GIFTS, BOOKS AND BEES

It is all a buzz here with the early arrival of tourists , the Christmas chaos and some bees. We found a beehive in one of our compost bins the other day and we were quite pleased that they settled here for a while. However, we became slightly alarmed when we discovered another hive on our lemon tree with bees preparing to swarm.

Yesterday morning they swarmed so I couldn't walk on our path to the clothesline. By the afternoon they had gone without any evidence that they had been. It is good to know that we have local bees but I am a bit worried they won't survive the heatwave.

A few weeks ago I had lunch with my little home sewing group and one of the girls is very creative. She gave us each a fabric flower.

I received a beautiful Christmas deco in the mail from dear Shez. She even found me an owl Christmas card!

My recent finished book is non fiction written by an actress who escaped a cult. I enjoyed listening to her on a podcast and just had to read her book when it was later released. I have a few books about cults as I am intrigued by how many people succumb and why they do.

Keep cool and hydrated in the heat .

Angel Blessings.

BLOG CATCHUP

I am sincerely hoping that I can now rest a bit and catch up on everyone's blogs. The last 4 weeks I have visited 6 different hospitals and I certainly hope everything can calm down now. My father was rushed to our local hospital by ambulance  in the e arly hours Monday morning and transferred to a hospital which was an hour away from us. After waiting 6 hours in the emergency corridor despite not being able to control a severe bleed he was finally attended to. That afternoon I was back in our local hospital again with my daughter. To cut a long story short, dad had a heart procedure on Friday and just came home today and my daughter was fine. 

Sue, a bloggy friend sent me this beautiful bag a few weeks ago and it has been to every hospital and every shop with me since. 

I haven't been able to make any Christmas gifts this year nor have I had much time or energy to focus on sewing but I did start making some hexie Christmas coasters about a week ago. I didn't get very far.

I think it is time to put up all the Christmas decos now. Wish me luck.

I hope your Christmas lead up is a happy and healthy one.

Angel Blessings.

SUMMER?

Is it really summer? I suppose I should be glad to have cooler rainy weather while fires are still burning across the country. Not much fun stuff has been happening here but I did finish my table topper. It wasn't until I put it on the table with a vase of flowers that I realised I stitched each hexie facing in instead of out. I am not going to remedy the problem, it can just stay that way.

I also made a little hexi coaster as a small quick birthday gift for a friend which fits inside the card. She loves chooks. Especially funky ones.

I had so many stitching plans which have not yet been started. Lately I have been visiting  so many hospitals and I hope everything settles down now. My eldest daughter is healing and my youngest daughter is flying home from Japan today so I can begin to relax....maybe. 

I hope you are all well and enjoying stitching.

Angel Blessings.

SO BLESSED

Today I feel so blessed. So blessed that my beautiful eldest daughter, mother of my 2 grandsons 2 1/2 and 12 weeks old is safely back home. You see, after having successful gallbladder surgery followed by a day surgery to remove a stone they couldn't reach with the previous surgery she returned home but a few days later, early Sunday morning she collapsed and was bleeding. Yesterday she came home after 2 days in ICU and one day on a ward. After 4 units of blood , another surgery followed by a gastroscopy we are so relieved that she is well on the mend now. She is an amazing gal. Today she was resting at home and feeding my little baby grandson. Yes, actually breastfeeding him. 
Thankyou to a special bloggy friend who prayed for us and to another special friend who sent me a care package before the last awful turn if events. Our healing angels have been working overtime.

So, as you can imagine, not much creativity has been happening here. This is as far as I have got with my table topper.

I found these in a drawer which I had stitched ages ago for Christmas gifts. To be honest I have no idea which Christmas they were for .

It has taken me about 3 weeks to finish this book. I just wasn't in the right headspace for reading much.

So many things went awry during this time. I had to have a couple of procedures the morning after my daughter's rush to hospital. Even her poor hubby had to have a tooth extracted. I guess the planets weren't aligning or some such thing. One has to try to keep their sense of humour but this latest episode really tested me. I hope your week has been a blessed one. 

Angel hugs.

WHAT A WEEK!

Not much crafty stuff has been happening here over the last 3 weeks due to a horrible dose of conjunctivitis that kept coming back but I was able to manage some crochet. In my last post I had made a couple of squares from a new CAL using some of my stash and I have since made some more. The interesting ( or annoying) thing is that despite using the same yarn and same hook some squares turned out larger than the others.

I am told that blocking will solve the problem and only time will tell.

Meanwhile this coming week is topsy turvy with my daughter just discharged from hospital today and going back tomorrow. So, grandma is on call. 

Angel Blessings.

FEELING BLAHHH

Housebound! I am used to staying home several days of the week but a week has gone by , I was on the mend, but now I am back to square one. My munchkin had conjunctivitis, gave it to his mum and then his baby brother got it. Guess who else caught it..yep , it seems that grandmas are not immune. I had it in my right eye and finally got rid of it after about 8 days but now I have it in my left eye. It is sooooo contagious and apparently one can keep reinfecting themself! To top it off I stubbed my toes this morning and have a black toe now. With blurry weeping eyes , a very bad throat and nasty ear ache I haven't been able to sew much but I thought I would try some enticing crochet. 

Black Sheep Wools put this Nature's Walk CAL on their website and I got excited. I know I haven't got back to another crochet project I started a while ago but it is a bit complicated for me to concentrate on. So, with left over yarns from my previous crochet blankets I have made 3 blocks of Nature's Walk. I need to redo the green one but I think the others are okay once they have been , what the crochet world call, ' blocked'.

I send many angel healing hugs to a couple of blog friends who are having a hard time at the moment . 

Angel Blessings

SLOW PROGRESS

Any progress is good progress, right? My little quilt has been sandwiched and half hand quilted. The centre measures 8" x 8" and with the border it is "10 x "10".

The quirky cat table topper is coming along. 2 hexies finished, 5 to go.

I was recently reminded about a couple of projects I had put aside so maybe they shall make an appearance in the near future.

I hope you are all keeping well and stitching.

Angel Blessings.