Glorious Winter Day!!

We have been having some glorious Sydney winter weather lately. Still cool, but most days are lovely and sunny.

Last Saturday we went out with my parents to this great place on the Parramatta river. It is called the Armoury cafe and it is on the site of an old armoury. They have developed a lot of the grounds in to parkland with lots of bike and walking tracks. There were heaps of people out enjoying the sunshine.

My mum has been very sick with the flu and this was her first day out for 3 weeks. Was a great chance to catch up and enjoy the sunshine. And the delicious food of course hehe

Sorry, no sewing pics, only thing I have been sewing is my caravan curtains - very boring!

Lots of swaps!!

I have participated in 2 swaps recently and have received some amazing gifts.

The first one was in our Yahoo group C-R-A-F-T which stands for Creating Really Amazing Friends Together. It is a great group and we all consider each other great friends. Anyway, enough of that, onto the swap!

We had a CHRISTMAS in July swap where we had to send our partner something starting with each letter in the word Christmas.

My swap partner was Kerrie-Anne and here is what she sent me

C-Charm Squares and Credit Card holder

H - Handled handbag

R - Recipe Book

I - Letter I magnet and Iron on mender

S - Star pins

T - Tape in a tin

M - Mug

A - Angel

S - safety pins

I was also in the bloggers FRIENDS swap hosted by Khris. My partner was Deb from New Zealand .

Here is what I received from Deb:

F - Friendship cushion

R - Runner

I - important little incidentals (hand cream & nail file)

E - Essentials for any stitcher (Chocolate coated pineapple & Cappucino sachets)

N - Needlebook and notecards

D - Diary (covered)

S - Stitchery (cute Bronwyn Hayes one in a little purse pouch)

Thanks to both Deb & KA it has been great fun swapping with you and I love everything you have sent me.

Some sewing

No exciting sewing happening here yet but I do have some curtains to make! We own a 20+ year old caravan that needs a bit of revamping so I have bought some curtaining to replace these horrid ones!

So today I got 14 lenths of curtaining cut out all ready to sew. Who knows when that will happen LOL but I need to get this done before I have my shoulder surgery as we are taking the van on holidays in November. Once I have my op sewing will be off the agenda for a while!

Show Off Post

Just want to share a pic of my youngest son Tim. He went to a wedding on the weekend and got himself all dressed up for the occasion! Trust me that doesn't happen very often!

Here is a pic of him (left) and his best friend.

High Tea

Another non-crafty blog!

Last Saturday some friends & I took our mums to High Tea at the Park Hyatt in the city. This hotel is one of the flashiest in Sydney, due to it's location just under the Harbour Bridge and directly facing the Opera House.

The day was gorgeous as was the view.

We had a lovely time together and the food was yummy!

My mum & I:

One of the plates of delicious treats:

Our group:

Cathy & her mum Margaret:

Cathy...hmmmm... LOL:

Gail and her daughter in law Elizabeth:

Mum & I again:

The view - spectacular!

Trip to the Orchard

2 weeks ago I went on a trip to an orchard with some ladies from our church. We have had a lady visiting with her daughter's family from the Philipines and has never seen an apple tree. Unfortunately there was no fruit left on the treees but at least she got up close and personal with the trees!

Erlinda & Conchita in the apple orchard:

Peach trees:

We got some beautiful fresh apples, straight from the orchard, much nicer than supermarket apples!

Sublime Point Lookout:

Lunch was had in a lovely cafe at a lookout overlooking Wollongong beaches.

Blogging drought

Gee, how long has it been since I posted! I have a few things to tell you about, but unfortunatley nothing craft related! More just trips & days out I have had. AS well as being in a blogging drought I am also in a sewing drought! Haven't picked up a needle since before I was sick! Am going to my sewing group on Friday so hopefully will get something done there.

Well back in May ( when I was feeling so ill I should have just stayed at home!) Craig & I had a weekend in Canberra. We stayed in a lovely hotel, visited the National Museum of Australia and the War Memorial and also spent a day with my brother and his family.

The front of museum:

Some beautiful sewing in the museum:

A retro pig!! I think it was made in 1946:

Some Aussie icons:

Our hotel:

At the War Memorial:
One of the many amazing dioramas:

The toilet of a submarine - I am just over 5ft and I couldn't sit up straight, would hate to think how awful it would be for a tall man!

Some pics of my brother's place at Murrumbateman: