Good morning and Thank EWE for dropping in to say hello.
I have a few projects lined up ready to show you this week, so let’s start with a challenge from Mo. DP2 Challenge #169 – “Emboss It!” (Wet or dry embossing…or both!). I have used one of Mo’s cute digi stamps simply called “Sheep”.
I’ve embossed the background with a Spellbinders M-Bossability “Framed Labels One”. I ran it through the Cuttlebug then lightly swiped it with a “Baby Blue” Versa Color block leaving the frame white.
I printed and cut out an extra body for the sheep embossed it with tiny dots and attached over the sheep with foam dots to give a bit of dimension.
I coloured with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol today. I haven’t used pencils for months and months so it was good to try again but I must admit I struggled (as you can see near the sheep’s mouth).
As a last thought I embossed the clouds which I had die cut from Vellum. The little spray of flowers are from Magnolia (something new I picked up at the Imagination Factory last week).
Bye for now,
Last weekend we went to a Mussel Festival. It was held in Portarlington, a small coastal town located on the Bellarine Peninsula, overlooking Port Phillip Bay, Victoria. It is a popular family holiday destination and a popular fishing destination. Because it is in the bay and not on the surf coast it attract young families and retirees. For such a small, sleepy town (population of 3,147) it holds some very interesting events, eg. Bay Cycling Classic, Portarlington Mussel Festival, Portarlington Triathlon and National Celtic Festival.
The weather was lovely and there was plenty to see and buy. Here are some photos –
Many types of food to try – these are just a few examples.
Lots of mussels to buy of course from the pier and scallop tasting as well as boats to compare. The tallship is the Enterprize, a replica of the schooner that brought the first settlers to Melbourne from Tasmania in 1835, gives passengers the chance to experience life aboard a tall ship.
Classic cars, children’s entertainment and plenty for the adults.
A good day was had by all.
Bye for now,
Over at Your Next Stamp (YNS) the challenge looks delicious. Click here to read all about it.
This is the inspiration photo – how cute are the biscuits but I think the kids might be on a high after just one. he he.
Here is my card using this inspiration.
It is an easel card.
The stamp is from YNS and is called “Total Sweetness”.
Here is a shot of the closed card which shows off the lovely die cut from Spellbinders “Floral Ovals”. The card die cut is also from Spellbinders “Labels 8”.
The stamp set comes with 2 sentiments “Total Sweetness” is 1 the other is “Ice cream is happiness condensed”.
Inside the card I have added another sentiment but it is from Clear and Simple Stamps from the set “Sweet Tooth”.
It is a very long time since I have enjoyed a “Banana Split”. On special occasions my dm would buy me one when I went shopping with her. We would always stop at the same little cafe which had booths and order either a “banana split” or “spider”. I felt very grown-up :).
That’s all for now,
I finished my annual Christmas card recycling project last night and this is how I do it.
Gather all your Christmas cards and tear off each front cover. (Make sure there’s no writing on the back).
Get out your Cuttlebug (or other die cutting machine) and tag die. If you don’t have these of course you can just use a ruler and craft knife or scissors.
I try to make 2 tags from each card, but that is not always possible. Place the die strategically.
Run the card and die through the Cuttlebug and replace the die to cut another.
Now you have 2 tags which only have to be hole punched at the top and ribbon threaded through.
(You can see how well used my Cuttlebug is – I don’t remember how many plates I have been through.
Here are my tags all ready for next Christmas.
That’s all for now,
Do you remember the “Comedy Co’s” tag line “ I didn’t – I didn’t do it – dolly did it“. Used to love that show back in the 80’s. If you are Australian you might remember – Con the Fruiterer (Mark Mitchell), Uncle Arthur (Glen Robbins), Col’n Carpenter (Kim Gingell), Peiter (who played Peter? was it Eric Bana?), Kylie Mole (Mary-Anne Fahey), she also played the part of “Jophesine” a naughty little 3-year-old girl who used to blame her dolly for all her mischief.
Well this little girl just reminds me of “Jophesine”. “Dolly cut my hair!!!” See the scissors hiding behind her back 😀
This framed image is for DP2 Challenge #168 “Something New”. Well this is definitely new for me. I have seen frames being used before and have wanted to have a try – well here is my first attempt.
