Birthday goodies....

I thought some of you may be interested in what I received for my birthday.

So here is a little collection of some of the goodies.

Flowers from Mum and Dad's garden. They have a beautiful garden but are finding it very hard to keep up the water. They have tanks but are on water restrictions - but they are allowed to water from a bucket with water from the outside tap - unlike us, we are not allowed to use our outside taps at all for watering only "grey -used- water" from inside our home like shower water, washing machine water etc...
At our new home we will have plenty of tanks to use.

Now, as much as I'd like to say that my husband thought of the Cath Kidston goodies for me, I have to say it was me! Her big January sale was just too tempting and what a perfect time to have it - around my birthday!!! So, I suggested that this might be a good idea!!The bag was originally £75 reduced to £34.49 (about $80). What a bargain eh? So I picked a few other little items to make up the amount to make the most of the (crazy) postage charge. The little badges have not arrived yet.....

Now, this is very special. Granky (the name we use for my Grandmother - yes, funny I know!) gave this to me on the weekend. She did this embroidery when she was very young and she only used a single strand of thread for all of it! My Great Grandmother did the crochet around the edges.

These birds are called "Galah's". I love the pink and grey colours together. The photo on the right is the BACK of the embroidery. Granky said she was most proud of the back because it is so neat! I would have to agree! Amazing isn't it?

Granky also gave me this. It is a duchess set crocheted by my Great Grandmother. Granky thought it would be a perfect accessory to my glass dressing table sets. She was right.

I will treasure this.

Mum and Dad gave me these. They bought them whilst in Dubrovnik last year. Apparently all the girls wear them there - it's a bit of a tradition. Mum has a pair as well. They are so pretty and dainty.
I feel as though I have been thoroughly spoilt this year not just with gifts but with cards and well wishes from all over the world. Thank you Bloggers!

Bye for now, Kathryn. XX

Dookie....

Thank you to everyone who wished me well for my birthday by leaving a comment on the last post. I had a wonderful day and a wonderful weekend. This post has mostly photos so sit back and soak up the atmosphere of "Dookie". It is a small town with a population of just over 1000. My Grandmother has lived here for most of her life (she is now 87) and I enjoy each and every visit. I lived with her and my Pa way back in 1981 for a couple of months and attended the local Primary School whilst my parents were taking a much needed break overseas.

My Great Grandmother also lived here, in her own home, until she was 92 - I 16 . She taught me her love of craft. I would ride my bike around to see her and each time I visited, she would show me something different to make - Flower posies, crochet, flannel (face washers) covered soaps tied with millinery flowers, embroidery etc....

This is my Grandmother's home (we call her "Granky" - due to my brother who, when he was little, couldn't say Grandma). I love this old Telephone box. It is slowly deteriorating. I would love to repair it but a lot of it is beyond that. Very sad.

This is "Saddleback". I have climbed this "hill" many times - mostly in my younger years. Last time we visited Hubs and I took the boys up. They thought it was great and what a view!

This is the main street with the Milk Bar.

The Pub!

The Dookie Emporium! What a great place. Within, lies a treasure trove of antiques, collectibles and a lovely cafe.

The space shippy thing in the middle was a "prop" for the T.V show "Wierd Science".

I think I have a budding op shopper and collector on my hands! Master 8 loves coming into these sorts of places. Master 6 does not!

Happy Australia Day! Breakfast in the park. They had a wonderful crowd for such a little town.
Granky always serves the cups of tea on the day.

On the way home. The grain silos.
It was a fabulous, relaxing and enjoyable weekend.

I hope we will be back soon.

Kathryn. XX

Peahen.....?

Yesterday I heard this really funny noise coming from the back yard. I looked, couldn't see anything through the window, heard it again, had another look and there it was, sitting on our back fence! A pretty "Peahen"! I couldn't believe it. I yelled out to the boys to come and have a look whilst I grabbed the camera. I really wanted to get a great picture but this was the best one (er hem...through our very grubby window).

I chased it around the backyard in nothing but my bathers (as we were getting ready to go to the pool), and trying to avoid being bitten by our VERY ferocious "Jumping Jack" ants. It would have looked so funny to any strangers walking past but I didn't care - all I wanted was a great photo. It didn't happen. Oh, well it was fun seeing it in the backyard anyway!! Doesn't happen everyday! I wonder where it came from?

We are heading off to Dookie for the long weekend (Australia Day on Monday) to visit my Grandmother. We don't get to see her as often as we would like as she is 4 hours away. We have a friend who had a baby 4 months ago in Bendigo (half way between here and Dookie) so we thought we'd call in and visit them on the way home. When she phoned to arrange a catch up on Monday I panicked because I hadn't done the quilt I had in mind for the baby. So in my panic last night I cut out the squares and started sewing......

