Saturday 21 March 2009

Currently reading...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling.
The seventh and final book in the series, the only one I have only read once before! In fact it was my desire to reread this a bit more slowly and carefully that led me to rereading the whole series. For some reason I couldn't read the last without having read all the others first!

In crafty news (yes I have remembered this is suppose to be a crafty blog!), look out for a post a some stage today about fabric and my new project!

Monday 16 March 2009

Currently reading...

A Respectable Girl by Fleur Beale.

Yet another library find. This one comes off the young adults shelf. I quite like a lot of young adult authors actually - the quality gives me hope for the kids coming through.

And I have to report, I failed! As I feared, I was unable to read more than about 30 pages of The Butterfly Effect. Even those 30 pages took me the better part of 3 days to struggle through. I found it clunky, hard to follow and with no direction. Sorry!

Saturday 14 March 2009

Three cheers for Busy Thimbles!

Last Thursday I ordered some printable fabric from Busy Thimbles. I've bought stuff from them before and found their delivery time to be excellent. So anyway, Friday this week rocks around and still no fabric! I shot off an email asking them to check on it and they tell me parcels sometimes go missing and they will resend it again! How cool is that? Thanks Busy Thimbles!

Check out their store, they have some scrummy stuff!

Link

Friday 13 March 2009

Currently reading...


The Butterfly Effect by Pernille Rygg


Gosh I'm ripping through them at the moment! Easy to do when a lot of your reading list is made up of children's books! This is another library book picked up on a whim. Will be interesting to see how I go with it as it is a translation from Norwegian and I generally haven't had great success with translated books. I tend to find the writing clunky and difficult. I choose to believe it's due to the translation, rather than the author. I'm sure in their own language most of these books live up to the potential I originally see in them.

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Currently reading...

The Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket

I had a lot of sitting around waiting today which means I managed to finish The Hostile Hospital. Knowing I had some more waiting around to do (they joys of living on an island and time between events not being long enough to warrant going home!)so I headed to the library and borrowed the next book in The Series of Unfortunate Events books. The good thing about children's books - they don't take long to read!

Tuesday 10 March 2009

Baggu's of Goodness!

Yet another wonderful giveaway care of Grosgrain. I love the look of these eco friendly bags. If I win one, I will be the hippest shopper in my area! LOL

Pop over to the website and see if you can bag one for yourself!

Finishes!!

Yep, I have two finished items for March! OK, the plan was for them to be finished in Feb, but it's such a short month, it threw me out completely!

I will apologise for the photography. It's very cloudy here today and the wind is blowing thanks to Cyclone Hamish. While we are not in the direct path (thank goodness!) we are getting the effects of the edge of it! It has caused us a few problems though - our ferry to the mainland broke down half way over this afternoon and was blown onto a sand bank! It's been stuck since 1.30 and is unlikely to be floated again until a few hours after low tide, so won't be operational again until after 6pm! Thank goodness the barge is still running so we could get home, but that does it's last run at 5. May be a long wait for those coming home from work tonight!

First up the rocket quilt. I'm thinking of calling it Rocket Dreams.
I looooooooove the backing fabric for this quilt! Thanks Kelly for finding it for me! My darling hubby has taken one of the bit rockets off the bottom and done some computer wizardry so it's just a blank outline that I will use to label it. I do wish I had used the backing as the binding as well, but I ain't changing it now!

Secondly is the Sudoku Quilt. It will be called Sporting Sudoku. I did toy with Sportin' Sudoku, but as both myself and his mother are teachers, I just couldn't do it!
No picture of the back of this as it is the same as the sashing and the binding. Have I mentioned before how much I love this quilt??

Finally, while I was outside photographing the quilts, I discovered this little gem hidden away behind the kids playhouse.
I love the colurs and shape. Simply devine!

Currently reading...

The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket. Book the 8th in the Series of Unfortunate Events books. This is a wonderfully fun children's series that I am thoroughly enjoying! Thought I should read this next as I got an email from the library yesterday saying it was overdue! Oops!

