Addicted to Digiscrapping

Just playing around ....

2011-02-19T09:45:00.004+10:00

Last week I was playing around with a new element pack from Kaye and I created this page for my B. When we went up to Bunya a few years ago (time flies!!) the house we rented had a pool table and the girls had a lot of fun playing with it ... what they lacked in talent they made up for in enthusiasm!!

Credits here

I hope you are all having a great weekend .. its a bit hot and humid here but at least its not raining for a change :)

The word of the year is .....

2011-02-07T11:24:00.005+10:00

A friend of mine (yes YOU Carol!) advised me to pick a word for 2011, something that speaks to me and that fits to where I am heading with my scrapping. She gave me this advice as I was struggling to find any JOY in my scrapping by the end of 2010. So over the Christmas period I sat down and gave Carol's very wise words some thought and I decided that I had way too much on my creative plate (so to speak) - I was trying to juggle too many things at once and it was playing havoc with my creative impulses. So I decided that my word for the year HAD to be .........

What followed was a period of tumultuous agonizing and then a few tears, and I then resigned from the Pickleberrypop's Creative Team and I have cut back on some of my other Scrapping commitments. Now I can spend more time creating for my individual designers AND spend more time with my family and less time on the computer.

Its about time I reclaimed my hobby for me and remembered its all about preserving the memories. Scrapping should be the balance between art and memory :)

Thank you Carol.

It's a little bit damp here

2011-01-11T17:46:00.004+10:00

Yes Brisbane and SEQ is going under ....some people are really suffering and I am sending out my best wishes to all those experiencing difficulties, I wish you all well. But thankfully we aren't in any danger of flooding at my house - luckily we are on a hill so we are nice and safe as long as we dont want to leave! Going to work tomorrow will be interesting as the river is supposed to keep climbing and I work in one of the flood areas of Brisbane so I will have to let you know how that goes.

I managed to scrap! Yes I know it has been a while since I last scrapped but there you are ... better late than never I always say! Here is my page using the super gorgeous new kit by Flergs Freakazoid! Isn't it a fun kit?

credits here

Well I had better go and start dinner - Mum and my step-dad are stuck here in Brisbane with me as they are cut off from their home by flood waters - so I had better feed them otherwise I won't be a very good family flood evacuation center will I? lol

A very Happy Festive season ...........

2011-01-01T12:10:00.003+10:00

Here I am wading through the dust to wish my blog readers (all two of you) a very very Happy Festive season and a brilliant 2011.

Credits - Cherpea Designs - My Christmas available @ 2LP

I look forward to seeing you all a bit more often this year - hugs

abandonment issues

2010-10-26T20:48:00.002+10:00

This blog has been temporarily abandoned ..... never fear I may be back blogging in the future ... I will pop in and keep an eye on my blogger friends though :)

yes I have abandonment issues .... but its all ok

Grab Bag reminder, freebie ... and thanks!

2010-07-26T09:33:00.005+10:00

Just a quick reminder that Cherpea Designs July 2010 Grab Bags will only be available until July 30 so if you want to snag them at the amazingly ridiculous price of $3.00 US you had better hurry!

Cherpea's Personal Use and Commercial Use bags are just full of yummy goodies and you will definitely kick yourself later if you miss out on such a steal!!

And WOW thanks everyone who has grabbed my QP freebie - I'm so chuffed that some people actually liked it enough to take the time to download it hehe! If you haven't grabbed it yet please feel free to do so - it will be available until the 30th.

Download HERE

Check out my previous post for the links to the other Cherpea CT girl's blogs to grab their gorgeous QP freebies as well!!

Don't forget if you would like to win a free Personal Use Grab Bag just repost this blog post or post on Facebook and come back and leave me the link and you could go into the running. I have decided to extend the deadline to the 29th July to give you all a bit more of an opportunity to participate :)

In addition to all this Grab Bag fun Pickleberrypop has some VERY exciting things coming up in the near future that I wish I could share with you all but I'm afraid you will have to wait and see what is ahead!! hehehe

And oh my! Just wait until you see what's coming up from the lovely Kaye Winiecki in August too *happydance*

Catch you later!

A Cherpea Blog Hop with freebies and chance to WIN!

2010-07-23T19:17:00.015+10:00

I promised you earlier tonight that Cheryl had been working on some fabulous goodies and now I can reveal that it is Grab Bag time at Two Little Pixels and she has 2 ... yes TWO great new Grab Bags in the store tonight! And they are a steal at only $3.00US!! WOW!! There is a lovely Personal Use Grab bag that is stuffed full of gorgeous goodies.... the previews are linked so click away!!!!

and a Commercial Use Grab Bag that has three fantastic goodies inside that will help you out with all your digital designing needs!

And did I mention that they are only $3.00 US each lol ... I did? Opps hehe! but you have to hurry they are only in the store for a week and then they are broken up and placed in the store at full price!

Now I COULD post sneak peeks here and reveal all to you but that would be cheating soooo instead I hid the previews inside the zip for the FREEBIE QP that I made using the yummy goodies. So if you like the QP feel free to grab it here and have a peek inside for the previews!

Click HERE to download

But wait.... theres more!

***WIN***WIN***

Thats right you get a chance to win Cherpea's Personal Use Grab Bag for FREE just by reposting this blog post OR posting on Facebook ... how easy is that?? Leave me a comment with the link to your post in the next two days (closing 25th July @ midnight my time) and I will pick out a random winner - it doesn't get any easier!

***FREE***FREE***

And guess what?? Thats NOT all .... some of the other Cherpea chicks have made some yummy QPs using the lovely Grab Bag goodies and you can find them below .... so what are you still doing here? Go have fun! But dont forget to come back and post your repost or Facebook links in the comments so that you can go in the draw to WIN WIN WIN .........

Next stop...

Manuela (flohbock)

Tammy

Margote's Blog

Cheryl

Rebecca

Have fun and I'll catch you on the flipside!!

Busy busy busy .....

2010-07-23T16:21:00.010+10:00

Things have been happily tooting along here at my place .. work..home..kids..scrap .. the usual. We just finished the school holidays and the kids are struggling a little to get back into the swing of things - knowing my luck they will just get themselves sorted and they will be back on holidays for the September break lol.

But apart from that everything is going really well. Pippi is settling in nicely and it feels like we have had her with us always. We do have a couple of small issues with her but that is to be expected with a rescued dog - she suffers from separation anxiety, she is very aggressive towards other dogs (little dog syndrome) and she has food issues - but apart from that she is the most adorable loving little dog you ever did see. She has hubby wrapped firmly around her little paw! She has some cute bling now with her name and phone number on it and she is now FINALLY registered with the local council (thats a whole other story!). Here are a couple of recent photos of her - do you think she is looking happier?

I used Katie Pertiet's cute curled frames for this

In scrapping news - things have been pretty active at all my digi-places. Over at Pickleberrypop we have just sent out our latest newsletter which is super stuffed with sales, treats, tips and laughs. If you aren't subscribed .. why not? Click HERE to fix that up straight away lol! On the 15th July we also had our Monthly ScrapNchat which I really enjoy hosting - you should come along to the next one - I seriously laugh so much I nearly fall off my chair! We hold a chat every third Thursday night of the month @9pm EST - the next one will be .... 19th August!

I have been doing a bit of scrapping over at Pickleberrypop with some of the fun kits out at the moment - here are a couple of recent pages! Using Armina's Lovely kit

Beautiful Inside and Out

Credits here

And this fun page was made using Digilicious Designs' E-E-I-O Bundle and is about the great day we had when Tasha's Kindy class went to a Farm for the day!

Farm Visit

Credits here

Over at the Lilypad Kaye Winiecki has been making some totally fun goodies! Her BYOC pieces this month were too adorable - check out my page using them.

NOT Scared of the dark!

Credits here

And she got together with the gorgeous Rubia from Studio Basic to make this super mouth-watering collab called Hey Girlfriend - the colours are to-die-for! Of course I had to use it to scrap a page about one of my bestest friends in world - Jane!

The Best!

Credits here

And over at Two Little Pixels Cheryl has been creating up a storm BUT I can't tell you about that right now ... it's a surprise for later tonight shhhhhh .... you will have to come back later to find out whats been happening at Cherpea Designs and I might have a little something something to share with you .... lol

So don't forget to come back later ok????

Some awesome news!

2010-06-27T18:17:00.006+10:00

I am so EXCITED!!

I have a new blinkie to add to my collection .... check it out ....... I'm now a proud member of Kaye Winiecki's CT!! Woot woot!

Thats right - I'm so thrilled! Kaye locked the door to the forum so I couldn't get away from her team which was hilarious as I was planning different strategies to get her to let me stay includung hanging on to the door frame as she dragged me out ROFL. Thankfully she is letting me stay and physical violence was unnecessary.

Its so much fun working with Kaye and her felty goodness! And she really has some amazing Collaboration partners too! This month I was overwhelmed to work with this AWESOME Birthday collab between Kaye, Karah Fredricks and Kate Hadfield called Bring on the CAKE!

and here is the page I made with it - Tasha's 8th birthday!

Credits here

Well I have loads of other things to say but its dinner time and Merlin is on in a minute so I had better rush off - I'll be back in a bit!

A quick hello from me ....

2010-06-18T19:07:00.004+10:00

Just popping in to say HI ... online is the only place I can say anything at all as I lost my voice a couple of days ago and I've gone from sounding like a chipmunk to sounding like a squeaky toy and now I am almost mute apart from grunting noises LOL ..... dont you love Winter and colds and flu????

Anyway I'm just stopping by to show you a page I made for the latest Template Challenge at Pickleberrypop starring my adorable Pippi!

Here is my page - Welcome Pippi! I thought you might like to see this Carol ;)

Credits here

Ok its not a great night for me coughing wise so I will leave it here for now and catch you on the flip side!

I found my muse ....

2010-06-13T07:08:00.005+10:00

and her name is Pippi! Say hello to the nice people Pippi!

She is a twelve month old black and tan Terrier X and she is the tiniest little thing, not a heck of a lot bigger than a chihuahua.

She is a Best Friends Rescue dog and has been fostered after being neglected and starved. We adopted her yesterday and we already love her to bits. It is taking her a remarkably short time to settle in, she was on the couch last night with the girls watching TV,

she slept on a little bed in Tasha's room (where both girls slept) and stayed there all night, no wandering around whimpering.

She waited until this morning to do her business which was a pleasant surprise as we were not expecting her to be house trained! It is hard to tell with adopted dogs where they are at with their training. Right now she is sitting in her bed having a nice grooming session at my feet after running around the backyard with Bella like a crazy dog until her toes got cold :).

I really want to thank you Carol for your lovely and supportive comment and helpful email - you are quite right in everything you said and it really doesn't matter if you are the only person in the world to read my blog because I do it for me (and you and Deb lol). I guess I was having a moment but I'm better now. And you are also right in that I have at least one photo each week and I can very easily scale down my ambitions with regard to P365 and settle (happily and less stressfully) with a P52! So thank you my friend, for being ... well ... my friend.

And now I guess I should catch you up with some scrapping news ... I have been guesting this month with the fabulously talented Kaye Winiecki ... and I have to tell you this woman is a talented and productive designing machine! So far I have had the privilege of working with her BYOC pieces and a fabulous collaboration with Sandra Edwards aka FruitLoOp Sally called Summer Skies and Fire Flies. its been a ball and here are a couple of pages from me using these wonderful goodies!

This is my page Touch Tank Fun Day - using Kaye's yummy BYOC pieces

credits here

and my page Water Park using the Collab - its so much fun to be doing Summery pages when you are wearing fluffy socks on your feet to keep your tootsies warm lol

Credits here

And I just had to use Kaye's fabulous scrap kit - Click 2 Scrap for this page the mamarrazzi!

Credits here

On the subject of scrapping my friend and scrapping cohort Deb badgered me into doing a digidare this week umm I think it was #182 a lift and flip challenge so I did my first dare page and lifted one of her fabulous pages (of course lol).

So here is my first ever digi dare page - My girls using Kaye's Spring Promenade Collab with Jena Desai

Credits here

and here is Deb's page that I lifted - Mexican Standoff

Well I think I have rambled on for long enough one day so I will go and pat the dog and do some other things before the day gets too advanced - bye for now :)

Epic FAIL!

2010-06-06T14:48:00.002+10:00

Yes another epic fail on my part - my P365 has gone the way of the dodo and become extinct .....sigh! I could offer a lot of excuses like - my point and shoot died a month or two ago and I couldn't be stuffed carrying my big one around everywhere - but its not the only reason. I had dropped off before my point and shoot passed away. I guess I just lacked the commitment and enthusiasm for the project this year, well at least the whole 365 part of it. So I probably COULD still do a project 52 or maybe a Project 12 instead. Hmmmm maybe all is not lost.

I also haven't blogged because sometimes I wonder if I am all alone here at this blog site? Apart from the lovely Carol and Deb I really don't think anyone really reads my blog so it all seems just a tiny bit pointless. I feel like I am waffling away to myself sometimes hehe.

Anyway ..... at the moment I'm thinking about blogging and whether to do it or not ........

Not sure...........

Weeks ummm 12 and 13? Where did that time go?

2010-04-02T21:07:00.007+10:00

I really have no excuse other than I am completely forgetful and that is pretty much it - I did my Project pages at the beginning of the week but totally forgot to post them but I am here at last so tada ... here are my latest P365 pages :) I'm so pleased that I am still going along with my Project 365 this year and that I am keeping up to date with my pages - this template by Leora seriously makes the whole process so painless and I really believe that this year I might make it AND if I do Carol I am going to get them put into a photo-book!!

Week 12

Credits - Designs by Leora

Week 13

Credits - Designs by Leora

As you can see from my project pages life has been a whole lot of "the everyday" stuff going on around here. School, work, housework, shopping and sleeping has all been on the agenda. I think we have forgotten how to go out and relax! It is hard for Bella at the moment as she gets used to the demands of high school homework and assignments and I have to say I have been very proud of her efforts. Tasha is also getting used to a more rigorous homework agenda then she has been used to in grades one and two so there has been a lot of heads down and tails up!

The kids are showing signs of being desperate for a pet to help ease the sadness of Chelsea's passing. We are currently in the process of working on hubby/dad to give in and let us get a dog. So watch this space for further developments ... the nagging has only just begun lol

I have some scrapping pages to share with you that I have done recently for my band of talented designers!

This is the first of no doubt many Easter pages I will be doing in the foreseeable future -

Easter Egg Stash - using a combination of Lindsay Jane's Spring Garden kit and her Spring Garden Easter mini

Credits - here

My next page is using the lovely scrap kit Diamond Mist by FruitLoOp Sally - I Love You

Credits here

I created a page for Cheryl using her yummy new Daddy papers - such gorgeous texture - and a whole pile of other lovely things too that are all available at Two Little Pixels - You are all I need

Credits here

One last page from me tonight - My Sweet Tasha - using Spring's Grace by Alexis_Designs - such a cute whimsical kit!

Credits here

Well I think that that is enough from me for another night - I dont want to bore you to death with my hobby/mania anymore lol so its goodnight from me ...

Week 10 and 11 and some pages ...

2010-03-21T18:27:00.008+10:00

Well I'm sorry but I haven't been here for a bit - the ADSR and CT requirements have been taking up a fair whack of my time but the race (for me) is over now for another year so I am hoping to have a little more spare time for you my dear blog! Speaking of ADSR here are my last few pages ...

Challenge 9 - Create Art!

credits here

Challenge 10 - Life is our Canvas

Credits here

Challenge 11 - A little birdie told me ......

