Minication and Creative Weekend Away

School holidays came and went. During the holidays DIL brought my DGC to visit. They visited and stayed with both her sisters who live in Victoria. The children had a chance to visit and played with their cousins while they were here. They stayed with us for almost a week which is a bonus for us. DH took a few days from work to spend time with them. I also took a few days off to take them shopping. Ziguzagu was a request from DIL and you know I would go there in a flash! 

When they left I went along with them to help with the long drive. The trip was fun with songs (children songs), I Spy game and paper crafts by DGD! We stopped many times for picnics, toilet stops etc. 

Read on to see what else I did while I was away for 4 days...

DGD got a bag of colour papers that her Aunty Kit Palaskas gave her for the road trip. DGD made all those little paper animals without scissors or glue. She tore the paper and used saliva as glue! 

Our first stop was at Grass Tree Walk. There was a short track we could walk around. There were so many beautiful Grass Trees Xanthorrhoea growing along the track.

Jugiong's Lake

An old pub at Jugiong

Rusting objects found at Jugiong

Next stop was at Jugiong Village. We needed petrol so we had to side track anywhere we could. Jugiong Village is a charming little place by a lake. I took some photographs while we were there.

Canberra Farmer's Market

Cosmorex Coffee ACT

We arrived at Canberra around 8 pm. We did good time in spite of the many stops we made along the way. Next morning was Saturday and DIL and I went to the famous Canberra Farmer's Market where I had a delicious Chai from  Real Chai. I needed more Chai to bring home as well.

Cherry Ballart bush

Various leaves

My DIL and I were excited to play dyeing together in their unisex shed! The shed was completed recently and they loved to see me use it while I'm there. It has running water, a cooker and all the equipment for dyeing. I got DIL trained well, haven't I? 

Cherry Ballart leaves soaking in pot

Jars were stuffed ready to steam

Steamer was packed with jars

Some Shibori using rusted nails

Shibori opened after only a few hours

Prunus and Eucalyptus leaves

Various Eucalyptus leaves

Eucalyptus Sideroxylon on wool

Round leaves Eucalyptus and Prunus

Shibori using Madder roots

A subtle result 

Various leaves on linen

I was due to return home Sunday afternoon so it was time to open our jars and get excited together! We had amazing results after only an overnight wait!

Time to board! It was the smallest plane
I've been on!

Complete picture of the Tree-House Studio
with apricot tree full of leaves

I have been back home for a week now. I had a full week back at work and the weekend was full with things I needed to do for the Tree-House Studio. I finally got the business of the cabinets sorted. We are getting flat-pack cabinets and we will assemble them ourselves. After installing Ikea wardrobes we can now do anything. The thing now is to find time to do this. The bench-top that will cover the cabinets will take up to 3 weeks to come, so I hope we can get all the cabinets installed in 3 weeks. 

Summer has fully set in here. Warm days and cool nights and a little rain in between. 

Until next time

Nat