Quilt Wellington 2009 exhibition quilts - part 2

Quilt Wellington 2009 exhibition quilts - part 1

My class @ Symposium tomorrow

Lynne Edwards is the tutor for the Patchwork in Perspective class that I am doing tomorrow at Quilt Wellington Symposium - doesn't it look great - very excited - have just finished packing my bag of bits to take to class tomorrow. Tomorrow night will post a pic of my attempt at the beginning of blocks...

Symposium quilts from the exhibitions will be posted shortly...

Happy Easter... lots to tell...

Got so much to update you on...

First Happy Easter, hope Easter Bunny has treated you to lots of easter buns, and chocolate eggs.

Chris has been busy with outside landscaping, while I've been attending Quilt Symposium... I've got a train to catch in 30 mins to head back to Symposium to help with Happy Hour before they head off to the Gala dinner tonight - so will start by loading some pic's of the hard work Chris and his dad have been doing in getting outside ready for the concrete pour next Saturday...

View from our lounge doors - to the left (wire section) is the footings for the outdoor fire, woodbox, and bbq :)

View from inside the lounge looking under the veranda - to the right at the girls bedrooms, and directly in front the other double doors is our bedroom

Back courtyard looking from the carport

Back courtyard looking towards carport. Double doors is dining room

Looking towards the washing line

And here is 'squirrel' helping out Chris... first she's laying in wait, then ... "OMG he's seen me, gotta get out of here...... fast !!!!!!!! "

Sorry but running out of time - PROMISE to load lots of pic's of the quilts on exhibition at symposium for you to drool over later tonight :)

Gotta catch the train now...

Hugs

We did it, We did it...

This is it... 6.15am Sunday morning just about ready to head off to Wellington for our first duathlon (that's me #143! and Dear Sister-in-Law Leigh)

What an absolutely awesome morning. We parked the car, opened the door to get out and the wind nearly blew the door out of our hands (hmm not a good sign), we made our way over to Waitangi Park to put our bag, helmet etc with our bikes - the promotional flags in the park where flapping like they were ready to take off (hmm definitely not a good sign)... Wellington lived up to its 'world famous' reputation - it was a true Northerly-very-blustery-WIND... on the plus side - we were all in the same boat (so to speak)...

At 8am the waves of people were set off at 1 min intervals ... we left at 8.03am - and first up was the 3.5km walk (run for the fit ones) - though I have to say Leigh and I did jog some of this!!; then to transition and get on the bike for the 10km ride - oh my goodness it was a head wind to the half way mark and on the way back it was bike-stopping wind at times - then it was the 1.5km walk (run for the fit ones) - and again once we (here I mean "I") got my breath back we even managed to jog for part of this too... Leigh was true to her word - "we are doing this together" and we came across the finish line together (mind you I managed to get one tiny step ahead of her!). What an exhilirating feeling crossing that finish line, removing the time recorder from our shoe laces, getting our free bottle of Mizone, and then giving each other a big hug. Magic.

The fastest time for the day was 45:44min (amazing effort) and the last one over the finish line completed the course in 1:54:00 (a fantastic effort) - so Leigh and I are pretty proud of our first efforts... our times below...

Highlights for me: actually jogging some of the course - didn't think I had it in me; being part of a huge group of women (700 entrants) of all shapes, sizes, fitness abilities, walks of life being part of a very social fitness event; crossing the finish line in a time that was better than our guesstimate (we figured we'd do it in around 1:20); not giving up even though at times on the bike ride the thighs were burning, the peddles were turning though you felt like you weren't even moving (due to the wind!).

We can't wait for the photo's to be loaded onto the website for us to order - am sure that the one of us crossing the finish line will look a hoot, my hair had blown completely over my face (so am thinking I will look like Chewbacca (star wars fame) and Leigh was punching the air while we are giggling away in hysterics!

A free breakfast was provided by Hubbards that we could feast on once we passed the finish line. And spot prizes were drawn after the last entrant crossed the finish line. Unfortunately I didn't win the bike that I was positive thinking for (I would have given it to Leigh :) honest!).

We got back home about 11.30am and felt that it should have been 4.30pm in the arvo - the rest of the day was kind of spent lazying about funnily enough.

DH picked me up off the train tonight, and had a lovely bunch of flowers waiting for me, to say well done for yesterday - this was such a surprise - hubby very rarely does flowers - so it is a very special treat when he does... aren't they gorgeous!

So what's the next event.... well the next one we've found is in Martinborough in November - and we've chosen the 48km bike ride (the other choice was 112km - we're not quite there yet!) - so Grace will still be in action over the autumn/winter months - though it may mean more likely she is connected to the indoor trainer as after work with Daylight saving finished it was dark at 6.15pm tonight - arrgh - don't like that :(

Hope you all have a great weekend...

This is it - last sleep before duathlon...

Well this is the last sleep before a 5.30am wakeup call tomorrow morning (and that's after we've turned the clocks back for the end of daylight saving)...

Today was registration, collecting the goodie bag - oops forgot to take a photo of that! was so excited about opening the bag - though it had a small box of cereal, bottle of mizone water, snack bag of Abe's bagel crisps, THE TSHIRT, PushPlay wrist band, box of green tea, Women's Weekly magazine, vouchers and brochures - pretty damn good really :)

We got there at 2.30pm - beautiful blue sky, very blustery wind (gosh I hope that dies down overnight), here are a few pic's as I won't be able to take my camera with me tomorrow :(...

Parking the bike's up while we go join the queue... ours are the ones with the small saddle bags under the seats...

Registration .... waiting in line

Hanging our bikes on the rack - get this we are in Row "Chocolate" !!!

Some of the other rows filling up...

Looking back at the Registration queue - check out those billowing clouds...

Thanks for your good wishes ... will let you know tomorrow afternoon how it was :)

Nite Nite

Hugs