More matchboxes

Green matchbox sent to Helen in Canada. I used a metallic finish paint which reflected the light from the flash when I took a photo. I also sent Helen an unactivated geocoin as her Swapbot profile says she is a geocacher. I got to use some excess DMC floss for this creation - its so handy to have stuff leftover from finished cross stich projects laying around.

A Petrol-head kinda day

IMG_0183
Originally uploaded by Jacinta H

Fantastic weather up here in Cairns today and so we jumped in the Trans Am (red one) to drive to the car club meeting. Roof off, sunnies on - yes this is the type of day we bought the cars for.

Meetings are meetings...generally very dull but afterwards we had a "shed run" to Brian's place. (A shed run is a convoy of cars converging on a members home to check out his shed, contents thereof and any good cars he may be hiding).

Fortunately Brian's lovely wife Joy was aware of our planned arrival at her home and had put the kettle (urn) on and had organised an early lunch for us all.

Brian's son, Matthew also turned up with the fantastic truck in the photo - its a 37 Chevy hauler (car carrier) - part hot rod, part truck, part American and a fantastic vehicle to see. All of the club members were totally blown away to see it as well as Matthew's El Camino (click on the link to Flickr photos).

All in all a great day out and there were some fantastic cars out and about too.

Catching up with the Bot.

I have received a number of fantastic parcels over the past week but have been a bit slow in showing them on this blog. Above is a matchbox that I recieved from a Swapbotter in Canada (can you tell). The theme of the matchbox swap was "My Country". Mrs D did a fantastic job in decorating the stuffing the matchbox full of Canadian goodies including coins, mini hockey puck, charms, stickers and ribbons.

Next I have the fantastic parcel received from Liz, an Aussie Swapper who went to a lot of trouble to put together a selection of papercrafts, handmade items and craft items for me all in the colour red. Opening this parcel was like stumbling into Aladdin's Cave as each item emerged from the parce I was increasingly shocked and gratified at Liz's generosity and care.

Finally, but not leastly, this amazing selection of ribbons and buttons was sent to me from Christina in Portugal. Included was a fantastic handmade felt pin/brooch with sequins and beads. Christina makes an stunning collection of handcrafts and she has an etsy shop loaded with heaps of great things. This inspires me to have a go at covering my own buttons.

Brought to me by the letters.. J, D and H!

I received another fantastic matchbox during the week. Another Swapbot swap... this time the theme of the swap was our initials. My initials are JDH and this beautiful matchbox features Dark blue fabric, Hieroglyphics and a selection of J,D and H goodies inside including Jingle bells, January, June, July (my birthday month), Dogs, Dragonflies, Dinosaurs, Dog prints, Hearts, Hangers, Hat, Hope, Hand milagro, Hello Kitty, House button and letter H.

Breccamerie created this masterpiece and she has a fantastic etsy store.



Close up of the matchbox itself.

Colour me Silly - Red

Colour me Silly - Red (sent~)
Originally uploaded by Jacinta H

Another Swapbot exchange - this parcel went out to Jullie (Shabby Jules) in NSW. Jullie has a thing for luggage so I found a little suitcase to package all the stuff into and then searched high and low for fun red stuff to fill it up.

Jullie has received the parcel now and was very pleased with it.

The Chaos Crystal

The Chaos Crystal by Jennifer Fallon

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
The dilemma that Declan faces is made clear at the beginning of the book however how he is going to achieve his goal is less clear.


However while the climax to the story is quite thrilling the final chapters reveal a number of new twists introduced in the final chapters are the real highlight.


I enjoy the dry wit of the author as seen through the banter between the Immortals and especially in the "one liners" that are part of the conversation whenever Kentravyon is part of the scene or discussion.


This series does not deliver predictable conclusions or twee happy endings. I was left with the tension of wanting to know more after each of the first three volumes. The fourth volume winds this tension to a conclusion and then twists the story onto a new tangent.





View all my reviews.

Buttons and Ribbons

Buttons and Ribbons #4 - received
Originally uploaded by Jacinta H

One of my favourite swaps to take part in is the Buttons and Ribbons series. This fantastic parcel was sent to me by Eadaoin in the UK. Pretty pink, green and crisp white and look out for the cool buttons in the background :). Thanks so much Eadaoin.









Another fun swap was themed "You are a Star" and was to swap stash items. The photos below set out the goodies that Joan sent me. In particular look at the little square buttons - they match the fabric very well so I will have to look at my projects to see what is crying out to be finished with star fabric and buttons.

Hamish - the well behaved cyclone

A couple of days after the initial scare and I can now report that TC Hamish was a well behaved weather system. He did as the forecasters suggested - moved parallel to the coast and looks as though he will fizzle out without making landfall and create any excess damage. Yes the beaches are probably a mess but that's the least of the problems if a cyclone comes calling.

Below is the path of TC Hamish over the past day or so -he is just playing by himself out to sea.

Below is the satellite image of the weather system - you can see a smude of clouds to the east of the continent - that's Hamish playing in the waves :)

Disaster averted, for now.

Swapbot - Brought to you by the letter ...

Matchbox Mafia - contents prior to stuffing
Originally uploaded by Jacinta H

S! I created this matchbox for Sunnysidey (Sam) who lives in Perth. I picked out nice bright colours which match Western Australia's climate and covered it with spots. The contents included stars, stamps, sequins, silver, spots and spotty stars. Sam noted that she thought the package with great :)

More reading.

The Palace of Impossible Dreams by Jennifer Fallon

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Hmmm, what a funny book this one was - there is another volume after this so its another situation where the plot marks time while the players set themselves up for their next big move. While there were plenty of twists and turns for various characters the story seemed to work itself into a circle and the status quo at the start was not a lot different from the status quo at the end.



However I still enjoyed the exercise of reading this book and have now started the fourth volume.


View all my reviews.

More bad weather - TC Hamish

Another cyclone formed off the coast to the north of us yesterday. However this time it looks as though its going to cause havoc to the south of us. This tracking map shows what the Bureau of Meteorology thinks the cyclone's path will be. Its already a Category 4 storm.


The satellite map also shows just how big the storm is and you can distinctly see the eye of the cyclone. The last time we saw a Cyclone with such a defined shape and eye it was three years ago when Cyclone Larry (category 5) crossed the coast at Innisfail.

Looks like the Whitsunday Islands might cop a direct hit this time - here's hoping for a sharp turn out to sea.

Red biscornu

Red biscornu - sent to Robyn in NSW
Originally uploaded by Jacinta H

This red biscornu was stitched by me for a Swapbot swap and sent to Robyn in New South Wales. I used red aida for the fabric and deep purple and silver floss. The silver was metallic and a total pain to stitch with so it might be a while before I get that colour out again.

January 2009 biscornu

January 2009 biscornu
Originally uploaded by Jacinta H

Dee let me know that she received the January biscornu for the Swapbot exchange. I was getting worried that perhaps it was lost in the mail.