2023 Wrap Up

I have just had a sticky beak and I have managed 4 more posts in 2023 compared to 2022. So watch out in 2024 I may just have one post per month which will more than double my 2023 efforts. :-D

Here are the last couple of cards I made this year. The christmas wreath above is made up of various snowflake paper punched shapes and added pearls.

I think my favourite card as red and green and holly are Christmas to me.  I have hand cut the stamped holly shapes and attached to create the wreath.  The berries are punched from red acetate.

Back in October was world teachers day as a small gift to each of the teachers of the school that I work at (nope I'm not a teacher) I cut these apples on my cricut joy.  I'll look for link of apple and add soon.  Other staff put all the pieces together and popped in a lollipop.  The original pattern had the lollipop stick coming out the bottom, I felt very clever being able to change the shape so that the stick could come out the top allowing the apples to sit in teachers pigeon holes.

I'm very excited to have new shoots appearing on these lemon tree cuttings I have taken from Mum's tree.  Her tree produced so many lemons she was constantly giving them away for free.  One of these will be for me which I plan on growing in a pot and one for my sister.  I learnt that aloe vera gel is a great alternate to rooting powder.

The jigsaw we completed Christmas Day.

Which brings me to the last day of the year.  Thanks for visiting throughout the year, I wish you and your family a happy and accomplished 2024.  See you next year. :-)

 

December 23 - what a month

December started very nicely with a group of four of girlfriends staying overnight across the road from the Cairns Esplanade.  We were celebrating one of the ladies birthdays and this was our afternoon view.

Night time came and this was now our view, much talking, laughter and the fifth person from NZ joined us via Viber.

We woke to this the following morning......the little dots are all the boats heading out to the reef due the water being so flat.  Mind you the humidity was high and temperature hot.  We opted to window shopping (yes, some items were bought) in the little boutiques around the Cairns streets followed by lunch in aircon before heading home.

The following week I had Covid, thankfully not to painfully but it did really wipe me out with tiredness.  During this week our Mum's house went on the market as she has moved into aged care.  Yes emotional at times, as my parents only ever had the one house, so a lot of years have been spent there.  Thankfully, the house went under contract in a week from putting it on the market.  Now it's time to clear out all the memories, we have until mid January.  Each time I visit to do a little more sorting I am realising it is just a house and Mum is the home.  Mum is happy where she is although would dearly love to be back in the house but her having dementia (the reason she move) the house was too big for her and she was getting sad at not keeping up with the gardens like she used to.

This past week we have Cyclone Jasper visit, the winds didn't cause much damage at all as he was a category two and our building codes really ensure things stay where they are.  However, the rains that followed for a constant three days has meant lots of record flooding.  North of Cairns the flooding has caused devastation.

Barron River flowing to the ocean

Cairns Airport

Thankfully we live south of Cairns and were safe, have had a minor leak in our ceiling, possibly due to the winds from the cyclone pushing rain under a join.  This is the creek that runs alongside our property.  We haven't seen it flow like this for a few years now but it normally is a yearly event for it to flow over the road.

This photo was taken 40mins after the one above, as you can see it clears pretty quickly.  The bridge did go over  a lot of times in the three days of constant rain.

Along the back of our property we have an easement which also flowed strongly.  You can see from the tideline of debris how wide this flow would have been.  There was one section that it did break the bank but it always flows straight back towards the creek and not the house. 

View from back our yard up to the bridge in the earlier photos.  This was day four and now it looks like a gentle stream.  By the end of the week it will only be a trickle.  It always amazes me how quickly the water goes away. Majority of the year this creek is bone dry.

Well that is my December, I'm ready for 2024.  Christmas will be a very quiet affair for us and a lot of people in Cairns this year.

 

Merry and Bright Christmas Cards

Morning everyone, what a beautiful start to our morning here, a little bit of rain.  I don't feel it will be here all day but it has broken our dry spell.  We have been on fire ban for the past month due the dryness. Today I have the two November swap cards I have done for Craftmad Swappers (an Australian card swap group). The last six months of this year our swaps are all Christmas cards with themes.  For November one card had to be Merry and Bright and the second card wash Merry and Bright with ornaments.

Hope you wake to some lovely weather.

Michaelmas Cay and Vlasoff Cay

 Morning everyone, thanks to those who have visited.  It has been so lovely seeing familiar names and inspires me more to get back into blogging and visiting online friends around the world.  Time to share some more boating photos.

The weather was awesome yesterday to take the boat out to the reef, so we headed out to Michaelmas Cay and Vlasoff Cay as did a lot of other people.  This was an hour boat ride for us on almost flat water - magic.

