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Saturday 28 March 2015

Ireland part 2

After a few days in Dublin we headed out west. We visited Cashel Rock which was in an amazing state of decay. The guides were incredible and we learned so much. None of us could quite make our hands meet around the totem that assures you will never have another tooth ache so we all have to keep looking after our teeth. I must admit we added this to our itinerary so we could sing It's a Long Way to Tipperary but we really enjoyed the visit too.


The country side is amazing and green. Even though it was July it was still chilly (by Aussie standards) but the sunshine was lovely.


If you look closely in the photo above you can see the bishop's walkway just under the 3 windows. It is designed so he could walk around without being seen, unless he wanted to and then he could be above the parishioners. Behind (on the town side) the castle there is an extensive grave yard. Until recently if you had a relative buried here in the graveyard you had the right to be buried here too.

Wow it was awesome and imposing!

More Ireland next time.


Wednesday 25 March 2015

Latest mini

I've already experimented with 9 sized silk, six strand cotton floss, 12 sized perle cotton and the like and still felt it wasn't quite right for my mini Temari making. So I purchased some 16 sized silk thread from Japan recently to use on these minis.


This one is a S10, I was tinkering with the idea of doing another S16 but somehow I distracted myself and ended up with this division. I actually think this may be the right size thread for this size Temari. It is easy to forget these are tiny Temari. What do you think?



I put the second photo in for perspective, it is sitting next to one of my spoon rings. Did I mention the spoon ring before? I love it, and purchased it from Etsy late last year. 

Saturday 21 March 2015

Seeing stars

I've been playing with stars again lately and because this one was badly marked it has wonky stars which remind me of the meteor that streaked across our sky before it allegedly hit somewhere in WA last week.

This one is a small regular sized temari. I wrapped it in bright golden yellow and added some fine Indian metal threads to the top layer. The stitching has been done in royal blue and the stars outlined in gold cotton thread.



Seriously bad marking on this one, I will try it again with a more accurately marked base. It did turn out very sparkly.

Wednesday 18 March 2015

The event that consumed 2014

I noticed at the beginning of this year that I did not post last year. NOT EVEN ONCE! Oops, but I spent the first half of the year planning a family holiday which we took over 5 weeks during July/August and the second half of the year recovering from it. LOL

We visited a lot of places in Europe, the UK and Ireland but although we saw and did so many things we barely scratched the surface.

I am going to post a few moments from our trip over the next few months. Hope you don't mind... actually hope you enjoy seeing these posts.

We travelled from Perth, stopping at Doha and Frankfurt, to Dublin.

I remember the flights were long!

We forget how far away we are in Australia until we decide to travel to the Northern Hemisphere. We flew with Qatar Airlines to Frankfurt where we got lost in the airport and somehow managed to get out of the transit lounge which meant I got a very intense pat down in the middle of the airport while going back to board the plane. Not sure what warranted it but let's say there wasn't much that was left un-felt. Ick what a violation of my rights!!

We flew Air Lingus to Ireland and the thing that struck me the most was how truly green the land was as we first saw it. Well it is the Emerald Isle after all but I still didn't expect the green to be so green.

We took a Green Bus Tour and hopped on and off around the city over two days. Some of the drivers we absolutely hilarious as they gave live commentary including on occasion commenting on the crazy traffic conditions. We stopped by to visit Oscar Wilde (his statue anyway) and the Little Dublin Museum. The men went to Temple Bar.

I really loved the afternoon we spent at Dublinia where we got to experience the long history of Ireland, Vikings, Middle Ages and more were all exhibited in interactive displays.  Of course no trip to Dublin could be complete without including a visit to the Guinness Storehouse (where I couldn't bring myself to drink more than a sip of my pint).

The pint I couldn't drink, another in our group was so happy!

More of Ireland next time.













Saturday 14 March 2015

Its a wrap!

One  of the things I like most about Temari making is that the design possibilities are endless. Even using the same technique yields different results by simply making changes in number of rows used or colour selection.

I like wrapped bands temari patterns, and it has one of the easier to remember technique names in Japanese - maki. Just think hand rolled (wrapped) sushi. Mmm now I want Japanese food for lunch.
No seriously, I want Japanese food now!!

Image from Sapporosushi.ca

This style of temari works up quickly too, so you get to see your efforts produce results pretty quickly. Another reason to love wrapped bands, many designs look like nothing for a good while before finally coming together near the end of stitching.



Here are a few I've done recently, in Diana Vandervoort's 1st book this pattern is called wishing papers but I have heard it described as sheaths of rice elsewhere so not sure of the actual correct name. These have the thread pass the equator and the growing bundle of threads are kept tamed by two pins placed there. I've seen it done on S8 but these ones are S6.  The Temari at the back is in seven rainbow colours (did you spot that already?) and looks far more busy than the front one which has 3 sets of colours in 3 shades (9 colours altogether).




I wonder what it would look like on S10? I think I might try that soon.

Wednesday 11 March 2015

Girls weekend away for International Womens Day

Last weekend we packed up to head to Busselton which is a seaside getaway just a few hours south of Perth. I left the city a bit later than I had hoped which meant driving in the country at dusk and in darkness so I was a bit rather worried about hitting a roo* in my little nissan pulsar.

We stayed at a gorgeous resort called Aqua. All I can say is that it was LUX!

Two of my best girlfriends, my goddaughter, her nan and my mum all spent the weekend together leaving all our men at home and it was wonderful. We spent some of Saturday being pampered at a day spa. We all had something different, but I chose a to get my lashes and eyebrows tinted then have a back, shoulder and neck massage followed by a facial and foot massage. It was wonderful!

We ate plenty of yummy food, there are a lot of great food producers in the south west so there was lots of amazing cheeses, fresh foods and even delights from a french bakery eaten over the weekend. We even has several bottles of champagne and more of sparkling local wine too.

We wandered around the Sunday market, went for an early morning stroll along the ocean and even dipped of toes in the amazing infinity pool at the resort. We had lots of laughs and although we only spent 2 days away, we thoroughly relaxed and it seemed like we had been away for much longer. None of us wanted to leave so we even organised late checkout until 4pm!

We got back to Perth (and reality) at 6:30 on Sunday afternoon and drove past 3 roos road kills ranging from tiny to gigantic so despite my hubby saying there are no Kangaroos on the Forrest Highway apparently he is wrong! Glad we didn't meet them ourselves.

I included a few pics of the resort. I was amazing and I do hope to go back sometime... Might even take the boys next time. Lol

*A Roo is a Kangaroo










Wednesday 4 March 2015

You can't grow raspberries in Perth

I love raspberries but have always been told you can't grow them in Perth. Last year I decided on a whim to put in a small berry garden in an unused bed in our front garden. We put in 2 blueberry bushes, a blackberry bush, four strawberry plants and a raspberry bush. I got them from Wandilla nursery.

Well the blackberry and two blueberry bushes went to heavens garden, but the strawberries have flourished and even started sending out runners. Now the surprise is that the raspberry bush has started to do the same.

We even got about a dozen berries off it this year. I know that seems a bit sad but I'm really pleased I took a punt and decided plant it. I keep accidentally eating them before I got them in front of the camera. The fruit is tasty when picked at the right time, something I am still perfecting. There was the very last raspberry on the bush last Thursday that just didn't look ready and I forgot to pick it over the weekend so I got it today. It's a little over ripe but still good.


I also  picked these strawberries today. They are so red and juicy looking. I'll pop them in the fridge and share them with W after school.

More temari next time.