7 More Sleeps!

It's been a fortnight since I posted and as things are still quite hectic at home with Howard and Christmas preparations, I have found that one day has blended into the next and my brain is turning to mush (even more so than usual).  I have been reading all your blogs but have been really slack in not commenting.

We have had a little bit of flooding in our town.  The drought has well and truly broken here and we were told the other day that there will be NO WATER RESTRICTIONS this summer Yay!!!!

This picture is of a road I travel on almost every day and usually has a little creek running under the bridge.  This creek runs right through our town and the afternoon it flooded, every road that travels over it was impassable.  I have never seen the water run over the road like that.

This is the same creek over a different road.  My son usually walks his dog along that footpath.  The Murray River at Albury burst her banks due to water being let out of the weir and I can tell you, it has been a very very long time since we have seen so much water.  

We had our Friday Girls Christmas Lunch at Jan's last week.  Look at all those presents under her tree!  They were all for us!!!!!

We had the best day together, celebrating our friendship and exchanging gifts.  Here is just a small sampling of the goodies I received.

This is Jan's little table beside her armchair.  Don't you just love that little quilt!  It's "A Patridge in a Pear Tree".

Now I haven't done any sewing that is blog worthy so I will just leave you with a few pictures of some of my favourite Christmas decorations.

This just happened to come home with the shopping the other day, nothing like a bit of retail therapy.

If I don't post before, I just want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year.  I want to thank you all for making me feel so welcome in blogland and I feel very lucky to have made so many wonderful new friends,  I love you all!!!

Sue-Anne xxx

I Lost November & 21 Days Till Christmas!

Well, I have totally missed November and there is only 21 days till Christmas! 

My husband became ill and had to be admitted to hospital on Melbourne Cup Day.   After spending two weeks there, he finally came home but there have been a couple of hiccups with his recovery, due to his disability.  I am happy to report though, that he is much better and will just need lots more time for total recovery.  I have been really slack in catching up with what everyone has been up to and thank you especially to those who have emailed to see where I have been, I treasure your friendship.

*To Bronwyn in Sydney - Thank you so much, time has got away from me but you are in my thoughts and I will be in touch soon. 

The one positive from sitting at the hospital every day was that I got to applique the centre of Swan Lake.  The centre is quite plain so as not to detract from the border which is definately the Star of this quilt.

The flowers were a little challenging though and I am pleased to have them completed.  Now all I have to do is cut out and applique down 44 flower stars????

I have also completed a couple more rows of my clamshells.  I really really love working on this and although I got lots of stitching done while Howard was in hospital, I have not been able to do much since he came home.  This is perfect to pick up when I get a few moments and need to destress.

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My Mum has made the plum pudding every Christmas since I can remember.  This year, she decided that it was a bit much for her so I was given the job.  Having never made one before, and having to live up to my mother's pudding reputation, I very nervously took on the task last Sunday (note the phone in the photo, I made several calls to mum whilst making it.  It smells ok and now we just have to wait till Christmas Day to see if it tastes ok.  Fingers crossed.

I finally got the tree decorated yesterday so now it is starting to "feel a lot like Christmas"!

Sue-Anne xxx