A short Aussie Holiday...

Onward to Sydney!  It was a bit overcast when I landed, but the rest of the week was beautiful and crisp, just like fall should be!

Before heading out to the country, we stopped in at a cute little shop in Epping called, Note To Self.  I managed to find a few vintage things I couldn't live without.

My friend Sally lives in the Southern Highlands.  Polar opposite of the city...think rolling green hills, lots of cows and horses, and trees...lots of trees. 

See the place on the map called Sutton Forest?  Nicole Kidman has a country house there.  Of course you can only see the roof line and chimneys from the road.

 This was taken at the end of her street.  Talk about picturesque!

In town, there were piles of leaves on the sidewalk.   Coming from CA, we don't see many colored leaves like this so it's always captivating (of course, I do not have the job of raking them up, so they just look beautiful to me).

One day, five of us took the trip to the coastal town of Berry.  To get there, you have to drive over the mountain and through Kangaroo Valley.  One of my favorite drives to take.  I didn't get a picture of the valley because most times the trees were too thick (and there are no pull outs on this windy road) but if you ever have a chance to take it, it is beautiful.

Once in Berry, we stopped at some darling boutiques.

Lunch was fish and chips at yet another cute shop, just off the main drag. 

We shopped some more and ended the day with coffee (or hot chocolate depending on your preference).

Thanks to these girls (Lorraine, Donna, Sally and Ree) for the friendship over the years.  It is always nice to spend time with you, laughing till our sides hurt and we can barely breathe.  I have purposely not posted the pictures of us acting ridiculous with the fake candy teeth (seriously who's idea was that?), leaving a restaurant because it was too hot for middle age women, or two certain people waltzing in a clothing store with hip music.  

Of course I faced my biggest challenge (totally self-imposed) trying to use the Aussie slang term "fair dinkum" correctly in a sentence (meaning true or genuine).  Not sure I ever got it right, but boy did we ever laugh about it.  Oh, and it now has it's own hash tag (#fairdunkum).   

Good Times girls, good times....

(insert segue here)

Creative Play

I taught a class at the local scrapbook shop in Moss Vale on Saturday.  The last hour of the class time was spent as creative play time, where each student created layered tags with Distress Stain, Ink, Layering Stencils, Stamper Anonymous stamps and the new Spritzer.  I captured a few shots of some of the tags created that day.  Enjoy!

layering stencils and stamps

monoprinting...

distress stain techniques...

learning to fade ink colors across the stencil

I had to include this picture of my friend Tammy who takes "distressing" seriously.  You might notice she has her Tonic Paper Distress tool on a wire clipped to her jacket!

Thanks everyone for coming to class and for Pam for hosting the day.  I always feel at home in Moss Vale!

I will be back soon with our regular programming before leaving on another plane destined for Quilt Market (Tim's second release of Eclectic Elements fabric will be released at the show).  Looking forward to hanging out with a couple of my favorite guys.

carry on,

paula

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