Sunday, November 27, 2011

Give Away Draw


Time for my Give away to be drawn….
Using the random number generator…

For the Summer Book

True Random Number Generator
Min: 1
Max: 24
Result:
19

Sharon-NZ said...
hmm summer adventures........ LOL getting the new wee terrorist under control methinks over the xmas summer hols.....Omy....


Winter Book

True Random Number Generator
Min: 1
Max: 24

Result:
24
Anonymous said...
Hello Amanda,
I see you have friends all over the world. Now, I write from just around the corner (Germany) :-) Here the Winter ist comming and we will prepare the Christmas celebration with snow and cold windy days. A warm cup of cacao is the most wonderful think after a long walk outside and sitting with my children and talk about the little problems in there life and big love we have for each other.
I hope you have a wonderful summertime.
Maybe I can win the Winterbook... 
Send Anna best wishes from me!
Petra from Cologne in Germany.

Congratulations to Sharon and Petra, I will contact you by email for your postal address.

...Happy Stitching Ladies...
Amanda



Sunday, November 20, 2011

Summer Give Away


Woot woo Summer is upon us in a big way here in the southern hemisphere, so in celebration of that and Christmas coming up I have decided to have a little (quick) giveaway, in fact if you blink you might miss this one.

As I mentioned in my last post, I am making a “summer wish list” for myself to get some stuff done over Summer. I mentioned I would love to hear about your summer adventures you may have had or intend to have…

What do you have to do?
Easy, just leave me a Summer adventure comment on this post and on Sunday 27th November (one week away) I will run numbers through the random number thingy and pick a winner…

The Prize…

An awesome Tilda book for you to make some lovely Christmas stuff…hopefully you will get it by early December…well that is why this is a quick giveaway.

Added Prize…

Because those in the Northern Hemisphere are heading into Winter I will pop in an extra prize... Tildas Winter Book…

*Very important* 
Please specify if you would prefer the Winter book or the Summer book, I must be able to email you for your postal address on the day of the draw so please make sure your email is attached to your blog or leave me your email address...If I can't contact you I will have to re=draw the prize on the same day. 


Tell your friends, just to make it more fun…
Can’t wait to hear of your fun adventures…
Happy stitching
Amanda

Thursday, November 17, 2011

New Books and Some Finishes.


I have had a few finishes for a change.

While away at Retreat I made a table topper and only had the binding to do. I had to find some fabric for the edge, I was happy to find some when we visited Bargain Box Fabrics… So finally it is finished, what do you think?


 A Close Up...


On the Table...

I also had some fun making a couple of toppers for our bedside tables with the fabrics I bought on our shopping spree with retreat. I love these colours and mixed them up a bit… I am learning more each time I sew something whoo hoo.



Some new books arrived too…


Quilted Gifts…


Home Sweet Sewn…


Home Sewn…


French Twist…


Aprons Book…


Home Made Vintage…

What Yummy Books, I am looking forward to doing some of the projects over the Summer Break. I home school my DS12 because he has Aspergers and just does not fit into the “System”. When school finishes for the summer I am putting together a “Summer Wish List”…a list of the projects I want to make, books I want to read and places I want to go…have you thought about making such a list?
The reason I am doing it is because I never seem to get anything done for ME...
It is how I relax and God knows I need to relax.

I would love to hear about summer adventures you intend to have or have had in the past, just leave me a comment.
Anyhow I must dash… things to do.

Many Happy Stitches to you
Amanda

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Homemade tips...

I have been surfing the blogs and been seeing a few lovely blogs with many helpful hints for us women who are constantly cooking and cleaning etc.

Sharon from NZ shared this one with us on Pinterest and it is quite a good tip...
Do you use Febreeze or something like it? 
Well why not make your own for next to nothing. Click on the picture to go to the blog with all the details.



Another fantastic hint for those really hard jobs can be found at "SimpleLiving" by clicking on the toilet.


My Tip
I thought I would share my little helpful tip for air freshener we keep in the Toilet for Hubby and DS1 who tend leave behind an door that could melt human flesh..hehehe.


First you will need a spray bottle that has a very good fine mist spray to it, I have recycled this old bottle from an aerosol free air freshener purchased ages ago for around the $6 mark.
You will also need some essential oil, the cheap variety of oil burner oils that you can get from the $2 stores is ideal.

 I put around 3 mil into the empty bottle. I find this is quite enough to give a very nice scent, not too strong and not too faint either. Then I top up with warm water from the tap and give it a really good shake.


Hey Presto you now have amazing smelling air freshener for a fraction of the price. In fact it would take about a year for our family to use up all of the 50ml bottle of oil. If you use only 3ml you can make 16, 300ml bottles of air freshener up from that single bottle of oil. That is a massive saving when you think the original bottle was $6, if you bought 16 of them it would add up to $96. so for $2 for the oil I am saving a massive $94.

Now in my books that is Frugal, I do have to point out that in this picture I have used my very yummy "Crabtree & Evelyn" oil which cost me $14.95 at their store because I could not find my $2 oil (which is very yummy vanilla scent).

Do you have any awesome tips you can share with others? perhaps you would like to share on your blog, send me a link so I can follow your frugal ideas too.

Happy Stitching and Money Saving.

Amanda

Long Awaited Post...

Warning this post has many pictures...


Well I did promise a post about our time away on the Gold Coast, so here it is...

We went down to stay at a beautiful house on the canal at Burleigh Waters, we had no idea just how gorgeous it would be.


My Darling Sister, her hubby, daughter, son and his girlfriend joined the five of us on this lovely holiday.

We spent plenty of time by the pool and enjoyed the most amazing sunsets and wildlife.



 We went swimming at Miami Beach (not far from the house) and had a great day at one of the fun theme parks here…Dreamworld.

We went shopping of course, how could we not with 6 teenagers...
this is very funny board in one of the shops, I had to take a picture to you all how funny it was. one sign says "Relax, Take a bath" then the very next sign as you can see says "ask staff for a demo"...so funny.

On the Sunday morning we went off to the Carrara Markets, they were just so big…we could not possibly have seen everything. But we had a great time.


After we came home on the Monday morning (driving through heavy rain) we settled back in at our place for a few more days together…we did a lovely day trip up to Montville in the Glass House Mountains and had a wonderful time shopping and eating (the teens were bored out of their brains). 
Beautiful View


We stopped in at Patchwork Angel and spent some dollars on fabrics…


Then we stopped at the "Ettamogah Pub" and "Aussieworld"...just to have a look and go to the ladies...



We stopped on the way home to go to Mount Coot-Tha lookout for coffee cake and a view of the Sunset over Brisbane city...it was beautiful.

 My camera battery died and I had to take Pictures on my phone which are not perfect but...





On the last day they were with us we went off to Southbank for the day
(camera did not work).
 We looked all over and even went to the Art Gallery, it was fantastic standing a few inches away from a Picasso or Lautrec, and other amazing artists work. The teens were so bored by this…eeesh.

  We  had an amazing time together and plan to do it again, I think most of the teens will not be coming next time as they will most likely be busy with their own lives, Jobs and such.

More posts to come with a few of my favourite things...
happy stitching 
Amanda