We've all been watching the devastation of the Queensland floods over the past week – so much heartache and loss. So it was almost surreal to learn on Thursday that my own hometown in central Victoria was on flood alert – again. Regular blog readers may remember that the main street was flooded in September 2010, which at the time we thought was a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Not so.
The creek rose higher and higher and eventually burst its banks on Friday morning, inundating many homes and businesses. A couple of hours after the peak, I took this photo of the playground at the end of my street.
You can just see the top of the green slide poking out of the water.
And there have been scenes like this in so many other areas!
Unfortunately we had to cancel the team stamping day that I was talking about with much anticipation in my last post. The flood waters have now receded here (although our stamping venue is still being used as the Relief Centre!) but many others from our group were – and still are – affected. I heard amazing stories of people from other towns who'd been cut off from road access and were locked into their properties until the water receded, and others who had friends and family members with homes on flood alert.
When I spoke to one of the girls from Maryborough (hi Jenny!) she was actually working at the Relief Centre registering the hundreds of displaced people from nearby towns. There are so many people wanting to help, and it's heartwarming to see the Aussie spirit alive and well in communities all around the country – from Brisbane to the smallest communities in flood-ravaged Victoria.
Stampin' Up! also wants to help, and recently informed demonstrators that they will donate $2 from every stamp set sold until Feb 15th to the SES and flood relief.
Happy stamping,
Oh my goodness, we're nearly halfway through the first month of 2011! How amazing is that 🙂 Hope you are having a very Happy New Year so far!
We just returned from a fabulous week camping at the beach. So much fun, and a wonderful break. In between unpacking and catching up on the washing I'm preparing for a very exciting event. This Sunday is our biannual EurekaStampers team day, where all the demonstrators in the group are invited to my hometown in rural Victoria for a day of stamping, 'wow' presentations, yummy food and friendship. But just to prove I haven't forgotten about my poor neglected blog or my wonderful readers, today I'm sharing some cute calendar projects – perfect for the start of a new year.
This Square Scallop easel calendar was given to me by my friend Juliana – it's a clever twist on the easel card technique and I just love it.
You can buy ready-made mini calendars but they're also pretty easy to make if you want to save yourself some $$$. All you need is access to any word processing software… most of them have calendar templates that you can adjust the size and print out yourself. If you get stuck, send me an email and I can point you in the right direction.
And here is a 2-year diary that I've decorated, again after being inspired by a 2009-2010 one that Juliana gave me as a gift a couple of year's ago.
I searched everywhere for 2011-2012 diaries and finally found them at Chickenfeed at Wendouree, but I think you can probably get them at the Reject Shop or The $2 Shop… somewhere like that.
This is what they looked like uncovered.
Actually this was an ok looking one, but some of them were pretty darn ugly!! LOL. I bought a heap of them and didn't at all mind if it had a not-very-attractive design on the front because that's where our gorgeous stamps, cardstock and inks come in! I cut a piece of cardstock to size and embellished it, then adhered it to the cover of the diary before returning it into the plastic jacket. They can be personalised with initials (I made these for my Stamp Club girls as Christmas presents last month) and just make a handy item to tuck into your handbag.
Alrighty, enough chattin'. I better get back to work!
Happy stamping,
Tags: diary, easel calendar
Hi there! Isn't the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve a great time? We've had beautiful weather and the kids have loved playing outside on the trampoline, bikes and scooters. Everyone's relaxed and most of us are on holidays… not hubby unfortunately. An urgent job came up so he's been working hard but the rest of us sure have been enjoying every minute of it!
Inside the house we are in the midst of organised chaos though. Aaarghh! My daughters (4 and 7) have decided it's time they have their own bedrooms so I'm moving my craft gear out of the 'spare room' and into the 'other room' out the back. We never really did have a good name for that room. Apparently previous owners used it for pottery and it even had a kiln out there – so I'm told – but we just loosely call it the playroom (well, in my head I think of it as the junk room… have you got one of those too?! *wink* ). So anyway, junk room no more!!! We are measuring and painting and decluttering – yes FlyLady would be proud. I'm actually getting very excited about what's ahead for us all.
I did manage to sneak in some fun projects using the fabulous heart treat cups that are part of this month's promotion. They are a real hoot to use!! You can see some of my past sweet treat cup projects here and there and probably elsewhere too. See, I'm in holiday mode!!
I made this card for my darling hubby. You can find it and other projects in the January newsletter which I'll be sending out soon. If you don't already have a demonstrator in Australia and haven't yet signed up for the NEW & IMPROVED Newsletter Service it's not too late! Just enter your email address in the top right-hand corner of this blog and an info-packed newsletter will be winging its way through cyberspace to you each and every month. Exclusive projects, technique tutorials, product spotlights – you name it. You will LOVE this month's technique tip too.
Alrighty, back to my measuring tape and the Ikea catalogue…
Best wishes to you all for a very Happy New Year
xx
