A commitment to Me!

 I've made a commitment to myself.  2016 is going to be my year!

I think I can write off 2015 and just say "Hey, I didn't achieve anything in 2015 but I'm going to really give 2016 a good ole go!"

It seems life is starting to rush by especially now my once babies are now growing into (I think) pretty handsome young men-to-be.  Jaden has now started high school and is loving it. Bailey is now into Year 5 and also still loving school.  I am very blessed to have such beautiful, loving boys who enjoy school.  I am grateful and give thanks.

I have a beautiful and supportive husband who has finally found a job without all the stress of corporate life and is relaxing and enjoying life.  I am grateful and give thanks.

I finally have my wonderful sister and her beautiful family living in the same town as me so I can be there to give support and share in family events together.  Or just to spend time crafting with.  I am grateful and give thanks.

I have a great job where I can work part-time to enjoy a better work/life balance.  I am grateful and give thanks.

Why then, if life is good.....and don't get me wrong I am Grateful and Thankful for all my blessings, do I feel like being a hermit and not wanting to go anywhere or even do anything.  I have been feeling  blahhhhh!  Well that was 2015!

As I said I have made a Commitment to myself.  I can make the change.   It starts now.  It starts here.  It starts with ME.  I have to do it.  Who's with me?

Well!!! Has it really been that long????

Well......I was very shocked indeed to discover today how long it has been since I have last updated my blog.  OMG....Last post 2011.  My goodness how time has certainly flown by.  I think I need to give my poor neglected little blog spot a lot of TLC.

I notice all the WISPS that I had listed on here have now been completed...well some of them (they are afterall works in SLOW progress. Lol.  At least I will have lots for show and tell.

Hopefully I still have some followers out there.  I can understand if you have all given up.  But I will endeavour to now keep this little blog of mine up to date as best I can now I'm back.

Love D.

My Memories Giveaway.

My Memories SuiteI'm sooooooooooo excited!!!  I going to be having a giveaway on this blog for this wonderful Digital Scrapbooking Suite. 

I am currently reviewing the product at the moment but I can say this for certain -  It all looks GORGEOUS so far.  I can't stop playing with it.  For someone who is not much of a scrapbooker I think I'm hooked. 

Keep posted so you will know how and when to enter my giveaway.  My blogoversary is coming up soon so this will be my present to one of you.  Please spread the word.  Happy crafting. D. :=) 

Going for a new look. What do you think.

I have spent about 3 hrs today mucking around with my blog and this is all I've come up with so far.  As you can see it is still under construction at the moment.  So bear with me. I think I'll probably end up going with something totally different.  I just have to wait and see. 

I've just downloaded Picasa and it's still going through all my pics that I have stored on my laptop.  Gee.... It hasn't even started on my external hard drive yet.  This could take awhile. 
Maybe I might upload a proper post with pics tomorrow....

Oh alright!  Here is a little taste of what I've been up to. 


I have actually finished this quilt top, boarders and all.  All I have to do now is get it quilted.  Another one to add to the "To Finish list"  You never know....It could just get finished this year....but of course I won't be promising anything. 







You will love this when it's finished.  I already do.  Can't wait to show you the finished top.   D  :=)

Don't all fall to the ground in shock!!!!

Well, here I am once again.  After soooooo long I know.  I thought it was about time that I came and did my yearly post.  (Hopefully not).  I have had a pretty busy couple of years since going back to work and this year I have been working full-time.  Not much time for blogging or crafting much to my dismay.  I have found some time here and there and have lots to show you all as to what that has been.  This will be just a short post to let those of you who have hung in there and have been checking back know that I have not fallen off the face of the earth and that I am going to try harder this time to keep blogging.  I have missed you all and will be back with lots of pics.  (Lots and lots).  I am mostly excited about Jaden finishing his first quilt and he can't wait to share this with you all.  So see you all soon.

D. :+)

The sun will come out.....

Well we have had quite a bit of rain here in Maryborough over the past few months and we are starting to wonder when the sun will eventually stay out.  Not that I am complaining because since we have had a little bit of nicer cooler weather, it has been nice to be SEWING and BLOGGING. So there is always a silver lining I suppose lol.

