a tad disjointed.

I've been playing around with poladroid while waiting for M to come home tonight.
It's fun! You even get to shake it around the screen and watch it develop like a real polaroid!
I've been wanting to try it ever since I came across it a few months ago. And now they have a windows version (yay!) which I finally got to work on my computer.
If you haven't given it a try yet go and download it now, it's such a blissful waste of time :)

** update on Callan. My friend sent me a txt to let me know that the surgery went well and he should come off the ventilator today and then begin the slow process of recovery. Thank you God and thanks girls for your prayers, they are such a blessing. Please continue to pray for a quick and miraculous recovery and for peace for this family.

** update on the sale - we have had some set backs with the buyers stalling and wanting more builders reports and inspections. There's to be one more builders report (which dad as an owner builder is going to oversee) this week but we have been advised they are still very keen to buy. We went to an auction today for a house we love (adore) and want, but is a bit out of our price range (or so we thought) there was not one bid. It was such a quick auction. The auctioneer entered the vendor's reserve price - which was the same as mum and dad's top price and still no one was bidding. Mum and dad don't want to do anything until our contracts have exchanged, but these people have come into much financial difficulty and must sell for whatever they can get. Which although I feel very sad for them, is a great position for us. If we get this house it will definitely be a god thing & all praise will be his! Now if only our contracts would finally go through!

And.. if you like paper and all things free you should check out this giveaway...

now go and kiss your sweetie ...!! (I know you want to!)

A Plead for Prayer.

I had hoped today to share with you some craft and fun latest happens but I feel lead to share something so much more.

A request for prayer.

My dear friend Jes's younger brother was recently involved in a serious motorbike accident and has been in hospital almost two weeks.

He is having surgery in half an hour (after a round of 6 hour surgery yesterday that was rather unsuccessful). I ask that you join in with me and pray that God will guide the surgeons hands, that the surgery would go according to plan, that Callan's recovery be as quick as possible and that God would be with this family at this time. Bringing a peace and hope that only God can. That miracles of salvation and healing would happen.

This is the same family that last year lost their dad to a long illness with cancer. They have had a rough time but my friend is still ever so active in her church and youth minitsry and ever praising God and oh so joyful - she just inspires me so & is so dear.

Please won't you pray for this family too.

I Love a Sunburnt Country

Happy Australia Day from us to you!
(note M's southern cross window decal)

What a great day. A day to celebrate just how blessed we are to live in this country. This country where we are free. Free to have our opinions. Free to meet together and worship our God. A country of such opportunity and such cultural diversity.

I love the contrast that is Australia - I love the dry and orange outback, the busy metropolitan cites, our amazing beaches & coastlines, the north tropics & rain forests, the deserts, the country farms, the rolling green hills, the southern snowfields & the Aussie bush and wildlife.

I love that we are only a small country but we are mighty.

It was so great to see so many cars today driving around with flags attached, houses with flags flying high and numerous people sporting green and gold. I have never remembered Australia day being such a big deal - I'm proud to see Aussies taking such pride in this country - the great south land of the holy spirit.

We spent the day soaking in summer and relaxing, enjoying lamb on the barbie for lunch and then CM and I snuck down to the waterfront where we cuddled under an umbrella (in a slight drizzle), met up with friends and watched the fireworks. It was just lovely.

and that was me being rather patriotic!
I just love my country - Aussie slang and all ;) (referring to this post)

Ham-Bag

Remember the free bag tutorial from Oh Fransson that I posted about here? Well I finally got a chance to make it For Morgan's sister Paige as a combined Christmas/Birthday present. I used Amy Butler's wall flower fabric (from her Lotus collection) that i have been hoarding for just such a project. I just adore the end result.

button detail.
white fabric with white lace fabric over the top for added texture.

I found the tutorial overall very easy to follow (especially as the tutorial is full of photos, which really helps!) & the end result is a really sturdy and very cute tote :)
The only trouble I had was getting the pleat to sit nicely, as I did the shorter strap version, which has a deeper pleat.
But I say...
definitely try this pattern for yourself... I know I'm going to make another one for me :)

photo by morgan.
'fashion-mag style'

ps. Wanna see where I was when I sewed this up? (haha that was kinda a strange question!):

yeah, I totally brought my sewing machine along with me when we went away for that week on our boat (along with the iron, and my new mini ironing board and scrapbooking goodies, which I used to make some decorations for the Domestic Bliss Christmas comp). I figured it was a house boat, so that must have meant that I was allowed to :D. Miss Fairlight also informed me that she once took hers to a motel once, while her husband had a work doo, so that made me feel better about taking it along. Thanks Fairlight!

