Journeys - Artistic and Offroad

Fantastic Blog Candy at Scrap Friends

2011-12-22T19:46:00.000-08:00

Scrap Friends have a fantastic blog candy giveaway. Not one or two but THREE huge portions of scrappy deliciousness. Check out all the sweet, sweet bounty at their blog. http://blog.scrapfriends.com.au/2011/10/blog-candy-celebration-giveaway.html

More Monthly Calendars

2011-04-08T15:36:00.000-07:00

It might be a new year with a new job but some things don’t change – still neglecting my blog. Not a lot to blog about – go to work, come home, and go to work for 5 days then housework on the weekends.
I have had one nephews wedding last month. Had to buy a frock – YUCK!! I’m not a frock kind of girl and nor do I like clothes shopping. Another nephew has his wedding on the Easter weekend. Easter!!! There goes my camping trip.

I have got in a little bit of creation. I have been keeping up with the monthly art calendar challenge. http://monthlyartcalendarchallenge.blogspot.com/ Here are my February and March Calendars. February's challenge was love and romance - so I've used a lot of pink and bling. March was gree, so I've not only used the colour, but been "green" by recycling old magazine for the the date squares and other embellishments.

Escape from the Mountain

2011-01-12T20:36:00.000-08:00

The Brisbane and Ipswich flood peaks didn't reach the 1974 levels but still thousands of peoples homes and businesses have been flooded.

Went off the mountain today to get some fuel and food. Mt Mee Road is closed between Townsend and Ocean View Rds due to a landslide and there is only one lane open between Ocean View Rd and Glengariff as the road is undercut. Possibly they will have the slide cleared tomorrow, but it might be a while with the rest.

I'm watching that low in the Coral Sea - I hope it buggers off, the last thing Queensland needs is a cyclone

Floods - worse than '74!!

2011-01-11T04:40:00.000-08:00

This is a you-tube video by Tony Gardiner of the main street of our nearest little town - Dayboro in flood this morning. The rain has been relentless over the last few weeks and has cut roads over the last few days and trapped us up on the mountain.

But we have been lucky, a flash flood in Toowoomba and parts of the Lockyer Valley yesterday washed away cars, houses, whole towns and lives. My Aunty lives in one of the worst affected areas Murphy's Creek but luckily she was not at home when the wall of water hit the valley. Otherwise she may have been amoung the 10 dead and 79 missing.

It is hard to believe that Ipswich is expecting a flood worse than that 1974 tonight ,with Brisbane to follow tomorrow and Thursday. I was only young when the 74 floods stuck Brisbane but I do remember the images on the TV and going down to Lake Kurwongbah to watch the torrent of water going over the spillway. There has been so much rain (we had over 300mm just today) in already wet catchments that not even the Wivenhoe Dam will save Brisbane.

What happened to 2010

2011-01-08T06:21:00.000-08:00

Well the year passed me by and I don't know what happened to it. I suppose that means I was busy, I guess. Not going to make any 2011 New Years resolutions about paying more attention to my blog - if it happens it happens.

We did go up to Cape York again in August. I'll have to drag out some highlight pictures. While I did enjoy it, it was certainly busier that 6 years ago and some of the people going up there certainly don't have the tread lightly or responsible camping ethic. Like to leave there waste around - rubbish and human - total pigs. We had pretty good weather right until the end of the trip when it began to rain and it feels to me like it hasn't stopped since.

I've done almost no gardening this year it's been too wet to really get into the vege patch. It's pretty much a nasterium patch and even they are struggling in the boggy conditions. Who would have thought that living on a mountain ridge your yard would end up so swappy.

I haven't done as much crafting and swapping either, especially in the later part of the year as I have been very busy with work. Work has moved and I'm back on public transport so spend 3-4 hours a day travelling to and from. I've risen to the ATCs4U monthly art calender challenge (links on the sidebar) lets hope it doesn't fall as flat as the weekly ATC challenge from 2010. I did do many more that I loaded up on this blog but certainly didn't even come close to meeting the weekly challenge. I'd like to still make all the ATCs from last year just to fill the holes is my set. I'll collage them into a couple of image for the blog when I get a chance. Anyway here's my January 2011 art calendar page - prior to any journalling.