Credits here

Now the final challenge is being done by the lovely Deb as a roadblock and is a card and envelope - apparently there was some drama about the last challenge but we dont buy into all that rubbish so as long as we get checked off we are happy. We have had another fabulous race and all kudos to the team at NDISB for all their hard work, we cant wait until season 6!!

I had better post my P365 pages now - I am only two weeks behind and while the photos aren't anything amazing they are of my day-to-day life in all its humdrum glory lol

Week 10

Credits - Designs by Leora

Week 11

Credits - Designs by Leora

Now at the risk of boring you stupid (are you still awake??) here are a couple of CT pages that I have managed to squeeze in amongst all the other bits and bobs that I have been doing.

This is my page for the current PBP Template Challenge - when I saw the circles I immediately though ... beach! Luckily Carolyn Kite had just put out this adorable beach kit sooo tada!

Credits here

This is a page using the goodies of a brand new designer at Pickleberrypop - Bohemian Art! So excited to have her lovely goodies to play with! This page was using her kit - Imagine

Family is LOVE

Credits here

I just had to use this adorable kit by Dawn Inskip - Rainy Days and Mondays - so yummy!

It never rains, it pours!

Credits here

Luckily for me I had these great pics of the girls splashing in the gutter when I saw this fun new kit of KateF's - Dibble Dabble - look at the funky fresh colours and those too cute ducks!!

Splashing about

Credits here

Now hopefully I am up-to-date with all my posting. I really dont haven en excuse for being late in posting next week soooo I shall say adieu for now and you can expect to see me posting within the week!

ADSR Challenge 7 and 8

2010-03-07T18:02:00.003+10:00

Its just a fly by posting this evening as I am in the middle of doing dinner but I just wanted to post these pages before I forget! I have had a busy weekend scrapping, firstly I finished my page for the April edition of the Artisan Notebook, then I finished my two ADSR pages for this week! Not a lot of housework was done sadly as I am still recovering from the darn virus I got last week. Hubby and I seemed to go back down hill yesterday but we are crawling back today. I hope I am heaps better tomorrow as I am undertaking my first ever day at Bella's High School Tuckshop! Eeek I have no idea what I am doing but the lady I spoke to today seems lovely - so fingers crossed I don't cut myself or burn myself (which is invariably what happens when i go near a kitchen!).

Anyway without further ado here are my latest ADSR pages:

Challenge 7 - My Bucket List

In this challenge we were required to list 50 things that we want to do before we kick the proverbial ummm bucket!

Credits here

Challenge 8 - Someday I'm going to sit on Deb's porch

This challenge was to use the prompt "someday....." and of course it could only be about sitting on my race partner and bestest bloggy friend's front porch and having a natter and a cuppa!

Credits here

Well as I said it is a fly by posting ... I will be back tomorrow or the next day with my P365 page for the week just ending! Woohoo, I will be all caught up! Oh what a feeling!

Weeks 8 and 9 and some ADSR pages

2010-03-05T10:30:00.005+10:00

Eeek I can't believe its been two weeks since I posted last! It seems like only yesterday but man it's been pretty busy so I guess the old adage is true - time flies when you are having fun (hmmm not sure about FUN exactly!). Things have been flying along here until this week when we all ground to a halt with a yucky virus that struck down the whole family. Sore throats, headaches and fevers abound, the kids had two days off school, I had two days off work (1 for them and 1 for me) and Tony even took a day off for the kids too. But thankfully after an icky few days we seem to be emerging out the other side. Needless to say that did cramp my scrapping style but I have been going a bit over board the last couple of weeks as you will no doubt see from my post.

Since I last posted Bella's underdog netball team came up trumps when they took home the trophy and grabbed first place from the season favorites! A more exciting game I have yet to see as they were tied all the way through the game until the final quarter - when suddenly the girls got in front and stayed there! Woohoo Bella played better than I have ever seen her and Tony and I were soo proud of her!! The girls all went crazy at the end and didn't even let the other teams less than sportsman like behaviour upset them. Bella hasn't even won a Trophy before and it was a huge moment for her! Apart from Netball she has been enjoying high School still and seems to be settling into the new routine really well. She does need to get a bit more organised though but we are working on that :)

Tasha has been bugging us for a Hannah Montana guitar since her birthday but we have been trying to put her off (I mean 70 dollars for a part wood part cardboard piece of rubbish that will fall apart the minute she strums it seems crazy to me). Tony had a brilliant idea and suggested we buy her a proper guitar off ebay rather than the rubbishy one and we were so lucky to win an auction for one right here in Brisbane for only $10 more than the Hannah Montana one! its fabulous, great condition and will last Tasha for ever. Mum has bravely stepped up to the plate to offer to teach Tasha the basics so Tasha is going to have a busy year as on top of Piano lessons, tennis lessons, choir practice and Netball Nippers starting in three weeks, she is now going to learn guitar! Thank heavens I was never that busy as a child I feel pooped just thinking about it!

Well I guess I have rambled on for a while now so I had better start posting some P365 pages and ADSR pages so I can get on with the rest of my day (now that I am feeling better i had better do SOME housework lol)

Week 8

Credits - Designs by Leora

Week 9

Credits - Designs by Leora

Deb and I are still going with the ADSR season 5 and are having a great time - although I admit to leaving my pages until the weekend most of the time and then tearing through a page quickly to make the deadline. I like to live on the edge rofl.

Challenge 3 - Beautiful

This was a selective colouring challenge so I wanted to use this photo of Tasha with her beautiful eyes which went perfectly with this great kit by Trish Jones - Rock the House - On the Table

Credits here

Challenge 4 - ATC

This challenge was so much fun - I keep forgetting how much I enjoy doing altered art! Card number 1 and 3 are mine and Card 2 and 4 are Deb's - we had to do a combined preview for the challenge but we each had to do two cards each - too fun! Aren't Deb's awesome?

Credits here

Challenge 5 - Chocolate

The name of this challenge says it all - Chocolate I love you so ...... lol

Credits here

Challenge 6 - This one is for me

To date this is my least favorite challenge EVER! But it is only because I was way out of my comfort zone with the number of elements we had to use and the number of steps that had to be completed - eek! It was a trial but this is the end result - a bit to umm fussy for my liking but it passed the judges criteria so I call it DONE. Mind you it was a pleasure working with Alexis Designs delicious goodies Cappuccino and Sweet Victorian Violette - yummy!

Credits here

well I believe that I have rattled on for a while now but I think I am pretty caught up - I have lots of other scrap pages done and I will try to come back soon and post the others for your amusement. So until then - live long and prosper!

Week 7 and other stuff!

2010-02-19T11:20:00.005+10:00

Yes I know .... I am slipping but really I have been so busy playing catch up with my CT and ADSR scrapping, newsletter contributions, posting and all the family stuff sometimes it get a bit much and the last place I want to sit is at the computer in the evenings (my favorite time for blogging lol)! Home life has been especially busy this week with netball training, tennis, parent information nights, netball semi-finals (which Bella's team WON woohoo! into the Grand finals now!) and I have been busy at work too! yikes!

First of all here is my latest page for the project - I am just loving these templates of Leora's - so crisp and clean, it really makes it all about the photos and not a major scrapping exercise!

Week 7

Credits - Designs by Leora

I'm so happy to be racing with ADSR season 5 with my BFF Deb and it was great fun to kick it off with this first challenge - about your partner. We had to scraplift a page of our race partner and make it all about her - so here is my page.

My race partner Deb

Credits - here

The next challenge was a bit trickier! It was courtesy of the Ar was to use 5 photos, one with the number 5 in a photo, 5 fonts/alphas in the title and 5 elements the same AND it had to be about what I love about ....... hmmm I had to pick my house because its number 5 AND I had five photos ROFL.

Here is my page - 5 things I love about ..... my house! Not terribly original but there you go ...

Credits - here

I have been such a bad CT member recently - I have only managed to get one page out so far this week for my dear Kate who recently created this way too cute kit - This Much

Heres my page - I love you this much ...!

Credits - here

On other news, I have had my very first page EVER published in a paper magazine - Australian Scrapbooking memories Vol 12 No 2 page 115!! I was just thrilled to bits to be asked by Annette to work with the digital kits that are being given away with this edition as a great promotion for digital scrapbooking!! The hardest part was only picking ONE of the great kits to use. I can't explain how thrilling it is to see a page in an actual magazine! I know I'm a bit over excited but the first time is always special right? I'm not even upset that they got my name wrong and I am apparently Amanda Cook *giggle* - but I know it's mine, my friends know its mine and that all that matters to me :)

Ok I still have loads of things to do so I had better wrap this up and stop yacking away. I'll catch you all soon!

Artisan Notebook pages and ...we're RACING!

2010-02-12T11:32:00.005+10:00

Now that the February edition of the Artisan Notebook is out I can finally post my January pages with joyful impunity! So here for your viewing pleasure (I hope lol) are my pages ......

one page is for the Just Write Challenge section .... Now and Then

Credits - here

and one is for an article on one of our talented designers over at Pickleberrypop - Carolyn Rose Kite .... Alway be with me

Credits - here

In other scrapping news Deb and I were thrilled to discover that we were allowed to register late after we discovered the ADSR season 5 team nominations had closed - Ernie and Theresa were kind enough to throw open the gates to us after they discovered that a number of people had lost touch with the site after the "troubles". So now Deb and I are racing once more in our fourth season of the Amazing Digital Scrapbooking Race so stay tuned as I struggle to cope with crazy deadlines, tricky challenges and a partner that lives across the globe while having a BLAST at the same time!! Go the Digital Duo!!! LOL

On the home front I have had another busy week and I am so pleased to be sitting here quietly catching up on my computer time and not running around in the car taking kids here there and everywhere. Bella has just dived into High School activities with gay abandon this week including trying out for the school Volleyball team! She hasn't ever played Volleyball and while she didn't get on the team I was so proud that she went along and tried out anyway! Today she is off to an Inter school Choral Workshop that will culminate in a concert for parents at 5.30pm, the girls are being instructed by one of the judges from Battle of the Choirs - very cool! My girls are both having piano lessons this year and are both in their school choirs which is very exciting but I imagine that when it comes to performance time I am probably going to be driving around like a crazy woman to get everywhere at once! Added to the mix Tasha has tennis lessons Wednesday afternoon while Bella has Netball semifinals - I might need a cheaper running car on the petrol I think if this keeps up ROFL

Ok enough wittering I had best get some homework done before I have to go get Tasha from school!

Project 365 week 6 - and CT stuff

2010-02-07T16:00:00.005+10:00

Hi there! It seems like only yesterday that I posted last - umm right it WAS only yesterday! Well I managed to take my photo for the day this morning so I am all up-to-date now. It's a great feeling.

It was nice to be on the computer today, not like yesterday! It was just so hot and humid here that I kept sticking to my bamboo tablet - YUCK! Thankfully last night a cool change came through and it rained all night! Lots of thunder too which was weird - normally we get afternoon storms but hardly ever thunder in the middle of the night and in the early morning! I'm not going to complain though its lovely and cool.

Ok I'm rambling so I'll just post my Project page and get on with it ...........

Credits - Designs by Leora

I finished a page for Cherpea Designs aka Cheryl today - she is a wonderfully patient and lovely Designer who puts up with my inability to be a good and productive CT member - so now I'm only a week behind for my CT scrapping and I can't wait to finally catch up!

I loved working with Cheryl's new Sweet Heart kit - her White series is really fresh and crisp!

Tasha Sweetheart

Credits - here

In other CT news I had a lovely offer (that I couldn't refuse) the other day to work with a new designer - Alexis-Designs. She has been around the digital scrapping community for a while now making lovely pages and she has recently started designing. She offered me a spot on her team and I'm going to help her on a casual as-I-can basis which is lovely of her to let me do that as you know how hard I find it to juggle sometimes. I haven't had a chance yet to play with her goodies but I am really looking forward to it!

On the New Years resolution front I think I am making some progress - I cleaned out my Facebook account, deleting all but three games and about 50 gaming friends, then I added a bunch of scrapbooking people so now Facebook has gone back to being about scrapping and friends & family! And I can tell you my home page is so much easier to follow now!! I am keeping up with my Project 365 and I am trying hard to be a good wife and mother - you might have to ask my family if that is working out for them! So overall I think I am still on track for success! But then again it IS only February .... rofl

OK I had better get off this computer and make a start on the cheese sauce for the Corned beef we are having for dinner!

Project 365 Week 5

2010-02-06T16:44:00.006+10:00

Wow it has been just crazy around my place this last week! Going back to work for me wasn't as bad as I thought it might be and I was actually happy to be back!! The kids are getting their routines sorted out although Tasha needs to work on the fact that year 3 has more homework than she is used to, but I am confident that things will settle down. She is now learning Piano with Bella's old Piano teacher and seems to really enjoy it and on Wednesdays she now does tennis after school Bella's netball team made the semi finals and the girls were just thrilled! The coaches are pretty excited too and say we have a good chance to bring it home this year - that remains to be seen but I am thrilled for Bella - to get to the Semies in her first season of Netball. Her playing has really improved with the support and encouragement of her great coaches! So you can see it has been all go but in between all that running around I managed to finish my week 5 P365 and do a couple of pages for Pickleberrypop!

Credits: Designs by Leora

Here is the page that I made for this month's scrap lift challenge over at Pickleberrypop - we are lifting the gorgeous gallery of Sweeet!

Not your typical Virgo

Credits - here

And here is a page that I made for the February Word Art Challenge at Pickleberrypop - it is a page that is also for my dearest friend J!

My best friend

Credits - here

Well it is terribly humid and hot here today so I might love you and leave you! Its nearly time for week 6's P365 posting lol

Two posts in two days???

2010-01-30T18:28:00.004+10:00

I have had a lovely quiet day with a little bit of housework and a whole lot of computer time. The kids had a huge sleep in after a big week back at school and they have been happily playing together (!!! wow that hardly ever happens) and now its time to have Pizza Capers for dinner - yum yum! But before that I just wanted to post quickly with a new page I made today using Cheryl's (aka Cherpea Designs) lovely Sea Dreams kit which is available here at Two Little Pixels

Beach Bella

Credits - here

Ok I'm off now - the pizza smells delicious and I'm hungry! I know its a flying post but there isn't much more to say - oh except ............... my friend Deb won the last Digi Dare with her super cool Dear Abbey Cocoa Puffs page! Woot!!! WTG Deb! Catch you later!

Project 365 - Week 3 and 4

2010-01-29T21:19:00.007+10:00

Well we are back from our wonderful week away and already we are stressed and back into the real world as if it never really happened! I have the photos though and the memories of the balmy nights and brilliant sunny days to remind me of the good times - ahhh feel the serenity!

The school year has started and my girls are back into the grind already.

It is a big year for them both - with Bella starting High School and Tasha being all alone at school without her sister being there to help her. Bella has settled in to High School beautifully and thinks all her teacher are amazing and awesome! In fact awesome and amazing have featured strongly in any of her conversations about school in the past week. She has even started getting the bus - which for her is a huge deal as she has never ever caught public transport in her life on her on before EVER! Tasha on the other hand was freaking out about going back to school and now that she is back has settled back perfectly well, she has found that has has a number of her special friends in her class which has reconciled her quiet nicely to being alone without Bella. So so far so good! And with the girls being back at school I have a little more free time for doing some other things! Like scrapping and stuff!

Well I am trying hard to keep on top of my project and so far it has been pretty easy with holidays, and kids going back to school - a photo a day is pretty easy at this time of year! Wait until it gets to later on in the year as I feel the inspiration run out of me like water from a jug. But while I am on a roll - here are the pages that I have finished and that will bring me up to date I believe!

