Not Before Time

Well, it’s nearly time for us to get back on the road again, and we’re really looking forward to it. While it’s been lovely being back in Melbourne seeing our family and friends, it’s not our home any more – we miss our van and our lifestyle.

We’re leaving Melbourne on Monday morning, will spend a couple of days in Adelaide, then head off to Whyalla for the CMCA rally which will be fun. After the rally? Who knows

I went to the Stitches and Craft show last week, and it was fun wandering around by myself checking out the stands. The venue this year was the showgrounds which was great – usually this show is at Caulfield racecourse which is quite a way from the house, and would have meant catching the peak hour traffic – both coming and going. Not that I was driving – I got David to drop me off and pick me up, and nice guy that he is, there wasn’t even any grumbling or anything, even though I could have taken Ben’s car myself .

Numbers seemed to be down this year compared to previous years though, but it was nice having space to move without getting hit in the face by someone who swings round forgetting they’ve got a back pack on! And there was plenty of room for mums with strollers which was great. Much easier getting in to the vendor stands to check out their products. I didn’t get any photos because I initially thought there wasn’t that much worth photographing, as in, there wasn’t any exhibitions or displays, but really I should have taken some of the stands at least. Next time.

We had some lovely news the other day – as you probably know, the reason we’re in Melbourne right now is because our son and his girlfriend are in Paris and we are dog/house sitting. Well Ben, romantic that he is, proposed to Kat in Paris and they are now engaged (she said yes). He’s his father’s son!

Once we’re back on the road, I’ll update a bit more frequently

As mentioned previously, last week I went in to the Australasian Quilt Convention which was held in the beautiful Royal Exhibition Buildings and I had a great day wandering around checking out all the quilts and gadgets and of course fabrics. I was really good though, didn’t buy too much stuff. Living in a van is very good for curbing spending!

For all my craft friends, here a few photos. The AQC had a quilt challenge with the theme being Fantasy. There were so many quilts entered, all of them really gorgeous. I’m only showing the first prize and runner up winners but there were so many lovely quilts. It must have been a really difficult decision. There are very talented artists out there.

For those not interested in crafts or quilting, you might want to look away now!

This is the 1st Prize winner – unfortunately my photos don’t do justice to how beautiful this quilt is. (I forgot to take my camera so had to use my phone camera). The quilt, called “When the sun goes down” is in the form of a fairytale book and is by quilt artist Denise Sargo of NSW.

The Runner Up is Jocelyn Leath also from NSW and again my photo’s don’t do justice to the quilt.

Japan’s Brother Design Studio also had some quilts on display, made using a combination of hand and machine embroidery. Here are a couple of food themed ones:

However, the best of the Brother quilts (in my opinion anyway) is this one :

And here’s a random selection of some of other the quilts on display

And of course, because I love cows, here a photo of a quilt I just loved. It’s called The Girls of Tyrone Farm and was made by Beth Miller

Next week I’m of to the Stitches and Craft Show

Well, how about that – it’s now March and this is my first update since November last year! Now, rather than beat myself up over my very slack blogging practice, I’ll just bring you up to date with what we’ve been up to – however, feel free to chastise me yourself if you feel it necessary, and I’ll be suitably embarrassed at my slackness.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here’s, a brief rundown of what we’ve been doing. Obviously nothing too interesting or I would have told you about it earlier. I went to the Craft and Quilt show before we left Adelaide and I had a great day, spent the whole day there checking out new craft products, going to workshops and talking to lots of craftspeople. Great day.

We left Adelaide mid November and headed to Melbourne – a bit earlier than originally intended, but Ben and Kat were heading off to Sydney for a week and we were dog and house sitting.

It was hot the first couple of days we were back in Melbourne, then the temperature dropped and it was freezing (well, really, really cold) nearly right through to Christmas – I thought we’d arrived in the middle of winter and had to dig out some old cold weather clothes I’d left in the house. David refused to give in and wear long pants, but I reckon he froze a couple of times when we were out. I’ve been so used to wearing shorts and tops for the last couple of years, it was really horrible wearing long pants and long sleeve tops (and jackets a few times when we were out).

Christmas was very quiet and very enjoyable – Matthew and Melissa joined Ben, Kat and us for Christmas lunch which we had outside as it was a gorgeous day (finally!). It was lovely having everyone together enjoying each other’s company, great food and drinks and of course, presents 

We didn’t do anything on New Year’s eve – we did however manage to stay awake until just after midnight, so technically we saw the new year in.

We managed to get some business stuff done, like taxes, talk to our superannuation people (could have done without their news!) and doctor visits etc, which was good, but mainly we caught up with friends and family. It was all good.

We went back to Adelaide for a couple of weeks, but had to come back to Melbourne the first week in February for a couple of 60th birthday parties. The plan then was to go back to South Australia for a few months, but we’re still in Melbourne. Ben and Kat are going to Paris (Ben for work, Kat for play) so we decided that rather than go back to Adelaide then have to come back to Melbourne so we could dog /house sit we would just stay here. We’ll be going back to Adelaide on March 23 I think.

We’re going to the CMCA (Campervan & Motorhome Club of Australia) rally at Whyalla in late March. This will be our first motorhome rally and we’re looking forward to it. A lot of people we’ve met on the road have said how good the rallies are. We’re also going to be catching up with some friends there so it’ll be lots of fun too.

We’re not sure what we’ll be doing after the rally – depends if we can find some work around the Yorke or Eire Peninsulas. We’ll sort it out later.

We haven’t been doing too much since we’ve been back in Melbourne. Again, it’s mainly been catching up with friends and relatives. However there is lots going on in Melbourne right now – the motor show, the Australian Quilt Convention (last week), The Stitches and Craft Show, the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and Moomba just to name a few things. Lots of stuff to keep us busy over the next week or so.

I went in to the Quilt Convention last week – I’ll do a separate post on that, with some photos of quilts.

When we get back on the road the updates will happen more frequently again, once we’ve got more interesting things to write about.