Probably My Final Post Of 2010

I would like to wish all my followers and the people who accidentally come across my blog or link from another blog a very merry holiday season and I hope you all have a wonderful time with friends and family during the season.
And for those of you having to deal with snow, sleet or hail please take care and  think of us here in Australia as we are looking at hitting 38 (100) here Christmas Day in Perth.

The Year Ahead

This time of year there are many 2011 Challenges going around. I have decided to join this one to try and get rid of some of my unfinished cross stitched projects completed or near completion up4achallenge
Now my list currently only has 4 things on it, and can be found in my sidebar,  but I am sure I will come across a few more before the 1st of the year to add to the list.
I will be keeping you updated via my blog of course so any comments you leave on my posts will be a source of encouragement,  so just telling me to get off my lazy **** and finish something or hey girl way to go will be greatly appreciated.

On a totally different topic my Christmas spirit has got up and went and I don't know where it is, so if you find it wandering around dazed and confused can you please give it a shove in my direction LOL

Ornament Exchange - What I Recieved

This is the ornament that I received from Lynne, he is so cute. She also sent me some wonderful hand dyed fabric, ornamnet kits and some yummy Chocolate, which I have currently hidden LOL.

Well the Christmas spirit hasn't arrived at my house yet, and this year I really dont' think it will.  All the cards that I receive along with the ornaments that are arriving in the mail will be put out but as for hauling out the box of decorations I just can't be bothered, plus I would have to go out and buy a new tree as we through our old one out last year. ( I might just wait till after christmas and pick up a new tree for next year in the sales)

Ornament Exchange - What I Sent

Okay, don't get excited - 2 posts in 2 days LOL. I had to wait until my ornament had reached its destination and my track record of getting things to a recipient in Canada are not that great.......but it arrived. This was for the annual ornament exchange over at 123 Stitch. My partner was Lynne in Canada and since I didn't want to send her a package all that way without a little something extra, so I asked Lynne what would she like from Australia and her response was .....

Cherry Ripe®

The ripe juicy cherries and moist coconut smothered in rich Old Gold® dark chocolate ensures a unique taste experience.
As Australia's oldest chocolate bar, Cherry Ripe offers consumers an indulgent and rich treat.
Available in 52g, 80g, 216g and 18g Special Treats pieces, Cherry Ripe is the only bar to offer you the 'big cherry taste'.

So I sent her a bag of 12 mini Cherry Ripes.....oh I seemed to have gone off on a tangent and forgot that this post was about the ornament that I did for the exchange so without further ado here is a picture. It is from an issue of JCS Ornament Issue Magazine (can't remember which one) and using DMC.

 

All I Can Say Is WOW!!!

A few months ago I signed up for a "seasonal" swap over at Parsley's Blog , we didn't know who our partners were and it was most exciting.

The person that was sending to me was Christy , well I picked up the parcel at the post office yesterday and was absolutely amazed at what she sent me, even though we had never communicated, she knew me so well it was freaky :) There were goodies stuffed inside things and everything was individually wrapped which was a lovely touch! Oh and there was also some chocolates,but I put them in the Santa tin so that I wouldn't sit there and chow down on them LOL

Please check out Christy,s blog as she makes the most wonderful cards.

Belated Halloween Post

This is an ornament that I stitched for Jamie for a Halloween exchange. I used a frame from a Just Nan chart that I had and the chart is from Cats Whiskers (I think LOL)

Alphabetical Blogging

Challenged by another blogger (Sus) I shall  recite the ABC's of me....

