Moving on to good things - Shopping...............

Thanks to everyone for your comments on the dust post..............I am breaking "my rules" and just won't get to reply to the comments.............the dust was amazing everywehere...........everything outside has a film of red dirt on it.............everything inside and out has a gritty feel...........I feel overwhelmed with the cleaning and don't even know where to start.............and the whole lot has to wait til Sunday to even start cleaning...............there is so much on at the moment............but it has to be done by next Friday as the visitors arrive then.............

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But to cheer me up the mail arrived today and I have a couple of new books and some fabric.....

I ordered the books from Foothills Fabric and Threads...........you will have to get you own copy of both books cause I am only sharing the cover but they are both beautiful.............

Gail Pan's new book Baskets in Bloom...............Gail has just flown off to Norway for a few weeks tutoring with Leanne Beasley.........can't wait to see the pics from there trip..........I know the Norwegian girls will look after them well...........

Also ordered Rosie's new book A Stitch in Time - Rosalie Quinlan..............if you saw this post you know I got the blame from someone else when after chatting to me they "HAD" to order this book too............."ha ha got you - mine arrived first"...........lol...........excellent job Rosie and Gail your books are gorgeous...........

After all the shopping chatter I also rang Amitie to order this fabric below............it was on special........good news

the bad news is I was chatting to the Jeni and Louise while still looking at the website and these fabrics also made there way to my place...........it is so soft and pretty.........called "Darla by Tanya Whelan"...........don't remember seeing the range when it came out......the yellows are a bit more lemony then this pic.........

thanks for all the detailed comments on the last post............it is really interesting reading them and I have gone back and read them all again........

seems there is famine or feast............and we all love the online shops too..........be they the big ones or the small ones...........but there is nothing quite like spending a few hours in your favourite patchwork shops fondling the fabrics and planning projects............chatting to the owners etc..........

Also some of you are very good and only get what you need as you need it and some feel like they have shops in there sewing rooms..........lol............ go with what works for you.......

Take Care til next time..............

Chookyblue

PS now if only I could find some time to sew and put these goodies into use............

Dust.......

OMG I am sure lots on the east coast of Australia will be suffering from this dust this morning..............we didn't have the dust until sometime during the night...........the lightning was amazing when I was driving home from work............but no rain...........this morning this is what greats us..............

it is worse then the pics........not sure if it is cloudy or sunny cause I can't tell.............and the wind has picked up again....................I feel sorry for the people who have lost all this dirt...............

just went back out and got some more pics.............can see the dust a bit more now..........

and also found the sun..............well it just looks like a dot...........there is dirt on everything and no rain forecast for weeks to clear it all off............

all I can say is think goodness I have been too busy with all the other work here to start cleaning up the house for our visitors we will have very soon.........this is the time you wished you didn't have verendahs............OMG have I got some cleaning to do- inside and out.............my old house doesn't seal the dust too well

Take Care til next time..............

Chookyblue

Shopping - what do you do????

Most of you think I did pretty well on the shopping front  at S&C...........I make the most of an opportunity............most of the fabrics I have never got to see for real before............so it was great to be able to see and buy................

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where I live you can really only get DMC threads which is great but you need to have a bit of a supply of everything else............the only shops I get to are about 1.5 hours away and ok but not brilliant...........none of my favourite shops.............I may get there 4-6 times a year...............

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I have some bloggy friends who I know every week or 2 get to go to a lovely quilting shop/s...........or meet up on a Saturday and have coffee and do some fabric shopping.......(so jealous)......but the reality is I would never get to do this........not unless I have a serious life change........and that isn't happening.............

what I want to know is what do you get to do...............
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How far is it to your nearest quilting shop????
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Do you have several close by to choose from????
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How often do you get there????
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Do you just go when you "need" something or do you call in whenever it takes your fancy??
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Do you shop like I do and stock up when you get a chance???

take care til next time............Chookyblue...........

Sunrise and sunset........

While doing sheep work on the weekend I managed to snap some pics at sunrise and sunset............Sunday was very hazy day.............the moon was still up on Sunday morning...........

I was playing thru the trees............

down the power lines...........still sunrise............

now onto sunset - no clouds but the hazy caused such wonderful colours.............even better in real life..........

again thru the oleander and chinese elm..........

this plumbago has started to flower...........

one more sunset...........the sun looked heaps bigger................

beautiful spring days now.............I think winter is gone...............we will get some more cooler weather but nothing like last week............

Take Care til next time..............
Chookyblue

excited mumma........

I am so excited............"book worm" can draft sheep...........and if you don't know what that is you can look at this post here................as for me it is off to bed we have lots more work tomorrow in the sheep yards and I could barely climb over the fences by the time I left the yards at dark.............

.........take care til next time.....Chookyblue.........

cattle work............

I always enjoy working with cattle..........much more enjoyable then sheep - they are so dumb at times..........anyway back to the cows............today amongst other things we have weaned some calves from there mothers so lets hope we have a good westerly wind tonight and I won't hear them bellowing too much........and we will see how many naughty mumma's there are tomorrow morning that have jumped a fence to try to get back to there babies..........the calves will be in the yards for a few days and I will see if I manage to get there with my camera...........not going anywhere this weekend but have a few possible jobs on here.........

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oh and I didn't get around to it in my last post but I want to say thanks for all the helpful comments on the photos of my Champagne and Chocolates quilt...........from your suggestions I have already ordered the one of the quilt rolled up and will check my list over the weekend to see which other one was a winner...........much appreciated for your assistance so i thought I would send a mixture of current cards to someone.........much prefer having a giveway for my regular commenters...........so I got the random number generator organised aka Mr Chookyblue and told him to pick some numbers between 1 and 65 with those included and he picked Peg Happy in Quilting and also Ruth B............if you could send me your addresses girls that would be fab...........and I will pop some in the mail...........

