Sensational Satisfaction from the STASH

Its official, I have Magpie genes!

I love looking at and collecting all things shiny, glittery, and of a sparkly nature. You may have already gathered that from previous blogs of mine, mentioning raindrops sparkling in sunshine and on cobwebs etc etc.

Today, in an op shop over the border in N.S.W. I spied an unusual shaped glass bottle containing an abundance of stems of bead covered wires. Gorgeous, to my magpie trained eyes! I managed a deal with the lady in the shop, gaining three bunches for the price of two - I was very happy!

Having left the establishment with my glittery treasure clutched in my hand, my thoughts started to turn over, should I have bought more, to give away?

Halfway home, I remembered some beads that I have, oodles of them, from some strange kind of adornment, multi stranded necklace/belt that I bought years ago, that never worked for me. I had refashioned some of the many beads into a necklace and bracelets, and still there were heaps of beads left over. They are glass and the colours that you would see when looking at oil or petrol on a puddle - greens, pinks, purples, blues and golds.

I couldn't wait to arrive home and get going making some stems of my own! So the afternoon passed peacefully, me threading beads onto lengths of galvanized wire and then binding the ends with white satin ribbon.

The effect is not very obvious in the photo, but trust me, they look good! They looked very pretty and twinkly in my vase as the sunlight caught them! I am a happy girl!

So the stash comes in mighty handy, when the crafty mood strikes. You never know when you might use those items you kept.! Another example of that this week are the three Curly Whirly scarves that I was able to knit from yarn from the stash.

Oh Yes, I also made two pretty doily dolls from items from the sensational stash, to give as birthday presents to two special ladies in my life, sorry I forgot to photograph them.

So, this is in praise of the Stash, long may it live and enhance my crafty life.
Think twice before you throw stuff away and...
Watch out for sparkles!
Have a great day
Simply Susan

Anniversary Cake

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary. As it was Tuesday 'family' night dinner, I cooked corned beef in the crock pot and served it with mustard sauce and vegetables and followed that with (home grown) rhubarb crumble and custard - all very suitable for a chilly winter evening. Our daughter presented us with a lovely cake, that she had decorated for us...

Isn't it gorgeous? She is such a trick.
Should you be interested in seeing more of her beautiful work, please check out Cakes to Delight on Facebook and be amazed.

More Fire in the Sky

I can't resist showing you more sunsets, just beautiful! Enjoy!

Search for Kangaroos

Yep! We were successful in our kangaroo search this evening, seeing dozens of them grazing in the scrub just a couple of kilometers from home.

How quickly one can become accustomed to seeing these beautiful,large, wild animals so close to home. This is a wonder we shouldn't take for granted.

The kangaroos were quite inquisitive towards my camera toting friend, who is keen to take documentary evidence back with her to New Zealand, to show her grandson. After today, she will have lots to show and tell him of her adventures on the Gold Coast!

My day is drawing to a close, I am suitably tired after so much fresh air and excitement, I forgot to mention that we included a visit to MacDonalds to indulge in my favourite Chocolate Sundae. Could a day get much better?

Night Night....Zzzzzzzz

A Whale of a Day

What an amazing day I have had! Some weeks ago my savvy daughter put me onto a social site that enabled me to pre-purchase tickets for a whale watching cruise at avery reasonable price. As my friend was coming from New Zealand to stay for a few days and whale watching was on my list of entertainments for us, I eagerly and gratefully took full advantage of the discount. Today was the day we selected to use the vouchers.

Now, you need to understand that this is probably my fourth foray into the Gold Coast waters to watch whales and, I have to say that though we have always seen some, they have neither been close or prolific.

