Raining, Raining , Raining.........



Pyke St Bundalong - just one street away from us houses needed sandbagging

Praise God for providing us with a home in a higher place......... we still got a river of water running through the yard, gardens and some of the sheds, but nowhere near coming into the house.............. here it is at it was receding......

Bundalong

Heading into Yarrawonga for supplies before totally cut off

The main round- a - bout at Yarrawonga was only taking boats! We had to find an alternate route to the supermarket which was still open.

Holiday Recap



There was 11 mts of water over this bridge, destroying the road way and leaving a tree behind.

Just a quick update on the rest of the holiday.......... sooo great to get away for a whole week, even though it was raining/flooding while we were away.

Thanks to Chrissy and Den for having us stay with them and getting to see their new place which is coming on a treat!  Also got to have some time with Chrissy checking out a couple of patchwork shops in Gympie and then got spoilt with a couple of jelly rolls from Chrissy's stash getting sent home with me............. can't wait to put it to something with an Autumn theme which works with the colours

A great catch up with Colleen and Brendan when we all spent the weekend together in Noosa.  Colleen and I have been friends since Grade 1 and although we live a couple thousand miles away we discovered we can still "giggle" like little girls!!!   The boys had some time  watching the beach scenes while we girls checked out the shopping......... of course LOL

Then we had a couple of days all alone and stayed in a great little
 motel  at Maroochydore.  Unfortunately the beach was out of action for swimming due to the storms and flooding, so instead we took the time to drive up the hinterland to Melany and Montville.......... and in this wonderful little shop Pete found a set of cream and greeen canisters!!!!!!!   At the right price I might add.  Seven years ago I got the little salt container (cream and green) when we were celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary in Tasmania, so it was kind of appropriate that we found the matching cannisters on another anniversary trip (seven years later at the Sunshine Coast).

We arrived back in Melbourne airport yesterday afternoon and then spent 4 hrs driving home...... via various detours and having to drive through some flood waters to make it back.  Luckily we did as we would not have gotten through today. 
 My internet connections have been horrific  over the past week and even worse most of today, so hopefully some pics will accompany all of this.
Love and Hugs to you all,
Sharm

Holidays have started

Our Holiday has started, arriving at the Sunshine Coast airport on Wednesday - as we got off the plane the rain began, so after grabbing our hire car we headed straight up to Gympie and out to our friends Denis & Chrissy who we are staying with from Wed night till today (Saturday).

Denis & Chrissy's home in Curra, nth of Gympie

They are great friends from many years and we've had a wonderful time with them - they even took us out for dinner for our 27th anniversary on Thursday night.  Chrissy took us out for a mini sight seeing of the local area and we just had to take photos of this bridge...........

Dickabram Bridge at Miva over the Mary River - recently celebrated its 125yrs anniversary 

Then yesterday was a trip out to Tin Can Bay - still raining........... luckily we were still able to get a great feed of fresh prawns!  

Stay tuned for more, I'll post this and add to it a bit later when internet connection is better.

Friday Night Sew In and Other things........

Wow, internet connections, lap tops etc can be quite frustrating when they don't work how they should!  I apologise for not getting this posted sooner.......  Friday Night was the Sew In night -



 I did manage to get working on finding fabrics from various stash spots and cutting them up ready for a baby blanket I'll be putting together for a friend,   and then I also worked on getting
my items completed for the
 Once  a Season Swap. 

So look out swap partner, because it left here today headed your way - hope you enjoy my homemade candle melt and soap that I've popped in with it :)     I'm afraid that was it for FNSI - I was pretty tired by Friday eve  as it turned out because I was up and out the door with hubbie at 5am to go fetch a trailer load of soil improver............. This was packed full with the cardboard holding the load in place!

Sooooo, while he then started work, I came back home with the trailer and  began the chore of weeding the vege garden and unloading the trailer into the vegie patch and numerous other garden beds around the yard................. a good 4hr work out (and still more to go!)

A little bit of Lovin goes a long way .....

You know that Initial Heart Swap I decided I was going to take part in.................  Well, I have to say I had an awesome gift arrive in my mail box today!  Just take a look.......... 

Thankyou so very much Bebe.  I love crochet and you have inspired me to get going on mine again.  I used to be so much more adventuous with it when I was a teenager - not sure what has happened in between......


Just look at this to die for little cupcake pincushion  (it was the surprise in the giftbox),

 the wonderful string of hearts that I plan on hanging in my craft room, the cute little bookmark with my initial and some very yummy (and Australian made - yep, she has been secretly visiting me)  Chocolates which are NOT going to last long!  Hubbie was pretty excited to see the choc coated almonds since there has been a chocolate drought around here, and they are his all time favourites!!!   So he sends his thanks to you as well :)

I sent off my heart swap last week, so hopefully it has arrived by now and is being enjoyed - I think I can safely share it with you now.  I incorporated a little pincushion and needle threader holder into the heart to hang close to the sewing area.

Now I need to get to work on a couple of other projects to be sent off before long for other swaps I'm taking part in.............. and then well, I hear the call of wool and hook and a flower rug waiting to be finished!  Pray you all have a wonderful Valentines Day,  Hugs, Sharm  xox  PS, Yep the chocolate so far is soooooooo good!

Homestead or Not?

Some seem to think you need at least a few acres to make a house into a homestead, not me!  This little house of ours is set on just over a quarter acre or there abouts. 

 I like to think that at some point we will be close to doing much for ourselves.  Of course we've only been here not quite 2 years and these things take time.  Still, weekends like this one remind me of how much we have achieved :)   I'm reminded of how much God has blessed us in this new home, regardless of other things going on.  Our pantry and freezer is getting stocked up ready for Autumn and Winter which will soon be upon us.

Fresh baby carrots from the garden



Capsicum Relish getting made & Zucchini Slice just out of the over to be frozed for lunches

Sewing and crochet is slowly taking place to send out to family and friends for swaps, birthdays, blessings and popping away towards Christmas.    In other words............. life is good, regardless of the bumps along the way (after all, without bumps, how would you ever climb those mountains and get to see the wonderful view!).

Speaking of views....... Pete and I will be heading to the Sunshine coast in about 2 wks time to celebrate our 27th anniversary staying with a couple of our friends up there and then a couple of days on our own before heading back at the end of the week!  It will be a lovely break.......... and I even have a few days off work either side of our trip away in order to tend to some things around here.    As most of you know.......... there is ALWAYS something that needs doing :)    Love and Hugs to you all,   Sharm  xoxo

Thankyou...............

This is short and sweet, just to say thankyou for those who have been wondering how I've been.  My leg is feeling much better than it was, but best of all the MRI showed no signs of MS to be present, or any other "nasties".  The CT of my lower back also came back clear.  They (the doctors) still have no idea what is causing the symptoms which appear to be more "nerve" related.  I'm beginning to go with my initial thoughts ......... the added weight gain possibly combined with some sort of chemical influx into the system.  I've been reviewing my diet............. (yeah, no wonder I've put on weight hey! LOL), but appart from that I've been having quite a bit more of coke zero and also the weight watchers yoghurt.  Both these items have 950 and 951 sweeteners in them.  To my horror, I've discovered that one of these is Aspartame.  While I am usually very rigid in making sure I don't include anything like "equal", "nutrisweet" ect in my diet, I'd neglected to check out just what these sweetener numbers were!   While consuming chemicals does not affect everyone in a way that they pick up on it pretty soon, they sure don't build up "goodness, and health" into our systems. 

Love and Hugs to all,  Sharm