A birthday gift...

For DH's birthday this year, I gave him 2 vouchers for a Scenic Rim Wineries Tour and on December 27 we did the tour. The company is 'Cork 'n  Fork' and their motto is 'Let us Drive you to Drink'!
The Scenic Rim area of SE Queensland, covers a large area...
'Just one hour’s drive from Brisbane and the Gold Coast, the Scenic Rim region is home to the thriving country towns of Beaudesert, Boonah, Canungra, Kalbar, Kooralbyn, Rathdowney, Tamborine Mountain and Aratula. '

In our naivety, DH and I thought that we would cover the whole area in the 1 day tour...but of course that was not possible as we were to find out.

Our pick up point was the Sofitel Hotel above Central Station...what a lovely place to wait...look what was in the foyer :-)

A rather large gingerbread house in the foyer of the Sofitel

 When the tour van arrived we found that our tour that day would centre on the Tamborine Mountain area and that 4 more people would be joining us at the first winery as they were being picked up at Coolangatta. So we settle back to enjoy the drive to Tambourine. 
Our first stop was the Cedar Creek Estate Winery. It is in beautiful surroundings...including a man made lake...

 And the wild ducks love the lake...

Then the wine tasting started. Bronwyn was very knowledgeable about wine, and we tried a number of different varieties, including one that was similar to Baileys...mmmm very nice! lol

The next winery we visited actually made wine on the premises unlike Cedar Creek Estates...

 This was Witches Falls Winery...
The next photo is looking into the bottling shed...

This next photo shows a crusher...

 Then we went into the shed where all the barrels of wine are stored...each of those barrels holds enough wine for 300 bottles!

 This was the tasting room area of the Witches Falls Winery...

Our next stop was the Distillery...the spirits and  liqueurs here were beautiful and smooth. Mike, the owner, being aware of the laws governing his business was very strict in the number of samples we could try even though we weren't driving. DH and I were quite happy but some people were a bit disgruntled and wanted to quaff/sip a lot more! lol

The charming Distillery

Our tour van parked at the Distillery

One of the pigeons in the little loft at the Distillery

 Our next stop was at the beautiful Heritage Estate Winery...and this was our lunch stop which was fully included in our package...
The restaurant is an old church that was moved to the site bit by bit, and then restored...

The bar in the background of the photo was rescued from an an old Commonwealth bank that was demolished...

 Peter, our tour guide, had organised that our group would lunch on the verandah, complete with small church pews...

 This is DH's lunch...

 This is mine...Pierre the French chef here, has a wonderful reputation and the meal did not disappoint...

 The next stop was at the other end of Tamborine and it is a Brewery and Cheese Factory.

 Surprisingly DH and I didn't think we could face sampling beer after sampling all those wines and liqueurs...

So we left the other 5 to do that while we went into the cheese factory. We bought 2 varieties to bring home...
And then it was time to be driven back to the Sofitel in Brisbane and then a bus ride home. It had been a lovely day and DH certainly had enjoyed his birthday gift! 

Christmas swaps, continued...

Another Christmas swap that I signed up for was the Santa Sack one organised by Cheryll over at 'Gone Stitchin' '
My partner in this swap was Alison, and here are the lovely parcels that Alison sent me...

We were given a date which was 'opening day' for these parcels and I opened all but one...leaving this one parcel until December 25.

And this is the lovely surprise that I found inside this parcel...
I was absolutely thrilled with this delightful  bag with the beautifully embroidered hexagonal panel...it's gorgeous!

A close-up of the stitching...

 Because I have used a 'red and white' theme in my hutch decorating this year, I put the lovely mug that Alison gave me with my 2 other red and white mugs...it looks wonderful!

And another big thank you to Alison for all the beautiful gifts that she sent me. Thank you also to Cheryll for organising this swap.
Now for quite a few weeks (on and off from September actually) I was doing 'secret sewing/knitting' as I prepared gifts for my swap partners...now I can show some of the items...
The little gathered fabric basket I made for Alison...

I popped in a pack of paper serviettes with a Christmas theme...

