Sydney Re Cap! » Simple By Design

Hello friends, first day back at work and I feel dead..LOL I am sure by the end of my 5 days on it will be one of the longest weeks ever..

As promised I am here to give you a little re cap of my trip to Sydney…warning!!! this will be a long post and heavy photo…

It started out by finishing work at 10pm the night before, having very little sleep I finished packing the next morning, packed the car and away I went, arriving in my first town busting to find a toilet, thankfully I managed to do so without having to implement the B plan, which was to find a large tree to go behind..LOL (sorry for the visulisation there).  Heading on my way again and taking the wrong turn, finally finding my way out of the town and headed onto the next, here I was in a dream phase as I managed to miss the turn I was meant to take and ended up at a dead end, turning around and heading finally in the right direction.  From there the trip to Yass which was to be my first stop for something to eat and rest was pretty straight forward.  Arriving in Yass ringing everyone that I had to ring to let them know where I was, having a little something to eat and then headed off down the freeway once again, thinking to myself that I would fuel the little car at Goulburn, well guess what, yep! that is right, I completely missed the exit to get fuel, started to hit the panic stage and grabbing my phone whilst driving, ssshhh! don’t tell anyone that I did this, but managed to dial the number to my friend back home and ask her where else could I get fuel, she told me to not panic that there was another one further down the freeway, but to be on the look out for it…I headed her words and found the right place, fueled and kept on going.

Looking out for the first turn off to where I was to meet my friend Annette in Sydney, which I thankfully manage to do quite well, but in between the time that she had sent me all the details of where I was to meet her, Sydney had decided to change the name of the street where I was to turn…Aaaargh! I ended up turning too early realising, I got back on the right road and with the hugest sigh of relief I found her with arms open and a big warm hug waiting for me.

I stayed with Annette, her husband and beautiful children for a couple of days then moved over to my friend Michelle Costelloe, who would you believe have only spoken to on the phone and on twitter, this was to be our first meeting and believe you me it was like we had been friends all our lives, we had so much fun together, with lots of late nights, good laughs, great shopping and fabulous eats.

Sunday, we both woke to start our journey down to Coogee Bay to take our class with the fabulously awesome Tim Holtz..we were both very excited…we managed to park the car and went for a walk along down near the beach, this below is what we were greeted with…the day could not be any more perfect.

We stood outside of where we were to take the class and waited for Tim to arrive, it wasn’t long and we were allowed in, we sat at the front of the class and after a few moments of Tim putting us all at ease, we went ahead and created the canvases…

Here is a photo of Michelle and I before the class began and one of Tim that I snapped before we started to get all inky..

Here is what mine ended up looking like, sorry about the photos they really did not turn out really well, but in real life the canvas looks amazing..

So many techniques and fantastic teacher, I am so so pleased that I saved like a mad woman and had the most beautiful friends that opened up their doors and their arms to have me stay….

After class there were photo opportunities and here are photos that both Michelle and myself had with Tim..

I could not go past having an opportunity to have a photo taken with the sweetest Mario, this photo was also taken for my sweet friend Jennifer McGuire, which if you had been following me on Twitter you will know this…

This will be a trip that I will remember forever and I know that Michelle and myself have formed a bond that will always hold a special place in my heart, thank you Lovely for sharing your time, your space, your crafty stash and time to have me come and stay, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

On the Monday after a long night before hand I headed back to my friend Annette, who I need to add here, we have been friends for over 20 years, spent the last couple of days with her and her family and then began the trip home to see my boys.  I will add here that the trip home was straight forward with no missed turns LOL.

So I couldn’t finish off this very long post without sharing a crafty share with you, so if you are still hanging in there with me and have not fallen asleep from reading and looking at all these photos, here is one of the cards that I created whilst staying with Michelle..

Lots of white on white, which I love, scoring down one side, die cutting a circle shape from one side of the card stock and adding in a flower that was stamped with Distress Markers and die cut out, finishing off with a sentiment and pearls.  All the products I used are at the base of this post…

Well I hope you have enjoyed the recap of my time in Sydney, I know that there are other photos that I could share, but don’t wish to bore you too much..

Thanks for hanging in there with me tonight..

Have a fabulous night..

Hugs