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
We're back from a short break at Hawks Nest. It was a nice six day escape. Lots of relaxing, eating, climbing giant sand dunes, boating up the river, eating, visiting the beach, walking through the rainforest, playing monopoly and sewing.
Yes, I put the sewing machine in the car with my fabric box, as well as the girls growing fabric supply, with the aim of us sewing the week away. The girls and I were very industrious. We've made some bags and pouches. Emily has made some progress with her quilt, which is looking good.
We made several visits to a lovely little fabric shop at Tea Gardens called Black Possum Gallery to stock up on even more fabric.
I've only taken photos of one project so far, my new bag. I've finally made myself a bag with some Amy Butler fabric. I love it. Here's my lovely assistant modeling the new bag.
I quilted the outside fabric, and left the inside (lining) unquilted.
This is just a favourite photo from our break... taken on Bennetts Beach.
Fabrics used: (Amy Butler Midwest Modern fabrics) Ivory/floating buds (ab-33) on the outside; Grey/happy dots (ab-29) on the inside.
A friend has just popped in for a cuppa, so I'll be back in the next few days with some pictures of our other projects when I've taken some photos.
Hope you're all having a lovely holiday (for those with kids on school holidays).
Thanks for visiting.
Cheers
Fiona x
Thought I'd better get a second post up before the end of January.
The girls are back at school, all's quiet around the house. Emily has started at her new high school, is happy and excited about everything going on there. Phoebe has her new class already, and is pretty happy with that too.
Holidays were lovely and relaxing... I do love school holidays.
Here's a few photos and ramblings from the things that we did during the holidays.
We took Phoebe out to the Athletics Stadium out at Homebush to participate in the Little Diva Dash organised by Athletics NSW. She got to meet Jana Rawlinson and run a 400m 'fun-run' around the athletics track. In true diva-style, Phoebe adorned her hair with Ribbons Galore ribbons!
We went kayaking last weekend on Pittwater. We hired a couple of kayaks form Paddlecraft at Bayview, and paddled our way around to Church Point, enjoyed our coffees/milkshakes and bacon and egg rolls from the cafe there, then paddled back to Bayview. It was a beautiful morning and lots of fun.
We gave Emily a new bead for her bracelet the night before she started back to school. A little drum for the drummer girl of our family. It is very cute, the drum is silver with little gold drum sticks on the top. This one is a Pandora bead, but it still fits on her Bacio bracelet.
I took Phoebe to the Sydney Wildlife World at Darling Harbour one day. It's a great centre, the displays and exhibitions are informative and it is different from the zoo, so you do get a different experience. At the end of the centre you have the opportunity to walk through the butterfly display, which Phoebe loved. We stood for a long time as the butterflies fluttered around us. They loved her headband, as they were always landing on it. (We also discovered a Lindt Cafe at Cockle Bay Wharf, so guess where we went for afternoon tea).
One of Paul's friends has been making a guitar... from scratch... and he doesn't even play the guitar. He brought it over for Paul to "inspect". It was so beautifully made, with such lovely detail. You just had to admire it and all the work that went into making it.
And lastly, this is to show Mel, my very clever friend who also loves sewing and Japanese craft books. Phoebe and I had a day out in the city, and one of our stops was a huge Japanese book shop, Kinokuniya, in Galeries Victoria. I picked up the latest Cotton Time which was great as previously I had navigated my way through the Japanese Amazon site to purchase my Japanese books. Phoebe and I also picked out a couple other cute books. The good news is they get the magazines in about a week after the release date in Japan, so I can send Paul off in his lunchtime to pick up my books. And there are a couple of other magazines I like (all in Japanese) and I can just give them the codes from the magazines and they can get them in for me too. Now I just have to finish off my CHA projects so I can start work on some of these very cute things.
That's about all, back to a little more scrapping.
Thanks for visiting. I'll be back to more regular blog updates from now.
Cheers
Fiona
x
Happy New Year!!
We're in the middle of summer holidays here. A couple of days after Christmas we headed up the coast to Hawks Nest. We stayed until after new years, which was very different for us. I usually love being in Sydney for the Sydney fireworks, but this year we decided to have a very quite, relaxing break away. It was just so nice.
Bennetts Beach was closed for a day or so during out stay due to the rough seas along the NSW coast. Here's Phoebe with her newest Beanie Kid, Ky the surf life saving bear, checking out the surf conditions.
Little Bubbles and Butterscotch enjoyed their holiday too, they loved hopping around the garden up at Hawks. They travel well in their little pet travel case, and we keep a travel hutch up at Hawks for them to stay in while we are there.
Back in Sydney, and the girls and I have seen a few movies. Enchanted was good (especially as a Greys Anatomy fan) and we've seen the Water Horse which was a beautiful story and and movie. There's been many plays with friends, shopping, etc, etc.
I love school holidays.
Not much to report otherwise. I'm being kept busy with some projects for Maya Road with CHA coming up in February.
