A Glorious Weekend in Canberra

Yes it was. Driving all the way to Canberra just for a long weekend is a bit of work, but I had a Hankering.

It all started when I was perving on the Instabrag and saw some amazing pots of honey posted by a local Canberra business called Handmade Canberra.

They run a large quarterly market at the Exhibition Centre which has lots of yummy eats and beautiful items made by local Australian artists.

That deliciously gratuitous picture of honey resulted in a comment exchange where the Handmade peeps totally twisted my arm and completely demanded that I come up for the market....

TWISTED MY ARM SO BAD IT STILL HURTS

And then they cemented the deal with donuts.

Like srsly?  How delicious do they look?

My tastebuds commented under the photo before I could control myself....



Yummy donuts by Donut Papi

I also wanted to catch up with a couple of close friends, and see my brother and his family, and soak up some hometown bliss.

So on the Friday afternoon, we left jolly old hipster Melbourne and after an overnight stay at Albury, arrived Saturday morning at the Handmade Market in time to meet my super dooper oldest bestest friend Bibi and her two Sonofaguns.

A very misty welcome to Canberra!!

We let the kids play on the good old iconic Action Bus. This was a novelty for Sonofagun No.2 who's used to grotty old Metro Trains.

We ate yummy French Crepes, Phillipino Chicken Satays, marinated pulled beef and rice, drank creamy hot cappuccinos and tried our best to browse the stalls while 3 of our 4 boys said all of those wonderful things boys say when you're shopping:

"When are we leaving?"
"My legs are sore."
"Why are you looking at these skirts when you looked at skirts over there?"
"Can we go now?"
"This is soooo boring."
"Don't you have enough wool at home?"
"When are we leaving?"

Much peace. Very relaxment.

So we gave up and took them back to Bibis house for pasta and lego.  AND the best thing of all for oldest bestest friends who haven't seen each other for 18 months: several cups of tea and lots of talking.  And then a round of selfies which just reminded me that I'm old and have too many wrinkles.
And Bibi still looks the same as she did when we were a couple of young single gals cruising round town in her little Ford Laser...

Thelma, er, Bibi & Louise....

We stayed at Auntie Martha Stewarts that weekend. For those of you who haven't been following my blog for a while, Auntie Martha Stewart isn't her real name. I've used a Nom De Plume to protect the innocent, but she is so named because she is a very clever crafty lady who has dabbled in every craft known to human kind and taught me how to crochet. 

She lives in a lovely little townhouse in an estate in the south of Canberra that has the most beautiful view from her back courtyard.

Pretty, frosty morning

Much serenity. Very scenery.

Sunday morning I was able to visit my little big brother the Red Haired Viking and his family. They are lucky enough to have a family of Blue Fairy Wrens that hop around their backyard. They hopped and flew around so quickly, all I could get was this one blurry photograph.

Then after bribing my boys with the promise of food, I popped back to the market to buy all the things I wanted from the day before.

Like donuts from artisan donut makers Donut Papi!!!

From back left around: Marshmallow & Lychee, Rose (?), Black Sesame, Matcha Green Tea

And these beautiful cards by Marja-Leena.  I had to buy a small stack of these. Even though they are gift cards, I think I'm going to pop them in frames and keep them. They're so beautiful!

And that scrummy local Canberra honey and chocolates.

I also bought a couple of these amazing notebooks by Funky Journals.  They are old kids books which have been made into spiral bound notebooks. And the original story pages are scattered inside amongst the blank pages. I kept the Scuffy the Tugboat notebook for myself as I remember it was one of favourite books when I was little and when Sonofagun No.1 was little, I bought a copy for him too. I did buy a couple of others but I am keeping them secret ATM as they are put away for Xmas pressies!

I was awfully tempted by the Knight Rider Annual notebook!!  So much Hoffness!

I walked into a yarn stall with lots of soft, colourific merinos and silks when I spied the most amazing granny square coat. On a person! I asked about her gorgeous coat. And her gorgeous self. Her name is Jackie and she was simply another shopper like myself who crocheted this deliciously warm creation....

She was kind enough to let me take a couple of photos. Isn't she clever? I think I might need to make one for myself!

So yes, I spent Dollars and had a lovely time. I also bought some Ginger Beer with Chilli for the Bear, Some Lemon Meringue Marshmallows, A gorgeous skirt by Sheesh and stopped by a roadside stall on the way home past Benalla and bought some local Olives and Strawberry & Vodka jam!



After my quick 2nd whizz around the market I headed over to my very clever and talented friend Naomis house for some crochet.

YES!! CROCHET!

I spent a glorious afternoon with Naomi, her mum Kaija (who has been my very good friend for over 20 years) and Naomis daughter Elmi who at the age of 9, is already an amazing artist like her mum and grandmother. If you'd like to check out some of Naomis art, check out her webpage or Instabrag!

Naomi said she wanted to learn how to make a doily like this one that I made a few weeks ago and posted on Instagram...

And once she got the hang of it (which was super fast), she posted this on Instabrag...

I also gave Elmi a little How to Crochet lesson. She did really well despite my dodgy teaching!

So after a good night's sleep and a delightfully frosty Monday morning...

we packed ourselves into the car, did a quick drive to Lake Burley Griffin for a few gratuitous photos and left for the long drive back to Melbourne.

The Museum of Australia

Telstra Tower aka The Batman Rocket (according to Sonofagun No.2)

Quick story.

See this section of lake looking towards Telstra Tower?  When I was in Year 10 at high school, we had a catamaran lesson in this section of lake.

It was a fun afternoon. There was much boating, and lots of falling in and swallowing lake water etc.

That evening on the news on tv, they reported a body had been pulled out not far from where we were drinking lake water....

The National Library, and that weird triangle thing in the background is Parliament House

The Captain Cook Memorial Globe

Ah Canberra! Ah Markets! This weekend I've discovered there is a market MUCH MUCH closer to home called the Maribyrnong Makers Market. I'll definitely be popping around to have a look there as I've heard there's THINGS. And it won't take 7 1/2 hours to get there!