Trinity Inlet - Cairns on the left

Cairns shoreline

 Michaelmas Cay is a bird sanctuary which humans can (should) only be in a certain roped off area near the sign you will see in the photo below and also only be there between 9.30am and 3pm.  We swam ashore to check out the birds and reread the sign, it's been about 5 years since we've been out here.  A lot of chicks and birds sitting on eggs on the Cay at the moment.  Snorkelling was the next on the agenda on the way back to the boat, we saw a turtle, loads of pretty coral - purples, pinks and I even spied one red rose shaped coral/weed.  Lots of fish - big and small, parrot fish and even a couple of Nemo's (ocellaris clown fish), star fish and sea cucumbers and much more.  I just don't know the names.

Michaelmas Cay

Michaelmas Cay

The water was so clear we almost didn't need to snorkel but had too swim as the temperature was also perfect.  We were all prunes by the end of the day - so much swimming.

For lunch we decided we'd head to Vlasoff Cay about 5mins from Michaelmas. That white mark in the middle of the ocean.

Everyone else was here too. :-). As it was lunch time a lot of people out fishing come in here to stretch their legs.  The water was so shallow as we had anchored the boat here and were able to walk to the cay if we wanted too.  

Heading home, back down Trinity Inlet and around Admiralty Island to Redbank ramp. Once the boat is on the trailer it is only a 15 min drive home.  Then it's time to wash the boat, followed by doing nothing as we are exhausted from the sunshine, fresh air and swimming all day. :-). 

Thanks for visiting again, hoping your day has a little special in it somewhere.

Sunday's out in our boat

I'm back with a couple of boating photos.  Yes, we have a new boat as of July a few delays, weather and mechanical before we have been able to enjoy the boat.  The last two weekends the weather has been perfect and we finally made it to the reef. 

Our first trip to Barnard group of islands off Mourilyan.  This is Jessie island - beach is a mixture of coral and sand.  We also found a couple of little caves to investigate.

This one is Hutchinson Island, again beach a mixture or coral and sand.  We happily searched for shells amongst it all.

Me, practicing my water walking skills :-D

Yesterday, we went to Fitzroy Island out from Cairns, did lots of snorkelling and simply enjoyed swimming in the water.

Us going ashore from our boat.


Happy Monday.

 

Crafts so far in 2023

 Hi everyone, I accidentally clicked on my blog link as I was heading somewhere else this morning and thought why not share the little bit of crafting I have done so far this year.  I must say it was interesting going back through my photos as I see that my husband and I have done a lot of travel and a lot of things around the house.  This answered my nagging question of 'why don't I seem to make it to the craft room these days'.  :-)  No promises but I might be back tomorrow to share a couple of travel photos.  Our travels have all been in Australia and ticking a few bucket list boxes.  Places we have visited are Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Darwin, Kangaroo Island, Alice Springs, Katherine Gorge, Atherton Tablelands, Mission Beach, Hervey Bay, Maryborough, Mackay.

Below are the few cards etc I have made this year.  Thanks for visiting, could possibly be a year before my next post. :-)

Sympathy card - using my new papers with some paper piecing.

Sympathy card - inspiration from Pinterest - torn papers to create the theme and chalks to create the sun and the sky.

The theme for this card swap was flowers and arrows.

The inside of the card above, my first try of a pop-up vase card.  A tiny bit fiddly but a card technique I will do again. I think I made it fiddly because I wasn't sure what I was doing. ;-)

My new workspace had empty planter boxes waiting for real plants.  I decided to create my own flowers and add some colour to the space.

I added wooden skewers to all the flowers as stems and taped them in the planter boxes.

For this card swap we were tasked to create 4 x cards using the papers from a paper pad that was sent to us in the previous swap.

Playing on the Cricut for my sons birthday - he has a cute dog like this.

This swap we had to use embossing folders and have an inspirational saying.

The theme for this card was to use lace.

The second card we swapped was lace with a colour combo of pink, grey and white

My tea cosy this year for the local tea cosy competition......not in to win, just helping with the entry numbers.

This swap we had to make an approx 10cm gift box and fill with crafty goodies for our partner. I really had a good time creating this book box. Everything except the ribbon holding the tassel is paper or card stock.

All our cards for the last six months this year are Christmas cards to help everyone build their stash. On top of that we add two more requirements.  So this card is Christmas with glitter.  The photo doesn't show but I have used red glitter paper in the background and placed the iridescent coloured gems on the white zig zag, it took a while but a meditative thing to do.  Great after a big work week.

This card had to have Christmas - Glitter and Ornaments

For September we had to have Christmas and ribbon - I really love how this card turned out and if I find time to make more cards for friends and family at Christmas I think this is it.

The second card had to have - Christmas - ribbon and poinsettias.  I finally got to use this wonderful embossing folder I was given one year in a Secret Santa swap.  I have added a little chalk to the image to bring the image out a little more.  The background card I wrapped with a ribbon.

Well thanks for visiting, I hope your 2023 has had and will have some good moments in it. I do suggest going back through your photos for this year to remind yourself how much you have done and achieved so far this year.  I actually am thinking I can give myself a little slack as now I can see why I don't make it to my craft room as often as I like.