Thursday 5 March 2009

5 inch square swap.

I entered into a swap with my EB buddies recently. I had to send 10 five inch squares to each participant (of which there were 10) and in return they would each send me 10 squares in the colourway or theme of my choice. I chose eye spy as my theme and my goodness, is there a lot to spy!

From Adds I spy a toaster, some easter eggs and lots of teddy bears, Noah's arc, team flags and a cat without a care.

From AJ I spy pink flamingos, Christmas trees and flowers very loud, Butterflies, ladybugs and bears in the clouds.
From Cylie I spy hearts and stars, red cherries and mushrooms, Japanese style, Airplanes, girls at play and crayons to colour for a while.
From Emma I spy orange elephants, spotted turtles and monkeys jumping higher, Quiet owls, hidden tigers and a truck on the way to a fire!
From Helen I spy skipping rope, cowboys and jumgle animals to make you clap, Love hearts, emus and watermelon, all delivered in glad wrap!From JoyI spy pirate ships, frogs, sharks serving wine, Police cars, party hats and a surf shop sign.
From Leah I spy sea shells, cats and grapes - quite a sum, Fruit, stars, Dora and Diego with a drum.
From Mands I spy spiders webs, cockatoos, moons and suns, Busy bees, sewing need and friends having fun.From Milly I spy dragon flies, dancing girls. golf balls and tees, Paw prints, a fishing pond and animals for you to see.
From Sandi (who doesn't have a blog) I spy cats in bags, Dr Cat, cats which won't flee, A dog among sheep, beautiful butterflies, so much and it's all for ME!
I have discovered that several of these girls can't count either! Especially Adds! Thanks for the extras, they will be put to good use. I had no idea what I was going to do with my I spy squares until this afternoon. I've decided they will be made into I spy quilts for Luke's teacher and Kira's daycarer. I may also make myself one to use when I get back into teaching!

Monthly Checkup - March

Welcome to the March Monthly Check up - a summing up of February's activities!

Completed projects in February - none! How embarrassing to have nothing it list only in only the second month of the One Project a Month Challenge! I almost finished two quilts, but time got away from me! I am hoping to make up for it in March!

Projects started - One. The Sudoku quilt was started in Feb.

Books read - 2. Told you I would slow down!

So, current projects as listed at the side of my blog.
  • Blackboard Quilts - No progress. Still.
  • K's Baby Quilt - Finished! As of last night when I finished sewing the binding down. I just need to label it. I'm not going to blog it until I finish the Sudoku one as well.
  • Sampler Quilt -No progress!
  • Luke's Frog Quilt - Nine patches are finished and I've started cutting them again.
  • M's Quilt - also known as the Sudoku Quilt. I only have to sew the binding down on this. Plan to do this over the next couple of nights. I really want to be able to send them off next week.
Other things I really need to get onto this month are:
  • G's quilt. Am feeling quite guilty about this at the moment. Luckily G is having quite a run of good health and hasn't been admitted to hospital for awhile. I think I will print the photos after I have finished blogging!
  • BOM 8 and 9. This is the first time since I started my BOM's that I have had two to get to! Number 9 I haven't even opened the envelope yet!

Currently reading...


Abandoned by Anya Peters.

I'm not sure why I subject myself to books like this. Maybe it's to remind me of how lucky I was as a child and to show me there is hope for those children who suffer terribly at the hands of those who should protect them at all costs.

Monday 2 March 2009

I'm late, I know!!!!

Huge apologies for publishing the winners of my giveaway so late! No real excuse - just life! Anyway, I had four entries (huge, I know!) so you had a 50-50 chance of walking away with something!! So, the winners were

Paula and Emma!

I have Emma's snail mail, off to email Paula!

Thanks for playing!

Sunday 1 March 2009

Pretty watches!

Want the chance to win this gorgeous watch??
You can choose a different colour way if red isn't your thing. Emma over a Jellybelly*jellybrain is giving away a watch in the colourway of your choice - providing you don't want a gold watch face - she has none in stock! Head over and put your name in the draw. I have!