CHA Day 2

Outside the Convention Centre having our coffee and banana - lots of palms here. We had a good day today and happy with what we saw - have found quite a few new excitements, placed an order or two and gathered lots of stuff to sort out and order when we get home and the brains are sorted.





Got a photo of Linda's lovely work on the Moonglow stand and also a few others on the Parissien theme













Checked out Tim Holtz at work




And also Dyan Reveally of the Dylusions Stamps busy at work





And we caught up with Ted and Jaime from Crafters Workshop and checked out all the great new stencils which hopefully will arrive before too long.




After two hard days of slogging it and meeting lots of nice people we are off to the beach tomorrow


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CHA

We have had a very busy day at CHA and apart from a stuff up and the shuttle forgetting to pick us up, all has gone well. It was fabulous to catch up with Tracey from Lindy's Stamp Gang - her stand looked wonderful and there were all my favourite sprays in action.






The Moonshadow Mists








Starburst Sprays looking super yummy





Glitz Spritz - very subtle colors but you should see them on the black roses.

















Couldn't resist a photo of the new Distress Pens

We roamed a heap of stands and found a few new exciting things to follow up. Back tomorrow for more exploring.




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Location:Los Angeles

Getty Museum plus

Today we hired a car and drove to the Getty Museum. Very brave. Could have had a Mustang convertible but declined. The Getty Museum was fantastic and well worth the visit. The architecture and space is so great.





Loved the gardens.





The indoor galleries were grey too but it was the space we especially loved.









Then we set off for to watch a sunset. We got to Huntington Beach with the pier. Didn't head to Lolama as it was dark so bravely drive back in the dark. A lovely day in readiness for our big first day tomorrow.




Thanks for all the messages - apart from being very black, my finger is fine.

What have I bought? Paper napkins - some beautiful designs I have found.

And - sat 28th - happy birthday BRUCE - big one too and we got a bit confused about which was which. It may well be sat here but it sure isn't anymore in Perth.

BTW - they sure have huge meals here - I don't think I have left so much on my plate before.

And you would not think it is winter here......

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Location:Los Angeles

We are here or there depending on how you feel

What a fab flight we had from Auckland to Los Angeles. If you ever get a chance to fly premium economy on a 777 go for it. Fab service, fab wine etc and the seats are great and even better knowing we are coming back on same.



Inside our cabin.



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And the hostess bandaged up my finger - the ring finger on my right hand because it had swollen so much and I was worried that I might catch it in the night and rip the nail. I had to take it off though to be finger printed.




Now we are at our hotel relaxing and showering and getting to explore. Surprisingly fresh as daisies

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Location:Los Angeles

Silly me

We have made it to Auckland - had a little sleep - spent ages sorting out our voucher to get us from LA airport to hotel and back - taken a trip on the bus to downtown Auckland - had some lunch - back again all showered and ready for our long haul.

This below is what happened to my finger on the flight from Perth when the meal tray crushed it - I need blue nail varnish so I can make everything match. Does it hurt? Yes.



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yippee do

Today we are off on our long brief adventure - fingers crossed we get the big black 777 from Auckland to Los Angeles and back again. We fly tonight to Auckland arriving at 5.30am - spend the day in Auckland and fly out Friday night arriving in LA Friday morning. Never mind - we get it all back on the return trip. Having been excited to get our upgrade to premium economy going over, this morning I woke up to find we have got it coming back as well. Are we excited? how can you tell?

The weather is still awful here and gong to remain that way until at least when we get back next Thursday so we will not be sorry to go. All the plants have been watered and spoken to - Harley is not allowed outside today in case she does a hide again.

Wish us luck on our travels - naturally I have gathered more stuff to stitch and draw etc - we are really excited about going somewhere new - meeting some of the people we have been trading with for quite some time and being on the look for new goodies. Ian is the chief bag carrier and chief notebook writer down of important things. I have bought him a new notebook with pockets!

By the way - my new specs (don't ask the price) arrived this morning by special delivery and are firmly on my face. I must say it is no fun when your specs fall off into the basin while you are cleaning your teeth.

hot hot hot and more hot

Seems the usual - record heat here for 47 years or something and floods in Qld. That's how it is folks and we can expect more of it. Harley went outside this morning and didn't come back - at 41 degrees - until Ian turned the water on tonight to give everything some relief. She is so good at hiding we will never know. She also doesn't know that tomorrow night we are off for a week.

