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Weeekend Gatherings



What a weekend of activity....family and Christmas sale gatherings.

Yesterday the new socksillies gathered for a Christmas photo before getting ready for my annual charity Handmade Treasures Christmas sale. For those who have not seen socksillies before, they are my silly soft sculptures made from a sock or two socks. The photo shows them looking very festive.





LamboArt friends, Bobbi and Jane also came over to bring their handmade treasures to go on sale on 28 November. They will be in USA then, so gathering and sorting their work had to be done early this year.



On Saturday, it was the annual gathering of the “Yan” family at Budgewoi – a central meeting place. It was great to see cousins and their families again. Jim used it as an opportunity to gather more information for his family history documents (now two huge folders and about 600 people on the family tree). The children particularly had lots of fun – love those orange peel smiles!





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