Off to school..

All the littlies headed back to school and preschool this week. Little Jack has his first day at his new preschool. This little man has such an expressive face! The big boys went on Tuesday and are in year 2.

 Miss Alice headed to big school and is now in Kindergarten.

 We are back to some morning drop offs and pick ups again.

 This little fellow was started a long time ago by Sam. He drew the picture and I cut it out from felt and he did a bit of stitching. I finally finished it for him.

 I pulled out one of my oldest UFOs the other day and chose some fabrics and started to put it together. It is Fairy Kisses by Helen Stubbings. I think I started it in 2004???

Outings....

What a January we have had! February is not looking too good either with fires still blazing all over the place, including south of Canberra. Thank you to all the hardworking firemen and women who have worked so hard. On a brighter note, besides being hot, there has been a few outings! My girls took me to the Hyatt for high tea recently for my Christmas present. It is a very special thing to do.

 We headed to the National Library on Thursday to see Mary Poppins returns. That was fun.

 I haven't had much energy this week with the heat but did manage to make Jack's Library bag.

Some progress and hail...

We have had another crazy weather week. On Monday there was an amazing hail storm. It was very bad and many homes were damaged as were so many cars. Luckily we only had a little damage to some skylights and our cars were safe. I was home when it happened and it was scary. I then drove to Kingston to help at the kids club they run called Smad Camp in the afternoon and the hail was so big there and it was even hard to drive. Here are the boys with some of the big hail. They had a great time this week at Smad.

 Last week my blog book arrived. It is always lovely to print it out as it captures so many memories......stitching, family, holidays and so on!

 I have been stitching and doing a little crochet. They were calling for nests for animals hurt from the bushfires. I made a couple of these.

 I finished stitching this little cross stitch started last year. It was fun to stitch.

 Over the last few weeks I have added more rows and now the borders to the Splendid Sampler quilt. I am very happy with the result.

Some progress..

It has been nice to have some stitching time over the last few weeks. I did finally put away all the decorations, which did take a while! I have been working on a few ufos. I started to sew together my Splendid Sampler blocks from a few years ago. I am quite enjoying the process as the French General fabrics look so nice. Here is row 1 and then 5 rows done.

 I had stitched this lovely Kathy Schmitz Santa earlier in the year so it was nice to put it together into a cushion.

 This one has taken ages. It is the Stitched Circle Basket from the Stitching Day in September. It is a lovely design by Lynette Anderson. I am not feeling too confidant about putting it together

 It was lovely to catch up with the ladies on Wednesday. Jayne showed us this gorgeous little puppy pin cushion.

 Roni had made these amazing cross stitch decorations. So beautiful!

And a memory! My Amy made this little nativity when she was small. It was fairly ruined but thought it was worth taking a picture of it!

New Year....

It has been a very different few days in this new year. Canberra has been blanketed in smoke and the news has been so sad as so many lovely places have been ravaged by fire. So sad to hear about the many that have lost their homes.

Today is a bit clearer here and the smoky seems to be leaving our house. We have had many days indoors so I have been trying to get a few ufos finished. My biggest achievement was finishing my Stitch Therapy 365 right on time at the end of 2019. It has been a lovely project to stitch.

 

 These two stitcheries were completed last year and are now little pillows.

 I started this cross stitch on my recent cruise and it was nice to make it up.

 These three were stitched last January! I was planning to frame them but decided to make them into hangings instead. The nativity one still needs a few buttons sewn on.

 Lastly these lovely finishes were from the Wednesday afternoon ladies. I must make one of these bags one day!

Lastly, I will share what summer should look like. The kids are enjoying an iceblock after a swim!