Not enough hours

I've decided not to bore you silly with any more posts about my Singapore holiday, other than to share this lotus flower with you.  It was next to the pool and I could see it from my apartment window, so each day I would go down and photograph its progress, from bud ... 

to starting to open ....

... to revealing its beauty ...

... to fully opening for the world to see.

Then no sooner had it done this, than it was chopped off by the gardener and disappeared! 

Since being back, life has been hectic.  We have the house on the market, so its busy, busy, busy keeping on top of chores to keep the house/garden clean and tidy, as well as starting to pack up boxes to declutter.  Then of course there's been the days where we've sat glued to the tv, crying silently, watching the devastation we've suffered in the first 6 weeks of the year, from floods to bushfires.  Queensland is a place I've fallen in love with and its been hard to comprehend what its gone through recently, I just hope it bounces back to its former glory.  Then locally we've had too many bushfires, destroying homes and peoples lives.  The latest at Kelmscott/Roleystone took 72 homes.  Yesterday me and my parents went to the Wacky Witch, Kelmscott and donated clothes and kitchen ware, tv's and food for the people who have lost everything.  The people at Wacky Witch are doing an amazing job, so if you want to help, please visit their facebook page for details:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Support-the-victims-of-KelmscottRoleystone-Fires-WA-6211/192817427402618

In January I was invited to do another talk on my Chinese textiles, this time at the South Perth Collectors Club ... thank you to everyone there for making me feel so welcome, I thoroughly enjoyed the night and meeting you all.

I've also been running private classes for Linda, who wanted to learn my stumpwork Viola.

We had two lovely Saturday mornings together, chatting and becoming friends, here's Linda trying to focus her eyesight on cutting out the tiny stumpwork flowers.

Two days ago I got an email from School of Stitched Textiles to say they'd received my CD of Module 10, so now I sit patiently waiting for the feedback.  Always a nervous time.  I seem to have spent months just getting the documentation together and there's never much to blog about when I'm putting that together.

Now it's full steam ahead on Module 11.  I've managed to do Sample 1 which is 6 blocks of pulled thread work in traditional style ... hell on the eyesight!!!!!  Next is an experimental sample.

 

And yesterday my latest ebay purchase arrived in the post .... a Constance Howard book, and one which I would've been better off purchasing PRIOR to starting  my City and Guilds .... this covers everything, and is brilliant for inspiration.  Just got to find the time to sit and read it in peace.

I've also been inspired by Carol's zentangles at http://postcards-and-stuff.blogspot.com/, so decided to have a go myself.  Great fun and I can see me doing more of this.  Give it a go!

Once you start it you can't stop and time flies by.  Great relaxation. 

And of course I've also been spending time with my grandchildren.  Here's my little granddaughter helping me water my pot plants, so cute, so pretty and yet ....

... you wouldn't think this was the same child.

This is sometimes how I feel after a busy day! 

Happy New Year - I'm back!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and hope that 2011 brings good health and happiness to you all.

We spent an enjoyable, but different, Christmas in Singapore.  It was strange to be away from family and friends, but nice to relax and spend some quality time together.  As always I LOVE Singapore!  It's one of my favourite places and I always feel at home there, and this trip didn't disappoint in any way, despite a few hiccups.

The Christmas lights were stunning, all down Orchard Road it was a sea of blue and purple,

and despite the heat and humidity it had a brilliant festive feel to it.  Everywhere you went there were amazing Christmas trees ... these ones in Takashimya were made out of teddy bears.

The cakes were to die for .....  and I have to admit, I sampled quite a few .... why not live dangerously.

Boat Quay was alive and buzzing with people, eating along the river front and looked beautiful with the lights on the Singapore River.

Since my last visit to Singapore, almost 5 years ago, there have been many changes (as always) including this mind blowing shopping centre, the ION on Orchard.  It used to be a park and I used to exit the MRT at this corner and know where I was, now I get completely confused and wander aimlessly around the shops trying to find my way out.  On Christmas Eve there must've been a million people sitting around this corner waiting for midnight to strike.  It was like being in the mosh pit of a rock concert.

On Christmas Eve we went to the new Marina Bay Sands hotel which looks like something out of 2001 Space Odyssey.  Its the most amazing hotel you can imagine .... three towers 54 storeys high, with a sky park on the top linking the towers together.  The flower shape building is a museum, and there's the biggest wheel in the southern hemisphere to the left.  The blue lit buildings are a shopping centre with canals running through them and gondola boats to ride along the canal in ..... awesome  -  what a way to shop!

