Retaining my Sanity – just

I’m so glad there are blogs out there to read because honestly I can’t tell you how much a quick dip into them restores my sanity at the moment so a big thank you to all of you who work so hard to keep your blogs interesting and inspirational.  I have Nicola home sick – again – with a horrible cough and tempreture. The phone hasn’t stopped ringing as I am trying to chase up paperwork for Ashley for a job, bills are coming out my ears and the washing is breeding in the laundry to the point I’m worried it’s going to take over the house…sigh. So I decided to take a moment for myself and update my blog as I have missed it more than I thought possible.

The big Going Away Party was on the weekend.

I thought one teenager was loud – 15 of them, all highly excited about giving a surprise party for Hayley, was mind blowingly loud. Still everything went well and they all thoroughly enjoyed themselves which is the main thing.

Some I had met before, most I hadn’t, but they were all lovely kids and very polite and respectful of the fact it was My house they were in and therefore they had to take care. I even had offers all day to help clean up which was nice.

The cake turned out perfectly and was more than big enough for everyone to have a decent sized slice….vbg…..it had to be big – both Elise and Belinda wanted to put so many decorations on it that any smaller and they would have looked like high rise buildings. Both girls worked incredibly hard to get everything done and set up and really tried to do most things themselves so I had little or nothing to do at all – apart from cook the BBQ which in the end I didn’t do as Ashley came home just in time to turn the sausages and hamburgers.

What was even nicer was at the end of the party all of the guests thoroughly cleaned up all the balloons, streamers, drink bottles (only soft drink) etc and even swept out the pergola so all I had to do was put dishes in the dishwasher and wash tableclothes. I’m sure they will all be invited back again….vbg.

(Do you recognise the pattern Sandie??….vbg)

The Going Away Quilt (a special gift from Elise) was a huge success with Hayley who is seriously into cats – even ones as brightly coloured as these. As a gift from all the other friends the girls bought a pretty note book and each person wrote a personal letter to Hayley and put it in an envelope in the book along with a special photo of themselves and Hayley which made it all the more special. She was told to read it when she got home as I’m sure there were some real tear jerker letters there. The amount of time some of them spent writing was amazing and they really put their heart and soul into such personal notes.

I was lucky enough to be able to sew, and I do mean seriously sew, to the point that I finished all the 6 inch blocks I needed for the bus quilt and have spent yesterday and will spend part of today putting the top together. Photos soon – flickr is being appallingly slow so I won’t try to load them today. If I cross all my fingers and toes and whatever else I can find I may even manage to get it quilted by the end of the week or at the very least early next week. The weather is the kind where I just have to stay inside – it’s hayfever season and while my headache has gone, any length of time outdoors brings it back…sigh….so it is perfect quilting weather you might say.