Angela's Abode

new blog?!

2008-05-09T20:07:00.001+10:00

well just testing it out here

WARNING though: there will not be much there!! :D

A Smudgy Post....

2008-03-13T19:15:00.005+11:00

Well first off, thanks to Chris for her recent post reminding me that I had this thing.... Not that I really forgot about it, but it's not really a high priority I suppose.. anyway, I thought that I'd do a quick post on what I've been doing for the last 4 weeks..

SMUDGE PAINTING! And I LOVE it!!! so, sending some big thanks to Jude for putting me onto the class over at http://www.digitalartacademy.com/

The class is fantastic and the teacher Scott Deardorff is also fantastic, check out some of his brilliant work here: http://pbase.com/sdfp

Ok so here is what I've done so far.. one more to go as the course finishes on Sunday, and I'm a little upset about that!

This one was my first attempt before actually gettting any instruction..

Before

After

This was my next attempt of our dog Tigger (she loves picking her own fruit off the trees ;) )

Before

After
And this is one of our assignments. We also have to do a little girl, but as of yet I haven't finished that one ;)

before

After

Ok, my work is no where near the best of the class, but I think they look ok, so hopefully have tempted you into checking out the class. Even if they haven't check it out anyway, oh and definitely check out Scotts pbase gallery http://pbase.com/sdfp.. you will be blown away!

Well at least

2008-01-25T07:21:00.000+11:00

I left you all hanging on a high point....... ;)

I'm so sorry about my seemingly ongoing absence... lol, at least it shows that some people do actually read this thing.. hehe, thanks guys for giving me a kick in the behind to get me blogging again, and thanks to Jane for calling me "witty" roflol.. I don't think that I've EVER been called that before, and not sure if it will happen again... definitely not after this post!!

Anyway, what have I been up to in the past 5 months? (She says as she quickly flicks through all her photo folders trying to remember what has happened in her life... hopefully she's taken photos of all the important things..)

OK here goes....

September:

... had another MAC get together at the Lovely Lee's house.. had a great time, shame that my laptop was still on the blink and I didn't get to bring it :), but it was great just getting to see the girls, and Julieanne had a wonderful time with Quinn, Bronte and Ash! Yep Sharon had made it down from NSW, which was fantastic!

... had the baby shower for SIL... and for the life of me can't find the card that I made (way to late I may add).. and i really liked that card too and wanted to upload.. oh well that will teach me for leaving things this long I suppose ;)

I'm sure that more happened in Sept, but as these are the only things I have photos of, they are the only things that I can remember off hand.

October

... My new niece Baby Grace was born! She is such a little cutie, and THE BEST baby ever!! I seriously mean that! has slept right through since about the 2nd week (might have even been the first, seriously!) and so very rarely cries... I'm waiting for her to be a terrible teenager.. i mean it's only fair right?!?

... had another couple of Birthdays as well. MIL's was the same day Grace was born (those people can't seem to have children with original days.. their other daughter shares my day ;) ), Waynes Grandma, and Wayne himself...

November

... NEW IMAC!!! Yep finally got it, and must say AM LOVING IT!!!

... we all (ie, inlaws and us) went to Halls Gap for the Cup weekend.

... I got asked to take the photos at Wayne's cousins wedding.. needless to say that I REALLY didn't want to do it, and I'm still feeling all queasy thinking about it... but I did it and got a couple of reasonable shots....

... my birthday. Isabella's party was held at a kids cooking place in Malvern.. lol, Julieanne was the only child that wanted to wear one of the special hats, that's my fun loving girl :)

... at some point I bought Wayne an Xbox 360 to feed his Guitar hero addiction ;)

December

... did the Christmas card photo shoot, and I'm glad that I did too :), even if only a small percentage of cards got out ;)

... School Christmas break up.. this year MIL and FIL and Isabella made it too..

... Went to Inverloch Christmas week and Julieanne got a new bike BEFORE Christmas as we relised how small the one she had was. She doesn't do a lot of riding (as there is no concrete around here to practise on) so she got a bit of a go there.

... went to Mum and Dads for our annual Christmas eve thing

... Christmas day at Inverloch, Lisa's family was there too.. AND SINGSTAR!! Isabella (niece) got it for Christmas and we all had a ball with it.. I couldn't wait for the kids to go to bed at night so the adults could get a turn... lol, I'm now going to get it for Julieanne for her birthday next month ;)

January

... went to Matthew's (SIL nephew) birthday at the adventure park in Geelong... it was packed!! so really didn't have as much fun as we should have... also it was probably the coldest day in the week.. too cold for all the water stuff

... NEW CAR!!! yep see the LO below....

... went to Seaspray (finally) house was a little on the small part and WAyne and I had to sleep in the tent, but that was ok.. ment we could get away from the rest of the family lol

.. also got to see the Wrek.. not that there was much left of it

Well that was all I could tell from going off my photos.. I KNOW that there is stuff that has been left off, but really I dont' think that any of you care about that (well that is if anyone has actually made it this far!! Well done if you have!!)

Oh and the layouts have been few and very far between... I have only done 2 (not counting cards that might have been made lol) so here they are.. sorry no credits as I'm running late and must get off my butt ;) CC as always most welcome

This is of the new car

and this was done only because SBM asked me to do a sport theme one ;)

and on a final note I would just like to say how much I'm hating blogger!!! I can't even drag my photos into position now and have to cut and paste!! Not sure if it's a safari thing or not, but am definitely going to have to change I think....

thanks for visiting TTFN :)

Ooooo... Less than a month

2007-08-14T11:54:00.000+10:00

Between posts... lol, must be on a roll!!

Well I really haven't got a lot to say just needed to do some updating ;).

Spring is definatly around the corner (although the past few days have been FREEZING!!) and I got one of the first bunches of freesias the other day (from work).. also got a bunch of tulips, but freesias would have to be one of my favs.. just love that smell.... the blue gum was from our garden.. love THAT smell aswell :).

I also have to apologise to some of my blogging buddies.. I've been soooo slack in the blog visiting side of things lately... I'm sooo sick of these stupid computer issues. My laptop is away again.. fingers crossed that they can fix the motherboard and it doesn't need to be replaced.. and then to top things off, the desktop is now running even slower than is was!! I didn't think it was possible but there you go lol.. it's supposed to be running on 512 ram, but the last few weeks it's been 256! VERY frustrating.. the funny thing is that on the odd time it will run at 512 so I'm thinking it's a connection problem.... we've switched ram around and given it a good clean, but still the same..... thankfully there is an end in sight >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I'M GOING TO GET ONE!!!!! Well when my tax eventually comes in anyway lol....

And on that high note I'll leave you ;)

TFL and TTFN

The monthly rundown....

2007-07-23T17:58:00.000+10:00

It seems like it tends to be a monthly update doesn't it? lol.....

Well lets see.. I hate not keeping up to date, as it's so hard to remember what has been happening! I'll just go off the photos I have then ;)

School holidays started at the start of July, and I must say that I always love them.. .no rushing around in the morning, and I get to spend the time with Julieanne... She never seems to get bored at home either (touch wood) and that always helps.

I got tickets to go and see Disney on Ice (finding Nemo) so that was the first Friday of the holidays taken care of.... We took mum with us (as she missed out when we went 2 years ago as she'd put her back out), and we all loved it.. it's amazing the amount of work that must go into producing these things. Julieanne got spoilt again, and came home with some silly light up nemo thing.. that will just take up more space in her room! Oh Well...... ;). We ended up catching the train into the city as I wasn't too sure how the parking would be (I'm confident to park at Jeff's Shed but that's about it!!). Got off at Richmond station and walked to the rod laver... it was a fair hike (especially since mum has got shocking knees and back) but we were lucky as it didn't start to rain until we were on our way home!

{Hmmmm... blogger isn't letting me move my pictures for some reason, anyone know why that would be? Very annoying!!!}

Then that weekend Wayne had the *bright* idea of doing the driveway... I did ask him if it wasn't too wet, but he said no it would be alright!! Anyway, you can see the result above... he now calls it "the missile testing site!! It's terrible!! Instead of having our circular driveway, we've had to block half of it off as it was too boggy..... just something else to add to the list of things that need to be fixed!! ie the laptop!!! It's still not working properly, and I don't want to take it back to the guy that had it, as I don't think he fully knows what he's doing. Wayne's great uncle knows a fair bit about them, but I've been told that he's pretty flat out at the moment so don't want to bug him with it.. maybe I can just ask him if he knows of anyone I can take it to?

