My Old Teddy is a Treasure to Me

I read a blog a couple of months ago on Melody's Tuesday Treasures about an old Teddy Bear and it got me thinking about my old Teddy.  I had a multitude of teddies growing up.....a really huge green and white stripped one, a big floppy yellow one, that was nearly as big as me, with blue paw pads and inner ears that I dragged around everywhere so that he had to have his ear sewn back on several times, and eventually lost an eye. And several other teddies in various sizes and colours. Apparantly I used to line them all up on the bed and have conversations with them.  My mum tells me a story of a day, I was about 3 or 4 years old, when she decided all my teddies needed a good wash so she filled the bath tub to wash them and thought I would find it amusing if she spoke to them while giving them a wash. The story goes that I was totally shocked at this and announced "Mummy!!, I didn't know you talked to teddies!".  Obviously she was too old for that kind of thing.

very threadbear Ted with missing nose

I am not sure what happened to most of those teddies but I have one teddy that has been with me the longest. It was bought for me before I was even born and has travelled with me all around the world to live in different places in the UK, Southern Africa and Australia. Most of the time it was shoved in a cupboard or packed in a box but now it has a spot in my sewing room and every now and again I do give it a little hug! I definitely don't chat to it anymore.....you don't know who will be listening in!!

What makes Teddy even more of a treasure is this photo I found the other day which shows a 'new' Teddy with me and my two brothers.

An early picture of Teddy with me and my brothers

 Have you hugged your Teddy today??

 xoxoxox

Phew! the earth is round!

Its a good job the earth is round and not flat or you may have thought I have dropped off the edge of it. Everything is a little mad at the moment. I have two work collegues missing due to illness and annual leave and 1 that is stressing about upcoming uni exams so unavailable to work which means 3 of us have to cover 100 hours a week. The extra hours have left me exhausted with not much time allocated to crafting. A day off today means catching up on washing, shopping and cleaning......although I have barely started any of that yet! So I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, just pre-occupied!

 I can't wait for Wendy to let me know she has received her "Friends with Benefits" parcel and then I can show you a picture of what I sent to her. The post person said 3 to 10 working days. It has now been 7.... and counting. Hopefully I will have time to relax and do some sewing this afternoon.

Have a great weekend!

Another Blissful Weekend

I can't believe it's weekend again and for me it has been another blissful one. Yesterday (Saturday) I was doing some sewing while hubby was ironing his work shirts and he suddenly asked me if I could go for some Afternoon Tea.

 "Are you askng if I would like a cup of tea?" I asked.
 "It would be nice with some scones, jam and cream" he answered.
 "We don't have any" said I.
 "Let's go for a drive up to the top of Mt. Coot-tha and have afternoon tea there." He suggested.

 The ironing and the sewing were abandoned and we got in the car for the 20min drive up to Mt. Coot-tha. It was such a beautiful sunny day outside and we enjoyed (in the end) cups of coffee and shared a piece of citrus cheesecake and a piece of choc/hazelnut pear cake. I love it when he is spontaneous like that.

 The downside is that even though I remembered to grab my camera as we were leaving, when I tried to take a photo.....oops!....no card present. DRAT!  Oh well, I already have tons of photo's from there.

Brisband CBD from Mt Coot-tha taken last September

 Then today miss M and I had arranged to meet to go for a browse around the shops and have a coffee. We ended up having pancakes with strawberries, ice-cream and maple syrup too. After picking up some groceries she came home with me and is currently making some make-ahead meals for the week while I finally finished that sewing project.

 I made the top of this pillow and quilted it back in 2006 but, as usual, couldn't decide how to finish it. Eventually, I made a decision, thanks mainly to the cushion that Sue sent me a couple of weeks ago.

