Double it

I have spent all day today whipping up just two more quilts before Christmas.

Twin girls were born into our family this week making my Pete a great uncle. I, however, reamin far too young for such a title and can only be described as the wife of a great uncle.

As Christmas approaches a severe weather warning has been issued for our state.

It is expected that a lot of rain will fall across the state between  now and the end of next week. Imagine the most rain you can, then double it. Up to 500mm is expected.

My Pete is secretly hoping that the weather will remain, as always, unpredictable. This is not because he doesn’t want it to rain, but because he secretly loves a rebel.

Even if the rebel is just a rain depression.

Can of Worms??

I have managed to meet my deadlines and find myself five days out from Christmas completely deadline free. I cannot remember when this last happened.

What to do?

SO… I’m cleaning out cupboards and making shopping lists for Christmas fare.

I’ve crossed canned tuna off the list though.

It probably won’t reappear on the list until 2015…

Self Regulation and Some Organisation

This time of the year is frantic. I have no idea how it happens, but my Christmas preparations are always bluster and flurry as I TRY to organise too many things with too little time.

I have one client quilt left to complete before I can even consider the shopping and cooking and cleaning and organising and wrapping and labelling that has to be done. I have such a bad habit of thinking of ideas midway through a task and wandering off to write them down or look them up. I had to do something to regulate myself.

SO… I must keep quilting until the duck goes quack, then I can take a break.

Turns out that thirty minutes is a really long time and it can be incredibly productive. Although I feel a little like Pavlov’s dogs, salivating every time I hear a duck quack.

To further organise myself, this arrived in the mail unexpectedly yesterday.

When I looked inside I found this…

my quilt, in the last week of July.

That might be a good week to go shopping for Christmas presents next year, when I am mega-, super-organised.

Things You Don’t Want to Hear…

AFTER you have had a shower.

My Pete: Man! Did you see the size of that spider on the ceiling of the bathroom? Biggest one I’ve ever seen.

Why, oh why, didn’t I check the ceiling??

Holiday…

Today was my last day of work. I don’t have to go back for almost six weeks. I am ten kilograms lighter. (Please note: given the consumption of Christmas chocolate over the last week that final statement is entirely metaphorical.)

Pip and I can now spend our time in useful pursuits such as discovering that a dog’s tongue bends backwards as it drinks.

Who knew???

This is going to be a great holiday!

Home for Christmas

I’m a little obsessed with appliqueing houses at the moment. I want to make quilts and quilts and quilts all with little rows of houses with pointy roof shapes and tiny bright windows.

Houses seemed just the thing for my Christmas deocrations this year. If I had been organised and thought of this BEFORE it was already December I could have done something beautiful like Lisa did. Her advent houses, with their tiny pockets and numbering, are inspired. Alas I got organised well into December when I suddenly remembered I needed some gifts to give in just in five days and I did not yet have them.

So I whipped these up:

Well, that’s how they started, then I stitched around them…

trimmed them back…

and added a little loop for hanging.

Ten of these little babies left my sewing table in just one night. (admittedly a rather late night) I am all about the hurry and the haste.

If you want to make some too, you should click right here and I’ll give you a pattern. Or you could head on over to the Free Patterns page and find it there too.

Happy stitching.

Jojo’s Bird Nest

When Joseph came to vist me this weekend he brought along a bird nest which he had found at home.

It was tiny and…

required a delicate touch.

Something so simple made a small boy very happy.

The Outback

Where wide expanses of flat land are surprisingly green following recent heavy rains.

Where recreational lakes have been created by pumping water from deep under the ground. The water smells and tastes like metal and leaves rust stains on the sides of houses where sprinklers have sprayed.

Where the spare tyres for mining trucks are delivered on huge road trains.

Where the endless bright blue sky is only interrupted by the pink and grey flurry of a galah calling to its partner.

PS I have just cleaned my lens… sigh.