When I got home yesterday there was an nice surprise waiting at the front door!  The  gorgeous Suse had dropped by and given me one of her amazing calendars…….twelve months of Sewjourn!  Suse takes incredible photos……..we are getting a digital SLR camera for Christmas so I can only hope that my photos might be half as good but I suspect know that there’s heaps more to it.  I love it when Suse and her friends visit Sewjourn because I know I’m in for a photographic treat when they load all their photos to flickr!  Anyway, if you would like images of Sewjourn hanging on your walls for all of next year you can purchase the calendar here.  Suse also has another calendar for sale along with a lovely collaborative one that you can see here.

It’s been a LOONG time between blog posts (anyone still out there??) but school has finished (no more school lunches for SIX whole weeks), there’s been Carols, gymnastic displays, a bit of shopping, lots of cooking (but no Christmas Card writing I’m afraid…..normally I’m not big on the email version of Christmas greetings but prefer the old-fashioned card in the mail but this year it’s looking like that’s what it is going to be from our house….)

Also had a lovely dinner with the UFO girls, lots of laughter, great food, more laughter, our challenges revealed and declarations made for next year.

And today the girls and I delivered a car load of ‘holiday things’ to Sewjourn.  Whilst I love having other people stay at Sewjourn, love the fact that others enjoy it too and have thoroughly enjoyed this year and met so many great people through the whole experience I must admit I do get excited when it comes to this time of year and we can go and relax there for a few weeks ourselves!!!  Today we cleaned, packed the cupboards with our food and clothes and generally made the place ‘ours’ again so that when we arrive a few days after Christmas it will be straight into relaxing!  (I’m hoping there will be a bit of creating in there too – and I’ve probably already delivered more projects than I’ll get through but no doubt I’ll cart a few more up next week too).

Of course, after such a busy year of visitors (with an even busier one set for next year) there are a few maintenance things to do.  The first is new ironing board covers….DONE!

And don’t let these few photos of flowers fool you…….there’s plenty of gardening to be done!

Mind you, the pumpkins that have appeared amongst the lavender are doing VERY well!  This photo was taken last week and they are about three times the size now!

And if you are in Melbourne and happen to get on tram 253 have a look for this art work inside………………..

But in admidst all the busyness and excitement (and yes, there are 3 little people at our house who are VERY excited that December has rolled around) there has been some crafting going on.  Some for Around the Block  and also the Rainbow Swap……..I’ll show you more in the next few days. 

The pudding is made and the tree is up so it’s starting to feel a bit more like Christmas.  Now it’s just weaving our way through the multitude of end-of-year activities, concerts, dinners, gift shopping (hmm, not much of THAT organised around here), cooking and cleaning without losing sight of the true meaning of Christmas.