Stripe Study Shawl Update

At last I can say this is finished! It has taken so long to complete. I struck a major problem with the yarn which meant this project was thrown into the UFO basket until I could find a solution.

I emailed the yarn company who offered to dye new yarn so I could complete the project. It meant a good deal of frogging but the new yarn worked in seamlessly and this shawl is now one of my favourites. It was a fun pattern to knit and the yarn is so soft and squishy but the colours look so vibrant and happy.

The people from Twisted Fiber Art were extremely prompt and helpful in sorting out the initial problem and they were lovely people to deal with. I look forward to having more projects made from their yarn in the future.

Cheers,
Lynda

Those days are gone...

or have they?

Saturday night was the final secondary school event for Shannon. The Valedictory Presentation and Dinner was held at the Caulfield Racecourse. Gone are the sometimes crazy days of school life and now Shannon is supposed to go forth in life as an informed and compassionate young women. I'm sure Shannon will miss many aspects of her school days because seriously I think she had too much fun acting silly with her friends.

She was very excited about the night and she looked so pretty and feminine with all the sparkles from her dress and jewellery.

A good time was had by all. The girls enjoyed dressing up for the night (and so did Jeff ). Excuse Jeff's facial hair. He has been doing Movember and although he did shave it back to stubble it still looks a little ridiculous :) So close to the end of November he couldn't shave it off, after all it is for a good cause.   

 

Informed and compassionate? I hope so! Somehow I think those fun times are going to continue though. You can take the girl out of school but you can't take the fun out of the girl!

Congratulations Shannon on your final year of school, yes forever!

Cheers,
Lynda

School Concert

Last night Kaylee had her first school concert. The theme was Maccy down under. The little prep children dressed up as Australian animals and sang songs about wombats, mosquitoes and kangaroos. Kaylee was dressed as a cockatoo. It was a wonderful, fun night and the students did a great job performing on stage. Kaylee loved singing and dancing for the audience and of course she looked beautiful with her cocky crest and feathers.

Cheers,
Lynda

Happy Thanksgiving

I want to wish each and every one of my friends a very Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you always have zillions of reasons to be thankful. 

Today and everyday I am grateful for the day a certain American friend became a constant in my life. Today I wish you and your family all the best of everything.


And to my other very special American friend I am thankful for all the inspiration you bring into my life.  Thank you for your friendship.


In our family we wish everyone enough! It comes from sentiments of this poem.

 

"I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear. 

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more. 

I  wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.
 

I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear
bigger. 

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting. 

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye."

So Erin Joy and Katie Elizabeth, I wish you enough!

xox 

Cheers,

Lynda

Still want a nap?

I'll let you write in the quote frames :)
Hah!

Cheers,
Lynda

Oh heart, if one should say to you that the soul perishes like the body, answer that the flower withers, but the seed remains. ~Kahlil Gibran

This time of year is always tinged with sadness. I visited the grave of my parents a few days back and although the day was wet and dreary there was a calm and peaceful atmosphere as I walked through the cemetery and it was uplifting and refreshing to walk in the light rain. In the stillness I felt very close to them both. Time stood still for a short while, memories of happy times flooded back to me and then with a tear in my eye it was time to face reality and leave.

I couldn't help but think that mum and dad would be at peace resting in the quietness and shade of the old trees - just how they wanted it to be.

If tears could build a stairway,

And memories a lane,

I'd walk right up to Heaven

And bring you home again.

~Author Unknown

♥

Lynda



House moving, parade, pumpkin and dress ups! Oh my!

We are nearing the end of a 4 day weekend due to Melbourne Cup Day today. Somehow the weekend turned into a crazy, chaotic rush instead of the easy going weekend we had planned. Marnie got the keys to the new house yesterday so Saturday and Sunday were spent cleaning out her room and boxing up 26 years of everything you could possibly imagine. What she failed to mention was that somehow amid the chaos she had to get a cheque to the solicitor in the city by 11.30am Monday so the house could settle. With not enough time left hubby and I rushed into the city and just in the nick of time got the cheque to the relevant person and all was ok in the end. We didn't count on the city streets being closed for the Parade of Past Champions of the Melbourne Cup and the extra traffic and lack of parking that would cause. For some reason that slipped all our minds. We were so rushed that hubby had to drop me at the door and continue driving around looking for a place to park. After I had dropped the cheque off and made my way out to the street again, the parade was about to begin. I snapped a few photos to show you with my trusty iphone.

Then it was time to make our way home again. By this time Marnie had collected the keys to the new home and was loading boxes into the van. A kind friend arrived with a van and helped her move which was quite a relief as she had organised to load the big furniture items into the horse float which would have been quite a sight for our neighbours and hers! There were many helpers so the move went as smoothly as it could.

A few trips back and forth and the moving was done.

We don't do Halloween in Australia but this year to our surprise there were a few American style pumpkins popping up in the grocery stores so of course we had to have a go at carving one. Kaylee was excited to see a jack-o-lantern in the real and not just in pictures. This is our first ever attempt at carving a pumpkin.

This is how happy Kaylee was with the pumpkin.

 
Now that we had our jack-o-lantern we had to continue the theme and dress up. With costumes we put together from what we had and some black material Kaylee became a green witch, I'm not exactly sure what Ben was but he was rather creepy and I was a pumpkin head! Ben did a great job of face painting.

We enjoyed immensely the fun of our first Aussie Halloween.

Today is Cup Day and finally the rush has died down and we enjoyed the annual family cup sweep for the Melbourne Cup race and Shannon took out the first prize with the winning horse from France, Dunaden.

It was a long weekend but fun!

Cheers,
Lynda