Happy New Year - Roll on 2017

Happy New Year!

 Part of the NYE fireworks display at Coolangatta

 
I can't believe we're nearly at the end of the first week of 2017 already!

 Boxing Day with May Family rellies

 
Both Steve's and my workplaces close down for the week between Christmas and New Year, so we had a nice quiet week off, using that time to go and see a couple of movies (including Rogue One), have a Boxing Day catch up with some of the rellies, hang out with friends, re-waterproof the canvas and put new mattresses into the Jayco, and organise Cheyenne's school books and stationery for the year. Not long now until school starts again. We just have to get her some new track shoes and pay the usual assortment of fees and she'll be ready to go.

May I just say that I have so much love for my new Brother P-Touch label maker?  I have no idea how I managed to live without it for so long!

This Saturday we head off for a week away at Boyds Bay caravan park at Tweed Heads, with some of Steve's family.  The Jayco is mostly ready to go (we leave it packed with the camping gear) - we just have to do our food shopping (tonight) and pack our clothes in.

Looking forward to our little holiday (yes, I know I only just had a week off, but a stay-cation just doesn't feel the same as a proper holiday) and can only hope the weather plays nice for us.

School's Out!

The first year of high school is finally over and six whole weeks of holidays beckons.

After getting a good report card, Cheyenne celebrated by hosting a sleepover with three friends last night.  Due to our current limited space due to the larger van taking up extra space in the garage, there wasn't really room in the rumpus, so they slept in a tent in the backyard.

A previous attempt at a tent sleepover ended up in several girls frightened of night sounds in the backyard, and a last minute relocation indoors.  This time they actually stayed in the tent.

A fourth friend came over today for a swim as she'd been unable to attend the sleepover. She changed schools last term, so they haven't caught up with her for a while.

It's good to see the girls enjoying their holidays.

Mum, I'm Bored!

Now that the Easter holidays are over and Term 2 has started, I finally have time to sit down and write about my experiences with Melted Pony Bead Suncatchers.  I actually made these back in February, but we'll pretend it hasn't taken me two months to blog about it, OK?

You know how it is...  You see a post on Facebook or a picture on Pinterest and think to yourself, "That looks pretty/interesting/easy enough, and would be a good boredom buster.  We've certainly got all the supplies to make it.  Why not give it a go?"

Sound familiar?  I know you're nodding your head.  So, here it is - part tutorial, part cautionary tale.  This is NOT one of those Pinterest Fails... for the most part. I'll get to that later.

Step 1. Gather your supplies.  
You will need cheap pony beads in colours of your choice (we already had a heap of these - they seem to be a popular gift for pre-teen girls).  Depending what you are planning on making, use either transparent, with or without glitter (for suncatchers) or solid colours (for coasters, placemats, etc), but don't, on any account, use those iridescent ones.  Their oil-slick colours will lure you in with their attractiveness, but just don't go there.  I'll show you why later.
 
You'll also need some old non-stick pans, shaped foils pans, or egg rings on an old pizza tray (basically use whatever shapes you're aiming for), cooling racks and something to do the melting in.  Don't use your good cookware. You will not want to use it for food after melting plastic in it.  Try thrift store for cheap pans and keep them for craft use. 
Most instructions tell you to use an oven, some have used a heat gun, but I recommend using a hooded bbq. Outdoors. Trust me. Melted plastic fumes are NOT pleasant.  If you have pets or people with sensitive noses, keep them away.  Consider yourself warned.

Step 2. Arrange beads in your chosen moulds 
Preheat your oven/bbq to 200 degrees celsius.
You could go completely random or try to make patterns. Totally up to you, but make sure you only have a single layer of beads or they won't melt properly.

Step 3. Melt beads.
Instructions for ovens says 200 celsius for 20 minutes, but as I'd cranked all the burners on the bbq and shut the hood, it got pretty hot, pretty quickly, so I didn't need 20 minutes.  Just keep checking them and remove when fully melted to a smooth liquid state.

Step 4. Allow to cool.
Place on a cooling rack and wait for the plastic to cool.  Don't freak out at the loud cracking noises it makes as it cools.. As it cools, it will come away from the edges, so that it should just tip out of the pan when completely cooled.

Step 5. Remove from pans and sand rough edges if needed.

These heart shaped ones used glitter beads.

Step 6. Drill holes for hanging, if required.

