Yay me - another finish!

Hang Your Heart from Dimensions (1998)

Wacky colours, but a fun stitch from the depths of my stash.

December finish and other updates

Season's Greetings, and here's a seasonal finish:

2009 Tree from M Designs

And just cos I feel like it, here's a photo from the 2009 comp season - courtesy of rsgphotog.blogspot, taken by the lovely Jessica who has since gone to Canada to further her art studies.

Tamsin, at her first comp at Counties Manukau.

Today has been a very quiet, peaceful Sunday - deliberately so.

Why? Because it was the day after two days of this:

Tamsin (as a raindrop)

Raindrops en masse

Victoria and Jess - seagulls

2009 SABA Recital "The Pearl"

Four shows of 2 hours duration, 5 mins each on stage per show over two days.
Net result? Lots, and I mean hours, of hanging about in dressingrooms waiting. And it was noisy. And reeked of hairspray.

The girls loved it.

Which is what it is all about.

Professor Fizzby's Wonderous Strange Collection of Wee Beasties

Item #3 in this range of seriously cool designs from Pangea by Dimples Designs is my November finish - woohoo me!

The picture does not do the design justice. Close up, the ladybugs don't seem that flash. But step back aways and they take shape and look very 3D. They're gonna look great on Sarah's wall.

You got space ready, Sarah?

another finish...

...only took two gym classes to do it too!

Yes, it's an embellished pre-printed small piece - which I consider cheating, I have to admit.

But hey, it's gone from the stash pile and into the done pile!

Violet Kitten from Candamar Designs,

which has been in the stash cupboard since before Tinkerbelle was born, LOL.

Finally, a finish

A small one I admit, but a finish all the same:

Friendship Quilts, by JBW Designs

over 1 on 28ct evenweave

The generousity of friends

Our neighbours at the top of the driveway are good friends. Their twins are only a few months younger than Tinkerbelle, and we've known them since we all moved in nearly 6 years ago.

They're also mad keen sailors (they used to race at top level in the UK), and are the proud possessors of a 39' yacht, which they go out on nearly every weekend.

We (the four of us plus Sarah) had been invited to go sailing for the day with them some weeks back, with the date chosen being yesterday.

Given the weather for the 10 days prior (lots & lots of rain, 7degC, windy, yuk) it was not looking good.

But see for yourself...

Thanks Iain and Clare for a fabulous day!

Party time...

cos my lovely MiL, Jeanette is 70!

So the famdamily gathered to eat, talk, eat, gossip, eat, and eat some more...

The fabulous Baker boys - Kevin, Steve and Andy

Sorry about the sound - I was using the still camera all afternoon instead of the video. So please imagine hearing the girls singing Happy Birthday, very sweetly, to their adored Nana.

Caught napping!

Boodle

When Sophie came to stay...

the tweens had fun talking all night and watching chic flics while eating junk food - as you do.

Jessica, Sophie and Victoria.

It was cool having you stay with us!

End of the season....

... is here. NZ Gymsport Nationals started yesterday (Sat Sep 26) with the WAG L4 first up. Nationals is always the marker for the end of the gymnastic year. No competitions now till late April at the earliest, mid-May usual, when the race to qualify and be selected for Nationals starts again (for those L4 and above).
Next term all the gym clubs will be rearranging their gymnasts into who is in what level for the 2010 season, and then starting on the new skills ready to be made into new routines in the term after Christmas.

As a season finale, one last video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrnKNWTYLdw

I'll wait while you get a drink and some popcorn...

Yes, I'm back! Two by 24hours of flying and 10 days of UK architecure immersion later, here I am ready to bore y'all with the holiday photos, lol.

While it was a business trip, time zone changes meant several mornings I was awake and walking around Oxford with my trusty camera phone to kill time before breakfast was served in the Hall of New College at 8am (very Hogwarts); plus 3 days with my godmother which allowed me to visit Porchester Castle and Winchester Cathedral.

Also went to Blenheim Palace, but didn't happy snap there, just sent postcards to the girls.

So without further ado:

New College Oxford - outside view of the Hall where a full English breakfast is served every morning 8-9am.

Accommodation at New College, stair 11 Old Building - I was in room 3 which is the window on the 2nd floor on the right (under the open window).

Views of Holywell St, where one of the two entrances for New College is located.

Views of the old city wall. These sections are on Longwall St.

Various views of Oxford, including punts waiting for the students to come back, The Examination Schools, and the Bridge of Sighs replica.

On Sunday, I went to Southampton to stay with my godmother. The following are of Portchester Castle - the best preserved Norman castle in Europe (the walls are Norman, as are parts of the church; the keep is circa Richard II, if not a bit earlier). It was built on the site of a Roman fort.

On the way to Heathrow for my flight home, we stopped in Winchester - the capital of Alfred the Great's England,

and location of the fabulous Winchester Cathedral. The transept of this building is Norman, and rest is C11-13. I'd forgotten how huge English Cathedrals are!

The town itself, like Oxford, has lovely old buildings everywhere you turn.

And then it was time for the flight home.

NZ038 ready for boarding at Heathrow, then refueling (avgas and meals) in Hong Kong.

I used the flights to catch up on LOTS of movies I hadn't seen. Gotta love these new planes with the individual screens and multiple choice of in-flight entertainment!