The image is new for me – haven’t used it before. It is from Mo Manning “Bad Hair Day”. Don’t you just love it!
I saw the digital image and sentiment by DRS Designs “Life’s Endless Struggle” used together on a lovely blog but I can’t find where it was now (I’m very sorry to the stamper whose blog is not getting the recognition it should). If anyone knows whose blog it was would you please let me know so I can acknowledge it.
I thought I might drop this frame into my hairdresser on Friday when I get my hair cut. Should I give it to her before or after I have my hair cut ???? 😆
That’s all for now,
It’s a new year and perhaps it’s time for a change of theme on my blog. Over the next few days you might see a few differences but basically it will be the same blog. Not sure about the colours, might keep changing them until I’m happy. I like the bigger photos and I think I can put in a theme photo …. not sure but I think I can.
Okay, I’m going back to have a play around with colours and header photos.
I have a stamping project in the wings, so you will see a crafting project soon (“about time” I hear you saying :D).
Bye for now,
If you live in Australia you will know that the country is experiencing some very extreme weather conditions. In fact earlier in the week Australia posted its hottest day on record. In the South East corner and Tasmania, the states are on high fire alert. Tasmania has already experienced huge blazes razing 100’s of homes to the ground. NSW and Victoria are also facing bush fires and are expecting worse to come. The community of Carngham, west of Ballarat (my home town), was in the path of a fast-moving grass fire, which razed more than 11,000 hectares and 9 homes and further out buildings before it was brought under control. Lines of scorched earth and huge smoke plumes from bush fires in Australia were visible from the International Space Station on January 8.
With all the fires it is not surprising that on Tuesday morning we woke up to the smell of smoke and haze in the air. At 6 am I got out of bed to take some photos (what was I thinking ❓ :o).
You can just see the smokey mist. It made a beautiful effect (or is it affect?) in the photos. This is when I wish I had a really good camera and that I knew how to take well designed photos.
You can see how dry the paddocks are around us and all over the state. Talk about “a sunburnt country”!
This is what makes me feel safer – around us farmers are watering their crops of potatoes from bores – so we have lots of green crops around us.
We also have 2 large dams on our property. When taking this photo I noticed 2 swans and their 3 cygnets on the dam. You might just spot them in this photo near the other bank of the dam – dad out in front and mum rounding up the half-grown cygnets.
I wasn’t out of bed at 6 am this morning but my dh was getting ready for work at 6:30 when he spotted 2 Wedge Tail Eagles circling over one of our paddocks. We know that a pair live in a pine plantation nearby so this didn’t surprise. But then he noticed they had landed. He got the binoculars out and could see that they were eating something. They eat rabbits and hares and can eat larger animals.
This is not our photo of a Wedge Tail Eagle but one taken from the web. You can see more information about these magnificent birds HERE.
DH tried to sneak closer to them with his camera but they heard him and one flew away.
He took a photo of the 1 bird – you can just see it as a black spot to the right of the tree in the tank. That is as close as he got before the second bird heard him and flew away.
When he reached the spot where the birds had been he realized that it was one of the cygnets which had been the eagles’ breakfast. Nature can seem cruel. They had eaten every bit of it – only downy feathers left.
Two sad swans, only 2 lonely cygnets and 1 duck commiserating.
I know this has been a long post but I thought that all of these events showed that nature can be cruel but it also has a beautiful side. I know people effected by the bush fires will not agree that it can be beautiful and we are all thinking of them.
Bye for now,
I love everything “Alice”, guess I’m still a big kid at heart, so when Challenge 41 – Hatter’s Tea Party came up over at “Out of a Hat Creations” I was anxious to join in and have some fun. The challenge is to make a RSVP card for the party.
Here are some photos – I did have fun making some of the props as well.
This is the front of my “acceptance card” The stacked cups are stamps from The Greeting Farm “Tea-rrific”. I paper pieced and raised them with foam tape. The Tri-fold card “die” is from Clear & Simple Stamps. The papers are from My Mind’s Eye – Lost & Found “Sunshine”.
The inside of the tri-fold card. I added a couple “Alice” quotes.
My props for the Tea Party. Can you see the Mad Hatters “Top Hat” well I made that from paper from the Graphic 45 pad “Halloween in Wonderland”. There are several “free” mad hatter hat templates out there in blogland.
