Shadow Shot Sunday # 76

I came across this image of the Colosseum which I took on our recent trip (sorry ... haven't had time to shoot any local shadows since we've arrived home!) and was intrigued by the two shadows coming from different directions. 'Tis a puzzle.




Have you seen the wonderful Shadow Shot Sunday images on Hey Harriet's blog yet? Do yourself a favour and take a look here at what all the fuss is about - you won't be disappointed.

You've got to love them ...

ONE OF THE MOST endearing characteristics we discovered during our recent travels was the true British spirit. When it comes to civil disobedience, none can surpass them. And it has been going on for a long time - witness the World War II Cabinet War Rooms:

Up to the present day, not far from this historic site, the tradition is carried on:

Railway stations appear to be a natural breeding ground:

The disease has even spread to Edinburgh:


But my all-time favourite rests with the grand city of Birmingham:


So if you have British blood coursing through your veins, stand up and be proud. Mind you, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such offences would have had these good folk transported en masse to join us here in Oz - probably for the term of their natural lives.

How would you like to win a FABULOUS TOTE BAG from the BrisStyle team? It's really easy - all you have to do is go here and make a comment. The designs are all wonderful, so making a choice will be really difficult for you!

A new shipment of fabrics arrived late last week and I immediately fell in love with them, which is just as well, because I felt the need for some sort of incentive to keep on sewing. So far I completed a couple of knot dresses which will be for sale at the BrisStyle Indie Market on 5 December (see side bar).

And now for some of that British resolve - back to the sewing room.

Shadow Shot Sunday # 75

Where did the week go? Here we are again with Hey Harriet's Shadow Shot Sunday. The first image I have chosen is of a poor lost soul sitting in the fading afternoon sun in St Stephen's Green, Dublin. My heart went out to him and I wondered what hardships he had to face in his life.

The second image is of another lost soul - Mr Fudge consulting a map in Edinburgh - a scene that was to be repeated on more than one occasion over the coming weeks.

There was a gathering today of some of the BrisStyle girls, all very upbeat at the prospect of our coming Christmas market on 5 December.

Star of the day was the super charming Helen of Ruby 2 Go Go who in her other life is an air stewardess. She had been up since 2.30 this morning and had flown from Brisbane to Melbourne and back again - and she managed to arrive at the gathering before me. Well, I had to travel across town!

The other star of the day was young Xavier, the handsome son of committee member, Bel, one half of the of the EmBelISH team. He was keeping a firm eye on Mum while Katie of Kitty Boo Boo did a wonderful job keeping him amused.

There were lots items on show, but I can't reveal them here ... sorry. You will have to come along to our Christmas market to see what all the excitement is about.

But I can show you what I have been working on this week - I really don't want to see another skirt for a while, so next week it's dresses.

A Mystery Unlocked

We were puzzled while strolling through the streets of Florence a few weeks back when we came across these padlocks in various locations.

Could they have been used to lock bicycles? No - far too many to be practical. It wasn't until we returned home and were visiting my brother in Sydney that the mystery was solved. We were flicking through our trip images on his computer when we came to these. He told us that they were left by young lovers as a public display of their affection. Ah, mystery solved ... but how my brother knew is another mystery!

Reality shot home yesterday when I picked up the local news magazine, Brisbane News from the driveway and discovered a two page spread on local markets. There featured among the top Brisbane markets was our own BrisStyle Indie Designers Market. If you go here:

http://www.brisbanenews.com.au/issues/currentwk/index.html

and flick over to pages 18-19, you can read the article. The eye-catching clutch bag featured is the creation of one of our BrisStyle designers, Megan Forsyth, while the cute little vintage dolls are the work of Mel of Retro Bird.

The realisation of how quickly the next few weeks will pass has finally hit me. I am going to have to lock myself in my sewing room and diligently stick to my unrealistic schedule, or I will be seriously under-stocked come 5 December.

I've managed to make a couple of skirts in the last couple of days, sandwiched between meetings with various craft groups, which took place every day this week. They are up in my Etsy shop and I plan to have a large stock of them for sale at the BrisStyle Indie Market. I know I will have to cull my social activities in order to achieve this target, but it's coming up to that busy part of the year ... ooo ... I will have to be so strong!