We spent the evening at the top on the sky park having a drink and soaking in the view all around.  This is looking out over the Esplanade from the top of the hotel.

Christmas Day we spent shopping .... going back to the "hiccups" I had - the first being that my glasses broke the first day in Singapore and I had to have an emergency pair made, then my super brilliant Canon EOS camera broke down.  We weren't bothering with gifts for each other this year, but hubby told me in the morning that he would buy me a new laptop or camera and that I had to choose which one ... so I chose a camera.  

We spent the morning in Sim Lim towers in Little India and managed to get a new lens for the camera which fixed the problem, and then we dined on noodles and friend rice in a food court .... not your traditional Christmas lunch I know!

But ... in the evening we transformed ourselves from hot, sweaty and casual to clean and posh and had a fabulous 7 course Italian meal at the Boat House restaurant atop the Fullerton Hotel and overlooking Marina Bay Sands.  It was wonderful and a magic way to spend Christmas together.

The whole trip was great fun, and fabulous to catch up with old friends like Cindy and Michell,

and doing lots of shopping, lots of eating, lots of chatting, and lots of catching up.

Not forgetting our dear friends Alan and Sally, and learning how to make home cooked Singaporean dinner at Sallys house.  This is the best restaurant in Singapore !!!!!!

She cooks the most amazing black pepper crab you've ever tasted, along with steamed salmon with shallots and garlic, prawns, greens and barbecued pork ribs.  I just love her food, along with her and all her family.

If you've never been to Singapore before, you should add it to your bucket list.  A great place to visit and brilliant for shopping, even if a tad expensive, its worth it.

More Singapore/Christmas news in the next post.

Merry Christmas every one

Sorry no photos this time.  Life's been a bit of a roller coaster lately.  Sammy's had his 3rd operation since September and doesn't seem to be getting better.  He's got megacolon, which seemingly is common in cats.  We're on the last resort at the moment with some special medicine that hopefully will kick start his colon into doing what it should.  Other than this hiccup all his organs are normal and he's a healthy cat in every other way.  They say "s**t happens" but in Sammy's case, it doesn't!!  Every time I've been to the vets lately its been with the knowledge that I might have to make that awful decision that all pet owners hate, and my emotions have been all over the place.  I build myself up for it, go in with legs shaking and knees knocking, and the vet gives me hope, and we go through it all again a few days later.
Unfortunately I'm going to Singapore tomorrow for 2 weeks, so I've got to leave him boarding at the vets, where I know he'll get the best of care and attention, but I'm so worried.
Christmas doesn't seem very exciting at the moment.  The only thing I want Santa to bring me is Sammy's health back.
I just wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to every one who follows my blog and for sending such lovely comments to me, its been wonderful to have your friendship all year, and I wish you all a very happy Christmas and a healthy and happy new year.
Take care everyone, and I'll be in touch in a few weeks.
Best wishes x

Chinese Textiles

A few months ago I had an unexpected phone call, inviting me to be the guest speaker at the Mandurah Antiques and Collectables Club.

I've been collecting Chinese textiles since living in Singapore in 2000.

In the past I've approached the WA Embroiderer's Guild  numerous times, to display them, but no-one has ever taken me up on the offer, which has been disappointing.

One of the highlights of collecting, is to be able to show them to other people and share the joy of them, and also to educate, so it was a wonderful surprise when the invitation from the A&C Club arrived.

Yesterday was the big day, and what a lovely group of people they were.  I was bowled over by the enthusiasm and appreciation of these people, they made me so welcome and showed such a lot of interest, that I went home on a high.

I've included photos of a few of my textiles for you to see.  From top to bottom, they include a baby carrier, a cloud collar, another baby carrier, two childrens hats ...

Above are a pair of childrens embroidered boots, which have to be one of my favourite items - they are so small, and the couched metal strips shine beautifully.
Below ia a close up of some of the amazing embroidery on another child's hat.  Although this piece has faded over the years since it was originally made, you can still see glimpses of the intense green silk lining and imagine how vibrant it would have been.