In the second week of the school holidays, I took Julieanne to Fountain Gate, as they were having a simpsons show on (it was pretty lame lol, but she liked it) then she had to have her photo taken on the simpsons couch.... shame that the Canon peoples camera died just before it was her turn so they had to use the point and shot, lol, luckily I had mine stashed in my bag... LOL, I felt right at home with my Canon... hehe, should have offered it so they could take the rest of the photos with it, but no way! would I give up my baby!!! hehe.....

I love the fact that I'm a SAHM when I get to do these things with Julieanne....

I was also supposed to go to Adelaide with Wayne during that week, but at the last minute plans got changed, so we had Isabella over a night, and I took them to Docklands Winter Wonderland to get their faces painted (as Isabella had got it into her head to have it done... ) I only found out about it after doing a google on face painting in Melbourne! Anyway, we had a great time (well once we'd got over the initial complaining of sore legs that is ;)... and I took some nice photos of the girls.

I also saw MAC Deb!!! On the way back to the car... really shouldn't have been that surprised as it was outside her work ;)... come to think of it, I think it was just outside her work that the bird pooped on my bag on the way to docklands lol! It's supposed to bring good luck isn't it? Maybe that's why I saw Deb.......

Also did some layouts.. only because Krys from Scrapbooking memories asked me for a birthday LO... I did 2 instead not knowing what type they would have wanted.. so anyway they both got picked up!! Pretty happy about that!! Also I used painter on the one of Julieanne, and I just have to say that I LOVE it!!

Credits for 15:
Journaling: It’s kind of hard to believe that the gorgeous little boy that I first met 12 years ago is now 15! The start of the real teenage years in my eyes. OK I know that 13 is the official start to teenagerness, but at 15 I think the real “fun” begins.. and the not so fun.. I know that you will have the strength to see your way through it all, and to enjoy yourself (but not too much ok?!!) in the process :).
Poem (from 2peas):
Somewhere in the middle,
A journey lies ahead
for all teenagers today
A journey to adulthood,
Our growth a kiss away.
But as we go we find ourselves
at a truly awkward stage,
We’re partial, unripe, Sketchy and
crude at this tender age.
We’re old enough to make a choice
Yet still young in many ways.
Too young to pack our bags and go,
too old to want to stay.
Young enough for fun and games,
TOo old for carefree lives,
Young enough for hopes and dreams,
yet for reality we strive.
Old enough for heartfelt pain,
too young to find the cure,
Too old for childish ways of past,
too young to be mature.
Old enough to fall in love
and gie our hearts away.
But, still too young to understand
just why we feel this way.
We’re trusted, loyal, proud and true,
Yet scolded, sneered and scorned
Between the role of adult and child,
We are somewhere torn.
Like an uncompleted work of art,
We’re awkward, unsure, half-baked.
But be patient please
for we’re on our way
to becoming something great. Liza Ortega

Credits: Anna Aspnes - Monoblendz origins papers
Anna Aspnes - Monoblendz Grafix papers
Anna Aspnes - Sk8ter Dude Brushes
Anna Aspnes - Painted Circle Splatz Brushes
Rhonna Farrer - roughed up tool kit
Nancie Rowe Jantz - textures vol 1

Fonts: OCR A Extended, LD Unconventional, Guilty

Credits for The Wish:
Journaling: Sweety, I can’t believe that you are 6 years old already! I hope that all your wishes come true.. whether they be birthday ones or everyday ones...

Credits: Anna Aspnes - La Playa papers
Anna Aspnes - Magical Sparkles brush set 3
Anna Aspnes - Celebrate Doodle stamps
Rhonna Farrer - Roughed up toolkit

Fonts: ITC Avant Garde, Beautiful ES

Well that's about it.. will see if I can move these picture into the correct positions, but if not it will just have to do won't it?

TTFN TFL :)

I know, I know...

2007-06-21T14:35:00.000+10:00

It's been over a month, but only just.. and you can't honestly tell me that you have been missing the boring stuff that I go on about.....

Lets see... where should I start... really there isn't much to say.

First off here's a photo I took on Mothers day when we were in the City.. sad to say it was one of

the only ones. It's of the new Eureka Tower. didn't manage to go up it and have a look (as it hadn't opened yet), but am wanting to have a look at that skybox thing!

Um.. what else have we done.. gee I hate this trying to have to remember things.. lol, I suppose it will teach me to update more often!! NOT!
We dropped BIL and SIL off at the airport as they were going to Germany for 2 weeks.. for business, but still I was jealous.. after we'd said goodbye, we headed off to a look out where the planes land.. and they get sooooo close!!

Nulab had a special on the other week too for super cheap 20x32 inch prints, so I had to quickly do some.. was going to do something for the lounge as our walls are very bare, but ended up doing one each for the kids. Now I just need the money to pick up the frames that I had made for them lol...

And I also did this at some point

If you want to see credits for these please see my gallery at Designer Digitals as all the details are on my laptop... ahh why aren't you using your laptop you might ask! WELL............. After the in laws came back from said Germany they wanted me to put some stuff on the mp4 player they brought back for my niece.. anyway, to cut a looooonnnngggg story short, she knocked Julieanne's chocolate milk over (which I'd already moved once grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!) and it spilt all over my baby!! It's been over 2 weeks and I still haven't got it back ggrrrrrrrrr! Still angry thinking about it.. Hopefully tomorrow... So I'm stuck on the old desktop... mind you it may be slower to process, but the Internet is a heap faster lol!

To top that off, the tipper work has really died off with the rain we've had lately (yes we've had some rain!!) So we've had to go in another direction with one of the trucks... it's now hauling trailers to SA... and while I don't like the fact, I fully understand that the wheels need to keep moving, so to speak, to pay the bills (not too mention getting my new iMac roflol - new model should be coming out sometime this year! Please!)

On the positive side, our homeloan mess has finally been sorted out!! so that should save us a fair amount per month.. just need to finalise some paperwork. Shame that it could have been sorted by tomorrow as we've got a mortgage payment due... oh well.....

Queens Birthday weekend was a fairly big one.. we headed down to Iverloch, and stayed there the Friday and Saturday night with the in laws, celebrating Stewarts 15th birthday on the Saturday night (his birthday was the following Thursday) at a local pub... I had a very nice chicken wrapped in prosciutto (sp) thing.. yum!

lol, and after all that effort of getting down to the bottom of the phantom lens spots.. stupid me forgot to take the filter off before taking these photos.. good thing the spots weren't as bad as Julieanne's and I was able to heal them out with PS (gotta love that!)

Queens' Birthday Sunday was our MAC get together in the city, to meet the wonderfully talented Karen!

We had lunch at Egusto's on Southbank, and had a delicious lasagna (thanks to the persuasion of Deb)... We then went up to Lee's hotel room, and then Karen took some photos of the girls outside, although it was starting to get a little on the darkish side by then.. the time just flew, and next time we will get some more in! Also we will make sure that Sharon and Shez are there in the flesh!!

Finally I'll leave with a photo of the four of us.. we really don't get enough of these, and the other day when Wayne's parents were here his mum wanted one so out we all trooped in to the garden.. non of us was dressed the part, but who cares... although Wayne could have had a better expression on his face!(and I should really do something about that belly) Oh and I had my hair cut last week, so it's a little different now lol...

My wrist is stinging...

2007-05-18T07:42:00.000+10:00

from that slap I just gave it for being such a bad blogger!! It's been a month, but honestly I don't think that a lot of noteworthy stuff has been happening (lol, although does it ever?)...

Well first things first.. I finally got a sever set up so I can upload photos and share with the family (mental note: must get onto the last lot!!).. the site itself isn't much but I've had a go: http://www.thistledoo.com/ any CC is most welcome, just remember that I've really got no web experience (well apart from a small community-house course) so be kind ;). Also most of the links don't work sorry lol, another thing I need to get on to!

Some other things that we've done have been: Went to the city (docklands) spur of the moment and had red rooster for dinner, and also had a beautiful fruits of the forest gelati! YUM!.. then after that we went to a spot where you can see all the aeroplanes land..

Not the best photo, but you can sort of see the plane... the lines and stars near the right light pole... didn't have my tripod, so I had to rest my camera on the car.. also it was hard to know where the plane would actually go lol.

Also had to share this one.. very spooking looking I think.. it looks like Julieanne is choking Isabella ;) (actually not sure what they are doing!).. this was just a shot taken while I was playing.. just having the shutter open and really not paying much attention to what I was doing.

Julieanne had her house school sports on the 4th (she is in yellow house) and I had to go out especially to get her a yellow top as she didn't have one... I picked this one up at Target for $3.00!! Bargain! Not too mention that it was the only one that I could find lol.

