She colours our world...

So much joy and delight wrapped up in one little girl - just a few of my current favourites - Happy Friday!

Happy Australia Day!

I hope you celebrated in whatever way works for you.  We had a lovely BBQ brekkie with one of my dearest friends and her gorgeous little daughter.  They have been staying for a few days.  It has been so great to catch up again.  I feel so blessed to have friends like that in my life!  We were talking today about friends coming into your life for "a reason, a season, or a lifetime"  I am incredibly grateful for the amount of "lifetime" friends I have.  I still struggle with letting go of "seasonal" friends and even years later wonder what happened to them and where they are now.  One of the joys of blogland has been finding friends "lurking" LOL!

Congratulations to Esther Pollard who was the successful bidder in our auction for Queensland Flood Relief.


How awesome is that!  Pretty amazing for a group of crafty chicks!  I like to think that my little bit helped (and I know that I certainly ran a few bids up higher as there were so many yummy things up for auction LOL!)

Despite being quite busy I have actually had a bit of productive sewing time lately.

This, for my niece's birthday out of the beautiful Hoot range, and this which has been a very long time UFO.  Nothing like having your local and very favourite patchwork shop closing to make you rush projects through to completion!  I've also been making some blocks for the Quilts for Queensland appeal and I notice that Pip over at meetmeatmikes has found a lady collecting granny squares to help too so if you can crochet maybe you could get involved.  I love to see so many people helping in so many ways!  Makes you feel good about humanity hey!

Anyway, I am off to bed!  Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

Keep smiling,

Nell

xxxx

Flood Relief Auction

Okay, so remember I said I would be back with details of what I was auctioning for the Flood Relief Appeal?

I am auctioning 3 little hand-dyed, handspun, handknitted children's caps.

First is "Autumn" - 100% dyed Australian wool with a wool felt and button embellishment.

Second is "Leaf" - Alpaca and wool blend with a needlefelted leaf.

Third is "Strawberries and Cream" - dyed Australian wool with slivers of mohair.

Auction is open now and will close on January 24th.  Just leave a comment with the name of the hat you want and your bid.  For more details and to look at all the awesome crafty things being auctioned on other blogs please click on the Flood Relief button.

Any questions please leave a comment.
Also happy to spin some 100g hand-dyed wool skeins in your choice of colourways for the highest donation above $22 AUS.
I could probably also be convinced to knit these caps in custom order colourways for the Flood Appeal too (if you twist my arm enough and give me a bit of time!)

Just desperate to help out a good cause.
Keep smiling,
Nell

Quilts for Queensland

I am so blessed that of all the family and friends I have in Queensland all (as far as I know) are safe and have not lost property.  Watching the footage of the flooding is breaking my heart.   I have been trying to think of ways to help and stumbled on Retro Mummy's "Quilts for Queensland" post and also Toni Coward's auction idea so I will be putting up the Auction post tomorrow.

In the meantime, if you can sew even a little why not make a 12 1/2inch block or two (finished 12") and help out a great cause.

Keep smiling,
Nell

p.s. if you are local and want to get blocks to me by the first week of February then I will get them to Corrie.

Summer Stitching

Yesterday was such a blissful Friday.  We didn't even have any temper tantrums and the house still looked tidy at the end of the day.  We even ALL had a little nap after lunch!!!
One of my great delights was some quiet time stitching with the kids in the afternoon.  I gave the two big ones "sewing kits" for Christmas.  They came with precut felt shapes and thick needles and thread.  I was impressed by how capable my kids are becoming with their stitching.  I even managed to draw up and start an embroidery design for my diary.  Hannah was so interested in the whole process and promptly demanded her own piece of fabric to design with - lots of hearts and birds and flowers and sunshine and she is doing a fine job on it.

I used my tripod to get the photo with me in it.  I plan to use my tripod a whole heap more this year :)

Hope there was happy stitching in your house too!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!!
We had a very wet Christmas at my parents farm (in "sunny" Queensland) Our stay was extended because of the flooding so we arrived home late on New Years Eve too tired to do anything but go to bed!

I can't tell you how much I have missed not having the quiet days between Christmas and New Years - this is usually my pondering, pottering, reflecting and wondering time and I feel strangely like I am not yet in the right head space for it to be 2011.

I haven't even written my New Years Resolutions yet!  I think that is partly because each year I seem to make the same ones - which means I am obviously not keeping them!  Perhaps it is because they have not been measurable/accountable enough?

The reason my Creative Memories business has been so successful in 2010 is that I kept my goals measurable and they had a definite timeline so maybe I need to do the same thing for my New Years Resolutions?

In 2011 I will:
* Be a Better Friend which means I will send birthday cards and presents on time - and try to be a better present giver and each week I will call/email/write/contact a friend I haven't talked to in a while (need to diarise this!)
* Be a Better Parent - which means I will set aside more time for 1:1 time for my children and I will try to develop some better strategies for the days they drive me crazy
*Keep a tidier house - which means getting back into fly lady routines and continuing the purge and declutter regime.
* Get more efficient with paperwork (I have bought an accordian file for CM paperwork and another for the kindy Governing Council stuff)
* Shop more from my stash (being forced into this one thanks to Jane closing the doors of my local patchwork shop!)  I am already trying not to bring more un-necessary items into this house but I really want to think more about what I buy as a consumer this year too.
* Finish a project before I start a new one (trying to keep the UFOs under control)
*Go to bed (lights out - that means no reading in bed either) before 10.45pm

I am sure that there are lots of others too but the kids are hassling me for lunch so now is not the time to concentrate!  I will be back soon with some favourite Christmas shots and a New Year's Giveaway.

Wishing you a New Year full of promise and possibilities!
keep smiling,
Nell