Gratitude: Week 4

This week when I sat down to write my weekly gratitude post, I initially struggled to think of something to be grateful for. I've already told you how wonderful my Mum and sister are, and as for Sir Pinkying - that's a post for a different week :)

This week has been particularly busy in my "day" job, and we've continued the very disheartening "house hunt". But there has been one thing that has been able to put a smile on my face everyday this week. I should tell you all now that I love music, it's a part of almost every single day of my life, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

This week my gratitude is about these folks (and the ones who create them)

For anyone who has been away from the "modern" world (perhaps under a rock, or on the moon), Glee is a show by Fox in the US (which runs on Channel 10 here in Australia) about a high school Glee club. They sing a FANTASTIC mix of 80's power ballads, pop, songs from musicals and rock. All with great vocal rearrangements. In the most recent episodes they've done "Fat Bottomed Girls" by Queen, "Firework" by Katy Perry, "Sing" by My Chemical Romance.

The music is fantastic it gets my toes tapping, peps up my energy and puts a smile on my face every time. And don't even get me started on what happens when I'm listening alone in my car..... I just have to remember not to sing too loudly when I've got the windows down! :)

Here's a little sample for any of you who have missed this brilliant show. Hope it makes you happy too :)

Thoughts turn to New Zealand

I'm quite sure that I'm not the only one who has been watching with horror the events unfolding in New Zealand. Sir Pinkying and I went there in September of last year, and although we didn't go to Christchurch, we did go to Kaikouri slightly north of the city.

September of last year when we were there was only about 2 weeks after they had the first significant earthquake, there were some roads that were still blocked but the people seemed to be getting on with life.

This new quake happened at the worst possible time - it was the middle of the day, office workers were out getting lunch, or at their desks and the city was busy. It is tragic and our collective Australian hearts go out to them.

As small nations at "the ends of the Earth" there is a long and abiding friendship between Australia and New Zealand, I heard someone today call them our ANZAC siblings, and that is really true. We share a common spirit, so in times like these I believe that we feel a common grief.

So tonight I'm thinking of all our New Zealand siblings, our quilting sisters and their loved ones.

Gratitude: Week 3

So after a couple of weeks of fairly BIG gratitude topics, this week I want to focus on something a bit more fun.

It's been a fairly hectic week, work is busy, we're trying to get ready to move house so that means we're rushing around every weekend looking at places, and it really is just one thing after another. It doesn't leave much time for quilting, which is kind of ironic, because what I really need to do is find some time to do something relaxing, like quilting.

So, this week I am grateful for my rotary cutter! I finally found about 2 hours last night spare and I got a surprising amount of cutting done. I'm making some place mats for after we've moved, it's a good way to not have to think about the moving! :) I got all of the backgrounds cut out, and most of the individual coloured strips too. I can't imagine how long it would have taken if I'd had to do it all by hand!

In this time pressured world, I really am grateful for having tools like the rotary cutter! How about you guys, what tools do you love??