happy new year

My year started with an outing with my family and my besties family to a great venue!
                          this is actually a chocolate frog.... a very large one too!

We took a  visit to the yarra valley chocolatiere.  I went there last year on the last day of the great Vic bike ride and didn't eat as i was feeling a tad under the weather, so finally over a year later i got to return!

 these aren't books they are blocks of chocolate!!  such pretty wrappings... sure to tempt overseas visitors

 The froglet loved it all... specially all the chocolate frogs

 this was a salted caramel tart with vanilla bean iceceam and a pot of melted chocolate... I can highly recommend the icecreams!

 this was one of their icecream sundaes!!!  honeycomb... in the background I just noticed the fisherman's.... pavlova!!

 I got a bit spoilt this Christmas.... this is a small (hahaha) mug from the froglet... she saw it in London on her travels and said she had to buy it for me.  she broke her no breakable rule for her mummy :)

 This year I got a chook from mum for Christmas... Her 80th birthday is next week and we are having a party.... she has asked people not to give her gifts but to donate to the flying doctors instead.  so we will have envelopes from the flying doctors for ease of donating.

quilting in queensland

 This is the wall hanging that I made the froglet.  I started it some years ago, many of you might recognise the pattern as being a millamac pattern.  I thought it was an appropriate gift for her first appartment her boyfriend rolled his eyes when he saw it was yet another frog! So while she was in New Zealand on a holiday I finished it and suprised her with it when we got to Brisbane.

 I went to a shop in Eatons Hill http://quiltessentials.com.au/ and she had a basket full of her patterns, I hadn't seen so many in many years.  The shop owner told me that the millamac lady isn't doing any more patterns which is a shame as they were good 'Aussie' fun ones.... at least i know where to find them!  Alovely shop to visit with friendly ladies.

 Then I was also able to visit a shop in Keperra  I had found both these shops on the Internet and I did my homework to find them on google maps (I love google maps, I use the street view so I know landmarks!)  This shop is called http://www.thequilterscorner.com.au/

  I found a table full of lovely fabrics on special and as soon as I saw this I knew exactly what I could use it for and I had to have it. I can now do a BOM by Jenny of http://www.elefantz.com/  its called the vintage kitchen and it is one of her many freebies that she generously gives out.  I havent done any of Jennys projects yet but some of my friends have so now I have no excuse.... apart from getting some thread sorted!

I also found a pattern for Australian flags which I had to have, I'm a proud bogan!  I was also lucky enough to meet Michelle Long who designed this lovely pattern which is a http://www.lemonjellie.com.au/ pattern.  She showed me a little quilt she had just about finished for a swap that was going to the USA.

This shop was even closer to the froglet so when I visit I can walk there or catch the train as its on the same line that is across the road from her place.  I might even be able to time a visit and do a class (got to keep myself busy when she is working!).

School goes back next week and I hope that some normality to the household might come back and I will start to sort out my crap  possessions  and get some much needed sewing done!

environmental day

Today the froglet and the noisy one went into the city with their environmental group from school. I decided to join them on their journey and see what the froglet has been doing for the past 3 years with the team and check it all out. The noisy one has joined the team as she has heard about all the great things they have done from her big sister.

We started in Federation square with the opening speeches from all the grand poobars telling us what the postcard above says!

there was all sorts of stalls and items dotted around Fed square and then you descended the stairs towards the Yarra River to find even more stalls.

There was a few food stalls.... organic fruit and veg delivered to your door (free plum to taste!) CERES had another stall with an apple to try, some ladies products, stuff for your house ie: solar panels.

The food section was more alternative style, there was the hare Krishna's with a very yummy smell coming from their area (no music though, rather disappointed to not hear their cymbals). There was veggie burgers, polenta chips, tofu and veg stir fry, and a flat bread with cheese and spinach which we had. Timboon ice cream was there!! awesome... we love their ice cream and had Turkish delight, lemon gelati and a chocolate ice cream.

The enviro group had a performance/activity at 1pm and their subject was FROGS!!! we played frog bingo... you match the frog noise to the frog picture, drawing frogs, the food chain and best one was the frog dance!


I was rather taken with these little pink guys.

there was free postcards and some were really cool (like the first one I posted hehehe).
Now although there wasn't craft stalls as such there was free trade stalls with some rather nice products, I had to really stop myself from going over the top and only bought the one bag. The other bits were freebies....don't you love freebies!

I rather like the cup... it is supposed to be the right size for coffee machines and the same size as a small takeaway cup it has a lid so you wont spill it. it has a band around its waist that you can colour in to show what you like to drink and how you have it, to save you talking to the actual people making your coffee...hmmmm not sure about that part lol.
I got a bit of sun as it was a rather hot 31 degrees, but thank you very much to the nice volunteer who was giving out large handfuls of sunscreen so I didn't fry completely.
The day out was lovely, I spent some time with my daughters, their friends and a couple of teachers. I watched them teaching other students about frogs and I learnt more about what I can do to help save the world from ourselves.