Kaisercraft Storage Drawers

I've altered this set of Kaisercraft storage drawers for a lovely friend for her birthday.

Side view:

Joy, happy belated birthday...I hope you like these.

I've also made these cards for 2 challenges at Scrap Pile


This card is for the Lazy days of summer competition - week 2:

Odds and sods

Today we began Year 1 ...with a bang!! There was no easing in for a week or so, just straight into work with a touch of revision. Having a handwriting book came as a big shock to my little Dude...he's a 'near enough is good enough' kinda kid and I'm a 'always do your best and be proud of your effort" kinda gal...so our year will prove interesting. This morning on notices, we learnt who our teacher is but are yet to chat with her on the phone. She's new to LSODE but not to the bush, so I daresay it will take her no time at all to settle in.

Here's a little something we did today:


Martin and Robert began building our coldroom today. We bought panels in Brisbane last year so it's a big jigsaw to put together. With Rob's experience, it's been made easier. Soon we'll be able to stock it!! How exciting, hmmmm and expensive.

Yesterday afternoon I went down to Washpool waterhole and took these:

Party Invitation

Nathan celebrates his 6th birthday in 2 weeks. He has chosen a treasure chest cake, so to follow that he's having a Pirate dress up party. We worked on his invitations recently. What do you think??


I have a few other things to make in preparation for his party. If you have any wonderful ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Photo share

This is the sunset we had last night! So full of colour with the sunlight reflecting off the clouds.

I had a bit of a play with the bulb setting on my camera last night too. We headed outside with a packet of sparklers, and I just kept snapping away hoping to get something decent. I am happy with the way these turned out.




Yesterday we drafted all of our sale ewes, mainly to split them up, give them a count and put them into different paddocks. Unless more miraculously turn up, we have lost about 300 in the flooding. Down at the yards, Martin was drafting, I was keeping the sheep up to him and Nathan (almost 6) was doing a mighty fine job of keeping the sheep up to me... all by himself. We were very proud of him.

Layout Share

Nathan adored his prep teacher. One of her favourite sayings is "You Rock!" hence the title of this layout.

One of the cluster days last year had a pirate theme and the kids dressed up. It was also close to the teacher's birthday so we made her a pirate bithday cake...with candles of course!

Lazy Days of Summer

Over at Scrap Pile the Lazy Days of Summer competition has started and the first challenge posted.

The theme of water fun was first up:


I love this Kaisercraft Offshore Collection, so used them to complete the January Sketch Challenge over at Scrap with V

Shutter Challenge

The latest Shutter challenge was uploaded this morning. The theme is 'Decrepit'. Living on a property, there have plenty of decrepit things this around. I am sure Martin feels he fits this category on some days. lol

Still no mail

Would you believe we are yet to get a mail run this year? The last time we had a mail run was just before New Year!! We were sure we'd get a mail run this last Wednesday, but because the council still had our road closed (yep high and dry but a few nasty washouts), it couldn't happen as our mail contractor wouldn't have been covered by insurance if they'd damaged their vehicle. The council started grading our road on Wednesday; just a light grade as it's too wet underneath to do more. Today is mail day again...this time our neighbours on the town side had 80 pts of rain last night! So no mail again. Maybe next Wednesday.....

We were surrounded by storms but only 22pts here....not that it hasn't made it rather wet! There was the whole shebang, thunder, lightning and galeforce winds. We were hoping to truck our wool out this arvo. Shall have to see what the day brings and how quickly Nev can unload what he brought back from Brisbane and Toowoomba.

We got out to the last of our dams yesterday. Look good hey?

Here's one of Martin and his pup walking back to the Nissan. You can hardly see Killer in the grass and he's not a little pup.


Nathan, the pups and I walked home from the grid and the rams were grazing not far from us. Check out the big thunderheads in the sky behind them!

Bend Hole Dam

Bend Hole Dam would be the most photographed dam on our property and it's not hard to see why.

The backwaters at each of the dams are like lakes...water everywhere but only relatively shallow. The bird life seems to increase almost daily.

I have always wanted to get a good photo of a water reflection and at Bend Hole dam I found just that.


On Tuesday we had to go to Longreach. Luckily we knew what the sandflies would be like and we were prepared. The minute we arrived and opened the car doors...they flooded in! Shops and businesses with air-conditioning were lucky, but there were plenty that didn't have that privilege.

I picked up Khloee's vaccinations from the vet while there. She wasn't at all happy to sit still to have it or with me when I gave it to her.

Dams are full!

