Ok!

Christmas is over,2 days back at work and I worked my RDO so I could have 4 days,yep! 4 days off .

Being Fridee afternon,I ve had a shower to remove all the pulverised roo dooey off me and in me(as in ears and nose) not sure how much I swallowed but we wont go there... from the MTD chewing up the lawn(what there is of it,got very scorched yesty in the 43' heat) so thought Id update here before taking the boys to the local pool

I got covered with the forementioned everytime I turned around with the wind blowing the dusty bits straight over me,next time Ill get the boys to make a wee movie and you can all see it in motion,LOL But I did notice that pumping up the tires helps to speed up a bit too,I spent nearly an hour yesty disarming and searching everywhere for the necessary parts to be able to even pump the retched things up.I was hoping to cut the sports oval early but by 10 it was turning a little nasty, temp wise,now Im watching that Cyclone up North, and I may be out there bright and early Monday as any rain on the field now will make it vertually impossible to cut with this partly useless ride on! Anyone else out there use an MTD,the green and yellow Yardman model? Parts are different to the US ones, getting the right ones here is almost impossible! Anyone got a match,oops I didnt write that......

Iv nearly finished the second bobbin of Mandies 1st edition of the Fibre Club and am dyeing to start the Optum,I aimed on having one bobbin done to start the Entrelac Socks from IK Holiday Knits,tried entrelac before and it doesnt like me but Im biting the thing by the 'needle' and want to try it again (last time it was wash cloth..)

With Christmas done Id like to show off my pressies that wonderful Santa dragged down the skinny chimney!

My oldest enlisted the aid of a friends Mum who was working in Holey Sheet to

pick this!Vanilla,magnolia and apple scent,just beautiful...And the other boys were led by Son no3 to seek out this pendant(by the way P has beautiful taste in jewelry,never failed to surprise me) and Dad helped them with this! The big box(with prompting from me earlier this year,seeing that a gift voucher from my LWS wasnt going to happen,only wanted a wee bit of Patonyle)..

A very Good Friend ,P found this little treasure(as DH reminded me I had a similar one put away for her and clean forgot it but Ill tuck it away and get a nice pair of socks done and surprise her later)

But the biggest surprise was this!

Dh actually carried it down the street in Kal on his shoulders and told us he'd been shopping for the family,it was heavy but he didnt spend much on it,I was none the wiser til Chrissy Morn when he had changed the label to say it was for "Mum from the family"! Only after taking all the paper off did I realise what he d done,must have been having a dumb blonde moment there! He was very pleased with his suberfuge! I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall as he had to help the lovely lady as the sewing shop wrap it all up,she really got in the swing of Christmas he reckoned,Ill say, considering how much she had on it,a nice late shopping trade for her,LOL

Of course I had to give it a demo to show him what it could do! Its packed away til I find a special spot for it!

Im so looking forward to the Socks That Rock Club starting even though I have far too many UFOs !And I have my eye on some Noro Silk Garden from the UK too, the colour is quite rare now and Id like to snatch up a bit to make that vest from Knitty before winter arrives! Its a pity not more of the shops here stock this yarn as it costs a small fortune to ship from O/S!

Anyway Ill finish off now with a basket of flowers picked from my garden, messy as it is at moment, similiar ones were going for $ 20 to 40 at Woollies!!!! This was our table centre!

Christmas Day 2007

Me and my Boys

L to R,

Hew, Pat, Mum, Tom with Sam and Ben at front

Kambalda, 2007

Heres to Dad if you can see this, with lots of love!!

PS its a bit of a case of Spot the Mum!!!!

Ho Ho Ho! and I dont care if thats not Politically correct!!!!

I knocked off 2 hours early today so I could get back here to do a bit of dusting ahem is that cleaning? Id much rather play with Mandies lastest batch from the club!!!! Alas i fell asleep on the bed catching flies , didnt scare the kids they were nearly doing it too!!!

Ive made a heavy trifle and its cold cuts for lunch and we re going to continue christening the new BBQ and roast the chickens and veggies for the evening meal! Followed by the fore said trifle and pavlova minus Strawberries mind you,their excuse was bad weather down south (myfoot) but we ll try some other berries that arrived in this week!

The Tree is up and the boys and I managed to find the last gold star tree topper in Target (we went with gold and red this year,blue and silver last time)

I think other than spending up on the BBQ and my new sewing machine we re pretty much good on the amount spent on the kids!!

We ve had quite cold starts to the day for a week now and its going to be like that for Christmas morning too!So with threats to the older ones not to wake up the juniors at 4.30 we may get a sort of sleep in!!!

A bit worried about my Mum stuck on her own with Dad still having treatment in Sydney and the river is rising though I doubt she will be cut off at least not until Dad gets home anyway.They ve had heaps of rain too so a bit of green pick might even make an appearance!!!!

