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Holiday accommodation

It's been so long since my last post that it was hard to know where to start!

Since that time, which has been waaay to long, we've have celebrated my Dad's 85th birthday, friends 21st, 40th and 50th's, escaped on a sisters weekend, painted our son's picket fence (all 413 pickets) and welcomed a new puppy to our family. That's what I can remember anyway!

On the work side of things, a few more website have been created and others re-designed. The ones I will feature in this post are 2 in which I had originally designed a few years back and it was time to give them a fresh new look.

The first being Berri Caravan Park. This park is a resort style park which has so much for the kids and adults alike to do. Their accommodation in my opinion is second to none, offering very modern 2 and 3 bedroom cabins along with many other choices. You can visit their website at www.berricaravanpark.com.au Here are a couple of screen shots.

  

The other makeover I have recently completed is for a delightful bed and breakfast accommodation in Loxton called Mill Cottage. This charming 1920's villa with it's 4.5 star rating ensures that guests receive a high standard of accommodation. You can discover more at www.millcottage.com.au Here are a couple of pictures to tempt you.

A few weeks back we welcomed our second sons new brown labrador puppy into the family, Cooper. Our first son Adrian has a 3 year old labrador, Marshall, so there has been some fun and games when they have both got together. Both our boys live in their own homes, but the dogs come around regularly for visits and even stay the night sometimes. (not together yet though!).

Here is Cooper

And here is Marshall and Cooper. Marshall doesn't get to lay down in peace when Cooper is around!!

Aaahhh, that feels so good to have done a post. I'll try and get back into routine again of doing a regular entry.

annette

  

  

Amazing fields of colour

Driving through our Australian landscape is usually met with a colour scheme of mainly greens, browns and golden yellows. I came across the below images of Dutch Tulip fields...amazing.

With more than 10,000 hectares devoted to the cultivation of these delicate flowers, the Dutch landscape in May each year is a kaleidoscope of giddy colours as the tulips burst into life.
The bulbs are picked and sold as bunches of cut flowers in florists and supermarkets.
More than three billion tulips are grown each year and two-thirds of the vibrant blooms are exported, mostly to the U.S. and Germany .
In the first picture, an extraordinary 60 million tulips can be seen coming into flower.

 

On the work front a new logo has been created for a fitness program for kids called 'Kid Gloves'

And the shiny new brochures arrived yesterday

As I live in a regional area it takes a little longer for latest release movies to hit our theatre but one movie I'd been hanging out to see was 'It's Complicated'. We had it showing here last night so a friend and I went along. What a great, fun movie. Although I was surprised by the ending!

 

...annette

Gift boxes and toys for kids...you will want to bookmark this site!

I hope you have all had a happy Christmas and have found time to relax with your family and friends.

We had a very enjoyable couple of days, spent with family down in Adelaide. Here is a picture with Paul's family.

 

And a niece and nephew breaking open the largest bon bon I've ever seen!

The latest website that I've been developing over the past couple of months was launched just before Christmas and is full of gift boxes and individual toys for babies, toddlers, children, teens and mothers and babies. The product range is fantastic and the girls at Toys for Kids have put a lot of time into gathering quality items for gift giving.

The website Toys for Kids offers a quality range of products. The website is easy to navigate as it's broken up into age groups.  All gifts or individual purchases are either gift boxed or gift wrapped and you can type in the message you want them to put onto the gift card that gets delivered with the parcel. It's so much fun shopping from the comfort of your home!

A nice little feature on the site is a 'Wish List'. You can add items to your personal wish list/s, and come back at a later stage and purchase them. For example you might find something that would be just right for one of your nieces, but her birthday is 6 months away. You can create a 'wish list' for your niece and add the product or products to that list. Visit the site again closer to her birthday, login into your wishlist and purchase the item/s that you saved, without having to go through all the other products again.

The girls will continually be adding new products, so keep this site bookmarked and check back next time you need to buy a present for the young ones in your life www.toysforkids.net.au 

...annette

Children's Classic Record Collections...oh I'm happy when I'm hoppin, never stoppin!!

I recently stumbled across a website that took me back in time...it is dedicated to the Golden Children's Classic records from the early 40's to late 50's. You can listen online to the songs and story-telling records as well as viewing the record covers. I'm 47 so don't remember a lot of them but because I have older sisters many of the records are familiar to me.

One record that was a favourite in our house was the 'Bugs Bunny Grow Small Juice'. We used to play it over and over. You can visit the site here www.kiddierecords.com/ and I'm sure you will find something that is familiar to you.

 

The above images and soundtracks are found on this page 

Holiday House's seem to be popping up everywhere around the Riverland. They provide a nice alternative to a motel or caravan park and are great if you have a group of people to accommodate. I have just completed a website for Ohanez Holiday House which has been operating for just over 12 months now. They recently received a Silver Merit for Accommodation at the 2009 Riverland Tourism Awards. You can find out more here.

 

A fun project I'm currently working on is an online selling website which will be providing toys and gift boxes for children. They have a great variety of gear. It's a couple of weeks off of being completed so will post it here when it goes live.

