[needlewoman]

Merry Christmas to all, and God bless everyone during the Christmas season, and into 2014.

Thank you all for the friendship, companionship, good advice and support you have offered this last year. It has made (is making) a huge difference to my life.

I’ve been too busy with sewing, and other pre Christmas work to contribute anything for quite a while, and the Flickr pandas must have been asleep when I was trying to post my work, last night. I will give it another go soon.

I hope all our forum participants have a wonderful Christmas, however, and whenever you celebrate it, and may 2014 bring us all satisfying sewing, good health, and contentment with our lot – even when things aren’t going well.

(Just before leaving for Mass tonight, my shower nozzle decided to give up ghost. Hopefully a friend will be able to fix early tomorrow morning, and that it’s just a washer problem, and not something more serious.

Good to know that your boy is getting better, Mel. I do sympathise with the terror, and sense of a ‘near-miss’. I hope everybody gets some time to relax after all their hard work to make Christmas happen for another year.

Fiona

[Mama_Knowles]

Merry Christmas Fiona!

[with love Heidi]

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

[needlewoman]

After a few panicky phone calls on Christmas Eve, a white knight turned up this morning and fixed my leaking shower problem. It was a washer problem; the one in the cold water tap had died – all too common in Adelaide because of the very hard water here. Such a relief – to have the problem fixed, and that it wasn’t more serious. The pipes behind the shower are very old, and when things go wrong, or drip too much I’m always scared that their number is up.

Long day getting organised this morning, and a long but very pleasant afternoon with my hosts, and the weather tho warm, was easy to live with.

Thank goodness for the next few days to unwind, and tidy up.

Hope others’ Christmas Day went smoothly.

[Tamara]

If there is ever something to do during school holidays (or whenever actually), it is to go to the movies. We went on a family day out yesterday and saw the movie Frozen. It was FABULOUS! But then I just love Disney movies. This one was the pick for the kids so I said yep ok let’s go see what it is like and that’s what we did. I was funny and heartwarming and even a bit on the edge of your seat in some places but I highly recommend taking the kids (or hiring some kids or even just taking a bunch of adult friends and family) to see this. It is based on the story “The snow Queen” but has underlying themes of how love can be the strongest of bonds between people. Its just beautiful.

We were going to do a double wammie but missed the first one due to it only showing once a day. I don’t think we were in the least disappointed over it because there is always a chance again during the holidays. And to be able to take Murray with us is a real treat. He doesn’t get off farm alot and so family days are rare and precious. I think after the recent dealings with family members though we both have realised that it is even more important to keep the unit together and have as many fun days together as we can – in order to create positive memories for the kids and also us you know?

Anyway, high recommended! Go see it if you can! Its called Frozen.

[Robin]

The costumes in Frozen were fantastic. I know it’s animated, but whoever did their costume design did a fabulous job.

On a different note, I ate really well all Christmas and “fell” into a box of Purdy’s chocolates today. Oh man! Too bad sewing is not more of an aerobic activity. I did move my ironing board down stairs just to get a little more stair climbing in.

[Tamara]

Oh yes I agree the costumes were exquisite. I was busy working out which patterns to adapt to make examples of such all through the movie – talk about distraction!

You “fell” into a box of Purdy’s chocolates? How divine! Not that I know how they taste but anything chocolate is off limits now that Christmas is over. I confess the box of chocolates for the school bus driver were eaten! I was in a rush to get to the bus on the last day of school after a shopping trip to the nearest big centre and totally forgot them in my haste. So we ate them! And the bus driver is probably most grateful!

My nephew bought is a huge box of Morish nuts – delectable but really really high in the bad things. I propsed the idea of taking some to the movies yesterday but again i forgot them! It would have helped me to avoid the maltesers!

We didn’t go overboard with food at Christmas but we still ate like kings! The clothes are still baggy so I didn’t do too badly but I am scared of getting on the scales to find out the result. Instead it is detox time and getting back into sensible careful eating mode.

