Meet Frank! A Wedding and a Mini Holiday.

This is Frank!Noel and I had a lovely Anzac Day long weekend in Queensland. Frank, together with Leanne and Nigel, welcomed us into their home and spoilt us.

Leanne and Nigel were kind enough to offer their home for our accommodation. Just look at this beautiful breakfast. Did you notice the ice cream? I think it's the first time I've had ice cream for brekkie!

We went to Queensland for the wedding of Sarah and Jamie.

The wedding was by the water in Mooloolabah. It had been raining all week but Friday the weather was perfect. The reception was at The Ebb in Maroochydore and was very pleasant sipping champagne by the Maroochy River.

Saturday it rained all day. Noel and I went to Eumundi Market and spent about 3-4 hours just wandering around. It was nice not having anyone saying "I'm hungry", "I'm bored" and "can I have this"! In the afternoon we went up the hills to Montville where all the lovely crafty shops are. The rain was a lot heavier then but we didn't mind.

Noel found this special seat.

And this is an extra souvenir he picked up in Montville. He felt something crawling on his leg and this is what he found.

A leech!

Sunday was a beautiful day. We went on a canal cruise. We got to see how the other half live!
This was Steve Irwin's house. In the past year Terri, Bindi and Robert have only stayed there 8 days (and not all together). That's his boat "Croc One".A dolphin popped up next to the boat as we were heading back to the dock. The park in the background is where Sarah and Jamie's wedding was.

Sunday night, Leanne, Nigel, Noel and myself all went out to dinner and had a beautiful meal.

Noel had fish. I can't remember what fish.

Nigel and I had the beef. It was just sensational!

Leanne had the suckling pork belly with ginger. Although there must have been something in the sauce as look what happened to Leanne!

All the meals came out looking like they were from "Masterchef"!

This is a table runner I made for Leanne and Nigel.

And to finish off, here is a sneak peek of something I'm working on.

Austin and Nelson - Little Athletes!

Last night I took Austin and Nelson to the Diamond Creek Little Athletics Club presentation night. Liz Gardiner, the Olympic aerial skier was a special guest for the night. She came 12th in the world at the recent Vancouver Olympics.

Liz had done little athletics from the time she was six until 15. She was also a gymnast and when she was 19, she gave that up and got into aerial skiing.

Throughout the summer, she trains for hours in a wet suit and ski boots, climbing a hill, skiing down a plastic ramp and landing in a pool. Over this period she would climb the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest 3 times! Here's Liz presenting Austin and Nelson with their participation trophies.
Then to our surprise, Austin was announced as the Diamond Creek Boy Athlete of the Year 2009/2010! Austin earnt the most points of all the boys in the club. This is fantastic as it was his first year of Little Aths.

Congratulations Austin and Nelson on a great first year of Little Athletics.

GO CREEKERS!

50 Games!

Tonight Mitchell will be running onto the field to play his 50th official footy game for Yarrambat Junior Football Club. We've decided to have his banner at the next daytime home match. That way we will get some good photos (hopefully) and all of us can be there to watch him run through it.

Congratulations Mitchell. Enjoy yourself tonight.

GO BATS!

A trip to the zoo to meet Mali!

The boys were still on holidays on Monday, so we tripped off to the zoo to see Mali, the new baby elephant. We didn't have to wait as long as I thought we would. I think we were about the third group of 150 to go through and we were at the front of the queue. It was worth the wait. Mali is just so cute.

And here she is!

Somewhere amongst all these legs is Mali. The "aunties" are very protective of her as she wanders in and out of their legs.Here's Austin and Nelson talking to an orangutan!

The person in the white t-shirt on the right of the orangutan is Nelson.
There's a new "sea" display at the zoo. Here's Mitchell, Austin and Nelson at the entrance. We got up close and personal to some stingrays.

Nelson next to the super coral!Watching the seals from underneath.Bye from the zoo!

Ugly Fat Quarter Not!

Well, Amanda and I have swapped our projects for the Ugly Fat Quarter Swap. What a fun swap this was. It's amazing how one person can look at a piece of fabric and think "what can I do with this?" and another takes one look and knows exactly what to do with it!

This is what I sent Amanda.

And this is what I found when I opened the envelope!

And when I undid it, just look at what was inside!

A beautiful cushion cover, a pin cushion and some of Amanda's gorgeous "mushroom" top pins. How lucky am I?

Here is a close-up of the embroidery. Amanda has duplicated the flowers on the fabric. How clever is she?

Here is the pin cushion and those "mushies".

This is what Amanda sent me.
After a lot of thought, I decided to go with a sea theme with the shell buttons she sent. I made her a reversible thread catcher and a drawstring bag.
Thank you Amanda for being a great swap partner. It's been great getting to know each other during our many emails (with the added bonus of making a new friend!). Many thanks to Jenny and Fiona for arranging this fun blog swap.

Come for a trolley ride!

On Wednesday, the boys and I went to Healesville. First we went to Healesville Sanctuary.

Here's Nelson feeding some leaves to a wallaby.

Nelson took this photo of the pelicans!

We had a picnic lunch and then walked around the town. I found this lovely little sewing basket in one of the op shops. A steal at only $6! I've been wanting one to sit next to the treadle machine for ages.

After lunch we went on a trolley ride on the old railway line.

This tunnel is about 120 years old!

This is an eagle's nest along the railway line. It was quite large.