9/52

A portrait of my boys once a week for  a year.

BJ - PJ day,relaxing & watching tv.  Getting so grown up.

DJ - posing the toys for a picture, not himself so much!  

Thursday Thanks

• Beautiful rain.
• Extra crafting time.
• Doing some of my favourite things.
• Lessons in coping with odd things, for a few of us.
• Great improvements at swimming for the little guy.
• Some natural helps to calm & relax... 
• Excitement from the big boy in a new activity to come.
• 
  
• 370/1000 

Time Flies

...  when you are counting things down through the year in weeks.

This is week 8 of the Town & Country quilt.

I haven't altered them a great deal from the pattern.  Added a mail box outside the post office.  Moved the light globes on the light shop as I didn't fancy them sticking out of the roof.  lol  Added strings to the guitar.  Added flowers on the windows of the Tea shoppe!  Voila.  These make up one side so I will join them on the weekend to the rest after I have also finished the opposite side.  It's growing well.  

8/52

Both boys playing a game of two-square.  Sounded like they were having a good time.  It's been a rough couple of days with one or the other being very tired, so to see them playing together again right before tea time it was nice to hear.  

Linking up with the project.

Charity Tops

Recently I did a lot of sewing of scraps...  this is what I ended up with from the large pile of very "Lazy Log cabin" squares that I did.  I just kept sewing & sewing at the time.  Sewed them together this week to get them out of the way.  They are now waiting in the charity box at work for the next time quilts are necessary for some disaster relief.  Eight quilts from the box recently went to Western Australia for some who lost all in the recent bushfires.  Hopefully the 3 quilt tops I have put into the box recently will get used eventually for something though I am not wishing disasters on anyone.

Thursday Thanks

• Good test results for the big boy.
• A good teacher for the big boy that is grounding him already for the coming years.  It will be quite a change from the lower grades to the higher grades in primary school.  
• To all those that bother to read my blog.  I've had a number drop from my list lately, & that's cool.  I don't expect I appeal to everyone.  I'm thankful if you do read it though, & if you leave comments too.  I do reply to all comments, but if you have a "no reply" email on your comment then I can't.  But thanks still.
• A great crop from the garden again.
• Freezing veggies for winter.

363/1000

Stitched Memories

 In December BJ drew this picture one night.  He actually delivered it on the back of his remote control car to me from his bedroom.  Bit sweet.

This week I finally got around to stitching it.  We have this cute fabric at work with lines on it like a ruled book.   I used that to position it, avoiding the little illustrations on the fabric.  We're both pleased with it.  

7/52

A portrait of my boys once a week for a year.

BJ - back to the lego play.
DJ - the new summer game, trampoline jumping with the sprinkler on underneath.  Lots of fun!

Round 3

Another round of the Town & Country quilt is complete.

This is the row of 7 along the bottom edge of the up to date square below.  (I'm rapt with my swing! lol)

Thursday Thanks

• Enjoying summer.
• Parcels of books that keep the big boy interested in reading.
• Audio books!  Multi-tasking is neat.
• Meals made up of home grown food.
• Not such a bad start to school.
• Long awaited appointments & some action finally.
• Some enthusiasm for crafting for school fair coming up.
• A new toy - called a camera!  

358/1000

I've Missed You...

I used to stitch.  Cross stitch.  A LOT.  It's all I did.  I did so much for me & others.  I used to stitch for shops, sample stitching.  I had so much fun recently doing the Santa so I grabbed another.  BJ picked this one from the stack. 

The beads on the gingerbread house do show up quite sparkly in real life - it's such a pretty one.

6/52

A portrait of my boys once a week for a year.

BJ - posing in different ways for me to practice.  

DJ - For the first time in an age, he is actually sitting still & making a normal face.

Linking up...

Family Cricket

This is the latest evening fun at our home.  Making the most of the nice evenings we are still having.  

Also testing out the new camera that landed at our house today.  Was a bit sudden but boy it's great!  Hopefully my photography skills improve soon.  

Caught Up

Boy I need a new camera.  This picture is a bit blurred again.  The lens is bad.

Anyway, I am up to date.  New squares arrived in my inbox on Friday's but for now I am up to date.  There are a couple of things I might stitch on to these once they have their edges attached too so I get the position right, but we'll see.  Not stressing too much right now.

Thursday Thanks

• Reasonable good start to school for TWO boys.
• Not the stress before school started that I expected for the big boy.
• Little one not phased by school.
• Greening grass from rain.
• Dams that are noticeably a little fuller.
• Opportunities to do some things I love.
• Invention of audio books so I can multi-task even more!

350/1000

Christmas Craft

While we were camping over a week ago (gee, hasn't that time flown by!) I did chuck an ornament kit in my bag - just in case...  Well I did.  I got most of the Santa stitched in those couple of days even though we were in & out.  It was a nice relaxing time after all & the boys were well occupied around camp.  I got it finished last night.  I'm rapt with him.  This was a gift for Christmas & I have it done already!  Not bad going.

Round Two

Finally got the next round of squares done for the quilt.   Holidays & missing fabric didn't help speed things up but it's got a complete round now so I am happy.  Looking quite cute.  Can't see some of the detail in this but you get the general idea.  It's going to be quite some finished piece!  In about a year!  lol

Taking Stock - February

Making :  The Town & Country Quilt.
Cooking :  an old favourite, Bacon & Broccoli Frittata
Drinking :  so much water...
Reading:  The Irresistible Blueberry Bakery & Cafe - Mary Simses
Wanting:  the holidays to be a little bit longer.
Looking:  forward to the next holidays
Playing: cricket with the boys
Deciding: which project to tackle next.
Wishing:  for a great start to school.
Enjoying:  the summer like I haven't in a long time.
Waiting:  for school to start.
Wondering:  how the first few days of school are going to go.
Loving:  the holidays
Pondering:  my 1.5 days at home alone each week.
Considering:  all the things I have to do on that 1.5 days at home alone each week.
Buying:  nothing much right now.  Car from last months Stock take isn't happening.  Just waiting to see what happens next.
Watching: not much.  Will try to avoid all the new shows starting & listen to some audio books instead.
Hoping:  that my niece continues working on her Happy Diary & it helps her out some.  
Marvelling: at how fast the time has flown since DJ was born.  Here he is starting Kinder this week.
Smelling: freshness, after days or rain & storms.
Wearing:  tank tops.  I don't like wearing them but at home I will cos it's so darned hot.
Following:  The Town & Country quilt facebook community.
Noticing: the days are getting a little shorter.
Knowing:  that this week is going to be high anxiety every night.
Thinking:  that it is too hot to sleep tonight.
Admiring:  the skill of the tennis players.
Sorting:  more toys out.  Funny how they just seem to disappear & no one even notices.  lol
Getting:  some Black Chicken deo to try.  Can't wait.  
Bookmarking:  almost everything again as ours all disappeared with computer issues.
Disliking: that my dog is getting older.
Opening:  parcels that came in the mail. 
Feeling: lethargic from the heat.
Snacking: Icecreams.  Had more in the last few weeks than I usually do in a year or 2 years even!  
Helping:  to try to avoid the start of school nerves. 
Hearing:  my audio book while I stitch.