Hi everyone

I have been very busy. I am starting a new series of classes at Camelot that works it's way through the different products we use to create our layouts.

The first week uses cardstock only to create a layout. This is the layout I created

Next week is using patterned paper.

I have signed up for 5 of Christy Tomlinson's on-line workshops. You can see some of her work here

I am doing the classes so I can learn more mixed media techniques to incorporate into my layouts. I am really looking forward to getting started on this. The 5 courses I have enrolled in are:-

She Art 

She Art 2 

Art of Wild Abandonment

She had 3 Hearts

Creative Colour

Have printed out the Supply lists and am about to go through them and see what I already have and what I need to buy.

The courses are available to you for one year after you purchase them so I need to decide which one to start with and work my way through them. I am going to dedicate one day a week to doing one of these classes otherwise the year will slip by and in the last month I will be trying to do all 5 at once.

All 5 courses cost me a total of $110, what great value.

Anyway off to go for a walk with Ray and Daisy, it is quite a nice day here and I want to make the most of it.

Till next time

Cheers

Julie

Hi everyone, it has been a while since my last post but I have been pretty busy.

I am going to share the last of the photos from my trip today.

After we had been to the thermal baths on Thursday morning, Will dropped Anne, Madeleine and I off at a village not far from where we had been staying. Madeleine took us up a very steep hill to have a look at an artist village where various artists have studios and they come there to work at various times. It is very ramshackle and looks like struggling artist stuff, not how I would like to work.

Anyway the pieces that were on display were a mixer as you would expect. Some I really liked and some were not to my taste.

These are two of the pieces. The first one I like. The second one is OK but not something I would be tempted to buy.

It was quite a warm day and the sun was shining nicely so walking along this beautiful path was a delight even thought it was up quite a steep hill. Beautiful!!!!

This is Regensberg and is situated at the top on the hill we walked up. It is an old village that is still lived in. Anne, Will and I had gone there earlier in the holiday to have a good look around. It is a circular village with the high wall all around it. It has it's own well so that it could be fully self contained in case of attack in the early days.

I left Zurich on Friday and flew to London. Spent and hour and a half getting from terminal 5 to terminal 4 where my flight to Kuala Lumpur departed from then had a bite to eat before boarding the plane.

When I arrived in KL I took a motel room and had 3 hours sleep before boarding the plane to Adelaide.

During the flight to Adelaide there was a medical emergency on the plane so we were diverted to Jakarta to drop the patient off so they could be taken to hospital. 3 hours later we left Jakarta and flew to Adelaide. We arrived in Adelaide at 10am instead of 7am so I was very glad to get off the plane and walk through my front door.

Sunday afternoon Ray & I went to the Southern Country Music function at the Lockleys Bowling Club to hear Wildcard. It was just what I needed to keep me awake. When we came home I did the washing and tried to keep myself busy until it was bedtime. I can tell you I didn't have any trouble going to sleep on Sunday night. To be back in my own bed again was luxury.

Monday Tuesday and Wednesday I was very industrious and got lots of things caught up. Thursday though I fell in a hole and did not do anything for the whole day, just sat around talking to Ray and drinking cups of tea.

Thursday night we went to dancing lessons, it was great to see my friends after such a long time. Trying to catch up on the missed steps was a bit daunting but oh well I have got plenty of time for that.

Today has been another slack day on my behalf, all I have done today is the paperwork for our visas ready for our trip to Vietnam in early October, and I haven't even finished that. We have to get passport photos taken to attach to the visa applications. I had planned to do that today but Ray and one of his mates left here at 10am to go tool shopping and got back at 4pm so there was no time for photos. Never mind Monday will do.

Tonight we are going to Legends. The band is Rave On and I am quite looking forward to it. Have not been dancing for a long time.

Well that's it for this post
Till next time
Cheers
Julie

I have to tell you I am so sick of Blogger not letting me correct things and see the whole post. I will be glad when I get home so I can look at finding a better blog host. I AM SICK OF THIS.

It is only 2 more sleeps (tonight and Thursday) and then I will be having 2 nights (Friday and Saturday) of no sleep to arrive home at 7:10am Sunday morning.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone although it will be sad to see my holiday end.

