took the heat with us and brought it back again

We flew home last night and I still have sore bottoms of my feet - I reckon it was the shock of wearing filled in shoes - and when we got here at 10.30pm it was 22 degrees. Just cannot win. We stayed at the Quest off Lygon Street with an amazing view - above. At least there were words to look at - remember that holey moley folks. It is okay there except that they don't have wi-fi in the apartments and I refuse to sit in the foyer and pay to answer my emails on my i-pad which we especially only have set up for wi-fi because I would rather be sitting in the lounge of the apartment I am paying for watching the rugby and enjoying a glass of bubbly. Answering 220 emails on an i-phone is rather a skill and fingers become rather dextrous. And rather exhausting for Ian watching me.

Anyway we had a great time as we always do in Melbourne - we went to Movida and Lau's Family Kitchen - two of our favourite restaurants. For those who know and love them, this is my whitebait fritter - wondrous. The waiter suggested we might share - hardly.

AQC was very good - our stand looked very colourful and packed as always and of course we were in trouble with the organisers for being over the allotted edges. However, as usual, the first customer complained because we hadn't brought everything with us..... Can't win. Best apologise to the customer and ignore the organisers. Anyway - the missing goodies are always available on the web.... I forgot to take a photo of the stand when it was set up - there was all this talk about not making a noise after 5pm which kinda put me off. We worked on set up day until 7.30pm and rushed off to eat before we collapsed. I bought a lovely bundle of fabric from Lisa and Peter at Dyed and Gone to Heaven who are so lucky to have their stand next to ours - or is that the other way round? Anyway - they are wonderful neighbours and they do great dyeing (and so do we...) And then we had our wonderful Jacinta and Madelen working for us - it makes it all so much more relaxing when we can all have a good laugh. Jacinta had this absolutely fantastic nuno felted scarf she brought in - coming up soon will be our Gentle Felting on-line workshop.

I went to see Tulis Fabrics and bought some more of her wonderful batiks - they are always great and while I never know what I am going to do with them I can't resist them. I usually work on the surfaces, cut them up, hand stitch, machine stitch and one piece I have had worked really well with the de Colourant gel and I gave Kerry one of my samples - I loved the way it exposed the depth of colour in the fabric.

I didn't take the de Colourant with me to the show because you can't take everything but I sure picked up enough orders so it was just as well the big shipment of de Colourant and de Colourant Plus arrived this morning. Yes - we have now got all the sets of  de Colourant Plus in stock and I am busting to get playing - hope to have a creative Easter which has simply crept up on us. Hoping Ian can get them on the web tomorrow.

We had a very good flight to Melbourne - Qantas offered me an upgrade - for points of course - which I took up because it was my birthday (thanks for all the good wishes) and they even gave me a bottle of Shiraz which we enjoyed on another night whilst watching the rugby. Came back steerage though but we slept all the way. I did do a little of something on the plane but not enough to show as yet so you will have to wait for that. Tomorrow I will post the pocket winners - they will be on the web after our stuff gets back which will be after Easter.

Tonight I think I feel a trip to the Lido coming on......