Christmas in July is here!

This morning the postie rang my doorbell and delivered my Christmas in July gifts from

Pam from The Best laid Plans.

It's just like being a little kid again opening up the package and look what greeted me, I love the fabric it's so bright and cheery

and this was what was inside the packagethere's needle, pins, embroidery scissors on a button clip, a mug cozy to keep my coffee warm and a gorgeous pattern produced by Pam's friend. Thank-you so much Pam, I'll never lose my embroidery scissors down the back of the chair again and my coffee shall never get cold! I'll have to

Thanks also to Linda and Stephanie for hosting another great swap! You've both done an amazing job keeping us all informed and giving us ideas of what to include in our parcels.

Happy Xmas in July to all who took part!

Twenty-Twenty!

Today I've reached that milestone in my life that some of us "girls" don't like to announce, another way of saying it is "Thirty-Ten" as recently explained by Rosalie Quinlan.

I'm not sure how I feel about life at 40, it's definitely different to my life at 20. I wasn't married, I spent my weekends nightclubbing and sleeping and I went to Uni part-time whilst working full-time. I don't miss any of that but it was fun at the time.

These days I'm married to a wonderful husband, mother to a gorgeous son whose growing into a handsome young man everyday and owner of a puppy that follows me everywhere. We live in our own home in the suburbs. I spend my spare time stitching when I can or being around other likeminded crafters. I work full-time with a great bunch of colleagues, even though they don't get my obsession with fabric and making things. (Ange is the exception, she's equally crafty).

I love to watch my son play sport even though he's not going to be a Harry Kewel or Michael Jordan, he's having fun and that's all that matters. I support my husband's obsession with rocks and minerals and have my own little collection of fossils.

I rarely drink but when I do I like reds and it has to be with a lovely meal. I've never smoked, never tried drugs, I've never been a big risk taker although one day I'd like to sky dive.

Overall I'm more confident, apart from the occasional panic attack. I'm happy with the choices I've made in life, I wouldn't change anything! I don't feel any different, got a few wrinkles, maybe carrying a bit more weight than I should but I don't try to hide it. I am who I am, and if who I am is a 40 year old then that's me, it's just Twenty-twenty has a fun ring to it!

Thanks to my Mum for bringing me into the world and guiding me through my youth unscathed. Thanks to my Sister and Brother for the sibling rivalry and being there for me when I needed you to. Thanks to my husband and son for providing me with laughter, love and happiness. Thanks to all my friends who have provided me friendship and support. You've all helped make me the woman I am today.

Now where's my chocolate cake?????

P.S. If you bloghop over to Bonnie's blog you can see what I sent her for the Xmas in July swap!

Teddy Bears Picnic + Giveaway!

Bloghop over to Helen's if you'd like to see what we did yesterday!

Mine has a bow on her head now, any suggestions for a name?

( The pattern is by Bears by Annie )

***GIVEAWAY ALERT***

Kate's having a gorgeous giveaway, better be quick though it closes on the 31st July!

Mystery Marathon

I sure hope my Tassie Quilting Blogging friends can all join me here.....

For those that can't make it you can also participate in cyberspace!

Proceeds for the day will help MissM raise funds towards a trip to Namibia as part of the World Challenge. Good Luck MissM on this fabulous journey! Please pop over and welcome MissM and leave her some words of encouragement.

A weekend in July

It's been a lovely weekend in Hobart, sun shining during the day but a chill in the air. Friday night and Saturday we did the usual taking DS to his weekend sports, basketball and soccer plus he had a trip to the movies with his classmate who also sleptover.

Lastnight DH and I had a lovely evening out with friends at a new restaurant, food was delicious but it was far too noisy. After the meal we retreated to the wine bar and sat in front of the woodheater, so much more peaceful and very relaxing. We left the two boys at home, eating hotdogs and playing computer games, they're pretty good for 12 year olds and we were only 5 minutes down the road.

Now it's Sunday, I got up late, did a little ironing, read the paper, had soup for lunch and in between all that I finished off the Needlecase from Rosalie's Welcome Friends pattern.

I also whipped up a button bracelet just for fun. These are so easy, 6 inches of 6mm elastic and then sew on the buttons.

It still needs a bit of tweaking and I think I might overlap the buttons a bit more.

Next I'm going to jump into Photoshop and play around with some of the things I've learnt from the Jessica Sprague Free online classes, the tutorials are so easy to follow!

Hope you're all enjoying your weekend too!

Not Stitchin', Just Scrappin'

Last week I had all my scrapbooking gear out and was working on a project for one of my friends for her Mum's 60th birthday. I was originally going to make a card but decided to do something she could keep and display. I added a little hidden card to the 3rd picture down so they could write their birthday wishes on.

Happy Birthday Maxine!

It was good to do a bit of scrappin', my desk gets very messy though. So Kerri that's my July finish!

Stitcher's Angel 2009

It's on again, Helen's hosting this fun swap. Click on the badge on the right to register. Please read the rules, they're a little different to last year!

Giveaway

Head over to Threads of Friendship for another fabulous giveaway!

Please visit Kimono's and Quilts blog. Andrea's celebrating a blogaversary and is having a giveaway for all of us Aussie Bloggers.

Better hurry though as the giveaway closes on the 12th July!

Princess Charming and lots of gorgeous Green

Visit Clare's Craftroom to enter a totally gorgeous giveaway!

What's been happening in my neck of the woods

In the mail last week I received the prize I won from Capricorn Quilts, a magic little star to applique on my Once Upon a Time BOM block. Thank-you Bea!!Now I'm a wee bit behind on these as I've been distracted by a little quilt I've been making for a workmate whose due to give birth very soon. I'm pretty sure she doesn't read my blog so I can share it with you. It's a pattern by Annie Downs called "Simple Stitchings". She doesn't know the sex of the baby so I chose a mix of colours and I used fleece on the back to make it extra cuddly. Sadly my photo doesn't show the true colours...I hope she likes it!

I also completed a block for a friendship quilt and my gifts for the Christmas in July Swap, but I can't share them yet. Hope you're all having a lovely week!

July to do list

So much to do this month and I haven't even listed the other items I'd love to start.