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Daily Bliss

Today's lovely moments are tomorrow’s beautiful memories

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Christmas 2010 at Castle Bliss



We are 12 in number for at late lunch, today.

Five of our seven off-spring and their partners are joining us.

These include:
The Princess Royale (formerly known as the Crown Princess)
with her gorgeous baby bump & very protective and proud Rock Doctor;
The Crown Prince and his future Crown Princess,
The Living Doll & her best mate, The Beef Baron,
The Stethoscope Duchess (formerly known as The Princess Cadet),
Prints Charming (The MOTH's youngest prince who works in printing & publishing) & his lady fair (blog name not yet decided but very much family).

The MOTH's other two princes, The Crown Prince of Whales (the MOTH has a Welsh ancestry) & Prince Kilowatt (an electrician with a marvelous smile) are elsewhere in Australia, so not attending

If we're introducing titles, I'm sure to be wearing the 'Drama Queen' Crown in the kitchen today. LOL The MOTH & Puffing Willy
(my super fit runner of an ex-husband who works for a railway company)
will keep me sane.

However you are celebrating this special family day,
I wish Happiness & laughter to one and all,

Merry Christmas

Felicity



Lunch Time Menu at Castle Bliss

Champagne, Champagne, Champagne
(We'll sip, sip, sip while we sit around the tree opening gifts)

Munchies
by the Princess Royale

Mains

Roast Turkey with Cranberry Sauce & Gravy,
Baked Ham & Fresh Seafood

(All served with
Mama’s famous roast potatoes, stuffed chillies
& hot Asparagus Salad)

Decadent Desserts

Dog Bowl pudding
(a family tradition from way back)
Cheesecake
(Both served with Tiramisu ice-cream & strawberries)

Chocolates by The Living Doll


posted by Felicity | 12:02 am | 6 comments

Friday, December 03, 2010

Summer is here!


Copyright: Richard Galbraith
http://www.richardgalbraith.com.au/Gallery/Gallery_One.html

Summer is here but the rain continues.
This is yesterday's radar over sunny Brisbane.
Not much sun happening, huh?



Good news, though: the garden is looking lush & green.
The spring flowers were beautiful, this year.

Drum roll, please

Rain means that I've been very busy being very creative indoors. The only trouble is that the camera doesn't take very good photographs of my efforts. There are too many dark beads and dark backgrounds and a lack of quality lighting at the time that I think to take pics.

(Note to all those who will go into spin mode:
I'm still primarily a cross stitch girl, so put the skids on any panic you may feel when you see what I've been doing.
Beading and baby fever will pass, I assure you)


The work area - a place with two large picture windows (one beside and one in front).
I'm back at weekly beading classes learning all the fancy dancy stitching & weaving.
I'm pretty crap at it, still, but I enjoy it.
Time and practice will improve my technique.

Today, however, I'm showing you the stringing.
I've been trying to use up a few beads which were left over from my last big beading fever, about 2 (or was it 3?) years ago.


Simple but quite elegant stringing!


Sparkles for Christmas which
The Crown Prince's Consort & I bought
at a recent craft fair


Different view of the same thing.
I can't show all my secret gifts in one hit!
I've made about 4 versions of these for each of my princesses.
The MOTH's daughters-in-law (I'll call them that for ease even though we are talking legal & defacto - in Australia it's the same thing, anyway)
are getting my $25 allocation as something someone else made,
because I know my daughters' tastes but not theirs.

Why such a tight budget, you might ask?
When a couple has 7 biological off-spring PLUS their off-springs' partners, 8siblings, 2 parents (the MOTH's) & each an ex-partner to buy for, one stays within a respectable budget.

I'm saving it up for my soon-to-be very spoilt grandchild! LOL

I'll leave this entry at this point. I'm formulating a new one already, because there's more news to tell from Castle Bliss. You'll just have to wait a wee while.

Happiness & laughter to one and all,

Felicity

posted by Felicity | 2:55 pm | 2 comments

Thursday, November 04, 2010


One really knows that one has had enough of one's recent genealogy obsession when one finds that the O'Nian family has started marrying into the Peel family.

For those of you without an Australian accent read: "when the Onion family has started to marry into the Peel family"

Only in Australia, folks. Only in Australia ...

Happiness & laughter to one and all.

It's nearly Friday. Haveagreatweekend.

