Portable chicken coop

I wanted to share this very clever idea that my mum came up with :) Mum decided she wanted some chickens, but wanted a portable coop. After a bit of research and chatting with friends, they (mum and Mike) made this!!


Here's the back of the coop - you lift the lid and the laying boxes are just inside.


Lastly, the chickens!! They are not laying just yet, but hoping to have fresh eggs in a few weeks time :) I want mum to name them - cause you can't eat something you have named LOL She thinks "Hot & Spicy", "KFC", etc are great names LOL

Female birthday card swap

This month's card swap at Simply Crafty was much more successful than last month's :) A big thanks to everyone who joined in. Our theme was "Female birthday" - I love every one's cards!

My card - I struggled with this card. I had the pattern paper, twine and buttons on the card base, but could not work out what image to use. After going through my stamps about 10 times - I finally had a brainwave to just use a sentiment and let the pattern paper be the main feature.


Lorelle's card


Linda's card


Helen's card


Dilys' card


Sandra's card


Next month's card swap theme is flowers - can't wait to see what everyone creates!!

Denim Swap

The embellishment swap theme for Simply Crafty this month was denim. It seems most of us had the same idea about denim flowers :)


Next month's theme is male embellishment - I already have a few ideas on what I want to make, so will start them this weekend.

I'm baaaaaacccccckkkkk!

Between the laptop battery dying and then the recharger dying - I've been without the WWW for a week and I have been suffering from major withdrawals LOL I had lots to share too - so will be posting every day this week :)

Last Sunday we went to Mitchell's 2nd birthday party :) It was a lovely, relaxed morning - Cathie and Andrew set up a delicious brunch and we all just sat around chatting and watching the kids playing on Mitchell's amazing new swing set that Andrew made.


Cathie asked me to make Mitchell's cake again this year. Love how this cake turned out and the birthday boy seemed to love it too :) I also made a dozen cupcakes - just decorated with green icing and coconut to match the cake.


Mitchell's birthday card (please excuse the dodgy late night photo quality LOL).


Look who we got to babysit on Friday night....Brandee :) Look how big she's gotten!! I can't believe she's 6 weeks old already.

Thrifty Thursday

I'm joining in with Mardi and Janelle again this week :) I managed to get a few lovely goodies, so I will share some today and share the rest next Thursday. I picked up these 3 bags of 18x18cm patchwork squares for $2.00 each. There is a lot of material in the bags - what a great bargain!! I'm going to use the material and have a go at making patchwork journal covers.


More books - $1.50 each for the top 2 books and $2.50 for the bottom book.

Books and beanies

During our long trip to Cairns, I kept busy reading, crocheting and playing games on my iPhone :) I read 2 new books - I am so glad that I can read in the car without getting carsick! I especially loved "Fairy Bad Day" - great story line and a lot of LOL moments :) I will definitely read this one again!!


"Spellbound" was also a great book - it was promoted for fans of the "Fallen" series and I enjoyed the similarities and the fact that it was still a very different storyline. I would recommend both books :)


In between reading and playing games, I also crocheted 3 beanies - I know it's getting too warm for beanies now, but these are being sent to some friends in Holland ready for their winter. This is the first time I've used variegated wool - I love how they turned out :)


Now that it's getting warmer I have started looking around for some toys to crochet - I have a few patterns bookmarked and Kylie has found a heap of cute patterns too :)

Wedding decorations and favours

I thought I would share some pics of the wedding decorations. The champagne breakfast had these beach themed centrepieces.


The evening reception was more formal (still with a beach theme though). The centrepieces were simple, but gorgeous :)


These were the place card holders - love them! :)


Something very different for the wedding favours - female guests got drink mixes and cocktail shakers and the male guests got a gumball machine. All with a handwritten Thank You note :)

A quiet weekend

After the long road trip last weekend and still feeling a bit sick, we had a quiet weekend. We did go and see "Hangover 2" at the movies on Friday night (love date nights!) - it was hilarious!! Definitely worth the wait :) Then just some housework, gardening, odd jobs and lunch with mum on Sunday - that was our weekend :)

Exciting news...I have paid the deposit for the scrap retreat in October! I'm really looking forward to it :)

And because I don't like posting without sharing a pic...I brought this sweet wooden Babushka money box on sale in Mackay last weekend.

Scrapbook Apprentice - Finals!

I'm proud to announce that I made it through to the Scrapbook Apprentice finals! Printblocks sent a box of goodies and I sent off my entries last month (I will share pics soon). The winner has been announced in this month's DoCraft's magazine - congratulations to Julie Hill! A HUGE thank you to everyone who supported me and voted for me :) I was so happy just to make it to the 12 competitors, so it was amazing to make it to the final four! I would encourage everyone to enter the next competition :) It made me step out of my scrapping comfort zone, it challenged me, I had my work published in the magazine and every round I received a generous amount of products to play with (lots of leftovers still waiting to be used!).

Here is the LO and OTP that I submitted -




When Printblocks sent my last lot of entries back this week, I also received these fabulous goodies! I was so excited to to receive the new dies - I had the squares and the scallop squares on my "to buy" list!!

Road trip to Cairns and the wedding!

I wanted to post this sooner, but unfortunately I've been sick :( Warning - lots of pics :)

The wedding was amazing! So glad we managed to get the time off :) We spent Thursday and Friday travelling - since we only did a road trip to Cairns 3 years ago, we didn't stop to do any sight seeing along the way.