Well since it has been nice to be sewing and crafting away the drizzly hours, this is what I have been up to.  I have been working on quite a few projects and not all of them mine. 

I have really been enjoying the wonderful company of a dear friend and member of my little cackle group which meets every second Tuesday night at my house for craft. 

Karen has been working on getting her Angel Story Quilt finished.  I am so excited for her as it is so close to being finised now.  We have been spending alot of time on it over the past week and we can see it coming together beautifully (though it has had its moments)lol. 

Karen has done a wonderful job on her stitcheries and as always I think I am the lucky one because I get to spend time with a friend and get to see and share the excitment in others when they complete a project that exceeds their expectations.  I am so proud of my group and what they have achieved since we first started getting together many years ago. 

Karen has also been helping me with a project of my own (a mutally beneficial partnership I think, which I am most grateful).  I have a terrible time as you may have read in previous posts at to my difficulty in doing random quilts and since I have completed all my blocks for my "Travel Quilt" by Leanne Beasley I have been procrastinating when it comes to organising the blocks into any particular order. 

Well last night during and after our fortnightly cackle gathering all the girls had a go at organising my blocks into some sort of order.  It was a mind numbing exercise to say the least and I think it could have got ugly, going on forever (no can't have that there, no too many spot in one area, no now too many reds, not enough cream, two paisley touching.... you all can understand I'm sure.  lol. 

Finally the blocks are organised after me saying at a bit after midnight....That's it, No more.  And now I'm ready to sew.  I think I might do that tonight.  I'm not sure if this pic is the final layout (since I took so many pics of so many different layout and I don't think this photo does it any justice.  Can't wait to show you the final product.  D. :=)

A little bit of house cleaning.

Well, I thought I'd have a bit a tidy up around here and maybe a little change is good too.  Seems a little bit brighter now.  It's been the same ole blog for awhile and since I've had so many visitors while I've been away I think I owe it to the poor blog that has stuck in there, lol.  I think now I should go to bed.  Work tomorrow.  Have to be up bright and early.  D. : =)

Jaden making his first quilt.

I thought I would just share with you what my big boy has been up to. I'm so proud of him. This is his first real quilt and he wants to make it for his mummy (lucky lucky me).

Since Jaden was little he use to pretend with a little people play mat that he was making a quilt just like mummy does. He would sit and pretend he was cutting and sewing and when he was finished he would give it to me and say "Here Mummy, I made you a quilt". It was so adorable.

I use to feel sad when I realised that I have no daughters to craft with. But now I have come to believe, Who needs daughters to quilt with anyway!!! Boys are just as fun if they are interested enough. Jaden still loves doing boy things most of all but enjoys a bit of craft with his mum too.

Jaden was four when he decided to make a real quilt. We selected a range of fabric that I had previously purchased called "All you need is love" by Deb Strain.

We looked at a lot of patterns and came up with a simple little block of a 4 patch surrounded by a boarder. The reason he picked this was because each little block was for Mummy, Daddy, Bailey and Jaden surrounded by our love (which was the boarder). Such a simple but beautiful thought cosidering the choice of fabric.

I am really fortunate to have a craft table which is adjustable, so I wound it right down as low as it would go and lowered his chair and ironing board, which made it all perfect. I made sure that we had a few lessons on using the machine first and all I did was the cutting. The rest he did himself (including doing a few seams over - Mummy is apparently a bit piccy).

All he has left to do is complete a few more rows and put the outside boarders on and we can quilt it. Not sure yet who will do that. We might give it a go together.

Just a quick post.

I thought I'd just try a quick post from my new phone. I can't believe how cool this is. No excuses now for not having time to blog. I can now even update my blog while taking the kids to hockey, soccer, drama or anywhere. This is fantastic. I'm loving technology. Here's a pic too of a current work in progress. This is Leanne Beasley's Travel Quilt. . Nitey Nite. D :=)

Broken promises and lots of Housework to do here by the looks!!!

