Happy Australia Day

Happy Australia Day Everyone...hope you are all having a lovely time with your family and friends....[i tried to upload this earlier today but blogger was having a few hiccups with uploading photos, however the thought was there]

Hubby and i took a little jaunt to Maldon and Daylesford yesterday to pick up our dog who had been away on a little sex fest! he didn't look that happy to see us, i don't think he wanted to come home!
Anyway we stopped at Maldon, a very pretty little heritage town with lots of curio and junk shops, yummy bakeries and a great little patchwork shop.
This the view down the front street.

Its a bit touristy on weekend but through the week it was fairly quiet. A few years we went on the steam train for a Fathers Day lunch. That was so much fun....and hubby got picked to go and have a drive with the train driver!

Then we went to Daylesford, the home of mineral water and spas......wow, was that place alive with all the summer tourists...I was looking for a craft/patchwork shop but it was full of eateries, spas and pretentious little gift shops.

Then we went to the Convent Gallery, the gardens are absolutely magnificent and i took some pictures of this tree, aren't the patterns in the bark amazing?





The buildings have been renovated and it houses a restaurant, convention, wedding centre, art gallery supporting local artists and gift shop. I took some pictures of the beautiful leadlight windows in the chapel





and from the veranda overlooking Daylesford.



I could never live here, look how thick that forest is [beautiful i know] but it totally surrounds the town, you would have no hope in a bushfire.





On the way home we stopped here at the
Chocolate Mill made from straw bales. It was so cool inside. One of my dreams is to have a straw bale home but I'd have to divorce hubby first ;)

All in all a lovely end to the day......


ATC

I made this for the Inkurable Stampers Gothic Arch Challenge. The theme was Butterflies and you had to use at least one stamp. I have real lack of commercial stamps but alphas i do collect!
The background is oil pastels smudged around the over stamped with gesso on bubble wrap.
The red stripes are from the cardboard that covers your chocolates in the box. A bit of muslin and a little store bought ribbon butterfly and it was done...I'm trying to push myself a bit this year and the best way to do that is to actually sign up to challenges!!


Charlie and Ted
I wanted to say thank you for all your lovely comments too regarding Charlie and Ted. You make me smile!
She's settling in well thanks to the wonderful kindness of her host families and will be off to school tomorrow.
She set up a blog if you would like to see her first photos and maybe leave comment...

It looks funny to see snow on the beach and id forgotten how soft the light is in Europe....

I sent her over with some pavlova eggs so guess what she's making for Australia Day?!

i feel better now....

the plane has touched down in Copenhagen, havent heard from her yet but no doubt she will text soon.[i've been watching on flight tracker, never knew there was such a thing, isnt the web marvelous!]

38 kids left on her flight and there were heaps more going out at different times. The poor girl going to Poland only just her visa prior to checking in, so they were very relieved.

heres some photos from saying our goodbyes at the airport. Not too many tears....


n.b. never let hubby loose with camera, all his are out of focus as he cant see without his glasses.




Lucy, her bestie and boyfriend...


and Ted , did he make it....




he sure did...




totally revamped





and with a new scarf to keep him warm



oh that hospital was pretty good!


However.....

it wasnt all plain sailing.

the conversation went something like this...


Charlie: Mu-um, i always thought of teddy as a boy.

MuM: Well he is....

Charlie: but he looks like girl now...

MuM: Well, he's a gay boy now!

Aussie bookmarks...

I've been making some aussie style bookmarks for Charlie to take away. There is an absolute lack of 'decent' aussie souvenirs and most of them are made in China anyway.

This idea was in the Quilting Arts and Gifts Christmas 2009 issue.
[Fabulous issue, lots of really wonderful stuff i want to try. While the ones in the mag were quilted from left over quilt scraps i did mine from layering scraps of cotton, threads, wool, textiva, organzas, tulle onto felt and stitching wildly.
On some of them i burnt the tulle away with heat gun.
It was a great way to get to know my new sewing machine and test out the stitches. It probably would have been better with the free motion set up but as i'm running out of time, i just used the normal foot.

The gum leaf has a piece of textiva under it and a greeny gold organza as the leaf.

They are quite sparkly from the patterned organza and textiva but i was a bit late in the day for taking pics.

The wattle [and its not the quite right gold, but i like it] has cotton overlayed with yellow organza and the bottlebrushes the same. I like how the organza over the top just softens it.

i didnt have any green grosgrain ribbon so i painted white with diluted green paint, scrunched it up and ironed it dry. It has some cool patterns in it.
There is always a way!

Adjustable back of bookmark...


I think these will make great little gifties and wont take up much room in her luggage.

And best of all they are Aussie made.

Hope you are all having a good week , i'm on holidays!! for two weeks :))))

Poor Ted.....

He's in such a bad way thanks to a couple of run ins with Louie the destroyer pup.

He was doing alright too for the grand old age of 16.


Do you think he will make the plane to Denmark ?

he's soooo looking forward to it...

At the moment he's in Teddy Hospital being poked and prodded and stitched,

but time is running out and the Teddy Dr is under the pump....

so here we are....

in 2010. i used to to wonder when i was 16 what i would be doing in 2000 and 2010.
Dont know what it was about those two dates but they stuck in my head!

Would i be married, have kids, have travelled the world ?

would i be rich? lol. [no]

have met the love of my life and live in in a mud brick house we'd built ourselves or an old renovated miners cottage?

you know, those are still the things i would want but i should've given a career a bit more thought!!! i never knew what i wanted to do....

well in 2000 i thought id achieved most of those things, would've liked to have travelled more but generally content with life and family and figured i had still had time to have no regrets.

now i feel like time is running out , 50 this year and still battling the career demon....still got another 15 years in me so its not too late is it? [then I'm gonna get in that gypsy caravan, follow the stock routes and sit on a river bank with hubby and paint and draw and stitch.

Maybe now my roster has changed back to 4 full days, ill feel a bit more balanced, not feel like I'm at work all the time and figure out how I'm going to make a change.

Anyhow i guess its just that time for reflecting .....

I went to the flicks this week with Lucy and saw Sherlock Holmes. I was pleasantly surprised and we both really enjoyed it.

Last night we went the open air cinema at Lake Eppalock and Watched Maos Last Dancer. It was quite cold after the sweltering heat and was funny to see everyone wrapped up in blankets. Was good though as it kept the mossies at bay.

We took these silly shots


how long can the beard grow? I've been threatening to bead it!!



and i meant to take a back shot of all the people in their deck chairs but was so enthralled in the movie i forgot! it was full by the time the pic started. I'm dying to read the book.





and this was Christmas 09 Aussie style.....






and some more button angels....






Wow ! what a mixed bag this post was! i wont have to post for a least a month now ;)

anyhow my wish for everyone in 2010 is peace, health, happiness and lots of creating! xxjen