Ravelry surprises

Just a quick post to say that I received my Ravelry tea cosy swap package from Serenaj:


The tea cosy is so cute!! Did I ever say that red is my favourite colour?? The most surprising in the package was a packet of shortbread from Miss Mauds. I love staying there whenever I used to go to Perth for work! How did she know? Anyway, all the food items have been devoured - well still working through the tea, but there was also some Lindt chocolate and lavender scented hand cream!


Thanks heaps SerenaJ!!

Birthdays and Christmas all together

Christmas this year has been a bit of a quiet one, with both the older sister and her husband choosing to have a white Christmas in Idaho. So this year, it was just Lucille and I packing the car and driving down to Goulburn to spend a few days with the Parents.

But prior to that, there was a small gathering to celebrate the fact that I've turned the big three-O.

First there was cake:


then some well wishing:


And a surprise gift from my little sister's good friend Linda - a gift voucher to Tapestry Craft. A quick visit to the city on my day off found me picking through the remains of the sale. I ended up stocking up on extra tips in my Knit Picks Options and a skein of Araucania sock yarn.

On Christmas eve there was another party in which I won the first hand at Mahjong:


Christmas day was spent bumming around the farm and antagonising the dogs (or was that the other way round?). Boxing day (also the day I actually turn three-o), saw me come back to Sydney to make a delivery with my dad. On the drive back, a stop at Pheasants Nest at the petrol station ended up with this strange conversation with this strange man:

HIM: "Hi I'm Dave by the way"
Me: "I'm Lien"
HIM: "So where are you going?"
Me: "Goulburn"
HIM: "So where are you from?"
Me: "Goulburn" (I'm not really, but heck, has anyone seen Wolf Creek??)
HIM: "So you're farmers?"
Me: "My dad is"
HIM: "So what do you guys speak? Cantonese, Cambodian, Vietnamese?"
Me: "Cantonese"
HIM: "So do you guys normally marry your own kind?"
Me: "I'm not married" (LIKE WTF??)
HIM: "OH YOU'RE NOT MARRIED?????

Like what the heck?? Do I have this "DESPERATE and DATELESS" look on my face and why ask me just as I turned 30??? Needless to say, I just turned to my dad and said to him once you're done with the coffee, we're going!!

Anyway, my mother decided she'll take the 27th off and go on a day trip with us. We ended up going to Canberra (where else?) and a quick detour to Bungendore for devonshire tea at the Wood Gallery.

A bit of Christmas crafting

We had grand plans to buy a live tree and decorate it for Christmas - however the environmental side of me was playing tug-of-war with the Christmassy side of me. Anyway, in the end finances won out. A cut tree is about fifty bucks and well, lets just say there is better things to spend a fifty on than something that ends up being deadwood in a couple of weeks.

There are heaps of trees near where my sister lives (one of those leafy areas) and so we managed to pick up a few twigs and spray painted them silver. We had some decorations left over from previous years, so we added them to the tree.



The other thing which we were too cheap to fork out for was a Christmas wreath. In this month's Better Homes and Gardens magazine, they had instructions on making a wreath using Eucalyptus branches and leaves. Here is my version:



It's a bit bare at the moment. I'm looking for some grevilleas to add some colour but haven't seen any around locally (as in on some Council property). Actually, I haven't seen these plants around for quite a while - they used to be everywhere!!

I think this may be it for our Christmas decorating. It's taking things down after Christmas which is the real pain in the ass. Also, I think our neighbour has enough decorations for all of us. They even strung up some fairy lights over the eaves outside my room - very pretty and I can stare at them for hours.