News & Updates from Vicki Avcin ~ AusCrafts · Page 92

Happy New Year everyone. I hope it is a fabulous year for you all!. Well the start to 2014 has been ?all good? so far for me. Firstly I turned Platinum at the end of December, a goal I?d been dreaming of at CUP!

Thank You to all the customers and crafters who have purchased my designs and designer resources I look forward to continuing as a designer exclusively for CUP. As some of you may have read in a previous mailer, my other life is that of a firefighter.

Something I love doing and this is my 20th year of being in the Fire Service.

I have been nominated for a Volunteer Of The Year for my years of service and as much as I would be Humbled to win, I would love to win it even more as it would help my Brigade even more.

Our Brigades here get no funding from the Government which means we have to provide all maintenance and purchase of equipment and pay for all bills such as fuel, phone, electricity, drinking water, etc out of our Brigade funds.

Usually this is done through a Fire Levy each year, but there have been recent changes and we now do not receive that levy.

So to support and assist our brigade I would appreciate it if people who would like to help us could vote for me Vicki Avcin from East Booral Rural Fire Brigade at http://promotions.heritage.com.au/volunteeroftheyear/leaderboard/?s=e1000&start=0 You just need a valid email so you can confirm your vote. I was coming 2nd but have dropped back now but even to get 2nd or 3rd would help my brigade get a new fridge.

We have 2, one that freezes everything and one that doesn?t even get things cold!

Its not all about ?me? but supporting a volunteer. Worldwide volunteer organisation always need all the help they can get. Your votes will be appreciated by all our members. The photos are from one of the recent fires I was at, this one was on Christmas Day. The 2 designs I have promoted are from my recent ?Barcode Backgrounds? designs.

Check them all out.

Part of living in Queensland Australia is having grown up with Cane fires.

Sugar Cane is grown in many areas of the state and those who live in or near the cane farms would be very familiar with the 'black rain' or 'black snow' that decends around homes (and the washing on the line) when farmers do the cane burns each year just before harvest, at crushing time.

Its a tradition. The fires last only a very short time and are done to clear leaves from stalks on the plant to aid in harvesting. Although this is becoming a thing of the past now with ?green cane? being planted which doesn't need burning. Which is sad because it is truly one of the most spectacular things you'll ever see. Hervey Bay used to be home to a lot of cane fields but very few are left these days, having succumbed to developement and the last one to survive right in the middle of the town has seen its last crop. Each year, usually before a controlled burn could be done someone 'torches' it which causes a lot of problems with adjoining properties. This year, we were able to get in and do it properly.

Traditionally these fires are done at sunset when the wind dies down.

The fields are strategically set alight and the fire roars through very quickly so as not to damage the cane. When burnt properly it takes less than 5 mins to burn through one cane field. I was privileged to be part of the burn team that set fire to this last standing paddock this year as it is the end of an era. You can see in the pictures that we started just before sunset and it was just on dark when we lit the last section.

Besides being a designer on CUP, I live a 'double' life. When I'm not designing card designs, designer resources, scrapbook items and cutting files, I spend a lot of my time on the fireground as a firefighter.

I've been a fire fighter for 20 years now and still love it as much as when I first joined. Not all my time is spent on the fireline, like I did last weekend (pictures below) but I'm also the Group Admin Officer and on the Hervey Bay Incident Management Team.

Its been a 'mixed bag' the last year with floods and fires but we are in our 'fire season' at the moment. The pictures are of a fire we had last Saturday. 250 hectares burnt out and not a home lost.

The photos show what we saw as we were approaching the fire, the second one, the photographer got my 'photogenic' side while working on the fire and the last one is hubby and I doing mop up.

It was an extremely fast moving fire and some homes came very close to being consumed but some quick responses and hard work meant we saved them all.

Its a hugely satisfying job to be able to save lives and property and although at times I've seen the sadder side of life with it too, I wouldn't give it up for the world, although my body often tries to tell me otherwise these days. Which job do I love best?

I couldn't decide between them. I love my graphic work but I love doing the fire fighting just as much. The promoted cards are 2 from my 'Christmas Bauble' series.

I have included Aussie Christmas designs in the collection too for Australian cardmakers

Well Hervey Bay in Australia is known as the Whale Watch Capital of Australia. But what we had recently wasn't quite the way it normally goes. 3rd July saw something quite different to the usual humpback whales that stop off in the Great Sandy Straits on their migration up to warmer waters to calve and then again stop off and rest on their journey back home.

The humpbacks stop for a while in the calm waters and love to show off and display just how awesome they are. But 3rd July was not the usual spectacle we wanted to see. 5 killer whales (Orca) had stranded themselves on a sand bar near Ungowa in the Great Sandy Strait. Sadly one calf and another larger one (possibly the mother) had died but the 5 were the topic of concern as volunteers and people from Sea World on the Gold Coast strove to keep them alive.

It is believed that possibly the pod wouldn't leave the dead ones and the tide had gone out leaving them stranded.

Sandy Straits is reknown for the sandbanks that expose themselves at low tide.

Fortunately high tide saw them back swimming again but still they hung around, not wanting to leave the dead ones.

After a coulple of days, and the dead calf being towed out into deeper water, the pod lingered off the waters near Kingfisher Resort and then further out until they again resumed their journey.

These mammals normally dont venture between Fraser Island and the mainland as the waters are too shallow. The normal route for the humpbacks is on the eastern side of Fraser Island.

So it is a mystery why the Orcas were here to begin with. Happily though they moved out to much deeper waters after their visit and continued their journey.

The pictures show some of the stranded Orcas and the pod cruising in the waters just off Kingfisher Resorts jetty after they'd been refloated. Check out all my Black and White Collection designs.

These are 2 of the recently listed designs.

Had a great week last week with a reunion of one of the girls that used to be in my crew when I was a firefighter in SE Queensland.

I haven't see Karen for 7 years, just after her eldest son, Jaiden, was born.

I also met her other 2 children for the first time too.

To Jaiden, Ashden and Kastelle I am Nannyfire and my hubby is Poppyfire so as not to confuse us with their real grandparents. This is the first time the kids had been on a big road trip and on the way up they stopped off at the Matilda Road Stop just south of Gympie.

This is the home of Matilda, the big kangaroo that was the 13 metre high mascot for the 1982 Commonwealth Games.

As she came onto the field at the opening ceremony her belly opened up and all the little joeys (children) emerged.

She captured everyones heart with her 'winks' as she glided round the Games track. Today she stands proudly winking at all the visitors. Once Karen and the kids got to Hervey Bay it was 'catchup' time and lots of reminiscing.

Next day we took the 3 kids down to the beach.

Although its winter and they couldn't go for a swim, it didn't matter as it was their first time ever at the beach.

The boys took their trucks and loved being able to run them up and down the beach. Kastelle was loving playing with the buckets and spades.

They didn't want to go home at the end of their 3 days here and I'm sure they'll be back next holidays. It was great to be able to catch up with Karen again too but our time together was too short! The 2 designs I'm promoting today, one is from my Black and Cream Collection and the other is one of my cutting files, (available in several formats).