Surprise Mail, Kitchen Updates & A Reveal!

Well ... it's been another week of chaos here at the Meares' Madhouse - so what's new, I hear you ask! :0) I'll start with the END of the week, when I was surprised by a lovely parcel in the mail all the way from America. I was a little confused at first (again, what else is new! Tee! Hee! Hee!) cos it wasn't my birthday, I haven't joined any swaps lately ... hmmm ... what could it be and from whom?!?! Well ... the second half of that was easy to answer - Stacia (no blog) is one of the OPAM Challenge participants and was commiserating with me last week when I first shared about our kitchen reno, cos she's been moving and renovating too. I had forgotten she'd asked for my snail mail address. When I opened the card, I found that Stacia had seen a couple of little 'somethings' that made her think of me ... so she bought them for me! Awwwww ... what a sweetie!! Thanks Stacia!! I'll show you my little treasures ...


Isn't this just the cutest little bear you've seen!! I love the sunflower bonnet she's wearing - there's something cheerful about sunflowers. And her cute little dress also has sunflowers on it - she'll be right at home here in our ever-growing Bear Hug (that's what a collection of bears is called - see, you learned something!! Tee! Hee! Hee!) And there's also a fun pattern for a clotheshorse teddy - the pattern includes several versions of her little jacket! What a lovely treat to receive in the mail! You made me smile, Stacia - THANK YOU! :0)

Meanwhile, the recovery from renovations is ongoing ... I've slowly been putting stuff into the new kitchen cupboards, but as I pointed out to someone the other day, the thing I seem to have done most of in my brand new kitchen is ... WASH AND WIPE UP!! Talk about being ripped off! Tee! Hee! Hee! All of my glassware and the little collection of crystal I inherited from my Nan has needed to be washed to get the accumulated kitchen scum and dust off before finding a new home in the renovated kitchen. It's moving along ... slowly ... Here's some of my kitchen pretties ...


This is my collection of green Mexican glass jug and tumblers - so if you come for a visit, I can now offer you a cold drink! :0) But if a hot drink is more to your taste then ...


I can boil my new red kettle to make you a cuppa in my cheerful red dotty mugs! Since there's so much white in the new kitchen, I'm adding red and apple green splashes of colour in accessories. The only things left to do in our new kitchen are the jobs we'll undertake ourselves - as time permits. My Beloved Geek Boy is tiling the splash back as I type this, then we just need to paint the walls, sand and polish the floorboards and our new kitchen will be ready to grace the pages of "Country Homes" magazine! Tee! Hee! Hee! OK, maybe not, but it will look pretty schmicko! :0) Thank you all for your lovely comments - and commiserations!! - while we've been renovating! It's always great to hear what others think of colour/design choices - and to hear other people's stories! :0)

Now to the last part of my title ... a reveal. No, not the kitchen! I've been teasing you with sneaky peeks of my newest quilt design (which is with super-quilter Rosalie in the line up to be quilted!) so I thought I would reward your patience with a peek at the finished quilt top ... ready? Oooohh ... bit nervous again!!


Ta Da!!! Here is my "Fairy Bears & Butterflies" quilt top hanging on Rosalie's design wall. (had a little bit of design wall envy happening and now with Stina's too!!) I'm really pleased with how this design has come together! You're all aware of my love affair with the Aviary range of fabrics and they are just so soft and dreamy, that I thought some dreamy, magical fairy bears were JUST what was needed. And of course, you can't have fairy bears without butterflies - no garden is complete without both! Tee! Hee! Hee! And I've used some more yummy jumbo rick-rack, too. As soon as the quilt is back from Rosalie's I'll be writing up the instructions and releasing the pattern - which you KNOW means there'll be a giveaway, so stay tuned!! Click on the photo if you'd like a bit closer look at the fairy bears - they're too quick in the garden for you to see, so this is your best chance! Tee! Hee! Hee!

