Halloween decorating

Halloween brings back memories of Maine in the USA in 1996 when I visited. I'll never forget we visited a pancake place where they made Maple Syrup and the pumpkins were everywhere as decoration for Halloween. I fell in love with them then and I still love them now. Australia doesn't tend to do much celebration for this special day but I get great pleasure from the contrast in colours of black and orange. I wonder what they represent ?

I was shopping at Aldi the other day and found these gorgeous pumpkin lights so I hung them in my family room. Their little faces cheered me up straight away.

Hens day out

Wow, what a busy weekend. My daughter gets married in a couple of weeks so we had her Hens party at the races yesterday. Yes the gi-gi's, horses, races that is. We had our own private booth. Eight ladies in all.
We all dressed up with hats and fasinators and lots of pretty dresses. The booth was overlooking the finish line, four stories up. The food was great and plenty of wine and bubbles all around. We even had a bet or two on some of the races. I actually won a few and came home with extra money.
Raelene, my daughter, was given plenty of challenges over the course of the afternoon like pinch a guys bottom, chat up a stranger, even a few police men, things like that. She had a great time.
My mum was here for the event as she lives up on the Gold Coast of Queensland, my girlfriend Sylvana and Raelene's close girlfriends too.
We hired a taxi bus to bring us home so that we could all have fun and a few wines.
We had such a great day, so much fun. Only a few weeks to the wedding. Wow the time has flown by.

Crazy pillow pattern kit

Another first for me. This time making up one of my teaching projects into a pattern kit which is for sale thru my studio/shop. It was an exercise putting it all together but I'm happy with the results. I have a bus load of ladies from Epping to see my studio/shop on Thursday so I thought it as good a time as any to get a pattern put together.

I did enjoy the process and look forward to putting more of my work into pattern/kit form.

First time dying

Well I finally did my first dying job. I used a paint brush for all of the items and I salt dyed the multi coloured thin ribbon. I am quite pleased with how it turned out and look forward to more play time with the paint. It is a great way to colour your lace and ribbon in matching colour hues. The paints I'm using are more like a dye called Setacolour paints. I'ts a lot quicker than I thought it would be too.

My Birthday picnic

Yesterday, 11 October, my family took me to the Blue Mountains for a picnic.

The Leura garden fair was on so we stopped by a took a look at the stalls and had a great time. The main street is blocked off for the fair so you can wonder tru and enjoy the stalls. We also visited an open garden called "Everglades" a magnificent garden designed by Paul Sorrenson back in the Art Deco period. The property is now owned by the National Trust so is in good hands for us all to enjoy. I have included some photos of our day in the garden which include the Tulips in flower, Azaleas and Lilacs, a view of the Grose Valley from the back of the garden which takes your breath away. And a few others for your pleasure.

We then stopped and had a picnic lunch on the way home at a park at Wentworth Falls. A place I used to take the kids on school holidays, which doesn't seem that long ago. How time flys.