Wow…it seems like it’s been forever since I’ve posted..I was going to do a post while I was on the Gold Coast but for 3 of the 5 days we were there, my mobile broadband was playing up and on the other days I was measuring eye drops and medicines and visiting family and bloggy friends (Hi
Joy and
Marilyn!!!) Time goes soooo fast when you’re with special people!
Thank you sooo much to those who have been sending good wishes and prayers for DS’s eye operation….it was much easier than either of us expected…the explanation we were given of the cornea being scraped back, whilst still awake but locally anaesthetised, scared us more than you can imagine….I was like the pacing father outside of the birthing suite…except I was the pacing mother outside of the surgery! I must have asked a dozen times if DS had asked for me….I think they took pity on me and let me sit in and watch…..DS was soooo calm, I couldn’t believe it! It wasn’t until we arrived at my brother’s house at the Gold Coast that the local anaesthetic wore off….that was one rough night!
A few days of a closed and weepy eye then we were back for review. But there was a bit of spoiling in between, with a favourite lunch on the agenda…..
…the biggest kebab you have ever seen!!!!…..but even that wasn’t enjoyed totally as the sunlight caused all sorts of havoc! All went well though, apparently…now just a blurry eye for up to two months when we return to Brisbane for another check-up. So I made sure I had plenty to go on with whilst I was there…..
stitching the February block for our SIF finishers…..
…finishing the stitcheries for month 2 of
Fee’s framed hexagon Club 
…and catching up on block 10 of the
Long Time Ago in Bethlehem stitch-a-long in Homespun…… before I allowed myself to be led astray by these two rascally blogging buddies…..
We must have looked like middle-aged techno-heads with our texting and sending photos left, right and centre….after all, we didn’t want our bloggy friend
Teresa, to miss out. She would have been there too but she had eye surgery on the same day, at the same surgery, by the same doctor as DS…we had such a laugh when we found that out! After a yummy morning tea and a looooooong catch-up, Joy had arranged for us to visit
her ‘work’ (I could handle HER ‘work' !!!) where I indulged in a heavy dose of ‘retail therapy’ with very little prompting *hee hee* from Joy and her merry band of work buddies!!!…..put it this way….being asked …..would you like fries with that??….tells me I’ve probably got more than enough!!! Just had to have these….they were on sale….50% off!!!
and these gorgeous chubby birds will make a lovely block holder…maybe???
some beautiful RED teacup fabric that knew me by name *heehee* and some essentials that Joy said I reeeeeally needed!!!
But I do like the quick-unpick you can see at the bottom of the photo in the plastic casing…..if you look closely, you can see it has a grey ‘rubber’ on top that you literally wipe across your stitches once you’ve unpicked them and it cleans them away!!! And these cute little USB sticks….I can put all my crafty downloads on these and clear up my hard drive!!!!! Yay!!!!
My credit card was feeling all bruised and battered…it hadn’t seen this much action since…….well, since……last week???……and Joy took us to visit the lovely Nikki Tervo. Nikki has lots of fabrics as well as her beautiful handcrafted buttons she makes….my first thought was…where do I begin?? I started amongst the Tilda fabrics which you can see
here but then my heart skipped a beat when I found all the Robyn Pandolph fabrics….this one just jumped into my arms, for no particular reason…
…along with these gorgeous fat quarters and lacy goodness…..
and I don’t know how, but these patterns found their way home too… Nikki was so kind…she gave both Marilyn and I a copy of her Girly Gear Bag pattern
and I just couldn’t resist signing up for Nikki’s simply gorgeous
Plate Quilt stitchery BOM (do you see a pattern happening here??) But I figure I couldn’t walk past $10 a month!!!
Before we knew it, it was 5pm and time to go….the chef at the Cleveland Lighthouse restaurant very kindly took this photo of us…I daresay he wasn’t a photography buff as it’s not an Elvis hairstyle I’m sporting…our newfound chef-y friend didn’t think a very windy day would make a difference to the photo!!!!
I went home with a whole lotta bloggy love and these gorgeous gifts Joy and Marilyn made for me….. Joy’s hanging teatowel….mmmmm, coffee…I love these..so practical and I never seem to have enough, along with a takeaway mug hug and a special Joypatch pen
and Marilyn made me this wonderful project pouch. You can see the plastic zippered side, so you can see what’s in it….
and then the front says…..
well, 89, but who’s counting!!?? (do you think Marilyn knows me all too well???? ) Sugary hugs xox :O)
That’s Glenda standing helping one of our members with her stitching….such a lovely lady, and such talent. Here is some of Glenda’s other work…….gor-geeeee-ous don’t you think???? 
Here is our planned project, a modern version of a Deerfield embroidered needle roll that Glenda brought along to show us…. 
and here is the progress I made over the two days she was here….. 
A little bit of modern influence with the addition of a mustard yellow accent thread…….not the best photos, I know….very dark and creased but I was so excited to share it with you, I couldn’t stop to iron it!!!! …and a little bit left, I know! Don’t know how many times I was told to stop checking my Facebook page…..I may have finished it if I’d listened to the ladies!!!! hee hee I learnt some excellent tricks and new stitches I’d use again, and some I wouldn’t touch with a crowbar but what is it they say?….if you learn one thing at a workshop, it is money well spent. I think I must have came home with quite a few new learnt things and every cent was spent extremely wisely (in my opinion!!!) ….I’m excited to finish it and have the needle roll made and ready to take to Adelaide with me…..*eek*…next week??!!! So, have you tried something new this week??? I’d love to hear about it! Sugary hugs :O) xox 