And now ... I'm off to pack up some hand stitching to take with me when we head for the beach tomorrow - YAY! We're sharing a cottage with my folks at Burrum Heads again, where my Beloved GB and Dad will amuse the fish by dangling dead shrimps from hooks, Mum and I will soak up the sun, shop, stitch and enjoy coffees, and Wombat and Lilly will race around the beach like mad things, enjoying the sand and surf - all in all, a great way to take a break from Toowoomba's winter chills! The house-sitter is booked, the clothes are clean and waiting to be packed ... so off I go! I'll be back in a week to see what all my blogging buddies have been up to (or maybe I'll pop into blogland via GB's laptop - if he'll share!!) and in the meantime, I hope you all have a wonderful week, whatever you have planned. Til next time - Bear Hugs!

CHEERS!
KRIS

PS. Don't forget to check out Kerryanne's fantastic pattern sale and pop in to see what super July special Marion is offering at Quilters Angel this week - you may just find yourself some wonderful bargains!! BH! KRIS

Renovation Update & A Sneaky Peek!

Well ... the renovation noise seems to finally be ebbing here at the Meares' Madhouse and it's mostly safe to come out of the office now! :0) The kitchen doesn't look finished, yet, as we have to move appliances etc back in and for that I need a big burly bloke ... OK ... I'm waiting til my Beloved Geek Boy comes home! Tee! Hee! Hee! Once everything's back and it looks a little more complete, I'll take some more photos, but in the mean time, here are a few more in-progress photos of the reno.

Uh oh ... this first one needs to come with a warning - it's one of the most UNFLATTERING photos I've had taken of me in quite some time, but apparently, I have to post it to balance up the one I shared of GB in his daggy renovating gear.


Oh dear of dear!! What a dag!! :0) It was cold, I was tired and had a headache from all the demolition noise and THIS was the extent of my kitchen to cook dinner - I think that excuses this VERY homely look!! You can't tell, but I was cooking meat in the Foreman grill and the only working power point was beside the stove, that's why it became the impromptu bench. The only other food preparation area I've had for the last four days was this ...


This is usually our dining room and if you search really hard (a bit like 'where's Wally?'!) you can see the dining room table under all that clutter. We've had to do a little sideways slide step to get past the fridge and into the bathroom - and if someone's opening the fridge, you could find yourself with a flat nose! :0)

So ... bright and early Monday morning (WAY too early for this night owl!!) the tradesmen started to arrive to put the new kitchen in. I was at work for part of the time, but this is where things were up to when I got home at lunch time.


A couple of the boys from Euroka are hard at work here. And at the end of day one, it looked like this ...


This is where the fridge will go, the microwave unit above some handy drawers and the WONDERFUL corner pantry!! Our old pantry was horrible - narrow, shallow shelves made from chipboard with peeling contact on the top of the shelves - ICKY!! Also space for the new single drawer dishwasher - that won't LEAK like the old one!!


This is the other side of the kitchen with my wonderful new length of BENCH SPACE!! YAY!! and the nice glass doors on the top cupboards so I can shop off my pretties. Yep ... it's starting to look like a kitchen! Stay tuned and I'll show you some finished photos in a few days!

The other thing to happen today, was me dropping in to see Rosalie at Rose Quilting to leave my latest 'baby' with her. Yes ... my new quilt-design-in-progress is FINISHED!! Well ... the top is! So, I thought I'd show you all another sneaky peek that will start to give you a bit more of an idea of where this design led me. Ready??


Ta! Da!! As you can see, that was no ORDINARY bear holding a daisy umbrella - it's a FAIRY BEAR!! People are always telling me I'm 'off with the faeries' and for the last few weeks ... I HAVE BEEN! Tee! Hee! Hee! I've had a lot of fun working on this new pattern design and look forward to sharing it with you all. I promise I'll show a pic of the finished top in the next little while. Rosalie is a bit busy at the moment, so it will be a few weeks til I can stitch the binding on and show you the TOTALLY finished quilt. In the meantime, I'll just tease you with a few more sneaky peeks in coming days! Tee! Hee! Hee! And of course, I have to start thinking about the not-so-fun part of the design process - the instruction writing! GROAN!! I think I'll take a leaf out of Scarlet O'Hara's book and 'think about it tomorrow'! :0)

Right now, I'm off to see if I can unearth the kettle from all the clutter to make myself a bracing cup of tea before I start to tackle the renovation clean up. Til next time - Bear Hugs!

