The Great Ocean Road Australia!

This is just part of the Great Ocean Road which stretches from Melbourne to Adelaide Australia, just 750 miles long! We have planned to drive along this staying at Apollo Bay, Portland, and Robe on the way and then onto Adelaide. It all looks so beautiful with stunning beaches and scenery all along the way. All very exciting and its only 10 days before we leave!
Today I have some ironing to do of tops and shirts so they can be packed next week.. our suit cases are ready and waiting!!

It's here SPRING!!

This morning in the January sun I found these in a corner .... so beautiful and pure against the fallen leaves and soil.
I love them!

Some alarm fun or not!

The new burglar alarm works! We came back from shopping and we had arranged that I would disarm it, tee he he he !! It would have helped if I had looked at it before we went out because I couldn’t see the numbers, as I didn’t have my glasses on!! So it went off!!!! I had 4 goes and it was still going as by then I had got confused and I had the numbers all wrong, so Mike had to do it; but then in bed last night he said , what’s the number and I couldn’t remember and then I said its similar to the pin number for our Tesco credit card and then I couldn’t remember that either!! LOL I need blueberries, the new wonder food that improves your memory!! ROFL ( I really am! It was so funny!) And in fact its not a bit like our credit card number!!

Goodies arrive on this wet morning!

These are the lovely goodies I received this morning from Nic in HoE I love them all. The cushion is now in the conservatory on the chair with strict instructions that it is not to be sat on! And I can't wait to plant the seeds!
A variety of lettuces and Antirrhinums and Evening Primrose and then there is floss and ribbon.

Thank you Nic I am delighted

The cushion has given me ideas of how to finish a piece of stitching I have done for my friend Jenny in Australia...so another big thank you to you Nic!

Lizzie Kate exchange

My Lizzie Kate exchange has arrived at its destination so I can now show it, its a pin keep.. I used the design and did the little scissor fob to match... I love LK designs and have been looking at some for another exchange even though I had decided I wouldn't buy any more charts!
But a girl's gotta have lots to choose from!!

I backed it with this pretty fresh looking fabbie that I had in my quilting stash which I think matches the colours perfectly




I hadn't added any little gifts because it said not to but I was devastated to see that lots of exchanges had included some little extras. I do hope my partner didn't mind.

I am up to date with exchanges at the moment, so I am stitching my BP sal this evening as after my false start I have done none at all!

Back to normal!

For those who might not know I had a knee replacement last July.. before I had it done I was hardly walking anywhere and I certainly couldn't do what I love most of all... my garden.

But today it has been beautiful here today 5° C and sunny, so I have planted some late bulbs all sprouting so hope they will carry on growing. I need more flower space!! So the next day it is fine I am going to dig up some asters, lavender and comfrey and dig over where they are and add some compost and plant some summer bulbs… the comfrey can go up the allotment…
All my daffodils are up and some tulips so I hope they will be all flowering by the time we get back from Australia. I have chicken wire covering them all to deter the b----- cats and squirrels who love to dig up bulbs and eat them. It was like my knee was back to how it was before arthritis had rended it too painful to do much... wonderful for me I have had such a lovely day out there and tonight as there are no flowers to photo I have taken a shot of the three star balls my daughter gave me for christmas. You can't see in the photo but they have tea lights in side each one and shine out through the star cut out shapes. I love them!

They look wonderful to me and also I have a lantern hanging in the small tree half way down the garden, I can't wait for summer... yiphee I am back to normal!! I can garden again.

Gifts

These were the pressies I sent to Gaynor, I couldn't find where I had saved the pics on my computer, hence the delay..


.......and this was Kaths

I enjoyed putting matching ribbons and buttons!

My three PIFs

This is the needle book I made for Gaynor I choose this design for her as she is a gardener.
Its a Victoria Sampler freebie

For Sue I choose this .....

And for Kath something in pink... this was stitched in a variety of cross stitches.

