Stampin Up Stamp Club

The below are some Stamp Club last Friday night. Some Christmas Cards and a cute little Christmas Album. Not sure how to use the album yet...

Kaszazz Workshop

I made this gorgeous layout a few weeks back. I love the colours and learnt some new techniques. Now to find the perfect photos to finish it off!

Card Swap #2 2013 (3/3)

Card Swap #2 2013 (2/3)

Card Swap #2 2013 (1/3)

Once again we are back for another card swap. This is Batch 2 of the 4 planned for the year. Some awesome cards in this lot 

Stampin Up Stamp Club

The below are some cards we made at SU Stamp Club. I love the folder to hold the the "graffiti" cards. So simple to make. And the tea card is very sweet. 

 

Book: Beneath Outback Skies

Summary: Paige Quinn will let nothing and no one distract her from caring for her crippled father, Connor, and fighting for her remote, drought-stricken property, Banora Downs. Least of all a surprise farm-stay guest named Tait Cavanaugh, whose smooth words are as lethal as his movie-star smile.

Except Paige can't help noticing that, for a city-boy, Tait seems unexpectedly at home on the land. And he does ask a lot of questions…

It doesn't matter how much he helps out or how much laughter he brings into her life, she soon suspects he is harbouring a big secret – the real reason he has come to Banora Downs…

What I thought: Another great new Aussie rural romance writer. I was hooked. This is only available as an e-book though (I have read many e-books but this is the first one I actually forked out my own hard cash for - and I don't regret it!)

Book: I Came to Say Goodbye

Summary: It was four o'clock in the morning.

A young woman pushed through the hospital doors.

Staff would later say they thought the woman was a new mother, returning to her child - and in a way, she was.

She walked into the nursery, where a baby girl lay sleeping. The infant didn't wake when the woman placed her gently in the shopping bag she had brought with her. There is CCTV footage of what happened next, and most Australians would have seen it, either on the internet or the news.

The woman walked out to the car park, towards an old Corolla. For a moment, she held the child gently against her breast and, with her eyes closed, she smelled her.

She then clipped the infant into the car, got in and drove off.

That is where the footage ends.

It isn't where the story ends, however.

It's not even where the story starts.

What I thought: Brilliant! Absolutely gripping yet so sad too. Fabulous author - highly recommend.

Book: Burning Lies

Summary: Lies, all lies. It didn't matter how attractive he might be. She didn't really know this man . . . He was living a lie and she didn't know why.

Kaitlyn Scott is searching for the truth about her husband's death, even if that means revisiting the most painful day of her life. But what she uncovers is a criminal willing to stop at nothing to keep his secret.

Ryan O'Donnell, an enigmatic undercover cop, is investigating arson attacks when he is drawn into Kaitlyn's world. He tries to fight his attraction for her, hoping the case might put his own demons to rest, but it only threatens to push him over the edge.

With Kaitlyn and Ryan on a collision course, the arsonist seizes the chance to settle some old scores. As the Atherton Tableland burns, the three of them are caught in a fiery dance of danger and desire, and not everyone will come out alive.

What I thought: Great gripping read. I really like her books (though I still prefer the whole farm thing with rural books).

Book: The Outback Heart

Summary: Indianna Wilson is a country girl through and through. She'll do anything she can to save her beloved home town from disappearing off the map – even if she has to die trying. She brings Troy Force to her tiny outback town, with hopes that he can bring a breath of fresh air to the Saints football club and lift the wider farming community.

He's just the spark they need in Hyden but it's the fire that he ignites in Indi's heart that takes her by surprise. She knows he's feeling something too – why, then, does he insist on pushing her away? What is it from his dark past that's preventing them from sharing a future?

As the town rallies together and their fighting spirit returns, Indi and Troy discover that sometimes life offers up a second chance – you just have to be brave enough to take it.


