Dear Lord ..... Just a little prayer

Dear Lord

Every single evening As I'm lying here in bed,

This tiny little Prayer Keeps running through my head:

God bless all my family

Wherever they may be,

Keep them warm And safe from harm

For they're so close to me.

And God, there is one more thing

I wish that you could do;

Hope you don't mind me asking,

Please bless my computer too.
Now I know that it's unusual

To Bless a motherboard,

But listen just a second

While I explain it to you, Lord.

You see, that little metal box

Holds more than odds and ends;

Inside those small compartments

Rest so many of my friends.
I know so much about them

By the kindness that they give,

And this little scrap of metal

Takes me in to where they live.
By faith is how I know them

Much the same as you.

We share in what life brings us

And from that our friendships grew.
Please take an extra minute

From your duties up above,

To bless those in my address book

That's filled with so much love.
Wherever else this prayer may reach

To each and every friend,

Bless each e-mail inbox

And each person who hits 'send'.
When you update your Heavenly list

On your own Great CD-ROM,

Bless everyone who says this prayer

Sent up to GOD.Com

Amen

Blackmail and children

Blackmail is not normally on my agenda but on occasions I think it is okay in the right situation.

We have such a one going on at present with Grandson no.2 ... Ben.

Just like his mother he is not a great drinker, whether it be water, milk, any juice or lemonade.

We had this with our daughter for years and now married with children of her own she still is not so great at drinking..... wonder where he inherited it from ?

We have arranged for Ben to spend a few days with us during the school holidays,

He will take a bottle of drink to school at 8.30am and bring it back untouched at 3 pm..... this is not good.

So Mum and Dad are using his trip to stay with us as an incentive to get him to drink.

So a star chart has been started and if it is lacking his chances of coming to Rotorua diminish day by day.

In a word this has got to be blackmail ... yes!
So drink up Ben we want to see you here with Grandad and Grandma.

School holidays are coming up

Yesterday I agreed for my grandson Ben to come and stay

during school holidays for a few days,

just couple of hours later along came our son with a list

of days requiring Holiday sitting for Harvey and Ellis

so looks like a grandson period.

I am just about to look for things we can do,

indoor things, crafts etc .....as the long term weather forecast is not good.

So if you have a fool proof thing for 5 to 8 yr olds to do

I would love to hear from you.

,

( guess what Grandad is travelling during the whole of this period.)

I have not had the pleasure of all at once before, so this is a new game for me

as we have all been in different countries until this hoiday.

Changing email address on your blog

Laurie from Rotorua

Kathryn and I spent about an hour or so on the phone with her in Hamilton and myself in Rotorua with my blog open in each place.

( luckily she has free calls to Rotorua home number)

Both watching what was happening on my blog.

Well ! we thought we had it cracked,

We worked through various things

and added another user to the blog

then took admin rights from the one address

and gave it to the other,

great we said it seemed to work okay.

We rang off and I thought better try all the admin stuff and post,

all okay, until I tried to post a picture......ugh.

This it where it all fell over.

It would not allow this to be done on a Gmail address.....

After some thought we have come up with the conclusion

the prime address has to be a provider address,

Gmail is a non provider, where as Yahoo is via Telecoms yahoo/xtra.

This all began to make sense as I worked through all the settings etc.

So we are back to square one with Blog on one email address

and messages on Gmail.....

Oh Happy Days

Photo's from the Quilt Show

Machined panel was so delightful

Stepping stones with Japanese fabrics

Appliqued panel

3D Folded Fans

Crazy patch work done totally on a machine with machine embroidery stitches

I just adored these cows.

Mhairi is doing this one at present as a block of the month



A beautifullied stitched panel by Sugi

The batiks used on these butterfly's were beautifully selected, and Embroidered Anglaise was used on the other blocks which gave a unique look to them

This one won viewers choice, it was hand quilted with quilting done every 1/4 inch apart all over the whole quilt following the movement of the stems and flowers,

Alison who worked it says it was a chore and she is still wondering why

she ever started it !!! taking 6 months to quilt, about and hour or 2 every day.

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It was a great show and worth all the hard work that was put in by everyone.

We were very busy from start to finish each day.

Help ! someone must know the answer

OK, someone must have the answer to this question

How do I change the Email address on my blog ?

