a sneek of new things

Lime Tart has a new range of stamps from Stampavie- did you know that??? They are sweeeeet!!!

I was lucky enough to have one of the Rachelle Anne Miller acrylic stamps sent to me to play with ... OOOO they are beautiful! They ink and stamp so wonderfully, nice crisp images!!! Fine detail!!!

Here is a sneek of one of the cards I've made so far - I can see me using this one a lot!!!

cane crushing season

I guess we take the process of cane, its growing, crushing and going to the mill, as fairly day to day life here. They are currently crushing/harvesting (cutting and carting away the cane grass) across from Jacks school so this morning I took Scott over to have a look this morning. The fellow that was driving the harvester offered to take Scott for a little ride - how lucky was he!!! I grew up around Cane Farms, and this was a chance for him to experience a little of what I did when I was young - and learn that some of the foods we eat, start off as a raw product - I'd love to take him through the mill (and the other kids too) but they will have to be a bit older I think.

Scott in the cab of the tractor which was pulling the cane bin. We didn't get photos of the harvestor itself, it was on the other side of the field.
Here they come!!!

The cane train tracks. Everything around our area is carted to the mill on the tracks, other places cart via large trucks on the road. Lots of mills in the area have closed over time so farmers now have to cart a lot further. Our nearest isn't so far away - hence going by train. You can hear the alarms at the crossings near our house, but only if you are outside and you listen hard LOL. You can see how close the tracks are to the road in this pic.

The bins, many dozen of them all hooked up to each other - are really not much more than metal mesh cages. Each has a number and I think a microchip system these days, letting the mill know whose cane it is when it comes in for processing.

There is always tonnes of excess cane dropped on the railway side - I remember as a kid getting it and chewing it - its not as sweet as sugar and has more of a molasses taste but it is yummy!

Finally a pic of Scott beside the train, looking very happy that he got to experience a little bit of farm life even though it was only a few minutes.

rak winner

remember I ran a quick rak for some tiny pink alpha stickers....

the winner is........


Dannii!!!!!

Sorry, no pic of my wonder Scott pulling out the name, seems someone (aka ME) forgot to put a card in the camera LOL.

Dannii can you let me know your addy!!!

Thanks for playing everyone xoxo

gotta love a blind scrap!!

Thanks to Diva Helen, for the instructions in the Blind Scrapping during our latest Cybercrop! I went out on a limb and did some very loose interpretations LOL. I can't wait to see the 'original' that it was all based on!!
I used mainly MME on this layout, with lots of bits that were laying on my desk!!

in need of a home

M, I apologise for the poor pics, its terrible weather here today. I hope Mia's dolly enjoys her new hat - I just need an address to post it to :)

one more

loving going back to these old photos and tuning them up.

Jessica S's classes

I've been following along with lots of others, completing the 2 week Photoshop Editing course over at Jessica Sprague's site. Its been great. At first there were lots of things I knew how to do. But then we got onto things like clipping masks and texture, something I have wanted to learn for ages. I decided to use the same photo for all the exercises, or as much as I can. Here is the result. I still have the last few lessons to do, creating story boards etc but I just love the effects I've gotten so far!!

today

I took the kids to the shops this morning. Main aim was to get a few things

I had forgotten from Coles the other day - things like juice which is

an essential element to breakfast every morning apparently! We did

end up with some wintery bargains... Scott got trackpants for $4.50

and a matching long sleeve tee for $5... Perfect for chilly days but not too hot

that he will boil during an active session lol. Alesia got the score of the day.

Poor kid, being long lanky and skinny is tough when it comes to finding

long clothes that don't look freaky. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

We ended up with 3 pairs of pants (2 jeans, 1 cords) from Pumpkin patch and I

got change from $65. I also got her 2 long sleeve tops which on her are really

more like 3/4 sleeve tops - the ones that have the right length arm literally

fall off her shoulders. I'm hoping that by next season she wil have plumped up

a little but I say that every year. As a treat (and for my own sanity), they

had KFC snack boxes for lunch. I'm really loving using my phone camera these

days and OMG I've only just now figured out why the images were so cruddy -

I had it on minimal pixels/quality. I've changed it back to 3M photos so

hopefully i get some better shots from now on.

All the kids are currently eating popcorn in the playroom, watching a movie.

I'm waiting for hubby to call to say hes finally made it to the Sunshine Coast.

He sounded bummed before, seems that he has some rub marks

on the paintwork of his precious motorbike, and he is not happy Jan!

***edit*** yay he is there. Only a short trip to Brissy for tomorrow. Its been

the longest wait to hear he is there.

one last thing - crochet project

I've started a new crochet project

Seems that hubby was feeling a little neglected. I've crocheted a blanket each for the kids over the years, and they each have a sewn blanket of some sort made by me too. Hubby requested that if I have time (ha!) could I work on a blanket for him? I wasn't going to but I went to spotlight and noticed they still had more balls of this wool. I had originally bought 3 balls to make a cot blanket for a friend but her bubba is now 2 months old LOL - bit late for that as a gift for his birth. So I grabbed I think 6 more balls and hope that it will be enough to create a smallish personal blanket. Its about 120 cm wide, and I'm doing a simple row by row pattern. Nothing fancy, plain and simple. Wish me luck, this is going to take all year at the rate I go LOL.

