Easter Saturday Fire!

We absolutely love travelling down to the farm where I grew up to visit my parents and have a little fun.

There had been a few storms in past months where trees had fallen so there were plenty of logs to create a huge fire.

 Had no idea the flames were going to get this high, it was huge and we could feel the heat from across the paddock.

 Of course Megan had to be the one to do the fire dance!

 There is something about having a fire with family around which we love. It means plenty of marshmallows a bit of a sausage sizzle and sitting and watching the flames well into the night.

I hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend with family and friends.

I'll have more to share later in the week, for now it's back to stitching up pears and getting organised for school tomorrow.

Grand final for cricket!

Yesterday was the cricket grand final and the last of the cricket for this season. We are so proud of Ryan, not only did his team win the under 12's he won the award for most improved.

 He loves his cricket......one day he wants to play for Australia.

 He always gives the game everything he's got.

 I'm hoping that there might be a set of cricket nets built down the back at the new house......we'll have to wait and see.

Now it's time for him to go onto the next seasonal sport......Rugby Union!

Gone Fishing!

Our kids absolutely love an afternoon fishing, they bug their father constantly " let's go fishing Dad, come on let's go". Late yesterday afternoon we went and tried out a new fishing spot, this one is on the Namoi River right on the edge of Manilla at a friends place.

 Totally amazing spot to fish from, there were big rocks to sit on, the grass had even been cut for our arrival.

 In no time at all ( after Megan settled and stop making too much noise ) we had a bite.

 A huge Catfish!

 He was a bit slimy, Ryan had a hard time holding onto him!

 This is a face only a mother could love!

 Even though he was big enough and good enough to eat, we have a bit of a catch and release thing going on.

 Moments after the first one was released number two was on the line.

 After that things were kinda quiet, I think Megan was making too much noise, she clearly doesn't know the meaning of  "shhhh you'll scare the fish". Me, well after throwing in the line for the kids a few times and taking a few pictures it was time to sit back and relax with some hand stitching that I have to get done.

I hope you are all having a great weekend too!

Thanks for stopping by.

Sunday afternoon.

After finding ourselves glued to the box for the past week, and after a quick trip to Orange to see my parents, Sunday afternoon we were determined to have some fun and relaxation.

We have a special fishing spot we like to go to on the Namoi River further up in the hills behind Manilla.......it takes about an hour to get there from where we live (which happens to be along the same river ) but it is well worth the trip!

The afternoon was spent splashing, swimming and playing along the waters edge. Ryan found that it was much more relaxing if he sat in the water and waited for the big catch to come along, while Megan built a dam to house a few yabbies! Megan is usually not the type of person you want to take along when you want to go fishing! She is loud, always splashing in the water, throwing rocks trying to make you think that the fish are jumping out of the water, generally the fish clear out when Megan is around! She did do all of the above but after a while she sat in the water on her chair and waited. This time her patients paid off! She was the first one to catch a fish........a Murray Cod. She was so excited, she screamed, jumped and was more than happy to pose for a shot with her big catch!

I wasn't log before my big boy Ryan was in battle with something on the end of his line as well. He was a little annoyed that Megan got the first Murray Cod but was more than happy when he caught the biggest!

Just so you know we released both fish, neither of our catches were big enough for the dinner table.......maybe next time!

A Merry Christmas was had by all.

For me the best thing about christmas is the look of surprise and total excitement on the kids faces as they discover presents which have appeared under the tree overnight, and the sparkle and joy on their faces as they open each and every one!
This big boy was super impressed when he opened this.........

As was Megan when she opened hers......

I just had to share this picture........this is the kind of picture you get when you interrupt someone for a nice christmas shot who is having the best time ever with her new toys and doesn't want to be bothered. It was all a bit funny I thought.

Santa bought the kids scooters this year so after a massive lunch and a little rest to recover we went and found a bike path....... we only have paddocks and rocks at our house for the kids to scoot up and down on, until our slab is poured that is!

They went up and back trying to do little jumpy skip things on them for quite some time. Megan skipped a little too hard and fell......she got a bit of a sore wrist out of it, so I had to put a bandage on it to fix it all up!

Ryan had a fun time, it was like he had owned a scooter all along and knew exactly how to do little jumps and things.

Overall we had two very happy little kids, Megan could hardly contain her christmas excitement......

and Ryan he's too cool to look as excited as Megan!

The kids also got and iPod each and because I'm technically challenged and have not idea about these things ( it doesn't help when the dick at Harvey Norman sells you the wrong charger ), I told the kids they'll have to wait until I hunt down my little IT expert Sarah, she can sort it all out for us super quick and easy I'm sure! They didn't mind having to wait which is so nice of them, if it were me I'd probably chuck a tantrum! Just kidding!

I hope you all had had a fantastic day filled with laughter, good food and family .......just like ours was!

Blogtoberfest day 15.

Can you believe we're up to day 15 already! This could be some sort of hump day for the month!

Today because it's raining outside I'm going to share something with a little sunshine in the background. I made these little fabric boxes last week, I think the highlight for me was using some of the Aunty Cookie fabric as applique on the front!

