just a quickie

happy Christmas to you all for yesterday!!

Just before I go to bed, I am very pleased to inform you all that the froglet successfully donated her first bag of blood on Friday. she was very brave and didn't do anything horrid like pass out :) there was another young lady who had given her blood and then had to lie down for some time as she was a horrid green colour. The froglet devoured 2 strawberry big M's and biscuits and cheese afterwards. I asked her how she was feeling and she said kinda funny.... great I thought she is going to pass out, but no she was on a high cause she had done something wonderful that will help maybe several people.

Christmas was great, I received my own tom tom as the fisherman thought I needed one rather than stealing his all the time ehehehhe. the girls got wii games, DVDs and other bits and pieces.

today I bought a wii fit.... how much fun is that?!!!! off to do some myself as the girls have finally finished!

time to give blood!!

Tomorrow is the day! the froglet is going to donate her corpuscles at 3pm... cross your fingers for her that she doesn't freak out :)

tonight we strolled over to the shops and picked up her first pair of high heels, and I mean high! 4inch stilettos... gorgeous... she is now gloating that she is taller than me.

shall post again tomorrow after the donation. wish her luck

blood donating

Not much time to blog tonight but will ask you all to go and look at curlypops blog as she talks about how important donating blood is, specially at this time of year.

Please don't put this off and say "I don't have time", make time!! I must tell you all that I am unable to donate blood due to being in the UK durning the late 80s, early 90s so they think I have mad cows disease.

I was a regular donor as I have O neg blood and I find this soooo frustrating as it was important to me to be able to do this and know that I was helping someone who needed my blood!

I am taking the froglet as she expressed to me earlier in the year that she would like to become a donor when she turned 16. So we are off to the blood bank in the coming week to do her first donation! She too is a O neg so hopefully she will be able to donate!

So don't come up with flimsy excuses, just do it!

quilt sells for $70,000

http://money.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8181169

if you go to the above link you will read about a lady who sold her quilt for $70k this year in Melbourne!!!

I had read about this a little while ago and then when I just logged into the Internet it came up on the news. Lucky woman!! of course she deserves the money as we all know how much time and effort go into making a quilt.

I have been slack in blogging recently but I promise to do a nice fat blog soon about all the goings on, 16Th birthdays, U2 concert, sausage sizzles (70kg of snags!) fun night at the pool with inflatables and pizzas, end of year Irish dance concerts, end of year swim club events.... oh me oh my the list goes on!

Then there are the book lists for next year! I need to get a second mortgage on them not to mention electives (and this is a public school) Also will need new uniforms for growing girls and shoes *sigh*

the jumper alone costs $81 Book lists had to be in 2 days ago and the noisy one hadn't even brought her books home yet, so I didn't even know what she had and if I could sell them (need to investigate that) I have ended up buying some folders which I know we don't need grrrrr. I guess I could set up a stand and sell them outside the school!

weeping calistamon

I started to cut out the fabrics for my eldest daughters next quilt, you can probably guess what its going to be. Now I am going do this all by hand so it will take me some time she is about to turn 16 in a weeks time.... gosh time flies!


One of the girls at my guild has been making a double wedding ring and used a decor box, fits everything perfectly!!


I have a weeping calistamon in my back yard and every year its becoming bigger and bigger and when it flowers the show is amazing!

I actually have another one of these trees in the front nature strip but the local council sent around some men to 'trim' my tree as it was interrupting the view of people getting in and out of their driveways.... the thing is we live in a court.... there is no issues of seeing past anything. I told these men that they were in the wrong street and should be on the main road around the corner as I cant see to turn right!! They chose not to listen and butchered my tree. I rang the council and complained but it did me no good, the bastards came and did it again 2 years later!!! To add injury to insult the rubbish truck broke a branch a week later and really made it look sad.
I will chain myself to the tree next year!

Here is my tree last night. I took some close ups which I will post later.

gardens and rain

Last week we had a tiny bit of rain.

This is the most rain we have had in our back yard ever. The frogs that live in the pipeline behind our house are croaking away... its been many years since I have heard them making such a racket...

I bought some seeds going cheap at bunnings the other week and threw them into pots. I think this lot is basil.

Then coriander.... I love this stuff!! the family don't share my love of this aromatic herb but that's fine as that means more for me!

Of course there are the tomatoes.

