Last layout ...

for 2009. I used Kaisercraft's Belle Collection....totally gorgeous papers that can be used for Christmas or any other time of the year. I found a spark brush recently and just love playing with it....it truly adds a special touch.

OMG..

we've just measured 4 inches (100mm) from overnight rain and it's still raining! The overflow channel from the Washpool is flooded and we can see it from the house. While we would never say no to rain, we are now worried about the sheep in a paddock where the creeks go through. As long as none were amongst the channels, they'll be alright.

Our total rainfall is now almost 9 inches.

The pups are complaining that there's nowhere dry outside for them to play...not even under the house!

We've just learnt that our neighbour to the south measured 5 inches overnight!

Look who's snuggled in Nathan's sandpit:

More rain!

So far since Dec 20th we have received 436 pts (109mm) of lovely rain! The green in the paddocks becomes brighter everyday, water continues to run into dams and it's terribly hot and muggy...BUT no complaining here! More storms are forecast for the rest of the week. Wouldn't it be wonderful if it rained every day......

There's Rain

It was wonderful to wake on Christmas morning and find we'd had 2 inches (50mm) of rain! What a wonderful gift! During the day more showers added another 60pts (15mm) to our total. Martin checked a few dams and found a couple of feet of water in our house dam, another dry dam half full and another with the backwater full. This morning we can see a green shoot in the buffel grass.

This gorgeous little girl is my Christmas present form Craig and Kathryn. Khloee is almost 7 weeks old and weighs a neat 1kg, so you can imagine how little and fine she is. Like Charli, she's a mini foxie. She lets the boys know she's no pushover getting the skids after them when she thinks necessary. Charli wasn't too sure of her at first and is not keen to share my lap, but he's warming to her.....this morning they were sharing toys and playing. I must say she has a much better yap than Charli....we are hoping his voice will break!



At the moment we have 7 dogs here as Craig brought his heeler and we are pup sitting for our neighbour!

Turn-Off Decoration

Here is our turn-off decoration for this Christmas. We were very lucky to have the length of fluming to make the chimney. We also have a big star and tree in ropelights on our high tank stand....shall try and photograph it to share with you.

Here he is!

Zapp sitting obediently! lol Gotta love Adam's sense of humour!!

Our young neighbour Hilary was introduced to Zapp yesterday and he gave her quite a chuckle too!

Zapp, the red dog.

On Thursday night, as we headed down to the sheepyards, Adam said "Mum, you'll get some help tonight from Zapp, the yard dog. "

Me: Okay, and who's dog is he? (Thinking he belonged to one of the shearers.)

Adam: Wait and see...but you're gonna love him! He rides on the back of the sheep, bites when necessary, barks when stirred, sits and stays on command and generally does a brilliant job! He has many hidden talents; I'll show you tonight.

Well when I saw Zapp, I couldn't stop laughing....and when I can take a photo of him, you'll see why. But Adam was right, he came in very useful and did do a brilliant job! His only drawback? He doesn't come when called. Bonus? He's very cheap to feed and unlike 3 little pups I know, doesn't get into mischief.

I made good use of Zapp on Thursday night and then allowed Adam to use him when we drafted last night...

Layout Share

I couldn't get any of the challenges for the SWV December Cybercrop because of not having the spare time AND no printer ink. Yesterday I was just itching to get some scrapping done.

I loved the sound of Jodi's mystery challenge, she is such a talented lady. Here is my end result, however I used one photo instead of three.

Tina gave us a sketch challenge. The original sketch is from the talented Beggahuna.

Here is my version of it.


This morning we were out mustering by 5.30am and tonight we are drafting again after dinner...so we're headed for a very long day, especially for one little boy.

Are we mad??

Last night we went down to the shed and drafted 1500 ewes and their lambs...yep...last NIGHT! The days (until this week) have been so hot, that Martin decided to set up a floodlight so we could draft by night.

