living on the crafty side of life

sydney to dubbo {via bali}

It seems like a long, long time ago, but Sydney, Bali, Dubbo was our itinerary last school holidays.

The first week of the school holidays was spent in beautiful Bali. It had been almost 18 years since my last visit (that was on our honeymoon). Bali had changed, alot, but it was still beautiful.

I have many of our photos in a flickr album.

 

One special group of photos I've placed in a COLOURS OF BALI album. I created this little collection of photos because Bali is so vibrant, I wanted to capture some of the colour that surrounds you there.

A few special things I'd love to mention about our holiday:

Our accommodation in Canggu, SABA VILLAS. Absolutely stunning. We stayed in a two bedroom villa, with our own pool. Total relaxation. I wanted to pick this place up and bring it home to our little plot of land in Sydney! Below is our pool and villa at night, more photos of the villa can be found HERE.

Our accommodation in Ubud, KAJANE MUA VILLAS. A beautiful, beautiful place in the Ubud style. Again our villa was lovely with our own pool. Although the villa complex is on Monkey Forest Road, our two bedroom villa was right up the back of the property with rice paddies around us. This was the pool area of our villa, more photos of this villa can be found HERE.

The Bali Elephant Safari Park, out of Ubud, where we had the most marvellous morning feeding the elephants then having a ride through the park and forest. Here's Em with one of the baby elephants, more photos are HERE.

Kafe cafe, this was a great find amongst all the hustle and bustle of Ubud. Probably the best coffee we found in Bali. Delicious organic meals and juices.

Gaya Galato {part of the Gaya complex}. Oh, my goodness, I would travel back to Bali just to have this gelato again. The gelato at the bottom was Spiced Chocolate gelato, one of the best flavours of gelato I've ever tasted. This was well worth the short trip out of Ubud to taste this gelato. They also sell cookies and biscuits. These guys should write a cook book, cause I'd make every cookie they were selling! They do offer home delivery, not sure this extends to Sydney :-(

Ubud markets, alot of fun, alot of interaction with the stall holders {and bargaining}. These markets are much better than those we found in Semenyak or Kuta.

On a slightly more serious note:

There was one slight emerency on our Bali holiday. During a visit to Monkey Forest in Ubud, I was bitten and scratched by one of the monkeys. Without going into many details of the following couple of days, I had to try to find two different rabbies vaccines which I needed to receive within a few days of the bite. Rabbies is a big problem in Bali at the moment and one of the vaccines required after a bite is very hard to find in Bali and is very expensive once you do find it. Anyway we did find the vaccines in an international clinic in Kuta and have continued to receive the rabbies vaccine back here in Australia (the course is given over 28 days). My arms were like pincushions during this treatment, but hopefully all will be well. I'm just writing about this to let others know. Monkey Forest is a big attraction in Ubud, would I rush back there next time... no way, the monkeys are cute but certainly not worth the trouble they caused.

We returned to Sydney from Bali, had 24 hours at home to un-pack, wash clothes, re-pack and leave for Dubbo.

We went to Dubbo for Phoebe. She was picked to play in the Far North Metro team at the Soccer NSW State Titles, which were being played at Dubbo.

We had a great week, Dubbo is a fantastic country town and we certainly enjoyed our week there. We did watch a lot of soccer, sitting on the sidelines. The girls on the team had a fun week together, and played some fantastic soccer. Their team came fourth overall.

While I was in Dubbo, I had a chance to meet up with Narelle, Neek and Leah one afternoon. It was so lovely to have a chat with these gorgeous ladies. We chatted for so long, the cafe closed around us, and the owners showed us the back gate exit, saying we were welcome to sit there as long as we liked. We did stay for quite a while longer chatting away....

Emily and I did visit the Dubbo Zoo one afternoon. One of the first areas we visited was this {not so little} baby hippo...

Then the gorgeous giraffes...

And we found some more baby animals...

One our way home we passed these beautiful fields of rape seed. We could see the fields coming from far away with the specatular colour...

 

We returned to Sydney exhausted, but happy, after a varied holiday. We probably needed another holiday to recover from this one, but it was straight back to work and school....

And that's our last holidays summed up. It's take me several weeks to finish this post, but it's finally done and published!

Thanks for visiting. Will be back very soon with some Ribbons Galore updates.

