Happy New Year and last week of the old one

Morning everyone and a Happy New Year, wishing you the best it can be. I plan to try to keep up my momentum of blog posting in 2022.  

I thought I would share what I am currently working on. A friend gave me this Christmas 2020 which I started and it was pushed to the side when I had card marking to do or some sewing, slowly forgotten.  I am being very determined to complete this now to give back to my friend either now or on her birthday 8th February.

I do enjoy making each of these tiny pieces and can't wait to put the whole Diorama together however, it is very time consuming.  

These are the pieces for this little cart - I have already assembled the cart section and filled it with cut up raffia only to realise I hadn't used the paper covering up near the knife so that the outside of the cart has a woodgrain look.

Tadah! all the pieces together to create the cutest cart ever.

This was our inspiration card for one of the cards we swapped for the Craftmad December swap.

We are always keen for new Aussie cardmakers to join in our monthly swaps please visit the Facebook page here.

My take on the photo above - I had a lot of fun putting my flower dies to use.

Our second theme was Cats which I don't have much of in my stash so very happy I received a Cricut Joy cutter for Christmas from my husband.  Something I had not even thought of or even wanted but now keen to discover what I can do.  This is my first card using one of the Cricut files I found.

Over at Craftmad Card swaps each year we do a Secret Santa swap.  We all agreed to swap some bling as it was flat, light and cheaper to send through the post.  This is my wonderful and fun gift from my Secret Santa, some of which I have already put to use in the cards above.

Another gift from the friend above who gave me the Diorama - a Murder Mystery jigsaw - Death on the Nile.  This comes with a little story of seven pages which gives you an idea of what the jigsaw image will be as it's not the one on the box cover.  It did challenge us at times but I found that everyone was keen to be involved with this jigsaw compared to ones I have done where we know the image. 

Spoiler alert — don't keep scrolling if you have this puzzle and don't want to know the image.

The outcome.

This photo was taken mid year when my succulents look the nicest and passionfruit vine is lush green and blooming.  I have been wanting to redo my succulent garden as it was a veggie garden in its earlier life so has the wrong soil for a succulents.  I also wanted to build a stronger support for the passionfruit vine which lifted it off the garden.

Finally did that, installing this trellis on longer star pickets.  There were two vines before, as the one up the far end was older I removed that so we can grow the newer vine along the edge of the garden.  Next stage is adding something to the soil so there is better drainage in the soil for the succulents.  That won't happen until March as it's way to hot now and the wet season is starting.

Some pretty flowers from the succulent garden.

My puppy and I did a walk along the Esplanade one morning, such a beautiful start to the day.

Amazing sky.

Well that was the end of December for me. Hopefully, I am back next week sometime sharing some photos of what I do this week…..for which I have no plans at this stage.

Thanks for popping on by.

Kayaking around Double Island, Palm Cove Australia

 

The view we started with off Palm Cove

Back at the beginning of November I ticked another thing off my bucket list. Growing up in Cairns we would often visit Palm Cove on the weekends and just offshore you can see Double Island and Scout Hat Island (real name Haycock Island) - Wikipedia info here and has a photo of Double Island which I didn't think to take. Over the years it was a resort for the rich and famous and I am neither of them, so never visited.  I discovered that you can kayak around Double Island and thought this is my chance to finally make it there.  So with the help of Brad from Palm Cove Watersports my friend and I were up at 5.30am for a 6am start of kayaking.  

We are on our way in a double kayak, just my friend and our guide Brad heading to Scout Hat Island both of us thinking - "what are we doing".

Yep, I led the way and my friend steered us from behind as I was hopeless at that.

Just around the top end of Double Island to back of the island…..lovely calm waters.

Looking back to Palm Cove and Buchans Point from Double Island

 So sad that to see that since this island has been closed to the public that things have just been left to become derelict.   This is a gym.

If you look through the reflections you can see the gym equipment is just sitting there as if someone had used it yesterday except for the rust that is growing on it.  Such a shame this equipment was not sold off or donated to someone that could have used it.

One of the Eco Cabins falling apart.

