kangaroo paws in my garden

The front garden is looking lovely as things settle in and start to grow. The flowers haven't opened up yet but one kangaroo paw is in full bloom and the other is tempting us with a flower. All the brown stuff on the ground is the mulch and does it make it all look so good - makes the green stand out so much more. The birds are very happy indeed.

beautiful and copius irises

The front garden looks good even though we went away and left it for a few dyas - the flowers are still opening so we didn't miss out. In the meantime the irises outside the back door have never been so prolific. That's the basil pot all dead and gone but the mint is hanging in there. This is the first time I have ventured out of the back door and I still have half a suitcase to unpack. The near empty palette will be back next Monday but I have been reorodering quite a few things - lots more to go. For all those people hanging in for us to find a good soldering iron, we are in negotiations and will have a fabulous one arriving (well lots of them really) in about 2 months - they have to be made especially for us here in Australia and New Zealand. it's always exciting and satifying when you finally track down something you have been looking for for ages.

Should be back on track with all the orders by the end of tomorrow and I am ever hopeful of getting into the studio tomorrow. It isn't really that long until the show here in Perth when you come to think of it. I am trying to drag out my winter woolies but once we got the house warm we slept like babes last night and actually slept in until 7am...

I am also waiting patiently for my sketchbook to arrive for The Sketchbook Project. And today I received my copy of Carla Sonheim's book 52 Drawings. You may recall that I did an on-line workshop - The Art of Silliness  - I haven't done every day yet but it is all ready for me to carry on when I have time. This is a wonderful book.

back home to cold Perth

 Here is a part of our stand on Sunday - this time we really tried to make it so you didn't have to grovel around on the floor looking for goodies. Sunday morning Jacinta got in ahead of us and revamped a number of places especially where the big containers were as good as empty.

Amazing to come back to Perth and feel cold - I think it is so unusual that you don't expect it. The weather in Brisbane was lovely although lots of Queenslanders told me it was too cold - we haven't been there before at this time of the year and really enjoyed that part. We stayed not far from the centre and enjoyed our walk to and from the Convention Centre. We had a great time at the Textile Art Festival and especially having Jacinta come and play and work for us as well. I thought my idea of the Artists at Work went down very well - I think I got the prize for the messier of the two of us - sometimes I just cannot resist bringing everything because I know people will want to see as much as they can. We both loved having you all watch us at work!

Here is the lovely ever-so-talented Kirry Toose at work on the Bernina stand - tomorrow I shall post some of the glorious Art-U-Wear garments. If I know very soon what the theme is for next year I really will try to have an attempt. I forgot to take any piccies of Jacinta at work and in fact we forgot to take any of our working artists area but all you have to do is to imagine chaos.

Also - congrats to all of you who came with the right answer - of course it was the All Whites! And thanks to all of you who came to see us, buy from us, chat to us etc. It wasn't as busy as last year but the exhibits were all great and we did sell out of quite a few goodies. Try as hard as I might, it always happens.

We did manage to watch both rugby games on Saturday night although I slept soundly very soon afterwards. And we found last year's restaurant - Barolo (yes now we have 2 - one in Brisbane and one in Perth) and had a few very nice meals there. Last night we went to Southbank to Piaf - I would recommend that to anyone too.

Off to Brisbane and here is the question.

Off to beautiful Brisbane today - not that we will see much of it - we fly in tonight, set up tomorrow at TAF, work three days and fly home on Monday morning. We have had lots of lovely rain over night - excellent for our new garden which  is looking very good. We have been removing any weed which dares to show its face the minute it appears and some of the new plants are almost ready to flower - hope they wait until we get back.

If you are coming to the Textile Art Festival, we look forward to seeing you, either at our stand no 62 or at the Artists Working Studio (either Jacinta or me at any given time) and do check out the Textile Tantrums.

For our wonderful newsletter readers who will be coming, your question is (change of sporting code here as an exception....)
What is the name of the New Zealand soccer team?
Remember - first two each day. ps - don't write the answer here - it gives it away!!!!! you have to come with it in person....

Cheers until Monday - I can say the big suitcase is packed but I can't say my stuff is even started but it will be by noon when we fly off towards the east.

my new toy plus more

Judy - here is my new toy - it is called a Big Shot and people who do scrapbooking and such will know more about them than me but they all told me it was the best so I indulged and then of course I needed embossing folders and some dies. It embosses Tissutex and also fabrics - I am still experimenting and I bought a few of Tim Holtz' dies which I have had fun with - I guess most people use card stock but i have found old newspaper articles relating to my themes are working very well. Then I bought a die on e-bay for a scalloped tag which I think will be very handy and as I happened to have a nice piece of paper lying around I needed to test it of course. All this when I am supposed to be packing. The big suitcase full of flimsies and Moonglow Sprays and rods and pods and silk chiffon etc is full. The hardest part for me is what not to take for the artists workshop area. Only two topics am I working on. Kimberlely Dreaming and Okarito so a contrast in colour. Right now I cannot find my Okarito journal....

