Merry Christmas to you all!

Wow! Maree has given me a project that has been on my to do list for ages. It's a gorgeous stitchery from Annie Downs' book "A Christmas Story". Maree's handiwork is superb and I'm so lucky to own it.

Thank-you Maree and I hope you like the gifts I've made for you as much as I love yours made for me.

Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope you enjoy the holidays!

I'll be back later to tell you about the rest of my Christmas

Hugs to everyone

Jo xxx

Advent Swap 24th December

On the 24th day Maree has really spoilt me, just look at the gorgeous embellished towel set

they're absolutely gorgeous!

Thank-you so much Maree

Only one more sleep to go and I'm so excited, I bet you all are too!

***Sweet Dreams and don't forget to leave cookies and milk out for Santa***

Advent Swap 23rd December

On the 23rd day Maree gave to me

the cutest tin Santa ornament and a tablerunner pattern!

Thank-you Maree

Only 2 more sleeps!

Advent Swap - 22nd December

On the 22nd Day Maree gave to me

scrapbooking goodies! I'll have loads of fun with these!

Thank-you Maree!

Advent Swap - 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st December

On the  18th Day Maree gave me a suncatcher, butterfly and some sweets

Day 19, perle thread, cotton and scissors

Day 20, the letter J and a xmas stocking

and today the 21st I received a scrapbooking folder

WOW! Thanks Maree, It's so much fun opening all these gifts and I feel so very lucky to have you as my partner.

Only 4 more sleeps until the big day, I hope you all are receiving something equally as special!

Advent Swap - 16th and 17th December

On Day 16th Maree gave to me a great xmas Mug

and today the 17th I received

2 little birdies that I've hung on my tree!

Thank-you Maree

Advent Swap - 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th December

Advent Swap pressies from Maree

12th December

13th December

14th December

this is a nifty little carry bag that compacts into a tiny little pouch!

and the 15th December

yummy sweets and DMC's!

Thank-you Maree!!

Advent Swap - 11th December

Day 11 and Maree gave me a beautiful scissor keeper and some scissors. It's a  great pocket for protecting my scissors! Thanks Maree.

Last night my son's school had their Primary Showcase, it was a wonderful event, lots of fabulous performances. The Grade 3 class was a standout performing "The Grade 3 Blues".

There was lots of clapping when my son's Year 6 group performed to a Kiss song, they looked fabulous in their costumes!

My son was the drummer (on the right).

They've only got 4 more days of primary school and next year he'll be heading to high school. They grow up far too quickly :-(

Advent Swap - 10th December

Well here we are at day 10, only 15 more sleeps to Christmas!

Today's gift from Maree

Some gloves, great for machine quilting and the perfect size for my hands and some glue sticks, I seem to lose these all the time! However did you know Maree?

Thank-you :-)

Advent Swap - 9th December

For day 9 Maree gave me a tape measure and pins in a cute little re-useable container, all very handy to a stitcher like me!

Thanks Maree!

Advent Swap - A brief interruption!

If you pop on over to Clare's Craftroom you can see the ornament I made Clare for the Handmade Xmas Ornament Swap! Thanks again Robyn & Clare for hosting a successful swap!

Advent Swap - 8th December

Day 8, Lavender soap and satchet, mmm it smells devine, it's such a calming smell!

Thanks Maree!

Advent Swap 5th, 6th and 7th December

I bet you're all enjoying opening your advent swap pressies, do you wake up each morning in anticipation? It's like being a child all over again.

Here's Saturday's gift

followed by Sunday's gift

and followed by today's gift

Thank-you Maree, you're certainly spoiling me!

Advent Swap interlude

Clare was my partner in the Ornament Swap, hosted by Robyn and Clare herself. Clare sent me one of her gorgeous party frocks, isn't it so sweet, it reminds me of a time long ago when I used to play with barbie Dolls. The closest I've come to dressing barbie dolls in my adult years is playing with my sons Action Man dolls, it's just not the same though.

Thank-you Clare, it's beautiful and so is the handmade card! Thanks also to Robyn and Clare for hosting the swap!

Advent Swap - 4th December

Isn't it like being a kid again opening these pressies, here's my 4th gift from Maree

a scrapbooking rubon and a very pretty notebook, thanks Maree!

Don't forget our Flickr Group, click on the icon in my sidebar, it'll take you there.

Advent Swap - 3rd December

3rd gift from Maree

a gorgeous pincushion, Thank-you Maree!

Advent Swap - 2nd December

Day 2's gift from Maree

Lovely bauble ribbon and scrapbaooking embellishments!

Thank-you Maree

Advent Swap - 1st December

Well hopefully all packages have arrived or will arrive shortly to all advent swappers. I opened my first gift this morning from Maree and she's sent me some gorgeous spotty fabric! Thank-you Maree!!
Now ladies remember to post regularly and thank your partners and you can also upload your pics to Flickr so everyone can see what you've received.
Just click on the Advent Swap pic on my sidebar and it'll take you to the flickr group.
Once again thank-you Maree and I look forward to opening the rest and seeing what everyone else receives too.
Merry Christmas to All!!
Hugs
Jo

Survivor

I'm back from an exhausting 3 days of camping with my son's Grade 6 class. It was full on, lots of activities, preparing food, cleaning up and having fun.

