HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

 

This will be my last post for 2012 and I would like to Thank everyone for your lovely and sometimes humorous comments, I love reading all of them. I do hope that 2013 will bring you heaps of stitching time and I look forward to seeing the results throughout the year ahead. I have met so many bloggers this past year some I chat with online then others I have been so lucky to meet in person, hopefully I will get to meet even more of you.

                                                       So I wish you all a  

                                            HAPPY AND SAFE NEW YEAR 

                               ---------------------------------------------------------------

                                                  HAPPY NEW YEAR BIRTHDAY

 

Happy Birthday to my big brother Tom I hope you have a great day.

How quickly things change........

 

What can one say.......

 

This photo was taken in May 2009...... what a happy day that was, Gavan was like a kid in a toy shop, he bought a light sports plane....... when he was 65yrs he learned to fly, something he always wanted to do but like all dreams would probably never happen but his dream came true.

 

 

 
Here he is on one of his getaways with a mate, looking very pleased with himself I think.

 

We leased the plane to a flying school for teaching and also for private hire but we were able to take it when ever we chose so it was a win win situation.

We made quite a few trips mostly day trips for coffee, whale watching and visiting friends. I was a bit apprehensive at first but as I got used to our little flying trips.... all was good.

 

Well how things can change, on my birthday the 9th of this month we got a call from the school that the plane had been hired out and had just crashed, fortunately no-one was injured but we can't say the same thing for the plane.

 

Its the little white dot on the ground just to the right of the road.

 

 

Here she is back at the hanger.

 

 

 

So that's that I guess, we were insured so that part is good but its very disappointing to see our baby in this state. The best part is of course that on-one was injured and we weren't in it either.

 This year is certainly ending with a bang sadly.....one we could do without.

                                                  QUE SERA SERA.........

Where do I begin hmmmmmm

Lots of old news and some new..... firstly I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas , we spent Christmas day with family and this year it was at Heathers, I guess you are all like me tooooo tired to do any stitching but I'm feeling the itch to stitch now so I will finish this post and go into the sewing room to see if I can make a plan for next year...... oooooo don't you hate that word "plan" but its what I need otherwise I'm all over the place doing lots but getting no-where fast. Hmmmm I also need to update my OPAM list for this month and put in some finishes on my "To do lists" so I hope I don't bore you with my trivia ...... but I'm going to do it anyway.

I always start the gift giving with a little treasure hunt for Corinne, she is living with us now in our Grannie flat and it was lovely to have her and Kenny join us for breakfast..... she does look a bit lost there..... I hide clues all over the place and this one was in the car, I know she is a bit big for it now but I don't think she will ever be tooooo big..... we have so much fun with it.

 
I have been doing this for so many years.... I have done it for the other g/children too if I see them early enough in the day but it was just Corinne this time. You know how it goes...... cold, freezing, warm, warmer....... hotttttt.

 

 The gift at the end was this little framed stitchery, the pattern is from "The Birdhouse" I made 3 altogether.... 1 for Mel and the other for Heather.

     The Christmas table at Heather's.... I was a bit slack with photos this year ..... I hear you say ....."Thank Heavens she won't bore us to death"

 

                                     Corinne and Kenny hiding.....

 

Grandchildren playing ... ummmmm something.

 

I just had to show my little village, Gavan's Christmas present to me...... I love it..... he gave it to me before the big day so I could enjoy it on display, naturally I then had to make a banner to fill in the naked wall..... there I go crossing to the "dark side" scrap booking ooooowa.

 

Of course then I got the bug and did this tree, it is so cute.

 

 

 

More OPAM's for this month, note to self again... update list.....

 

This is the old news, I did a post about our Tuesday Girls party but I didn't have these photos so don't tell Sandi that I stole them from her blog shhhhhhhh

 

 

 

 I have so many silly photos of me that I just couldn't resist a few more.... I'm a big kid at heart.

I also forgot to take photos of the gifts I made for the girls so another stolen picccie from Sandi  this album is only 6" square and only has photos of our Tuesday fun days ..... I also made one for Norreen....... now they all have one........ well everyone except me but I am working on that.

