More aftershocks

Today we went to Westfield Riccarton in Kmart and at 1.58pm there was an 5.8 magnitude aftershock. This was of course followed by an afternoon with them- and even a 6.0 at 3.18pm.
You can view recent quakes from Geonet.
We are very thankful to be fine, house safe and stnading, still have running water, power etc and no liquefaction- and strangely everything feels still pretty "normal". We enjoyed the sunshine and ate dinner outside this evening.
Lets hope for a quiet next few days as we are getting close to Christmas!!! 2 more sleeps!!!

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Countdown to Christmas!

Its been busy here as we get ready for Christmas! Feels like a this month is going so fast!!

Here is our Christmas Tree

Tree with Tree skirt

Master W decorating the tree

Here is some photos of my Tree skirt I made

Finished with matching buttons

I made a table runner (more square than a runner) to fit our coffee table but looks cute on our dining table

Table runner

Master B making his card for a friend

Some decorations I made for the Advent pots

Our Advents pots

Day 7 with Decoration

The boys are really enjoying the advent pots- here is the list of whats in each pot (they are very much things our boys is age appropriate for them)

1. Decorate the Christmas Tree
2. Make snowflakes 
3. Have a pancake breakfast
4. Make biscuits to take to Christmas Party
5. Make a Christmas card for a friend
6. Make and decorate a ginger bread house
7. Plant a new plant in the garden
8. Play games as a family before bed
9. Make muffins using Rudolph's nose (jaffas)
10. Buy a gift for our cat and dog
11. Have a family photo with Santa
12. Go on a family night walk
13. Have hot chocolate a read a Christmas book before bed
14. Wraps presents for each other
15. Read Luke 1- Christmas Story
16. Read Luke 2:1-2
17. Listen to Christmas music while eating breakfast
18. Donate Food
19. Donate toys
20. Make Christmas biscuits and gift to others
21. Visit Grotto
22. Watch  a Christmas movie with Popcorn\
23. Drive around and look at Christmas lights
24. Go to the 5pm Christmas eve service
25. Celebrate Christmas Day!!

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We built a fence

It looked like this

now it looks like this after two days of hard work with some help from great friends we have a finished fence!

I haven't been doing much sewing as fence building has taken up most of our time the past few days. I have started making some of the wee felt things to go in our advent calender

and cute stocking for the cat and dog.

I don't plan on doing much else to prepare for Christmas today- feeling sleep deprived and grumpy! Hoping for a better day!

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Photo Friday

Take a guess at what we are replacing this weekend!

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It was a long weekend

We had Canterbury Anniversary day on Friday. We didn't take the day off Friday \ and go to the Canterbury A&P Show, we had a quiet day at home.

Sago is settling in well. She is doing really well with learning commands like "sit", "come", "stay"- and it sure does help if there is a treat for her! She is very content at sitting under my chair while I sew. The downside to having her around while I am quilting (laying out the batting and basting) is she quite likes to chew on the cotton batting!

Quilt waiting for binding

Binding 

Here are both quilts finished!

Front

Back

I made the lap quilt finished size 106cm wide and 127.5cm long (41.5'' x 50 '') 

I made this square block lap quilt finished size 101cm wide and 147cm long (39.5'' x 57.5'') 

My knitting is coming along.

I have also been working on these needle books as gifts for crafty friends. They just need some hand stitching for finishing

I harvested Rhubarb

Rhubarb and Hokey Pokey Ice cream for dessert :D Yummy!!!

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Quilting, stitching, painting!

This quilt is a gift for a friend. Looking forward to getting it quilted and the binding on. I hand stitched some words on basic cotton and added them at the end. Words like- smile, family, friends, hope, love.

Front quilt

Close up

Close up

Close up

Quilt for Kathy is now quilted and waiting for binding. Love how it looks and love the pattern on the back!

Quilt front

Quilt back

Close up back

I started our Christmas tree skirt. Its very green and red (Christmas tree theme this year) I used the blocks I had made for the table runner but decided they looked better here!

Tree skirt

Advent pots with numbers

Font used

I printed out a sheet of numbers 1-25 then used charcoal on the back and a fine pen and drew over the numbers and it transferred the number. Used black acrylic paint to paint on the numbers. Easy and it looks consistant and pretty!

Our christmas cards are coming along! Still lots to do but should have all 60 made up this week.

Hooray for productivity!!!

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