Shop, shop, shopping in Melbourne

Not much more has happened on the Chanel jacket front as last week was busy and this week I am in Melbourne for a short holiday.

Since I was in Melbourne, I decided to check out two city fabric stores -Tessuti's and Cleg's.

This is the fabric I bought at Tessuti's. Not real exciting I suppose in colour, etc but great basics in beautiful quality fabrics. The first is a silk (like a silk Georgette? - lightweight with a crinkle). It is a print and colour I just had to have to make a tunic-style top for this Spring. The next is a beautiful khaki-brown jersey from the remnant bin and then another jersey (a viscose jersey, I think) in a colour called 'aubergine' but like a really dark brown. Destined to be a frock. The last one in 'winter white' is a wool jersey which I haven't been able to obtain locally. I am interested to see how this one goes.

Next to Clegs - silk again! This time a lining and suit-weight silk to make my second Chanel jacket. I was lucky enough that the suiting was on sale (50% off).

Other than fabric shopping, we have been to see the Dali exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria and A Day in Pompeii at the Melbourne Museum. Then apart from more shopping we have basically been eating and drinking our way through the restaurants in Lygon St and around town. Great food everywhere!
Tomorrow we pick up a hire car and are heading to have two days in the Dandenongs at a cute cottage b&b.

Other exciting news ... I have become involved in a new neighbourhood group in the Australian Sewing Guild. I attended an Industry Day on Saturday and we will have our first meeting next month. I am looking forward to meeting with a bunch of other sewing-obsessed ladies!

More sewing hopefully next week, when I will be raring to see my machine again!

Not sewing yet....

My sewing machine is away being serviced and having the buttonhole adjusted, so I haven't been sewing. I do have my old Singer if I get desperate, but as we have been away for a few days I haven't needed to get it out as yet.

We went to the Gold Coast and stayed in Surfer's Paradise. It was wonderful to have a swim in the surf but it was very rough and not at all any good for body-surfing. We took our youngest son Mr D so that he could do some activity this holiday and boy - did he get activity - we couldn't drag him out of the water! I haven't been to the beach in years but was very surprised about the lack of beach etiquette now so wonder if I need to write a brochure for the tourists... however some of the locals were very rude too!

For those who don't know -

1. Never wear your thongs (that is the footwear, not the barely there knickers!) on the sand (unless the sand is so hot you cannot walk on it) and then walk near others sitting on the sand. Not once but twice we were spitting out sand that had been flung in our faces by thong-wearers without any grace! (thongs is slang for footwear - if you don't know what I mean maybe haviannas?)
2. When in the surf, do not stand directly behind (and closer to the shore) than me. When I turn around to body surf - I do not want to slam in to you...or worse as the surf was so rough, if I get knocked over or dumped by the waves, do not be cross if my foot lodges in your face, if you stand right behind me!
3. When I leave my towel and belongings on the beach while swimming, do not dump your property 10 cm in front of mine, then bend over to get something out of your bag and put your nether regions in my face.

Grrr! Beach rage - I am surprised there are not more incidences of it. When the 'lady' stuck her a**e in my face I came very close!

Apart form all that the holiday was interesting - watching the people was really fun. Cavill Ave is a great place for a meal and people watching. Anyway, it is not a holiday to get away from it all but it was fun! Also ate too much and drank too much but that is part of the holidays to me...

While I was away I did get a chance to road-test one of my recent sewing projects Burda wof 07-2008-115B.

This photo was taken on the balcony of our hotel room on the 21st floor. We faced the back of the Coast and overlooked the Hinterland. It costs more to get a beach view and I find the beach views too glary (being an inland gal). The night time views were good as nearby was a fun park with a bouncing bungy and swinging around thingy that lit up at night. You could hear the screams of pleasure (or abject fear) from our room.

I absolutely love this skirt. I enjoyed making it and I loved wearing it. I could wear it out to dinner or put it on over my togs - lurve it!

Here is my review for those interested. The reviews has more photos of some of the detail of this skirt. I had to make a buttonhole to slip the tie through and as my buttonhole attachment was not working. I made a bound buttonhole using the method I used for the fake welt pockets but basting the welts together , not sewing them.