I managed to get it nearly finished today (including more Free Motion Quilting) - all but the binding sewn down. I shall do that in the car on the way. It's a very simple design just 4 1/2" squares (7 X 9) with a 4 1/2" strip around the sides. They love dogs which is why I chose the "Puppy Love" fabric. The spots were an end of bolt sale at Spotlight for $3.oo for about 4 meters!

Tomorrow, I am turning one year older but I am going to.........

I hope everyone has a wonderful Australia Day weekend. We live in the best country in the world don't we!

Kathryn. XX

Bad hair day.....

After looking in the mirror this morning, I should have washed my hair, but since we are going to the pool again later this afternoon, I thought I could hold out....

Then I looked in the mirror again after I had a shower and wished I had have washed it.

So, I thought I'd try and disguise it with a headband. I had wanted to make one for a while and thought what a perfect day to do it.

I knew of a tutorial out there so gave it a go. I failed miserably......was it the tutorial or me?

The first one was too tight......
The second one (after a little adjustmant) was too big......
I haven't tried a third.....yet!
I was having a Jodie (EITTTS) moment and I wasn't very happy.

On a brighter note, here is another little peek at the Matryoshka quilt.
I have nearly finished stitching around them, then I'll have to do the faces.
I usually paint the faces on my dolls but this time I will be stitching them.
The boys are behaving like maniacs today - what is it with boys?
Off to the pool we go......
Kathryn. XX

It's about time!

Yes, it's about time I passed a few of these on.....I have been hanging on to some of these since the end of last year. Naughty, I know, so here goes....

Thank you Kylie from "A Bite of Country Cupcakes"

Thank you Kylie again!!!!And Kylie once again!!! I think she likes me!
And this one is from Marilyn from "Lavender Cottage"

Kylie also gave me this one but I thought I'd give credit to Marilyn this time!!

I hope you understand Kylie...hee hee!

Now I have to pass them on around blogland. All of the lovely blogs I read are deserving and it is so hard to choose but I will so that they keep going around the globe....

Instead of passing each one on 5 times, I'll pass each one on to one blog.

Ok, here goes.......

The Uber amazing blog award goes to......MelMel - love her UK style!

The Kreative Blogger award goes to Lucy Bloom - check out her gorgeous peg ladies!!!

The Butterfly Award goes to Andrea at "The Pink Poodle" I just love reading her blog!

And the Last one "The friendly blogger" award goes back to Kylie because she has turned into one of my friends through our blogs and our blog meet!

Yeah for blogging!

Kerryanne from "Shabby art Boutique" also tagged me. This tag involves sharing your 4th photo from your 4th folder then tagging 4 more people.......

Here is my photo

This cushion is actually still available on my website if you are interested.....click on the photo.

Ok, so the 4 people I tag for this are

Sarah from "Shabby Roses and pretty things"

Lyn from "My Pink and Cream Cottage"

Annie from "Flower Garden"

Rachel from "Four Wise Monkeys"

It's another hot one here today so we are off to the pool again! Hubs is going to meet us after work for fish and chips and a swim. We went last night after dinner and it was beautiful. (not many people there and water so refreshing.)

Keep cool, Kathryn. XX

Quilt #2 finished!! and a WIP...

Yes! The quilt is finished and I'm very happy with how it turned out. The Free Motion Quilting wasn't as scary as I thought it would be and it looks (as my husband put it so eloquently) like a "real" quilt!! I finished it off yesterday in the company of some very experienced quilters. It was a really lovely afternoon and a great way to finish it off.

I love the binding stripes - pink and green of course!

It is quite addictive once you start and whilst making this one I was dreaming up the next one......
This will be the next quilt I do. Just a little sneek peek for now to keep you interested!!! (And me motivated to finish it off!!)
It is my parents' 40th wedding anniversary today so we are making the trek to see them for the day. We are going out for lunch then having dessert back at their place. Mum makes the BEST lemon cheescake you can possibly imagine - light and fluffy and oh so lemony....I hope she has made this...fingers crossed!
Kathryn. XX

Winging it.....

Ok, so after much debate in the Shabby Cottage sewing room I have decided to "wing it" with the free motion quilting. I have had a bit of a practice and reckon I can give it a good old fashioned try. (what on earth am I thinking - once you start there is really no going back is there.....)