Yesterday we went to town. More rain is forecast and we needed to restock the pantry and freezer. The creeks were all done but the river in town was just below the bridge. The road leaves a lot to be desired and the council has a lot of work ahead of it.

Today we were able to get to most of the dams...only two to go. Check them out!
Isn't it one of the best sights?



Here are some other photos from the day. The big tree in the bottom right photo is standing in the backwater of one of the dams. In a few weeks, that whole are will be teeming with birdlife; there are already quite a number of ducks there. It's not unusual to find black swans there when it's full like this.


My friend Joy completed her challenge. I extended it until midday today as we spent a good few hours at their place yesterday. It was nice to have other adults for company and Nathan loved playing with her boys.

Mud, water and more mud!

Today was dry enough to go for a bit of a drive around, as long as we stayed on the roads....well sort of. We headed down to the Washpool to see if it was crossable as we had a pump on the other side that we were worried about. We got to the Washpool to find a big silt bank across the middle of the waterhole and then when we were coming home...we got bogged....well Martin calls it 'a bit stuck'. Yeh right...we weren't going anywhere! With the help of branches and some hay (from the bale on the back of the vehicle) we eventually got out.


Martin went back in the loader after lunch and was able to remove the silt bank.

At the pump shed, we found that the while the water had gone through the shed (see the high tide mark on the wall and the mud and sludge on the floor) the pump went underwater but the motor didn't...so that was a big relief.


When returning home, our neighbour called needing help as she was bogged. The girls had gone driving and checking on waters and flood damage, when they went off the track and into the soft soil that covered their poly pipe line. They really were bogged and took a bit of pulling out!

What fun in the mud!

More snapshots of today....green grass, water and putting out hay for the lambs.

Joy's Challenge

My cheeky friend Joy, challenged me to have this photo scrapped by sundown today. She knows full well I cannot resist a challenge.

Tessa is the new daughter of our neighbours and good friends Stuart and Pauline. In this photo she's only 2 days old.

This layout is based on the sketch challenge at Scrap n Art and the kit was one I purchased from Lisa.

Now Joy has her own challenge to complete...before sundown tomorrow! lol She has already tried on an excuse for an extension in time, but sadly for her, it didn't work!

Karen's Challenge

Over at Scrap Boutique, Karen has posted the January Stylist Challenge in her role as Guest Stylist. As you can see from my layout, it was to use minimal products.

I had been wanting to scrap these photos and more about Nathan's prep year, so this challenge was perfect and gave me plenty of space to journal.

Shutter

I have joined a photography site called Shutter. The first challenge for 2010 is to take a photo to the theme of Luminate.

I took this one of a ball Nathan was given for Christmas with a setting on my camera that my sister Lea told me about. It's called BULB. It was fun to experiment with. Wish I knew about this when I was taking photos of our Christmas tree!

Has the rain ended??

Would you believe we have not had any significant rain since 4.30pm yesterday? Just the odd little very light shower that wouldn't even register in the rain gauge.

Yesterday from 7am to 4.30pm it rained constantly...240 pts worth! It was perfect weather to listen to the cricket on the radio and create 6x6 pages for SCKC! We've now had 15 1/2 inches of rain since Christmas Day....this is almost up to our yearly average of 19 1/2 inches....not that we have been getting that too often in the last 10 years.

This afternoon we went for a walk up to the main road and then along it for about 1km. I was amazed to find that the back water of our house dam could be seen from the road...and it wasn't a matter of knowing which trees to look between. Nathan and the dogs loved playing in the water in the side drains and discovering tadpoles swimming between their feet. The grass has now taken on what I refer to as 'as indecent shade of green'...almost an emerald green. Looks magnificent!

The Barcoo River is now up over the bridge in town but not impassable. Obviously there has been less rain at the headwaters. The water from our creeks flows into the Barcoo below town so they do not have a dramatic effect but will hold the river up for longer.

Snapshots of Today

You wouldn't believe it....more rain. I hope this doesn't mean the rest of the year will be dry. We measured another 82pts this morning and it's been raining all morning making it well and truly over an inch. We are now over 13inches since Christmas Day.


This little guy was hanging around all day yesterday. We were surprised at what a high pitched call this kingfisher has...even Nathan's budgie started answering him.

Yesterday I started on my pages for SCKC....a great wet weather activity.

SCKC Page Drive 2010

This morning I received an email from Julie Stone looking for support to help create simple pages for the 2010 Southern Cross Kids Camp

Firstly I would like to say Thank so much for your support of the needy and most deserving kids that came to SCKC in 2009 . The pages you donated in 2009 helped us all create books for them that mean more to them than my simple words can ever convey. We have however had the opportunity in late 2009 to start a pilot Club program for some of the local SCKC kids and the most talked about item of camp is their memory albums. In fact across Australia the importance of the 24/7 memory anchoring of the photo books is repeated time after time via case worker, carer, social worker etc, they too find it hard to put into words what these books mean to each child.

