The Ghost returns

December 20th 2013

Well dear friends I am back again after almost 8mths away with my wonderful husband travelling through a great chunck of Australia in our little caravan. We are now staying with very dear friends at Sippy Downs, until we move on again on Jan 2nd 2014 back to Sunseeker Village until we decide out next plan what ever that may bring - we would like to go to Worrim at Bribie Island for a couple of mths with the caravan and stay there and spend some time with Brian's brother Terry & wife Patricia they are arriving back over at the end of May & we thought we might go down for a while.
Many thanks again to my friend Keryn Suthers for plant sitting for me.  The photos below show the beautiful surroundings where we are fortunate to be staying.
I have been doing a bit of digital scrapbooking and will post a few pages later for you to see.
Have a wonderful Christmas & a Safe and Happy New Year.

A blast from the past

Sunday April 28th:

Found in the back of the linen cupboard was my old favourite wooden box that I had always admired as a kid - it belonged to my dad and I remember it well as a young girl. I always said to dad one day can i have that box please, and when dad passed I got my wish. It is made of wood, and is lined with a navy kind of fabric. The box has lift up lids and small compartments. I have some momentos in this box and I always treasure it. Among the momentos I found the lock of hair from Yasmine's first haircut in 1973, a brochure from the Dresses for Humanity display that I went to in Wellington - these dresses/frocks belonged to the late Princess Diana, this was in the year 2000. Also In another box I came across some show programmes for shows we have been to like - Phantom Of The Opera, this was in Melbourne and we actually got to meet Rob Guest who played Phantom and is also a Kiwi, he signed the programme for me when he found out my name was Christine as this was the lead ladies name, this was in 1992. Another show we went to was Miss Siagon (I actually won this trip along with airfares and accomodation) this was in Sydney unfortuanately I cann't remember the year - could have been 1995? It was at the Capitol Theatre. I also have the programme for the show "Cats" which was held in the Christchurch Town Hall - sorry year unknown. Another programme we have is for the 3 Tenors - the original ones which was held in Melbourne during the end of 1996-97 we were both working then and earning well so shouted ourselves to the dearer "Silver price range seats" these seats were not very far from the front - it was a great show. Lastly amongst items at the back of the cupboard I found wrapped in a plastic bag my original doll that my dad's mother gave to me as newborn - dolls name is Julieann and she is an original walky talky doll she still walks but no longer talks - she used to say mumma, I wonder what she would be worth today? - there are other small items in the box like money tokens for various stores back when my dad was a young lad and when we are back and settled once again hahaha whenever that will be I will look into these a bit more as I do know that one of them is rare!!

Thanks for taking a peek at this bit of a blast from the past.

In their new surroundings

Saturday April 27th:

Saw us take the plants to be plant sat at their new home for the next 6-7months. We loaded the trailer and headed to Keryn & Graham Suther's place in Morayfield,I was worried the wind from the travel would shred the  Palms and we would arrive with just stems. Arrived safely and had arvo tea with them before the lads unloaded all the plants. They look pretty good surrounding the pool. I went down this morning to collect a parcel that Yasmine had sent me for Mother's Day and they all look great.Thank's once again Keryn for being so kind in doing this for us. Photo shows how great they look.

They are ready to go

Saturday 27/4/13

Well today was the day that the pot plants got moved to my very good
friends house -  Keryn Suthers at Morayfield. I did not want to part with my beautiful palms and some of my other plants and or leave them behind, and yep Keryn said I will plant sit for you until you come back from your trip. We took her up on her kind offer and today they were moved from our place to Keryn's - thank you Keryn for plant sitting. It is 1 week today until we move to the Golden Beach Caravan Park before heading off on the 8th May.

Photo shows them lined up ready to go, the small planter with the birds is for the caravan it has herbs in it, Mint in the center, Parsley, Chives, Basil and Oregano around the center pot - nothing like having fresh herbs.

Slowly but surely

I have been trying to get my head around some tutorials in Photoshop, for those who don't know - Photoshop is an editing programme and I have to admit it is amazing. I have wanted to get into digital scrapbooking for some time now as it is more cost effective and easier to work on and put away when time to pack up - as it is all done on the computer. For ages I have wanted to learn how to change a coloured photo to black & white and then change an element of that photo back to colour, I had to ask my Jellybean Scrappers forum friends for help - however in the end I was very proud of myself as I managed to do it myself - see below a couple of photos that I have altered. I was absolutely excited when I realised I had achieved what I wanted - hope you like the results. In the end do you believe me when I said it was actually really easy - hahaha

I have to thank my wonderful husband who last year bought for me a version of Photoshop Elements 10 - NO I never nagged him either. The good thing about this type of scrapbooking you don't need internet to be able to achieve results.

Thanks for taking the time to look.

Anzac Day

Thursday 25th April

Being Anzac Day today - Lest We Forget.

Coolum Beach for lunch

Sunday 21st April

Being Sunday our only day to ourselves we decided as it was a beautiful day we would escape the compound and head to Coolum for lunch at the Coffee Club and then a stroll over to the beach where we sat and enjoyed the warmth and fresh air, before returning for home. It is always nice to get away from the place even if it is only for a few hours.

Early Morning Sunrise

Friday 19th April

Woke early on Friday morning and headed outside for a walk to see the sky on fire, dashed inside to get the camera and this is the result. Pretty cool don't you think.

Farewell Whitey

Saturday 6th April  saw us farewell a good old girl - no not me, but we sold the little white Hyundai runabout to my teamleader at LEP - Frank, he came and collected the old girl on the Saturday afternoon and away she went - hope he does not drive her into the ground being a male they are inclined to do that. We had her for about 3.5yrs and she never caused us any drama.

February ATC swap

Over at Jellybean Scrappers  - Noriel put together another great ATC
swap titled "Little House" it was a full set of 9 cards and again the
same theme and amazing how everyone interprets it differently that
is why I love doing ATCs. I am unable to take part in any for the next few months due to us being away in the caravan. I am taking limited gear to just make a few cards while travelling as I really want to concentrate on my digital theme, must less gear to take and you dont need internet to do it. Here is a photo of the finished complete set of 9 ATC's they look great.

Off to Christchurch for Nana

The end of January beginning of February saw me heading to Christchurch to spend some special time with the family and to mind Rory for the last couple of weeks of the school holidays.I flew into Auckland and overnighted there before heading to Christchurch the following day arriving on my birthday - a cake was the order of the day when I arrived. Rory was so excited and we had many hours together playing and visiting places of interest like the Botanic Gardens, Museum, & Willowbank, we had alot of fun and laughs and for me it was special being able to look after him, I love him so much as I do my darling daughter Yasmine. Here are a few photos that show and say it all, along with a nice photo of my sister and Rory taken at the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. I am now unsure when I will see them with us going away on our adventure caravan trip.

Plans for 2013

The plan for us is a trip away later in the year in the caravan. Plan is to head north which will be great as we have not been north beyond Bundaberg so we are looking forward to doing that around May this year, means we will become grey Nomads and vacate the place we called home for the last 3years - Fort Knox Storage in Caloundra. More on this later folks as there will be a new blog soley for the trip so watch for details. Just thought I would add this beautiful photo of the Hibiscus flower that I managed to grow the plant from a cutting that I have treasured and cared from since we first moved over here almost 9years ago, I grew this from a cutting I took while living at Sanctuary Gardens and I have managed to take another cutting and will pot that up and a friend of mine has kindly offered to mine my palms and other small plants while we are away, thank you to Keryn Suther's for doing this we appreciate it.