Is it possible ?

I have tried many ways but none are successful

I changed my email address and server from Yahoo to Gmail

a couple of years back

and would love my blog to be in line with it,

instead of all this signing in and out from one server to another.

Set up Day

Rainbow Quilters Show

Today I have spent the day with all the other committee members

plus male / female helpers setting up the Quilt Show.

All went very smoothly we had just enough Quilt racks assembled

( although there were spares in case needed)

I believe 87 quilts was the final count or there abouts.

We have 6 merchants tables and such lovely items they have for sale.

It will be very tempting tomorrow

so once again ........... 10 - 4pm Saturday and Sunday

Bridge Club

Neil Hunt Park

Rotorua

The stuff of life

This week seems to have been filled with appointments either going to them or making them... or people coming to the house after we have called them.

We have both been to the optometrist and I have appointment at the dentist and a physio.

Eric has a date with the surgeon after an exploratory op he had a couple of weeks ago.

I had a lunch for Hospice Friends.

We both had a Rotary Dinner.

The chap came to see the cooker hob and oven and is coming back to put in the replacement parts.

The electrician came to see about an extractor fan in the kitchen, it is amazing, our house is about 20 yrs old and the previous owners had not thought about the problem.

We suffer with steam condensation in the winter, but the main thing I notice also a winter problem is the lingering odours from cooking right into the next day, so this must be getting into the fabrics and carpets... we also have taken our time to deal with it...you know you mention it and say " we must do something" and by next day it has gone and you don't think again till the next time it happens. So the Electrician is searching out ceiling fans that have a filter, if they exist. A cooker hood is out of the question as our cooker is almost an "Island one" and a hood would be just not practical.

Our expensive dining table has been away to be resurfaced after a heat damage area was found, that is now back looks great, and they has put on a surface that you can clean with a wet cloth....sounds good to me....amazing technology.

God bless the insurance company the bill was a thousand + ....whew!!

So a busy week and it does not end there this is only Thursday.

I just don't know how all of this would have happened with out a diary or think if we had both been working as well. I now keep a diary on the side in the kitchen where every thing is written down, from appointments to birthdays, I call it the day book, if it is not in there it does not get done basically.... I think this has something to do with the age thing, although I have always made lists.

Blog graphics

Some people have mentioned the graphics I have on my blog.......

I am absolutely fascinated by the graphics web sites I have found on the net,

I can spend ages searching through them,

what talented people there are out there, many of the sites have free graphics for you to download, others have to be purchased.

to start you off if you would like to start looking at them try .....

http://www.hookedonoriginalcountryraphics-pamelajoy.com/

From Pamela's web page you will get a lot of links to sites and from those sites you will get others.

Another to try is http://www.graphicgarden.com/

Graphic garden offers amazing things for free including lables and cards, calenders plus graphics. Enjoy yourself but have time to spare it is addictive.

Quilts have gone to show

Yesterday I finished putting the Velcro on the back of the 2 quilts going to our

Rotorua Quilt Show, typically it was a last minute affair, why do we do this ? it seems everyone was in the same boat, or even some have still to do it.

Friday is set up day and we are roping in 3 or 4 husbands to help with the Quilt Frames, Eric being one of them so it is full steam ahead at 9am Friday. What with the Dubai Show he helped with and now Rotorua he will be able to hire himself out as a Quilt Show Stand builder in his sparetime. So just a reminder:

Rotorua Quilt Show

20th - 21st June

Bridge Club

Neil Hunt Park

Little House Neighbourhood

After seeing the Little House Needlework pictures and fell in love with them
I looked up on the net and decided to order the one I wanted for myself.
So today I have ordered the chart ... decision made
It is a really good feeling to just make a decision and to buy something frivolous It Will take a couple of weeks for it to arrive... looking forward to that.

I guess that is one of the good things about being past the period of life where every penny is ear marked for every day living, buying a home, educating and raising children and all that entails.

I watch with interest our children raising their families and see the need to conform with today's pressures, the material must haves and demands made on them by society in general.

I remember a period in our children's lives around the mid 70"s when labels on clothes first became the must have, as most parents we would not pay 3 times the price for shoes that supported the Nike Tick. I told our son that I would paint on a tick on any thing he would like and charge him nothing. We did hold out for a very long time......... but I guess the pressure got to us in the end just like all parents not to make our children different than the crowd and to give them their street credibility.