Our new money pit and some ATCs

2010-03-02T02:18:00.000-08:00

Our new money pit has arrived. It is already filled with dog hair and the seat covers have little muddy footprints thanks to our wet (I'm over it already) weather and I haven't even had a ride in it yet.

On a more important note (well at least more important to me) I have finally caught up with the Weekly ATC diary.

Week 5 Where I Live

Views from the back and front of my house and the front elevation from our house plans

Week 6 Page Map

Week 7 Love and Romance

Week 9 Your Favourite Technique

The background is texture paste and alcohol inks simple and effective

Week 9 Pink, Black and Bling

WOOHOO! new car soon!! and Week 4 atc

2010-01-29T06:24:00.000-08:00

The following is the ATC for the week 4 of the ATCs4U weekly diary challenge. The theme was Australia Day. The background is a fourex can run through the cuttlebug, now Liz seems to think its hubby's can....well ahem....lets just say it could have been his. I had an Australia Day much as the card indicates mates, beers and BBQ. I hope everyone had a fantastic day. Some people dwell on the negatives of the date but I think we need a day to celebrate us, everyone, all Australians as a people and this fabulous country.

More good news - Jonkers Toyota rang and we will have a new ute sooner than expected. A previously ordered ute is no longer required so we will now have our Cruiser at least a month and a half earlier. Mark can now stop logging onto the Toyota site to track the production of his new car. Now we can definitely go camping at Easter, Hurrah - especially as it means I can send him back off to work - double Hurrah!

Weekly 3 - ATC Diary and some lovely creations from the Allcraftz girls

2010-01-19T02:35:00.000-08:00

The following is the ATC for the week 3 of the ATCs4U weekly diary challenge. The theme was birthday as it is both Liz's and De's Birthdays in January. It was fitting as it is Mark's as well this month. Though the card itself was a bit of a cheat as I just rehashed an old design from a previous swap, but I did testosterone it up a bit as the originals were very pink.

I also got some fantastic atcs from a couple of themed ATC swaps. The theme for the group below was metal. Thankyou to the fantastic artists - Leesa, Sharon, Nic and Robyn.

The next theme was trees. I think that this could be about my favourite theme for ATCs as it's impossible not to make something gorgeous with a tree - don't you agree. Thankyou Marnie, Joy, Nic and Marcy for your lovely creations.

Weekly ATC Diary - Week 2

2010-01-08T06:25:00.000-08:00

This has got to be some sort of record for me. More than one blog post in a week and doing challenge before the eleventh hour. Liz and De posted the next challange on the weekly ATC diary blog (http://weekly-atc-diary.blogspot.com/). This weeks theme was summer and my ATC was inspired by the fly on both Liz's and De's cards. One of my memories of summer is going being down to the creek to escape the heat, hearing the cicadas and watching the vibrant jewelled dragonflies dart about. So for this theme I chose a dragonfly.

The background is ditress inks and glimmermist, the grass is embossed in copper (mainly because the stamping didn't stand out much, as for that neither did the VIBRANT word rubon). The dragonfly was printed on transparency and stuck onto more misted card because it didn't stand out either. Now I've gone and really talked it up, it actually doesn't look half bad IRL.

RIP Cruiser 1999 - 2009

2010-01-03T21:53:00.000-08:00

You have travelled many a road
Always willing to carry the load
No matter what the state of the trail
No obstacle would ever cause you to fail
Until that day you meet that cliff of rock
Which caused you to come to a shuddering stop
It was just a normal everyday day
Nothing should have got in your way
But now you are just a twisted wreck
And will never, ever go on another trek

We have lost our Cruiser 75 ute - TOTAL LOSS - as the insurance company put it. After the thousands of miles of gravel, corrugations, sand, mud, hill climbs and creek crossings, she met her demise on the bitumen. Just a normal everyday drive only 5 minutes from home, a recently resurfaced road, a sharp bend and she met her end on the clifface of the road cutting. No camping and 4x4 this Christmas. We had to stay at home - the poor little Vitara wasn't going to tow the camper trailer.

Now comes the long wait and the huge pain in the hip pocket to replace her with a new 70 series ute. A brand-spanking new Cruiser. I just wish they would hurry up and schedule the thing to be built. The Business tax incentive meant there isn't one sitting on a lot anywhere and we wanted factory difflocks so it looks like a four month wait. Though I can definitely wait to fork out the money, it almost as much as what we paid for our first house. The worst thing is we are grounded till we get the new car. No camping and fourwheel driving for a quarter of the year!!!

