HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!!!!!!!

                                                               HAPPY NEW YEAR

                                                             Have a swell 2012 Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

Farewell 2011

Well this year just zoomed by for me, a year of highs and lows and self revelations, let me share in photos some of my happy highs for 2011.

January 2011 The Entrance

Angelica and Olivia's first day of kindy

My eldest daughter Jessica got married

Grandaughter Bella Anne born 20th December

Grandaughter Violet Amelia born 21st June

Only 4 more sleeps till.....

Till santa comes

And i wish you all a..

Very Merry Christmas!!

My christmas wish list !

We all can have our christmas wish list, whether they are fulfilled or not is another matter, but wishing and dreaming are fun and good for the soul and imagination.  My list is short and sweet and will most likely be filled by me, but why ever not!   So here is  my list.      

      1/ The sweetheart tree Lavender fields Quadrielle embroidery kit ( so pretty)

2/.Tanya Whelans new book "Sew what you love" and a bundle of her pretty new fabrics "Sugar Hill"



















3/. So easy this one, to be happy! And enjoy living in the moment more!

Gingerbread Houses

Lots of fun had making these gingerbread houses! More photos to come having trouble transfereing them from my phone. Oh well another day!

Getting ready for Santa

Another year and another set of plans and good intentions to be ready for the festive season tried to slip by me again this year,but i have managed just in the nick of time to get this show on the road, I will not let this horriable Mastoiditis stop me from my christmas cheer!. I  have already made and decorated a gingerbread house with my Mother and am so glad for the effort, she so enjoyed it and it was nice to spend an afternoon doing just this one thing together.

Tonight i will decorate a gingerbread sliegh and house with my daughters and grandson. So the list is getting shorter,only 5 gifts left to buy,1 wall hanging to make and cards and gifts to be sent tomorrow, and a little baking on friday and i will be happy enough this year.

New Blog Name,

Well it's been a while since my last post and a lot has happened and changed and one of those is how i want my blog to be. I ve lived through others for too long and have decided my blog should express what i love and hold dear and above all what delights and inspires me,stay posted and check in on a blog by me!

NEW BEGININGS!!

Haven't been blogging much lately, a lots been happening and i will update  you with all that  soon, and i've been playing around trying to find just the right blog design to express who i am and what i represent at present. I have a lot of new ideas running around in my head and some big changes i want to start implementing in my life and can't wait to start sharing them with you. I 'll be back soon! I might even find time to learn how to spell properly, lol.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

Hope you all have a very Happy Mothers Day

HAPPY EASTER

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter, filled with love and joy and of course chocolate.

Happily ever after

Mr and Mrs Marc and Jessica Johnson

Signing their wedding certificate

The wedding party and the happy couple

The bridle mobile and our dashing driver Nigle

Proud father of the bride

Well its been a while since my last post, lots of rushing around with wedding plans for my daughter Jessica. Well the big day was this past saturday and it was lovely as all weddings are,it's so good to see her happy and settled and above all loved and she so deserves. So may i introduce you all to Mr and Mrs Marc and Jessica Johnson.

Time Flies ,A Green Summer and all that, and (OOHH!!! I have a surprise)

Love the new Oliver and S pattern book

Our green garden,

Wow where did February go,the girls have settled into school well (although we are often late)and have both had the chance to be class leaders and both have recieved Merit awards. The summer here in Griffith has been much milder and definately wetter than normal,and i ain't complaining,still a bit too warm for this old Highland girl but OH !!the GREEN,everything is so green and alive here so beautiful, normally everything is dry and dead by summers end, you can never water enough and our water restrictions have been lifed too.I wish i could say i've achieved alot this past month, but life does not always go to plan, everyone except the twins have had tummy bugs and flu. So now the dust has settled i'm working on a major clearance of all my sewing fabrics and craft, i have some new great ideas and projects i want to try,so out with the old and in with the new, also thinking of retiring from the fabric yoyo making bussiness , i've been making them for over two years now and think it's time for a change a, they are very pretty and fun to make but take alot of work and preparation but not repayment, besides i still havent made anything for myself, have always wanted to make a yoyo quilt.One thing on the top of my new project list is to make the girls these too cute TUTUs and Red Riding Hood cape from the Oliver and S Little things to sew book, i just love their patterns and fabric linehttp://www.oliverands.com/.


little red riding hood cape



My daughter Jessica and husband to be Marc



My girls and their mountain of homework

Also i have a big announcement my daughter Jessica is getting married on the 9th of April,only four weeks away and so much fun stuff to do to get ready,she is so happy at last , Marc is the sweetest man and adores her and her little boy.Untill next time.

First Day, Crochet and a Cool Change

Olivia and Angelica's First Day at school 2011



Off to Class



Granny Squares Galore

This week my little ones started school, they were very brave and went off happy with no tears, i was worried as we didn't do pre-school and the three of us have spent almost no time apart, like three peas in a pod, They have a lovely teacher and are eager for tomorrow. I' very proud of them as although Griffith is very hot (high 30s-mid 40sC) in February we also had very high humidity, due to an unusually wet summer and it doesn't cool down much of an evening, they took it all in their stride and didn't complain about walking to and from school (with me) or having to play outside in the hot  playground. So the week went well and to top it off, we got a very nice and unusual cold change last night which meant we could all wind down and catch up on some work and play in comfort. I did some crochet and the girls rode their bikes, and to top it off we have three more cool nights to look forward to Yippee!!! No air con= No noise!!  And of course no hot nights,just sweet sleep.

