Teapots and Beanie Babies

Morpeth is a unique craft village in the heart of the Hunter Region. Keith took me there on Saturday to look for some beanie babies I had heard were in a store there. Lucky me! There happened to be a teapot festival going on with almost 4,000 teapots from all over Australia as well as England and China. Unlucky Keith. There were functional as well as nonfunctional teapots for sell. You can seriously make anything a teapot.






These are just a few of the many there were to look at.

The Queen has a spout at the top of her forehead. It was kind of hard to photograph behind glass.

Bunny Teapots
Turkey Teapots


This is a koala teapot that sits on its own tea cup and saucer. I liked this one a lot but it was $145 Australian dollars.

The "Teatanic," how cute is that?

Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman have teapots made in their likeness.

Evidently, you also need a cosy for your teapot to help keep your tea warmer. There were also many varieties of those.

What to buy, what to buy...it is so hard to decide.

How about this tea cosy hat? She was in the moment. Don't worry Candice and Kelsey...it was not for sell. I have made a decision.

I will be serving my friends Peppermint tea in my new Christmas teapot!

There was even a band for Keith to listen to while I did my shopping.

Guess, it was not his type of music. Looks like he made due with a paper. What a great sport.

The Campbell's Craft Centre has 13 specialty shops, one of which sells bears (the reason I wanted to go in the first place). There was also a great tea room where we had morning tea, and raisin toast.

As I was still shopping when it came time for lunch, we also had a great sandwich there. It was grilled vegetables on turkish bread that included sweet potato, avocado, sundried tomato, cheese, and mushrooms. It was delicious! I had a great day but spent so much time there I did not make it to the other places I had planned to go. Maybe, if I'm good, he will take me back before we leave.

I managed to complete two of the Asia-Pacific sets of the 5 I had started and bought 3 or 4 others to add to my collection.




I still have a few months left to hunt. It was a successful day and the teapot festival was just a bonus!

Kelsey's Skydiving Adventure

Kelsey wanted to skydive before she left Australia. She was not able to work it in before she left in December, so we agreed to let her do it for a late birthday present. We went to the Byron Bay area along with our friends, Kenny and Glenda. Luckily, there was someone else crazy enough (that would be Kenny) to do it with her so she was not alone. Kelsey said the view was spectacular and you could see all the way to the Gold Coast from the plane. She said it was the best birthday present ever.



Kelsey was picked up at the hotel by a limo provided by Go Skydive. Nothing like riding in style to jump out of a plane!

Lots of papers to sign before we go up.

They got her ready pretty quickly.

Am I really sure I want to do this?

Off we go, into the wild, blue yonder....

Free falling at 14,000 feet and 130 mph.

Safely on the ground.

Looks like she enjoyed it.

Kelsey and her instructor, Dan. Kelsey was a little shocked to find out that he just folded this parachute up straight away to get ready for the next person waiting to jump. There are just some things you are better off not knowing.

I did it and I'm marking if off my list! They say if you never go, you will never know. I will just have to take Kelsley and Kenny's word that it is a great experience because I'm not going.

Conrad Treasury Casino

This is Saturday date night or you could call it...Kelsey is entertaining so we had to find somewhere to go.

We chose the Brisbane Conrad Treasury Casino for our night out. The old Treasury Building was built in three stages between 1885 and 1928 and is now home to a stylish casino and hotel complex.

A night shot of the main entrance of the casino. They often change the colors at night for different holidays.

Look at all my chips!! I won these betting on the roulette wheel. I picked the winning number two different times!

Cashed in my chips and hung on to my money for once. The casino was my friend tonight.

Kenny and Glenda went out to play with us.

Good night!