First 2011 project

I have completed my first project for 2011. A x-stitch bookmark I received as a Christmas gift. It was "very me"!!! I love roses and pink with cream and green!!

Also end of last year I completed Kaaren's Huswif Needlecase, that she had as one of her First Friday Freebie patterns. The following is the stitchery completed,

Now sewn together with outer fabric, binding and button.

Inside the Huswif Needlecase. I altered Kaaren's last image changing it to a pineapple (from another of Kaaren's FFF's) and my own words "Heart given to hospitality." My home has been that in the last week and a half, with 14 guests either to a meal or staying with us.

Finally a picture of the lastest chickens my daughter is loving to death!!! This is a picture she took on the back verandah, where she plays with them for hours.

Months disappeared...Where? and What?

I’ve wanted to post, for some weeks, but other things kept happening!!! Then a dear friend posted a comment, hoping I was okay, so I knew I just had to sit down and get it done!!

So where do I start?
My new job – as a school chaplain, started off and went very well. By the end of the term I knew over half the students by name and started to place sibling groups together. Coming into my office for “teddy hugs” has been a huge hit.

I also made some cushions for the office, using a very colourful cardigan someone had knitted, which I bought at a second-hand shop. It wasn’t complete – just the back and two front side panels, which had been joined, but no sleeves or anything else. I unpicked it, and made cushions with them. The photo’s show the outcome.

Just before I started the job I managed to get some DJ blocks made for someone I’ve been swapping with for a while. I made great progress then they came to a halt.

I made progress in getting 3 mug pouches sewn up for my giveaway, commenced the embroidery work after completing the colouring-in on the stitcheries, then they came to a halt.

Everything changed as my hours and days changed with working and affected my creative/sewing times. Plus I was feeling quite tied.

On top of all that, my sister-in-law was getting married and asked my daughter to be a flower-girl, along with her cousins. So making a flower-girls dress became priority one, in what little time I had. I really enjoyed making this dress, it's been a few years since I last did some dress making, which was also for a wedding. Back in my teens I used to make most of my clothes.

From this:-

To this:-

Along came Christmas, with family coming here. When we have Christmas here in our home, it’s become our tradition to make a ginger-bread house. So this is our 2010 Gingerbread house!!

Our son now has his "L" driver’s license . . . some of you know me as calm, quiet and easy-going. Well, we may have to now add, “she’ll go grey very quickly!!!”

Then yesterday morning…….my daughter had gone into the kitchen, when she called out “Mum!” I said “What?” (Hubby and I were lying in bed relaxing and talking.)

“Mum, there’s a snake in the kitchen!!” (Action…..fast jumping out of bed, unbelief that it could be so….)

There it was right in front of the kitchen stove. Hubby raced out for a shovel, while we kept watch, as it turned and slithered back across in from of the cupboards and sink.

My husband has said “it ‘naturally’ died of ‘natural’ causes!!!” It was a 3ft “tiger snake”. Some interesting stats: one person a year dies from snake bite in Australia. 60% of people die from a “tiger snake” bite.

We can only guess it came through the front door, when the flywire door wasn’t properly closed. Don’t try and think about it being in the house for the day and night, without us knowing!!!

So I’m happy to say we are all safe and well and I’m hoping for some creative times in coming weeks. I’m suffering badly from “withdrawal symptoms”!!

Completed x-stitch samplers

I’ve completed the Mary Poppins SAL designed by Ralina. It is now framed and hiding in hubby’s study, as it will be my “home made” Christmas gift for my daughter this year. Read here and here about our family "homemade" Christmas gifts.




I’ve also completed the Ten Virgin’s x-stitch by Gigi. It was stitched one thread over one thread. It's very fine and a bit difficult to run the finishing thread through stitches on the back to snip off.

The first photo is of the back:

The second photo is of the front. I have the frame, my sister-in-law is cutting the cardboard mat for me, then the project will be ready to hang up.

Chicken Doll??!!
What’s a young chicken and a teenage chicken to do, when the daughter of the house treats you like a doll?

Just sit there looking pretty!!

Handmade "Christmas"

In a previous post last year, I showed some of the handmade Christmas gifts I've done.


Using the same thought again for 2009, we had to make or give to each other something we had.

I chose to do some more "amigurumi" which is a Japanese art form of knitting or crocheting stuffed animals. I made my daughter the Elephant for Christmas, and the Monkey for her birthday, two days after Christmas.









I also made for my daughter and son, a tin of biscuits, re-using some tins they had. Then my husband got some homemade turkish delight.

Another "Christmas in July" giveaway

I can't help myself.......I love Christmas as I've posted about before.

Here is another lovely "surprise" Christmas in July giveaway.

Christmas in July

Last year we celebrated, as a family, "A Christmas in July" evening. It was really fun getting the Christmas decorations out and having the full "hot" Christmas meal. Something we don't worry about at Christmas time, when it is sooo hot!!!


Those who know me, know I love Christmas time and Christmas decorations. I put them up early and still have them up sometimes right throught February. Why? I love the colours, the glistening of the tinsel, it makes me feel happy and the kids love it as well.


Each year I try to make something new towards my Christmas collection.

Barb is having a wonderful "Christmas in July" giveaway.

Past Christmas Gifts

A couple of years ago hubby made the suggestion that for Christmas we make or give something we already have, as gifts in our immediate family.

I was very happy with the idea, an “excuse” to make something different.

The first Christmas for my son – I converted a cartoon he had drawn, in to a small wall hanging.

My daughter got a Manicure Set from HOMESPUN March 2007


I was taken with the knitted Plum Puddings in HANDMADE Vol 24 No 12 (2007). I knitted up three of them for a small display. I made some extras as the Christmas Swap gift for our local patchwork group.

IDEA: If you make something you like, make another one and keep it in store for a birthday gift, “just because” gift or Christmas gift. I do this often. I figure if I “like” something, then someone else would too!!

Last year I made a valet tray for my son, from COUNTRY THREADS Vol 8 No 8 (2008). It involved recycling a skirt.

For my daughter she got a Babushka Doll from HANDMADE Vol 25 No 10 (2008).

My daughter celebrates her birthday two days after Christmas, which means I have to be very organized for her. For her 10th birthday she got Little Miss Mushroom from HOMESPUN.

I added the magazine details, because I know I often see something someone has made and "wonder where that pattern is"!!