Heathcote 2011

Our Heathcote Craft weekend away is always lots of laughs and we always come home exhausted from doing nothing but eating, drinking and making stuff....

We fitted loads in including visits to ops shops [where i got the most beautiful buttons], local patchwork shop and bakery for wonderful morning and afternoon teas..

There were lots of ufos being finished, new projects being started from books, to bags,

quilts, knitting and hand sewing.


As well as that we looked after wonderfully by the new owner Toni who is quite talented herself.



On the way there we visited a bakery and trekked around the back to the loo.

now i know a loo is not probably a blog worthy topic for conversation but it had grass carpet,

a lovely old vintage mirror and and never ending supply of dunny paper.

But...have you vere seen one of these? it even came with instructions....you have to press the side handle and wash you hands straight away and the water runs in the tank for the next flush!!


cool recycling huh ! The girls must have wondered what i was doing taking so long to photograph lol...

its been really hard going back to work after such a lovely time away, im really lucky to have made such wonderful friendships and hope we have many more weekends away to come.

The colors of Australia...

Ive been making this book for our altered photos class. ive recycled an old book and rebound and covered it... ive also include some eyelets so i can join in the fun with inkurable stampers this month...



the cover is collaged with all sorts of maps and leaflets i collected and painted with lots of twinklings and gesso.

i love the litle map signs peaking thru from the caravan park leaflets where we stayed....



and the way the bird prints (typo stamps) took the paint away as i was too impatient to let it dry properly.


i think it will be perfect for the photos/journalling of our trip around Australia wayyy back in 2005.

We took the girls out of school and hubby took 6 weeks of long service and we covered about 10,000 kms, gosh Australia's huge, you don't realise til you have to cover it...lol....originally i wanted to go to the great Barrier Reef before it disappears with the bleaching...



Hubby says lets go up the centre and then across to Brisbane , yes says me, happy to go anywhere.....i wish i checked out how many hours we would needed to spend in the car but it was well worth it, we saw and experienced so much.

front cover


It was wonderful family time before they grow up and flee the nest, and knowing mine they wont hang around ... oh and i didn't get to the Great Barrier Reef....

back cover...

im off to spend some girly crafty time with my craft group at Heathcote Country Lodge this weekend, cant wait , now if only i could decide what to make :(

mini break....

I had a great little mini break in Melbourne last weekend with Jenny and two friends, Jennifer and Lynne who flew down from Queensland.
I love coming into Southern Cross Station with its big wave roof.....
We went to Paperific which was great, spent lots on nothing [oh we did stock up on some Tim Holtz inks and paint daubers [there were some good deals to be had...] but what was fun was seeing all these kids dressed up as their favorite Japanese anime characters...it was a big convention and they really went all out....

We tripped all over Melbourne taking pics of lots of graffiti, street art and the beautiful architecture of the buildings. This cake shop out was doing a roaring trade, you shoudlve seen the queues...i loved the inside with its loopy ceiling and huge stenciled mirror...

We also went to the Rose street artist market which had some beautiful handmade everything :) and great atmosphere.

loved this colorful character heralding the people into the market....




On our walk back to the tram we came across these lovely mosaic seats and these 3 random people just plonked them selves down and wanted pics taken, cute potato got in the act too...

We left Melbourne at 5ish , unfortunately we left poor Lynne behind minus her bag, money, mobile, her coat and her ticket !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fortunately, she had expensive jewelery she could hock [just kidding]

The V line staff were marvelous, really looked after her and put her on a train to Bendigo. She got back way before us as we got half way home and then went back to Melbourne to look for her ....visions of Jenny and me jumping off the train with a million bags and hiking it across the tracks to the other platform in the dark with just seconds to spare to catch the train back , it was a like something out of the keystone cops i tell you but all that ended well...