Well well well........ Look at what the cat has dragged back on the the blog scene. Yes don't all keel over with shock just yet. I have finally remembered my log in (not that I must have tried to hard mind you over the last 12 months) to get back onto my blog and I thought now that I have a new laptop and all, I might get back into the swing of things here. Thanks to my visit from my friend Beth (from Highland Hen) I have been inspired, maybe mentally prodded to getting back here.

My oh My......................It looks so sad my blog. I think it has been so long since I have been here that everything looks faded. Looks like I'm going to have to do lots of housework in here and have a good clean out. So much has happened since I have been here last I couldn't possibly know where to start but start I must.

I had not realised how much I have been working on until I just had show and tell with Beth. Might I say also that I did not realise how much everyone else has been up to since I have last visited some favourite blogs. Wow, you ladies have been so busy and such gorgeous work happening everywhere. Such talent. Now I'm feeling inspired again.

So much has happend in this last two years with my babies now in Grade 1 and Kindy and myself working fulltime again. I have hardly had time to stitch or craft. I never thought I would be one of those mums running here and there after school with numerous sports, drama, ball room dancing (Yes, my Master 6 now has decided he wants to do ballroom dancing so he can partner either or of my friends twin 6 year olds, Tina Sparkles 1 and Tina Sparkles 2 my friend has nicknamed them) and the various volunteer roles that I try to fullfill. I know you all know the feeling too well. You would think I'm getting the hang of things now. Besides all of that I have had ongoing health issues that I hope to get on track soon. By the by I am certainly in a happy place and just want to get cracking again with my craft.

On the crafting front, I'm still hand quilting my Angel Story, I had to put this away because it was to hot to do over the warmer months and have just recently started with it again. My Red and white Jacobs Ladder quilt top is complete just awaiting the right backing fabric to be quilted. My table runner that I was working on (inspired by Janelle) is complete... whooo something complete. Wow that feels wierd saying that word. Not use to saying that one very often. Hopefully I may get to say it more often. I'm not going to make anymore promises though as since my last post you can all see so publicly how I broke those. I will show some pics of these in a future post as this one is getting quite lengthy.

I have a number of other quilts that I have started some of which are almost complete, so I will have to update my side list (along with the rest of my blog) later. It's nice to have that motivated feeling again. I will post pics and details later.

One of the things that I did last year and should have added to my blog at the appropriate time was that Jaden had to play the part of Joseph in the Navity play at his school last year. I thought I would share with you the costume that I made the night before. I must say that I was quite proud of my whip up efforts. Here is my Joseph.

Hopefully.... I'll be back soon. D :=)

How disgusting am I!!!!!

I am absolutely disgusted with myself that it has been sooooooooooooo long since I have been on my blog. I am so out of touch with everything right now. I can see I am going to have to devote at least two maybe three whole days with many packets of biccies and lots of tea to catch up on the beautiful things that you have all been up to. I am not posting any pics today, but I promise that by the end of the week I will definately have lots to post about.

Today I am just posting a quick hello to everyone to let you know that I have not fallen into a crack somewhere and disappeared forever. But where has the year gone?????? I can't believe that I have neglected my blog for so long.

Well, where have I been all this time I hear you ask....................Absolutely nowhere. I started work again this year (for the first time since having my boys) and it has taken up alot of my time. Not that that is any excuse. Between work and looking after my boys it has been a very busy first half of the year. I got offered some temporary work in the office at one of our local High schools this year which has turned into a full years work. It has been absolutely wonderful. I get school holidays with my boys and get paid for it. I work with a great group of ladies and I have had a blast so far. Who knows where it may lead.

Jaden started Prep this year and all is going so well for him. Reading already. I am constantly in awe of my little man. It seems he is growing all too fast...... Boo Hoo. It seems that between getting him to all his extra activities of an afternoon and on weekends I hardly get much time with him. So we have now started a special Mummy/Jaden time now on a Sunday afternoon. We have taken up golf together and I must say he is not doing to badly either. Of course, I am just the caddy as I know nothing about golf just that any shot forward must be a good shot right... Anyhow, it has been really nice going around the six half holes he plays on beautiful sunny afternoons just the two of us.

