i'm grateful for 'bloggie friends IN REAL LIFE'

Greetings all,
Wow, what a trip to Queensland i had.  To meet your bloggie friends for real & for true is just a blast.  First up was Thea from Thea&Sami blog screen printing in Capalaba, i love her, we had so much fun & boy is she a great teacher.

 We had a delicious lunch by the water too, oh yum, thank Thea.  Had to drag myself away, then drove back to my family in the rain & pitch black, dreaming of my boot load of remnants. 

 I took brownies & a bunch of organic goodies from Canberra.

Then off Bulimba, a lovely high end part of Brisbane on the river, to meet lovely Simone from Beach Vintage blog, at her delicious Just Plain Gorgeous store.  I had the image of Simone with her long blonde hair from her blog in my mind & found her in a stunning blue floral dress behind the counter. 

 I couldn't get all the things i didn't buy the first time out of my mind, so we went returned.

 Yes, this was my oilcloth emergency on Easter Sunday!!  Thanks Simone, gorgeous to meet you & i love your store, first place i'm going next time i'm in Brisbane.

Ah, Kylie from Mealy&i blog, a dear Army wife i've been friends with for many years, we caught up in March in Sydney at Sew It Together & again last week on ANZAC Day in South Bank Brisbane.  I forgot to take new photos of us, Kylie always looks fabulous.

True to form & just after Kylie's husband asked which child is the accident prone one . . . we glanced over to find the child in question getting medical assistance from the Life Guard.  She'd taken a chunk out of her knee.  Kylie did a great post about ANZAC day, her soldier & meeting up with us here.

 On my way back to Canberra, i took the New England Highway home & had tee'd up to meet Brenda from Hoo Are You Lookin' At blog as i'm a huge fan & collector of her gorgeous products from Red Stitch Designs.

 We met in a park in Tamworth, ha, sounds like some cyber date meeting in a public place, just in case.  We hit it off immediately & our children just ran off & played together.  So easy, ah, Brenda, i adore you.

 So glad i'm not the only one with children who have to play in water at any opportunity.  Look at the beautiful blue bird i was given, oh Brenda, you are too adorable!!

 Now the only way i could drag myself away from Brenda . . . i was off to Plain English in Scone.  I went there 6 years ago.  I did the Sydney to Brisbane round trip to spend 3 days with my husband while he had a long weekend on course, with 4 children under 6 . . . i found this divine store.  I should mention my children travel really well & long trips driving solo doesn't bother me.  I took the Pacific Highway up & allowed 5 driving days for this 3000km trip.

 OMG, a car space right out the front, how lucky!!??

 As the girls put their shoes on, my son ran ahead & delivered the bad news "Mum, the door is locked" followed up with "Mum, the sign says it's closed on Wednesdays" & the cruel blow "Mum, the shop couldn't be MORE closed". 

 So maybe next time & i'm dragging Tina Rubie from Rubies' Place blog to meet me there, as we couldn't catch up this trip but we're both totally in love with this particular country decor store.

On the final leg, from Sydney to Canberra, i caught up with my best bloggie friend Corrie from Retro Mummy.  We chatted twins, life with 4 children, schools, fabric, blogs, design, houses & living down in this part of the world (she's a Canberra girl living in Sydney wanting to move to Bowral, which is kind of in between).  Small little fact - our fathers were in the Navy together, so Corrie & i have probably known each other for more than 30 years, reunited by blogs!! 

Look at Miss Elodie, now 6 months, she's going to be tall like her Retro Daddy.
So i'm very grateful this week to be able to meet all these amazing bloggers in real life.  My handmade world of design & motherhood allows me to meet many bloggers at markets & Shop Handmade, i'm super lucky (see the list on the right side bar) & my Queensland holiday was very relaxing, only made better by meeting my favourite bloggers who are now new friends.  Love Posie