She wasn't the best sports person there, but she did come first in the sack race.. last in the egg and spoon.. but going from the look on concentration on her face she did try her best ;)

That Saturday PMA was on in Melbourne (big digital imaging show).. I only found out about it that week, so didn't really have a lot of time to try to organise a time to go (which i really wanted to do!) we had a big family do at Wayne's aunties house that night (the whole family was there for a change) and the show didn't open until 2 that afternoon.. so I rushed around and actually managed to drive into the city myself!!! Wow I was so proud of myself.. even though it really was just off the freeway ;). Did not have enough time there though (only an hour and a half) before I had to head off to pick Wayne up (the kids were with his parents). And the amount of people that were there!! WAY to busy for me, I HATE crowds!! But I did see a demonstration of the Wacom intuos3 , and guess what? I got mine in the mail yesterday!! Haven't had much of a play, but I'm liking it so far.. bit of getting used to though.

The Sunday we went to the Cider festival at Kellybrook winery. We went last year as well, and as Wayne just loves cider, had to go again... must say that the weather was a bit better this year ;).. I think it rained last year.

The have a storyteller there for the kids (under this GORGEOUS old oak tree) and Julieanne was all excited as she got to go up and help him make a picture of a monster (she called the purple faced monster... very original ;) )

Ummm... what else? Oh yes Mothers Day! I hope that you all had a great one.. Mine was ok, though I didn't get to spend anytime on the computer ::shock horror::.. we went into the city for lunch with Wayne's mum, and then had dinner at my mums..glad to get home in the end..

Oh and here is what i did for Wayne's mum...

Not much on the layout front... just this one

Credits: Rhonna Farrer: Roughed up tool kit Anna Aspnes: hipster plumes mega pak Anna Aspnes: Ephemerosa Paperie Katie Pertiet: Ledger Frames 2
Fonts:2peas DW Bunny hop Al capone 2 peas Bad hair day Al Sandra

Ok, will leave it there I think.. although no doubt there is something that I've left off ;)

TTFN, TFL

Edited: I'm such a doofus.. I knew that I'd forget something lol.. see that is what happens when you rely on your photos to try to remember what you've done lol...

I forgot to mention that I met Lis at fountain gate on Wednesday. It was great to see her. We met up at Krispy Kreme, and then had a wander around the shops... stoopid me forgetting to pick up a layby there too... see shocking I am!

Also wanted to just send some good vibes to DebF at pickelberry.. Hoping that she finds the strengh to make it through this time....

Obessed by a green eyed boy...

2007-04-18T08:18:00.000+10:00

Ok, as some of you may know, I'm always a little behind the trends lol. A couple of years ago I bought the first two books of the Harry Potter series for Stewart, and had a read of them myself too. Thought they were quite good for a children's books too.. anyway, after running out of books to read in the house, I picked them up again a couple of weeks ago. Then had to go out and buy the third one....

Now after just about finishing book four, I can officially say that I'm hooked! I can't put the thing down! The house is a total mess, and I feel like I'm starting to neglect my laptop too. I'm going to have to get the fifth copy today as I've only got about 50 pages left, and that is not going to last me through tonight.

Anyway, I'm sort of glad that I've left it this long to join in on the Harry Craze.. as now I'll be ready for the 7th book due out July 21, with out having that long agonising wait! Now I just need to slow my reading down to time it properly.... lol ;)

Forgot

2007-04-14T09:57:00.000+10:00

to say a couple of things ( I know it doesn't seem possible from the length of that last post ;) ) I really need to keep up to date with this thing so I remember to get everything in!

First off I need to send a HUGE thank you out to Mollie (aka readstoomuch) at Designer Digitals. I was getting desperate to get my hands on a copy of the new digital scrapboooking magazine, and as I hadn't had any success dealing with the distributor of it, and not finding it anywhere here in Oz, I went to the forums and put a call out for any info on an online shop that was selling it.. Anyway, Mollie was super kind enough to offer to send me a copy. I'm not a big forum participator, just never finding the time to keep up with all the different treads, but this has shown me what a wonderful resource they really are, and that the digi community is just a wonderful group of people :). I received my magazine this week, and I'm really happy with it.. just love seeing all the digi layouts in it.. and some familiar names too :D. Jane your layout is just stunning (but then I love all your work :) )!! and reading about some fellow digi's.. not too mention Anna's Anna Layout!! Anyway I could go on, and I've just flicked through it!

Another thing that I wanted to share was my drooling over this

I am so loving the iMacs and really want to get the 24" one. I'm really having colour issues with my laptop (it's really blue) and I can't adjust it, so before printing I have to transfer all my files to the desktop, which is way to slow to actually work on. I love my laptop dearly, but this colour problem is really starting to get to me (especially now I'm shooting in the RAW), and feel that I should update my desktop and mainly work on that soo.... I'm looking at the Mac, being able to run windows on it as well, and being able to use my programs just makes it that much more attractive.

I also forgot to mention that it was FIL's birthday on Tuesday, so we had a special cake for him on Sunday... and I got some photos without the candle reflections!! I remembered to take the filter off! Thanks Mel :D!

Mum, Juileanne and I also went shopping at Knox City on Wednesday, and spent forever in Pumpkin Patch.. mum spent up BIG! and got some nice stuff for Julieanne (boy does that girl get spoilt!)

Finally, had to share I got this published in the current Scrapbooking Memories Mag.. have to say that it's one of my favorite LO's. Not sure what happened to my Sk8ter Boy Lo though, it was supposed to appear in the same mag... lol, look at me complaining about getting published.. just be grateful girl!! Ok, I think that's it... no doubt I'll remember something once I publish this ;). And just ignore the graininess of the photos.. I forgot to change my ISO! Doh.

Have a great day everyone.

A challenge.....

2007-04-13T21:31:00.000+10:00

Well for me anyway... turns out that I got tagged by the very talented Miss Sue (thanks Sue ;P), for the Be Original Blog Project... I really don't think that I've got any original ideas for this but here is the run down.. .once again a copy and paste (sorry :) ), this one from Mohit Singhania's blog, where this all started.

In a new blog post, list and write about 5 to 10 methods you use to create original posts. It has to be a method you use regularly. These should be the best, quickest and easiest to apply methods.
At the start of your post, tell your audience (briefly or at length) what you are doing with the "Be Original" Project and put a link and/or a trackback to this post, for the purpose of giving them the full rules and for me to compile the master list of all participants that I’ll link to in a future post.
Be sure to also put a link/trackback to the blogger who tagged you for "Be Original" in order to let your readers follow the conversation around and to spread the link love.
Sharing your "Be Original" methods with your own audience, will also share them with the blogger who tagged you and the bloggers you tagged, as well as their whole audience!
Pick as many bloggers as you want and “tag” them to take part in the fun. You will be helping their exposure by linking to their site from your blog, and they will return the favor by having a link to your site in their initial post. After all, that is how a meme works (a unit of cultural information transferable from one mind to another.)

So here we go:

1. I basically just write about what has been happening in my life.. well the stuff that I can remember anyway ;).

2. Try to keep a record of some day to day things, as something to look back on.

3. Post photos, and the details of them.

4. Post scrap pages and the details and products used on them.

5. post the occasional helpful link, or idea (not that this happens very often ;) ).

Ok, I hope that I did it right, if not apologies to all involved. As for the tagging bit.. as regular readers would know, I've never been into the whole tagging others thing, so consider yourself tagged if you want ok, if not your not.. I know I know, I'm a party pooper, but that's just the way I am (as Wayne is more than happy to point out) ;P .

Ok, onto other things. I hope that everyone had a happy Easter.. bad blogger that I am I totally forgot to wish it for you all in my last post lol. We ended up going to Barwon heads Friday morning, dropping our stuff of at the house we were staying at, and then heading to Queenscliff for the seafood festival, raising money for the Good Friday Appeal. Had some nice fish and chips, even though I got in the line for the wrong one, and it turned out to be the longest line too.. oh well.

Afterwards, we went for a walk along the main st, and boy do they have some nice little clothing shops there.. I saw some lovey cardis. I just LOVE my cardigans ;).. does that make me a dag? (nah, just trendy right?!?) A photo of my 2 dags...

Then we went back to the house, to have this

ugly isn't it? tasted ok though....

And the bed!! Have to say that it was the softest bed I've ever slept in, I like a hard one though, so we did have some issues getting to sleep, although by Sunday night, I think that I must have gotten used to it lol.

Saturday, the local fair was on at the school. so we walked down the road to that. Julieanne got to see the baby animals

And I procrastinated on buying a cardigan (see another one ;).. which I didn't get in the end lol.. I'm shocking at spending money. Well shocking unless it's like a computer or camera or something lol.

Easter Sunday, we had the Easter hunt (well after I'd attempted to sneak into Julieanne's room to place her present from the Easter bunny: a dancing chicken that sings the chicken song).. I don't think that we went to overboard with the chocolates this year.. thankfully ;)

Wayne's parents drove down and they surprised us at the beach while we were there (I thought she sounded all suspicious on the phone!) We then walked home, Wayne, Micheal (dh brother) and I stopping off to have a look at an auction on the way home, boy was it expensive!

In the afternoon Wayne and I wanted to go for a walk to have a look at this run down house that was selling for over 1 million, but it ended up that most of the clan came with us. We then went and had a look at the surf beach and the gorgeous golf course there.

The afternoon was spent at the house, with everyone outside.. the boys playing table tennis, and the girls having a story read to them by grandma.. I did get some good shots of them.

Then before dinner snuck back to the beach to attempt to get some shots.. wasn't very happy with my results though

and the clubhouse

We left Monday morning as Stewart needed to be at work by 3 (in the end he didn't end up working lol), and I must say that it is always nice to come back home too.

Wednesday was 2 years since Wayne's grandad passed away. I still can't believe that he's gone, he was such a healthy person, and his mum and grandma lived to about 100.. so we were expecting him to go on forever, but it wasn't so. He had a heart attack, and complications.... I don't think that we really know what he died of in the end :(. Anyway we had a family get together at Wayne's parents and it was good to see some of the other family. I did feel a little sad that Julieanne wasn't there. She was having a sleepover at mums, and I thought that she would have liked it better there anyway.

Here's Wayne being his usual self

And I have to say that he generally is the life of the party.... even when he doesn't want to be, but if he's not it's always "why are you in a bad mood?" lol, he's not, he just wants some quiet time! But you can't please some people ;)

And finally here is something that I did for Wayne's mum.. I'm not real impressed with it, it was a rushed early morning thing, but I wanted to do something....

credits: painted circle splatz brush - Anna Aspnes. Roughed up tool kit - Rhonna Farrer. Blended Autumn papers - Denise Docherty. Autumn Glory texture - Nancie Rowe Janitz. Monoblendz Grafix papers - Anna Aspnes. Fonts 28 days later.

Well, that was a post and a half.. sorry for the rambling ;), but I need to get it all down so I'll remember it hehe.

Oh I almost forgot. Julieanne and I went to Chadstone today to see Happily Never After.. it was ok, but I think that I'm starting to expect to much from these kids films. I blame Shrek for that! Can't wait until June when the new one comes out!!

TFL and TTFN

A Tooth and some other stuff...

2007-04-03T14:55:00.000+10:00

Well not really much other stuff ;).

Julieanne's first loose tooth finally came out today, after much wiggling. I'm surprised how well she went with the whole thing.. she is now extremely anxious to put it under her pillow tonight lol.. hmmm.. wonder what the tooth fairy will bring?

I'm glad that I actually managed to get this LO done before it fell out...

Journaling: It’s the first that is going to fall out.. it’s been wobbly for over 2 weeks now, so I’ve started to get used to the idea of you losing those precious little teeth.. I still don’t like it, but I’m slowly starting to accept that you are losing all of that babyness... it has come around so fast, and I really don’t want to see the end of it, but I know that you are going to make a beautiful girl with “big” teeth and big dreams.I will never forget this gorgeous grin of yours, though, showing all those precious baby teeth. 31 March 2007.
Credits:Monoblendz Graphix papers - Anna Aspnes. Ledger Frames No.2 - Katie Pertiet. Roughed up tool kit - Rhonna Farrer.
Fonts: Cooper Black, 2peas Journaling dingbats, 2peas Harlequin, 2peas Field Marshall.

We had a fairly quiet weekend.. Wayne had to work on one of the trucks as it's been making a funny noise, so he did that on Saturday. Then Sunday the lawns got done.. lol, that is a full days work around here.. well it should be, somehow I got stuck doing one section today ;). It seems that even the small amount of rain we had (we had 7ml last week when an hour away had about 40!) did wonders to the grass...

Also had a bit of a shock on Sunday on our way home from dropping Stewart off. The car we were following failed to stop at a shocking intersection... he went straight through, but there was a car coming along the other road.. she slammed straight into him, as she really had no other choice in the 100km zone.. anyway they were all so lucky, if either of them had of been going a little faster it would have been a pretty serious crash. As it was she only hit the back passenger panel, and spun the car around... I shudder to think what would have happened if she had of hit the front of the car... nobody was hurt, which was a blessing. We were the first there, so Wayne got out to see if everyone was ok, I don't know what he would have done if anyone was seriously hurt... he's a bit of a fainter with blood ;). Anyway he called 000, and the emergency services arrived a while later (I was actually surprised how long it took!). So that was the excitment of the weekend.. it does make you think of how dangerous the roads are! All is takes is someone not to give way... ::shudder:: :(

We have also deiced where we are going over Easter. We were going to go to Seaspray, and then that changed to Inverloch when that was booked, then Inverloch was booked so we got a house in Barwon Heads. It will be nice to get away :). Now just need to clean attempt to get the dust of my camera....... not holding high hopes ;)

Anyway, I can hear Wayne coming in the drive so will leave it at that.

TTFN

Shooting in the RAW!

2007-03-29T20:22:00.000+10:00

Well that's what Wayne likes to call it anyway ;).

It's been a while between posts. I'm such a bad blogger, and really the only reason I keep it up is as a reference to what we did when and where (and even then, my record keeping skills leave much to be desired!)... and it came in handy when I did this...

I totally love Anna's week in review layouts (love ALL her work actually), but I think that a weekly LO is a little ambitious for me ;).. so when the month in review brush came out, had to grab it! This is a round up of January.. I had WAY to many photos to choose from though so I ended up with a pretty cluttered LO... hence the black and white, makes it look a lot neater :). Credits: A month in review brushes - Anna Aspnes. Monoblendz Grafix papers - Anna Aspnes. Fonts: Avant garde, Bernard Mt Condensed. Love my fotofusion too, would not have been able to do it without it... I might actually upgrade it one of this days too, so I can actually get a full 2 page spread done with out having to enlarge later ;).

Saturday night Julieanne had a sleepover at her friends house (oh and I just realised I left that off my Jan LO - her first sleepover - doh!! Opening PS as I type... grrrr... now the system is sooooo sloooooooow), as she'd been before I wasn't overly concerned about it this time, so Wayne convinced me to go out to his aunties restaurant in Healesville... well at 9.30 we get the phone call that she wanted to come home... we were over an hour away!! Terrible parents that we are ;).. but it would have to be the one time that we go out that it happens.. anyway, we'd organised Wayne's parents to go an get her, but then 2 minutes later get a phone call that she was sound asleep... ah children, life would be boring without them right?!

We went to the movies on Sunday and saw a 3D screening of "meet the Robinson's". It was a fun movie, nothing to jump up and down about, but it had a great message, as most of those Disney movies do... speaking of movies, I was talking to a lady at work about it the other day, and we both had to say that we weren't that impressed by "happy feet"... ooooo how un-Australian is that?!? It was a wonderful movie, but I don't think that it's deserved all the hype that it's got, and I can' believe that it won an Oscar over "Cars"... that was a good movie ;)... OK will get off my soapbox now lol... Anyway, the kids loved the movie (back to "meet the Robinson's now") even with the glasses, and afterwards we had dinner at TGI's.. which ended in a tired child throwing a tantrum (not mine), but I was glad for it, as otherwise it might have been a late one, which Julieanne really didn't need, after the Saturday night.

Also managed to do this for the ad challenge over at DD. I don't often do challenges but thought I should give it a go. Journaling: These are the days of Miracle and Wonder.Mordialloc Festival Sunday the 18th of March. Julieanne and Isabella on the Teacup ride. They were the only 2 on the ride, but they seemed to have a wonderful time, waving to use and laughing, and generally having fun just being children. It was so nice to see them enjoying their childhood, as I sometimes think we tend to force them to grow up way to fast. I hope that they will look back on these days and think of them as days of Miracle and Wonder, and hope they don’t pass to quickly. Credits: Font Al Capone. Anna Aspnes: Ad challenge Film Frame. Katie Pertiet: On the Edge Flourishes 2.