New Years Resolution and the Weekly ATC diary

2010-01-03T20:19:00.000-08:00

I have made a News Years Resolution to try to at least put up a post a month on this poor neglected blog. As a beginning I have started on the weekly atc diary challenge which Redcrystal of the yahoo group ATCs4U has started. If your interested come and join. This blog http://weekly-atc-diary.blogspot.com/ tells you everything you need to know. This week the ATC front is to be your name and its meaning. I went to town (well not quite the capital city, you know just down town, as I haven't journalled on the backs yet) and made two atcs with different meanings of my name. One is Spanish meaning Pretty or Pretty one. The other is English meaning lime tree or linden tree. There is also a German meaning but it is snake and I'm not really into them so I'll give that a miss.

The backgrounds are glimmer misted, I have stamped and heat embossed the tree and name plate, just printed out the words and distress inked them and a dictionary meaning added an image on the spanish one and some bling and trinkets. TFL

What a shocker I am

2009-09-26T18:49:00.000-07:00

OMG how long has it been it's almost Christmas and over a year since we went through central Australia. Why does time just seems to pass me by - Getting older maybe?? I've been busy with work, gardening and repainting the house. I totally renovated the vegie patch and we finally finished the fence (only took about 5 years). So no more dogs trampling and digging, and no more bunnies munching. I used fine aviary mesh which goes down to a concrete footing so here’s hoping it will keep out snakes too (doubt it though).

We’ve been stripping back and refinishing the decks and red cedar windows. We were hammering along and looked like finishing them in only a couple of weekends and then two things happened – our cracked concrete water tank finally emptied and we both came down with a virus. We had to take advantage of the empty tank to repair the leaks – not only we’re we losing a lot of water but the yard around the tank was like a bog – though Fly (our doggie girl) loved to lay in a nice muddy spot to cool down after giving the cattle a talking too (funny story about that too but I’ll leave it for later). So there was scrubbing and grouting and painting to seal up the tank again. But then DH got sick and so did I not long after. It’s been over 2 weeks for me and 3 for him and just when we were starting to feel better then comes the dust – ahh! I think another course of antibiotics might be needed to totally get over it.

I have had a bit of time for crafting though. The young and very talented Ruby Bisson organised a circle journal swap for ATCs at Allcraftz. There are some fantastic artists at Allcraftz and I’ll think you’ll agree looking at the cards.

My theme was places and postage stamps
My ATC

Ruby's

De's

Robyn's

Nova's

Marnie's

Marcy's

Liz's

My New Obsession or its your fault Liz

2009-01-09T05:39:00.000-08:00

I have become an addict and I put the blame squarely in Redcystals court. I am an ATC addict which has developed into a Swap-bot addiction and it is most definitely Liz's fault. I mean, it seemed so casual and innocent to mention that she was hosting a couple of swaps - but now here I am a hopeless addict, beyond rehabilitation. So I better show you a bit of what I have been up to.

Swap-bot Recycled Christmas Card ATCs

Swap-bot Asian ATCs My first International swap

Hello 2009

2009-01-09T05:29:00.000-08:00

Well this New Year was quieter than many others. We had a few over of food an drinks. This year is the warmest New Year that I can remember since we've been here - around 8 years. We were a few down at our New Years party - my poor DS with a broken foot that wouldn't mend and BIL and SIL whos very elderly doggie had his last night on earth. Fingers crossed this year is much kinder to many of my family and friends who did it tough last year.

Anyway on a much happier not DH got the tractor he has been wanted for a long time and as soon as he had a spare weekend he turned our old ride-on mower into an electric garden cart - why you might - well because he could.

Hugs to anyone who bothers to read this blog and I hope 2009 works out fab for you.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-27T04:50:00.000-08:00

I have had a pretty quiet Christmas. Went to DH’s no2 brother’s place for lunch and my sisters for dinner. We had a couple of our neighbours over for drinks and nibbles tonight and we’ll have a few more over on New Years – though much lower key than previous years.

I was given this award by the lovely Marnie who said the most lovely things about my work.
Here are the rules to follow through when you receive the award:
1.Post a copy on your blog.
2.Mention who gave you the award.
3.Pass the award onto 6 others.
4.Leave a message on their blog letting them know the award has been bestowed upon them.

