Woo Hoo - I've Won a Competition !!

Gail from Aussie Scraps had a competition where a she supplied a plain black t-shirt which then had to either have a saying or logo added or be decorated. I chose the latter and played around with a few different designs.

Well I arrived home from holidays to find an email waiting for me letting me know that my tee was chosen as the winner. I was absolutely blown away by the win as there are so many truly talented designers out there that I really didn't believe mine stood a chance. Gail - you have no idea how much you made my day.

I was able to choose 3 kits from Aussie Scraps which was so wonderful as Gail is an amazing designer. Thank you so very much Gail.

Here is my winning design ......

Our Holiday at Caloundra

Mum and I decided to spend a week at Caloundra which is a lovely town at the sea-side about about 1 1/2 hours drive north of Brisbane. My dad is currently on holidays in Germany visiting family & friends so I thought it would be nice to take mum away for a little while too as she has too much difficulty with long flights now and wasn't able to travel with dad.

We stayed in a lovely unit which overlooked both Bulcock & Kings Beaches & was very central to the main street so we spent a few days just browsing, then stopping for lunch at one of the wonderful cafes before heading back to "home".

Mum has a cousin who only lives a few minutes drive away from where we were staying so we dropped around for morning tea.

Here are mum and I with mum's new car ...
And Mum with her cousin Val.
On Sunday we went for a browse around the Caloundra Markets which are held in the main street. The traffic is diverted every Sunday morning for a few hours and the stall holders line up on each side of the road. It is a really wonderful market as is no trash & treasure amongst any of it with lots of home made goodies.
Mum and I on the boardwalk which is just below the units where we stayed.
This photo was taken from Bulcock Beach.
And this one was taken from the boadtwalk loooking towards Kings Beach.
I spotted this Straw-Necked Ibis when walking along the water front. It was obviously used to having people around as I was able to get quite close to take a photo.

RAIN !!! - did I say rain?

Wow - well after the drenching we had in April - almost 400 mm (16 inches) we then had another deluge in May of nearly 440 mm (17.5 inches). Fortunately even though our home is low-set the main living areas are about 80 mm (3 inches) off ground level so we don't get water into the house. The breezeway however is at patio level so if we don't use towels under the door the water will just run in making the dog's sleeping area wet underfoot.

This is a photo of our front patio, our yard is on a slope but so much rain fell in such a short space of time that it couldn't run away fast enough.
Our front steps resembled a cascade again.
This is taken from our back yard looking across our paddocks into the neighbours place to the right.This time the photo has been taken from the same place but looking over to the neighbours on the left.
After the rain cleared I went for a walk down the front paddock to see the dam and our back paddock. The dogs were glad to get out for a run as they had been cooped up inside for the best part of 2 days.
Coco thought it would be lovely to have a roll until he found out that there was an inch of water sitting on top of the ground - he got up very quickly - lol.
Our small dam in the back paddock became one big lake which stretched across the neighbours on both sides.

Happy Wedding Anniversary - SURPRISE !!

In April it was my cousins 30th wedding anniversary and a surprise party was arranged for he and his wife. It was a total surprise with the event being held at their home. They had gone out for the day and as soon as the coast was clear the plan of attack was put into place.

Here they are cutting the cake....
Here Karen is teaching everyone how to eat a Ferrero Rocher. This is very technical and involves eating it layer by layer...Unfortunately it takes a lot of practice so lots of chocolates had to be consumed - lol.
Speech time ...........

Beautiful Wedding

Just prior to Easter my hubby and I were invited to attend the wedding of the son of a good friend of ours. It was held at Maleny Manor - an absolutely beautiful venue with the most glorious views. They were so fortunate as up until the day before we had inches and inches of rain however the rain held off for the Wednesday but came in again the following day.
The cake was beautiful - sort of a light lemon flavour with cake that just melted in your mouth.
And the bouquet.......
Rather then driving home that night hubby and I decided to stay at a Bed & Breakfast at Maleny Hideaway. It certainly was hidden away from the road but this is the view from the dining room where breakfast was served.
The welcome committee at the B & B ...................
This darling dog met us at our car when we first arrived and took us to reception. As soon as we were settled into our room he came around for a visit and a bit of a pat - lol.

Splish Splash

Yesterday I decided to have all the dogs hydrobathed. They hadn't been washed for a few weeks and with all the wet weather were getting rather dirty and starting to 'smell' like dogs - lol. I do usually wash them myself but with my arms being the way the are at the moment thought I would splurge and have them washed instead.

They are all so different with their baths. Heinzie - after being very reluctant to start with - realised what was happening an then started to almost nod-off in the tub. Who wouldn't with lovely warm water flowing over you.

Then came Shadow who wants to bite the water coming from the nozzle all the time. As long as she has her treasured ball to play with she will leave the water alone but then chased the ball around the tub instead. Unfortunately Shadow like to continuously shake so that the bather ends up as wet at the bathee....lol.

Lastly Coco - I don't think he'd ever had a hydrobath before. After plopping himself down in front of the doorway was finally coaxed up into the tub. At first he was very hesitant but after a bit totally relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Here is Coco having his bath.

Inchies and Tags

In the past two weeks I have received some wonderful things in the mail. I was part of a couple of swaps at Craft and Scrap where we made Inchies and Tags to share with other members of the forum.

These are the tags:-
And the inchies. (Inchies are little decorations which are only 1 x 1 inch square.)

I've Received Another Award.!!!

Many thanks to Sam of Sam's Scraps and Sigtags (aka 3littlehelpersdesigns) for giving me this award. I was completely overwhelmed as I don't ever expect to receive anything - I just blog because I like to.

The rules are very simple. Choose 5 friends to pass this award onto.
So now I pass this award onto:-
June - Censloft
Stella - Stellarificcreations (also creativebystella)
Suruha - Suruha-freespirit
Mitsybelle - Mitsybelle
Franny - Picklebeans (also here at her other blog)

Still RAINING

More rain today although just showers now. Checked the rain gauge this morning and there was 158mm there (over 6 inches). It is very welcome good soaking rain although some places have unfortunately had flooding. At least all the gardens have had a good soaking going into winter so now all I have to do is make sure everything is well mulched. Tomorrow morning is supposed to be fine with more rain coming through and lasting the week. Am sure to be quite batty by next weekend then - lol.

What a WET WET WET Day

Wow - it is soooo wet today. It poured all last night and unfortunately I wasn't able to go for my morning walk as it was still bucketing down. Hardly stopped all day. Usually I start to climb the walls and hang from the ceiling fans on wet days - hate being cooped up inside but today I had physio so Judy, my friend, took me to that and then we stopped at a couple of craft places on the way home for some retail therapy. Well what else are you supposed to do on a wet day. It has eased off somewhat tonight with just showers and not constant rain.