Umm, and suppose I should explain the title of this post, well I've decided to finally start shooting RAW.. I've been doing it on and off for a while now, but really couldn't be bothered with it all, but after playing with some files I did notice the difference in quality.. now I just need to get some bigger compact flash cards.. those 256 ones that I have just ain't going to make it ;). Oh and I also found this handy little tool for windows uses.. I was sick of not being able to see the thumbnail in windows explorer so did a google and found this.. and it actually works! And it also has (apparently haven't tried it yet) has a save as feature that lets you just save it as a jpeg... handy for emailing I suppose without having to open PS (and yes it has finished opening lol). Also found this too. It actually allows me to see my psd thumbnails (although not the big preview).. yay.. no more bridge!

Well... I might leave it there... round of applause if you actually made it this far ;).

TFL and TTFN :)

Little update...

2007-03-19T16:00:00.000+11:00

But not much to say really :).

The weekend seems to fly past (as it usually does!). Saturday night we went to my mum and dads for dinner and watched the Concert for George, which mum had just got on DVD. I know it's fairly old but it was great to see. Me being a huge Beatles fan loved it... and I want to get a jacket like Ringo's for Wayne! Amazing how much George's son looked like him too... spitting image, although just a little smaller.

Yesterday we ended up at the Mordialloc Festival. We were supposed to go to the in-laws for lunch, but the local festival was on so ended up there... needless to say we were really not dressed for it, and my neck did get a little burnt.

It was fairly busy, but there was a great atmosphere there with lots of live music, food and drinks and hippy stalls. Rides too, but Julieanne only went on 2 of them ($5 a ride a bit on the dear side)... the teapots with Isabella

and the Cha-Cha with Daddy

It still surprises me how much of a speed freak she is, she just loves her fast rides (and this was fast), but is afraid of a moth.. funny girl :).

After we'd all had enough of that we walked across to the beach.. once again not really dressed for it as Julieanne is demonstrating here by hitching her skirt WAY up ;) (ooo, the compression has made the colours all weird.. oh well)

We then had dinner at Cafe Blah Blah and I had a lovely Chicken parma (Waynes standard)... and the sticky date was beautiful!

We had an early night last night, but we are all still tired! Another early one again tonight I think. Also picked some of our tomatoes today.. not the best looking ones, but they taste alright!

Still trying to figure out our home loan too... we are paying WAY to much at the moment, (care of our stupidity and a hopeless mortgage broker!), so hopefully that gets sorted out quickly, because we can't take much more of it as it is..

Also did this quick LO. I got the idea from Photoshop Creative Magazine (I think it's that way around), after doing a quick flick through in the newsagent.. didn't buy the magazine though, so had to go off memory... I had all these 4x4 photos and really didn't know what to do with them (as they are not of my fav topic) so just did this as a test... CC most welcome as always.. Used Roughed up tool kit by Rhonna Farrer. Fonts AL SongWriter, 28 Days later.

Well no more news on the wobbly tooth either... still just wobbly.. how long do these things generally take?!

Turns out I had more to say than I thought lol.

Lastly Hugs to a certain friend that has had some bad things happen and is feeling a little low.. thinking of you :).

TFL and TTFN

Wobbly Tooth!!

2007-03-14T15:43:00.000+11:00

Wahhh... Julieanne has a wobbly tooth. She's going to lose those precious baby teeth, and I'm not happy about it!! I don't want her to grow up just yet, but I suppose it has to happen doesn't it? Wayne says it's about time, he seems to think that she is fairly late in losing them, but she's only just turned six, and I always thought that 6-7 was the average for losing that first tooth... Anyway, Julieanne is pretty excited about the whole thing.. lol, she just knows that the tooth fairy is going to come and give her some money ;)... Not too sure how much the tooth fairy actually pays these days though lol.....

Just a pic of those teeth....

On another note, we went camping on the weekend, and I must say that it was an experience. We haven't been for about 11 years so I'd sort of forgotten how grotty you can get after a couple of days with no shower! It was just so dusty! We camped right next to the Latrobe river at Hawthorn Bridge (or so I'm told anyway! I really haven't got the foggiest idea of where we were!). Then on Saturday the trail bikes stared appearing. Not that I have anything against bikes, but they are VERY noisy and I'd really prefer to hear the running river. Anyway, we packed up Sunday and found another *isolated* spot. Isolated because you needed a 4x4 to get there, and really we could not hear any other person around at all :). I was a little concerned about snakes though, but I just kept telling myself that they are more scared of us than we are of them lol....

I wasn't too sure how Julieanne would go, but she seemed to really enjoy it. And even manged to go to sleep! She loves her own bed and generally has issues sleeping somewhere else, but she was happy on her Bratz lilo.

Must say that it was FANTASTIC to get back home though!!! Even though we didn't have a shower straight away (had to put rock on the drive. MORE DUST!!), it was great to just have running hot water to wash my hands properly. Worst thing of all though is that I did not take one photo!! And I call myself the family photographer...

TFL and TTFN :)

There's a rainbow outside...

2007-03-08T07:38:00.000+11:00

Well at the moment there is, it does look like it's fading though. Not the way I'd planned to start my post (actually I had no idea of where to start it lol), but it will do :).

Not a lot happening in my end of the world, but that's good. I helped my parents with their flowers last night, and I'm feeling it today... bit of a downer about the timing as I was going to and see some of the MAC girls, but it didn't happen oh well :).

We are going camping on the weekend too.. don't know if I'm actually looking forward to it though, as I can tell I'm going to get REALLY bored, we are going to Hawthorn Bridge, and I'm not 100% sure where that is exactly, but I know that there really isn't a lot to do. I'm not one to be sitting around doing nothing, and with no power my laptop is not going to be of much use :(. I was hoping that the new Digital Scrapbooking mag would be here by now but not yet... I suppose I'll find something to do ;)... hopefully I can take some good photos.

Not a lot going on in the layout department.

I had to redo the last one I did as I wasn't really happy with it. I do like this one better. Any CC is most welcome though.

And going through my photo folders I can across this scanned one. I thought it was such a happy photo I had to scrap it... even though the quality is pretty bad.... Ahhhh I love my Canon350D (even though this was taken with the film equivalent, scanning does not do any favours ;) )

Anyway, have to go and make Julieanne her breakfast.

TFL & TTFN

We had some rain!!

2007-02-28T16:13:00.000+11:00

Last night, it was fantastic! Not many puddles on the ground, but it was so dry I'm not really surprised. The size of the cracks we have in the yard are huge, and I think it's going to take a lot more of the wet stuff to see improvement...

On another note, I thought that I'd better let you all know what I actually do when I go to work (not that that is very often lol). I actually do invoicing at a bulb mail order company, I know not very exciting is it, but as it's only seasonal it suits me perfectly ;). Business has been slow lately so I don't think it's going to last much longer, and the days are getting less frequent to. Oh well, I just need to figure out something else to do. I'm seriously thinking about doing a web course at the local TAFE.....

Oh, and I forgot to post a pic of the pottery that we did the other week. Not a fantastic photo, lol, I had no where to set it up so had to put them on the floor... as you can see, lots of colours ;)

Julieanne and I also did some painting on the weekend (no not the house although that does need to be done and the paint is in the shed!!). She got this preprinted canvas for her birthday, and has been asking ever since if she could paint it. I didn't want to start until I knew we had time to finish it lol. Anyway, finally got round to it when Wayne was a work on Saturday. I must say that it was a bit of a challenge trying to get the colours mixed right. The set only came with the basic blue, red, green, yellow etc pains, and of course Julieanne wanted it to look like the picture it came with so they all needed to be mixed up... well I tried ;)

We didn't end up doing the best job on it, lots of going out of lines, but it looked ok when we'd finished (I put the faces in after it had dried ;) )

She now wants to hang it in the living room...I think that I might just put it in her bedroom. Speaking of which, I put her princess blind on the window today (another present from for said birthday!) and boy was that a saga and a half. I thought that it would just fit in the hole, but no had to trim it up and all... not too mention that I was having major issues trying to find the tools for the job, and then when finding them find that they are covered in grease... grrr was not happy. But if you want the job done you have to do it yourself... or well I do in this house, Wayne would have left it for another 6 months!! ;). I'm sure that she is going to love it though (when she finally gets home, she's at a friends now).

Oh and finally I did manage another LO, not too sure about it though (perfectionist coming out again), and it turned out a heap different from how I'd planned but they always do. CC VERY welcome :)

Credits: Anna Aspnes: Ephemerosa papers, Hipster Plume 1 Brushes. Void Brushes: Butterfly brush. Nancie Rowe Janitz: Shmootzy Frames2. Fonts: Avant Garde, 28 days later, Selfish.