These fabric boxes are approx. 15cm square and I'm beginning to think that they might be a little too big.........standing them up filled with goodies isn't a problem, but when they're empty they tend to be a bit floppy! If anyone has any ideas please let me know.......I'd really appreciate it! Now for two very excited little kids, they went to their first Little Athletics meet on Wednesday and had the best time ever! It looks like this might be something the kids want to do as seriously as some of the other kids.......Megan is quite the little sprinter/runner, and Ryan is a bit of an all-rounder. The meets run into the evening so the club puts on a BBQ for dinner.......there's nothing worse than getting home late then having to cook so that's a winner for me! I was going to shoot across to Tamworth yesterday afternoon and pick up a few badly needed supplies but something came over me and I felt awfully sick, so that's where I'm off to this morning after I get a coffee to go.

Thanks for stopping by.

Clearly I have a problem!

Is there such a thing as "AA" for people who don't have the ability to walk past a fabric shop with out buying something? Maybe we could call it "FA" for fabric addicts!

Yesterday I took the kids to see Legend of the Guardian in Tamworth, afterwards I had an urge to go down town and have a look around .........knowing that at some point I'd have to walk past a fabric shop! I feel compelled to walk in and touch and examine all that I can, all the while thinking.........Oh I love this! What could I make out of this? Oh this looks fantastic with this! Meanwhile the kids are rolling their eyes.......well at least Ryan is, Megan has found a cave under a pile of fabric rolls and has made camp!

So here is the latest addition to my fabric stash, and here is what they are from top to bottom.
Ticking ( so gorgeous it matches beautifully with linen ), Linen, more Ticking ( can't ever have enough of something you love ), and finally the bottom one is Matka Silk ( so beautifully soft you could sleep on it).
I think I was more excited than the kids about going to see this movie.....can you guess why?

Oh the owls! Beautiful beautiful owls! It was an extra surprise to find out that it was one of those 3D movies as well, don't the kids look excited?

I highly recommend this movie for both young and old, I think I might even have to go back and see it again.

See you all tomorrow!

Spit and polish!

I didn't get to do any sewing yesterday, but I did get to see me kids Ryan and Megan perform at the Eisteddfod, their classes performed two items each in the Choral Speech section. So I had to polish them up just that little bit extra to make sure they looked nice and smart. I couldn't believe my luck when I asked if I could take a picture of them both and they complied..........they didn't hit or punch once! A proud moment......don't they look like angels?
Today it's raining ( on and off ) at my house.......perfect for staying indoors and immerse myself into some unfinished projects.

What are you up to?

My Creative Space.

Well I gave the new glue gun a bit of a run yesterday afternoon, I'm not a big glue fan but I have to use it to secure the sticks inside my pears. I think I might go back to using my strong glue in a bottle, while it might take a little longer to dry than the glue gun glue at least I won't MELT THE SKIN OFF MY FINGERS in the process. That thing is seriously hot!!! Maybe I could find one with a temperature control......do they exist?

I bought a tray stand thingy last week so I could move my little creative mess around without much difficulty, and so my coffee table didn't become a makeshift craft table of an evening. It works really well for what I need and it's currently full of almost finished goodies bound for Shop Handmade.
My son Ryan is having a bit of a Creative Space this week. He is one of those kids that can pick up a recipe book and make what ever takes his fancy! He made these delicious cupcakes.

Then he decorated them in his own creative way...........pretty aren't they?

Although I think next time I might help him with the quantity of food colouring he uses in the icing........his teeth turned blue after eating this!

Hope you enjoyed my creative space this week? Head on over to Kootoyoo and say hello to Kirsty and all her creative space followers.

Weekend Wrap!

On Friday night Megan had a little friend over for a sleep-over, so for breaky on Saturday morning we had Pink Pancakes...........a dose of food colouring is what every child needs to start the day...... NOT!!!

With all the Easter activities going on at school this week we decided to blow a few eggs and spend a few hours decorating. Take a look at the concentration on Megan's face, she was being so careful with her dots.

She put so much paint on her eggs that they took hours to dry.

Guess who got themselves a new helmet?

I think he would sleep with it on if we let him.

I still find it hard watching him on this thing, sometimes I prefer not to watch him at all because then I don't panic if I think he's going too fast. I'll leave the supervision thing up to Mark.

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Stitching and Creative Thinking!

Here is a glimpse of a new cushion I've been working on.........I'm was hoping to have it finished by now but between all the commotion in the chook yard and having a dose of the runs yesterday I just didn't feel like it!
Remember how I told you that Ryan thinks he's a bit of a whiz in the kitchen, well he spent most of Sunday cooking up a storm for us all, he wanted to cook something for dinner so I asked him if he could do a potato bake. I told him he needed to dice an onion, I also told him to be quick or his eyes would start to sting and he'd cry!

This is what I found him doing..........now that's creative thinking!

Dinner was nice.......and he was very proud of himself, and so was I !!!

Have a nice day.