Cheers

Fiona

easter school holidays round-up

.... in photos.

I'll start with our own little cute Easter bunnies, here's Butterscotch:

and Bubbles:

I bought the girls these groovy "new polaroid-style" cameras for the holidays, they've had a great time taking lots of photos:

These cameras take business card sided polaroid photos. In a world of digital photography, I'd forgotten the joy of seeing your little photos come to life in a couple of minutes:

We love going away to Hawks Nest with these girls, and their mum :-) We've been friends since the older girls were in pre-school, and still love to get together for a few days away:

One night the girls wanted to create some sparkler art. Best $2.00 entertainment of the holidays. They created a few words, then made some shapes (next time I'll take my tripod away, would have made this activity a lot easier):

 

 And there were a few blooms left on my old frangipani tree up at Hawks Nest:

We went to the Sydney Royal Easter Show, ate lots of chocolate easter eggs, caught up with family and friends... all the usual stuff that happens over Easter.

Now we're back into the maddess of school term time, not to wish time away, but bring on next holidays!

That's about all, thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x

a new year

My first post for the new year. Happy 2010!

The house is quiet today, both girls have returned to school after our lovely holidays.

I've always kept a tradition of taking the girls photos on their first day of school. This year one of my "series" of photos is now complete. Phoebe started in Year 6 today, the last first day of primary school for her. So I can finally make one of these... Seven years of "First Days"

This will be my last year of having a primary school child. I'm certain it will go by way too quickly. I'm sure it will be a great year, and it will be a busy year with all the sport and other activities lined up.

And she is the girl School Captain... so very proud of her.

My darling Emily has started Year 9! No photos this morning, but she assured me I'll be allowed to take some this afternoon, so we'll see!

Hope 2010 is good to you all.

Cheers

Fiona x

the evidence

I've been in denial for a little while now. But last weekend Paul took a photo of the girls with me while we were up at Katoomba. And this is the evidence I DIDN'T need.

Emily has finally caught up with me... she's the same height, perhaps even slightly taller.

 

Even Phoebe is on the case now, measuring herself against me, say it won't be long 'til I'm the shorty of the house.

I'm sure some money has exchanged hands between Emily and her dad to take this incriminating evidence.

Thanks guys!

Fiona x

the Leukaemia Foundation World's Greatest Shave

... or in our case the World's Greatest Hair Colouring.

My gorgeous little girl, Phoebe, has decided to raise money this year for the Leukaemia Foundation by colouring her hair.

She's set up her PROFILE PAGE on the World's Greatest Shave fundraising site, which is now open for sponsorship.

Phoebe asked me to post about her fundraising here on my blog, which I am so happy to do, I hope you will visit her page. You can also leave her a message of encouragement over on her profile page... maybe suggest the colour she should dye her hair, cause she's having trouble deciding at the moment.

Thanks for reading, and thank you from Phoebe.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Cheers

Fiona x

we have a winner...

...of the Maya Road cupcakes stamp set...

<insert drum roll please>

And the winner is...

JODY

Congratulations Jody, I'll be in touch by email to arrange delivery of your newest baking delights!

Thank you to everyone who left me lovely comments. I wish I had enough cupcakes stamps to send to everyone.

Not much to report on creatively-wise. I have a quilt half cut which I'll be making for Emily (currently taking up most of the surface of the kitchen table).

Ribbons Galore has some ribbons perfect for Valentine's Day projects...

 

   

   

Just thought a share a few photos from last weekend.

Phoebe decided to add to her repertoire of sporting activities recently. So along with the athletics, soccer and basketball which currently consume a lot of her spare time, she decided she'd like to compete in a triathlon. We found the Weet-Bix kids TRY-athlon for her to enter which was last weekend out at Homebush. It was such a fantastically organised event with over 2500 kids entered in the Sydney event alone. There were no winners, the kids weren't timed, they were just given the opportunity to try a triathlon.

 

 

 

Has she caught the triathlon bug? Apparently....yes. I'm just applying to have that eighth day added to the week so we can fit it in.

I should also mention that these are not my own photos, they were taken by professionals, Super Sports Images, at the event and we were able to purchase these.

