The year is flying by....

Things have been a little crazy here over the last month or so. The days are going so quickly, and it's been very busy. I can't believe we are nearly half way through the year already. I went to Ann's scrapbooking retreat in May at Kilcoy. Managed to get a few pages done, was a bit off my mojo though, so didn't get as many as usual done, I procrastinated a lot, but I had a nice break. I travelled down with a girl friend, and we went the scenic route on the way down, and stopped at a lovely cheese shop at Goomeri and bought some beautiful cheeses and pastes to indulge in over our weekend. These are the few pages I did:

Kasey feeding some poddy calves at a friend's place.

 These are a couple of my favourite photos. I hired a truck to pick up a lounge I bought off ebay, and Toni came with me to help me load it up. The first photo was when we were about to set off on our way...while we were loading the lounge, it bucketed down on us, drenching us both, the 2nd photo is the after shot...

 Then I thought I would do a few pages with lots of photos to get through some of my huge stash of pics, the first was of my chickens:

 This page is still of my chickens, but this was a class we did  on the Saturday morning, the photo's are on flaps which open out, revealing lots more photos underneath.

 Then this page was of a visit we did to the Flying High bird sanctuary, Kasey wasn't real keen on the bird on her shoulder

 This pic is of our gorgeous pups

 This page was based on the chicken page, and also has lift up flaps depicting lots of things from our farm

 I loved doing this page, very simple but elegant at the same time, depicting a morning scene here on the farm

The puppies are doing well. I have finally managed to get Stella putting on some weight, she has finally hit the 2kg mark and she is coming out of her shell more and more each week. Here they are curled up together on the lounge.

Sam has the biggest personality. He is so cheeky and loveable. He loves to play in the dirt, and even though he is white, he manages to clean himself up quite well...especially considering when he does this:

We also did a weekend holiday over to Fraser Island with 3 other families, even though it was only from Friday through to Sunday, we had a great time. I had a local animal carer come in and feed and look after the animals for me, which made things a lot easier.

I had a clutch of araucana's ready to hatch when I got back from Fraser, I had 2 hatch out and then Max knocked the incubator off the bench where it was, and the 2 that had hatched survived, but a number of others cracked and either weren't fertile, or were dead, and the rest did not end up hatching...so I only ended up with 2 out of the 9 eggs...seems to be the way it is for me, only a small number...I hope I can improve on that in spring. I have got a couple of big tubs now set up with some lettuce, silverbeet and shallots growing, and a few cabbage planted in the garden.

  I hope to plant up 1 or 2 more tubs of vegies, but I don't want to go overboard at this stage, just a little at a time. We have also purchased our first bull, a purebred registered Droughtmaster, he is due to arrive tomorrow. He is a lovely quiet boy, and he has been tested for fertility as well, so I hope he is easy for us to manage. The heifers we have here are all at the age where they are ready to breed, and I will put him over our Jersey as well, to get her started also. We chose the Droughtmasters for a number of reasons, and the small calf size was a big swing for us as well with the first time heifers. We hope to sell the calves once they are about 6 months old, and start to build up a purebred droughtmaster herd. I had a big de-clutter session here last Friday, as we just don't have the room here to hoard stuff, so I got rid of old magazines and general bits and pieces, and de-cluttered the bathroom as well and re-arranged things a little. I still have to finish off my decorating. I requested and received a Kreg drill jig for Mothers Day, so I will start to build myself a few bits and pieces to decorate with. Damian has also started doing up my craft studio, but I think that will take a few more weeks yet, as we have had a few weekends away. Anyway, I think that is all for a bit of a catchup for now...hopefully the bull arrives tomorrow and I can post a few pics then...

My scrapbooking weekend

I did lots and lots of pages at last week's scrapbooking retreat.  It seems to be the only time at the moment that I get to sit down and concentrate on scrapping....sigh.... anyway....I find scrapbooking, sewing, painting (not house painting...blah) or any form of craft that I can immerse myself into very therapuetic, and it takes away any other worries of the day....here are the pages from the weekend:

Back home after a weekend of scrapbooking

I have been away a couple of days on a scrapbooking retreat.  Had a great time, will post pics tomorrow hopefully. I am pretty tired tonight, so will update the blog in the next few days.  I have come home to a bit of a disaster though unfortunately...the whole place falls apart when I am not here...  Kasey had hayfever when I got home, and a bit of asthma, and was soooo tired, and would cry at the drop of a hat, Damian is pretty tired as he had a really long day at work yesterday, and Toni had left dishes all over the bench in the kitchen, clothes all over the floor in the bathroom and her room is a mess.  There was no sign of dinner being cooked, so baked beans on toast for dinner.  It is very annoying to go away for a cople of days and come home to a disaster zone.   So the first part of this week will be trying to re-organise things here...stop the world...I need to get off for a while! 

The last few days updated, and routine still out of reach....