When I was young and at home with my parents, making “card houses” was a fairly regular occurrence and we were quite good at it. When I tried my hand at it today I found that I have lost the knack. It could be that my hands aren’t as steady but I prefer to think that “cards now-a-days just aren’t made as well” 😆 😉
The bird’s nest was a gift which held egg-shaped soap. The soap has been removed and I added some realistic looking eggs from Kaisercraft which I bought last year on a whim really not knowing what I would use them for but just loving them.
Bye for now,
After our lovely day on Saturday picking strawberries we decided to go to Tuckerberry Orchard on Sunday to pick some blueberries.
This is the sign on the gate of the orchard. Luckily our 2 year old dgs can’t read – he had a lovely time but his bucket was empty when we finished – he loved them. 😆
The bushes (and there are thousands) are all enclosed in bird wire.
Blueberries everywhere – blueberry heaven for a little boy.
They also had strawberries, avocados and trees laden with lemons.
Next we went to an hydroponic Farm Gate.
I think they had a busy day because the stock was low but it all looked lovely and fresh.
The fruit has been beautiful and we all enjoyed ourselves.
Bye for now,
Yum yum yum …… We went strawberry picking today. DH & I and ds, ddil and dgs. One for the bucket, one for us, one for the bucket, one for us. Well not quite that many for us but definitely a few. Dear little gs was very good and loved picking them and only ate 3 or 4 or 5 🙂
We were all happy, the sun was shinning but the temperature had dropped to about 28°C from a sweltering 40ºC yesterday.
DGS was a great help. I would snap the stems and he picked them and popped them into the bucket or his mouth.
The strawberries are delicious but this little puppy was pretty cute too.
Row upon rows of beautiful ripe strawberries.
This is how many we bought.
They also had sunflowers for sale.
The property is at Wallington, just near Ocean Grove, Victoria. In March the local school holds a highly popular Strawberry Festival. Well worth a visit as long as you don’t mind the crowds. I think today was a much better option – no crowds and lots of lovely berries.
Bye for now,
Here are some facts which “WordPress” provided for 2012 for my blog. I found it interesting.
The first stat is “The number of views per country” . I’ve only included the countries in double figures –
| Country | Views |
| Australia | 5,531 |
| United States | 2,186 |
| United Kingdom | 1,226 |
| Spain | 399 |
| Canada | 387 |
| Costa Rica | 243 |
| Colombia | 193 |
| Netherlands | 162 |
| France | 141 |
| Sweden | 134 |
| Germany | 116 |
| Indonesia | 107 |
| Italy | 106 |
| India | 103 |
| Brazil | 90 |
| Russian Federation | 90 |
| Finland | 85 |
| Poland | 77 |
| Slovenia | 56 |
| South Africa | 56 |
| Greece | 55 |
| Belgium | 53 |
| New Zealand | 51 |
| Ireland | 45 |
| Singapore | 45 |
| Norway | 44 |
| Mexico | 37 |
| Philippines | 36 |
| Peru | 30 |
| Portugal | 28 |
| Pakistan | 28 |
| Republic of Korea | 27 |
| Venezuela | 27 |
| Switzerland | 26 |
| Turkey | 26 |
| Malaysia | 26 |
| United Arab Emirates | 22 |
| Argentina | 22 |
| Chile | 20 |
| Denmark | 19 |
| Bulgaria | 19 |
| Hungary | 18 |
| Ukraine | 18 |
| Puerto Rico | 16 |
| El Salvador | 15 |
| Austria | 14 |
| Malta | 13 |
| Thailand | 13 |
| Hong Kong | 13 |
| Czech Republic | 13 |
| Croatia | 13 |
| Lithuania | 12 |
| Japan | 12 |
| Saudi Arabia | 11 |
| Latvia | 11 |
| Slovakia | 11 |
| Viet Nam | 10 |
| Taiwan | 10 |
The next stat shows the most popular posts. I’ve only included those above 50 views.
You can click on each of the posts above to check it out. My favourite cards are all in the above list.
Thank you to everybody who joined me in one way or another on my blog in 2012 😀 😛 🙂 ♥♥♥♥♥
I wonder what 2013 will bring. Hopefully my blog will keep growing. Over the last couple of days I have actually started to think about blogging again and getting some ideas together. I hope you will join me again this year.
