Grandies, a Birthday, and my Garden - lots of photos

These three have all featured greatly in the past few weeks.  Last weekend we traveled up to Te Awamutu - a  journey of five hours which takes us all day basically by the time we stop for lunch and anything else that takes our fancy.  On top of this is making sure I have enough oxygen to last while away from the plugged in machine takes some doing. Our granddaughter Jessica turns 21 on November 15th and we arranged with her to have a quiet family dinner with her instead of attending the party Jessica was arranging with her young friends.  We had a lovely time and caught up with three of our kids and 8 of our grand-kids.  Awesome!

Said granddaughter loves playing around with fun photos as you can see.  Lol.

We ended up with a good sized crowd by the time we added boyfriend and a girlfriend into the mix.  Nice.

A c ouple of slighly more normal photos.  My eldest son's partner Dayn and I had a lovely catch up.

Friday morning we went to Patarangi School to attend Grandparents Day.  We were entertained (between rain showers) by each class room, then off we went to our own grandchild's class room where we were served morning tea.  It was a lovely time.  My granddaughter Hayley is 4th from the left.

Two of my younger grandies....Olivia and her brother Albert.  Such gorgeous kids and cheeky too.  Great to be able to catch up with them again.  Granddad's ear muffs were great fun.

Just so you can see I have been doing a little patchwork.  Have made a start on quilting this one, and have half the blocks done with the string quilt for grandson.






Wouldn't be right without a cat photo.  Travis was just hanging around trying to rest and would I please leave him alone?

My loo had a trip out to the front lawn on Wednesday while the vinyl layer came.  Yippee great progress as we now have the wet floor in and the whole floor finished.  Shower is ready to be hitched up to water.  Only problem was the wet wall did not show up on time.  After a little detective work at the store, found it had not actually been ordered until the day before.  Lots of scrambling around and hopefully it will arrive today.
This is the last big push on the renovation and my dear husband will be so happy to get finished.  We have a little bit of painting to finish but everything else is done!!!  Wow, he has done an amazing job.

My two new irises have flowered and are so beautiful.  May not get a flower of the 3rd one this season so will have to wait for that.

Phew!! That's the end of this catch up.  Thank you for dropping by.

Blessings to you all,

Clare

A beach, a hill and an almost finished quilt top....

Hello everyone, finally made it back to say hi and what's happening in my world.  Life has been rather hectic, and of course I managed to get sick again.  All better now and getting back on track.

Anzac Weekend saw my friend Donna and I troop off to Pongaroa to have lunch with my sister.  We used to visit this tiny village with our parents who had close friends living there for some years.  Sounds terrible to say that we have not been back for about 50 years!!!  After lunch we drove on out to Akitio Beach where we used to often go while there...the crayfishing was legendary.  How easy it is to forget the little dirt roads and how long it takes to drive the hilly winding 30kms to the beach.  All worth it in the end and we went back home the alternate easier route.  The trips is around an hour and a half one way from home.

I did manage to get my sisters very large quilt finished before I left and was able to give it to her on the day.  Glad I dont have to sew all that binding down Joyce!!

The pattern was the freehand flower that I practiced on the Vanuatu quilt and it looked really lovely on this one too.  I used a Magnifico Thread in a lovely olive green that just looked stunning on these colours.  Number is 2180 and it sewed like a dream with bottom line in the bobbin.
The alterations have been moving along nicely, and while I was tripping around, the boys got stuck in and put in some walls and the new kitchen window. I spent the day at friend Catherine's giving her some help on quilting her lovely Round Robin quilt.  Cant wait to see the finished article.

It looks even better than this now too.  And look what I got for Mother's Day...just what every mother desires... a handle on the toilet door...lol.  Coming up in the world here in Waipukurau.

We are in the throes of ordering the kitchen, so that is my next most exciting thing happening in the building world.

In the stitching world, I have finally got this scrappy top together for my grandson's birthday quilt.  Now to get the frame on and find a nice border fabric.  I'm hoping that there is a chance I will find something nice in my stash, but not counting on it.  I'm really happy with the result so far.

On Sunday after a lovely lunch with Kerry, we drove up to the top of Pukeora Hill just outside out town and sat on this lovely new seat with a view.  Can see about 190 degrees from up here and it was a spectacular day.  Love this part of the world.

And finally, one for the birds.  This Cotoneaster tree at my sister in law's is a feast for the birds at this time of the year.

There you go my friends.  The update in a short version.  We will be off to Wellington in three weeks to help Richard & Kea move into their first home!  Wow, such a special time for this little family.  Marcy is growing at a great rate and is such a beautiful baby...of course!  The twin great grandsons are now at home with Mum and doing well.  Jayden the smallest is still on low flow oxygen, but both are putting on weight and seem to be thriving.

Take care and will try to come back sooner.

Blessings
Clare