Visitors from New Zealand

Kristi and family arrived from NZ on the 1st March. They spent the first week with us here in Melbourne and then went to Ballarat to see Kristis brother. While there she met up with the lovely Jen Crossley

who we had done a make and take with at Paperific on the Friday, how cool was that. She arrived in time to get to a paperific show.

They arrived back here in Melbourne yesterday afternoon and today amidst shopping a bit more for yummy ScrapFX houses etc and last night a quick trip to Heaven Scent to pick up a BigShot, lucky her :-) we headed up to Sassafras, stopped in at the Sky viewing and sat in the big chair.

Whoops thats the GIANTS CHAIR

We have had a great time together and the time is too short. They leave early tomorrow morning. Safe travelling Kristi Ross and Zac, see you ASAP.

A long month and half has passed. (Grab a Cuppa)

Well, where did that time go since my last post. I recieved the prize from Christy , lovely it is too in the flesh. I will put it here soon, just have to scan it.
In the same time frame I had to cancel my attendance at the CSR retreat, because of work committments. I was so upset, took me a while to get round to telling Bevlea that I had to pull out. But I have to go to the Gold Coast for a conference, good thing is its with Roland and Heidi Baker from  Mozambique who would be mine and Geoffs CEO sort of if we ever get out onto the field on a permanent basis. Anybody else and I might have refused, walked the plank as such LOL, not a lot comes between me and art, hehehehe...........

Anyway... a few days later and we are into the build up to Christmas, pressies posted to NZ, pressies received here from NZ..  This is our Chrissy tree, a live one we bought and intended to keep it growing for years to come, well the darn thing has turned up it's toes, sad, but never mind, I always did like the chase of going and finding a lovely real tree and a large one floor to ceiling if possible and decorating it up, so next year if over here will have to do that. First will be taking along the spider spray. Ohhhh all them nasties that might be lurking in the branches.  Talking of spiders, I have a fierce dislike of them, well one Huntsman decided to visit inside the house this morning, big mistake, well Geoff decided to come to its rescue and herded it out the door, It went over the side of the deck headed for goodness knows where. Less than 5 mins later I took the rubbish out to the bin and there it was perched on the side of the wheelie bin. Tough luck spider . A large board was beside bin, so Spider is no more.....................

We had family here from the Gold Coast ( Rhys and Ruth) for Christmas through to New Year and a Kiwi friend from here in Melbourne Tracey came over for  lunch, so that was good. Yeah, I worked out the camera  to take a delayed pic, thanks Bevlea...........

Unfortunatley Geoff had to go back to NZ in that time as an Aunty passed away. So a busy time was had driving backwards and forwards to Tullamarine 4 times...

Anyway, one pressie I got was a goodie and it sits beside me in the studio, it was from my good friend Kristi, She gave it to me to remind me I am still a Kiwi at heart. She does not want me to give up my Kiwi heritage. No such luck girl, it speaks out me mouth all the time according to my Ozzie friends.

Christmas over and work was on the horizon again. We only had a few days off anyway, so were back to work on the 5th.

Artwise, I have been doing a few things, I need to catch my posts up with that. Maybe tomorrow night. I can show you the jewellery I made at our play day in December and then another last week, plus some other art pieces. But for now, I must get some shuteye or I will be useless or more useless at work tomorrow LOL.

2 Months have gone by

since I last posted here. What did happen to my new years resolution to blog at least weekly and to do some challenges. Well the year has bought some bad health issues for me, but not life threatening. I'm OK, just extrmely tired and combine that with working full time and I dont seem to find a lot of time for any art work or blogging.

In March I attended CSR and had a ball. I was so tired (part of my not being well) that weekend I dont know how I managed to do anything. Hey HRH next year will be a different story, you won't be up by yourself at 3am LOL, you can keep your bottle to yourself though, I stick to my EB tea............. I did have a fantastic time and attended Bernie Berlins class Saturday, DJ Pettit on Sunday and did face painting which I found very daunting but DJ is an awesome tutor.
Here is my face I did.

Then Monday I did Stephanie Lee's Elements Handbook, made with plaster gauze and the cover was soldered over rose brass. ohhhhhhhhh that was scary and it took me forever along with a few wonderful helpful ladies to get my "pro-torch" working. It just did not want to work, so I got way behind and didnt finsih it totally, and its still not done. I will put a picture in here when I have finished it. Now thats a promise.
The day after the retreat weekend our daughter Tanya returned home to NZ, she had been with us since the day after Victoria's Black Saturday.
Then Easter arrived and Geoff's sister and a friend came for a few days. Loved having them all, then it was count down to our visit home for family and to do a conference for work.

We went over on 9th May and returned here on 23rd. We enjoyed catching up with family, grandchildren who are so adorable and friends etc. Time was too short.

Anyway............I will be back in the ncest day or so to add more retreat pics and also some art work etc.
Cheers

Happy New Year

Well, the New Year is in and dusted. My girlfriend came over from NZ and we had a great time, well I did anyway. We went to New Brighton beach, My friend dont like her picture took LOL............
Chadstone shopping centre, well spent about 2hours there, not enough even to do one corner, but I can now say I have been there, we went to Belgrave and came home via the Dandenongs and Sassafras (sp) spent a good time wondering the shops there. Ohh theres one I would love to replicate back in NZ eh!!Sandy.... Sandy spent her holiday pocket money on some nice things for her kitchen, hope you had no trouble at baggage Sands.
We also went on the Puffing Billy, would have been more enjoyable if the weather hadnt been so darn cold. We took Sands bush too. Now that was fun, apart from the leeches that decide they liked my legs oh yukkk..... we dont know how well off we are in NZ with no nasties like that.
anyway........... She went home on the 3rd. Will miss her. See ya in May Sands.