Of to AQC

Just a quick hello and to actually say goodbye for the week, in a couple of hours I fly down to Melbourne to work at the Australian Quilt Convention.
I'm working on the Unique Stitching and Design stand - come and say hello and let me know you're out there.
As I said when I went to Perth a month ago, start singing - My bags are packed etc etc..........

Yesterday morning I had to leave the house a lot earlier than normal to drive down to Berry to work in the shop as I had to drop Tim (DH) at the train station, I always detour through Gerroa instead of going down the highway as I can't get enough of the view of Seven Mile Beach as you come up over the hill, it's breath taking, so, yesterday I decided to turn down towards the beach to take a closer look and do a little exploring.
I thought there were just a handful of houses there, but there is a whole village with a lovely mix of old and new houses, some really quaint beach houses - I fell in love.......
Found a fabulous little corner coffee shop, so armed with a cappuccino I walked back to the beach and spent some relaxing quiet time watching the water and a group of youngsters learning to surf.
Where I was sitting the river snaked around in front of me and there were a lot of big fish jumping keeping me entertained.
But unfortunately my time was limited and I had to head off to work, but it was a wonderful way to start my day.
I know where I'd love to live if I won the lottery.......

Another string of beads

Yesterday I spent a lovely afternoon with friends.
We met for lunch in a Chinese restaurant then adjourned next door to the bead shop for an enjoyable afternoon of friendship, laughter and of course some jewelery making of varying kinds.
The 5 of us are all in the quilting/art world, amongst us we all wear many hats, there was a shop owner, long arm quilters, teacher/designer/artists, so in amongst the frivolity there was also a lot of info sharing.
Also one of the ladies is having a beach wedding next week so we all had input into her pearl and crystal accessories that she was making, she will look lovely.
So here is my effort for the day, I didn't want anything with too much brain power needed so I just randomly took a few hand fulls from one of the glorious mix's and added a string of turquoise fresh water pearls and I'm very happy with the results - still can't get away from the greens can I.

What I did in class today

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days, life got a little hectic and TAFE has been exhausting, great but exhausting.
Today we had Sculpture in the morning and here is what I did today, we had to take reference photos of figures moving, so these are my interpretations of some acrobats I know!.......... no matter how much I tried - they still all look like Gumby.
Our afternoon class is Printmaking and we have started with etching, today we transfered our image onto the zinc plate and etched it ready for printing, which unfortunately I'll have to wait till the following week, as I'm off to Melbourne to work at the Australian Quilt Convention next Wednesday.

Rainy Days

Feeling very BLAHHHH as I've had a very hectic week with TAFE and teaching and yesterday working in my friends shop in Berry, went to Tai Chi this morning but was only there in body my head felt like it was full of cotton wool.
Having trouble getting organised, so I thought I'd look through my reference photo's and find something nice to look at, we have been having heavy rain on and off for the past few days, rain is desperately needed and luckily this lot has been falling into the catchment area.
This was taken from my front lawn looking down the street a few weeks ago, a bit different than what's outside my door at the moment, the rain is so heavy it looks as though someone has pinched the escarpment.

Yellow Lili

Look at this glorious yellow lili that greeted me this morning when I went out to my studio, this area outside my studio door is where we have a huge frog pond with many frogs and many many more tadpoles.
Our pond is an old bath and yes there are taddies in the toilet as well....
We must have created the right balance in our little swamp because we had water skinks move in straight away and they can often be found sunning themselves when I step out of my shed, oops I mean studio
I'ts so lovely listening to the frogs while I work.

Green Hair

Was travelling home yesterday after teaching in Sydney when I was accosted on the train by a strange looking teenage boy with long green hair demanding money - luckily he was my son Callan...........
This photo was taken when he went to Korea with school recently in a traditional costume, because of his looks he was treated like a rock star by all the younger girls, which I don't think he'd complain about.