January Round-Up

It's been a bit of a rough start to 2026 in our little family.  

My brother-in-law lost his battle with cancer just after Christmas, which meant a trip to QLD to be with my sister and nephew. While there, I caught a headcold, which was probably a COVID strain, as it took me the best part of a month to recover from!  

So yeah, not a great start, but looking forward to the rest of the year, as is going to be fantastic!! 

We celebrated Ethan's birthday by taking a trip into the city to see the Terracotta Warriors at the WA Museum, with lunch at Picabar, it was a very hot day but we had a lovely day together.

Then we heading over to Mudjimba for Matt's funeral.  We flew to Brisbane, then hired a car for the 1 1/2 hour drive.

We were so lucky to find a house to rent for the week, where we all could stay together....with no bunk beds!! 

Saw my first Bush Turkey, the house had babies in the garden, and dipped my toes in the Coral Sea...

On the 23rd of Jan, I headed out to Country Papercraft for another watercolour class with Maxine Hazebroek

Most of Jan was spent getting over the bug I got in QLD, so it was a quiet month...I only got 1 scrap page done.

Black Magic Sketches - January Challenge.
I got to use my new Canon Selphy that I got for Christmas, and my cricut for the title.

January 2026

 So another year starts.... 

I started thinking of my new word for 2026.  As you might know, if you visit my rarely used blog, I don't do new year's resolutions, but try and find a word to inspire me throughout the year.

One thing I have consistently struggled with is maintaining balance.  I can get very fixated on a thing, and all other responsibilities get put aside.

So I want to try to balance my work, exercise and hobbies better....

No celebrating New Year's this year,  just a quiet night in, remembering to not take for granted our time together.

Juy What's in the Bickie Tin

My July page for What's in the Bickie Tin challenge

Catching up with some Singapore holiday photos from 2018

We wanted to have a Singapore Sling at the Raffles Hotel, but sadly it was closed for renovations... So we had one poolside at our hotel instead.

Got to say... neither of us really liked them!  But we had a great relaxing day by the pool.

I fell in love with this range from Scrapboys called Travelers, and knew I wanted to use this floral page with these photos.  With it being so busy, I trimmed diagonal strips, inked and distressed the edges.

I fussy cut the flowers and added die-cut leaves.

 I made another pool page, page to go with it for a Soul Scrappers June challenge.  

April Catch up...

 March/ April whooshed by....

All in all it's been quite a few months as in we haven't done or gone anywhere terribly exciting... Mum has been recovering from her hip replacement, along with a few hiccups. Discoved she has stomach ulcers when they started bleeding!  So, back to the hospital for a few more days.  She is finally doing well now!

We had a lovely Easter

 

 

I came across this gorgeous wine on Facebook and couldn't resist getting some to try... 

I saved it for Easter..and it did not disappoint!!  Sweet but not too sweet, with a little tangy... reminded me of a fruit tingle!! And it looked amazing on our Easter table.

Finally, choose the perfect spot for my birdbath...  Gary placed it in the garden for me and I will plant out around it soon...

And it got its first visitor the other day...

I managed a couple of scrapbooking pages....

What's in the Bickie Tin 

Scrapped the first page of Ethan's 21st party, using Cocoa Vanilla Great Escape range.

And used my cricut for the first time to make the title.  This was the main reason I wanted the cricut, so it was a lot of fun learning how to use it!!

Finally got to do a page for Archiscraps

When my father-in-law passed, the family beach house was sold.  Sadly, keeping it in the family wasn't really an option, so it was the "End of an Era"  Gary has wonderful memories of his dad building the home over weekends and days off.  The family spend holidays and Christmas together, there with fishing and crabbing and many hours spent on the boat. ( as I'm sure his brothers do too) 

Easter 2024 - Including something I rarely do... hand stitching!! I mixed Bee Arty's Colour Paste with a bit of white gesso to lighten the colour to suit the softer colours of this paper range, to use with the stencil.

Even dusted off my embossing powder!!

My Birthday with my BBF 2024

And I finished off my first Junk Journal, did a fantastic class with Maxine Hazebroek at Country Papercraft in March.

Also watched lots of cricut videos to teach myself how to use it... There are some very clever crafters out there! I managed to make a decal for the inside of my machine!

All reactions:

23Sue Reiger, Debbie Bailes and 21 others

 It's been a busy couple of months!  I turned 60 this year....

After such an emotional time with Joan's funeral and Ethan's 21st,  I just wanted some quiet time with the important people in my life.

The night of my birthday my boys took me to dinner at a local place that came highly recommended... Kandel Pan and Grill, the food was delicious, and the decor was firmly stuck in the 70s!! 

 A dinner with Mum and the family on the 23rd.  I didn't want a cake as such, I wanted to try the new Cheesecake Choc Mud lamingtons from the Cheesecake shop!....They were divine! 

My present from Mum took a few weeks for me to choose something.... Something I have always wanted... I really big bird bath.  Mum and I found the perfect one at a local pet and garden centre.

The following weekend, my BBFs gave me a wonderful weekend away! Cheryl played host, Kerry and Anne-Marie joined us for brunch on Saturday, while Sue, Yvonne and myself, stayed till Monday.

Good friends, good food, a couple of swims in the pool and time to wind down after an emotional couple of months - it was just what I needed!

On Sunday, we went to lunch at The Landing in Alkimos, where I had the best Bruschetta I think I've ever had! 

High Tea x 2 at Mrs Rabbits with Anne-Marie and Mum followed over the next couple of week.  Such a gorgeous place I could happily go there many many more times!! 

Jan 31st with Anne-Marie, her gift to me, we don't spend that much time together anymore, just life being life.....

Such lovely table setting, with lovely vintage tablecloths ( they would look so much nicer if they ironed them!!)

And with Mum 6th Feb

Even the butter was rabbit-shaped! 

Add in a few catch-up lunches with loads of different friends and I can say I had a wonderful birthday!!