More on our travels

We have just spent 2 days in the Blue Mountains with Graham's cousins. What a lovely place. Both days it was drizzling rain and very cloudy so we couldn't see much further than a few metres away. The first day we thought we would go to see the Jenolan caves since it was wet and cloudy outside. We went to the Orient cave.

 Red my little teddy came down in the caves with us. Can you see him sitting on the rail?

 This was a magnificent group of stalactite's in the cave. below is looking from the car to the door into the tunnel as a short cut to the cave.

Here is the lookout to Wentworth falls on the first day. Not much to see apart from clouds.

 then today this is the view. much better, and we could even see the falls.

 Wentworth Falls

Above is the Leura Cascades. A very pretty place. 

 We met up with another cousin Lynne yesterday and she came site seeing with us which was lovely. we decided to go on the railway down to the bottom of the valley even though it was wet and misty. It is so amazing down in the rainforest. We then got the cable car back up after walking around the board walk in the rain. I had my umbrella but the others didn't. It was worth it though.

above is the steepest railway that we went down the valley in and then me feeding the parrots.

 we then walked the boardwalk in the rain. this is Graham with Lynne.

the rain forest is fantastic.

Today we travelled to Canberra to spend the weekend with Graham's brother Russell and Cherith. We took all day to drive down stopping in a few places on the way. One of the places was Berrima which is a lovely little town with lots of crafty places. Below Red is resting outside one of the shops.

that's all for now. I have hundreds of photos but that is the beauty of digital photo's isn't it?

Holiday News

I finally have some time to sit down and tell you a little about our holiday here in NSW. The first 2 days while I was at convention Graham wandered around the city looking at a few things and on the Saturday he went to the Swans/ Dockers AFL game at the SCG. He had a really good seat and the Dockers won so that was good.
On Sunday we visited my good friend Bev, who I haven't seen in quite some time so that was wonderful. We plan to see her again next week before we leave. After that Shane and Rebecca and the kids met us at the train station and we caught the train into the city and went down to circular Quay for the Jet Boat Ride that I had given Graham for his birthday and to Shane as a thank you for having us stay. It was drizzling rain all day. Rebecca and I took Photos from across the water at the ferry terminal. This photo is as they were about to leave. Shane and Graham are in the back row.

They came back soaked even though they had the purple rain coats. Shane had bought along a change of clothes but Graham hadn't so had to stay in his wet clothes on the way home. As Ronan wanted to have a boat ride we decided to take the ferry out to Meadowbank and then catch the train back to Turramurra where our car was. The 1 hour trip ended up taking us 2 1//2 hours due to missing one train and then have to change trains twice to get back. Luckily I had my book with me and read during the long waits at the stations and then while travelling. We enjoyed the ferry ride up the river.

This is the Harbour Bridge as we left Circular Quay.

 The Opera House was a little gloomy in the rain.

 When we had to change trains at Epping we came across this very steep and long escalator. I have never seen one so long. Graham took a photo of me half way down.
It was so far down under ground that it smelt like fumes down there. We sure have learnt a lot about travelling by train in the past few days.
 After we got home we then went to Elanora Heights to visit with Graham's Auntie and Uncle and met his cousins Peter and Maryanne. We had a lovely meal there and enjoyed it very much. We have organised to go and spend the day with Peter and Maryanne next Wednesday.

Yesterday we had a rest day and apart from going into Hornsby to dry some clothes and buy a couple of things spent the day at the house.

Shane and Rebecca have 3 chooks and lots of trees around. The leaves are all such lovely colours with the autumn leaves. The parrots come each day looking for a feed. They are almost tame.

 Today we went to Shane's work and I taught a few people a card in their lunch break.
If you are wondering how Ted is going here is a couple of pictures of him. One at Shane's work answering the phone and also one waiting for the train.

My little great niece Aylish is really gorgeous. She enjoyed the ferry ride as you can see in this photo with Rebecca. She is 8 months old and Ronan is 3 1/2. Ronan enjoyed stamping today and proudly showed me his page.

More Convention

This is me in front of the stage at Convention. As you can see the theme of Convention was inspire, create, share. The second photo is of the lovely Shelli Gardner with her husband Stirling and Graham and I. She must be the most photographed person at these conventions.

Hopefully I will have time tomorrow to let you know a little about our holiday.

Convention News

This is the first time I have had a little time to get on the computer to post here. I have had a really busy time over here in Sydney but am enjoying it. Convention was a really great experience. I am all inspired to get back into doing much more with my business. We had some great sessions of demonstrations and also sales and workshop talks. The awards dinner was really wonderful and I actually got to march across the stage twice. Once for 20K in yearly sales and for the career sales milestone of $100,000.

The tables were looking wonderful with these big glass vases with a candle and tulips in. Can you imagine arranging around 90 of these vases.

This is me and Shelli when I went on stage for the 100,000 milestone. 

We also heard of a great new promotion Stampin" Up! have on from now until 31st July. If ever you thought about signing up to be an Independent Stampin' Up! demonstrator then now is the time as there is 20% off the starter kit. Also if you join my team I will also offer you a special extra stamp set. Just email me or phone and we can talk about this fantastic opportunity.