Bye for now,
This is the puzzle my dh gave me for Christmas –
Don’t be fooled it is not JUST a JIGSAW but a WASGIJ. This explains it –
So you have no idea what the woman can see but you can imagine that it is shocking to the adults but the children think it is fun. Usually you have a picture to help you but not this time. Here is the puzzle solved –
Naughty animals!!!! Christmas lunch spoilt. 😆
If you see a WASGIJ have a go they are good for the brain.
Bye for now,
Family and food photos from Christmas day. I tried to add some healthy treats to the lollies and chocolates on the table.
Blueberries and watermelon “stars”.
Grape caterpillars with black icing eyes. Grandma had to eat most of the heads of the caterpillars ‘cos the children were very suspicious of the evil looking eyes lol.
Cheese, pretzel and “smartie” reindeer.
Strawberries and cream and again the black icing eyes, again the eyes had to be scrapped off before the kids would eat them.
cherries dipped in chocolate, dried apricots dipped in white chocolate and crushed pistachios (yummy – my favourite) and some reindeer bark (dark chocolate with crushed candy canes – not so healthy but fun).
Now a few family photos –
As you can see one little grandson loves “Woody” from Toy Story but when he unwrapped his hobby-horse he was not so keen. It was a bit scary 🙂 I hope he gets over it and can have some fun galloping around.
Smallest grandchild really enjoyed ripping the gifts open – more fun than the gifts 🙂
This grandson is just the right age to really appreciate Christmas and Santa and the excitement of it all.
Bye for now,
I have just finished putting the Plum Pud ingredients together to soak overnight for steaming in the morning. Now I am gathering some money together to boil ready to add at the bottom of each bowl before I put the pudding on top. You used to be able to hide the money in the pudding but now it is not advised. 😦
That made me wonder why money is added to the Christmas Plum Pudding. Here is what I found on the Wikipedia site –
“It was common practice to include small silver coins in the pudding mixture, which could be kept by the person whose serving included them. The usual choice was a silver threepence or a sixpence. The coin was believed to bring wealth in the coming year.
Other tokens are also known to have been included, such as a tiny wishbone (to bring good luck), a silver thimble (for thrift), or an anchor (to symbolize safe harbour).”
There are always lovely little traditions to things we just take for granted.
The photos of the plum puds are not mine (mine are still soaking). Here is the recipe I use each year. It was given to me by a dear friend (thanks Tilly) who knew of my egg allergy. Even if I was able to eat eggs I would still use this recipe because it is absolutely delicious.
- 1 cup sultanas
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 cup sugar
- ¼ cup mixed peel (not a fan so I sometimes delete and add extra almonds)
- ¼ cup almonds
- ¼ cup Glace cherries
- 2 cups boiling water
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 cups plain flour
- 1 teaspoon carb soda
- ¼ cup brandy
- Put all dry ingredients in a large bowl (sultanas, raisins, sugar, mixed peel, almonds, Glace cherries, plain flour
carb soda). - Place butter in a small bowl, pour 1 cup of boiling water over the butter and stir to melt.
- Place carb soda in a small bowl, pour 1 cup of boiling water over the carb soda and dissolve.
- Add these 2 cups of boiling water over the dry ingredients.
- Cover with cling wrap and stand overnight.
- Next morning add the brandy (you might have to add a little more water).
- Steam for 3 hours. Don’t allow to boil dry.
So easy and delicious with custard and cream.
It is the first day of the Christmas holidays for lots of people – hurray. I’ve spent some of my morning preparing quick and easy place tags for our Christmas Lunch. Two of our 3 children and their children are at our house for lunch. The other son lives 2 states away and it’s not easy to catch up with them at this time of the year but of course they are in our thoughts.
I had a few lollipops left over which I hadn’t used for the market so I thought this was a quick and easy way to use them. Now we will all know where we are sitting at the table.
One of the cheap and nasty shops had these sparkly little Christmas trees for just less than $10 so I bought one to put in the centre of the table. I added some YUM to it and now I think it will be very popular.
It even has 2 settings for the lights “blinking” or “static”.
On our Christmas tree I have ornaments for all the children and I thought I’d show you how cute they are. These are for the 2 littlies who are in Queensland.
I hope to have one more post for 2012, so see you before (or just after) Christmas.
Bye for now,
Cards & Co
Cards & Co 