Em's niece turned 21 on Saturday so we all headed over to Mansfield for lunch. Perfect sunny day, lots of laughs. Mansfield is "snowy" country & where much of The Man From Snowy River movie was shot... anyone still remember that film?

21! I'm just starting to get old enough to think...wow, my 21st was quite some time ago and it's funny, cos when I made my speech I forgot to thank Mrs Donohue for my 21st cake! Thank you Mrs Donohue, it was beautiful. I remember we had my party in the local hall, lots of 80s music and after, my friends and I went dancing at Metro nightclub in Bourke Street....my hair was big and frizzy.

Anyhoo. Promised some craft books shots: here they are: This is the first of four books. The elephant was very easy to make - small, but not too small to whip up on the sewing machine. Plan to make more.

A Lovely Little Getaway With Harbour Views...

Em and I went to Sydney for the weekend. Em for work (yuk), me for fun (yay!). I jumped off the MonoRail and happened to see a sign pointing towards Kinokuniya Bookstore. I was curious...who knows - maybe they stock some of those lovely Japanese Craft books. Do they? DO THEY? Yes they do.

The shop is massive. I was directed to the Japanese section and found literally 100s of craft books. I spent over an hour just looking, then I started "selecting". It was like the best Craft Dream ever - the one where you wake up and find yourself in Japan surrounded by outstanding Japanese Craft Books. Will take more pics tomorrow. Oh and yeah, the rest of the weekend was fab, too.

The sun came out and bathed us in brilliant sunshine while we drank G&Ts, looking at the bridge and harbour.

Beautiful photos by Emma.

She's crafty. She's funny. She's talented. She's very generous. She's CRAFTAPALOOZA!!!!

Here's Nicole's end of a Crafty Swap. Please excuse the bad photography but if I waited for a ray of sunshine, well, it would be ages. Aren't they amazing?

Each dress is so well made; tiny neat hems, even smaller buttons and loops. I love them. Thanks Nicole. I think Sylvia and Kiko look smashing.

The shredded paper was a script (not the original, I hope) of one of my favorite Hitchcock movies, Vertigo

Spring Fling

Blossom Tree in the back yard - two days ago.

Shhh. If we're very, very
quiet we might catch
sight of the rare
Tobiascaninius in its
natural habitat...this
solitary, heat-seeking
creature enjoys scratches
behind the ear and
sleeping on cozy rugs by
the fire. Placid by nature,
the Tobiascaninis has
been seen gnawing on
bones and jumping great
heights in order to cap
ture his beloved doggy
treats.