Christmas in the Chook House..........

Wow so much to show you at the moment...........and that is without all the SSCS presents but they will just have to wait a few days..............

Christmas this year was a very quiet...........probably the quietest i have ever had............there are usually more family around so I wasn't quite sure how the day was going to go............the neighbours came for breakfast as is tradition  - which was lovely as usual...........it's always very relaxed..........

Fairy Girl did a beautiful tree with all our special ornaments......here it is full of presents..........some still under the tree for family to see yet.........

Some of the homemade presents...........rocky road and white chocolate chip and nut biscuits........

Fairy Girl made this chocolate house last week at a friends and it has been tucked away in the fridge since then other wise it would have melted...........She loved it.......these are some pics she took on her new camera...............she only took 170 pics yesterday.......probably 50 self portraits.............lol............

Christmas Day was a pretty warm day 38deg here...........then some storms come thru with lots of lightning....... lucky no fires near us this time but unfortunately no rain only a tiny sprinkle and then the power went off for 3.5 hours..........lucky most of tea was prepared and I have a gas stove so we managed.............

We had a backed leg of lamb and vegies.........

setting the table we pulled lots of candles out..........found these old jars in the cupboard and they were perfect for the candles............a nice breeze finally came thru so it was much more comfortable/cooler............

We ended up having a lovely day..............no lunch............Bookworm and i got to have a sleep in the afternoon.........the kids got to play with their presents............it was very relaxed and such an easy day and I didn't worry about the things that I hadn't done.......

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I opened all my swap presents later in the day and I just love them all..............more about them in separate posts..............

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Fairy Girl snapped this photo just after the power came back on........

And I have been busy today..............sorting out CD's 

can you believe this pile will fit onto this little Ipod Classic plus heaps more........i'm sure I will never be able to fill it.............I am so excited.............I keep carting CD's out to the chook shed, off in the car..........I am so excited I will be able to put all my songs on this and take them everywhere.............

Slowly I am getting photos and posts prepared..............

back again soon............

Catch you later..............

Chookyblue

KERST Swap..........

Back in September Katrien posted about a swap she was hosting........Dutch translations need to come in here as Kerstruil - Christmas Swap. I was the only Australian girl and the other participants are from Belgium, Netherlands, Norway. Most of the girls blogs I have to translate as they only write in their language.

You had to include a present from each letter of the word KERST.

Bit challenging and saw me going to google translate thinking of things to send/make and seeing what they translated too and if it was a letter for the word K E R S T.

 I was unsure who the parcel had come from as I didn't think i had a card and nothing identified the sender on the parcel. But late on Christmas eve I found a card while cleaning up and discovered it was from swap partner Katrien. It must have got seperated from the parcel when i pulled the presents out.

These are the goodies that Katrien sent to me.

K 

kerstsokjes - Christmas socks (stocking ornaments now hanging on the tree)

kaarsjes - candles

E 

engel - angel

R 

rood - red (thread)

rolmeter - tape measure (pink ribbon is actually a tape measure)

roze - pink (DMC thread)

S

speldenkussen - pincushion

schaar - scissors

(and scissor holder)

T 

tasjes - bag

a little zipper purse bag and a strawberry fold up carry bag

Wow what wonderful gifts I have received..............thanks so much Katrien.  It has been such a fun swap and i can't wait to go and see what the other girls have received in the swap too. 

Everyone is going to do a post on 26th Dec.

Catch you later..............

Chookyblue

Merry Christmas........

Hope you all have the most wonderful Christmas...........
God Jul
Gelukkig kerstfeest
Joyeux Noël
Frohe Weihnachten
Selamat Hari Natal
Buon Natale
¡Feliz Navidad
Crăciun fericit
Wesołych Świąt
เมอร์รี่คริสต์มาส
Sretan Božić
Gleðileg jól
Glædelig jul
hyvää joulua

Enjoy opening your Secret Santa Christmas Swap parcels............

Catch you later..............

Chookyblue

a friends quilt...........

Things are starting to slow down here finally which is wonderful........

.....what a difference a week makes........

bit of unwanted excitement the other day we had a fire at the neighbours............lucky the neighbours all got in with their little fire trailers and got it out very quickly......."Bookworm" went off and fought his first fire with Mr Chooky.......Mr Chooky said he did very well.......lightning struck a power pole and blew the top off.............power off for about 5hrs on a hot afternoon wasn't fun but with the storms around we did get a breeze off one which made it better.................my second call to 000 in a fortnight.........lets hope that is the end of it............but storms are predicted for the next few days..........unfortunately we only got 1ml of rain.............

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my friend who made this quilt called in for a nights stay.............she made all the centre and I added the next border and the eggy girl helped me get the pieced border around the edge............Betty worked her quilting magic and I had hoped to have the binding stitched down before my friend called in to pick it up but didn't quite get there...............but I have stitched down all the corners and one side and showed her how to do the binding so she should be fine getting the rest done...............she is so excited about the quilt............

it is so soft and pretty...........

my Friends in Stitching Christmas swap parcel arrived from Bec...........

I'll share pics of the gifts after Christmas..........thanks Bec.........I have opened some of the parcels as we got to open one each day leading up to Christmas.......

Catch you later..............

Chookyblue

Parcels...........

woohoo work is done for a few weeks......school holidays have started............

thanks for your comments on the last post.........we're all in the same boat...........

it just seems worse here this year then previous but we'll keep going for now.......

Here is my SSCS ornament..........it's from the lovely Carole in the USA..........

she included some other goodies.............

lovely patterns.......

all wrapped in a couple of fat 1/4's that she knows I love.............and a little diary with a pretty quilty cover............thanks so much Carole............

