Japanese Children's Festival

Coffs Harbour Botanic Garden was host to the 

Japanese Children's festival a couple of weeks ago.
The sixth of it's kind to be held in this beautiful setting. 

We were welcomed with  kites in all colours & sizes
& there were kite making workshops too.

  We meandered along the path leading through the trees

No prizes for guessing who wasn't long in finding the cup cake stall!

The dancers were an absolute delight, and this gentleman 

was thoroughly enjoying himself!

Some families got into the spirit, and everyone had fun.  

The beautiful Japanese Gardens and bright red bridge

 were the perfect location.

I took a couple of the photos earlier in the year like the one above left, so on the day the tea house was buzzing with people enjoying a cuppa and a bite to eat provided by volunteers. And the trees below had nearly lost their leaves but I had to include this photo from earlier because it is so vibrant. I believe it is a type of Crepe Myrtle.

This fish was just one of many being displayed to show us the different colours. Dear follower Midori has let me know that this is a Koinobori or carp.  If you like things with a Japanese twist, hop over and take a look at her blog,you'll be glad you did!

This rainbow lorikeet couldn't work out what all the fuss was about!

Even dancers have to relax sometime......oh what a feeling!

Our sweet grand daughter gave the sushi a tick of approval!

And then it was time to head home, after a fantastic day out.  Next year I hope our son and daughter in law who is from Japan, will be able to come along as well, and we can all wear the beautiful kimono's that her family gave us at the wedding last year. Maybe you could join us too!

Banner & Bunting on their first outing to Made In Dorrigo markets!

Don't they look great?!!  I am really happy with the result and I got some good comments on the day as well.  I think the calico and hessian works really well for the potato jewellery. And you can see that we were blessed with the most wonderful weather.

Visitors and locals alike were having a good day out.  Food stalls did a roaring trade and the ladies next to me selling cakes were all sold out by mid morning!  I had a good day, and quite a few people had seen the articles in the newspapers and heard my radio interview, so they were interested to see what potato jewellery is all about!  I had a hoarse voice by the end of the session!

This is a piece of jewellery I call Belle of the Ball, which I had for sale on the day.

But the best thing for me was the lovely note sent with the banner from my daughter:)

Banner takes shape!

To continue on from yesterday, I will show you the steps of the banner. 

My daughter printed off some letters to read POTATO JEWELLERY,and laid them out to decide on the design.

Next she ( and helpful hubby)  cut the letters out of hessian and sewed them on to a calico sheet we had.

Quite a tiresome and fiddly job I think, lucky s-i-l was around to keep 18 month old amused while this was going on!

The final layout is semi circular and really effective!

Tomorrow I will be taking my banner and bunting for their first outing to the Made in Dorrigo day!  

Will show you the final result on Sunday, if I am not too exhausted after a busy day!!

Banner and Bunting - I didn't have to go hunting!

That's right!  My banner and bunting where dreamt up and executed by my beautiful daughter ( with a bit of hands on help from sil -that's short for wonderful son-in-law!).  I didn't have to do a thing!

I would like to share some of the photos of the progress ( which I asked them to take)

They started with the bunting made from Hessian, or sometimes called Burlap.  We decided this was very appropriate because my jewellery is made from potatoes, and so the link with spud bags was perfect.

Tomorrow I will show you the progress with the Banner!