Happy 10th wedding anniversary to me!

Today it is 10 years since we got married...

At the time I was doing our family grocery shop this morning, 10 years agoI would have been at the hairdresser with my girlfriends and sister getting my hair and make up done! How times change!

But these were on the table to greet me:

When I opened the card, I said "What a beautiful card! I wish I could get that in fabric." Ah yes, it still comes back to sewing!

Today, as we remember back 10 years:

we are going away overnight to relax and celebrate together.

Thanks to Nan and Pa for the help with the boys!

On this day, both of us also think of our grandfathers who went to war. They both came home, but so many didn't. I can't quite imagine that, but to think it is still happening horrifies me. This year we have been challenged by Mr 6 to explain why people go to war. That's been hard, especially knowing that he may hear other things at school, from friends and everywhere.

We pray for peace... and celebration of happy events...

remember me?

It is so long since I've blogged... and moving sounded like it was a very organised affair last time I posted! Well here we are in Melbourne. Our poor packers started packed in minus 2 degees. After cleaning, cleaning and cleaning some more, we got to Melbourne at 11.30am. It was wet and cold when we arrived at the house to meet them at 7.30am the next day... pity they didn't arrive! It seems that there was some confusion - and our truck arrived about 27 hours after we expected it! What fun! It's hard to describe in nice words how over the whole moving experience we were by the time we actually had boxes in the house.
BUT let me give you some amazing stats.

1. my sewing room was the LAST room in the house to be unpacked (I know - hard to believe!)
2. we unpacked more than 20 boxes before the truck left (20 less boxes to be stored!) - I think it was about 50 boxes actually
3. we went away 4 days after we moved... and it was cold and rainy, and let me sum it up with the words of the kids "I want to go home"... only problem was - were they talking about the old 'home' or the new one? Luckily, the new one!
4. All the boxes were unpacked by the 10 day mark.
5. I made it to the quilt show - yeah! It was great. Had a lovely time catching up with Wendy from Horsham, and together we braved public transport, and spent lots of time at GJ's fabricn (poor Boy 2 had to be very patient - sorry!). Great to see all the Horsham entrants in the Vic Quilters competition won their categories - congratulations!
6. Boy 1 has settled in really well to his new school... amazing... and exciting... and Boy 2 is loving his new 'music church' - a Mainly Music program at a church nearby... the highlight of our week together!

And now there is nothing more to distract me from the reality of having surgery on Friday morning (surgery is to relieve compression of the nerves and blood vessels which has been causing lots of sensation problems and poor blood flow to my arms and hands).
Unfortunately I'm missing my nephew's first birthday party, but I'm hoping to finish a 'bunting' decoration for it, and the kids and husb will still get to go... and have fun... don't worry about me.. I'll be fine... no, really... hmmm... all I can say is if I don't get a piece of cake and see lots of photos I will be VERY cross!
Happy Birthday B!

Photos of quilts will take too long to load tonight - I've still got to do the dinner tidy up! - but I will do it sometime soon 'cause I've got lots of new ones to post - and hopefully I'll be able to use the computer while I'm recovering... here's hoping!

on a brighter note!

I've been sewing again, and I love variegated thread!

 Not the best photo, but I can assure you that the bright on black looks really good.
Can't show you the whole project yet - it's another gift... but let's just say that that thread looks great with ric rac (see this post)... thanks to all who supplied their little bits of ric rac! It's been put to good use.

I was going to put more photos on here - sneak peeks of more projects, but I really don't want to ruin the surprises for the gift recipients. More photos soon.

Move and pack update
In addition to sadly farewelling our faithful couches, I've sorted out my sock drawer - no, seriously, I have!!! And let me tell you, it's amazing what you find in your bedside drawers! Nothing I'd lost, just really special things - cards, drawings from the kids, pregnancy records, a few odd photos... things to keep.
Scary what you do when faced with a move...
I've also sorted our craft supplies (kids and mine), and packed it into good containers (that sounds quick and easy, but was far from it). In the process, I've designated the current hall cupboard as the "walk through room", meaning everything that is in that cupboard is to go to the room that links the original house and the added-on unit.... ah yes, the new house has quirks... wish me luck in managing them!

goodbye comfy friend

Farewell to the blue couches... one chair left us in the last move, and now the remaining chair and two couches leave us for this move. I feel sad. We can't take them with us because they don't fit. We have only one living area in the new house (pity one of the three bathrooms can't be a lounge!)... so time for the couches to move on...

just in case I forget...

This morning I spent some time tidying the kids bedrooms and taking some photos of their bedroom...
and there are some funny things I don't want to forget.

Boy 2 has a Big Ted - given to him by my friend Liz. A week ago Boy 2 told me that Big Ted wanted some pyjama pants to go with his 'Big Ted' t'shirt. I had the idea of getting out a pair of Boy 2's first pyjamas - he thought that was pretty cool... so on went the rockets. Last night Boy 2 decided that Big Ted needed a rocket top to match his pyjamas... and hey presto... Boy 2's top fitted Big Ted too. How can Boy 2 have grown so much? He used to be this size!