And here is the main present............sitting safely on the bench but maybe by tomorrow we may see a Christmas tree to put it under............Fairy Girl is bursting at the seems and I want it up too but I need to clean and tidy first............

And here is the pile of parcels from the KERSTruil (CHRISTmas) Swap Katrien is hosting.........

my partner is a mystery at this time...........thankyou if you are reading this...........

And a snap from the garden...............I am amazed at the crepe myrtles and agapanthus considering the SERIOUS LACK of rain.............

We have not had 2 inchs of rain in the last 4 months and with the heat everything is SOOOOOO dry........

Mr Chooky has to do some work on a water pump this morning so crossing fingers and toes all is fine for him to fix it as the next week is HOT HOT HOT.............the garden won't survive without water in these temps...........

It's nearly 30degC now.......and it's not 7am yet..........supposed to be 40C (104F)today and the rest of the week around 37/38deg (100F+) so Christmas Day is going to be a hot one this year.............

Ok better go........pump repairs, feeeding sheep and the onto the house cleaning..............
Catch you later..............

Chookyblue
PS hope you like the new header.............they were cut out but the kids got to put in bolts and belt patterns/slits into them with tools and add the Santa hats.....lots of fun.....
I love the new decorations.........kangaroo and gecko..........

Time.........where has it gone............

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The last month more so has been out of control in the Chook House.............complete chaos...........you know how you keep going  and then suddenly it all catches up...........well i've hit the point.............actually I probably hit it last week and it's taking a lot to get back into action.........

- who stole the last month or 2 from my calendar

- goodness knows when I did a proper grocery shop last

- I have posts to do and just can't get there

- I usually decorate the 1st weekend in Dec but still haven't it doesn't help I am having some repairs done in the lounge room and the lounge room is jammed into numerous rooms of the house

- people keep asking me what i am "doing" for Christmas and I really don't know yet - it's going to be very quiet

- I have visitors coming Friday night but between the washing I have done over the last month or 2 that hasn't been re-worn, ironed or packed away I can't see the beds.........

- I spent the day in the Chook Shed on Sunday and it was 38-39 degrees..........shame I didn't lose any weight sweating it out..........but I loved what I sewed

- I still have Christmas sewing to do and not sure when I will fit it in

- people in my house expect to eat............I have no idea what is in the house to eat

- I need to reply to some emails but when????

-  Mr Chooky keeps asking do we have all the presents...........who knows.........need to wrap some to work that out...........

- calling 000 really stresses you out when it's your child........lucky everything was ok..........

- can someone come and clean my house..........Mr Chooky said he would help on Thursday but seriously where do I start

- it just won't rain dam it..........

- people keep asking me to do things............saying no is difficult..........

- we have only had a couple of days under 30deg in the last month

- cold showers just aren't cold when it's hot

- I have a lot of blogs to comment on but when???

- when you live where I live how do you find someone to fix an ipod screen..........

- icloud confuses me does anyone know more about it???

- waking at 5-5.30am is over rated

- if you ignore things will they go away??? I am ignoring lots of things at the moment

BUT

- school holidays start Thursday til end Jan/early Feb

- I have a few weeks off work as of Thursday too - big YIPPEE

- I have nothing planned except one weekend away in the holidays - yippee...........

- I have managed to keep the lawns mowed, garden and lawn watered and it looks beautiful considering it won't rain...gotta love agapanthus and crepe myrtle

- I am getting used to the heat more.......

- I have received a couple of Christmas Swaps........another big YIPPEE

- the pool has been beautiful

- I said NO to a committee job after I had said maybe yes.........they are ok and found someone else to do the job....should do this more

- maybe it will rain soon.........please please please

- I can have "nanna naps" in the holidays

- I know worse things can happen but in my little world right now this is all I can cope with..........bring on the holidays and a big recharge..........

- if you comment it may take me a bit to get back to you.............

- off to bed..........

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

blog photo storage.......

Quite a few blogs have mentioned reaching photo storage limits............... All the photos you publish on your blog are stored in Picasa Web Albums This is what Picasa has to say about FREE storage limits........... (random old photo from 2007) Ways to clear the issue.........(my opinion here) ** pay money for more storage - NOT INTERESTED ** email pics to posts - i have done this for many years I started when my uploading was taking forever.........I always reduce photo size when emailing ** upgrade to google+ - NOT INTERESTED ** reduce your photo sizes before putting them onto your blog ** delete photos from your wed albums to free up space - NOT NOT NOT recommended as once you delete them they disappear from your blog altogether. I have about 7400 pics in Picasa and used under 50% of my free storage. When in Picasa click on the web albums in the top left corner........... once in web albums scroll to the bottom on the page and you will see your usage............. I hope this helps others............... i'll add it to the "How to......blog bits" tab at the top of my blog........ .........take care til next time.....Chookyblue.........

28c..........

42c 28c...........yep the temperature that I would prefer as my maximum daily temp.......
....NOT the minimum over night temp.......
......currently 42c here.........41c yesterday......
bloody awful day............windy too......sucks the life out of everything...........

I was swimming in the pool at 6.00AM this morning for an hour...........it was glorious...........
my poor garden is struggling............this is when I wished I had a tiny town garden...........
not a big country one........constantly chasing hoses at daylight and dusk.........

This was at lunch time...........Lucky I am shut in the lounge room at the moment in the cool.........
but the rest of the house is horrible..........
I nearly melted when i went out and took these pics for you.............

What little sewing that's happening is only secret sewing so nothing to show except my new needlecase which I haven't snapped a pic of yet...........
If you're in a cool spot enjoy it..........Suze and Jodie I'm feeling for you girls..........
We had a black snake in the chook yard this morning too and Mr Chooky wasn't here to get rid of it........the chooks will have to fend for themselves til he gets home...........
Catch you later..............

Chookyblue