Holiday Adventures.

We ventured down to the Sunny Coast for a holiday over the Christmas break to catch up with Mr Fishes side of the family (and only just made it back before the highway was cut at several places). The Fishes nanny is a dedicated wildlife carer (she was awarded a pride of Australia medal in 2010 for her many years of looking after little furry and feathered critters) so they are always excited to go for a visit and help feed whatever is in residence. Oldest fish is especially taken with feeding the wallabies and can now feed two at a time, a feat she was rather proud of.

Littlest fish seemed to enjoy having staring competitions with the wallabies just before feeding time.

We had promised the little fishes a trip to Australia Zoo on our trip and despite it raining A LOT we managed to get a day of light drizzle (not technically rain) and so off we went!

Littlest fish was happy to sit on the tail of a giant crocodile sculpture and look happy but despite being quite alright with walking all over it, oldest fish was not keen to have her photo taken. At all. She pulled what can only be described as a rather evil looking, scrunched up face and we put the camera away.

She was however quite happy to let me take a picture of her feeding an elephant.

We also got to see the show at the Crocoseum and after watching Bindi sing many, many, many songs (the young girls loved it but all the men in the audience looked like they would rather feed a crocodile or catch a snake or something) we got to watch Terri feed a croc. The Irwin's were all there and were in the show (and Wes, can't forget him) which is pretty good considering they are not there all that often, so we timed this visit well.

The little fishes got a puppet theatre for Xmas which they LOVED. We had to watch lots and lots of puppet shows put on by all the kids (some not so small ones as well) and it was a big hit. It was quite funny watching them as the storyline was quite similar in all the shows that were put on one after the other by the little kids. They seemed to take whatever the first show was about and run with it.

Both the fishes were very taken with Lulu the possum who was a very patient little thing and let them pick her up and have cuddles all the time. We had to hear about Lulu tickling little fishes tummy about 1000 times.

They both loved feeding the wallabies and even though it took longer than normal and little fish had to be constantly reminded to hold her bottle up so they could get the milk, the wallabies were all lovely and didn't complain too much.

Lulu and her biggest fan.

Lulu trying to get in on the wallabies dinner.

We had a lovely time and got to see all the other fishes and even though it rained nearly every day, all day, we managed to have fun and play in the mud. Our trip home was decided rather suddenly when we saw the flood waters making their way towards Rocky and after checking the RACQ website to find out if the highway was open at GinGin (which it was not previously) we decided to make a run (drive?) for it.

It was lucky we decided to as we made it home late that afternoon and the highway has been closed at various locations up til today. So despite driving past some very flooded areas (not over the road, mostly paddocks) we were very glad to get home and not be stuck on the highway somewhere with two little fishes. We had decided to try and make it home and if we struck water anywhere over the road then we were just gonna turn around and head back again. (It is not cool to drive through floodwater, you just end up needing rescuing and heaven knows, the rescue people are busy enough). So we have been at home and watching the horrible floods destroying whole towns out west and submerging our states capital city. The waters in Rockhampton are only just starting to recede now (think two weeks with your house under water) and the clean up there has only just begun. It will take our state many, many months (probably years) to get things back to some sort of normal again but the willingness of complete strangers to lend a hand and shovel mud for hours to clean up someones yard and house that they don't even know will surely get our state through this. The huge number of volunteers that have been out in force helping to make things just that little bit easier for people who have lost everything has to be something that we will remember for a long, long time.

Don't forget to hop on over to Make it perfect to check out the master list of bloggy peeps having auctions and raffles to raise money for the flood relief appeal. There are some amazing things on offer and all the proceeds will go to the flood relief appeal to help people get their lives back to some kind of normal.

Qld Flood Relief Appeal Auctions

As many of you already know our lovely state of Queensland is being devastated by floods at the moment. A lovely crafty lady called Toni of Make It Perfect fame is organising crafters to auction off some goodies with all the funds raised going to the flood relief appeal. She is currently getting things organised so head on over to her website for up to date info on what's happening if you are interested.

Some things I made.

I know these are a bit late but I thought I'd put them on here anyway. Out of my stash of driftwood that is currently in the front yard I made a little tree to go on the table for Christmas. It was easy to make with a bit of wire and some wood glue. I just drilled a hole through each piece and threaded them on the wire with the larger pieces at the bottom and the tiny bits at the top. Some little shells were hung as ornaments (they even had holes in them already, no drilling needed!) And it's finished off with a starfish on the top. I also made a couple of new baubles for the tree. I found the clear plastic balls at spotlight that you can put stuff in. (One of the only things I managed to find when I went in there, everything else on my list was either sold out, not arrived or mysteriously vanished.) After collecting a little bit of sand and going through our shell jar to find some teeny tiny ones, it just required a bit of glue to hold together and some glittery string to hang on the tree. Most of the other decorations we had this year were glittery, feathery, sparkly creations that the fishes made at Kindy. (Littlest one got to make some as well, she wasn't going to miss out on using glitter and glue!) I just had to throw in a couple of beachy things to balance out the sparkles!

These other bits and pieces are pressies for various people that have now received them so I can show you. Mum likes my sea fan that I framed and so when we found this one I thought I better make her one too. I managed to get a few shadow box frames from Big W (thanks to Claire for her very good finding skills) and painted the matts in a nice sea blue/grey sort of colour. Then with the help of my trusty toothpick I stuck that sucker down. You could make a nice display of shells or bits of driftwood or anything else that tickles your fancy, as long as it fits in your frame.

This pic is of a throw for the lounge I made for Aunty Sand and Uncle Brian-man as the fishes call them. As you can see it is being expertly modelled by littest fish (not sure why she has gumboots on). It was going to be made in fabrics that matched the table runner and wall hanging they have in their house but do you think I could find the photos I took to check what fabrics were used? They loved it and Sand reckons it will match perfectly so it turned out

A-Okay.

This is a monster shirt I made for a little man who likes transformers and robots and other boy things. I was a bit unsure as to whether he would like it (being handmade and not a transformer) but was assured by his knowledgable aunt that he would like a monster shirt.

He did in fact like it and even wanted to put it on so that was a bit relief. And being the lovely boy that he is, he even told me he liked it so that made my day.

We went away over Christmas to visit Mr Fish's parents and all the various Fish relatives down on the Sunny Coast. It rained nearly the whole time time we were there but despite the rain we still had a good time. I'll put some pics of the little fishes feeding the wallabies and the things we did in my next post. Hope everyone had a nice break and a bit of a relax :)