Our cruise ...

Thought I might get some pictures up of our recent cruise - this is the condensed version. 

We did 14 days - 13 nights aboard the Celebrity Solstice from Sydney around New Zealand and back.  It was the first cruise for Celebrity in Australia. This is no ordinary cruise ship - more like a floating 5 star hotel.  We had a sensational time !!

Our first glimpse of the Celebrity Solstice berthed at Circular Quay - Sydney.

It was overcast and drizzling rain.

Our room on the 11th deck.

At the very top is lawn - real lawn.  The only cruise ship to have a green keeper and lawnmower on board.

Out door pool

Central atrium - looking down

Sydney skyline

Helipad

Indoor solarium

Explorer Lounge

Kids on their balcony

Sydney heads -  we are off !!

Sun glistening on sea

Milford Sound NZ - windy, light rain and heavy mist - needless to say we couldn't see much

Room service breakfast

Dunedin

Dunedin Botanical Gardens

Inside Dunedin train station

Dunedin port - timber and wood chips

Christchurch Antarctic Experience (we'd rather not thank you!)

Mucking about at the aircraft museum

Akoroa - so very, very pretty

Rotorua - Maori carving

 

Thermal activity

Family activity

She's one BIG ship

Auckland from sky tower

Its a long way down !!

Now which is the ship and which is the building?

Bay of Islands

Bay of Islands - traditional welcome

Historic township of Russell

NZ fush and chups and milkshake

and yes there was scrapbooking on board the ship

Now who is this smart couple?

Dawn over Sydney

Boo Hoo - I want to do it all over again

Childhood memories coming in 2013 ...

Next year I will be working on a year-long class called Childhood Memories for Soul Scrappers.

Do you fancy making an album full of your childhood memories to pass onto your children and/or grandchildren?  Want to show them how different things were when you were young, pass on interesting family stories (or scandalous anecdotes) or just relive your glory days?

This year long Soul Scrappers class will be for you !

For further information and pre-class instruction please visit Soul Scrappers and follow the links.

ARTastic December ...

The December inspiration for ARTastic challenge blog is up and ready for your interpretation.  We'd all love to see what you make of it so plase play along with us this month.

The December inspiration will come to you from canvas and body artist, Emma Hack, and is hosted by our creative team member Sarah.

Added Criteria - large, bold patterned paper or paint

A little about Emma Hack

Adelaide-based artist, Emma Hack, has been exhibiting extensively throughout Australia since 1999. Through a combination of painting on canvas, body painting and studio-based photography, Emma's works evoke a rich array of visual narrative and magical realism.

Emma's recent collaboration on Gotye's 'Somebody That I Used To Know' has seen her profile skyrocket with the single in UK, Europe and US charts and over 100 million hits on YouTube.

http://www.emmahackartist.com/artist.php

There are some delightful layouts from the creative team - please stop by and check them out.  Here is my page, bright and bold as requested :)

Cosy does equate to small ....

Over on Arch-scraps this month Julene is calling for layouts with fences or gates shown somewhere and I'm happy to oblige.  I hope she will excuse my digital page this time around but I am extremely time poor at the moment and digi equals fast for me.

ARTastic November ...

Our November inspiration on ARTastic comes to you by the very talented fabric artist Kay D. Haerland with her gorgeous art quilt Under the Canopy. (yes people, this is a quilt!!).

Additional criteria - fabric and stitching

 

She's a local to me and will be having a solo exhibition in December.  If you would like to see some of Kay's quilts up close and personal her work will be on show at the Gosford Regional Art Gallery from December 1st until January 9th.

Gosford Regional Art Gallery
36 Webb St,
East Gosford, NSW 2250 (1½ hrs North of Sydney)

For further information please see Kay's website.

The ARTastic Creative Team have done some wonderful work so please stop by and check it out.  We'd love to see some of your work submitted as well.  Fabric can be as easy as using ribbon and sewing on a button can count as stiching so please give it a go.

I used a fabric heart and then did running stitch around it plus through the lace - sewed on a few buttons and hey presto!!

A Happy challenge ...

 

 

I'm such a last minute Nellie !! Rushing now to get this layout up I have done for the Challenge #31 over on Challenge Me Happy where the theme was "Anything Goes" - that's my kind of theme :)

 

 I loved putting this page together using the very last bits and pieces from a Crate Paper range called Random and I am really happy the way it came out.

 

Can't wait to see what Challenge #32 has in store for us.

Going underground ...

Another month and another layout completed from my pile of Honeymoon photographs.  I am truly beginning to think this was one of my less than brilliant ideas and perhaps leaving them as slides might have been a better solution.  However the problem is once you start .... well you sort of are obliged to finish:)

So since I'm plodding through these I decided to use a visit to Monkton Farleigh in Wiltshire, England as my theme for Julene's inspiration challenge over on Arch--Scraps.

 

Monkton Farleigh was a fascinating tourist stop.  Certainly not somewhere we probably would have ventured by ourselves but due to local knowledge (we were staying with family) it was a great way to pass a few hours. Sadly it is no longer open to the public and has fallen prey to vandalism and decay.

 

I took inspiration from the corrugated tin and the rustic colours seen in the Mad Max 2 Museum and transferred this to my layout using corrugated cardboard, kraft cardstock and a rust glimmer mist sprayed across the base.

 

 

Keep em coming Julene - I'll get this album finished eventually!!