Bailey is also doing well and also growing up soooo fast. He will be starting Kindy next year and I wonder of course how I will cope (lol). I know he will do just fine. Of course he is doing everything that Jaden does of late. He loves his big brother so much and just has to be doing what he does. It is beautiful seeing him sitting next to Jaden pretending to read and using his finger following the made up words he uses. Just like Jaden.

Jamie has been an absolutely wonderful dad and husband. He has cut his hours back this year to help me get back to work. He does all the getting ready for school (since I have to be a work by 7:30 am) and dropping off and I do the picking up. It has been working really well and he has been enjoying being more involved with the boys (though he has always done lots with them). Jamie has started doing the reading with Jadens class this week and both he and Jaden are excited by this. I did activities with his class for the second term on Monday's and it was great to be a part of these things. Oh what fun it is to be a Mum (or Dad).

On the craft front.....well, not much has been happening there either. So you have not been missing out on much. I have caught up on a couple of quilts though. My Rosewood cottage quilt is all finished and quilted. My Angel Story quilt has been machine quilted in the ditch and is decorated on the boarders but I am diligently hand quilting all the squares so it has been what I have been working on. I have only got the last boarder on my red and white jacobs ladder quilt to go which will mean all I have to do is get it quilted. Janelle you will be happy to know that I have finished putting all my blocks together for my table runner that you gave me inspiration for. I have just been waiting to find the right fabric for the boarder and binding (I'm still trying to track some down). I have done the odd little gifts for friends here and there but nothing too serious.

My goal for this second half of the year is to complete my red and white jacobs ladder and keep up with my blogging. This I hereby promise (just the blogging part, tee hee...).

I have also made my top priority getting my PIF's finished for my three recipients. These will be coming very soon. I already have some ideas and will be contacting them shortly for their addy's. So ladies, if you are reading this feel free to contact me.

Anyhoo, I had better get myself organised and get my boys fed and into bed. Another big day tomorrow (Jaden off to compete in the Maryborough Eistedford with his Prep class, very exciting). Then of course off to bed with me too.

(P.S. I just previewed this post and realised how long it is....Sorry) Great to be back. Missed you all.
D. :=)

Cupcakes Galore!!! Mmmmmmmmm!!!

Well ......last Friday we had to take Jaden off to Brisbane for an orthodontist appointment. Don't tell the Dentist though but we celebrated Jaden's bravery by a trip to the Cupcake Parlour at West End. We just happen to stumble across it when dropping off Jamie's RM's to be repaired (to a shop across the road). We didn't plan to go there but it was certainly a very nice treat and of course you just can't walk on past.......Not with all the yummies we could see inside......ohhhhh this is not good. I'm salivating just thinking about it all over again. They were very delicious little morsels. The boys (including one big boy - Jamie) really enjoyed it.

We cut all three cupcakes into fours and each of us got to have a taste of all of them. The one on the left was a choccy cuppie with beautiful choccy icing and malteesers on top. The middle was a little piggy (Bailiey's favourite, mine too) plain vanilla cuppy with lovely pink icing and marshmello nose and choccy bits. The one on the right was a rich choccy cuppy with peppermint icing. Yummmm. All deliciously moist with lots of icing. Perfect cupcakes. Of course we washed it all down with a lovely vanilla milkshake. The parlour was very pretty in its pink and white finery too. Such a special treat that I just had to share it with you in case you are in the area. I will definately be going back again next time I'm there. Shame I didn't bring home a doggy bag then on second thoughts....it wouldn't have lasted anyway. lol. Hoping you had a great weekend. D. :=)

Drum Roll Please............

I must apologise firstly for the delay in posting the winners of my giveaway. I have been having so much trouble with uploading stuff to my blog today that I gave up in the end. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! I had to make sure I did it today and definately before I went to bed tonight as I have to take Jaden back to Brisbane for the Orthodontist tomorrow and will be away for the weekend. Anyhoo better late than never.

