In my garden with my new toy - blogtoberfest day 22

Wandering around my garden with my new smart phone and an app called retro camera.





Mountain Devil taken with the The Little Orange Box



Bottlebrush taken with Xolaroid



Geranium taken with Hipsteroku

















Drumsticks taken with The Barbl




Grevillea taken with The FudgeCan



Grevillea taken with The Pinhole

You can find my weekly giveaway here.

Please leave a comment and I'll add you to the draw next Tuesday.

You can find blogtoberfest participants here.

Blogtoberfest giveaways are here.

What I have been up to this week - blogtoberfest day 21

Another week has zoomed by!
And I got a bit of this'n that done!

How about you? did everything go according to plan?
Any surprises or excitement this week?

As I mentioned earlier my daughter and I have started a fitness pledge - an so far this week I have been for a 1 hour walk, a 2 hour bike ride, a 1 and 1/2 hour buswalk and today I did 45 minutes of yoga from this on-line site.

My 1 hour walk took me round Glenbrook Lagoon, which has lots of waterlilies and weed in it at the moment.

A part of the lagoon reserve has been recenlty burnt - what a shame.

And leaning over a fence from a house bordering the lagoon - a mulberry tree.

I've had quite a few earrings orders via madeit this week and I like to use stickers on my parcels, but I am running out of the ones I'd bought.
However I'd also bought some from thankyou tags from kokovanilla, but wanted them to be stickers.

But wait! I remembered a gadget I'g bought a while ago from a craft show - the Xyron create-a-sticker gizmo!

Then - voila!  I had cute little thankyou stickers.

One of my favorite local walks is along an old fire trail at Valley Heights -

It was a beautiful day and starting to warm up.
The best of the flowers had gone - but the ferns were unfurling -

and there was a whole bank of Flannel flowers at one spot.

I have even found time to make some things with my new beads ...and a few oldies thrown in -

I just love these acid green crackle beads.
First I combined them with vivid orange then something a bit more subtle - with cornflower blue agate and some stripey lampwork cubes.

Whic one do you like the best?

You can find my weekly giveaway here.

Please leave a comment and I'll add you to the draw next Tuesday.

You can find blogtoberfest participants here.

Blogtoberfest giveaways are here.

My Creative Space - blogtoberfest day 20

 This week I have been using up some of my bead stash.
I'm sure you know what I mean when I say I have quite a stash!
And I'm sure more than one of you is guilty of having a stash of some kind - a fabric stash, a wool stash, a paper stash...or if you are like me you have many stashes!

So although I bought quite a few new beads last weekend I was inspired to revisit some oldies.

 I have had these hand made lampwork beads for so long I can't remember where they came from or who the glass artists are, so if you are a glass artist and you recognise your beads here please reveal yourself!

They are most sparingly used in bracelets.

While I was foraging in my stash I found these sweet little handmade glass drops. I remember using them for bracelets before but this time they became earrings...with some earwires that I bought ages ago for some long-forgotten project.

 I have sold quite a few pairs of earrings through madeit this week and I've had a craft swap to do ...but, shhh, I can't show you that yet!

 Here is some of my new bead stash and I'm dieing to do something with the green and orange beads!

If you would like to see more creative spaces or join in you can do so here.

You can find my weekly giveaway here.

Please leave a comment and I'll add you to the draw next Tuesday.

You can find blogtoberfest participants here.

Blogtoberfest giveaways are here.

Wordless Wednesday - blogtoberfest day 19

Bike ride along the Parramatta River bike path

I think this counts towards bloctobercise, started by Lori on her blog.

You can find my weekly giveaway here.

Please leave a comment and I'll add you to the draw next Tuesday.

You can find blogtoberfest participants here.

Blogtoberfest giveaways are here.

Joining in with wordless wednesday on Faith Hope & a whole lotta love's blog

And on Erika Price Designs blog.

And we have a winner...and another giveaway - blogtoberfest day 18

Thanks to everyone who took part in this week's giveaway!

The lucky winner is Nina! ra-ra! for Nina!


The next giveaway involves these sweet button earrings made from vintage shell buttons -

a stunning natural piece of polished chevron amethyst pendant -

and a beaded ring, this one has emerald, green and gold swarovski crystals.

Please leave a comment and I'll add you to the draw next Tuesday.

You can find blogtoberfest participants here.

Blogtoberfest giveaways are here.

Mad about patchouli - blogtoberfest day 17

I think I must be a latter-day hippie because I love patchouli!
I don't really know how it started, but I bought a rose and patchouli perfume a few years ago and I think that was the start of my obsession.
 

patchouli plant

Did you know that -
Patchouli is a plant of the mint family.
It grows in tropical climes.
Oil is distilled from the leaves of the plant.
Its essence has been used for centuries as a perfume.
Some describe its scent as pungent, mossy and musty.
It is the smell of the 60's?

Patchouli is a great partner for other scents, rose as I mentioned above and there are a few more here that I have personally experienced.

A couple of soaps from three of my favorite soap makers -

lime and patchouli soap from new earth soaps

patchouli lemengrass soap from inner earth soaps

orange bloosom and patchouli handwash from kussen

Kussen also has some patchouli shampoo which I might have to try.

And I found these divine candles made by a local team.

patchoili, lavender and rose candles by wyck

What's your favorite scent?

You can find blogtoberfest participants here.

Blogtoberfest giveaways are here.

And my giveaway is here!

A lovely day in the Gong and a challenge - blogtoberfest day 16

It was a beautiful day in Wollongong today -

I took Dear Daughter home and we walked along the beach.

The sky divers dropped in -

We went for a swim - it was cold!

Then we had lunch at The Pantry again.

I must say I enjoyed my prawn salad so much I could go back for more!

 Then we decided that we both needed to exercise more but lack motivation sometimes, so we set ourselves a challenge to do some form of exercise 4 times this week.
For me that could be going for a walk or a bike ride, doing some yoga or swimming.
For her - a run or a walk, a game of austag, gym class (gymnastics) or swimming.
4 times a week is acheiveable.
I keep you posted as to our progress!

You can find blogtoberfest participants here.

Blogtoberfest giveaways are here.

And my giveaway is here!