Dee Dee Dolphin, the Cricket and Zucchinis!

With Noel and Mitchell at the cricket and Austin and Nelson having a quiet day, I was able to get some sewing done. I made Dee Dee Dolphin by Melly and Me. The green fabric is some of the Where the Wind Blows range by Melly Hurlston that I won on her blog.
Mitchell did his two days at the MCG selling cricket programs. Here he is looking very pleased with himself. Pity about the cricket score!
I went out to the vegie patch yesterday and found this huge zucchini. I must have missed it two days earlier and it's now huge. It weighed over 1kg! That's a 50 cent piece to show you the size. The middle zucchini weighed about 500g.

I just love the Christmas holidays. It means I can get some sewing done. So I'm heading back to the machine now to do some more creating!

A Pre-Christmas Delivery!

The lovely Lana from It Seams To Be Sew had a Twelve Days of Christmas blog giveaway. I was the lucky Day 1 winner. My parcel arrived on Christmas eve.

This is what was inside when I opened the box.

Now I'll just have to decide what I'll make first!

Thank you Lana.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2010

Christmas Eve saw my side of the family come for tea.

We started off with champagne with a wild hibiscus flower in it!

The table's all set. We had a lovely spread of chicken, ham and turkey.
Along with some yummy salads.

Roasted pumpkin salad. Very yummy!

Caesar salad.

I missed getting a photo of the mini pavlovas fill with berries.
They were all gone before you knew it!

Then it was pressie time! I played Santa.

After tea we went for a walk up to a local street where
there were Christmas lights everywhere.

Christmas morning!

Here's the boys relaxing in their new bean bag lounges.

Austin and Nelson with Pa.

Austin with me. Not too sure where Mitchell is!

Then we were off to Noel's sister Rhonda's place for
Christmas lunch with the MacDonald side of the family.

Nelson played Santa this time.

Guess who likes having his photo taken!

Here's Ginger resting after a busy Christmas.

It's her birthday tomorrow and she'll be 12 years old!

Well, another Christmas is over. Noel and Mitchell are getting ready to head off to the MCG tomorrow to watch the Ashes cricket match. Mitchell's selling programs before lunch and then the two of them will just sit back and watch the cricket.

Wish you a Merry Christmas from the MacDonald's!

Christmas Baking!

Lucky says "mmm what's in here?"

Lots of yummy things!

Yesterday I spent the day making biscuits for presents. I made anzacs and choc chip biscuits. I'd made almond bread last week too.
Today I've bagged them up all Christmassy! I thought I'd show you a fat quarter bag I made for someone too.Well, I'm all set for Christmas. I'm pretty sure I am! Only the cleaning and setting up for Christmas eve with my side of the family to go!
Are you all ready?

Santa, Some More Hangers and Some Apples

I realised I hadn't put this Santa out. I went looking and found him hiding in a fairy light box! I made him a few years ago and he's made of wood.
I've finished the next lot of hangers (Val's tutorial). Four are for presents. The hangers come in packs of six, so I thought I might as well make them all up. I've now got two spares! Might just keep them for myself.
We planted this Ballerina apple tree quite a few years ago. Lo and behold, we finally have some apples coming!

A Birthday, Christmas Decorating and the Vegie Patch

Last Tuesday was Noel's birthday (I know. I'm a bit late posting about it!). We had a quiet night. I cooked one of Noel's favourite meals, meat loaf with roast vegies. Then we had some white chocolate and raspberry butter cake. Yum!
We've started the Christmas decorating. We got another live Christmas tree this year. Nelson and Noel chose this huge one. It just about reaches to the top of the cathedral ceiling! The smell is devine. The main thing left to do now is to put up all the outside lights. I thought I'd show you some of our special decorations.
We bought this tea light holder when Noel and I went to Queensland earlier in the year.
I bought this church tea light holder last Christmas. The little Christmas tree is the one I won on Leonie's Kiwi at Heart blog.Here's my Three Santas. Oops, looks like a couple of bells have fallen off! I'd better try to find them.
Here are some of my Christmas hangers. I've started another one but it won't be ready until next Christmas!
With all the rain we've been having, the vegies are growing well. We've been getting lots of zucchini and lettuce. The tomato plants are getting taller and starting to flower. I've recently planted some silverbeet too.
The lettuces are getting taller too. I just pick leaves from the outside as we need them. Nelson's bean plant (next to the red pole) is growing and some beans are coming.

Well, time to get back to these. More hangers!

A Christmas Musical, A Graduation and A Surprise Sewer!

Last Monday, I was invited to Grade 4G's Christmas Musical. We were treated to a lovely show by Nelson and his friends. This was followed by a lovely morning tea. Nelson even sang a solo bit!Then on Tuesday night, Austin had his Grade 6 graduation. The children all had a fantastic night. After the formal part of the night, there was a supper/dance. They all did a couple of dances for us to watch. Then the boys got their mums and the girls their dads, and we all had a dance. It was very special having a dance with Austin.

Doesn't he look nice in his new outfit!

Mitchell came home from school yesterday with this lovely cushion he made in home economics. I didn't think I'd ever see Mitchell sewing (and I still may well not) but he was very proud of his cushion. I think he's done a great job on his first ever sewing piece! I don't know if he intends to doing any more!

While I'm here, I might as well put in a plug. I've entered my Starry Sensations quilt (see post below) in the Quilting Gallery's weekly contest. If you like my quilt, please head over and vote for mine (bit rude aren't I?).

What I've Been Up To!

I've finally finished Austin's new quilt. It is called "Starry Sensations". The quilt was the 2009 International Friendship Quilters (IFQ) Block of the Month. I actually had all the stars made and the top together before the end of 2009. It took me another couple of months to get around to adding the borders. Then another couple of months getting it to Leanne Kaufmann to quilt it for me. Leanne did a fantastic job of quilting an all over star pattern. I then finally got the binding sewn on and stitched down. The photo has come out very light but you can see the quilting pattern.

I've also been making some more hangers from a tutorial by Val Laird.
These will be presents for Christmas.This last one is one I made for Simone but hadn't gotten
around to posting a photo.

You may remember this post. Well, I finally got around to washing all my new civil war fabrics on the week end and here they are.All ready to start my new quilt!