TFL and TTFN :)

Another quicky ;)

2007-02-22T10:56:00.000+11:00

Just some tulips that I got MYSELF from work on valentines day lol.... And a very disheveled looking Julieanne in the background, it was hot, but it has been for the last few weeks and I'm so VERY sick of it... roll on winter!!

And here's a layout I did of Julieanne and they way she sings (or used to :() the wrong words to one of her fav songs. Credits can be found here.

Work is a little on the dismal side lately too... just 2 days this week, how sad is that?!? lol, well it gave me time to give my blog another overhaul... the last one was just a little to messy for me... let me know what you think.

Oh and a quick thanks to Mel, for letting me know what probably caused my candle reflections on my birthday photos. It's my uv filter... lol, now to remember to take it off ;)

TTFN

Just a test

2007-02-19T21:34:00.000+11:00

Ok it looks like it's working woo hoo. I've just installed Picasa and I just found out I can post to blogger directly from it, and this is a psd file!! How easy is that. Anyway this was a birthday card I was working on for Julieanne.. but it never got finished lol... terrible aren't I? Credits Altered photography kit by Denise Docherty, frame by Rhonna Farrer, star brush by Anna Aspnes, background paper Dianne Rigdon Loving Hands.

Ok if this works, there may just be some more regular posts happening!

Change of plan....

2007-02-12T21:02:00.000+11:00

well I was going to spend tonight doing a layout, as Wayne is out, and Julieanne has gone to bed. But after doing my blog list (which seems to be getting bigger by the day!) I thought that I really should put a bit more effort into mine lol. Not that I have a lot to say....

Went back to work (well if you can call it that ;) ) last week and we still have to see how long it's going to last. The lack of rain here over the last few years has really seemed to have had an impact on the gardening industry... well from what I can see anyway. Not that I'm complaining about the lack of work lol....

Last weekend we went to Hawthorn Bridge with some friends.... not 100% sure where it actually is, but we went through Neerim Sth to get there, and came back through Warragul as we got lost lol.. It was a nice spot, but I'm not a huge motorbike fan, and there was a few of them there... and busy! I suppose the 38 degrees that they had forcasted had something to do with that. Here's a photo of a dragonfly that I got... really need a macro!

It was Julieanne's birthday last Thursday she turned 6! I can't believe that 6 years have already gone.... bit depressing actually.... But that's life isn't it? Really that IS life lol.

Now can someone please tell me WHY I get these annoying spots in all my candle photos!? I've done a search and really can't find an explanation for it... what to I need to do to stop it.. and does anyone else have this issue? I've only noticed it over the past few months, don't know why.

We had her party yesterday at Robert Gordon in Pakenham, and I must say that it went better than I thought it would... We've never had a party for her with her friends before, and I wasn't too sure of what to expect. Her friends were very good though, and I hope that they enjoyed painting their mugs.. I'll go and pick them up on Thursday and see what the results are like... lol... even Wayne had a go at it ;).

Not a hole lot happening on the layout front (so hurry up and finish this post will i?) but here is just a one I did of Julieanne the other day at Inverloch... just love how she can amuse herself.

Credits can be seen here (just coz I'm too lazy to do them again ;) ), and it got LO of the week at DD which I was pretty chuffed about lol. Speaking of DD, they had a 25% off sale on the weekend, so I couldn't help myself and had to get some stuff... sad to say that it's still sitting zipped in my download folder :(.. also ideabooks4u had 15% off so just HAD to get a couple of bookies too ;).. can't wait till they get here.

Ok, will leave it there CSI Miami is about to start (no way near as good as the original! Come on Grissom!!!), and I want to at least attempt to start something lol.

Oh and here is one comet pick from that last post that mysteriously deleted my photos..... do we need to get Mulder and Scully in on the case maybe?!

TFL... TTFN :)

Holidays are over

2007-02-01T16:34:00.000+11:00

well for Julieanne they are ;). She went back to school on Wednesday and is now in grade one! Where did the time go? She seems to be loving it, so that is always a good start lol.

Umm what else has been happening? We had Australia day last Friday, so it was a long weekend. We really wanted to do something, and in the end we ended up going to Inverloch Saturday. We stayed the night and and came home Sunday afternoon, just in time to go to my sisters for an afternoon lunch thing she was having for mums birthday which was on Monday. We only stayed a couple of hours as we had to drop Stewart off at home, but that was ok. Then after dropping him off the in laws rang and said they were at Dromana and asked us to head down there for dinner. The weather wasn't the best, but it's always nice just to get away.

I'd felt bad all through the holidays because I didn't get to do anything with Julieanne. So on Monday we headed off to Robert Gordon Pottery so we could paint some mugs. In the end Julieanne wanted to paint a dog bowl for mum (because being the terrible daughter that I am I haven't got her a present yet!), and after that she painted a cake plate (for my birthday next week), I just did a mug, and boy was it hard to do something creative with out it involving the computer.. major lack of mojo there! I get to pick them up today, as they all needed to get fired, and can't wait to see what they look like lol.

Julieanne enjoyed it there, so now we have decided to have her birthday party there as well. They don't do parties as such, but are happy for groups to visit for their birthday... so now all I have to do is wait and hope that a few more of her friends can make it. Handed out the invites on Wednesday and so far one has said she is coming......

Credits: Fit for a Princess quick album by Anna Aspnes available from here (just love this and it makes it sooooo easy ;) ). Fonts Al Sandra and Avant Garde.

Oh and I did these layouts for a challenge we were having at MAC.

The first is of Jude and Deb at our MAC get together last year. Judy seems like such a wonderful mother I thought the quote very fitting... and I used to love that "touched by an angel" show it came from lol..... maybe it was her Irish accent... love Irish ;)

Credits: Deb kit by Judes Digitalscraps available here. I'm not the best at using a full kit (just tend to use the papers) but gave it a go anyway lol. Fonts are Al heavenly and avant garde (again!).

This one I did using a minikit that Lis was kind enough to share with us, called Blue. I know that she doesn't like this photo, but I thought it was just a nice soft happy look that matched the quote ;)

Credits: Blue by Lis S and fonts are al sandra and avant garde.

Thanks girls for sharing your wonderful talent with us :).

Ummm I think that's about it.... oh no wait! Does anyone know why my photos from my previous post aren't showing up anymore? Do I really have to upload them again? Or is there some miracle fix it on blogger lol... sure...

TTFN

Just some photos...

2007-01-24T09:40:00.000+11:00

Of the McNaught's comet last night.. They are pretty bad, being very blurry and noisy, but it was too dark for me to focus on anything (how does everyone else do it?!), and I had to bump my ISO way up lol.. Anyway, you get the idea ;)

Tagged!

2007-01-23T12:39:00.000+11:00

And I thought that I'd better do another post ;)

First off, did anyone see the comet McNaught last night? We heard them talking about it on the radio last night in bed (yes Wayne has to have the radio on before going to sleep, lol, I'm used to it now...), so we had to go out and have a look. There in the south western Sky we could see the tail of it... didn't manage to see the actual comet though as I think that we were too late for that. It did inspire me to get out dh's telescope that he got for fathers day last year.... not that I could see much. I think that I had the wrong lens on, I changed it, but that even made things worse! Mental note: next time, be prepared lol. There's some info on this site..... I had to go to the SA one, as the VIC one didn't seem as good (but that could have just been me not knowing the right place to look lol).

Not a lot else happening around here... have to pick up Julieanne's school books tomorrow, which is a little depressing as the holidays have nearly come to an end way to quick... I really didn't get to do as much with her as I would have liked, but the money just hasn't been there, which is always a bit of a downer... Also been attempting to figure out The Sims 2.... gee is that a huge game.. Julieanne loves making the families, and I think that our poor desktop is going to struggle under the weight of them all lol. All I want to do is figure out how to make a proper house!

I've managed a couple of layouts....

Stewart on his skimboard. Credits: Fonts: John Handy, 2peas rubber ducky. Brushes by Jason Gaylor (worn 3) Anna Aspnes (avant garde hipster 1) and Veronica Ponce (from designing with digital magazine). Paper used as overlay by Anna Aspnes (ska8ter Dude). Texture by Nancie Rowe Janitz.

This was done for a challenge that Anna Aspnes posted on her blog... and challenge it was lol, still not happy with it, but I did do it. Credits: Fonts: Al sandra, Kartica. Paper by Anna Aspnes from Artistique kit. Framing Brushes by Jason Gaylor. Photo from stock.xchng.

