Born Wednesday 2nd of September 2009...
Our beautiful son Joshua Dean Eli Hughes...
all 8 pound 11 of him and yes I felt every bit.
We're home again now and doing well.
He's spoiling me with how good he is with feeding and sleeping...just a little superstar.

here's a pic of Heather's little one David more recently
He's such a lovely boy and happy too!
I just wanted to share

and I'm quickly running out of time. After today there's only 12 days til my sisters 2nd baby is due to arrive. I have the cot quilt all cut out and am slowly getting it pieced together. I've embroidered half of the whale and he looks good so far. It's great that there's such a thing as multi coloured cottons. I've used one that goes from purple to blue to green and I think it's adding alot of character. I'm fairly confident I'll have it finished in time.
Before the baby's arrival we are travelling to my in-laws to have an early xmas gathering of all the family. Can you hear how excited I'm not about this? lmao...It'll be ok. Actually it'll be great. I'll get to see my fav sister in law and her darling 5 month old son. It'll be good to catch up with the rest of them too I guess.
The only thing I have left to organise is the gift vouchers for some of the older kids but that's no big deal. Ha...I was just thinking if only you'd heard me last year...my other sister in law asked that we just give the kids a small amount of cash each and a game they could play as a family...I was thinking to myself she had a nerve ...I have to say it's worked out ALOT cheaper to do exactly that. They've had a bit of a brady family thing happen so there's 7 children in their family these days. So it'll be ok.
Another big plus is my hubby will be there, unlike last year,  and he'll keep the jokes/insults flying...it should be quite entertaining really.

So I go and join a quilters group and it clearly says beginners welcome. You can't get more of a beginner than me and no I'm not trying to sound a trumpet here but never done quilting before.
But I think to myself, I'm up for the challenge. I have a dear friend encourage me (she formed the group) so let's give it a go.
Expecting that I can do my best with the work that passes over my sewing table and everything be ok we get started.
Didn't take long for the bubble to burst. I now discover there is an underground group of women who class themselves as master quilters and it appears there is more conversation happening behind the scenes than what there is on display. 
This has been an eye opening experience for me. I have decided that rather than do work that others feel is less than satisfactory for a beginner, I will keep up with the quilting, stick to the group that is happy to have me as part of theirs and let the other one go.
I'm always up for learning new things and this was definately something I was interested in getting knowledge about. I think it's a shame I wasn't encouraged by my little group of five to help me learn and gain more experience.
I'd rather learn how to quilt properly in my own time. I don't aspire to be someone who crows expert but clearly can't achieve a square or for that matter an accomplished quilter who's heartless.
Perhaps honesty would have been the better way to go but I didn't see how telling someone their work looked like something my dog had thrown up would be helpful. Maybe I concern myself with others feelings too much.
Food for thought.
 

At my girl's kindergarten they held a breakfast, back in August, where they asked the children to turn up in their pj's. Of course they thought this was great but there was more to it than just brekky together in your pj's.
It was also to help the Wesley mission with donations of food and small toys.
They explained to the children that there are people in other parts of the world that are not as fortunate as we are.
More recently we received a letter informing us about what's happening with it all now.

( info letter... )</div></div>

Mail received and sadly sending it back

(package post marked 14-11)

I received the package today from Kit with Carrie's piece. Thanks

Unfortunately I feel I need to send it back to Kit before I can work on it.

It'll be back in the post this afternoon

...before I can work on it

Why? This is what it looks like - this picture was taken right before I put it in the package and there is clearly no problem with it.



Before you send it back to me, let me know what the issue is. Otherwise, I'll just do the third border and send it on to the person after you.

P.S. - package post mark must be from when it arrived in Australia! (and how is the date relevant, anyway?)

The photo does look great and your border rocks!!

EXCEPT...there is a seam you need to redo and I would but you haven't left anything to sew to.
When you get it back you'll see what I mean.
I didn't mean to embarrass anyone but I think I read somewhere in the rules that we're not to fix other people's work and without unpicking a section I couldn't have fixed it up.
I honestly thought it was the right thing to do.
I certainly don't think there's any need to threaten to do another border in my place. Is there something wrong with my sewing?
p.s. The package post mark...the only relevance is it took one week to get from you to me.

Their reply was:

I didn't mean to embarrass anyone...

Is completely disingenuous. First of all if you hadn't meant to embarrass ME (not "anyone"), you would have messaged or emailed me as you have done several times in the past. If you concern was "honesty" and communciation, you wouldn't have worded it in mysterious and drama-filled way that you did; you could have said, for instance "Hey Kit, there's a problem with a seam, what should I do?", but clearly, your intent was something else, and that's on you, not me. Send it back, I'll be happy to fix it.