I have 3 of them. A black Russian, a creamy white one (this will be interesting!) and a Tommy toe as we love our cherry tomatoes.

Mixed lettuce in the last pot

Ive been busy tracing and cutting fabric for my next quilt... I'm surrounded by piles of fabric just waiting its turn to be chopped. stay tuned for more!

beautiful weather

Its sunny at last!! today I sat outside having a coffee or two with friends in the filtered sunshine.... sooooo nice

Then this afternoon I came home and planted my last tomato into a bigger pot, so now I have a yellow a black and little cherry toms in pots. Then tragedy struck and the seeds I had sewn into their little greenhouse thingy all got spilt all over the grass, arrrgghhhh

I scraped it up as best I could but I think I might have some little flowers in my lawn..... think I will keep that a secret from the fisherman lol.

Speaking of fish, I have some very nice flake in my fridge for dinner tonight that he caught on Friday night.

No photos, sorry.... getting a bit slack with that so must go and take some pics now that the weather is improving.

can I do it again??!!

WOW!!!!
Oh my goodness, what an amazing day.
I cant believe that the big day has come and gone.

My team and I conquered the westgate bridge twice in a day. Now it said 50km BUT they lied!!!! This is my friend and I at the start, Im wearing the red top!

We did 55km and it took Georgina and I 3hr 10min riding time. We also rode back to the car from Alexandria gardens so did a total of 60km riding.
The day started out with a promise of showers and 16 degrees. We did have a few little showers but nothing to write home about, and the temp in someways was pretty good as we did get very hot riding up the bridge.

There were bikes everywhere and people stretching in strange positions where ever they could find a plot of grass that wasnt muddy.
We are now plotting our next riding experience and are hoping to do the 80km next year, but with luck we might find another ride between these.
Essentials for the day... coffee! we are team coffee after all!

My trusty steed did me proud and she rode like a dream. My big fat seat saved my bum from getting extreme soreness... Im feeling the effects of the ride but havent stiffened up to the point of not being able to walk.

less than 24 hours!

I can hardly believe it, the day is almost here! Round the bay in a day here I come whooo hoooo.

today my friend and her family went into Alexandra gardens and picked up the teams rider packs. they have found where to drop us off, and park the car. I picked up my rider pack at her house and dropped off my bike. Our other team member also dropped in with his bike and we had a coffee and discussed strategies.

oh my gawd I'm soooo excited.

the weather in the last 24 hours has been foul, rain, hail and snow in some areas. I don't know if I am going to be warm enough but I don't have much choice now so will have to go with what I have.

no photos again tonight, but I plan on taking photos tomorrow and will post action pictures of the days events.

wish us luck!!!

4 days and counting

yes folks only 4 days till I go round the bay... well part of it anyway lol.

I have managed to get in the last week 3 pump classes, 3 rpm classes, one boxing class, one step combo class, tomorrow will be another boxing class, do you think I have done enough to be ready for my ride???

I took my friend with me to RPM last night, she gave me evil looks throughout the class and told me she hated the class and probably me too, but today she loves me again and isn't too sore so I might get her back again!

My friend Claire has been very busy lately and is featured in her first magazine article in this months issue of Homespun. She also has created her first softie using Mellys beautiful new range of fabrics

She brought him into our sewing group the other night, but he had lost an eye and some teeth and we all thought he was very cute being a one eyed monster.... we were thinking of names for him but I don't think Maddie the monster is going to stick!!


I can also brag here that I have another very talented friend, Anita who recently quilted a stunning quilt for Melly, she quilted my daughters quilt and our camping quilt, which I think I have posted about in much early posts.

While I am spreading the word about my very talented friends I should also mention Jennifer who made herself the bestest nappy bag ever!! She got some of Rosalie Quinlands plastic coated fabrics and came up with a cracker of a design. We were out fabric shopping a few weeks ago and several ladies commented on her bag... she should make up the pattern as I know there are many bag ladies out there! I personally love Bruce posing, versace eat your heart out!!

One of the things I love about my blog is my blogroll. I can read all about other peoples lives, some of these ladies I know and some I have gotten to know through reading their blogs. I have met a few of these very talented ladies (and their partners) selling their beautiful crafts and creations at markets. I hope to meet some more of you in the not too distant future.

quilting class

One week until I do my first ever round the bay in a day.

