Spur of the moment trip

Last friday morning we woke up and pondered what to do with our day. As Mike is unemployed at the moment, and contemplating whether to make it permanent or not we have the luxury of doing what we please when we please.
I suggested a drive in the country and Mike countered with "How about we go to Canberra and see the Renaissance Exhibition at the National Gallery?" Why not indeed! So with in half an hour we were packed and out the door stopping only to visit U Jack and tell him and the nursing staff we would not be in for a few days. Lunch was some leftovers eaten in the car while negotiating the roadworks on the ring road. Roadworks were to slow our progress numerous times over the day. We shared the driving and made it to Yass by 6.45pm where we booked in to the Sundowner Swaggers Motel. Dinner in the restaurant and back to our room in time to watch Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. I have read all the books and was keen to see the TV interpretation...I thought it was great and can't wait for this weeks episode. Next morning we drove into Canberra using Mike's Samsung tablet's GPS function to find the National Gallery. We had used it on the drive up the day before to book our tickets to the exhibition. A car park was found right under the gallery (free even) and we went and collected our tickets with time to spare, this allowed us to wander around the gallery and view some interesting works by Monet, Matisse, Jackson Pollock and Sidney Nolan. A couple of hours of looking at all the fascinating paintings in the exhibition and my feet were aching and it was time for lunch. We headed off to find a local bakery and ended up at the Fyshwick Fresh Food Market. Nice filled bagel and a cuppa. After being recommmended a walk in Weston Park by the waitress we drove around Lake Burley Griffin stopping to take some photos of the lake and other landmarks. The Australian American War Memorial, The Captain James Cook Memorial Water Spout, The Carillon and both the old and new Parliament houses. It was a rather hot day in Canberra and we headed back to Yass late afternoon for a nice local pizza and a cool room to relax in before our long drive home on sunday. Sunday dawned as grey, wet and decidedly cooler. Again we shared the driving stopping in a little town called Coolac to check out the local market. It turned out to be a small offering in the local hall, where we bought some tomato relish and chutney. On the road again we headed to Milawa and the cheese factory for lunch. Here we wandered through the Muse Art Gallery and picked out some paintings and a kinetic sculpture that we would like when we win Tatts...LOL Home via Yarck for a well earned cuppa and cake, then through Marysville to see how it is faring 3 years post Black Saturday. The regenration of the trees is amazing to see, the rebuilding of the town slower but well under way highighting the incredible devastation of this community. So our long weekend ended back in a hot and steamy Melbourne.

Steampunk ATC Swap

I joined an ATC swap my first in a long time and I thoroughly enjoyed the process. I was delighted to receive these ATC's from 8 other participants.

Ribbon ATC's

These are the ATC's I made using ribbon. One to match the card and one for my ATC group theme for February.

Ribbons on cards.

The theme for next months ATC group is "ribbons". So I thought I after making my ATC I would make some cards. My collection of ribbons is fairly big...hmm that is a bit of an understatement:) Of course there is always room for more as I discovered when I found some striped ribbons I just had to have yesterday! I have this great book by Making Memories called "Ribbonrie" which is full of inspiring ideas for using ribbons. I actually added a 60 to this to send to friends who are celebrating their 60th (Diamond) wedding anniversary today.

I made an ATC to match stamping the image on shrink plastic brought it down to the right size.

Daniel Merriam images

Using images from a 2009 Daniel Merriam calendar I have made these cards. I bought myself another of his calendars so I will have images to play with next year:)

Teddy Bear Calendar

I had a cute teddy bear calendar last year that had some images on it that I thought would be nice on cards. Here is what I have put together so far. Using backgrounds I have made myself as well as bought papers and some rub-ons.

First post for 2012

I have had the images used in this card since 2009, they come from a calendar by Daniel Merriam which I fell in love with and had hanging up for a couple of years. I thought now was a good time to use them. I went searching through my "zillions" of backgrounds (all filed away waiting to be used after I had a tidy-up fit late last year...hehe) to find something that went with the images I had selected. The background actually has a sparkle to it which was achieved with Glimmer Mists. I hand cut the template from a Deluxe Cards template (so please excuse the wiggly edges as even when cutting along a metal ruler I seem to be able to cut a crooked line!). The edge punch is by Martha Stewart. The butterflies were cut using Sullivan's punches. The card stock is Bazzil.