Week 3

Week 4

Credits - Designs by Leora

I just wanted to remind you that the fabulous template challenge at Pickleberrypop is closing soon so if you want a chance to snag a super cute template by Armina - run dont walk over here right now. I finally got a page done - one of the few that I have managed to complete since returning from holidays! Here it is .............

2010 - Back to School

Credits here

Well anyway - the kids are in bed, I have a glass of wine in my hand and hubby wants to watch a movie ao I had better head off - catch you later ..... bye!

Catch you later

2010-01-16T09:25:00.004+10:00

Just popping in to say bye as we are on the way out the door for our annual beach escape - I'll be back next week with lots of photos and a catch up post. The best thing about the holiday (apart from the sun, sea and sand!) is that I will have no end of inspiration for my P365! I am still going along well and I am keeping on top of my photo editing so all I need to do when i get back is pop the photos in the template - easy peasy!

Before I go I have to tell you about the new template challenge and the new Ohh Ahh Whats in the Pickle Jar Challenges that have just started at Pickleberrypop! If you are looking for some inspiration you cant go past these!

This month the hostess with the mostest is Armina! It's a great challenge

And Pat the Pickle has a fab new challenge and you could win a $10 GC to the store just by playing along!!

Ok the car's all packed, the kids are jiggling up and down in excitement and hubby is honking the horn - check you later!

2010 with a bullet

2010-01-11T10:10:00.004+10:00

LOL I don't suppose there would be many people who read my blog who remember the old eighties LPs like 1980 with a bullet, sorry that was inspiration for a post title today for some reason? I feel a little silly today. That could be because I have loads to do before we head off for our annual beach escape and its making me a bit crazy-loco! I have to finish getting the girls ready for school and their books all covered, I have to make my list for the coast so I don't leave anything behind, I have to pack, I have to take my P365 photo for today and tidy up because my SIL is arriving for an over night visit on her way back up to Townsville! Eeek I might just sit here for a minute and breath and relax a little bit .................... ahhhhh.

OK before I race off and tackle the list I want to share with you my first two pages of my 2010 P365 as I resolved to do (see I'm a good girl aren't I?). I am filled with enthusiasm for the project again mainly due to my friend Carol's successful completion of her 2009 project. I was thrilled to be able to see the end result and all I can say is WOW! Its FABULOUS! So I am determined to have something if not as wonderful as Carol's then at least not too contemptible! I found these amazing and simple 365 templates and they are perfect and fuss free. I think I might have overdone the ummm decoration on my pages last year and I put myself off, this way the photos are the main event and I dont have to spend hours worrying about floral placement lol.

Without any more ado here are my first two pages for 2010 - and I hope there will be 50 more to follow!

2010 - Week 1 Jan 1-3

2010 - Week 2 Jan 4-10

Credits - Designs by Leora

Before I go I have to tell you that we took the kids to see Avatar yesterday and I firmly believe that it is the BEST movie that I have seen in AGES and AGES - what wonderful graphics, what a fabulous story, what a moving message and a triumph of casting! i was a little worried that the story line would take a backseat to the amazing graphics but my fears were groundless and I spent the best three hours gazing enthralled at the screen.

Well I won't hang around rambling on and on today - so much to do and so little time - but I wanted to make sure that I stopped in and posted these pages straight away!

Later 'gator!

I resolve ..........................

2010-01-04T15:34:00.004+10:00

I resolve ................... to be a BETTER wife and Mother

I resolve ................... to be more organised and less HYSTERICAL

I resolve ................... to take a photo a day and MAKE IT past October this year!

I resolve ................... to love you MORE my poor neglected blog

I resolve ................... to love facebook LESS

I resolve ................... to find myself a nice clean P365 template and upload at LEAST weekly

I resolve ................... to spend less time making excuses & to spend more time actually DOING

I resolve ................... to make 2010 a GREAT year!

Wish me luck!!!

And a very, very, very, Happy New Year to you!!!!

Fabulous Friday!

2009-10-16T11:53:00.007+10:00

I never used to appreciate Fridays as much as I should have until I stopped working them! Since starting my new job and only doing three days a week, I can tell you Fridays are now officially my favourite day of the week - followed swiftly by Mondays rofl! Fridays are my scrapbooking day. I catch up on my CT duties, I post around the place, I finish up pages, I update the PBP fan page on Facebook (and play some games while I'm there!), and I generally have a great time. Then a couple of hours before I have to get the kids from school I race around the house like a mad woman, cleaning, tidying, washing etc etc until the place is sorted. Sounds crazy doesn't it! Why don't I just spend the whole day cleaning, taking my time and not turning my house into an Indy race track. There is a simple answer - I don't want to hahaha! It's nuts but I like it :)

I wanted to share with you some pages that I posted this week using one of our new designers at Pickleberrypop - Joyce Paul! Woohoo, I really love her style, so clean and elegant!!

It's just Me!

Credits here

and My Family My Life

Credits here

and lastly using a fabulous new Collab by my sweet Dawn Inskip and Joyce

My Christmas Angel

Credits here

On the family front I finally got to see Bella play a Netball game on Wednesday night (last week I was laid up with a migraine) and I was really impressed with how she went. Not that I know much about the game but still it is always nice to see your child happy and enjoying themselves in a team environment. I think it is a wonderful experience for her to have prior to High School and she has already met two new girls through netball that will be going to the same High School so all in all I am very pleased. And added to all that, the blue Dolphins won! haha!

Here is a pic of Bella in her Netball gear after the game on Wednesday - I have cut out her two friends if you don't mind as I respect their privacy.

My cat is still hanging in there even thought the tumour is getting larger (did I mention that here or on Facebook??). Just in case I didn't mention it, Chelsea my lovely old puss has bone cancer and she doesn't have long to live. How long the Vet can't say as it is a very rare cancer in cats (dogs and people yes, but not many cats) so he has no helpful time frame to offer us. She still doesn't seem to be in any pain and the Vet said only to bring her in when her quality of life beings to fail. She is currently sleeping on the beds every night, eating tit-bits fed to her by the kids, and probably more cuddling than a dying animal really wants so until the time comes I would rather not think about the future right now.

I have had to cut out alcohol from my diet (omg) as my helpful husband saw that alcohol might be a migraine trigger and suggested strongly that I go off it for awhile and see what happens - sadly I haven't had a migraine since Saturday so I think that he might be right *sob*. It's going to be a long weekend, no chocolate, no wine, no fun BUT no headache hopefully! LOL there ARE worse things to complain about I know!

Anyway it's that time of the Friday where I will start to run around cleaning so I will catch you later!

Good morning friends!

2009-10-10T07:48:00.004+10:00

Well it has been one LOOOOOng week here I can tell you! I have been having a migraine cluster and a half and even though I am on medication they kept coming!! Last count was 5 in four days!! Eeeek. Thankfully I have come out the other end now (phew) and (touch wood) every thing has settled down again. Needless to say my scrapping, housework, parenting and work duties have all suffered to varying degrees AND I believe that I have missed two days in my P365 *sob*! But I can't complain - its over for now!

Today I am taking Bella to try on her new High School uniforms and order them so they will be ready for next year. We are going with friends of ours so the girls can giggle and have fun while her mother and I have to be resuscitated over the price of everything! Its at times like this when I wonder why we didn't go public schooling and I am pretty sure I'll think it again when we get our first semester school fees hahahaha!

I'll let you in on a secret, I am making Bella a Photo Book to commemorate her Primary School years! I have done most of the hard word so far, except for Grade 7, and I just have some class photos to scan in. I'm pretty pleased with it so far - it's not a work of art but then it isn't supposed to be, its a record of the past 9 years of her life! Of course I can't do Grade 7 yet as I want to put in photos of her graduation and certificate presentations etc etc but hopefully it will be ready by the time she for her starting High School next January! This last term is going to fly by so quickly!

I think I have a page to share with you that I did a little while ago for Cheryl with her luscious new kit La Serenissima that I held off posting until the Two Little Pixels Newsletter came out. I really loved the yummy rich blues in this kit!

Mandy Lou

Credits here

Well I have loads of things to catch up today so I had better get a move on - thanks for hanging out with me! ta ta for now!

Is facebook the end of my blog?

2009-10-03T22:04:00.004+10:00

Hmmm the jury is still out on that one at the moment but I am starting to think so. My FB page is much more up to date than my poor neglected blog. But I don't plan on letting go with out a fight and once I have come back from harvesting my Farmville crops, battling rampaging wizards on School of Magic, planting onions on my Island and dealing with blood suckers on Vampire Wars, I am SO coming back here to update my blog ROFL *stupid FB*. But I am still taking my daily photo I promise you and I am still amazed that I have made is so far throughout the year I mean wow it's October and I am still on track! And after tomorrow i will have endless netball photos to take now that Bella will be starting Summer season netball. Its a first for both of us, she has never played club netball before and I have never watched it before (or even understand it to be honest! Ball games are so not my thing!). But you know I look at it as a mother's duty to spend perfectly good scrapping time watching sweaty teenagers run around a court ROFL!

Seeing as I am here and posting I would like to share with you this page I did the other day that I love - the colours are just so vibrant and so different from all the Fall kits that we are seeing at the moment (that I have to admit that I am a bit over, please dont hate me!).

My Pretty Petals

Credits here

Oh and I have to share this page that I did for the Colour Challenge over at Pickleberrypop this month - You make me Smile!

Credits here

Ok I had better hit the road, there are a few things I need to do before I hit the hay.

OMG I'm back and I'm finally caught UP!! Woohoo!

2009-08-17T15:46:00.007+10:00

I'm sorry I haven't been around much recently, I was just sooooo busy doing so many other things that blogging just seemed too much on top of it all. BUT oh wow I have a wonderful feeling of satisfaction as I have finally managed something that I never thought I would, I am up to date with my project pages!!!! I could feel the project slipping further and further out of reach as each week passed but YAY after a big day of sitting down and just doing it I'm now up to date!! The pages aren't beautiful but they are done!And now that it's done I am going to go back to blogging once a week again (at least that is the plan hahaha!)

Ok without rambling on and on here are my Project 365 pages UP TO DATE!!!!

Week 26 - July 06 to July 12

Credits - Paper & template - DebF, stitching,paper,flourish & Staples - ksharonk, Alpha - FruitLoOp Sally, Word Art - Weeds N Wildflowers

Week 27 - July 13 to July 19

Credits - Paper & template - DebF, stitching,paper, flourish & Staples - ksharonk, Alpha - FruitLoOp Sally, Butterfly & paint - About Collab, word art - Sue Cummings

Week 28 - July 20 to July 26

Credits - Paper & template - DebF, stitching,paper, flourish & Staples - ksharonk, Alpha - FruitLoOp Sally, Paint splat - About Collab

Week 29 - July 27 to August 02

Credits - Paper & template - DebF, stitching,paper, & Staples - ksharonk, Alpha - FruitLoOp Sally, Paint splats - About Collab

Week 30 - August 03 to August 09

Credits - Paper & template - DebF, stitching,paper, & Staples - ksharonk, Alpha - FruitLoOp Sally, Butterfly - About Collab

Week 31 - August 10 to August 16

Credits - Paper & template - DebF, stitching,paper, & Staples - ksharonk, Alpha - FruitLoOp Sally, Butterfly - About Collab

I am going to come back a bit later and do some CT page posting as I am pretty behind posting about that but before I go I just want to share with you a little freebie that I made for the August Pickleberrypop newsletter using the gorgeous Pickleberrypop Collab Playful Reverie if you are interested. Its a desktop for September and its available in three sizes including Widescreen. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out and I have put it on my own computer and thing it looks pretty cute (if I do say so myself hahahaha) ............. if you like it you can grab it from the Pickleberrypop store here.

Well I hope I'll be back later - but for now I am going to head off and do some catching up with my friends blogs! Put the kettle on guys I'm popping in ROFL!

Helloooooo wipes away the dust

2009-07-26T09:06:00.009+10:00

Ummmmm I really really can NOT believe that it's been over a month since I posted! That seems really weird to me - perhaps if I wasn't spending so much time on YoVille on Facebook I would be here more often rofl. Stupid game has taken over my life but I really really wanted to get a new bath for my bathroom so I have been working hard and saving my pennies hahahaha. But in between working at YoVille I have been mucking around helping get some very exciting things ready over at Pickleberrypop for their third birthday celebrations next weekend. I'll show you a quick sneak peek a bit later of a wonderful surprise that will be unveiled - you will love it!!

But first off I am going to catch up with some of my project 365 pages - I know I am sadlly behind with these but I spent a bit of time this weekend catching up. My pages are not terribly fancy and I have kept the decorations very plain. I still have a couple of weeks to do but I am a LOT closer than I was to finally catching up than I was yesterday lol.

So without further ado here are some of my outstanding pages:

Week 22 - June 8 to June 14

Credits - Paper & template - DebF, stitching,paper, & Staples - ksharonk, Alpha - FruitLoOp Sally

Week 23 - June 15 to June 21

Credits - Paper & template - DebF, stitching,paper, & Staples and flourish - ksharonk, Alpha - FruitLoOp Sally

Week 24 - June 22 to June 28

Credits - Paper & template - DebF, stitching,paper, & Staples and flourish - ksharonk, Alpha - FruitLoOp Sally

Week 25 - June 29 to July 5

Credits - Paper & template - DebF, stitching,paper, & Staples - ksharonk, Alpha - FruitLoOp Sally and Weeds and Wildflowers - Hodge podge stuff

Phew I feel so much better now those are off my chest lol - I still have a couple of weeks to go before I catch up but I'm getting there. I am totally surprised with myself that I have continued to keep up with my Project 365 - I have made it half way through the year! It's all down hill from here!

In scrapping news I was very flattered and excited to be invited by the delightful Dawn Inskip to be on her Creative Team - I have always enjoyed scrapping with her kits since she joined PBP's design team and I have tried to use everyone she put out - so I guess we are just formalising our realtionship hahaha.

Now since the last time I posted and now I have scrapped a fair few pages and I think it would be really unkind of me to put you through looking at them all so I will just post a couple of my particular favorites and leave the rest.

You have my Heart

Credits here

Lovely

Credits here

You are a great reader!

Credits here

Magic books

Credits here

And lastly I promised you a sneak peek at PBP Birthday Celebrations -

July 30th is PBP's 3rd Birthday and we are having a huge party to celebrate! Here is a sneak peek at one of the things the team has been busy preparing - it's another HUGE collaborative kit!

Now I can't say too much or it will ruin the surprise but I CAN say that you will definitely NOT want to miss out on this celebration - so leave so time free to come on over and play along with the challenges and games that we will have on - you never know what you might win!!!

All right I have droned on enough for one post - I'll be back later on with my last couple of Project 365 pages I ummmmm promise???? lol

12 days later ....... sigh!

2009-06-22T09:58:00.006+10:00

Well I finally made it back here to post - I have been pretty flat out since getting back from our quick trip to Townsville and it seems like every time I sat down to blog something else more important came up! but here I am sneaking in a clandestine few moments between piles of laundry (still waiting to be put away from last weekend) and the vacuum cleaner that is currently sitting on the floor near me reproaching me in silence. I would like to post some of my recent pages as it seems to me that my blog has been taken over by my project 365 (which I am still going with!!) and I am not getting to show off my new things!

So here are some of my recent pages for your viewing pleasure - at least I hope your enjoy them *wink*

This page was made with the scrummy collab between FruitLoOp Sally and Tracey Stroud called Peppermint Smoothie available at PBP

Wonder

Credits here

Here is my latest page using the lovely goodies from Cherpea Designs at Two Little Pixels - this is from her lovely kit Danielle!