A - Age:  47 and holding.... a bit scary to be staring 50 in the face!
B - Bed size: Queen

C - Chore you hate: Gardening
D - Dog's name: Raelene and Norman (see a previous blog post of them hogging the couch) 
E - Essential start your day item(s): Shower, caffine
F - Favorite color: can't name just one
G- Gold or Silver:  Silver or White Gold
H - Height: 5' 4
I - Instruments you play: CD player and that was after guitar and piano lessons LOL
J - Job: Personal Assistant
K - Kids: One 55 Year old
L - Living Arrangements: in a house...lol.
M - Music you love: Varied taste..... Metallica to Dixie Chicks and a bit of classical
N - Nicknames: Vicks, Dragon
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Knee Operation
P - Pet Peeve: People thinking that I am psychic

Q - Quote from a movie: Check out my side bar on my blog, I change it every month
R - Right or left handed : Right handed for almost everything
S - Siblings: 1
T - Time you wake up:  5.30am weekdays, weekends between 6 and 8am
U – Underwear: of course LOL
V - Vegetable you dislike: Brussel Sprouts
W - Workout Style: WHAT!!
X - X-rays you've had:  Many many many.
Y - Yummy food you make: Curries
Z - Zoo, the best place to visit: Meerkats


Okay...now it's your turn to spill the beans! Come on...you know you wanna do it!

I'm Back - Picture Heavy Post

Well I had a great holiday.  Mind you the first 3 days I thought I was holidaying in Hell as the temps were in the low 40's (Low 100's), then the weather levelled out to the mid 30's (low 90's) which was much more agreeable to little ole me.
The other half went fishing just about every day and didn't catch a thing but I think that is karma as he had just come back from a weeks fishing charter with his limit of 20kg of fish fillets.
So with out further ado here are some holiday snaps.

This is the shipwreck of the SS Mildura, The SS Mildura was a cattle ship on its way from the Kimberley when it got lost in a cyclone in 1907. It was a 2217 ton steel steamer built in Glasgow in 1901. The Mildura was wrecked on March 10, 1907 when it clipped the North West reef. The crew was rescued by SS Burrumbeet but all the cattle on board were left to die.

Salvaged timber and iron from the Mildura were used in renovations at the Yardie Station homestead. The hull sat on the reef until WW2 when it was used for bombing practice.

 Okay, now this doesn't look like much but it was a Bronze Whaler shark about 1.5m long.  I saw this not long after arriving at a small beach and thinking gee what a great place to have a swim!!

 This is Learmonth Jetty, where we spent about 5 hours fishing and catching nothing. This is where I saw the shark in the above picture. Mind you I didn't mind not catching anything as we saw sting rays, dolphins, and other marine life.

 We went out on a glass bottom boat to look at the coral and marine life. It was the beginning of the turtle mating season and yep we saw it LOL
This is the website to look at the tour and wonderful people that run it (they are currently nominated for a Western Australian Tourism Award, Good Luck Guys!!)
Ningaloo Ecology Cruises

 Now this is Coral Bay, I had never been there before and the colour of the water just blew me away.  Coral Bay is basically a small holiday town which is slowly being commericalised, but it is to soon to say if it is in a good way or a bad way, I might go back and visit in 10 years and cast my vote then..........

 No kidding this was the road!! Then you had to cross a creek to rejoin the road. Needless to say we didn't use my Brother's 4WD to try this!!!

 

 We just happened to stop for lunch here, this is Mauds Landing and a few years ago it was going to be the site for a Marina - luckily that didn't go ahead!  The Threat To Mauds Landing

The 3 pictures above are just shots of the landscape, and at the right time of year you can see whales frolicking in the ocean - Now I have lived here in Australia for over 20 years and up until last week had never seen a real whale, but Friday afternoon after getting off the plane and going for a drive I saw my first ever in the flesh real whale and it was awesome!! They weren't super close to shore as normal as they are currently doing the migratey thing to cooler waters.

 This is looking down over a caravan park, the large pole things in the back ground are all part of the United States/Australia communications base. Because Exmouth is a cyclone prone area the poles can withstand winds up to 500km per hour.

 This is Vlamingh Head Lighthouse, Due to the location of this lighthouse it provides sweeping views of the Cape. It was built in 1912 and was originally known as the North West Cape Lighthouse on Vlamingh Head. This lighthouse was built because of the wrecking of the Mildura in 1907 along this coastline. The first light to come from this lighthouse was on 10 December 1912.

