Beginning a new era

Now that we have settled in a beautiful part of the country (Kooralbyn Valley , Queensland) I thought it was time that I started making cards and scrapbooking again. Stephen has just built me a wonderful craft room so here are some of the cards I made this week.

My new craft room

It's still a little messy but I will soon sort it out

Look forward to posting more in the near future

Making Cards again

I was very short of Men,s cards so thought  I would buy a sheet of pictures to make a few quick cards
Here are some of the cards that came from the sheets.

A birthday card made for a friend of ours

Two of the same card made in different shapes

this one made in a class at my local craft store

The above two cards were made for a craft day we are having next week so the girls have something to do besides eat drink and chat

This card was made for my Husband on o ur Anniversary ( 42 years this year)

Photographs of our beautiful block of land in Kooralbyn

View from the front of the shed

The shed

View down the right hand side of the block

Central view

We get lovely breezes most of the day and have had lots of water recently ( will have to get a bigger water tank although we have water to the block the flow is not very good.)

2014 so far

Well Christmas came and went (2013) had a great time at my daughters and helped to look after our grandsons during the school holidays.
Just before Christmas we decided to purchase a property in the beautiful Kooralbyn Valley in between Beaudesert and Rathdowney. It is just over 2 acres on the side of a very large hill ( or small mountain whichever way you look at it). It has a large shed on it and power and water to the block.
After the boys went back to school we stayed at a friends place in Buccan for 4 weeks ferrying daily to the block all our boxes from both our daughter's houses.
We have bow been living on the block for about 5 weeks in the caravan and Stephen is in his element again. He is digging holes both manually and with a Backhoe (yes we purchased a big boy toy for him) to route the electricity cables and water pipes to the shed and then he will convert part of the shed for us to live in as we have decided to sell our caravan and car and try to purchase a smaller one.
We are also going overseas this year, mid July, visiting Singapore, Dublin, England, Scotland,London, Paris,Baden Baden,Munich and Venice. Looking forward to seeing family and also the Edinburgh Military Tattoo ( which I've always wanted to see)
This will probably be our last trip over to England as I think the money will run out soon.
We still have to try and build a house on the property but we will look at this when we get back.
I have been making more cards since we settled here and will have to get back into the habit of photographing them for you all to see.
We do not intend to stop traveling but just wont be traveling full time as there is still so much of Australia to see.

Melbourne

After Port Macquarie and Timbertown at Wauchope we travelled to just south of Melbourne to visit my Brother and his family. We stayed for just over a week and visited the famous Miss Marples Restaurant  on the Dandenong Mountain (we always go there as it is just to die for)  Pictures of the desserts we had will follow. I visited a craft show at flemington Racecourse and we also visited The manufactureres of our caravan "Retreat" - they were very helpful and courteous - gave us a tour of the workshop and showed us the various stages of manufacture and the different types of caravans that they make now. A day out with my brother took us to visit a place called Sky high on The Dandenong Mountain. this place has walking trails, gardens and picnic areas as well as a restaurant and novelty themes.

Chocolate fudge cake with cream and ice cream

Trifle

 

Bread and Butter Pudding with cream and ice cream

Sky High Mt Dandenong

Another shot of Sky High Mt Dandenong

The Giants Armchair

This is a tree where the top has been cut off and the trunk carved - beautiful piece of work

After Melbourne we drove home to my Daughters at Ormeau near the gold coast - we stayed over night at Peaks Hill near Parkes and we have been back home for nearly 2 weeks.  

We are now at Boyds Bay Caravan Park at Tweed Heads for 1 week catching up with My Sister in law who we haven't seen since last April as they have been travelling too.

Pictures of Timbertown at Wauchope

Here are the pictures of Timbertown at Wauchope that I promised you all.

Port Macquarie

We stayed three nights at the Wyndham resort in Port Macquarie which is a lovely unspoilt part of the coast. the studio unit was beautiful and we were greeted with a bottle of wine and a free dvd hire for one night.

The next day we explored the beaches around Port Macquarie and of course visited the Historical Society Museum - which was excellent.

The third day we visited Timbertown in Wauchope - this is a replica of a sawmill town and we watched bullock teams pulling logs and rode in a carriage and on the steam train and finished the day off with a rum and raisin ice cream - yummy

Tacking Point Lighthouse

The view from the Lighthouse

Flynn's Beach

Part of the Museum presented by the Historical Society

Another section of the museum

After Port Macquarie we travelled to Batemans Bay another beautiful section of the coast - the most hazardous part of this journey was not the bushfires around Sydney but driving through Sydney and we didn't even touch the centre it was a Nightmare with a capital N

We stayed one night there and visited a friend we met last year whilst travelling. It was good to see them again and to know that they are enjoying travelling too. Looking forward to catching up again.

We then drove all day to Melbourne to my brother's house and arrived there about 9pm that night and are having a wonderful time catching up.  

Will post pictures of Timbertown later as I haven't put them on the computer yet.