EB Doll Quilt Swap

Well it was a great day today we got to open our Doll Quilt Swap. We received a parcel on Monday and have been waiting patiently until the big opening day and of course we were running late when Charlotte said "what about the package?". I was going to be a mean mummy and make her wait until this afternoon but she had been so patient already so she carefully cut into the enveloped, then carefully undid the ties and opened the paper to reveal not 1 but 2 doll quilts, one for her and one for Lucy. A big thank you to Leah she did a great job and the girl's love them.

Charlotte grabbed this one which has gorgeous hearts quilted in each square.

Lucy didn't really get a choice but she seems happy enough

Here they are with 2 dolls wrapped in them (all the dolls in our house seem to be nude). Mind you this photo was taken at 8.20am this morning, 5 minutes before we should be leaving and I hadn't even had a shower and they are both still in their pj's.

A big thanks to Helen and AJ for great organising

History

It was a historic day today across the world. I made sure Charlotte watched the news tonight and let her know history had been made and she will look back in years to come and remember the day the American people elected an African American into the White House.

I think we will look back on this day as we did for other significant world events - man walking on the moon, JFK assassination, Berlin Wall coming down and remember where we were.

And the winner is..................

Sorry for my tardiness, still sick so I will use that as an excuse. I think a trip to the doctor might be in order.

I Random Number Generator thingy picked number

25

I took out a couple of double posts and number 25 came out as

Juddie said...

Oooh thank you for the great giveaway! I think my favourite colour combinations (this week?) are turquoise and cherry red, turquoise and hot pink, or sky blue and chocolate brown. I also just love cherry red, and apple green on their own.

I love all of your things though :-)

So if you email me your address I will get something in the mail soon.

Thanks everyone for entering and I've got a few new blogs added on my bloglines now

School Fete

Charlotte's school had their school fete yesterday afternoon/night and boy what a night. It was a very hot day here yesterday and I was still feeling sick but had volunteered to work on the White Elephant Stall before the fete officially started at 3pm. I got there at 1.30 and already the "professional" shoppers were hovering. After being asked about 20 times what time we opened we uncovered the tables at 2pm and in they swooped, picking over the goods, filling their trolleys and boxes and trying to bargain us down. The 2nd hand toy stall opened about 2.30 and again they swooped. There were 2 people filling garbage bags with toys and when the kids finally got out of school and were looking through the toys they were still pushing their way through on their 3rd or 4th trip. Now don't get me wrong I love a good bargain but I hate it when a time is advertised for something to start and you get there at the advertised time only to find all the good things gone because everyone else got there an hour earlier.

Anyway enough of my whinging. I managed to score this absolute bargain at the white elephant stall, it was covered by all the old back packs and sports bags. This beauty case for 50c. I'm going to do it up so keep an eye out for updates. When I saw it I quickly moved over hoping it would be in good condition and it is absolutely perfect.

I also scored well on the book stall with about 20 golden books and theat didn't even make a dent in what they had.
A copy of A Very Hungry Caterpillar and Eddie's Numbers
A gorgeous Tinker book
And Mary and Mark illustrated by Marcel Marlier.
After much traipsing round the rides, watching the principal get dunked, eating, buying chocolate wheel tickets (and not winning) we finally trudged home at about 8.30pm.

Day 31 Blogtoberfest

Well it's finally here the end of Blogtoberfest. I've missed a couple of days here and there and missed yesterday because I was so sick. So because of that I'm having an end of blogtober give away. I can't promise what the prize will be, it could be any or all or some of these (or something totally different altogether)



I can't promise the prize will arrive quickly but it will definitely arrive before Christmas.

So leave a comment (you can tell me what you would like if you want/your favourite colours/whatever) by Sunday night and I will do the draw next week.

This is..........

I'm a bit late with this week's This Is.... what I am surprised I am good at.

SEWING

If only Miss Gurney my Year 7 Textiles teacher could see me now!

Yummy

Look at this gorgeous Sandy Henderson Farmers Market fabric that arrived in my letter box today.
It's from my wonderful friend Helen, if you haven't visited her blog you must as she makes the most beautiful quilts.

My mind is reeling with things to make.

Holiday

Day 27 and all I can say is thank goodness, I am starting to struggle with posts. I just realised I didn't post any photos from our holiday, so here goes.

I purchased some lovely fabric from Lara the other day and it arrived super quick on Friday. It is absolutely gorgeous and I wish I had purchased more now because I think it is currently sold out. I think I am going to make myself a new bag with it.photo from Lara's blog

It's Fete Time

It's fete time all around us at the moment. We popped down to a little pre-school fete yesterday evening. It was only small but they had a great white elephant stall. I got all this and 2 games (Trionimos and Guess Who)

Some vintage fabric (I think it might have been a curtain, seems a bit heavy for a sheet but it is all hemmed)

This softie book (sorry about the picture but my computer was not playing nicely)

An Enid Gilchrist book

Some I probably have but I'm pretty sure I don't have Wheels or Aren't You Glad

Love Fridays

Well normally I do but Lucy is still sick, Charlotte was home from school today with a cold, my internet connection keeps dropping out, I've done no sewing because it's hard with a nearly 2 year old attached to you.
Pop over here and check out all the giveaways

Sick

Lucy has been sick since last night, kind of a croupy virus so it's been cuddles all day long here.
Go check out these other blogtober-festers over at Big Cat.

