Day three Hamilton to Mount Gambier.

Quite a grey and wet trip out of Hamilton today. We went via Coleraine and visited our old mate Bob. At almost 94 he is still as sharp as a tack.

We arrived around lunch time and headed to the Blue Lake. I thought we had missed the 1200 tour but had forgotten to change my watch to SA time. The tour included a trip in a glass fronted elevator down a couple of hundred meters of shaft to the lake side. Check out the hill behind the pump house-I had to walk down and up again afterwards. I made it - I was last but I made it!

Although the lake wasn't "blue" it is still pretty awesome. In the first photo you can see the three layers of the crater quite clearly -
1 limestone
2 basalt rock
3 volcanic ash
 The colour of the second photo is accurate it was really quite a pretty blue colour

And this one because I love it is of a rock under the water near the pump station

Off to the sink hole in the morning then on to Beachport and Robe. Yay ocean views at last.

Gotta love vintage photos

I was rapt when Jenny said I could copy her photos and scrap them. They really show what life was like back in the 50's. I can't wait to scrap them when I get home.

Day two Woodhouse - Dunkeld

Had a great night at Margaret's last night on the old family farm. We finally arrived on sunset after a delayed start due to the dentist running half an hour behind. Chas is suffering - it appears I may have given him my cold - poor thing - just wish he would suffer in silence - but his is a MAN cold after all. Today we toured around Dunkeld and headed up to Victoria Valley to visit with some friends for the day. The views of the Grampians are just spectacular from Jenny's kitchen.

 Plan is to head to Mount Gambier in the morning stay the night then head to the coast and the mouth of the Murray.

one more sleep .......

One more sleep until we hit the road.
Have almost finished packing, just a few toiletries to go in and I'm done. It's always hard to pack when we are taking the ute as space is limited which I know sounds strange. Clothes need to fit into bags that go in the trunk - so they stay dry. When you holiday in winter this is a very important consideration. This will be our third road trip in the ute so we have it down pat. I also have 2 plastic tubs for coats and things like the first aid kit, stubby holders, picnic stuff for eating on the road. Inside everything has it's own spot, computer, cameras, esky, maps and this year my ezyscan - to copy family photos along the way. Kirsty and the boys are looking forward to a holiday and Grammy and Pa's and looking after the cats.

Inside our world for the next 10 days

a a a choooooo

feeling miserable with a horrible head cold, tucked up in bed at 7pm and missing my scrapbook class. Hoping I spark up by Monday but still have tons of packing etc to do.

We hit the tourist info centre  this morning to gather up info for our upcoming holiday to South Australia. Armed with half a dozen or more region books and maps I headed home to curl up in front of the fire to plan the route.
I found some great info on places that I'm sure we will enjoy, so will be putting them into my travel journal to prompt my memory along the way. A week on the coast, seeing and smelling the ocean .... I can't wait!

Some of the views we expect to see on our road trip ..............

Road trip - stay tuned

It's that time of year again - our annual road trip is coming up. Chas has been counting down the sleeps, he has a week off before we go, mm mm maybe he will pack while I'm at work ....... yeah right.
This year we are off to South Australia, 6-8 days just the two of us, the old blue ute and the ezyscan and our cameras.
Nothing set in concrete - we head to the Grampians for a couple of days to catch up with family, copy some old family photos, then off to Mount Gambier for a couple of days, then Adelaide via the coast to catch up with more family- and more photos -  then home maybe via Renmark.
We used to plan our trips to the minute but we found we were always "pushing" to get to somewhere and missed lots of opportunities along the way. These days we just "cruise" stop where we want, when we want and find the experience much less stressful and have discovered lots of gems along the way.

As usual I will post photos as we go so you can share our adventures.

Kindy Kid

Our little man finally made it to his first day at Kinda. Not at all stressed or anxious he waved us goodbye and headed off to play with his new "mates". It seemed like yesterday I was dropping off his mum. He was so excited and happy it was beautiful to see.

Ty's first day at kinda UPDATE

The poor little bugger ended up with croup and asthma and needed to spend last night in hospital - so no kinder he was very disappointed.
We will be there in the morning though and he is so excited - stay tuned for photos

Ty the next chapter - off to Kinda

Ty rang me with the news tonight - he has finally got a place in Kinda - he starts Thursday and I'll be there camera ready to capture the moment  for sure. Seems like yesterday he was born.

Step by step to creating a mini envelope album

I love to create mini albums as presents. This little one is an envelope album using 5.5x7 inch envelopes I have created from some left over K&Co 12 x 12 papers and some gameboard. Over the next few days I will upload the steps onto a page. The link will be on the right side bar under pages - MINI ENVELOPE ALBUM.
Hope you enjoy it
happy scrapping
H

Cheeky Girl

Tory couldn't resist sticking her tongue out at me at her Grandma's 60th birthday cruise. I had been snapping photos of her all afternoon without her realizing. As soon as she noticed she got very cheeky.




I have used the My Family Fancy Pants papers to create this layout. The flowers are plain white paper flowers, stamped with clear emboss and coloured with pencil powder then sprayed with smooch spritz.
Except for the powders all of the products will be available at Hobbysew Echuca. The smooch spritz is due in store in the next week or so, the papers and flowers are in store now

Life's paths are funny sometimes .....