I have always wanted to do a fun run or some sort of large physical event and finally my time has come!

My friends and I have done the training and we hope that we can last the bridge climb!

Now a few weeks ago I did a class with my guild and we were lucky enough to have the very talented Kellie Wulfsohn of dont look now I think we impressed Kellie with our skills as we did a 2 day course in one day.

How excited was I when I found that the materials that I painstakingly chose were the same as ones Kellie had used!

I have finished quilting my cushion top and now need to find the time to turn it into a cushion!!
I promised Kellie I wouldn't put a photo of her on my blog, so I hope her hands quilting aren't in breach of my promise heheheh.

I took many photos of her wonderful quilts and have found them to be excellent in helping me remember how to do her swirly quilting design, mind you I looked after I had finished my top and I had in fact done it incorrectly, but no one will know apart from everyone who reads my blog!
I bought my fabrics when I went on retreat a few months ago and was really pleased when I finally found a fabric that seemed to fit the criteria, once I had the first piece it was easy to find a few more to complement my selection. Kellie had suggested a striped fabric for the binding of the cushion and I found one that suited the job... more excitement!

my table runner

Today my 2 friends who are doing the round the bay with me in 3 weeks time (eek) and I went for what is possibly our last training ride. We did 40km in 2 hours to Craigieburn and back. It was such a beautiful day to be outside.

I mentioned some time ago that one of my friends made me a beautiful table runner for my birthday, I took some photos a while ago but haven't had the time to blog about it so here is some pics of my very special table runner, many thanks Jennifer!


Jennifer knows that I am rather partial to frogs and used a very suitable background fabric

I must say my poor table runner met with a small accident and some Pepsi was spilt onto it, the noisy one grabbed the cloth and dabbed at it and was very upset as she knew I would be very unimpressed. Lucky for her I was able to wash it and between her dabbing and my washing it has come up clean and unstained.

Life is back to normal with the laptops now working and the noisy one has a brand new computor as the old one totally died in the arse. The fisherman worked very hard to fix it but the old hardrive/motherboard thwarted him. I must say I am impressed with his willpower as all he really wanted to do was put the old harddrive on the road and run it over multiple times with our trusty 4x4!

computor problems

I have been missing in action off the net for the last 2 weeks. The program that was protecting our computers had a meltdown and we had to wait for the fisherman aka Mr I.T. to come home and fix it for us.

this is now done and I have much to catch up on.

I have now finished my 6 weeks of boot camp and I'm feeling rather sore but I know I have lost some inches and gained some fitness. My instructors were brutal in the nicest possible ways and my team mates kept me inspired and on target, I don't think I would have achieved some of the things without my team coffee to push me on.

I did a class last week and will post about that over the weekend with luck

fabric and exersize do go together!

Today's images are from my garden... spring is sprunging!
Thursday morning we did an indoor challenge as the weather had turned foul over night. Teams of 3, so team coffee were off and running, literally! More circuits with ladders, weaving in and out of tires, weights, push ups, step ups, push ups, mountain climbs which are rather nasty, more push ups and then you do it all again! At the end of this we got to choose a reward.... ohh we thought, we selected a cardboard foot with the #10 and we got to do another 100 push ups!! OMG, so we did them and then decided to get another cardboard foot, this time we got to do another 70 mountain climbs, geeze, can it get any worse? yes, another 70 push ups. We decided that sit ups were needed at this point of time.


But as a reward to myself for doing well, my friend and I went on a little shopping spree to Gail B's and boy did we reward ourselves!

I haven't taken a photo of my haul, but I bought background fabric in a nice buttery colour for my eldest daughters next quilt, which will take me a long time to make, I'm making her a double wedding ring, yes she isn't even 16 but I want to make one and this will be for her... 21st probably lol. It will be by hand, and I am going to use up some of my Robyn Randolph's and similar fabrics.

I also bought a kit to make a baby's quilt to take overseas to my niece who will be due the day or so before we arrive in London, so thoughtful of her! I also have to make her mother one, another cousin here in Australia is having a baby so one for him and a bed runner for my friends engagement... Think I will be busy!

So this morning I was up again at 5.30am and the froglet came with me again to do swim training, so nice to have a grumpy teen in the car :) she is better on the way home as she is more awake.

