I knew as soon as I opened the back door..

...someone had cleaned my house. Really cleaned. I knew this because I think the last time my kitchen floor had been mopped was when Eve was born.  We had been down to Victoria on holidays and come back with 2 sick kids. While we were away, my friend Candy had been staying. This beautiful woman is a single mum with 2 amazing little girls, fosters newborns, came down for a break and CLEANED MY HOUSE! Right down to changing my sheets so we could just slump into bed the moment we got home.

So, thanks to her, I have had a holiday this week. I know I just got back from one, but you know what holidays are like with young kids. You only just make it out of your house and into the car without killing anyone, you visit all your old, great friends at meals times when the kids are normally asleep and you spend most of that time telling your 3 year old to stop banging, touching, yelling, jumping on his sister (poor Tully, I think he had fun!). We had rich, constantly interrupted conversations and came home ready to crash. Except you can't crash when you come home. There's washing, unpacking, and cleaning up the tornado you left behind you. 

But this time, there was no tornado. And so I've had time to play...

First, I redecorated our lounge room with all the pretty colours I've been enjoying lately.

I moved our tall bookshelf and filled it with our DVDs, coffee table books and quilts - everything you want in a lounge room!

I uncovered some old frames I still hadn't unpacked when we moved here nearly 2 years ago. This is a line drawing on a pastel design I did years ago. It says, "I long to order, I long to create, I long to impact, I long to speak." The jar is one Tully made for me, stuffed with fabric scraps.

I turned this...

...into this! (well kind of. I sewed most of the top before we left with the help of Super Iron Lady, or Anneliese) This week, I've been able to sew the border on, attach the 3 layers (top, wadding and back) together and...

...start quilting (stitch the layers together) by hand.

I put turned our ugly filing cabinet into a nice sitting corner in our studio...

...and put a pretty picture in the bathroom. (Don't you just love the colours coming through from the red flowers on the tree behind the window?)

Then, wouldn't you know it? Candy doesn't like eggs so couldn't enjoy the rewards of feeding our chooks for us! And she left this cream behind.

So today, Tully and I made raspberry ice-cream!

And last but not least, these adorable jackets, made for her girls have been sitting around, enjoying the admiration of everyone, but were not yet complete. They needed buttonholes, a skill I have put off learning for months, because I was afraid of ruining the beautiful things I'd put so much work into. And here they are, all finished and not ruined. Aren't they great?!

Candy called this week to apologise for not being able to leave money. But this is way better, don't you think?