Advent Pressies, Christmas Decorating & Yumminess

Yes that's right - Not long now.......... We traditionally start to decorate our house on the 1st December each year but we started early this year.

I have made a little display featuring a few of my advent gifts from Lizzie - Just waiting for me to start opening on the 1st.

I have had a lot of yumminess arrive in the past week for me to play with. This is a full fat quarter pack from Quilt Soup from the Bubblegum range. I also purchased some meterage to go with it.

I also received some Robyn Pandolph Somerset Cottage - Some fat quarter packs, a charm pack and some meterage.

Also some plains from that range to be used for stitcheries.

I have progressed with my baguette bag - The stitcheries are done and the front is put together.

He is a sweet little bird isn't he........... I have to work for a few hours over the weekend but I do intend to work on my sewing gift list. Have a great week end.

Until Next Time,

HUGS,

Giveaway Links, Advent Parcels and More .....

It's starting to look and feel a little like Christmas more and more each day. For those of you participating in the advent swap you only have a few days before you are able to open your first gift numbered "25".

Hopefully we are all busy planning gifts and writing up "To Do" Lists. I always do quite a lot of festive baking and have been looking around for new recipes. If I find any nice ones I will be sure to share them with you. Like this one for Chocolate Nut Truffles.

Ingredients
1/2 cup sultanas

200g rich dark cooking chocolate- melted

2 tbs brandy

3/4 cup Nestle Top ‘n’ Fill Caramel

1/2 cup chopped mixed nuts
1/2 cup biscuit crumbs

1/2 cup chocolate sprinkles

100g Plastowe Extra Creamy Premium White- melted

Red and green glace cherries


Method

1. Soak sultanas in brandy, stand 20 minutes

2. Combine dark cooking chocolate with NESTLÉ Top ‘n’ Fill Caramel, nuts, biscuit crumbs and sultanas mixture,mix well. Refrigerate until firm 3

. Roll heaped teaspoonfuls of mixture into balls, roll in chocolate sprinkles, refrigerate until firm

4. Spoon 1/4 teaspoon PlaistoweExtra Creamy Premium White over top to allow to flow down sides, decorate with red and green cherries to resemble puddings

Here is a lovely little inspirational gingerbread house taken from the Rosebud's Cottage Blog

I have a limited number of these Deb Strain - "Love Is In The Air" Panels available for $8.50 each with FREE postage within Australia. Simply CLICK the Paypal button below to purchase. Measures 24" X 44".

Retro Mummy is having a fantastic giveaway of 12 Fat Quarters from Rosalie Quinlan's NEW range Grandmother's Flower Garden. She is also waiting on an order of the gorgeous PVC fabrics and Pre-Cuts from this range - She has a great on-line store HERE - Pop on over and take a look.

Until Next Time,

HUGS

Baguette Bag & A Little Give Away............

After having filled all of my swap commitments for 2009 I have decided that it is about time that I made myself something for a change. I have chosen Natalie Lymer's Baguette Bag from the latest issue of Homespun Magazine. Because I am a "Pink" girl I have chosen pink handles and am using some delicious Aviary fabric.

Hopefully it will not be too long before I have it finished and can show you the finished result.

Some of you may know that I breed burmese cats?

Here is a dear little man that has had a struggle for most of his life. A trip to the vet last week revealed lots of question marks and a wait and see what happens scenario. He has failed to grow properly and is 1/2 the size he should be but believe me he is all heart.

He sleeps around my neck and is just the most affectionate little man. The vet says not to get attached to him but I am afraid that it is too late. I think that he needs a BIG beautiful name so I have decided to have a little competition to name him. For the best suggestion of a name for our wee little man (which is what we currently call him) I will give the winner a Charm Pack of either Blessings or Vine Creek (Your Choice) Plus a pattern from my range.

Until Next Time, Hugs

ATGT Pattern Released + Floss Storage + Shame !

Today is my turn for a FREE pattern release on the Among The Gumtrees Blog. I have designed an Apron for the silly season called "Christmas Cheer". Go to the Among The Gum Trees Blog to download the FREE pattern.

"CREATOR OF CHRISTMAS CHEER"
Says it all I believe - The heart of the home is in the kitchen especially at Christmas.


Now for a question - How do you store your embroidery floss?
I have used many methods - I started off with my floss on numbered cards stored in a plastic box. I then purchased a DMC Bag with the plastic sleeves and bows like the one above.

Until I had too many threads and then I couldn't do up the zip...... So I then resorted to storing some in little zip lock bags like this.



But have now decided to revert back to the old system that I was using - That will be my job over the next few weeks to get them all back into some sort of order and onto cards.


Now for the shameful part of this post.

The Among The Gum Trees Girls are a fantastic bunch and we all get along like life long friends (or sisters as we like to call one another). There are always lots of e-mails each day to one another, Lots of group hugs and just general every day chitter chatter.

Yesterday Cheryl challenged us all to photograph our "creative space" without cleaning up and to share the pictures with our other sisters. I knew that my studio was messy but boy I saw it in a new light after looking at those pictures !! So I was shamed into tidying up.

I will not be able to show you the "BEFORE" photo's - Little gremlins popped into my computer and deleted them **BIG GRIN** but I can show you the "4 HOURS LATER" photo's.

