Torn two ways...

Hard choice here - do I tell you about the chance to win this lovely necklace on Sue's blog, or do I keep quiet and greaten my chances of winning???? mmmm, yes I think you are totally right!

Wicked? No - not really.........

It has been interesting to read on other blogs that some of you experienced a bad day last week too - was it something that was spread over the internet?? I couldn't talk about my 'stuff up' for a couple of days....but now I can laugh about it!

It all began when husband woke up thinking that he had wet the bed - instead we had a major leak in our water bed. All was sorted out temporarily & we were back asleep when one of our cats (Sam) started making a terrible sound. Our neighbours cat had come through the catdoor and was an intruder in our house. He delighted in weeing down our hallway, what a delightful aroma, that is. Sam was our defender and the catfight took place in our laundry. Water & feed bowls tipped over, cat fur everywhere and wee - yuck.

The next day was the day for cleaning the above, ordering a new mattress, finalising our holiday for next year and an unexpected call from our accountant needing some figures 'straight away'! Surprise, surprise I had thought that this day would be my play day, but it wasn't to be.

We are off to Sydney soon for a mini family holiday soon, and I thought I would surprise the family with tickets to "Wicked" - all was good - except I bought the tickets for the wrong day - we won't even be in Sydney then.

I don't think I should have been on the internet that day....so if anyone would like 2 adult & 2 concession tickets to see Wicked in Sydney on Thursday 12th November, please contact me....I will happily sell them to you at a considerably cheaper price! Or if you know anyone who might be interested.................. please????

A red, black and white theme here - the hat is ready to be posted to my giveaway winner - hope you like it Shirley? And the necklace was one that wanted to be made to go with a new jacket that I have!

I hope you are all having a better week, this week!

Giveaway winner

Congratulations to Shirley, (not you Auntie Shirley!)you are the winner of my blog giveaway.
Thank you to all who entered.
I've emailed you privately as well so that you can tell me which prize you would like.

A short post, I know but hopefully I will be back at the end of the day for more of a chat.

Class Reunion

I haven't been posting as much lately as I have been organising a Class Reunion for this coming Saturday. It is the first time that my Year 11 class have been reunited and that is 31 years ago! These are some of the tags that I have made for it, I decided there was no need to include names as we would remember the 'old faces' not necessarily the 'newer, wrinkly, aged' ones. Kirsty drew the uniforms for me, I'm sure it only took her a couple of minutes to do them whereas it would have taken me a good hour or two, and several attempts.

Here we all are, way back then.

I have bought some small plastic trophies to be presented on the night...and this is where you, my blogging friends can help me. I am trying to think of some fun categories for the trophies and we will vote on the night for the winners. Things like "Best Preserved Student", "Hair do or Hair gone" - can you think of any????

It has been an 'interesting' 4+ months of planning.

I probably won't be posting again until after the weekend

so I will draw the winner of the 200th post giveaway then,

so there is still time to leave a comment for your chance to win a gift.

200th Post

To celebrate my 200th post, I have baked some Bougatsa - so why don't you pop over to share a couple with me? Can't make it in time? Then here is the recipe for you to make some yourself.

I used to have a Bougatsa most Saturday mornings when I lived in Perth - husband always chose something rich and creamy, while I preferred something custardy, cinnamony and citrusy. The problem was when I moved from Perth I couldn't remember the name "bougatsa" and I have just this week spotted a photo of some, in an old recipe book. They are just as good as I remember them.

Bougatsa

500g ricotta cheese (low fat) well drained
2tb cream cheese

2 tb plain flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Grated rind of 1 lemon

1/2 cup caster sugar

Filo pastry

butter

Preheat oven to 190C. In a bowl or blender, combine all the ingredients except the filo and butter. Melt the butter and brush melted butter onto a sheet of filo. Top with another sheet and brush with butter as well (you need 2 sheets per parcel). Fill each one with the cheese mixture and fold the pastry into a parcel. Make sure the top of the parcel has some melted butter on it and then sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake the pastry parcel for 10 mins, then lower the heat to 160C and bake for another 5 minutes until the pastry is a golden colour.

Serve warm but still nice to eat cold.

Giveaway Time: Leave a comment for me, and you will be in the running to win either a crocheted hat or the necklace (below) that I had shown on the blog a couple of posts ago - your choice. The hat can be made in the colours of your choice and the 'rosette' is attached with a brooch fitting so that you can take it off and wear it on your clothing or attach to your bag/purse. The middle hat has been made for a child, so the rosette on that one has been tied on (for safety purposes).

The blog has had a bit of a makeover as well, still need to do a bit of tweaking and add some botox here and there, but she is looking a bit younger!

Charming Day

Charming no. 1 = These charms were finished over the weekend - they are to be attached to coathangers as a gift (from the mother of the bride to the wedding party). The back of the charm has a piece of printed fabric whilst the front is a bunch of tulips and their initial.

