fun new project to use my pretty new fabric strips. :0) Then there was MORE!!!

Days 4 to 8. I confess that because it took a few days to get to take this photo, I've forgotten which gifties belonged to which day, but I'm pretty chuffed with some new rotary cutter blades, a pretty swish needle threader (happily I don't have too much trouble threading needles, but will be keeping this for when I need to get thicker threads through small needles) , two cakes of HEAVENLY smelling lavender soap (I feel particularly special to get these, since I know Chookyblue doesn't handle 'smellies' very well!!), a sweet key fob in the shape of a Matroyshka (???) doll, two super sweet teddy bear buttons and a skein of GORGEOUS Cottage Garden thread ... this one is "Larkspur". See?! I TOLD you I was being spoilt! :0) Thanks Chookyblue! And thanks Fee! It is so much fun being spoilt with little surprises each day! I hope Chookyblue is having as much fun with the gifties I sent her! :0)

And that about wraps things up here at the Meares' Madhouse this week! :0) I'm starting to panic a little about getting gifties sorted that need to be mailed next week, wondering how the heck I'm going to fit in all of the sewing I want to do for said gifties, whilst juggling half a dozen different Christmas events coming up this week ... I think I should ask Santa for an extra MONTH as my Christmas giftie this year! Tee! Hee! Hee!

I hope you've all had a fantastic week and that your weekend includes lots of kick-back-and-relax time ... and not too much Eek!-it's-almost-Christmas time! :0) And even if you're madly trying to tick things off your "To Do" list before Christmas, I hope you manage to take some time out to spend with family and friends ... after all ... that's the REAL heart of Christmas, right!! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS

Defeating Photo-Eating Computers!!

Tee! Hee! Hee! Suddenly, I'm having a mental picture of me on my white charger (hmmm ... maybe a Clydesdale would be better to cope with my gym-skipping butt!!!) dressed in chain mail, sword in hand, riding off into the sunset to do battle against some dastardly creature that gobbles up innocent photos. Hmmm ... sometimes reality can be a tad less interesting! Tee! Hee! Hee! Yes ... I am fairly sleep-deprived at the moment, which explains most of my funny mental pictures! :0) (perhaps not all, but that's a whole nother story!!!)

Onto my post before Chookyblue gives up in disgust! :0) Actually ... speaking of Chookyblue ... I had a lovely phone call from her the other night. It was a wonderful surprise and can I just say that even though she may be Queen of the Short Blog Post, on the phone (or in person!!) she's just as chatty as I am, so it wouldn't surprise you that, after we'd been chatting for almost two hours, Mr Chooky wanted to know who the heck she was STILL talking to! Tee! Hee! Hee! Blogging buddies are so much fun! :0) And since Chooky and I are swap-buddies for Fee's Advent Swap, today was the day I FINALLY got to delve into that tempting box of goodies she sent me ... I had been a good girl and waited for December 1!! :0) Now, she had told me during our chat that day one's gift was a "Christmas season survival kit". As Alice would say ... "Curiouser and Curiouser!!"

But all was explained when the little parcel was opened. OOOOOHHHH!! There's some Christmas cards for me to send, some cute little Santa pegs to hold any cards I might receive, one of Chooky's SWEET little stitched Christmas cushion ornaments (or a Festive pin cushion???) a CUTE  bear hugs stitchery ... already traced with pelon on the back and ready to stitch, with the favourite-colour green embroidery thread. Oh ... and some tasty treats to keep up my strength for all the Christmas run-around! :0) The first of those packets is being munched and crunched as I type! Tee! Hee! Hee! Thanks Chookyblue!! What a lovely way to kick off the countdown to Christmas ... even if I AM firmly in denial about it being less than a month away - EEK!!

OK ... I've also re-taken the photos that the nasty computer ate a few days ago. First thing to show you so you can drool over admire it, is a bundle of yummy fabrics I bought at a recent sale at my Home-Away-From-Home ...

I have been eyeing these off ever since Marion got them in. They're from the "Etchings" range by 3Sisters for Moda. I particularly love the one second from the right in the top row ... its a map of Paris ... yes, I'm still on my French kick and considering some of the exciting plans I'm hoping to implement next year, I will be for some time, so you'll have to live with my obsession! :0)

Another pretty that I have to show you is a sweet prize I won from Lisa at Button Bliss. Lisa has the CUTEST range of laser-cut timber buttons on her website, but she also added some handy (and cute!!) thread organisers to her range and ran a competition with a couple as prizes. Lisa asked us to leave a comment describing our perfect spring day. My response was ...

"The perfect spring day ... well ... my FANTASY perfect spring day would be spent in a gorgeous cottage garden, sitting at a pretty wrought iron table with some equally pretty stitching friends to enjoy a 'high tea' picnic with lots of tasty treats, tea drunk out of vintage china cups and some stitching. Now I just have to find that garden ... shame mine doesn't match up! :0)"

The prize I won when mine was one of the names chosen my Mr Random ...

Hmmm ... perhaps I needed to take it out of it's packet, but I wanted to leave it in there to protect it from the general mayhem of my sewing room. It actually looks like this ...

(photo borrowed from Lisa's blog)

Thanks Lisa! My first thought when I saw these sweet thread organisers is that they would be a great idea to use to do up a kit as a gift for a stitching friend ... choose a stitchery pattern, pick out the threads to make it, pop in the thread organiser and your friend is ready to stitch. You could take it a step further and do what Chookyblue did for me ... trace the design and attach pelon. Your friend would be smiling and stitching in no time, guaranteed! :0)

Last on the list of re-taken photos were two fun projects that I made for my sort-of-sister Tiffy's birthday. (one day we'll just have to adopt her and make it official and easier to explain her place in our family! Tee! Hee! Hee!) I designed this project especially for Tiffy and really enjoyed stitching and making it up ... it was just one of those projects that came together beautifully the first time! :0)

A set of two lingerie bags ... ooh la la!! :0) Yes ... there's still a bit of a French influence there ... couldn't help myself! :0) Now, you may be asking why I've made TWO lingerie bags for Tiffy. Well ... there's a REALLY good explanation ... my Mother suggested it and it's ALWAYS wise to do what your mother suggests! Tee! Hee! Hee! Nah ... well ... YEAH ... but that's not the only reason!! You see, Tiffy is looking at doing some travelling overseas next year and the idea of two lingerie bags is ... one for your CLEAN knickers and bras and one for your WAITING-TO-BE-WASHED knickers and bras when you're packing your port (bag, suitcase, backpack!) so that they don't get lost amongst the rest of the stuff in your port (bag, suitcase, backpack) and if your port (bag, suitcase, backpack) happens to open while you're travelling, there are no red faces over revealing your lacy knickers! See!! I TOLD you my Mum has good ideas! :0) That's why I used two different coloured variegated threads ... so Tiffy can tell the difference so she always knows she's following HER mother's advice to always wear clean underwear ... that's what all mothers tell us, right?!?!? I'll be releasing this pretty and practical design as part of a bigger project next year ... but the cat has to stay in the bag for a while longer ... sorry to all you cat lovers! Tee! Hee! Hee!

OK ... that's me caught up for now. I'd better go start doing some blog-hopping to collect OPAM finishes ... so don't forget to email Sweet Peg or me and update your list of finishes on your sidebar list. And while I blog-hop, I shall enjoy the sound of rain on the roof ... Aaaaaahhh!!! Not a bad way to spend an afternoon ... and if I'm REALLY lucky, there might be a rainbow! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS