Sew Prim Khris

AWOL

2012-01-26T23:00:00.004+10:30

I am sorry I have been AWOL for a while. I have been trying to settle into the new house...have just finished unpacking the sewing/computer room and it all feels nice and tidy now. I still have some tubs in the other spare bedroom cupboards but for now they can stay there. We have a lot of unpacked boxes I am not even going to unpack. I really have culled a heap. I am steering away from the prim now and keeping a very minimalistic look this time. I am just so over clutter and the cleaning and dusting that comes with it.

Hubby is away in the Middle East and we are missing each other heaps. We are so very lucky we get to chat and Skype each other probably twice a day...we are just not used to being away from each other like this....crazy I know...two grown adults...but we are best friends and really do enjoy being together. Hopefully the four and a half months wont drag. He is trying to get used to 12 hour shifts...painful being 9pm til 9am though.

I have booked flights to Hawaii for two weeks when he returns so we can have some time away together and he can get so rest and recreation on the beaches of Hawaii.

Madeline started grade 10 this year in her new school....she felt very lost the first day....we then had a public holiday "Australia Day" and she returns tomorrow for the last day of the week. She will then have the weekend to get herself together for a full week. It is never easy being the new kid on the block not knowing anybody in your class and feeling lost and alone. She is fortunate to have a good friend who she can catch up with a lunch and hopefully this will carry her through until she makes other friends.....she is missing her friends in Adelaide and she just loved school. She was a great student with never a problem. I can only hope this will be the case here...as a mother we worry about how our children with adapt and hope it is not too difficult for them.

Copyright

2012-01-11T21:21:00.003+10:30

I just happened to come across a very interesting read on Sew Karen's blog regarding Copyrighting. A long but very good read if you are interested in her post on Publication Replication. Especially the last paragraph.

Happy New Year 2012

2012-01-01T18:04:00.003+10:30

Tummy time - aren't I clever!

Hubby and Isaac

2011 has been a good year and I look forward to 2012 being a good year too.

I can't really wish for more than I have.

I have three wonderful kids and now an ever so cute grand-baby Isaac and his mummy in my life.

I have a wonderful husband that loves me and vice versa.

I have been able to come back to my home state and move into a home I know we will be happy in.

I only ever wish for my family and friends to be healthy and happy....and to enjoy each and every day we have here on earth. I wish this for everybody actually...not just my family and friends. Surround ourselves with people we enjoy being around, activities that we enjoy doing and never regret the things we choose to do in life.

ENJOY 2012 EVERYBODY!!

Another Christmas

2011-12-28T20:17:00.003+10:30

Gosh another Christmas has come and gone. Baby Isaac is now 3 months old and a joy to be around....he is a happy little chappy.

We got to move into our new home on Thursday and we actually had the kitchen, dining room and family rooms organised to be able to have Christmas lunch here with my family along with three other friends...thank goodness for prawns, ham and salads....not hot cooked meals.....Aussie Christmas's are so much easier to organise when we can have cold meals and not hot cooked meals.

We have now organised our bedroom and ensuite, have the spare bedroom fairly organised for visitors tomorrow night, organised the main bathroom and have Madelines new bedroom suite put together...when she gets home next week she can unpack all her boxes and sort herself out.

Still a large amount of boxes to be looked through and stored.....we are not unpacking a lot of boxes and over time I am going to cull a huge amount of my knick knacks I have collected over the years. It is time to be ruthless and minimise. I am so over the clutter.

2011-12-20T20:24:00.002+10:30

Today we went shopping for a new bedroom suite for my daughter. She is 14 and still using a single bed....she would now like a queen size bed...gosh when we were kids we didn't get a choice...we had a single bed until we left home and brought our own double/queen size bed. Kids these days are getting huge beds and they are barely even teenagers...he is probably the last of her friends to get a larger bed....anyway, this is what her new bedroom suite will look like less the black and white bed linen...she would "like" white and lime green.

Home Sweet Home

2011-12-16T22:43:00.004+10:30

YES we got the home we applied for today.....we are very excited....4 bedrooms, 2 living areas, media room or in our case my sewing room....ceiling fans, air conditioning, fully screen,great kitchen, double lock up garage, security system, a very good sized yard in a great location of Grammar Park Estate in Brassall......we will al be very happy there....close to shops, school, and Ipswich city centre...of and of course my friends......we get the keys next Thursday and hopefully the removalists will have us in Thursday/Friday....this is a great relief as hubby is being deployed to the middle east in January for 4 months.....we should at least have most things unpacked and settled in.

House Hunting

2011-12-15T18:30:00.006+10:30

House Hunting....agghhhhh.....truly who likes house hunting? Trying to get a house that is what we are "used" to in size and comfort is not as easy as I hoped it would be.....until then we are in a 2 bedroom apartment in the Oaks Aspire which is quite comfortable....but nothing is a comfortable as your own home, is it!

Thank you to my friends who have sent me emails and messages along the way....I apologise if I haven't been able to respond to each one as I usually would.

Ohhh I did have a lovely quick visit with Grand-Baby Isaac this morning......he is now 14 weeks old and still only so little....but soooo cute and a happy little chappy.

On The Road

2011-12-09T20:23:00.001+10:30

We drove from Adelaide to Cootamundra in NSW and spent two nights with our friends Terry and Paul. A very lovely little place with really lovely parks. There isn't a great deal to do in "Cootaville" as Terry calls it. Lol. We left there this morning and arrived in Canberra. We visited Parliament House and the National Library to see an exhibition of historic manuscripts. Hand written pages of people like Isaac Newton, Einstein, Captain James Cook.

Tomorrow we head off to my sister in laws place in Kempsey.

I am posting from my iPad but am yet to figure out how to gets pictures onto here.

Amanda's Quilts

2011-11-27T20:11:00.005+10:30

Today was the 2nd last Sunday I get to spend with my sewing friends here in South Australia. I helped my friend Amanda hand-stitch the binding down on her quilt. This quilt was her first quilt she has made...I had purchased the fabric many years ago but had just never got around to doing something with it.....all it took was Amanda to need some help making something with it that gave me the get up and go to design something that would work with the fabrics for her to sew....I am so pleased I could be a part of her first quilt that she just loves. There was a panel and then just bits of other matching fabrics that we had to work with.....doesn't it look terrific!

Below is the jelly roll quilt that I made at retreat not long ago....I did however decide to put a border on it......Dawn Hay quilted it in an all over stipple to finish it off....I just love it but because Amanda and I have become so close I decided to give her my "Bliss" so that she could snuggle under it have something to remember me by. Dawn only charges $50 for an all over stipple on quilts up to 80" x 80".....the best deal you will get anywhere in Australia!!

CHRISTMAS swap goodies

2011-11-26T10:44:00.005+10:30

My online CRAFT group have a CHRISTMAS swap and my goodies arrived from Judy yesterday.....I have been spoilt rotten....thank you so much Judy.

C for Chocolate covered Cashews....YUMMMM

H for owl fabric and Half yards of matching fabrics - up behind the patterns

R for Rotary blades

I for Inspiration - pattern/kit

S for Soaps - handmade - smells divine

T for Table-runner (underneath but look to the right and its the red/beige/black)

M for My (Judy's) "Lets do Lunch" book - she had one she hadn't used & I wanted one

A for Apron String pattern

S for Something Special - the cute fabric panel and matching fabric AND the cutest owl pincushion with a cute owl button attached and cute pin with the pattern to make more as well.

Table Runners

2011-11-18T09:08:00.003+10:30

Colleen, Terry, Naomi, Christine, Dawn, Lucky, Amanda
(don't ask me what Lucky was saying...lol)

So I have had a "thing" for table runners and matching coasters....this past Sunday we had our Sunday Sewers get-together for Christmas and I made each of the girls a table runner and coasters as a going away pressie from Me to Them. There is less than 3 weeks to go now and we will be leaving South Australia and heading for home in Ipswich, Queensland. It has been four years since we moved here and the time has just flown by. I have missed "home" since leaving but now that we are leaving I am really sad to be leaving such wonderful friends....I am very thankful though that these lovely ladies are part of my life and I know I will never lose their friendship.

The Games We Play

2011-10-31T10:04:00.003+10:30

The women had to pass a ping pong ball up and down the inside of their husbands pants three times....OMG it was hilarious!!! Click on the pics to see where our hands are!!

Trivia Night Halloween Style

2011-10-30T18:38:00.005+10:30

I will let the photo's speak for themselves other than to say it was an hilarious night.

Happy Birthday to Meeeeeeee

2011-10-26T19:48:00.014+10:30

Today is my 45th birthday and it feels good to be yet another year older.....another day living this wonderful life and enjoying my loved ones.....yes I have more wrinkles and bulges but I am happy to be here to enjoy the special people who I surround myself with.

I feel very blessed to have my family and friends that I can spend my days with. I woke up with breaky in bed made by my youngest daughter....then Glen gave me an iPad for my pressie and told me he was taking the day off work to spend with me.

Guess what we did???

Soaking up the sun

My darling husband Glen took me to the park and we enjoyed, oysters, smoked salmon, camembert cheese, prawns and wine for lunch.....we laid around in the gorgeous sun and enjoyed hearing the parrots making a racket in the trees....it was an awesome day. Read a little about the iPad I got for my birthday and then came home for a nanny nap....after wine, good food and the sun I was just plum tuckered out :-)

Yesterday I went out for lunch with the girls from the Tuesday Sewing group at Dawns. We went to Cafe Verde in Golden Grove as its always great food there. Should have taken a pic of the food but I hoovered it down too quick and forgot...lol

Dawn, Judy, Heather, Lucky, Amanda, Denise and I all had a lovely time eating, chatting and laughing.....and I got some lovely pressies from my dear friends.

This necklace my mum brought me....it has a heap of little red Swarzkofski crystals inside the sterling silver filigree ball. The earrings my friend Amanda brought me and dropped them over today....she sneakily brought them from a store we had visited together recently and saw me eying them off...when I went back to buy them they were gone...I was so disappointed and the sales girl played her game so well...she had me fooled big time.

Baby Pics

2011-10-20T12:58:00.008+10:30

Madeline is thrilled with her first nephew Isaac Matthew James

Baby Isaac on the quilt I made for him.....I used the Luv U range of fabric...
and yes it has owls on it.

Isaac was a bit unsettled and seemed to enjoy sucking my little finger.

Isaac with his "Ma" as I am going to be called...my son and daughter call me "Ma" so I thought it was appropriate rather than Grandma, Nan or Nana.

Proud Daddy and Aunties Sophie and Madeline

Both of us tickled pink

Finally I got a pic of Mummy Grace on the night before I left.

Free Blog Backgrounds

2011-10-19T12:38:00.006+10:30

I just came across Designs by Dani....Dani offers free blog backgrounds....so I felt that being summer now here in Oz, that this great background with "thongs" aka "flip flops" would be ideal for my new background. I love wearing thongs/flip flops all the time and if I could get away with it I would live in them. Yes I know what you girls in the States think of when we say "thongs". LOL....

Thanks Dani for sharing your great designs.

FRIENDS SWAPPERS

2011-10-18T21:25:00.004+10:30

Hi Everybody,

First I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to all the wonderful swappers who have made this swap enjoyable and wonderful for your partners and also for me....I really am impressed with the majority of you that have kept in touch with me and your partners along the way so that things run smoothly.

I have gone through my emails and have updated my sidebar on the blog to note who has confirmed they have "sent" and "received" their parcels.

There are still a few outstanding that I can see......maybe I have not received emails??

Please check out if you are one of those that I am referring to. Maybe it is just an oversight.....I have checked my emails thoroughly.....if you have sent or received and are not noted on my side bar PLEASE let me know immediately. I am not wanting to name and shame anybody.

I did have one swapper I had to tell not to send anything as the other person she was partnered with did not respond to any emails or comments left on her blog. I am hoping she isn't unwell but if that is the case an email to say would have been nice. I am also hoping she just hasn't ignored the emails or comments..... Pat H was advised by me not to send anything until we knew she was contactable...and to date she hasn't been.

THANKS AGAIN to all of you have made this swap fun and enjoyable. I have sent this post via email directly to everybody in this swap to ensure everybody receives this notification.

FRIENDS SWAPPERS

2011-10-17T08:09:00.005+10:30

Hi to all my lovely FRIENDS swappers.......please give me a couple of days to get organised and I can then go through the emails from you all to confirm all swappers have sent and received.....I hope all has gone well with the swap.

Honey I'm Home

2011-10-16T20:06:00.008+10:30

Gosh two weeks has flown by.....I am now home from sunny Queensland although there were moments it was pouring rain and some nippy mornings and evenings.

I had a fantastic time with my CRAFT girls on retreat at Mt Alford....gosh we really couldn't want a better place to have a retreat......breaky, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner catered for. Our own rooms and ensuites attached to each room...truly, it is fantastic.

We had lots of fun with party games, chatter, laughing and we actually did get a bit of sewing done.

I even can boast introducing an old school friends to the joys of sewing and quilting and she got to finish a table-runner and coasters at retreat.....she has since gone home to make 3 more sets. She is addicted I tell you and its fantastic.

We all had so much fun and have come away with more special bond with the friends we have met originally online....some of us had met in person before and some hadn't......it always feels as if we have all known each for so long though and we all just blend so nicely together.

Some pics of retreat......see we did actually get some sewing done....most of us hard at work..lol

One of my table runners

Lois's table topper

Sharon and her table runner - we both made one the same

Anita's tablerunner

They had this strange head massager that Amanda so kindly offered to try out on all of us.....it was kind of tickly and felt like something crawling through my hair...lol

I got two table runners and one jelly roll quilt completed....below from left to right is Me, Sharon, Floss, Helena, Lois, Amanda, Anita and Lynda show off our table runners.

Jelly Roll quilts

Sharon with her new Ipad

Retail therapy

Hi from Queensland

2011-10-01T17:58:00.003+09:30

Hi Everybody...just letting you know that I am in Queensland visiting the new baby grandson. He is soooo tiny and such a little cutie....compared to his daddy that weighed in at 9lb this little 6lb seems just so very tiny.....he seems to be a good baby for them to date. Grace has left the hospital and is at home now and settling in to her new role as mummy. Guy is over the moon and said he had a great sleep lastnight with both at home with him.

FRIENDS swappers I am sorry I have not been able to respond to emails but please continue to email me and let me know you have sent or received your parcels. I will attend to them all when I can.

For everybody who has left me emails on congratulations a big big thank you. I appreciate them all and will also reply to them when I get the chance.

I have been visiting baby Isaac and also trying to get organised for our retreat that begins on Monday for four days....woohoo... its all happening here.

Love and hugs to all my friends who have been here for me. I truly appreciate your support and friendship. xxx

First Grand-child - Isaac Matthew James

2011-09-28T18:00:00.002+09:30

Yes you read that right.....my son Guy and his girlfriend Grace have just had a baby boy and made me a Grandma......we are thrilled to bits to welcome Isaac Matthew James into our world. Naming him after my son Matthew James brought tears to my eyes....thank you to my son and Grace for this beautiful gesture....Isaac is my first grandchild and my family are thrilled to bits....my daughters Sophie and Madeline are jumping up and down with excitement. My baby boy Guy is now a FATHER....OMG its a bit scary when I think of it that way....he is still only 20 years old....all I can hope is that the excitement they have now lasts for a long time and all goes well for their family.

Proud Aunty Sophie and Daddy Guy with baby Isaac

Proud Daddy giving Isaac his first bath

FRIENDS parcels are arriving

2011-09-27T17:50:00.006+09:30

How exciting.....we are all starting to receive our FRIENDS swap goodies......I received my terrific goodies today from Sandy.

F for Friends Needlecase - gorgeous red stitchery and Moda Bliss fabrics & gorgeous pins
R for Ribbon and Ric Rac - can never have enough ric rac or ribbon
I for Inches - the cutest wooden handmade tape measure - tape measure pulls out and winds back in
E for Eat - Chocolate Nut Pralines - very yummy - had to try them out straight away :-)
N for Notions - the cutest wooden handmade quick unpick
D for Diary and pen
S for Something Special x 3 - I was very spoilt - chinese paper lantern swag - owl bling ring and necklace & pretty notecards

THANK YOU SO MUCH SANDY....I feel very spoiled....I love all my goodies and hope your parcel arrives any day and you like your goodies as much as I do mine.

Illene has received her gifts from Carole.....Else has received her goodies from Anita and Anita has in turn received hers from Else.

FRIENDS SWAP

2011-09-26T14:46:00.002+09:30

Julie has just received her lovely goodies from Sandi....drop over to Julie's blog and see what she got!!

I posted my swap parcel off to Sandy this morning....so keep an eye out for your parcel Sandy. Hopefully you will have it in a few days.

FRIENDS swap goodies ready

2011-09-24T17:53:00.003+09:30

Hi all you FRIENDly swappers....I have just got my goodies ready to send to Sandy....all packed and will go in the mail on Monday....hope everybody is having as much fun as I did.

FRIENDS SWAPPERS

2011-09-20T16:48:00.004+09:30

Some of you are sending your parcels already...well done to you girls who have already sent. I know Naomi has already received her awesome goodies from Lisa.....take a look at Lisa's blog to see what she has sent to Naomi.....fantastic goodies.....you just have to love all the owl goodness!!

We have 10 days before we must have our goodies sent.....I am going to be getting mine out to my partner Sandy next week before I head off to Qld for a two week visit with my family and my online CRAFT friends for retreat.

How are you all going? I hope things are running smoothly. I am hoping everybody is communicating with their partners and things are all on schedule.