Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

Well what a year. I have to admit I am glad that one is over, good things outnumbered the bad in numbers but there was one really bad thing that overshadowed them all. I haven’t got around to blogging about this yet as I wasn’t sure it was something I wanted to share but I think I need to try and move on as I know that she would hate for me to dwell.

In July last year, exactly one month after she celebrated her 98th birthday my amazing Grandmother passed away, at the time I actually coped with it a lot better then I thought I would, which I think was due to the time I spent visiting her in hospital prior to her death. She had a fall at home a couple of weeks earlier and broke her hip, had an operation to put in pins and was going well, in fact the physio was talking about rehab and then I suppose the best way to put it was that her body just gave up. She had lived an amazing life surrounded by her family, 5 sons, 9 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren, and I was lucky enough to spend a lot of my childhood with her and most of my memories involve family occasions with her.

Anyway as I said at the time I coped quite well but in the lead up to Christmas I started to miss her and while I did not realise it at the time, I know now that I threw myself into too many projects, markets etc to try and keep my mind busy. That is the main reason why I failed so badly at the advent blog-a-long I just didn’t have time to sit at the computer and blog and my IPhone app (Blogpress) didn’t seem to be working so I couldn’t blog via my phone as I had originally planned.

Moving on I have had a lovely week since Christmas with Andrew and my boys and I have been able sleep late, recharge my batteries, sew and reconnect with some online friends, Car, Rachel, Kayscha to name a few and am quite excited to have made plans to catch up with them in Nov this year.

Other plans for this year

1. More sewing for me (I will post more about this tomorrow)

2. Expand Two Little Monkeys, after the success of our Santa sacks i am hoping to find some new product ranges that are as successful, and have already booked into a market at the end of January and Mid March, here are my two newest items, personalised cushions and toy sacks/play mats

3.Get more organised, this is a must as this was a plan for last year and I can safely say I failed big time. I have realised that I don’t want to give up anything but at the same time I am struggling to fit it all in. which isn’t to say that I am doing to much but more that I have terrible time management skills.

4. Connect more with others, notice I didn’t say blog more, while I do plan to try and blog at least once a month I am not holding myself to it, instead I will try to comment on others posts more, post of Facebook and Twitter more and be a good on-line friend

Before I go I will leave you with two photos, the first is my gorgeous boys in there Christmas pj’s that I whipped up for them Christmas Eve

And a photo of them in there Santa Sack’s we took the same photo last year and I think it might be turn it into a nice yearly tradition.

Hectic

That is what my life is at the moment, so today once the little boy was sound asleep and the bigger boy enthralled in watching his latest obsession I made myself a treat

and decided it was about time I update you on what I have been doing.

So what have I been doing......

Not Much......

Andrew has been spending crazy hours with his pet work project which has left me feeling like a single mum at the moment, not a nice feeling I can tell you. Mind you we have plans for this weekend once it all over, talking Bastian to see Toy Story 3 on Saturday and then I am escaping for a day of sewing on Sunday.

So apart from being Mum, which is a job I love don't get me wrong and working on the paperwork required to help get this up and running there has not been alot of time for sewing.

For last months guild sewing day I decided to start a new project... yes ladies and gentleman, my name is Kirsty and I have a slight problem. I like to start projects...... and never get them finished. I decided to start the "Life is a Celebration" Block of the Month that is running in the homespun magazine in 2010.

The first block is finished

Wonder what I will work on next....

I have also been doing working on a name tag for a swap run by MMQG 

Here is a sneek peek of my starting supplies

I really need to get a move on with that one as it is due on Sunday.

I have also decided to join in to a quilt-a-long. I bought a Frolic charm square pack with the name tag swap in mind but once it arrived I decided that I wanted to use it in a quilt for myself, so when Kelli posted that she was going to join in I decided to get another two charm sq packs and sign up myself. Should be fun.

Oh I have also decided to join in here, not actually planning to make anything at the moment, just get some patterns for future use.