And lastly this one of Wayne... he'd kill me if he saw this here, but he won't so it's ok ;). Credits: fonts: ITC avant garde book, 2peas favorite things. Brushes by Anna Aspnes (sk8terboy) and Jason Gaylor (worn1).

Ok, now to the tagging... thank you Sharon :P. As stated in earlier posts I'm not going to tag anyone else, but I will do it.

I'm supposed to state 5 cool things about me, which is going to be a little hard as I'm definitely NOT cool... as Wayne will be happy to tell you roflol, but what does he know.. I mean LOOK at him!!?

1. I tend to pick up things fast, and am self taught in a lot of things that I do.

2. I love to read (well I think it's cool ;) )

3. I was born in The Netherlands

4. I did a cartwheel a few months ago and it didn't kill me!

5. I'm extremely lucky to have the life that I have :)

Ok, so they may not be "real" cool, but they will do...

TTFN

me?

2007-01-14T16:35:00.000+11:00

Thanks Lis for the link :)

Finally.......

2007-01-12T10:26:00.000+11:00

First off: Happy New Year everyone!!

Well, where do I start? I hope that you all had a fantastic Christmas, and a wonderful New Year. Ours was very nice, not too much hassle at all, as it can sometimes get....

Christmas Eve was spent at my sisters. They have just bought a new house, and she was very eager to hold our yearly family Christmas Eve night there. Julieanne was very excited to be going, as they have also just got 2 new puppies... talk about biting off more than you can chew! lol. It was a good night though.. .although the drive home was a little scary... the weather turned VERY ugly there for a while, but we do need the rain :)

Christmas day started with Julieanne getting up around 7.30, not too bad really. Then she realised that no-one else was up and went back to bed. I felt sorry for her then and had to get up so she could at least open up something. She scored well, getting 2 Bratz dolls, a Cabbage Patch kid and a mp4 player (the best purchase ever! lol)

It was then off to Wayne's brothers for lunch. They seem to do it every year and Lisa's (SIL) parents are there too... it's always pretty good, with lots of photos being taken, although this year I might not be the only one snapping away. Waynes' mum got a new digital sony cybercam, and she seems to be enjoying it wonderfully... shame there might actually be some photos of me taken!

Stewart ended up getting a new skim board from them, but more on that later ;).

We didn't end up staying for the usual lunch-turn-into-dinner thing, and were home by 7, which was nice as Stewart still had to open the presents here for him. He also ended up with an mp4 (love it lol) also a Simpsons Chess board, Rubik (sp?) cube and dvds.

Boxing day (the 26th), we travelled up to Healeville to Waynes Aunts house. I must say that she did a FANTABULOUS job of decorating. She is the most creative person I know, and I sooooo want her to get into digiscrapping.... I'm sure that everything she touches turns out stunning!

They own this restaurant in Healesville, and have asked me to take some photos for the website, and do a new flyer for them.. .I'm very honoured, but still feel like my stuff is way not good enough, but I'll give it a go I suppose.. I really should get onto it really...

New Years Eve we went to some friends house for a bbq. Her parents were there as well, and some people had a little too much to drink, making for some awkward moments, but all in all it was ok. I guess I should start drinking just to fit in more ;). Julieanne did get a little upset later because she didn't see any good fireworks, so we had to explain that the don't have really good ones in the suburbs, just some small backyard stuff.

Wednesday was a really hot one (we've had a few of those lately), and the kids were desperate to cool down... We've got a spare tank that catches the rain of our garage for the garden, so we decided to use that to set up a waterslide for them.. .I know we are in water restrictions, but this is water that can't be used for anything else anyway.. .It's had bore water mixed with it... The kids had a ball. I remember when I was little, and when we had the black plastic slide, it was so much fun, I'm glad that they got to experience it for a little while at least.

The next day, was another hot one. So we decided to go to the beach. We packed our stuff (and boy does that take awhile lol) and headed off to Dromana. It was packed! And the beach that we ended up at got deep very quickly... not my ideal spot. We lasted there a couple of hours and decided to go home. Good thing we took the long way and went through Flinders, as we found a lovely beach there, with hardly any people, long shallows and some rock pools! The beach wasn't the cleanest (seaweed was everywhere), but we all agreed that it was better than the Dromana one. Julieanne even found a starfish near the rock pools.

Friday came round and, yep once again, the temperature was going over the mid thirties. We rang my BIL and asked him if he wanted to go to the beach (this is the most we have EVER been in the nearly 12 years me and Wayne have been together! lOL), he said yep, so we headed up to Mordialloc where he lives. The beach there was fantastic, lots of shallows and lots of areas for Stewart to use his new skimboard! I got a HEAP of photos of crashes, but missed most of the really good ones lol. Wayne had a go, and fell off, and even Julieanne had a turn sitting on it, and getting pulled around while hanging onto a noodle ;). She also got some new swimmers and loved posing in them. I really wanted to get her a one piece, but this two piece was so cute I couldn't help myself.

On Sunday we were asked if we'd like to go to Matthew (SIL's nephew) birthday party at the funpark in Whittlesea. The weather was shocking, but it turned out to be a good day, I think that if it had of been a better day weather wise, the park would have been packed. I went on the bumper boat things and got totally saturated! I really didn't think I was going to get that wet, but everyone seemed to be picking on me and squirting us. Julieanne loved the go karts and the toboggan, I'm sure that she is going to be a daredevil.. funny girl that she is. Bugs frighten her silly, but she loves fast moving things lol. I got some great photos of them in the go karts too. Julieanne does her peace signs back-to-front, so it looks like she is giving the fingers.. .at least I hope it's not intentional...... lol

Well not a lot happening on the layout front, but I did manage to do these. The first one is of Julieanne's Christmas concert, done in fotofusion and a scraplift of this one by Anna Aspnes. Did not do it justice by half! fonts: helvetica, 2peas billboard, paper by Denise Docherty from blended Autumn, and paper and elements by Shabby Princess, holiday magic. Frame brush by Jason Gaylor.

I also finally manged to get some of our holiday photos done. These were from Wet and Wild, and I'd have to say that it was one of the best days we had.

Again, another fotofusion layout ;). fonts: itc avant garde book, 2peas rubberducky. Overlay by Nancie Rowe Janitz.

Phew... that was a post and a half!! I really should keep on top of it shouldn't I? lol, don't see it happening anytime soon though. Thanks for getting this far (even if you did skim it lol)

TTFN

A bit of overkill....

2006-12-30T13:45:00.001+11:00

But just playing... I'm sure that it will look all over the place for some though, as I have no idea what I'm doing ;).....

Christmas is nearly here !

2006-12-20T06:32:00.000+11:00

And I still haven't managed to get all my Christmas shopping done. Today is the day though! But it's sooooo hard to buy for some people.

Anyway, I spent yesterday wrapping WAY too many presents, I think we always tend to go overboard with presents (except for last year ;) )... good thing it only comes around once a year right?

Not a lot has been happening around here.... well apart from the fact that Wayne got his other truck!!!! I never wanted to get another one, mainly because, unless I wanted to drive it (yeah right!!) we needed to hire someone else.... And I really don't want the responsibility of staff. But it's done now, and I know that this is what Wayne has always wanted. Plus he is a go getter, so I'm sure that everything will work out fine (was there a tiny bit of sarcasm there? NO...... ;) ). If things get too bad we can always sell it. But it seems to be working fine at the moment :), and if anyone can get it too work he can... (added just in case he happens to stumble onto this post ;))

lol, one of the good things about Wayne getting this other truck is it makes him feel really guilty about spending the money, so.......... I get to get some little things too ;). I 'm not sure if I had my flash when I did my last post, but I have it now! And I got my lightsphere too.... after hours of agonising over whether to get the cloud or clear, I ended up getting the clear... lol, still not sure if I made the right decision though... I shocking with making up my mind!

Here's one of my first shots without the lightsphere (before I got it) bouncing off the ceiling.

We bought a new Christmas Tree too. I wanted a real one, but must say that the one we ended up getting is pretty nice. It was on sale in Target so we made a special trip up to Fountain Gate.

And here is the hangy thing that is hanging over my table at the moment... I think that I've just gotten over the paranoia of it falling and crushing my laptop. I suppose I shouldn't have said that........ I can hear that cello start up again.

Julieanne had her end of year school concert too. It was so cute, seeing all the preps singing "6 white boomers".... I'm so sad that she is going to be in grade one next year :(. The year went WAY to fast!! She seemed to have a ball up on "stage" though... even with her broken antler ;).