Sorry no pictures today.

This is what I have been working in fits and starts lately. Some envelopes, tags and Moleskin notebooks using some damaged books I got recently - Never Talk to Strangers and Debbie's Birthday. They will all be used at the market in some way.

I thought I should update you on the kid tote name from this post. I loved all your suggestions but Stacey from A Rosy Outlook suggested Trailblazer and that got me thinking about playing on the Snailblazer name and so I came up with this

Well it got a laugh out of Ingrid.

Binding Love

30 metres of binding, need I say more!

This is..........

I've been a bit of a slack this is'er recently but here is my favourite movie. I had to list two because I couldn't decide.

First up is To Kill a Mockingbird. I love this movie (and the book), the movie is one of the great book to movie adaptations.


The second movie is Field of Dreams. I love this movie and my brother and I even went to the movie site when we were in the US in 1999. It was fantastic although everyone thinks we were crazy to hire a car from Chicago and drive to Iowa, but it was heaven!

Thanks Hollie for this week's theme and thanks Angela for hosting

New Op Shop

I found a new Salvos yesterday in a little side street about 10 minutes from home that I never knew was there. It is actually a really big store and had a few vintage sheets I contemplated but as I am trying to clear my stash at the moment I thought I would restrain myself.

I did pick up a couple of books though that are all a but damaged inside that I will use for some paper crafts, except the Lucy Atwell's Annual which is in great condition. I think I had a few of these as a child but had forgotten all about them until I saw the illustrations which looked familiar.

Another skirt

Today is our re-scheduled photo shoot so I decided to make another skirt to wear because I didn't love this one. I picked this fabric up at my last visit to the Remnant Warehouse and I fell in love with it. I made a few changes to the skirt this time using buttons on the front flap instead of the ties and I think it suits my bulging body shape better.

Meme

Well I'm struggling today with Blogtober so luckily I was tagged for a meme by this lovely blogger. So here is the deal:

6 unique things about me ~
1) Link to the person who tagged you
2) Mention the rules
3) Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself
4) Tag six other bloggers by linking to them
5) Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment that lets them know they’ve been tagged

1. I can bite my toenails (not that I do but it's a handy skill to have just in case!)
2. I hate housework but I hate the house being untidy - catch 22 that.
3. I am not a morning person but unfortunately my kids are.
4. I have to read before I go to sleep every night, even if I've had a few (not that this ever happens now).
5. I can/could sleep all day, not a problem.
6. I wear really daggy clothes at home and cross my fingers I don't get any unexpected visitors

I'm not going to tag anyone as this has been doing the rounds lately but feel free to join in, let me know if you do so I can read about your quirkiness.

Banana Bread

Ok Blogtober is killing me especially since I am back at work this week. For some reason Charlotte has been obsessed with Banana Bread recently and keeps saying she loves it and can we make some, mind you last time I made it she didn't eat any!

Here are my helpers doing the mixing

At the fruit shop yesterday I noticed a bag of very ripe bananas so I grabbed them and last night we whipped up some banana bread. I used this recipe but made a few changes. I used brown sugar instead of granulated so it gave it a nice brown colour and also a bit of a caramel flavour. I also used wholemeal flour which probably made it a bit denser. It turned out great but did crack a bit on top unlike the picture in the recipe.

They had to take it in turns mixing and adding the ingredients

I forgot to take a photo when it came out of the oven, this was what was left this morning

Vintage Sheet Swap

I participated in Meika's Vintage Sheet Swap and last week just before we went away I received a lovely package of fat quarters back.

Thanks again for organising this Meika.

The Box is Back

If you've been following this blog for a while you would know about the box swap that left my house way back in May. Well it's finally returned, It literally travelled across Australia, from Sydney to Canberra to Victoria to Tassie to WA to Qld back to Victoria and finally home. It was exciting seeing what was in there and what was left. I'd probably do a few things differently next time, like maybe run two at once starting in the opposite direction and maybe make it smaller with people only taking 1 thing out so it could maybe fit in a satchel to make it a bit cheaper. There was only 3 of my original things returned


And then there was all this wonderful stuff


I was also lucky enough to get wonderful gifts from Adds, Stacey and Jodie

Thanks to everyone who participated hope you had fun. Amanda, Jodie, Annie, Meika, Helen, Adds, Tanya, Marie, Stacey, Cam (let me know if I have forgotten anyone)

I'm back

Hi everyone I'm back from a lovely few days away. Thank you all so much for entering my little competition. I was thinking around $25 so most of you were close. I love all the names and am still thinking about that although one came to mind in bed last night that I am playing around with.

Can't have a post without a picture so here's a little family snap from our holiday.

Oh I guess you are all waiting to hear the winner. We did the old fashioned print the names out and and draw them from the hat (only because the girls find that much more exciting).

The winner is Michelle . So Michelle send me an email with your address and which bag you would prefer and I will pop it in the post.

Thanks again everyone for entering