You are the Rulers of my heart

Credits here

This page was made using Cherpea Designs new kit Anya - it has such lovely pinks and browns! It's available now at 2LP.

Nature Girl

Credits here

This was my first page as a CT member for Cherpea Designs - I love the rich green colour of the paper and the fun and funky alpha!! It was perfect for this cute photo of Tasha with her new hair cut!

Big Girls Haircut

Credits here

This page is a scraplift of this page created by the talented Kaye (nockosh) for our June Scraplift Challenge over at Pickleberrypop - you should come over and have a go at this challenge as you could win $10 GC to the Pickleberrypop Shop *wink*

Everything about you makes me Smile!

Credits here

I made this page using the delightful kit Candy Lane by Joanne Bain - there are some really lovely elements and papers in this kit! Yummy!!

Tasha

Credits here

This page was created for the June 10 by 10 Challenge over at Pickleberrypop and I scrapped my own bucket list! Such a fun and challenging challenge (lol) and I encourage you to give it a go and you might win a $10 GC to the store!!

My Bucket List

Credits here

I made this page using the fun new template Deb Fisher has created - they were so great to use and I really loved how the bright papers from Deb's Happiness kit make the circles just pop!!

This is what Happy looks like!

Credits here

Phew - glad that's off my chest - I told you it had been a while since I posted anything other than Project 365 pages and I bet you are sick of looking at my pages now LOL. Well I hope to be back here soon with some P365 pages - I am a bit behind with those at the moment as I have sooooo many photos to edit from our trip to Townsville that I am trying to get through!

I have to tell you though we had a great time in Townsville - the weather was just gorgeous (as only winter in Townsville can be), the company was delightful and the kids were pretty much well behaved (LOL). We really did have a lovely time, we reminisced about the good 'ol days, we walked along the Strand, went up Castle Hill, strolled along the Riverway Boardwalks, the kids swam in the pools there, we visited with old friends, got together with family, had photos taken (by me eeek!), ate yummy seafood and just pretty much Chill-axed (apparently thats a word young people use these days ROFL) as much as we could!

We might have to go for a week next time as the girls wanted to go over to magnetic island and drive up to Crystal Creek and we didn't have time :)

Our next adventure is happening this weekend coming as we head up to the Bunya Mountains for a weekend of eating, drinking, sleeping, bush walking, bird feeding and relaxing! I'm hoping that the weather will take a steep plunge downwards before we leave so that we can snuggle in frount of the log fire place. We are staying there with two other families, who are our best friends, and their kids and it should be a blast! And the best bit is that there will even MORE photos to edit when I get back hahahaha - hmmm I might have to invest in a bigger XD card for my camera at this rate LOL

Well thanks for sticking with me in my rambles - I really had better get some housework done! So I will bid you all a fond adieu!

No I haven't fallen off the Project 365 wagon......

2009-06-10T20:31:00.003+10:00

But I have been a bit slack at the posting of my photos and posting on my blog - sorry! I have managed to keep up my photos daily so far except for one day where my migraine shattered me and I took a pile of pills and went to bed.

It's a fly by posting from me I'm afraid - I will try to get updated after we get back from our trip up to Townsville. We are leaving on Friday and are going to have a fabulous time catching up with family and friends! We haven't been back to Townsville in 8 years and I can't wait to see how the old place has changed! It's a wonderful opportunity for the girls to see where Mum and Dad met and were we lived. I imagine that I will take lots and lots and lots of photos - enough to tide me over until the next time we get up there!

Anyway I won't ramble on - I have sinus and an earache at the moment and all I want to do is go to bed so here are the past two weeks Project pages and i will bid you all a fond farewell!!

Project 365 - Week 20 - May 25 to May 31

Credits - Paper & template - DebF, stitching,paper, glitter splots & staples - ksharonk, Alpha - FruitLoOp Sally

Week 21 - June 1 to June 6

Credits - Paper & template - DebF, stitching,paper, & Staples - ksharonk, Alpha - FruitLoOp Sally & P365 stuff from Studio MGL!

Oh before I go I just wanted to share with you the exciting news that Cheryl of Cherpea Designs invited me to be part of her CT! I was just thrilled as I have been a fan of Cheryl's for a while! So of course I said YES! more about this later when I can share some pages I have made recently! I have a new blinkie to add to my collection over on the right!

Project 365 - May 18 to May 24

2009-05-25T11:54:00.008+10:00

Well I can't believe it but here I am - on time and ready to post last weeks page! Woohoo. Feeling a bit proud of myself and I am hoping that this means I am finally getting my act together. I'm pinching myself that I am still going strong with the project and although some days are harder to come up with a photo idea than others (check out the peg basket rofl) I haven't lost my enthusiasm so far.

I have realised that I don't have a lot of interesting knick knacks around my house to take photos of though and I thought that I should maybe invest in some to give me more stuff to photograph *grin*. I somehow don't think hubby will be very agreeable with that idea so I might pass for now. I am hoping to do a self portrait this week so you can tell me if my face is looking any thinner hahahaha as I can't really see any difference but then again I see myself every day.

So here you are - on time for once - Week ummmm 19? of my Project 365!

Credits - Paper & template - DebF, stitching,paper, & Staples - ksharonk, Alpha - FruitLoOp Sally & P365 stuff from Flergs!

I just wanted to say that I had a fabulous time at the Pickleberrypop Casual Chat on Friday night - the girls are all such a laugh and it was wonderful to chat, listen to great 80's music and discuss the love interests of Bob the Builder (you really had to be there!). They really are a great bunch of girls and I can't recommend enough that you come along and join us this time next month for a another fabulous evening of fun and laughter!

Ok that's it from me today - I have loads of housework to do now that it has stopped raining here and things are starting to dry out. It was just too hard to do the housework with the kids stuck inside as they made a mess as quickly as I tried to tidy up. In the end I gave up and plonked myself down in front of the computer for the rest of the weekend and caught up on my blog hopping LOL. I am trying hard to air out my car at the moment too as it still smells from the mini flooding it got last week - I have sprinkled Bi-Carb of Soda all over the carpets in an effort to de-stench it! But at least it didn't float away so I am not complaining one little bit! Ok that's good-bye from me for today!

It's a fly by posting of the CT variety

2009-05-24T11:25:00.009+10:00

Hi I'm just shooting past with a quick blog post - I'm doing a bit of blog hopping this morning and I hope that I make it to all your blogs to say Hi!!

I would like to post some of the pages that I have scrapped this week - I went on a bit of a scrapping bender late in the week and this is the result :)

The Sea
using Olga Unger's great new Sea Paradise

Credits here

There is something so magical about the sea. It is a vastly powerful force, untameable, unknowable and yet so intriguing. Here is my DD walking alone the beach at Hervey Bay pondering the mysteries of the sea.

Close to you
inspired by the Carpenter's song :) and using Dawn Inskip's fab new Strawberry Crush

Credits here

Looking at Natasha I often have this song just pop into my head, when she was little I would sing it to her with her Lullabies at bedtime. I think it's the angels appearing and sprinkling "moondust in your hair and starlight in your eyes of blue oooooh oh" that gets me every time!

The Beach
using Joanne Bain's delicious new kit Beachy Treasure

Credits here

One of the things Tasha enjoys most about our trips to the Gold Coast is the feeling of digging into the sand and discovering all the wonderful treasures hidden there.

Oh and I found these two pages that I created at the end of last week but forgot to post!

Mother's Day
using Joanne Bain's adorable new kit - Summer Dayz

Credits here

Every year the four of us pose for our Mother's Day photo - Mum, the girls and me. I love looking back and seeing us in our special Mother's Day photo and seeing how much we are changing each year! I did this page for the Pickle Jar Challenge - thanks Pat!

Cuddles from my Kitty
using FruitLoOp Sally's Organic Artisty

Credits here

My silly cat is terrified of the birds in our backyard and hides from them in the bushes all the time. But when I come out into the backyard to hang out washing she always runs over to me meowing - as if to show the birds she's not scared - this is one of the few times she lets me pick her up and give her a cuddle

I'm a bit stunned to see that I have scrapped 5 pages in the space of a week and a couple of days! If I keep this up I am going to fall into a mojo rut soon rofl!

Well that is all from me today - I will be back tomorrow with this week's Project page and I can say that with confidence because it's all finished except for todays photo LOL so I will have no excuse hahaha.

Project 365 - 11 May to 17 May

2009-05-23T21:25:00.005+10:00

Well another week goes by and I realise that I still haven't posted my last Project page here. Maybe I just like to work behind the deadline LOL. I have managed to get last weeks page finished and maybe if I REALLY concentrate I will actually post my current weeks page on Monday!

Project 365 - May 11 to May 17

Credits - Paper & template - DebF, stitching,paper & Staples - ksharonk, Alpha - FruitLoOp Sally!

It's been a busy week really with lots going on at home and work. I had Tasha home sick on Monday, a busy day at work on Tuesday and then Wednesday this week was particularly exciting/scary when we had the biggest "rain event" here in Brisbane since the 70's (so I have heard). There was so much rain that we had widespread flooding across the city. At work my car is parked in a side street and all morning the water ran down the road steadily. but after staying at the gutter level all morning it suddenly rose high enough to put an inch of water in my car.

I ran out and moved my car to higher ground in the street (soaking my shoes and my trousers to the knees in the process) only to find that when I went to leave work that afternoon I had to wade through thigh deep water just to get out of my work place. Here is what the road where I was parking in the morning looked like when I went home - can you see a gap between two submerged cars on the left hand side? That is where I WAS parked - omg!

At the end of the trees is a main intersection and it was just chaos down there, detours helped ease the problem though. Wow what a day! The trip home was exciting as a few streets on the way home were closed. I can't complain though, so many people lost their household possessions and their cars! So I am really lucky!

Anyway - it's late and I will come back and post some pages that I have made tomorrow! I promise! tata!

Project 365 TWO weeks LOL

2009-05-11T10:04:00.012+10:00

Yes I am so very, very slack and I have gotten so behind in my posting. So rather than beat myself up I am going to just post two full weeks of photos and consider myself all caught up lol. I am finding myself very tired at the moment and all I seem to want to do is surf around the net for a bit in the evenings and then go to bed. I'm going to be upping my exercise regime this week so i am hoping that my energy levels will improve. I have plateaued in my weight loss journey (giggle I hated it in Biggest Loser when they said "my weight loss journey"!) a bit over the last few weeks and I think I need a kick start back into it again so I can be a few more kgs lighter when I go back to Townsville in June. Even though it will be nearly Winter then Townsville is still pretty much shorts and teeshirt weather all year round and I would like to look a little better in the shorts before then lol!

So without further ado here are the past two weeks Project photos for your perusal.

Project 365 - April 27 to May 3

Credits - Paper & template - DebF, stitching,paper, flourish & Staples - ksharonk, Alpha - FruitLoOp Sally!

Project 365 - May 4 to May 10

Credits - Paper & template - DebF, stitching,paper, & Staples - ksharonk, Alpha - FruitLoOp Sally & P365 stuff from Flergs!

There has been a little (very little) scrapping going on here LOL. And here are a few pages that I have made recently for your viewing pleasure!

Once I was - for the Poetry Challenge I am hosting this month over @ PBP using PST Designs gorgeous kit Ever - come on over and scrap a page with a poem and you could win a $10 GC to the Pickleberrypop Store!!

Credits here

Happy you are OK - I had fun using this fun kit Happy Time!

Credits here

Celebrate! For the Scraplift Challenge @ PBP - using Joanne Bain's cool Parte' kit!

Credits here

And lastly but by no means least - Abbey Medieval Festival using Dawn Inskip's fantastic Imagination kit!

Credits here

Well that is all from me today - I have been working on this post for the better part of the morning and I KNOW that I have loads of other things that need to be done today.

Project 365 - Apr 20 to Apr 26 & a GREAT reveal!

2009-05-02T07:52:00.006+10:00

Hi everyone, how is everything going with you? Things have been a bit messed up here with me unfortunately *sniff* I got another migraine on Wednesday and it has taken me until today to shake the darn thing! I am pretty sure I know what triggered it (lunch at an Asian cafe) but I'm not sure WHAT in lunch triggered it (they say there is no msg in their products). It was pretty nasty and I felt so fragile for three days, I couldn't even look outside the windows because the light hurt - but anyway I'm better now and I won't be eating THERE again so all's well that ends well!

I have finally finished last weeks Project photos and I have created another page for it - it really is an easy way of showing off the photos :)

Credits: DebF's Year in Review template & paper & everything else from ksharonk designs.

There are lots of things going on in the background that I am working on and I can't wait to share some of them with you but until then you will have to make do with this BIG REVEAL!!

Here is the GORGEOUS Free kit with purchase available from Pickleberrypop right now .......

The Enchanted Pickleberry Tree

{inter}-National Scrapbooking Day at pickleberrypop.com, 1st to 3rd May, 2009

SALE!
All digital products 30% off,
except for commercial use, most 20% off!

PLUS!
Spend $15AUD (approx. $10USD) or more and receive The Enchanted Pickleberry Tree Part 1 FREE!

OR...

Spend $22AUD (approx. $15USD) or more and receive The Enchanted Pickleberry Tree Part 1 AND The Enchanted Pickleberry Tree Part 2 FREE!
* see full conditions in store

Isn't FANTABULOUS??????? I love it to bits.

I had a play with this gorgeous kit last week and came up with these three very different pages to show how versatile this kit is!

Fairies

Credits here

The Magic in a Book

Credits here

You make me Believe

Credits here

Well that is all from me right now - I have lots of stores to check out for iNSD as I have decided to spend some of my hard earned cash on some of the fabulous sales that will be going on over the weekend. I hope you all have a great weekend too!!!!

Project 365 & some scrapping

2009-04-26T13:16:00.006+10:00

Ok so I MEANT to come back and post last weeks photos but I guess I forgot LOL. I jumped on here today to do some posting about my scrapping and thought opppps I'm a bit behind! hahaha oh well I put my photos on a LO again so here you are - April 13 through to April 19.

Credits - DebF - Year in Review template and everything else from ksharonk designs.

Now I have been doing a bit of CT scrapping over the last week and I would love to share my pages with you. Sharon had put the delicious kit Sophisticate in the PBP store last Friday and I couldn't wait to use it. The papers are so yummy and the kit is very elegant!

Baby's got the bluest eyes

Credits here

We asked and she delivered - Dawn made some fabulous doodled page borders with some handy notebook style papers for us to play with after one of the CT girls made a request for them. The pack is called Daydreamer and you can get it here from the PBP store. They are so much fun and I had a great time making this page - chock full of Dawn Inskip goodies!

Bella you are so ..........

Credits here

This page was made with a seriously GORGEOUS kit from Deb Fisher Designs called Simply Wonderful - and it really is simply wonderful! The colours are just delicious and the elements are adorable.

Wonderful Tasha

Credits here

Now I am not usually a HUGE fan of templates (except for Deb's!) and usually I am a bit slack when it comes to using them as part of my CT duties but when I saw the Template Pack 20 templates from Kristin's Scrap Designs I really wanted to use them. I love the blended bit that is included in the template - I have never been able to do that very well so it is great to have all the hard work done for me! I also used Kristin's cute kit A Taste of Summer.

Giggles

Credits here

Not a lot going on here at home this past week. Hubby is recovering from his hernia surgery on Tuesday and we have been staying close to home to look after him. He is getting better each day and I am really glad that he elected to have the key-hole surgery as it looks like he will be all better in a week or two as long as he doesn't try to do too much.

