Happy Birthday Sweet Mimi!

Happy 2nd Birthday to my gorgeous little Mimi. You are an independent, happy, strong-willed, smart little girl with a gorgeous, caring and friendly personality. I love you so much Mali Maris and you have brought so much joy to my life in the last 2 years. I can honestly say that you rescued me.
Love Mummy xx

Happy Birthday to Me!

I had a lovely birthday on Sunday- 35 Yikes, I feel bloody ancient.

I received a bunch of lovely parcels as part of the EB Quilters Fat Quarter Birthday Swap, as pictured below. My theme wa sneutrals and browns as I am hoping to make a coffees and cream themed quilt at some stage (was thinking a snails trail pattern, but haven't decided yet). I feel so lucky to have great crafty friends whom I have never even met (except for Kylie who used to live in Canberra too). Needless to say I have been doing lots of fabric fondling and I love them all!





Stars - Xena
Brown Flowers - AJ
Red Moda square + charm squares - Helen
Neutral 'twigs' - Cylie
Bone and Blue country print - Bec
Cream tone on tone + brown circular + button box - Kylie
Cream tone on tone + Mr Toad magnet - Cass
Cream tone on tone + parisian cats - Joy
Autumn leaves + brown floral - Adds
Chocolate swirls - Emma
Moda floral - Leah
cream tone on tone + new quilting mag - Natalie
Alexander Henry butterflies + charm square - Lily
The fat 1/4s all piled together
Mum and Dad dropped in (they live 3 1/2 hours away, not like they live around the corner!) with a mud cake and some flowers. I have a trip to solar springs planned, so they gave me some $ to put towards some treatments!! I think that since I have been a single parent, Mum and Dad have made an extra special effort on my birthday to make me feel special - don't you love parents? Mine are the best.

Kaffe Fassett Butterfly Quilt

These goregous Kaffe fabrics hanging on my line are being cut into this quilt. Vicky has made this butterfly quilt once before out of 1930s repro prints and it is STUNNING!

I have to be honest and say that I rarely wash my fabric before sewing, but apparently the new line of Kaffe fabrics shrinks along the length by about 10cm (not apparently, it actually does, as we discovered)

My friend Vicky and I are going to cut and sew together, which will be fun. We have done this before when we were both living in PNG, having a bit of a production line, where we would cut out together and sew together and make one quilt each, staying up late into the night with lots of laughter and cups of tea. We made together the autumn leaves quilts,the scrappy baskets quilts and the pigs quilts, and Freddie's House (almost 6 years ago now). I think that we also did the bugs in jars together. She often reminds me about cutting over 450 little pink triangles for all of the pigs feet and ears!! I will have to do a post sometime soon about the quilts that I have actually made.

Doll Swap Quilt

I have signed up for the Doll Quilt Swap through flickr
I have a design in my mind, butterflies! I seem to have an obsession with them at the moment. Will give some clues as I get started.

Easter

We had a lovely Easter. The Easter Bunny left a couple of eggs and a new bowl and cup set.

I took the girls out to our dear friends, Sandra and Paul's place. Sandra and Paul are my best friend Vicky's parents and treat me as an extended member of the family - always so welcoming and loving. The girls had an Easter Egg hunt there which they loved.

We also had an Easter Egg hunt the next day with the mother's group gang at the park, which was wonderful.

Sara and Josh's wedding and holiday in South Australia

We had a wonderful family holiday in South Australia when my cousin Sara got married recently at Horseshoe Bay in Port Elliot, about an hour south of Adelaide.

First, we got the plane from Sydney with my sister Kat and her partner Andrew:


We stayed in a great holiday house that Mum and Dad arranged for us in Port Elliot. It was lots of fun staying with Mum and Dad and my sisters again. Unfortunately my youngest sister was unable to get time of work, so she didn't make it for the fun. South Australia was SO hot - going through the longest number of days over 35deg temperatures ever recorded.
relaxing with Honey at the house

Sara and Josh had a gorgeous wedding in the gardens overlooking the beach at Horseshoe Bay. What a stunning bride! It was SO wonderful to see a couple so in love and so full of happiness. The reception was fabulous with lots of great food, great music and great people. It was so great to catch up with family that I hadn't seen for ages.

me and Dad Monique, Katrina and me

with Oma

We spent some time at the beach and did some mooching around, and also visted some great wineries in the Maclaren Vale.
kat and Andrew at a winerymum and dad wine tasting

with cousin Nicole

The only downside of the trip was that I had a shocking hair experience. I went to a hairdresser asking for my foils to be touched up, and I came out totally blonde. Yikes - not my style, but I just go with the flow. It is actually amazing how much like my Mum I look with blonde hair.

Big Girl Now

My beautiful girl is now three. She was born on 2nd January 2005 after a LONG labour. I was in love and totally besotted by her from the moment I saw her. She has brought my life so much joy, I just want to cover her in kisses. I love you so much precious girl. Happy 3rd Birthday.

scrap swap

I have recently been involved in a scrap fabric swap through EB quilters and received this fantastic haul from Xena, who doesn't have a blog. Lots to work with in this lot!!

crazy times at work

Work has been crazy and hectic lately. My promotion finally came through, so I am now titled "Issues Manager", my responsibilities change only slightly though.

The industry has been going through an incredible tough time of late and many farmers are suffering incredibly. Imported pork products (ham from USA and Canada, and bacon from Denmark) flood our processed meat market and consumers are largely unaware that meat in actually imported into Australia, endangering the Australian pig industry. The previous federal government directed the Productivity Commission to undertake a safeguards inquiry into the impact of imports of pigmeat on the Australian pork industry. Our aim was to get provisional safeguards, but this is unlikely. Lots of work!

Our holiday with friends

After Christmas we scooted up to the Hunter Valley for a couple of days to stay with my wonderful friend from uni Skue and her hubby Dallas at their new house. It was a great catch up as our other best uni buds Shel and Patrick and their gorgeous kids were there at the same time. Dallas is a FABULOUS cook so we were truly well fed. Lots of time spent relaxing, chatting and eating - who could ask for more? One thing - I forgot to get a photo of us. :(

It was so great that the kids all got on really well too. I think that Sally dog loved having some extra company too (my girls think that Sally is cool!)

Kya and Mali feeding the chooks with Sally.

Celebrating with Daddy

As Tangis has other commitments, and then we were away, we didn't get to celebrate Christmas with Daddy until New Year. Santa left some presents at Daddy's place and then Daddy brought them over. The presents were very exciting, including a Barbie each which was a major highlight.