Today was a bit of a horror session. We started with a run around the park (remember I don't run!) then back inside to do mini circuits of running again... around the stage and over it, bunny hopping side to side on the punching bags on the floor, lifting weights, spinning on the bike, stepping over extra high steppers and my all time non favourite push ups with a little walk between... so that is moving your hands along and your feet, still in the push up position then do a push up, move along etc.

Did it stop there? nooooo our group (we were split in half) then went outside again in the cold and damp, into the car park for some real boot camping. running up and down a ladder on the ground, carrying tires back and forward to witches hats and then donning gardening gloves as we had to run up and down on our hands and feet on the wet ground, and back again in crab method... that's hard.
Then we packed up and thought we will now do some ab work inside... not a chance. back outside for a final run around the park. I really felt ill.

All better this evening after a long day at work, home to do more work and cook a nutritious dinner... got some potato and leek soup happening.

The fisherman is overseas with work for 2 weeks so the girls and I able to eat lots of cheesy meals as he doesn't eat cheese. Lasagna was cooked and devoured for the last 2 nights, I love leftovers!!

cold, dark and wet

At 5.30am think of me..... outside in the dark, and the cold and the wet!

Tuesday morning was a classic! We got into 3 teams and off we went to do battle. We all had sheets with exercises to do and the aim of course was to finish first. I had my team coffee with me and then there was the ring ins lol.

We had to run around the oval and one of the boys wasn't as fit as some of us, so we dragged him around, yelling encouragement to him all the way... the other teams and the instructors thought it was hilarious and great to have such team spirit. I think the people that live in the houses behind the gym might have been cursing us and wondering who in the hell was up at 6 in the morning yelling at the top of their voices.

We got our man around the oval and he did all the extra exercises then he found out we had to go around the oval again! He didn't let himself or the team down and made it around again. In fact the team did so well that we won the overall challenge against the other teams that had some of the more fitter men!!

So tomorrow we have John. He is no push over, actually he is bloody hard and if you stuff up or try to skip out or drop to the ground, the whole group will have to do at least 50 push ups... every time. *groan* But I don't mind being pushed, I will rise to the challenge as I don't like to be beaten.

To reward myself for my hard work I am taking the rest of the morning off and going shopping for fabric.

Last night we had our family fun night down at the pool. What a hoot! We got the inflatable out which is a huge long bouncy castle type thing that floats on top of the pool... its a loch ness monster and you have to negotiate around a big head then a arch and a big cone to get to the tail where you can slide down.

I hope that no one got any photos of me as I was the biggest kid of all. I got bounced and splashed and fell off so many times I lost count. I got one of the boys to give me a boost up on the end so I could slide off the end. I got smart and was waving to everyone and I fell off sideways lol.

We had ordered the perfect amount of pizza and only had one and a bit over, so we gave some to the staff for putting up with all the screaming. (think that was me rather than the kids).


At retreat recently one of the girls gave each of us in our group a egg cup that she thought suited each of us, they are really funny! Seeing as I am going to do my first round the bay in a day she thought this one was me.

I love the little birdy with a helmet on!

Christine made me these gorgeous coat hangers than she made for me and a little bag that is full of lavender so you have a nice smell with your clothes.

Home made gifts are so much nicer than store bought gifts for the one reason that its been made specially for you by your friend. However I am happy to receive any gift, handmade or not!!

Today I only went for a swim for an hour with a quick spa at the end as my right shoulder blade/back is rather sore. I think I have a rib out as this happens every now and then to me... will be seeing my osteopath sooner than I thought. Thank goodness for nurofen, speaking of which I think its time for another one.....

rain, rain and more rain

Yep its offical, I do have muscles in my thighs lol, Im not complaining just stating a fact.

It has rained shitloads here (shitloads is also an offical weight) I popped out the back in between showers and took a couple of pictures of our very very soggy back yard.


Im off back down to the gym, not for me this time, but for swimming training. But tonight we are having a fun night to reward the kids who swam recently at MSAC for interclub, we are having the inflatable and then pizza afterwards. It is going to be a family night so even if some of the kids didnt swim or arent even actual members of the club they can join in.... Im putting on my bathers and going on the inflatable too!! Hope no one takes my photo.

I have muscles in my thighs....

I can officially say that I am in pain. Yeah yeah, I know its self inflicted, I'm cool with that :) I expected to feel pain and I better see results in 5 weeks time!!

