dog is really too cute and the azaleas are pretty

Well i am happy with that mix of fragrances

The Scentworks "Amazon Grapes" and the bit of Patchouli that I have mixed with it

 have produced already a fragrance that several people have liked.

Including even me who essentially does not use fragranced soap.

My other mix of Lavender and some secret flowery fragrances is also liked.

That is most satisfactory so I will repeat both for the future

some soap

this is a combo of coconut, lemon and lime.
 i have done something different with it in that i added titanium dioxide ...
which i deliberately didnt mix it properley.
the aimed for effect was for streaks of white that might look like falling stars.
 i should have had less falling stars i think!!!!!.... but it sure smells good.
 next time i will do it differently and with somewhat  less mad abandon.
 it might well be the sort of soap that qualifies for what i am sometimes asked for.......whitening soap!! .

the inevitable sago is there.......again because i can and because i ran out of ideas at the last minute!!

OK.....so this is actually a combo of lavander and some  flowery fragrances .

i added the camomile because it was lonely out in the garage and needed some company.

i have too much camomile !! coloured it green
 because i failed to come up with any other idea fast enough :-)
It is called "Lavender Flowers"

this is a fresh clean feminine fragrance to which i have added a tiny touch of patchouli.

the idea of adding the patchouli to this fragrance i can gratefully attribute to another soapmaker .

it is called " A Cleaned up Patch" because i usually associate Patchouli with dark colours for some reason and decided this time to add all my tiny fragments of soap to the mix and keep it pale and pretty ....with blobs

Lunch at the Sydney rowers club followed by a visit to Balmain a couple of weeks ago

the view from our table where we were celebrating a family birthday

 Balmain court house and an old workmans cottage now gentrified

scenes from Ballast Point which i dont recall visiting before.

My sister walked around and  took these while i sat and watched the scenery aimlessly

\

looking toward the lower North Shore thro the Harbour Bridge

the ferry Freshwater at Mort Bay

huge interesting bit of sandstone

a building in which i once worked in another life....and the waterfront at Double Bay

i had to grab these shots of Queen st, Woollahra as i drove past and there is light 

right in the centre of the lens . 

It was not mid day so not sure why the artefact of light.

i took the colour out of one and softened it to try and  mitigate

 the light blob...... but i am not clever 

enough to disguise such flaws

There continues to be no parking in Queen St. 

some things dont change even 38 years later.

i love this building as it was years ago without so much outside decoration 

and without the cafe.

 its plain facade was very beautiful  and i couldnt get a shot of the front of the building today.

 the price paid in around 1972 was, as i recall it......$120,000 for the house and back stables and side shop.

dont know what it is worth now.......but that was the days of terrace houses being worth

$26,000

. how times have changed :-)

a couple of gifts from the very very south of China and a few spring flowers

My sister visited with a pile of wonderful textiles and goodies she bought down near the Burma border where the handcrafts are still handcrafted and the colours are  colourful.

these are my presents from the collection......some of which collection  is worthy of gallery wall space IMO.

i am sure the market sellers were sad to see her return to her own city

A carry bag that is highly decorated with minute stitches and decorative silver

and beads

i have a black embroided version of this lower bag that came from Vietnam.

i needed a lighter coloured one or summer . I keep my mobile/cell phone in it

hanging around my neck. Not sure what they were designed for but they suit me well !!

detail of the elephant stitching

detail of the little dangly thing on the side of the phone bag.

i just love all the colours

these photos are of embroidered inner soles for shoes.

i just love the colour combo and the pretty sort of flower pattern.

i  will never use them in my shoes !!

the Macro gift seems to have left me with these pics.......but the drift is there .