As you can see my wonderful assistant drew this earlier today. Soooooooooooooo without further adooooo....

Names ready to go into the draw..................................

All in ready and waiting ...............................

Would you be so kind as to draw the first winner from the magical box dear name plucker..........
And the first winner of my first ever giveaway is................... Yay!!!!!!!!!!!! VIVIEN!!! (Golf claps) Congratulations Vivien. :=)

And the Second winner dear name plucker is................... Woooohooo!!! Congratulations CHOOK!!! (Golf claps)
Congratulations Girls on winning the these two beautiful patterns by Susanna from Tilda and Filur. I will be emailing your patterns in the PDF format so please let me know of your email addy's for that to happen. Thanks so much to everyone who joined in and to Susanne for donating the patterns (and of course to my wonderful name plucker outerer - Job well done). Please make sure you visit Susanne's Etsy Shop regularly. Her work is really beautiful.
TTFN D. :=)

I'm so excited!!! I'm having a Giveaway!!!

I'm very excited to announce my first Giveaway!!! As you know my sister has become addicted to crochet and I have had such a wonderful response from people in regards to the cute little bear that she made for my DH. Sarah has discovered a beautiful Etsy Shop called Tilda and Filur belonging to a lovely lady by the name of Susanne in which Sarah has been purchasing her patterns. Please do visit her shop, as this is where you will find the pattern for the little teddy I featured in a previous post and lots of other gorgeous characters. Here are some pics from her shop to tempt your tastebuds. I'm sure you won't be able to stop at just one though, and I can assure you if you are like me, deciding which one to buy first won't be easy as it was hard enough just deciding which ones to show you here.

Susanne has over 50 patterns available to purchase from her shop and all at a very affordable price. The extra bonus is that once you have paid for your pattern you don't have to wait for snail mail to arrive. Susanne will email it to you within 24 hours of your payment clearing.

I have had so much pleasure in chatting with Susanne herself today and am very thrilled to announce that Susanne has kindly given me two (2) very delectable patterns from her range to share with two very lucky people. That's right I will be picking two winners!!! I can't show you any pics of the giveaway patterns as they are a surprise but I can give you a couple of clues. The first one is "Teddy Bear Hugs" which was one of Susanne's first designs and the other is "Teapot and Bears". Both are so cute.

Now here's what you have to do to go into the draw. Please visit Susanne's Etsy Shop and then come back here and share with me by way of a comment, which of her patterns was your favourite (I know it will be hard, you can have more than one). I will give you an extra entry if you make a link to this competition on your blog via sidebar or post. I will be drawing this giveaway Wednesday night (14th Jan 09) by way of the ever magic random number generater. So get cracking and visit Tilda and Filur. Be sure to let Susanne know when you are making your purchases that The Cackle Club Queen sent you. Good luck!!! D. :=)

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!

I can't believe I have not done a single post for the whole of December. I have hardly had time to scratch myself since the end of November with all the organising of a huge 5 year old birthday party for half of the kindy, (which if I must say so myself was quite a hit with the parents and kids) and christmas parties one after the other and everything else that comes along with Christmas. I can hear you all saying - Don't I know it. Here are some pics of the boys helping decorate the tree and two special packages left for me under the finished tree.

Because Jaden's birthday falls around christmas, we decided to have his birthday party early so he could celebrate it for the first time with special friends. He had been requesting a pool party so Jamie and I decided to organise his party out at our local weir where the council has a free pool and play area. It worked out really well. We all had fun over the road from the pool complete with jumping castle, games and minti man. We had a sausage sizzle and cake topped off with a swim. Good times had by all. I bought the cake from Bi-lo and iced it myself. It was so hot that the icing kept running off the cake. I think you should be able to work out who the cake is???

Jaden and I decided that we would make all his kindy mates a BonBon each this year as their christmas gift. Things snowballed then with Daddy wanting us to get more goodies to help him make some BonBons for his work team and us deciding we would make everyone one that attended the family christmas day lunch and also some friends that we give too. I think at last count we had made about 63 BonBons. We had fun doing them and they were well received but I think we'll think twice about doing that again next year (probably will). Well it's all over and done with for another year. Phew. Here are some pics of Jaden and I making the BonBons for his friends from Kindy. It was about 9.30pm before we got them finished. As we had to start them after poor little Bailey had gone to bed because he would have wanted to help too and then there would have been tears.

