"The Craft Group" plus...

Here in sunny NSW, Australia, spring is here and it is so lovely to get out and about. (Not that we can't do that in winter - it's pretty mild!) We mentioned at The Craft Group the other week that there is a Tulip Festival on in the Southern Highlands. Bowral Baptist Church is a good place to start. Harriet went for a day and this is what she said... "Today, Ross and I went to the Bowral Baptist Church for the Artisan Showcase.   What a wonderful exhibition, particularly of quilts.  They did a lovely morning tea and lunch (very reasonably priced).  After that we went to the gardens to see the tulips – what a wonderful display. This event is on each day until October 4 th (except for Sundays) and is well worth going to.  Not sure if any of the craft ladies would be interested in going, but it is well worth the hour drive down." So, if you are in NSW and feel like a nice day out... do it!

Mum & Dad had their 60th Wedding Anniversary this past week with lots of smaller celebrations rather than one big one. For one of the events I thought I would make a cake! Cake decorating is not really one of my things but it is amazing what you can learn from the internet and from talking to the lady in the cake decorating store I found not too far away. I learned a lot from the I am baker blog website which includes a video tutorial. A little tip I picked up… the blog says to use a sugar syrup on the cake first to make the icing stick and stop crumbs coming away from the cake, but the cake decorating shop said to heat up some apricot jam in the microwave and smear a thin layer of that on the cake first. Cool in the fridge and the icing will stick with no crumbs. Yay for easy tips that really work! Happy 60th Anniversary Mum & Dad!

We are almost at the end of a 2 week winter holiday. In the first week our church ran our annual Holiday Bible Club. A great week of working together as a church family to provide a fun place for kids to come and hear about the best news they could ever hear. So it was very fun and very worthwhile. Here is one little idea I'd like to share. As each child registered at our "Jungle Jamboree" HBC, they received a "Jungle Survival Pack". Inside was a chatterbox all made up, with all the questions written on it already. An instant game. Then there was a find-a-word puzzle made using words relating to our HBC. Then there was the little pack of real jungle survival nutrition... monkey poo, killer baby snakes and a giant spider egg*. That was a huge hit with the kids. Then there was some info about our church and an invitation to join us and check out our church website. Oh and a packet of Scoobie doo biscuits. Some lovely volunteers, Carla, R...

If you have access to Channel 9 on TV (Sydney) and are home at 9pm Tuesday evening, check out the new series that everyone is talking about. "The Bible" Looks amazing. I'm looking forward to checking it out tuesday night. There are ten, one hour weekly episodes. They say it has been put together consulting many Biblical scholars to get it true to the actual Biblical accounts. Click HERE for a sneak peak! Read more about it on "The Bible Society" website  HERE. If you watch it, tell me what you think in the comments! (or email me:  thecraftgroupplus *at* gmail *dot* com) I'm not keen on images of Jesus, especially where he is a handsome white caucasian (I'm sure He wasn't!) but I will wait and see. I will even watch it 'properly' i.e. not knitting or blogging or cleaning up emails at the same time. That way I will save my family from my annoying questions like "what just happened?"  :)

What a morning we had yesterday! At The Craft Group we hosted our annual "Cancer Council Morning Tea" as part of the big Australian wide fundraising project, the Biggest Morning Tea . We did some Craft, then we had some announcements. Then Pam introduced her ex neighbour who is fighting a pretty big battle at the moment with Cancer. Bec was coming home from hospital yesterday and is really not well.  We couldn't ask her to come and speak but we still were encouraged by her. We watched a You Tube clip made by her church. It is just Bec talking and sharing where she sees "Home" to be. It's only 5 minutes long and is really worth watching... Click HERE to watch it. Then we read out an email Bec sent to me the other day. She said how much Psalm 139 meant to her lately. (I've added it below). If you are reading this Bec.... thanks for sharing your Hope with us. It was very touching and helps put life into perspective. It is really all about ...

This is the last day I am sharing with you photos of our 20th Anniversary Celebration and Reunion! (See more pictures in the earlier posts from this week). After we all gathered in the big all and admired the lovely display, we sat ourselves at the tables of our very upper class High Tea . Gerald, one of the ministers of our church opened our formalities. He looked up 'Craft' in a Bible dictionary and apart from the references to dubious characters being 'crafty', there are quite a number of references to people being great 'craftsmen' and women no doubt, who had very important roles in decorating temples and producing fine clothing.  So, being crafty (in the more noble sense) is quite an honorable pass time! I have had trouble putting photos onto this post. My blog is telling me I have used up my quota of photos! (Unless of course I am willing to pay....) I didn't know I had a quota! Grrr. But here are 2 that it let me add. Marianne and Ekkie started...

All this week I am featuring photos of our Anniversary Celebration day Did you see some photos of everyone doing craft for the WHOLE day (big smiley face) Did you see the photos of the  craft display? Well today you can see the photos of the super (I mean really super) lovely High Tea!

