Second post for the day.

This morning we went to the Wildlife Habitat for breakfast and a look around.

This pair of Frog-mouths were probably my favourites

and this is Sharyn and I sitting in front of them. They were in the entry area for the breakfast.

We also saw this huge crocodile, I estimate it was at least 15 feet long

and this huge thing started off like this

This afternoon we did a bit of food shopping and then went to see the feeding of "George" the Groper at one of the seaside bars here. We arrived at 4 and the feeding was at 5,so that called for a couple of champagnes during the wait. Sitting at an outdoor bar that overhangs the sea watching the boats coming in from the reef, sun shining on us, very relaxing. I must admit the sun was very hot and quite glary (if there is such a word) but it was a delight non the less.

I did take some photos but they did not do the 10 foot groper justice. George has been joined by two smaller gropers now, each of which would be about 6 foot long.

Home for a night of internet, reading and relaxing.
I have added some photos to previous posts so you might want to check them out.
Hope you are enjoying whatever it is you are doing.

Till next time
Cheers
Julie

Monday morning......

Saturday was a relaxing day, we walked into town along the beach

This is the path we walk through to get to the beach

 and this is the great beach. Nice and hard for walking on

As part of the Carnivale festival they had a sandcastle competition. This is one of the sand castles we saw, very imaginative.

We had a coffee at the beachside cafe then walked up to the shopping area and had a bit of a browse. Saturday night was spent at the unit reading and relaxing. I know... staying home on a Saturday night.................?

Yesterday we had a lazy morning and at about 12ish we drove to Ellis Beach were we had a coffee, milkshake, champagne before heading down to Cairns for a 2 hour dancing lesson.

We learned a new routine and were very happy with that. We then went to Brothers league club for the rock and roll. The band was Carrizma and they were disgusting.  We left around 7:30ish thinking that we would call in at Ellis Beach as we had seen signs there that they had music every weekend. When we got there there were 2 people there and no music so we just came home and practised out new dance routine.

We are so lucky in Adelaide with Rock n Roll. Ray & I have never been to any place that caters as well for rock n roll dancers. Coollangatta excepted.

This is a photo of the unit we are staying in from the outside

and the inside downstairs lounge/dining area

and the view from the balcony

We are heading out now so till next time
Leave me a comment if you have time
Cheers
Julie

Another perfect day in Port Douglas. Weather 27 degrees and sunny.

Yesterday we went for a drive in the Atherton Tableland.. The sceenery is fantastic especially the rain forest. In all the travelling Ray and I have done rainforests are probably my favourite habitat. We had lunch at the Sunbury Coffee Plantation and then went on a tour of Jacques Coffee Plantation. Very interesting, I had never seen coffee bushes or the coffee fruit before.

This is the view while we were having lunch

and this is the cafe section of Jacques Coffee Plantation

This photo was taken at a lookout we stopped at on the way down to Cairns through the hills

We then went to Cazaley's in Cairns. We had a nice tea and listened to the band Kick Start. They played mostly 70's music which I loved. We had quite a few dances. Ray was kept very busy between Sharyn and I.

Today is a rest day. The last couple of days of Carnivale are happening here this weekend, so will probably go to one of their events tonight.

I have to download some photos from my camera onto the computer here at the resort so will post them shortly. Ohh Noooo, I have just tried to put my photo's onto this computer but it does not have the facilities to do that so will have to post photos when they have got the internet connections to the rooms fixed and I can use my own computer. They say it will probably be Monday or Tuesday befor that will happen.

Will post again in a few days
Till then
Cheers
Julie

We arrived in Cairns at about 2pm yesterday. Picked up our hire car and drove to Port Douglas. Unpacked and had a bit of a drive around Port Douglas. Went out for dinner and then came back to the unit and settled in for a good nights sleep.
This morning we got up at a very relaxed pace and then walked along 4 Mile Beach to Port Douglas town. This is one of my favourite beaches in the whole of Australia, great for walking on. The sun was shining, the temp is 27 and I got the beginnings of a tan. Ahhh heaven!!!. We have spent the whole day walking around checking out the various places that we might like to eat or shop at within the next few days.
Ray & Sharyn have gone over to the BBQ area to cook the meat for tea and we plan on having a very relaxed night.
Unfortunately I did not take my camera with me today so I don't have any photo's to share but I will definitely take it with me tomorrow so I will have photos for my next post.
Have finished reading The Associate and have started The Last Juror both by John Grisham. The real pleasures of a holiday.