I did get to make something crafty before christmas though through out the christmas rush. I made this for my friend Barb. I was quite happy with the way this little christmas angel turned out. This pattern is one of Annie Smith's of Country Keepsakes which was featured in Homespun Magazine No. 66 (vol 9.11) I fell in love with these and had huge plans of making all my craft ladies one for christmas but only got one finished. I have all the fabrics all ready and will get the rest done (definately before next chrissy lol). They are addictive and I can't wait to make more.

Just before Christmas I received my secret santa swap present from Vivien in New Zealand. Thanks so much to Vivien and her grandchildren for putting my lovely parcel together. I was very excited when I received it and was lucky to only have to wait a few sleeps till santa came. It was an effort trying not to open any of them. This was what was inside all these cutie little packages - Some cute little santa tea lights, a lovely soap, cute and handy little torch light (great for the handbag), two cute little washers (Princess and Christmas) to carry in my bag that you just add water to (I use these a lot), a gorgeous handmade oragami box full of choccies (who doesn't love choccies) and a beautiful little handmade sewing caddy (my first one,can you believe it). I just loved everything. Thanks to Viv and her family and to Janette from Wildcraft Farm for organising this swap (also my first). Sorry about the lines in these pics but all of a sudden blogger is not playing nice, as the lines are not in the pics themselves. I will have to try and fix these later.

Here is a pic of the parcels I sent to Viv. I can't show you yet what is in them as I don't know yet if she has received them. Hope they got to her o.k.

I think that was all I wanted to tell you for now since it has been a while.

I will have a few weeks break now until I start my new Job (temporary/part-time) in admin at a High School and Jaden starts Prep (my first child to go off to school, bohooo). Time is just flying by me to quickly.

Hope you all had a wonderful christmas and an even more wonderful New Year!!!

P.S. My Angel Story Quilt and Rosewood Cottage Quilt are being quilted as we speak. Yippeee I can now start another quilt. lol.

My New Years Resolution is to complete my Sampler Quilt Top. Don't know if I've shown you that one yet. A lot of Needle turn applique to be finished. Another quilt, another day.

Happy New Year Crafting. D. :=)

I've been away but now I'm back!

I've been away since Monday in Brisbane taking Jaden to appointments at the Royal Brisbane Childrens Hospital. Nothing serious, just checkups. Jaden takes after me in that he was born with a Cleft lip (me a cleft lip and palette). But it looks so great now and the Royal Childrens have such wonderful specialists there. It was the usual round of Orthodontists, Surgeons and Ear nose and throat Specialists. All looking good and home again now. Thankfully we don't have to go back now for another 12 months.

I have had three wonderful ladies join up for my pay-it-forward exchange, Clare, Viv and Melissa. You can check out the links to their wonderful blogs on my sidebar. Please do.

Here is a pic showing off some of my knitting skills just for Melissa from thistledewfarm.blogspot.com as I promised. This is the Jumper and Beanie that I knitted for my DH (this is actually him in it in our front yard) to wear on a work trip around Melbourne/Victoria last winter. It is made from Alpaca/Wool and little bit of acrylic. It was so beautiful to knit and did not take long at all. This is the first ever adult jumper I have ever knitted. He loves it and wore it quite alot whilst he was down there. I've knitted a few little jumpers for my boys and everyone now has beanies or hats of some sort now.

My sister has become addicted also but now is more into crochet. Here is a little something she made for Jamie (my dh). He asked her to make him this bear to take to work and put on his computer. I don't think he realised how small it would be. He just loves it though and it is currently travelling with him while he's working in Brisbane for the Recovery Relief from the storms they had recently.

I'd better go, more cleaning and organising my house before Jamie comes home this weekend. Was my chance to declutter. Going well so far.

Happy Crafting!!! D :=)