Step 7. Hang and admire. Wasn't that easy?

And now for that cautionary tale...  I had a bag of iridescent (yet translucent) beads.  The colours were dazzling, like a dragonfly.  Semi transparent, so I thought they'd turn out nicely.  Wrong!  Not sure if it's the iridescent coating or maybe they're made of a different plastic, but they just didn't melt properly.  Even after triple the time in the heat.  The result was a lumpy, oil slicked mess that resembled fake vomit and stained the pan.

BEFORE

(I used solid colours to form the C)

 AFTER

So now you know what to do and what not to do.  Have a go.  It really is easy. I'm very happy with how mine turned out and will definitely make more.

Experiment with colours and patterns, but if you do find yourself falling for the allure of iridescent beads... don't say I didn't warn you!

O is for October, a month of "O"s

O is for nearly Over.

This means that all our birthdays are done and dusted for another year.

Cheyenne turned 8 in September.  She celebrated by having two of her friends sleep over (OMG, sooo won’t be doing that again for a few years!), and by getting her ears pierced.  (O is for just a tiny Ouch.)  She was very brave and had them done one at a time.

I turned 38 a week and a half ago; which is a rather unremarkable milestone.  About the only remarkable thing about it is that I was on Fraser Island at the time, lol.

O is also for the Big Four-Oh…and also for Old (Bahaha, I had to put that in). Yep, Steve turned 40 just last week.  You know you’re getting old when your idea of a birthday bash is a quiet bbq with a handful of friends, lol.

O is for Overdue.  Trip to Fraser Island, that is.  Finally, after all these years of going to Rainbow Beach, I have managed to actually go to Fraser Island for a holiday.  Technically, I have stood on the shoreline of the island a few times when we’ve gone over in the tinnie flicking for flathead, but that isn’t “visiting Fraser Island”.   At the Rainbow Beach Fishing Comp earlier this year Steve won (well, technically his dad did, but it was Steve’s fish) barge transfers and one night’s accommodation for 4 adults at Eurong Resort.  So we paid for 3 extra nights (they didn’t charge us any extra for Cheyenne) and went over with his parents.  The plan was to do the touristy stuff, so no fishing rods were taken. (shock horror).  Although Steve has been to Fraser Is. many times on fishing trips, he hasn’t gone to most of the tourist spots, so this was a first for him as well.

 Amusing ourselves with self-portraits on the s-l-o-w barge trip, lol.

 Ocean views from our top floor balcony!

We stopped at the wreck of the Maheno (along with every single tour group and carload of backpackers on the island), went to the Champagne Pools (so named because of the frothy bubbles when the waves hit the rocks) and drove up the Eastern beach as far as Nkala Rocks. 

  
We stopped several times at Eli Creek, which was fabulously icy and refreshing on the hot days.  Most of the freshwater creek is only knee deep but there are a few deeper holes you can take a dip in.

Another day we did the Southern Lakes Scenic Drive and then on to Lake McKenzie, where Steve and Cheyenne went for a swim, but the rest of us decided it was too chilly. We also walked along the boardwalk beside the creek at Central Station.

 The sand is so white at Lake Birrabeen and the water is crystal clear.

  

The above sign post cracked me up.  

Don't even think about camping on the edge of Lake Boomanjin.   

(Actually, as this lake is not crystal clear, has no nice beach and is, to be honest, pretty swampy and manky on the only side accessible by road, I don't think the sign is really neccessary.)

 Lake McKenzie has crystal clear water and reflects the colour of the sky.

We saw dingoes (although not as many as you’d expect), whales in the distance (I sooo need a better camera with a telephoto lens *sigh*), a starfish in a rock pool, and a camera-shy echidna hurrying across a track.   

Someone had carelessly discarded some fish frames on the beach, attracting a dingo.  We pulled up alongside to watch it.  A handful of gulls circled, trying to steal some fish.  One got a little too close and the dingo asserted its claim on the fish.  While we watched, it jumped up and snatched the gull out of the air.  Once it was satisfied that the gull was dead, the dingo calmly returned to the piece of fish.  Let that be a warning to other gulls. Don't try to steal food from a dingo.

We were blown away by the amount of devastation caused by the recent bushfires.  Such a huge area of the island is now black and ghostly. Luckily, a lot of Australian native plants need fire to regenerate, so the area won’t stay black for long.  The grass trees seem to be the quickest to recover.

