MerryMade Crafts etc ...

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 ...

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.  Than...

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.

 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 ...

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.