It was damaged by Cyclone Vance but today it is fully restored. It also has the distinction of being Australia’s only kerosene burning lighthouse.


Well I hope you enjoy looking at my holiday snaps if you want any info about where I went, what is there to do there etc just flick me an email or leave me a comment..............

What I Will Be Up To For The Next Week Or So

On Friday we are ..........

Once we get there we will be doing a bit of this.............

Hopefully seeing some of these...............

Seeing a bit more of this...........

And watching something like this while having a drink or two................

When we get back I will have heaps to post about as I have exchanges that I have received, exchanges I have sent, new books that I have read and of course the obligatory holiday snaps to share. So until the beginning of November Ciao for now!

Just a quick post from me

Hi Everyone, I am just posting really quickly to let you know of a great blog that is raising money for Cancer research, if you are a stitchy person and feel the need to express what you think about Cancer (her blog doesn't normally have bad language on it) please check out Cathy's blog and support the cause!
WARNING THAT THE LINK BELOW WILL TAKE YOU TO THE "F" WORD
Chunky Chooky

I will be back after the weekend to show progress pics of my stitching and other bits and pieces.

Finally an Update From Me :)

Well I am over my cold and the weather is warming up, mind you I don't think we are actually going to have a spring as they reckon that about Thursday we should have about 31 degrees which is just perfect :)

MOTH has gone away fishing for a week so today has been a Buffy marathon, with the occasional episode of Melrose Place thrown in........am I sad or what LOL.
Any way here is an update of my Sleepy Hollow project that I am slowly plugging away on....... The first picture is what it will look like when finished, the second picture is my first progress report from about a month ago and the last picture is what I have achieved as of today. And once again sorry about the quality of some of the pictures I am just hopeless LOL

I have been stitching halloween and christmas ornaments but these are for exchanges so sorry no pictures until sent and received :)

Now on to my other passion..........Cooking. I try to bake some goodies on Sundays to last us during the week. Here is a picture of the baking tin the other Sunday, I made a Date Loaf and some Hokey Pokey biscuits.

Hokey Pokey Biscuits (makes around 20 biscuits)
125 g butter	1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar	1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon golden syrup	1 tablespoon milk
1. Preheat your oven to 180 C. Then make sure you grease the oven tray well.
2. Place the butter, sugar, golden syrup and milk in a saucepan. Stir over a low heat until the butter has melted. Increase the heat and continue to stir until the mixture almost bubbles, then remove the saucepan from the heat. Allow the mixture to cool.
3.  Sift flour and baking soda into a bowl. Stir the flour into the butter mixture. Mix well.
4. Take a tablespoon of mixture at a time and roll into balls. And place on oven tray
5.  Flatten biscuits slightly with a floured fork. The floured fork helps to prevent the biscuit mixture sticking to the fork. Then bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until golden. When cooked transfer to a wire rack to cool.

 I am also trying to do the right thing and buy eggs that are not produced in a battery or caged environment.  I found a carton of eggs at the supermarket in very nondescript packing called "Mega Eggs" . I decided we would have some the other night for dinner and cracked the first egg open and it was a double yolker!! next egg was normal, next egg a double yolker!! and the last egg normal. Now the last double yolker egg that I saw or ate was when we got eggs straight from a farm, so I am really impressed with my find. Oh and they weren't expensive either. Well that is about it from me.  I am hopefully back to posting regular updates about what is going on my neck of the woods.

It's My Party...........

And I'll cry if I want to!
Yep I am having a pity party for one, first off I get a crappy cold - bonus side to that is take a day off work, downside to sick to do anything.

Next thing is I look in the mirror and notice not a grey hair but a band of grey slowly creeping in.
Below is my new motto..........

Back to the scheduled show after I get rid of this cold!!

