Postcards and things....

I recently took part in a postcard swap hosted by Sheila...... the theme being Summer/Beach

This time I swapped with Joanna from Massachusetts, USA

This is the postcard I received:....

I just love all the detail... do you see the footprints coming out the water?....

I took a bit of artistic licence with mine.... and turned a foundation pieced block into an interpretation of a swirly sand beach .....

I had prepared a whole bunch of mouse string bags from my scraps and finally have them finished.... 

I've kept one for my sewing room.... one needs a mouse in the sewing room????  The rest have gone into the giftie box....

I have been trying out a few new low calorie recipes ... this one was a great success and of course nice and easy and quick to do....

I didn't have all the ingredients in THIS recipe (I've found a few recipes I like on this blog), so put in what veges I had... and I left out the sugar in the marinade and ate it on some brown rice with a side salad...  the leftovers were lovely cold the next day too.

Righto, Gotto Go....  it's that time of day when the apron gets donned and I search for food!!!

In My Garden ....

... those things we need to do the bits in the garden....

Hubz is the gardener here so this is in his space....

... little topiaries outside the front door.....

... ok.. so they are not topiaries strictly... but they are outside the front door! ...

... who doesn't love a vase of daisies?  

... I clearly need to get some daisy bushes ... but lavender is gorgeous too...

Righto, I'm going to get on with my alphabet letters for a bit....

FarmFest

We have an annual FarmFest just 3km away from where I live each year and Narelle from up North and her Hubz come down to it every year......

... so it is now our annual get together ....

... we met in blogland....

... we wandered around and purchased a few items (I got Hubz lovely bamboo socks but I didn't take a picture... socks are socks)

We did find a girlie place amongst big machines, dust, farm tools, big hats and tight jeans .... 

this cute little shed....

here is Narelle.... look at her shopping bag.... I meant to go back to that place and get one too!!!

inside the She Shed was lots of pretties....

... and we spotted a local celebrity trying to be incognito....

... Lee Kernighan, a local country singer was special guest for one of the stands

(you can take a guess at which one.... Lee is the local bloke ....)

... here are the groupies ....

It was such a fun few hours... I love this annual catch up... luckily this year we are having a bi-annual catch up as Narelle is coming to The Quilters Angel Stitching Day Out in September this year ....

I sent off this picture last week and it has arrived at Marina's... (it was her birthday).. luckily the glass survived the journey ....  I've always loved this saying and have made this before for pressies....

Righto, Gotta Go... the girls came for sewing here today and made a right mess of the place!

FNWF

Thank you again Cheryll for having us for FNWF ..... always so fun to stitch with others...

Reality at home was footy with Hubz so I took my hand stitching out...

by the time my eyes were closing I had got this far with those little ducks....

.... so I joined in with those in the Northern Hemisphere and finished this stitchery block

This is a block from Natalie Birds In My Garden booklet....

Righto, Gotto Go.... beautiful day here .... 

Pincushion

I showed you here my lovely pincushion I got from Susan.... and a mention today that mine hadn't been seen reminded me to post about mine...

... well you know the deal with these swaps is that to get one you also make one and send that off... and my partner was the lovely Elyte....

It's a design by Natalie Bird

a little mouse on a cotton reel looking after things in pockets.

.. and another mouse smelling the flowers and a ladybird

and a needlecase ... and hexagons...

... and a scissor pocket...

.. she has thought of everything in this nifty not very little pincushion... and I loved adding little bits to it like bee buttons and threads etc....

The main fabrics I used were Lynette Anderson and beautiful wool felt and added some extra pieces for the hexagons...

It was so fun to make and Elyte has said she loves it and that's the main thing isn't it....

Thanks Susan for hosting this fun swap.... there have been a bunch of fantastic and all different pincushions made...

Righto, Gotto Go.. there's a weekend to prepare for... woohoooo.....

Label done.. and posted....

I had a chat to young Beau the other night..... he was entranced

... and I sewed a label on his quilt (I had a little boy quilt ready made just in case)

... I'm sure he will like baby elephants...

... everyone likes baby elephants don't they? ....

... and a menagerie of animals on the back .....

... just a cot size quilt to keep him snug during these winter months....

Righto, Gotto Go..... outside in the sun is just too lovely .. warmer out than in at the moment....

Party Pooper...

From joining in with Chooky's party on Friday night with all the gals and that was the end of my weekend party I'm afraid.....

We had an open house on Saturday so I spent my morning cleaning and hiding washing and all those things one does when strangers are going to look through the house.... only one person came and only to look to see how house prices are going!!!  

I'm not sad about the lack of numbers (though that is disappointing) ... its the wasted time cleaning... I could have been sewing!!!

Then we had young widget to stay.... and he is at school so it's fun to sit up late and we watched some movie all together (Dingo. dango or something... about a lizard that got stuck in the desert) ... there is just something about a 6 year old shrieking with laughter at silly things in the movie ... that was worth missing sewing for and I could hand stitch while we watched.

Then we went house hunting on Sunday.. didn't see anything we specially liked... just as well as we haven't got interest in our house... but I quite like driving around gently looking at places around town that we haven't seen before....

I did do some hand sewing last night and finished off this sweet stitchery ...

Happy 3rd Birthday Chookshed and thanks for hosting us Chooky... I've seen heaps that other people have done so it has been very successfull...