Well, I still have trouble keeping up!

Life has been pretty normal for the last couple of months.

My baby Michael turned 21 on August 6, Matt turned 23 in October and my darling friend Gail got married on my birthday on November 1 for which she asked my blessing.

My darling hubby Jeff who is also my boss has given me quite a bit of time off in the last few months as we have been very quiet at work. Nothing to do with the economy - just the time of year. Other than that life has just been plodding along as normal.

I went and saw an orthopedic surgeon last week about my shoulder which has been giving me a lot of grief over the last five years. I now am scheduled for surgery on the 8th December to have the bursitis in my right shoulder released. I will be overnight in hospital - maybe two depending on whether the ligament is torn too. I am having an MRI for that in a week or so. I will be 6 weeks in a sling and as it is my right arm and I am right handed, I will probably be off work for most of that. The down side is that I won't be able to sew for that time either and that will kill me!!

I have been busy for the last few weeks sewing my heart out. I have been making a new quilt for our bed after falling in love with a new range of fabrics while on retreat at Collingully Cottage at the end of June. I just had to have them and the result is a huge quilt for our bed. All I need to do before quilting it is to put on the final border. This quilt will measure 112 x 112 inches when finished!!

Frosty Mornings

We have been having a few rather chilly mornings here in Northam. While the official temperatures have been -2'C, it was -7'C down by the river which I know for you in the upper northern hemisphere isn't that cold but it is for here. Frost has been thick on the ground. This picture was last Monday morning at 7am. By the time I left for work at 8 it was solid white. Very chilly!!!

Sooo Cute!

On Wednesday I went to the big city of Goomalling (Population approx 500) for lunch with Ruth and to get some serious cuddle time with my proxy grand daughter Breanna. I can't believe she is nearly 10 months old already! She is the sweetest thing. Ruth is so great with her but I always knew Ruth would be a great mum.

Ruth has to decide whether to come back to work or not by the end of this month. She says she still doesn't know! One day she thinks she will and the next she has changed her mind. We would really like her back but know that the decision is hers! I have even offered to have Breanna on my day off if she needs a babysitter!
On the way home from Ruth's I spotted this neat windmill in the paddock so stopped to take a picture. It ended up taking me over an hour to get home because I stopped a couple of times to take photos. I also stopped at St David's Church at Jennapullin and took a heap of shots. The church gates here is my favourite and I think it will be my choice for a pictorial quilt challenge that I will be starting in the next couple of weeks.

Bali

In May Jeff and I spent 8 wonderful days relaxing in Bali for a much needed rest. I can't recount our adventures because there weren't any as we spent most of the time lazing by the pool and only really ventured out to eat! I did try to take some interesting photos though.....

The one of the motorbikes was typical of the side of the road just about anywhere you went.











We did make a point to visit the Bali Memorial for those lost in the bombings in 2002 and did tend to visit the area most nights. It was always crowded with tourists and locals. It was very moving and is a beautiful structure.

Other than that we probably experienced the best Italian food we had eaten in a long while at a little restaurant called Sasa's in Semiyak. It was a very restful holiday!


The Pictures of the Frangipannis were taken from the balcony of our room. They were everywhere and just beautiful!

Catching up again!

I thought I would be really consistent with this blog thing but it looks like it wasn't to be! here it is! 6 Months since I last posted - how slack is that!!

Anyway - after much nagging I am posting pics of our finished family room make over. Needless to say I love it! I am really happy with the way it all came together in the end and am so glad to be rid of those awful heavy drapes. Jeff even likes it!:)

My New Hair Cut

Wednesday week ago I decided it was time for the long locks to go. After much deliberation and "permission" from Jeff (it was going to happen anyway!) I bit the bullet. Here is not the most flattering picture of me and yes it is supposed to look unbrushed - that is why I like it so much!

We have been busy having our family room and kitchen area painted in the last week or so. The change is wonderful. I am so happy with it. We wanted to have the painting done before the new furniture arrives next week. So here it is - still with the old furniture and no pictures on the walls because of course we want to wait until the new furniture is here. I can't wait to get the new blinds measured. i want to have what are called 'Sheerfold' blinds which are a cross between a vertical blind and a sheer curtain. As you can see the room is huge and is mostly windows so the new blinds will look so much better than the heavy drapes we have now.

Completed Projects for 2007

Here are the quilts I finished in 2007. Looking at this lot, I actually finished a lot more than I thought I did. I also made two bags, and bound a quilt which was made for me by all my quilting friends for my 40th birthday, which I don't have pictures of. So all in all I had quite a successful quilting year in 2007. This is partly because I joined a UFO challenge with one of my online quilting groups and finished 4 items that I had on that list. FGMs are going to be running another two UFO challenges this year and I will definitely be signing up for at least one of them, if not both!!

New Year's Day 2008

Here it is 2008 already! Just where did 2007 go. Hopefully I will be able to keep my blog up to date this year but I am not promising anything!

Jeff and I had a wonderful day today. We were going to go to the beach but because of a tropical depression up in the north of our lovely state, it really wasn't a beach day at all. Mind you when we got to Perth the ocean was as still as a lake! We had decided to spend the day and have lunch in our port city of Fremantle instead and that was a great idea! We had lunch at the best fish and chip restaurant called Cicarellos on the wharf of the fishing boat harbour. Jeff and I both had squid rings and chips with tartare sauce and lemon. Mmmm - it was so good!

After lunch we went for a walk along South Mole of the main harbour and arrived just in time for the start of the 4th leg of the Clipper 07/08 Round the World Yacht Race. It was so exciting to see. for more information go to http://tinyurl.com/364dle to see all about the race, though the link will take you directly to the Australian boat. There are four legs of the race to go ending in Liverpool.

The start was a real sight to see. There was a clipper ship and a rescue boat with all pumps flowing and the south mole was packed with well wishers. I am really kicking myself that I didn't take my camera with me but we had no idea this was on and just stumbled across it!

After the boats had gone, we continued just ambling around Fremantle and finally decided to come home at about 2pm.

It was a lovely pleasant day spent with my darling husband.

I really hope everyone else's year is off to as good a start as ours!