I Just Had To Have It!

No, not Ralph, Austin and Paris' puppy. 

Although he is gorgeous! 

You all needed some puppy spam, didn't you!

It was this beautiful vintage doily. 

Marina from Maisie and The Boys recently shared a doily

 she bought off ebay (you can see it here). 

Hers has a Scotty dog on it. 

So I had a look and came across this one.

I just love it.

 It's not often that I will just buy something because I love it. 

But I just HAD to have it! 

It has been well looked after. The back is so neat. 

I haven't been doing a lot of stitching lately. 

What I have been doing is making myself a dress! 

 I haven't made a dress with a zip in over 40 years. 

 

I learnt to sew at school and then did proper dressmaking 

classes at night when I was about 16 (I think). 

I didn't really enjoy making clothes until I had the boys. 

I made them windcheaters, tracksuit pants, shorts and tops. 

I loved sewing for the boys and there were no zips! 

 

I'm still not convinced I like dressmaking. 

There's a lot to be said about going to a shop,

 trying on a lovely dress and buying it! LOL!

I'll show it to you once it's finished.

Tuesday Treasures With Melody!

I'm joining Melody today with Tuesday Treasures. 

Pets is the theme of the day!

Our four legged treasures, Molly and Ginger.

 As you may remember, we lost our beautiful girl, 

Ginger, back in September.

Wasn't she just the cutest pup!

Molly is still getting up to mischief but has quietened down quite a bit. Maybe she is just starting to mature. 

She does miss Ginger, as we all do. Having Molly has made it a little easier after losing Ginger.

Who would have thought that this very cute 

little girl would become a chewer and chew up 

anything she could get hold of!

 Dogs aren't the only pets here at MacDonald's Patch. 

We also have Billy the Galah, a cockatiel, four budgies and three gold fish in the outside pond.

We lost our cheeky Lovebird, Lucky, a few months ago too.

So there you have our Pet Treasures.
Head over to Mel's to see what other 

Pet Treasures everyone has.

What I've Been Up To!

Thought I'd show you what I've been up to over the holidays. I finally put my butterfly garden cushions together.I made this Stack n Wack quilt two or three years ago.When I trimmed up all the blocks I was left with lots of thin strips. Not wanting to waste them, I trimmed all the strips to 1" and then joined them. I then put together this table topper. I think I will put it on our dressing table as it matches the quilt.Of course I'm still working on my double wedding ring quilt. I've also been working on a Christmas stitchery and another couple of special projects. You'll just have to wait to see those.

To finish off with, I thought you might like to see Billy enjoying a shower! Although you can't see it, it is actually raining and Billy just loves spreading his wings.

A Birthday Party, Relay and "Billy the Galah"

Nelson had a party with some of his friends last Saturday. It was a fun and games party. They played "Pass the Parcel"."Pin the Beak on Lucky the Lovebird" (a photo of course!)

Ate Hot Dogs and Potato Gems.

And of course, cake! Nelson wanted a homemade ice-cream cake.
This one was filled with chocolate covered honeycomb. Very yummy!

After cake the boys made key rings to take home. They decorated discs to be inserted into the key rings. Nelson did a sticker swap with Amanda of Krafty Panda earlier in the year, so they had lots of stickers to choose from.
Here's Nelson's key ring.Last Sunday Austin competed in the Box Hill Little Athletics Club Invitational Relays. His team made it to a final. They all ran really well.

Here he is waiting for one of his relays.

I let Billy the Galah out of his cage today as it was raining and he loves a shower! Billy was hit by a car and can no longer fly. Here he is having a lovely walk along the rocks in the garden.I haven't shown you anything I've been working on lately but I have be working! Last night I finished Austin's quilt. It's very grey and overcast today so I'll post some photos next post when the light is better.

What a hot day!

Today the temperature got to 44oC and didn't we know it! It was still 38oC at 9pm! And it was certainly hot during the night. I don't know what the lowest temperature was.

Noel and the boys went down to the pool.
It's great having the local pool only 150m from home!

Ginger found a cool spot under the cooling vent.

Here are two of the budgies cooling their wings.

Lucky the Lovebird was lucky enough to stay inside in the cool.

Billy the Galah was also lucky. As we have evaporated cooling and
his cage is near the back door, he managed to get some of the cool!

As for the my girls, the chickens, they disappeared for the day and turned up home after 7pm!

After tea we went for a drive to the Memorial Tower at Kangaroo Ground.

And we watched the sunset.