Last Favourite Thing Friday for the Year.

                                      

For this last Favourite Thing Friday  over at SHAY'S I am going to probably embarass myself and show my age. I have included a photo of my beautiful Frangipani which has just started to bloom it's lovely head off and smell divine for most of you who will go.....never heard of them!
My Favourite thing this week is that my very clever husband has managed to track down and secure a copy of both Albums on CD of a very favourite band of ours from 1977 (yes you heard correctly). We have literally been trying for about 20 years ever since we wore out the cassette tapes (if you don't know what they are you can google it) to replace them to no avail. The lovely man at the HMV store in the city who I think knows my husband(who by the way needs a 12 step program for CD & DVD purchasing) on a 1st name basis tracked them down for us...one has arrrived and is in our hot little hands and the other is on it's way. Yippee!! You couldn't just buy them back then at the record shop as they weren't mainstream music here. We had to drive to the Gold Coast to the Record Imports Shop to buy them. We were dedicated 'groovers'. No downloading them on I-tunes. We had many a fantastic night with friends listening to them over a glass of wine or 3 or maybe more. We thought we were so cooool. Maybe we weren't but the music was.
The band is called "Sanford Townsend" and the CD is "Duo-glide" the one still coming is "Smoke from a Distant Fire". Has anyone else heard of them??? Anyone??? Ok so no one is as old as me. Don't care this is my favourite thing for quite a while and will be for a while to come and it will certainly get played maybe even quite loudly this weekend.

Gotta love those shirts and the mo.....oh dear!

Frangipani's as promised....the smell of  a Queensland Summer and home to me.

Have a great weekend everyone. If you have to venture out in to the Kringle Madness, keep calm, keep breathing, keep your sense of humour and remember Goodwill toward all men...even the crazy one who runs over your heel with the trolley or pushes in front of you.
Blessings Michelle xx

Jingle All the Way....Santa Sack Reveal Day!!

Reveal Day!!!!

As I had a very lovely visitor early this morning I didn't get to open (rip into) all my lovely gifts from my swap partner TARNYIA  until now. My heart is certainly jing...jingling! I have been so throughly spoilt. Blogger has decided not to let me post all my photos so I am sorry about no good closeups of the items I set out individually for you to see. I think Blogger is tired like me.                                 

Before shot. You will notice untouched (there is no photo of the unbridled ripping)

And look at this gorgeous array of gifts. Cute buttons, lovely notelets in 2 sizes(I love nice stationery), Appley tea towel, Beautiful handmade apron, zippy pouch purse, hand embroidered bookmark, candles, Chrissy fabric, smellies for my wardrobe, pretty individual coffee mug set ( just right for those curling up drawing moments) and an absolutely beautiful appliqued rose cushion with a lovely saying around the edge. Oh MY!

Beautiful cushion...but wait there is more.

This absolutley beautifully sttiched tablerunner.

Close up of Tarnyia's gorgeous work.

I will really be looking forward to placing that table runner on my dining table when Christmas is done. Thank you so very much Tarnyia for spoiling me absolutely rotten. I have loved chatting with you all the way over in W.A. and getting to know you better. You have been a wonderful swap partner. A big thank you also to Cheryll for all her hard work organising this swap. You can visit her blog and see what was in all the other sacks that have been jingling back and forth all over the world.                                                                     

"Friends truly are the friends you give to yourself " Blessings Michelle xx                                                 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

High Tea with the Yoga Girls

On Monday I travelled to a place called Jimboomba which is about an hour from where I live to meet up with my Yoga Friends. We decided to have High Tea as our Christmas celebration at a cute little place called "Cafe on Cusack". There are vintage items on the walls and it has a really lovely atmosphere with High Tea being served on vintage china and the food was beautiful and so reasonable as well. If you are ever out that way do yourself a favour and pop in for a coffee or lunch you won't be sorry.

The Gang's all here!

The beautiful china and food...YUM!

More Yum! Would you believe none of this interested me?? No! I didn't think so!

Myself and my gorgeous friend Helen who just happens to also be our Yoga teacher. Helen is a continuing inspiration to us all. She is also a wonderfully wise woman.

Needless to say a lovely time was had by all and we can't wait til next year to do it all again.
On the subject of Yoga. Another friend of mine has opened a Yoga Studio in Beenleigh for all you local bloggers and that's where I am headed today (hoping it will help before I eat all those rum balls).
When the new time table comes out I will post a link and some photos about it.
I know I sound like some crazy zealot but Yoga really does change your life for the better. If you are still breathing you can practice Yoga.
"We don't practice Yoga to become 'perfect'. We practice Yoga to make peace with our 'imperfections" and love ourselves for just who we are.
Blessings Michelle xx

Tuesday's Treasure with Melody

                                                  
Tuesday's Treasures are here again with the very lovely MELODY over at The House on the side of the Hill where we share the treasures close to our heart.
My treasure today is two Christmas items that once belonged to my Husbands Grandparents.
The first is Old Saint Nick (he was featured at the top of my last post) and we found him in a box under an old divan. So we rescued him. He was in remarkably good condition and my husband remembers him from Christmas's past. Now he helps us celebrate with old fashioned style and he looks quite pleased about it if you ask me.



