Swapping & Thrifty goodness

First off today we will start with the thrifty goodnes I found while in town on Monday.
A rare trip to Albury with Sam staying home with my lovely Mother in law and Jess having a nice sleep in the pram mean that I got time to look around a couple of thrift shops.
Who would have thought that one of them was having a $2 sale, not per item but per bag. The lady even packed it for me way better than I would have.
So I got some great pillowcases, some lovely fabric with circles on it (already in use for a new quilt), and the pink thing on the right is a really cute tablecloth.
The second photo is also stuff that she managed to fit in the bag, 3 100% wool jumpers. The one on the far right is 100% Alpaca...soooooo soft.... and the striped one is lambswool.
It was just my lucky day I guess.

The next 2 quilts are of swap quilts I have just received.

The first one is tiny, only about 12" big, it is from Swap Till You Drop in Flickr

The theme for August was buildings or houses, mine is on it's way to Dave and Suzi today.

It's so cute there are 2 little tents and outside them is a Doll and a rabbit, it's just lovely.

This next one is truly a work of art.

It was from the Quilting GallerySpring Blooms Swap my partner was Lilliana.
It is a full size mini at 24". I don't know if you can see it in the photo but the top right hand corner is a blue winged butterfly, it is 3D with the body of the butterfly being stuffed and squishy. The bottom left hand corner has a lovely yellow flower that is also dimensional and a bit puffy. The centre is cut out with a beaded lattice running through it with butterflies fussy cut and stuck onto the lattice.

These next 2 are from me to 2 other people. One of them is for Suzi who sent me the lovely little tent one above from the Swap till you drop flickr group, the other one is for a lovely lady called Ana from Portugal who is my partner in the Crafternoon Tea swap flickr group for September.

This one is 2 little houses that are only about 6" and a little pouch/purse
The next one is a little house that is about 12" square.
I had so much fun making these little houses. I found them in a book that I bought, it's Japanese but the diagrams are really easy to understand and all I have to do is trace out the templace and go from there.

Not too much else is happening. Busy on the farm with shearing coming up in the next few weeks if we can get some shearers, they are pretty scarce these days even though the money is really good if you can do a good job.

We have had some horrible winds with 100km/hr and over, luckily none of our trees have come down and our new house and verandah are still standing.

Our boys play in the preliminary final Aussie Rules football this Saturday so we will all have our fingers crossed to be going to a Grand Final game next weekend, it will be the first one in mega-years and will probably be husbands last chance at a 1st grade final game so keep the boys in your thoughts.

Bye for now.

Lucky in every way today.

I have lots of photos today.
The first is of my latest win in blogland.
I couldn't believe it... I won a beautiful set of Heather Bailey fabrics, a Heather Bailey Pattern for a baby stacking game, a raggedy flower pattern and a lovely handmade pincushion. I just can't believe my luck.










Then these are the best photo's of all. I took some pictures of Jess and Sam today on our new finally finished deck that took 6 months to build, it was such a beautiful sunny day.
Jess turned 5 months yesterday and I cannot believe how time flies and how fast they grow.












One of her favourite pasttimes is sucking on her fingers.








And then there's spending time with her big brother.

She just has to see him and she smiles and laughs.

Sam loves to hold her hand and put on different hats to make her laugh.

Weekly Update

It has been an eventful week. I had to go to Albury last monday for some more Moles to be taken off my back, I am pretty sure that all is well though.
Thursday I went to Canberra to the Craft & Quilt fair. Jess had to come with me of course because she is still on "Mummy's Milk" but she was such an angel. We drove the 1.5 hrs to Tumut and caught the bus the rest of the way (2hrs more) which was great as I got to have a sleep on the way. I had a wonderful time, took in a couple of talks, learnt a great deal and spent all the money that I'd saved especially for this trip.
Now for these 2 photo's.


This is Sam inside his new Cubby House that my mum had someone build for him. It's like a little house and is even almost exactly the same colours as our new house. A few of our neighbours saw it go past on the truck when it came home and they all thought it may be for Marcus when he is in the "Dog House" well you never know I guess. Jess is there too in her farm pram. It's nice and green at the moment cause we have had a bit of rain the last few months. We still need heaps more rain before summer but here's hoping it keeps coming. Our water tanks are full and the Dams are looking good at least.

And this pic is Jess sleeping right now as I type, I wanted to get one of her sucking her fingers but she dropped them before I could get the camera out. She has no idea what to do with a dummy but loves her fingers, oh well whatever helps soothe I guess.

Now an update on other things...

Water only challenge has been good a bit hard to remember when I go to my inlaws for morning tea each day so I have left strict instructions with Bev to just give me a cup of hot water. A few people have said that they couldn't do it, don't worry I may not make it yet. The good thing is I don't drink alcohol at all and I rarely keep softdrink in the house. I do however love a coke every now and then so Iwill miss that on occasions I am sure.

Soap sales have skyrocketed all of a sudden with a new wholesale order so I really have to get stuck into production, and with Christmas coming up it's a busy time of year judging on last year.

I am in a couple of swaps which is forcing me to make time to be creative, I am in the process of making a house mini quilt (max 15"), a summer quilt (max 24"), a friendship bag and collecting goodies for an avent swap.

The quilt that I finished last month for the Footy club auction sold quite well so I was happy with that.

Nothing else to report really, just trying to keep up with housework and get some creativity done everyday. I'd rather be sewing really...

A new challenge

I have set myself a new challenge.

At first I didn't thing that it would be too hard as I don't drink alcohol at all and not too much soft drink or cordial either.

But.

Occasionally I love a good coke or a lemonade and I have the best homemade lemon cordial recipe from my mother in law.

Oh well.

I have signed up for the challenge before it's too late.

I found it here at Belinda we are joining in with Daharja

Are you game???

Inspired by the good people of Bundanoon, who have banned bottled water from their town, I'm going to do The WATER challenge.

THE RULES:

The Water Challenge is simple.For one year, starting on August 3rd, I can drink only water.

I am giving up
Fizzy drinks
Teas and coffees (coffee is easy, I don't drink it anyway)
Juices
All alcohol
All cordials and drink flavourings
All bottled water (except in my own, re-usable water bottle)
All milks - except on my cereal, and then in only enough of a portion to wet the food appropriately
Anything else not specifically included in this list that is not tap water or rain water.In other words, I'm on tap water for a year.

Medicines are excepted, of course. So if I need a medicine, and it is in liquid form, that's fine. That's also just common-sense.

Soup is excepted. Soups are not a drink, and are not part of the Challenge.

Also, if I get really sick to the point where I am in need of vitamin C in juice form or my medical professional recommends I drink something other than water, I'll do as recommended. I'm not a twit.

Why?

Because I'm sick of doing the talk but not the walk.

I'm sick of whinging about bottled water (which I do) yet still buying the odd juice or soft drink, figuring that it's okay to use a single-use bottle because it's flavoured instead of just water.

Fact is, it's not.

I'm adding tea and coffee to the list of contraband, simply because I want to get used to drinking water and water only, and I won't do that if I replace all the other rubbish with tea, even if it is herbal tea.

Plain water was good enough for my grandparents. It was good enough for people all throughout history. It is good enough for every other animal on the planet. It should be good enough for me.