Weekend Roundup... ...

OR 

How we ate our way through Sydney!

We arrived late Friday afternoon in Sydney on our visit to see our DS2, and after a quick check-in at our hotel in Surry Hills, we went in search of a cool bar to meet DS2 for a drink.  

And I think that I met the brief with Salary Man, a cool 20s something bar that TraderVic and I happened to stumble across. It met with DS2's approval - phew! (Mind you, I think that we were the oldest people in the place, by at least 25 years! lol!)

Then we moved onto meet our DDIL (who luckily happened to be in Sydney on Friday and Saturday morning) for a delicious dinner at another cool place, The Owl House.  It was a real gem of a place, which I found just by researching Sydney Broadsheet online.

I think that I managed to win the coolness factor stakes with DS2 with my choices. lol!

The next morning TraderVic and I had a lovely sleep in (I didn't get up until 9.30 am - unheard of for me!) and then it was off to brunch with DS2 and DDIL.  Another cool urban space, this one definitely a favourite haunt of the twenty-something hipster bunch - again we were the oldest people there by 25 years at least!

I think that this was one of the most delicious milkshakes I have ever had in my life - Raspberry, fig and pistachio!

Whilst we were chatting over brunch, my DDIL put me onto this really cool app for photoshop people in photos, called MeituPic.  Scroll down to see the changes we made to our photos.

Pretty sure that I won't use it every time - but fun to have a play!

Then, it was time to bid a fond farewell to DDIL as she had to leave for the airport to get home to DS1 in Roma.

So, we decided to go for a wander around Sydney, down to Paddy's Market, through China Town to the Shrine of Remembrance in Hyde Park.

In China Town we bought some Emperor's puffs - yummy custardy delights!

Then it was time to head off to meet one of Matt's closest friends, my "third" son, at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) to see the Mighty Tigers get creamed (oh no!) by the Sydney Swans.

(a less than flattering pic of me - should have used the MeituPic App - lol!)

Unfortunately, the game was a bloodbath but watching the colour of the sky change as the sun set was amazing.

Then after the game, it was Pizza time!  We caught up with some young friends of ours at Via Napoli in Surry Hills.  This place is so very Italian and has the most fresh and delicious antipasto, metre long pizzas and nutella pizza for dessert! Yum! Yum! Yum!

Luckily for me, we had walked and walked and walked all day on Saturday (and we even walked back to the hotel from the restaurant), so that I did walk off some of all these delicious calories - I actually did 22, 575 steps on Saturday, Oh boy, was I tired when I finally made it to my bed!

The next day, Sunday, was another leisurely morning and then yet another brunch (I told you that we ate our way through Sydney!).

This time we went to Newtown to meet the 'boys' and had a delicious breakfast at yet another quirky cafe - Cuckoo Callay.

For brunch, I had "Gorgeous George" (as I don't eat bananas, I try to eat lots of avocado to get my potassium - or at least that is my excuse, lol!)

We also went for a walk down King St and checked out a few book shops.

.... and, of course, some stitching took place.

"Believe in Christmas"

Samplers not forgotten

Okay, kudos to you, if you have read this far - it has turned into a marathon post (only taken me three days to write it - lol!)

See you later, 

hugs, 

Finally .... a Gifted Gorgeousness Post.....

.... Hallelujah!  I am finally posting for GG, after having missed July and nearly missing August!
  
If you are not sure what I am talking about.....

 Gifted Gorgeousness (or GG) is a SAL run by the wonderful SAL Mama, Jo from Serendipitous Stitching.  Basically, on the 15th of each month, we post anything which is stitchy gift-related.

.... but, as you can see, I am a few many, many day's late!

So, what sort of Gifted Gorgeousness have I been up over the past two months? Lots really, so here goes... in no particular order....

First up, I "gave" the gift of knitting (and the yarn, needles and pattern mag) to my DDIL last month, and within one

 week, she had finished her first scarf!

If you want to see her progress pics - check out this post and this one.

I am so thrilled that she has taken to this craft like a duck to water.

I also "gave" her the gift of Cross stitch.  I took her up a whole swag of cross stitch supplies to get her started (I thought that I had taken a photo of them but I cannot seem to find it anywhere on my phone - c'est la vie - just to let you know it was a couple of Prairie Schooler Christmas ornament designs).

She started to pick it up but not as quickly as the knitting! That will have to wait for our next visit, I think!

Okay, what is next for GG?  Let's see, I have started what I am calling a "London Blanket" for DD.  It is the same pattern and yarn as the Baby Blanket I made (you can see some pics of the finished blanket here, if you are interested) but with a greater range of colours as it needs to be bigger, naturally. Once it is finished it will be posted off to Old London Town to keep my DD warm over the English winter.

This is the colour palette which we chose together.  I think that it is going to be gorgeous when it is done!

... and here is a further progress pic - I am onto colour two now - can wait to get to the lilac soon!

and, look, it is taking me so long to write this post that I am well underway with colour two....

... the other GG project that I really want to show you is this Prairie Schooler "Baby Sampler" which I made for the baby of the baby blanket fame.

Don't you just love the red cow?

Now, I am sure that I have some other GG projects floating around but I want to get this post up and posted, so next time.

If you want to check out what everyone else got up to for GG, just click here.

hugs, 

Back to Denmark.....

Well, this Friday Frolics  I thought that I should pull out my Danish Bell pull again - only about four more motifs to go and this very long term project would be finished.  You can read all about its provenance in this blog post - The Tale of Three Hatboxes.


This is what it was looking like on Friday before I started stitching again (sorry for the crumpled linen)....

Unfortunately, a bit of frogging went on but eventually I ended up here...

... and then by Sunday evening, I was here - just some backstitching to finish and another motif will be finished!

Well, that is all for me this week - off to work today to earn some money to pay for more stash!  lol!

Have a great week everyone, 

hugs, 

P.S. I also did some stitching on a Prairie Schooler piece - you can read about it here.