We were up at 5am on Saturday to start getting ready for the sunrise wedding ceremony, which was on the beach at Palm Cove. It was a lovely, relaxed ceremony - the bridal party all kicked their shoes off before walking down the aisle, to stand barefoot on the beach. Chris & Cassie managed to get halfway through their vows before it started to shower, so we all ran across the road to a hall where they finished the ceremony. After the ceremony the sun came out, so lots of professional group and casual photos, before the bridal party went down to the beach for photos.






Craig and I next to the bridal car - how cool is this stretch Hummer?!?!


While the bridal party where getting photos done, all the guests went to the champagne breakfast reception. Champagne by this gorgeous pool, then a delicious buffet breakfast. After breakfast we socialised and a few more photos :)


We had a relaxed had a nap during the day, then got ready for the evening reception at a different resort. Started with drinks and canapes by the pool, then into the restaurant for dinner, speeches, cutting the cake, bridal waltz and socialising :) The wedding cake and cupcakes were ice cream cakes - how different & cool is that?!!?


I love the idea of this "wish tree" where guests could write wishes or advice for the bride & groom :)


We were up early the next morning to slowly make our way home again - we even got to cath up with Bec and the kids on our way through to Rocky :)

Ink pad storage

I have been meaning to share this storage tip for ages. I store my ink pads in these plastic A4 file cases. They are the right width to store a variety of ink pads and sponges. I find this is the most efficient way to store ink pads instead of in boxes or drawers for a few reasons -
1. You can see all the colours at a glance - so no turning all the ink pads over till you find the colour you are looking for.
2. You just need to turn the case over to store the pads upside down - which is the best way to store them.
3. This fits into my scrapping tote a lot easier than a bulky box




Here are a few other storage posts I have shared recently -

*Stamp storage

*Other storage

ETA: You can purchase the A4 file cases at any department store, newsagent or dollar shop - basically most shops that sell stationary. I recently brought some more from Flash Harry's (a dollor shop in Australia) for $2.99.

Bird & banner card

I remember seeing a card similar to this somewhere on the www - I don't remember who created it though- sorry. I thought this was a cute and quick card (I made two of this card to add to my stash) to make and isn't gender specific - I am definitely going to make a few more!

Denim swap

I made these denim flowers for this month's embellishment swap at Simply Crafty. It seems there was some confusion / hesitation with this theme, so I sent a photo of another denim swap I participated in and now everyone appears to be happily making their swaps :) I've already seen Kylie's swaps and I can't wait to see what everyone else has made!!


Now I have finished that swap I need to start making my card swap - the theme is female birthday card.

Thrifty Thursday

This week's share wasn't purchased at an op shop and I actually didn't find it, but I thought it was still great to share :) Mum brought this bag of crocheted granny squares for $6 at a garage sale - bargain!! All the hard works down already - woo hoo :) It even has a ball of wool to stitch up the squares and I think I would be able to make 2 smaller baby blankets from the squares!


I spent a lovely morning shopping and having coffee with Kylie, Sue and Tanya this morning :) I was lucky enough to find the perfect top to wear to the wedding this weekend and even luckier to find a cute owl necklace to wear with it - happy dance!!

New home gift card

After a few failed attempts at making a New Home card - I decided to do a CAS (Clean and Simple) gift tag instead. I just stamped a key in shades of purple and white of a kraft tag.


To co-ordinate with the colour scheme - I wrapped the gift in kraft wrapping paper, added a doiley and some purple wool!

Giraffe birthday card

I really wanted to step outside of my comfort zone for this card. There was some inked edges - I tend to like neat and clean edges :) I also coloured with markers -I usually use watercolour pencils or pastels. This cute stamp was from a new free set I got with a magazine. I love how this card turned out - just don't look too closely at the colouring LOL

The weekend...

Another busy, social weekend :) Bec, Dale and family stayed overnight on Saturday on their way through to Brisbane. I can't believe how big the kids have gotten since last time we've seen them.




Saturday night there was only time for dinner and a catch up before we went to bed. Sunday morning was time for cuddles with Bella (even though she was sick, she was still giggly and cuddly) and running off excess energy for Connor. He had a ball over-feeding the dogs biscuits and cuddling Indy :)


Then there was some fun picking mandarins off the tree...with a little help from Uncle Craig!


Sunday afternoon I spent a few hours playing with paper and glue in my scrap room - bliss! Then we went to Cathie & Andrew's for a BBQ to celebrate Cathie's birthday.

A bit of a toot for me! On Sunday, Skye & Adam went to the Childer's Multicultural fair with Brandee and had her hexagon blanket in the pram. They got lots of compliments and questions about the blanket and apparently one lady chased them down the street to chat with them about it. She has given Skye her buisness card and asked if I would contact her to discuss making her a blanket!! It's not something I had ever considered, so will have to think about it - there were a lot of hours put into crocheting the blanket (not that I am complaining - it was made with love). Any thoughts / suggestions / experience would be appreciated :)

Exciting news...Last week we found out that Craig was able to arrange some annual leave, so after a few phone calls (to check I could still have time off, that the bride / groom could adjust their reception guest numbers and to arrange a house / dog sitter) - we are heading off on a road trip to Cairns for Chris & Cassie's wedding this weekend!!! I'm so excited - now I just need to start packing, oh and maybe I need a new outfit?!?! LOL I will be scheduling some posts for while I'm away - so make sure you pop back :)