Today we struck lucky! What an outing it proved to be! If you have ever seen a photo of a whale doing anything in the water, we saw it this morning! Everything several times! Wow Factor PLUS PLUS! I was absolutely beside myself at our good fortune in seeing these amazing creatures frolicking in the ocean. If that wasn't enough, we saw a dozen or so bottle nose dolphins playing around one side of the boast, PLUS dozens of dolphins on the other side playing in a school of bait fish - the water was awash with activity. I laughed as passengers moved to watch the dolphin activity on one side, they were oblivious to the whales breaching behind them on the other side of the boat! So much to see at one time WOW - it was truly amazing, exciting beautiful. To top it all off the weather was superb.

It couldn't have been a better excursion, payback for all the disappointments and sighing at hearing that "we had lots of sightings yesterday". Well, tomorrow the hostess can say it, and they did and so did we!

From that exhilarating experience, after docking, we headed to Peters Fish Hut to indulge in a fish and chip lunch, hot and crispy - YUMMO. While waiting for our number to be called I gazed into the fish cabinet at various types of shell fish Lobsters, bugs, crabs etc. What incredible colours and variety of design, and then the different textures and colours of the fish available for purchase.

God didn't create one type of fish and mammal and throw in the towel, He continued creating endless varieties and sizes for His and our delight.

My heart bursts with the wonder of it all!

We've enjoyed a cup of tea and are about to go and look at the local kangaroo population that inhabits the bush nearby, more wonders!

What a Whale of a Day!
Love Simply Susan

Well, Well, Well!

Upon arrival at our daughter's 'home in the sky' for coffee, on the weekend, guess what we spied in the road outside? Several windscreen wiper inserts lying in the tarmac! Our local "rogue" crow must have been having a field day whipping out these liquorice like inserts from unsuspecting motorists vehicles...maybe that's it! The local crow loves liquorice and thinks the rubber inserts are edible...and maybe it was disturbed yanking them from their positions and dropped them in their haste to depart the crime scene! I wonder then why the crow would not have returned to retrieve it's spoils from the road surface, rather than abandon them for us to find. Clearly the fun is in the removal rather than the possession, some kind of perverse sport for the crow? Anyway, we arrived with a posy of wiper blades and a good chuckle at the entrepreneurial actions of the local "rogue". I might add that we left our blades covered with rags to ensure no further loss during our visit!

Moral? Beware liquorice loving, rubber collecting wildlife!
Have a great day..
Simply, Susan

Believe it or Not

I mentioned recently that our daughter had moved to live independently in a second floor unit, about five minutes drive away from here.

Since moving in, she had noticed that vehicles parked in the undercover area under the building, had their windscreen wipers "out' at night. She thought that this was rather odd and it was only a couple of weeks later, that, upon activating her wipers early one morning, to clear condensation, that she realized that one of her wiper blades was missing. As a result of that the windscreen incurred some significant scratching. Boy, was she mad, thinking that a vandal had been responsible! We later heard that crows in the area in which she lives are prone to "remove" wiper blades, for reasons known only to them. So we blamed them!

We have enjoyed visiting our daughter in her home in the clouds and enjoyed sharing refreshments and the ambiance that she has achieved in a short space of time. Upon our return to our car at the completion of our last visit, on Sunday, my husband shooed a crow of the bonnet of our car. Imagine my his frustration, when later,on a showery Wednesday morning, he took our car out, and returned within minutes declaring that the passenger side windscreen wiper blade was missing!

A crow was the perpetrator of the crime! We were distraught to think that an opportunistic bird had "visited" our vehicle, whilst it was parked in the street, outside our daughter's unit, and availed itself of our wiper blade!
We can only assume that somewhere a crow or crows have a rubber lined, all weather nest.

We had been aware, while living in New Zealand, of the damage that birds could inflict on rubber seals, particularly to unsuspecting bush walkers, but we had no idea that crows on the Gold Coast would consider indulging in such antisocial activity!

All very inconvenient, but ironic that the visitor should experience the crime as well as the resident!

Moral of the story? Cover the wipers when visiting for coffee and keep a spare set of blades handy!

Have a great weekend
Simply Susan