What I thought: Loved it. Fiona Palmer is one of my absolute favourite rural authors. This centered on AFL (which I love) and also about organ donation. I think the personal element she bought into the book was great.

Book: Hope's Road

Summary: Sixty years ago, heartbroken and betrayed, old Joe McCauley turned his back on his family and their fifth-generation farm, Montmorency Downs. He now spends his days as a recluse, spying upon the land - and the granddaughter – that should by rights have been his.

For Tammy McCauley, Montmorency Downs is the last remaining tie to her family. But land can make or break you - and, with her husband's latest treachery, how long can she hold on to it?

Wild-dog trapper, Travis Hunter, is struggling as a single dad, unable to give his son, Billy, the thing he craves most. A complete family.

Then, out of the blue, a terrible event forces the three neighbours to confront each other - and the mistakes of their past …

What I thought: Loved it. A great setting for a book and great characters. Well written too!

Book: Ryders Ridge

Summary: Shaken after a tragic incident in the city hospital where she worked, Daniella figures that the small north-west Queensland cattle town of Ryders Ridge is just the place to hide. Caring and dedicated, she quickly wins the trust of her patients, and the attention of handsome station heir, Mark Walker. As their relationship grows, Daniella begins to think she could make a new life for herself in Ryders. But country towns have their own problems.

Under the big outback sky, Daniella discovers that the local rumour mill can threaten both friendships and careers, and that like the city, Ryders Ridge also has secrets. Mark, too, is a complication - as good as they are together, how can a doctor maintain a practice and live on a cattle station?

Just as Daniella considers running away for a second time, a terrible accident forces her to face the secret she left behind in Brisbane, and risk losing Mark forever.

What I thought: OMG! A great new rural author. I was hooked! Loved it (maybe because of the medical element...). Can't wait for the next one!

Book: Left Neglected

Summary: Sarah Nickerson is like any other career-driven supermom in Welmont, the affluent Boston suburb where she leads a hectic but charmed life with her husband Bob, faithful nanny, and three children—Lucy, Charlie, and nine-month-old Linus. Between recruiting the best and brightest minds as the vice president of human resources at Berkley Consulting; shuttling the kids to soccer, day care, and piano lessons; convincing her son’s teacher that he may not, in fact, have ADD; and making it home in time for dinner, it’s a wonder this over-scheduled, over-achieving Harvard graduate has time to breathe.

 A self-confessed balloon about to burst, Sarah miraculously manages every minute of her life like an air traffic controller. Until one fateful day, while driving to work and trying to make a phone call, she looks away from the road for one second too long. In the blink of an eye, all the rapidly moving parts of her jam-packed life come to a screeching halt. 

A traumatic brain injury completely erases the left side of her world, and for once, Sarah relinquishes control to those around her, including her formerly absent mother. Without the ability to even floss her own teeth, she struggles to find answers about her past and her uncertain future.

Now, as she wills herself to regain her independence and heal, Sarah must learn that her real destiny—her new, true life—may in fact lie far from the world of conference calls and spreadsheets. And that a happiness and peace greater than all the success in the world is close within reach, if only she slows down long enough to notice.

What I thought: I thought this was a really good book... but not as good as Still Alice.  

Book: Murder on the Ballarat Train

Summary: Phryne is giving her red Hispano-Suiza a break: this week she is travelling by train to Ballarat. But what should have been the trip of her dreams, soon turns into the stuff of nightmares. Phryne has to use her Beretta .32 to save her life and that of her traveling companion Dot. And someone has poisoned the other passengers with chloroform.

What I thought: I have been wanting to read a Phyrne Fisher novel for ages (as everyone else seems to be) so when I saw this at the library I grabbed it because it was the Ballarat one. I loved it! A lovely light playful read. Have now reserved book 1 in the series and must now watch the series from the ABC :)

Stamp Club Cards from Stampin Up

A few weeks ago I made these three lovely cards at Stamp Club. Love the butterfly one!

