Spring Swap

The delightful Corrie from over at http://www.dutch-blue.blogspot.com/ organised a Spring Swap.  Here in the Southern hemisphere the leaves are turning and an Autumn chill is in the air but it was actually really nice to be thinking of others enjoying Spring a world away!  Now I haven't blogged about this before now because I was worried that I might spoil the surprise for my lovely partner Inge.  Hopefully by now she has received her package and I can blog about them both.

Do you remember the sneak peak of this:

Well, it became this (using Rosalie Quinlan's stitchery pattern in "A Stitch In Time" and fabric from her Grandma's flower garden range):Which travelled to the Netherlands in this (made quickly from a block repurposed from my UFOs)

I hope Inge liked it!

Now Inge is very talented and also very lucky (she has an island "crafting" holiday away with her mother each year - I am just a bit jealous!!!)  For the Spring Swap she stitched this:Her stitching is exquisite.  Have a look at the label:and the pieces in the blocks are teeny tiny:Inge packed it all up with a lovely Spring bag, a beautiful tulip card and two gorgeous flower fabrics.  Thank you so much Inge.  It was just a beautiful swap present!

I was really so glad when my partner was from the Netherlands.  I travelled there many years ago (to visit a pen friend that I had since high school through until a few years ago)  It is such a beautiful country.

Thanks Corrie for hosting, and Inge for my lovely presents.  Time to go now before the two bigger kids do serious damage to each other.  Have to say that I am convinced (after only a few days of school holidays) that I definitely don't have the patience to home school!  The two of them have had their Easter baskets confiscated, along with several favourite toys, and are about to be banished to their rooms for an hour.  Gotta love kids LOL!

Easter and the Beach

We had such a lovely Easter, complete with copious amounts of chocolate, lots of extended family, and some joyous time at the beach.

Maddie girl tasted sand, salt,and sea air for the first time - and proved to be quite the little beach babe!

The light down on the beach on Friday evening was just beautiful and the sunset so fitting as a gentle reminder of what Easter is truly about.

Blessings and Easter wishes to you,

Nell

Happy Easter!

I've been admiring fabric banners for a while and dreaming of making one in lovely Easter pastels but I don't have any in my stash and time was of the essence so I whipped this one up with scraps of paper from my Creative Memories stash (mostly the Pastel Power Palette) and 3 metres of premade bias binding from http://www.patchworkapple.com/ It doesn't technically belong in my front room but it looked so nice on the blue wall that I couldn't take it down!

We are now almost packed for our few days at the beach house.  Here was Hannah's own packing: Could this girl get anymore like her Auntie Kaz?  4 pairs of shoes for a two day stint?!?!  I love that the treasured new red sight words got included too!!!

I have grand plans of finishing an easter hat for Maddie and a stitchery too but I know that our time at the beach will probably be anything but relaxing.  This was Wednesday's crafting effort:Op Shopped brown corduroy skirt in her size: $1.50

Ric rac: pinched from the stash (is it just me or does everything look better with ricrac at the moment?)

Flower embellishment: Made from Emma Hardy's book "Making Children's Clothes"

Watching her whirl and twirl in it this winter: priceless!

From our family to yours, Happy Easter!