I'm Back

Hi Everyone,
Yes I know it's been a looooong time since I've been here. I could go into a very long winded explanation about why I haven't posted anything for, eeeeeek, over five months, but that could get a little boring. If you follow me on Facebook and Instagram you will have a general idea about what I've been up to, but for those who don't let me summarise.
GARDEN GETABOUT
Garden Getabout is an open garden weekend on the second weekend in November. We have our garden open and I'm one of the coordinators so for several weeks before I pretty well eat, drink and sleep garden. And just to put a bit more pressure on myself I also have a my craft work on display to greet visitors.

ROSS' 50th BIRTHDAY
Ross turned 50 in mid December, so after a bit of down time following the Garden Getabout, it was time to think about a birthday celebration. Even though someone didn't want to make a big deal about it, mainly because he didn't want to make too much work for me, we eventually decided to have a casual lunchtime barbeque with family and a few friends. As the day approached it became of obvious that it was going to be a bit more than a casual barbie but people offered to bring salads and my ever reliable party prep side kick Heidi came home a couple of days early and helped with some cooking and made the White Chocolate Cherry Ripe Mud birthday cake, so it resulted in a great day.

CHRISTMAS
We love Christmas in our house (I've heard, believe it or not, that some people don't). We have traditions that have developed over the years, a real Christmas tree with hand made decorations, Christmas Eve mass, a treasure hunt (yes even though the kids are 28, 24 & 22), just to name a few.
This year lunch was at Ross' sister's with all of his family. We had a home made 'Kris Kringle' and everyone put a lot of thought and/or work into their gifts which made for a fun filled afternoon with lots of laughter.

HOLIDAYS

Boxing Day we headed to our annual holiday destination of Narooma where had a lovely relaxing break of nearly 2 weeks.

SCRATCHING AN ITCH
All the busyness in the later part of 2014 meant I hadn't really had a chance to do any major patchwork projects. In fact apart from making a few projects for the Friday craft group at the Neighbourhood Centre and finishing a quilt off for my Garden Getabout craft display I hadn't done much since early April. Admittedly I had swapped my fabric & sewing machine for wool & crochet hook over the winter, which was fun, but by the time January came around the patchwork itch definitely needed scratching. So scratch I have, like a dog with a flea. The itch has eased a little but my head is still full of ideas just waiting to materialise.

EXERCISE
I always been pretty self motivated when it comes to exercise but what with one thing or another the motivation has been a bit spasmodic over the last year or so. I don't like being unfit so after the Garden Getabout I gave myself a kick in the but and decided I needed to do some form of exercise a least 5 days a week whether wanted to or not. I started walk/running every week day and just before Christmas I joined the local Metafit group to work on strength training and add some variety. It has been a lot of fun and I'm enjoying my renewed fitness.

There you have it, between all these goings on and my blogging mojo going into hibernation, that is why I have been absent from this space. I'm hoping, now that I'm back, I'll get into the swing of posting regularly again. I have lots to share, it's just a matter of having or making the time.

 

Hope you've enjoyed the catch up

Thanks for popping by and until next time 

TOODLES

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Busy April

Hi everyone, how busy is April for all of you? For me, it feels like I've taken a big bite and now I having to chew like heck.
This weekend starting yesterday our little country town of 1500(approx.) hosts(or gets invaded by) 10,000+ people for this event

From official website

The Man From Snowy River Festival centres around the poem by AB "Banjo" Patterson and if you've followed the link you can see that it involves a lot of horsey stuff. I'm not a particularly horsey person but I do like to look at the Art & Photography Exhibition and watch the final two events the 'Brumby Catch’ and the ‘Stock Saddle Buckjump’ on the Sunday afternoon.

Photo from official website

Photo from official website

I also like to watch the street parade

This year some friends & I decided to participate in the parade, to promote another event that we are passionate about "Garden Getabout"  which happens on the second weekend in November. Anyway this is the situation this morning.

Yes, rain. I love the rain (goodness knows we need it) and I even like walking in the rain, but I not to sure about parading in it. The Festival committee have already had to postpone one of today's event until Sunday so we'll have to wait and see. Hopefully the rain will stop by parade time.

The other event that has been keeping me busy is this one.

This gathering in essentially a "get away from it all" weekend for rural women. It is a weekend full of workshops, tours and dinners with speakers telling their stories, and is hosted by a different Victorian town each year. This year we are hosting it so I been working on;

these for a workshop

 

this for our contribution to the official banner

 

these for displaying

&

 the most time consuming

 this for a garden tour.

 

The poor garden has been a bit neglected (apart from watering) over our VERY HOT DRY summer and up until a couple of weeks ago I thought I would have to pull out, it was looking so forlorn. A bit of rain has sparked it up though and the plants are starting to look refreshed but also the weeds have taken off. So there's a lot of weeding and edges and cutting back to be done. The bright side, a lot of the work that I would have do in preparation for the "Garden Getabout" will be done.

 

Now on top of all that we have to fit in Easter which involves a big family camping weekend and of course the Easter season wouldn't be complete without baking lots of these



My family would kick up a real fuss if there weren't homemade hot cross buns. I love them too, there's nothing quite like fresh out of the oven buns. Mmmmmmm yum.

There you go busy April wish me luck as I chew through it. See you soon. Toodles