On the nose!

There's no way round it but to tell it straight up - Emerald stinks! Literally it pongs! Think dead rotting phew wee stink! It's not pleasant actually its a kill joy, you'd like to be outside but one whiff and you head in doors! It's random so we are not living in a state of continual pong but its randomness is made up by severe nose assault!! The big question is why??? Where does the power pong come from? well no one really knows!!! The general consensus is the grain storage. these giant piles of grain are kept under huge tarps, it sweats and the combustible smell reeks across emerald. It hasn't been on the nose for awhile so Paul & I decided to be brave and drive up to the source and we get there and laugh ......the grain stacks are all gone!!! No wonder the pong is gone! To me it confirms the source is the grain, you'll have to wait for a them to make more piles and I'll send a pic of one!


Let me assure you seeing a photo is better than smelling it!!
Speaking of smells here's another one


Looks like a house right, but this house smells good!!! It's your typical queenslander and they live underneath where its all open and much cooler, but in this house they know how to cook!!! Beaut aromas waft up the street they do great barbies, and as you go past mmm yum the ol taste buds start juicing up!! I think they are deaf too because they always have TV on so loudly, every morning when I ride past you can hear the today show as clear as day!

There's always alot of hoo haa about mining camps in town to get approval from council they give them lovely names but they are what they are mining camps
Here's country resort sounds restful and nice


What does it look like?





Rows and rows of cabins to me its a camp but its out on the edge of town not bothering anyone , i don't see why the carry on, the miners are bused so its not like there's 30 cars coming and going, and the extra jobs mining camps provide help the towns survive. Here's another one this one is right in town its called
The emerald village





It's completely fenced off more like a compound with rows and rows of dongas (site huts) its not exactly lovely looking but does serve a purpose. Dave has been to alot of camps and they vary greatly in popularity, food and gyms are what makes camps great or shocking!

Sunday Drive

Want to come on a Sunday drive? The weather is a lot cooler now and so going for a drive is much more enjoyable for both passengers and the car!!!! We headed west


Then we turned right and headed north at the map to the gem fields


There were all these cars and we're like what's going on??


It was a market!!


A real fair dinkum outback bush market





And you have to imagine slim dusty singing - they played country music to give it atmosphere!!! It was fun to check things out and I'd definitely go again!!
On the road again and you will notice all photos are taken out the window!!!


Lots of little plots trying to get you to go and fossick for gems


This is the bottle shop- just a shed no ,supermarkets but they have a bottle shop!


Heading north out of the gem fields its all scrubby bush


Then opens up






Then we come into Capella which is the next closest town to emerald


The main Street





There's no mail service in Capella you have to go to the post office and collect your mail


There you go ,you've seen Capella we didn't stop as there's nothing to stop for! Now were heading south back to emerald 52km away



They grow this dry dead looking crop that has a red top and the rest is very dead looking . there was miles of this stuff , I shall try and work out what it is but not being agricultural minded I have no idea!!


We came into emerald from the north which is a nicer entrance than from down south! The brown sign to the right is the welcome sign


Home in emerald


And here's the day trippers!

Special moments

There were some highlights of my trip that made it great

My man gave this at the airport



Its a survival kit ,here's the instructions!





It was heaps of fun and Paul was very clever with his choices he really is an amazing guy love him heaps! Oh and I called the little stuffed dog 'expo' thought that was fitting for a scrapbooking weekend!!

When I arrived Jo met me at the train station and she had decorated my room!!






It was such a nice surprise. And made me feel special - thanks Jo!

Something Jo really noticed and we couldn't get over was the buses there were ALOT of buses!





They were everywhere! Considering Emerald doesn't have buses (there is no bus service here) we have a school bus and there's a bus that picks up the miners and takes them out to the mines but that's it, so seeing more than one bus is alot for me! Jo is used to Ballarat buses and even she thought brisbane had an usual large dose of them, I think they were following her as they always came when she was there!!

We were waiting for the air train to take us to the airport


And I notice this on the side of SOME of the carriages



We didn't know what it meant how can an electric train be quiet??? Anyway we jump on our train when it came just randomly picked a carriage at this point it was Jo who picked and you guessed it
She picked a quiet carriage


Basically she tried to killed me because you had to be quiet and not make noise! No one was talking, you could hear a pin drop! if I wanted to talk to Jo I had to text, I just wanted to run up the carriage making noise just to see what would happen!!! But I was good sitting there being quiet and Jo wasn't very sympathetic at all, she text me and told me to play games on my phone!! Yes mum!!! Next time I'm picking the carriage we ride in!!!!

Last Day

We saved the best classes to last!
Lynette's class was my highlight I've always loved her work its very me- lots of little fiddly bits to cut out! We sit in her class and she announces she's retiring & leaving the scrapbook industry after a 15yr journey! That made me even more glad I'd come to her class!




This was the presentation of the kit - very impressive. Lyn is bottom left and this his her mum she was a crack up & they made a great team worked so well together.
This is what we made




Lyn was a pro , the class was packed 25 of us she kept us all together when teaching and we all finished and finished early! I was blown away, that takes real skill!!
Jos class was also the one she'd been hanging out for. Jane davenport is an amazing artist and if your into art journals she's right up there in brilliance!
And here's Jo with what she made








There's lots of layers which don't show up in the photo and you use lots of napkins. Jo has a real flare for mix media, she loves it and it shows in her fabulous work!
Now for one last walk around the show - my favourite product at the moment I was in washi heaven!!!




There were truckloads of dies




Masks - less hanging there after Jo visited!!




Napkins!




When did napkins get so fancy??!! This is one pack Jo got




Here's Alyce the guru of the Copic world she is sooooo young! The sweetest little thing she colours brilliantly and was constantly surrounded by people. This is her work .




The crowds!!!




The demos!
















The weary feet got a rest at lunch!




This was the non scrapbooking highlight of the day , I saw DAVE!!! I haven't seen Dave since march so it was sooo nice to catch up and get a big hug!
It was a super quick visit but he's doing really well loving city life and hanging out with his friends.




Thanks for meeting up with me Dave it was great to see you!
Back to the show and you can just hear Karen saying "Oh don't you take a photo' !!! Hee hee and I did !!!




This time she really is working!!!




And here you have the BALLARAT BEAUTIES!!




We had lots of fun hanging out and I can't tell you how much I loved catching up with these ol buddies it was just like old times chatting and laughing! now girls that we've been inspired and have lots of new stuff we have to go home and CREATE!!

And to do that one needs products! Jo's famous last words "I'm only going to buy 3 distress paints" she even told me the 3 colours! Lets see her 3


Yep you counted right 11!!!!
It was the best newish product there its amazing stuff covers metal chipboard brilliantly but you can paint them and make backgrounds and they dont run into a muddy yuk puddle of mush layer on top of layer its brilliant!

I'm a sucker for washi!


And here's jos tho she's blaming me for leading her astray!!



And that's all we are going to show you!!!! Lol