Till next time
Cheers
Julie

What a bleak old day outside. Windy wet and overcast, (well dark now). I am glad I am not going anywhere tonight because if I was, I would be giving serious consideration to weather it was necessary or not. Cindy is going to Circe de Sole tonight. She is lucky it is in the Entertainment Centre and not the tent they usually have their performances in.

I have spent a lot of time over the last few days reading. I am reading The Associate by John Grisham and enjoying it.

I have not done any scrapbooking so I am going to share another layout I did of our holiday in Tasmania. I generally do a double page when I do holiday pages because there are so many photos to display. These layouts are of Cataract Gorge. I cut the titles out on my Cricut using Design Suite to join the letters together. The embellishments I made in a class with Jane Tregenza some time ago.

Last night we went to the Adelaide Rock n Roll Club's 17th Birthday dance. It was at the Campania Club and the band was The Blue Comets. We had a good night, the floor there is fantastic. We did leave early (11am) as I wasn't feeling all that well and this morning when I woke up I had a sore throat and aching all over. I am going to try to knock this on the head before we go away because I don't want to be sick while we are in Queensland. So it's an early night for me tonight.

Anyway, that's it for this post. Would love to read any comments you might like to leave for me
Till next time
Cheers
Julie

Once again it is Sunday night and Ray is at work. The weeks just disappear don't they?

I have not been doing any scrapping or card making at home, since I finished my mini book but yesterday I went to a class with Heather Jacob and created the mini book shown here. It was a great class and we got everything done without rushing. Love the work Heather does so neat and detailed.

Friday night we went to Legends Rock and Roll Club. The band was Blue Comets and they were quite good. Had quite a few dances and enjoyed the night as a whole.

Last night we just could not be bothered going out. Ray has done something to his hip and wanted to take it easy so we went to the Video shop and got The Tourist. We enjoyed a relaxing night and the movie.

I got some photos printed the other day of Charli and also some of our friends at the Rock n Roll Rendezvous at Birdwood. I love this one of Charli, it will be appearing in a layout soon.

I am concentrating on my Photoshop assignments at the moment. I have just finished the 4 class assessments we had to do and I am going to start on the second Major project tonight. We have to create a poster advertising the Adelaide Cabaret Festival with Jazz as the theme. I have been looking for jazz images everywhere and have scanned a few I have found in various places and I have also found some on the internet. I have to start work on the design tonight so will be spending some time browsing for layout ideas. I need to have this finished by 24th May so have to get cracking with it.

Would love to hear any comments you would like to make
Till next time
Cheers
Julie

At last..... I have finished my mini book.

But first .....
Ray & I have had Charli with us for all of Monday, Monday night and Tuesday. Cindy and Dave have both been at home with sore throats and general flu type symptoms so we had Charli to let them get a bit of rest and hopefully get them on the road to recovery.

Today Heather came around for an afternoon of scrapping. Unfortunately I was not very organised so I just sat and chatted. Heather did a bit of work on an album but mostly we just talked. I will be more organised next time and make sure I have got something to work on. We did have a little bit of a play with the cricut and I found a very nice envelope on one of my cartridges that I did not even know I had.

Even though we had Charli here for a couple of days I still found time to finish off my album I have been sharing with you over the past few posts.

This page is the last leaf in the book. The two tags are attached to a piece of plastic and they open out.

This is them extended. The tags are exactly the same as the ones I made for the page with the rows of punched edges. I found this technique on the internet and I forgot to take note of the person who posted it. (Sorry)

The back of this page has a pocket with a tag in it. It has a rub-on quote on it

This is the tag

The inside of the back cover has a gatefold card that opens. It is held shut by fibres wrapped around two brads that are not pushed all the way down. The fibre has a little gold charm attached to the end.

And when it is open it looks like this. The punched strip along the bottom centre section is only stuck down on the very bottom so things can be tucked in behind it

I had to do the binding twice because I put the back cover on back to front. I tried using the same binding wire again but it went into an oval shape instead of a circle so I took it off and used a new wire and I am very happy with the end result. There are probably too many pages in the book but at least this way it stands up on its own

Ahhh now to decide what I am going to do next. I think I might try one of the challenges from a challenge site.

