Friday, May 23, 2008

I'm Finally Back!!!!

I'm sorry it's been so long but I'm finally back!! I don't know where my time seems to be going lately but before I knew it I was in full renovation mode, moving house and tending to our new merino ewe's lambing whilst still trying to work full-time and be a mother to my almost 2 year old... (o.k. that's enough of the whining)
But yes, I'm still here and eager to get my new sewing room set up so I can whip up some new curtains for my new bathroom... Can you all remember me telling you about our bathroom Reno's?? Well we're 'almost' finished..... Here's DH bogging up a few more holes (that whole wall was one great big hole, an absolute NIGHTMARE!!!)... Here I am water proofing the soon to be 'new shower'.....
This pic is of the floor and most of the skirting all tiled and ready to be grouted....
And here is the bathroom all but finished... This weekend we're putting the new light fitting up and installing the shower screen which will be one of those frame less one's that look absolutely super slick, well that's what the sales assistant told me anyway... LOL!!!
It seems to of taken forever for this bathroom to fall into place but I'm just so happy that I can now actually shower in it... You see DH and I were going to get a builder to do the bathroom for us which would of taken half the time but we decided to do it ourselves. The money we saved doing it ourselves will go towards builders remodeling the kitchen... So far we've saved $15,000, isn't that fantastic??? So now my original budget of $50,000 for a new kitchen has risen to $65,000. You gotta be happy with that!!!

So if all goes according to plan we'll be staring the kitchen remodeling at the end of Winter.... My next reno project will be the little princess's room. I'm hoping to start that in the next couple of weeks...
Now for a bit of crafting..... This is the full pic (as promised here) of the quilt that I made up for this swap... And last but not least I'll leave you all with a glimpse of one of the new little babies that I have running around my place at the moment...DH and I bought a heap of old merino ewe's in lamb about 3 months ago for a real dirt cheap price, they were practically giving them away.. They all started lambing about 3 weeks ago.... Now who doesn't love baby animals, isn't this one a cutey???

Take Care... :)

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

I'm Exhausted!!!!

Oh Wow..... Where do I start???? I had the most amazing weekend at Nundle. Kerry sure does know how to organise a fantastic get together.....

Friday night we headed to the Nundle Town Hall and had a yummy soup and damper dinner with homemade rocky-road for dessert (thanks Peg and Dale for the dessert)... On Saturday we kicked started the day with a delicious cooked breaky at the Peel Inn before heading back to the Town Hall for a day filled with Leanne and Rosie's crafty goodness..
Rosie taught us all how to needle turn applique (the pic above is Rosie showing me some of her tricks)... Her project for the day was a gorgeous applique pillow and a stitchery.... I finally learnt how to start and finish off my embroidery work thanks to Leanne. She's such a whizz with a needle and thread... I loved her Chookyblue inspired project on the day.. For a pic check out Chooky's blog....
Saturday was topped of with a dinner party at the Peel Inn. It was a bit nippy but we all managed... After dinner we made our way down stairs to the bar where Rosie and Leanne were up for a bit of a sing-a-long.... We bopped along to some good old classics til the wee hours of the morning, and let me tell you now my poor head sure made me suffer for it the next day....

I met so many fantastic bloggers over the weekend (you know who you are :)).. I had such an amazing time but after all of this being said I am also so very glad to be home... I've never spent a night away from my little princess before and I never thought it was possible to miss someone so much... It really did feel good walking into my house on Sunday night and being greeted by a very excited little girl....


I bought loads of goodies and will post about all of that at a later date... Take Care... :)

Thursday, May 1, 2008

I LOVE Australia Post!!!!!!!

Yesterday morning when I went to the post office to collect my mail you can only imagine how excited I was when Bruce (yes, I'm on a first name basis with my local postman) handed me a big bright pink box signed on the back by my 'secret quilt' swap partner Kellie...

I just couldn't wait to get to the car to open it up so I opened it then and there in the post office..... (sorry Kel this pic really doesn't do your gorgeous work much justice)
OMG!!!!! It was amazing....... Kellie's work is like none that I have every seen before.... Her applique and machine quilting are in a league of there own and let me tell you now, that league is pretty darn elite.....She packed my parcel full of goodness for both me and the little princess. It really did make me, or should I say us (the little princess and I), feel like royalty for the day.... She made this....and this.......for the little princess... Her work is just sooo gorgeous!!!! I scored 2 pin cushions and a tissue holder, the little princess is just deciding which one she wants to keep... I guess the tissue holder is for me..... LOL!!!!!Now don't think that this is all that Kellie sent me, this woman REALLY did spoil me... I also got these 3 divine fabrics that I just can't wait to sew something up with....This has been the best-est swap ever, thanks Kellie!!! I really enjoy reading your posts and am so looking forward to learning lots and lots more about quilting from you over the months to come....

Speaking of swaps.... I almost forgot to mention that I joined up for the Doll Quilt Swap round 3. The deadline to post out your quilt was the 28th of April but with all of the hype from my swap with Kellie I didn't get it posted until today... Hopefully my swap partner doesn't mind too much...There was no theme for this swap so I just with a traditional block using some modern fabrics and finished off with some hand quilting....
You'll have to wait til later for a full pic as this swap is a surprise/secret too....

I know that I promised some reno shots this week but they're going to have to wait til next week... sorry :( I've been flat out and have totally forgotten to take some decent pics of the tilling we did over the weekend.... I did take a couple of macros though and here's one just to keep you interested.... :)We obviously still have to grout and if you've ever tiled before ( I haven't but have been assured) than you'll know that the grout is what really makes it look pretty....

O.K... If you made it this far THANKYOU!!!! I know that this was one hell of a post.... But now I'm off to pack my bags as I'm off to Nundle for the 'Girls Day (weekend) in the Country'... Kerry Swain has organised the whole thing and she has Rosalie Quinlin and Leanne Beasley comming with a special project for us all to do... I'm leaving first thing tomorrow morning, going via Donna's place to pick her up and meeting up with Fiona and some other girls at Nundle around lunch time... I'm so excited and will tell you all about it sometime next week....

Take Care and have a lovely weekend....

Spring Seed Swap?

I had big plans of sharing a late Winter garden update with you all this post, full of beautiful pictures of Wintry produce such as peas (...