trailed some scarecrows

A glorious Brisbane Spring day; time to relax and have a drive in the country.

We've been trying to visit Tambourine for their Annual Scarecrow Festival for years now.

Yesterday was the day!

Here are my favourites, in no particular order.

Scarecrow Festival - tick!

I have a very tame 'bucket list' don't I?

Visit the Gold Coast

Every year in September the Swell sculpture exhibition is announced.

Every year we're taken by surprise and have to scramble to get there before it finishes.

It doesn't ever matter if we don't love every one of the sculptures, it's a gorgeous day out in the fresh sea air.

This creature atop Elephant Rock at Currumbin beach.

Strange the things that one seas on the beach. Note the iconic Aussie surf lifesavers to the right of the photo.

The friends we travelled with had never been to Palazzo Versace, so afternoon tea there was a must.

I wonder where its other 3 tentacles are?

went for a walk in our garden

Here's what I saw.

'

All green thumb kudos to Paul.

Make up for lost time

The week's fly by. I thought time would drag when Paul and Myles were away. Ha ha. 

Here's some snapshots of what happened between work, sleep and other boring stuff.

I finished this quilt. It's called 'Navajo Water Table'. Paul nominated me to make a quilt using this pattern when we were in a quilt shop in Colarado in 2012. That gave me permission to purchase the native american print fabrics from same quilt shop. Yes it's taken this long to finish it. Thanks for noticing.... But it was just in time to respond to my quilt group's challenge of 'Water'.

A long weekend away with my 'broadstrokes' quilting cronies to Caloundra assisted in waiting for the critical contact from the Kilamanjaro mountain climbers saying that they'd successfully made it up and down.

This view from our lounge area made things bearable.

And inside the house, we quickly set up the sweat shop. Even losing power for 4 hours didn't slow down productivity much.

It was a trifle cool to stitch out back, but we'll definitely use this area on our next stay.

What goes on on quilting retreat stays on quilting retreat!

...and then they returned, tired but happy. The stories of the dangers and treachery are getting better by the day, but I guess they've earned the right.

Things are pretty much back to normal with household running repairs. Some restyling the Man Cave to a Guest bedroom is required now as we await the arrival of very special housemates.

... And the social whirl continues with a quilting meeting at a frind's place in the country. I'm still wondering why we seem to do more eating than stitching on these days?

Glenys, Merody and Aina on their best dining behaviour.

Bronnie, Bev and Chris got straight on with enjoying the spread. Thanks Bev! 

.

These guys kept us in line.

Big weekends coming up with Father's day, Birthdays, and WEDDING ANNIVERSARY.

Cheers until then.

think about our family travelling

Being the type of family who cannot live without travel, I need to update on who's where in the world.

Annabel and Jessica (seen here with a friend in Prague) have recently returned from their school's incredibly successful music tour of Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Venice, Florence and Rome.

Standing ovations all over.

Colton and Jen spent a week in Beijing with Dave, who's currently residing there.

Paul and Myles are in Africa. Here's Paul, the week before they left, having conquered another fearsome peak in the Scenic Rim. All part of his training regime for the big one.

Here he is at Whistler training for the frigid conditions they're expecting on top of the big one.

Contact from the intrepid travellers has been good up until 2 days ago, when they moved into the safari  phase of the expedition.

We know that all was well when they were in Kampala visiting with Nick and Mey who are still valiantly saving the world from Uganda.

This what Paul really really wants to see. He might have to make do with a few stragglers.

Here's what they'll definitely see.

.....Not sure about this?

I'd like to thank all family members from whom I've shamelessly borrowed images.

Couldn't have done this post without you!!

try and catch up

Don't the days get away.

I have some serious catch up for my blog; here's the first.

My Sydney week.......

Day 1, attending the National Quilt study group Conference being held at the National Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour.

As my 2 friends and I walked across Pyrmont Bridge, it opened to allow a large piece of the Ice Rink construction to be barged into Cockle Bay. It was a tight fit, but the teams responsible succeeded.

Here's the end of the part that swings open and the Darling Harbour precinct.

.... And here's the section that made it through.

The Conference was wonderful, with great presentations and sharing of collections, both old and new

This quilt from the 1800s.

and these French toiles from the 18th and 19th centuries.

I indulged in a coffee in the Westin Hotel in the CBD. this building used to be the Sydney GPO.  

No 1 Martin Place. 

Here's a bit of personal trivia. Paul and I first met outside this building. Seems like only yesterday. Ok, maybe a fortnight ago.

The renovation is gorgeous.

Another coffee and caramelised icing donut that I needed for energy during this mega shopping day.

It was only mega in its intensity, not the number of purchases you understand.

This was my 'visiting shops that are really like museums day'. 

Such as the Christian Dior boutique featured below.

All of the other icons, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Burberry, Christian Loubouton, Gucci, Prada etc were visited, but I didn't really find anything I liked.

I saved the buying for another day.