We enjoyed a walk around the shores of Double Island

Even spied a couple of Shovel Nosed Sharks in the water, this is about 40cm long.

I loved every moment of this adventure and keen to do again one day.  The day we went was a little windy  - about 9 - 10 knots so we didn't get to see the amazing reef we were floating over or the turtles that live around the island.  My cousin and her husband did a similar tour four days after us and she said it was flat as, turtles everywhere and the reef so pretty.

Olive Backed Sunbird

This will be a long post with lots of photos. :-) 

Morning everyone, hope you have had a great Christmas and it went to your plans, if not to plan it was still lovely all the same.  Our Christmas was the latter - nothing drastic happened just not as I thought it would. My husband surprised me with a Cricut Joy cutter, something I didn't even know I needed but now I can imagine so many possibilities.  If anyone has one I would love to hear some hints, tips or great blogs/sites I can visit.

Today I want to share photos of the the little Olive Back Sunbirds that have chosen our back verandah as their nesting area.  It has been such a pleasure and joy watching them build their nest, sit on the eggs, feed the chicks and very quiet and sad when they all fly from the nest.  More info here.

The couple of sunbirds joined us 2nd October and they decided to build their nest on one of my succulents.

One day when the chicks were hatched we had a bit of strong wind which blew the nest to the ground. Luckily, my husband found them and reattached the nest to the succulent with electrical tape.  Everyone was happy and continued on growing.

This is the hard working Mum. By the end of October they were gone.

I moved the nest from the succulent and tied it up with a shoelace further down the verandah so I could again water my plants.  We had heard that these birds use the same nest over and over.

Two more eggs

Lucky us, they did and weren't worried about the slight change in scenery.  I was amazed as they just seemed to move back in on the 2nd December with no repairs happening.

And just like that they flew the nest yesterday 28th December.

I hope you enjoyed the journey of these little birds.

Christmas Creations 2021

Hi everyone, well it's Christmas Eve here and the perfect time to share all my Christmas creations I have made this year.  I have continued on with the challenge to myself to use up all the christmas papers and embellishments I have so I can start afresh next year. I have had a wonderful time creating and knowing that my papers etc are getting put to use rather than sitting in my binder year after year.

This year to help me achieve this challenge the only Christmas decoration I have put up is the christmas tree and fairy lights.

I had fun trying some of the different origami christmas ornament tutorials.  Most of them are easily done. I think I had two styles that didn't make it to the tree.

Our tree all decorated with the origami ornaments, paper chain garland, added candy canes and two gifted glass/crystal ornaments.  Topped with our version of a candy cane angel which was planned to be a star but just didn't work.  The angel looks sad because it has already taken a fall due to our puppy taking off one of the ornaments he admired so much. :-)

My gifts to friends at work, again started with my challenge of using Christmas papers up.  I also recycled my vitamins bottles from the year, decorated them and filled them up with Minties.  Telling everyone these were for all the "moments" (Mintie slogan - It's moments like these we need Minties) we have had throughout the year…..as it has been a year of new roles and policies etc.

A friend gave me two felt Santa kits that she received with a parcel she had ordered.  I enjoyed cutting them out and stitching them together.

More mini milk cartons were made, full of minties ready for the local museum Christmas party,

also these quick and easy little biscuit and chocolate holders.

My Mum often receives crafting items from friends in her church group which they no longer need/use.  Mum's arthritis in her hands has now stopped her from card making but not knitting and crocheting.  So I receive these bundles to put to use.  The last lot had these embossed card fronts with the the window already cut out.  So I attached them all to card stock and added a background paper for the window.  The cards above I put to use my new bauble dies.

Here I used some of my sticker baubles attaching them to christmas paper and cutting around them before hand cutting them out.

Lastly, I just a poinsettia die I was gifted last year, still using up my papers and stickers.

I made this little Christmas tree ornament from my papers, its about 25cm tall.

I'm very please with myself as this is all the Christmas stash I have left, what fun I will have next year.

And that is my Christmas creations done.  I hope you enjoyed the photos and thanks for visiting again.  Merry Christmas to you all and I hope your day is as you would like.