Monday Makers!#52 and a forgotten treasure

Hiya all! Hope you had a good weekend.

I am aware that I have become a "Monday Makers! poster only" and this is making me a little upset. On the other hand, I can't do much to change this and post more often. I am not talking about becoming a serial poster like one-post-every-day. I would be pretty happy with myself if I could make a little more and post at least three times a week. Being pregnant also doesn't work for my advantage. These days, I can't get a bar of sleep because I developed RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome); therefore, I wake up so cranky (I would use another word to describe me...starts with b and finishes with h!). I can't attend the Spanish classes; once everybody leaves the house, I go back to bed and try to get some sleep. I still go to work in the afternoons but thank God, this week is my last week. When I come home, I have a light dinner and go to bed without even studying Spanish.

I was being very hopeful upon our return home from Europe. I was full of energy, new ideas, sewing mojo, and everything. I was going to finish my son's quilt and start a baby quilt, finish that one and start another one, make progress with my EPP hexies. Everything looked perfectly pink. Now I realise that I was being quite unrealistic-like I didn't know what it was like to be heavily pregnant. Of course, because I can't reach even a single goal in this list, I feel pretty useless at the moment. I am reminding myself that growing a human being inside you is not a very easy job but...yeah, I still feel useless. Anyway, enough nagging.

Yesterday, I helped hubby with decluttering in the garage. What I mean by helping is basically sit down and watch him open the boxes and order him "keep" or "chuck". Then he opened up a very dusty box and said "my love, I think you will love this, better come here". I walked to him curiously and looked inside the box. It was full of forgotten treasures; old photos, CDs, letters from friends, some jewellery, hair clips...It was amazing how all these items took me back to my university years; some items were even older. And this is one of them...

After I graduated from high school, I attended several hobby classes organised by different community organisations in my hometown. Antique painting was one of them. I think I was eighteen when I painted this cute box and I remember I enjoyed it a lot.

I used this chest for a very long time and packed it among many things for our move to Australia. When I opened it, I found another surprise inside...

This is the veil and mittens I used in my henna party. In Turkey, the tradition is that you have a henna night the night before your wedding and you cover your face with a red veil during the ceremony. In this ceremony, all the ladies of your family and friends come together, form a circle which you sit inside of, dance around you while passing the henna tray from one to the other. At the end of the dance, the eldest-normally your grandma, if not, your mum, holds the tray and applies henna in both of your palms. Then she wraps the henna with some fabric to secure it in its place and you wear these mittens in the picture. It is also a part of the tradition that she puts some money in the mitten- I found ten Turkish Lira :)

Finding these put a smile on my face for the rest of the day...

Bonus...

Quite a blurry picture. Me in traditional costumes and my mittens. This is the residence that hubby and I lived before he finished his job in Canakkale. What a lovely night it was...

Now to Monday Makers!
Come and share with us your projects!

1.Your project can be anything you start on that Monday as long as it makes you move and be active and creative: a new quilt, a knitting project, scrap booking, cross-stitching, baking-we don't mind yummy recipes!, a gardening project, painting your house!, tidying up the pantry!...This is your Monday and you are the maker of the day!

2. Grab the button from the side bar or put a link back to me in your Monday post.

3. Click on "add your link" and just fill in the required areas. 
4. Please link to your specific post, not to your homepage: We would like to find your post easily.

5. To link an Instagram photo, click the Instagram icon at the bottom of the link-up screen and use the URL of your IG feed as the link (for example, my URL is http://instagram.com/hugabitquilts) Please hashtag #MondayMakers!
6. Please take time to visit other links and leave a sweet comment: We love comments!

7. Share the photos of your finished Monday projects in your next link up- I am hoping you will come back again!: Who doesn't love a sweet, finished project or a "before-after" photo?

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday Makers!#51 and a little brag

G'day all!
Hope you had a great week and I wish you a lovely Monday too- away from the notorious Mondayitis!

As some of you might know, I am a member of the do.Good Stitches Cherish Bee organised by Rachel at Stitched in Color. Our bee members make fantastic quilts; it is amazing to see how everybody comes up with their own combinations and  how they come together so perfectly. From time to time, Rachel visits all the other do.Good Stitches bees and highlights one on her blog. This month, she highlighted my bee and it caught me by surprise.
I regularly visit her blog and it was a nice surprise to see my block highlighted and getting a nice compliment.

"Such beautiful, crisp points!" 

And look at the gorgeous quilt that KathrynJonesQuilts made! 

I am very proud of my bee members!

Now to Monday Makers!