Below are a pair of lotus shoes ... not quite the tiny 3" golden lillies, but still small, none-the-less.  I also have two pairs of lotus slippers, all exquisitely hand embroidered with silk.  Yet as beautiful as they are, its bitter-sweet to imagine the painful bound feet that would have worn them.

  Does anyone else collect any textiles?  I'd love to hear about them, if you do.

Tassels, braids, cords and buttons

No I haven't fallen off the face of the planet ... I've been in hibernation trying to get Module 10 finished. Well ... that's not exactly true, I have been working at this module as much as possible, but also been running around doing loads of other things and haven't had any spare time to blog, or read anyone else's blogs for that matter, so I do apologise for the lack of comments.   I plan to sit and read through the last months chit-chats as soon as I can.

I thought this module would be a breeze and wouldn't take long.  You'd think I would have realised by now that this is never the case!  They always take longer than expected.

This module is all about cords, braids, edgings, trims, buttons, beads and tassels, so lots of samples for each.  I think I spent a week just trying to work out the explanation for finger cords, then finally found a great video on You Tube which helped, and then you couldn't stop me, I was finger cording every type of yarn I could find.  Great fun!

The past week has been all about mounting them up for presentation and recording purposes.  I'm a bit fickle about it and like them all done uniformly ... yes! anal, I know! 

 I've only included a small selection of my samples, otherwise I'd bore you silly.  Some of my favourites are the buttonhole rings, stitched on a hedebo stick that my dad made me from a broom handle .... great for me, but now mum has to bend over to do the sweeping, LOL!

(for some reason blogger won't put this photo the right way around ... sorry)

One of my all time favourites from my samples is the one below.  We are required to incorporate the cords and braids with machine made laces and cords to create a decorative edging.  This one reminds me of something Elizabethan.  It just evolved on its own and is made from machine cording over black electrical flex and twisted cords with lace and beads.

 

 My second favourite is this plum piece.  I wove the two straight edge braids wider than the two intertwined ones and then stitched them together and added spacers.  I think it would make a lovely shoulder strap for a dress.

 After all this braiding and entwining I decided to just do an artistic piece to see what it would turn out like .... as it is, I quite like it.  Haven't a clue what it represents but I like the flow and colours.

 I think I made about 13 tassels even though it only called for 8-10 samples. 

I enjoyed making them and then the more I made the more ideas came into my head.

 

You've already seen the Dorset buttons previously, so sorry to repeat myself with photos. I found some great cheap DVD boxes for displaying and protecting them, so wanted to show you these.

The two buttons on the right side of the photo below remind me of a rastafarian hat .... must be the colours!

 

I had a lot of fun with tyvek, wire and embossing power making the beads/buttons on the left below, as well as the giant covered buttons - I laid loads of scraps of thread over aquabond, machine stitched over them and got a new hairy fabric.  The buttons look okay but I doubt they'd be very washable.

I'm still mounting up some of them and doing all the documentation side of things now, so that'll me head down and bum up again for the next month, but I'll blog again as soon as I can.

Cheers!

Araluen

It'd been a month since we'd last had a Sunday outing, so last weekend we set off with daughter and granddaughter for a Spring outing at Araluen.

Araluen is a Botanical Park set on 60 hectares in the valley of Roleystone, and each Spring it blooms with tulips, daffodils, bluebells, poppies, pansies and many more, as well as the established rhodedendrums, azaleas, camelias, magnolias and blossom trees.

There's a swiss log cabin "Chalet Healy" for devonshire teas and light lunches, walks around the lakes, and the Grove of the Unforgotten.

It's a magical day picnicing amongst the flowers, and a wonderful place for families to enjoy a day together.

I just adore bulb flowers and can't get enough of them.  In our climate its often hard to grow them, but in the hills the temperature is cooler in winter and the soil more hardy, and the flowers grow well.

But I have to admit this years display was a little disappointing from previous years, due to lack of funding and a very dry winter with little rain.

This years flowers were amazing, but in the past I've seen them in greater abundance and been mesmerised by their colour and beauty.

Whenever I get stuck for a colour scheme in my design work I turn to Mother Nature - in one single flower you can get the most amazing colour combinations.

Bluebells are my all-time favourite flower, but poppies come a close second.

I took over 250 photos and have selected just a few to share with you.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Even though you can't smell the scent of this magnolia I can assure you it was heavenly.

I went home full of the joys of Spring.