Marion has made the coathangers so once we have tied the charms to the

coathangers I'll show you the finished product.
Originally it was to be ribbon embroidered tulips but

I'm sure a young wedding party would like the charms better.Charming no. 2 = I received these goodies from Kylie as part of her Pay it Forward pledge. They are so well made and very cute! Thank you Kylie.Charming no. 3 = I participated in my first ATC swap with the theme "Twisted". It was interesting to see all the techniques used and the different 'takes'. My ATC is the one with the "mad monkey scientist" who has been so twisted that his body has been split in two - he's holding some paper dolls that he has cut out! I have a spare ATC (maybe 2?)so if anyone would like to swap one with me, just let me know. (Sorry I don't know why you can't click on the photo for a better look - if you would like to see a more detailed photo I will do it in another post)Charming no. 4 = Probably for farmers and those of us who were needing to wash our cars.....it is raining. I think it is probably the heaviest rain we have had this year - including thunder, lightening and hailstones.

Charming no. 5 = Melissa's giveaway. You have until this Wednesday to leave a comment about your favourite season and you will have a chance to win this bundle of lovely goodies.

Charming no. 6 = I'm very, very close to my 200th post

Not so Charming = I haven't got a giveaway organised yet to celebrate the 200th!

Blogging Friend's Birthday's

Happy Birthday today to two blogging friends - Melissa and Lisa. I only know Lisa through cyberspace but I have caught up with Melissa quite a few times over the years and yes I think she could enjoy her cake as much as this little girl.

You have to be in it to win it - but I don't mind if you don't go in the draw for this lovely piece of creativity........then I will have more chance of winning it. I know a few of the blogs on my sidebar have already entered the drawing. Missie Krissie has made this wonderful recycled jewellery tree from old cutlery - I think it would make a wonderful tealight candle holder as well. Wonder if I have time to whip one up before my dinner party tomorrow night????

Or maybe I should get on with the food preparation?.... Decisions, decisions!

Victory

The antibiotics have finally been victorious over the gremlins that infiltrated my body.

A virus developed into bronchitis and I was treated for whooping cough (although I don't know that I actually had it) as well. I will be very happy if I never cough again.

Thankyou for your kind messages, they were truly appreciated.I received my blog giveaway all the way from Finland

- Delila from Robin & the Sage made this beautiful necklace

..and enclosed this bundle of papers, it was a very generous gift.

I wonder if I will actually use any of the papers or just continue to look at them?

One minute later...

Marion arrived on our doorstep with 3 freshly baked cinnamon scrolls - light as a feather, still warm and oozing goodness. One minute later, there was only one left. Husband was lucky that our willpower was strong and we didn't eat it before he got home. Can you imagine how good they tasted??

This is the yarn that I had used in my 'yellow' strip of knitting from the previous post. I have 3 spare balls so if you would like one to play with, let me know. One ball already has Julie's name on it.I'm packing today - leaving very early tomorrow morning to fly to Sydney for the long weekend.

More about THAT next week.

And the winner is.....

B just got home from school so he has drawn the winner - and it is ERICA.

Congratulations!

Thanks to everyone else for having a bit of fun and entering.

Last chance

to enter our giveaway. The winner will be drawn mid afternoon tomorrow (Tuesday).
For the details, click here.

It's a Giveaway

As a reward to myself, for doing hours of bookwork last night - I granted myself a half day 'play day'. After all, this cheeky little girl kept chuckling at me, so I had to do something with her!

If you would like to have this little collage, please leave a comment or email me and I will draw a name in a week's time.

We are home

Yes we are back home, had a lovely time away - but have now hit the deck running. We have a school BBQ and presentation night so I've been making salads, pavlova rolls etc for that. Marion is also baking - she made 17 dozen fruit mince pies over the weekend and has just started some more plus other baking.
I'll be back tomorrow with a more decent post (I hope)

PS I feel a giveaway is not too far away - nearly at our 100th post!

And the winners are...........

The winners of the Giveaway were drawn under strict supervision! The men were at work for this - Sam (the cat) drew this one:Beth will receive the jar of mother of pearl buttons
Then our friend K drew the other winner - Kim if you could contact me again with your address please so that I can post your vintage ornie to you.

Thanks to everyone who left a comment or sent us an email, it was lovely to "meet you"!

I won! and now it's your turn

Yes, I did win the game of noughts and crosses but I wonder how much longer I can beat the boys! This is one of our favourite games in the house, made by Karen of Tumbleweed Stitches. The crosses are cinnamon sticks and the pumpkins are made from fabric. The boys always talk about "Mum's friend" making it! Here are the photos for the giveaway that I mentioned yesterday.

One of the giveaways is a small vintage Vacola bottling jar filled with vintage mother of pearl buttons in assorted sizes.

The other is a vintage styled ornie using a light reflector from USA. The picture is of a little girl holding her cat, with the words "Be True"
Remember to just leave a comment before Friday or email me, to have a chance to win one of these prizes.