 

 

Well I think that's about it for the moment .... if I have forgotten anything I will be back to bore you with more chatter and piccies.

 

Merry Christmas to Everyone.

I hope everyone has a fantastic time tomorrow with family and friends.......

Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving such lovely comments over the past year, I have enjoyed reading them all.

Hopefully I will catch up with my very slow blogging soon when things slow down over the next week.


                                                        MERRY CHRISTMAS 

                                        HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

Tree skirt and a bit of fun

Hooray Corinne's tree skirt is finished and she is very pleased with it.......

 

 

The pattern is from  "The Birdhouse" called "Very Merry Treeskirt".

 

 

 

 

I quilted in the ditch for the seams also around all applique shapes and did stars on the plain fabrics.

 

 
                                          Naturally a label was added.

 

 Here is Corinne's tree looking complete with its skirt on..... one can't have a naked tree at this time of year.

 

I do feel the skirt could have been larger but it will do for this year.

 

We were having a bit of fun the other day..... Corinne, June and I...... making gingerbread men and other shapes. We used a recipe from a Woolies catalogue and we were not impressed at all, not sure if is was us or the recipe so they all went in the bin..... tasted lousy......  the decorating kit we bought from Woolies with icing in tubes was like plastic and also tasted lousy but we did have fun.

 

 

 

We will try another day with a different recipe and make our own icing hopefully before Christmas.

 

Last day of Christmas Decorations and other stuff

I've left these tree ornies for the last day, they are very special to me as they were made by Corinne when she was 3yrs old  which only seems like yesterday to me, we used to sit together making all sorts of crafty things on our "Nanny days" as she used to call them .....well she 20yrs old now attending University  and all grown up but she is interested in craft and sewing in general so that really pleases me. 

 

 

Love the paper chains she made,  who knows how long they will hold together, they are a bit faded now.

 

This is a favourite of mine that I  made years ago.....love the legs on these guys..... why don't we put the date on them at the time ?.... hmmmmm I have started doing that now as its surprising how old some of the decorations are.

 

This Santa is another favourite........ they are all favourites really.

 

Now to show you some of the lovely birthday gifts I received from friends and family, I was so lucky to get so many special gifts.

 

Wow this tree was made by my Mel (DIL) and yes they have all been eaten, disgusting I know.....

 

 

Sandi made this cute little hanging.

 

 

Norreen gave me these lovely cups and they will now be used by us on our dolly making saturdays.

 

Gifts from family and Tuesday girls.

 

Gavan gave me this cup and saucer for the table on the patio.

I did have a lovely day on Sunday and I enjoyed being spoilt but I think from now on that I will start counting backwards so I will feel better.

Looking through my pictures today I realised that I hadn't shown a finished photo of this quilt.....

                                                      "My Favourite Things" by Anni Downs.

I have enjoyed blog hopping checking out everyones decorations in the "One Week of Christmas" organised by Cheryll so pop over and have a look at the other blogs, so many great ideas and beautiful projects ..... I have started my "To Do List" for next year...... I didn't really say that did I ?

Day 4 of my decorations and another proud moment.

 

Day 4 of Cheryll's "One week of Christmas decorations" I have been blog visiting and I've seen some really lovely decorations, now the ideas are running wild in my head for projects for next year....... not sure if that's a good idea or not really.

Here are some of my dining room decorations.

 

 

 

 

 

Now to my proud moment, we attended our g/son Clayton's yr 7 formal, it was so nice to be invited to be a part of his growing into a young man.  Naturally he is the good looking one in the middle..... I'm no biased at all ..... well I don't think so lol.

 

 

Here he is with Mum ( our Liz) would you believe he is 12yrs and Liz is wearing high heels, she is a tiny person but big in personality.

 

 
                               Of course his big brother got in on the act.... Jake.

 

Congratulations to Clayton as he received the sports award but sadly I haven't got a photo of him with his trophy and certificate. These boys ..... oooops ...... young men are such wonderful people and we as well as their parents are so very very proud of them and lucky to have them in our lives.