The Last Couple of Days

Have been full on.

7.45am on Saturday morning my parents ring me telling me not to panic that they are okay and so is the house.  WTF! They live in Christchurch, New Zealand which was hugely damaged in a earthquake at 4.35am NZT Saturday morning.

Now I don't put the TV on in the morning or listen to the radio on the weekends when I get up, that makes it seem to much like a work day. I grab the paper and a cuppa and go and sit out the back and have some me time - so naturally I didn't know anything about the earthquake and probably wouldn't have till the mid morning when I started getting sms's from my friends asking if everything was okay with my parents.

My parents, relatives and friends have all come through relatively unscathed apart from some breakages in the home. Thank god for facebook as it makes checking up on people so much easier especially since the phone lines where not reliable.

The sad thing for me was seeing pictures on the news and online of my hometown and the damage it sustained.  Many of the heritage buildings have gone or will have to be demolished.  It looks like the church where my parents were married sustained substantial damage. The city I grew up and loved to go back and visit is really not there anymore and never will be................

This earthquake is on a par with the one that destroyed the NZ town of Napier in the early 1930's.  This whole town was destroyed and rebuilt in the style of the time which was Art Deco and now famous for this.  But this will not happen to Christchurch, how can 21st century architecture replace buildings that have been around since the town was settled/built in the mid 1800's.

Please keep the people of Christchurch in your thoughts as this morning (Tuesday here in the southern hemisphere) they are still getting aftershocks of over 5.

These images are taken from various news sources on the internet.

Happy Fathers Day

Happy Fathers day dad.  I know it has been a pretty crappy year for you but you are the best dad in the world :) This is my mum and dad (3rd from left) on their wedding day in 1962.

And I Begin My Weekend On This Note....

Spring is just around the corner............................

Ha Ha Ha, enjoy your weekend folks :)

Crafts, Gardening and Food

Yep I am still here and it is nearly the end of winter :) I have noticed some trees in blossom and this morning it was lighter at 6am than normal.

The subject line is how I am going to go about posting this entry and if you are a vegetarian or something like that I wouldn't read right to the end :)

First cab off the rank is my cross stitching, I have finally started "Sleepy Hollow" the chart I was raked with earlier in the year.

I have got this much done, it is going to be the back end of the horse......

Now in preparation for summer we pruned our fruit trees, they were huge. We have an orange tree, mandarin tree and a lime tree. The lime is my favourite as it has so many uses including putting a slice of lime in my Corona LOL.
 The poor ole mandarin tree got the worst cut of all, the tree must be about 40 years old and for the last couple of years it hasn't been fruiting to well, so give a man a chain saw and it wont be fruiting for the next 5 years LOL.

Now if you are a vegetarian stop reading now and go to another blog ............
The other night MOTH got given a rabbit, in all its naked glory. Now I have put off having to cook "Thumper" for the 20 years that we have been together but that was only cause I would never buy it, not expecting someone to give us a rabbit. I mean I have dealt with venison, goat, beef, sheep etc but not cute furry "Thumper"
So after a phone call to my mum, a quick search on Google I decided to roast it.  I basted it with olive oil and salt and pepper and chucked it in the oven with some vegies.
The picture below is the final result, the before picture is just to gross so I am not going to post it.

Oh and rabbit tastes just like chicken LOL

Day Book Journel

Day book journal

I saw Rowyn's day book journal on her blog. I really enjoyed reading it and thought I would give it a go myself.

Outside my window ..... It is murky and there are people, traffic and NOISE.

I am thinking .... about the weekend, as it is Friday

I am thankful for ...... Today, the boss isn't in, most of my work is done and it is FRIDAY.

I am wearing ..... Jeans, Mary Janes, long black top and a QuickSilver New Zealand Hoodie (casual dress day at work folks )

I am loving …. The music coming out of my iPod, currently it is Eine Klein Nachtmusik, but the next song could be Pink, Kid Rock, The Clash who knows the excitement is killing me.

