Sydney Rocks Aroma Festival - rock on!

Don't you just love days like this - sunny, bright, filled with convivial coffee-seeking crowds wandering the traffic-free streets. Welcome to the Rocks Aroma Festival for 2009.

In a city that is filled with festivals, this one celebrates 'coffee, chocolate, tea + spice'. It was held in the Rocks district of Sydney, redolent with convict-built structures and cobbled laneways.

We went fairly early, and it was not too crowded yet.

The first (and only) coffee we got was a mocha from PeaBerrys coffee. Nicely made, with a full-bodied flavour. Nice.

There was also a coffee stall next door, called yukk. Not sure about that name...

Coffee from PeaBerrys; or coffee from yukk?

There was some food for sale, mainly the sweet variety, cupcakes and so on. These berry/chocolate and mango mini pavlovas were very photogenic:

Cute pavolvas (forgotten the name of the company)

There were also plenty of tea stalls promoting the humble tea leaf - as a tea drinker, I found these interesting, but there weren't many samples to be had. I got a sample of Madame Flavour tea from the Good Food and Wine Show that I am keen to try again, but they weren't here, as far as I could see.

Stall selling chai; another stall with an opened flower bud tea in glass

A break for lunch saw us at the Lowenbrau stand, where I had a nibble of the 40cm hotdog ($10). It was served in a sweetish bun, and was alright. They also had available pea and ham soup with chorizo, and a massive meatloaf in a bun ($8).

Food for sale from Lowenbrau Keller

I needed something more, so a stop at La Renaissance patisserie provided a beef burgundy pie. It was full of delicious meaty chunks drenched in red wine. Yum. I ate it in a laneway while reading a wall plaque about Francis Greenaway's journey from convict to chief architect (did you know he probably forged the title deeds to his house in the Rocks?).

La Renaissance fortunately had a stall outside their shop, selling pies, sausage rolls and croque monsieur; pie shot; random phone box in the Rocks

The I love my chocolates stand had the most delicious-looking strawberries on skewers - so red, round and luscious:

Strawberry and marshmallow skewers (can be dipped in chocolate) from I love my chocolate

Flowerfruits sells amazing chocolate-dipped fruit, arranged in baskets and boxes. Very artistic and delightful...

Gorgeous arrangement from flowerfruits.com.au

The Aroma Festival also had an area called 'Flavours of the World' - think gozleme, Turkish coffee, etc.

Chinese musical performers on stage; camel rides (!?!); Turkish coffee; the lack of cool drinks for sale meant that the ice cream van under the Harbour Bridge did a roaring trade

As we were about to leave, we passed by this 'coffee masterpiece' produced by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, Grinders Coffee and Dairy Farmers.

It is made of coffees ranging from long blacks to lattes. Amazing!

A fantastic day, can't wait for next year's!

Donna Hay, Paddington and a giant Cake

I am an unabashed fan of Donna Hay, so I was excited to read of the opening of the donna hay General Store (40 Holdsworth St, Woollahra). It's inside a cute corner shop a little way off the main Queen St drag, and it has a spotless, whitewashed look about it. And no photos (I asked, and they said there were photos on the dh website!??!).

There are a quite a few sales assistants in their brown aprons, and at the back of the store is a small stainless steel kitchen that sells macarons. The store is filled with lots of gorgeous stuff - glassware, soaps, candies, kitchenware and accessories. The Belle Fleur candles on the 1st floor are absolutely divine. I bought some cupcake papers, with a colourful polka-dotted design:


Afterwards, a walk down Oxford St brought us to a new/reconditioned area next to Paddington Town Hall, Paddington Reservoir Reserve. The old reservoir has been spruced up and is now a lovely spot to sit in the afternoon sun and chill and observe the passing traffic.



Further along Oxford St and the window of Sweet Art cake shop had this in it - yes, it's a decorated cake, and it must have been about 40cm (15 inches) high!

I'll leave you with some of the macarons I got from the Donna Hay store. I will let you know what flavours they are later - pay attention, there will be a Test.

A Mother's Day page!

