Marcia is on the way

I started this post yesterday but was sidetracked to prepare for this 

this being a trough that's running ahead of a Category 4/5 cyclone that's heading towards the Queensland coast.  The bright yellow and dark green towards the top right of the map is the cyclone.....named Marcia, expected to make land around 7 am in the morning. I'm in Murwillumbah, about a third of the way down the picture and while the actual cyclone....with reported wind speed of 225kms/hr as it crosses the coast....won't directly hit us, we'll still feel the brunt. These systems don't necessarily follow the path ascribed to them, but it's predicted this one will head south west across Queensland, then swing to the south east towards the coast, about 40kms south of me. It'll meet up with the trough currently dumping a lot of rain on us, and between them, there's around 400mls of rain expected, plus high winds. I don't mind the rain, but the high winds worry me.  The river I live near is tidal, and with a king tide expected, there'll be flooding for sure, and although there'll be a lot of water rushing through my yard, and things will become very sloshy, my house will be safe.

I have a friend in Mackay, where the cyclone is predicted to make landfall, and I've been following along with her all day as she's prepared as best she can for a very dangerous and scary situation. Be safe, Kate and all those up north who are waiting now for the cyclone to hit the coast, it'll be a sleepless night for many.  My thoughts and prayers are with them and I wish everyone safe passage through this.

I've prepared too, for the deluge to come...mowed the lawn, done some weeding, tidied away lawn chairs and anything else that can blow around, put the chook's weatherproof shelter up, brought in lots of kitty litter and cleaned the water tank filter. There's plenty of candles, new torch batteries and tins of baked beans in case the power goes and I can't cook.  So we're all set.

Nicely mown yard, dog is pleased, she can find her ball now

A bit stiff and sore after all that hard work, I usually do the garden work in small bites, but I really wanted to stay ahead of the rain and be prepared for whatever the heavens throw at me.

***

I want to show you all the lovely things the postie has delivered lately, but first, look at this fun promotion the local library did for Valentine's Day... they had a stand of books in plain brown wrappers, with saucy labels.  I chose this one, bit of a lucky dip as to what the book might be, I was hoping not a Mills and Boon romance ....

This is the book I received, I haven't started it yet, but it sounds as if it could be quite good. "Set in WW2, Miss Carter leaves her French lover to return to England and be one of the first women to receive a degree from the University of Cambridge. She becomes a teacher, and has a mission to fight social injustice, prevent war and educate girls"  I will let you know how it turns out.

Wonderful pretty and practical gifts.

So, firstly last week was my Initial Heart Swap gift, which came from Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches in Western Australia.  Thankyou Anthea, I was absolutely delighted with my swap gifts, ( I pinched this photo from Anthea's blog, as I've left the tote bag in the car...hope you don't mind Anthea?)

On the card, Anthea wrote about my goodies....
An "N" mug rug for my drink
A pouch and bag for market day visits
Something to care for my hands after gardening
and a sweet treat.  

and here's that lovely bag after a trip to the farmer's market...the pouch worked well too

Then from Kerrie who blogs at http://www.channelbankcreations.blogspot.com.au/ this beautifully stitched and very thoughtful gift .... a diary with a handmade cover.  Here it is opened out to show the whole cover with it's fancy buttons on the front.  Thank you Kerrie for your kindness in sending this, I've already put it to good use.

Love the choice of colours and fabrics

Lastly, a gift myself, a couple of metres of lovely bright oildcloth to make a table cloth for the little table on my front verandah.  A friend who lives at the end of the lane has a pretty yellow Kath Kidston cloth and I just love it, it catches my eye every time I walk past, so I decided I would have one too.

The rain will keep me indoors tomorrow, and as there'll be no distractions, I'll be spending the day sewing.

'til next time

OPAM and Initial Heart Swap

For January and a little late....

I signed up with  Peg at Happy in Quilting to join the OPAM challenge.  For those that haven't seen this before, OPAM stands for One Project a Month.  The idea is very simple......participants try to finish at least one project a month, be it quilting, sewing, knitting..... a "soft" craft.....and at the end of each month we post pictures of our item/s and a tally.  Thankfully it's a low-stress challenge, so no OPAM police banging on my door if I don't manage to finish anything.  Whew, sounds like my kind of challenge!  I decided to join because I have a few ...ahem!....ufo's tucked away, and a few projects I want to make, and this will hopefully motivate me to get on and finish some things.  And with other participants visiting to see what I get up to, I'll have a cheer squad to keep me going.....thanks ladies.

I only managed one finished project for January, and the reason I'm late posting for OPAM is that it was my gift in the Initial Heart Swap, and I couldn't show a picture until my swap partner had received her gift.  My swap partner was none other than Peg who organises OPAM, and she let me know yesterday her parcel had arrived, so I can show you what I made her now.

For this swap, we had to make a gift of a heart with our partner's initial on it.  The gift could be an actual heart, or a heart on something.  So I made Peg this little mini-quilt with embroidery and applique.  I stalked Peg's blog and saw on an older post that she liked linen, so I used a soft blue-grey linen for the background.  The design is a mix of ideas....I saw the quote on a poster on Pinterest and thought maybe I could incorporate it somehow with the "heart" somewhere as part of my swap gift, then I remembered a pretty little vintage caravan my fellow blogger Maria  here at The Next Stage had embroidered that I particularly liked, and decided an appliqued van would do nicely with the quote.

Thanks to Cheryll here for organising the Initial Heart Swap.


....til next time