Felicity


posted by Felicity | 5:03 pm | 2 comments

Saturday, October 30, 2010

The State of Things



I flipped over the calendar to the new month, this morning.
To October, that is. It's officially Spring!
And not a moment too soon because I discovered that
Today is the MOTH's Little Prince's 20th birthday.
I thought it was tomorrow.
Oh dear!
As you can tell, I've been living a day-to-day existence for all of October (and September, come to think of it).
I live my life by what happens on the weekends with the MOTH & by the names of the days of the week, for the rest of the week & the family events which come with.
It went something like this, this week:
Dentist on Monday. Organise some new pots and potting mix for the garden, go to the optometrist, vacuum the dog hair.
Tuesday. No, I can't remember Tuesday (except for the use of the 9x20kg bags of potting mix) but I do remember making some appointments while I was out and about for Wednesday. Sigh. Vacuum the doghair.
Wednesday was car cleaning (all the damned dog hair!), beading class and then later in the day I had tea with the Crown Princess & her baby bump.
I think she got offended when I mentioned that it was time we went bra shopping.
LOL
Pregnant woman worrying she's getting 'fat'.
Proud grandma all excited for her daughter's gorgeous baby shape.
Forgot to vacuum the doghair.
Thursday, went to another beading class & then had the postponed lunch from Wednesday with the Living Doll, followed in the evening by a casual, but lovely, dinner with the MOTH at our local fave haunt.
Damn the dog hair, I'll do it tomorrow!
Friday. Major vacuuming crisis so did the house, the verandas around the house, the footpaths ... essentially I got so carried away because I read the instructions for the leaf blower and got it going first tug. Dinner with friends, including a new grandma. Major panic attack afterwards because I know I'm going to be just as potty as her!
And so to Saturday and two birthdays this weekend which I thought were tomorrow and Monday.
Oh dear!
These are the highlights. There's a lot of 'routine' in there as well
(walking in the park at 5am & neighbourhood friends to catch up with, school days, etc)
I'm on the treadmill but not in a rut.
I'm very happy with life indeed.
I promise to flip over the calendar again, tomorrow.


Happiness & laughter to one and all,Felicity

posted by Felicity | 6:32 am | 2 comments

Friday, October 22, 2010

A Blissful Week!



I'm still not stitching!

I've been travelling.
The MOTH spoke at a conference in Canberra early in the week, so I went with him so that I visit my childhood stamping ground and catch up with my sister who has had pneumonia.

It was great to catch up!

On Sunday evening, the three of us headed out to dinner, and then on Monday The Princess Royale and I did a bit of window shopping and then went to high tea.

We gossiped together until 8pm.

Bliss!

Tuesday was The Cadet Princess's 22nd birthday, so instead of stopping in Brisbane, I changed planes and headed north to Townsville.

There was more girlie gossip, more window shopping.

More. Bliss!

When I arrived back in Brisbane on Thursday evening (last night), I stopped in the city for the evening, & the rest of the family gathered for dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Fortitude Valley.

The food was good & the company spectacular.

But that's not all folks ...

The Crown Prince's Consort and I went to the craft fair today.

My feet are sore but oh what a wonderful time we had together!

We're going to be making cards and doing some more beading, like we did a few years ago

(I'm not going to be as adventurous as last time & make for people who might not appreciate, but the family is going to be decked out in shiney beads for Christmas).

I hope you, too, are getting into the excitement of the approaching season of Noel.

Have a great weekend.

Felicity

posted by Felicity | 5:20 pm | 2 comments

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Rain

It's a good thing that I'm not a wicked witch because with the kind of weather we've been having over the last 7 weeks, I'd have melted long ago!



While it was not ideal, this is how the road 200 metres down the hill from Castle Bliss used to flood during heavy rain.
This is the nature of creeks in Australia.
The water would run away within 24 - 48 hours & the road be passable.
It didn't happen often, but, unfortunately, it happened often enough in the last 5 years (maybe an extraordinary five times) that some know-it-all at Brisbane City Council decided to spend $4.5million and do an upgrade.
The locals petitioned against a new bridge.



The bridge was finished in July 2010.
Yes, dear Readers, a simple 4 months ago.
This is how the water looked last Sunday afternoon at the same spot but looking in the opposite direction.
The new bridge couldn't cope with the water any more than the old causeway.

I suspect that there is a lawsuit just waiting to happen here!
To be honest, with the kind of rain Brisbane has been having in recent months
(our dams have gone from 0% to 100% capacity
& we have an 80% chance of rain continuing until Christmas
just as it did in the disasterous 1974 Brisbane flood)
our little causeway wouldn't have coped any better.
I feel sorry for the company which built the new bridge.

Don't be surprised that lots of the locals are shaking their heads and thinking:
"I told you so!"



What a mess!

Wherever you are, I hope you are safe and dry!

Happiness & laughter to one and all,

Felicity

posted by Felicity | 3:46 am | 4 comments

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Confession Time


Meari's blog is telling me to get my mind back onto stitching, this week.

It's not possible, I say!

I'm too busy having an affair with Tom!

Tom is squiring me around town (occasionally taking me via Warwick in the hinterland, it seems) & I'm having fun. Yesterday I went down to the Gold Coast to see the Crown Prince's Consort. Tomorrow Tom's taking me to Bribie Island in the north. My little red mazda & I are clocking up the miles this week.

The MOTH seems quite pleased, really. He's in Singapore for work so he's not here to escort me places himself so he's quite pleased that Tom is happily telling me where to go and how long it will take to do it - and that I'm doing what I'm told.

"Tom?" you may ask. A simply gorgeous English accent and all ... a dream.

Every girl should have a Tom in her life - a Tom Tom, that is.

I love my GPS navigator!

Some time soon I'll tell you about my other love affair with family history.

Happiness & laughter to one and all,

Felicity

The cute pic above folks is from Tracks Publishing Ltd. Gorgeous, huh? For more info about where you can get their product email: info@tracksltd.com

posted by Felicity | 8:15 pm | 7 comments

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