I loved stitching all three and included some little pressies with each one....

Good luck with your own PIF s girls!

Gaynors stitch along! Look what I've done

Look what I have done! It doesn't show but I have done all the back stitching on the cats as well as the

kitty face in the middle... so that its for this month of January... It is beginning to look as though I might get this finished!!

I intend stitching this the first weekend of each month....

Sue's PIF

Just telling everyone that my friend Sue is offering a PIF

This is her blog:-http://sues-asifbymagic.blogspot.com/

Take a look at her blog her stitching is wow... here's what she's done for me.

My Music

Wow I have been able to add music to my blog!! I got the link from Sue's

I have chosen some Elton John songs as it has 'Your Song' on it which the girls sang so beautifully at our wedding!!

I could listen to it all day although I get a bit emotional as it was such a wonderful day... 29th July 2oo6........ sigh!!!

Going to have an afternoon stitching my Prairie Schooler exchange piece..

Spring is in the air!!

This morning I noticed that our resident squirrel was high up in the trees outside our back gate and then I realised that there were two! They were playing follow my leader swapping the lead and chasing one another. One looked like our little podgy one, he is fat and the other slightly smaller.
We all watched as they skipped up the fencing and right up to the kitchen window and looked in!
It was delightful to watch them both as they scurried around the garden and both feeding on the bird table at the same time..so our Mr Squirrel has got himself a Mrs!
Spring is in the air it seems!

PS I was able to change my header pic.... Hurrah!!

A bit of a hiccup!

This is my Beatrice Potter SAL and as you can see I did quite a bit on January 2nd! However the floss has more green in it than I anticipated and I don't like it, so I had to do a bit of frogging last evening quite a delicate operation on 32c in our lounge lighting as the bulb has gone in my desk light... this is getting to be quite a costly venture as this is the second piece of linen I have bought, as I thought the first was too sandy coloured!

So what to buy now? I don't think it will be more VC Hdf so it looks like it will have to be DMC variegated!

Always with You... The Book

I have started to read this book, it made me think of my friend Sabrina whose son Dean died age 38 in November 2008 ... Its very sad and I needed my tissues this morning as I read in bed.. such a sad thing to lose a child.

SOME GREAT THOUGHTS

I just love this especially number 19 as I had a miserable childhood but I am enjoying it now... after all I can play computers as long as I like, stitch till I get fed up, read everything and anything (my grandmother didn't like me reading being Victorian in her age and ways; she thought it a waste of time for girls!) And as well as all this I have a wonderful hubby who I love and adore and he cares and cherishes me as I never was as a child... we have wonderful children and we love to be together... what more could I want?

And don't you love number 45, Life is a gift.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.

It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here goes:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument, agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone, it's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God, He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first pay cheque
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry
13. Don't compare your life to others, you have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye, but don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath, it calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood, but the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie, don't save it for a special occasion. today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick, your spouse, children, family and friends will: Stay in touch.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life. show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. you already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

What's happened to my blog????

Looks like this blog is broken!! I am quite upset but I am not despondent I shall sort myself out and looks like Always Smiling had better start just that!

Smile!!


Whooooeeee I fixed it although I still can't alter the pic in my header, but I am working on that....anyone any ideas?

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone, may Health and Happiness be yours and 2009 your best ever year.

Mike and I left the pub last evening before midnight having togged ourselves up in our 'party best'.. we were frozen as we were sat right by the door open for those who smoke... and also the speakers for the disco were opposite our table and without being spoil sports and showing our age, it really was tooooo loud. You couldn't hear a word that was said even when it was the person next to you.. so we came home and at 11pm were sat warm infront of the TV and BBC1 with a drink and some Kettle crisps which I found in our pantry... bliss! We saw in the new year watching the spectactular fireworks at the London Eye. This morning we have learnt that the crisps were the girl's that they had bought to go out and had forgotten, we thought they were ones we bought a while ago and had forgotten!!