Apart from that Bella and I went to the ANZAC Day march yesterday - her school has been marching as part of the Geebung-Zillmere RSL's march for a few years now but we never seem to get there. Yesterday was Bella's last chance to march with her school as she is in Grade 7 and she really wanted to march for the memory of those brave men and women who died to keep us free, so we both made the effort to attend. It was very touching to see the children so serious and the veterans really appreciated the rousing applause they were given at the end of the service. My camera batteries were failing me (why me!!!) so my photos are a bit shoddy but I wanted to share this particular photo with you that (for me) was so moving and so represented what was wonderful about the day.....

See how patiently the LightHorseman sits there letting the children pet his his horse, the whole time they are peppering him with a hundred questions which he answers with a kind humor.

That's all from me for today - I hope you all have a great one!

A Happy Easter-birthday-weekend away!

2009-04-18T17:33:00.007+10:00

I've been a bit slack about posting this last week sorry but I have been recovering from a busy busy FUN busy Easter weekend and I just wasn't in a blogging mood. But I thought I had better catch up before another week over took me and I fall incredibly behind in my project posting. I hope you don't mind - I took a leaf out of my pal Carol's book and put my photos for the past week into a page rather than post them all individually - so here you have my week in review for the period April 6 to April 12.

Everything - including the Photo-a-day template - comes from the talented Deb Fisher. I haven't posted it anywhere but here and i probably won't because I am feeling very lazy :)

I alluded to the fact in the post title that there was a birthday over the Easter weekend - yes it was mine, I am now a year older and hopefully a little wiser. I had a lovely day and I was spoilt rotten by everyone. My lovely MIL cooked my favorite meals for me and I was bathed in love and affection! I did put on 1.50 kilos (groan) from all that loving but I am working really hard now to get it off again and get back into my weight loss regime. It is very scary how easy it is to slip off the wagon and become a bit lazy with your eating habits again. I guess it is because a high protein low carb diet can be a bit hard to manage especially at lunch time, when everyone is tucking in to rolls and sandwiches! Anyway ....... when I got back home to Brisbane after being away I found this adorable birthday card made for me by Carol posted at PBP - isn't she a love? Thanks hun - I love it :)

It's been a bit quiet on the scrapping front for me this past week I have to admit but I did manage to get a page done before we took off to Hervey Bay for Easter with Kate's funtastic Easter kit - Hopping Mad! here's my page - Eggs in trees!

Credits here

Seriously aren't those bunnies adorable??? Have a look at all the fun goodies in the Hopping Mad kit

Ok that's all from me right now - I have a few things cooking in the background that are taking up my time including getting my PBP challenge for next month sorted out, and some other bits and pieces so I had better get back to it. Catch you later!

Project 365 - 30 Mar - 5 Apr

2009-04-06T18:44:00.005+10:00

Another week shuffles by and I am still clinging to the project by the skin of my teeth lol. As you will see from my photos this week there was a bit of a theme that hasn't been there much before - RAIN! Yes we had a few days of rain in Brisbane this week which is really exciting as our dams are now at 50% capacity which means water restrictions will be eased. Now that isn't saying I am all that happy about water restrictions being eased because I'm not really - I mean lets face it, we have had these tough water restrictions in place for a while now and we are all used to them. So it doesn't make much sense to me to ease them UNTIL our dams at 60 or 70%! Anywaaaay thats just my humble opinion!

Ok here are last weeks photos:

Day 89

My Monday chore is doing the shopping for the week. I don't mind really, it's nice to shop without the kids loudly demanding every sugar laden consumable ever created! Also the shops are usually pretty quiet which is great so I don't have to "play ram the shopping trolly"

Day 90

The view out my back door today was of a drizzly day and the streaks were raindrops! Sadly this was as good as I could get them LOL - but I am thrilled to see the grass and plants responding so quickly!

Day 91

I looked at this sitting in my lounge room and I was wondering aloud how long it has been since somebody played it - it's been over two months!!! Strangely once I mentioned giving it away to someone who might actually use it the girls have been playing it every spare minute of the since ROFL - from drought to flood in once quick sentence!

Day 92

It still is more grainier than I would have liked but I had to include this picture of a rain drop dripping from our awnings! It took a fair amount of patience to get this shot against the grey sky.

Day 93

Dear me this week is filled with shocking photos with poor lighting and bad colour and this is no exeption. I took the girls to the local shopping center to get some groceries and I thought I would treat tehm to a milkshake each. Tash looked so cute with the ice cream on her lip and that smug "I got a milkshake" smile that I whipped out my old point and shot and well.... shot LOL. Note to self - the colour is shocking hahahaha

Day 94

My beautiful girl is always willing to put on a slightly forced smile for her Mum when she has the camera in her hand - love you hun!

Day 95

There is a definite "what you looking at" moment going on here - Chelsea is looking a bit intense and wild in this photo - but I know she is really a lazy old girl who was probably wondering why I wasn't running upstairs to feed her rofl!

Ok that's all from me for tonight - later!

A bit of Spring Cleaning (in Autumn)

2009-04-04T22:43:00.002+10:00

I decided my blog needed a bit of a face lift - sooooo tada! Here is my new blog banner - yep that's all I did!! Oh I did change my clock too! I used that cute alpha of Bren Boone's and if you like it you can still get it at DSA in the Freebies section here. I did kind of cheat off DSA because DSA's site header looks so nice - I wanted to have my own LOL.

BUT I honestly can NOT be bothered doing anything fancier on my blog like those gorgeous background pages and stuff - I mean I like to look at them but I can't be stuffed doing one on here. Plus I kind of like the clean look of the white background especially while I am doing my Project 365 LOL.

Some scrapping has been done!

2009-04-04T10:29:00.017+10:00

Yes I have been doing a bit of scrapping last week - I think I am all scrapped out right now but I do have a thought for another page bubbling away in the back of my mind LOL so maybe I can squeeze another one out today some time haha!

Ok where to start? Ummm how about I start with the pages that I made for the great new April Challenges available at Pickleberrypop right now?

Right then - first up we have a fabulous Scraplift Challenge where we have been challenged by our talented CT member Cass to lift a page from one of my bestest bloggy pals and super scrapping wonder woman Carollee (who Deb and I both want to be when we grow up LOL) - participants in this challenge go in to the draw to win a $10 GC to the Pickleberrypop Store!!

Here is the page that I made to advertise the challenge - You are my everything

Credits here

I lifted Carol's adorable Love Reigns page

Credits here

The other challenge we have at PBP this month is our fun White Space Challenge hosted by the lovely Lisa - and participants can win a $10 GC to the store via a random draw!

Here is the page that I made to advertise this fun challenge - I would like to frame you

Credits here

Ok next would be some CT pages - I made a page for Laitha using her delightful Rainbow's Touch kit

Day by Day

Credits here

Now in addition to being on the PBP Team I also have the pleasure of being on KateF's (aka Lazy Cow Designs) personal team and she made an adorable new kit called Gelati Party during the week that I just HAD to scrap with.

Available here at Pickleberrypop!

Here is the page I made with this yummy kit: Choc-Mint Ice Cream YUM!

Credits here

Oh and I have to mention that this page was mentioned on the Gallery Standouts blog in the April 2nd post! I was so thrilled to be mentioned - it's never happened to me before! woohoo!

In addition to the lovely kit Kate also whipped up a matching Alpha-wood that is just adorable!

Available here at Pickleberrypop

Here is the page I made using these fabulous litle alpha's - Who am I?

Credits here

Oh and do you like the font I used? It's a Lazy Cow font called BORED

Like it??? Do your REALLY like it? Do you LOVE it?? Do you want it? Do you NEED it??? Of course you do!!!! LOL Well you can get it right now for FREE (yes free!!) from the Lazy Cow Designs blog - it's a cracker of a font, I love it so! So what are you still doing sitting here? I know you want it, so off you go LOL.

Ok that's all from me for today - I'll be back in a couple of days with my Project photos for this week :) ta ta from me!

Project 365 - 23 Mar to 29 Mar

2009-03-31T18:20:00.005+10:00

It still freaks me out that I am still going with this project - and even my family are starting to get interested in what I am doing and are becoming more than unwilling victims of my paparazzi attacks they are even suggesting things for me to photograph. The biggest shock came from hubby when he said today that I should take a photo once a week of each of our faces so that we can have a record of how our faces change over the course of a year. I think that this interest from him has a lot to do with the fact that he is on the diet with me and I have been telling him how much slimmer his face is looking ROFL. So next week you may very well see (in addition to my project photos) a photo of the four of us - should be fun!

Ok enough blabbering - on to the project photos for last week!

Day 82

Bella knows that there is no point asking Mum to help her with her maths homework - unless I can have my calculator there next to I am frankly less than useless! Luckily Dad came home from work early and was able to help!

Day 83

It amazes me the straits I go to to take a self portrait just because I am too lazy to set up a tripod and do it properly ROFL!

Day 84

It was amazing the pile of junk mail that was in my letterbox this afternoon!

Day 85

Wow I was soooo pleased with how this photo turned out - the beams of light shooting upwards were so pretty.

Day 86

There is nothing like a sunny Autumn morning to hang out your sheets and to get that lovely fresh smell.

Day 87

As I said earlier my family are starting to take an interest in the project and Tasha decided to take her own self portrait this morning - how cute!

Day 88

What is it they say about curiosity and cats? There is nothing more irresistible to Chelsea than a tipped over box - it's a shocker of a photo but I was giggling madly and trying to do it quickly!

Well that's all from me for this weeks project - I will be back later with some scrap pages and some information about Pickleberrypop's exciting new April Challenges!!

Project 365 - 16 Mar to 22 Mar & some scrapping

2009-03-28T12:53:00.007+10:00

Yes well time certainly got away from me this last fortnight and I completely spaced about posting my photos. That's not to say that I haven't been taking them every day, because I have - faithfully. I'm just having a bit of trouble remembering about posting them LOL.

Anyway here is my catch up from last week and I will post THIS weeks tomorrow, I sort of promise LOL

Day 75

Today my big girl flew to Canberra with all the other Year Seven's of her school. We had to be at the school at 6am and that is why my photo isn't very good - it has NOTHING to do with that fact that I was trying to not to blubber all over her like an hysterical over-protective Mother LOL.

Day 76

When Mum moved on the weekend I got to have a pile of her Bromiliades from her old garden as she isn't ready to re-do the garden in her new place. I placed them in my front yard under my trees because it is shady there most of the time - I hope they do ok!

Day 77

This is a creeper that is growing on the wall between us and our next-door neighbors place - the flowers are very pretty.

Day 78

Tasha found this sweet little skink when she was grubbing around in the garden today - I dutifully took a photo as asked and then I persuaded her to release the poor terrified creature.

Day 79

This photo has ended up being my submission for the March "Up Close and Personal" Photography Challenge - it was a struggle trying to get the perfect macro shot but I managed to get this one by laying on my tummy on the dewy morning grass to stop my hands from shaking!

Day 80

Bella managed to get Gastroenteritis while on camp in Canberra and has been vomiting all over the place since she got home - she is pretty exhausted and just lays around while she can. We were over at Mums and she found my copy of Twilight there so she started reading it to make herself feel better.

Day 81

We broke our diet tonight and I think if you are going to break your diet it should be for something YUMMY! Like Nachos rofl - and they were yummy! But don't worry I have now lost 5.50 kilos so far and that is after the naughty nacho dinner so I am still on track.

Ok I have been doing a bit of scrapping as well in between forgetting to blog so here you are:

I made this page using the fabulous new collab Magical Tale between FruitLoOp Sally and Camila Designs - it went perfectly with the photo I chose of Tasha dancing in the backyard.

Tasha

Credits here

I made this page using ET Designs beautiful kit Amazing World and Amazing Words - they are so much fun to use! Such yummy colours.

Your twinkling eyes

Credits here

I was trying to cheer Bella up with this page as she hasn't been well and she did smile to see herself posed among all these adorable animals! I had so much fun making this with Dawn Inskip's new kit A Brand New Day - don't you just love those doodles?

Look through the eyes of a child

Credits here

I have managed to journal on every page I have made since I wrote my article on journaling in the March Issue of the PBP Newsletter. If you are interested in reading my article on journaling "Journaling - how to keep your memories alive" you can check it out here and you might want to subscribe to the newsletter so you don't miss out on any other interesting things in future editions of the newsletter!

Rightio it's time I got some work done so I'll catch up with you later on - probably tomorrow or Monday LOL!

Opps nearly forgot!

2009-03-18T17:02:00.005+10:00

I can't believe I nearly forgot to post my P365 photos! Well I won't dilly dally - I'll great straight into it (I'm supposed to be folding the clothes LOL).

Day 68

I just can't get over how much Tasha has improved with her reading this year! Since starting Year 2 the books she brings home now are getting trickier and trickier and she is just taking it in her stride. Well done sweetheart! Mama's proud of you!

Day 69

This triphod-like plant was given to us a long time ago and we were told that it only opens it's flower bud at night. I was so excited to see not just one flower but three on this plant in the afternoon but guess what? I forgot to go down later that evening with my camera so I missed it's opening! Oh well maybe next time!

Day 70

Yes I (and the whole family really) are still going with the low-carb high-protein diet and I am pleased to announce that so far I have lost 4.50 kilos - not bad for 4 weeks effort and two of those weeks with no exercise because of my stupid ankle. Thankfully it's feeling a bit better so I started training again last night!

Day 71

It still freaks me out that my baby girl, my first born angel is in Grade 7! The Grade 7's were presented with these cool shirts this week and all the kids names are on the back so they can remember everyone. They are going to wear these when they leave for their school camp to Canberra on Monday (sob!!). It's pretty darn hard cutting these apron strings.

Day 72

School seems to be the theme for this weeks photos and today is no exception - it was crazy hair day at school today and although you can't really see it the girls hair is COVERED in glitter spray LOL. Tash really liked her hair like this and I had to do some fast talking to get out of having to do that style every day!

Day 73

Today we got the truck to move Mum's furniture (all of it) up to her new place. It was a HUGE day and we worled like dogs. My diet fell aside for the day as eating stuff not surrounded in bread was near impossible and I was too pooped to stuff around with my food. The best bit of the whole day according to the girls was getting to ride in the truck with their papa back to Brisbane - according to Tasha it was totally AWEsome!

Day 74

Because she was going away to camp Bella and I decided to take her to the hairdressers and get a little bit cut off to make it easier for her to manage. She walked out of there with about 9 inches off her hair - I nearly fainted! But I have to say she loves it to bits and I think she looks very stylish. Sigh another step towards adulthood!

OK I have to rush off and do real life stuff so I will catch up with you later!

OK so I'm a day late! What's new LOL

2009-03-14T08:48:00.006+10:00

Ok those of you who know me should realise that time frames in my personal life don't work so well for me LOL. Professionally I am a machine and stick to time frames like glue - payroll after all is ALL about cut offs and time limits! So you can't be surprised when I am a bit late when it comes to personal stuff LOL. Anyway last night Kate released her beautiful Arty Farty set of goodies and I have to tell you people that these beauties are all hand painted! Yep - painted by her own fair hand and then scanned for your digital pleasure! Available at Pickleberrypop right now you either buy them individually OR as a bundled set (and receive a great discount in the bargain!).

Have a look at the bundled set - it's great value! Just click the image to go straight to the store!

AND don't forget the gorgeous Arty Farty papers! I am seriously in love with the way these papers look!!! Just click the image to go straight to the store!

Here is a page I made from the whole kit and kaboodle of the Arty Farty goodies! - I love how it has come out!

