A Return to Simplicity.

I  had the usual mundane working week last week, but with one really delightful day having breakfast and coffee with DD and a friend at Harvey's Range Heritage Tea House . Nothing like breaking up the working week with Wednesday off ! After a frustrating drive through numerous road works, that seemed to last forever, and lots of mud and dirt we eventually arrived. So peaceful and cool up in the mountains (about 30 minutes from home),  it was quite lovely sitting back and relaxing and enjoying the morning. Next time we are thinking of taking our stitching as it is quite inspiring. Might wait for the road works to finish though, which is scheduled for early 2014 ! I have been working on an adorable little lady bird for my Beauty quilt by  Jennifer of Elefantz . I did forget which circles were solid and which ones were not and started to stitch them all ! She is such a cutie ! Hope everyone has an enjoyable week-end with lots of sew...

In a galaxy far far away................. Dylan Skywalker's Nonna was busily stitching him his birthday present. She usually likes to stitch flowers and butterflies, but this time she had an important mission on the Green moon of Endor. Alright enough of the silly stuff! After the dismal Friday night effort,  I found my mojo and got to stitching and  finally finished Dylan's quilt (which by the way will be required on Wednesday!). Star Wars on the front and.... .........Star Wars on the back! But that's not all, I also made a small cushion  and a normal pillow case. The cushion's idea came from  Amy from Nana Company  and I loved it on sight and thought it would be a perfect accompaniment for the quilt. It has a few of the named planets and The Death Star. Thanks Amy, I am sure Dylan will love it. I did a bit of random quilting around the planets as paths around the different worlds and it should provide some entertain...

I really couldn't get my stuff together last night. I even had the obligatory Tim-Tams at the ready (and had a couple), but no good! I flitted from one thing to another and then gave up and went to bed. I did a little quilting on my Star Wars quilt for Dylan. Easy just sewing in straight lines. I wanted to make some small Christmas decorations from the latest Better Homes and Gardens magazine "All I want for Christmas" and I started out OK, tracing the templates then cutting them out, but things got worse from there and, with only a few done the mind wandered on to something else ! Looks like others were very productive, so on go over and check out what they did at  Wendy's Blog , and thanks Wendy for hosting.

I spent a lovely day with friends . . . . . . . . . we were supposed to be stitching, but I only got a bit done on my 3 wise men. Too busy laughing. Jenny  and Michelle (no blog) stitching away. I have had to borrow my photos from  Jenny's  and Wendy's  blogs, as I was too busy doing other stuff. We had Pear and Rasberry Cake  ( from November Better Homes and Gardens)  for morning tea  and  Chicken stuffed with Herbs and Cheese and wrapped in procriutto with salad for lunch. It's always a pleasure cooking for these peeps as they give much praise whether it is deserved or not! These days make a welcome change from my work life where everything is mostly serious. We laugh, talk, drink coffee and check out what each other has sewn in the last couple of weeks. We even try to steal each others fat quarter bundles! Everyone has to be frisked on leaving! LOL! A wonderful day!

I can't seem to stop stitching Christmas items. Everytime I see another project I'm off into my Christmas stash of fabrics and away I go.   Somebody stop me !  ! ! ! ! As soon as I saw this one from Jenny of   Elefantz  I knew I just had to do it. It was love at first sight.  I loved using stuff from my stash and it was a quick and easy project to complete . . . . . . now for another project.

Here in Queensland we are having our holiday for Labour Day and instead of sitting around or going camping (like most of the town) I am pottering around the house & cooking. This morning I made a chocolate slice (recipe from  here  ) from the lovely ladies from A Spoonful of Sugar. It is  delicious and easy to make. I also tried out a recipe from the November Issue of Better Homes & Gardens of  Pear and Raspberry cake. It came out very moist and very yummy, but if I make it again I will use a bigger tin as it took much longer than stated to cook and I had to cover the top with foil to stop it burning ! I love the latest issue of Elefantz  home e-magazine with lots of Christmas stitching and want to make most of the projects featured. Oh! which one to do first! I have started on the runner in the top right hand corner. It is just beautiful, but of course it helps when you have seen it in real life . . . . .  and ...