Final day of blogtoberfest - giveaway & a sneak preview

Firstly I want to thank you all for joining me on my blogtoberfest journey. It certainly was a challenge to come up with a different entry for each day. Yesterday we set up our Christmas store in Stockland - I was so tired by the time I got home (after a very early start) that I just didn't have it in me to blog yesterday, but that was only one day of the month (of course I dint start till day 5).

Anyway on to today's post and giveaway.

I have had these duchess sets in my possession since Johns mum moved down here in 2004. I have never been a fan of these but kept them for crafting. This week I decided I should share them as I know many of my blog and forum friends like vintage things ( I am not sure if they are old enough to be called vintage).

So that brings me to the giveaway I will be giving away one of these duchess sets (your choice) and a second prize of the two short oval runners
(12" X 5"). I am bot sure how old they are or even if they belonged to John's mum or one of his grandma's

You know the drill one entry for your comments on THIS post, one entry if you become or are a follower and one entry if you share this on your blog & I will add an extra entry if you send someone to my blog.

I will draw this next Sunday 8 November.

NOW a sneak preview of a tutorial coming up during this week on my miss nance & beyond blog.

Rose of Sharon Quilters - Blogtoebrfest day 29

11 years ago these two beautiful ladies - whom I am very happy to call my friends - started up a quilting Bible study, called the Rose of Sharon Quilters.

This study has been such a blessing to my life as have these two wonderful, Godly, loving & wise women. Always ready to offer a listening ear, advice & prayers. I am just SO thankful that God had bought these two wonderful women int my life.

Esther & I have spent a lot of time over the last year scrapping (drinking coffee, lunching,shopping, laughing) together and that has been just wonderful.

Last year I took pics of a few of the ladies with the idea of making an album for B&E for Christmas but was unable to get pics of everyone, so it didn't get done. But here are the pics I did get.

Brenda - we invade Brenda's house every Wednesday night for 3 hours and do a lot of laughing. We also sew and do our Bible study.

Dianne - Dianne lives around the corner from me so we travel together each week. Its been lovely getting to know Dianne. She has recently started up her own quilting business and is very busy making quilt after quilt for charity.

Cathy is a lady I don't think I would have got to know if she didn't come to our group. She is a very caring and lovely lady who also scraps. Cathy is a vet & a mum of 3.

Judy is passionate about animals and is a WIRES carer. She works as a nurse in a retirement home. Judy and her DH often take off on long caravan holidays.

Beryl is the oldest member of our group and is mum & grandma and is often found making quilts for her family. Beryl has been making crazy quilts with Dianne for charity and last night we got to see her first finished quilt. It was very bright child's quilt and today is on its way to the women's refuge.

Blogtoberfest day 28 - Recipe holder and other bits

Quite a few weeks ago now, when we had Jess & Kristy over for a scrap day, Kristy and I both made an altered recipe Holder. It was SO fiddly. Painting that scroll at the top and on the end of the legs took so long to do. BUT I am happy with the results and it looks great on display in my kitchen. I must say that I will NEVER do another recipe holder again.

here it is in use.

This little collection of dolls are mostly swap I have received over the years. The doll with the big bow on her head, Faith, was made for me by
Chrissy in my first doll swap - which was my 2nd ever swap in the craft forum. I made her a doll exactly like the shaker doll down the other end of the chair (which incidentally was my John's chair when he was a little tike). I can't remember whether the one I made her is Violet or Daisy - but whichever hers is called mine is called the other.

The purple doll, Sally, was made by Dawn in the forums paper bag swap. The bear I believe came in an advent swap by Hope and the Gold doll was made by Dianne in a Christmas in July swap.

This little collection of altered items (OTP's) is Haylee's monthly collection. Each month we alternate as to who has a display of their altered items. Its almost the end of October and I have not made anything for my November display. Better get a move on.

Blogtoberfest day 27 - my herb & tomato patch

There has been much talk lately on my Scrap of Faith forum AND on the craft forum about growing out own vegetables. I am a real novice at gardening but have a herb and vegie patch of sorts.

I though I would share them with you today.

Firstly right outside my back door is an array of pot with herbs and lettuce growing. This big pot here was my original herb garden at this house and is doing real well.



Recently I started this baby lettuce pot, these are perpetual lettuce, so as I pick leaves (when they are bigger of course) it will keep growing more and more leaves.