CHEERS!
KRIS

PS. Don't forget to check Marion's weekly specials throughout July! This week's specials are Christmasy bits and bobs, so pop into her blog to find out the details - you may even find yourself organised and ready for Christmas this year ... maybe!!! Tee! Hee! Hee! BH! KRIS

Renovation Rescue!

Or should that be, "rescue me from renovation"?!?! The action I mentioned in my last post that would be going on in the Meares' Madhouse this weekend is well and truly underway - we're getting a new kitchen! Now, everyone keeps saying "I bet you're excited about that." Well ... yes AND no! I'll be excited when the new kitchen is installed and everything is put away in the cupboards, but I can't say I'm enjoying the process very much! The worst part is the NOISE!! How come renovating is inevitably NOISY!! I'm starting to think it's a 'Boy Thing' - you know how for the most part, boys are noisier than girls? I think this is the 'grown up' version of 'boy noise'!! So I've been doing a lot of hiding out in the office - funny how many 'must do' jobs I found that required the scanner and computer this weekend! Tee! Hee! Hee! And while I can't share the noise with you (bet you're all really pleased about THAT!!) I CAN share some photos of our renovation action, so here we go.

Now, I'll start by saying that when we first moved into this house, the cupboard doors in the kitchen were all a dark (and I do mean DARK!) brown timer-look laminate. After about six months, I got tired of cooking in a cave and in desperation painted the doors with green suede paint - not the best colour match or look, but it DID achieve the desired result of a lighter room ... which looked like this ...


That little bit of bench space on the left is where the kettle and water jug sat - no room for anything else!!


The other little bit of bench space is all the workspace I've had for seven years - minus the space taken up by the toaster and the George Foreman grill. The cupboards above the bench aren't deep enough for a dinner plate to be stored flat and not high enough for them to be stored on their edge ... talk about impractical design!! You can see the chaos has already begun with things from cupboards scattered around. OK ... next step ... the DEMOLITION!!


There goes the pantry! And there's my Beloved Geek Boy in "Demolition Man" mode. Hmmm ... not sure ugg boots are the standard footwear for renovating, but he said he'd rather have warm toesies!! :0) And those jeans have seen a home decorating project or two! Tee! Hee! Hee! I'm really very fortunate, even though my Beloved is a super techno-geek, he's also very handy when it comes to renovating etc - a man of many talents, one of the reasons I keep him - along with his gorgeous blue eyes and cute tushie! Oops! Did you just hear him blush! Tee! Hee! Hee! OK, moving right along with our demolition ...


This is Scott's youngest brother, Benny, who popped in to help for the day. (Thanks Benny!!) He said he's not very good at building stuff, but he's pretty good at demolishing it! So, he was the man to help! Tee! Hee! Hee! You can see he's already working on taking those DARK and BORING tiles off the wall - yay!! What next ...


Oooh ... the ugly chipboard cupboards are gone, so's the kitchen sink ... and there's Benny in action. He REALLY enjoyed trashing stuff - anger management therapy perhaps! :0)

Now, one of the great unsolved mysteries of our house has been the fireplace and chimney in the outside laundry that backs onto the house at the kitchen wall. Yes ... most folks have a fireplace in the lounge room so they can be warm and cozy ... we have one in the LAUNDRY! Well, we've never professed to be normal! Tee! Hee! Hee! Really, we knew it was probably used to boil the coppers to do laundry, but by rights, there should have been another fireplace on the other side, in the kitchen, but the back of the laundry fireplace showed no such opening. Hmmmm ... curiouser and curiouser! Well, when the pantry was demolished and the ugly lino pulled up, we (that's the royal we, obviously, since I was actually hiding in the office when the deed was done!!) discovered something rather interesting ... some loose, badly-replaced VJ boards on the wall and ...