I am stitching .... Nothing at the moment, but I do need to get ready to get some exchange pieces started.

I am hoping .... that the weather is good over the weekend, so that I can get my laundry dry without having to hang it all over the house LOL

I am drooling over .... a lovely Kitchenaid mixer that I saw at David Jones

I am sorely tempted by ......  see my post above LOL

I am hearing ...... A bus at the bus stop under my window and Kasey Chambers out of my iPod

I am reading ..... Jim Butcher's "Changes"

On my mind .....Knock off work time at 4pm.

From my picture journal…. This is just something that amused me LOL

Haven't Fallen Off The Face Of The Earth

 It is just that it is still winter and damp and cold and not my favourite time of year unless I am on holidays and sitting in front of the heater, with a DVD marathon in front of me - then I am one happy camper :)

Well here is a picture of a small cross stitch finish, it is from JCS Ornament Issue 2009 and it is called Joy and designed by Midsummer Night Designs. The photo doesn't do justice to the colour of the fabric is a greenie hand dyed colour (I really need to learn how to take a decent picture LOL)

Okay, I have a dilemma at home........where the hell am I supposed to sit when I get home from work!

We did have to take our brindle baby off to the vet on Tuesday and I am not sure who it is more traumatic for, them or us LOL.  Her lip/jowlie thing was swollen on Sunday and after closer inspection we found something that we thought may have been an abscess or an ulcer. It turned out not to be any of these things but apparently the vet said she must have been chewing a stick and stabbed herself in the mouth, so now I have to get covered in dog slobber every morning and night trying to get 2 and a half tablets down her throat while the other dog sits there begging wondering why he isn't getting the extra "treat".

I will end this post with a hypothetical for you all.......

You work in a place that is under staffed and everyone is super busy doing their job and helping other people when they can.
Is it horrible of me not to give a flying **** when you have a work colleague tying to get sympathy from me for their workload and standing there with that "woe is me" look?

Out of Hibernation

Well as you know it is winter here in the Southern Hemisphere and life goes on. It is wet, damp, overcast, oops hold that thought, I just had a quick look out my office window and there is sunshine out there but you can guarantee it wont be there at 4pm when I leave the office!

I have been doing my usual winter hobby and watching some DVD's, last Sunday it was a big Chick Flick marathon for one. The featured movies were:
Confessions of a Shopaholic, Love Actually and PS I Love You. Nothing rounds off a rainy Sunday better than a glass of wine and a cry LOL

This time of year for us is a total bummer, apart from it being winter, it is tax time, all the major bills find their way into our letter box (land rates, water rates etc) and I find myself feeling blue and imagining it being summer and reading all your blogs and feeling jealous that you get to spend time in the sun, whinge about your air conditioning not working properly, the house at the lake needs a coat of paint etc LOL

I have been doing some crafts, but need to find the camera charger before I can take some pictures and post them, so I finish off this post with a picture that I found on my thumbdrive of a Jacaranda Tree a few doors down from my house in the last glow of the setting summer sun.............................

Theme Thursday

To check out this weeks Theme Thursday.
Any who the theme is blue and this week something that colour blue scared the crap outta me. It was a message in my inbox with one of these attached.......

Ignore the bag, its the buttons that I wanted LOL

Now it wasn't from an old high school acquaintance that wanted to catch up, it wasn't from someone claiming to be my second cousin twice removed, and it wasn't from the really cute guy who catches the bus in the morning....................it was from my ex-husband!!!!

Getting Ready

Well I am in the process of kitting up this                                       I bought the fabric from the craft show that I went to the other month and have just ordered the specialty threads and beads that are needed. Once they arrive I will start.  Now this will not be a fast stitch as you all probably know from my previous stitching posts but I have decided that I am only going to do one big (yep, thats right, this is big to me LOL) project at a time, but I can break it up with stitching ornaments and the like.