Birthdays and Onesies.

We have a number of birthdays in our family from late June through to late July, and two of them this year warranted parties.

The first was in the lovely New South Wales city of Armidale ( spelt with an I, not an A). This explains why I had such trouble finding it on Google maps every time I looked.

Armidale is the highest city above sea level in Australia. The weather was lovely and sunny, but cold! Most mornings were -5, but as we were safely tucked up in our motel room, we did not even notice the cold.

Resting high on the Northern Tablelands, Armidale is the most cosmopolitan NSW city outside Sydney catering for harmonious living for 25,000 citizens from 53 different nationalities. It is called the city of four seasons, and education, as it is the home to the University of New England.






Booloominbah, the magnificent building on the grounds of UNE, originally the home of colonial grazier, Frederick White. The homestead later became a rehabilitation home for returned soldiers, and then was donated to Sydney University.

You can read it's history here









Magnificent stained glass window in the foyer of Booloominbah....
A full description is here


Miss Kali lives on campus, in the Mary White College, and she celebrated her 21st birthday.





With her proud Dad....




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And her equally proud grand parents. Its hard to believe that those twenty one years have flown by. It seems only yesterday that we had the phone call to tell us a baby girl had arrived safely. She has grown into a delightful young woman !


And just two years ago we welcomed her twin sisters, Zoe and Charlotte. 






They too, had a wonderful party to celebrate their second birthday, and this is where the onesies came into play.

The twins party theme was butterflies, and we were invited to come dressed as anything that might be found in a garden.


Now I know a tiger is stretching it a little, but you would surely find a Labrador in a garden.

There was also a sheep, a giraffe and a beaver at the party, not to mention a Mummy butterfly.

Aysha activated her cake decorating skills, and there was a wonderful butterfly cake just begging to be eaten.
A wonderful party, and all credit must go to Mummy butterfly, who did a great job of organizing it.





Happy birthday grand daughters!!

And happy birthday to Sue, Troy and Harrison as well!

Posted from another day in Paradise.

The days of wine and roses

Or should I say, the days of cakes, spas and manicures.

Olivia baked her very first, completely made from scratch cake. It took a while, you tend to forget how long cake making can be when you have become a little accustomed to packet mixes.

I must confess though, those "proper" cakes taste so much better. Olivia chose red, pink and orange for her marble cake.











She could hardly wait to cut it and try it!

A luxurious for spa was then the order of the day, Mum especially enjoys this treat.




Then came the manicure.....lovely nails to show off the new wedding ring Mum treated herself to. I think she has been widowed longer than she was married, but still felt incomplete without the ring that had to be cut off some years ago. At 100 years old, those little old fingers are getting riddled with arthritis, and giving her pain a lot of the time, but she can still knit.





The finished quilt that I began a couple of months ago...apparently the young recipient loved it, so I am very pleased about that...










Because I enjoy quilting so much, I am going to try and make more time to use up some of my stash of fabric, and produce a couple more quilts. I have a couple of ideas in mind...watch this space !

Posted from another day in Paradise.

Location:Castlemaine