And wanna know something else, it must have been the amazing scenery but I didn't get frustrated once. Not even when i had to unpick the whole row of topstitching around the top and handles of the bag. I was able to jump off the back of the boat, swim abit, then continue sewing while soaking in the scenery and sunshine and enjoying a cocktail and bikkies and cheeses. I'm thinking this should definitely be the way we all sew all the time.
If I was Queen...

with love from 'downunder'

So the shower that WAS (and the excitement and wonder that was wound up in it) still lives on girls! Last night dear Leslie sent me an email saying she had gotten photos of her kiddies in their outfits I made (more here) and sent over as part of my package for her baby shower. Little Cade is now 3 months old and able to fit into his 'kanga outfit' (kangaroo pouch, with kangaroos on it) and Leslie was so nice to take some gorgeous snapshots of them to show me. And with a photographer as a mumma, I knew these photos would look gorgeous (which they of course are!)
I was so excited to see what they would look like and was speechless and awed when I popped on over to Leslie's blog. There is something so cool about seeing something you made (with much love) and sent half way round the world, in the anticipation of mini man's arrival, actually being worn by these two little cuties and knowing they are loved.

Leslie, thank you for sharing these and I am so glad you love the outfits (and that they fit) and that they inspired you to take some photos of your two cuties together as they are now, cuddly and sweet together, hands in each others pockets and all :D You have made my day!
Love you guys!
Kt xx

more photos on Leslie's blog here.

A year of...

Change. So much change.
Change that is just as daunting and unknown as it is exciting and inspiring. Yes I really can't make up my mind how I feel about it all at the moment. There are quite a few big changes happening over the next few weeks and months in the Mac Household...

A massive change in the direction of my future, as in now I have a plan and goal for my career. On Monday I handed my four weeks notice of my resignation to the head of my department (my boss is away so i still have to tell her!). It was a slightly scary process but my boss was great, understanding, excited for me and happy that I was pursuing my goal (which they have known about ever since they hired me) . So the 7th February 2009 will be my last day as a legal secretary and as of the 23 February I will be become a full time student studying a diploma of Interior design (yum yum!) here (as previously posted about here). Hopefully this space will only grow during this time and that I will be able share my some of knowledge and work with you all. Oh and that I can get used to commuting into Sydney and going back to studying after almost three years of not having to think too much :P

a change of scenery. After three-four years of our house being on and off the market without selling we are finally moving!! The phone call from the real estate agent (just after we had eaten an amazing breakfast in a glorious private bay on our boating holiday) to say we had an offer topped off the holiday for us (photos to come). The contracts are to be exchanged tomorrow and then we have 5 weeks to find a place and move. It's safe to say the house hunt (and box hunt) is in full swing and we spent all day Saturday browsing through houses. Due to large changes in dad's work, getting rid of his factory and my brother and I going to school in Sydney this once again brings with it much more change. We are looking at properties in a different area than which we live now, which will mean a new church, new friends and a change of lifestyle. We may even all be moving into morgan's house (they have a separate granny flat) if we end up without a house for a time, which in itself is a crazy thought.

We are also busily preparing my brother for a his new school. Not just any school but a 160 year old boarding school where he will be boarding Monday to Friday. It's funny when people ask us what he has done wrong to be sent there and if he is really that bad a student. The only thing I can think that he has done to seal this as his fate is to be born into this family and to be the third generation of Mac boys to attend said school. Fortunately, he is very very excited about the prospect of a new school and unlike his older sibling who is slightly daunted by change and new places is embracing it with vigor. He is also off next week to the schools rowing camp (his chosen summer sport) and to meet some new friends while mum, grandma and i will be frantically sewing the labels with his name and laundry number onto every item of clothing. I just know weekends will have a special meaning for us next year when he is home.

oh and did I mention all these changes will probably be happening within a few weeks of each other - crazy thinking how life can suddenly change so much!

Of course when life becomes like this, blogging seems to take a back seat but know that I am still logging in almost daily to check up on life, to smile at the posts you all write and that I have missed you all.

and...
HAPPY NEW YEAR friends! may God fill it with blessing, prosperity, many laughs, happy moments and tonnes of friends!

kt x

popping in...

morgan's puppy Bronte.

taken boxing day 08.

Just popping in to say that I am still here, just catching my breath after the busy last couple of weeks and organizing, organizing myself this last week before I have to go back to work (& enjoying lots of beach days, cause it has been super hot :P). There is also lots of crafting to be done and things to show and this lazy butt to kick back into gear, not to mention a new year to embrace - no matter how daunting it seems at the moment and how it makes my head spin. I hope you each had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas and New Year. I can't wait to catch up with you all!

kt x