Victoria, BC

We woke up at 5am to catch the 7am ferry to Victoria. 2 minutes into the drive there I realized I forgot my cellphone!  But luckily I didn't forget my camera. :)

We had breakfast on the ferry. Which was okay but next time I will remember not to get the scrambled eggs.

Our first stop was Butchart Gardens. The display in the souvenir stop window was a dress made of floral napkins.

Some of the items inside the store. Among seeds, flower shaped bowls and many assorted garden knick-knacks, I found these adorable bird feeders and some Vera Bradley keychain pouches. 

Some scenery shots.

After a couple hours there we went towards the downtown of Victoria and I found myself in a couple of craft supply stores. Now I bought yarn from Yarn by the Bag before but I've never been in their actual store Beehive Wool Shop. I was very pleasantly surprised. :) It's a very big store and they had many beautiful blends of yarn.

My brother and his girlfriend went to the Royal BC Museum after lunch and the rest of us continued browsing downtown. I saw this ad in a flyer we picked up at Butchart Gardens and I found that we were walking in the vicinity of another craft supply store. How could I pass it up?

This is Button and Needlework Boutique. The store window and the door pictures are from the back entrance of the store. This store was a little gem, it was wall to wall of buttons, yarn, embroidery floss in all the colours of the rainbow, and knitting/crocheting needles. The lady at the counter was very nice too. There were a lot of people in the store and only one of her but she did her best to help everyone. :) Please visit their site, they have catalogues of the buttons and supplies they carry.

At this time I was very tired. It was about 5pm and I had only a few hours of sleep the night before so I took a nap on the way back to the ferry terminal. All in all, a good day, found some great craft places and got some beautiful pictures.

Sharing Crafting Love Pt. 1: Mochi Mochi Land

I have a long list of crafting blogs that I'm following. There are many artists out there that create really gorgeous and adorable pieces of art, like Mochi Mochi Land! Blogger Anna creates tiny knitted amigurumi. It's really hard to express her art in words so let me show you one of her creations. :)

She also has books on how to make them. I'm browsed through this particular one at the book store. My favourite patterns in it are the tiny chickens and the tiny hot dog. Now, if only I could finally teach myself how to knit.... :P

Van Dusen Cherry Blossom Festival and Other Attractions

Today was the last day of the Cherry Blossom Festival at the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens. There were Japanese stalls for food like mochi and takoyaki and dancing and music. I found some turtles in a pond as well. You can see them in the second picture. :)

The cherry blossoms this year was a bit lacking though.

Please press the pictures for a bigger size and there are links throughout this post so take advantage of them!

Afterwards we went to the Capilano River Hatchery and the Cleveland Dam. There were only baby salmon, it's not the season for the adult salmon to jump up river yet.

I know I've been lacking on the crafting part of my blog so here is a little something. At the Cherry Blossom Festival, there were Japanese stalls selling arts and crafts. I have a couple of souvenirs and name cards from some local artists.

First off is a flyer for "Cherry Blossoms: A Textile Translation". At the stall they had beautiful needlecrafts of sakura trees. Just the detail put into the works was amazing. I really hope to go and take a look at the rest of the works.

(On the Back) "dyeing, beading, painting, photo-transfer, embroidery, sculpture, crochet, basketry, doll-making, embossing, stamping, origami, applique, printing, quilting, weaving, collage, felting"

Next is Minori Takagi's Lampwork. She creates very intricate glass beadwork. It's simply breathtaking. I really recommend browsing through her gallery.

 Another stall that caught my eye is Noei. The link is to her etsy store where she sells cute little pouches with Japanese fabrics. Her little sewing kits are adorable!

I got myself a little souvenir too. Japanese chocolates from La Chocolaterie. I got this sampler and it has lemon basil, raspberry cacao, strawberry, dark, coconut, and Japanese citron (yuzu). My SO has taking a liking to yuzu so I though he would like this too!

And we got a little surprise at the door, pocky!

Hiking

Today was a really beautiful day for hiking, we went to Squamish, BC. This is a picture from the top of the first peak.

There's still snow at the top of the mountains. Great place to take pictures but requires lots of leg muscles. :D

Fishing

As I said yesterday, we were going fishing today. It first started out looking like this.

But soon turned into this.

We found a waterfall and little crabs. Can you find them in this photo?

But we didn't have any luck catching fish for lunch, so we just ate the rest of our bait. :P   Squid!