Time to vote for your Favourite Decorated Blog!!

I have put up a poll for you to cast your vote to see who wins our decorate your blog competition.
The winner will be announced on Christmas Day.

I have made a prize for the person whose blog scored the most votes.

Thanks to everyone for joining in the fun.

Mother Nature's Fury

Yesterday afternoon we got to see Mother Nature's fury up close and personal - we got smashed in a big hail storm that destroyed the roofs of everyone in our small street (of 20 homes). About 3.30 we had a few claps of thunder and then some rain. I could hit a few little bangs and went to the front verandah to see a few small hailstones. They stopped fairly quickly and then I heard what could only be described as a freight train bearing down on us and 'bam' huge hail stones started coming down. They were about the size of tennis balls and then they eased off and I thought "wow, we survived".

Not so - they came back even larger!! These were cricket ball size - average 8cm some larger some smaller but about 8cm was the average.

This time the bounced and ricochet off everything, you could hear things smashing as they hit and bounced off to hit again and again. The funny thing was there wasn't a lot but they were deadly.

Ten minutes later it was all over and the damage down. Our roof was peppered, skylights - destroyed, garage roof - destroyed, our new solar electricity panels - destroyed, entertainment area roof - destroyed, car - bonnet and back of car dented (we were lucky it was under cover. Most of the cars in the street look as if someone has attacked them with baseball bats, no windows intact and covered with huge dents.


We have a small amount of water damage inside - not sure if the cooktops survived because it was under water and I won't turn it on until an electrician has looked at it. We have no lights because water go into the wall near a switch and the wall became alive. We were a lot luckier than some in our street because although our roof was peppered we had sarking under it and it protected the inside in most places. Some people nearby have lots of water damage inside their houses and won't be able to use their kitchens, some rooms etc.

All around in the nearby streets today people are coming to terms with their losses - a house I know had the same damage as us but Mother Nature was still angry and she hit the house with lightening destroying the electricity box - shooting it off the wall of the house!

I will be cooking on the BBQ for a few days until the electrician can get here. There is so much to be repaired just in our street alone. We have had a tiler look at the roof when they moved tiles to be able to get some tarps on the roof. He said I have only a few dozens tiles that don't have cracks in them. He thinks that most of the houses in the street will need new roofs.

Mother Nature is certainly trying to tell us something - guess we just aren't listening hard enough

I leave you with just a small taste of her fury.

Smiling Sunday

Healing Hearts Quilt

Well I finally got myself organised and put all the heart I received recently together to make myself a quilt. My computer was out of action for a while so it was the perfect opportunity to get to work without any computing distractions.

As the quilt is for a king sized single bed I couldn't fit it on the line without it touching the ground so I have taken two photos - one of the top and then the bottom.

I also took one of it on the bed so you can see the finished article. Woowoo another UFO finished!

I would really love to thank once again all those wonderful people who sent me hearts. This has been a rotten 6 months for Philip and I (compared with the last 14 years) and the hearts arrived at a time when I was really down.

Those little fabric squares mean so much - until you actually get one you have no idea just exactly how much they do mean to you. I have often made them and thought it was a nice idea but do they do anything. The answer is a very very big YES!!!

By the way - if you are ever making one could you please sign the front - a had several that were written on the back and sadly, once the quilt is put together you can never read the lovely thoughts if they are put on the back.

So thanks again to you all - I hope you can find yours in amongst them all.


Decorate Your Blog for the Season.
While your here why not check out our blog decorating idea and join in the fun. Any country and celebration in December, everyone is welcome.

The Effects of Gravity

Do you remember when you were a kid and your parents lined you up against the door frame to mark how tall you were and dated the mark?

This cartoon bring a whole new perspective to that exercise!

Retail Therapy

Went shopping last Friday with my 5 hours of respite (Philip's Story) and I really hate shopping and shop browsing so I decided to go to a fabric shop about 35minutes drive away (Craft Depot). A friend of mine had told me they were having a big sale and with nothing better to do I figured why not?

It was soooo crowded but lots and lots of fabrics.

I came out with a couple of metres of backing fabric (the purple); two metres of each of the cream and the purple floral. They will be used as sashing and borders for my 'healing heart' quilt; half meter of red chrissy fabric and a metre of the other cream (which has a lovely gold overprint that is showing up as grey on the photo).

I intend to make a long table runner with the last two, using the red as binding. I have some really lovely poinsettia designs for my embroidery machine that I think will look lovely. Will make it with pointed ends and will put a gold tassel either end.

I have also started sewing out the designs for my new quilt. And yes I have finally finished the two quilts for my sisters' Christmas presents.

Surprise, surprise my new quilt (for me) has purple designs.

This is the original from Skeldale House but I have changed the colours to cream for the candlewick, mauve for the flower, soft green for the leaves. Also I am only using the full designs and putting them on point. Probably only one or two long strips with patchworking either side and in the sashing.

Have already got the fabric for that - the mauve for part of the sashing is similar to the cream fabric for my table runner except it has a silver overprint. Also have some pastel green floral almost a tone on tone that I will use as a peeper on the sashing (I think). The blocks themselves are done on cream.

Remember