Our Kiwi Christmas

Thank you all for your Christmas wishes. From the blogs I've read, it sounds like our family wasn't alone in having a lovely day, it was so nice to spend time with our two daughters and one partner.

(Sadly our son and dil weren't able to be in NZ for Christmas).

Allow me to share a little of what our Christmas was like.

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I thought that as the kids grew up (our youngest is now 21) that Christmases would lose a bit of their magic but that shows no sign of happening!! (Big smiles).

Gift of the day was this outfit being modelled by Oscar-Riley.

He he! Ever so cute,whenever he shook his head the
bells jingled!!
The antlers didn't fit so well and didn't stay on for long!

Most excited pet of the day - Oscar-Riley - loves getting his own Santa sack. Something must have smelled good as one of the parcels had chew marks!!

This little brooch was made for me by a friend - so cute!!
 It was attached to Oscar's stocking so he would know it was his one.
(It's been retrieved and is in a safe spot now!)

Oh Golly!

 Yummy mains of the day - the simplest Christmas Dinner ever but oh so delicious.

Ham, twice-roasted pork belly and the yummiest salad ever.

Yummy dessert of the day

Pavlova, fresh fruit salad and Christmas cake.

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I didn't do a lot of sewing for my gift giving this year, time ran out on me- but I did manage to complete a couple of small things.

I made two of these Gail Pan ornaments. Easy to make and very sweet.

 And I made two notebook covers.

 You probably know by now that I love making these; I love playing around and coming up with a pleasing (to me!!) design -
(the sheep and the dog appliqué are reduced from blocks in the Quiltmaker 100 Blocks magazines)

These are the backs - I had fun with the four patches!!

Wow - I've just realised what the time is!!Way past bed-time!

Thanks for visiting every-one, may all your days be happy, 

Wishing you all....

... a very merry Christmas!!

I just wanted to send you all my Christmas greetings. I hope you have a lovely time with your nearest and dearest.

(And best wishes for 2013 - although I'll be back before then!!)

Thank you for your friendship, your visits, and comments and all the fun and inspiration we've shared over the year.

See you soon, 

Christmas prep...

I seem to have had a bit of an unofficial bloggy break (sometimes these things happen!)..so here I am making a concerted effort to put that right :-)
In spite of my limited blog-reading time  I do know there's been a 'bit of talk' about Christmas lately - it's so much fun to see the Christmas spirit around the world so I thought I would add to it as well.
Christmas in New Zealand  for me, goes hand in hand with summer... we seem to be busy busy busy leading up to Christmas then all of a sudden the country stops and most people are in holiday mode. For us on the farm the cows still need milking but it is still a relaxing time of salads and sunblock.
For me, there are little things that get my adrenalin going and get me excited about Christmas coming.....

...Yummy fresh foods start appearing signalling relaxing meals with family and friends...

...The flower garden puts on a nice show before too much summer sun starts drying it out too much. The appearance of my red Christmas lilies lets me know it really is December and that Christmas is coming.

...Likewise the Manuka is in flower giving us our very own special sprinkling of Christmas snow,

It was difficult to photograph but these sprinklings of white flowers are
throughout the bush. Scrubby trees really but the Manuka honey from
them is highly prized. In fact there have been bee wars in our district
lately with 3 different beekeepers wanting to put their hives in our bush.

The bees are as busy as....bees!

[I  took a couple of really neat bee photos yesterday, shown here, if you are interested...]
So I really am feeling Christmassy even if we still have to find a (real) Christmas tree and get some decorations out - we have no children at home this year to bully, nag, motivate us!

I've done a little Christmas sewing - this is all I'm showing of this little project just now; these are 'one good turn deserves another' gifts (or gifts for Random Act of Kindness I have received).

I can tell you though that these blocks have come from the Quiltmakers
100 Blocks magazines; I find them a great resource.

And this morning I finished this 'Art Binder' for my nephew. I'm quite happy with it, and the excellent tutorial for it can be found here.

Some of you will be aware that this year I joined the Farmers Wife Quiltalong with Brynwood Needleworks. The lovely Donna sent me this lovely wee gift recently - just for participating!! Thank you Donna.

I'm impressed you are still with me...! I just have 2 more photos to show - both of little critters ---

Here is my latest Hannah and Harrington block - number 8,
yaay, I'm catching up!!

For those closer friends who have been asking about the new carpet we put
down recently , this photo shows you how well camouflaged
our pets are on it!!

I feel caught up now, thank you all for reading through to the end!!
Wishing you all fun, happiness and excitement in the lead up to the festive season -
and happy sewing everyone,