Oh good golly gosh!  I'm a tired little vegemite. We had a very busy weekend, lots of socialising and twice as much gardening, and now it's time to start work for another week.  I think I'll come home after the postie run and have a nap.

We had a family barbeque on Friday night, which was lovely.  It's hard to get all of us together over Christmas, with extended family committments, so Friday was the first date that suited everyone.  We had a wonderful meal, sausages and steak and onions, with lots of salads and bread from the local bakery.  Yum.

Our sister-in-law Susy is Italian, she was born in Italy and raised in Australia, so is bilingual.  We begged her to teach us some Italian words but she wouldn't; she did thank Bev for hosting the meal.  It started off  'Grazie, Beverley...' and then it was just a musical flow of sounds.  I would love to learn Italian, I think that should be a resolution for the new year.  Then one day, when I eat my way around Italy, I will know what to order....and how to express my appreciation.

It's been lovely and cool and rainy, good weather to sort through piles of quilts and lay them on the bed for a rest.  They've been folded up for nearly a year, so it was more than time to go through them.  We'll let the folds relax for another few days, then refold them onto my new shelves.  I was lucky enough to find three sets of these steel shelves, and I think they will make a good home for our teetering piles of quilts.

The garden kept me busy, it was ideal weather to get things repotted and comfortable for the next hot spell.  I fell in love with a hanging basket of petunias in a nursery, but balked at the $25 price tag, so I bought a heap of seedlings and hopefully mine will end up even nicer.

It's a lovely hanging basket, I've had it for a few years and wish I'd bought another two or three, as I haven't seen them again.

I'm gradually getting my sewing room set to rights, but it's a slow business.  Everytime I sew something I end up with a gigantic mess.  I need to find everything a home.

I put together 5 sets of metal shelves, now I just need to get everything organised.  Each set has between 68 and 76 bolts, so I've tightened at least 350 this weekend.  I'm a bit over the whole 'some assembly required' thing, especially as Mereth and I built a pantry cupboard for her as well.  I have earnt myself some sewing time this week.

My containers full of strips and snippets and bits are overwhelming me, so I will be working hard to empty a few.   A blog reader sent me this link to a project she's working on, inspired by a scrap quilt I made 3 years ago.  Diane has done a wonderful job, her quilt is beautiful.  It makes me want to play with my scraps again.