Congrats to our son

Congrats to our son ... passed his driving test 1st time (like his big sis did 3 years ago ... yay!) last Thursday. Now he has to complete a 25 hour log book over 6 months so should be able to go on the roads on his own at the end of November - we won't know ourselves haha!
I've been busy painting bobbins - 139 in the last 8 days!!! still quite a few to go and another order arrived 2 days ago for 29 - so no peace for the wicked!!! I did get to go out for the day yesterday "up into the hills" to the monthly WA Branch (Aus Lace Guild) meeting and managed to do about 4 inches of the lace strip that I have on the go at the moment .... It was lovely weather (even though Winter here in Australia officially starts tomorrow), sunny and around 24°c and was the same today (not that I was out in it!
Pic here was taken back in January when we got our son his Holden Astra car .... it's been good practice for me driving a manual again as my own car is an auto but the 2 cars which I will be hiring in August in the UK will be manual.... Just in case any of you are wondering I haven't forgotten my promise to Raffle a "Wild Woman" Brooch ... I just haven't transferred the pics to this computer yet .... please stay tuned.... :-) I have quite a stash of pics to transfer .... and with my monthly Embroidery day on Friday ...there should be some more....

Madly Lace Bobbin painting

Hi All
I am still here - I have been busy painting bobbins .... clearing an order of 8 pairs of Australian State Flower bobbins - so 16 bobbins, another order of 9 various bobbins.... both orders have just been posted this morning ... ...I sorted and labelled around 80 bobbins on Saturday.
When I got home today it was to start varnishing another 100 bobbins.... the first 40 commemorative's for the online Aussie lace group -" Gumlace" (there will be over 100 items on this order eventually!) 8 pairs of bird bobbins that were ordered, 20 (5x4) new People bobbins - Cypress, Macedonia, Turkey and Cook Islands!, 30 Cattern's Day 2009 ladies (first batch I usually end up painting around 80 each year) and a couple of other odd orders.... phew! After the varnishing today I started painting 16 bobbins with the "Albany Pitcher Plant" which are the commemmorative ones for the Lace weekend this September ... I am counting down to my trip to the UK - I leave 9 weeks tonight ... so it's gonna be a verrrry busy few weeks.... I am also trying to work on my "Triennial LAce Competition" piece which needs to be finished before I leave as when I get back from the UK in September I only have 3 days at home before the "Albany Lace weekend" then when I get back from that - another 3 days to get the sox n jox washed and then I fly to Brisbane! for the Aus Lace Guild AGM week that I may or may not be teaching at (I won't know that until early August - 6 weeks before it takes place...!!!) So please forgive me if I am a little slack with the postings .... I am still popping by all your blogs when I get the chance :-) (oh and the pic here was a one off "Raffle" prize bobbin for last year)

Meerkat

Hi All
Just a quick note to let you all know I am alive and well haha! I have just been sooooo busy - the Friday (before last) at Northam - giving my talk on Needlelace went very well ... lovely place and lovely people.... I hope I get a chance to go again... I went to the Big Craft Fair here in Perth last Saturday - demonstrating bobbin lace with my "Lacecargot" Lace Group ... spent money on books, shiva sticks. prismacolour pencils and a few other bits and bobs - most of which were actually on my "shopping list"! I have taken pics of my goodies and also the other few crafty things I have been making and I hope to load the pics on here in the next few days.... In the meantime here is a pic of the mummy Meerkat which I took at the perth Zoo back in January - she was guarding her babies ... soooooo cute ... as you know I love Meerkats .... I have downloaded the crochet pattern from here to make one but as I have never crocheted I am having to learn first! haha - I tried to get some friends who already crochet to make one for me but none offered! dangit! LOL Haha! Another problem is that the Mohair wool (Patons) that they recomend is not available here in Australia though it is available in the UK - so I will try and get it when I am over there (I will be landing in London 10 weeks today!!!) and the second pic shows 2 of her babies (there were 3).

Daffodil purse

Hi All
I am still here - been really busy ... the Machine Embroidery workshop was good ... I am little more confident with the free machining but a long way to go (I still prefer the ol' hand embroidery hehe!) I am off to a small town called Northam tomorrow (never been there before) the Embroidery Group out there have asked me to go and talk to them about my needle lace ... I was gathering it all up last weekend and didn't realise it would take up a whole fairly large suitcase hehe! Here is a pic of my Daffodil neck purse ... the daffodil is "Elizabethan style" embroidery which I did on some of my hand dyed fabric years ago then dug out last year and embellished with some tatting etc....and turned it into a purse with earrings to match ...of course! hehe!