Only Two More Sleeps

Only two more sleeps and my babies start school, the years have gone too fast, it only seems like yesterday i was wondering what i was going to do with my life, i'd just finished a Tafe course,and had moved down to Batemans Bay after eleven years in Bowral, two of my older kids had left home and  there was just my husband, our then fourteen year old son and me, a new town a new life i was not that happy at the time and really started to wonder what the hell was to become of me. But life throws us curve balls when we least expect and for me that was my twins, can you believe it there i am 41 years old , getting sick all day, couldn't stand the dog, boy he smelled bad, poor thing was scrubbed and purged within an inch of his life, evrything i loved to eat tasted like crap, but do you think i could figure out what was wrong!!   Well i found out i was expecting at eleven and half weeks and within the hour of seeing the doctor i also found out i was having twins, my girls Olivia and Angelica, and the rest is another story. But here are some photos of our journey so far.

Angelica and Olivia, aged 4months

5 1/2 months

Little Ballerinas 5months

Their second Birthday

Aged three with big sister Jess

Cheeky Misses 4years old

Garden faireys aged 5 years

Christmas 2010 , 5 years old

Crochet a rainbow of love

Go over to Sarah Londons Blog, She has put together crochet a rainbow, to make up beautiful crochet blankets to help Queensland flood survivor's("they are too brave to be victims") rebuild their lives,Just crochet granny squares in 5 rounds measuring 4 1/2 inches or close enough , in new wool or wool /acrylic mix.I have added a link to Sarahs blog, where you can get all the info,sarahlondon.wordpress.com .

A stitch in time( making quilts for the Queensland flood victims)

 
This was a week of great suffering, bravery and humanity in Queensland, i really don't think i could find the words to express in this post, so i like so many ask, What can i do to help? We all have different gifts and skills, some of us who are close by can volunteer  with the clean up, we can donate money , or if we stitch we can pull our ever growing fabric stashes out and do something useful with them. The very lovely Corrie Sebire of Retromummy has come up with a great way to help and comfort Flood victims by asking all crafting ladies and men if they could make up some Lap Quilts or Quilt blocks to be made up into quilts for babies,children and adults, quilt squares should measure 12 inches when quilt is assembled so unfinished blocks should measure 121/2 inches, fabrics must be 100% cotton or cotton/linen blend, any design,go to
retromummy.blogspot.com for more information and ideas on design and where to send your finished pieces . This is something even a beginner could  do, so open those sewing cupboards and start stitching.

What really matters

Well this is going to be one of those deep and thoughful posts, you know no photos, just words. I've been pondering the past few days about "What really matters" in my life and have come to some pretty tough conclusions, like am i the sort of Mother or Daughter i would like to be, could i be a better wife, am i the sort of person I'd like to have as a friend., the list goes on, am i really as busy as i make out or am i avoiding important parts of my life and those around me.
  Well the past few days had been unusually quiet and peaceful and yesterday morning i felt blissfully happy, it was a wonderful feeling something I'm not use to and i'd like to feel more often , don't get me wrong i don't have a horrible life, but like a lot of folk these days i don't live a conscience existence, we rush around doing a lot of stuff that isn't really important but convince ourselves it is, spend too much time on the computer, stalk each others lives on face book, but have no time to cook and eat a meal with our famliy, our phones ring to much, how many times do you use your mobile will eating dinner or heaven forbid while at the toilet,we spend to much time on EBay and far too little time being quiet and still with ourselves, Oh the list goes on of my sins to my poor battered soul. Anyway back to the HAPPY feeling i felt yesterday, i use to feel that way most of the time when i was younger(not just as a child) and after much thought it dawned on me that when i was younger i put more thought into" What really mattered" to me and my family, i lived in the real time moment  back then, then slowly i allowed myself to be distracted from reality, you know  you've gone to far when you tell yourself and your kids, significant other you don;t have time to do the things that are needs let alone wants.

I mean sure we all have to work and mix with other people, but we need to take time to put things and sometimes others and ourselves in our place, is being busy worth it if you have no quality of life, i don't think so.
So I'm making a list if" What really matters" to me first and my Family, the rest of the world can take it's appropriate place. Tough i know but it's how things were done when i was i was a child, before mobile phone, over scheduled children and the Internet(can should be useful in moderation), and bosses who think your a slave not an employee, people knew their place and respected others,there was a start and finish to the day and week.
I'm also going to pick my self to pieces about some personality traits i need to do  away with, being an adult does not give us the right to be rude and do what ever we jolly well please then expect our kids to be perfect when they have bad examples shoved in their faces everyday, they are watching us all the time, they are and will become the product of our bad behaviour and our anxieties.
I guess this what OPRAH calls light bulb or AH!! HA!!! moments, a chance to learn and put things right as best we can, a chance to work out WHAT REALLY MATTERS.