Till next time,


 
Also featured on Sew its Finished

Every dog should have a cat

I got this email from a friend yesterday and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It was called "Every cat should have a dog" but as you might well know, I am trying to convince hubby that I NEED a cat, so calling it "Every DOG should have a Cat" and was hoping this would tug at his hearstrings. (what heartstrings?) He obviously doesn't have any or he would have gone straight out and bought me a kitty!

I have tried but cannot find an easy way to show you all the photos but if you want to see more cuteness click here. Ok, one more...

 Now, I have really got to go and search for my sewing mojo and finish off some projects!!

 xoxoxox

Postie, postie don't be slow........

.....you can take that speedbump.....go,go,go!

This little box of goodies is winging it's way to Wendy, my Friends with Benefits Swap partner in the USA.

 I hope you enjoy what's inside Wendy!  And this is what she will find inside..

 I only took photos of what is inside the bigger parcel :( but hopefully Wendy will show you all her goodies.

With that deadline (lol, deadline - what a joke) out of the way, I have lots and lots of other stuff to catch up with. xoxoxox

It's days like these!

Something hubby and I love to do together is visit the Art Gallery and at the moment the Queensland Art Gallery has an installation of paintings of women by various artists on loan from Musée d'Orsay, Paris. We have been talking about going for a number of weeks now and today we decided it was the day.

Modern Women 1850 - 1918

 We had a lovely time strolling through the paintings, oohing and aahing at some and crinkling our noses at others but soon our tummies were startng to rumble so we made our way to the restaurant and ordered some sandwiches and coffee and spent a relaxing couple of hours in the sun dappled,  breezy courtyard with our lunch while I snapped away with my camera.

Roast Veg and Feta Sandwich

Water Feature in the courtyard at the QAG

A stunning piece of glasswear (and reflection) on display at the gallery

An all together pleasant way to spend a Saturday I also did some sewing earlier. Well, even though I had a "sleep in" today, I got up at 5.30am and put some finishing touches to this project.

Tonight I am going out to dinner with some girls I know from work. I just hope I can stay awake long enough to order dinner!
 xoxox

I'm Cured........

.....*fingers crossed*

 After a week and a half, my sleeping pattern seems to be sorted out....be gone dreaded Jet Lag. Curse!! Ok, so I am awake at 4:30 in the morning but at least I have had a good solid 8 hours sleep instead of 3hours every night. I am feeling a lot better which is just as well as I have my first long day back at work today.

I popped out to a class yesterday (Strictly Sally Miller projects) and made a start on my Farmyard Frolics (block 3) as I am so far behind (again!).

 Sally had assigned candlewicking for the day (if we were interested) and designed a gorgeous little aussie icon to work on. I succumbed and she graciously did all the hard work of preparing the piece ready for stitching. And I couldn't resist resist doing a few stitches last night!

 I have decided to give this piece away so not too much detail in the photo.


I also saw this in the garden yesterday giving me an opportunity to have a play with my camera.

Till next time...

xoxoxox

SuRpRiSe!

Gotta love suprises! Well I do and I got another suprise in the mail this last week all the way from Tassie.  It was from Kathy of Sew-Happy House and inside was a pattern from "Designs by Fee".

I love Fee's work so I was delighted to find a tote bag pattern inside the envelope.

This of course was linked to the FWB swap and I have been getting ready to send my gifts to my Angel of a Swap buddy, Wendy @stitchduchessscrazysanequiltingworld.  Not too much longer Wendy!!!

Because of the surprise.....no photo's yet but here is a couple of snap of the girls, enjoying their sleepover:

 Callie went to investigate what was happening in the street.....and it didn't take long for Lila and Clover to follow also.

And a video I took of the two younger ones playing yesterday!

Sleepover

Sounds odd, but my girls are having a sleepover this weekend. By girls, I do mean my furbabies, Callie and Lila!

So who came to have a sleepover? Clover did! Here she is

Clover is a new addition to the family. My son, Red, gave her a home a couple of weeks ago when she was found homeless and as no-one has yet come forward to claim her, it seems she is here to stay. I guess you could call her my (fur)grandbaby. The vet thinks she is 2yrs old and she is the sweetest little girl.