So here are the 6 that I would love to spread the love to:

1. Megan - for all her commitment to the Allcraftz community and for understanding how much I love my furbabies.

The two fabulous Allcraftz DTs
2. Hannah - the queen of cards
3. Krissy - the queen of flowers and feminine

4.Ruby - the most talented young scapper I know and such a lovely young lady to boot.

To the last two ladies for making me laugh so hard that numerous hot and cold beverages came out of my nose.
5.Liz - thanks for the laughs and inspiring me to reach out to others with my art
6.Sharon - thanks for being the life of the party on any number of ocassions

2008-12-13T23:06:00.000-08:00

Here are some more ATCs that I have made this year for challenges and swaps at Allcraftz

These ATCs were done for a spring cybercrop at Allcraftz

These were another challenge at Allcraftz for Word Card Making Day

This was for the Allcraftz Rainbow and flowers swap

These were for the Allcraftz christmas swap

What a Slacker!!

2008-12-12T04:35:00.000-08:00

OMG it is nearly Christmas and how long has it been since I updated this blog. Bad Blogger, Bad, Bad Blogger!! I haven't been doing much but working since coming back from holidays. Nothing interesting has happened to me - except that some blinking Truck ran into my poor old car. But its all fixed and no one was hurt so no big deal.

On the craft side I have really been into ATCs of late so I thought I'd post some of those that I have done.

PS promise I sort out more trip photos and complete my rundown - might have time to breath over christmas.

My Very first ATCs

These are my Heritage and Blue

My asian and red ATC set (Thanks for the pics Marnie)

Outback Odyssey (Second Installment)

2008-10-03T04:18:00.001-07:00

Now where was I - thats right Redbank Gorge. Well here is a couple of photos of the gorge

outback odyssey (first installment)

2008-09-01T19:42:00.000-07:00

Well were back from our trip through central Australia. We crossed the Simpson from Birdsville across the QAA and French Lines to Dalhousie where we had a couple of days just soaking in the springs. Then through Mt Dare to Curtin Springs and on to Yulara for a few days of admiring Uluru and Kata Juta. Then to Kings Canyon where we spent a couple of days walking up and round the Canyon. It was quite a bit drier and a lot more windy than the 8 years ago. There was no water in the pools around the rock and the waterhole at Garden of Eden at Kings Canyon was probably at least a metre lower.

From Kings were went through the Finke Gorge NP on the boggy hole track to Palm Valley. Before reaching the Boggy Hole track we can up against some foreign tourists bogged down to the chassis in bulldust on Giles Road. Huge signs say 4x4 only, bulldust and corrigations in pictures and words, but they still attempted it in their hired Toyota Camray. There isn't any accessable tow points on the camray but we managed to hook up the strap on the front pull him out off the dusthole and then pulled him back through the hole back in the direction they came.

The Finke Gorge track was new territory for us and was very enjoyable - quite different and interesting scenery right along the track. We had a beautiful sandy (not dusty) camping spot. There was a den on dingos close by with pups old enough to go out hunting - you could see all the large and small footprints round the camp in the morning. I managed to locate the den a got a glimpse of one of the pups. Dad had been quite obvious around the camp the afternoon before.

From Boggy hole we went to Palm Valley where we had one of the warmest days for a while. The track to the camping area has been gravelled since our last trip and it was much drier - no water to cross on the way in - so it was easy driving (boring Mark would say). We did the walk through the valley the next day and then drove on and camped at Redbank Gorge in the West McDonalds. Namatjira Drive had been recently bitumened so no washed out creek crossings between Gosse Bluff and the Lookout and no rocks to get punctures like last trip.

We had specifically bought some blowup boats to go up Redbank Gorge. Last time we really wanted to go up - but the water is so cold there is no way could swim unaided (unless you come from one of the scandinavian countries where I believe it is a much more common practice). So Mark and I and Adam and Larissa carted our boats, paddles, batteries and pumps up the K and a half or so to the gorge. The water was much lower then our last visit but we decided to have a go anyway. We took both boats over the first main pool but left one on the rocks and all piled into one to go up the gorge. It was so much fun and the gorge is just spectacular. After going over a number of rocks with the boat and through a number of pools we got to a section which was just too narrow to get the boat through so we never went right through the gorge. (Next time maybe a wetsuit and surfmat). This was such a great experience I would recommend it to anyone.