As usual I have been collecting things to take with me for a little playing - this time sticking to my Marrakesh theme.

 A little background for hand stitching - I have chosen my hand  threads

 Some stencil work and colour in my Khadi  sketchbook and I have gathered my pencils and pens and a few other colours and I have also gathered some rough sketches to play with

 Then I have been scrumbling Tissutex which has been Shiva - ed and sprayed with Starbursts
 and stitched etc

and the old paper napkin on the layer trick

and a rubbing and spray and some gilding flakes - thinking about this.Moroccan work has gold and I would like to incorprate some flakes so this was both a use of a sample and a test. The wonderful pattern is the Marakesh stencil.

Quilting Arts 55 also arrived very late last night so I was up bright and early to get them all away before we go. There are just a few left over if anyone is interested. I had a quick read and was impressed enough to pop it in my back pack for plane reading.

One more sleep and off we fly tomorrow night. Long time in aeroplane for sure..... Lots to do tomorrow - Ian has cleaned all the gutters - this is what you have to do when you have all the lovely trees we have. now we are off to eat because the cupboards seem rather bare apart from our lemon yoghurt and banana for breakfast.

good news and bad news and some help

I am trying to put my new Marrakesh colours together and asked what people thought on facebook - I do love those blues but it becomes too muddled and I think this is more what I am after. What do you think?

This is a little piece I started in my workshop in Melbourne. A simple transfer of a drawing and silk carrier rods with all the added extras.

I didn't mask it so some colour merged in but it's all play and practice.

The bad news is - it is extremely hot and getting hotter - fortunately we will be off to Los Angeles on Thursday for the CHA (Craft and Hobby Trade Show) and should miss the 42 degrees for Saturday although I notice it is going to be around 26 degrees there. Heat likes to follow me. The second lot of bad news is that I am waiting for my new glasses and the humidity makes my one armed ones fall off my face all the time. Two more days to go.

Now for the good news - my bad seems to have recovered from its muscular debilitating pain and we have got an upgrade to premier class on the long leg from Auckland to L.A. Air N.Z. sent me an email inviting me to bid for seats so I struck a sort of mid range price and got lucky!. Didn't think we had a chance. Sometimes you just get lucky. I have also bought myself some compression stockings becasue the general consensus was that I probably did have dvt from my sulk back from London. SInce then I spend all flights exercising furiously.

some more artful journey from Melbourne

 I have found some more photos on my phone - bit of a mess - I may have to wipe them all off - these ones were way back in the depths of numbers. This was a lovely paper napkin someone had. There are gems out there. I found some wonderful ones in Provence.

 Another one using motifs

 June's one - love the bird slips - June got me thinking about grids and openings and closings.

 The patination effect was wonderful.

Dot's - who wasn't at all keen on sewing but came through....

It's still stinking hot and sticky here and my back is slowly coming good - last time you will ever see me lug a 20 kilo box and an 18 kilo suitcase up the stairs for any workshop - ever......

TAST 2

Nothing like being behind - but you know better late than never is okay. Tast 2 was buttonhole stitch - one of my favourites.

it is grossly hot here in Perth - anyone want it?

Artful Journey Workshop in Melbourne

I thought I had taken loads more photos than this - and I am very sorry I missed June's as she did some wonderful work. I have also not got names of whose is whose so I must apologise

 This was wonderful and we had fun with paper napkins -

 and more paper napkins and slips and the like

 and silk paper making

 and a colelction

foils of course and some wonderful things going to happen.

If I find the other pictures I am sure I took I shall share them.

Yesterday we finally got our shipment of Wet and Grow - the compresssed sponge which is great for printing with. And today in the extreme heat I packaged 24 kilos of new Corriedale wool colours. Think we have the full range bar one missing colour now.

My back is on the getting better - just have to be extra careful when I stand up - a right nuisance and in the extreme heat today my one armed glasses kept falling off. Hanging in until Wednesday like a one armed bandit!