……..from holidays which were fun and relaxing.

……..from enjoying the new car on the long trip.

……..from helping a very talented girl at the Australian Quilt Market on the weekend.

……..from celebrating birthday number 9.

………to FINALLY draw a winner for the giveaway.  Congratulations Selina – looking forward to having you come and spend a crafty day with us in January.  I’ll email you with the details in the next day or so.

……..to do my blocks for Around the Block and a Rainbow Swap.

………to do LOADS of washing.

………to catch up on some blog reading.

**More details and photos on all the above to come in the next couple of days.

Oops I’ve pretty much fallen off the Blogtoberfest wagon………  Well done to all those who have managed to post each day. And a huge WELL DONE to Tinniegirl and Curly Pops  for their initiative, organisation and hard work!

And what have I been doing?  Well I had a FABULOUS weekend away at Sewjourn with some girlfriends from church.  There was much chatter, lots of laughter, eating, sharing……and a bit of creating as well. 

It was a glorious day for the Farmers Market on Saturday.

Followed by a frantic week of car buying (yes, I finally have my dream car – a Honda Odyssey!! I figure it’s the people mover we need without being a bus) and holiday organising (off to Byron Bay tomorrow in the NEW CAR – just as well don’t think the other one would have made it that far!) and work (still so far behind) and well…….no blogging.

But, I do have a giveaway!  In September I had a giveaway to celebrate one year of Sewjourn and four girls won the chance to come with a friend and spend a day sewing at Sewjourn on Saturday January 30th.  Unfortunately one of the winners emailed me to say that she can no longer come along on that date (she was extremely keen to be travelling down from NSW anyway!) SO there is now ONE MORE SPOT AVAILABLE.  Simply leave me a comment on this post if you are interested in coming to spend the day crafting awayand relaxing and enjoying with like-minded souls on 30 January.  And you can even bring a friend.  It’s sure to be fun…….last year we had a ball.  Leave your comment by 1st November but I can’t promise when I will draw a winner – it will depend on internet access availability…….and if I can drag myself away from the beach to the computer!

Now must go and pack, and finish that last overdue block for Around the Block……..and get some sleep before the big drive.

Blogtoberfest starts tomorrow so that means I’m saying my words and getting my thoughts together and working on projects to show and wondering when I will fit in reading everyone’s posts (and doing my own)!  Last year was lots of fun and really go me into the swing of blogging – that’s when I reached 100 posts.  And there was lots of giveaways, as I’m sure there will be this year also…..am planning one myself so keep coming to visit regularly.   The very creative Tinniegirl is in the driver’s seat so visit her for more details. Enjoy!

Thank you SO much for all the lovely, encouraging comments on the last post.  Without further ado the winners are:

 Lisette from Textile Seahorse

Carmel from Solomon Sewing

Louise from One Creative Journey

and the blogless Vireya.

I will be in touch with everyone by email with more details of our day but looking forward to lots of fun and creativity!!

If you would like to go in the draw to win a gorgeous, hand-printed table runner head on over and visit Thea & Sami.  They also have an online shop selling the gorgeous fabrics and products printed in their Brisbane studio.

I was going to blog about Kellie’s amazing giveaway but I’m a day too late………it’s worth poping over and having a look at the gorgeous quilt she’s made anyway.  She’s such a talented lady and hopefully she will be visiting Sewjourn early next year to do a class…..more info when we manage to sort out the details!

And, of course don’t forget to enter my giveaway whilst you are at it……..

1 Year, 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days – whatever way you look at it, it has been lots of fun and so rewarding…………yes, it has been hard work at times but good hard work!  And as an added bonus I’ve met so many great people.  So thank-you to each and every one of you – to all those who have helped out in numerous ways, to all the lovely guests (and for your encouraging feedback) and for those of you who read this blog (especially the fantastic people who take the time to leave me comments!)

Let’s celebrate with a giveaway!  It will work in a similar way to this one and I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say it was lots of fun.

If you would like to come and spend a day crafting at Sewjourn with some other creative souls just leave me a comment on this post and I’ll pop you into the draw.  If you have a blog and mention this giveaway let me know and you’ll gain a second entry into the draw.  The four winners will get to come along, with a friend, to relax, create and enjoy for the day on Saturday 30th January 2010.   Please leave your comments by 8pm (AEST) Sunday 5th September and I’ll post the winners on Monday 6th.  Good Luck!!!