What a beautiful few days weather wise we have had, beautiful warm days, cool nights...lovely. Friday I went to an overlocker session at the sewing centre as they were doing a demo on the babylock overlockers. These are definitely fabulous machines, they thread themselves and tension themselves automatically, and threading my overlocker is the most frustrating part of using the overlocker. They are very expensive though, $3500 for the model I would look at, which is insane for an overlocker...so I will be sticking to my trusty Janome for now...I don't use it enough to justify that sort of money, if I was sewing in a commercial environment then I would definitely look at it. 

Had a scrapbooking crop on Friday night, haven't been to one for a couple of months because Damian had been away, but it took me a while to get back in the groove, and I forgot the bag with my ribbons and inks etc in it, so couldn't finish the pages I made, but I had a good start on them. Kasey starts ballet lessons this afternoon, she has been begging for months to go, but after doing the insane running around for years with Toni at ballet I just was not wanting to go down that path. But Kasey spends almost all of her time dancing like a ballerina around the house that I felt bad not letting her go. I found a ballet school close by.....in fact it is only 2 doors up in the same street!  I didn't even know they were there, but it is a fully operational studio, and they are going to put her in the end of year production etc..and we can walk to class, which is absolutely fantastic. So I need to go this afternoon before class and purchase her leotard and shoes, all of the shoes I have kept from Toni are from her later years and are too big for her unfortunately.

Damian did a bit more work in the spare room yesterday, we have had to pull almost all of 1 wall out now as we found damage further up the wall, and the door frames are next. We are going to pull the carpet up in there as well and replace it, as the carpet is 18 years old and is starting to look a bit tired like many other things here including the owners! I have been to the dentist this morning and had the tooth that broke off repaired, so that feels much better now, and I only need 2 other very small holes fixed before they start to become a problem, other than that my teeth are all good...nice to know. I think that is everything that I have been up to the last few days updated now....

I am still desperately trying to get some sort of routine happening....I am trying really hard to get up at 6am in the mornings, but it's not happening, I heard the alarm going off this morning on my phone, but ignored it...6 times!......before finally getting up at 7.....I was asleep by 9.30 last night so I should have been able to achieve it.....I haven't been able to implement my daily routine that I put in place a few weeks ago, I have been writing a list each day though and have been getting through that, which is a good start.  I might have to put some more thought in to how I can get past this issue though....perhaps 1 thing a day at the same time each day and expand on that....

Noodle Box Christmas Crackers

I like this idea, it was in the Homelife Newsletter sent to me today, which is part of the Notebook magazine. Something a little different to the Xmas Cracker/BonBon......

Bargain of the year!!!

This has got to be the bargain of the year!  When I took Toni to look at her car a couple of  months ago, we were taking it for a test drive with the owner of the car in the back seat. As I was driving around, I spotted on the side of the road a green tote trolley bag, in a kerbside cleanup. I pulled over and asked Toni to run back and pick it up for me. The look on her face was priceless...she looked at me and said "No Way!!!"  I got out and picked it up, and the handles were missing, I asked the young guy who owned to car to open the boot and he had to clear quite a few things out of the way to fit it in. It was sooo funny, Toni was so embarrassed. Anyway, this tote is worth about $180 to buy, as it is a purpose built scrapbooking trolley, and has lots of great pockets and the front section fans open to hold 12 x 12 papers and cardstock. I have had the handle repaired for $20, so that is all this has cost me. Damian picked it up for me a couple of days ago.  It is fabulous, so now I just need to fill it up!

Here is also a pic of the Midwest Mod Pillows. I finished the third one on Monday, so here is the complete set.

Scrapping weekend and cushions

Well....what a busy time it has been the last week or so...the days are just blurring into one another. Last Thursday I spent all day running around and packing. Friday I prepped a wedding for Kirsty..her flowers ended up stunning..

I went to the scrapbooking retreat at Brookfield over the weekend with Ann. Did lots and lots of lovely pages:

This is Damian's mum as a little girl. I am doing an album for her 75th birthday next year, so started a few pages for her at the retreat. I got a few done, which makes me feel much better about getting it all done in plenty of time. These are the other pages I made:

Yesterday, I went to sewing class, and finished off 2 of the 3 cushions we are making. I absolutely love them, and I am going to put them on the white wicker set on our verandah. I just love the colours and the vibrancy. I am soooo proud of these, they look sooo professional.

I still have 1 more to do next Monday, which is about the size of a normal pillow. I want to make more of the round petal ones, but a bit smaller for the 2 chairs that go with this setting. I was supposed to go to a morning embroidery class this morning, but wasn't up to it, I am in need of a few quieter days at home. Have done heaps of washing today, and caught up on some wedding paperwork, and uploading some photos etc. I am definitely looking forward to a few quiet days at home this week, next week will busy up again, as I have 2 weddings at the end of the week.