Tuesday morning saw us lining up in 2 groups... those who could run 3km and those who could run 1.5km I must admit I took the easy way out and lined up with the 1.5km group. I'm glad I did, as the 3km group immediately took off in the dark for a run around the streets.... I have done this run before and its not the easiest 3kms.

the smaller group who stayed behind were brutally punished by John our evil instructor from hell. He made us put on gloves or pads, that in itself was a punishment as they stank and were wet inside ewwww (I was dry retching from them alone!) Anyway he made us do lots of sets of punches and core work and one of the girls slacked off so lucky us got to do an extra 50 push ups.

When the 3kers got back it was light enough for us to go outside for our turn with the other instructor from hell. We started off doing step ups on the wall (in the drizzling rain) and then off we went for our run around the park. I didn't stop and kept up with the front of the group so was happy with that. Back inside for a few more drills and home to shower and get ready for work!


We had an extra session on Wednesday night... only 4 of us turned up!! John was rubbing his hands with glee as it was an intensive hour of pain :) More drills, punching (brought my own gloves this time!) push ups, burpies with weights, squats with weights and chasing partners around the gym. I also stayed after and did a yoga session with Carlos.... he does tai chi and I find it a relaxing class after running around like a looney in most of my classes.

Back to the gym at 6am this morning for what we thought was going to be an outside session. Instead it was another team challenge CIRCUITS!! whoo hooo, love circuits! So we named our teams.... we are team Coffee! there was 3 sets of everything. 100 skips with ropes, 5 runs around the gym, 20 burpies with weights, 20 bicep curls, 10 stage runs,10 jump ups and the list goes on. our team came a very respectable 2nd by 2 mins which was good as the winning team was 3 big blokes and we are a team of 2 girls and one bloke.

Poor Seb, his leg was hurting by the end of the class so only Georgina and I ran around the park as we had finished earlier than the other teams (great reward lol). Of course that wasn't enough for us so Georgina and I returned for the knockout class with John (suckers for punishment aren't we!)

I figured that I have done over 6 hours of classes in 3 days! 4 of them within 24hours.

Ahh well its all fun isn't it :)
Have I been sewing? yes I have gotten some embroidery done on my final block for the quilters journey. Need to go and cook dinner so that I can go out to sew tonight with my quilting buddies

challenges and sewing machines

Today was the first proper day of our challenge. We started inside the gym and did circuits in teams of 3. I had my best buddies Georgina and Seb to keep me on target, we flipped tyres down the length of the gym and picked them up and ran back only to do it again. then lots of sit ups and push ups in between all the sets. running up and down ladders on the floor, step ups onto the stage, side steps with 5 kilo weights, more push ups and running through tyres.

Then it started to get light...... we ran outside. Now, I'm not a runner and it usually hurts my feet and shins but I managed to run the entire course without stopping and I wasn't at the end of the pack! Last year I found another girl who jogged at the same pace that I did and she is doing the challenge again, so we found ourselves pacing each other and Georgina also jogs at the same pace.

We finally could see the gym again and Seb who had run ahead as he is an awesome runner, came running back towards us, yelling encouragement to keep going. I thought he was going to run past us and keep the back of the pack going, but he turned and started to yell at me to run hard, so I did! wow. Didn't know I had it in me. The thing that really impressed me was that by the time I walked back in to the gym I had caught my breath and didn't feel like throwing up!

Being the sucker for punishment and I'm on some sort of fitness mission, My partners in crime and I returned to the gym at 8.45am for another knockout class with our instructor from hell. He worked us even harder than he had at 6am and left us feeling like large jellies.

I was really fatigued earlier this afternoon but had a 15 min power nap while the froglet and her friend practised their dancing in the kitchen.

While we were on retreat Kate from Kate's sewing centre in Bundoora http://www.katessewingcentre.com.au/ came and showed us a new machine on the market.


This amazing machine does sashiko, yes that's right it does sashiko beautifully.

It was amazing to watch how this machine worked, it doesn't have a top stitch, it only has a bobbin and a little arm comes up and hooks the thread back down. Very nifty.

So if you are in the market for a machine to do your sashiko or indeed it also looks very much like hand quilting then pop in to see Kate and have a look at her machines, she has lots of other machines for sale and some fabrics too.