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found some new blogs for you to check out also............Cubby House Crafts (new in August) and Time to Stitch (new to me) and I found this blog and she is brand new this week Country Wishes go check out their blogs and leave them a welcoming comment

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absolutely NO stitching happening here bar attaching a few quilt labels this week............maybe this weekend.........

.........take care til next time.....Chookyblue.........

09-09-09...........

Nothing to say....nothing to show need to take some pics.....but it is 09-09-09 and I had to do a post..........

hope you all have a nice day............

.........take care til next time.....Chookyblue.........

Champagne.............

Remember I made this quilt at Nundle.............the post is here with all the details...........Miss B did a fantastic job on the quilting and also I used her binding fairy as I was pressed for time to get the binding sewn on and stitched down in time for my brothers birthday..............thanks so much...........it was wonderful to pull it out of the package completely finished............

if I can get Fairy Girl out of the road I may get some pics............she is a hoot when she gets hold of the camera............never quite know what your going to get...........sometimes I can't even work out what i am looking at she takes such odd interesting things...........(oh and Julie we had a self portrait session yesterday and it was so funny...........sorry i won't be sharing any here...........lol)

(a)

my favourite place on the farm is down the (very rarely running) creek

(b)

the trees are amazing down there.............

(c)

one of these will become a card.............

(d)

which one is your favourite.............I have (a-f) underneath them...........

(e)

and I really liked this one rolled up...............

(f)

I can't decide which one is my favourite..........let me know what you think........

hope you had a great weekend..............I did.............

Take Care til next time...............

Chookyblue

prezzies & gardening.........

Well I have had a productive day...........got heaps of plants potted up...............most will go to the school fete............hope they all brighten up well and look great for the fete in a few months...........supposed to be doing cattle work but the yards are too wet after the rain..............but I got this potting job out of the road.........now I just have to remember to water them...........not always my strong point..........

weeks ago I won a giveaway on Kate's blog..............I received a Patisserie jelly roll and this cool mini iron..........it is tiny....so cute..........I love patisserie but never got any and now I have a whole jelly roll i am so excited...........what to make????? thanks heaps Kate...........and Kate is my partner in the Advent Swap..........I have started to collect little prezzies.........have about 8 I think so far...........

and I have been too busy to show you this beautiful scarf I got in the mail just before I went to Sydney..........Maree started this in Nundle with me and I she had quite a bit done then she got home and pulled it all out.............never said ANYTHING about restarting it.............I wondered why she was so quite online but it was cause she was madly knitting away...............thanks so much Maree it was a beautiful surprise...........just the perfect colour and length...............

and yes I know I have to show you the goodies I got in Sydney but life happens.......sorry.........

Take Care til next time..............

Chookyblue

rain............

Last night we got some fantastic rain......1 inch/25 mls.....crop saving rain...............we have not had any rain for about 6 weeks so it is very welcome..............and it is about 3 months since our last good fall of rain...............late this afternoon I went out to try and snap some pics just in the last light of sunset..........it was dark by the time I came back in but I was watching the storm out in the west.............

not to clear but I didn't have my tripod with me...............

love the cloud formations.....

this was to the north...........it was dark..........I caught this flash of lightning............

this one is really doubles but I like it............

lightning around 3 sides.................it is thundering again now and will see if we get some more during the night............no mail man today...............to wet...........

Take Care til next time..............
Chookyblue

special giveaway..........

do you want a great header like this blog..........(one of my favourite bloggy friends)..............well she is giving away a service of creating a beautiful header for you...........check out this post............but be quick...........

.........take care til next time.....Chookyblue.........

including links in posts.........

This post is for limpingalong..............her comment asked - how do I include a link in a word..................very simple..........just above this box there is a green ball (world) with a oval link on top of it..............highlight the word eg limpingalong and click on the green link button

a box pops up.............in this box beside url write http://jesswe2.blogspot.com/ often I have the page open I want to link in another screen and copy the address bar and paste into this box............make sure you don't end up with double http's............let me know how you go.......

doesn't matter what word you want to put the link on it can be anything.........

.........take care til next time.....Chookyblue.........

Posting Help??????

no excitement here except for Dawnie..........I changed her blog life.............lol........you know I have a few "how to......blog bits" on my sidebar........they have been there for quite awhile now...........and every so often I get an comment or an email saying thanks for the help.............Dawnie had read these awhile ago but thought it was too much but due to her complete frustration with the slowness to upload pics she emailed for a bit more assistance regarding the "emailing pics to your posts" .............not quite sure where she was going wrong (well you try and describe html without using the word in an email) after a few emails we had a phone call and her blogging life has changed............

I am posting this cause it is just something I assumed everyone was on but when I write my posts my compose tab is the one highlighed (see below)..............and I have never used html except for a few extremely rare occassions...........but Dawnies was always in html.............you can read her post here............it's a wonder she ever posted.............

I am sure there are people who know lots more then me but I like to help where I can...........sometimes when I get an email it is something very very simple.............sometimes i can't help but thats life..........gotta have something to learn..........

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on the flip side...........emails.................

The other thing I get asked is how do i keep up with emails................well as I always reply to comments left on my blog (don't ask a question in a comment if your "no reply" ) the only way I can cope with it is by replying as soon as I open the email..............95% of the time I won't open emails if I can't reply...............if I do open them and don't reply and have a pile to reply to it takes me about 10 times more to get all the replies done................

anyway thats all the boring things I have to say for now.............

happy blogging.................

challenge for the day..............leave 10 comments on blogs you visit but never comment on..............have fun...........you might just make someones day..............

Take care Chookyblue.............