Stash building! What did I present at the History conference? ...and a Giveaway (just because!)

Hello lovely bloggers,

Thanks to those who sent me good wishes re meeting my deadline - thanks to you all - I made it!

A couple of people asked what it was I was presenting about at the History conference.  Well, in my first career I was a secondary teacher for 28 years.  In that time I taught History, English, laptop classes, accelerated learning classes, worked as a level coordinator (which means administration of a year level) and worked in and ran school libraries - not all at once, of course!  This was a most satisfactory career but about 3 years ago I was headhunted to work as a History writer and publisher for an educational publisher.  The push behind this was the new Australian curriculum, which is being developed for the whole of Australia.  As you can imagine - this is a brave new world for Australian education.  The exciting news for us historians was that History, which had been slowly marginalised in the curriculum pie is now back in the forefront.  Yay!

So, at the conference on Friday I was presenting to a group of teachers about teaching the new Australian History curriculum in ancient and medieval history using the history books which I have and will be publishing.  So far, I have published two student books and an activity book - the second student book only just arrived on my desk this week - very exciting!

Anyway, back to my cross stitching news, not that I have a lot to report.  After being sick for 10 or so days and despite having an initial burst whilst I was sick of working on Isabella's garden, see this post  for IHSW, I have not done a lot of stitching.  As my cold lingered on, I found it hard to concentrate and then when I was back on deck at work I had to put in a few 10 to 12 hour days to meet that pesky deadline.

This weekend is a four day one for me - another Yay! - but yesterday DH and I went to the Osteopath together to have our back kinks worked on and then out for lunch with a friend and then took our DSs out for dinner.  Today it has been a miserable day weather-wise here in Melbourne and both DH and I have been feeling really washed out after being worked on by the Osteo, so I have just been checking out blogs and done just a little bit of stitching on Christmas Eve Couriers and I finally finished the last book 'Shadowheart' in the Shadowmarch tetralogy by Tad Williams.  This has been a long read (as each book is massive) but a really satisfying series with a fabulous final confrontation.  If you like fantasy, and you have the time, it is well worth reading.

However,  amongst all that - last Saturday, on my way to visit my Dear Parents, I did manage a quick trip to my LNS and bought some 'little' bits and pieces for my Stash Empire (as if I need anything more!) plus I couldn't resist the HAED sale and just had to buy FOUR more designs (I now am the proud owner of eleven HAED designs - I will have to live until I am a hundred and four to get all of this done! lol!).  So, here are the pics of my latest purchases below:

THREE NEW MAGS TO READ AND LOTS OF NEW PATTERNS

THE ACCOLADE

GOD SPEED

LADY GODIVA

OPHELIA

LHN - CHRISTMAS ORNIE

I THOUGHT THAT I SHOULD TRY A BISCORNU!

ANOTHER LHN CHRISTMAS ORNIE

I THOUGHT THAT THIS WAS A SWEET DESIGN.

Now for the Giveaway.  I have had a bit of luck recently - winning a couple of Giveaways, so I thought that I would like to give something back.  On my recent trip to my LNS, I saw this Olga Gostin design, which just epitomises an Australian icon - a Queenslander house - isn't it gorgeous?

If you would like to win this pretty special prize - it is actually a kit, so the fabric and the threads are included - you can do one of the following:

1.  Be a follower and comment on this post.

2. Post about this giveaway on your blog and come back to this post and let me know and you will get a second chance in the draw.

3. Comment on any further posts that I publish between now and the closing date and you will be given another chance for as many posts that you comment on.

I am going to have this Giveaway open for a couple of weeks, just to give people lots of time to join in the fun.  So, this Giveaway will close on midnight (Eastern Summer time - Australia) on Tuesday, 15th November.  It is open to everyone - I am happy to post anywhere in the world.

Good luck to everyone,  off to do some serious stitching now!

Hugs, Kaye xoxox