1.Your project can be anything you start on that Monday as long as it makes you move and be active and creative: a new quilt, a knitting project, scrap booking, cross-stitching, baking-we don't mind yummy recipes!, a gardening project, painting your house!, tidying up the pantry!...This is your Monday and you are the maker of the day!

2. Grab the button from the side bar or put a link back to me in your Monday post.

3. Click on "add your link" and just fill in the required areas. 
4. Please link to your specific post, not to your homepage: We would like to find your post easily.

5. To link an Instagram photo, click the Instagram icon at the bottom of the link-up screen and use the URL of your IG feed as the link (for example, my URL is http://instagram.com/hugabitquilts) Please hashtag #MondayMakers!
6. Please take time to visit other links and leave a sweet comment: We love comments!

7. Share the photos of your finished Monday projects in your next link up- I am hoping you will come back again!: Who doesn't love a sweet, finished project or a "before-after" photo?

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday Makers!#50 and a personal update (Warning: a loong post)

Hiya all! Hope you had a fantastic week/end and your Monday is chugging along nicely too.

Today I want to use this space to update /remind myself how things are going in my life. Seeing everything written in front of me somehow makes me feel accomplished more. If you are interested, keep reading; you might find something among the lines that you also relate to. If not, that's totally fine, just scroll down the page and find the Monday Makers! link open for you to share your beautiful finishes and fresh starts.

It has been two weeks since we returned from our big trip. What did I do during those weeks, or I should say what have I been doing since I returned? It is almost all the time cleaning/doing laundry stuff -I mean mountains of washing I have done and more to wash-, tidying up, trying to rest, little sewing *sigh*, studying Spanish, preparing for my Turkish language teaching classes- this is something I haven't told you, I will come to it, some sleep at nights- if I can due to my growing belly...Pfff, I felt tired while reading what I have written...

Over the years, we have accumulated so much stuff that we always promised ourselves "we will go through them and part with some that we don't need anymore." Being great procrastinators, we got to a point where in every cupboard or drawer we find something either unwanted or not needed anymore. We finally bit the bullet and started going through the whole house-me- and the garage-hubby. You can't believe, even I can't believe, how much stuff we have already gotten rid of. Decluttering brings cleaning along too. The more you clean the more you want to make room in your house; the more you declutter the more space you have to clean. This is a vicious cycle which I hope will end soon!

Our language training has started. Since we returned, I am attending the classes in the mornings for three hours and going to work in the afternoons. The great thing about this is, when I come home, the dinner is ready! (Hubby is free in the afternoons.) By language training, I mean, I sit down and listen and try to grasp as much as I can. I thought this wouldn't be a very effective way of learning but I now can understand almost everything my husband and the tutor are discussing. After having dinner, I try to spend at least half an hour to do my own Spanish study to support the day class. I once stressed about this but now I am more relaxed because I know I can do it.
I have only 14 afternoons left at work, then I will be on maternity leave. Don't get me wrong, I am not counting the days (minutes?)! Then, I have more time to relax and enjoy the calm before the storm hahahah :D

Just before I left for our holiday, out of the blue, a language school from Melbourne contacted me saying there was a lady in Canberra who wanted to learn Turkish and whether I would be interested in teaching her. I was going to say no because who wants one more responsibility in the list of priorities-that is quite long, trust me..But then I said, this is an opportunity that found me, I haven't done anything for this, so I will accept it and did. Teaching English is my profession in the end and I can very well teach Turkish too. The first class last week was a big success and  I have enjoyed it a lot. My student was very happy and satisfied too and hopefully it will continue this way. (I must admit that I was a little nervous before the class as I haven't taught for six years but once I started I didn't want to stop hahaha :)

Let's talk about quilting...
Just before I left, I left my machine for servicing. While I am not able sew, I might as well get her serviced, yes? It was her first time in five years! It didn't have any real issues causing me trouble but the needle and bobbin timing was a little off and also my stitches were coming like wide-angled zigzags. I touched her for the first time the other night and I can't tell how excited I was! (This sounds a little naughty!) She was running perfectly and all her problems were fixed. She is  much smoother now and I noticed while FMQing my son's quilt that she is handling corners and circles better. I have made some good progress on his quilt last Sunday. I am hoping to finish it soon and start a baby quilt for my little bundle.
Having mentioned about my son's quilt, my son is back to child care full time now but he is struggling a little bit to adjust. His best mate moved to France and my son is now finding excuses every morning for not going to school. The best one he came up with so far is that "childcare is dangerous for little boys." Once we drop him off, he is totally fine, but he is waiting for the day that his mate will return from "holidays"...This breaks my heart...Besides dealing with the absence of his mate, he is doing great and waiting for his little baby sister/brother to arrive. He says he has plans for the baby. Ummmm???