[meleliza]

We watch a lot of movies over the Christmas holidays, but getting everyone up dressed, away from their new toys, bundled and packed into the car is not high on my list of fun things to do. And it’s what I’ll have to do every day when they go back to school on Jan 2. So, I give myself a break, let everyone stay in pjs and we watch stuff at home. Boys got both Planes and Turbo for Christmas, so on Boxing Day we watched a little of that, then the Nutcracker, then It’s a Wonderful Life and after the kids were in bed, Skyfall. I always watch It’s a Wonderful Life at Christmas and hubby insists that Boxing Day must include James Bond movies as it does in England. Since he also made roast beef and Yorkshire puddings, who am I to disagree?

But if frozen is that good, we’ll get it when it comes out on DVD! On Friday, we went to the holiday train display at the Morris Arboretum. There’s a 1/4 mile of model trains set out in a garden, with models of local historic buildings and all lit up with thousands of tiny twinkle lights. It is seriously magical.

[Mama_Knowles]

I want to make Sarah a “Frozen” dress, but it might have to wait until next month. I thinking about the “winter” dress for her.

[Tamara]

Meleliza, do get it on dvd it is so worth it. We haven’t seen planes or Turbo and I’m not sure if they’re on dvd here yet. It is something you do have to be selective about, taking kids to movies. We have only recently started going and in the past few years have made it more of a regular thing during school holidays. They are generally allowed to choose a movie each depending on what is showing so it works. But it is expensive to go. We promised them they could see it and it was well worth seeing at the cinema but we don’t all of the movies at the cinema – that would be slightly impossible.

I guess the other day it was a trade off for my incessant need to restock the pantry a d also to find another air conditioned location that preferrably wasn’t crowded with bargain shoppers. Of course under snowy cold conditions I too would think otherwise.

Which one would you choose Sharon, Anna’s or Elsa’s? I love them both but I could see a variation of Amma’s being made with either the Music box or a long sleeved Fairytale but the skirt has to have those fantastic box/ inverted pleats. You could do a hybrid?

[Masha Richart]

I have heard nothing but rave reviews of Frozen! We have a movie theater in town that has one or two English-language showings per week – hopefully we will get Frozen in soon and then I can take the girls. Only the older one has ever been to a movie in the theater.

Of course, everyone will have to be healthy for that to happen, and I feel like this house is under the sign of the plague lately. My younger girl got sick in mid-November and we have not had a day since that everyone has been healthy. I hope that changes soon …

[Tamara]

Oh you poor thing RTWG! No fun to have a bunch of sick kiddies to look after. I have two rocks sitting in my lounge room! I am waiting for them both to relocate so I can clean up – this is what happens during holidays, they move to the lounge room and stay there all holidays and well I am left with the aftermath!

I believe Frozen is tipped for the best animated feature oscar this year but you can never tell – thats just speculation even though it is one worth raving about. I loved Brave and Princess and the frog (although I had to try and convince a friend to let her kids watch it and that no they wouldn’t take up voodoo). But this is from the makers of Wreck it Ralph which was in a ball park all its own. Such a great movie!

Ok enough raving from me! We are hoping for a cool day tomorrow as cyclone Christine dances around our north west. It won’t effect us but hopefully we can get a drop or two for the tanks.

[scgoble]

Frozen is AWESOME. I am listening to the soundtrack right now, alone in my office, no kid in sight. 🙂

[Mama_Knowles]

Great idea Tamara! Sarah and I was looking through photos last night of both of the girls dresses, I am most sure she’ll chose Anna over Elsa. Although I love Elsa better though ; )

It will be her birthday gift dress (Jan 19). For her birthday party dress I am making her a Birthday party dress. ; ) Yes because of the name of pattern! I bought some fabric for it last Feb. right after surgery for it. During surgery I dreamed of this fabric I seen at Hobby Lobby markdown bin that would be perfect for it.

[katybellabug]

We went to see Frozen today, it is pretty good. Princesses have really big eyes nowadays I have noticed!