Pumpkin Festival

Today we went to Goomeri, to the Pumpkin Festival.

It was awesome!

On the way, I crocheted. 

And on the way home I crocheted. 

And now I am almost finished the front of my cushion! 

Will be revealed soon!

We watched the street parade.  This is the winning whopper of a pumpkin!

We saw horses, stock whips, drafthorses, working dogs, bands, old cars, pumpkin pagaent princesses...

Mum and I checked out the crafty section and saw some quilts including this gorgeous hexagon quilt, which was massive and the hex's were tiny.  Now... I haven't made many quilts so I'm not really in a position to be too critical BUT I would never ever spend a trillion hours hand piecing something like this and then machine quilt it with a revolting bright green thread in a pattern that just doesn't do anything for anyone! 

Machine quilting is def the way to go, but surely a nicer colour and pattern would have been better.

Here are the cute mini pumpkin themed quilts!

We ate pumpkin scones and pumpkin pie! 

This is pumpkin pie, it was good. 

They (the CWA type ladies) were very secretive about the recipe for pumpkin pie which kind of made me mad, cause I really didn't want their exact recipe, I just wanted to know if there was a pumpkin pie recipe in the special cook book they had for sale!

Me and my BFF Kimmy and the pumpkins! 

Our super cute kids enjoying the fairy floss.

Kimmy insisted on going in the famous Pumpkin Rolling Competition and she entered herself and her son Kai.  He chickened out (actually I think he realised his Mum is nuts)  so my boy Joey stepped up to the mark. Here he is trudging up 'Policeman's Hill' to the starting line.  All 680 of them lined up ready to roll their pumpkins!

And here they are with their tagged and numbered pumpkins getting marshalled! 

 It is big business and you can be disqualified for stepping over the yellow line!

Kimmy ready to roll, she was number 367!

And she is nuts, but I love her!

Joey and me waiting patiently, he was number 162!

The view down the hill from the starting line. 

Somewhere down there at the bottom is our family dodging flying pumpkins that hit gutters and got airborne!

Joey's pumpkin went well, flying down the middle then hurtling off to the left...

...and came to rest somewhere around here.  The policeman you maybe able to just see is standing nearby to the special yellow spot that marks $1000 if your pumpkin comes to rest right on it! 

No one won the $1000 this year!

We picked up 6 pumpkins! 

They are in pretty good condition too considering they were hurtled down a bitumen road.  Actually everyone picked up pumpkins.  I thought it was a bit wasteful at first, but every single pumpkin was taken away and we have pumpkin soup in the slow cooker ready for dinner tonight!

We loved the Goomeri Pumpkin Festival and have marked it in our calendar for next year!

Tree Climbing

Having trouble uploading pictures and the order they are appearing, since blogger won't let me rearrange them on the page anymore, grrrr.

So the above collection is of my gorgeous mosaic butterfly Mum made me that hangs at the front door. A snippet of our new front fence made from recycled materials, cept the small dog wire to keep The Fox in and some pictures of what goes on here every afternoon after school: tree climbing and tyre swinging. We don't have DS's or whatever they are called!

Christmas Time 2008 Overview - this is long!

Me and my kids at Carols by Candlelight wearing our homemade goodness.
Lilly's singlet said 'nice' and Joe boy's said 'merry'.

My excited little kids on Christmas morning.

Santa had brought them exactly what they asked for- real baby chickens hatched by Mrs Claus in the North Pole for Lilly and a 'water feature' for Joe boy! Both items chirping and spurting water in the bedrooms when they woke, don't ask!!!!!!

Been a bit slack with blogging lately! Well, I've been busy. We had a great christmas followed by a little holiday to Bargara where we saw the most amazing spectacle of nature that has been occuring since the Dinosaurs. Of course I am talking about the nesting and hatching Sea Turtles that come back to their birthplace at Mon Repos to lay their eggs but not before they reach breeding age of about 30 years of age, so for every 1000 hatchlings only ONE makes it to breeding age. Loggerheads and Leatherbacks (I think) are critically endangered but thanks to the work and research that started over 30 years ago, hopefully the future will improve and we are doing our part by making a resolution for no more plastic! I was thinking, when I get some spare time, to make some more of these (I've done one), or at least form a group to make alot and do my part for our world. If anyone is interested, please let me know.

The amazing Loggerhead we saw laying her eggs, what a priviledge to witness this!
In front of the stats for the night so far with their turtle shirts I made them.
Mon Repos beach in the morning, we could see the tracks from about 5 turtles from the night before, but there was many more.
I'll have more on the turtles in another post as we are going back to see some hatchlings in a few weeks.

...Back to Christmas!
This year I made something I have been thinking about for a few Christmases but have never gotten around to doing---a Rocky Road Christmas Tree. It was delicious and so easy, yet looked a million bucks!
I also made a baked ham using a treasured secret recipe from my old friend Renee's Dad. It was delicious as well.

And when I returned from our holiday I had some very lovely mail! Elissa from Kelani had sent me some Sandi Henderson Farmer's Market Apple Dot in Spring, which she completely didn't have to and I am so touched at her generosity. So there are no pics of that, but when I make it into something or other I will blog it and send it into her inspiration gallery for all to see. If you haven't checked out Kelani Fabric Obsession for the best range of designer fabrics around with free postage then you just must! Thankyou so much Elissa, I am yet to spend my latest gift voucher from you, but I am feeling some of this is in order!

So for this year, I am hoping to continue sewing, helping in some way continue renovating our house, send Joe boy off to Kindy, start Miss Lilly in Grade 1 and keep enjoying life and my family.

The next sewing projects are a couple of UFO's, including appliqued singlets to go with some sets and them get them on Etsy or MadeIt, a glam green bag for a gift (1/2 done) and a whole lot of those fantastic Burda shorts for Joe boy for kindy and of course kindy sheet sets.

6 Random Things

I have been tagged by Ellie. I'll do my best to play along.

Here are the rules ...
1. Link to the person who “tagged” you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.

ONE
Last week, I decided I wanted to go on "Farmer Wants a Wife"!! My husband thinks I am very funny...I want to go out for dinner in a candlelit shearing shed and live on a farm. He is still laughing at me.

TWO
This has probably been my worst year of my life...losing Nanny and watching Lilly have her partial nephrectomy together with 3 hospital admissions at the RCH. In saying that, I don't think we have ever been happier now that we have moved to our little bit of acreage.

THREE
I went to Bribie Island for Schoolies week!

FOUR
I regret not making my then boyfriend (husband) come flying around the world with me and friends when we were younger.

FIVE
We had a beautiful wedding and honeymoon in the Maldives and Singapore. I have two beautiful children, I would love another but feel blessed as I am, so will leave that alone!

SIX
I have always owned Siamese Cats and Fox Terrier dogs since I was a little girl and still do, there is a cat on my lap at present!

Gee whiz, that was hard, I couldn't think of anything interesting.
I tag tigerfield, Tracy, Celia and when I think of some others, I'll tag you then, but all my sewing friends have been taken in this round of tagging!