Short one today and not a lot of news - although I did stab my foot with a stick at the pool the other day then had to do some minor surgery on it when we came home....the result was a fragment of the stick measuring 1/2" long. I nearly passed out pulling it out....Oh, and it would happen to be my sewing peddle foot wouldn't it! So, no sewing for 2 days and a very strange walking action......very sad indeed!

Wish me luck with the FMQ!

Kathryn. XX

Drum roll please.... We have a winner!!!

Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who visited my blog and left a comment to be in the draw for my 100th post giveaway!

I appreciate every single comment left here. It gives me the motivation to keep going and it is so wonderful to have so many new "friends" from Australia and around the globe. Without blogging I think I would still be stuck in my rutt.....

It's a whole new world when you blog!!!

Ok, so hubs found this great site for picking names from a hat from here. It also enables you to add names twice, thrice etc.... I couldn't figure out if Random.org did that?????

Anyway, without further ado....we have a winner and the hat chose....

Noemia from Portugal!!!

Woo Hoo! Congratulations Noemia! This wonderful package of goodies will be heading your way in the next few days. I will email you.

Thank you to everyone who participated....make sure you come back for the next one!

Kathryn. XX

Quilt # 2......

This is quilt #2 which I finished piecing together today. I made it from fabric from my stash and now have none left of two of the fabrics used. I am trying not to buy fabrics until I use up some I have on my shelves!!
I saw a picture of a quilt like this one (somewhere) on the internet and thought, yeah that looks easy enough...so I sat down, figured it all out, worked out if I had enough of each fabric, then off I went. It looks OK so far. I'm not sure how I'm going to quilt it though. I may quilt it in the ditch as I haven't tried free motion quilting yet. Perhaps I should have a few practice goes then just wing it......What do you think?
Kathryn. XX

PS. Don't forget you still have until tomorrow afternoon (Australian time) to enter my giveaway
See the previous post below and leave a comment if you haven't already!

"Trash and Treasure" and a giveaway!!

Today was the big day.

The day some of us got to meet "Trash" in person! Originally a Ballarat resident, she now lives in the UK with her husband and two children. They had made the treck "home" to visit the rellies and do some sightseeing for a few weeks over Christmas and the New Year.....

Thanks to Ric-Rac and her organisational skills we started off at Ballarat Patchwork for fun, laughter, crafty talk, door prizes and asking poor old Trashy 100 questions! Then we progressed to the Eureka Park for a picnic lunch...
Some bloggers (not to mention Trash coming from the UK) had travelled far and wide.....
http://thequiltingb.blogspot.com/
http://rousabout.blogspot.com/
http://sillygillykids.blogspot.com/ all the way from Adelaide - crazy lady!!
http://fourwisemonkeys.blogspot.com/
http://annie-flowergarden.blogspot.com/
http://ballaratpatchwork.com.au/scrapbag/
http://janeysrelaxation.blogspot.com/
http://thornberry.wordpress.com/
http://twocheeseplease.livejournal.com/
http://trashaloucan.blogspot.com/
http://littleredhen08.blogspot.com/
http://nicolemdesign.blogspot.com/

http://dontlooknow.typepad.com/dont_look_now/

I hope I haven't missed anyone...

Then it was back to Ric-Rac's place for afternoon tea and more crafty talk...
Trash had even brought some crafty loveliness from the UK as pressies for us all.
It was great to meet you Trash. A fun day was had by all.

Now, a little while ago, it was my 100th post
(around Christmas time - far too hectic for me to run a giveaway!)
So, to say thank you for all of you who have supported me and my blogging adventure, here it is, my 100th post giveaway.......or should I say my 112th post giveaway!

in this giveaway you will receive.....
1 lined zipper purse made with Cath Kidston's "bubbles" fabric,
3 fridge magnets made with Cath Kidston's "Classic Rose" fabric in red, white and blue!
1 key ring also in Cath Kidston fabric "Classic Rose" on one side and "Summer Blossom" on the other,
1 of my "Shabby Packs" - including 1 fat quarter of Paris Bebe fabric along with lace, buttons, rhinestones, charms, roses, clay roses, ribbon roses and more.......
1 2009 fridge calendar.

Now, if that all sounds good to you and you would like to have it all in your hot little hands, just leave a comment on this post to be in the draw!

If you blog it, I will enter you twice!

How easy is that? So, come on everyone (including international bloggers) is invited....
I shall leave it open until Tuesday and draw a name sometime during the day.

Good luck, Kathryn. XX

5.00pm Tuesday. The giveaway entries are now closed....I shall get organised and draw a name out later on tonight - once I figure out who needs two entries etc..........Good luck!!!