All in all, it was a lovely holiday, albeit far to short for my liking.  It is so nice to go places and actually see something other than bait and fishing gear.

Rainbow Dreams

I can't believe it has been a whole month since we were on holiday at Rainbow Beach. We have been going there for the last week in July every year for years now, for the Rainbow Beach Fishing Competition.

The beach? In Winter? Ah yes, gotta love the Queensland climate :)

This year will have to be the last for Cheyenne and I, as she really shouldn't be missing out on a week and a half of school. They don't seem to be really learning all that much in Grade 1 and we did take schoolwork with us, so it wasn't as scandalous as it sounds.

While the "boys" (Steve, his Dad and a couple of mates) fished and won some daily prizes, it was all about the beach holiday for Cheyenne, Steve's Mum and I. Cheyenne really is a little beach bum.

It's a shame we had to come home.

If I won lotto, the first thing I'd do would be to buy a holiday house there.

Gummy Bear

♫ ♪ ♫ All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth ♫ ♪ ♫

Well, Christmas has come and gone and we're still waiting for Cheyenne's second front tooth to come through at the top. Her two top front teeth (the ones which were wearing away at an alarming angle) fell out within a couple of weeks of each other, during the last term of school last year. Her left-hand side adult tooth has cut through and grown nicely, but there's still no sign of its mate. To make matters worse, the baby tooth on the other side of the gap has recently fallen out as well, so Cheyenne has a rather gummy (although cute) smile. This of course, has given rise to her new nickname, "Gummy Bear".

She's told me that even though she likes the nickname, I am only allowed to call her that until her new teeth grow in. Fair enough, since she won't be gummy anymore.

Christmas was a fairly quiet, family affair once again. Lunch with my mum and brother, dinner with Steve's parents and two of his three brothers and their families. On Boxing Day we went up to visit some friends who live the other side of Gympie, and stayed the night at their place.

Steve found out about his work closing down between Christmas and New Year a little too late for us to book anything, so we didn't go away anywhere for a holiday. We spent New Year's Eve with some friends and Steve actually managed to see in the New Year for a change, lol.

This past weekend we spent Friday and Saturday nights in the annexe of Steve's parents' caravan down at the Broadwater Tourist Park. Cheyenne spent the entire weekend, playing with some of her cousins, either in the pool or at the beach, and has really gone quite brown. She already had a cute little oval shaped tan mark on her back from her bathing costume after spending so much time in our pool over the holidays.

Now there's only one week to go until the holidays are over and Cheyenne starts Grade 1. Time to buy new school shoes and start going to bed early to practice for next week. The earlier start time is going to be a shock to her system (not to mention mine as well). Guess I'd better start covering schoolbooks and labelling everything so that I'm not doing it all the night before.

Cheyenne has just had her hair cut nice and short so she doesn't start the new year looking scruffy.

School's Out For Summer...

Well, the school year is over. Prep is done and dusted, and we're into the first week of Hell... er..., sorry... the Christmas Holidays!

Six weeks of "I'm hungry, Mummy! Mum, can I have an iceblock? Can I have some fairy bread? Can I have a Nutella? An apple, a sandwich..?" It's only Tuesday, and already she's devoured almost an entire box of Tiny Teddy biscuits (which were bought as a treat), is about a third of the way through a 12 pack of individual Nutella snacks and has consumed more Zooper Dooper ice blocks than should be deemed necessary, considering the overcast (and therefore cooler) weather. Clearly I will need to buy another truckload of apples, and reintroduce her to stone fruits, now that they're in season.

This, from a child who has spent the better part of her life eating like a bird. I also know for a fact that she survived quite well every day at school on the two standard breaks, morning tea and lunch. So where has this sudden need to continuously graze come from? Maybe it's a growth spurt, but I hope it doesn't last. She's eating us out of house and home... and she isn't even a teenager!

Maybe I'll just have to sidetrack her with holiday activities. There's plenty of things she wants to do. The problem is getting her to understand that she has 6 weeks to do them in. We do not have to do every activity TODAY. We can swim in our pool any time we like. The park and duckpond is only 5 minutes away - she can even ride her bike there on the nice wide bike path. (Maybe we'll even get those training wheels off if she practices hard enough!) We can visit friends, have sleepovers at Grandma's and Nanny and Poppy's, do crafts, go to the movies... we just don't need to do it all right now, this instant.