Imagine!

Credits here

Ok I had best get on my way - we are moving my Mum and step-father into their new house today and it is going to be a huge day! So much to do, so little time. We have to get both cats up to Caboolture and we only have one cat cage - so two trips with yowling cats should be FUN hahahaha. Talk to you later and thanks for visiting!

Some other stuff

2009-03-12T19:25:00.014+10:00

I nearly forgot to come back and post again! I can't believe how forgetful I am, to much on my mind I guess. Well I have been busily making pages for PBP recently and I would love to share them here but first I have to show you some of the great challenges that we have going on over at PBP this month.

These two challenges each have a fantastic prize this month - completing a page for either of these challenges (and posting the link in the challenge thread) will put you in the running to win a $10 GC to the Pickleberrypop Shop and with all the wonderful designers we have in there this is a prize NOT to be missed!

If you are interested in finding out more just click on the images and it will take you straight to the challenge threads!

This is my page for this great challenge, I love this series of books and I was devestated when the author passed away in 2007. But while researching my scrap page I found out that another author is stepping into his massive shoes and will be completing the series and I couldn't be happier!

My favorite Book Set

Credits here

The gallery that Laura chose to lift, jarkab1, is just gorgeous and I had trouble choosing just one page. In the end I chose to lift this gorgeous page of jarkab1’s Mikysek

Bella

Credits here

And don't forget that we have our usual photography challenge running this month as well, this month we are asking you to get up close and personal and give your macro button a good workout!

Just click on the image to join in the fun!

I have been on a bit of a scrapping binge recently and I have made some fun pages with some of the new goodies from a couple of our fabulous new designers FruitLoOp Sally and ET Designs.

Here are two pages that I created using FruitLoOp Sally's great new kits, Simple and Peek-a-whoo?, available here

Who loves you?

Credits here

Sweetie Pie

Credits here

And here are two pages that I created using ET Designs lovely kits that you can find here.

How does your garden grow?

Credits here

The Sweetest Flower

Credits here

And one last page from me that I made for the Pickle Jar Challenge last fortnight - I really liked how it came out - the black and white looks so appealing, and I really enjoyed writing the journaling. It made me realise I haven't been doing much journaling recently - I am to change that in the future!

Credits here.

Wow that was a LO heavy post from me - but I think I have caught up on my posting so I will leave you for now.

But I will be back tomorrow night to show you some of the beautiful new stuff from the talented KateF who has been busily creating and is ready to launch some great new stuff tomorrow!

Project 365 - 2 Mar to 7 Mar

2009-03-09T10:39:00.005+10:00

Hi there everyone - well so much for my coming back this week to post about the challenges! The week sped by so quickly between work, twisting my ankle AGAIN, getting the kids to school and back, going to the dentist, the cat being sick again and dieting it has all been just a tiny bit busy. Now today I have my MIL in Hervey Bay to worry about as Cyclone Hamish begins its slow progress into the coast, where it is expected to cross at Hervey Bay this evening. I rang her this morning to make sure she was ok and she is in good spirits (we are all from Townsville so cyclones are a bit more common up there) but we are a little worried as we don't believe that the roof is cyclone bolted - so I am keeping my fingers crossed for her. I'll call again tonight to double check on her I think.

I feel a bit guilty because even though it is a bit nerve wracking up there, we are starting to see rain clouds developing and we are desperately hoping for some good rain here in Brisbane from the edges of the cyclone - rain is something that we really really need right now!

Anyway enough chatting I had better get on and post my photos (yes I'm still going!! Woohoo!!)

Day 61

Even though she is eating more she still looks very slender and frail - she got sick again at the end of the week and on Friday I had to take her to the vets again. The vet and I think we know what is triggering these attacks now, it seems because she is old her liver can't handle the chemicals in the Excelpet flea tablets and so Chelsea gets sick. We have been able to give her an antibiotic needle this time as she wasn't as far gone as she was the last time - thank heavens. She finally ate breakfast this morning, so I am hopeful that this second bout won't be as damaging to her health. Now she will only ever have good quality flea control from the vet!!!!

Day 62

The girls did some posing in the backyard for me today and while I took lots of lovely photos I picked this one to post today as Tasha has a couple of other photos of her to be posted. I really loved this photo of Bella, I love the fall of her hair!

Day 63

I was a bit surprised to come out of my office today to see this smokey haze all over the northern skyline. Apparently (as my hubby informed me) the firies are doing controlled burn offs to reduce the chance of bushfires here in the coming dry season. It is handy have a firefighter husband sometimes lol. Oh and today was the day I rolled my ankle over and while I did take a photo of my crutches and strapped ankle I thought that you all might be just a bit sick of my stupid ankle and it's need to roll over all the time so I thought the haze was more interesting ROFL

Day 64

Here is my good little Tasha showing off her Deputy Principals Gold award for excellent behaviour in the classroom. She was so proud and asked me to take a photo as soon as we got home! I'm just wondering where all this excellent behavior goes when she gets home??? Maybe she wears it all out at school LOL

Day 65

Inspired by my bloggy friend Carol, who took a very nice photo of herself in the bathroom mirror for her photo-a-day project I decided to do the same myself. Sadly the merciless lighting in the bathroom made me look like a strung out dr*g add*ct so I rushed the photo into lightroom and ran one of DYP's gorgeous presets over me and I think I look a BIT better, well certainly less like a crack wh*re now ROFL!

Day 66

Me: What's your favorite breakfast in the whole world Tasha?
Tash: Boiled eggs Mum!
Me: Don't you like cereal Tash?
Tash: Nope
Me: Don't you like fruit and yogurt Tash?
Tash: Nope
Me: How about toast?
Tash: Nope
Me: What would you like for breakfast today Tash?
Tash: Boiled Eggs Mum!
Me: Sigh!
Our regular Saturday morning conversation.

Day 67

On the other hand, Bella says to me on Sunday morning "OMG MUM!" What is on this sandwich?? I said: "what? Your bacon, egg and hash-brown sandwich hun?" "MUM there is EGG on this sandwich!! GROSS!!" sigh! This was the breakfast we had to have in order to eat in the car on our way to help my Mum move house.

Ok That is all from me for now - it has taken ages to finsh this post and I have heaps to do before I pick the girls up from school today, so I will love you and leave you. BUT I PROMISE I will be back tomorrow to post about the FABULOUS challenges that are happening over at Pickleberrypop right now - I can't let you miss out on the chance to win a $10 GC to the store now can I? If you can't wait until tomorrow to find out more why don't you click here and here to get the details???

Project 365 - Feb 22 to Mar 1

2009-03-01T20:00:00.005+10:00

Hey there, I'm popping in to post my photos for the week (on time this time) LOL. Not a lot to chat about so I will get straight to it :

Day 54

My cheeky little girl still likes posing for photos and is always willing to pop that cute smile on when Mummy points the camera at her.

Day 55

So the diet is still going along pretty well and I am trying to make sure that I make my lunch for work ahead of time so I don't have to fuss around. This is my lunch for two days, it's a bacon and zucchini slice (no pastry just egg) to be eaten with a green salad - and I have to tell you it tastes YUMMY! I snuck a bit off the edge as a part of mine stringent quality assurance program ROFL.

Day 56

Tasha started Brownie Guides this afternoon and she was thrilled to be making pancakes. She loves being in the Brownie troop as there are more kids than at Gumnuts and they do "big girl stuff" which she thinks is just great!

Day 57

Look at this cute little mushroom I found in my garden this morning!

Day 58

This morning I was woken by the sound of a noisy cacophony of raucous sound. Squabbling, screeching and being down right loud these Major Mitchell Cockatoos were having a great time across the road from us.

Day 59

Chelsea is starting to fill out a bit now that she is better and has a healthier sheen to her fur now, thank heavens.

Day 60

I got up close and personal to this Grevillia flower today, I just love the colour!

Well that is all from me for this evening, I have to go and do my 30 min workout and then do some ironing LOL. I will be back tomorrow to tell you about some of the great challenges happening at Pickleberrypop this month (you can even win a $10 GC for the PBP store - WOOHOO!!!!) oh and I have to post some LOs that I have made during the week. I have been a busy little scrapping beaver and I have created a few, so I think that they deserve their own post :). So bye from me!

ADSR final challenge!

2009-02-24T18:43:00.003+10:00

Well I guess all good things must come to an end and the ADSR has finally wound up for 2009. I enjoyed myself lots, scrapped outside of my comfort zone on occasion and spent some quality msn time with my bestest bloggy pal Deb, what more can anyone ask for!

So Deb and I decided to go ahead and do Challenge #13 even though it was an optional challenge because we didn't really want the race to end. Challenge 13 was hosted by NDISB and had to be a two page LO with a list of requirements - here is mine!

Love

Credits are here

Well that's it for another year so it's back to my usual CT scrapping schedule and getting back into being more help over at PBP as I have been sadly slack recently.

Oh and I have to tell you it is now day two of my Low Card High Protein Diet and I am actually not feeling hungry at all which is unusual for me, normal when i hear the word Diet I feel hungry! I have found it hard to make up a protein rich breakfast in the small amount of time I have in the morning sooo I have gone and bought the KetoSlim shake mix today to have for breakfast. I am hoping that the mornings will be heaps easier now. Anyway that's all from me, thanks for popping by.

Project 365 - Feb 16 to Feb 22

2009-02-22T16:04:00.005+10:00

I have just realised that I have entered into the DANGER ZONE as far as my Project 365 is concerned. It was this time last year that I bailed on my project (in fact the last photo I posted was the 24 Feb 2008!) and I was thinking about it today. I can't say that my enthusiasm has waned as yet and I am still taking my photo a day regularly. I have even had a couple of days this week where I had to try to decide between two photos for posting ROFL. I guess the difference this year is that I am not worrying so much about interesting or different photos, this year if it makes me happy and if it reflects a moment in my day then that is good enough for me.

So far its working pretty well LOL anyway here are this weeks photos -

Day 47

And here it is - the beginning of the next stage of my ultimate extreme make-over by my naturopath Penny. Now that she has settled my nerves she is now focusing her considerable interest in all things about me to my waist-line (and hip-line and my butt rofl). I am about to embark on the KetoSlim program and I shall keep you all informed as to my progress - if you are interested LOL actually I'll tell you anyway even if you are not haha. D-Day is next Monday so wish me luck!

Day 48

Tasha was so proud of her first spelling test (as was I!), she got 10 out of 10! She bought it home just so I could take a photo of it LOL - she is sooo the child of a scrapbooker!

Day 49

Here is Bella playing on the swing in the backyard. She even stopped the swing for me so I could take the photo in focus - so considerate - look at the pose will you LOL

Day 50

Now this was a photo I took early in the morning when I was letting the cat out. The morning sun made the brick work on our veranda glow an unearthly devilish red. I loved the shadow of the coach light too hehe

Day 51

Today was a nasty hot and humid day so it was no surprise to see this line of clouds building up over our house. This was taken from out in the backyard looking over my roof. Tasha was carrying on and crying because she was convinced that I was going to be struck by lightening so I could only get a couple of photos. It looked very impressive but turned out to be a whole lot of bluster and not a lot of substance. There was only a small amount of rain out of this storm sadly and it didn't cool it down at all - sigh!

Day 52

The recent rain here in Brisbane, even though it is only a small amount of rain compared to our Northern friends and family, has seen an explosion of Bottlebrush flowers in our backyard tree. The Rainbow lorikeets are having a field day at the moment screaming and squabbling in the tree and making a cake of themselves. They move around so much that it is a bit hard to get them in focus but after many many many photos I was pretty happy with this one. If only they would sit still and look at me like the kids do but no!! ROFL!

Day 53

Nice looking family shot hey? You would think that we had all come together spontaneously, all delighted to have our picture taken. HA! There was a massive amount of cajoling and begging from me to get the loves of my life to leave their many and varied pursuits to come downstairs and have a photo taken with me! You can't see the sighing and complaining that went on behind the scenes and hubby telling the kids to just hurry up and smile so they could get it over with asap - sigh!

Well I think that is enough rambling from me for one evening - I am heading off to gorge myself on corned meat, cabbage, potatoes, carrots and cheese sauce tonight before my life as I know ceases ROFL. Tomorrow I shall wave farewell to breads, cereals, potatoes,wine, chocolate and coffee so tonight I shall eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow.......... we shall DIET rofl! Hmmmm Juno has a newish kit at PBP to help document your weight loss journey! I might have to go grab it!

Ok then - tata from me!

Project 365 - Feb 9 to Feb 15

2009-02-19T17:50:00.010+10:00

Ummmmmm Better late than never I always say LOL. Now I have been taking photos each day, I just haven't got my butt in gear to post them here LOL. My only excuse is ....actually I don't have one, I'm just too tired in the evening to sit down and post rofl! So before I feel sleepy again I'll post quickly LOL

Day 40

There couldn't be anything else today, the news from the Victorian bushfires just gets worse and worse. I don't get the paper but I wanted to preseve the memory some how and I snapped a shot of the morning news program on TV. I am going to be giving a donation to the Red Cross Victoria Bushfire Appeal and I encourage every one to consider making a donation as well. It's such a tragic day and I just need to do something to help.

Day 41

This lovely spotty crouton is just leaping up to the sky at the moment after some rain and some fertilizer! It was so small not that long ago.

Day 42

Year 7 has kicked off with a regime of nightly homework - we have worked out a schedule for all the family to follow that lets Bella sit down to do her homework undisturbed. It seems to be working nicely so far.

Day 43

After not eating since Saturday, becoming weak and listless, going to the vets on monday, getting antibiotics pills and having her temperature taken in a very unpleasent way, biting Mum (making her get an infected finger and a tetanus shot) when she tried to admisiter the aforementioned life saving pills, and being kept inside like a damn house cat Chelsea has had a bad week. Luckily the antibiotics seem to be working and she ate a little bit for the first time since Saturday! Phew!

Day 44

A little rain fell today and dappled the leaves of my verandah ficus, I loved the look of the drops beading and then falling. It took quiet a few shots to get this picture LOL

Day 45

All is forgiven now that Chelsea is feeling better, and she loves me again although she is still having to take her pills each day.

Day 46

How I love this little contraption! It is the easiest way to get a pill down the back of my uncooperative cat's throat! It saved me having any more infected fingers from being bitten that's for sure, once was enough for me this week!

And now for some scrapping LOL

I actually managed to do some pages this week in amongst it all, some ADSR and some CT pages.

On the CT front this week I had a wonderful time using DebF's gorgeous Happyness kit - you will be amazed at how versatile it is and the colours are just fabulous! Have a look at it - isn't it fun???

And here are my pages using Happyness - I couldn't stop at just one!

Chelsea

Credits here

I actually made this page for this fortnight's great Pickle Jar Challenge - Kaye out did herself again!

Some kind of Wonderful

Credits here

And now for the ADSR pages LOL - yes it is nearly all over *sob* I can't believe that 6 weeks have just flown by. Luckily NDISB have set an extra Challenge #13 and Deb and I are there! Can't wait to give that one a go. Anyway enough yapping here are my pages up to Challenge #12.

Challenge 10

Credits here

I had fun interviewing my partner Deb, she didn't have fun answering "those darn questions" LOL, I had fun scrapping the page, she didn't have fun having her photo on here three times ROFL! Another great Challenge! And Deb I think you look lovely sweetie!

Challenge 11

Credits here

This challenge was to scrap a question - you don't have to answer it, it's just a question that you have always wondered about so here is mine..... For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by the idea that there might be life on Mars. I have been reading about NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit’s landing on Mars since it landed inside Gusev Crater back in January 2004. This photo is the panorama shot of the landing site. How cool it that!