So at about 7.30pm and after a very early dinner, we headed off. The yards were already full, with more ewes in the netting yard. I'd been told the yards had been watered to settle the dust...well not where I was working!! The sheep did rattle through and in no time at all we were moving those out of the netting yard and drafting again. The drawback?? Stumbling around in the half light at the back of the yards and stumbling over gidyea stones, water pipes and buffel grass stubble!! While Adam was bounding around like a bandicoot (how he can do that after being up since 5am beats me) I preferred to have one foot on the ground at all times. By 9.30pm Nathan was exhausted and found a woolpack to lie on near the race while we finished up. At 10pm we headed home to a shower and bed. "We should draft at night all the time!" was Martin's comment...yeh...and when would we sleep?

Tomorrow night it all happens again!

Nathan and I had the opportunity to take some Christmas photos today. Of course Charli had to be involved too. This photo is one of the best, although neither is smiling!

Getting Adam in a photo is almost impossible, so shall work on that next week when craig and Kathryn are home too.

Shearing got underway this morning. We've had drizzly rain on and off last night and most of today...only enough to be a darned nuisance. however, the weather is way cooler and much better for the shearers.

A long week

This has been a long and busy week, with Monday being our only slower day. We ducked in to town to meet Adam off the bus, only to find the bus was early and he'd been waiting 20 minutes! Oh well that happens. That afternoon we slipped up to our neighbour's for the party of a special little girl celebrating her 3rd birthday...I can't believe how quickly she's growing up. Soon she will be a big sister...

We brought three pups home with us...thank goodness only one will live here...Martin has called his pup "Killer" yeh right!! He's more likely to run up and give you a big lick more so than chew your leg!


And these two are off to Brisbane. This little cute fluffy guy is Kathryn's pup....she's still pondering on a name for him.


This little blue fella is called "Kegs"

Charli loves having some playmates and they've all had their fair share of blues, but eventhough he's so much smaller than them (and twice their age) he gives as good as he gets!

On Tuesday we started mustering for shearing. As the days are so hot, there are 5am starts, a break doing other jobs for a few hours then mustering again resuming at 5pm. On Wednesday we walked a mob of about 2 000 ewes plus their lambs to a paddock closer to the shed, not getting there until 7.50pm. Thank goodness for headlights and luckily there wasn't any traffic as they crossed the main road. Hopefully we didn't leave any lambs hiding under bushes!

Rain for 2009 has been few and far between with our only decent fall for the year coming at Easter. However it didn't cover all of our country. We now have two empty dams, another that's getting very low (it hasn't had any water added to it for about 2 years) and our house dam will only last another fortnight! Martin and Adam shifted the rams from the Ram Paddock as they keep getting bogged in the dam and they are wayyyy to expensive to lose.



Dry dams are a very sad and sorry sight. Hopefully there will soon be respite from the heat and good soaking rains, but it's certainly too late for a green Christmas....maybe New Year??

OTP Items

I have been busily creating OTP items lately...what do you think?

I plan to sell them at our Twilight Markets tomorrow evening.....hopefully anyway! All going well, I should get some more completed this afternoon and tomorrow morning.

Secret Santa

A Secret Santa swap is happening at Scrap with V at the moment and my parcel arrived this morning!! Check this out:

A beautifully decorated Advent Calendar tree, some bling Christmas tree ornaments and some balloons (Nathan will have so much fun with them). Are they all so gorgeous? But wait....there's more....the box included another parcel with a note saying that it had to go under the Christmas tree and be opened Christmas moring! My gorgeous and very generous Secret Santa lives at Gunnedah....thank you so very much, I absolutely love it.

Christmas Cybercrop

A new arrival!

Yesterday afternoon, we welcomed a new member into our little family....his name is Charli. Isn't he just sooo cute?? Charli is a mini foxie and almost 10 weeks old.

My wonderful son Craig and his girlfriend Kathryn have been looking after Charli for the last ten days and put then put him onto Dogmovers on Thursday for his final leg home. It would have been very hard for them to part with Charli. BUT they'll see him whenever they come home. He also came with quite a bit of luggage...food, toys, a heat pack, day bed and a night bed!! (He almost travels heavier than 3 of us do!!)