We headed off on Wednesday to one of Tassal's salmon farms just south of Dover. Here we learnt about the life cycle of salmon, their biology and how the farm operates.

Cockle Creek was our next destination, we arrived and set up camp. There was about 10 tents for the 27 kids that they put up themselves and then they helped some of the adults put up theirs.

We played on the beach for awhile then headed back to camp for dinner and marshmallows before lights out.

Up bright and early Thursday to prepare breaky and lunch for the day's hike. We walked for 2 hours to South Cape, through different landscapes to arrive at a breathtaking view.

and here's proof that I was actually there

When we returned from our hike we relaxed for 1 hour and then headed off for a bit of fossicking.

We found agates and petrified wood.

An exhausted bunch of kids and adults slept well that night as the rain came in. Friday morning we packed up in the rain and headed off the Hastings Caves.

The kids sang the school song in the Newdegate Cave and it sounded lovely.

Afterwards we headed to the Thermal springs and the kids had a swim and the grown ups had hot showers. We finished up with a BBQ before heading back home.

I've been extremely tired and a bit sore from the walk but I enjoyed every minute.

I am glad to be home in my own bed!

Goodies and camping

Here's a quick peak at the goodies I purchased at AQM:-

A layer cake of the the new French General Range called Rural Jardin some kits and a free Homespun Diary a FQ bundle or Panache and some Honey Buns Plus a range of gorgeous patterns by Marg Lowe

I could've spent lots more but Jetstor would've slugged me for the extra baggage!

On Wednesday I'm heading off for 3 days of camping with my son's Year 6 class to a gorgeous location, Cockle Creek
We'll be bushwalking, exploring caves and thermal springs, swimming, playing in the sand, fossicking and heaps of other fun stuff. I just hope the weather is fine! I'll see you all next week!

Pot of Gold

There really is a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow, well rainbow swap that is! This week I received a gorgeous package in the mail from my Rainbow Swap partner, hosted by Trash Can

The parcel was from Kate at Kate's Quilting (& other Fibre Arts) Blog and it was full of some yummy goodies

The chocolate didn't last more than 5 minutes after the photo shoot, devoured by my son and hubby and a wee bit by me. The candle has a sweet Vanilla scent and the lemon bath bomb is living in a drawer now giving everything a fresh smell. The mini quilt is so bright and cheerful and I think it'll make it to my office to brighten the dull walls up.

Thank-you so much Kate for all the work you've put into this swap, it is greatly appreciated and will be cherished forever! My parcel hasn't reached it's destination yet but it should be almost there. I forgot to take a photo of the goodies I sent so stay posted and as soon as there's a post about it I 'll direct you to my partner's blog.

PS Thank-you to Trashy for inviting me to join this swap and being a good first time swap mumma, everyone's gotta start somewhere!

Australian Quilt Market

Australian Quilt Market is awesome! For all those people that have to buy retail let me tell you that you're missing out. This is the place to meet all your favourite designers, see all the latest projects and fabrics and catch up with just about anybody whose in the business of quilty related goodness.

Leonie, Helen and I jetted off bright and early last Friday to Melbourne. We spent a few hours buying props for the stand, had a quick lunch at a pub before heading to the Exhibition Centre to set up Here's the Pattern Press Stand in all it's glory

Pattern Press distributes patterns for The Quilted Crow, Hugs 'n Kisses, Chitter Chatter, One Red Robin, Moonshine Designs, Emroideroo and Miss M. It was so good to see all their original work up close. I love Chitter Chatter's quilts, there's so much detail in them and Jhoanna's softies just need a big hug! Jhoanna helped out on Saturday too, she's the loveliest person and can you believe I didn't think to get my camera out to get a photo with her.
The Quilted Crow's new BOM 1864 by Leonie is worth a look, stunning wool felt on cotton background, I'm sure Leonie will post a good pic on her blog for you all to see and Hugs'n Kisses new BOM Life is Beautiful is a must see too.

I met up with some well known bloggers Kerri, Julie, Jodie, Annie, Andi, Corrie and Leanne , make sure you visit their blogs you might find a few pictures there. It was like meeting up with long lost friends, luckily I was able to have a break from the stand to have a coffee and a laugh with some of these girls.
I also met this very talented lady too

Kelly, from Don't Look Now and she's as lovely as those pretty quilts she makes. Jan from Sewjourn was behind the camera, thank-you Jan for the chopping board and knife, at least we got to share our Tassie fudge!

After a quick pack up on Sunday afternoon we flew back to Tassie, totally exhausted! I'm still recovering!!

Next post I'll show you some of the goodies I bought!