Convention Tomorrow.

Im excited to be writing this from Sydney at my nephew Shane's house. We flew 3352 kms across Australia today and tomorrow is the start of Convention. I hope I will have some news for you tomorrow evening when I get home from the day. My little bear (Red) who travels in my car with me has come on this trip as well so I will be taking him all sorts of places. Today I have a photo of him on the plane. Below is looking out the window on our decent into Sydney.

More Roses

I went out to my garden on Sunday to pick some roses and only needed to go to 2 bushes to get a full vase of long stem roses. There were 10 red ones and about the same of the yellow. Ever since the big storm here in Perth where we got so much rain, my roses have been the best they have ever been since we planted them. Well I have heaps to do to get ready for my holiday so I had better get off here and get to work.

A New Baby Boy

Im excited that I got to meet my friend Nic's new baby boy yesterday. Hayden James. I of course had lots of cuddles and took some photos. Isnt he gorgeous.
I realised I hadnt made a special card for him so quickly cased a lovely little pram card that I saw on Sandi MacIvers blog. It was an easy but cute card.I actually made it before she put the tutorial up so actually just winged it.

I am off to Convention on Thursday and will be on holiday in NSW for 2 weeks so you may not hear much from me but I am hoping to get online and keep you updated on any news from over there.

Flowers from my Niece

On Saturday my lovely niece Amy bought me a bunch of flowers that she had made with designer paper and the scallop circle punch. She also used the leaves die and put them all on wire to make the boquette. I love it and as I collect little crystal vases I had the perfect one to put it in. Thankyou Amy. It made my day.

Busy Bee's

Hi, I suppose you have been wondering where I have been for the past week. The flooring company were booked for today so I have been taking everything out of my craft room. What a BIG job. Thank you to Graham and Emily for doing some of the packing while I spent Tuesday night in hospital for a sleep study and a big thank you to Judy and Barbara for coming over yesterday to help out as well. I finished off this morning and boy what a lot of craft stuff there is. I am determined to NOT put it all back as I realise that just because I may think I will use it one day, I also may not. They say clutter is stressful and as I am destressing my life this is going to be a way to help out. I just took a couple of photos of the 2 rooms we have packed everything in. Where did all that stuff fit???

the furniture has been moved to one end of the room while they lay the other and then I hope they will put everything back where I had it. What a good way to have a big clean out. If you want any of my cast off's I will have a garage sale after I get back from Convention. 
I never wanted to have the floor boards replaced because of the amount of work it would take but am I glad I did as it really smelled under the boards. It has been nearly a month since the storm so it has had plenty of time to get smelly.

My First Nappy Cake

Hi, I have been making a nappy cake for a good friend of mine. I have finally finished it and I know she wont be looking at my blog so I thought I would show it to you. If little Hayden isnt born over the weekend he will be helped along on Monday.
I have used all Stampin' Up! products except for the curl on the punched baby's head and his feet. I now have to wrap it in cellophane so I am hoping my friends who are visiting tomorrow will be able to help me. The main stamp set used is Wild About You. Let me know what you think.

Beautiful Blogger Awards

I have been very kindly nominated by not 1 but 2 lovely cyber friends of mine. Thank you to Claire Harrison and also Sonia G. The interesting thing is that I was Sonias ESAD Secret Sister last round and Claire was my Secret Sister.

This award is great as you can pay it forward. Thats right ,once you have received it you get to pass it on and let others know what you think of their blog.

I am also required to reveal ten things about myself. 

So here goes;

1. I am in my second marraige. Very Happy!

2. I have 2 children. David 19 and Emily 16

3. I have a gorgeous dog named Skye (2) and a fluffy cat named Meeka (13)

4. I am one of 5 children raised on a farm. (4 girls and then boy)

5. I have Arthritis and Fybromyalgia so dont have a job apart from Stampin' Up! which is a hobby.

6. I am a Christian.

7. I have tried every craft there is, just about, and taught paper tole, folk art and card making. 

8. I travelled Europe and the UK when I was 24.

9. I was a nurse for 11 years before injuring my back.

10. I love to please people and especially love teaching people to be creative.

Now on to nominating 10 of the blogs I enjoy. I have noticed some of the ones I also follow have already been nominated by others so I wont add them.

my good friend and upline  Lee-Anne Barry

the very talented  Valita Reynolds  I love her iris folding patterns.

I enjoy punching and Jackie Topa sells tutorials.

My very creative sideline Caroline Cassidy

Another lovely talented sideline Richelle Fletcher

the talented lovely  Makeesha Byl

my wonderful downline Nicki Turner

my new cyber friend from Paper Crafters Sampler Melanie Schulenberg

and last but not least my friend Virginia Killmore 

Well that sure has taken awhile to do. Now off to create some cards to show you.

Up in a Balloon

hi there,
I have been so busy having a rest that I havent been doing all that much creating. I am feeling so much better and ready to get back into some stamping and its about time I showed you something on here. This card is one that I made with the new set A Little Treat. I love the hot air ballon stamp and used Lovely as a tree to make the forest below. I sponged the clouds using the a mask that I cut out free hand. The greeting is from Stem Sayings. What do you think?