 

I am sharing this story to remind you all how important the stories are that accompany our scrapbook pages.
Life's paths are funny sometimes .....sometimes they lead us away from people who are important to us and we lose touch, but happily sometimes they lead us along a path that reconnects us. Young Kelly in the wedding photos above was Kirsty's best friend in Primary school and moved away, we tried to keep in touch but eventually lost touch.
We often spoke about trying to find her again but just didn't know where to start. We finally joined a social network site so we could chat and I could share photos of the kids, well a few months down the track we were lucky enough to find her again and reconnect. Kelly was all grown up and gorgeous and was getting married. When she posted her wedding pics I quickly downloaded them, fixed the resolution and scrapped them. Kelly and Kirsty's story makes these layouts all the more interesting. I will be sending Kelly the originals which will include a hidden journaling envelope attached to the back with a letter to Kelly telling her how happy we are to have found her again.

Happy Scrapping
H

A night with the boys ....

mmmmm got your attention didn't I? The "boys" are my two wonderful grandsons. Due to life getting in the way I haven't had the boys for a few weeks ... boy have I missed them. It was wonderful tonight, although I am well and truly ready for bed. Ty was so grown up - asking how work was going and was I all better now and his random "I really love you Bammy" made me feel fantastic along with Alex seeing me and crawling over laughing - he really was pleased to see me. What better way to spend an evening. I took some fantastic shots of the boys playing after their bath which I will share over the next couple of days.
Happy Scrapping
H

OMG I am so bloody blonde sometimes

Couldn't resist the coaster with this on it when I found it at the local news-agency,it made me smile. It has become my motto over the last few weeks. My counselor has declared me sane and discharged me - hubby wants a second opinion. I'm only working 8 days a fortnight and I wonder already how I ever had time to work full time. Can't quite work out how with two extra days off I still don't have time to scratch myself. I did manage to have a ME day last week my first since returning to work. I shopped and I only brought clothes and a new chair for my office.
I have been scrapping a bit though and even scrapped for me not just the store. Karen and I attended Creative Block in Brisbane last month which was fun. I got to meet some awesome people like Diane Schultz and her daughter Katherine from Graphic 45. We came home with some new fun toys to play with and lots of fabulous new ideas.

The circle of life ...

I just reviewed my very first post in February 2006 - I was 44 and about to start a new phase in my career, well I am now 49 or will be next Sunday and about to start a new phase in my career. After an horrendous year which saw me re assess my life, I resigned from my full time management position to work part time - still in management - but in resourcing rather than staff management. I was about to become a grandma back in 2006 and I am now grandma to two beautiful boys, have traveled around the world with the man I love,lost a best mate and been through hell and back emotionally but I am now strong and happier than I have been in years.It seems ironic that in 4 years so much has happened yet it could appear that so little has changed on the surface.

Being a Grandma rocks

I just love it, it exhausts me and gives me more joy than anything at the same time. I had "my" boys last night, Ty played with Pa while I fed, bathed and put Alex to bed then Ty and I had a swim while Alex had a sleep. We had tea, had a bath, played with the cars and did puzzles then read some stories and Ty went to bed. Alex slept until 4.am was asleep again by 5am then slept again until 7.30 am. Ty woke at 7.00am and I woke to him telling me it was breakfast time. We all had breaky and spent the morning playing until they were picked up at 10am. I must say though I was equally glad to see them leave as I was to see them arrive the night before. I swear Alex will walk before he crawls. He gets up on all fours (crawling position) then almost stands as he launches him self forward and starts all over again, he for all the world looks like he is going to stand as he pushes off. STOP child, sit you are growing up too soon.

Something's fishy

After a very comfortable night at the Somerset on Elizabeth - we were up and off again. We headed to the Mall and the Myer windows, Ty was fascinated with the display. Over to the square we had a coffee at Starbucks - which took me back to New York, down the hill to see Federation Square - Kirsty had never been there - to agree that it really was THE UGLIEST building in the world. Another long walk to the Aquarium and Kirsty was in 7th heaven. We booked her and Ty onto the next glass bottom boat and headed in to see the penguins. Cool display guys it kept us amazed for ages. It was lovely to see Kirsty in her natural element and teaching Ty all about sea creatures. They had a ball on the boat ride and Ty loved the sharks. Only black spot was trying to get a cab back to the hotel to grab the luggage and catch the train. No one would take us, we were ignored, abused and lied to by several taxi drivers until a wonderful man stopped and not only helped us load the pushers he actually turned the meter off while Kirsty ran in to grab the bags.

FUN DAY AT THE ZOO

We grabbed the boys and jumped on the train and headed to the zoo for the afternoon. We had a great time, we walked around for 5 hours and the kids were fantastic, so well behaved. Ty just loved it all. The monkeys were hilarious especially the one that followed me across the viewing platform for about 10 mins. I still felt sorry for the tiger, he may have a lovely new enclosure but he still "paces". The new rain forest area is gorgeous and we will go back next year to see the new aqua area.

Wow how time flys ......

Christmas and New Year have come and gone ..... not sure where or when but they have been and gone for another year. 2010 will prove to be as busy as 2009 but hopefully it will be calmer.
My life has undergone a huge transformation since June 2009. I am about to change jobs after 5 years and have mixed emotions - I will miss the staff very much and am very sad to be leaving them. Yet I am looking forward to the new chapter in my life as a part time worker. Work life balance BRING IT ON !!!!!!

The boys have grown so much it's incredible. Alex is 5 months old and almost crawling, he gets up on all fours and bunny hops across the floor and gets very frustrated because he isn't moving as fast as he thinks he should. Ty will be 4 next month and is a real little man now.

Christmas was quiet - spent with the family and Aunty Anne and the new year was spent with te Finnegan 5 well 4 of them - Char had to work.