Since her new owners (being miss M and Red) both had plans this weekend, "Grammie" (that's me) offered to have the little darling here. She came over yesterday and joined the "girls" on a walk and had a little play in the garden and then miss M brought her over for the sleepover this afternoon.  We went for another walk and I am thrilled to report that it went much better today and I sent Clover to the top of the class for sitting when told, not eating anything disgusting and most importantly, returning immediately when her leash was accidently dropped and she ran ahead.

Yet again.....Lila unable to sit still

After their walk and dinner, I got their beds ready and right now they are fast asleep on their beds.

Aren't they soooooo CuTe?!

And I get to do it all again tomorrow and Monday!!


xoxoxox

And back to crafting

I was a little puzzled as to how come I had a viewing spike last week even though I was away and didn't post and then I realised that Debbie from Our Old Homestead had linked me in her post to make My Needle Nanny. Go on over and see her creation! Thanks for the Link Debbie, much appreciated.

I have a busy week ahead of me now because while away, I missed my "Friends with Benefits" swap deadline.  I did contact my swap partner to let her know that it would be a little late and promised I would make every minute count once home to get it finished. I actually took it with me to England and stitched while mum and I chatted and watched tv over cups of good old Yorkshire Tea! I only need to sew it up now. Luckily I have the rest of the week off work. Phew!!

I promised I would show you what Sue from Quilted Hugs sent me for the Pay it Forward "game".  She did warn me that she was blogging about it and I opted not to have a look so it was a total suprise when I opened the parcel to find this lovely cushion cover.

I did find a cushion insert but it is a bit small :( so does not look as pretty in the photo.

but wait.....there is more! She also sent me a bookmark made out of the offcuts (clever!), a reel of pretty pink cotton and a yearly planner.

Thank you Sue, it is a perfectly devine gift.....I love the colours and the fabrics. I have so many conflicting tastes but this certainly reflects my funloving side.

If you want to participate in Pay it Forward....I still have one space left.....click on the Pay-it-forward icon in the side bar to read about the requirements and then leave me a comment letting me know you want to join in.

Well gotta go and give this place a really good clean, put some washing on and sit down to catch up on my tv programmes while I stitch the afternoon away.

xoxoxox

I'm Back

I am back from a journey that I don't want to do again! I came back to over 100 messages in my email inbox...a lot of junk but also so many of them were messages of support from family, friends and from alot of my new found friends here. I won't be answering them individually (I am sure you can understand) but let me say that your kind, thoughtful words were much appreciated and carried me when I needed it most.  I just have to say a special thank you to Kay and the other ladies from the Kelly Girl Quilters for the lovely card that was sent to me xxxx.

I may have lost my brother but I found a nephew.  I have never met my 24 year old nephew before due to all sorts of reasons and it blew me away at how similar he is to my brother at the same age. It was also so comforting for my mum to have him there in Dublin aswell (their reunion was long overdue).

With the sad day over, I was able to spend some quality time with my mum and my big bro M who was amazing at getting us all through this difficult time.

It was not a pleasure trip but I did happen upon a Cath Kidston shop at St Pancras station in London and, with heaps of time before I needed to be at Heathrow for my flight, I went a little crazy.  Eventually I had to decide on what to take and put alot of stuff back - no way I could take everything!

I brought the floral tea towels (front of picture) for Miss M for her new digs.  I felt really guilty that I was away and missed her 21st birthday.  I bought a tote bag (background), two little tins, a pin cushion, a tape measure and a little owl scissorkeep. I will at some point probably put some of these items into my pictures individually so this photo won't be the only one.

I did find a parcel from Sue B @ Quilted Hugs when I got home for the Pass it Forward game. I have opened it but will hold off till tomorrow to blog about it properly. Thank you Sue....Love it!!


xoxoxox