Great Excitement

Hi Folks, I've just read the most wonderful news on Sarah Leak's blog Quilt Fabric Delights here

Bronwyn Hayes of Red Brolly has finally got a blog.

Woo hoo ( jig around the house) Oops ....you can find her here

Bronwyn is one of my faves. She has some lovely designs coming out, not to mention the ones I haven't got.

Big smiley hugs to all,

Sharon

Now where is that oven?

Edit: The sky is black, the thunder claps , but My new oven is here....it will be good when its been installed. Its been almost 2 years since I had an oven :)

Learning by example!

Look, isn't he gorgeous , snuggling into a rare soft toy he actually likes (he probably thinks its a cushion)

I was out to dinner last night, when the following occurred. Kris couldn't wait to tell me (insert big grin here)

Toilet training is a bit of a bugbear in our house, so when Kris felt a presence behind him (at the toilet), he was thinking Oh good, maybe Liam will learn by example and get the idea what a toilet is really for.

The little prince saw Dahdee standing over a white bowl of water into which he was pouring a golden stream. How interesting he thought, Dahdee playing with the water too. Its sooo handy having such conveniences in a home so that I can drop things and splash about whenever I wish, though Shannie & Dahdee have a nasty habit of making a fuss about these playthings and locking me out. Surely I can play too. He thought yes, I can do that, its not hard.

As Kris was delightedly thinking that Liam was watching and learning by example, to his amazement, he saw a couple of objects appear from between his legs and splash into the water.

Having been successful, the little prince decided it was time to leave...his Dahdee may make a fuss...so satisfied he left.

"Liam, you bastard" he yelled as he heard his son klomping down the hallway. "We're screwed", he thought as he gazed at the 2 fun-size Mars bars below.

So did anyone learn anything from this? Did anything change?

Kris left the bathroom door open this morning. I got to Liam before he got wet, but not before our toothbrushes were thrown in.
As for Liam, He is quite sanguine about all of this, as he knows that sooner or later he will slip in again and enjoy dropping stuff in that lovely clear water. Then there is always the silver water containers on the stove or the bowls where the dogs are. Isn't water the most sensational stuff. Why don't we have more of it on Mars?

Hugs,
Sharon

BTW for more toilet humour, visit Jodie at Ric Rac here.
She has a great sense of humour, while you are there check out her gorgeous softies and read her "bot stories: Bus Stop" They start here and go on until here. S'ok no toilets involved LOL

The IT department is at it again. I have been banned from the computer since Friday night. He has reluctantly allowed me on inbetween whatever he is doing. All I know was the computer was fine, but then he wanted to ghost a drive, which I disturbed as he forgot to tell me (not happy Kris)...we may have lost important info like photos...so now he is putting up a sign "Do not Use" so I know. He still has to check anything , but allowed me this brief interlude.

Thank you for the lovely comments on my last blog. I'm glad you liked my quilt top.

BTW does anyone know how I can better reply to comments? I know when I leave a comment on a blog , I usually get an email from that person with my comment and their response. Its really lovely and I would like to do that too. I do leave comments on others blogs referring to that bog and thanking them for the comments they have left, but some people do not blog as frequently as others and I would prefer to respond in a better, quicker more personal way.

And as I am starting (finally) my xmas stitching projects for this year, I thought I would show you what I stitched last year for my sons' partners families. Although the layout is mine, I have used two of the stitcheries by Bronwyn Hayes (slightly altered as I did the santa one in redwork) from her Believe Wallhanging (I may be wrong with the name as I cannot find it. I can be a messy person as the photos of my craft room below will attest.)
I hope I can find the pattern though. I had saved the pattern from an old issue of "Australian Country Threads, Vol.3 No.6"...all I can find is the cover and a couple of other designs....Where have I put the pattern sheet? Hopefully its somewhere in the chaos...you've gotta laugh.





I think it may have got worse as I tried to find my missing pattern LOL.
OH well, at least I can still get into the room.
wry smile

Anyway better go and organise that christmas stitching.

