Happy Valentine's Day

It was a lovely day outside, although a bit humid, but we decided to go to a picnic spot up near Cunningham's Gap, in the Great Dividing Range - it's the highway that gets you to Brisbane from New South Wales, if you go through Tenterfield, Stanthorpe and Warwick way.

 

This was the view from our table.

One of our visitors that watched us, and hoped we would share our lunch.

And another one ...

and another. I forget what these birds are called. Besides a scavenger !

Steve tells me they are Friar birds.

This is where we came back to, after our walk in the forestry, right at the top of Cunningham's Gap.

A wider view of where we ate our lunch, right down the back, just to the left of the tree in the foreground, you can just see our table. It was the only one in the shade at the time.

This is the very top of Cunningham's Gap, the Great Dividing Range, when you look at a map of Australia, this Range goes right down the eastern coast of Australia, right down to Victoria.

This is the monument erected in 1927 for the centenary of Cunningham's Crossing here.

Sometimes you find a tree across your path ...

... a long time ago ...

and on a clear day you can see Brisbane and the Gold Coast ! The highway is where the closest cloud shadow is, at the bottom of the photo. Running parallel to the bottom of the photo.

See, you don't walk too close to the edge ... someone slipped and was killed last year.

Take your pick how energetic you are feeling .... We did the top one ... but have been to Mt Cordeaux - the very top. It's very scary and windy up there !

This is the size of the vehicles we have to dodge on the highway LOL 

Not easy to pass sometimes.

This was a snapshot of our day out. Lovely and peaceful, but we were rather tired when we got home. It's a pretty steep walk up to the lookout.

Have a great week !

Till next time ...

Deb.

Surprise 7th Birthday

The Happy Birthday, that nearly wasn't... Michaela got a wonderful surprise when she saw the car full of people pull up the front of her house ! She wasn't expecting the day to be a good one when the circumstances that caused her to not have a party were realised. But when she knew she wasn't coming to see us, she didn't think that we might come to see her !

 
This was the look on her face and the present she is holding, was only secondary. The present was much appreciated. She didn't even look inside to see if it was full ! It did have her dresses I had sewn for her and her birthday card with a big 7 on it ! This should be big enough to fit those winter fleecy clothes she'll need when she comes to visit us !

 

Here is Michaela surrounded by most of her presents. There is a stroller in the white box that has been packed away for about 2 years, so she got some expert help from Steve to put that together. Emily also had one, so there was enough to keep Steve out of mischief for a while.

I'm sure toy companies don't have a sense of humour - they all put heaps of wire and stuff to pull off before you can actually play with your new toy ! LOL

 

Now, the stroller is only just big enough for dolly, so she is well and truly strapped in ! Michaela now knows how important seat belts are, so makes sure everyone has theirs on :-)

This is what they were impatiently trying to get to, undoing the wire and tape etc. This toy was just like a real cash register - credit card, microphone, and scanner, too.

The day was completed by us all having lunch at Sizzler, and one of the hostesses took a photo of all of us, and lucky for Dad, he had gone to Dick Smith Electronics to get some batteries for the TV remote control. How good was that timing ! LOL

I'll be back later, with pictures of what Steve and I did on Valentine's Day :-)

Till then ...
Stay happy and scrap often

Deb.

Shades of Love

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Di @ Legacy4Life has just released her new Kit Shades of Love. My CT layouts from this kit are below.

 

 

This is also my contribution to the Sketch Challenge at Nuts4Digi. The Restoration of the old Glengallan Homestead near where we live.

The Chat is on again at Nuts4Digi tonight, and it's Michaela's 7th birthday tomorrow, so we are all off to Brisbane to surprise her !

See you all later,
Deb.

What an 'interesting' day

Today started off in the usual way on Thursday. Up and ready to get out the door and in the door at Aldi at 8.30am, if there is something you really want :) I wanted to get a 4GB SD card, that will hold lots of photos and / or video, because they were only $13. That achieved, and a browse over the other goodies on special purchase this week, and we got the carrots, milk and bread we went for, and off we went back home. One of the special buys was a massager for the car or office chair, and I decided it was cheaper than a chiropractor's visit, so got one of them, too. The reason for this will become known shortly, after the weekend.

Then I decided I'd do the Animal Kingdom challenge over at DSO. The only requirement was to use the little dove on the page, somewhere. I knew I had a great photo of Candy and Peggy "chatting up" a budgie that my sister Shirl had in a cage, so all I had to do was find that, and I was set to go. The layout I did is above.


