Thankful Thursday

Another Thursday and time to line up our Thankfuls!

1. Thankful for the beautiful weather we've been having; arising to blue skies and sunshine every morning is just wonderful!

2. Thankful all three girls were home for the weekend! Dilly gets home every two or four months as she is so busy so its a gift when she is here! As you can see they interact very well!!!

3. Thankful for a safe day out for B's School yesterday. Over 300 students (6 coaches!)went to Galway to cheer on the Senior Rugby team in the Final of the Connaught Cup, and, for the first time in seven years they brought it home!

(got the photos off the school website!) And the report from today's 'Irish Times' Newspaper.

Their Rugby trips are always great fun, heck, they were even great fun when I was there back in the Dark Ages, and to win was a bonus. The School social life revolves around Rugby and music!

4. Thankful for parcels in the post- 'brown paper packages tied up with string'- so exciting!

5. Thankful for chocolate!!

6. Thankful for great surprises- like when I get an email to say I've won a prize! Thank you Kat and Jane!

And now I'm going to go sew- a bit of quilting on a border, play with Ulla's fabric as I've had an idea, make a batch of bread, look for a flying geese pattern for some of the purple fabric from yesterday, wind the two skeins of red wool into balls so I can knit them, and check the soup!

S'long folks!

Another Sunny Day at the Beach, and Mail-yippee!!

March's Barter/Swap- BOOKS!

Another glorious day; although very cold there was hardly a breath of wind. On the News it said this is the most prolonged spell of good weather Ireland has had in two years- so don't laugh at me going on about it!

After School Assembly Mom collected me and we went to Rosses Point beach just so it didn't feel left out of the blog-world.

I made Mom jump this stream, she wasn't sure if she'd make it 'in' or 'over', but there's life in the old girl yet! (She'll hit me if she reads this!)

If you walk the second beach you have to tip the rocks at the end, but if you're the bro you have to crawl into the cave and tip the back wall...

Almost 11 o'clock in full sun and there was still frost on the sand.

Benbulben from Rosses Point this time! Its rather a landmark, as you'll have guessed.

Mussels for tea anyone ?
Now isn't this a quilt waiting to be made? Silk, perhaps, embellishment and lace?

And look what was waiting for me when I got home:

A parcel from UpTownDesign containing lavender, 2 skeins of beautiful red wool, and some lovely fabric as well as some extra goodies! The post took ages as I ordered it in January I think...before the credit card ban!

I'm delighted, and I can tell you now that you're lucky there was any posting done at all today because I'm itching to find a pattern for these fabrics and start sewing!!!

Anyhow, check out her yarns in particular as they are absolutely wonderful colours!

Barter/Swap March

Welcome to this month's Barter/Swap!
And no, I don't call this the first Wednesday of the month, but its not the last Wednesday either...ok, so time-keeping isn't my greatest gift...so?
I've got six books on offer, and if you would like any without a swap please say so in the comments? I don't intend reading these again so I'd be very happy to post any or all to folk who would like them.
If you want a swap estimate say €5 each but whatever.
(The links are to Amazon if you want to see synopsis, ratings etc.)
Titles:
Mr Macgregor by Alan Titchmarsh (yes, he of Gardening fame) link

Jewels of the Sun by Nora Roberts (first in a trilogy set in Ireland) link

The Dream Maker by Alison McLeay link

Redemption by Karen Kingsbury with Gary Smalley link

A Breath of Fresh Air by Erica James link

44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith (first in a series) link

If you want to link anything to be considered for a swap please add yourself to the linky thingie so we can all visit!

A Walk on the Beach

Yesterday tea-time Mom and I walked on Strandhill beach. The tide was going out, the sun was sunny, the breeze was gentle and it was just glorious!

...wet pebbles...
...looking towards the village with Benbulben behind...

...sand dunes, a few weeks back Sos and friends were out for a walk between lectures and had fun rolling down these dunes. When they returned to College for Dance Class the tutor couldn't understand how there got to be so much sand on the gym floor!

...a loose cannon?...

...Strandhill village which consists of a Surf School, a pizza place, and several pubs...