I am so pleased that I am not bringing up a family now with all the social life pressures that is put on everyone.

Update

Today I finally had to go to the Doctors, I had problems standing
with the dizziness and pain in the head
After a week of a virus creeping from my throat to my chest back to the throat
and finally to the head I have been swallowing paracetamol
like they are going out of fashion
and they really were not helping at all
Dr Andy gave me some antibugs told me to go home to bed...
what a nice man so I did exactly as he said
he diagnosed sinusitis and I do not wish it on my worst enemy

Another Mile Stone

This week we had another milestone in the family.

Harvey started school

here he is with his big brother in their school uniform.

So now Iain and Claire's life is now ruled by the school calender

Alex is 4 ( yesterday)

4 yrs Old

HAPPY BIRTHDAY little boy, I know you had lots of gifts for you told me about them last evening on the phone. Love from Grandma and Grandad

I just can not believe I forgot to post Alex's birthday yesterday..............but then I have been feeling way under the weather... I could descibe it in stronger words...but I try to be a lady most of the time.

An update on Hardanger and Me

I am still feeling not so good, the throat has gotten worse and now it seems to have dropped to the upper respiratory tract, and I am coughing trying to breath and puffing on the inhalers at intervals.

I am trying to slow down and today I am just stitching and keeping warm, besides doing 4 loads of laundry and hanging it in the winter sunshine, which looks warmer than it really is, but the laundry is drying well.

Above is an update on the Hardanger done in Ecru Perle cotton on 32 count Ecru Linen, it takes 6 pieces approx. 3 inches in length to make the Tassel as pictured in previous blogs.

1 more to go then the cross stitching of a rose on 3 of the pieces. The class consists of assembly and the tassel finish. They are going to look really neat...

So what have I been doing

Over the weekend of course we had the 65th Birthday party for Eric, and also Harvey's 5th, so we had lots of family and friends here to a great Drinks and nibbles Do on Saturday evening.

After the weekend this came from Kathryn's blog, I am sure she will not mind me putting it on mine to give you all a little smile.

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Queen of England's Official Birthday......
Today is Queen's Birthday Weekend, so it is a Public Holiday for us.

Yea a day off work.

In the car yesterday on the way back from the Birthday Parties in Rotorua,

Ben heard on the radio that it was Queen's Birthday Weekend.

Now we have 2 more Birthday parties next weekend and 1 the weekend after.

So this charming little 5 year old piped up and casually asked "so are we going to the Queen's birthday party as well?'

Steve and I were wetting ourselves with laughter over this, just so Ben and just so cute.

We think the Queen would have quite a birthday party with Ben there to talk to her!

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Now Kathryn and Steve were a little "poorly" over the weekend, and thanks to both of them I now have the "sore throat etc."But this made me sit and sew,

I was actually doing hand stitching instead of machine quilting, I don't seem to have done a lot of hand work for ages, Quilting seemed to take over.

I was doing a little Hardanger in preparation for a class I will be attending in a couple of months ( nothing like being ready in advance). I think I may have shown you these beauties before that we will be doing.

I have really enjoyed stitching and have vowed to get back to doing more, I saw this cross stitch pattern quite awhile back and have had it in mind to do.

so if anyone feels they must buy me a gift I would like this chart.

Little House Neighbourhood by Little house designs.

Now ..... we both love good expensive Danish Teak Furniture and have always managed to buy the best we can afford, and sometimes when we could ill afford too.

Our dining table is one of these pieces, a week or so ago a major catastrophe it has a heat mark on the surface, from whence it came we have no idea we always use mats, a suggestion was that may be one of our straw heat mats may have been damp and with the heat of a dish it would have caused steam and marked the surface of the table, the surface being oiled not polished the steam would have reacted with the oil.

We called the restorers, a very pleasant man called Grant came to look at the table and then told us how much it would be "WOW" now that is a light word on this occasion it should have been heavier believe me, so we called the Insurance company who agreed it was a claim....Thank goodness. The table went off this morning to be resurfaced, so we are eating off the garden table for a week. We have been assured by the restorers it will look 100% if not better when it is returned.

Plus we have also bought some extra protection cloth for the table to be used at all times.