I also made a wall hanging for Alison...surprise! The design used hexagons! lol

Also for Alison, I made some bunting and one of my hexie ornaments...

 My goodness, yet another hexie design. This time I made a Christmas themed hand towel for Alison and paired it with some locally produced handmade soap.

 I've already shown most of the swap gifts that I sent to Barb in Maree's Xmas swap...now i can reveal what  was in the parcel to be left under the tree... I had bought some interesting yarns for Barb's gift but then I read the 'rules of the swap' again...oh dear, it said that that gift had to be handmade...so that's how the fabric basket came to be made.
I used some knitting themes' fabrics from my stash...

And here are the balls of yarn; the brown tones (hand dyed merino 4 ply) one came from 'Knitch' and the Bernat yarn came from 'Yarn Over', both yarn shops here in Brisbane.

In Chookyblue's Christmas Swap, I was partnered with Satu, all the way away in Finland. I took advantage of the cold weather that Satu must endure at Christmas time, to knit her gift...
I used some Patons Lace which has sweet little sequins threaded on the yarn. I have shown little glimpses of this project as I worked on it some SNwF and FNSI...it ended up being quite long and I needed two towels spread out to block it on...

And here it is, folded up and tied with some Christmas ribbon ready to be popped into a postbag to begin its journey to Finland.

And this little kangaroo stitched on a face washer went along to Finland as well!

Satu wrote a post here recently and she included some delightful photos of her cat Fenix checking out the goodies which Satu received in the mail! He's beautiful!

Christmas Swaps... firstly SSCS

I must say first up, that I have been so humbled by the amazing generosity and beautiful creativity of all my swap partners. I have just been 'blown away' by the gifts that these lovely ladies sent me!
So it doesn't get like one of my childhood thank you letters to my Nanna, (where I filled the letter with a list of very present I was given for my birthday/Christmas! ;-/ )  I will post about each swap separately.
So today I will 'showcase' the lovely gifts that I got from Nicky in Chookyblue's Secret Santa Christmas Swap.

The parcels arrived in early December...

Nicky had made me this lovely tree ornament...

 And the other parcels in the postbag were placed under the tree. On Christmas morning I opened them up...firstly the most beautiful Christmas cushion...with such exquisite stitching and embellishments. I loved it as soon as I saw it! The back of the cushion is made with some lovely Xmas fabric which I forgot to take a photo of.

Nicky must have discovered that I 'rather like' hexies :-)...

I love this pattern for a bag which incorporates some hexies and stitching...

And yet another parcel to open...some lovely fabrics!

Thank you so much, Nicky! I love all my gifts from you!

Sorting through Photos...

A fellow blogger and K4BN member, Jenny, started posting photos(and videos) on Facebook under the heading, '25 Days of Christmas in Pictures', so I joined her in this project and it's been lots of fun. I don't really know what I originally envisaged I would share in this project, but it ended up being a lot of images from the family 'archives'. Here are some of the photos that I chose:-
The photos are in no particular chronological order...

The 'Patsy' and 'Edina' peg Angels that my daughters made one Christmas many years ago...

Some felt decorations purchased in the UK in 2008

A reindeer knitted by a friend last year. He is posing in front of a lovely reindeer mini quilt which Peg made me in the Christmas in July swap this year...

DD1 dressed as an angel for her part in the Sunday School concert many years ago...the costume featured lovely fluffy wings :-)

Some Australiana decorations given to me by a friend a few years ago...( the hot weather caused the candles to bend)

DD2's class performing in the school's Carols' Night. (she is in the front row and is wearing a dress with 3 tiers in the skirt) 

A little boy in my first class ever as a qualified teacher, gave me this doily for Christmas. His gran had crocheted it for me.

 Just a montage of my girls opening presents on Christmas day

 My SiL's Xmas village vs my tiny, very inexpensive one...

DD1 and I wearing 'mother and daughter Xmas outfits'

Another school Carols' night; this time it is DD1's class performing an item. DD1 is next to the tree

So there you have it...some glimpses of Christmases past...and a few more recent.