Catch ups!

I am so excited! I've discovered blogging from the iPhone, I can just hear my geeky brother hitting his head wondering what took me so long!! The thing is I have caught on!!! Sooo its catch up time, I've been crafty, I'm making rag rugs!!!!




Cut up continuous strips!




Roll up strips




Crochet




And round I go!












And round I go!!




But I do baskets




And bowls!




And ovals!!!
It takes me one night to crochet one so its quick, the cutting is the bit I least like doing but its kinda necessary!!!
I remember when I was about 12-13 years old my mum made one of these. They didn't have a great deal of money left over after building a new extension, so mum made a rag rug that covered the ENTIRE room wall to wall!!! I'm not that crazy!

iPhone blogging

Paul was throwing stuff out in the big bins at work and this mag caught his eye- its about iPhone tips - I've been reading it learning lots & guess what I supposed to be able to blog from phone!! So I'm testing out page 103!



I know this is what u all needed to see but I'm testing out inserting photos! So far so good!

Stretching the computer skills

Our computer died in a big way which means I can't download and access my photos from my camera and phone which is very sad and left me wondering if I could perhaps blog from my iPad, but that would mean I have to take photos on my iPad then try to figure out how to get them into my blog! Now I know at this point my super smart geeky brother & probably my sons are shaking there heads and groaning but your not here to help so be quiet!! So i worked out I can down load a app for blogger to my ipad and that let's me access my phone photos too! I will not incriminate myself with telling you how long it took me to work that out but I'm here now and giving this a test run! And I picked a random photo of matts wedding to see if works so here goes!

This is just for my little brother - he lives in America and misses Australia and so when I see a kookaburra I think of him. Out on my morning walk I happened upon a gathering of kookas!

Now can you get any more Australian a kooka on the letterbox and a parrot in the bush!  So there you go Ben I do think of you and not just when my computer doesn't work!!!!

Where have I been???

Lost in the land of no internet!  WE MOVED! and then had to get ourselves sorted with internet etc and things don't happen quickly in Emerald we are on a different time zone and so things progressed slowly but we are back in cyber world now and back to blogging I have been collecting stories and photos so even tho i haven't been here I have being doing my homework!!!!

The move......We left our old place where the horse lives and the palm trees

 our little room - see the aircon - that's the best part!!!!!!!!!!!

And the STOVE - Oh Man this is a gas stove - I've been cooking with electric for 25 years come to think of it my whole life we've never had a gas stove and you know how good I am at burning things with electricity can you imagine how I was with gas!!! It wasn't pretty!! and the burning process happened so much quicker!!!

So lets say I didn't cry saying good bye to this beast!!!!

We moved all the way across town to the north side (we were south of the hwy) and now we are on the northside!

Our Little flat

Kitchen has that retro look - its very authentic ,it really is that old nothing fake about it! Paul`s words were "you'd never match this laminex again its come out of the ark!!!"

Bathroom has been updated - phew!

I thought the outside would look cool with some chairs so I've been keeping my eye out

 I fell in love with the red chair, guess how much it is and yes by the fact its not sitting on my front veranda its a crazy price but just how crazy???  Well the red one is cheapest its $595!! The cane one is $617!!!  Totally insane crazy typical emerald pricing things cost an arm and leg coz they think we all have mining wages!!  But you gotta admit the red one would look perfect!!  hee hee Lets just say I'm still looking!!!!!

We also live incredibly close to my work so Ive just come out of the end of our street and you can see work off in the distance! not far to pedal!

So this is our little place at Emerald and we like it very very much! and if anyone writes this is where it would come to!!

Its the bag lady! I know I'm having a real moment of making bags and you're probably thinking what do I do with them all well.......because I ride my bike the bags have to be floppy  so they fit in the basket and then things happen to my bags that cause destruction and so I need another one!! See, quite simple really so here's some more "recycled" bags I made this weekend.

First up my favourite fabric is denim and so I couldn't resist making a bag out of some old jeans, the handles are  cut off waist bands so they even have a natural curve!!

I found the belt at the op shop and I'm like...SCORE!  

Perfect finish for my bag I thought!

A lot of hand sewing once again but I found my thimble this time so it was much easier on the fingers!!


But wait there's more...........
I loved this strip skirt and thought here's another bag, this one was super quick to run up, just added a gusset in the bottom, some handles and whip up a tie and my trusty mobile phone covers had just the right shade of pink to finish off this bag!!

nice and simple but a happy bag - by the way this one matches my bike!!

READ ALL ABOUT IT!!!!

Thought I'd give you a little tour of the local newspaper -our only newspaper. It only comes out twice a week, Wednesdays and Fridays!  It has taken a while to get used to not having a read of the paper on a Saturday morning with my cuppa and toast, its not the same to read day old news with your brekky!!  We seem to have have a lot of road accidents up here and for the past 4 newspapers its been accidents which is rather a shame but very typical of living out here a lot of single car accidents.

 

But Ray White did win some top awards which is a HUGE feather in the companies cap.

 

The obituaries- a total of 3 this week! I think its because there aren't many old people here in emerald so not many to die!  No one retires to emerald, its a working town so people have a plan and purpose for being here, they stay there 5 years and move on, smart move!!

 

 

And this is bit I have the most trouble with - the junk mail! I love reading junk mail but I've never known anything like it as its always MALE related!!!!  Every single piece is targeted at men!!!! I didn't think guys read the junk mail!!!! No jewelery, no clothes, no shoes its all men`s stuff?!?! Who wants to buy a generator, or esky!?!

This was Fridays junk mail and the top left is for bundergerg rum - special editon - $104 per bottle but wait for it - LIMIT 30 per adult!!! I kid you not!  

And if you're wondering how the horse is going - he's making himself right at home!!!

He does have issues tho!  He LOVES to look at himself!!! His reflection in the sliding glass doors has him totally intrigued and spends ages checking himself out!!!

Remember two things run through emerald, the river and the railway line so today we go clickety clack clickety clack..

The railway bridge over the river

Now this is under the bridge and I know its faraway but there`s a reason - people are allowed to camp under the bridge for free and its often packed, but I didn't want to get up close and snap photos then make someone angry, so I walked away and snapped one, mind you I do wish I could show you the camping styles, like the people in the ford laser, it was packed to the rafters with chairs, table, cooking stove, tent it was a mighty set up for a little car, the station wagons that look like they'd cease working after 2kms, the utes that have stuff piled high, its really quite the unusual collection of people. They all sit around under the shade of the bridge coz its too hot in their tents but I guess the price is right so they make do.

 We cross this railway line everyday, this is looking west then I turn and look east.

and this is the reason, the life blood of this area COAL

 Its sent by train to the the coast where it is put on a ship and heads overseas, there are trains constantly going back and forth but since the floods washed the bridge out its ground things to a halt and the flow on affects a lot of people because if the coals not moving they don't have a job.

Its super hard to get the length of these trains its not like you get round a bend and wait or get up high its all just flat straight lines out here very boring, but the length of them goes on and on and on

and if you have to get the coal from one side to the other you just build the conveyor built over the highway!

This is nothing to do with coal but it is transport - of a different sort!!  A bridal party's mode of transport here in Emerald!

I was going to show you another bag makeover but I could just hear you all say "ANOTHER ONE"!!  
So I'll save the bag so what I did do was shock myself and I scrapped two pages! I haven't scrapped since I left the shop so its been a while but when Jo sent me this photo from their anniversary I just wanted to scrap it coz it's a normal photo of Darren! He's worse than a kid when trying to get a photo, I have him pulling funny faces mostly and Jo is always looking lovely so to see them both smiling and normal looking in the same photo is rare! Jo your always lovely and looking great in photos.           I just cant say the same for your man!!!

Then I was like "this is fun I'll do another page"

Do you recognize the paper ranges?? I did have to blow the dust of them and when I looked it up I'm like you have to be kidding, Stella Rose My Minds Eye - wait for it....Feb 2011 !!! I don't know what's worse, that I had paper that old and hadn't used it or that I didn't think it was that old?!?!?! and Jo's page I used Pink Paisley Butterfly Garden and its just as old they came out at the same time!!