Tomorrow we are going for a swim in the thermal baths in the morning then Madelaine wants to take us to show us something she thinks we might be interested in so will have to wait and see what that is.

I am cooking dinner tomorrow night as a sort of thank you to my hosts.

Anyway this is my second post for tonight so check out the photos below and please overlook the mistakes

Till tomorrow
Thanks for dropping by
Cheers
Julie

Today is Wednesday the 8th August and Anne and I went to Bern on the train for the day.
We left home just after 8am when Will drove us to the local railway station. We caught the train to Zurich and then to Bern. The trip took us about two hours as we arrived in Bern just after 10am. We checked in at the tourist information centre and got a map for the 5km walk around the old town and off we went.

We saw the clock tower

The bears of Bern. One of these bears really put on a show for us, swimming, scratching himself with a stick, eating apples that were floating in the water. And then there were these two just lazing about.

This is the view of the bridge and the river looking back towards the old town

This is St Peters and St Paul's church in the old town

It is being restored at the moment as are a lot of buildings in Switzerland. It is law that these old buildings have to be maintained on a regular basis to keep them in a good clean condition.

This last photo is the view looking down on the rooves of some of the buildings in the old town and the river. We were standing in a beautiful shaded garden in the middle of Bern to take this photo

As you can see I am still having trouble with blogger. The pictures are a lot smaller than I would like but if you want to have a closer look at any of the photos just click on them and they will appear in a bigger screen. 

It is not long now until I head home. Only 2 more sleeps and then I will have 

Well the last two days have been very relaxing.

On Monday Anne and Will went to their friends wedding. I caught the train into Zurich and bought some gifts for Anne and Will and Madeaine and Heiny for all they have done for me during this holiday. It rained while I was in there and I did get a bit wet even though I had my umbrella. It was not cold though and I was dry withing 15 minutes of the rain stopping.

Today we went to a shop to buy a bell for my cow. I want to replace the ball that hangs from my cows neck with a bell.

After we had lunch we went to the thermal baths at Bad Zurzach and spent a leisurely hour or so soaking and getting the equivelant of a great massage.

So as you can see I am completely relaxed and ready for the train trip to Bern that Anne and I are going to take tomorrow.

Off to bed now
So till tomorrow
Thanks for dropping by
Cheers
Julie

Another perfect day weather wise. Not sure of the temperature but around 25 - 27 degrees. Sunny.

We had a lazy day today. Lunch with Wills brother and his wife then visit Wills nephew who gave us his house to use while they were on holidays then back to Madelaine and Heiny's for tea.

I have been messing around with my journal this evening and now I am about to go to bed and read my book.

How lazy can you get.

So no photos today.

Thanks for dropping by
Till tomorrow
Cheers
Julie

A sleepless night, the church that was right outside my window rang it's bell every half hour, once on the half hour and the number of times that matched the hour on the hour throughout the whole night. Also one of the patrons of the hotel decided to play the bongo drums to entertain the other patrons. Luckily that stopped between 11 and half past.

We went to Neuchatel this morning after breakfast to check out the last of the three clock museums in the area.

We got there about 9:15 but the museum did not open until 11am so we sat on the edge of the Lake of Neuchatel in the warm sun and just watched the ducks and fish until it opened. The weather has been so good since we got here, I am not looking forward to returning to the cold weather of Adelaide next week.

The museum we saw today specialized in mechanical clocks and ornaments, so musical birds in gold cages, female dolls that play the piano which stands about 4' high and a boy doll that writes using a quill and ink well. You can change the letters that he writes by changing the discs in his back.

When you consider that these things were made in the 1700's you have to marvel at the workmanship and advanced thinking that was employed to create these and similar items.

There was a metal mechanical hand that was created by watchmakers in the 1400's to replace a hand that was lost by a gunner, and as he was an important part of fighting brigade they made him a new hand. Unbelievable!!!

We had lunch at a restaurant right on the shores of the Lake of Biel. It was just beautiful. Warm, sunny and a nice cool breeze and a magnificent view.

