It’s a Hard Life

I’m at a work conference.

It’s on the Sunshine Coast.

I’m staying right by the beach.

It’s tough to be me.

Spatially Challenged

This afternoon as I sat in the car waiting for Philip to finish his art lesson I spent fifteen minutes trying to move that blue block through the gate to solve this puzzle.

In the ten minutes it took to drive home Pip solved this puzzle and seven others like it.

I don’t think I like him any more…

Lady Beetles/ Birds/ Bugs

Apparently these little fellows have many aliases!

Yep, I did add those great big lady beetles to my quilt.

Right now I absolutely adore this quilt!

I loved Margaret’s idea for embroidery.  My friend Flo often adds a row of large hand stitches in perle thread close to the seam line. This always makes an amazing difference to a white background. I immediately saw how much this quilt would benefit from a row of red stitches. Alas, my time constraints and skill set will not allow me to do this.

I have, however, been inspired to think of another solution. Watch this space…

Nine Patches

Nine little patches of fabric stitched together make this block.

Beautiful lady beetle fabric…

matched with patches of white.

Stitch them all together and

a quilt appears.

It’s still missing something though…

Two Decades

This week the beautiful Ashleigh turned twenty.

We have known her for two decades, but adored her for longer than that. How lucky we are to have her in our family.

Happy birthday darling Ashy.

Lady Beetles

This is a tall pile of lady beetle wings ready to appliqué to a quilt.

Although if you look at it from this angle…

you could think it was a really stylish pacman.

Home Again

Last night we arrived back in Townsville, less the $30 we paid in excess baggage to bring the new guitar home.

While holidays are always wonderful (and this one was particularly so). It is always good to come home to familiar sights and smells and to clothes that are not folded in a suitcase. It goes without saying that sleeping in your own bed is a very good reason to enjoy coming home.

Do you know what is better than sleeping in your own bed?

Coming home to find…

a parcel of fabric delivered and waiting.

Ballarat

Today we took an hour and a half train journey to Ballarat.

We met with the lovely Jodie, who first took us fabric shopping then took us to eat a cupcake for morning tea. (I fully intended to take a photo of my cupcake, but I ate it.)

We visited Sovereign Hill, the historical gold village…

where Pip suddenly realised that he needed a top hat…

and became a wanted man.

Who wouldn’t want a skinny fellow with flowing locks in a top hat?

At the Zoo

We love a zoo visit when we’re on holidays.

The butterfly house (which was tropically warm and felt like home) where…

Pip was found to be particulary attractive to butterflies now that we bought new socks for him. (A week after we had been here he mentioned that he had only brought one pair with him and had been wearing them each day.)

The new baby elephant…

didn’t wander too far from mum and aunty. He constantly ran to lean against them and to rub them with his trunk.

The giraffe decided that the grass was greener on the other side…

and made a huge effort to stretch and eat the garden beds instead of the food provided.

We managed to dodge showers of rain and see a few patches of blue sky. It was a very good day.

Busy, Busy, Busy, Stop

In dot point we have

• walked to the Fitzroy Gardens
• seen the fairy tree
• walked around the MCG
• avoided the museum of sport (what!?)
• walked to Federation Square
• eaten crepes in a tiny restaurant in a laneway
• walked the length of the city
• eaten a meal with the lovely Stomper/ Fixit family
• walked to the music store two more times since the guitar was purchased
• bought tickets to see Hairspray
• walked around the Royal Melbourne Show
• eaten a dimsim and spring roll which were the yummiest ever
• walked to Victoria markets
• cooked and eaten hand-made ravioli
• walked the whole of Lonsdale Street
• done some outlet shopping
• walked to trains/ trams
• caught a train filled with Collingwood supporter with full face-paint and very large flags
• walked back to the Fitzroy gardens around a massive crowd waiting for the Grand Final Parade
• eaten lunch with some lovely bloggers

and after all of that walking???My right hip and I had a disagreement and I spent almost a day and a half in bed/ on the couch taking panadol and reading two trashy novels.

Tomorrow we’ll be off again walking around the city – perhaps just a little slower than before.