Steaming along :)

There have been so many times, particularly this year as my work load has increased that I have had to bring work home. So many times I have had to ask the kids to be quiet, to let mummy work, and expect them to be independent. There have been so many times when I have sat in the car or on the sidelines whilst the kids have been at sport, getting the work done for teaching. Countless!

Don't get me wrong - I LOVE to teach and there are moments that make it all worthwhile, but holidays is the time I get to prioritise my kids! I get to have patience for them, as all too often I have run out of patience by the end of the working day - its like I have spent my portion of patience before I get home. Holidays is time to spend time with them, just sit in the couch together and watch a old movie or put on a DVD or take a weekend out together down the beach. We just love to caravan together - it gives us time with just us and far less distractions. This time we made it internet free as well so this was one huge big distraction less!!

We enjoyed our time at indented heads for an extended weekend these holidays. It was a lovely quiet park with a real community atmosphere. Everyone seems to know everyone and they were very welcoming. We were 5m off the beach! Wow. Spectacular.

Can you see the small body on the body board in the shot above? That is Caitlin being towed along by her Dad who is scuba diving below her (see his flipper). Kahle is also scuba diving below but can't be seen. This was Kev's compromise for Cate so she could be included as they went to check out the sucken paddle steamer. So sweet. By the end of this trip she had a go on the regulator with Kev and Kahle also helped her. The first time she was a bit freaked, but the next time she was so wowed by the schools of fish she saw that she is a definite convert to the sport of scuba diving. Man we are going to be broke. I told Kev we couldn't afford for me to stitch and scuba dive so I would have to stick to stitching (I am becoming out numbered :) ).

Ok, so even though holidays is about spending time with family, it is also a balance with 'me' time. It is important for mummy to have 'me-sanity' time, cos this makes me a better and saner mummy. The kids have grown up with me stitching since they were babies. I was always determined to find a way - determined that children enhanced life rather than inhibited life.

So today as Caitlin quietly played her Wii and Kahle had chosen to have some alone time in his room watching a DVD I got some, or rather a lot of crafting done. Here is what I have to show......

Today I have been playing with these, the fruits of my labour over 7-8 months last year. Red work backstitched. It was a block of the month called Twas the night before Christmas. I didn't get to finish though so now I am determined to make the supporting blocks and put the top together. I started with trimming these to the correct size - they look so impressive when you do this!

Then I started to play with these accompanying fabrics.

And made these......

Tomorrow I will work with this some more. But back to today! I worked with these that I stitched over the weekend and turned them from this.......

.....to this......yaaah, these are going to adorn my desk at work. Inspired by a fellow colleague, I thought it was about time that some of my character hit my desk at work and it became 'my' space instead of a sterile space :).

I was incredibly talented at creating this! Not today but I found it in my pin cushion as a reminder of what I had previously accomplished. I am not sure why I kept it other than it was so unusual. Sewing over this pin (as I usually do) created this and fortunately my machine kept going with no ill effect.

I forgot to show you these accomplishments from last week. For over 12 months I have wanted to start the farmers wife sampler quilt, after purchasing the book just before Christmas at my local. I just loved the civil war colors. So for my birthday my quilt group gave me a fat quarter each as it was my 'O' birthday last year. I was able to specify what colors I would like so I asked for civil war. I received over 7 metres of fabric! Such a delight. I just had to buy a few more (you know) to even out the colors and I was ready to start! Or was I? Just too many other things to do. So it sat there until this year when our quilting group decided to have a monthly challenge/focus groups and one of those is the farmers wife quilt - guess what I joined and finally started. We need to complete 4 blocks each month, supposedly the ones they tell us, but this naughty girl just wants to pick the ones that inspire her! I am using paper piecing method with it for accuracy and found this a bit of a learning curve to remember just how to paper piece as it had been a while. Well the first months is done! :) Always a good start.

Oh did I mention there are 111 to complete the queen size quilt and of course I want to do them all! I will attempt to keep you posted on my progress!

Here is a sneak at another little piece that I have been working on.......more as I progress on that too.

I hope life is working out for you at the moment. Enjoy the moments, even the small ones. I am off to sew with a friend tomorrow - this is our first time crafting together. I am so looking forward to it and will surely have more to show you after.

Love Bonnie xxx