I've been enjoying my sewing a lot lately. I made Hootie the other night. He's already flown from our nest to another, but we enjoyed having him around the house for a few days before he joined another family.
The pattern is by Melly and Me (MO23). There are two versions included in the pattern, Hooty and Tweet (with longer legs). I found the fabric for my Hootie up at Tea Gardens. There's a shop called Black Possum Gallery which I discovered and made several secret trips to purchase some lovely fabrics. The fabrics used for my Hootie are gorgeous coordinating soft flanelette quilting fabrics (unfortunately I don't know the brand). Just perfect for a little baby!
That's about all for now.
Thanks for visiting.
Cheers
Fiona x
So school's out and we are finally on school holidays. Lots of end of school stuff went on last week, but it all seems a long time ago now, and we are finally getting into the Christmas spirit.
Today I was at the fish and fruit markets at 7.30am buying the salmon and prawns and salads and fruit for tomorrow. With that all finished by 8.30am, it left a pretty long day ahead of us. So the girls and I caught up with friends, jumped on a bus into the city with the main aim of visiting the David Jones Christmas display windows.
It became a fun festive adventure, wandering through the busy city. Here are some photos from our day.
Martin Place Christmas tree:
Martin Place is looking very festive with the stars and banners:
Pitt Street Mall had these groovy Christmas trees:
Bush firemen:
The bush fire service Santa was also found in Pitt Street Mall:
Free Hugs man.... (if you don't know about him, see HERE):
We did make it to David Jones. The window story this year was The Nutcracker:
Beer Bottle Busker (see him HERE, but today he was playing Christmas songs outside St James Station):
Lindt Cafe (a trip to the city is not complete without a stop here):
The girls decided to try their luck at busking in York Street while waiting for the bus home. They sang the same Christmas song over and over and collected $2.15 between them.
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I'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy, prosperous and healthy new year.
Thank you for visiting my blog this year. I look forward to bringing you more craft and scrapbooking ideas and classes in 2008.
Enjoy the holiday season.
Until 2008
Cheers
Fiona
x
This month's design team challenge over at the Maya Road DT blog was to use the Journey Album Kit. We all created very different albums and you can view them all on the Maya Road DT blog.
The Journey Album kit comes complete with the binder album, plastic sleeves, card stock, pattern paper, ribbon, chipboard shapes, letter and flower/shape stickers.
I used the album to hold my scrapbooking layouts about my Chicago trip. I really enjoyed working with the smaller format (8"x8") and have had a lot of fun working with my photos. I have actually researched some of the places I had visited to add extra information to my journaling.
On the cover of the album is a map of Chicago. I scanned the map which I used for my sightseeing, printed it on photo paper and glued it to the cover. The cover has then been finished with a sealer.
These chipboard letters were the only think not included in the kit, which I used. The are some Maya Road chipboard letters painted with some new Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint by Ranger.
Here's some of the pages from the album (and yes, I do like my maps, when I'm visiting new places, if I have a map in my hands I'm a happy traveler).
In other Maya Road DT news, six new "Roadies" have joined the Design Team for 2008, read all about them on the DT blog. And I was thrilled to be asked to stay on the MR Design Team for another year, Caroline and Deb are so lovely to work for, and the DT girls are great to work with... all very exciting!
Hope you're all having a great weekend, thanks for visiting my blog.
Cheers
Fiona
x
I have finally organised my photos from my trip to Chicago into an album. After CHA I had nearly three days to explore the city. The ablum can be seen HERE (or in the right column).
On the Monday I spent the day with the lovely Karen of Karen's Scrappin Kupboard, taking a river cruise, wandering the city for the day, shopping, going to the top of the Hancock building, having dinner followed by a horse and carriage ride around the city streets at night.
On the Tuesday and Wednesday Rachel and I walked and walked and walked the streets and parks of Chicago. We jumped on buses (and trains) around the city, not really sure where we were going, trusting the friendly bus drivers to tell us when to get off.
By the end of the trip I think we'd mastered the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority). A 3 day pass for $12.00, was great value for all the travelling we did. We were jumping on and off trains and buses all over town.
Below are a few links to the sights of Chicago. There are certainly many, many things which I didn't see in my short time in the city, but would love to go back sometime with my family to explore some more. I really loved Chicago and it certainly has a lot to offer.
I loved wandering along Michigan Avenue (the Magnificent Mile) and had the opportunity to visit it a few times both by day and night.
I took several photos of colourful mannequins which were displayed along Michigan Avenue (and which are in the photo album). These fashion dressing forms were created by students of the Illinois Institute of Art - Chicago and the International Academy of Design and Technology, as well as renowned designers located along North Michigan Ave. You can see the full collection and more information about them HERE. If you love colourful creations it's well worth taking a look at them all.
A couple of places to visit for a great view of Chicago:
Millennium Park home to:
Also, Buckingham Fountain was quite spectacular.