Old Saint Nick!

The other little treasure is a pair of Christmas Elves heads set amongst gold tinsel which we love to hang on our tree each year. I love that they still get to be seen amongst the branches each year.

Sweet little Elf!

We don't know how old these decorations are and as they were working class folk I doubt that they cost a great deal as they would not have been able to afford it but they are real treaures to us.
Blessings Michelle xx

The Rum Balls are here!

Every year my Mum makes my Brother, Sister and myself a container of rum balls as well as yummy fruit mince pies. They are like no other so delicious. We won't even entertain another opinion. So besotted are we by these treats my Mum has to sticky tape the lids down to 'tamper proof' the goodies so we delivered them in tact to each other....resisting the temptation or giving in......to pinch a couple from each other was loads of fun.

Nannies Rum balls

This year my Mum has come to town and so mine arrived in tact with none lifted by 'lightfingered Louie' otherwise known as my Brother. I of course had to do a taste test for quality control and they passed with flying colours!! Thank goodness she has passed on her 'rum ball' know how to my Daughter with much recipe swapping and phonecalls. She now makes a mean one too.
No one can beat my Mum for the best rum balls, fruit mince pies and her apple pie is a whole other story ( I don't want to have to get the drool off this keyboard)
Happy Birthday Mother and thanks so much for the yummies!!!

Wonder what's under the tree...for ME!!!

Also wanted to show you I have been a good little elf and my pressies are under the tree....unopened!!!
Lastly I need to hear from Kate from Show and Tell and Wivi about their December wins very soon or else I will have to redraw those two prizes......
I am off to put on my 'glad rags' for a date for "High Tea" will tell you all about it later.
Have a great day,
Blessings Michelle xx

Favourite Christmas Photo.

Good Morning all. This morning I am linking to TRACEE at Quilt Kitty Loves Life. Tracee has asked us to consider and share a favourite Christmas photo of either ourselves, kids, grand kids or pets. As I have shared the previous I thought I would share a photo we love of our old staffy Doccy (now in doggie heaven). We took him over to have his photo taken with Santa to raise funds for the RSPCA. Santa looks like 'are you kidding me' and Doccy gave us his best Christmas Staffy Smile.......

Doccy Boy and Santa

 We love this photo. We always put this photo out at Christmas to remind us of our lucky we were to have had him in our life and it always makes us laugh to remember this day....he so wanted to go play with all the other people there. I just love the look on Santas face.
Which brings me to my next point. I always endeavour to keep my blog a very happy an uplifting place to visit but I am jumping on my Soapbox for just a while. Something I cannot bare and distresses me beyond belief is people getting puppies or kittens for the cute stage or a gift for another and then when holidays beckon or the cuteness wears off they abandon these poor creatures with no thought for their welfare.......SO DON'T DO IT!!!!!!! Be responsible for your pets. You promised to look after them for the whole of their lives not until your fancy for them passes.
Here ended the lesson!

This wonderful graphic was given to me by Donna of Lavenders Nest.

"A dog is the only thing on this earth that loves you more than he loves himself" - Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Blessings to all creatures great and small,
Michelle xx

Favourite things Friday with Shay.

I have just made it once again to Favourite Thing Friday with SHAY to share my favourite of which this week I have two.
The first  takes me instantly back to a summer holiday with my cousins at Woodgate when my Lovely Uncle Brian brought this treat at the one and only little shop in the place and delivered to us. The little treat which was to become my all time Summer favourite is a Mango & Cream Weis Bar. They are produced by a Toowoomba family company and are delish!!!! There is no stick they come in a packet and you make a mess eating it. They are a rectangular piece of frozen fruit with a strip of frozen cream down the side..... there is nothing like them. The original bar was a fruit salad & cream bar and then they bought out my favourite. Heaven. I don't have a photo of the proper box or bar as some one ate the last one and disposed of the box. So I can only show you the Sorbet box which is also yum but as they are still in the freezer you know which ones don't last around here!

Our wonderful Queensland treat.

This is where I first tasted the wonderful "Weis" Bar on Woodgate beach (what a photo!!! EEK!)

My husband now is the one who goes to the shop and brings them home on hot Summer days to cries of YaY! Weis Bars.
The 2nd favourite I have today is when the Christmas tree is finally decorated and the lights get turned on....then it really feels like Christmas is a round the corner.

What is your favourite thing this Friday?
Have a wonderful weekend,
Blessings Michelle xx