Challenge 12

Credits here

This challenge was a fun one, we got to scrap together which is always a wonderful thing. I love scrapping with my buddy Deb! We had to explain why we scrapbook LOL and here is my page :) . If you want to read the journaling go here. It's always a great time scrapping with you Deb!

And now ........ yawn ...... I'm tired, so i might go to bed. I really do need to do just an ordinary post about nothing much but the Project 365 and the ADSR is taking over my life at the moment so my posts are a bit boring sorry :). Maybe next time LOL ..... yawn....... Night!

Project 365 - Feb 1 to Feb 8

2009-02-08T20:12:00.007+10:00

Well we are slowly falling into a routine now with the new job and being back at school. The change to my schedule is taking a bit to get used to I must admit as I am getting up so much earlier than I used to. At the moment I am often very tired by the end of the day BUT, it is so great to be home with the kids every afternoon. It's great to be able to be there to help with homework, practice and to be there to make dinner each night. Hubby is enjoying not having to make dinner as well so it is a win-win situation all around. Now just to get used to getting up at 5.30 am LMAO.

Enough chatting, lets get onto the project for this week, I can't believe I am still going with it LOL. It's pretty funny but this week is pretty much all about Bella LOL, she certainly does have the lion's share of photos!

Day 32

Deb happened to mention that she thought that hubby might be camera shy and as a matter of fact he IS! I managed to cajole, threaten and harass this one out of him but he wasn't terribly impressed! This is a freebie lightroom preset by the clever Kelsey Smith, Chocolate.

Day 33

These flowers are shockers to grow, they love LOTS of rain and they only bloom when there is a lot of rain. They must have been desperate because we haven't had lots of rain by any means but we have had some. I love the bold colours!

Day 34

I was so proud of Bella, it was her school swimming carnival today and she got a third in breast stroke, which is a major deal for my non-athletic eldest child. And to add to her fabulous day, her house won the points total for the carnival and they normally don't win! Go Kirby!

Day 35

Chelsea was rolling around in the grass at my feet looking so cute while I was trying to hang out the clothes. Now that I think about it, I'm wondering why I had my camera downstairs while I'm hanging out washing LOL

Day 36

Bella finally got her certificates from the Trinity College London for her Piano exams today, considering the exams were taken in November it seems like they came from the UK via steam boat! But she was soooo proud (as was I!) of her completion with distinction!

Day 37

Here is my big Grade 7 girl with her Mission statement and her leadership badge pinned proudly to her lapel. The Grade 7's had a special Mass today and were presented their badges in front of the majority of the school (and parents!) by the new Parish Priest Father Gabrielle.

Today needed a double photo because one of the other Mum's there was kind enough to take Bella and my photo for me. I so often don't get a look in at these sorts of things and it was so nice of her to do this for me! So yay! I was a part of my daughters life for once people LOL

Day 38

S is for Scary, Scream, Shiver and SPIDER! It's only a Golden Orb Spider out near hubby's shed but man!, is she HUGE! Yikes! I was looking for Chelsea in the garden and I nearly put my face into the web - shiver!

Day 39

Today we thought we would muck around and do some posing, but I think the sun was still a bit bright so there is a certain amount of squinting going on here but Tasha was having a grand old time!

OK one last thing to post about - I have only done Challenge #9 so far for ADSR this week so I will post that tonight here and do a catch up post during the week. Here is my Challenge #9 LO - Family. It was a challenge that required us to scrap about something to do with generations, and to use some lace and some vintage stuff, so here is mine :). This is Hubby's family when we all got together after my FIL returned home from a long stint in hospital as a celebration of Life and Family!

Family

Credits here

Ok I think that is all from me for now - I have to go to the naturopath's tomorrow and she is going to put me on a DIET (gag) but she prefers to call it a lifestyle change *sigh* but I know it is for my own good so i am going to be very positive about it!! I also have to take my cat to the vets tomorrow to so fingers crossed for me please as she hasn't been very well this weekend.

Oh and as a last thing before I go - I just want to wish all my friends down south all the very best during these awful fires and I hope and pray that you all stay safe tomorrow. I also want to wish all the very best to my family and friends living up north in flood ravaged North Queensland, stay safe and out of the way of roaming crocs OK??? Love you all, please stay safe!!!!!

Project 365 - Jan 26 to Jan 31

2009-02-01T18:53:00.005+10:00

Ok so I'm back on track with my Sunday posting now and I have even scrapped a page for the PBP CT so I have had a very productive day. Now all I need to do is finish my article for the next newsletter and I will be feeling pretty good LOL

Here are this weeks photos for your perusal:

Day 26

Here are my kids - made in Australia and growing strong with security and freedom - we really are the lucky country!

Day 27

Yahoooooo it's back to school tomorrow, the last of the books are packed in the backpacks tonight, the lunch boxes are placed on the kitchen bench and the water bottles are filled and in the fridge! Bring it on!!

Day 28

OK people this is what happens when you start your new job on the same day that the kids go back to school - you ask, very nicely mind you, if your husband would very much mind taking a photo of the kids before he takes them to school - not a big ask really. But what happens when you get home to inspect the photos - you find that there is only ONE photo and the kids both had their eyes closed. Now I am a patient woman, really I am but I ask you!! ONE photo!! *sigh*

Day 29

We have a caramel lover in our family, not a caramel TART lover mind you, just caramel! So how do you eat just caramel from a caramel tart?? With a spoon!

Day 30

Now I have to admit that I have always envied ladies who lunch, it was always something that seemed so luxurious, so decadent. Now that I only work Tues, Wed & Thursday's I now have two days off a week for a little me time. So when my bestie J suggested lunch as she was on holidays - I was so excited. I am now a lady who lunches LOL (admitedly it has only been the once so far!)

Day 31

I wonder why I bought the Playstation?? So I could watch Tasha lounge on the couch gripped by her obsession? I wanted to make the photo a bit more edgy so I ran a lightroom action called Dream on it - I like how it came out.

Well that's me for another week - happy snapping fellow addicts!!

ADSR Week 3 & 4

2009-02-01T09:12:00.008+10:00

Ok I got a bit behind posting these too after the holidays sorry so I will quickly pop them in now so you can see that I am still plugging along with the race. Thankfully there haven't been too many curve balls so far and there has only been one challenge that I haven't enjoyed. You may not remember that I was bragging about being able to scrap while I was away on holiday?? WRONG! The stupid photoshop wouldn't open the files so it was all a waste of time taking the laptop and the external HD with me but never mind I managed to talk to Deb via email (from the internet kiosk downstairs in the unit complex) and got all the info for Challenge 5 so I could think about it and then do it quickly once I got home and Challenge 6 was a roadblock that Deb did - so it all worked out ok LOL

So here goes ......

Challenge 5

Challenge 5 was hosted by Anita Stergiou (a fellow Aussie) whose work I have always admired so this challenge was a pleasure to do. The challenge part was that we couldn't use photos and we had to use three different and seperate frames. We were supposed to do the page about a I time where we didn't have photos or had lost the photos. So it was great timing for me as you can see from the journalling as we went kayaking during the holidays and I couldn't take my camera. I really liked how this page turned out.

Kayaking

Credits here

Challenge 6

This challenge was done by my race partner and super cool human being Deb. She had to scrap lift a page of mine from the gallery and turn it 45 degrees. So she did my page from Challenge 3 Baby Mine. I love what she did with it!

Deborah Rose

Credits here

Challenge 7

Now I'll be honest up front - I did not like this challenge and my mojo was a total no-show! I did not like the papers from the kit we were asked to use and I would never have chosen those colours in a pink fit BUT I guess that is why its a CHALLENGE so I can't moan too much. I wasn't even going to post it here LOL but I changed my mind as you need to see the good, the bad AND the ugly! Here's what I did with it - not loving it but what can you do!

My Little Tweety

Credits here

Challenge 8

This challenge was super fun as we had to scrap lift someone we idolise or who inspires us, and I couldn't go past someone who I am always saying I want to be when I grow up - my scrapping pal Carol! Her style is so timeless and her pages are always clean and well designed. So here is the page of Carol's that I lifted - isn't it fabulous?

Love you honey

Credits here for Carol's fab page!

Now not only did we have to lift the page, we also had to add the word "dream" in some form or other and use stars. So here is my lift of Carol's page -

Sweet Dreams.

Credits here

Ok I think I am all up-to-date now - only two weeks of racing to go and then it's all over for another year! I will miss the thrill of the un-known challenge and the fun prizes. Oh well there is always next year hehe.

Im baaaack!

2009-01-30T13:56:00.012+10:00

Wow what a great holiday! I feel relaxed and refreshed and ready to go! There is nothing like a week at the beach to clear the cobwebs from your mind. So after a lovely week we all came back ready to get on with 2009! The kids went back to school and I started my new job this week and it's all just great! I have to catch up with my 365 photos in this post so I will leave the yacking for now and just get into posting up to last Sunday to get me up to date :)

Here goes........

Day 15

This is a photo of Tasha's school book contact the rotten horrible @!#!$@ stuff! Arggg I haven't had this much trouble with covering books in years! Talk about bubbles and creases! Anyway this photo was taken before I threw the lot on the floor and nearly jumped on them - I fiddled in lightroom to give it an acid washy kinda look because it suited my frame of mind at the time.

Day 16

My cat Chelsea is starting to get used to having her photo taken now and barely glances at me when I grab the camera - lol - I'm glad because she is 16 years old this year and I am trying to get lots of photos of her in case she ummmm leaves us soon. This was taken just before I stuffed her in a cat cage to take her to Mum's while we were away, she was NOT a happy camper - I was going to take a picture of her in the cat cage but she was hissing and spitting sooooo I changed my mind LOL

Day 17

Ahhh here we are at the Gold Coast for our annual break! The first thing we do after unpacking our stuff and checking out the changes made to our unit during the year is to go for our family walk along the beach - I loved the reflection in this photo of Tasha.

Day 18

Ok I'll be honest and tell you that I'm not that keen to swim in the sea and the minute I can't touch bottom I panic - but knowing that the guys and girls from the Surf Rescue are right there makes me feel much safer and we only ever swim between the flags!!! Oh and the smaller of the two large unit complexs in the background is where we stay.

Day 19

We went up to the Currumbin Creek Rock Pools today and the water was freezing. I loved this photo of Bella perched on the rock trying to get up the nerve to jump into the icy water, her Dad was teasing her and she was scowling so much she reminded me of a Bunyip hehe

Day 20

Ahhhhh so lovely to walk along the beach in the afternoon!

Day 21

The waves were a bit choppier and bigger today when we went for our walk - I loved the look of the waves pounding against the rocks!

Day 22

Today we took a trip up to the Springbrook National Park to check out the walking tracks and the waterfalls. The weather was damp and cloudy and the photos all came out rather dark and eerie looking but I loved how this tree looked against the backdrop of fog.

Day 23

The units that we stay at have a fairly basic pool, it's not a flash lagoon or anything, but the kids get such a kick out of jumping into it after being in the surf. I can't get over Tasha's increased confidence in the water this year - last year she would only swim with her life vest on but this year she was swimming around like a little fishy! It was so great to see her playing in the pool with her sister while I lounged on the side of the pool on the banana lounge ROFL

Day 24

Like sands through an hour glass, so go the days of our holiday. I was trying to capture the lovely view from our unit before we went home the next day but the clouds obscured the view of Surfer's Paradise that you can usually see past the rocks. Never mind, there is always next year!

Day 25

Here we are on the way home - I took this photo just for you Deb! FYI my friend Deb has a passion for signs and I took this photo not long after we pulled onto the highway. No-one wanted their picture taken this morning, everyone is always a bit blue that we are going home so this has ended up my photo of the day by default LOL

OK I am all caught up with my photos for now - there will be another lot ready for posting on Sunday as I will be back into the groove. Thanks for stopping by everyone - I appreciate your lovely comments!

Project 365 - days 12, 13 and 14

2009-01-15T09:16:00.006+10:00

Hi everyone I'm just posting these here a bit earlier than Sunday this week as I will be out of town from Saturday and I am still working my way through my to-do pile. So here are the next three days of my project to share with before I go and do my exercise and then start covering the kids school books arggggh - it's a job I love to hate! I get a bit obsessive about bubbles under the contact but I have found that using an oven mitt makes the process of smoothing out the wrinkles and bubbles so much easier. Now if only I could get them to cover themselves *sigh* Although I can't really complain this year because the weather is quiet mild at the moment, normally I am sweltering in 40 degree heat and have sweat dripping off my nose!

Oh right - posting photos now LOL

Day 12

Bella reminded me that I took a photo of Tasha's new school shoes when I started last year's Project 365 so it was her turn to have HER new school shoes photographed (that girl has an amazing memeory!)

Day 13

I was lucky enough to get up early to let the cat out this morning and I was dazzled by the glorious colours of teh sky. I ran back in to get my camera but didn't stop to put my glasses on so the fact that it isn't blurry is more thanks to my camera's auto settings than any talent on my part!

Day 14

My beautiful princess insisted on posing for me today - it remains to be seen how long this enthusiasm for having her photo taken nearly daily will last lol

Well that's all from me for now - like I said before things to do - catch you later!

ADSR Week 2

2009-01-14T16:19:00.005+10:00

YAY I have finished this weeks challenge nice and early this time, mainly because I am off work and also because I will be away down the Coast for a few days from Saturday so I was trying to clear my to-do list before I start packing.

Luckily for me my wonderful hubby has arranged for me to have limited internet access while we are away so I won't miss any of my challenges so as long as we keep getting checked off we will be eligible to go in the draw for the grand prize. Deb and I had decided that the prize didn't matter it was the race that matters most but we both (I think) breathed a sigh of relief when hubby said he could fix it for me to keep racing ROFL!

So here are this week's ADSR pages...

Challenge 3 was from Gotta Pixel and it involved finding the first LO you have uploaded into a gallery and re-do it, using the same photo and the same text. I re-did the first LO in my DST gallery Baby Mine and here is my new page -

Baby Mine

Credits here

Challenge 4 was a fair bit harder and was hosted by Tangie Baxter so you KNOW it's going to be altered in some way LOL. Tangie wanted us to create a page that had Art and Soul. If you want to know more about what that means you can go here, to Tangie's blog, to read more about it.

Anyway here is my page - Altered Art isn't really my cup of tea but I do like how this turned out. I put a lot into it and if you want to read the journalling go to the credits.

This too shall pass

Credits here

Well this is all I have for now for ADSR and I now have to wait (im) patiently until Sunday for the next challenge. Oh you can check out my fab partner Deb's pages on her blog HERE, they are great AND she is doing the Project 365 too - it's a bloggy year for my pal.

Thanks for looking!

Project 365 - week 2

2009-01-11T20:52:00.010+10:00

I am really enjoying Project 365 right now! Deb's great challenge over at Pickleberrypop is really helping to keep the motivation going and I am finding it easier to remember to actually take the photos this time around .... so without further ado here are my photos for this week!

My new regime of naturopathic remedies taste revolting so they MUST be good for me! It was a blurry photo but I ran Kelsey Smith's Love and Loss lightroom preset over it and I liked how it turned out!

First thing in the morning the sun streams in through the dining room curtains - I love the light and shadow!

My poor Ficus struggling along completely neglected and under-pruned!

Chelsea was trying really hard not to look at me - she doesn't like me pointing the camera at her LOL

The wonderful farewell gifts from my friends at QBC came in this beautifully wrapped box!