Charli is very inquisitive, as you can imagine and yesterday wandered straight under the sprinkler, not at all fazed by getting wet!

Nathan is loving having a "little mate" again. Bo doesn't know what to make of such a little dog and doesn't appreciate being yapped at. He and Charli will soon become great mates.

More challenges done!

Nathan and I have both been scrapping this afternoon to get more done for the SWV cybercrop.

Here's his layout for Wendy's kid's challenge: scrap a food you really don't like. Be sure to use ribbon or ric rac and chipboard.

He's the fussiest eater in the back country so the photo choice was vast!

My layout is for Jodi's challenge: scrap imperfect behaviour, feature journaling, the words "Chuckin' a tanty", distressing and a punched shape.

I still have the card challenge to do, but that will have to wait till Saturday.

We also have a special arrival coming on Friday.....but I'm telling you anything more.....yet!

SWV Cybercrop Challenges

I have been busy doing the challenges over a SWV, where the theme is "The Imperfect Parts of life". Some of the challenges called for blurred photos and I am really not comfortable in scrapping them.

Challenge 1 with Brigitte: Main colours of brown, blue and green, 1 blurred photo (mounted on white or cream), a quote or poem and only one type of embellishment. This was also a part blind challenge. Nathan badly wanted me to scrap these photos.


Blind Challenge with Kylie:


Sketch Challenge with Taryn:

Nathan has also complete the Kids' Card Challenge with KylieJ: Make a card that's an unusual shape and not the usual square or rectangle. He has made this Christmas Card for his teacher.


I still have 2 more challenges to complete and Nathan had one, so we are still scrapping.....

Thank you Tina!!

Look at what the gorgeous Tina has given me! How cool! Thank you Tina.

Here are the rules of this award:
1. Use one word answers
2. Pass it along to 5 of your favourite bloggers.
3. Alert them that you have given them this award.
4. HAVE FUN!!

1. Where is your cell phone? Handbag
2. your hair? brushed
3. Your mother? busy
4. Your father? intelligent
5. Your fave food? roast

6. Your dream last night? none
7. Your favourite drink? tea
8. Your dream/goal? contentment
9. What room are you in? Schoolroom
10. your hobby? scrapbooking

11. Your fears? snakes
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? home
13. Where were you last night? home
14. Something that you aren't? lazy
15. Muffins? No

16. Wish list item? rain
17. Where did you grow up? city
18. Last thing you did? eat
19. What are you wearing? clothes
20. Your TV? off

21. Your pets? few
22. Friends? cherished
23. Your life? busy
24. Your mood? relaxed
25. Missing someone? sons

26. Vehicle? Mazda
27. Something your not wearing? shoes
28. Your fave store? scrapbooking
29. Your fave colour? blue
30. Last time you laughed? yesterday

31. Last time you cried? recently
32. Your best friend? talented
33. One place you go over and over? online
34. One person who emails regularly? Chris
35. Fave place to eat? Home

Okay so now the hard part...giving out more awards! Choosing 5 is so much harder that I thought.

1. Neek
2. Amy
3. Wendy
4. Lisa
5. Krissy

One Proud Lad

Our 2nd son Craig was signed off on his apprenticeship on last Friday....one very proud lad!!


And cutting a celebratory cake



He has worked very hard and loves his job in Brisbane with a company that manufactures widening and fixed width trailers for heavy haulage and house removal, like these:




Congratulations Craig, you deserve to be so proud of your achievement. We are so very proud of you.

Next Scrap with V Cybercrop

Hope you can join in the fun.

Card Making Workshop

On the weekend I enjoyed a card making workshop with Mary and John. Mary makes the most beautiful cards and is always keen to share new techniques with us.

The little mice on the card at the left are padded little critters and really quite cute. As you can see, one of the stamped bauble cards features a 3D design.