PS M - I haven't forgotten about a skull cap for Mias doll ;)

sewing and creating

I keep thinking I haven't been very productive in the creative cycle lately but now I look at all these, I don't think thats accurate.

I'm still tweeking the bib pattern, I think I need to make the neck hole slightly bigger? I guess I've now got enough little gifts for when more bubbas come along (not mine LOL - friends bubbas). I've used terry towelling for most things - burp cloths and bibs. The change mat/pram liners/cot blankets were made using small panels I've had for ages, so glad that I kept the matching strip of boat material, perfect for the bibs.

lime tart projects

Over at Lime Tart, the gallery has been up for several days now, here are my projects for this month. Be sure to check out the other kits too and my fellow team mates fantastic projects using them.

V8 action

I am sure I mentioned we went to the V8 Supercars in Townsville last weekend? It was great! We spent 3 nights on a 52 foot catamaran, ate, drank and had a ball! Here are just a few pics. I should have had the camera out more. We got some stubbie coolers signed by one of the drivers, and hubby managed some other signatures on his shirts. The amount of people there was amazing - the place was packed and it took forever to get from point A to point B. We also spent a day (well I spent a few hours, hubby a day) in the corporate tents above the pits. That was awesome, for someone who has no idea about cars, I was totally enthralled. Ok so just a few of the hundreds of photos of cars... (and there are probably at least several dozen pics of girls LOL)....

home alone

....well not really, hubby has gone away for a little while for work so its just me and the kids. So guess who decided they should keep me company tonight??? Cheeky little sod, wanted to ring daddy at 9pm to tell him he was keeping his side of the bed warm ROFL!! Again, poor phone photos but with a smile like that, how could I say no???

the show

The local show has started here, it goes for 3 days and nights. We usually take the kids on the first night, this year being no exception. Cruddy phone pics but all fun just the same. Jack got a Ben 10 showbag, Scott only wanted a giant inflatable hammer and Alesia opted for a few of the more expensive rides instead of a showbag this year. Of course there was the lolly bags (1 each), fairy floss, waffles, dagwood dogs and toasted cheese sandwiches - YES thats true!! Jack still isn't 100% so he was happy for a few rides then spent the rest of the time in the stroller - falling asleep before we finished with everything (I'm so glad I decided to take it!!). A good night by all :)

Lime Tart Gallery is up!!!

our weekend

We've had a busy weekend! It started with a little visit to a special lady at the hospital. Camping friends/childhood friends of mine welcomed Caitlyn Maddison into their family during the week, their first bubba, and first grandbubba for all parties! She is sweet, although was asleep for my entire visit. It also gave me the opportunity to use up this fabric which has been sitting patiently waiting for a pink bubba to arrive. I used minky fleece for the backing of the blanket, soooo soft! I have several other sets I want to get sewn over the next few days, just to have handy and so I don't have to race to the machine and sew for a few hours like crazy! Yesterday, we went with friends up to Tinaroo Dam (actually we went to Tinnaburra, but same same!). Alesia went up skiing for the first time last weekend and was keen to show off her 2 ski skills. OMG the water was freezing and NO I did not get in - I stayed warm in jeans and jumper on the shore. Scott also decided dry land was a better option. Kids and adults alike enjoyed the ski bob and tubes too, Daniel even had a go on the single ski (thats been up in the shed collecting dust for 10 years). A great day, tiring and so today is a day of rest at home.

wow more watercolour images

Aren't these the cutest??? I'm currently in a bit of a obsessive mood with watercolour images, check them out here....

and they are having a give away!! Gotta love blog candy!!!

Raspberry

pop over to the Raspberry DT blog, they are having a give away!

photoshoot

school holidays usually mean lots of running around for us. This time though, I've been sick and Scott is still in daycare 3 days a week. So this past week has been lots of NOTHING. I try to catch up with photos of Alesia during holidays if I can too, she seems to be the one that misses out these days in the photo department. She is a great model, in fact I think she has always liked being in front of the camera. I try to teach her a little about basic photography as we go too, an interest that she is starting to take up. So here they are, a select few pics from hundreds. I showed hubby and whilst he liked them, he commented that a lot didn't look like her, ummm, daddy thats because she is growing up and you don't see it! LOL.

a sneek

a little bit of a sneek at one of the projects I did with my Lime Tart Kit. The papers were so yummy that I had trouble throwing any little scraps away!!! Click on the button on the left to go to the Lime Tart Site for more info!!!

Mels been at it again!

Go check out the gallery at Divas, Mel has been whipping up a storm with her creative genius, and created some beautiful samples from the new Divalicious set of goodies.

Did you sign up?

Did you sign up for the Lime Tart Newsletter? This month you can win a prize just for signing up!! Click on the image above to read the newsletter!!!