The original kitchen hearth!! When Scott peeked behind the badly-replaced wall boards (through a fairly big gap that he has to fill!), he could see that the fireplace opening has been bricked up at some stage in the house's history, it just wasn't as visible from the laundry side after all these years. We'd love to be able to make a feature of these lovely hearth bricks, but not sure we can ... we're still discussing the floor in general!! :0) So ... at the end of the day, this is what our kitchen looks like ...


An empty room that looks like a paint factory threw up in it!! You can bet your boots the colour scheme will be QUITE different after the new kitchen is in and we can paint!!

So ... that's our renovation action to date. Stay tuned for updates in the coming days! Hope your weekend is a little quieter than mine!! Til next time - Bear Hugs!

CHEERS!
KRIS

A "B" Post!

I know that's kind of a strange title to today's post, but I tried several that told you what I was chatting about and they all ended up rather wordy (I know, not at all like me!!) so the easiest way around it was declaring today's post a "B" post! Let me explain ...

The first "B" is a new "B"logging "B"uddy, Miriam, from Bubba Chenille. We'd 'met' each other in blogland in that usual bloglink-on-a-fave-blog kind of way and through email chats, discovered we're both in the city on the hill (freezing our BUTTS off today!!). So, of course, the natural progression was to meet up for lunch. So Wednesday found Miriam and I ensconced on the back verandah of the Chocolate Cottage, enjoying some caffeinated beverages and a chat. I think I let Miriam get a few words in! Tee! Hee! Hee! She now knows that I have even more to say in person than on my blog! :0) We had a lovely time of getting to know each other and chatting about all things crafty. Miriam and her two daughters are the energetic engines behind the Handmade Expo events that southeast Queenslanders have been enjoying for a little while now and Miriam makes the cutest baby clothes and accessories from vintage chenille quilts - pop in and say g'day and check our her cute and fuzzy fashions. Now ... I was also a little bit spoilt, because Miriam brought me a little chenille treat ...

A very funky wheat pack!! YAY! Miriam must be a bit psychic, because the night before, my trusty, much-used wheat pack developed a terminal tear and leaked half a wheat field in my bed!! (I'm still finding the odd bit of wheat in my doona!!!) Talk about perfect timing!! Thank you soooooooo much Miriam! Not only do I have a new blogging buddy, I received a lovely gift that warmed my heart ... and my toesies! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Now ... the second "B" for this post happened today, when my dancing buddies, Deb and Lynda and I, headed for our 'special occasion' destination, the Angel Cafe, to celebrate Deb's "B"irthday! We had a wonderful afternoon, filling our tummies with delicious food, sipping multiple cups of hazelnut and chai lattes and chatting, chatting, giggling, chatting, laughing-loudly-enough-to-alarm-other-patrons, chatting ...!! I think you can now picture our little trio's outing!! :0) Life brings us friends of all kinds - some are hard work and need lots of our attention, some are fair-weather friends who disappear when the going gets tough and if you're REALLY fortunate, life brings friends who are easy to be with AND will stick with you through the icky times as well as the fun. THAT's the sort of friends Deb and Lynda are,so

HOW LUCKY AM I!!

Here we are ready to enjoy our cafe fix ...

Three goddesses!! Tee! Hee! Hee! From left to right, there's Deb, yours truly and Lynda. Thanks for a great afternoon, gals!! We'll have to do it again soon!! And a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Deb!!

And the final "B" for my post is a sneaky peek. OK ... my spelling isn't so bad that I can't see that "sneaky peek" does NOT begin with the letter "B". HOWEVER ... the part of my quilt that I'm going to show you the sneaky peek of DOES start with "B". In fact, I'm feeling generous after my lunchtime outing, so I'll share TWO sneaky peeks that start with "B". Ready??


A "B"utterfly!! Hmmm ... one must have escaped from my last quilt! Tee! Hee! Hee! And I think someone said they thought there might be a butterfly somewhere on my quilt-design-in-progress!! Now for the second sneaky peek ...


Ta da!! It's a "B"ear!! And she's found a handy use for one of those yellow flowers I showed you in an earlier post. Are you intrigued yet?? I hope so, because I'm almost finished the embroidery on this fun new design, so it won't be long until I can reveal the finished quilt top - stay tuned!!

