Back to my routine...

Hello all,

Thanks for your comments and wishes on my last post . I was away for some time because Anshita was down with chicken pox and was at home for more than two weeks :( She is fine now and since she was vaccinated earlier so she was moderately affected . She started going to school from today . But all this happened when Raj was on his US trip and I was alone to struggle with and she missed her school tests as well :(  When he was back , I got cold and fever so I took rest and read books . 

I  was working on crochet cushion which I will share in next blog post . Here are the remaining pictures of my family trip to Australia .

In Melbourne , we stayed in an apartment type hotel in a 2 bedroom apartment suite with all the facilities in kitchen . Although I did not cook but we could order Indian food online there .

Views from the sit out of the apartment and also from the bedroom window

Melbourne exhibition building

The Science Museum next to it was very nice and there was a Jurassic world exhibition at that time which had many giant dinosaur robots . If anyone is a dinosaur fan, I will share the videos .

Church 

We could not visit this church because of timings and most of our trips were Full day and outside Melbourne 

The apartment we stayed in

We visited Phillip island near Melbourne to see 'Penguin Parade' where every evening hundreds of  penguins return to their nests . We saw them from underground covered area which was the nearest you could see . Photography was not allowed there . These are the pics from their app . These penguins are the smallest of the species known as Little Penguin and are around 13 inches in height . It was nice seeing them walk into their nests in natural habitat .

They looked like Penguin babies , so cute :)

Melbourne cricket ground . A visit to cricket ground is always a part of an Indian's itinerary :)

We went on the Great ocean road trip to 12 apostles . We hired a private cab for the day .

Source : Internet

On the way we stopped over to see people surfing on the waves

and a light house

There was an area through the village where you can feed wild parrots .

12 apostles...not all can be captured together in a shot . The weather was nice and cool . Good for us as we were visiting after our hot summer in India.

I liked this place a lot !:)

There was a helicopter ride too but since we were running late we did not go for it .

I am done with the sight seeing pics from Australia although there are still lots of pics left unsorted . I have shared my yarn shopping and will share my craft books shopping along with my crochet project in the next post . 

Thanks for seeing !! Will soon visit your blogs .

Have a creative week ahead!

Preeti :)

Baaa in Australia means Merino !! :)

Thank you for your comments on my cross stitch and trip photos !! :) I have been adding my WIP progress along with the vacation pics but I don't have anything to show today .

I have just one more set of trip photos left which I will share later . Right now , I will share some crafty shopping adventures . I had dedicated the last day of vacation for my crafty shopping after collecting a mountain of souvenirs for our extended family and friends .

Baaa......Australian Merino sheep 

Saw lots of these while passing by villages towards Great Ocean road from Melbourne city

My shopping had me visit three places in Melbourne - Lincraft Store , Wondoflex Yarn center and Cando Books . My blogger friends , Lavina and Pam shared information on various shopping destinations and touring places in Sydney and Melbourne . Lavina also gave feedback about Indian restaurants as she had stayed there for years . Thanks Lavina and Pam .

About my yarn shopping , I got information from SnB Melbourne group on Ravelry and they promptly shared info on the stores based on my specific yarn choices . And this blog post on many craft stores in Melbourne also helped a lot .

Lincraft Store

Lots of threads

fabric...not much of choice 

DMC and Sullivan threads 

Lots of yarn and they were having 50% off on many brands on the day I visited

jewelry crafts section 

and this is what I got from there ......

Aida fabric, some random DMC and Sullivans threads, a white aida fabric band and a wooden lap frame . I have no idea if there are any more attachments needed with this frame . I just bought it and need to learn how to use .

random things --- those pebble shaped sticky notes and the thimble were bought from some other place . The 'make- a- zipper' roll is a new thing for me  

Got some bamboo batting for small projects , some more random zippers and flannel fabrics

Lincraft local cotton yarn and Paton's Sorrento synthetic yarn 

Made in Australia Pure wool yarn - Cleckheaton country 8 ply

I will make something for either me or Anshita

Shepherd baby merino wool 4 ply . I hope to make a short jacket for Anshita

A visit to Wondoflex Yarn center 

Lots of yummy yarns :))))

and this is what I got from there ......

Australian Superfine merino 8 ply by Cleckheaton. 

These were a bit expensive , 65gm ball @ 12 . 50 AUD . I guess I can make a short top for me with 3/4th sleeves .

Touch 2 ply pure merino was from Newzealand, very costly, so I got only one skein . 

Made in Australia Heirloom 100% cotton on left and Paton's cotton blend on right .

I was surprised to find that there were many yarns which were made in India and some in China too . There were European yarns also but those I can purchase from Deramores . I wanted to buy Australian yarns mostly made in Australia . My mother sponsored my shopping, looks like my 40th Birthday celebration got extended :)

Last weekend we went to New Delhi to get an award for Anshita :) She got 3rd prize in an International English Olympiad conducted by an organization among schools of south east and middle east Asian countries. Also , I had to visit two of my cousins family there so the three of us had gone .

Hope you had a lovely virtual shopping time with me :)  In next post, I will share about the craft books and magazines I purchased .

Have a great day!

Preeti

A little stitching and vacation part-2.....

Thanks for seeing the pics on my last post , I am still going to bother you with few more in forthcoming posts :) I usually give up the fight for selecting pics after two sets of posts but this time I am thinking of being a relentless blogger bombarding with lots of images :))

First up , my little but some progress on height chart

stitched on left side of the tree bark . This tree is a bit boring . Many times I feel like doing patchwork or paint the entire tree (mixed media). This confirms that I will never have patience for HAEDs .

On the way to Blue Mountains , we went to Featherdale wild life park to see the Australian wild animals .

The shy Koalas

Can you spot this one?

Most of them were sleeping

Look at this one - all rolled up :)

Only this one was up 

You were allowed to touch , one at a time while the Koala kept on munching his healthy breakfast 

and feed Kangaroos too :) These were smaller species

These ones were the heavier and big

Raj with the smallest species of 8 years old Python . Yikes !!

Wombat !! I liked these ones :) They are kind of giant rats .

There were many owls . 

Awww.....these small penguins were so cute !! These penguins live at the coastal area of Phillip island, a 150 km drive from Melbourne city . We saw those in their natural wild habitat also when we went on a special tour called 'Penguin Parade' where you can see hundreds of these returning from ocean to their homes in the evening . 

A Cockatoo, getting himself petted by Anshita . Lovely Bird :) 

Southern Cassowary, an endangered bird. The male Cassowary raises the babies alone . Don't know why, but I remembered this fact only which Raj feels is a bad knowledge gain :)

In Sydney, we also went to Sealife Acquarium, Madam Tussauds and one more small zoo . Madam Tussauds is similar everywhere so I am not sharing any pics here , will see if I find any specific ones .

I liked these jelly fishes in the aquarium , The colors changed with the lights and I loved seeing those . Their center looks like a button

Some more penguins in the Aquarium :)

 Queen Victoria building , built in 1890, inside of which is now a shopping mall . It still has old stained glass windows and dome . I liked the clock on the left. I don't have good pictures for this, you can see more here 

We mostly booked private taxis for sight seeing because this trip was meant more for taking my mom on a foreign trip and she cannot walk much because of her knee problem so our itinerary was only main tourist spots . There were Hop-on Hop-off buses to watch more .

I could not keep my promise of sharing yarn shopping as I still need to segregate some more pics . Anyways I did my shopping in Melbourne and now that I am done with Sydney so next is Melbourne :)

Have a great day!

Preeti