A heap of DVDs hired and food laid out Im looking forward to a nice day!

I ll take this opportunity to say A Very Merry Christmas and a Safe and Happy if not Prosperous New Year

A Parcel For Me!!!!

My!!! Am I going to be busy......Mandie,you re a star! these colours are delicious and the Optum gorgeous to touch,will have this stripped and ready this weekend!!

Ive had a quick peak(more like rip open parcel and devour contents) at magazine after the 'foddle fibre' routine...well worth the money,I can see a few nice things there that are certainly gift value galore!!!! cant wait to start the socks,woops too much to do, Ill settle for a stash enhancer element there!!!

And many thanks for the thoughts and jiggles too!!!!

A Fluffa says 'Hi' too.....

Im Baaaack!!

Long Time No Blogging...

The Christmas preparations at work and the " round" of social events that I dont normally attend have taken their toll on my time and added to the usual tiredness I seem to suffer lately...

First up ,Im happy to say that Son No 2 again was awarded a Scolarship, and son No 3 was the clearest and best speech presented at the End Of Year Presentations, being part of the School Council this year he shone among the crowd of staff as being able to speak well and clearly so we could all hear.A majority of the staff mumbled and even got their words mixed up!

Son 5 was dissapointed to have not recieved an award but it was mainly for some twit of a teacher doing the usual of telling their students that they have to come to the Big Night in case they were getting an award,he was so convinced that she knew something that he believed her.Im more wise myself as next year( if we are still here) to warn the boys ,Not to expect anything(Mums and Dads get special letters so we do know before hand)....

Son 2 got his award for the consistant high standard of work throughout the year but he always won awards for the most consistant even through sport. You know what you get with him,even i can say that,LOL

I managed to finish the most urgent washcloths for the Teachers etc and have two to finish for other friends and family and hope the post is able to deliver on time!!!

Im currently putting the binding on Mums Quilt and hope there's enough to finish it but have resigned to the fact I may not finish it in time for the last delivery at her end,probably Saturday!

Im waiting excitedly for the ISE5 parcel to arrive and am thinking that the long way( Surface not Air) may have been used,Ill post something about it on that blog later if nothing arrives in the next week or two!

We've cool weather here and its great as it means the gardens and lawns at work are going to get a small chance to grow abit before the real heat sets in.Its been around 12 to 21' here over the last three days with a bit of rain not enough to actually relieve our watering restrictions but it will allow me to hold back a couple of days in watering all but the things under cover.

Its nice to have long pants and jumpers on for a while,I bet Xmas will be in the high 40's and humid.......I hope to finish the knitting projects but am looking some real woolly ones that Id love to have finished before next winter... Been looking at those snowy pictures on a few US blogs ,the Trees look great with a window drop like that but I don't envy the power bill to stay warm.....Read about the cold front stalling over the Plains and have no doubt there were a lot of people very cold..

At the Annual Christmas Tree, Hubby and I were asked by friends to volunteer to take part in the massive sausage stand where we end up giving away 1000 snags as part of the celebrations!! We managed to do so and had about 20 odd snags left over ,ran out of bread about 50 so it was paper wrapped ones towards the end... It was loads of fun!!!

I finished a skein of merino silk from EGMTKs, gorgeously soft and very hard to give up,I gave it to our lovely Principal who mistakedly told me she s a knitter too!!!! LOL I knew what to do straight away, it was suitably recieved and I pointed her in Mandies direction ....I think it came out in a close to 8 ply but recommended her to use 3.5mm to 4mm needles to achieve the softness!!!! K.... had a pattern already in mind by the time I left the office!!!!

I didnt get a great picture but it came out a soft salmon pink colour and I renamed it Pink Lemonade as I couldnt remember Mandies choice ,sorry Mandie,hope you dont mind the name change!!!!

Oh and heres a piccies of the fabulous desert( Strawberry Pav with Apple Crumble) I had at Son No 3 Year 7 graduation dinner,it was a wonderful night though at first I thought our table was a bit stilted....

You can see now how busy we ve been for the last week or so and through it all I was suffering from some disgusting upper airway infection with a dry cough and fatigue,it was not nice.Hubby was also battling to get home from work to bath and attend these Chrissy celebrations,thought he was going to miss out on a feed a couple of times, likes his tucker he does,LOL

Tea Cosy Swap!!!!

Its arrived,a parcel of the bestest Tea Cosy,the colours are very me!!!The bikkies are yummo and the tins are simply wonderful,i can see a lot of use out these!!! And Jody must have been stalking my blog as she included the Rowan Book 5 and already Im planning on waht I will knit out

of it,the "Grandpa shirt" for definite!!!!!

Thank you Dear Tea Cosy friend its been fantastic over here in "Wait a While Country",LOL I read that post and wondered if was I the lucky one!!!!!