Saturday 28 October 2017

New Look 6096 Does Seattle

The last stop on my holiday was a trip to Seattle.  I love love loved Seattle. So fortunate that we picked this beautiful Airbnb in the suburb of Queen Anne.  This was one of two balconies at our accommodation with a view down to the harbour.   We stayed 4 days but wish it was 2 weeks. So many things I wanted to do but didn't get around to.  Seattle felt a little like Sydney or San Francisco. It almost didn't feel like the US. It felt like another city in Canada. The people were lovely and so friendly. Well who wouldn't be when you live in such a gorgeous city.  


This would be my third try with the New Look 6096.  I bought the knit fabric at Spotlight. It turned out to be the best travel dress. I only wore it a couple of times to go out to dinner.  It will definitely be a staple in my wardrobe for any future holidays.  It was weird working with a knit fabric and this was very stretchy. But I managed to make it work. I'm trying to branch out and use more knit fabric.





As luck would have it there was and old school haberdashery/fabric store in Queen Anne, Nancy's Sewing Basket. And, and, and they had 20% off while we were there. The fabric gods were smiling on me. I'm so glad these older style stores still exist somewhere. Nothing, big, nothing fancy, but plenty of decent priced fabric to choose from. I had to limit myself with only 4 pieces of fabric as my travel bag was already packed to the max.  



I think travel fatigue set in at the end of our trip so we didn't pack as much into our days. One of the places I was keen to see was MoPop (formerly EMP museum).  


I'm a huge music fan, particularly of the early 90's Seattle music scene.  Whilst I was let down by the absence of a dedicated exhibition to the 90's music culture, I was impressed by all of the amazing exhibitions at hand.  It was great seeing all the fantasy and science fiction costumes and props from some of my favourite movies and fortunately they had a Jim Henson exhibition while we were there.  The highlight, getting a photograph with some of my favourite Muppets. Yay!!! Or as Beaker would say Memememe.  


So sad to the much awaited holiday is well and truly over. Back to reality alas.  But good to be back home with my fur kids. Now it's time to start planning festive sewing.  





Sunday 15 October 2017

Chipmunks, Elks and Bears, Oh My


Warning, this post does not contain any actual sewing or anything sewing related. I just wanted to show off some photos from my Canada holiday.  
 

I have to say I became a bit obsessed with chipmunks on my travels. I had never seen any before and they are cute little critters.  This photos is of one in Lake Louise.  He thought some people had food for him so you can see he's got his cute begging pose down pat.


Our first major wildlife encounter was with female elk in Jasper.  This lovely lady above was about to try and cross the busy road.  We found some more driving around the back roads. As you can see they did a very good job of featuring their rear ends for the photos. Thanks girls.  Unbelievably we never saw any male elk on our travels. 


 
 
Also in Jasper we came across a group of male long horn sheep.  We actually got very close to these hansom beasties.  And they were very chill.  If you are ever in Jasper, try to do your tour with Jasper Tour CompanyJoe, who runs the tours is just fantastic.  Very enthusiastic and passionate about the wildlife of Jasper.  We also saw a mumma bear and cubs on this evening tour. Alas we couldn't get any close up photos.


And finally, meet Boo the Bear.  Our last wildlife experience was in Banff. We had a long day tour which included a trip to Kicking Horse Mountain.  There we got to meet Boo a rescue bear.  He has an amazing large area to roam around in and it's only luck really if he decides to make an appearance.  It was a super hot day and we had spotted Boo relaxing in a pond from high up in a gondola which takes you up the mountain.  Now while we were listening to the rangers talk about Boo's story I was feeling very overwhelmed by the heat.  We had already heard about Boo from our travel guide for the day, Aaron, so I asked if there was somewhere I could sit down for awhile while we  were awaiting (hopefully) the arrival of Boo.  I was pointed to nice little shaded platform near the entrance.  Ah the shade, and somewhere to sit.  Aaron said I might be lucky and Boo might come up at that end.  I was joined by a couple of other people and then suddenly out of the forest came a big ol grizzly.  Don't be alarmed, there was a fence, but lucky for me the platform made us higher than the fence so I think I probably got the best photos of the day.  Yay!!! 

Saturday 7 October 2017

Lulu does Canada

So many great things to say about Canada. I can't recommend it as a holiday destination enough. We only did the western side, unbelievable natural beauty.  And onto things sewing related, my new Lulu dress got quite a few wears on the trip. So versatile and comfy in the warm weather.  I also took my tartan Lulu which I wore to the Beck concert in Vancouver. Alas the weather was too warm the rest of the trip to wear it.  



So here we are at Lake Louise. I started my day wearing jeans and my Up in Arms top, but the day just got warmer and warmer so I changed for our afternoon at the lake. I'm so glad I chose to make this dress in a lightweight denim. I used the reverse side of the fabric for the binding of the neck to give it a contrast.  This the perfect travel dress because you could wear it with tights or leggings if the weather got cool. 


Lake Louise was as beautiful as you imagine, but then again there are so many beautiful lakes with that same amazing glacial water. The only thing is they don't have a fancy cheateau on them.


And then we arrived in beautiful Banff.  Unfortunately we were in Canada during one of their worste wild fire seasons. We were pretty lucky regarding visability in the Rockies. This was the first time the smoky haze was really noticeable. 


I shall have to leave more holiday picks for another post.  I tried to add some further photos but blogger had a freak out. 

Until next time.

Yx