A Postcard & A Pattern Launch!!

Well ... it's been a busy, mixed-bag sort of a week here at the Meares Madhouse! My Beloved Geek Boy started a new job this week (a bit stressful for all involved!), something happened to make me question whether I should keep designing (a huge dent to the self-confidence and a crying jag in the corner!) ... and then a couple of nice things happened to round out the week - and I decided not to go looking for that bridge to jump off after all. Just kidding - Toowoomba doesn't actually have any rivers that require the building of bridges, so that was never really an option ... besides the whole fact that I'm a CHICKEN! :0) Just one of those "BLUES" moments that we all have from time to time and then get over - I'm over it now, I promise!!

So ... on to the good things!! The first came when I collected my mail on Thursday. There was a totally unexpected postcard in my box - hmmm ... who do I know who's travelling and skiting about it at the moment?!?! It turned out to be from my lovely Italian Angel blogging buddy, Cristina! Those who've been tuning into the adventures and foibles here at the Meares' Madhouse for a while will remember that when my Stitchers Angel package went astray last year, Cristina was one of three lovely ladies who sent me a make-up giftie and we've been popping into each others blogs and emailing back and forth since then. It seems Cristina is enjoying a holiday ... in France, so I now have a new 'pretty' to look at on my inspirational pin board in the office ...

Look at that blue, blue ocean!! It was such a lovely feeling to know that Cristina was enjoying a holiday and thought of me! In fact ... she said she saw a little something that reminded her of me and will send it when she gets back! Oooooooohh!! I LOVE fun surprises!! Thanks for my card, Cristina - I know you won't read this til you're back from your holiday, but I hope its a great time away for you and your family!!

The second 'good' thing that happened this week has been a little while in the pipeline, but much-anticipated. The pattern for my "Fairy Bears & Butterflies" quilt has been PRINTED!! YAY!!!


Here's the photo I ended up putting on the pattern cover - good thing our bed got made that day! Tee! Hee! Hee! The pattern WILL be on my web site by the end of today ... I was going to do it myself, but ran into a little technical hitch, so am waiting til my Beloved GB comes home from work and deals with it for me! :0) How lucky am I to have my tech support so close at hand!! Tee! Hee! Hee! So that is very exciting, but even MORE exciting is the fact that the lovely Marion at my home-away-from-home Quilters Angel is not only stocking the patterns for "Fairy Bears & Butterflies", she has my quilt on display!! Ooooohhh!! HAPPY DANCE! HAPPY DANCE!!! It's VERY exciting to walk into my fave fabric haunt and see one of my projects on display (Marion also has the patterns for my "Girl Stuff Bags" for sale and the samples on display!!) So exciting, in fact, that I just HAD to take a photo to show you all!!


Ooohhh!! More Happy Dancing!! Marion, who celebrated her shop's fifth birthday this week, has been SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO supportive and encouraging as I've stuck my toe into the quilt-designing pool - not to mention the fact that she stocks soooooooo many yummy fabrics that help the inspiration keep flowing - and the play money running out, Oops! Tee! Hee! Hee! Thanks Marion!! So for all you local-to-Toowoomba gals, next time you pop into Marion's shop to be tempted by her huge range of fabrics, you can take a peek-in-person at my Fairy Bears!!

Now the other exciting part of a new pattern launch is, of course ...

A GIVE AWAY!

But this time, I decided to make you all put your thinking caps on a bit. Since the theme of this quilt came about because I was thinking of the fairies who live at the bottom of gardens, I thought it would be good to hear about YOUR favourite story about fairies. So ... To be included in this pattern give-away, all you have to do is leave a comment on THIS post and tell me a little bit about your very own favourite fairy story or story that has fairies in it. OR post on your own blog about your fave book/story about fairies with a photo of the book, then leave a comment on THIS post to tell me about it, and that will count too - just don't forget to tell me!! The cut-off for this will be

NEXT SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13,

eastern Australian time, so overseas blogging buddies will have to make sure they comment by their Saturday. I'll be giving away a "Fairy Bears & Butterflies Quilt" pattern to two of the entries, so get commenting and story telling!

To help get you all started, I thought I'd tell you about one of MY favourite books that has fairies in it ... except, these are FAERIES! To me FAIRIES are the cutesy, pretty, whimsical creatures in 'nice' children's stories and they are usually good, while FAERIES are the creatures that appear in myths and legends, magical beings who are often more likely to be mischievous or malevolent than nice - they're the fun ones! Tee! Hee! Hee! The book is by one of my favourite fantasy fiction authors, Raymond E. Feist.

You can see by it's battered and tattered cover that it is a VERY oft-read book! :0) I got hooked on Feist's fantasy "Rift War" series in high school. When I first saw this book was set in modern-day times, I wasn't overly interested, but eventually bought it - and was HOOKED! It looks at the question of what could happen if the faeries we thought were only characters in myth and legend REALLY existed ... and still DO!! There's lots of folk law and Celtic mythology, a lot of suspense and mystery, murder and mayhem, humour and even a little bit of romance - a bit of everything really!! I just don't recommend you read it by yourself at night! Tee! Hee! Hee!

There you go ... MY fave faerie story - now tell me about yours!! In the meantime ... I'm off to run some errands and do my usual Friday-chores-catch-up. Hope you've had good things happen to you this week to balance out the bad ones a bit and that you have some fun stuff planned for the weekend! Til next time -

Bear Hugs!

CHEERS!
KRIS