Cloth Paper Scissors 31 arrived today and we worked like little beavers and got them all out - not one left so I am personally taking Jacinta's with me to Brisbane so I can read it on the plane since there is none for me.It looks like a good issue too. I am absolutely loving Jan Messent's book - sold out of what we got in but more on way. Then I pulled out her book on the Bayeux Tapestry which is so packed with information - it is being reprinted so I have ordered in anticipation. She is a very talented person.

All Whites

Weren't the All Whites just brilliant last night? The underdogs equalling the top dogs. Good luck for the next one.
And the Magic won in the netball so NZ on a high this weekend for sport.

I have just got this die cutting and embossing toy and having fun. Off to dinner tonight to celebrate Val's birthday - never mind that it was a month ago...

weekend of sport

In between a variety of activities like making flowers, sampling for the next Gilding the Lily lesson, writing up a Holey Moley page or two, sorting all my stuff for the working artists studio in Brisbane and packaging last minute stuff for the show, and playing with the rust powder which has finally arrived (not on web yet), we watched a bit of sport.

The All Blacks had a wonderful win against Wales in Dunedin, sadly the Wallabies just missed out and then we watched some of the soccer but it was too much so we went to bed but we did see Harry Kewell get a red card. Wonder how the All Whites will go tonight and if we will last the distance.

I have been researching our family histories and have managed to get the Rollersons back about 8 generations - all very interesting. in my web wanderings I discovered Papers Past. Papers Past contains more than one million pages of digitised New Zealand newspapers and periodicals. The collection covers the years 1839 to 1932 and includes 58 publications from all regions of New Zealand.no time for solitaire now - I have spent hours reading old newspapers - fascinating stuff indeed. I have printed out a few pages to add to the growing folders. I have been chasing the Dustins as well - only back about 5 generations there.

fabulous new book.

Just got this fabulous new book in today from Jan Messent. I have always found her books to be amazingly good and this one is one of the best. She has used the idea of journals or hand made books to illustrate the various historical periods full of samples in an authentic and  modern way. It is full of great inspirational ideas and has sent me back to rethink how I am making my Kimberley Dreaming and Okarito books. Ian has loaded it to the website. There are loads of books on the market these days and so many of them are rubbish so I have become quite cautious about what I order in. So many people simply plagiarising stuff and so many books only worth flicking through. Jan's will sit by my bed for quite some time I can tell you.

Wasn't the soccer result for NZ brilliant? It is so boring that Ian was sound asleep and I woke him up to tell him the match was as good as over when the goal happened. It is like watching grass grow though. And the noise sure puts you off. Just as well I had a heap of threads to wind.

We have continued to have lovely rain just what the new garden needs and I am still making flowers. Wonder what will happen when I burn the kunin felt from the back after I have made a flower?

flowers and rain and soccer and i-phones

Here aer a few more flowers - all on tissutex but the shiny ones have fusible film - I am having fun with these - from what you might call conventional to experimental. They are all on the kimberley dreaming theme but the third one I will add some threads - like this one - the unpredictability is great.

Talking of i-phones, Bruce told me the All Black app was worth collecting but I needed to upgrade my phone first - what chaos - it all went dead and no sort of coaxing would make it work. Spent hours on the phone this morning until the suggestion was to take it to i-phone hospital but I would lose all my data.It's back home now and I am pleased to say that most of the stuff is still there although I have lost my typetwister which is silly because it is the only app I have actually purchased, Much happier now though - I was lost last night without it.

We have a little limestone wall along our path - the garden is all finished and we are really thrilled with it. A bonus is that it has rained ever since it was all installed and we don't need to water. Loona next door is not at all sure about this lovely garden and has been standing around looking in. (she is a cat)

Tonight we are going to sit in front of the tv and watch the All Whites play soccer - can't be worse than the unspeakable game played yesterday morning!

I have just had a peep at the Ally Pally workshops  and mine has only 6 places left - that was quick. We are going to have fun with the Moonglow Sprays and the flowers I can see.

relaxing days

We decided we had earned a break after working hard all week - yesterday we watched our front garden being created. This is the first time I haven't planted my own plants and I have to say I felt a little guilty but I have got over that now. It looks great - all native plants and match nicely with what was there or rather was was left - eucalyptus trees, lots of kangaroo paws, grevilleas and other things to go with them - it will look great when it has had a chance to settle in and grow. The little limestone walls will happen this week - to stop the water flooding the path. The willie wagtails are especially enjoying it all and this morning when we woke there were lots of excited chattering birds. Now we have one more biggish size spot at the back to tackle.

Then we went off to watch 2 very good games - the ABs won aganst Ireland and the aussies beat the poms and the first game especially was very good - not sure about the ref in the second game - his voice alone drove me nuts.