We were so refreshed after this, not just by the sun and sea air, but also by the wide space of the beach and the beauty.

Today I intend to haul out an old not-working sewing machine someone gave me years ago...

to see whether I can repair it. If the feed-dogs can be lowered on it I might be able to use it for machine quilting which would speed up the quilt finishing, and I might manage to actually sell some. On my usual machine the feed-dogs can't be lowered and quilting is so disastrous I invariably rip it out and re-do it by hand...slow stuff...

However at present the sewing table is a mess...

...as is the house...

...the ironing is beginning to overflow its basket...

...and I have already got two quilts partly quilted which would benefit from BEING FINISHED!

So of course I'm going to do something else entirely!

And in case you are interested Amanda won the spot prize yesterday, the answer being Mary Poppins, of course! So little goodie on the way soon! And keep your eyes peeled for future spot-the-spot-prize! Tee hee!

Challenge Check #8 and Newses

Well firstly I'd say last week's lack of wordses was a yowling success! And I truly thank everyone who visited and left such kind comments on the daily photo-blast; I enjoyed your comments, and they helped with the week, which was fairly garbage, actually.

Secondly, the out-laws are alive and spitting. Here's the MIL's text from Saturday night:

'It sure was scary wading through the strong current almost waist level. A lot of damage was done- 14 out 0f 20 tents plus the Gift Shop were ruined. I had to clean out a muddy desk drawer and re-construct a wet muddy file and launder wet muddy money notes. There's a problem getting tap water back. M's been running round like a scalded monkey.'

(She's always rude about the FIL!) I guess all those Triathlons finally paid off?

The damage was considerable (if you're interested Google 'Samburu floods') and it'll be a while before the infrastructure is ready for guests again. Sos suggested their Granny should set up a professional money laundering project to tide them over the slump!

And now for the Challenge roundup:

At end of play on Sunday Heckety beat Henman 6-1, 6-2, 6-0. Weather permitting she will play Venus Williams later today, when she hopes to thrash Williams and prove once and for all the world superiority of Irish tennis players....yeah, yeah, and last time I played tennis 'properly' I lost three balls into the river and was banned indefinitely...

So- Dottie Angel Challenge:

The Hub decided to move the sewing junk from the kitchen to the spare room on Saturday so I had to put everything away properly afterwards. As a result I organised my fabric stash tidily and have re-found some great stuff!
OK, by your standards that may not be tidy, but I assure you that by mine it's 'practically perfect in every way'! (C'mon, who said that???? First correct answer gets a spot prize!) So now I can begin a new quilt!

The theme for Creative Every Day this month is 'Story'. I may be bending the rules here because although this quilt doesn't tell a story there is a saga attached to it:
I made the top before leaving East Africa when we were experiencing a shocking drought and we had forgotten what the colour green looked like. It had been about 18 months since rain fell. The orange and patterned fabrics were given to me from a friend's scrap box, dating from the '70s. The yellows were from various people and are a combination of satins, cotton and silk. The ivory silk is very beautiful; this is from the hem of a friend's wedding dress! Another friend made it and cut it longer than necessary as C couldn't decide what shoes to wear.

I packed it as an unfinished top as batting was very expensive there and I had no immediate need for it. Then about a year after arriving in Ireland I received a request for a quilt from someone organising an Exhibition so hauled this out, quilted it, and posted it to England where it was hung! It was the first time I'd had a quilt hung and I was thrilled skinny!

So there you go- story of a quilt, but sure doesn't every quilt that was ever made have a story?!

By the way, this coming Wednesday I'll post March's Barter/Swap, which will include a bunch of books, as promised, but if you just would like books without a swap then specify the title(s) and first come'll get it! The early bird catches the book!!

There was another thing to tell yous but I've forgotten so it'll have to wait until tomorrow!

Sunny Sunday with Marey Horse

Sssh...Listen to the growing!

News Splash!

Apparantly yesterday morning the Hubs' parents were rescued by helicopter from a tree when the Ewaso-Nyiro river flooded its banks and washed their Camp away...never a dull moment?