Gone Fishin'

Things have been progressing nicely with the bedroom renovation. The walls and trims are painted, the ceiling, plastered and painted and a white ceiling fan and wide slated blinds have been hung. Just got my carpet quote and am happy with the price, it was the cheapest of three quotes, but also just what we were looking for. It has the look of Sisal, but isn't and is a deep putty colour.

Th pic above is of some of the wall hangings I've made in recent days.

This lamp base was once cream and gold. It's now had Bernie's seaside touch....lol. The scene was inspired by the pic of Pelicans I took on a recent holiday to Nambucca Heads in NSW. You can view the pic in one of my earlier postings. Took me about three and half hours on Sunday to paint while Izzy Liz sat perched on the chair beside me. She seemed enthralled by what I was doing or perhaps she just thought I had something she could maybe eat!
I used Atelier acrylic paints, basically what I normally use for painting scenes on stretched canvas. The main problem I had was that the paint was drying really quickly on the clay lamp base so I had to work fast. I sealed the finished work with a good satin acyclic sealer, which gives it a slight sheen. I've also been hunting for a matching shade, was thinking a cane one would complete the look, but I don't want to have to spray paint one, been there done that, don't want to go there again. Maybe I'll have a bit of search on the Net and see what else I can find that would suit.



These are a couple more hangings I made for the upstairs bathroom, which is decked out in pale blue and white with touches of lemon yellow. The one of the right is actually Cobalt Blue, (same colour as the one in the first pic) not Navy or Black as it seems to look in the pic. I used cheaper acrylic paint for these, just went and chose two colours that I thought matched. The wooden fish were actually strung together and had eye hooks in their mouths which were easily removed. I glued them using 450 stainless adhesive as a glue gun would have been useless. The glue always tends to let go after a while if you bump what ever you've glued. The shells on the first set of hangings have been glued in the same matter. This glue dries clear, is very strong and available from Spotlight here in Australia. All have been sealed with the same satin acrylic sealer as the lamp bases.



Found a few bargains by way of a lemon coloured bath towel set and a new Doona cover at the recent new year sales. The cover has a gorgeous trailing vine and leaf pattern all embroidered in satin thread in colours of Lime green, Lemon and Cobalt Blue. Reminded me of a rain forest on the edge of an ocean somewhere. I shall post a pic of the finished room when the furniture and accessories are in place.

Holiday Antics in New South Wales

Just back from two weeks camping down at a little place by the name of Nambucca Heads in northern New South Wales. Its about 4.5 hours drive from Brisbane. We stayed in a pet friendly park, so that Rem our 6 month old Border Collie could experience the joys of camping and the beach. There are plenty of opportunities to experience bird life at this park.

Lots of black cockatoos, Major Mitchell's, Rosella's etc. Its very rowdy at sunrise as you can well imagine. Plenty of Pelicans too on the Nambucca river, they wait for the fishermen to clean and discard their fish scraps.

Rem was very interested in the birdlife just sat and watched as he's not seen birds that close before. He was fascinated by the cattle and sheep that we passed along the road. He probably knew he had some sort of affinity with them, but not sure what.

He took to camping like a duck to water. His beach soccer skills are amazing too and he's now waiting for a contract with a major soccer club...lol....Extremely funny sight chasing after the ball and knocking it with his nose and paws. Rolls over it, ends up sitting on it, gets cranky with it and growls when it gets away from him..... we ended up having to take the soccer ball off him, as he was exhausted and still wanted to run.... typical Border. Mind you the soccer ball hasn't faired to well though. I'm surprised it didn't explode and send us all out to sea.

Overall it was still a little chilly and we had a couple of blustery days wind wise. Only one mishap, accidently sat on the sunnies and snapped both their little legs off... Good excuse for a new pair! Luckily I found a chemist shop in a little town not far from Armidale that had at least one pair of trendy sun glasses.

We visited some rather nice easterly spots in New South Wales. A couple of my favourites were Sawtell not far from Coffs Harbour, and South West Rocks. We managed day trips to Port

Macquarie in the south and Armidale in the west

which was very cold and windy...... burrr...

Here we visited the tourist info centre to get hold of some maps of the area, as well Rem had managed to break the ring on his collar that holds his ID tag so a trip to the saddlery across the road in the hope of getting a replacement didn't bring much joy. These businesses are really suffering with the horse flu outbreak. They can't take in any work and many horse transport businesses are likely to go under in the next few months if things don 't improve. After a trip to the local pet shop for a new collar and a restock of Rem 's fav doggie biscuits we headed off to explore Armidale.

I really wanted to go to Tamworth, but that will have wait till the next trip, as it was too far for a day trip. One of the highlights was the trip along the "Waterfall Way" from Bellinger, (not very far from Coffs Harbour,) very scenic part of the world. Passed some orchards once again full of birds which am sure are a pest for the farmers.

Lots of interesting Flora for camera buffs around the beaches. It's rather difficult travelling with 4 legged friends as they're not that welcome in most places, including most beaches. We found a few dog friendly beaches, but the thing that disgusted me the most was the number of cigarette butts found in picnic spots we visited at lunch time. Smokers should be banned from these places as well, as least my dog doesn't smoke, is well behaved and I clean up after him. Why on earth butt bins are not supplied by NSW councils in these tourist areas is beyond me. I guess that goes for the rest of the country too.

On the way home on the weekend, we stopped off at a little place named Woolie, sleepy seaside village outside of Grafton. I really liked this spot, lots of little holiday huts for rent as well as a couple of van parks, great little cafe on the river that makes the best coffee too.
Continuing on from there we headed home home via East Ballina the coast road where an amazing storm was brewing out at sea.

Then into Byron Bay for a little look around as its been a few years since I've been to there. Didn't recognise it.

It was a long day having packed up camp and headed off around 10.00am we arrived home close to 7.00pm tried but happy. Overall a great trip, very relaxing and a great time had by all.