44 Years today

Well, this was us 44 years ago - not sure why Bill is looking so stary eyed though!  This was the best photo I could find that wasn't in a frame.  The cake has a story.  We were married in Brisbane, but I lived in Goondiwindi, about 400 km away and I carried the iced cake on a blanket on the back seat of the car all that way.  I was terrified of having to pull up in a hurry and having it land on the floor, so I was very relieved when I finally reached my destination safely - there were a couple of close calls though.

We have a few - well, quite a few - more wrinkles and extra pounds these days, but still here and still enjoying life together.  Crabs and oysters for dinner tonight again I think. Have a good day

Great prize from Penny

Yesterday the postman brought some lovely mail - a prize in Penny's giveaway.

 I have always admired the sweet little birds Penny makes, and the doyley and brooch are an added bonus.

She also sent me this delicate pen and wash card done by Penny as well.
I am very definitely hiding in the air conditioning for as long as I can today.  The temperature outside is 38 degrees with 53 % humidity (admittedly that is low for here), while inside it is 29 degrees with 35 % humidity - much more comfortable.
Now I am off to do some more playing from Lynda's book, I hope I shall have something more to show you in a day or so. 

Frustration over - I think

I have had a few computer problems over the last few days.  I wanted to look at photos on Flickr, but it said I needed to upgrade my IE - so Bill did.  Flickr was fine, but I couldn't get in to post on blogger any more, neither could I see the cards in a wonderful online site which I use regularly...........Grrrr.  However -- late yesterday Bill installed an updated version of Wordperfect, which we use in preference to Word, and it came with Firefox (and a fantastic new mouse).  I am still trying to navigate my way around, but I CAN ACCESS everything I want to!!
I have a few more bits to show

 This is the beautifully worked January page I received from Birgit in Germany

 and this is the page I sent to Lorenza in Italy.  Her them is Van Gogh, the painting I chose is French Novels, one I had never heard of till I was googling his paintings.

This is the final birthday card - from Maria in Portugal.  She doesn't think she does very good work, but I beg to differ 

 I have done a bit of playing with the online classes for Lynda Monk's latest book.  This is made from rusted papers and fabric.  I swore when I tried the technique several years ago that I was never going there again, but I seem to like it better this time. I have a problem however as we live in the tropics and everything we buy, including nails, washers etc, is galvanised to stop it rusting!  That is fine till I want some rusty bits to add to my package - I shall need to go scrounging somewhere else!  I found a couple of rusty nails and used some steel wool for this,
I painted some pelmet vilene, then foile it before adhering the rusted abaca tissue to the top.
The slip is scrumpled - Dale's latest POM for me featured that technique, which I rather like.

Now I had better go and see if the papers have arrived in town yet - the road between here and Townsville, where they are printed, has been cut by floodwaters.  Once again, we have been very lucky here, we have had sufficient, but not too much rain.  The poor souls in south west Queensland and North West New South Wales are facing record floods - again.

More cards

When I came home there were some more lovely birthday cards waiting for me.  The one above is from Janny in the Netherlands.

Nel from the Netherlands made the top one, while Juliette from England made the lower one.

These two came from Ritva and Helena, both from Finland

This lovely card and beads came from Marja in the Netherlands and took a very roundabout route to reach me - the Post Office took so long to deliver it that Marja was about to make another one thinking this was lost! I am glad she did not have to.
Very hot and humid weather here, but we have been missing all the rain.  I am about to start trying to catch up with some of the classes from Lynda Monk's book.  I have rusted some papers and fabric so shall try to make a book later.  I was not very successful at shrinking some other stuff shall try that again too.  All this can be done in the air conditioned section of the house!

My sister's garden

I came home late yesterday from my visit to Buderim (instad of Bali).  Barb is making a good recovery and has now been officially diagnosed as having epilepsy.  She is on medication so should stabilise and be able to drive again by the end of March.  Thank goodness she didn't break any bones in this episode.

We were both very disappointed not to be in Bali, but I am glad not to have had the 9 hour plane trip.  We watched the wedding in a sort of fashion on skype.  Unfortunately the band width was not very good so the picture and sound broke up quite a bit, but we could see how lovely the bride looked.

The weather was pretty wet most of the time I was there, but I managed a few photos of her lovely garden.

This is a beautiful allamanda which I am thrilled to get such a good closeup photo with my new camera.

This is not a wonderful photo, but it was raining!  This is a magnificent climbing frangipani (Chonemorpa Fragrans) which I had never heard of before.  The perfume was glorious.

We managed to do a little bit of walking and this is one of the many Tibouchinas on the streets.  The colour is spectacular all round Buderim.

I have no idea what this plant is - in the front garden of  a house we walked past.   I would love to know a bit more about it as I really like it.

Here is part of Barb's very sodden garden before the really heavy rain started! Thank goodness she lives on the top of the hill so has no flood worries.  I travelled to Brisbane by bus to catch the plane and took over an hour longer than normal to reach the airport.  Flooding all round the place again today, now moving down into northern NSW.  I really feel for them.  I just came home to very sticky, overcast weather and no rain!

Birthday cards

Today I have been able to open my birthday cards from the Fibre Fever members.  The two above are from Anne and Helga, both in Germany.

These are from Ati in Norway and Ashenka in Russia.

These are from Margreet in the Netherlands and Peggy in USA.

This one is from Maureen in Australia, and she also sent me the wonderful collection of goodies in the next photo.

There are still another 7 cards to come - a fascinating collection from all over the world.

I spent a long, frustrating couple of days cancelling our travel arrangements and trying, with some success to obtain refunds.  I looked at a lot of blogs while I was on hold on the phone! Virgin have given me a credit for the amount of money I spent on the flights, less a cancellation fee.  So now we have to work out where we want to go in the next twelve months and book before the 3rd April!  Then I guess I hope we are all well enough to keep to our plans the next time!

My sister is recovering, home from hospital yesterday, not aching nearly so much now, but I will be glad to get down there to see for myself.

I have downloaded the first free online class from Lynda Monk's book, so shall gather together some bits and pieces to take away with me.  We should have some play time together while I am there and then I may have something productive to bring home with me.  It all looks very interesting.  I should be back on 24th, but may even post while I am in Buderim.

December book pages

Can only show the two pages now as Helga's did not arrive till yesterday.  She lives in Germany.

This was my December page to Kath in Greece. Her theme is the sea, and this was from a picture of a very stormy sea.  I love the way the internet connects us to people all over the world, we have a Russian in the group now and she has brought a very different perspective, fascinating.

I should be getting myself sorted to go to Bali for my nephew's wedding, leaving next Monday.  However I think I shall only be going as far as Buderim as my sister is back in hospital having had a major epileptic seizure (we think).  The doctors have ordered evry test imagineable so should know something definite by tomorrow.  I really can't see her being able to travel in a week, so I shall go to her for 8 days instead.  At least she hasn't broken any bones this time, and we can always look at all the photos and probably a video as well!   I may even be able to start work on Lynda Monk's online classes while I am there - who knows.