As for the rest, I wasn't "threatening", it was merely a statement. Your wording suggested that you didn't want to work on my piece so I was going to remove that problem for you.

I'll look for the package.

Well you can believe whatever you like dear...I didn't mean to embarrass you and have only entertained the conversation here because you requested a response here.

I didn't mean to sound as though I don't want to work on Carrie's piece now with your border but simply worried that if I did before you had a chance to fix it I could have made it worse.

I look forward to seeing the piece again soon

Their reply was:

Please don't sully the word by calling me "dear". I reserve that for my friends and people I care about.

For anyone who missed the fireworks...

Obviously my work isn't good enough for this group so I'll stick with the other groups I'm in
Carrie's piece that I have I will send back to Carrie and consider me done
I no longer wish to be subject to ridicule and crushing from the likes of Kit
Thanks to every one else who gave me a chance to increase my experience

I've suddenly realised how close we are to christmas...I mean I knew, of course, but then I was thinking about cards that need to be sent etc and thought...'what about the photo I was going to do for that?' Better get onto that I guess
I had this idea to paint a small back drop and then use a white sheet to cover a bean bag, sit the kids in the bean bag and then happily snap away with the camera until I get a shot I'm happy with. It'll happen of course but it won't be on a day like today...it's so sticky hot here...bring on the rain!!!
The girls are having a splash in the bath at the minute as they seriously needed to just calm down and cool off...I'm not sure when the day turned into such chaos!
What else have I been up to? Not alot that isn't boring...just the usual...meals, cleaning, sewing...
It's all happening
Where's my cold glass of Vodka?

Thank goodness for sun and lots of it. Although we ALWAYS need the rain its so nice to have sun and hopefully it will help Emma and I kick this bug we have. I'm grateful that I have the kind of kids that love being outdoors and although they would play in the rain if you let them we don't go there
How am I feeling? I've been much worse. At least I have energy to deal with the girls today and get some housework done. I'm lucky I have the kind of husband who comes home with a "can do" attitude and not one that says "have you done anything today?"I guess that makes him lucky too huh?! lmao
Went to the market this morning and although I hate food shopping it was ok. The girls didn't know which way to look first which is always a good thing. By the time they saw something and asked if we could look we were off doing something else. Might do more food shopping at the market. The price of meat and veg was generally quite reasonable too
We're going to have roast lamb and veg for tea which will be nice I think.
I'm off to grab a glass of water and go out and get some more rays into me

How am I? Not well actually. Was hoping if I hit this cold early it would get lost but no such luck. My girls are both sick too so we're such a happy happy home today. Never mind. Things could always be worse. How? I'll get back to you on that
I think the bug came from Kinder (not shocking really) because my eldest, Emma, got sick first. I've been running around like a mad thing for the last couple of weeks now so I think my body didn't stand a chance against it. Today Aly is unwell and I'd have it twice before wishing it on her so you can imagine what she's like (bear with sore head rings a bell) 
Have been going through stuff in my office/ library/ sewing room to tidy things up and hoping to fit a single bed in here. This will mean moving things around to free up a wall but I think it can work.
Sorted out all our filing the other day and although its all organised it made me realise I need another file case so it's on the list.
Did I mention I make it like a mission of mine to stay well and not get sick? I'm onto some really great cough syrup and panadol so fingers crossed it won't hang on too long
It's been raining this morning so I'll have to get involved in some indoor activities with the girls to keep them happy.

So I think I've made a final decision for my centre block. The round robin is going to be lots of fun I think. To see what others come up with and then to finally get mine back and see how its grown. Looking forward to it!
I was looking forward to some visitors over the next couple of days, couldn't have been at a better time, unfortunately their plans have changed so I'll just have to find other things to keep occupied. I'm sure that won't be too hard with having a whole house to work on...ha...there's always something to do.
Changed the girls room yesterday. They say a change is as good as a holiday, well I say its cheaper..lol. 
I've set myself a couple of goals to achieve around the house so lets see if I get them done!

Well it's Friday...yay!! 
What a week we've had!! 

So I'm excited to have joined with the Round Robin Quilting group and look forward to receiving the piece to work on

Is there ever enough food in the house for kids??! I'm sure everyone had the same problem...you have heaps...until you have NONE! lol

Did heaps of cooking yesterday so I'm off to finish cleaning up