Oscar's birthday!

What fun it is to turn four and once again we are reminded that time flies! It is a whole four years since we were catching public buses to get to the hospital in Liege with Sarah to check up on her pregnancy! Catching buses was not a pleasant experience for a nine month pregnant, first time mother. Eventually Sarah was booked in to the hospiital as baby was well overdue and she needed to be monitored closely. This took place on a Tuesday and by Saturday morning she and the doctors gave up on wanting a natural birth and Oscar was produced by C section in the early hours of Saturday morning, the 21st June, 2009. Four years later here we are celebrating his fourth birthday!! Oscar loves parties and was very excited about his own.

 

On his actual birthday we all went to the school to enjoy the traditional lighting of his candles and singing songs with his classmates. His Dad had made a cake which was a practice round and it was too cute.(and a little scary).

The following day was his classmate Gia's birthday which I had the privilege of accompanying him to. It was fun to see all the children and meeting the yummy mummies.This Mummy hired a face painter and Oscar chose to be Spiderman

 

At last! Saturday dawned, the day of the party. It is mid winter and we were so relieved to see the sun shining and no wind. Perfect. The birthday boy and I stayed home while everyone went off to prepare the venue. The theme chosen for this year's party is Peter Pan!! Our outfit was all ready and waiting and off we set! got ready and off we set.

 

Sarah had hired Trefoil Park which is situated in Delta Park just down the road from their new home. It was PERFECT for the children with lots of space, trees and adventure trails. A huge jumping castle was the perfect place for children to have fun. Peter Pan had to have a Treasure Hunt with exciting prizes and of course Pass the Parcel!

 

Captain Hook made the most amazing Crocodile cake! He and Mrs Darling loved lighting the candles.

Everyone had lots of fun! Poppie played barmen and the big pirates and fairies also had lots of fun!

Everyone was so generous and it took Peter Pan several days to open all his gifts!! What a lucky little boy!

I wonder what is in store for next years party! Adrien says dinner at the Spur!

Mid year.

It is almost mid year and one wonders where time disappears to! I have loved being home and having time to do all sorts of fun things. 

 

 

I have completed my double bed quilt top and back using my beautiful Malaysian fabrics. I pieced the back as I was determined to use what fabrics I have in the cupboard and not buy anything. The back took longer to make than the front.

 

 

I absolutely love the colours of the top. Now to quilt it! It is not easy cutting into one's precious collection and I found this rather apt quotation on Pinterest.

 

 

 

It is so true and I know the bug has bitten Sarah who has just returned from Swaziland with a pile of fabrics and Diana loves fabrics too. Moira has a stash which I drool over when we visit her, so I keep good company. My sons like to accuse me of influencing the girls but I would never do a thing like that!

 

It was also time to attack some UFO's and I am so pleased to have got to the binding stage of this stunning appliquéd quilt. This quilt was started at least thirteen years ago in Swaziland. I was part of a group of quilters, Big Bend Quilters, who met regularly every month. A couple of us formed a sub group and each month a quilter would get a chance to choose their pattern and fabrics and the rest of us would make the blocks. I confess that I chose a very challenging pattern which I then had to assemble and hand quilt. I was supposed to do appliquéd borders but gave that up as after thirteen years I was no where near completion. I have put all the blocks together and machine quilted the in between bits and now all that's left is the binding. My husband, who never says much about my work just oohed and aahed over this one. My thanks to all the contributors. (Zelda, Joy, Elsa, Celma, Patience, Bizzy,....who else?)

 

 

 

My dear friend Bridget turned forty this week. I wanted to make something special for her and decided to finish my "Sri Lankan" block. It turned out really cute and I hope she feels happy every time she sees it. We met twice this week at the Book Boutique. Once for Bridget's birthday and once to see Erica Carle. A bit of a Masterpiecers reunion. It was great a seeing all the ladies and the Book Boutique is a great venue. I guess time flies when one is busy and happy.

 

 

Our ray of sunshine.

It was time for the much awaited visit from Oscar, our nearly four year old Grandson from Johannesburg. Sarah and Adrien and a bunch of friends were off to "Bushfire" a festival of music held annually in Swaziland. We fetched him from Durban airport and as usual the handover went smoothly. The fact his Mom and Dad prepare him for a week before talking about all the fun things he is going to do plus it is his third time to visit us on his own, he handles it all with such ease.  

The drive from Toti to the airport is long but quite lovely and once there one is filled with pride that we have such super airports. We were met with live music which gave the whole place a rather festive air.

Oscar settled in quickly and enjoyed exploring all the nooks and crannies in the flat and pulling out my dolls and teddies. I always have a stock of toys, paints, puzzles etc. available and somehow it is much more fun to play and use these things in Granny's home.

