Stop the clock!

Gosh, since posting last time so much has happened...and I'm sorry, I have to throw in this old chestnut; "where has the time gone?"!

I see in my last post we were just getting ready to attend my cousin's wedding. We had a fabulous time down country, the bride was blushing and beautiful and we caught up with a lot of Mum's family which is always a good laugh. I also spent time with some cousins who I hadn't really seen for a LONG time.  And top it off, the weekend ended on a real high with a call from our YD to announce her engagement - wonderful news :-)

YD and her fiance!!

A few days after that Mum and I popped over the Tasman to visit my son and dil in Queensland, Australia. Phew talk about hot, but copious amounts of water and use of the air conditioning helped with that! It was awesome spending time with them; we did the customary drive-bys of places of work etc, saw some Aussie wildlife in a local zoo and local places of interest. Dear son googled quilting shops; we visited one and were told about a craftmarket that was on... by the time we'd finished there, the others were closed, but I was ok, I'd had my fix :-)

Of course we visited the local eateries too, and spent time 'just chilling' enjoying each other's company. All in all a great time. The (extended) weekend flew by.

It was exciting to arrive home to see that my Secret Santa gift had come in the post - squeal!!
We are allowed to open one gift now; oh look, gorgeous little hangings, thank you very much, whoever you are - they are lovely and will look great on our tree!!!

Handcrafty-wise I haven't squeezed much in but I do have a little to show. Following on from my successful discovery that I can crochet in the car, (this post) I finished a short scarf (the pinky one) on the way to my cousin's wedding. It was a horsetruck project from several years ago (easy projects to do while whiling away the hours at horse shows with the girls). So early in the trip that we had to stop at a small town to find some more wool for another project :-)





And because I have now finished both my horsetruck UFOs (ignore the fact that I started the little blue scarf!), I rewarded myself with being allowed to start my ripple afghan on my trip to Australia...yippee..! I have looked longingly at ripple afghans created by other crocheters and bloggers for several years now and have been collecting up a little wool for when I would start mine. It is so good to have started it, the pattern is really easy (click here to get to it) and it is a wonderful way to spend time on a plane or just sitting visiting with someone. You don't have to concentrate quite the same way as when doing closer work, and a crochet hook doesn't get lost as easily as a sewing needle! - plus I don't get car/air-sick

Woohoo, my ripple afghan - I love it!!

Of course the visit to family in December meant that I could deliver some Christmas pressies - here are the tags for them. The pattern for these is The Alphabet Noel by Michelle Ridgeway Designs. I used Cottage Garden Threads - perfect for this type of stitchery.

And in my last post I showed the postcard I had received from Mary at NeedledMum... here is the one I sent her - you may recognise the reindeer from here, he is a little pattern I have fallen in love with :-)

Just before the MOML went out to do farmwork this morning, he commented that my 'palace' used to be 'quite a big room'... in other words it is FULL OF STUFF!! I need a good tidyup - wish me luck :-) [this is an all too frequent occurance!!].

Happy sewing to you all, and thank you for calling in,