Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

If you are visiting Sydney (Australia) from another country at Christmas time, and especially if you are a backpacker, it has become a tradition to spend Christmas Day celebrating on Bondi Beach.   I can’t work out exactly when this first became a popular destination for Christmas tourists, but by the 1980’s there were numbers like 20,000 international visitors enjoying a summer Christmas Day at the beach. For years, backpackers and Bondi Beach on Christmas Day were synonymous. The beach was transformed into a drunken party scene, as those from colder climes lived out their fantasy of spending Christmas on the beach under a scorching sun.  A similar Bondi Beach Christmas Day happened annually until 1995 when a “riot” occurred. Media reports called the affray a “riot” and here is a description of what occurred according to a Waverly Council document. Aggressive drunken revellers mar Christmas Day on Bondi Beach. Lifeguards report being overwhelmed with 146 surf ...

Until you spread you wings you have no idea how far you can fly. ... Day 23 of the 29 Faces Art Challenge.... we are on a countdown now with only 5 more days to go! Hope you have been enjoying following my progress this month?

Art tag: Seaside Dreaming  What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.  ( John Steinbeck) Art tag - Frozen Fish 

I have been spending a little more time in our garden lately, and have noticed that this week it is definitely showing signs of summer. This morning, I took a break from weeding and photographed  many bushes and trees with their flowers coming to an end after the Spring burst....  like the bottlebrushes (above), shedding their flower spikes; the last Kangaroo paw, waving in the breeze.... and the Dianella droppingtheir bright purple berries ....  but some are still in full bloom like the purple melaleuca.... and the 'Robyn Gordon' grevillea which seems to flower all year round   I want the Australian Christmas bush, with just a few buds opening now, to slow down so it will be beautiful for Christmas....  While most of our garden is native,  the little chameleon roses are blushingly beautiful,  but the summer aphids are also busy as you can see from this photo ... and this year, I planted a hydrangea cutting, and its ...

Finally on Friday, my project "Seasons" for the Hello Dollies challenge was ready for presentation on Saturday... as usual, last minute touches were needed. I decided on a "flat doll" project, for this challenge which was to "create your own fabric" to make a doll from a basic pattern provided. I thought the stump doll pattern lent itself easily to the flat doll idea. I had been working on the idea for a long time, making all sorts of different fabric, most of which was rejected and has since found other uses. I finally settled on four bits of  machine embellished  and embroidered fabric to complement a piece of space dyed commercial fabric on which I had stamped face images.  Trying not to use anything other than what was in my stash, I chose a neutral coloured fabric for the background and gave it a bit of depth by going over the surface with a black fabric pastel with a textured mat  underneath. My original idea was to have these dolls appearing to ...