Perhaps she's right though. All too soon it will be the end of the holidays and we'll be covering books, ready for Grade 1. Maybe we should be trying to cram in as much as we can.

Cheyenne's "Prep Graduation" photo.

(They didn't actually have a Graduation ceremony, this was just a posed shot included on the Powerpoint slideshow that each child received on a CD at the end of Prep. Kind of like a report card with photos. Excuse the grainy quality of the image - we didn't get access to the originals. I just copied it "as is" from the slideshow.)

White Water Rafting

Friday was an early start for Steve, but thankfully Cheyenne and I got to sleep in for a change! Steve, Helena, Jason, Robert and Brooks headed off to Tully to go white water rafting in Tully Gorge. It was another hazy day, but the sun was shining and there was a slight breeze.

Steve phoned later to let me know that the tour guide said they’d be having lunch at a particular vantage point, then after that, there’d be another good photo opportunity further down river.

Due to several back packers in hired camper vans, doing 80 km/h flat out on the single lane highway (God Bless the QLD Govt. – they’ve increased all our regos, why can’t they spend the money widening our main highway north?), Cheyenne and I arrived at the lunch area a little too late to see all but the last two groups of rafters. We did find the second vantage point further down river however, and waited for them all to flash past.

It was a really picturesque place to wait, and would have made a nice shady picnic spot, had we not been rushing out of the car to scramble down the track in case we missed the rafts again!

I did manage to get a couple of photos of them as they went past, and several scenic shots of the Tully Gorge as well. Just as well, since it would have really made my day (NOT) if I’d driven an hour each way along a narrow winding road and completely missed them…

Here they come!

There they go!

Steve bought himself a souvenir photo as well, so despite the difficulty of being at the right place at the right time, we did still end up with a few shots of the day's fun.

Hazy Days, Waterfalls and 20 Litres of Vodka

When the sun came up on Thursday, it revealed a smoky haze. Not the red dust storm that had hit Sydney and Brisbane, but it turned the sky grey nonetheless.

We had no particular plans, so decided to drive up towards Mission Beach, stopping along the way at Murray Falls. This is a very pretty waterfall, with a picnic area and swimming hole.

We decided to have a sausage sizzle for lunch, then headed to the water to cool off. There were a couple of nice deep pools, surrounded by smooth, water-rounded rocks, which some kids were sliding down.

These kids kindly let us take turns using their rock sliding boards – cut from plastic 20 litre Vodka drums. Such a brilliant idea! They’d climb to the top of the rock, pour a bucket of water down the side to make the sliding path slippery, then sit on the board and slide down the rock, into the icy cold running water at the bottom. It was heaps of fun, although I did manage to have a stack whilst trying to race Steve. Got a bit of air, banged my elbow and came down hard on the raised edge of the plastic (and boy, did I get a whopper of a bruise on my right butt cheek!)

(Hopefully, if Blogger does what it's supposed to do, this will be a short video of me sliding down the rocks on a "Vodka board")

After we finished swimming, we drove to Mission Beach, however the lousy visibility prevented us from having a decent view of the islands. Even Dunk Island was lost in the haze, so it isn't worth uploading any photos of that.

Still, for a completely unplanned, lazy day, we had the best fun.

Wedding Anniversary and day trip to Cairns

Wednesday 23rd September - our 9th Wedding Anniversary.

As we didn’t budget for a lot of extras on our holiday, we decided that we wouldn’t do all activities together. I’d go to Cairns with Bec, Daniel and Daniel’s parents Rob and Cathy, to go on the Kuranda Scenic Railway and Skyrail today, and Steve would do the white water rafting in Tully Gorge (that he really wanted to do) on Friday.

Another early start of course, as we had to be at Freshwater Station in Cairns by 9.30am, and it’s about a 3 hour drive from Cardwell. A lovely day dawned though, and it had really started to warm up by the time we arrived in Cairns. First stop was a detour to the gift shop to buy Scenic Railway fridge magnets. (I have to get one from each place I visit, mostly to annoy Steve, lol)

Here's some of the pertinent info from the tourist guide - "Completed in 1891, the 37 km of track from Cairns to Kuranda ascends 328 metres and includes 15 tunnels, 37 bridges and 98 curves"

The Kuranda Scenic Railway really lived up to its name, but, as everyone is environmentally conscious these days, it was rather hard to get decent photos through the trees.

