feeling ashamed...

So, my good friend recently chastised me for not updating my blog in awhile.  This is the same friend who doesn't blog AT ALL, although she is very creative and would make a great blogger.  Obviously, she doesn't have time to share her ideas, creativity, and life in general with us, but thinks that I should.  I will NOT mention names, but trust me, she is extremely interesting and fun.  Anyhoo, she made me feel guilty, so here goes.  When we left off, I was still sharing photos from my trip, so I'll continue.  The highlight for me was Fiordland National Park.  It was pure heaven.  Here we are entering one of the sounds.  I can't describe the experience.  It was just incredible to be there. Such untouched beauty!

 

 

The water was smooth as glass.  I am a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings movies, and I kept imagining different scenes that were actually filmed in New Zealand.  I never did see Frodo, an elf, a hobbit, or a dwarf though.

 

 

Who doesn't love a waterfall?

 

 We were fortunate to have beautiful weather that day.  The sky was brilliant blue, and the ocean was amazing in color.

 

 

Surprisingly, I loved Tasmania.  It was such a cool place.  The air is reported to be the cleanest in the world, and I believe it.  It was one of our favorite stops. 

 

Hmmmm, Melbourne.  I'll try not to be too hard on Melbourne, but good golly it was blistering there.  We visited during their summer, granted.  And, I like it hot, tolerate the heat well, and hate being cold for even 5 minutes, and still I thought I would DIE.  It was so incredibly hot and humid the day we docked with record breaking temps.  They also have flies, called bush flies which are huge, and beyond annoying.

 

 It was a nice city, the people were gracious and friendly.  The shopping was great, everything was very nice.  It was just hot!

Here I am dipping my toes in the ocean, because it was TOO HOT to walk on the beach.  Have I mentioned that it was HOT that day?

 

 Ahhhh, Sydney.  What an absolutely beautiful city!  The Opera House in Sydney Harbor is stunning!  We unfortunately had to head to the airport after docking, so didn't have time to explore.  I'll just have to go back sometime.

 

But, as disappointing as that was, I was very excited to meet these two!  My sweet friends, Sandra and Suzanne drove down from the mountains to meet me at the airport.  It was beyond wonderful to meet them in person.  I think Suzanne's blog was one of the first ones that I started reading back in the day.  And Sandra is just the most amazing stitcher ever.  We both have a love of sheep and samplers.  Nothing more is needed to form a great friendship, right? 

 

They surprised me with goodies, lots and lots of goodies, and I was extremely touched by the stitched pieces.  I truly love homemade gifts and things from the heart, and that they both stitched something for me was just so sweet.

 

 

 Here is a sampling of what I was gifted with.  Talk about a welcoming committee!  What you don't see is all the junk food that Sandra's sweet husband took the time to send home with me.  They wanted me to sample some Australian candy, and I sure did.  It was a long flight home, remember?  I think I was still sampling at 2:00 am on the plane.  What made it back to Arizona was quickly gobbled up by my husband who has a major sweet tooth.  I was also given a jar of Vegemite, and I was all excited to get home and make a Vegemite sandwich like Men at Work sing about.  Unfortunately, the crabby guy at customs wouldn't let me keep it.  Evidently, he thought I was going to feed it to everyone on the return flight, or he was out at home.  Either way, I had to surrender it with a pair of scissors.  Now that really irritated me.  Thank goodness they weren't my favorite pair of Dovo's, or you'd have seen my tantrum on the news. Thanks again, my Aussie girls!

 

 

I'll leave you with my latest release, Seven Sheep Sampler.  I really had hoped to release it when I returned from my trip, and in time for market.  It wasn't meant to be, but better late than never. 

Charts are making their way to shops now.