That went smoothly, so I also did the Scraplift challenge that Di @ Legacy4Life hosts. I like the way it turned out, using Di's kit, due for release very soon ;)
It's called Shades of Love.

The day was progressing well, until it was time for tea. Well 'someone' forgot the potatoes this morning, in their haste to get the "essentials" of life. We decided the quickest way out of it was to go to the chicken shop nearby (Brodies) and get a Chicken Dinner, and that will be tonight and tomorrow's tea, because we have the chat tomorrow night, at Nuts4Digi, and that will be something quick to prepare and clean up afterwards, and then Chat.

OK, problem solved .... until Steve got a plate out of the cupboard, to put the chicken bones in, and saw a cockroach running around .... Out came the spray, the fly swat, and a lot of crashing and banging ... I was on the other side of this and looking at my tea ... yes, I picked a few carrots and ate them, and coersed him to come and eat, while it is hot, and look for his 'pet' later.  When I go back out in the kitchen, EVERY cup, plate, desert bowl, glass and soup cups, had been taken out of the cupboards, and WE were going to wash and dry them, and put them back. Mmmmm ... that is NOT what I had in mind after tea LOL  I am just glad it was tonight, and not tomorrow night, or it would have been 6.30pm (Qld time) before I got to the chat !

Also I did the Colour Challenge demo layout for March, for Nuts4Digi . Now did you think you were getting a preview of that too ? LOL  I'll give you a clue - it's a single colour again :-)

Off to find a layout for the March Scraplift challenge now ...

So, have fun scrapping and stay happy !

Oh, I am still studying those maps ....   ;) ;)

Deb.

Challenges galore

This is the complete mega kit you get when you complete all 11 challenges at Nuts4Digi. There is actually more in that preview than you can see. All the papers are hiding at the back, too. Isn't there some "cool" stuff in there ;-)

 

This is my layout for the Photography Challenge - the idea was to create a layout on the topic of Wear Your Heart on your Sleeve. No worries about Michaela - she always lets you know EXACTLY how she feels, emotionally LOL

I'm off to complete another one of the Challenges  :-) 

Till next time, be Happy

Deb.

One Year On

Just a note to say a lot of us have been thinking of those who died, and also the survivors of the Black Saturday fires in Victoria - one year ago, today. Looked a lot like the Art Challenge picture on the last post I made. I drove through some of this country two months after the fires, and there was sign of new growth of some of the tree ferns, and grass poking up through the black, and the earth was starting over ... just like the survivors are.

 

This will give you an idea of what it was like two months later.

Today I managed to find the name of the plant I took a few photos of, on Friday, so I did my layout for the Art Challenge over at Nuts4Digi. Here it is -

 I've also done the Sketch Challenge and will show you that soon. It was created with a soon to be released kit of Di @ Legacy4Life's called Shades of Love.

Till next time,

Be Happy and careful

Deb.

And there are more Challenges

The Art Challenge can be found here and using this artwork, we are inspired to create our own layout. I always find the Art Challenge to be just that, but I think I have something in mind this time :)


The Photography Challenge is an interesting one. The forum reference is here. The subject for our photo this month is  
Wear Your Heart on Your Sleeve. Mousey is always a bit tricky with her challenges too, but we interpret that statement how we want, too.


The Quote Challenge, also from Mousey is an interesting one again, this Month.  Mousey also has a download of this wordart all ready to use, on her Blog, too, to make it even easier.

The love bug doesn't hurt. It just gives you the sniffles sometimes.

Found here in the Nuts4Digi forum.

Di at Legacy4Life has also been very busy and released another new kit, called The Love Journal and I have created a few layouts with it, too.

 

  

  

  

So as you can see it has some beautiful papers and elements in it. You can find it over at DSO. At the moment for a few days you can get it for just $3, till the 4th February (USA time, I think)

Mum was having a Stress Test done today, and I am pleased to say it has gone well, although they were pretty heavy handed with the "poking" of the ultrasound scanner into her ribs. Let's hope the results are good now.

If you are looking for something to inspire you, or use up some of that spare time, just drop by Nuts4Digi and there is plenty to do there in the Challenge Forum, or just plain chat, in the February Daily Chatter section of the forum. Speaking of Chatting, there is another one being held in the N4D Chat Room, on the 12th February. Stay tuned, because closer to the day, we will have more details ...

I think after all the week's events, so far, I am ready for the shower and bed.

So till later,

Happy scrappin'

Deb.