Monday, March 31, 2008

10 000 Steps

This year I have been participating in the "10000 Steps" Program and am amazed at how many steps I walk in the course of a normal day. It's very easy to join and certainly makes you aware of how little or how much exercise you normally do. The aim of the program is to encourage people to walk at least 10 000 steps every day.

The weather has been so hot that I haven't done any extra walking this year, but I plan to now that the cooler days have arrived. The only requirement is that you wear a pedometer and record your steps online. There are numerous charts to show your progress and a huge list of other walkers to compare yourself with.

Give it a try and walk yourself to health.

Liz

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Scatterday X


Scatterday X
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz
I'm back!!! Probably no-one is bothering to check my blog anymore. Have to change that.
Sport Day is over, the Quilt Show is over and there are only 2 weeks left of this term. The pressure is easing at last and I am back to Scatterdays!!

My offerings this week. Took some thinking for a while, but here goes:

1. Xylophone - well a type of xylophone that the kids construct and play at school. The keys are made from wood which is different from the more usual xylophone.

2. X-Ray of my son's spine. Looks OK to me.

3. X-plate. Tried to find one with 3 Xs, but we are not up to them yet.

4. X-Man - my very favourite X-man, the lovely Hugh Jackman.

In the course of looking for X-words, I discovered that I am an xanthrocroid and could be described as xanthous, but I am not a xenophobe. Rather I am an xenophile. Furthermore X-rays have shown that I have a rather large xiphisternum or zithoid process. Interesting what turns up.

Liz Needle

Yeah!!! The Crows just won!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Great Show

Well, the show is over! And a very successful weekend it was. The final total hasn't been announced yet, but we grossed around $3500. Once the expenses are taken out, we should have a tidy sum to send to Autism SA.
The setting at Victor Harbor was just superb - the only green patch for miles around. The weather was not fantastic - hot, but it didn't seem to stop the customers and we had a steady flow for the two days.
The quilts, even though I say it myself, were beautiful, and we had some terrific feedback. The company for the weekend was brilliant and the Retreating angels thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
All in all, an excellent weeeknd.

Mr Karl Zander of Autism SA opening the show on Saturday. He planned to just pop in and do the job then get away. I think he felt very out of place. However, an hour later he was still there looking at quilts and chatting to quilters. Very impressed with what he saw.









Yours truly chatting while on gate duty










Angels and assistant angels having a well earned coffee break with the winery owners Neville and Adrian Scott



Liz Needle

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Heatwave

March 11th

Finally back to blogging. I hope you haven't all run away in disgust. My life has been very loaded down with things lately. First a husband who has not been well, though tests have shown so far that it is nothing life threatening and medication seems to have him under control - I wish I could. LOL.

School with the challenge of 6 delightful, but demanding Vietnamese children as well as 20 equally demanding Aussie 12/13 year olds has also proved more of a task than I expected, but we will get there, I know.

Finally, the reason why I haven't been blogging much - the Retreating Angels Quilt Show next weekend. I have been madly finishing quilts, sewing on bindings and attaching labels and hanging sleeves. Did I tell you we are in the middle of a heatwave and I am sitting under mountains of cuddly quilts doing hand sewing!! Here is another of the finished quilts. This one was a set of friendship blocks, finally put together.

The blocks were made for me by members of the Woodpatch quilting group. Many of them needed a lot of fixing, so they were put away safely and only came to light when I cleaned out my sewing room last winter.

I sent it off to Tracey Browning of Constantine Quilting, then hesitated when I realised the cost involved, especially as I wasn't all that impressed with the standard of some of the stitching in the blocks. However I am glad I went ahead because it is a pretty quilt and looks great in my blue bedroom. Check out the quilting.





I mentioned a heatwave. Adelaide has had 8 days of temperatures over 36 degrees - equalling an all time record. Yesterday we had a cool change - only 35 degrees, but today it was back up to 39.2 . And until next Wednesday every day will be over 35 degrees.

No wonder our gardens are beginning to look like waste lands with water restrictions continuing.

Bushfires today through the Adelaide Hills, supposedly started by lightning. One is within 5 kms of my daughter Jo at Williamstown. Fingers crossed they get it under control. I guess we have been lucky so far this summer, but the scrub is as dry as a tinder box and we are all fearful that if a fire takes hold it will sweep through everything.

Off to find a long cold drink.

Liz