Australia, weddings etc and home

Home again and I fell in a heap, exhausted by all that has happened of late- I did not feel I wanted to move, think or do anything....

Getting over it now, but the recent fiasco with that 'fictional' Delhi police story I was mentioning a while ago and then no visa for Praveen due to the mistake of the visa agent and so having to do the trip to Oz alone just took the wind out of my sails...add to that a wonderful head cold and I was a teary mess coming home to fall into Praveen's arms.

I guess the best thing to do when feeling like that is to count your blessings, don't look at the length of the list of things to get onto rather like eating an elephant take it one bite at a time and DO start and move- wallowing as a blubbing mess will not help anyone.

OK there is a part of me that would like to sit and mould still but I am up to getting bored with that and moving on, I think.

Some of my blessings

1. Praveen did sort out the Delhi fiasco and is safe home

2. we might have worked like maniacs for the last 6 months getting paperwork in order for the visa, only to have the guy mess it up- we still have all the bookwork etc done, business registations, tax statements and a better system of officework sorted out to keep the million and one government agencies we have to deal with as an Indian small business sorted out- which must be a better foundation for our future dealing with Indian paperwork.

3. My eldest son got married!! This is in the suit shop...notice 3 boys in suits and the groom not? Yes, his did not arrive, whilst I was going to pull the head off the shop owner the boys restrained me, David was very cool and got her to cobble an outfit together that looked the business. This photo was to show his girl Niamh - only after the wedding.

4. I have never seen such a happy and present expression on my son's face- for that I am truely grateful. He has grown into a beautiful man and I thank Niamh for inspiring that- they make a great couple. I spent a lot of the wedding crying- a lot in happiness for them and a little in sadness I really missed not having Praveen with me to share in all this.

5. My best friend's daughter Bonnie married Mick. I have known Bonnie since she was a wee small thing, love her dearly and am so happy to see her with Mick he is a lovely guy. Again such a beautiful day.....

6. My little boys- well that is how I used to refer to them in reference to David who is 6 years older...not so little anymore [baby Ruben was 21 yesterday- on right] but still as silly as ever. We made them quilts using Tshirt offcuts from Zac's designs [Zac on left] bothe were well pleased.

7. Zac kindly took some time off work and was my co-driver to drive down to Geelong, we met up with Jen our distribtor and helped we set up a stall at the Geelong Fibre Forum. I really enjoyed having time with Zac as well as the comfort of his presence and co-driving.
This is Jen's blog and Facebook page - keep an eye on it as she has a whole new programme happening soon

8. Jen's business is antique quilts and designing quilts [I love her stuff] and it sits very well with ours- she was great helping with a style makeover consultation. Branding and presentation are such a big bit of selling your stuff, and I must admit not really an area of expertise of mine. We are re-branding all our stuff to the workshop name The Stitching Project [ she has had a few enquiries about Jamie Oliver getting into textiles with our name being Pukka Desirables- whilst I love Jamie that is not quite the association I had hoped for]
Now need to design and make new labels, build a new website with shopping cart etc heaps of work but it will be worth it in the long run...the our pukka place site is not up to scratch anyway....

9. yes whole trip was a bit like this- a blur and headless chook moments

10. very pleasing to be able to drop in and visit Anne at Timeless Textiles in Newcastle, fabulous gallery/shop and exhibtion programme - a must visit place if you are passing through Newcastle or interested in excellent workshop opportunities.

11. Home with Praveen- it is such a comfort to be with him again and settle down, stop crying and try and get on with things...this was a bit of a highlight this week- new quilt coming togther. We arranged the blocks to make steps...love making quilts

12. Treasure, my mate in the UK helped get these for us. John James long darner needles...our Stitching Ladies have been eyeing off the few I have in my personal stash for some time...we were able to buy 1000 as a bulk order, then I got worried they would get 'lost' in the post [I am waiting more than 6 weeks for 3 books I ordered from the UK and so rightly nervous I think]....anyway Anne sent them to Dawn in Oz, I picked them up from Dawn and now they are in our workshop being handed our very fruggaly and happily to our Ladies.....

message to self- keep looking on the bright side ...and just get on with it!!