...annette

Garden tour

Our local plant nursery organised a local garden tour last Sunday. Starting at 9.30am, all 85 of us boarded the 2 buses and commenced what was a fun and inspiring day of viewing some stunning gardens. We enjoyed scones and a cuppa at one of the gardens and then a bit later indulged in a beautiful lunch at another garden which featured large shady trees, surrounded by manicured gardens full of colour. I didn't get very many good photos but have put a few together of some plants that were just blooming to their hearts content!!

I have planted 3 Pierre de ronsard roses on our lattice panel so I'm hoping they will one day look like these!

The following photos are where we had morning tea. The purple/pink border is petunias. The water for the gardens is recycled from the home.

 

 

I could have taken this vintage bird house home with me!!  The hedge below is saltbush a very waterwise plant.

 

The below garden has just been madeover and a lookout built to take in the river views.

 

We finished the day at 5pm and we'll all be putting our names down again for next year!

...annette

Garden makeover

Around 6 weeks ago we had the back part of our garden madeover. Due to the drought it was a section that we had just let die and has just been basically dirt for the past couple of years.
Now we have had it converted back to a simplistic cottage garden, with drippers.
It's lovely again now to look out the big windows of our family room, past the lawn, to some flowers and greenery.


 

It's amazing how much they have grown in a few weeks

These are some Princess Lily's that I have by our back door, they are just coming into bloom.

Workwise I have lots of interesting and fun projects on the go. I'll update you at a later stage.
One website I have just completed is for the Australasian Motor Museums. So for those who like to check out where these type of Museums are around Australia, this is the place to find out!

...annette

Catalogues, dresses and cakes!

I recently came across a website portal which features Australian shopping catalogues. The website is apparently about to undergo a makeover in the next couple of days, so it might have more features, but simply click on 'All Catalogues' and it will come up with all the current onsale catalogues from many Australian stores. Click on the one you want to view and turn the pages. You can even click on a product and it will be enlarged with the details about that particular product. You can't actually purchase on line but gives access to those stores that we don't necessarily get in our mail boxes.
Go to www.lassoo.com.au
 
To continue the shopping theme, I heard a radio interview a few months back about an Australian business that hires out dresses for proms or special occasion events. The website can be found at www.indiangiver.com.au. To view the range of dresses available click on 'enter the teepee' and scroll through the showcase of what's on offer. You then click on the dress you're interested in to view the price and availability etc.

For those that enjoy cake decorating or for those that have children and just have to make those 'special' birthday cakes, this website will give you some inspiriation, visit www.pinkcakebox.com
It has some interesting designs. Here is a cake that they entered into a competition. The creation is called 'Bloom of the Ball'  which was a nature inspired party dress adorned with sugar roses, vines, and leaves hanging on a dress form. The cake was a sour cream orange zest cake filled with pistachio and white chocolate buttercream. You can view more of this cake at their website.

Hope your daughters don't see these pictures and want you to make one for them!

...annette

Giveaways - Find out where they are

Just a quick post...Thanks to Sipiweskequilts post I came across a blog where they list current blogland giveaways. For those that like to follow and participate you might like to visit it at Blog Events Dex Giveaways.   Good luck!

...annette

Australian flavoured greeting cards

One of my sisters, Joy, has a passion for photography and loves the rustic and natural charm of the Australian country and seasides and the beauty of rambling cottagy gardens. She had a great eye for capturing these images when driving around and has recently turned this hobby into a greetings card business called 'Postcards Alive'. She has created a website where you can purchase some of these either singarly or in packs, you can visit it at www.postcardsalive.com
Here are a few samples from her current range.
 

This week I finished a make-over of the Loxton's Historical Village website.
Here is a screen shot of the previous design.

The Historical Village is a great tourist attraction and has an educational program for schools as well as hiring their facility out for special functions. Here is a couple of screen shots of the new design. You can discover more about Loxton's Historical Village here.

Australian Shopping Directory...I've created a page on my website that lists a selection of mainly online Australian shopping stores. The list on the right are sites I have designed and know the owners and recommend them for quality products and services. The ones on the left are just some you might find interesting. Enjoy browsing here!

...annette

A few holiday pics

One of the trickiest parts of owning your own small business is taking time out for holidays, but it is essential every now and then. Paul and I just had 10 very relaxing days up in Queensland. We had 3 nights at Noosaville which is a beautiful upmarket town just out of Noosa, 3 nights in Brisbane and then the last 3 nights at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast. We flew up there and hired a car. It was wonderful to cruise around and do some sightseeing.

Just out of Noosavilla is the well known Eumundi Markets which were fantastic. They are held every Wednesday and Saturday and are amazing. The small town just comes to life with over 500 stalls made up of all kinds of good quality wares (very different to what you get at the Melbourne markets).

The countryside is just beautiful. I had to stop and take this photo of this lovely home which was surrounded by lush greenery.

While looking around Colaundra we came across a bay which was just full of kite surfers. It was an immensley windy day and the surfers were gaining some serious speed out on the water. We enjoyed sitting in the car and watching them go.


Around 12 years ago we had a holiday on the Gold Coast with our 2 boys and did all the theme parks. This time as it was just Paul and I, we decided to still go to one of them, so we chose Seaworld. We saw a few of the shows with the highlight being the Dolphin show and the Ski Spectacular.

Time for me to now get my mind back into working mode!

...annette