I am 31 weeks today and feeling like a whale. Daily chores are getting harder and harder and I am still hopeful that I will finish all the cleaning/decluttering and finish my current quilting projects and make more. Needless to say I am struggling to reach the sewing machine, my arms have to grow a little more!

Woohh!! I have written a novel!! But feels great! I can probably write more but this should suffice for the moment.
If you have read all the way until here, I thank you very much for your kindness! LOL Seriously, I appreciate you chose to spend your valuable time to read about my past two weeks and current schedule.
If you haven't, cool, just link up now below- and I agree, having no photos in a blog post is pretty boring!

1.Your project can be anything you start on that Monday as long as it makes you move and be active and creative: a new quilt, a knitting project, scrap booking, cross-stitching, baking-we don't mind yummy recipes!, a gardening project, painting your house!, tidying up the pantry!...This is your Monday and you are the maker of the day!

2. Grab the button from the side bar or put a link back to me in your Monday post.

3. Click on "add your link" and just fill in the required areas. 
4. Please link to your specific post, not to your homepage: We would like to find your post easily.

5. To link an Instagram photo, click the Instagram icon at the bottom of the link-up screen and use the URL of your IG feed as the link (for example, my URL is http://instagram.com/hugabitquilts) Please hashtag #MondayMakers!
6. Please take time to visit other links and leave a sweet comment: We love comments!

7. Share the photos of your finished Monday projects in your next link up- I am hoping you will come back again!: Who doesn't love a sweet, finished project or a "before-after" photo?

An InLinkz Link-up

(Belated) Monday Makers!#49 reporting from Canberra

Oh boy, I am so tired! We returned from our one month overseas holiday yesterday; me and my son arrived around lunch time and hubby arrived a few hours later. We had such great time; traveled to three countries and several other places within those countries. It was so nice to see my family and friends and many different places I haven't seen before. The return trip was such a long and hard one for me this time as I couldn't sleep in the plane at all-not more than two hours in an 18 hour flight from Istanbul to Melbourne. Again, almost no sleep in Melbourne either as the airline company stuffed up the transfer of my luggage and I kept on thinking about how to solve it. In the end, we arrived home safe and sound despite all the other hick-ups along the way such as a last minute cancellation of a flight and being put back on the same flight hours later, a husband who got stuck in Dubai because of the same reason but he wasn't as lucky as me, his arrival in Canberra was delayed for almost a day...I seriously thought that this return trip was not going to end at all. When I arrived home, I had to pinch myself to make myself believe that it wasn't a dream LOL
I was so tired that I collapsed on the sofa and couldn't do anything else. That's why I am posting MM today.
With our return home, a new marathon started for us, especially for me, today. I kicked off the day with the Spanish language course which will last until we move to Buenos Aires. I am now working everyday half day after the language training until 4 September and then I will be on maternity leave-not that I am counting days LOL. And of course, our baby's arrival is around the corner; only 10 weeks to go and I can't believe how fast the time is flying in this pregnancy. Until the baby arrives, I have to study a lot, finish whatever is needed to be done around the house-this is basically cleaning and getting rid of the clutter, make as many quilts as I can while on maternity leave especially-and my machine is back from service, I will get to test it today, yayy!, spend time with my husband and son and prepare myself for the new addition to our family. I have to say I am very excited about this period in my life. I feel very positive and energised; however, I don't know how long I will feel energised with a growing belly, but I am determined to enjoy every single moment of this rush.

Beautiful flowers in Turingen, Germany

Now to Monday Makers!
Come and link up your beauties with me!

1.Your project can be anything you start on that Monday as long as it makes you move and be active and creative: a new quilt, a knitting project, scrap booking, cross-stitching, baking-we don't mind yummy recipes!, a gardening project, painting your house!, tidying up the pantry!...This is your Monday and you are the maker of the day!

2. Grab the button from the side bar or put a link back to me in your Monday post.

3. Click on "add your link" and just fill in the required areas. 
4. Please link to your specific post, not to your homepage: We would like to find your post easily.

5. To link an Instagram photo, click the Instagram icon at the bottom of the link-up screen and use the URL of your IG feed as the link (for example, my URL is http://instagram.com/hugabitquilts) Please hashtag #MondayMakers!
6. Please take time to visit other links and leave a sweet comment: We love comments!

7. Share the photos of your finished Monday projects in your next link up- I am hoping you will come back again!: Who doesn't love a sweet, finished project or a "before-after" photo?

An InLinkz Link-up