All this week I am featuring photos of our 20th Anniversary Celebration Day. The craft display was stunning, featuring craftworks made over the past 20 years. There are so many photos. Click on "read more"  below to see the whole display... Parts of the amazing Craft Display

All this week I am featuring photos of our 20th Anniversary Celebration Day. At 9am many ladies made the most of the day by coming into the smaller hall in the church, sitting at our lovely big hired round tables to do craft craft craft. What was the main activity in this room? Craft or chatting? Either way, it was a lovely way to chill out from normal daily routine and spend the time together. Thanks to Wil (Mum!) and Mien for providing us with a lovely morning tea! Thanks for the ladies who came all day, you are so friendly and encouraging to each other! Tomorrow I will show you the Craft Display... and then  the High Tea... and more!

Well, It's come and gone already!  "The Craft Group" celebrated 20 years this year and we had SUCH a nice day celebrating! It was a whole day on saturday. Yes a whole day of togetherness and craft (and food of course!) Each day this week I will show you some photos of the day. This is what you saw the moment you walked in the door. Welcome! australian native waratahs Decorating: by the talented Nel and Terry. 

The idea of stamping letters roughly onto cards is seen a lot and so I thought I'd adapt it to wrapping paper and envelopes. No precision needed. That's my kind of gift wrapping. PS. The Craft Group's 20th Anniversary Celebration is on this Saturday! There will be plenty of photos about it next week, I promise. If you are a local and are coming, don't forget to bring a small piece of red fabric. Just a little piece to be a part of a group art project which will only take 10 minutes of the day for you. And don't forget that you want to bid for the Charity Quilt!  Let me know at my email  if you are coming for the High Tea or the Dinner. thecraftgroupplus[at]gmail[dot]com.  I'm excited to see so many people there who I know are coming!

At the beginning of each year we have an "Enrolment Morning Tea".  It's coming again soon. It is so nice to see everyone after the long summer break. Years ago, the aim of the enrolment morning was to display all the crafts to be taught in the following term. But the group has changed over the years and many ladies are happy to keep working on their own projects and share ideas. (I might just add that this is the 20th year of The Craft Group!!! Party Party!) So, Enrolment Morning is now more of a nice catch up. We like to try and come up with a little gift to welcome those who come along. Last year it was these little 'Welcome' envelopes.         Each envelope contained a welcome note, some Lindt chocolates, tea, coffee and sugar. I wonder what we will make this year...

Last week after The Craft Group, who ever wanted to was welcomed at Marion's house where we shared a "High Tea".  Everyone brought along a plate of something savoury or sweet. Marion brought out all her prettiest cups, saucers and plates and we sat outside in the very pleasant spring afternoon weather. If you need to bring a plate of something savoury to a gathering this Christmas, try whipping up Bev's little recipe... Bev's Salmon Swirls: She bought a packet of gluten free crepes, or pancakes from the frozen section of the supermarket. She then mixed together well a small can of red salmon and some creamed cheese. She spread the crepes with the mix, wrapped the rolls in plastic wrap and put them in the freezer. Then on the morning of our High Tea, all she had to do was take them out of the freezer, cut them into slices while the roll was still a little firm and pop a toothpick into each one. They were so nice and the texture is reall...

Here's another card by Cheryl. Thought I'd share it now because it is 4th term and only 8 weeks til Christmas. A great time to get all your cards started!

Hey, Happy Birthday Missy! Here is your cake... Sorry about the name (you just can't steal good photos of the web can you?) This pretty cake with Henna inspired design is copy and pasted just for you. How personal! (I found it here .)                                        This is the first time ever that I have not been with one of my kids on their birthday.  :( But hey, I still managed a card and a cake! Have a great day and have a great weekend everyone.

Father's day is only a few weeks away (4th September). I found this cute card on Martha Stewarts site. You can click  here  to see her instructions. Unfortunately the comments she received say she missed a few points in the making of the card. If you'd rather see   someone showing step by step  instructions, look at "Clair's Creations". Don't forget to plan something nice for Father's day. What traditions does your family have?

This morning our Craft Group were a part of the Cancer Council's fundraiser Morning Tea. Guess what? We raised a total of $515 . That is our best total ever! Thanks everyone for a lovely and worthwhile morning. Ladies were very generous and then reopened their wallets to bid for the lovely bags handmade by Anne. ($220 was raised by the sale of the bags made from Annes Fabric stash!!!) There was an amazing morning tea and a very interesting talk by Gerald, our Minister, on why God allows suffering. So, watch the blog this week for details of today - recipes, 'Show 'n Tell' and the talk that Gerald gave.

Easter holidays are over and term 2 is about to begin, so a group of us met at the perfect sort of cafe... one right next door to a craft shop! What a lovely combination!

Just before Easter, we held our first  "Great Slice & Cookie Exchange". The rules were simple. Ladies could buy as many trays as they liked for cost price (3 for $1). They lined each tray with foil and filled it with their home made cookies or slices.  They received a ticket for each tray they brought along and could then 'buy' with their tickets that amount of trays made by other people. There were 45 trays of goodies all swapped and shared. It was so nice to just make one big batch of one recipe and then receive a variety of goodies that family and friends could enjoy over Easter. Well I know my family thought it was a good idea!