my sun-filled weekend

I spent the weekend hanging out at Anglsea (on the coast of Victoria for those that haven't heard of it before) soaking up the sun and enjoying this wonderful weather we've been having.  My husband and I pitched a tent at the local caravan park and spent alot of time at the beach over the course of the weekend.  It was last minute and glorious!



And now the dreaded work week has begun again.  Ugh.

not too cheesy

This weekend I finally did a bit of cooking.  It wasn't the most glamorous or difficult of cooking but it was  very meaningful.  You see my Grandmother was adopted and never knew her biological family.  She died before she could find out about them too.  My Dad has recently done a whole lot of research and found out who her biological parents and family were (yay!)  Not only that, but he has found second cousins and aunts and uncles who are all equally as excited about this new discovery.  In doing this, my Dad now has massively extended our family (another yay!) and was given some handwritten recipes that were kept by my Great Grandmother.  Of course I never knew he,r but on Sunday I made one of those recipes - cheese muffins.  They were super easy to make and they are yum!  Next time I'll add some bacon or zucchini or herbs (modern it up a bit), but this time I kept it simple in homage to my Great Grandmother.

I think that's really nice, don't you?

cute things and happy days

I was given this super cute bag as birthday present - bought from Lark

Need I say more?

my creative space

My creative space is back!  Hooray!



I am madly working on this piece of tapestry for my very best friend's birthday.  It will (hopefully and eventually) become a clutch purse courtesy of a fab pattern from Cath Kidston's book Stitch.  It is my first foray into the world of tapestry and I have to say that I have enjoyed it.  It's a great TV watching activity, which is an absolute must for me.  I always need to have something on the go which I can do whilst relaxing in front of the tele.  I really need to finish the tapestry part so I can sew up the purse and get it in the mail as close to Australia Day as possible (which is my friend's birthday).  Eeek!  I don't like my chances of getting it done in time for that but I have warned her that her present may be a bit late this year.

I can't wait to check out what everyone else has been up to over at Kootoyoo

safe and cosy

This year has been crazy so far!  I'm really hoping that the rain and the flooding will stop sometime soon.  My thoughts don't stray far from those affected these days.  It's just all so heartbreaking.  Please donate if you haven't already.

I thought I might also try and  post something with a happier theme today...

So...I thought I might show you the quilted e-reader sleeve I made just before Christmas.  This was for the Kobo E-Reader that my lovely husband bought me for my birthday.  I couldn't find a pattern that I liked so I just made a little something up and am very happy with the results (with the exception of the zipper, which is not quite perfect but still pretty darn good considering my past experiences with zippers!).  I used some Hello Kitty fabric I bought in Japan last year (yes, I am 12 years old).  If you look closely you'll be able to see a special name included in the pattern on the fabric.  Can you see it?  Yep, it says Jodie!  That's me!  You can imagine my excitement when I found it in the amazing Odakaya in Shinjuku, Tokyo.  That place is amazing all on it's own and I wish I had more time there.  As it was we were meant to meet up with our friends so I literally ran up all the levels (that's 5 levels in 2 separate buildings!) to quickly check what was on each floor.  Anyway, I squealed with delight when I found this and I knew it would come in handy at some point.



I did a bit of embroidery around one of the Jodie pictures and added a strap for easy carrying.  Pretty cute huh?  I'm very happy with it and it has been doing a great job of keeping my e-reader safe and cosy.

Hope you're all safe and cosy too!

the queensland floods

Please donate to the Queensland flood appeal

Or you can visit the Handmade Help website where Pip is compiling a list of other ways you can help

These Queensland floods have been totally scary and heartbreaking and they are not over yet.  Today I am really praying for Brisbane.  I have a house there (it is safe) and lots of great friends (they are all safe too) and it really feels like my home even though we are currently living in Melbourne.  My heart goes out to everyone there who is sandbagging, wet, waiting and worried.  Please keep safe.

just where i left it

Today was my first day back at work for the year.  I considered hiding and hoping that no one would notice I was missing.  I didn't.

So, isn't it great how Christmas and the new year fills you with hope and excitement for the year ahead?  And then you go back to work and find that everything is just where you left it.  *insert big sigh here*

I'm going to try really hard to hang on to that feeling of possibility and not let the little things drag me down. I'm not one for new year's resolutions, but perhaps that should be mine.

Hope your Monday was work-free! (or at least stress-free!)

i love holidays

Today I am enjoying my last weekday of holidays before I return to work. SIGH.

I have been thoroughly enjoying my free time.  I have watched movies and gone for long walks.  I have cooked meals out of my new cookbooks and made bread in my new bread maker.  It was been lovely and only wish someone would pay me to do this everyday!

I have also been doing some sewing and crafting.  I was pretty pleased with my skirt making effort until I reached the waistband.  I hate waistbands.  I just don't get the instructions!  At all!  It seems that waistbands are my new nemesis.  Grr!  So my skirt is waistbandless whilst I google and read until I figure out what I am doing again.



At least I have some Cath Kidston tapestry on the go so I can keep my crafting fingers happy in the meantime.  This will (hopefully) be a birthday present for someone really special.



Hope you're enjoying your Friday, wherever you are.

hello 2011

Hello blog land!  I haven't been around lately, and my Google Reader overfloweth.  But I am back to it now!  I hope you all had a lovely holiday period celebrating with your friends and family.  I have to say that I had the most brilliant couple of weeks visiting my family.  There was lots of swimming, eating, drinking and laughing.  Oh, and a couple of days of camping as well which was just fantastic.  There's nothing better than leaving the electronics behind and just lapping up some nature.  We swam in the river and toasted marshmallows.  Much fun!

I'm also lucky enough to have another week off before I have to head back to work.  So this week is all about cooking, reading and sewing.

Stayed tuned.