Home again, Home again, Jiggity-jig!

Feeling most definitely worse for wear, after taking the overnight flight from Perth – we had an electrical fault so we were 1/2 an hour late leaving (originally due to leave 1/4 past midnight).  The flight was 3 1/2 hours long (SUPER quick!) – as soon as I could I turned down the ‘evening’ meal and lay my seat down as far as it would go and tried to sleep … I gave up after a while feeling really fidgety, and thought unhappily to myself that I would just have to give up trying to sleep and watch a movie.  When I checked my watch, though, I was shocked and amazed to see that I’d actually been zonked out totally for almost 3 full hours – woohoo!!  I didn’t feel as though I’d slept at all, but I slept almost the entire flight 🙂

After arriving home I sat at the laptop and uploaded the few photos I had taken, then eventually climbed into bed again where I’ve had another 4 hours nap time and feel loads better.

Now it’s time to recant the week’s tales … starting with the CA Wells classes …

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Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while now may remember that last year I got horribly lost in the car when driving to the CA Wells class – Judy (our hostess) had decided she’d prefer me to stay closer to her home this time round, and I have to admit it was a wonderful idea!

I was picked up at the airport by the lady that I was going to be staying with, Nancy – and I hadn’t met her previously.  We hit it off straightaway and she really is the most fascinating lady to talk to, exceptionally knowledgeable and a truly interesting life.  After being picked up I was told the day was ‘her treat’ and she whisked me away to Guildford where we drove around looking at the beautiful old buildings before stopping for lunch at a cafe set in beautiful grounds on the banks of the river.  Here we both had leek and potato soup followed by pumpkin quiche and salad – it was a lovely welcome to Perth!

Afterwards Nancy found out that I hadn’t seen any of Perth whatsoever, so we spent 6 whole hours driving around the various suburbs and landmarks with Nancy telling lots of stories about the various properties.  We started off driving up The Esplanade, then ducked into the driveway of the University of Western Australia where my jaw hit the floor – the main building as you come onto the property took my breath away!  There will be photos in the next post.  After that we headed up into the expensive suburbs and then on over to Fremantle for more driving – we didn’t actually stop and this has now whetted my appetite to go back again and spend more time on foot exploring the place in detail.  We eventually ended up at Cottesloe Beach where we had coffee and cake then drove back via Kings Park.  The entire venture took my breath away – it was an awesome introduction to Perth and I’m extremely grateful to Nancy for that wee adventure! 🙂

The next day was the Sailor’s Valentine class – I was interested to note that I wasn’t the only one who hadn’t enjoyed stitching this one … but by the end of the class, the project has really grown on me, and it truly does look so much better all finished!  Unfortunately I had forgotten to stitch the bands, which is the first thing we needed to work on, so I don’t have much stitching to show … but over the coming weeks I’ll endeavour to get both projects finished.

The great thing about this year’s class is that there were so many familiar faces from last year – I sat with Joanne and Lisa and had a really wonderful time … their company was great!  CA was as charming and histerical as always, her stories had me in fits of giggles at times.

I was very privileged to find I’d been invited out to dinner with Nancy, along with CA, Michael and Judy, Val, and Lisa – it was a very memorable dinner at a local Chinese restaurant where the food, wine and company were sublime.  It was an unexpected highlight of my visit 🙂

The next morning we were working on the Cottage Etui – I managed to get my scissor fob almost completed (I just want to add a bead to the bottom if I can find one suitable in my stash), and also managed to get my ‘trunk’ pincushion finished aside from tying the ribbon bows (I thought I’d wait until I got home so it wouldn’t get totally crushed inflight).  Once again, I’ll make an effort over the coming weeks to get this one finished off.  I’ll take photos later of the finished project.

Here is a photo, though, of the group hard at work finishing their Cottage Etuis (close to the camera are my stitching buddies for the weekend).

I will, however, show you photos of next year’s projects!  I’ve reserved my spot already, both with Nancy and CA … especially now I’m finding there are so many beautiful places to explore in Perth, this will turn out to be my huge personal treat each year.  Next year CA is offering the Mermaid Bag and the Acorn Etui (it opens up, and is gorgeous! – I adore both items, so I’ll definitely be signing up for both! 😀

I’ll finish off this post with a photo of the ladies who really looked after me throughout those couple of days – from left to right we have Judy (the hostess with the mostess), CA, myself, and Nancy (accommodation and tourguide extraordinaire).