Naracoorte Swimming Lake

Firstly - We Love This Place!

An hour and a half drive from us is the town of Naracoorte, just over the border in SA.

Last summer, on a stinking hot day, during a heat wave,

the boys and I could not stand to be cooped up inside with each other

for one more day - we needed to get out - desperately!

We decided on a day trip to the Naracoorte Caves, it would be nice and cool underground.
We asked Mrs Google about Naracoorte Swimming Pool, 

as we planned to pack a picnic lunch and check out their pool too.



An image came up of a beautiful lake, apparently, this was the town pool,

we expected mud, reeds, maybe a yabby nip on the toe and to look out for broken glass.

Boy - did we get a surprise

 This lake has a cement bottom, is chlorinated, the water is a lovely temperature,

it has a sandy beach, 2 pontoons, a safety fence,

lush green grass under shady gum tree's for picnics

Is right next to a caravan park, and walking distance to the CBD.

There is even a kiosk and clean change rooms.

AND ITS FREE - crazy I know

We loved our day there so much,

we packed up the next week too and took the husband over for a swim.

 About a week ago, I took the boys over for 3 nights.

We stayed in the caravan park with another family from here.

The caravan park is very well run, has a big new camp kitchen

(that has a bbq inside which is ridiculous

as it makes the lovely room fill with stinky bbq smoke and fumes),

 mini train rides, a basic mini golf a games room

and a great grassy area for a game of cricket

and its right next door to the lake,

 and the CBD is a 2 minute walk from the caravan park.

the weather was not as warm, but the kids did'nt care

It was not warm enough for me to go in this time,

very lucky to have a friend that went swimming with the boys each day :-)

We had a trip out to the Naracoorte Caves one morning

We flew the kite on the oval next door

We went on a 1 1/2 hour trail ride at Limestone Coast Horse Riding,

the boys really, really, really loved this activity,

(our groups seven years old did not ride)

the staff were great and very thorough in their pre ride lessons,

and the horses and equipment were in great condition

and looked to be very well looked after.

(I do know a thing or 2 about horses)

We will definitely be back

Last year when we went over on our day trips,

we spent the day at the pool, then had an early meal at the pub before driving home

This was the sunset as we were coming back into town

from one our our Naracoorte trips last year - a lovely way to end a great day

This is not a sponsored post for any of the above business's,

it's just going to be bloody hot this week in The Wimmera,

so wanted to share this great spot to spend a 40+ deg day!

Because, it seems not many locals know about it.

Let me know if you visit the lake this summer, might even see you there

Have a great week

Jacqueline.



Santa Sacks

 

 

Santa orders for 2013 are well under way,

They are available in natural or denim

you can purchase them in my

Madeit Store

or

My Big Cartel Store

 

Orders will be closing next Friday December 6th

 

Jacqueline

 

 

I Made a Pencil Case

I sew a lot for my little shop,

but don't often get to make goodies for my boys.

When the firstborn's school pencil case burst at the seams

I decided to make a new one for him.

 

The back...

 

Has an extra pocket.

 

And the front.

He loves it, he's grade 5 this year,

so I always a worry about if he would still like things made by his mum.

No need to worry at this stage, he "gets" handmade,

and so far, is not fussed about the whole brand thing.

I'm very glad that he has the confidence to not have to

have/wear and be like everyone else.

He picked out his fabrics and watched it take shape,

then off to school it went.

 

Happy Boy

Happy Mum

 

Snack Container Lids

Like most mum's, I pack a lot of school lunches.

I send rubbish free lunch boxes,

I peel and core the fruit as our compost benefits from all those scraps,

rather than binning them at school   

 

 And, I wash a lot of school lunch containers.

The boys are very good at not leaving their containers at school,

but, somehow, the lids of the smash snack tubes do go missing.

I was going to buy some more, then wondered if I could just get the lid's,

rather than buying more containers.

 

I found them online at Bonzoo.

The lids were 50c each and even with postage, it was cheaper than buying new containers

 

The only thing was that the lids arrived in this huge box!

How can that be, it's just bloody ridiculous.

Anyway, I have my extra lids now, all ready for next term.

 

This is not a sponsored post,

just sharing the info in case you may have some missing lids too :)

 

Have a great weekend

Jacqueline



A Guest Post By Mr 8, How To Make A Snail

 

Mitchell has been making these little snails out of Easter Egg wrappers,

he made them up himself and suggested he could put them on my blog

so other kids could make them.

This morning I took some pics, showed him how to use pic monkey

and let him go for it.

So, here is his little tutorial.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A big thankyou to Mitchell

for my guest post.

You've done a great job :)

 

Easter Gift Bag Tutorial

I found a tutorial on how to make

this sweet little Easter Gift Bag and another beautiful sample here

and had the urge to make one today.

I printed off the template, and as I was cutting it out,

thought I might try making it out of brown paper

rather than the denim I had in mind.

So here is my paper version.

(The original in the above link on Merrilee's Blog is made of felt)

 

Trace the template onto a double thickness of brown paper,

but do not cut it out.

Sew along the traced line, stitching both pieces of paper together, 

but do not sew between the ears,

this is where you will put the goodies in.

 

Trim around the edge of the stitching, about 1/4 inch

You can see from this pic,

you could also just use a paper bag and cut out the ears at the top.

Add some fabric onto the ears,

I used heat n bond to adhere the fabric to the paper,

or you could use pretty paper or even washi tape

 

Find some treasure to put inside,

pop them in through the opening between the ears 

 

Flex the ears, so the curve towards the front,

gather up the paper and tie with some pretty twine

 

This project was easy and nice and quick,

the gift bag would also look great

made from coloured paper or baking paper

 

Have a great Easter

Jacqueline

Find Me At Bloglovin

It seems that google reader is going to retire in a few months

Yippee, because I did not really like it anyway.

So, I have have taken a little trip over to Bloglovin,

imported my Google Reader Blogs,

and claimed my blog, so you can follow me over there too.

 

Importing your google reader blogs that you follow to Bloglovin is easy,

just pop over here

 

Kaylie has some info on claiming you blog at Bloglovin,

so others can find it to add to their Bloglovin reader

and it is very easy

 

So, you can now follow me over at Bloglovin,

if you look over to the right you will see a button for it,

or you can subscribe via email,

thats over on the right too :)

They also have an App, that I have played around with,
I give that the thumbs up too.

 

If you are a blogger, are you over there?

Or have you tried another site, what did you think?

 

Catch you later

Jacqueline