Mary also showed us how to make this cute little box....all from paper and not a spit of adhesive to be seen. The design locks together beautifully. This is a great way to 'wrap' a gift in a different and fun way. Although it may look complicated, it was really quite simple.

Not Fair!

This morning I had to tell Nathan we had lost another dog, Flash to a snake bite. He burst into tears and cried 'that's not fair.' We've had Flash for about 8 years, getting him from the RSPCA in Brisbane. He was then aged 2 1/2 years and his previous owners had called him Psycho. Flash was wonderful with the kids and adored us all and loved getting attention. Someone had put some time into him and had taught him to 'come, 'sit' and 'stay'.

Flash decided very early in the peace that he was my dog and did all he could to protect me to the extent that if I was holding him, someone else could not pat him...he would bite them. One brother-in-law found that out very quickly! Flash was not a 'snake dog' and if he ever saw one he seemed to turn his back...maybe he did that once too often.


We haven't lost a dog to a snake in over 20 years and now we lose 2 in 24 hours, you just couldn't believe it.

Goodbye Sami

Today I lost my little mini foxie Sami to a snake bite. I am so thankful I was not at home when it happened because I really don't think I would have handled it well. Nathan showed me where he and Martin buried Sami, in the shade of a small tree, and told me I had to say "Goodbye"....I will do that when I am ready, but it wasn't today.



Sami was my dog, my little companion and only 16 months old. He loved to sneak up behind me and then jump up with his skinny little "chicken legs" resting on the back of mine. When I sat down, he'd bound up, make himself comfy on my lap and give me the most adoring looks.

Nathans Kid's Challenges

Nathan created a card and layout for the kid's challenges at the Scrap with V cybercrop.

He plans to give the card to his teacher on World Teacher's Day.

And here's his layout. He chose a photo of he and his Dad taken on the CityCat during our last trip to Brisbane. We love going on the CityCat...a little bit of sanity in a ratrace.

Mini Album

I recently made this mini album for Kathryn as a keepsake from her 21st birthday. Now I am the first to admit, mini albums are not my forte, but I am happy with how this has turned out. The black and white theme is from her party and I chose the pink as that was the colour of the flowers on her cake.

So here 'tis:

Front cover:

Page 1:

Page 2:

And the back cover:

As there were only a few photos, I've put the journaling area on the back to Kathryn can write memories from her party or her birthday.

Final Cybercrop layout.

This afternoon I completed the final SWV challenge.

This is Tina's challenge: Use wordart on a sepia photo and then scrap the photo with a title including the words 'everyday moments'.

Scrapping away....

What a lovely relaxing weekend I've had, scrapping to my heart's content at the Scrap with V cybercrop. The challenges are great and I have thoroughly enjoyed every single one...not that I have completed them all yet!

Kylie's Challenge: Create a layout of something you do everyday...a time you enjoy and has a special meaning BUT no photos!

Some of the finer detail:


My journaling says

This year I am back in the schoolroom as a home tutor...after a break of seven years. Living a distance from town, has meant my children have been educated through a School of Distance Education based in Longreach and I have been the one to teach and supervise their lessons.

This has taken enormous organization and dedication but that’s okay, it’s my children’s education at stake. We’ve had our good days, our fun days, our challenging days and our really bad days. But I wouldn’t swap it for anything. I love knowing what my children learn, being so intimately involved in their schooling, being part of a wonderful school community and making new friends from such a large area.

This will be my ‘everyday’ for the next seven years and I have absolutely no regrets."

Kim's Challenge: Create a layout that includes, a sepia 5 x 7 photo, stamping, gold, die cut paper and 'moment' in the title.

I love this photo of my little man...a very rare quiet and tranquil moment!

Wendy planned a blind challenge and gave out instructions. Here is my interpretation of them:

My son Craig celebreated his 20th birthday at Dreamworld last year and obviously had a wonderful time.

Brigitte posed a card challenge using something old, something new, something recycled and something blue.


Ness provided a sketch challenge:



I still have one challenge to complete...so stay tuned!