Canberra's Centenary

This past weekend, Canberra celebrated its 100th birthday. There were lots of special celebrations all around town and they are continuing all through 2013. This weekend though, was the major time to celebrate. Each morning this week balloons have been floating all over Canberra.

 On Monday, there were lots of events around the lake.

 In the evening, we sat near the symphony stage and listened to the music which had been composed for the centenary. While the orchestra played there were images displayed on the big screen of the day in 1913 when Canberra's foundation stone was laid.

 Of course, there were fire works and they turned out to be really good after a slow start. We were a bit far away so didn't see what was happening right on the lake but the higher displays were amazing.

Here we are to prove we were there!

Adrienne's sewing box and Enlighten

Had a lovely afternoon on Friday stitching with Adrienne. It was great to see what she had been working on and to see her finished sewing box from last year's retreat! She has done a beautiful job.

 Even the inside has been finished off so well with handy pockets for her sewing goodies.

 Hubby went out on Sunday night to photograph the Enlighten buildings. I was lazy and stayed home but after seeing the pictures, I should have gone with him. Each building is lit up with lots of different images and they look fantastic. This is the National Library.

 The portrait gallery was lit up too.

 There were great Toulouse Lautrec images on the Art Gallery.

 The high Court was all lit up.

 I love the colours on the water in front of Old Parliament House.

Well worth seeing even in photographs!!!

Gorgeous sewing box and a picnic

Brenda brought her sewing box, from the retreat,  to show me on Thursday. She has done the most wonderful job with lots of extra special features. This is the lid with a special cat button added to it.

 Inside the lid is padded for your pins.

 Inside the box, it is lined with pockets for your pens and scissors.

 She also covered the outside with patchwork and stitching as well! Well done, Brenda.

 Sunday here in Canberra was a beautiful day. It wasn't hot but just right for a picnic with friends from church.

 We took the ferry to Springback Island which is in the lake.

 Tried to get a photo of these little fellows smiling!

 We had a lovely picnic and then headed back through the spray of the fountain. The kids on board loved that bit!

Show and Tell and Canberra's light show

Margot had finished her pencil case last week and here it is. She used music fabric instead of ticking to form the stitching lines and the pencil case looks lovely.

Judy has made another special gift for her coming grandchild. She has stitched the front and then made it onto a box to put baby necessities into. 

We headed out on Saturday night to check out some of the buildings in Canberra that are being lit up over this Canberra day weekend. They were really wonderful to see. Hubby took his tripod and good camera amd managed to take some wonderful photos. The first three are the front of the library. Hard to believe that this is just the front of a building.

Old Parliament house looked really fabulous especially with the reflections in the pond. There were about 6 different colours/themes on each building. 

Some decorations and the Arboretum

Here are another couple of corners of decorations. I love Christmas trees and here is a little collection of them.

I have an old Singer machine in the entry and some of these angels and bears sit here all year round. I just add the little tree quilt at Christmas time for these little ones to sit on.

On Sunday, the Arboretum was open to visitors and we were able to drive in and see how well the trees are growing. There are so many planted there and it will look fabulous as they all grow over the years. At the top of one of the hills there was this sculpture of "wide brown land". Can you see the words?

Here is the view overlooking the lake.