35 today!!!!

Well L turned 35 today! And this is what I got her!


Francis Francis birthday present!!

She has only been after one since like, forever!!!!

We have just gotten back from dinner with A. An over indulgence of a seafood platter at Caminetto, and I now have the hiccups (5th time today) and I am well and truly OVER IT!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

I finished the fish!

Tapestry Trout From UK

This morning I finished the tapestry trout that I had purchased in kit form from Wye Needlecraft in Bakewell, England earlier this year! It was quite a relief, I don't like to put a project away until it is finished, otherwise I fear from past experience it may never get done. As it has been quite hot and today also humid, it was getting a little uncomfortable to be working with wool. I have some ideas about how it will be finished off, but that can wait until the autumn.

I hope to finish another project tomorrow; a 12 Days of Christmas wall hanging I started last year but didn't get finished in time for Christmas. I had completed the applique and stitching of it but didn't get the backing done. I lost interest in it when Christmas day came round, however my interest in it has been renewed with loobylu's 'a month of softies' challenge which this month is themed Holiday Hang-ups.

not quite a partridge in a pear tree....

and a partridge in a pear treeeeeee, (well nearly!!)

Today, on the way to Meroo to visit Alistair's open garden, we had to do a double back flip when we saw it!!!

It was lovely, just standing there minding its own business when we drove by, we broke as if we were a 747 jet landing, screamed back, another 'u' turn all whilst getting the old digi cam out and started clicking away like Japanese tourist's!!! After a couple of minutes, (we think it got jack of it, or it wanted to start charging us a fee...) it hoped off the fence and started heading for the shade. WOW!

After another hour or so, we finally made it to Berry. This was just as well, as the famous Berry Markets were on (damn, I thought, all the money saved from L not being on eBay is BOUND to be spent here)!! And your right, "she did it again" (sounds a bit like a Kylie song doesn't it??!!??) After a couple of Noddy books, some Bromeliad's and with L buying a pair of Chenille SHORTS (see below), we left a lot poorer.


Shorts...

We then had some lunch and headed for Fair View, Meroo....


Meroo

It was such a lovely garden, and whilst L hates Canna's, she just had to have one. We are now going to plant out the kids playground in them after seeing Alistair's inspiration with his planting, especially as though they don't really need to much attention as our gardener here is TERRIBLE!!! (not me of course, the one that gets paid to mow weeds!

B

the week and weekend that was

Monday
... work
Tuesday
... work, although with a difference, had to attend a function (Green Globe Awards) at Parliament House in the evening so left work at lunch time and got a few other work related things done on the way there which included dropping off my presentation for Wednesday to the organisers at Five Dock, and visiting GROK and Oxfam to collect items for an educational display for Christmas.

I really love Grok and am planning a trip back to collect some things for Christmas presents. They sell a lot of things that you can get from Indigo Arts only they are in Australia. I particularly like the Recycled Plastic Bag Chickens and the Telephone Wire Baskets.


Plastic Bag Chicks

Wednesday
... spent the day in the City as I gave a presentation regarding the study tour to the Excellence in the Environment Awards

Thursday
... work

Friday
... flex spent at home catching up on uni work, then into the 'warehouse sale' once B got home from work, where we knocked over most of the Christmas shopping, and also bumped into the two sisters. Once the shopping was completed the 'next sister down', B and I went for dinner at the Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel.

Saturday
... B and I had our photos taken, viewed a couple of open homes, and more progress was made on the gingham rose quilt.

Sunday,
... spent gardening, studying, shopping and had a visit from B's mum.

meandering the moonlight market

is a great way to welcome in the weekend. It was decided that we needed to get out and 'do something' so Friday I caught the train to the city and met up with B after work. The weather was a bit threatening but we weren't going to let that put us off. We were off to The Rocks Moonlight Market. We had a lovely time mixing with the masses, perusing the stalls, and listening to the live band.

We had dinner at Caminetto Italian Restaurant and also managed a couple of shops which were in the building adjacent The Rocks Market and included Rockit (a store that sells fantastic vintage clothing and other stuff). We first visited Rockit when it was situated in Katoomba, and were not sure where it had gone once it closed up there, so it was really great to find it this evening.

