Sunday, March 13, 2011

A little bit of art ...

Here's a few ATCs I've done over the past 3 months. The first one is Paris, which was the theme for ATC Club in December and I was inspired by a very old ATC created by the very talented and lovely Shelly Sessions. The Christmas Tree is a class I did with the uber creative Linda Baldock and is metal shim put through a cuttlebug and the trims were coloured with a blowtorch.

Paris themed ATC for Scraploot Swap / Metal Shim Christmas Tree ATC

Cool Cat ATC for Feline Swap Helensvale Queensland, inspiration & Cat sunnies from Artchix Studios.
February ATC Club at Scraploot - Woodburning ATCs ... what fun!
All of the above, backgrounds with colour, texture paste, lace and heat made at the March ATC Club through Scraploot..

"The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials."
~Chinese Proverb~

Saturday, March 12, 2011

A couple of months of visitors ....

We arrived back in Sydney on 4th January from our overseas holiday, with Ferg's mum in tow.  She got away from the cold to enjoy the lovely warm weather Australia has to offer during January and February.  We were out and about every weekend to experience something new that New South Wales or Queensland has to offer. Sheelah left at the end of February and I'm hoping that I now might find some time to get some arting and crafting back into my life!
Our beautiful boy Beau came with us when we travelled to Bowral for a day.
The heat in the Hunter! 46 degrees celsius, lots of grapes and wine of course.
... and they don't only serve wine!
Our favourite winery - Tullochs - and an Irish Murphy (descendant) serving us... he reminds us of someone?
Sheelah in Centrepoint Tower Sydney with the north in the background.
Pam & Barry also came to visit us in February.
Nothing beats catching a ferry from where we live into the city and seeing the beautiful landmarks from the water - Sydney Harbour Bridge ...
... the magnificent Sydney Opera House.
We visited Fort Denison for the first time.
... and caught the daily 1pm canon blast.

All of us on the Fort.

“Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.”
~unknown~

It was a white christmas ....

Ferg and I went over to Ireland to celebrate Christmas 2010 with his family.  We had a lovely time and the threat of snow hung over our heads ... I woke up regularly in the middle of the night to see if the snow had droppped.  Four days after arriving in Ireland, we were in Wexford Town having a lovely cooked breakfast when the white stuff started to drop ... I was thrilled.  We quickly rushed around town running our errands and found we couldn't actually drive home, so we decided to book into a hotel and enjoy it without the worry of getting our car stuck.


Sheelah & Ferg in main street Wexford Town.

A foot of snow dropped in around 30 minutes ... Ferg in the thick of it.

Wexford Wharf and Fishing Boats lovely in white.

More snow the next day on Rosslare Strand Beach.

Me & Ferg on the white beach.

Where the snow meets the sand!

A beautiful sun set at north slob from Curracloe House, Wexford.

"Advice is like snow - the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper in sinks into the mind."
~Samuel Taylor Coleridge ~