The Studio. This is where you could spend the last Saturday in January….

PS  If you want to see some great photos of Sewjourn go to flick.com and search for Sewjourn – the amazing ladies were retreating this past weekend take the most awesome shots…….I’d like to think if we upgraded our camera we could do the same but I think there’s a bit more to it than that…..!

When I started my 7 weeks of full time work I knew it would mean less reading blogs and less posting…….but it wasn’t my intention to disappear altogether!  But it seems that is what has happened over the past few weeks…..haven’t even had time to read other’s blogs!  Work is good though – it’s the juggling fitting in my ‘usual jobs’ and Sewjourn and being a mum on top of this that is keeping me on my toes! Thanks to those lovely people that have emailed to see how I was travelling…….the answer is good (I think!)

Some really good things about the past couple of weeks have included:

• One of my best friends having a beautiful, healthy baby girl
• My Mum coming to help out, be chief cook, taxi driver, Book Week Costume coordinator, etc etc
• Having a great night at our school fundraiser last weekend
• Meeting lots of interesting people through work and getting to see how different pharmacies operate
• Earning some money!

But trying to keep on top of everything with Sewjourn has been hard over the past couple of weeks and let’s just say this week has proved to be the most challenging yet!  Needless to say, going up to Lancefield to clean after work last night I was feeling quite disheartened.  Driving into Sewjourn though (having not been there for a couple of weeks) and seeing the gorgeous daffodils flowering again, I realised how much I love the place and my mood lifted.  Our original philosophy with Sewjourn still stands….’Relax, Create and Enjoy’…….our aim was to create a special place for small groups of friends to have ‘time out’.  And I was reminded how many people have told me over the past year that this is exactly what they have done.  Apart from feeling encouraged by this I also realised……..the last year!  This weekend marks the first anniversary of Sewjourn opening!  And what a fantastic year it has been.  I have met so many amazing people and had lots and lots of fun along the way.  So thank you to each and every one of you that has contributed to this journey…..your enthusiasm is a great encouragement.

And, yes of course we should celebrate with a giveaway!  I haven’t worked out the final details yet but pop back over the weekend for more info……..

Yesterday was a really fun day spent with some lovely crafty ladies and their friends.  It was great to actually meet some people from blogland! There was much craftiness, chatter and eating……and I was really excited to show off Sewjourn!  The creativity of all these girls is amazing – collages, dressmaking, spinning, quilting, embroidery……….the list goes on.  I did manage to do some more yoyos for the curtain for the front room.

Actually we were lucky to have any food to eat at all as my plans for cooking Friday afternoon at home were thwarted by power failure so I packed up EVERYTHING……all the ingredients, tins, food processor – you get the picture……..and headed to Lancefield.  Firstly I turned on the airconditioners in the cottage and the studio and then unpacked the car ready to roll when……….THE POWER WENT OFF THERE TOO!  All of Lancefield was without power until about midnight, even the pool had to close so a cold shower was all I could do to cool down.  But with an early morning start all was recovered and we did have food to eat.  (By the way the power at home was off for more than 12 hours!)  Thank goodness for some cooler days ahead.

And a huge thanks to Meredithe and Bonnie for your help – you gals are great!

I’m sure my husband, the e-Business guru, will laugh at the way we drew this giveaway – he would have some computer generated program but the girls and I thought this was the fun way………all the names were cut up and put in a bowl that belonged to my grandmother and drawn out by the girls.

And the four lucky girls are…………..

So, Curly Pops, Suse, Bronwyn and Kylie – I’m looking forward to meeting you all (and remeeting you Bronwyn since we just discovered yesterday that we knew each other about 10 years ago!) and spending a FUN day together at Sewjourn.  I’ll be in touch with details.  Thanks to everyone for entering the giveaway and for all your kind comments.

Phew, the end of Blogtoberfest (thanks Big Cat for the suggestion and prompting me to post more often).  I think that means a couple of days off from blogging for me!  We are going to Sewjourn for four days anyway – a few more jobs on the ‘to do’ list there as well as some R&R I hope.

Today we set off on our second road trip – this time to Bendigo and Castlemaine.  All three shops visited – Attic Crafts, Honeysuckle Patchwork and Threadbear are absolutely gorgeous and the three of us all walked out with our bags a bit heavier and wallets a bit lighter!  Again it was a really fun day with lots of laughing and lots of chatting……….only this time I forgot to take the camera so you will just have to take my word for it.

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway before Friday!