The Alphabet Club - Detention for Letter "A"

"They only met online, but it changed their lives forever"

Today is Saturday 1st August (and the first Saturday of the month).... 

which means today is posting day for

"The Alphabet Club" (TAC)

Over the coming 26 months (oh my goodness.... that is a long time isn't it?), I will try and introduce you to some typically Aussie words and sayings (commonly called strine or slang), and who knows there may even be some stitching to show!

So pull up a pew, grab a cuppa and an Anzac biccie, take the weight off for awhile and have a squizz at my post all about the letter "A" :o)

So where do I start... well, let's start with the obvious "A" - Aussie (pron. Ozzie) - Australian!  Yep, that's me - one good old fashioned Aussie Sheila writing about some great Australiana!

Let's try these ones on for size.....

Ace!: Excellent! Very good!
Aerial pingpong: Australian Rules football
Amber fluid/nectar: beer
Ankle biter: small child
Arvo: afternoon
Aussie salute: brushing away flies with the hand

One of my favourite sayings is "Act your age not your shoe size".....  and then of course there is always the saying "Away with the pixies" which as a young 'un would have described me - I was often away in my own world snuggled up with a book and tuning out everything and everyone around me! Nothing's changed actually, I still do it now....

Probably one of the best known Aussie acronyms would be ANZAC.  The acronym ANZAC was coined in 1915 when Australian and New Zealand troops were training in Egypt. The word ANZAC was eventually applied to all Australian and New Zealand soldiers in World War 1. The term is particularly associated with the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915.  The ANZAC biscuit came about as a way to send food to the soldiers that wouldn't spoil before it arrived at its destination.  The recipe for the Soldier's Biscuits was based on a Scottish recipe (or so I believe) and was dubbed the ANZAC biscuit after the landing at Gallipoli.  The biscuits would be sent in a tin, often the "Billy Tea" tin, to keep them fresh.

For those that might be interested I have added a recipe for the scrummy ANZAC biscuit below:

ANZAC Biscuits
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup plain flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 (three-quarters) cup coconut
125g (4 oz) butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
½ (half) teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 tablespoon boiling water
Combine oats, sifted flour, sugar and coconut.
Combine butter and golden syrup, stir over gentle heat until melted.
Mix soda with boiling water, add to melted butter mixture, stir into dry ingredients.
Take teaspoonfuls of mixture and place on lightly greased oven trays; allow room for spreading.
Cook in slow oven (150°C or 300°F) for 20 minutes.
Loosen while still warm, then cool on trays.
Makes about 35.

I had planned to try and stitch a Letter "A" for this first post... but as usual the best laid plans of mice and men, and me just didn't come off!  So instead of getting an "A" for this post I probably deserve an "F"!

If you would like to join in the fun of "The Alphabet Club", pop over to Chiara's blog (The Grey Tail) to see what all the fun is about and link up your for post for the Letter "A".

See you next next month when it will be Detention for the Letter "B".

Hoo roo from me....
Hugs xx

Sneak Peek.... Halloween Style!

As most of you know I have been trying to stitch monthly Halloween designs as part of the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL 2015 Blog.... most month's I don't always manage to have a finish to show... but....

I am on time this month; I have finished my July "Haunted House", and I have even managed to get a post up by the end of July!!

My Haunted House is from "The Trilogy's Halloween Sneak Peek".  The last time you saw this design it looked a bit like this:

And now with the Haunted House done it looks like this:

Sneak Peek Halloween - The Trilogy
Haunted House finished July 2015

I did make one small change to the colours on this one.... the yellow/orange that the chart called for was way too close to the fabric colour so I swapped it out for DMC 165.... which does show up somewhat better!

With a little bit of luck I will get the Sneak Peek Black Cat finished in time for an August posting.... and my September theme of "Spooky Words" is almost done as well.... oh, does that mean I might be getting organised! Don't believe it!! :o)

Til til next time.... happy Halloween stitching
Hugs xx

It's a wrap! FNSI & IHSW July Update

Friday Night Sew In (FNSI).... held on the third Friday of every month

Let's start with Friday night's stitching....  I had great intentions of doing heaps of stitching on Friday night but.... I was so knackered when I got home from work that in the end I decided to grab one of the smaller designs that I have been slowly working on rather than risk stitching on something larger and frogging it all out again on Saturday!!

Friday's lucky stitching winner was the little Christmas Kitty freebie from Margaret Sherry.  I started this one back in January, put it down again until April and then forgot about it again until now....

Before I started stitching on Friday night he looked like this:

Christmas Kitty - April 2015

Now he looks like this.... nowhere near finished though!!  Oh well, I am sure there will be another opportunity soon to get him finished!