Hugs to all,
Sharon

BTW Check out my talented friend's Vikki's cute robin kisses freebie here and here.

Of Keyboards, families and sewing. A quilt top completed...Yay

Well finally the IT department has fixed the keyboard. It did take some cleaning, time and conductive paint, but one thing you can say about my husband, he doesn't like to be beaten :).
Here he is asleep with our precious. Aren't they cute.

In the meantime I've got some stitching done, attempted to wreck the printer, been to the market at Healesville and met my uncle again (after 26 years). Kris also showed me how to load my photos onto the computer. Hopefully I've got all the steps now as its a pain having to keep asking him (if you know what I mean). Afterall everything is simple when you know how. 'Course I've spent a lot of time preparing , ie cropping and rotating images so I can actually put them on my blog.

My uncle was in Australia for a month. He arrived as we got home from our Sydney trip. Debbie organised a family get-to-gether at her place. It was a lot a fun. I annoyed people with the camera and even got a photo of Nikki's boyfriend (he hates photos so was not amused...hey I didn't know) . Doubt it would have stopped me though as my family is somewhat camera shy.

This is Uncle Colin with his camera, so I was not the only one :)



I maybe in trouble here. My sister, Deb has threatened photographic blog wars, but I couldn't resist. To be fair she did spy me taking a pic of Mum & Simon (who also noticed) and leapt in.


Liam's uncles joined him at the water feature. He, somewhat amusingly pushed them inside so he could enjoy the water play on his own.








Most of the gang watching a computer game.











The following weekend, Mum, Deb, Uncle Colin & I went to Healesville Market




Deb, Mum & Uncle Colin at Healesville Market.

Its hard to believe now that such a short while ago you could be comfortable wearing a jacket. What happened? Its been soooo hot this week. I wonder if Uncle Colin would prefer England's cold or the heat we've had this week?


Funky Fungi at Healesville Market














Oh and I believe I mentioned sewing.

Actually, I'm rather proud of myself for finished the top of this quilt as I had had problems with the filler strips and had to undo them and sort it out. Then I couldn't find the red fabric I wanted for the first border. IT was out of print in the US and although they were going to print some more, I was looking at a wait of 4-6 months.

At this pint I have to say a big thank you to Sarah Fielke and Sewn. Sewn has this wonderful feature called "Find Fabric". I had my red fabric a week later. It was wonderful. There is more to Sewn than this, such as competitions, free patterns, guest spots, a link to Sarah's blog "the Last Piece" etc, so check it out here.

Below is my version of Bronwyn Hayes "The Wish Quilt"
It was featured in Australian Homespun Nos 62-4 (vols9.7 -9.9) with corrections in No 67 (vol9.12).
I have personalised it by using a variegated red by Anchor, adding a red first border and changing the houses as shown more clearly in the blog I wrote here. All the reindeers are different colours too (to reflect the variegated thread used). I hope you like it.

Anyway enough of me.

Hugs to all and to all a good night,

Sharon

IT nuff nuff

There is a British sitcom called "The IT Crowd" . In it Roy (from IT) first response to the distressed calls from the computer nuff nuffs is something along the lines of " turn the computer off and then turn it on again"...usually its working by then.
Why do I tell you this...well when I complained to DH about those numbers not working, he asked (a day later I might add in my defense) if the other numbers were working. You know the ones...they are on the far right of the keyboard... (red face). Oops I'm a computer nuff nuff.
Oh the shame of it to be a woman and guilty of dare I say it domestic blindness LOL.
Well, on the bright side this meant I could download my prize from Yahoo. Not only did Esther include the pattern instructions, but she also included a detailed stencilling tutorial. Yeah!!
So all is well as long a I don't need any of the symbols used on those 3 numbers...must get the IT department (aka DH) on to that, because I do need them...back to Roy ;)

Oops its a day late...I forgot to publish (well my porridge was burning). I guess I stuffed up multi tasking as well...what kind of woman am I? LOL

Hugs,
Sharon

Edit: This was the giveaway I won from Esther, all neatly placed into a file, ready for me to play with after christmas.