A the back is my older lettuce bowl that I pick from quite regularly and in the trough at the front is basil & curly parsley. I use these two herbs the most so I decided to plant extra and keep them close to the back door. I also have a pot of mint and a pot that I have transplanted some Rosemary into but they ar ein ugly black pots and I didn't think you would want to see them.





Now to my actual vegie patch. When we fist moved into this house 5 years ago this was FULL of parsley and only parsley. Now I have a huge rhubarb plant, 5 different tomato plants and all sorts of herbs. Don't you love my rudimentary watering system. I also have cherry tomatoes in the black pot.








Here's a close up of my Grosse Lilly (I think) tomato plant.











My chives with a small marjoram plant right next to it, this marjoram plant died off after I planted it and I forgot about it, not sure where the chives popped up from but her they are living together.












Purple basil.












Rhubarb gone crazy.........................















Tomatoes in the back with small lettuce in front of them, basil between and thyme and coriander right at the front.












The wild rocket and oregano went in 2 years ago and I hacked them off during winter this year as they were straggly and woody and look what happened, they GREW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So that's my herb and vegie patch. I am hoping to try a few more plant but want to see how the tomatoes go this year - last year we ended up with the tiniest Roma tomatoes.

Blogtoberfest - 24th Wedding Anniversary

Yep that's right today is our 24th wedding anniversary. John & I were married at Hanging Rock, Nowra at 12 noon on Saturday 26 October 1985. Which was also my sister Jeneen's 20th birthday and my niece Kaycee's 4th birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRLS.

How young do we look here. I was 21 and John was 30.

And now we are looking a wee bit older. These two pics were taken at Christmas last year - for some reason there are very few pics taken of John & I. Must remedy that. We don't normally celebrate ordinary anniversaries (watch out next year), but we do usually go our for dinner with the kids. Tonight we just happen to be having a family dinner with my sisters family and my SIL & her kids. So I guess that will be our dinner out this year.

Blogtober fest - Christmas swaps

Have found photos of past Christmas swaps that I thought I would share with you today.

This table runner, bottle of bubbly and chocs came from Nicki Christmas 2004. She backed this in the most gorgeous fabrics that she told me was only used for special projects. She also sent me a fatQ of the fabric, which I still haven't used as ,like her, I think it needs a very special project.

I sent her this wall hanging. I remember this took me a long time to do as this was when I had my shoulder problem and could not lift my arm up at all.

The next 2 items were sent to Fiona Christmas 2005 and I think that may have been the last Christmas swap I have been in. This table topper uses one of my favourite techniques for using left over strips of fabric.

Start by drawing a line 1/2" either side of the diagonal centre of a square of fabric, I think mine was 7". Then start sewing and flipping strips until you cover both sides of the centre. Square up your block - I cut mine down to 6 1/2" . Then sew 4 different quarter together to make a new block. I have used 4 blocks on this table topper with 2 borders.

Fiona really loved cats so I couldn't help but to make this cute little wall hanging for her.

This wall hanging was made for Dianne in an advent swap as my large gift.

I joined a sewing swap int he forum many years ago now and with my love of buttons I had NO difficulty deciding what to send my partner. I had been eyeing off this Debbie Mumm Button jar design for some time. I had a nice collection of buttons so I got to work. Imagine my surprise when.......................








I opened my gift and my partner had made me the very same design.

It hangs very proudly in my sewing room.

Blogtoberfest day 24 - Swaps received over the years

I have been a part of the craft forum for

5 1/2 years now and have been in many swaps. Here's just a few - now these are not necessarily my favourites but ones I use or see all the time.

The first is a little bag sent to me by Sarah in the mini bag swap, I have hand sewing in this little bag so it often will go to my quilters group with me.

This bag was made for me by Linda but I cant remember which swap it was. Linda is still a part of the forum and in fact I have made 2 items for her this year - a shabby chic bag and cushion. They were both on my blog a few months ago.

I also take this bag to quilters depending on what size bag I need for that night.

This was from the girl swap and it was one of my early swaps - the 7th one actually - this came from Sambo, who is still part of the forum.

Mipsy sent me this cushion for the country swap.

This wall hanging I believe was sent to me by Monika in the universe swap. Monika is also still a part of the forum.

And last but not at all least Sandra sent me this little doll in the teeny tiny swap - this gift had to fit in a normal sized envelope. How cute is she. She is attached to my sewing room wall board so I can see her all the time when I am sewing or on the computer.

Blogtoberfest day 23 -

I am so tired tonight that I couldn't think of a post for today so I thought I would just share some items I have made over the years and given away.

The first was a very simple quilt top that I have given to my dear friend for her granddaughter.

