time to get back to it

And a new school year begins tommorrow so it's time to get back to reality...

No more sleep ins or popping down to the shop mid week.
Time to get seriously organised again for another year and somehow keep the house running smoothly while my husband may or may not be around, he does that, sometimes he's here sometimes not. That's the nature of his work.
Life goes on regardless, so after dman & I drop everyone off to start their new year i'll be back home organising my diary and figuring out how to keep everyone happy and fitting in time for myself. Haven't had much of that lately but I promised myself this year I need to take better care of myself. And so I will.

Oh wow, that was serious... now for the fun stuff...
I did a MMAM swap on swap bot a little while ago and we had to send some pretty mail.
2 people flaked so I offered to send one to them. I used THIS lovely ladies envelope stencil and an old fairy tale book from the oppy. I think they look pretty. My gorgeous daughter made a pretty envelope too. Her friends better look out... I think she's hooked... she thought it was fabulous that you could make your own... who'd have thought? Home made envies!!







And now for the drum role......

My first ever crocheted baby blanket. This is for a friend who is due very shortly and has no clue what the babie's sex is. So old fashioned, but exciting just the same. This is the reason behind my colour scheme :) The pattern is called Red Heart Lacy Squares here's the pattern if you like.

now i know how to crochet...

So what have i been doing with all my spare time in between packing up the house to move, christmas, the road trip to townsville and moving in and unpacking at our new place?

Well crochet of course! I'm so glad i taught myself to crochet, it has kept me occupied while my husband watches countless episodes of star trek voyager, i think he watched a whole series over the christmas break. Well, it was his christmas gift from the kids... and mine was these super cute crochet hooks.




Learning how to crochet was something iv'e always wanted to do. I never really apreciated those granny blankets until now, now i know the effort required to make them.
So before I left Brisbane I stocked up on a ridiculous amount of yarn from american yarns...



And I crocheted my heart out.
At present i know 3 pregnant ladies who i'm sure would all adore a lovely handmade baby blanket.
And even with all that yarn i still managed to run out. So i had to abandon these ones until some more supplies arrived in the mail from brisbane.



I moved on and made some more squares, these are cotton, i fell in love with this yarn, i think this one will stay at my house.



And then i ran out of that yarn and found some eco recycled baby coloured yarn from spotlight, yes, not really spoiled for choice here.
So i'm nearly finished the first baby blanket. only have 17 more cream sqaures to make and then piece together.
Oh and the baby has a birthdate already, he/she will be born next week so i don't have long to get it done.



I will post shortly the finished product. nothing like a timeline to get you motivated :)

Welcome New Year

Happy New Years to you!

We went out to beautiful Crystal Creek today.

The weather was a little showery but nothing you can't handle when the temp is 31c





The clouds were covering the hills...



Little Crystal Creek Bridge






We then went a little further on down to Big Crystal Creek



Dman & I got our feet wet (it was pretty cold) while fox tried to find a cache nearby



It's so pretty out there. When the twins return from Perth we will bring them out here, they will just love it.

road trip - mackay

We left Yeppoon on Boxing Day and headed north to Mackay for our last stop before Townsville.
it was a great day to drive, there were very few cars on the road and we only had 3 trucks (road trains) pass us going south.

Mackay was like a ghost town with hardly a soul to be seen on the streets, No one out walking but we did find quite a few blokes with their kids fishing and lots of boats on the water
I had a massive sigh of relief when we entered our hotel room, it was just lovely and a vast improvement on the previous.

We did some geocaching here too, some great hides.



the quest mackay, a welcome change, lovely staff, gorgeous rooms & pool :)



sandfly creek board walk



looking back into mackay from sandfly creek look out



mackay, no one on the streets... like a ghost town

road trip - yeppoon

xmas eve we drove from Hervey Bay to Yeppoon where we experienced the good the bad and the ugly

The good - xmas! watching dman open his presents and talking to all the fam. Yeppoon itself is very pretty with great beaches, rock pools to explore and lovely walks & lookouts.

The bad - con & meeka went to perth for xmas (they do this every second xmas) so it always feels a little empty with out them :(

The ugly - our smelly & mouldy hotel room in the 'resort' we stayed at. the air con wasn't working either when we arrived and the maintenance guy said it was because the filters were dirty, yep not surprised. they cleaned it and the air con worked after that. yep, once i've recovered from this road trip i will muster up the words and be writing a complaint.



exploring rock pools at Yeppoon



Yeppoon Beach



Look out near the sailing club and ferry to Great Keppel Island



On the way down from the look out



Looking back toward Rockhampton