Boy 1's bedroom always has things stuck everywhere - he draws and creates all the time, and likes to display what he's made... on his door, his walls, his cupboards etc... but one of the funniest of them all is this...

Next to many of our light switches are little pink pieces of paper with a face drawn on them. They are the secret tunnels the teddy bears use! From the show 'The Secret World of Benjamin Bear'. It's going to be hard to remove them! And the 'tunnel colours' will need to go too. They are coloured pieces of paper on the doorways telling us the colour of the tunnel we are about to enter. Boy 1 put them up, and Boy 2 refers to them all the time! (It's an idea from the show 'Chuggington'). Perhaps we can put Boy 1 to work on the tunnel colours for our new house on unpacking day... mental note to self - keep out drawing stuff and coloured paper - oh yes, and sticky tape! The tunnels might actually be useful in helping us to find our way around the very difficult layout of the new house!


I also found time to do some more outside stuff - I keep thinking I've finished out there! But no, there were more things to be sorted and bundled together, and now they're in the shed ready to be moved.

Slowly getting there I think....

sneak peek at latest project

This is the ric-rac project... it is absolutely stunning... but I don't want to give it away just yet.

I've just finished putting on the first border, and will next add the ric-rac... I'm doing everything in a slightly different order to the pattern, but I think it will work.
This is definitely another "I don't want to give it away"quilt!
But this time I am promising myself that I will make one for myself too... it's a lovely reminder of all the other quilts I've made, as it's using up all the little leftover bits! Of course there are the obligatory few new fabrics! And Boy 1 chose the spots for the backing.... yet again I think I've underestimated the amount of fabric I would need, and some creative piecing may be required there too... time will tell.
Stay tuned...

special delivery for ME!

Do you remember the excitement of the postie, before all he brought you were bills or letters offering you credit cards you don't want or need?

Well, I had that sort of excitement today, when my doorbell rang, and it was our friendly Australia Post deliverer! Yay - I have been eagerly awaiting this parcel...

 Inside this boring brown packaging from Social Club Books was an exciting treasure-trove of books! Given that I rarely buy books, I decided to capitalise on not only the great prices, but the fact that I was already paying postage and handling, may as well make the most of it! (It's good logic! I think!)

"Sewing in No Time" includes ideas such as a children's play tent, fabric lined baskets, cutlery wraps etc. - what a great thought-starter!
"What Shall We Do Today? 60 creative crafting projects for kids" - sounds like a perfect book to delve into after our move... the kids are really interested in sewing - I'm disappointed I haven't got a photo of Boy 2 doing some hand sewing - bright thread on flanelette, using a large needle with no \point. He does an amazingly good job, even before he's three. Move over Kaffe Fassert!
"Material Obsession - Contemporary Quilt Designs" - a book I couldn't quite justify until I saw it at this unbelievable price. It is from the very talented women of the shop 'Material Obsession'. The first prize raffle quilt from the Horsham Quilt Show (below) was a design from this book.

Speaking of raffle quilts, I went to Rosemont Quilts just out of Horsham to buy some Prints Charming fabric, as I was so inspired by 2nd prize at the Quilt Show (left).

I was keen to try the blue colourway, but wanted the large flower block - too late, for Isabel has already sold out! Lyn has a few in the quilt pictured on the right - and reportedly purchased the last of the bolt... and rumour has it that she hasn't even used it yet! The cheek! Isabel has some of the black and white (not the same as the one above which also has a taupe colour in it), but I am picturing a striking black and white quilt with red as the feature colour... just for something really different for me... will have to think quickly, for Isabel is selling, and my opportunities for a dash out to Wartook are limited - time is ticking... 7 weeks until our move... not that the removalist has confirmed a date yet... that will hopefully happen tomorrow.



Meanwhile, I am keeping busy with lots of sorting out of the different areas in our house, working out how we will manage with only one living area, with no storage built into it! Hmmm.... the lounge suite will be moving on before we leave here because there's nowhere to put it... and I think we might be in the market for some bookshelfy-cupboardy things... oh dear, we might have to go to Ikea ! Yay!

And I'm also trying to finish sewing projects that I ambitiously started.... we'll see...!

And trying to work out where my sewing machine will go in the new house, and what it will be on (my current bench arrangement below a fluoro light is fabulous, but built in! It might be a bit destructive to take it with us!) A friend is going to show me a new quilting table she wants to sell... and there are some sturdy tables at the op shop but I am keen to have a flat bed quilting table so that would require some handy carpentering... maybe that could be fun... not sure.

So much to do, but The Mentalist started 20 minutes ago. Which means that if I press play on the DVD recorder and watch it in timeshift without the ads, I should finish about the same time as if I hadn't sat down to write this post. How strange. So off I go to get my weekly dose of Simon Baker...