And that concludes my "B" report today. Why do I suddenly feel like I'm in an episode of "Sesame Street" and Big Bird is about to say ... "Today's show was brought to you by the letter "B" and the number "3" ." :0) I think all that caffeine from lunch has worn off and I need to go and put the kettle on for a nice cup of tea! Oh! ... I just thought of another "B" to tell you ... "B"efore I go, a couple of reminders!! Don't forget to check May Britt's blog to find out who the lucky winner of the end of month prize draw was for the OPAM Challenge for June AND don't forget to start popping into Marion's Quilters Angel blog and website so you can take advantage of her FABULOUS July specials she has planned - I sure will be!!!

I hope you all have some fun things planned for the weekend - we've got some major action happening in the Meares' Madhouse, so stay tuned for reports and photos!!! Til next time - Bear Hugs!

CHEERS!
KRIS

I Won! I Won! I Won!!!

OK, you've probably got the idea by now that I WON something!! :0) Now, I'm rather excited about that BEFORE you get to the prize, cos I NEVER win ANYTHING!! I've lost count of how many give-aways I've joined, raffle tickets I've bought, prize forms I've filled out ... and I NEVER win! Oh ... well, except once when I was at Uni and I entered a "Woman's Day" romance writing competition ... I won a HUGE bottle of perfume ... that made me sneeze! :0) But apart from that ... I just don't seem to be 'lucky'.

However ... my luck took a turn last week. While I was sulking about the nasty head cold ambushing me, I took a bit of a cyber-stroll through blogland to cheer myself up and catch up with my blogging buddies I'd been too busy to catch up with the week before. All was uneventful (but fun and informative, of course!!) until I popped into Melly's "Melly & Me" blog. I started to read her post announcing the winners of her most recent give away ... and nearly fell off my chair when I saw "Kris" listed as one of the winners. Hmmm ... well, I've discovered there are a few other bloggers with the same spelling as me, so I still didn't get excited. Then, I ran the computer cursor over the name ... and saw the link come up as "http://tagalongteddies.blogspot.com". WAIT! That's ME!! Must be a mistake. Move the cursor away ... put it back ... nope, still comes up with MY blog address! Maybe I'm sicker than I thought and I'm hallucinating (at least there's no pink hippopotamuses dancing before my eyes ... ALTHOUGH, being on Melly's blog ... it could happen!! Tee! Hee! Hee!) OK, one more sanity check here before I get excited ... move the cursor ... move it back ...

YIPPEE!!! I WON!!!

Happy Dance! Happy Dance! Oh wait ... WHAT did I win?!?!?! Tee! Hee! Hee! Let me show you, cos it arrived in today's mail ...



I won a copy of the latest "Melly & Me" Pattern, 'Feathered Friends', signed by the lovely Melly. Isn't this a seriously CUTE bag!!!! And, OK, I won't be making it in THAT colour, but it's pictured here on top of part of my stash, so you can see that I should be able to find SOMETHING to make it in ... hmmm ... which fabrics would look good?? SIGH! I had to be good and not start making it straight away cos the ol' "To Do" list would shriek like a Banshee at me for attention, but I can play with my fabrics and plan ... right???! Thank you soooooooo much, Melly - and Rosie!! - for my prize! It was certainly a lovely thing to find out and help cheer me up last week when the nasty head cold had a hold of me and it sure was nice to get FUN mail today instead of bills!!! (it's THAT time of year!!) I love dropping into Melly's blog, as I never know what new critter there will be to greet me - there HAS been a pink hippopotamus before!! And the most GORGEOUS dodo who is still on my "One Day" wish list! Tee! Hee! Hee! I just love the sense of fun this lovely pattern range captures!! And Melly has a new logo, too, so if you haven't popped over for a visit for a while - treat yourself!! And while you're there, you can take a peek at photos of the yummy projects in Melly's recently released super-special book "Kaleidoscope".

And now that I've exhausted myself with happy dancing, I'm off to do some more stitching - stay tuned for more sneaky peeks! What will be revealed next .....??!! Til next time - Bear Hugs!

CHEERS!
KRIS