I won some more goodies

2008-07-08T05:30:00.000-07:00

I won some more goodies at Allcraftz. I won for my layout on an old truck rusting away in the State Forest up the road. The challenge was to produce a LO using a sketch created by the AC4U fabulous forum moderator and including a black and white or sepia/antique photo - Olde Worlde Charme was the Challenge name. I also won a couple of stamps from a challenge, again set by Megan to guess the number of pages of patterned paper she needed to find a place to store. Here's my wining LO.

A Fly landed on my table

2008-06-17T04:19:00.001-07:00

I thought I'd add a photo of Fly helping me out scrapping.

ANSD

2008-06-17T03:06:00.000-07:00

Allcraftz for you held the first National Scrapbooking day on the 7th of June. It was the most fun you can have with a keyboard and mouse!! Games, challenges, Raffles, classes and prizes and more prizes. I raked in a few prizes for a couple of challenges, a raffle and $50 voucher for being sidekick to Liz who won the fab grand prize.

I did 4 classes, phew, (not that I finished them on the day of course - I'm certainly the turtle when it comes to scrapping). Three great classes with DT Hannah - cards, a Layout and a mini album and a another mini album with Sandra. I also participated in 3 challenges a card sketch(won a prize), a layout about something funny about your body(won a prize here too) and a secret challenge where no adhesives were allowed.

The pictures are of my finished mini album from Sandra's class

Puppy Love

2008-05-03T03:43:00.000-07:00

So I have finally got round to changing the title of the blog to reflect our new addition Fly and adding some more photos as promised. This is a layout I did for the recent Talk to the Animals CC at Allcraftz. Spider and Fly look so happy together, but looks can be deceiving. Spider was having a nice sleep on the lounge when Fly jumped up to join him, it was all love, cuddles and bliss at first, but Spider started to get uncomfortable - but there was no way Fly was letting her comfy pillow move. She growled every time Spider moved. I had to go and save our sookie boy. But it doesn't matter how much she bullies him he loves her all the more - must have a yearning for the dominatrix types.

There goes the title

2008-04-16T05:37:00.000-07:00

Well I did warn you that I wasn't going to be the world's best blogger. This is only my second post and my blog title is all ready outdated. We are now two offroaders and two dogs. We adopted a new dog a few days ago - a two and half year old female cattle-kelpie cross. She came from the Sippy Creek Animal Refuge on the sunshine coast just off the Bruce Highway 2km north of the Ettamogah Pub. The Refuge has a strict non-Euthanasia Policy. If you want to save the life of a dog or a cat then have a look at their website http://www.sippycreek.com.au/index.html you might find your new best friend.

Our new doggy's name is Fly, in the shelter she was known as "Precious" but we felt that that name was well just too precious!! So now we have Spider and Fly and they get on famously. The picture is of Fly at the Refuge. When I get a chance I will pop in some new photos but don't hold your breath or you might be pretty blue before I get to do it.

On another note got our desert parks pass for the Simpson came yesterday - we will be treking through the desert and central Australia in August, but more about that another day.

Easter Weekend

2008-03-30T01:27:00.000-07:00

Ok here I go first post ever. I was encoraged by all the member of a scrapbooking forum I am a member of to get "withit" and start blogging. Don't know how great a blogger I will be. My life is pretty average. We are a working couple and we have an 9 month old puppy - a kelpie x cattle x staffie (x rabbit I'm sure as he never stops jumping). As you can see by the blog title we are into 4WDing and most of our holidays involve offroading and camping - generally going places where dogs are welcome. Our latest trip was to Landcruiser Mt Park at Jimna over the Easter long weekend. The pictures are of some layouts of our weekend I did as part of a week long cybercrop at the Allcraftz for you forum ( http://allcraftz.com.au/forum/ ). It was Spider's (our puppy) 2nd camping trip and he has really got used to bouncing around in the ute - spends most of his time asleep unless it is really rough. One of the couples in out group had a 3 week old Landcruiser 200 wagon - stocko off the lot, standard rubber, no enhancements - it was suprising how well it went especially with the limited clearance. The traction control system which works off the ABS basically does the driving for you - all you've got to do is stear. He did manage to mash a sidestep - but these are always expendable. If I can work it out I'll post some video of it in action.