Rainy day fun...

Pouring rain here, and gale force winds...the best kind of weather for a spot of sewing. I had a play with a Fig and Plum Jelly roll. I was hoping to get to the basting this afternoon, but it's too wet to even wander over to the sewing room!

Good weather for playing board games though...especially my latest birthday present.
My lovely quilter friend, Robyn, surprised me with this little delight on the weekend, have you seen it?

Stitcher's monopoly! How great is that! The counters are a thread cutter, cotton spools-you get the idea. And the properties are all stitch instructions.
........Now, if I could only convince DH how much he would really love to play!!!

They all grow up...

Look what i found in my bath?

Seems my darling children have been too well trained. These chickens wandered out with their mother from some secret nest and she promptly abandoned them, my kids heard the cheeping and spent a hectic hour or so tracking them down..all while this mother was insisting on more beauty sleep as she had watched cricket until way too late and it was the weekend!!
I should have got up as when i finally did it was to find the chickens living in my bath!!and on a good towel, with half of our latest loaf of bread added for good measure! ahh, the joys! They have now been rehoused to a better mother (that's the chickens, not my kids!) and the bath has had a good scrub out to return to normal.
Seems the kids grow up way too fast, visited my niece, Daisy, on the weekend, she is now walking! I used her a crash test dummy on a few chenille bibs i want to make more of, she scored these two and is a much better model than me just taking a pic of them on the floor...don't you agree?

They were a hit with her, and her fashionable mother, so I will make a few more.
My own daughter has been doing lots of growing up and has been giving me the third degree about the reality of Santa. As you know, we are a religious family, but I have never felt that that precluded the fun of Santa. My daughter has a different view and seems to think that it has been a form of lying to her...and that it is counterproductive to the true meaning of Christmas..oh to be given that lecture by your 11 year old!! The only salve to my conscience is how much she enjoyed the 10 years of "Santa!"
We haven't delved into it much further since that chat, any advice from those who have been there??
Have a great day, Tracey

More birthday, and a winner.

Oh, is there anything more dreadful than a Dh with the flu?

Because he is so far in the good books I will just leave it right there!! And keep getting the panadol!

I had a lovely time reading through the Tracey Kasem Top 40 ( or 30!) Amazingly a good few songs I didn't know, and i thought I was a music trivia-ist!

The random winner is Lady Hopwood's blog, http://primrosegirl.blogspot.com/

I hadn't heard this Dr. Hook song and enjoyed the youtube version very much. If you would like to contact me, Lady Hopwood, I will share the birthday joy!

Continuing the birthday joy theme, my kids bought me the Pandora bracelet and my family started off the charm collection.-all courtesy of an organizing sister!

There's a heart, an elephant, the zirconia one, the sand coloured to represent the beach my sister and I are both happiest upon, the rose from my sister that she thinks looks like my patchwork on, The Church and the chook make up my collection so far. I am being very well behaved and not wearing this or the ring when doing my farm work!

Our quilt group has birthday buddies for the year. Christine was my buddy this year and I was very lucky to score this beautiful table runner that I have shown previously. I love her first try at machine piecing, and I love IT very much! Thank you, Chris.

This is the back.

I am loving these patterns as well, the melly and Me chooks look great fun!

The lovely Chookyblue sent me these gorgeous cow salt and peppers, hope you regular readers remembered it was Donna's birthday Saturday!!

And I will leave you on a floral note, I have been asked to provide australiana cards for a big event coming up here,

Here's a little taste, they really do look like kangaroo paws, don't they!

Have a great day, Tracey

Birthday review

Just a quick post tonight...letting you know I survived the party...just!! I have what is probably a chest infection and have worked the last few days, so not been up to much posting!

Had a great time and caught up with alll my favourite people.

Apparently the consensus is, you want to see the dress-actually on!

So here is my sister and myohsofaketannedself-it's winter here peoples!

My darling daughter came to the hairdressers with me and had hair straightened for the night.....and you can see my son refused to get out of his normal "uniform" of tshirt and shorts!

My friend, Lyn, made my favourite Hummingbird cake, it was delicious. She made it in 4 big slabs and iced them together, little secret for you, there was enough over to cut up in a tupperware container in the freezer...did you know it only takes a couple of minutes for Hummingbird cake to defrost for a perfect snack with your coffee??

Many of you know Lise, from the Chocolate Cat, I have borrowed this pic from her blog, because I like it even if she isn't that excited!

I will share a few quilty birthday presents shots with you next post, but this can't wait....

DH gave me this eternity ring!! Bought it himself!! No help from our daughter, my sister or me...and it fitted perfectly! He is soooo loved right now, (of, course, difficult to be anymore than usual. LOL!) between that and the party he reckons he's right to buy a lot of machinery in coming months!-and he is probably right!!

To top the birthday off, as I was wandering into the house at 3 am, I happened to put on the cricket for a score and discovered we had routed the English for 102 and were looking great, had a lovely time rewatching that a couple of times on Saturday!! A perfect birthday all round!!

Thank you for all good wishes, I'll announce the winners of the Top 40 next post! Tracey

"Tracey" Kasem's Top 40.

I picked up the Jukebox for my party today, 3500 songs!! I have been having fun finding obscure numbers all afternoon and watching the dodgy old video clips. I Grew up with Casey Kasem's American Top 40. Even here in Australia it was the "have to" listen to show on Sundays. We would all get out of Church and pile into the cars to listen for number 1, even though it may never make it on our own radio stations.

It has actually been digitally remastered and we get old editions on Saturday mornings now! Love to hear the ads for the Osmond t-shirts and Jackson 5 cups!!

Seeing i am about to be 40....and I am more than happy to be ...and enjoying life, I thought we may revisit the Top 40 idea..with a few differences of course.

I would love a comment from you on at least one song that brings a special memory back to you...and preferably why? I have a few, usually old boyfriend related! Roxette's Joyride, Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman and Lee Kernaghan's Goondiwindi moon are fairly high on the list for romantic reasons, at least the last is with my husband!!

So, share the fun, there may be a lucky commenter drawn..and I'll be really excited if we reach a TOP 40!!

Thought you may like a peek at the invites, pity I can't have a cyber birthday!!

A feast of finished quilt tops...

Plenty of patchwork eye candy for you today. No, not all from me, seems that having a big B & S themed birthday in your own woolshed does entail some preparation ....so patchwork is a little scarce, but my quilting group girls are all go!! Maybe by next week I will have my own sewing time...a late birthday present to myself!

The girls and assorted assistants have put together some more quilt tops, please especially comment if you see any of yours!

These blocks had the big brown based floral print added, a brave choice that i think has worked well.

The same lady put together this one, love the stripy sashing fabric.

Helen has put together this star themed quilt.

Christine decided that her Kaffe fassett would add to these blocks. There is a new bushfire kindergarten that we are hoping to assist with the fitting out, we are thinking this may suit the kids.

Christine has worked hard with these circles and has them all together. This may be another one that would be good for the kids.

Remember the jelly cake that the Fat Quarter Shop were kind enough to donate? Christine has turned that into a lovely shaggy for our original family.

The girls were very interested in the stack and whack bushfire quilt featured a couple of posts ago. I had a practice play at quilters using some of my shirting fabrics.

We are intending all making our own at the next Quilters in september.

Seems I am on the 400 posts cusp, which is an interesting variation on the coming birthday. I am a big believer in sharing the birthday joy amongst more than myself, so look out for a competition close to the weekend...off to make mini quiches....

Have a great day, Tracey