As usual, I was struggling to find a gift for Mother’s Day. Fortunately, my mother and I had attended a wedding on the previous weekend, which produced some lovely photos. I was inspired by this page by the talented Tiffany, and produced my own version as a result.

I put the finished page in a white box frame, which allowed the die-cut butterflies to remain ‘wing up’. Hope mum likes it.

Supplies: Patterned paper: Bella Blvd. Cardstock: Bazzill. Die-cuts: Amy Butler. Chandelier stamp: Heidi Swapp.

Rub-ons: American Crafts. Other: Cuttlebug embossing, Fiskars Apron punch, Stampin' Up! scallop punch

Detail of page inside the frame

Tabitha cat straightening up the frame (or there was a cat treat caught underneath)

Trash or treasure?

Rozelle Markets is considered to be a must-visit if you love fossicking amongst piles of stuff, where one woman's trash is another woman's unbelievable, vintage, OMG, can't get that on Ebay find. So, every couple of weeks, I make the trek to see what I can suss out.

But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself...

On a crisp Autumn day, we walked up Darling St from Balmain, towards Rozelle. Our first stop was the cluster of shops opposite the Cat and Fiddle Hotel, near Teriyaki Boy and Samurai restaurants (no food today, though, they weren’t open yet). There are a couple of homewares stores here, including Vivalino and Lola et Moi. It was at the latter that I spied some cute coasters, made of mousemat material and with an adorable print of quirky little girls and animals. Bf was kind enough to get me 2 sets. Lola et Moi is a French-inspired shop that’s full of delicate jewellery, baby clothes, plates and the like. I love its airy decor and modern, covetable collections.

Next door is Quintessential duckeggblue, sort of an antiques store, but different, better. They had an amazing old Metters metal cabinet on display, a huge circular contraption, covered with drawers labelled, ‘Towels’, ‘Sugar’, ‘Spices’, and the like. There was even an old shilling coin embedded in the top. I wish I had a house that I could fill with the tables, chairs and wares from this shop – it was all beautiful, and with a ‘history’ behind it that you could sense from touching the scratched surfaces and mellow patinas.

Window display at Quintessential duckeggblue; cute coasters pour moi, from Lola et Moi

A few minutes up the road and we arrived at Rozelle Markets. It’s a jumble of stalls containing clothing, old junk (a rusty Beta VCR, anyone?), plants and food. I usually get an obligatory gozleme from the stall here. Today, I got some colourful felt brooches, made in Nepal.
So how do you tell if something is trash or treasure? Don’t know – it’s all in the eye of the beholder (or stallholder)!

On the way home, we stopped at About Life to pick up some stuff for dinner (roast beef and salad). I also got a bottle of rosewater because I liked the label. What I did with the rosewater is a story for another day...

You call that a scrapbook page?

I've been a bit slack on the craft front lately (though it hasn't stopped me from buying craft supplies). I did manage to put my phone boxes photo onto a small 'page', though.

The actual phone box in the picture below is from Hamleys toy emporium in London. I also have a red bus and a London taxi ...

Supplies: Patterned paper - Basic Grey, Bella Blvd (tree), KI Memories (lace).

Transparency - Hambly. Stamps: Stampin' Up!. Velvet flock - Doodlebug.

Velvet and embossed wedding card

One of my cousins is getting married in a couple of weeks, and this is a card I made for her wedding.

In the tradition of most weddings these days, a wishing well is going to be made available at the reception so that contributions to the honeymoon can be made. So, I've included a place for the money envelope inside the card.
The bronze embossing on the righthand side of the front of the card is done with the Cuttlebug 'Texture' folder - so pretty!

Supplies: Velvet paper: Doodlebug Designs. Stamp: Hero Arts.

Ribbon, scallop and circle punches: Stampin' Up!. Rub-ons: American Crafts. Cardstock: Bazzil

Craftfest or Tattoo Expo - decisions, decisions!

So, what do you do when confronted with the following branches in the road – turn right for Craftfest 2009, or go straight on for the Sydney Tattoo and Body Art Expo? That was the dilemma when we went to Olympic Park on the weekend.