Now I just need to find the time to get it all done, and be a fantastic mom to my two monkeys of course

Weekend Wrap up

Well the long weekend is over and I thought I had better update you all on my list and what I did (and didn't get done)

Here was my list

1. Finish work hours from this week - done and 2 hrs for this week as well, hopefully that means some more sewing time for me this week
2. Sew backing for C's cot quilt together so I can drop it off to be quilted - didn't buy enough material so need to make a second trip to Spotlight
3. Finish nieces messenger bag - Done
4. Finish off blanket stitch on planes for Bastian Big Bed Quilt - Finished one of the two strips, hope to maybe get the rest done today
5. Cut rest of material for Bastian Big Bed Quilt ready for last class Wednesday night - Hoping to do tonight or tomorrow 

The rest of the list will have to wait for next weekend

This is the bag I have made for my niece's 10th birthday

 

It has an adjustable strap, two pockets on the front and one of the back, a magnetic clasp and a zip pocket inside

I am really happy with how it turned out, has given me the confidence to make the nappy bag that I am planning to make now. I used this tutorial but just left of the zip on the actual main bag part. The only thing I would do different next time is use a different interfacing, I don't like how this one has bubbled.

Also I managed to get one of the two appliqué strips finished for B's new bed quilt which is this quilt

There is actual three plans per strip but I found it two hard to take a photo with all three in it. The first and third plane on each strip are the same any way

 

and a close up of the two planes

When is a long weekend not really a long weekend

When you have a husband that works for a university that does not get state public holidays off :(

However that being said I do have 3 less hrs of work to do for next week as a result and Bastian has no swimming class on Monday morning so with that I mind I have decided to set myself a challenge to get a few things out of the way over the next 4 days

1. Finish work hours from this week (at time of posting still have 8 hrs to do oops) - now 5
2. Sew backing for C's cot quilt together so I can drop it off to be quilted
3. Finish nieces messenger bag (birthday is today but will be seeing her next week)
4. Finish off blanket stitch on planes for Bastian Big Bed Quilt
5. Cut rest of material for Bastian Big Bed Quilt ready for last class Wednesday night
6. Trace out pattern for pyjama pants for me
7. Make a start on cot quilt for T's baby
8. Get some catch up sleep/rest (not sure how that fits in with the rest of the list :) )

Do you have a long weekend? If so what are your plans.

I forgot to add I have finished the cross stitch for the nursery I will try and blog a picture of it over the weekend as well, just need to get a nice white wooden frame to hang it

Making room for baby

With the baby due in April, we need to make some changes around the house. now most people would think that fitting an extra person in to a 4 bedroom house would be easy but when both adults in the house of hobbies that involving a large qty of "stuff" it means a big clean up and reshuffle.

In order to make room for our soon to be son/daughter I decided to give up my sewing room/guest bedroom as I don't tend to be able to get in there much anyway, over the last 6mth I have tended to take over the kitchen table as my sewing space (much to Andrew's delight)

However the problem began with how does one, move a room full of things that need to be protected from little fingers out to the family living areas.

Thanks to a 35% discount voucher from Spotlight in the week before Christmas part of this problem was solved

This lovely lockable cabinet,

not only stores my machine and other "sharp" sewing items

but it also provides me with plenty of room to quilt a large quilt if I one day so desire, or plenty of space to cut my material.

Now I just have to go and buy some clear plastic tubs to store my stash and large collection of in-progress and unstarted projects, the plan is to make use of one of my many WIP quilts to cover the stack of tubs so that do not stick out like a sore thumb.

This month also saw the end to my monthly Aurifil thread club, so I now the proud owner of this lovely box of 72 threads

Long time no post

To my two or three loyal blog readers, sorry for the length between posts, much has been going on and time just hasn't been around to post.

So what has happened since my last post,

I went to the Don't Look Now workshop at The Patchwork House, have got lots of homework to do from that, there is a picture of my practice piece over at me flickr account here

Then I spent a week at the in-laws at South West Rocks which was lovely, I am very jealous of the lovely location they live in, was able to spend a couple of days at the beach and visiting the local tourist locations.