Shadow Shot Sunday

The one thing I really missed while I was away was my Shadow Shot Sunday kick. You don't realise how addictive it is until you're away from your computer for several weeks, even if you are having the holiday of your life. Tracy has a lot to answer for!

I took a fair few photos on our travels (well, quite a fair few to be honest) and here are a couple of shadow shots which bring back happy memories.


This one was taken from a window at Hampton Court Palace on a fairly hot day.

This one was taken at the foot of the Eiffel Tower on a fairly cold day.

But this one of my clever Egyptian friend in the Louvre is my favourite. See how he's made a dog head wall shadow - what a guy.

This final shot has nothing at all to do with shadows, but I thought you'd like to see this gorgeous young Italian waiter in Florence who didn't lift a finger all night - he simply stood there and the young women flocked into the restaurant. Nice.

A Baptism and a little Gilbert & Sullivan

Springtime in Sydney - oh how I miss those blossoms

I DON'T KNOW ABOUT getting straight back on the saddle when you fall off, but for us it was straight back onto the plane just days after Jet Lag Recovery. The purpose for the (thankfully) short flight was to attend our youngest grandchild's baptism.

Daniel blissfully slept his way through the whole ceremony, even when the christening gown was hurriedly donned half-way through the process. The gown was made by my mother 39 years ago and it has been worn by our children and grandchildren. And perhaps it will last into the next generation - my late mother would be chuffed. Mind you, Daniel wasn't the only one asleep - Big Brother also found it hard to keep his eyes open.

It was a joyous occasion, with family and friends gathering later at the guest-of-honour's home, where a veritable feast was laid out before us.

Big Sister was intrigued with the puzzle Mr Fudge and I brought back for her from The Louvre...

... but the favourites were the masks from Hanover.

Ah, bliss.

It's hard to believe that the chubby, healthy four and a half month-old baby who greeted us in Sydney not that long ago looked like this.

I have been a Gilbert & Sullivan fan since my teen years, when I took part in a high school production of The Gondoliers, fresh out of copyright and straight into just about every high school in the country. Imagine my delight then when my brother advised that he had tickets for the three of us to see Opera Australia's production of The Mikado at the Sydney Opera House. Everyone should have a brother like mine.

The theatre was packed to the rafters and I couldn't resist sneaking a quick picture during interval. Naughty. It was a brilliant production and fully deserved the sold-out performance - pure joy.

So now here we are back to reality in warm, sunny Brisbane and it's time to hit the ground running. With our BrisStyle Christmas Market looming alarmingly close and being away from the sewing machine for such a long break, it was time to get cracking.

Amongst the fabrics which I purchased in Paris (ooo ... the Paris textile district ... oooo) was this adorable fabric which was begging to be made into a sailor suit.

It will be up in my Etsy shop later today, but methinks it will be a one-of-a-kind, as it took AGES to complete.

But at least one thing is for sure - I'm back in the saddle again and it feels great.

Jetlag - what's that?

Jet lag, also jetlag, medically referred to as "desynchronosis" is a physiological condition which is a consequence of alterations to circadian rhythms; it is classified as one of the circadian rhythm sleep disorders. Jet lag results from rapid long-distance transmeridian (east-west or west-east) travel, as on a jet plane.

- Wikipedia

Tell me about it. Having travelled 25 hours from Rome to Brisbane, with a four hour wait in Dubai to change aircraft and another couple for good measure in Singapore while the plane was being refueled, our six weeks of adventure came to an end at 20 minutes past midnight at Brisbane International Airport on Wednesday morning. To put on my Pollyanna hat, it was the best time to arrive home, as the customs crew plus one very sleepy sniffer dog wanted to get to bed as much as we did and we were ushered through without delay. Here I am nearly five days later and I'm still walking around in a fog.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Behind us lie such wonderful adventures ...

A wedding in Orkney

Men in kilts ... mmmmm ...

Paris ...

breakfasts

parking

A quaint German castle ...

reveals an amazing piece of family history

Rome ...

City of our dreams

Back to my opening paragraph. It's heading towards midnight and I need to break the jetlag syndrome. We have memories of the six weeks away that will stay with us forever, or at least until that senility thingie kicks in (can't remember its name). For now it's back to reality, but ah, what a trip