A fabulous day....

.... of fine wine, food and friends at the Yarra Valley.

As I mentioned yesterday morning, I went on a fundraising Yarra Valley Winery tour with a group of colleagues from work.  Well, I can tell you, we had the best time!  Lots of delicious wine to taste, a yummy lunch, lots of laughter and I made some new friends - what more could you ask?

Our first stop was at Rochford Winery where the sommelier told us a lot about wine growing and the wines.

Stop 2 was at Kellybrook Winery - more lovely wine to taste.

A welcoming warm fire as it had started to rain.

Our lunchtime stop was at the beautiful Wild Cattle Creek Winery.

Just a little glow in my cheeks from the wine tasting.

Our lunch was delicious!

The last winery stop was at Yering Station.  Just beautiful!

Then our very final stop was the Yarra Vallery Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery.  Sorry, I was so overwhelmed by all the chocolatey goodness that I forgot to take any pics but here are a few from their website.

... finally some last pics, my bounty from yesterday.

So, I hope that I have given you a feeling for what my wonderful day was like yesterday.  It was a long day - I left home at 8am and didn't get home until 7pm but it was fabulous and over a $1000 was raised for The Smith Family charity.  So well worth it.

Bye for now, some sewing and stitching to do on this Sunday arvo,

hugs, 

A dangerous precedent.....

Oh dear,  I have just discovered Patternmart - a site with thousands of cross stitch patterns you can buy via PayPal and instantly download.

So, as I sit here eating my early breakfast before heading off to the city to catch the Yarra Valley Winery tour bus with my friends and colleagues (on which I am sure to buy some delicious wine) what do I do?  Buy some Pineberry Lane patterns, of course!

A few clicks and these lovelies were safely downloaded and saved to my trusty Mac....

"Hurrah"

"Bringing home the tree"

"Fancey Blackett - Shoo"

Wendy has so many gorgeous patterns, so I can see that this is going to be very dangerous indeed!

Off to drink have fun and frolic in the vines, tell you all about it tomorrow,

hugs,

Wow! What a week!

Hello lovely bloggy friends,

So sorry I have been MIA this past ten days but oh, what a time it has been!

First, I must tell you my first big news - DS1 is engaged!  Yay!  A bit of a wonderful surprise to us but a very welcome one.

So, they made the announcement Sunday night at dinner and then we took her to the airport to go home to visit her parents in Taiwan for a few months!

DS1 will follow her in a couple of months to meet her parents who do not speak English and, of course, DS1 does not speak either Mandarin or Taiwanese!  We do not know when the wedding will take place yet but it will be in Taiwan, so looks like that is where our next big trip is going to be.  TraderVic and I and the whole family are delighted as she is a gorgeous girl.  My dear Dad was especially pleased - how lovely at 94 to have a grandson getting engaged.

Then yesterday morning, DS2 left on an overseas trip for FOUR MONTHS!  He is starting in Kuala Lumpur and then finishes in Copenhagen - visiting every place in between, I think.

I took him out for a mother/son lunch the day before he left.  He had the Big Breakfast and I had some yummy salads.  We had a really good chat, which was lovely.  I am going to miss him, as he is my "baby" (even though he is 21! lol!).

Then, on the work side of things - oh, so uberbusy, I am up to my ears in 1st page proofs of history books to correct plus this week has been our Winter Sales Meeting, so we had team bonding evenings, plus I had a big presentation to do to the Sales Team about a project I am working on.  So, I am a busy bee.

The WSM was held at the Intercontinental at the Rialto in Melbourne - it is in a gorgeous historic building on Collins Street.

On the team building night, we played tenpin bowling (and I wasn't too shabby, I got a strike and a couple of spares), laser skirmish and pool.  My friend and colleague, Marita (in the front holding the pool cue) won our game - yay!

Tomorrow is another work function, a fundraiser for The Smith Family - a Yarra Valley Winery Tour - gee, life is hard! lol!  I will take lots of pics and post on Sunday.

I have been stitching but I have not had time to take photos - that will have to be another post, too.

Now, those people who are awaiting on parcels and letters from me, I have been slow to get myself organised, I am sorry, but I promise I will get there.

Must dash, a train trip, work and those Year 8 chapters await me....

hugs,