Saturday, B went to uni and I went to patchworking, where progress was made on the gingham rose quilt all be it a bit slow.

Sunday, was lunch at Nan's for Christine's and my birthday. It wasn't really either of our birthday's but it had been decided to hold them both at this time due to us having our birthday's so close to Christmas.

dinner with friends

last night we had dinner with A&B in Parramatta at Punjab House. It is always good catching up with friends and last night was no exception.

We had great food,
......the banquet was ordered, which is a real feast consisting of an entree and all you can eat curries; so B was happy he got his butter chicken, I got my lamb sagwaal (lamb and spinach) and by general consensus we also ended up with Rogan Josh, naan, naan and more pappadums.

wine,
......A&B brought really nice wine, which I feel terrible about as we forgot to thank them for it. I am making a mental note to remember to bring the wine next time.

and conversation.
......there was much to discuss, including A & B's recent trip to fiji, and my favourite catching up with the goings on of B's (not my B's) family (are you following this?). B has a really interesting family, so much is always going on.

Well, we ate, drank and conversed till 3 of us (those with the regular hours) started to get the yawns, B (not my B) being the only one not yawning.

rhubarb, rhubarb

rhubarb

our rhubarb has been growing out of control, so having just harvested a huge handfull we shall be having rhubarb for dessert. Yummo!

It was a glorious day today, somewhat wasted on me though as I spent today getting familiar with statistics.

gingham rose quilt

it was an early start this morning, accompanying B into work to help him with his uni practical research, before going to the Willoughby Arts Centre Fair where we managed to catch up (only very briefly) with mum and dad. Followed by a trip out to Patch in Penrith where I commenced the gingham rose quilt that I purchased in kit form from Ballarat Patchwork. This was my first quilting class and the other women seem like they always have a lot of fun. I am going to enjoy going although it is going to be interesting balancing my uni studies with this extra activity.


gingham rose quilt fabric

In todays class, I learnt what a 1/4 inch foot is, amongst other things, and cut out the 120 x 5inch squares for the quilt top and even managed to get a few of them sewn together (I had to run up the road during class to purchase the 1/4 inch foot for my machine to commence this task).

when all is examined and done

....you go shopping and spend lots of money.

B made sure I did my exam, well at least got to my exam safely, and on time. He also hung about till I was finished. Very supportive of him. I am not that confident with my performance, but have been reassured by the feedback from the online discussion board for this subject that I am not alone in thinking the multiple choice was definitely harder, there was some interesting use of double and triple negatives, and what does ceteris paribus mean anyway? (Answer: other things the same). This latin phrase was used about 3 times, which was really annoying because I don't recall it, other than the plain english, being used ever before in the course.

Anyway, with the exam out of the way we had half a day to relieve the stress, so visted mum and had coffee with her at Northbridge Plaza, after a quick look in a few of the shops, then after dropping her back at home headed for Westfield's Parramatta where we did some serious damage, well more so I did some serious damage to the credit card, although B is implicated as after all he carried the bags. Results for the day - new shoes, a couple of new outfits, a Martha Stewart magazine, and products purchased as a result of the facial I also managed to fit in.

Now its back to work, and the start of semester 3 'Decision Support Tools'. What fun.

Like a lamb off to the slaughter house

My economics exam is tomorrow morning and the last minute review is causing me a great deal of angst. Yesterday I played the recorded teletutorials, looking for some added hints on what to expect from the exam. The number of graphs, calculations and concepts the lecturer suggested needed memorising has really depressing. 10 pages of study notes have been made today alone, the only trouble is with the exam approximately 17 hours away and 7 of that sleeping time, there isn't going to be much time left to review said study notes.

I kind of wish I had listened to the teletutorials a bit sooner so that I could have targetted my study before yesterday. A little less time visting my favourite Blogs and discovering new ones might also have helped. When this exam is over I plan to update the favourite Blog links, I also have an idea or two for our webpages. Stay tuned, and

Wish me luck!