Holiday over

I'm back from my couple of weeks in Perth staying with my mum.
I squeezed many weeks of visiting into 2, spent quality time with friends and family and several quilt related outings all of which I'll write about over the next few weeks.
Arrived home on Sunday morning on the midnight flight so I was lucky if I'd had 2 hours sleep on the plane, I'd been up since 6am on the Saturday and didn't get to bed till after midnight on Sunday as we had friends call in on their way from Sydney down to Victoria and stayed the night.
This is their (small) caravan - don't know what the neighbours thought with this "big rigg" parked out the front.

Today the boys went back to high school so my days and especially "my" computer are mine again.
While away I took a lot of photos of trees and things, so I have a lot of ideas for classes and projects and a few exhibition pieces that need a bit of thought, but, a very big BUT, before I can do anything I have to clean out and reorganise my studio while I have my husband Tim home over the next couple of weeks, so I'm not allowed to start on anything big till I get that done.
Must clean studio - must clean studio - if I keep up the chant.........maybe it will happen.
If I'm brave I might even share the before and after photos...............

Bags are packed, I'm ready to go.....

Come on everyone, hands in the air, best singing voice - I'm leave'n on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again...........

Yes I'm going away, I'm heading home to Perth for a couple of weeks to spend some time with my mum and to catch up with family and friends.
I'll miss blogging everyday but don't forget me while I'm gone, I'll be back in 2 weeks.

Don't you just lurv my new pink luggage, shouldn't have any trouble spotting it at the airport.

See ya

A pregnant pause

Had a busy day today but in the midst of all my running around, a couple of friends and I presented this quilt to Sarah, one of our group who has just had a darling little girl called Georgia not quite a week ago, I even got to have a cuddle - it made my day, our children are so precious.

Happy Families

BE WARNED - if you leave Crocs unattended they breed................

Lucky find

AAGGGHHHH - I just had one of those hands on the face "Oh my god" moments.......... I was trimming the edge on a quilt and I thought my blade must have been a bit blunt and went to try again with more pressure but something made me check and one of the corners had fliped under and I almost sliced of one of the corner blocks.................. luckily no damage PHHEEWWW.
I'm heading home to Perth to spend some time with my mother at the end of the week and this is a heart quilt for a friend, I have atatched the binding and will do the hand sewing once I'm home, will post a photo at a later date.

Does anyone know anything about Hitkari Potteries Bone China from India?
I found this treasure at the "shop" at our local rubish tip the other day, I could see the gem through the dirt and grime and I'm now the proud owner of a setting of 5, all for the extravegant price of $1 with one cracked cup for my mosaic collection.
I passed comment that I may try to sell them and Callan my 16 year old son (the one with the long green hair) said they'd be cool to drink his morning coffee out of - with his little pinkie in the air.

A day in the City

I spent the day up in Sydney today as my husband's acrobatic troupe The Leaping Loonies are performing daily at a shopping centre this week.
Unfortunately he's not the one on the left and luckily he's not the one in the middle, he's the one in the red and green on the right..........
They are doing shows daily at 11 & 1 at Eastgardens shopping centre at Maroubra till Friday if any one local is reading this.

It is a huge centre but I only saw 2 shops, one was Art & Craft Riot, they not only had all this great art stuff but a wall of beads, unusual ones that I hadn't seen anywhere else so of course some had to come home with me.
I also found this great artist canvas that was divided into triangles, not sure what I'll do with it yet but 2 different sizes had to come home with me also.
The other shop that I also left some money with was Howards Storage World, I've heard others talk of this place but I did my best Homer Simson OOOAAAHHHH in my head when I walked in.
I know there were an awful lot of other shops there but they weren't important.

Now to sit back and get ready to watch the Cricket, I now have Boony and Beefy to keep me company.......

But mum..........

But mum, it followed me home from the shop - I couldn't stop it - I kept saying "No" but it kept coming, so what was I to do..........

I work in a friends quilt/gift shop called Pretty Parcels in Berry on our glorious South Coast of NSW once a fortnight on a weekend and these fabrics started talking to me and by the end of the day I had designed a new class sample and couldn't fight the urge any longer, they had to come home with me.
I haven't been very productive since early December, I had 3 back to back exhibitions, so maybe a bit of basic cutting and pieceing may be just what is needed to get me back in the swing of things again, though (I'm saying this out loud) "I'm not allowed to start anything else till I clear out the Studio"

Big day out

Our family took off today for a trip down the coast, a 1 1/2 hours drive to visit friends, it was my husband Tims birthday a few days ago so this was our combined xmas/new year/ birthday lunch.
We stoped off at the beach on the way down as the family thought they might like a dip in the ocean but the water was freezing, but because it was humid and overcast the spray looked amazing as I looked up the beach so I thought it was worth a photo.
After lunch my big boys (and older big boys) yahoo'd in the backyard with the new giant fisbee and windup plane, I think the copious amounts of beer helped here (for the grownups that is).......even the chooks were a bit worried about all the extra activity in the usually quiet backyard, they all panicked and tried to hide when I tried to take their photo.
All in all - we had a great day out with freinds.

Bags

I haven't done much sewing of late but I've had this urge to crochet bags or bits to go on bags, I think it's that "Inner Hippie" breaking out again.
I'm obsessed with beaded fringes at the moment.
So I thought I'd share some of them with you.
They are for sale, if anyone is interested.

Cacti

On one of the lists I belong to they have been discussing the trials and tribulations of "Christmas Cacti" and I was not familiar with it so I googled and found it is what we call a "Zygo Cactus" which I have had for many years, so here is a photo of it in full bloom last winter.
The other photos are of a cactus that I don't know what it's called but has flowered just a couple of weeks ago, I'm sure there are a couple of quilts in these, just glorious.
I find unfortunately that I go into holiday mode when the kids are home and I can't focus or get motivated to do any work but also I'm not allowed to start any new pieces as I need to do an archaeological dig in my studio and clean it out AND THROW STUFF OUT before I'm allowed to start anything new.

Wollemi Pine

Yesterday was my husband Tim's birthday, he is a little difficult to buy presents for, the running joke is we usually buy him either a box of beer, a block of chocolate or a tube of super glue but this year I bought him a Wollemi Pine tree, something he's talked about owning for a long time since they were discovered, the boys said they've never seen him so excited.
For those that don't know about this tree, it is from before the Jurassic Period.
In 1994 a bush walker found this unusual tree in the Wollemi National Park in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales and knew that it was something special, the location of this small grove remains a secret and over the past 12 years they have been propogated and I was lucky enough to buy one. It will happily live in a pot on our front verandah, as we are reluctant to put it in the ground as it could grow to over 20 metres and then it might attract some dinosaurs.

Santa's Naughty Elves

As I've mentioned in earlier posts my husband Tim is an acrobat and we have a troupe called "The Leaping Loonies".
Leading up to xmas in amoungst 3 back to back exhibitions I had to make costumes for them to be Santa's Naughty Elves, so here they are - don't they look mischievous. I'm married to the one in the middle.
It was a case of "Picasso painting the fence" again......

baby kookaburra

baby kookaburra

We had a loverly late xmas/new year lunch with old friends today and were entertained by this baby kookaburra being hassled by a willy wagtail, this is my first attenpt at doing this so I hope it works.