News & Updates from Vicki Avcin ~ AusCrafts

It was my birthday on the 1st June which is the first day of winter here. I hate winter! However it has been very mild so far with only about four days getting down to 4 deg C overnight.

But my family make sure I celebrate regardless of what the weather is doing and I had two celebrations this year.

Sunday was Coffee and Cake in the afternoon with hubby, my daughter, her partner and kids. My daughter put candles on the brownies (with ice cream and chocolate sauce) that didnt put my age or Happy Birthday.....they said Dont Ask!

After that we went straight up to the skate rink to watch my daughter play inline hockey. They won 5-2. Then Monday night (1st) was up to the local pub for dinner with son and his wife and grand daughter and her partner oh and hubby of course.

So double the celebrations.

Wonderful time both days but I cant but think about my birth mother and how she kept her secret for 70 years.

Birthdays now hold a whole new bunch of thoughts. So glad we got to meet each other and have each other in our lives now. Todays designs are both floral verse designs that were recently uploaded.

Recently it was Mothers Day and I always create a digital card or two to put up on Facebook or to send to people individually with wishes on them.

My daughter has discovered ChatGPt and different apps to put together stories or videos.

So on Mothers Day I fired up the computer and found these photos. A lovely mix of love, memories with a touch of humour.

The first one is of my birth mother, the next is me and her brother when we went down to the snow (was on my bucket list to build a snowman) and some random icy person, the next: My daughter and I taken in January this year when we went to see my mum and the last one is at her new house when I told her she needed to remove a tree before it does root damage to her house.

I just think it was so clever/cool to make it up like a magazine issue. This weeks designs are both from my floral swirl series. Check them all out.

Had a wonderful Mothers Day a day early this year. My daughter, son and their families and I went out to lunch on Saturday for a couple of different reasons.

We went to an old historical house that is now a restrauant.

Believed to be the second oldest house in the south east of the state, being built in 1845 it served as a homestead, stage coach depot and holding yards for the famous pioneering Cobb and Co stage coach company.

Today it sits in the grounds of Hills College and is operated by them. The atmosphere was wonderful, the staff went out of their way to make sure we had everything we wanted and the meals were just spot on.

I was blessed with lovely gifts but most of all I was surrounded by the love of family. It really was a wonderful Mothers Day celebration. Todays designs are both beautiful rose designs. Check out all eight in this theme.

So its not really a wine glass but it is a water tower. Built in 1984 to meet a growing area it stood in its original form, concrete, until 155 blue lights were added to the top in 2003 to make it a prominent landmark for miles around.

Later the lights were changed and now change colours or can be lit up to different colours to support different causes/celebrations ie Domestic Violence week, NAIDOC week, even the State of Origin foot ball games.

Holding a million litres of water and weighing 400 tonnes, it was located in bushland. Now a beautiful park has been developed below so people can sit and enjoy it. We definitely know were nearing home when we see it.

I have always loved seeing it as it was built the year my daughter was born and when the area was rapidly being developed….. it has a lot of memories and I love seeing it as we drive along the roads in the area.

Todays designs are both pretty DL size designs, perfect for Mothers Day or a Birthday.

Well hubby and my new toy…….. the Log Dog. Each year weve been splitting fire wood with a small log splitter(8 ton) but sometimes the hardwood just wont split usually because there is a knot in the timer.

So that means out comes the axe, or the block splitter that have to be swung to try and get a crack in it.

Australian hardwood is just that……hard! Some logs are way to big for the smaller splitter and they too need manual attack. Hubby has a bad back and after doing a few logs he is in so much pain that I put my foot down this year and said no more.

So as its coming into winter I went on the hunt for a larger one, Ended up with a 35 ton log splitter and it slices through huge hardwood logs like a hot knife through butter.

We just put the log onto a trolley and take it up, position the log and press the handle. I love it. Ill be doing most of the splitting this year so hopefully I will get through the stacked/seasoned logs in no time.

We can store all the split logs in the shed and just bring up what we need to refill in the house.

This week my designs are two gift pockets. Suitable for money or gift cards.