Wednesday, December 28, 2011

SSCS unwrapped

I managed to resist the temptation till Christmas morning and then I was able to unwrap my SSCS present from Fran...how exciting... and what a lovely surprise...shown in the photo below are the 2 pairs of lovely earings (I put one pair in straight away and wore them for the day) a kit to make the Rosemary for Remembrance pincushion which had the linen, cosmo threads, ric rac all ready to go, a piece of gorgeous Christmas fabric some magnets and a cute little hexagon bag.  There were also some little Darrell Lea chocolates which didn't last long enough to make the photo!!  Thank you so much Fran for the lovely gifts which I was thrilled to receive..and a big thank you also to Chookyblue for all your work in organising this swap..it was my first time and I would love to do it again..


This is what I sent to my partner Leanne for the SSCS swap, a stitchers mat bag in a NZ print fabric, a bobbin lace bookmark, pair of scissors, NZ Quilter magazine, NZ pictorial desk calendar and the cupcake ornament



Christmas day was a relaxed day here, and as always a large part of the time was spent snacking...just our  family for the day here at home...so no travel involved this year and no rushing to the airport after lunch, as usually in other years someone has been flying off to Australia to have Christmas day with family on each side of the Tasman...

DD1 brought these lovely peony roses to add to the decorations...  

and DD2 spent Saturday afternoon baking and decorating a gingerbread house.  We bought a kit last year but didn't like the taste of the gingerbread at all so she did it from scratch this year, much nicer..



Saturday, December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas...

May this Festive Season be filled with love and joy....


and a Merry Christmas to you all...  


Sunday, December 18, 2011

Sue Daley has a give-away...

Why not hop over to visit Sue Daley's Blog and read her entry for December 15 about her new book, New English Paper Piecing.  There are some beautiful things to make in it.  While you are there you can enter Sue's give-away for her book...

Monday, December 12, 2011

My lovely SSCS gift has arrived..

Aren't I the lucky one...my SSCS parcel from Frances in NSW arrived this morning and it is wonderful...even the string on the package had that Christmas feel to it..
Inside are some beautifully wrapped gifts..all tied up with ribbon...and some Tim Tam fingers..yummy, just love Tim Tams..
So I am allowed to unwrap the decoration (and try to avoid the temptation of the other!! ) and inside was a beautiful Christmas ball, so I hung it from the bottlebrush out in the garden...doesn't it look fabulous, with its Christmas sparkle..I just love it...
Thank you so much Frances for your lovely gift...

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Chocolate Chippers

Not the biscuit variety but something I had never heard of...chocolate covered potato chips.. all the way from America..the chips gave that bit of a crunch to the dark chocolate...sounds unusual but it tasted really good...

They were part of a giveaway from Heidi from one of the Friday Night Sew In sessions that I joined up with...here is the rest of what she sent...lucky me !  It was a wonderful parcel to receive.


Saturday, December 10, 2011

Time has flown....

Wow, 34 years today....The time seems to have flown by since our wedding on a hot summer's day in Sydney (way back in 1977) ... such a lot has happened since then...we now live in a different country, we have two lovely daughters (and a few extra pounds have been added on over the years LOL!)...  and my husband surprised me with these beautiful flowers for our anniversary today

Friday, December 9, 2011

It's been a busy few weeks ...from today I will have some time to relax and not have such a regimented day..(.the summer holidays stretch out before me)...so I now have some time to catch up on all the things I have been missing out there in blogland...
I have just heard that my parcel made it all the way to South Australia and Leanne has opened the decoration part so this is what I sent...inspired by some lovely decorated cupcakes I saw on her blog...


It was relaxing to sit outside and read the paper this morning and I'm off to a gathering of friends this afternoon...so not a bad way to spend the day and the first day of my 'holidays'
Another rhododendron coming into flower, as the flowers on the others are just a memory..