I am still alive

I am still alive and kicking!

just haven't been blogging. been busy with life.

I have made one of the wonderful ric racs crocodiles for my friend Liz for her birthday.... i really need to sort my laptop out so I can post photos.

The froglet has started judo and ju jitsu and now the noisy one is having a go too. I haven't seen Brazilian ju jitsu before but its a real art form. The girls are very lucky to have one of the only female black belts in Victoria as their coach and her husband is also an amazing instructor, hes like a human pretzel.

My poor training partner has hurt her back and thank goodness she got an MRI which showed two small bulges in her L3-4 and L4-5 so now she knows what she has, she can figure out what she can do. We have been walking... took little Milly with us for an hour... we did about 6km

I have a big ride coming up in a few weeks time, its 65km.. that's fine, but the thing that is worrying me is the 3.2km hill climb up Arthur's seat.... if you know that road you will understand my concern.

I have made 2 quilts for a friend at work and for a cousins new baby... today I have been asked to make another 2 quilts for new babies before the end of the year.... not a hard task but I have to find a pattern, find the materials, make them and quilt them..... might be able to use a pattern I have used before for one of them but will need a new one for the cousins baby....

no time to blog

Been a while since I posted.

I'm not on my laptop, so no photos sorry.

I have been busy with various events and lots of training and of course some quilting.

I did the tough bloke challenge last Sunday with my friends and had a blast. We got incredibly muddy and we tackled all the obstacles with a huge smile.

My daughter and I took part in the YMCA swimathon. We raised $320 and we swam over a Km yesterday.

today I did my 2 morning classes and then had a bike ride with one of my friends while my eldest did a judo class.

I'm now in the middle of quilting a quilt I'm trying a different way instead of the usual stipple, this time I'm doing little flowers, I love the thread that I have chosen, its a variegated one with purples..... I promise to post some photos next time

cyclones and triathlons

firstly like many others I am thinking about the cyclone that is about to hit the top part of Australia. All the crazy weather we have been getting in the last few weeks, its madness... mother nature is very pissed off.

Now my team coffee partner and I have signed up for another triathlon, this one is open water..eeeekkkkkk!!! This is when I hate the fact that I wear contact lenses and it worries me that in the washing machine that I will be getting churned around in that someone will whack my goggles off my head and that will stuff me up big time.

Apart from that training is on again, not that we really stopped lol.

School is back on Friday yeeee harrrr!! the noisy one is quite pleased to be going back to see her friends and I think the froglet is rather nervous as she is in year 11 and its no longer a walk in the park. She will be fine as she is a good student and works hard to achieve high standards, she has some new subjects which she isn't sure about but I believe she will do okay.

I have a baby quilt all finished except sewing down the binding and doing a label.... oooh poop forgot about that sucker lol. now to get the other quilt top basted and quilted.... not to mention the other quilt that i need to start.... sigh

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!

bootcamping and quilting!

Tomorrow I start my new spring challenge down the gym. This consists of me being at the gym for a 6am start to leap and jump around with several other lunatics that I call my friends lol. This events occurs on a Tuesday morning and a Thursday morning for the next 6 weeks. Not including the extra Wednesday night class that is on offer.

My friend who I am doing the round the bay with later in the year has been pushing me to get out of my comfort zone which is great as you need a buddy like that to make you work harder. We figured that we will be doing between 11-13 hours of classes each week for the next 6 weeks!

Anyway that's the boot camp bit..... now for the quilty bit!

The other week was my guilds retreat and I made all my friends a gift for their birthdays. I'm terrible at remembering to get them cards and gifts on time so I give them all a gift each retreat in honour of their birthdays!

This year I made them all a pencil roll, I found the pattern on the Internet and I'm sorry to say I have no idea which pattern I used in the end... I kind of took the idea and looked at many patterns and wrote my own using the information I gleaned from all the other posts... thank you to anyone who might have helped me :)



I used 2 different combos of fabric because the fabric I thought would make enough for everyone wasn't in fact enough!

I received some lovely gifts too as it was my birthday the week before, Claire gave me some lovely variegated cottons, which are really nice.... now to find the perfect project for them!! some of these I had bought from spotlight with my $10 gift voucher that I received for my birthday from them.
Christine also made me some lovely coat hangers... I need a better picture so I can show them to you.

my friend Jennifer made her two daughters butterflies from a Melly and me pattern. We both bought patterns months ago and she prepared her wings by doing the embroidery.... now I didn't realise that I didn't take pictures of the finished butterflies but here is an antenna.. or is it an antennae lol.


We had lovely food of course, some healthy and special diets catered for! and some not as healthy but still yummy!



this is a picture of the front of where we stay, overlooking a man made lake. We sit behind the windows and can see down the lake. Not so many ducks this year. A few superb fairy wrens were spotted but they are very fast little birds and I didn't get any pictures.


Every year I have looked at the canoes that Burnbrae have sitting on the shore and thought about going for a paddle, still thinking about it!

I went for a walk with my friend Madeline (who I think has finally recovered hehehe) and we came across a large mob of kangaroos who stood and watched us walking around. When we came across them the second time we realised that several of them had joeys in their pouches. I know I live here but I still get a buzz when I see my favourite Aussie birds and animals.



Madeline and I also found we could see a good view of the city from one of the vantage points.

Hope everyone is surviving the wet and cold weather we are experiencing here at the moment. Also some bloggers that I follow haven't been feeling the best so I hope that they are feeling better too.

post mothers day photos

here is the lovely vase that the noisy one made me in material tech, I'm still smiling each time I look at it


Here is mums new quilt hanging on her fence outside her unit.


Anita from Hillside quilting did another wonderful job and finished it for me in perfect time!


Mum called me today to let me know that all her cronie mates had admired her new quilt and its now on her bed ready for tonight.

Planning on a big bike ride on Thursday... cross fingers that the rain gods don't come along

Easter time

The Easter bunny has come to our house this year.... and had his little head caved in and his ears are no more, at least he cant hear us when we descend upon him to devour the rest of his body (moohawhawhawhaw...evil laugh!)


I have managed to start and finish another one of my UFO's this one is for my mum who has quite a lot of quilts and things that I have made for her over the years, but felt it was time for a new quilt to brighten up her room.

This morning I had to take my friend to the airport to go up to Queensland for a little holiday, I take care of his car which I get to drive around if I desire... the girls love his car, its a Audi and can go from 1 to 80 in about 3 seconds... don't ask me how I know this :) The worst part about this was that I had to get up at 4.30am, and being Easter Sunday there was nothing open at 5am so I came home and went back to bed for a few hours.

I managed to get up and go down to the market and pick up 4 books, 2 of the Diane Gabalon series and another 2 that my book lady recommended to me as a lighter read than the others.

I was inspired by the baby bats photos and took a few of my own around the back yard.


I took the girls to the park the other day with some other friends and their kids and was surprised to see how well the noisy one can kick a footy!



the froglet whooped for joy as there was swings there, and although she is now 15 I am glad to see she still can have fun (takes after me!! I'm still a big kid). I was laying back on the picnic rug and saw above me in the tree a Tawney Frog mouth... his head is tucked back so he looks a bit headless!

Hope you are all having a lovely long weekend and are making the most of being able to eat loads of chocolate.

Day one of six.

I survived the day!

I also did a danzika class at my gym tonight with some of my friends... Carlos our instructor is the bomb! The night class was quite different from the day class, music was more orientated towards the younger participants which was fine by me as I like that music too.

Quilting tomorrow night and I think I might go swimming with the girls while they train with the club on Friday night.

The house is quiet tonight as the noisy one is on school camp....

Bedtime