Well that's about all for this week. Happy Friday and I hope you have a great weekend.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Cheers

Fiona x

Fabric love

I have a new fabric designer to add to my favourites list. Erin McMorris. And her latest fabric collection is called Park Slope by Free Spirit Fabric. I mentioned in my previous post I'd finally bought some of this wonderfully happy and bright fabric. And here's a look at my new fabric piles, they look so pretty together.

I found this fabric at the Fat Quarter Shop. Great service, I had my fabric (and there were some extra fat quarters I purchased as well, but that's for another post) within a week of ordering.

Below is a sneaky peek of my first project sewn with my new Park Slope fabric. I can't give too much away just yet as it's for my swap partner in Mel's gratitude swap group.

I'll finish off today with the links to two fabulous little stores I visited last week. A friend and I go off every couple of months on little shopping trips around Sydney. We both have a love of food and crafty things, so we're finding (or in some cases re-discovering) great little spots around Sydney. Our last visit found us in Summer Hill and Leichhardt.

I used to live in Leichhardt for a few years when I was first married. Emily spent the first 11 months of her life there (which is why we say she loves her pasta having spent many evenings in her pram while Paul and I had pasta for dinner in the fabulous cafe's along Norton Street). Anyway, back to last week. Here's two stores we visited:

• Rick Rack Retro : Stepping into this store was like stepping back into my childhood.
• Reclaim : Monica Trapaga's fabulous store full of beautiful things.

That's all for now. School holidays start today - YAY. I say it every time "I love school holidays!"

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Cheers

Fiona x

catch up time

Life's busy as always. Everyone says the same thing.

Firstly, thank you for all the lovely comments and emails about the pouches/pencil cases/make up bags I've been making (see my previous post). I've had several inquiries about making custom pouches or cases. Yes I certainly can make these up, you can choose the ribbon from Ribbons Galore, and I'll match fabrics. Just email me, and we'll go from there.

In other news...

Emily has turned 13! I am now the mother of a teenager. She hasn't changed much in the last few days... being a teenager now, she's still as lovely as ever. She is home sick this week though, with the latest bug that seems to be going around the schools here.

She had her party last weekend. We made the invitations...

Used lots of scraps and sewing for these.

... and we made the thank you cards while we were printing and sewing and creating...

20+ girls arrived at our house last Sunday for the party. We walked to a local Thai (Bai Yok, Castlecrag) for dinner. The restaurant was great, its our favourite local for delicious Thai food. Then we walked home for Ice cream Cupcakes, which were a big hit. One of the girls at the party grabbed our camera and took this photo on the night.

On Saturday night we went to Broad at the Sydney Opera House. Five female singer/songwriters of very different genres singing, playing and chatting on stage for a couple of hours. Fantastic.

Phoebe's soccer season continues... Last weekend was Gala Day  and her team won. All the games were great and well matched. I think it was the hair ribbons the girls wore on the day that increased their enthusiasm.

This should have marked the end of the soccer season for Phoebe, but no, she's been picked to play in the under 11's girls representative team for our region, so the soccer training continues a little longer. She is so excited to be in this team, she loves her soccer.

I have a few other things to catch up on. I've been tagged by Miki (I'm getting there, Miki) and I've received an award from Sophia (very exciting). I'll work on these two in new posts very soon.

Hope you have a great week.

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x

snapshot from sydney

It's a beautiful sunny winter's day here in Sydney. Just thought I'd share a photo from this morning's activities.

Taken from the headland between Curl Curl and Freshwater beaches. Looking towards Manly beach.

We walked between the two beaches this morning, then had morning tea/coffee at the cafe at the South Curl Curl Beach SLSC. Gorgeous location right on the beach.

Hope you're having a great day.

Cheers

Fiona x

happy birthday

Phoebe, my baby, turned 10 last weekend.

She had a good weekend. A visit to the Beanie Cave to add to the collection, a visit to the hairdressers for a side fringe, a visit to the Lindt Cafe at Cockle Bay for afternoon tea, presents from her birthday wish list, pasta dinner at Galletta Bar in Leichhardt, several candle blowing ceremonies as we visited family and friends, a sleep over with a friend.... I think that's about all.

It was a fun {long} weekend.

Then 36 cupcakes were sent to school yesterday just so the celebrations could be extended an extra day (and I thought there were only 29 in her class?)

Thanks for visiting, hope you have a great week.

Fiona x