Cleanup the back yard

 

For once the back area had a spruce up, it was actually Brian's birthday and we were having a BBQ looks pretty tidy if I can say.

Weekend at Gridley Homestead

In November last year Brian and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and also it was Brian's birthday. We decided we needed a weekend away as we had - had a bit of a rough year with Brian's health. We went to the most delighful B&B at Eumundi, the photos tell it all. If you
ever come to the Sunshine Coast and want a few days of absolute rest then Gridley is the place to go for that - we shall return.

The following was taken from the Gridley Homestead web site.
 www.gridley.com.au

Nestled on the edge of the historic village of Eumundi, Gridley Homestead stands on the site of the first white settler’s slab hut. This lovely old traditional Queenslander has been restored and extended to include four ensuited bedrooms, each with a verandah view and an extensive guest lounge and dining area.

With a cozy wood burning fireplace in the lounge and an extensive library of books and DVDs to peruse our Gridley Homestead is your home away from home. All rooms are air conditioned.
Owner/chef, Damien, prepares a delicious two course breakfast for you to enjoy. He can also cater for exclusive use dinner parties. Damien sources his produce locally and organic where possible. His wife Sandy is just delightful and nothing is a bother to her.

Gridley is only a 500m stroll from Eumundi’s famous markets and the centre of town. Eumundi has a variety of great restaurants, cafes, pubs, art galleries and boutique shops.

Each of the 4 guest rooms have air conditioning and have their own ensuite bathrooms. Simply decorated with a focus on comfort,with affordable rates makes it easy for you to enjoy many of the coast’s attractions with a comfortable bed and cozy room waiting for you when you return. We have queen beds, king beds and king singles to choose from. Gridley Homestead is B&B accommodation at its best. 

 

Sulphur Crested Cockies

Most days we have a couple of noisy visitors come and visit, they let us know when they are there and that they have arrived with their racous
noise. Very tame we can get right up to them without them flying away,
if you talk to them while putting the sunflower seeds up they will just stay
there with their head cocked sideways listening to you. That is how we know they are the same birds as some of the others will not stay there when we go out, they come down once we have come inside.
They are big birds with huge angry looking claws.

And still more CJ

I don't know why this page of Sharon's is smaller than the other's and

for that Sharon I am sorry.

Above shows the inside covers telling a little of what my CJ is all
about.

Above shows the inside back covers.

Below shows how lumpy bumpy the CJ can get with all the decorating
and wonderful pages brimming with love.

Thanks for taking the time to look at my works of art, however as much as I would love to stay and work on this - I have to go to work tomorrow so
really need to be heading off for the night - more to come tomorrow hopefully, thanks for looking.

More CJ

Some more of the beautiful pages.

Maree's pages

 Sim's pages
with my photos of
Rory as a baby.

 Marie's pages

 Lara's pages

Circle Journal cont

These are some of the pages in the CJ and the tag pages.

 My pages

 Judi's pages

 Kym's pages

 Jo's pages

Circle Journal - 2011

A CJ is a Circle Journal -- is an album that you send out to all the girls in the group, who each do a page in it. When it comes back to you, you have a lovely album that your on-line friends have helped create!

You need to decide  what kind of album you will do. OTP is popular, and so are things like tag albums. Normally we would try to keep the weight down (just like in real life!) or it can get very expensive to post!!

Then you need to pick a theme. There are millions! Some good ones are -- favourite colour/music/holiday spot/etc etc; pets; scrapping tips and hints; cookbooks; 3/5/10 things you didnt know about me; secret pleasure .... and so on.

You need to decide if you want your album to stick to a particular colour scheme or style (like grunge or vintage).

Most CJs have some kind of sign-in page (like pockets with a tag for each person) where each member puts a little pic of herself and often some little bit of info about herself as well. These don't need to be large.

CJs are heaps of fun! For more info, try Googling. You'll see thousands of ideas!!

   
Last year a forum I belonged to, a group of us got together and did a circle journal.
There were 9 in the swap, I was unsure wether to take part as I did not know if I would be able to do what was expected and or not wanting to let anyone down.
The theme for my CJ (circle journal) was "Treasured Memories" each person would do a page for my album telling of one of their "treasured memories", my colour's that I asked for were pinks, creams, browns, any lace and or embellishments in keeping with my theme, the majority did stick to my requests. Each person taking part also had to do a tag showing a photo of themselves and telling a little about themselves.
What I have in return for the many months that this took is such a wonderful piece of individual art, in time I wish this journal to go to my beloved daughter Yasmine as there are pages in the journal that I have done that will hold special memories in time to come for her also.

My Wonderful Dad - Angus

I came across this photo while hunting for something else and I decided as it is coming up to Dad's birthday soon I would add it.

Dad was such a wonderful man - miss him every day.
This photo was taken in 2008 he was ready to do the Anzac Parade with my brother this was the last time dad ever marched.
                     Love you dad and miss you heaps  RIP

Brrrrrr how did we cope

Christchurch had it all last year earthquakes and SNOW - July 25 - 2011
brought a really heavy dump of snow that once again put Christchurch into lock down, I have to wonder how did we cope with the cold back then.
These photo's were sent from Yasmine and show Rory and his little friend having some fun in the snow along with mum.

Not a baby anymore.

My mother always said to me when Yasmine was a baby and I have said it to Yasmine about Rory enjoy them as babies as they are not babies long
never a more true word said look how Isabelle has grown.

Photos below were taken in December 2011

Simone's Baby Shower May 2011

Simone is my work mate, the girl I made the Kaiser Castle Album for
work took up a collection to buy Simone a gift for her and the baby, we
had a great response to the collection which enabled us to buy a beautiful baby bassinet and enough funds also to make a gorgeous gift basket of goodies for mum and baby.
I held the baby shower for Simone at our house on a Sunday afternoon with almost all the girls from work coming we had a great afternoon of laughter, wine, chatter more wine and laughter oh and some food, everyone brought a plate of something to share and drink.

Photos: Gifts from work.

 Most of the work girls

 Mum to be Simone

 And baby Isabelle born 16/6/2011 -  she is 1 wk old in the photo below.

ATC Swap February 2012

The theme for this swap was "Birdcages"

As you can see all the same theme however everyone can interpret it
so differently, this is what makes these swaps so much fun - getting the package in the mail opening it to find each and everyone all different.

January to December 2011 swaps

We did 5 in 2011, they were:


Holiday/Seaside -  January

International - April
Fashion - May
Inspirational Words - Sept/Oct
Christmas - December