Although it is dry season, Stony Creek Falls are running, so I did almost manage to get the “postcard” photo, albeit with a narrower stream of water tumbling over the falls than you would usually see in postcards.

Barron Falls were also running nicely, and I got some lovely shots from the viewing platform at Barron Falls Station. (see photo below)



We had a few hours in Kuranda before our scheduled trip back on the Skyrail, so we wandered around the shops and markets then had an overpriced lunch in one of the pubs. After lunch, there was more browsing around the shops, where I taste-tested and bought a bottle of Mango Port, before heading to the Skyrail gift shop for (you guessed it) another fridge magnet!

The Skyrail gondolas seat 6, so we were able to travel together. It is almost like flying, being that high above the rainforest canopy. There was another fantastic view of Barron Falls and further downstream to the Hydro-Electric Plant. There are two stations along the route back down from Kuranda. We got off at Red Peak to walk along the rainforest boardwalk, then boarded another gondola for the rest of the trip down from the mountains.

Kuranda Skyrail Station - looking out over Daniel and Bec's shoulders to the next gondola

View out over the rainforest canopy from the Skyrail gondola

Self in the gondola on the downhill stretch

A quick stop off in Cairns to go to JB Hi-Fi, so that Bec could buy a charger for her dead camera battery, then we headed back home to Cardwell.

When I arrived home I had to hurry and get dressed because Steve had arranged for us to have dinner at the restaurant at Cardwell Marina for our 9th wedding anniversary. Helena, Jason and their family kindly offered to look after Cheyenne so that we could eat dinner in peace for a change.

All in all, it was a very nice day, and I’m glad I decided to go to Kuranda.

And We're Off...

(Well, actually we're home, but the internet access while we were away was expensive and a bit slow, so now that we're back I can finally upload my holiday blog)

We were on the road at 3am, as planned, with only a small amount of resistance from Cheyenne. “It’s still night time!” She was a little happier when she realized that even though the sun wasn’t up yet, it was her birthday already. The song playing on the radio as we drove off down our street was “Road To Nowhere”, which we thought was quite appropriate.

Happy 6th birthday, Cheyenne!

Our first stop was the BP Travel Centre Caboolture, to meet up with our travelling companions. Going on the holiday with us were friends Helena and Jason, their two kids Chante and Robert, Robert's mate Brookes, Jason's brother Daniel and his girlfriend Bec. Steve had offered our spare seat to Chante, so that she didn’t have to squeeze into the back seat of the Mazda BT50 with the two boys. It also meant that Cheyenne had someone to talk to on the way up. The girls kept each other amused for 14 hours, luckily for us!

The trip was reasonably uneventful, other than Steve losing a bearing cap off the boat trailer and having to stop at Supercheap in Rockhampton to buy a pair of bearing buddies, and re-grease the wheel bearing. A late afternoon stop at KFC in Mackay, and we were on the road again, arriving in Cannonvale around 6.30pm. This gave us just enough time to check into the cabins at the Seabreeze caravan park, have a shower, walk up the road to Hungry Jacks to have dinner, and get back in time to watch the Broncos game.

Sunday morning, after feeding some lorikeets that landed on the railing of our cabin, we drove out to the lookout at Shute Harbour, took a few photos in Airlie Beach, and hit the road again, arriving in Cardwell by mid-afternoon.

Hand feeding lorikeets at the caravan park at Cannonvale.

Home sweet home for the week

The cabins are very basic, but are located together, close to the amenities block. The three cabins have their own covered bbq area with outdoor setting, which is just as well, seeing as the only cooking facilities the cabins have is a microwave (with only a small microwave jug to cook in!) and an electric frypan. Steve did bring up his single burner gas cooker, but there is, of course, no saucepan, so cooking the cheerios and hotdogs could present a challenge!

View from Cardwell Beach near the jetty, showing part of Hinchinbrook Island in the background

An evening visitor on the railing of the cabin.

On Monday morning the boys took their boats out and went fishing, while the girls drove back into Ingham to do a bit of grocery shopping and have lunch.

We have a few ideas of things we’d like to see and do while we are in the area, including a day trip to Cairns, but I guess we’ll have to see how things pan out.