Surprise Gift and Great Purchases

It is Sunday morning here, and outside the weather looks a bit bleak and cool.  Other parts of the country are experiencing horrific bushfires and extreme heat so I wont complain about our weather.

Since I last blogged about my birthday, I had a nice surprise when my good friend Dianne arrived with this wonderful gift for me that she had made.

Isn't this just gorgeous.  I love the fabric.  She has watched me carrying my fabric pages round in a zip lock bag, so this is just the most perfect give for me to protect my embroideries from getting crushed and dusty.

At the moment I dont have any photos of the completed pages, but they are coming I promise.

With this beautiful gift I received a hand made card by Di as well.  I love it.  She is so creative.

This last week has been a busy week for me, out almost every day, both for social and business reasons.

Twice this week I have had social outings....   The first was a visit to the Toowoomba Embroiderers Guild Open Day, where visitors had the pleasure to view some extraordinary beautiful embroideries.    Sorry no pics.   I did take my camera but left it in the car....

They had a sales table of books culled from their library and I was fortunate enough to buy these...for the princely price of $2 each and the small one was 50c. As if I need another embroidery book, but I could not resist these.  They are older publications, and I have discovered there are ways of using some stitches that I dont have in other books so I am tickled pink with my purchases.

creative and inspiring

this has history and clear illustrations

a great little book to carry in my sewing box.

this just makes me want to get the threads out.

This will give me lots of inspiration for thechallenge.

some great designs from the past

When I was culling some of my old handmade magazines, I tore out patterns and designs and discarded the rest.   While looking through the boxes I discovered this book which means I now have my favourite patterns from those magazines in one handy book.  The little doll in the front was one I made for a grandaughter together with that bear, except I made him in fabric

On Saturday after the Art Quilting meeting to discuss the challenge for next year we visited an exhibition  by the local ATasda Group.  (Australian Textile Arts and Surface Design Association).  Wow the work we were privileged to see was mind blowing.

The theme for our art quilt challenge is "Bottanica" and I think we all came away from the ATasda Exhibition  with our minds reeling.  If you want to check out this group go to their website at www.atasda.org.au.

Have a nice week everyone.

Birthday Week

Why cant the world slow down just a little bit.  Here it is October already and another year older.   After turning 75 last year I thought I would just ignore future birthdays but October 3 just keeps rolling around.

Then of course even if I did ignore October there are always the wrinkles which keep getting deeper to remind me another year has been added to the 3 score and more than 10 years.

However there always good things about birthdays and they are the lovely wishes, cards and gifts from family and friends.  This year has been no exception.  The other day I answered the door to a knock and it was Australia Post delivering this huge box:

It was hard to wait to open it and all the shaking did not give a clue as to what was inside. But when I did open it I was excited to be greeted with all these lovely gifts beautifully wrapped in bright paper.  I could tell it was from my son Neil and his lovely wife who are always so thoughtful and generous.

a lovely little bag of lotions and potions, mascara and lip gloss

Cushion with Beau's picture

cushion with Chloe's picture

an aluma wallet so now no one can scan my cards in my handbag and steal my identity

I can now have Chloe and Beau on my bed with me without having to put up with falling hair or smelly breaths.

On Wednesday my good friend Di took me out to lunch.  We went to the "Two Birds Cafe" in town.  By the age of a lot of the clientele though it should have been called "The Old Birds Cafe".  It is a popular place for ladies who lunch too no matter what age, because the food is delicious, the service is top notch and the desserts are to die for.

Sorry forgot to take photos of our lunch.  On a wrap base, that was brown and crunchy were halved baby tomatoes, goat cheese, small dices of roasted pumpkin, pine nuts, and baby spinach nestled under a layer of melted cheese.  The taste was divine. Would like to see it made so I could discover that elusive tasty ingredient that I could not pinpoint.

Since it was a special occasion we finished off with carrot cake served with cream.  This was just delicous as well.  Thank you Di for a lovely day. 

Before going home I ducked into Rivers and bought myself not one...but two...pair of pretty thongs.  With the heat over the last few days I have been going bare foot in the house, but need something easy to slip into if I needed to go outside.

Thursday dawned and I was expecting a visit from himself and when he arrived he had brought me some flowers from my garden at the farm.   I have missed seeing this cactus flowering for the past 3 years so was thrilled to get one of the blooms.  I will plant the piece when the flowers are finished.  He also bought over the first of my baby yellow rose and the last of the iris together with a couple of strelitzias which brighten up my room.

 

Last night he shouted me my favourite pizza for tea so I could have a night off from cooking - a rare event.  Again forgot to take photos, but here are the last two pieces left for lunch today.

I dont know if Pizza Capers company is only in Australia but they have wonderful pizzas.....even if the photo of these slices look revolting....the pizza was an el fungi....and consisted of pepperoni, ham, mushrooms, garlic, herbs, camembert and mozzarella....very delish.  Their Marguerita is another of my favourites.

Nearly finished.....

Today himself took me shopping to stock up my pantry which he does whenever he comes over to save me having to lug my little trolley full of groceries home from the shops.  While out he bought me what I have wanted for ages.....a weather station.  We always had a weather station and I have wanted one of my own for ages.  So now when it rains I will be able to see just how much rain we have had.

This one is definitely for older people with bad eyesight and I have situated it outside the window of this room and can read all the guages from my chair in front of the computer....oops looks like we have mounted it on a slant but think that is just the angle of the photo.

So all in all I have had a lovely few days.   Did manage to get some ironing in....thought I had better tidy up the spare bed.....haven't done any new stitching but what the heck it has been a lovely few days and to be honest I dont really feel a year older.

Bye all have a nice weekend.