Some of my recent creations

With Beata being here and the traveling we have done, I did not have much time for art work. I am only just beginning to catch up.

This card was made for a Polish friend who loves Paris, I used on of my paper quilted backgrounds for that.

A purple house card created as a thank you for one of the organisers of 'the rusting day' at the Spinners and Weavers back in June.

A rusted house card created for another organiser.

Hong Kong activities

While in Hong Kong we encountered a typhoon which, while did not pose any danger to us, made us very, very bored for a day as we were confined to a small hotel room for most of the day. Luckily the day before the typhoon came we met for lunch with Lyn, the local girl and sister of Marlene, who told us about the warning system and what it all meant.

When we got up the next morning we received under our door some information from the hotel telling us that the typhoon was coming and to check the level of warnings in the reception. By the time we finished our breakfast the warning was T8 which meant all locals were to go home immediately as the public transport would stop within an hour time. Thank God we knew that from Lyn as otherwise we would have ventured somewhere given that outside it was still quite calm.

We did some walking around the hotel, went for coffee, watched TV, drank lots of cups of tea, read books and then started to feel very confined to the room. It was then that I decided we needed something "creative" to do and I managed to talk Beata into going outside to a small corner store which happened to be open. We bought some paper, markers, circle templates, scissors and magazines and on the return to the hotel I ordered manual activities. What fun - we felt like back in primary school but it gave us something to do. Below are our creations.

I enjoyed drawing circles and colouring them in

Beata did cutting out of magazines for my future collage creations

When sitting in the hotel, which was pretty sheltered from wind, we did not think the typhoon was powerful at all until we got out the next day and saw quite a bit of damage including huge trees being taken out of the ground with the root and many branches being broken. We were lucky that we didn't fly out on that day as many flights were cancelled and I know that poor Jackie was affected by it and had her travel very delayed on her return from watching her son performing at the Olympics (well done Matt for coming 21st in show jumping).

Another fun activity was shopping, particularly shopping for craft items. This was my 3rd trip to Hong Kong and many craft items were purchased before so this time I concentrated on beads, charms and little gem stones. Below are some of the treasures I found.

Hong Kong

Just before Beata headed back home to Poland we both went to Hong Kong for a week's holiday. We did some sightseeing there but mainly lots of shopping (yippee).

A lot of Olympic accents were present everywhere given that the Olympics were on

Hong Kong at night

and during the day

another Olympic accent.

Gold Coast weekend away

As Beata really likes the beach, ocean and sun, as a surprise we took her to the Marriott on the Gold Coast for her last weekend here.

Beach style swimming pool with naturally salty water

Enjoying the sun

A beautiful flower arrangement in the hotel

Gorgeous mosaic on the floor of one of the restaurants

Isn't the woodwork stunning? This was part of a screen in our room.

Day trip to Moreton Island

We took a day trip to the nearby Moreton Island which is the second biggest sand island in Australia and has been declared a National Park. Pity we didn't have a nicer weather on the day but it was still worth while going.

Walk on the beach

Near one a large sand hill

Lots of pelicans live on the island

Stroll on the beach

Having a rest

Gold Coast holidays

Being home sick allows me to catch up on the past months when I was too busy enjoying myself with my sister Beata being here. One of our holidays took us to the Gold Coast, where as usual, we had a ball. Beata and my husband Ross in front of our resort

Beata and me

Beata enjoying a crab

This is me with the gorgeous Sista, her "Mum" is Louise Magetti who lives on the Gold Coast and who we visited during our holidays (we only really wanted to cuddle Sista and Sealy the dog, but don't tell Louise, lol)

Beata and Ross enjoying the Queensland winter sun!

Individual blocks from Marlene's birthday canvas

Here are all individual pieces from Marlene's canvas.

Created by Margaret

Created by Marilena

Created by me

Created by me

Created by me

Created by Judy

Created by Celeste

Created by Gaye

Created by Celeste

Created by Gaye

Created by Celeste

Created by Judy

Created by Marilena

Created by Margaret

Created by Margaret

Birthday celebrations

Our little Paper Princesses Art group celebrated back in August birthdays for Marlene Lyne-Truman and me.

Back (from the left): Gaye Todd, Marilena Stanton, Judy Timmins, Margaret Cullen-Erikson and Celeste Stanton. Front: Marlene and me.

Birthday girls with their cake.

Marlene is opening her present created by all of us.

Here it is, canvas in her favourite colours with Zetti images.

Now it is my turn to open my arty creation made by all these talented ladies.

Wow, isn't this just stunning, I was blown away. Not only it is bird themed but in my favourite colours of autumn orange, green and gold. This beautiful piece is proudly displayed on my dining room wall and I love looking at it every day, there is always something new to see... You can also view this on Gaye's blog .

Apart from the art piece I also got loads of arty/ crafty presents and this cool apron. I am sure Debbi Baker would also like one like that, lol (you know what I mean Debbi, don't you).