Karen and I look a Chicago Architecture Foundation cruise. This was a really nice way to see the city and her beautiful buildings while cruising along the river around which Chicago was built.
Navy Pier on Lake Michigan. Lunch and a ride on the large ferris wheel. Rachel and I also took a short harbour cruise from here.
Rachel and I also managed a visit to Windy City Scrapbooking. I had met Christina (owner of Windy City) at CHA and she had kindly marked on a tourist map where the store was for me. The scale on those tourist maps can be deceptive, the walk from the train station was a bit longer than it "looked" on the map. But we found our way, and the journey was well worth it. The store was lovely, packed with so many scrapping goodies and the staff were friendly and welcoming. My only regret is I didn't get a photo of the store.
So that is my random memories of Chicago. I'm sure I've missed some bits, but these were some of the highlights of my trip.
Thanks for visiting, and reading... and looking through the photos.
Also, thank you for your comments and emails regarding my lost books from my last post.
Have a great weekend.
Fiona x
I'm back from Chicago. My trip was a great combination of lots of work and lots of fun.
CHA was big and busy. The Urban Lily booth looked great. And the UL products were well received. Everyone who passed through the booth were so friendly. Despite spending three days with Renata and Phil, we didn't get a photo together. But I did manage to get a few of the booth, below. I'm hoping Kim M and Adrienne, UL DT members will forward some photos, as I know they took some when they visited the booth
Left photo: The Urban Lily Secret Keeper Cards. What a hit they were. We loved the reaction from everyone as we would open them up to reveal the inside. Middle photo: The UL booth. Right photo: A fantastic little display piece for some of the smaller projects.
It was great to meet up with the girls from my other design teams, Maya Road and Paper Salon.
Deb, Caroline and Jess from Maya Road were so friendly and welcoming, as were all the DT girls who were working the MR booth. So lovely to meet them.
Also loved meeting up with the Paper Salon girls and go out with them a couple of times in the evenings, was great to spend time with them. Below is Jen, a fellow Crowded House fan and PS DT'er. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of everyone at the booth :-(
One other lovely lady I was able to meet was Kai-mei from Fontwerks. I have been a fan of Fontwerks for the last few years, and always love seeing the new products they release.
We met lots of other fun people. Will post more later. As well as some sight seeing photos of Chicago. Love, LOVE that city. Loved wandering the streets, catching the 'L' around town, jumping on and off the buses to get around town, going up tall towers with spectacular views, wandering through parks... Anyway, more of that in another post.
Thanks for visiting.
Fiona x
Well, I really should be working on the final details of a band workshop I've been organising with a couple other mums from school. The workshop is tomorrow, and I will be glad when its actually underway.
But I got a bit distracted while sitting here at the computer...
I've been receiving newsletter emails from US stores about their Memorial Day weekend sales, and I thought, we were in America on the Memorial Day weekend - two years ago. So I went looking through our photos and went on a little trip down memory lane...
Two years ago today we'd been in San Diego for a week.
We'd been shopping during the day. Here's Phoebe showing off her new purchases, new shoes, new skort (a skirt and shorts in one), new poncho and I'm sure there's a new t-shirt under there somewhere:
We were going to La Jolla for dinner. We found the most fantastic little Thai restaurant and had one of THE best thai meals ever. (I loved all the street flags, so colourful) :
And it was the Memorial Day weekend holiday. There were American flags flying proudly EVERYWHERE. (That's Emily at the bottom of the flag pole):
That's it, that's my little trip down memory lane! LOL
Thanks to everyone who has booked into my latest online class, Journal Jottings. The class is open for another two weeks, so you can join in at any time, visit the online classroom at anytime to view the step by steps for the class layout. Look forward to you joining me. Here's a few sneaky peeks:
Hope you're having a great weekend
Thanks for visiting.
Cheers
Fiona
x
This is a layout from the latest Scrapbooking Memories. It is for our Disneyland Album, which I must keep working on. And yes, this is an 8 1/2 x 11 layout.
The theme of the step by step for this issue was shimmer and shine. On this layout I've used golden metallic acrylic paint to paint the chipboard letters and metallic embroidery thread to stitch the Mickey Mouse ears on the right page.
The journalling reads:
"To commemorate Disneyland's 50 years of magic, golden "Mickey 50 Ears" of all different sizes were hidden throughout the Disneyland Park.
The first 12 hidden "Mickey 50 Ears" icons were placed on the lampposts that line Main Street, U.S.A. (main photo over on the left page). They looked beautiful glistening in the sunshine.
Everywhere we turned was a golden "Mickey 50 Ears". It turned into an eye spy game for us, when we saw one, we'd yell, "golden Mickey!"
Some were easy to spot; on displays, lampposts, entrances to rides, seats, garbage bins and flower beds. Some were a bit trickier to find.
I don't think we found all 50, but we loved spotting them throughout the Park and loved being at Disneyland during its 50th anniversary.
May 2005"
Thanks for dropping by.
Fiona x