I was really pleased with the finish it gave the skirt. I plan to make another of these skirts but just need to find the right fabric.. oops, an excuse to visit Gardams heaven... or perhaps a Bali print from my favorite quilter's store... oh, the difficult quandries I face!? ....

Girraween Camping

We went camping at Girraween this week-end as our vague attempt at being good parents during the school holidays. We took our youngest son and one of his school mates. This is the camping set-up - yes we do it fairly comfortably - our best piece of camping equipment is the fridge which keeps the beer and bubbly cold...

Girraween has plenty of great walks. We did Castle Rock the first day.

Wildlife abounds at Girraween. The brochure tells us that this is a Cunningham Skink.

Same lizard & rock, picture taken wider...
Can you still see the lizard?

Hong Kong

Stopover in Hong Kong on way home - warm & sticky weather. A really interesting place but a bit smoggy and smelly...

This is the hotel pool which was on the 39th floor, however the hotel had no floors with the number 4 in it (4, 14, 24, etc) or 13. Yes that is the smoggy sky in the background.
Double decker trams...

Olympics fervour....

Estonia

We spent one night in the town of Tallin in Estonia. We spent most of the time at the old town which was fascinating.

Detail from the carving on the door...

The gates to the old town...

These are some of the different modes of transport for the tourists...

More holiday photos

Some more images from Finland....

More flowers & bees...


The view from Koli...

Porvoo - check out the instruments this folk music band were using....


Inside the old church at Porvoo...

Helsinki...


Sirpa & Heiki's cabin - we had a lovely day sauna'ing, swimming, having a picnic lunch, rowing, fishing.......


How to collect your wild strawberries...

Detail of an old wooden building at Hamina

Imatra - the water is let out of the dam once a day to music to show the rapids....

Savonlinna Castle

I missed this picture of Savonlinna castle in my last post.

I have now left Finland and am in Hong Kong. When I get some photos sorted I will post some more. It is difficult to find places to connect to the Internet.

Our time in Finland went really well. Only one real hiccup - hubby's wallet was stolen. However we got great service from the Police at Imatra, who allowed us in outside of their regular office times to file a report.

As I post more photos I well tell you more about where we went. However I would like to thank my great cousins in Finland who really showed us a good time and looked after us so well. It was very hard to leave them and I wish we were living closer together so we could spend more time with them. I hope in the future to see more of them and perhaps to even plan a holiday to some exotic location so none of us has to travel quite so far.

Punkaharu

Now I think I have probably spelt that place name incorrectly - which I am sure I have done for a lot of the Finnish words. It is near Savonlinna and we spent two nights there in a mokki in a holiday village. The markets at Savonlinna were great. We had a boat ride there also and saw the castle from the boat. The next day we had a bush walk in the forest to see the tallest trees in Finland and another boat ride. Brian & Damon also braved a swim.
Wild blueberries..

Kalevi's & Anya's

These are images from the farm at my Uncle & Aunt's place in central Finland area. Mainly flowers & the like as they are what are catching my eye. There are the most beautiful wildflowers everywhere in th place there isn't any forest or lawn.

and some more

After Turku we went to Marjo's family mokki or summer holiday house on the lake. We spent a really good night there and stayed up until 3.30 am. The next morning we slept very late and all had headaches. My cousin Juha reckons there must have been smoke in the sauna which gave us all a headache (draw your own conclusions!)
While we were there we had a sauna and then swam in the lake (you wouldn't go in without getting steaming hot first!) We went rowing and Damon went fishing with the kids. Damon got on very well with all the other kids their even though no one much could or would (if they could) speak English and Damon ,of course, does not speak Finnish. We were also given a very fine concert on an accordion by Matti (Marjo's Dad). If I ever work out how to load it I will give you a snippet that Brian recorded on his mobile. Their were many children there as Marjo's sister and her family also came. It is a great example of a wonderful family lifestyle.

Turku

We are now in Turku, in Southern Finland - one of the oldest towns in Finland. We are staying with my cousin and his family - a really delightful family. We spent some time today, walking in a local forest reserve...

and then we walked along the river Aura, which is a beautiful river near the town with many restaurants, boats, restaurants in boats and maritime displays. Everyone rides bikes and many people were enjoying the beautiful summer day.

We also visited the market square and have spent the rest of the day eating, peas, strawberries and cherries.

Hares and squirrels run through the garden, but I haven't managed a photo of them yet.