It's been busy here the last week or so; Mereth's number2 son and family visited from New South Wales, which was wonderful as we got to see the grandchildren.  Mereth is Nanna, and I'm OtherNanna, which is so cute.  Not all kids have identical grandmothers, but Logan isn't particularly fazed that there's two of us, and he never gets us mixed up.

Last weekend we went to a nearby beach town called Wallaroo, and stayed in a gorgeous rental house near the beach.  There were 9 of us, and the place was so huge that we just rattled around in it.  Unfortunately the weather was pretty vile for summer, cold and far too windy.  So we stayed inside and played card games, and ate delicious meals.  It's lovely to have so many loved ones under one roof, no-one had to leave early and drive home, which is what normally happens.  We must try and make this a yearly occurrence.

Now all the Christmas and New Year engagements are over and done with, all the visiting family have departed, and it's back to normal daily life.  It's been such a whirl of socialising, for more than two weeks, so things will seem very quiet. But a bit of solitude is necessary for planning and making goals for 2014, which is what Mereth and I want to do over the new few days.

Firstly, short term goals;

• Take down the Christmas decorations
• Get a new ironing board cover
• Clean out the fridge and get rid of any lingering holiday food.  Our Mum kept a jar of fruit mince for more than 20 years, on the grounds that she would use it 'someday'.  It lived in our fridge the whole time I was growing up.  Don't want to find anything like that in my fridge.

Yesterday we went to Jamestown to get some fabric for a customer quilt, and I may have succumbed to a few pieces of fabric.  Good thing I'm not dedicated to No-Buy, because I couldn't even last 10 days into 2014.

 I need to get serious about the batik stash, or it will be another year or two before I can make an actual quilt, so I bought a few more FQs. I'm not very adventurous, I need to go to my favourite Adelaide shop, Tricia's, and run amok in her batik section.

 And some last-of-the-bolt sale fabric needed to come home with me. The caramel Thimbleberries fabric is really old, and I just used the last piece in my stash, so I was glad to find this on the sale table.

I love ombre fabrics, and this one will make a stunning small border on some quilt.

 The pink, grey and black quilt is brewing, these fabrics will add nicely to the mix; not that modern spot, that's going in a cheerful modern quilt.

Right, now I've had a break from the sewing machine,  and I've had a bit of fabric indulgence, time for me to get busy on the first quilts of 2014.