Penfriends

I'm a big fan of receiving letters in the mail, you know..... the old fashioned type that are often hand written sometimes on lovely papers and other times on whatever we can lay our hands on :)  I never open my penpal letters straight away as I like to enjoy them and  to take them to one of my special spots (I have a few, so it depends a lot on what the weather is like, just where I end up sitting),  where I can enjoy them without being interrupted, ........ with cuppa in hand I pour over the letter feeling like I've been to visit with a friend. 
I also have a penpal group that has been together for 7 yrs now and we have robins (circle letters) that we send around ......so those types have a number of letters included in the envelope.  They usually have a theme in mind like sewing, crafting, gardening... but some are just for general chit chat so its like sitting around the kitchen table with everyone telling their news........  

The group started off when I came up with the idea of making some  quilt blocks - one each month that demonstrated something that had occurred during that month.  I had 5 other ladies who decided to take part and each month we would make our block and then copy it to make 5 other blocks which we would send to each lady in the group together with a short letter telling what the block was about. 

We made the whole 12 months (some blocks were just material, some applique, pieced and embroidered)................  I embroidered some extra blocks to act as headers with each of the ladies names and where they were from - 3 from Australia and 3 from US, and then I embroidered the months of the year and pieced them together...................

I remember the tap represented we finally got water to our place by way of a bore

The birthday balloons Julie used represented the month full of birthdays they had!

And we came together through tough times like the material blocks Deanna sent that she worked on while sitting in the hospital after some of her children had been involved in a terrible fire.

 This quilt top has sat for one reason or another, and through 2 big interstate moves..... until today when I decided to have a look for it.   I was answering one of the robins and it got me thinking about this quilt that needs to be finished off.  So it seems I'll be doing some work on it over the next month in the hope of getting it finished.
Two of the ladies who took part in this quilt back in 2007 have blogs of their own which you might like to go and visit......... Lynda  from  Australia    and Deanna  from the US. There are still 4 of us from this original group who still keep in contact via our snail mail group, and very shortly after we completed this quilt we had a few more join us who have remained faithful in the old fashioned art of snail mail.  It takes time and effort and a degree of organisation, but I would not be without my very dear penpals who have become like sisters!  Of course that goes for all my other dear pen pals who are not part of this particular group, but who none the less enjoy exchanging letters.

Looks like we are about to get some rain here soon which kind of makes it nice for either sitting and sewing or sitting and writing some old fashioned snail mail!  I hope you find something nice in your mailbox soon too!

There's more than One House Here

While it's all good and well to be working on getting our homes sorted out, it's good to remember we have 7 pillars we use for building our homes........ one of those happens to be keeping good health (Pillar No 4).  Sometimes we women tend to so busy tending to everyone else we forget we have a house of our own - namely our body, which also needs to be maintained!!  Without good health we soon begin finding it difficult to keep up.  Particularly as we move into our 40's, 50's and 60's.......... little things begin to change, or we become less active, more indulgent ...... I'm sure you have some idea of what I'm talking about here! 

We are just coming out from Winter here, which is usually a time I tend to gain a bit of weight and loose fitness........ This time it's not as bad as last year when I discovered I had gone from a size 10 in my mid 30s to a size 14-16 in my early 50s!!  I got onto it, but I don't do winter well!!!  I'd be a basket case if it went any longer....... still, I have about 5-6kg I need to loose to make things easier on my knees and hips,  and my fitness level is pretty low!!     I wonder how many of us with all the extra stresses we carry today, could honestly say we have a healthy immune system, that our bodies have a reasonable to good level of fitness?? 
So I'm on a bit of a mission this month to make sure I do a bit of "housecleaning" with my own body........ a revamp of the mealplan to ensure I'm adding in more vegies and fruit to my diet, reducing my beloved caffeine input (which I tend to rely on as a replacement at times for good nutrients ) ,  getting my muscles working again........ although I have to say they have been very busy this weekend getting the vegie patch weeded and plowed up and planted with numerous seedlings and seeds.   What do you think of our bit of paving we did at the front of the house...... and Pete put up the old wheels as a border.....
Talk soon
Sharm