I was hoping once again you would be kind enough to help out with basic pages for the memory albums for Kids across Australia who attend Southern Cross Kids Camps in 2010. These may be repeat campers and or new campers, new little sad souls who will benefit from our combined showing of unconditional love.

We need lots of pages again, especially pages that would suit boys or even both genders. Simple 6 x 6 pages are required with minimal stickers or embellishments. Often a set of 20 pages with a simple row of circles or triangles or a strip of patterned paper combined with a photo mat ends up looking amazing when the photos are placed along with journaling and stickers provided to the buddy's who assemble the books. I have attached a few simple examples from last years contributions. Also the link to my original request for pages to give you or your friends a reminder of what SCKC is all about.http://juliestone.typepad.com/crazycaterpillar_/2008/02/sckcany-chance.html

Their website is http://www.sckc.org.au/index.php?id=4 to read some of the kids stories or check out what SCKC are all about.

If you are able to help us out please email me with your "I am in" reply and I will send out more detailed specs, if you are unable to help us out please let every scrapper you know via email, blog, face book etc that the SCKC Page drive for 2010 is on. Pages to fulfill the 2010 camps will be needed by Feb 20th. I may be a tad slow in reply with the details as we are heading away on wed the 6th but I will do everything I can to get back to you asap.

I hope your answer will be a resounding yes and on behalf of the kids of SCKC I say a huge THANKS in advance.

If you are able to offer support, Julie would love to hear from you.

This afternoon while it was raining (yes, we picked up another inch!) I was happily ensconced in my scrapbooking area creating my layout for the SWV January Scraplift challenge. The original layout was by the very talented Ingvild Bolme.


Yesterday Martin was able to get to town. He took in the visiting cousins our of neighbours and then needed to get home. The kids had to swim a flooded creek in order to just leave the property. Then the three of them sat at a creek for over an hour until Martin deemed it just low enough for them to cross....they had three channels to get through. Earlier in the day, we had contacted the owners of the local bakery and the manager of our grocery store and they were both happy to meet Martin at their respective businesses in order for him to bring out food supplies for 4 properties. Aaaah...the advantages of living in a small rural community. We are indebted to Graham and Zoe.

Martin was able to cross Terrick Hole this afternoon to find we have lost quite a few sheep from one paddock in the flood waters. It's a heartbreaking sight.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Playtime

I have completed this layout with the Black with 2 Challenge in mind. The criteria is: black with blue and crisp white, snowflakes, lace and glitter. I have glittered the little snowflakes and title alphas are glittery as well

Soggy

Last night saw us get another heavy downpour of just over an inch of rain. It appears to have been our storm, one neighbour had 12pts and two others not a drop!

Late yesterday afternoon, we were able to go for a little drive around, but not far as creeks were still flooded.

Don't you love this colour? Years ago, I decided that while black may be the opposite of white, green is definitely the opposite of brown.


What a wonderful sight...to see sheep (in this case some of our rams) grazing in a green paddock.

This photo of the house dam was taken New Year's Eve. I know, not the best colour...but hey, it's water and it's full! At this stage we can't get to any of the other dams....hoping they look as good though!

First Layouts for 2010!

Yay!! My first two layouts for 2010. They are not for any challenges, just recent photos I was eager to scrap.

I haven't done a simple layout with clean lines in quite some time and also I found these very old KI Memories papers that suited the photo perfectly. Adam was showing Nathan how to get through some part of a game on his new DS....and having a little trouble with it I suspect!

All of our dogs over the years have been males, so we feel that we're a little in uncharted waters with a very little female settling in. She, however lets the boys know that although she may be small and the youngest, she's no pushover! She certainly stands her ground...hence the title "Princess with Attitude".

Now I really must look at all the challenges on offer at the moment.

Oh...more rain yesterday...only 53 pts but talk about wet again! There was still water lying this morning. For awhile, we had clear blue sky and sunshine this morning...but not for long. More rain is forecast, so anything can happen.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all my friends and fellow bloggers.

Let's pray that 2010 is a great year for us all.

We were to go to a "Beach Party" last night, but present weather conditions saw us stay at home. Craig was on the phone at midnight....cheeky lad!

We closed off our rainfall chart for 2009 this morning. Our December total was 932 pts (232.75mm)....our wettest December since 1950...our rainfall records don't precede that year.