Thinking about the good things ...

It's raining.  It's raining very hard and has been for a fair few days now.  Over the last month one or other of us has been sick.  The washing seems never ending .............

It could be very easy to dwell on 'bad' things but I have decided to think about the 'good' things and give thanks!

First up thanks to Pippa from When I Get The Time who has awarded me a Beautiful Blogger Award - more about that in the next post.

Thanks to my girls who are just wonderful!!!  They are going through a phase where they love being together, whether it is creating, playing, exploring, imagining.  This last week they have been very busy with imaginative play, using any and everything they find or make for their stories and adventures.  This last week we have variously been in fairyland (they got there on the 'family' witches' broomsticks because they missed the plane), mermaid land, princess land, hospital, pen school (this is featuring a lot at the moment and comprises of all the different felt tips being real and having great adventures!), dressing up land, at the vets, in a cafe .....  in fact now I think about it again I don't know where we haven't been.  All it takes is a little something to spark their imagination and off they go.

Yesterday Maia decided to make a treasure hunt for me!  Treasure hunts are great events at our house and the girls love them.  They started with photos and are now words and some very basic stylised drawings.  The girls have bags they collect up the clues in and I think the journey is more rewarding than the actual 'treasure' for them  (although the lollipops they found yesterday went down quite well!).

The little drawings on the right are Maia's clues (a chair and a newspaper if you can't quite make them out!) and they led to my treasure - this wonderful picture.  Not to be outdone Cassia made Mummy some treasure too.  Hers are featured on the left hand side and are a ring and then the tiniest piece of paper she had cut out and coloured.  Very special treasure indeed!

Thanks to Kellie in The Australasian Bee for introducing me to quilt as you go - it is my new thing!!!!  Yesterday I was able to make another quilt as you go block.  I made a 17" square to make into a cushion.

The coloured strips are leftover from Kellie's block plus a few I had in my stash.  The white border is old cotton sheeting which I just found this week in the op shop.  I love the feel of it - it feels so substantial and I love that I'm reusing someone else's cast offs!  I decided to try a buttoned up back and was very happy with the results.

I already had the buttons and I thought the different colours go well with the bright colourful front.  Just got to put it together and then I'll be sure to post a pic!

And then a thanks to me!!!  Yes I have actually made myself something recently.  The little bag I made here has come in very handy as a portable work bag.

It's small but fits in all the things you need to make hexagons perfectly!  It's had a few outings this week and more hexagon flowers are being produced!  Due to my impatient nature I needed to do something with a flower rather than just keep them all for a bigger project so I made myself a needlecase.

I've never had one before and hated never being able to find a needle easily, if at all!  Now they are all together in one place, by my machine, in a lovely new home.  Best of all it was made by me all from scraps!  x