This quilt was one I have had on the go for years (and I mean YEARS) I finally finished this year and sent it off to be quilted and then donated to Victorian fire victims.

Gorgeous quilt I made for my Friends b'day in January.

Canvas I made for John's mum a few years ago its now hanging on our wall.

One of SOF's tins of hope - this one was made for Georgie. A beautiful girl who had been in a comafor a very ong time'

And finally these bags were made for a mother & daughter to hold 8X8 albums made by the Froggy Todd forum ladies.

Baby Haylee vs Baby Gail

Refer to post below so this post makes any sense.

So what do you think - I have edited the pic of me in the bassinet so you can see me better. Haylee is only a few days old in this pic.

Blogtoberfest day 22 - Randomness

Thought I would share my yesterday with you. Not that anything exciting happened.

So I started my day on the computer then off to have my quiet which got interrupted so many times (I really have to get to my quiet time b4 John gets up or this happens), in the end I think my prayer time happened on & off through the day.

I really wanted to vacuum & mop all floors but only managed to get the hall, kitchen & one bathroom done. I really needed to clean 3 bathrooms but only managed to get to Royce's bathroom -oh my you should have seen the state of it - he has been working on his motorbike, I have never seen grease go so far, all over the glass and on all his bottles of lotions and potions, but I did eventually get it clean. I also wanted to make up some caring hearts packs, didn't even get to open the lid of the box.

The one job I was about to start was to cut out the blocks for the embroidery RR but found that the links I have are no longer valid and I didn't think to save them to my computer (didn't print them off as I didn't want to waste paper or ink). But thankfully Doris has printed them off and will send me copies, just have to wait for those b4 I can proceed. I did manage to do the embroidery on Leanne's centre and it is looking fab. Going to work on Doris' embroidery today.

I also wanted to reorganise all my display surfaces in the family room, that HAS to be done today. Well looks like I have a big day ahead of me as I need to do all those things and then some.

I thought I would finish today post with the youngest piccy of me that I know exists. This pic was taken when I was a few months old with my older siblings. I believe we were all waiting to be picked up for Sunday School. Look at all my hair. I have just realised how much baby Haylee looks like me in this pic. I will hunt out a baby pic of her and put it up for you to see if you agree.

Now I am going to give you a challenge, see if you can find the youngest pic of you, scan it and add it to your blog.

Blogtoberfest day 21 - All things orange

This outfit that I am pictured here wearing (to the scrap day on Saturday at Lou's) has prompted this post (note the orange shoes - see I knew I would wear them again).

Tracey commented that I matched Lou's garden and needed to be photographed in it - well that didn't happen but Lou did pick me a flower.

Anyway that got me thinking how much I like the colour Orange and as I looked around my home I discovered that orange features in my life in many ways...................... Soooooooooooooooo here is my life in orange.

The flower garden that got this whole orange idea going.

Me in one of my favourite outfits - an orange T-shirt with a long flowing Orange Indian skirt. I think this pic was taken at Haylee's surprise 20th b'day BBQ.

At work with the Kids top 50 Balloons.

Even Haylee has a few orange things. The DVD is one of her fav movies, the pillow come back from Kenya with her (was given to her by another team member who was going to throw it away) and the Friends to the end book and little bath salt bag were given to her by her friend Amy b4 she moved to Qld.

The orange part of my wardrobe. The 2nd pic is not easy to see but has 2 orange t -shirt, skirt, covered coat hanger and an orange tank top. The first set of jewellery I made at a night at Chrich last year and my freind Andrea gave me the 2nd set for my birthday a few years ago.

Even my kitchen has an Orange side. the first is the dinner set given to John & I by his parents as an engagement pressie (25 years ago), a cup my friend Meryl bought for me (actually she bought a set of 6 and this is the only one left) A gorgeous Orange glass pedestal bowl and a little collection of citrus - (will the real orange please stand up).

And finally an orange look into our sewing and scrap room.

Haylee made this living book for her gran when she was still at Greenwell Point School in year 3. A little wall hanging that was made for me in the Mythical swap (not easy to see but each letter of my name is cross stitched around a baby dragon), my collection of arno cats (more about them in another post), cutting mat bag made for me by Tarlee in a bag swap, checkered arno cat (made as a toy society drop to come), Orange caring hearts, ribbons, gift wrap ribbon and bows and lastly my tin of Orange, red & yellow ribbon (with the Orange ribbons on top - this gives you an idea of how much ribbon I have as I have a tins for each colour way).