Anyway

Till next time

Cheers

Julie

The school term has started again here so I was back at TAFE on Thursday. I got my results for the first major assignment and I was pretty happy to receive a credit. We were given the next major assignment which is to create a poster for the jazz component of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. This is certainly going to be a challenge as jazz is not a music genre I know much about but will give it a go. We also received 3 more class assessments so I have got a bit of work on that front.

Friday night we went to Legends Rock n Roll Club and saw the band The Rockin' Dally Roos. It has been years since I last saw this band and I enjoyed their music. It was a change from the same bands we see all the time. I had quite a few dances and a good night.

The same could not be said for Saturday night. We went to a function that we had never been to before and it was definitely not our cup of tea, but that is all part of trying new venues and functions, you never know what you might stumble across, it could be great or it might not. We were home by 9:30 and watched the Pirates of the Caribbean on telly.

I spent saturday afternoon at Camelot with Judy and we powered through 3 layouts for the afternoon. It is always a pleasant afternoon.

That brings me to today. MOTHER's DAY. After I rang Mum we went to The Highway for lunch with Cindy, Dave & Charli. It was pleasant and relaxing. There were not a lot of people in the area we were in so we did not have to keep too tight a reign on Charli.

When we got home I took these photos of the new pages I have finished for my mini album. I have made two pages out of transparencies just as fillers. They can have photos or journalling or perhaps just quotes.

This page has some mini bloomer style flowers on it that I bought at a fabric shop and an inked chipboard photo corner backed with a transparent triangle to hold the tag in place. The tag has been embossed with a script on my Big Shot

For this pocket page I have punched the top edge of the black pocket, punched a piece of pink card to go behind the pocket flap and then punch both sides of a strip of patterned paper for the top.

These are the tags to go in the pocket. I have cut them out with the Cricut and then embossed them with the same script embossing folder as I used on the tag for the previous page

And this is what the page looks like with the tags in place.

For this page I cut out a shape and embossed it then sprayed one SEI doily with glimmermist and left one in it's natural state and added a flower and jewel combination to provide a place to hold a tag. I thought a photo could be added to the black mat and the tag could be used for journalling.

That is the last of the pages I have completed. I have got one page (front and back) and the back cover to go to finish the album. I can tell you this album is very thick and I am wondering if I am going to be able to fit it all into the largest binding wire I have, which are 1.25 inches, I might have to get some larger ones. Oh well I guess I will soon find out.

Love to hear your comments
Till next time
Cheers
Julie

A busy week...

Sunday we had lunch with Cindy and Dave at their place. Cindy made a very nice Chicken dish. It was a pleasant way to spend a few hours on a Sunday.

Monday I flew to Port Lincoln for the day to attend my friends funeral. A sad day.

Yesterday Ray and I had Charli for the day, always a pleasure. She is such a happy child and plays contentedly most of the time. Tuesday night we went to the Adelaide Rock n Roll Club. The band was Mach Brown 7 and I enjoyed their music very much. They are very talented.

This morning has been relatively quiet. Had a bit of a sleep in and didn't see daylight till 10am. Spent 30 minutes on my treadmill after breakfast and then Cindy bought Charli around for me to play with while Cindy went to a meeting. We made a cake, had some lunch and she has gone to bed.

I have had a little bit of time over the last few days to do some work on my album. Here are the photos of what I have done since my last post

This is the front cover. I have sprayed the background with Iridescent Gold Glimmermist, painted the bird cage with Gold acrylic paint, the flowers and swirls have been painted with acrylics then I rubbed a bit of ink on them and then sprayed all three pieces with the Iridescent Gold glimmermist. The butterfly was cut out using my Big Shot and given a light spray with glimmermist. The 'remember' chipboard was coloured with ink.

The inside of the cover is pretty simple because the book is pretty bulky and I was looking for a slimline page.

The tags have a journalling spot stamped and heat embossed on the back

The facing page is the same but in opposite colours

ans so are the tags for this page.

I also made another filler page that does not have much bulk. This page is the same on both sides and is made using one of the Martha Stewart border punch sets. I love this punch set.

That is as far as I have got at the moment but am halfway through another page so will do some more tonight

Would love to hear from you with any comments you might like to leave

Till next time
Cheers
Julie