Hurrah!

Yay!

How exciting!  Katy at I’m a Ginger Monkey was giving away two of her handmade beautiful birdy mini quilts and lucky lucky me was one of the winners!  Oh yay!  Thanks so much Katy.

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Photo is Katy's!!

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We’re still homeless as we wait for the final bits of our renovation to be completed.  The first coats went down on the floorboards yesterday but it’s pouring with rain in Perth this week so the floors are going to take longer than we thought to dry.  We have been alternating between other people’s houses and I am really, really looking forward to getting back in to our own house, with our own bed and having our pets back home!!!  Poor pets.  Matilda is staying with friends who have a Westie too – hopefully she’s having a good time and being a polite house guest (hrm…she is a Westie though..) and poor Shmoo is staying at a cat motel.  I have never put Shmoo in cat accommodation before – he usually stays with my grandparents if he can’t stay in our house but they’ve gone away this week!  The cat motel people seem very nice though (odd that it’s called a cat motel – like the cats could drive there in their little cars…hehe).  Nearly there though – this time next week we should (HOPEFULLY and fingers AND toes crossed!) be back in our house.  Aaaah.  And hopefully have a bit of time to rest before we go jet-setting to Europe (yay!!).  Will be nice to have access to a computer again too!

Meanwhile, I have developed a vintage poster obsession and thought I’d share some of my favourites (art.com is having a 25% sale this week).

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The schnauzer one reminds me of Matty’s friends at the park and the white cat is such a Shmoo!!  Oh pets I miss you!  We will see Matty tonight when we take her for a walk and I will be popping to the cat motel to visit Shmoo…hopefully he has time between massages and spa baths for visitors...tehe!

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Hope your week is good....nearly the weekend.  Yay!

Poochie quilt

Unstitched then stitched...

The vintage polka dot and retro Heather Ross orange dog fabric were eBay finds, the plain cotton fabrics were these thrifted table runners (also used for the backing) and a piece from a vintage Japanese kimono from here.   Kristen Doran's wonderful Molly Birds fabric made up the top left corner and some of the binding.  I used two different sized embroidery hoops for the circular stitching, which was fun for awhile until my hands cramped up and my back ached!  I thought binding the quilt would take forever too but it actually didn't take too long at all.  First time ever I've completed a quilt and I think I might now be addicted.  I'm really pleased with the stitching and the binding, although not much of it is straight but I was too impatient to measure properly (the not-so-great quality pics I am blaming on a lack of photographic space due to the renovation rather than my impatience...well it was mostly a space thing...)

Someone else was very appreciative anyway...

I think she likes the other poochies.

Still here (but not so still)

It's ages since I've had a chance to blog and it feels like I've neglected a good friend.  I have many excuses, mostly I've been busy at work (my day job unfortunately rather then work I'd like to be doing!) and busy with house things.

But there's loads of good news - I've got holidays coming up, which will be plenty of time for crafting, and I have oooooodles of ideas and projects in mind and books to read and photos to sort, and our house renovation is coming along very well - we have a roof over the new section of the house and there's no longer a giant puddle in the kitchen when it rains.  And, blissfully, Spring is around the corner!  I've always loved Winter more than Summer but I'm over showering outside during Winter and it's too cold at night to run out to the port-a-loo!

I just checked out the eBay auction for One in Ten - a beautiful show of support for a very worthy cause.  I have to be very careful visiting eBay though as I am prone to wandering and get distracted easily (clever how that works).  I just stumbled upon this devine vintage quilt top, which I am in love with:

  It's such a lovely pattern.  I think it may inspire another project to add to my ever-growing 'to do' list.  Funny how some holidays are planned for staying at home, pottering around and generally relaxing - as opposed to 'travel' holidays - but these pottering type holidays are quickly filled with activities...

Another of my 'to dos' is to sort out our holiday photos - from our UK trip in July/August last year.  The photos are still sitting in a bag, although we did spend an evening this week making up a photobook through Snapfish to give to my parents-in-law as a holiday momento (we travelled with them).  Creating the photobook was heaps of fun and Snapfish have wonderful customer service, which impressed me enough to let others know!  It was nice to look back at the photos too - might be time to plan our next holiday (a travel type one)...