Holidays & stitching...

Okay.... back in October we went to Cairns to stay with hubby's brother & his wife in their new house...

the house was gorgeous, very comfortable and luxurious... we had a lovely weekend with lots of bubbly and swimming in the pool... it was really hot......
the other highlight of the weekend was going fishing and staying overnight on the reef...... I caught a yellow fin tuna (no pics) first big fish offshore so I was excited, Cindy - skippers wife caught a red emperor.....

the ocean was very kind to us that day.... dead calm....beautiful......

We picked up Victoria and Karl (dd1 & fiance) at the airport on our way home and they stayed for a few days before going back to Mount Maunganui.....

Then a few weeks later we flew over to meet Karl's family and see his hometown.....

Mount Maunganui...... 

Here we are after a walk around the base of Mt Maunganui with Janet & Paul... Karl's mum & stepdad..... really lovely people...... 

We had hiked to the top of the Mount the day before.....

 a magnificent view of the town from the top.......

We had a bbq at Karl's dad & stepmums' house with his sister, her hubby & kids and his stepsister, that was a fun afternoon too..... didn't get any pics....

so with all my travels I have been able to get heaps of stitching done on my GJ........

and I am on my last four stitcheries.....

GJ progress.

Look what's been happening in my upstairs sewing room this week......

Yep thanks to those sal girls I've got my a*** into gear and been madly piecing my Gardeners Journal blocks and they are looking good!  

Heading to Cairns tomorrow for a few days so hopefully I will get some blocks finished next week.... 

What's in a Name!!

       What's in a name?? well for my blog title it was an obvious choice.... My Upstairs Sewing Room is where I spend most of my time sewing,
although I have been known to sew almost anywhere in the house, I have a floor lamp and my chair in the lounge so I can sew at night while DH & I watch tv together.... I sew at my dining table when I have stitching friends over for a sewing day...... I really love stitching outside in my garden when the weather is kind..... I don't leave the house without a little bag of hand sewing to sew in the car or to take with me when we go boating...... still trying to figure out how to sew & drive at the same time....lol.... oops getting carried away !!!
My sewing is upstairs which is great because it is out of sight so only very lucky people get to see the mess  way I have it laid out with my machine set up ready to go all the time, a huge cutting mat - great to work on.... a bookcase with all my P & Q magazines & books, embroidery books all nice & handy... nice big cupboard & drawers for storage; perfect in all ways.
It has been lovely reading about how peoples blog titles came about, thanks Dawn for asking the question..... now guess where I am taking a coffee for an hour or so.....

Guests arriving.

        Well I've been cleaning, tidying, vaccuming, dusting, all those lovely things you do when you are expecting visitors...... DD1 & fiance' arrive later today for one night.......

I have picked some fresh roses from my garden for their room .....

it looks so cosy I might just sleep there myself.....lol......

October already!!

It's hard to believe we are in October already, I feel like it should still be July August.... this is how my garden looked three weeks ago....

my Wisteria & weeping Cherry looking so lovely.....

Two weeks ago I went over to Queenstown NZ with Daniel (#1) & Kate(#3) to visit with Victoria (#2) and her fiance Karl, we were there for a week & Stephen (DH) came over just for 3 days, it was a very busy week visiting Arrowtown and Wanaka,  eating and drinking at Jack's Point golf course.... 

Amisfield winery, Winnies - great...no the best pizza place anywhere, the Botswana Butchery in a private dining room mind you.... a lunchtime cruise on the TSS Earnslaw ... original steamship.... over to Walter Peak High Country Farm for a bbq and sheepdog/shearing demo.... a fun afternoon..... and the Wakatipu grill restaurant at the Hilton hotel across the lake,   boys  went lungeing, Daniel & Karl did a bungi jump each ( very entertaining lol...).....

 the highlight of the trip was the engagement/30th/farewell party for Victoria & karl on the Friday night .....(Vic was 30 on Sept 15 & karl turns 30 in Nov).... which was held in a gorgeous little boutique hotel with us and lots of their friends....

Enough of my travels...... I have been doing lots of sewing mainly cross-stitch, finished the trees on my Birchpoint....

Victoria & Karl are coming for one night on Thursday then they are flying over to Bali for ten days to attend a girlfriends wedding, then we are going to Cairns the following Friday and coming home on the Monday and meeting Vic & Karl at the airport and all coming home together for them to stay a week with us then they will fly back to NZ and we will fly over to Mount Maunganui for another long weekend the Melbourne cup weekend in Nov to meet Vic's inlaws..... and I should get some good sewing time with all this travel.........so life is very busy at our house.......

A few finishes for August.

      Over these past few months I have been able to finish a few projects;
Summer Garden quilt which was a lovely machine pieced scrappy quilt unfortunately I gave it away without taking any photos, I'll see if I can borrow it back for some pics.
     This Welcome Friends wall hanging is finally ready to be hung but I can't decide where I want it to hang.....

Not the best photo, I will try and get a better one.....

here's another finish.....

My very old pink & green canvas work, been working on this one for way too long, great to have it finished.... it was going to be made into a cushion but I have decided it might be better in a frame.....

My next finish is a Shepherd's Bush design..... again it is an old one....

the Violets sampler.... this took me ages to work through with lots of unpicking and re-sewing but I loved making it.......

now I can get it and it's mate framed

And I have finished the first section of the "Phebe's cross-stitch... the one I started Jan 1st this year, it is looking gorgeous I am enjoying working on this one......

Now I better get myself outside to enjoy this absolutely beautiful weather we are getting at the moment....it is far too nice to be inside...... 

maybe I'll get a cuppa and my Gardener's Journal and sit in the sun and dream......

At last...

Hi Everyone, been away from my blog for too long, so now to show you some of what I have been up to...
At last my favourites have been framed ....

and this one as well......

They look so beautiful hanging on the wall, I'm really pleased with how they were framed......

I have some more finishes to show but they don't want to upload, so I will try again later....