Considering we made the trip specifically to visit Craftfest, it would have been wrong to not go in. I am a fan of most craft fairs although I prefer a paper crafts focus rather than, say, quilting. The Craftfest one had a bit of everything, including beads (lots), sewing machines, folky arts and crafts, and stuff I wouldn’t know what to do with. Fortunately, it also had some favourite stamping and scrapbooking places where I stocked up.

I particularly like the cupcake stamps and the new Versamark Dazzle ink pad.

There were a couple of people at Craftfest who looked distinctly out of place. Maybe they mistook the pergamano paper piercing stand for ‘body piercing’. We did not have time to check out the Tattoo expo after all, but walking past the hall it was in, you would not find a greater contrast to the crowd at Craftfest. That and the band that was rocking inside (loud!) and the motorbikes parked out the front.

Next on the agenda is the Craft and Quilt Fair at Darling Harbour in August. Perhaps they should have the speedboat and sport fishing enthusiast’s expo next door, to keep things interesting.

What day is it again?

I like to think of myself as being intermittently creative. That is, occasionally, I’ll come up with something artistic and go “ooh, that’s nice”. But those days can be pretty far between, which is why my craftiness is only a hobby.
Lin Mei, on the other hand, does it for a living. Which is why her input was greatly appreciated in the creation of this lovely calendar. LM came up with the design, as well as a great example for me to, um, rip off.

It’s not that easy, though, as we found out on that hot day in a non-air-conditioned house. It took us about 3 hours to come up with the ‘right’ colour combinations – we finished the calendar just as the cool southerly change blew through.

Here is the end result. The patterned papers are Basic Grey (Urban Prairie range), the bird cage transparency is by Hambly, and the ribbon and stamps are by Stampin’ Up!. Not too shabby, just shabby chic.

PS: We had lunch first at the Zumbo chocolate café (ham and cheese brioche, nice) and were going to go back for dessert after the marathon craft session. But, dammit, the café closes at 4pm on weekdays! Denied!

Christmas cards 2008 – ahead of the game!

I finally found time to finish making this year’s Christmas cards, and, believe the hype, they are nothing short of sensational (alright, I’m exaggerating a bit here; they are just OK).

It’s always a strain coming up with ideas, and this time was no different. Especially since 2008 was the year I discovered online scrapbooking shops (hence lots of unused purchases) and my friend Lin Mei became a Stampin’ Up demonstrator (pressure to make something presentable). Which is why I motivated myself with a Ferrero Rocher chocolate after completing every 3 cards.

I settled for the same basic idea for all the cards: stamping on acetate using stazon ink, then embellished with cuttlebug card, ribbon, and stamped image. I didn’t end up using much of my scrapbooking paper (hello Doodlebug velvet embossed, you are still pure and uncut), which begs the question, what the heck am I saving it for??!! (that’s a rhetorical question, no response required).

The Perfect Weekend (part 2)

Here is the craft and cards part of last weekend, when we visited the Sydney Paper Crafts Festival, held at Canterbury Racecourse. Obviously, all the horses were resting up for the Melbourne Cup, so the track was deserted. Not so inside the function centre where the usual crowd of ladies and their fed up men were milling around the paper crafting stalls.

This was a smaller fair than, say, the craft fair at Darling Harbour, which was a good thing, since I only had limited time to visit all the stalls before getting back on the bus to the Zumbo café. I also wanted to see my friend Lin Mei, who doing demos was at the Stampin’ Up! stand. The SU! stand was the most enticing, with the demonstrators’ creations adorning the wall. It looked really good. LM also did a great job showing off her wonderful stamping and colouring skills.

My highlight was finding some of the new KI Memories Sheer Delights transparencies, which are semi-opaque thick plastic sheets in modern prints with die cut edges. They are lovely enough to use as placemats. I think I should have bought more. I also got some Doodlebug Designs flocked paper (red design in the photo) which will work well on Christmas cards, and a Hambly Screen Print transparency.

And then we topped it off with hot chocolate and dessert at Zumbo. What more could I ask for? (Maybe a win in the office Cup sweep, but that was not to be).