Today was relaxing too - cleaned up more stuff and got working on my flowers - lots of variations and these are fun. The workshops for Ally Pally went up yesterday - and the bookings open tomorrow. I am doing a workshop on the Thursday using the Moonglow Sprays and micas - and making a flower power brooch. I am only doing the one workshop this year.

This afternoon we took ourselves off to the valley again for lunch - to Little River Winery again - very pleasant and relaxing.

Back into it tomorrow

It's Friday Night

It's Friday night and we are ready to relax with a glass of champagne - the 2 palettes of stuff have gone to Sadleir and are on the train to Brisbane in the morning. I have had to fossick for boxes and old baskets for all the stuff I tipped out of their plastic baskets but that's okay. Now someone will order something which has gone.In the midst of all the lugging etc this morning this book arrived - something great to sit and read while sipping on my champagne.A fantastic designer he was.

I am busting to get into the studio tomorrow morning - I have had quite a few new ideas for making my flowers and I am off first to spray up some Tissutex Plus (the heavier one) so watch this space tomorrow.

holiday shots and some

 The path to our villa - loads of wonderful frangipani trees everywhere.

This was our outside dining room in Broome - very private and relaxing,

This is the shower tile - I thought I took one of the whole wall so you could see it really was like a quilt. must have vanished.

Today we are running in circles here packaging for Brisbane - the show might be two weeks away but our stuff goes on Friday and as punishment for having a holiday in Broome I am running around a tad. With Qantas luggage changes what is heavy must go on the train and even light things add up in a suitcase. I guess we will get there - we usually do.

the entrance to our villa - they are all the same - open but private.

Downunder Textiles issue 2 arrived today so we are sending them out along with everything else - just a wee bit behind but these things are always worth waiting for. Our kitchen looks like a storm has been through but come Saturday I promise to have it pretty spic and span......

home again home again jiggedy jig

Just back this afternoon from a lovely relaxing break - long weekend - in Broome. We have basically done nothing but relax. Cooked every night because the villa we stay at has outdoor bbqs and because we asked, we got a light to plug in outside so we could see what we were eating and read our books and sit outside until very late. Lots of swimming every day but actually not a great deal else. We have stayed at this place about 3 times now and it is always the same good stuff. There is an outside shower - a mandi - and this is the frangipani set in the stone at the end wall. The frangipanis in Broome are bigger than the ones here in Perth and the leaves are broader - I did some printing with flowers and leaves in my Kimberley Dreaming book which Rae gave me sometime ago and I hadn't started on it. While I didn't get my art to wear done for Darling Harbour I do intend having it for Perth and working on it in Brisbane and I plotted out some new ideas so it is changing direction a wee bit but still on the same theme.

We watched a fairly boring game of rugby on Sat night - Australia vs Fiji  - I almost fell asleep. Tomorrow night at our park is the England vs Aust Barbaraian game - we shall see if it is more exciting.

Lazy in Broome

Having a lovely lazy relaxing time in Broome - thanks all the emails Swimming reading, writing cooking -Back tomorrow -pics then

Off to Broome

We are off to Broome in about 2 hours for a long weekend - back on Monday. Working right up to midnight last night - not a thing in my bag as yet but just need my cup of coffee and a quick read of the paper and then I shall swing into action. Obviously I need my stitchy stuff, my notebook and pen and my sketchy and playing stuff. Clothes - you don't need many in Broome. We plan to swim, relax, read, swim, relax, read.When we get  back we know we will be busy as the stuff for Brisbane goes next Friday but life is short......

mags and flowers

The first of our Iris flowers has appeared in what we call Barbara's bush - Barbara always used to sleep here although Bruce reckons we get far more flowers now she is dead - her legacy maybe?

Waiting for Godot was absolutely fantastic - Ian McKellen and Roger Rees were superb and in fact so were the others. So pleased we went. I have always wanted to go see it. I sat at the computer on the dot of 10am this morning to book for Leonard Cohen - he is performing at our stadium down at the corner in November so looking forward to it. Took me a few goes because I forgot my password, forgot which credit card I used and I kept being knocked off - each time the seats changed....

Late this afternoon Embellish mag no 2 arrived - looks great - I shall have a read over the weekend. We worked like slaves and got them all out but we have plenty of spares - well some anyway but we can always get more if we need them. Down Under Textiles2  will probably be here at the beginning of next week - I know subscribers have mostly got theirs (because they have emailed to tell me about the article on me) but ours are a lot and come over by truck. Never fear we will send them out the minute hey arrive. There is a public holdiay (again) here on Monday so I expect them on Tuesday.

Welcome to June

It's June already - lovely time of the year - nice and crisp in the mornings and evenings. We are off to 'Waiting for Godot' so no time to chat. Looking forward to it.