Christmas Kitty - July 2015

Now after all the fun of a Friday Night Stitch In, don't forget to head back over to Wendy's blog (Sugarlane Designs) to see what she got up to over the weekend.

International Hermit & Stitch Weekend (IHSW).... held on the third weekend (Fri - Sun) of every month

As I mentioned on Friday, the weekend just gone was also IHSW time.  Now that you have seen Friday's stitching effort, let me show you what I stitched on during Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday saw Nora Corbett Christmas Eve Courier "Prancer" come out of the stitching basket.

When you last saw "Prancer" at the beginning of the month he was missing a leg or two...

"Prancer" - 2 July 2015

 I have now managed to completed his two back legs and started on the front leg.  As you will probably notice the top part of the ribbon is still in the same spot as last time!!!  I am trying to leave all the white stitching to the last possible moment.....

"Prancer" - 20 July 2015

Sunday was a very dark and damp day... perfect weather for stitching on a Halloween design!  Which was just as well as I remembered on Friday that I hadn't got myself organised to stitch the Haunted House for the Halloween Ornie Blog post at the end of the month.

So enter "Halloween Sneak Peek" by The Trilogy.  Now the last time you saw this one was way back in February when it looked like this:

"Halloween Sneak Peek" - The Trilogy - February 2015

As you will notice I have stitched some more of the black border and completed one inside box border.  This little inside border will have a haunted house in it eventually!  All I have to do is get the house stitched before the end of the month....

"Halloween Sneak Peek" - The Trilogy - July 2015

If you are wondering what everyone else did over the weekend, drop on over to Joyce's blog and have a look at sign up post for a full list of who was participating.

So that is it for my stitching weekend.... I did do some "finishing" to my MS Lovers Blog exchange piece on Saturday and Sunday.  Fingers crossed that should be in the mail by the end of this week and then hopefully in a couple of weeks time I will be able to show you a finished finish!!! :o)

Enjoy your week, happy stitching
Hugs xx

TUSAL July 2015

Before I forget again.... I thought I had better get my TUSAL post up!

The orange suitcase is filling up rather quickly.... which is just great!  Lots of ORT's mean lots of stitching happening :o)

Did you see my two new needleminders in the background..... a sweet little shiny Marie (from the Aristocats) and a multicoloured owl!  Gina always has these beautiful shiny things that I just can't resist..... I think I am developing another addiction!!

I will try and get back tomorrow to give you all a stitching update on the FNSI and IHSW, but for now I must go back to my stitching!

Catch you next new moon! Happy stitching...

Hugs xx

*********************

If you don't know (or haven't heard) about the 2015 TUSAL, Daffycat is again hosting the fun Totally Useless SAL (TUSAL).  Essentially we stitch and save our ORT's (Old Raggety Threads) and every New Moon those of us participating in the TUSAL post a picture of our ORT's jar, and then leave little msgs for Daffycat on her blog to show that we have been stitching and have posted our wonderful pics.  Please head over to her sign up page and join in the fun!

New Moons - 2015
14th August
13th September
13th October
11th November
11th December

It's sign up day for FNSI & IHSW!

Well.... this is a first for me!  Friday Night Sew In (FNSI).... held on the third Friday of every month!

I have seen this monthly event around on Blog and FB for some time now, but have never got around to signing up and posting about it - but this month I saw the link up post on Wendy's blog in plenty of time!  So now that I have signed up, I just need to get ready for a good Friday stitching marathon - not that I need an excuse to stitch on a Friday night!! :o)

This is probably one of the simplest SAL's to join.... just sign up for the party and on Friday Night (tonight) join in the stitching fun in any way, shape or form, stitch to your heart's content and then share your Friday night stitching pics on a blog post some time over the weekend.

Stage 2 of the party fun is to visit everyone else over the weekend to see what they got up to on Friday night!  After all the fun of the weekend, check back in to Wendy's blog (Sugarlane Designs) on Monday night to see who has won this month’s FNSI randomly drawn prize.

See, I told you it was easy.... I will be stitching tonight anyway so I thought I might as well sign up for the fun of the party.

If you want to join in, go over to Wendy's blog and sign up - the link is right here!  Will see you at the party!

Who needs another reason to stitch all weekend??  Not me, but I will take whatever excuse is on offer to prove that I just have to stitch all weekend, especially as the weather forecast is for a very wet, cold wintery weekend here this weekend!!

So as I mentioned before, today is the third Friday of the month - so that also means that this weekend is IHSW!

Joyce has now posted her sign up post for this weekend... hurry on over and link up for a great weekend of stitching!  And don't forget to visit everyone's blog that is taking part in IHSW from Monday when all those lovely pics and posts will start appearing!

Have a great weekend of stitching... see you on the other side!!

Enjoy your Friday, see you soon....
Hugs xx