We then drove up and spent a week with my parents at Twin Towns resort, Tweed Heads. This is the view from our room


We also went to Movieworld, SeaWorld and Currimbum wildlife sanctuary. Bastian loved all three, at Currimbum he got to pat a possum, feed a kangaroo and have his photo taken next to a wedge tail eagle and a koala

Here he is on a train ride at Movieworld



and meeting Cookie Monster at SeaWorld,



Then not long after we returned my little baby boy turned 2. We had planned a day at Puffing Billy but due to icy cold winds and rain we changed it to a afternoon tea at Grandma's


His cake was nothing special as I thought I would have to transport it on a train, I was planning on making a actual train cake but thought it might be to hard to transport, oh well there is always next year.

Well what is next, well that is a very good question just before our holiday we decided that it was time to extend our little family of three and well before we new it, I am pregnant, #2 will be making a arrival towards the end of April next year.

I will be back later for a quilting update of what I have been doing, which is not much really

Things about me

I have seen this on many, many blogs over the last month or two, so decided I should add it myself to give my loyal (well hopefully loyal) blog readers some more info about me

Things you've already done: bold
Things you want to do: italicize
Things you haven't done and don't want to - leave in plain font

1. started your own blog
2. slept under the stars
3. played in a band
4. visited Hawaii
5. watched a meteor shower, the benefits of lost a camping as a child
6. given more than you can afford to charity
7. been to Disneyland/world
8. climbed a mountain
9. held a praying mantis
10. sang a solo
11. bungee jumped, no bloody way
12. visited Paris
13. watched a lightning storm at sea
14. taught yourself an art from scratch, cross stitch at age 16
15. adopted a child
16. had food poisoning
17. walked to the top of the statue of liberty
18. grown your own vegetables, the plan for 09
19. seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. slept on an overnight train
21. had a pillow fight
22. hitch hiked
23. taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. built a snow fort
25. held a lamb
26. gone skinny dipping
27. run a marathon
28. ridden a gondola in Venice
29. seen a total eclipse
30. watched a sunrise or sunset
31. hit a home run
32. been on a cruise
33. seen Niagara falls in person
34. visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. seen an Amish community
36. taught yourself a new language
37. had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. seen the leaning tower of Pisa in person
39. gone rock climbing
40. seen Michelangelo's David in person
41. sung karaoke (only when very drunk)
42. seen old faithful geyser erupt
43. bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. visited Africa
45. walked on a beach by moonlight
46. been transported in an ambulance
47. had your portrait painted, and entered into Archibald prize
48. gone deep sea fishing
49. seen the Sistine chapel in person
50. been to the top of the Eiffel tower in Paris
51. gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. kissed in the rain
53. played in the mud
54. gone to a drive-in theatre
55. been in a movie
56. visited the great wall of china
57. started a business (does making friendship bracelets to sells as a 12 yr old count)
58. taken a martial arts class
59. visited Russia
60. served at a soup kitchen
61. sold girl scout cookies.
62. gone whale watching
63. gotten flowers for no reason
64. donated blood, that reminds me I must go again
65. gone sky diving, ditto to No 10
66. visited a Nazi concentration camp
67. bounced a cheque, oops banks fault
68. flown in a helicopter
69. saved a favorite childhood toy, lots
70. visited the Lincoln memorial
71. eaten caviar
72. pieced a quilt
73. stood in times square
74. toured the everglades
75. been fired from a job (laid off.. all the same)
76. seen the changing of the guard in London
77. broken a bone
78. been on a speeding motorcycle
79. seen the grand canyon in person
80. published a book
81. visited the Vatican
82. bought a brand new car
83. walked in Jerusalem
84. had your picture in the newspaper
85. read the entire bible
86. visited the white house
87. killed and prepared an animal for eating (a fish does that count)
88. had chickenpox
89. saved someone’s life
90. sat on a jury, got called up for jury duty and then got picked for a trial, but excused myself due to work commitments (does that count)
91. met someone famous
92. joined a book club
93. lost a loved one
94. had a baby
95. seen the Alamo in person.
96. swum in the great salt lake.
97. been involved in a law suit
98. owned a cell phone
99. been stung by a bee