Monday 30 March 2015

Monday Makers!#32

Hiya all!
Hope you had a good weekend and that you are happy and healthy. My health is not improving; I won't bore you with details tho.

Today I am finally sewing something after a very long time. It is the last day of March and I am finally catching up on some blocks for my do.Good stitches Cherish Bee.
Hope all the seams match once the pieces are sewn together.

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?


Monday 23 March 2015

Monday Makers!#31

Hiya all!
How was your week? I had a pretty awful week. I had been complaining about some stomach pain, heart burn, bloating and all sorts of discomfort. Finally, I went to my GP last Friday when I could no longer bear the extreme pain. It turned out that I have still been suffering from the tummy bug that my son shared with us three weeks ago! The bug also affected my bowels and caused them to slow down/stop which caused a different kind of discomfort...
The pain I went through was horrible. Luckily I am pain free today and able to eat something without feeling like a big balloon. I will get better, hopefully...

I would like to thank you for your kind and supportive emails for my last week's post. I talked to my hubby and it turned out that there happened a misunderstanding between us- on my end. God, I feel relieved. I have broken my study plan into 20 minute sessions so that I can fully concentrate in each session and take a break in between. Hopefully, this will allow me to re-introduce some sewing in to my life.
Unfortunately, again, I don't have anything to share with you today but I am looking forward to seeing what you all achieved last week and what you are starting this week.
And I leave you with this beautiful short video of Buenos Aires! So looking forward to it!


Monday 16 March 2015

Monday Makers!#30

Hi all!
I hope you all had a great weekend and have had a great start to the new week.
Today, I will use this space to unload my emotions a little bit; then I will move to Monday Makers! You are more than welcome to skip the personal part and go ahead and link up your beauties. Also, I want to thank all the linkers to last week's MM. I haven't had ten linkers before. Maybe it is not a big number, but for me it is a very satisfying improvement-given that some weeks I had no linkers. Thank you very much for joining me and giving me the support to continue with Monday Makers!

As you might remember, my husband got an overseas posting to Buenos Aires. We were given this exciting news last December and since then there has been lots of planning and talking going on about this new adventure. I am thrilled by the idea of living in the city which is called the "Paris of Latin America". And it is not just about being there with my existence but the idea of learning a new culture, meeting with new people, visiting new places, learning a new language...All very exciting. Making this great move comes with responsibilities of course and and my biggest responsibility is to learn Spanish so that I can have a comfortable life there without depending on somebody else.
I have started studying Spanish soon after we received the news. I have made a study plan, prepared all the material I need. I am watching a Spanish soap opera called "Destinos" which is specifically designed to teach Spanish in an interactive way. I have a course book, a study book, other audio material that loads you with vocabulary...But...I have been feeling so overwhelmed lately, especially the last couple of months. I am behind my schedule, really behind. I have to devote at least 3 hours everyday so that I can get my level up to (at least) intermediate. This is because the official language training by my husband's office will start in August. It won't be a beginner's nor a survival class because he is already fluent in Spanish. It will be a more advanced class to refresh his knowledge and build on his language skills. If I can't be at a level which I can't participate in the conversations or follow what's going on in the class; then unfortunately I won't be getting any language training.
I am learning very quickly; in fact, I didn't think I would be this quick. This is of course when I put in the time and effort to study; the problem is, I can't. And this is killing me.
I am home on Monday and Tuesday and I can study a bit. The rest of the week I am at work. By the time I collect the family members, go home, have dinner, put my son to bed, the clock already shows ten. And after that, all I want to do is sit down and relax. Most of the time I just drag my body to bed without doing anything-no dishes, no tidying up. What are they anyway? The weekend comes; hubby works at the back yard, I sit down to study, then my son calls, I fix his needs. Then sit down again, this time hubby needs my help and I go out. This continues all day like this. At the end of the day, hubby asks "how much Spanish did you do today? and of course he is not satisfied with my answer and I listen to a long speech by him. What the consequences will be if I don't, if I can't...
Seriously, I am doing my best to study as much as I can. I even stopped sewing, quilting almost all together. (Also because if I am seen quilting but not studying, it creates tension in the house.) You might have noticed that I only post on Mondays for Monday Makers! for a long time and most of the time I don't have any projects to show you. Not sewing/quilting hurts me a lot because it is the only thing that makes me relaxed and feeds my desire to create something I like.
So my friends, I am neither studying efficiently nor sewing one single stitch. I feel lost, overwhelmed, down, and anything negative you can name...I don't know what's gonna happen.
I am not good at keeping a journal, I don't have a close friend to talk and unload. So, I used this space today to feel a little bit better. Please excuse me.
If you have read up until here, I thank you very much for caring for my feelings. If you haven't, I totally understand you- time is valuable and you have better things to do like linking up with Monday Makers! LOL
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?

Monday 9 March 2015

Monday Makers!#29

Hiya all!
How was your week? Mine was (and has been) pretty bad. My son came down with a tummy bug last week and despite all my efforts, we caught the same thing too. My husband lay on one sofa, I lay on the other. My little one was home with us too as he didn't fully recover. Poor thing had to entertain himself and ate whatever I could bear preparing- mostly a slice of vegemite toast.
Days of feeling sick and not being able to eat properly...very exhausting. I had to go to work like that a couple of day as I was preparing for a big meeting. Not fun.

Today is Canberra Day and is public holiday for Canberra. There were a series of events to celebrate it and hot air balloon festival was one of them-which we missed unfortunately. Here are a few photos, thanks to my friend Lydia!
My son would have loved this balloon as he is a real fan of Angry Birds.
How beautiful are they!
Now to Monday Makers!
I couldn't start the tote bag and the messenger bag for my friend's twins but I managed to make the worst case scenario happen: a pin cushion!
It is a tiny pin cushion which is only 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches. My mini scraps worked well for this cute project. I have enough scraps to make at least a hundred pincushions but I think I don't need that many.
Now it is your turn to share your finishes from the last week and and the new projects you are starting today!
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?

Monday 2 March 2015

Monday Makers#28

Hiya all!
How was your week? Last week, we went on a short camping holiday at Turros Head, Moruya. We had such great time there and had the much needed break from the busy life in Canberra.
We went on long walks at the beach, swam in the pool on the camping site, had some nice fish and chips and had short day trips to nearby villages. Those villages are packed with hidden jams; best cafes, craft stores, bakeries...
Our tent and gazebo. The tent looks very small in the photo because of the angle I took the photo from. It is huge in real life.
There was QuiltCon going on at the same time. I try to follow my Aussie friends and online blogger friends on IG as closely as I could- whenever the internet connection was good enough to download pictures. I basically held my breath when scrolling through the quilt images. They were all amazing!(I am intending to write a blogpost about it.)
I loved every minute of this holiday and looking forward to going there one more time before the weather starts to get cool.
Now to Monday Makers!
I am planning to start a messenger style bag and a tote bag for one of my friends' twins. I am only planning though because my son came down with a bad gastro over the weekend and he wants mummy cuddles all the time. Worst case scenario- I will make a pincushion because I am desperate to do some sewing!
If you have any finishes from the past week or are starting a new project, why don't you share them with us here?
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- DONE!!- 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?
I also want to thank all the linkers to last week's Monday Makers! I will catch up on your projects today.