More Clouds

... and just one more look at those amazing clouds we saw last week. Apparently they are mammatus clouds.

This was the edge of the storm, right above us ...

And this was the view to the north. All these photos were taking within minutes. The following day we bumped into a friend staying at the next beach north. They were taken completely by surprise by bucketing rain because the hills hid the view that we got. But we swam on and then beat the rain home.

Cuttlebug Fun

A few weeks ago I created these cards using the Cuttlebug embossing plates and my new tag dies. So cool and so easy. Still loving these Stampin' Up colours.

Op Shopping on Holidays - a Tutorial

1. Wait for a rainy day and bundle the family into the car

2. Sus out the local op-shops and make a plan of attack

3. On entering the shop spread out so as not to miss anything

4. When looking at clothes for 10-year olds be insistent that they actually try them on before rejecting them

5. When you see someone else put an item down that you might like, grab it before they change their mind.

6. When you find the perfect outfit in the perfect size for your daughter who desperately needs new winter clothes, make sure you take photos of her in them.

total cost of outfit:

Jacket - $5

Shirt - $2

Hat - $5

Jeans (from opshop on our last holiday) - $6

Emily's enjoyment of her new clothes - priceless

Total = $18 woohooo

We also found 2 nice long sleeved tshirts for Emily and myself, some clothes for her to grown into, and a nice appliqued Christmas tablecloth. If I had been 1 minute earlier I could have bought Emily a denim jacket also.

These 2 opshops in Nelson Bay seem to be particularly good - we got nice things last year too.

Now I just have to restrain myself from telling everyone about our bargains. Not everyone appreciates the whole second-hand thing like we do. But everything we bought is in such GOOD condition. We are thankful for God for providing these clothes that Emily needed - the cute little cap was the icing on the cake for me!

Photos!

This was the view from our holiday house on the first morning after we arrived:

The weather deteriorated in the afternoon to this:

And we saw the most amazing clouds, with real scalloped edges like the clouds you draw as a child: we stayed on as long as we could at the beach, because this was the weather to the north:

and in the end timed our departure well before the storm hit.

That was the most dramatic weather we had, but pretty typical of the changes. Sometimes we would be sitting on the beach in the sunshine and a thin grey cloud would come and rain on top of us, like in a cartoon. No problem if you are swimming at the time, but not so nice when you are a mummy with a cold watching the action! But it was a good holiday overall. More pics to come ...

Home again

We're back home from the beach, and loving it. The beach was fun, but we had quite a lot of rain and wind, not really beach weather. We did get in some swimming and Wahu-ing, but unfortunately Blogger won't let me post any photos at present.

Coming home was good, as usual. The house we stayed in was much bigger than our home, but bigger is not always better. We are enjoying our cosy home now, especially since the weather has turned cooler and we have the heater on, daylight savings is over and the evenings are darker. Of course the clothes horses full of washing from the holiday don't really add any ambience, neither do the sleeping bags etc waiting for a sunny day to be aired, but I am enjoying some real autumn weather and starting to think of comfort foods - soups, casseroles, crusty bread ...yum!

Looking forward to posting some photos ASAP