 

As Oscar is turning four in June and is having a "Peter Pan" party I had bought some green fabric and was planning on making him an outfit. My sister popped in for a visit, took one look at the fabric and was totally inspired. Within fours of taking it home she had a delightful outfit made for Oscar. Can you imagine the excitement and delight? He couldn't wait to see what Granny Robyn had made for him!

 

Note the delight on Oscar's face. He was over the moon! Robyn even made a sheath for his little sword.

Note the delight on the Grannie's faces. That is me on the right and my clever sister on the left!

Our own Peter Pan ready to fly off!

 

Poppie Warren (grandpa) and Oscar spent a few hours most mornings on the beach. Despite it being Winter it was warm enough to swim and enjoy the waves.

 

The week went by very quickly and not much else was achieved besides watching the Robin Hood movie five times, reading loads of stories, (the favorite being Roald Dahl 's Magic Finger), playing with Oscar and doing a bit of visiting of friends.

I miss his cuddles in the morning and look forward to our visit for his birthday party later this month.

Natal Quilters Guild

Yesterday was NQG meeting and for a change I was able to attend. The first part of the day was taken up with looking at the Quilt display and voting for your favorite.

My favorite!

Another interesting 3D quilt.

Circles are popular.

There were various vendors selling lots of lovely goodies and fabrics for quilting. This was my favorite vendor but I resisted.

 

Beth had lovely patterns for making miniatures. And kits for making up these patterns.

We had a most interesting talk and slide show by two quilters who had gone to the states for the Houston Quilt Festival. They described the fun they had visiting the Amish and other places before getting to the festival. Their pictures of the quilts that were on show made us all totally gasp in amazement.

It is good to see how alive and well quilting is in South Africa with the upcoming quilting events taking place all over the country. Maybe I should stop writing and go and get quilting!!

Filling the well.

I have embarked on Julia Cameron's writing course and two bits of advice she starts with, is to write three pages every day no matter what and the second is, to give yourself a regular "Artist's Treat" and by this she suggests you do little things to make yourself feel good and "Fill the well". This could take the form of rewarding yourself with gold stars, to visiting places that inspire you. 

 

The last few days have certainly been inspiring and gives one another perspective on life. We have just spent a few days in the Berg near Underberg. Warren had booked us into a chalet on a farm about five K's outside the town.

The view from our temporary home was just delightful. The colours were simply amazing.

At times I tried to count the different shades of green and the various colours of the mountains.

My sister and brother in law used to spend lots of time taking their children hiking in the mountains so they know the name of the various peaks and many of the interesting spots to explore.

My humble little point and push camera worked overtime as I tried to capture the absolute beauty of the area.

Around every nook and cranny there was something magnificent to see.

Dudley spotted two Crowned cranes playing in a nearby field. Evidently this is a rare sighting.

We popped into Pucketty Farm Stall and stocked up on delicious ginger biscuits. We were amused to see an "honesty box" in the shop.

Himeville is just a few K's away and while the men tested the beers in the hotel, Robyn and I popped into the museum which is housed in the original fort on the main road.

I felt very comfortable there as I recognized many of the artifacts as being similar to what I have in my home!!

 

On the wall in the pub was a little plaque with an inspiring message.

mmmmm, is it applicable?

As suggested by Julia Cameron, the Well is full!

Fun with friends.

So far this year has been a year of family get togethers but now it is time for friends. Firstly we had the Moults pop in. They live in Sierra Leone and have a flat in Durban to which they love to escape to. While here, they do all their medical visits, shop and catch up with friends. Unfortunately they no sooner arrived and fell ill with the flu! As we also had coughs and colds so they found themselves in good company. Old friends are like comfortable slippers, all warm and fuzzy!

Mary and Gavin stopped in for two nights en route to Knysna. We have not had quality time with them for ages. We all commented on how time absolutely flies and how important it is for us to spend time together with our "adult" friends.

Marilyn Gosnell has had an offer on her beautiful home down on the beach in Ramsgate.

 

We have been to many happy functions here and I know it cannot be easy for Marilyn to part with this home which is steeped in many happy memories! With Jerry gone I suppose it is not the same and also the safety factor for a woman living on her own.

The grandchildren will miss coming here too as they spent hours and hours on the beach. Everything has a season and perhaps it is time for Marilyn to move on. I know we will miss knowing she is in her Beach house!

With Wendy and John being in town, Marilyn thought it is a good time to invite a whole lot of Big Benders over for lunch on Sunday. it probably will be our last visit to her beautiful home. We were amazed to see some folk we had not seen since 2000 when we left Big Bend!

The Rostrums, the Canters, Annie Waterhouse, John and Wendy Moult and the Du Casses were all there

Lots of lively chatter and good laughs took place around the table. If only tables could talk as that table has hosted so many people for so many different functions!!

Good food, good company, good wine! What more can you ask for!! Thank you Marilyn! We miss you Jerry.

This was made from a recipe from Charmaine Crous and is simply delicious!! I will have to try it some day!