Holiday fun ….

Hi all,

Last Friday we packed up the caravan and headed south to Wooli, NSW. What a beautiful location…only we have been chased home 2 days early by the tiniest little bugs – sandflies. BW seems to attract these types of bugs and has a bad reaction to them. Imagine a frustrated 3 year old who is itchy all over, scratching all night, not getting enough sleep….not fun!

Anyway, here are the highlights.

Riding scooters at the caravan park.

Pancakes anyone?

The beautiful beach at the river mouth!

I love this photo! Taken at the river mouth.

Those of you with a well trained eye will recognise what is in the background….yes we found a patchwork shop! Grafton Textiles! Nothing like a little retail therapy while on holidays especially when the kids sleep through it!

Canoeing on the river, it took the boys a while to get used to the canoe. BW had to be let off after about 30 seconds (screaming in terror), and TP lasted about 10 minutes (scared after daddy tripped and nearly tipped us out) but we managed to get them both in and enjoying it in the end!

Mini golf!

Jumping pillows and making new friends!

The view from our caravan site! We could sit and watch the water….it was really beautiful…damn the little bitey bugs for ruining it.

And one last photo that I love -

Holiday Adventures!

Hi all,

Yesterday we got home from a week at the beach at Elliott Heads. There were a few drama’s, but we are still new to caravanning so I guess that is to be expected…..forgotten ropes, leaky windows…. but there were good times too.

Playing around some rock pools.

On the beach at Burrum Coast National Park near Woodgate. We discovered a great little camp ground that you need a 4wd to get into.

The Boardwalk in the same national park. Great for the kids and their scooters.

I also checked out the 2 quilt shops in Bundaberg…

The Fabric Palette…A great store with a fantastic fabric range, they even have dress fabrics. I forgot to take a picture inside, it is a beautiful shop with exposed rafters and big open space.

The Quilters Shack…The store front is very, very deceiving. Let me show you!

This is the front of the shop, the door is just to the right. Some gorgeous Debbie Mumm things available here!

The back of the shop!

I have to admit this shop blew my mind….So big and spacious, absolutely (almost) anything your quilting heart could desire! They have all their bases covered - kids, batiks, repro, 1930’s, japanese, blah, blah, blah.

I actually got a bit overwhelmed and ended up just getting a few fat quarters. But it is definitely on my visit list again for next time, I will be more prepared!

In my next post I will share my purchases with you, I haven’t taken photos yet!

I also got some sewing done!

I started some rainbow hexie flowers.

I am using 1/2” hexagons, they are sooo cute! If I say so myself LOL

I don’t really have a plan for them, but they are great for a bit of hand sewing!

 

PS. Guess were I was today? I will blog about it in a few days!

The Holiday Experiment

Hi all,

That is what we are calling it. I guess it was a big experiment – first time in the caravan, first long trip for the boys and first time in outback Queensland.

This was the first stop, Possum Park near Miles. Which is a really nice place to visit, with its bush setting it was lovely and peaceful (until we got there).

We discovered here that the fridge in the van was not working properly. For the whole trip it would get up to 14 degrees every day so we lost most of the food (the freezer still worked) and had to work around the fridge problem. But this gave me quite an anxiety attack and I was ready to come home that night.

But we decided to stick it out and keep moving. So we drove on to my aunt and uncles property near Injune.

We had a bit of a farmstay experience here. We watched them work on some of their cattle and the boys got to go for a ride in the truck.

And they got to explore the dozer.

Hubby also helped them with a heifer that was having a bit of trouble delivering her first calf. We only stayed the one night here, it would have been great to stay a couple more but maybe next time that will be possible.

When we woke up and tried to take some photos of the homestead the camera wouldn’t work. So we had to quickly buy a new one in Roma and didn’t get to learn how to use it properly so please excuse the photo quality from now on.

This is Historic House in Charleville. Always great to get a bit of a feel for the area, and they had a little quiz style search and find game for the kids.

A bit of the Charleville streetscape. We spent two nights here at the Bailey Bar Caravan Park, did some laundry, had some relaxation time in the middle of the day because it got quite hot and got to see some Bilbies.  They are so cute!