Kaszazz Scrapbooking Workshop

A few weeks ago I made this gorgeous layout at a Kaszazz workshop. Now to find phottos to fill it!

Book: Songs of the Humpback Whale

Summary: Jane had always lived in somebody's shadow. Escaping a childhood of abuse by marrying oceanographer Oliver Jones, she finds herself taking second place to his increasingly successful career. However, when her daughter Rebecca is similarly treated, Jane's dramatic stand takes them all by surprise.

Leaving Oliver and his whale tapes behind in San Diego, Jane and Rebecca set out to drive across America to Uncle Joley and the sanctuary of the Massachusetts apple orchard where he works. Joley directs Jane across the United States in a series of letters waiting for her in designated post offices. Each letter gives concise directions to the next post office; each letter provides Jane with a chance to reflect on her forgotten past.

Oliver, used to tracking male humpback whales across vast oceans, now has the task of tracking his wife across a continent. To do so he must learn to see the world-and even himself-through her eyes.

What I thought: I really struggled with this one. Too much jumping back and forth and I didn't really connect with anyone. Need to have a bit of a Picoult break I think and then go for one that I haven't read yet which has high reviews (like The Pact).  In fairness this was her first and I know she gets better!

Book: Educating Alice

Summary: A footloose city slicker who couldn't tell a bull from a cow was hardly the ideal candidate to answer an ad for a governess on a Mackay cattle station. But Alice Greenup was game for anything, until she was bowled over by a handsome young jackeroo with a devastating smile. It was the start of a whole new way of life as Alice gave up her city life to embrace the bush and all that came with it: horses, cattle, the obsession with rain - and the correct way to wear a hat.

After overcoming more than a few obstacles, the unlikely couple eventually married, moving to Rick's family farm near Kingaroy. Determined to make their own future, they gambled their dreams on a vast property called 'Jumma'. It was a huge risk but with a lot of love, blood, sweat and tears, they were on their way.

But one morning they almost lost it all. When Alice's horse bucked her out of the saddle in remote bushland, she was gravely injured. Rick was forced to leave her lying alone, drifting in and out of consciousness, to gallop home for help. What followed would test their love to the limit ...

What I thought: Loved it! A great story.

Book: Matilda is Missing

Summary: Garry Hartshorn and Softie Monaghan were never love's young dream. Not even on their wedding day.

Softie was sophisticated, a career woman, who owned a nice apartment overlooking St Kilda Beach. Garry had a few rough edges, plus one failed marriage and an assortment of jobs under his belt. But Softie's body clock was ticking, and Garry wanted children ...

So they got married, and produced the only thing they ever had in common. Matilda.

Now, two years later, their golden-haired child is at the centre of a bitter bitter divorce and custody battle. Both parents insist that her well-being is the only thing they care about. Yet, in truth, Matilda was always the one most likely to become lost.

What I thought: Brilliant!  Horrible subject matter but a riveting read. Highly recommend, couldn't put it down.

Book: Redstone Station

Summary: Alice Wilson is happy to be returning home to Redstone Station after two years at Ag College. On various placements at farms and stations during her college days she's been shocked by some of the attitudes to women. By contrast, her grandfather Sam has always treated her as an equal.

For his part, Sam is delighted to have his granddaughter back on board. In shaping Alice he and his wife tried to avoid the mistakes they made bringing up her mother, Lara, and Alice has more than lived up to their expectations, graduating from college with flying colours. Sam now sees Alice as the key to taking Redstone Station into a successful future.

Exceptionally hard-working, with an instinctive understanding of animals and a natural aptitude for farming, Alice is determined to justify her grandfather's faith in her. But will the arrival of stockman Jeremy, a good-looking larrikin with a bad boy reputation, throw her - and the path of Redstone Station - off track?


What I thought: Good book but the main character was far too reserved. Needed more of her inner strength or something. But still a good read. Loved the larrikin! Will give the author another try.