This is standing near my ironing table and sewing machine looking back at my cutting counter and desk.

And my Sewing Table and fabric shelf. I now have tubs labelled where I can file things - Wonder how long that procedure will stay in place?

My Ironing and light box table.

Yes this has been tidied up - Believe it or not !!

I am sure that I will be much more creative in this tidier space. I am grateful to be shamed into action !!

Finally here is a photo of the goodies on their way to my lovely advent swap partner Lizzie.
I have received so many lovely e-mails about new friendships made throughout this swap. It is so lovely to hear about them. I am really looking forward to seeing all of the little pressies opened each day - It will REALLY be Christmas for us all this year !!

Until next time.

HUGS

Shabby Roses Quilt Finished & Upcoming Quilt Pattern

Have you been following Jenny of Elefantz's Shabby Roses - BOM?
I really enjoyed doing this one. It is just so feminine and pretty. I decided to use Spring Magic Roses for the final border and I just love it !!



If you are wanting to make your own "Shabby Roses" Quilt I have a limited number of kits available for $130.00 Each with FREE Postage within Australia.

Or You may prefer to buy the Complete Pattern Pack of all 12 Blocks for a "Special" Limited Time Only Price of $36.00 + $2 Postage within Australia - That is just $3 per pattern...... Be Quick this offer will not last !! This is for a Colour Printed Pattern Pack and not a PDF.

And here is a preview of my newest quilt to be released in the next few weeks (When I have had the time to write up the pattern). It is called "Love & Friendship" and is a lovely lap quilt with lots of gorgeous "sayings". Pattern will be available WHOLESALE to interested parties as this quilt would make a perfect little 9 Part BOM.

I also have lots of other projects on the boil at present so stay tuned for some more reveals really soon.

HUGS,

Weekly Catch Up - Image Heavy Post !!

It seems that the last few weeks have just gone by in a flash and I seem to be getting nowhere fast. It is so close to christmas now which means that I still have lots to do. I have been buying a few gifts to go with handmade items and have arranged a shopping day with the girls next Saturday and then the retail part of Christmas should be over for me.

One of my gifts to myself arrived through the week. Remember when I was asking you all about a good stitching lamp? Well this is what I decided on. It is a Ott-Lite daylight lamp with a magnifying glass to put over your work to save those tired eyes. I have to admit that I haven't stitched very much all week so have not really tried it out much but I intend to overload it with work this week.

Yesterday Sam and I took Maddie and Tommy to "The Wiggles". Maddie enjoyed the first 10- minutes and then dropped off to sleep. Tommy on the other hand loved it.

He didn't take his eyes off them and danced and jigged for 1 and 1/2 hours. I have to admit I did sing along to a few tunes !!


Rod and I have spent the morning in the garden. With all of the rain we have had and then this lovely sunshine the growth has been amazing. Our paddocks are almost hip deep in feed. The vegetable garden is growing beautifully - Especially now that we have fenced it to keep the hens out. The plants actually stay in the ground now.

There is still a lot of weeding to be done. You can almost watch the weeds grow at the moment.

The Broad Beans are ready to be picked. I can see a lot of blanching and freezing going on here soon.

Our Stella Cherry Tree is in it's second year and has fruit ready to ripen.

And remember those Tayberries that I planted some months ago? They are really well fruited and beginning to ripen.

This is today's collection from the garden. Silverbeet, Rhubarb and Broad Beans. I have a few cake recipes using Rhubarb so I thought that I might try one.

I don't think that I have shown you our turning circle roses before? They are so pretty when they are all in bloom like this. They look like a big carpet.

The pink and white look so lovely together.

And white roses line the path to our front door.

This is the place to relax here in Summer with a nice ice cold drink. That thing in the left of the photograph (Stepper machine) has cobwebs on it - I use it for decoration only - Ha Ha !! So the morning has been spent in the garden and after lunch I will be spending a few hours up in the studio finishing off a recent design and of course the finishing touches to my swap gifts.

I will be back through the week to show you some of my finishes.

Have a great week.


HUGS,

Advent Swappers & A Thank You

Hello to all Advent Swappers !!! Have you enjoyed getting to know your partner? I have so many lovely e-mails from people but unfortunately there have been a few bad eggs. I have had 2 swappers in my group that have just disappeared off the face of the earth. Very Very disappointing. I just cannot understand why people would join up to a swap only to let their partner down - and not to mention me......... I have the upmost respect for all of the swap mothers out there - Swaps are a lot of hard work to organise and manage and it makes it much harder and quite unpleasant when we are also dealing with disappointed partners. Luckily the 2 that I have I have been able to match up together and I think that things will be fine now. If you have not sent off your parcel yet please do so ASAP. Your partner needs to receive their parcel ready for the opening of their first parcel on the 1st December.

I have received so many excited e-mails from bloggers that have not only met a new friend but are also going to be very very spoilt this December. I am really loking forward to surfing around all of your blogs and seeing your gifts each day.

This morning I received the most beautiful card from Rachelle over at Quarantine Quilting. Pop on over and take a look at it HERE - It is just so sweet - Thanks Rachelle !!

You may have noticed my little Christmas elf? It is my darling Tommy - He is growing up so fast - Almost 2 years old now !!

Until next time,

HUGS,