Just to give you an idea of how flat it is out here…..it just goes on and on. This is between Charleville and Cunnamulla.

The Cunnamulla Fella. A song sung by Slim Dusty. The rose gardens in this little town are fantastic, so beautiful. We just stopped here for a quick lunch of jam sandwiches and some play time for the boys.

This is St George, you can just see the weir in the background. We stayed here at the St George Caravan Park for the last night. It would have been great to stay here for a bit longer and explore the area.

We really rushed this trip, mainly because of the fridge. We did it in 5 nights rather than taking our time as we had wanted. We did a few really big driving days, especially the last 2 days which were 550+ kms each. Considering the big kilometres we did, over 2000kms all up, the boys handled it pretty well.

We found lots of great parks with playgrounds for the boys to play at. The towns we stopped at for some playtime are - Yarraman, Chinchilla, Mitchell, Cunnamulla, Bollon, St George, Moonie, Dalby and Blackbutt. All had great parks and clean amenities.

Sorry there is no sewing to show you in this post….I will have something to show you soon.

Babies and holidays!

Hi all,

Here are the promised pictures of the baby geese…

There are 6 little fluffy goslings.

It is very interesting watching the family unit at work, it is like having 3 parents. They really stick together!

Although they are bringing the goslings up around the house you don’t want to get too close….boy are they protective! Which is actually really lovely to see.

It is school holidays here in Queensland. We are heading off tomorrow on a road trip, we will be making our way out to Charleville and back again.

Just to give you an idea because it is surprising how many people, even queenslanders, haven’t heard of Charleville!

I even managed to fit in some sewing time…

I made 2 matching sets of a potholder and dish soap apron. As soon as I saw the tutorial for the apron I new I had to make at least one!

There is one for my parents caravan and one for ours….we are all heading off on adventures!

I better go and finish packing….catch up later!

Weekend report!

Hi all,

We had a great weekend walking on the beach and catching up with friends.

 
The weather was fabulous, so we could enjoy the beach to the max! The boys loved racing the waves.

 
This is the view from our cabin – right on the beach (at Elliott Heads near Bundaberg)! I might get a bit worried staying here in a big storm but this weekend it was glorious.

This is a lonely hexie flower that I actually put together while pondering the lovely view and while no.2 was asleep! Yay!

If you are travelling through Childers (in Queensland) I highly recommend a fantastic shop called Patchwork Avenue they have a great range, plus an interesting historical location! 
I picked up a couple of nice things here – a piece of heavenly Kaffe fabric and some boy fabric and a Pure charm pack! Sorry I haven’t taken pics yet.

I am working on a couple of things which I am eager to share as soon as they are finished! Teaser? No this is more for me – to keep me motivated. haha

Be Happy,
Jess

Holiday snaps & butterfly bag!

Hi all,

We had an interesting holiday. It rained so much the first 2 days we thought about calling it quits and coming home. But it is such a beautiful spot that we decided to tough it out - and then the sun shone!

Pondering the rain clouds out at sea!

This is only about 20m from our campsite!


We had a great time and we will keep going back to this spot - it is one of my fav's!

Of course none of the sewing I took with me got done but that should probably have been expected!

But I did finish this bag once we got home....

It has been a UFO for a long time and when I saw these bag handles at the Patchwork Tree in Alderley (on the bus trip) I knew I could cross it off my to-do list!

Be happy,
Jess ;-)

A year in reflection...

I have been inspired to reflect on my year of 2009! This is all the other bloggers faults, so feel free to blame them!

An engagement present in February....

A present for a new baby in March.....

A day at the beach in April....

A pair of slippers for my new niece in June....

Camping in the cold air of August.....

Camping at the beach in September..... (what a contrast to August)....

The beginning of me being a blogger! and the DLN Quilt along in October.....

My boys sharing morning tea in December....

Obviously this is a simplifed version of 2009, but it was a great year and I hope 2010 is just as good!

I hope everyone out there has had a great year too,
Bye for now Jess :-)