Boxing Day Reading

I always feel a little flat on boxing day, usually I have my Dad over for Christmas lunch on Boxing Day but he didn't come this year so 7.30 came and I stayed in bed and finished off the latest Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum Book Lean Mean Thirteen. As usual I couldn't put it down and was killing myself laughing (in tears at times) most of the way through it. Finished that off a 10.30 and finally got out of bed.

Luckily it was a pretty slow day in the household, the kids were in the pool and we just lounged around. I looked over one of my Christmas presents which was Collage Discovery Workshop by Claudine Hellmuth and it is absolutely fantastic. After reading through most of it I have searched the Internet for supplies and have pulled out a box of family photo's many of which date back to my great grandfather and mother and have found some ephemera and lots of old style photo's that will make great collage subjects. My other Christmas pressie was a Beadie Bag which I wanted to try and organise my beading supplies which are growing by the minute.

Chrissy Aggies

I saw some striped Aggies in a florist a few years ago and as I had a few white flowers come out in the garden this year I decided to have a go myself. All you have to do is put them in a vase with red food colouring and after a couple of hours the veins turn red (or in my case pink as I only had Rose pink food colouring). I'll try and remember the pillar box red when I do the food shopping for Christmas Day. The flowers in the background have just been added to the vase but it won't be long and they will be striped as well.

My Favourite Christmas Event

I know I know no posts for nearly a month and then two in one day. Had dinner with the quilting girls last night and it is my favourite thing to do at Christmas and I had to post a picture of the wonderful gifts I got. Lovely home made biscuits from Sally, yummy fabric, button, scissors and chocolates from Sue and Kay made three skinny bags for things which fit one inside the other out of lovely Kaffe Fassett Fabric (will have to think long and hard what special things can go in these) and more choccies. These are always my favourite gifts because they are either hand made or very thoughtful personalised bought gifts (one day my family will get this). I Forgot to mention the Lime Green Shoe ornament from Sue which is probably really hard to see because it blends in with the bag in the picture which I love to bits.

The final Spesh Gift

I promised the forum girls a close up look at the quilting I think you will be able to see it from this picture and the other is the quilt before the binding has been put on. The blocks were 24" square and I thought it would be a quick quilt to make up... yeah right... better not go back into project administration because my job estimating skills are way off. Just glad I didn't leave it to the last minute to make it like I did with the Christmas Stockings I made for my friends for Christmas. I had given my self one afternoon to do these but they took a bit longer than that but I think they were worth the effort.

The Cat was for Kay because she just love cats and at one of our Sparkle meetings she said that she wanted a Cat on a stick (not this one but this pattern was heaps better) and Sue and Sally got the Santa ones. Hopefully they weren't tooo prim for them. Will have to make a Santa for me one day too but for now I might just have a rest for a few days. Have nothing that has to be done until Christmas Day food shopping so I will be having a quiet week.

Advent Swap

I know I know I haven't written in such a while but I have been soooo sooo busy. My Advent Partner has been opening her swap a bit sooner than the rest of us because she is going away on holiday so now I can post the pictures of all the things I made for her. These are just all the made items, there were bought items as well but I didn't bother about taking pictures of those. Tomorrow I will post pictures of the stuff that has been keeping me busy since the doggy costumes.

Who Let the Dogs Out

Last night was the big concert for my son's school and the dog costumes were unveiled. They held up well and kids looked pretty dog like.

All the mum's in the class said that we had the best costumes so they must have been ok but they were probably bias. I got to the concert early thinking that we had a lot of kids to do face paint on, only the Mum with the face paint was late but we made it in plenty of time. 19 kids with painted faces in 20 minutes (might even be a world record. I think I was more nervous than the kids. Well glad that is over with now I have to start thinking of making christmas presents ugh... is it ever going to end.

Wishes and Lilies

I have just finished a stitchery by Leanne Beasley, Wishes and Lilies, it was one of the patterns I purchaed while at Loxton earlier this year. I think I will have it framed as Leanne has this as one of the options in the pattern and I think it will look stunning. Just got to find somewhere to get it done or maybe I should have a go myself. I was lucky enough to have a piece of fabric that matched my favourite red thread DMC 902 to use as the border.