More armchair travelling

We have just returned from a trip to babysit our grandson for the afternoon and evening in Queenstown, New Zealand.   We also added on over 2 weeks holiday in both New Zealand and Australia.

We flew from Birmingham to Sydney via Dubai and then on to Queenstown where everything was rather monochrome.  The view from our rented apartment.

Friday
The weather was somewhat poor and Andy drove us to see Glenorchy.  Only Roger got out of the car and I took this photo through the windscreen!

We drove back to Queenstown and the weather began to improve.  We stopped off to see the bungee jumping.  We didn't partake.

I rather liked this toilet sign at the bungee jumping centre.

The weather improved during the afternoon and when we went for a late-ish walk the lake looked beautiful.

Next day the sun came out!

We went to Arrowtown.

We dropped Naomi off at the venue where she was helping to organise a wedding and a bit later Andy went off to the wedding itself.  So there we were babysitting our grandson for the afternoon and evening.  We walked down to the local playground where we had to ask one of the Mum's to show us how to relase C from the pushchair!   Grandpa really enjoyed himself!

And C loved the freedom to walk about and throw stones in the lake.

Both the grandparents and the grandson survived the baby sitting and next day we all drove to Te Anau where we stayed in a beautiful home 'Silver Tussock'.   It snowed during our journey.

We went for a walk along the lake front and father and son did the 'mini-me' thing!

We saw some interesting clouds.

The weather on Monday was much improved and Andy drove us to Milford Sound where we had booked a boat trip.

The sun came out sufficiently to produce rainbows in the waterfalls.

And we saw seals basking on a rock.

In the evening we went out to celebrate Andy's birthday which was the next day.

The weather on Tuesday was beautiful as we drove back to Queenstown.

The Hopper Juniors flew back to Sydney and we flew to Auckland in North Island.  I really should think about booking seats that don't involve being close to the wing!

We had a wonderful few days in South Island despite the grey weather.  Next time I'll tell you all about our trip to the Bay of Islands, north of Auckland.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Even more Venice!

I am continuing working on my Venice booklets.  This new one is a mix of fabric and papers.  I bought the rusted fabric from Bex Raven.

I have been watching videos from an online class called A Little Book of Whispers by Laly Mille.   My book is nothing like hers apart from the size.  When the pages are folded they are 10cms square.

Each pair of pages has been glued together to make a doublesided page.   Of course it would have been better if I had done the stitching before I glued them together as now I have no way to hide the knots in the threads.

As well as stitching I am going to add some words and possibly other elements to the pages.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Venezia

Or Venice as we call it.  I hope you won't mind there's a Venice post today and yet another one to come.

When I was doing my City & Guilds Creative Embroidery I made a wall hanging based on Venetian architecture.

It's been in the cupboard for quite a while and recently I cut it up!

The Traverse ladies got together recently and they helped me put the pieces in order and then I tacked them together to see if they would stand up on their own.   And they did!

So now I just have to take it apart again and machine the cut edges and sew it all back together again.

In a previous post I talked about these squares.

I decided to put each of them on to a square canvas.  I've done 3 of the so far. 

I'm really pleased with them.  Only 6 more to do.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice