My OWOH Winner Announced

I decided to choose my winner the old fashioned way, I cut up all the comments and placed them in a hat and got my son to choose, so the winner is -

Rachael from The Rose Room

I would have taken a photo of the whole process but it is so dark and rainy here at the moment that I couldn't get a clear photo.

Congratulations to Rachael, I have had so much fun with this event there were 911 blogs participating in the giveaway, I have found so many more wonderful crafty people all over the world that this event has been such a wonderful experience for me.

Thank you all to for all the prayers for the victims of the bush fires and floods, although I personally am a long way away from these tragedies I am sure that the victims all know that both Australia and the rest of the world has been praying for them.

Cheers,

Words can not discribe

I have been watching the news in horror for the last few days, our wonderful lucky country is in pain. Between the flooding in North Queensland, the town of Ingham has 3000 homes underwater, then to the other extreme the tragic fires in Victoria and New South Wales.

Victoria has been so badly hit to date 173 people have lost their lives and it is believed there is 5000 people homeless, but these numbers are believed to rise.

I have been in tears hearing the stories of loss and tragedy, but then in tears of happiness when they show a family that has finally been reunited. Words cannot describe what the survivers are going through so here are some pictures.

My prayers and thoughts go out to all that have been affected by both tragedies, and to the volunteers out there giving everyone a hand my greatest admiration.

Best Wishes,

One World One Heart Giveaway

Comments have now been closed - winner will be annouced in next post.

A big welcome to everyone new or old to my blog. Today I am so excited to be participating in the One World One Heart Giveaway, the giveaway also co-insides with my 50th post and I have now been blogging for a year (wow where did that time go?). I have met many talented and lovely people in blog land and this event is such a great way to meet even more. Ok so here is what I am giving away -

A handmade welcome sign made by me, some lovely velvet roses, wonderful pink old lace, some bling rhinestones and pearls, chipboard alphabets and some lovely scrapbooking papers.

To enter the draw for this prize all you have to do is to leave a comment on this post with either a link back to you or an email address so that I can get in contact with you, the draw is until the 12th February, so if you get a chance pop in and say hi to all the other lovely participants just click the OWOH icon above.

Cheers and good luck,

Day Trip

Monday morning Paul rang to say that he had a load to go to Hervey Bay, so we all piled in the truck for the three hour drive north to the coastal town.

The drive up and back was very scenic, and the best bit is that in the truck you get to see so much more because you are much higher then everyone else.

Everything is so green at the moment, we have had a lot of rain the past couple of months.

The boys thought that this tree was really unusual, it really stood out.

We had to go through the town of Maryborough on the way. There are so many really cute Queenslander homes I managed to get some photos of a couple.



And a cute little farm house.

On the way we also go past Aussie World, the pub is based on the pub in the Dad and Dave cartoons.


It was a lovely day out and the best part of all was the fact that we got paid for it, cool hey. Now the next photo I had to put in because I had to keep on asking the boys for my camera back so that I could take some photos, they were busy taking photos of trucks as they went by. This one turn out pretty good.

Now I have been tagged by Deb @ Posted from Home to do a meme. The directions are - Open a photo folder or document, choose the 5th folder and then the 5th photo in that folder. Do a post with a description of the photo. Tag 5 friends to do the Meme.

The 5th folder that I opened was from our most recent trip to Australia Zoo. This is a must see for anyone the zoo is so beautiful, I have seen the zoo grow over the past 25 years and the changes are amazing. We are lucky that we only live 45 minutes away and we try to get there at least once every two years. Steve's spirit is truly alive and well there. So anyway this was the 5th photo from that folder.

Cute hey. For this meme I tag - Kris @ Tag along Teddies

Bek @ Beks Shabby Dreams

Mel @ Mel's Rose Place

Ele @ A bit of Pink Heaven

and Amy @ Bunny Rose Cottage

My next post will be my 50th and also the OWWH giveaway not to mention that the 9th January was my 1 year blog anniversary. So until then I hope that everyone has a lovely week.

Cheers,

Busy but Relaxing

Does that title make sense to anyone else but me? That is the way the last few weeks have been, Paul was on holidays for two weeks over the Christmas, New Year Holidays it is the only time during the year that he gets time off so we normally try to make the most of it.

We had a huge clean out of the back shed, six trailer loads to the dump (it's a big shed 9x6 meters) there were draws, a fridge, washing machine, dryer other odds and ends all things that we hadn't had time to take to the dump during the year. It is still a mess down there but that is a project I will be working on during the year to turn it into a teenagers retreat. There is lots of work to be done the car needs to be moved as well as the billiard table, the walls need to be lined and electricity needs to go in, but hopefully it will be done by next Christmas. I have planned to do a sporting theme for the room with red and blue as the main colours.

Another project that we worked on during Paul's break was our BBQ area, although it still needs to be tiled and a privacy screen put in we did manage to get the BBQ and Pergola put together. I love this BBQ normally it is the husband trying to talk the wife into buying a new BBQ, but not in this house I had to talk Paul into buying it, I figure that since I can't have my new kitchen for a few more years yet that at least I could have a great outdoor kitchen. It is so much easier cooking on the BBQ then trying to cook in the kitchen with a plug in oven and stove top, not that I have had a chance to cook yet, my boys love cooking on it and I think that it is good for them to learn.

One project I have planned later for out here is an outdoor fireplace the hard part is going to be finding someone to build it, they are not a common occurrence here in Queensland. Below is what I would love, but I think that we will have to go for a simpler version.

I have also managed to get all the Christmas decorations packed away something that normally takes weeks to do.

So that was the busy bits but we have also had plenty of time to relax up at the Sunshine Coast at Paul's' parents place at Golden Beach.

I hope you all have a great week.

Cheers,

Happy New Year to all!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful New Years, mine was very quiet didn't even make it till 12 but did spend it with family up at the beautiful sunshine coast.

Although I am happy for the New Year which I view as a clean slate, I am a little worried about what the New Year may hold. Although Australia is doing well compared to a lot of countries in the current economic crisis we don't know what the future holds. Normally I wouldn't be so worried about this sort of thing, but now being a business owner of a very quickly expending business you tend to listen a little more closely to these things. So I am hoping that the doom and gloom and hard times that they tend to dwell upon on the TV is all greatly exaggerated and that it will work out in the end.

Anyway enough doom and gloom, 2008 for my family was one of many highlights and not too many downs (thankfully). Paul and I had always said that we will never own a truck too much money and worry involved and it so much easier to work for someone else. But when a business opportunity can up November 2007 it was too good to knock back and we are glad that we did. It has been a step learning curve but one worth doing.



We have now expanded from owing an old 1996 model Kenworth truck and trailer to now owning two brand new Kenworth 's and having an employee. It all has happened so quickly it was mainly over Christmas time when both trucks were at home did it really sink in that they were ours, we know that the first years are always the hardest but we are looking to the future and hopefully growing the business for our sons future.



Sorry for waffling on so much but this being New Years Day I am thinking about what my priorities are for the next year. Of cause my family is number 1, but number 2 is defiantly the business and trying to learn as much as possible. How different my priorities are compared to last years resolutions which of cause never got done, the story of my life.



So I hope that everyone has a wonderful and exciting year this year with not too many down times. Till next time.



Cheers,

P.S I have decided to join in on the One World one Heart Giveaway this year 19th January. I entered many draws last year, didn't win any :( but that really isn't the point because I found so many wonderful creative blogs from all over the world, my 50th post is coming up and my blog 1st Anniversary so I thought I would combine the lot and have a giveaway. Now I just have to work out what to make. If you want more info on this event there is a link on my sidebar.