I haven't got any photos for you today as they don't allow you to take photos in the museums and the photos I took of the scenery did not turn out all that clear.

Time for bed to try and catchup on a bit of the sleep I missed out on last night

Thanks for dropping by
Till tomorrow
Cheers
Julie

I am having trouble once again with Blogger so I am going to cut this post short. This is the second half of today's post, so check out the post below this one for the full days photos.

These photos are of the town hall where we had lunch ( can't remember the name of the small town)

A nice view on the way here

A photo from the Neuchatel Clock Museum we visited today

That is it for today. I am going to quit while I can. Unfortunately they have decided to bring out the bongo drums in the beer garden, just under my window. It is 11pm now and I am hoping they will soon go home. Don't like my chances really.

Till tomorrow

Don't forget to send me an email

Thanks for dropping by

Cheers

Julie

It is Friday night at 10:15pm and I am in my room in a hotel between Neuchatel and  Biel.

It has been a busy day, we left Oberwenigan this morning, where we are staying with Anne and Will's friends, and drove to Le locle. The scenery was once again beautiful as was the weather

This is the view I had my breakfast by (Heiny and Madelain's back yard)

Some of the scenery along the way. Unfortunately I have yet to find a camera that can do scenery justice. It just never looks as good in a photo as it does in real life. If you have a camera that is good with scenic photos please let me know.

We went to the clock museum at Le Locle. This is at the entrance to the museum

A couple of photos from inside the museum. Not too sure if they allowed photos in here but got these two anyway

Today nothing much has happened.
We cleaned the house we have been staying at and moved over to Madelaine and Heiny's.
Heiny is not well and I have not seen him yet but he is waiting for information on his next treatment. He has cancer of the liver and is waiting to find out when his treatment starts.
I tell you I am beginning to think this trip is jinxed. Heiny is one of the nicest people you could hope to meet and I don't like his chances. He is green to look at. One can only hope that the wonders of medical science can do something for him.
Anyway, tomorrow we are going to Le Locle were they have a clock museum. We will spend the night somewhere near there and if I am really lucky they will have a thermal pool we can go to in the evening.
I can't believe it is just over a week until I leave here. The time has just flown.
I got a sim card for my iPad today so I will be able to keep in touch. $39 for the month with 2 Gb of data.
Till tomorrow
Don't forget to send me an email
Cheers
Julie

The last three photos. This has been quite a marathon. Sorry about the mess in the first post last night but I seem to have it working of a sort this morning.

A little island in the middle of the Lake of Geneve

The Broken Chair which is a monument in front of the United Nations area. It was donated by Handicapped International to protest against land mines and cluster bombs. It stands about 15 meters high. Unfortunately I did not get the photo on a very good angle as you cannot see the broken leg.

This last photo is of me in front of the United Nations

Well that's it for today.

It is Switzerland's national day today and each town has their own celebrations so we are going down to check it out a bit later.

Thanks for dropping by

Sorry about the multiple posts but it seems to be the only way I could get all the photos posted.

Till next time

Cheers

Julie

It looks like I have to do this in multiple posts so stick with me

A life sized cow in the foyer of the Information Centre

Anne and I at the clock of flowers on the bank of the Geneve Lake

The boat we went on the cruise on

A bust of Henry Dunant one of the 5 founders of the Red Cross

The little train we did a tour around Geneve.on

Well as I said last night, I was having trouble with my blog. I seem to have at least got back on to it now, all I have to do is see if I can post some photos now.

This is the view as Anne and I sat and had a drink when we first went for a walk around Geneve

The fountain in the Lake of Geneve

Me on the cruise on the Lake of Geneve

Geneve from the lake

Hi there everyone.

I am back in Dietlikon and completely worn out. There will not be any typing tonight just a photo post to show you some of the things I have seen over the last few days. It has been very hectic and I am completely buggered but I cannot begin to show you all of the experiences I have had, fan-bloody-tactic I must say.

Here we go with some photos for you

On the train toTurino

The lake of Lugano

Walk along Lake of  Lugano

Something crazy is happening with this post. I will try to do another one

Neuchatel Lane

Garden at Neuchatel

My room in Geneve