I loved this photo of Bella who seems to be adopting these moody poses these days (must be adolescence arriving!eeek) - I ran a vintage lightroom preset over it to accentuate her mood (not sure whose preset it is though!

This little fellow turned up in our garden this morning - it was a surprise because we don't see many snails here - well live ones anyway. The kids were quiet excited and they thought that he looked very slippery!

Well that's all from me for another week ... keep up the good work everyone ... we can go the distance!

Scrapping up a storm!

2009-01-11T12:54:00.007+10:00

Well I am feel pretty darn proud of myself at the moment! First I have managed to take a photo a day all week, I have completed the first two ADSR Challenges with by best bud Deb, done my part for the next PBP newsletter AND I have exercised four days out of five! Yay ME!

Deb and I are Team 99 and we have used the cool blinkie that Mel made for us in 2007 and we are once again .... the Digital Duo, saving memories for all!!

So here are my first two pages for this years ADSR!

Challenge 1 was to tear a photo into three or more pieces and focus on journalling - so that's what I did - my page is about the struggle I face making changes in my life:

Changes
Credits are here

Challenge 2 - Was a challenge! Deb and I had to do a joint page with 4 papers, 8 unique elements, 3 photos and 2 fonts PLUS it had to be something about Cabin fever!! Crikey! It was reallyhard but fun to do and Deb and I spent most of yesterday on msn trying to work out how it would all go. We had a nasty moment after we posted when we checked the forum and found out that we had got the element bit wrong but we quickly re-did it and TADA we finally finished last night and we have been signed off for both our challenges this week sucessfully! Yay!

Cabin Fever = Friends boldly going nowhere!

Credits are here

I have been doing a bit of scrapping for the PBP CT this week and I have to say it is a pleasure working with the gorgeous goodies available in store at the moment.

I made this page of my darling Bella using PST Designs new kit Sky - I really like how it came out!

Precious

Credits here

I also made this vintage page using a new kit called Winters Natural Warmth from Laitha who is a brand new designer at Pickleberrypop and she is just amazing!

Great Grandfather's Garden - 1967

Credits here

I'll be back later today with my 365 photos for the week as I am hoping to get todays done and ready for posting this afternoon. Thanks for stopping by :)

And here I go ....

2009-01-04T16:36:00.006+10:00

Well I have made a start on my first resolution and I have been taking my photo-a-day. I am probably only going to post on Sundays though because it is a bit of a pain uploading the photos daily blah blah blah so I thought that once a week is plenty. It's pretty quiet here on Sundays so I am hoping that this will be a good time to post the weeks photos. I am going to use the gorgeous photo frames from Deb's fabulous 365 Challenge over at Pickleberrypop - if you like them you can get them too by going here or clicking on the image :)

So here are my first four days for my Project 365 - I hope I can make the distance this time.

As to the other parts of my new Years resolutions I have to say i am off to a pretty good start there too. I spent some time on the phone to one of my girlfriends which resulted in me going out to see the Twilight movie with her for a nice girls time (with our eldest girls but that is ok). I LOVED the movie and I really can't wait for the rest of them now - I really loved the intensity that the characters had - just as I imagined it from the book! *happy sigh*

Oh and my other resolution to get some exercise and bring down my blood pressure naturally has seen me walking and I am going to be making an appointment with a naturopath on Monday, I think that I am on track! So yay me!

Ok I had best go - I have dinner to cook and folding to do. Talk to you later!!

A little something for you ....

2008-12-30T20:58:00.005+10:00

Well today was another quiet one here at my place, the family is still away - but boy was it a hot and humid one, and apparently tomorrow will be worse - 34C!! YUCK! I will almost be glad to be at work tomorrow in the air-conditioning. I haven't done much around the place today, some washing of sheets and towels and I watched the last movie of The lord of the rings this afternoon. My all time favorite movie, ever ever! I still cry like a baby at the end - silly hey?

But I am really just popping in to let you know I have actually been a little productive over the last couple of days and I wanted to share my flurry of activity with you. Over at DST one of the Aussie girls let out a call for Summery desktops for January because lets face it people, all the lovely freebie ones are all sparkling and glistening with snowy prettiness, which while nice in the right setting, looks damn odd on a computer where the owner has a line of sweat rolling down her back while she creates LOL.

So Annette being the wonderful and motivated person that she is asked the CT to come up with some Summery goodness for all our Down Under kin and well, as I had nothing else to do, I stuck up my hand ROFL! As soon as I saw the Summery theme I thought of Sharon's fabulous Beach Play kit over @ Pickleberrypop. So off I went and here is the result: Umm did I mention it was free??

If you like it click on the image and it will take you to the PBP store where you can get it for free! How cool is that? I am so in love with the preview Annette made for it! Isn't it the most fab thing you have seen?? I am so excited, I never thought that I would ever see anything I created in a store, anyway enough gushing from me!

Talking of Sharon - have you been over to her Etsy store yet??

It is called Sugared Bling and there are some absolutely gorgeous earrings in there that have been made by Sharon and her talented daughter Tash. I have drooled over these earrings for a while now but one of my fabulous friends sent me a pair for Christmas which I love to bits (seriously woman I don't know how you knew!!!!). So if you are in the mood for some totally adorable handmade earrings head on over to Sharon's Sugared Bling, you will be glad you did!

Well it is still stinking hot here and I have a line of sweat rolling down my back but in a minute I will be looking at my lovely Summery Desktop (yes the preview image is the one that is on my computer too LOL) and hopefully feeling a bit cooler. If that doesn't work I am going to put on the air-con in my bed room and head off early tonight - so ta ta from me!

Is it wrong?

2008-12-29T16:44:00.005+10:00

Well.............IS it wrong to waste the quiet time you have been given by your family going away for a few days by either sitting in front of your computer or watching movies? Seriously Mum and I only made it through the first two extended Lord of the Rings movies (Nearly 7.50 hours of movies magic!!) yesterday before we collapsed from exhaustion LOL! But itsn't it funny that when they (the kids and hubby) are here all I want is some peace and quiet to do what ever I like but when I CAN do whatever I like I just don't know what to do with myself! But I DO know I am sure as heck not doing any housework LOL - thank heavens for msn otherwise I would be lonely as well as bored ha ha. Thanks for saving me from my own company Deb LOL!

With New Year fast approaching I have been fiddling around thinking about resolutions for next year and I have decided that I might try to do the Project 365 again. I know I struggled early on into it this year but I noticed that while I was doing the project I had heaps of photos to scrap with and then as the time went by I had less to choose from - so I have decided that it behooves me as the member of a CT to do this project! Well I need SOME sort of motivation don't I :) - anyway we shall see what happens with that won't we.

One of my serious New Years resolutions for 2009 is to lose some weight and to try to manage my blood pressure without the medication! I have finally gotten the medication all out of my system and I am having my good and bad days as my blood pressure goes up and down like a roller coaster! SO as I am now the proud owner of a super cool Cross-Trainer I have no excuse not to exercise. Isn't it great? Bella has decided that you aren't serious about working out unless you have your mp3 player going full belt - I have even set myself up a rocking playlist on my Nano so that I can hop on and be driven by the beat! You would laugh if you could hear my songs - Black Eyes Peas, Flock of Seagulls, and a bit of AC/DC just to name a few haha but it gets my motor running and thats the main thing. I would REALLY really like to be a bit thinner for my beach holiday at the end of January and that is going to need a bit of motivation on my part to shake of the bad eating habits of the Xmas break and get back on track! But I can do it - well I think I can LOL!

And one of my other serious resolutions is to be a bit more ummm "real life" I guess is the best way to put it. I have some super fantastic real life friends who really don't "get" this whole on-line life of mine and I feel that perhaps I haven't been there as often as I have tried to be for my on-line friends. I'm not sure, maybe it IS easier sending a loving email than picking up the phone, I'm really not sure but I haven't been as present in their lives as I feel that they deserve - soooo I resolve to make late night calls, and send loving notes via snail mail and visit with those people who are both the rock and anchor of my real life.

But that does not in anyway lessen my love and affection for the wonderful on-line friends I have made. I can't tell you how very treasured and remarkable these wonderful people make me feel. Come on you all know who you are - BIG HUGS to you all! Even those of you who are notoriously bad posters *cough* Deb!!! ROFL

Anyway I had best go as while I have vowed to not do any housework today I DID wash all the sheets and it is beginning to cloud over so I had best get my lazy bottom off this chair and downstairs to the line. Take care!

Fantastic festive fare!

2008-12-27T16:28:00.011+10:00

Merry Christmas and a very, VERY happy New Year to all my blog readers (yes the two of you hahaha) I hope you all had a WONDERFUL Christmas!!!

*cough*

It's been a while I know, sorry about that. This time of year is a busy one for us - we have hubby and Tasha's birthdays both on the 9th December and then before I know it I turned around and Christmas was right upon me! Added to the mix this year, I applied for a new job and my lovely In-Laws came to stay for Christmas LOL so yes, hectic is the word I'm looking for LOL!

So - Tasha and hubby's birthday went off without a hitch. No birthday party for her this year but she had a fabulous day anyway. I took the day off work and we made a cake and set up an afternoon tea for her. Grandma and Grandpa came over to share in the treats and none of us can believe our sweetie is finally seven! She was hideously spoilt and ended up with what amounted to a small fortune in gift cards and cash, and we had to rush out to Toy R us that afternoon and spend some of it haha! It has taken ages and AGES, well as far as she is concerned it has anyway - she can legally sit in the front seat of the car now!! BUT now it is on for young and old each time we go to the shops over who sits in the front of the car with me!!!

And here is Tasha about to blow out the candles on her cake! I did take lots of photos but it was a bit overcast that day and the photos appear very grainy - rats!

Next up in my "wow life is busy" saga was the new job. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not that keen on changing jobs. My motto has long been "better the devil you know ..." LOL and I stayed over ten years in each of my first two jobs. But I have allowed temptation to take me and after only 9 months at my current job I am moving on to what (I hope) is going to be my dream payroll job. It's only three days a week (one day a week less than I am now) and I will be looking after the end-to-end payroll for 250 people by myself so I am pretty excited! I start on the 28th Jan after our beach break. I have been pretty stressed over telling my current boss about my deciding to leave and I was feeling a bit blue about it but I am finding it gets easier as the days go by, hopefully she will forgive me in time LOL and now I am trying to focus on the new job and I am trying to feel less guilty!

My parents-in-law arrived the Tuesday before Christmas and my MIL helped get things ready for Christmas dinner. It was lovely to have help getting all the salads and stuff ready on Christmas Eve afternoon, things were so much more relaxed on the big day. My MIL loves to go to Church at Christmas so we all toddled up to our local for Children's Mass on Christmas Eve and I even managed to drag hubby along, oh my was it packed! We had to go into the adjoining hall because there was no room in the church for everyone - luckily they had a live video feed so we didn't feel too left out ROFL!

As to the big day itself - what can I say? The kids were up early and opened Santa's presents on our bed before their poor Dad had even cracked open an eyelid! Next it was complete bedlam as the present opening went into full swing when Nanna and Poppy got up. It was a great day, the kids got way too much as always and they are desperately in love with their Wii and the games. the Wii turned out to be a great crowd pleaser and we had not only the kids playing but all the grandparents as well LOL the funniest thing was seeing my MIL playing a game of snooker with hubby - I was worried she might throw out her shoulder or something lmao!

Santa very wisely gave them an extra remote and nunchuck (sp?) so that there would be no fights LOL. Linner (lunch around Dinner time) with Nanna, Poppy, Grandma and Grandpa was fabulous and we all ate much too much. Everyone enjoyed themselves immensely!

Ahhhhh and now another Christmas has come and gone and all that is left is a rubbish bin full of crushed wrapping paper and shorts that are now too tight LOL. Roll on New Years Eve.

In amongst all this I have been trying to scrap a bit as now I am officially part of the PBP site CT (woohoo!) as well as Right Hand Gal at PBP and seeing as we have no newsletter for December I thought I should earn my keep some how ROFL! It certainly is no real effort to CT for the designers over at Pickleberrypop, they are all such talented ladies!!

So here are some LOs that I have whipped up over the last week or two:

My Wild Child - using DYP design's sumptuous new kit Viridian - I HAD to use this photo of Tasha as it suited the colours of this beautiful kit perfectly!

Credits here

We Wish You a Merry Christmas - using Victoria Greenlees's adorable Crafty Christmas kit. I did this LO for Kirstie's fun template Challenge! Loving those cute tree shapes LOL

Credits here

Love that Tree - using Krisitn Aagard's fabulous kit "Twas! I did this page for Sharon's great Christmas Challenge over at Pickleberrypop that challenged us to scrap Christmas through "new eyes". I had to do Bella's fist Christmas and her love affair with the Christmas Tree!

Credits here

And last but not at all least - A Magic Wood, using Dawn Inskip's fun and inspiring Woodland Doodles and Wild Thing papers : it was such a fun page to make!

Credits here

Well that will have to be all from me for now as my family (sniff sniff) are all away for a few days - thye left today - and I have decided to take myself off to bed early to sulk LOL! My Mum and Step-Dad are coming over early tomorrow and we are going to have the whole day given over to watching all the Lord of the Rings movies - all extended versions and guaranteed to take approximately 12-13 hours ROFL so I need my sleep tonight!!! I shall go to my sleep tonight to dream of Legolas and Aragorn and their gorgeous eyes! So ta ta!!

Addicted to Digiscrapping

Just playing around ....

The word of the year is .....

It's a little bit damp here

A very Happy Festive season ...........

abandonment issues

Grab Bag reminder, freebie ... and thanks!

A Cherpea Blog Hop with freebies and chance to WIN!

Busy busy busy .....

Some awesome news!

A quick hello from me ....

I found my muse ....

Epic FAIL!

Weeks ummm 12 and 13? Where did that time go?

Week 10 and 11 and some pages ...

ADSR Challenge 7 and 8

Weeks 8 and 9 and some ADSR pages

Week 7 and other stuff!

Artisan Notebook pages and ...we're RACING!

Project 365 week 6 - and CT stuff

Project 365 Week 5

Two posts in two days???

Project 365 - Week 3 and 4

Catch you later

2010 with a bullet

I resolve ..........................

Fabulous Friday!

Good morning friends!

Is facebook the end of my blog?

OMG I'm back and I'm finally caught UP!! Woohoo!

Helloooooo *wipes away the dust*

12 days later ....... sigh!

No I haven't fallen off the Project 365 wagon......

Project 365 - May 18 to May 24

It's a fly by posting of the CT variety

Project 365 - 11 May to 17 May

Project 365 TWO weeks LOL

Project 365 - Apr 20 to Apr 26 & a GREAT reveal!

Project 365 & some scrapping

A Happy Easter-birthday-weekend away!

Project 365 - 30 Mar - 5 Apr

A bit of Spring Cleaning (in Autumn)

Some scrapping has been done!

Project 365 - 23 Mar to 29 Mar

Project 365 - 16 Mar to 22 Mar & some scrapping

Opps nearly forgot!

OK so I'm a day late! What's new LOL

Some other stuff

Project 365 - 2 Mar to 7 Mar

Project 365 - Feb 22 to Mar 1

ADSR final challenge!

Project 365 - Feb 16 to Feb 22

Project 365 - Feb 9 to Feb 15

Project 365 - Feb 1 to Feb 8

Project 365 - Jan 26 to Jan 31

ADSR Week 3 & 4

Im baaaack!

Project 365 - days 12, 13 and 14

ADSR Week 2

Project 365 - week 2

Scrapping up a storm!

And here I go ....

A little something for you ....

Is it wrong?

Fantastic festive fare!

Helloooooo wipes away the dust