Stamps Ahead

I have finally finished my 2011 USA holiday scrapbooking. Today, I am sharing with you The Blue Whale at Catoosa, Oklahoma - an iconic Route 66 stop. Built in the early 1970's as a surprise anniversary gift for a wife who collected whale figurines. The Blue Whale and its pond became a favoured swimming hole for both locals and travellers along Route 66 alike. For several days our tour guide had promised us a something unique and as he said you could just picture kids pleading with their parents to stop for a rest and swim along their way. It was closed to the public in 1988 and had fallen into disrepair. It has been restored by the people of Catoosa and is a popular stop again. But be aware do not stop for a swim the pond is full of algae! I have hand drawn my blue whale - sorry about the glare on the photo but yesterday was a 'scorcher' here in Sydney and I just could not could not stop the sun to take a photo - and this was without the flash!!! And I just realised we were...

My cousin has recently moved into a new home she has purchased and she is excited that she has a rose garden for the first time ever. Here is the card I sent welcoming her to her new home. The rose paper is Anna Griffin (circa 2007) from my stash. I have put some more of the paper inside with an appropriate greeting. Whilst blog surfing recently I saw a similar card but I did not take down the blog details - so I thank that person for the inspiration.

I am meeting friends for lunch on Sunday and they want to see my photos from my USA trip this year - so I have been madly finishing up my pages. This one is of the end of Route 66 @ Santa Monica, CA (the start is Chicago). The alphabet stickers I got at Big Lots, Poplar Bluff, Missouri for 25c for the pack - bargain. And my friend Carol sent me the Route 66 charm. I love the simplicity of this page. We were unable to stop to get a better picture of the plaque marking the end, as there was no parking for our bus, so this photo was taken from the bus. One day I hope to go back and actually read it.

What a great anonymous quote this is "Friends are those who nourish the spirit" . This has never been more relevent over the past few weeks as I have a had a chest infection that has left me feeling without energy etc. My sister was overseas and so I could not call on her at the start - but my next door neighbour and friend (who noticed I had not collected the local paper) came in with this beautiful basket of goodies - just what I needed. Thank you Dianne. When my sister arrived back in Australia, she came over and made a great salmon mornay, sorry no photos of this. And then I got a post from Laura and family, who live in Missouri, just the pick-me-up I needed. I have put a close up of the beautiful owl notecard set she included. Laura loves her owls and Cole put in a beautiful handwritten letter. Thank you Laura and Cole. My abovementioned neighbour went to Bendigo, Victoria and so I put together a bag of nibblies and drinks she could take along on her road-trip and I put ...

Yesterday, I had a great day making christmas cards for Aussie troops to send back home to family and friends. We were all excited to get a visit from some serving troops during the day. Here is just one photo from the day. A bit blurry but you can see we were having a good time/laugh. Also, in the photo is Julee who is our contact at Defence. Thank you to Karen for your continued organisation of this event and for the photos- for more photos go to Karen's blog here