Not a lot happening on the layout front... lacking some major mojo. But I did manage this last night while Wayne was at a work Christmas party. Actually stayed up till 11 to finish it, lol, that is late for me!

CC very welcome. The paper is by Shabby Princess, from her holiday sampler 2006, just desaturated. Fonts are Avant Garde and LD Red Hatters Hand.

Well I think I might leave it at that. I think that I've sufficiently waffled on enough to make this post worthwhile ;)

Oh wait, almost forgot! Judy, a huge congrats on the birth of little Ella. I know that it was a while ago now, lol, but better late than never ;)... and I hope that you are recouping after Debs big night too.

Once again, thanks for visiting, and I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas (because I don't see another post happening before then :P)

TTFN

For Lis...

2006-12-04T20:21:00.000+11:00

Although it is a little on the late side...

Well where do I start? Not that a lot has been happening in my life.. .but I'd prefer that to the opposite I suppose.

I had a birthday a 2 and bit weeks ago (had it been that long already?), which was nice as I got some money and a voucher to GET MY FLASH!!

Ever since using Judy's at the Mac get together, I've really wanted to get one... I HATE the onboard flash of my canon, and to get some good indoor shots at Christmas I felt I needed to get one ;). Next purchase is a Lightsphere from here. Now just to decide on the clear or cloud......

Christmas decorations aren't up yet. We were supposed to do it on Sunday, but dh just informed me that he didn't want to get a real tree (which I wanted) so now we need to look for a fakey... and I want a nice one, which aren't cheap! Real pain in the bum too as I would have gone to Lee's for lunch, if I had've gotten organised early enough, with some of the other girls..... Oh well next time.

Speaking of the MAC girls, here is the layout I finally managed to get finished the other day of our weekend.

Doesn't look very big, you might want to click on it to have a look, but don't read the journaling.... it's not the best. Oh and had to add, don't pay attention to the date on it lol. Thanks Sharon for picking up on it, just didn't get around to adjusting my web version ;). Umm I think that I used an overlay by Nancie Rowe Janitz, and the fonts are Avant garde, and Kofi.

Here is another layout from a while ago.

I used Anna Aspnes Artistique papers, and some Brushes by Jason Gaylor. Fonts are Avant Garde, love and LD red hatters hand.

I also need to send a BIG congratulations to Judy who welcomed to the world her first grandchild last week... Judy you are going to make the best Mama :).

TTFN

Dedicated to the MAC girls

2006-11-16T20:28:00.000+11:00

It's been a while, and I can't remember what my last post was about. If I didn't already have 10 things running in the background and my laptop being soooooo slooooooow at the moment I'd go and have a look lol.... yes I know I'm just being lazy ;).

Well we had our long awaited MACdigi get together, and it well lived up to expectation. The girls were (are) the best :)... love ya's all! Originally I wasn't planning on staying overnight, not having "left" my family before..... but Wayne (and certain others) talked me into it, and I'm so glad that I did manage to stay the Saturday night. I would have loved to have gone the Friday as well, but Wayne had to work on the Saturday, so I was stuck with the kids lol. Saturday was a very frustrating day, as I really couldn't wait to get into the city, but I had to wait for Wayne to finish work.. and you know how it goes, he ends up working all day! Anyway, I managed to get in at 6.30 (yes Lee, it WAS 6.30! lol), and meet all the girls. Next time though Karen you HAVE to be there!

Here is just a few of the photos that I took...

It was a real camera fest ;).. and loved every minute of it, even if we really didn't do much scrapping.

The collage was done in fotofusion, which is my new best friend. I discovered it after Anna Aspnes did some stunning work with it, so I had to buy it to do my holiday photos (which have yet to be done!).

Here is another I did using it, of the photos I got from Julieanne and my trip to Southbank.

Weird for some reason the bottom of the image has been chopped.. oh well.

Anyway I'll leave it at that. I've got Zoolander on as I've never seen it, and had to after Lee's Blue Steel look on the weekend, and Jane's Zoolander face layout ;).

TTFN

Beta Blog?

2006-11-05T09:16:00.000+11:00

Well I finally scummed to the new blog... after what seems like ages of just the photo uploading being the only problem I had (and the loooong load times!), yesterday my comment moderation function decided to go on the blink too. I'd click the publish link when I received notification of a post, and it would come up with a blogger error page.

So Karin and Chris, thanks for your comments, I did receive them, but blogger didn't want me to publish them for some reason :(. Here's hoping that Beta will be Better.......

Oh WOW!! Blogger let me upload first time!!!!!!!!

2006-10-31T16:14:00.000+11:00

Take note: deleting of temporary internet files does work!!! Yay! It even let me do 5 at once! Gee can you tell I'm excited or what?! lol

Ok, just a quick one today (do I say that every post?!), as I REALLY need to get stuck into an attempt at cleaning something in this house! It is disgusting!

First off here are some flowers that I got from work last week.. they have just started to open up.. LOVE peonies :)

Julieanne had a party to go to on Saturday at Funtastic Gymnastics... She's been before, and I think that she has fun everytime she goes... great idea for a kids party too. I'm not 100% sure of what they do, but I think it has a lot of jumping around lol...

After that I took her to DFO (direct factory outlets) to get some new shoes for her... ended up getting her a pair of Puma sneakers and Clark school shoes for a fraction of the retail price yay! As a bonus I got myself a pair of Colorado boots.. LOVE Colorado :)!

Wayne ended up going to the 4x4 show with a friend and taking Stewart with him. I think that they had a good time without me ;)... although BIL wanted me to go in on Sunday to get some photos of the stand, and my *artwork*. They did really well at the show, I'm thanking my skill at design... notice the sarcasm there!! The backdrop looked A LOT smaller than I thought it would in Jeffs Shed, and it wasn't as blue as they would have liked.. but it was ok.. and the car sticker looked ok too :).. (and that's as good as you're going to get! :) )

The show finished at 6, and Wayne stayed to help them pack up (2 moving trucks worth!), so Julieanne and I wandered over to Southbank.

Took her into the Warner Bros store and got her a little "magic forest" snow globe thing, and into the "conservatory" (at least I think that's what it's called) with the light and music show thingy, lol, and dancing fountains.. she loved it in there.

Then went outside and saw some photographers setting up below the big flame fountain things (does anyone know what they are called?!), so I figured they were about to start, and sure enough the gas started clicking a minute later...

They start of fairly tame, but I always for get how big some of the flames get!! I've seen them numerous times, but they still make me jump.. got some good photos of Julieanne watching them, now just need to scrap them!

Oh don't look to close at the self portrait of me and Julieanne either.. my skin looks shocking in it, and the 1600 ISO didn't help it any lol, not that it's fantastic anyway ;)... we must of taken about 20 shots trying to get a good one.. Julieanne kept bursting out laughing at every shot.. we must have looked so silly.. lol, but at least we shared a good time together :D. Got home about 10 o'clock, which was a lot better than I would have thought.

OK, once again, thanks for visiting I hope it wasn't too long...

TTFN

Bit ouchie today...

2006-10-23T20:45:00.000+10:00

because I've gone back to work today... doing nothing flash, just sleaving paeony roses, but I'm sure that the money will help out with Christmas coming up REALLY fast! Plus it's only for a couple of weeks so I'm willing to put up with the pain of my sore arms lol... I'm just thinking of the nice toned ones I'll have for when I meet my MAC friends ;).. look out girlies!

Wayne and I finally got to use the free Gold Class tickets I got from my Credit Card people (lol, nice gimmick.. if I used it 7 times I got the tickets... needless to say, I ended up with a few more scrap kits ;) ). We went to see Boytown on Saturday night. I picked it because Wayne loved Mick Molloys last movie Crackerjack. This one was actually a little disappointing... but we had a nice night out, and a very nice dinner.. I had some chicken thing with mushrooms and sundried tomatoes.. ummmm LOVE sundried tomatoes!

Then on Sunday we ventured over to IKEA. I'd never been before, and I must say that I was impressed! A little to many people there for my liking, but they had a heap of stuff that I wanted to get lol. We ended up just getting some boxed and baskets for storage, but I have to go back and get one of those pot hanger thingys, and a light shade that Julieanne wanted... they had sold out of them.

Umm... what else has been happening? I've also been busy attempting to design a sticker for the in laws car. The 4x4 show is this weekend, and they are busy running around trying to organize everything, lol, why do people always leave things to the last minute? Anyway, I finally got it done, and will drop the files of to the sign guy on the way to work tomorrow... hopefully they are ok...... They also had the banner printed! that huge 6 meter thing... I looks ok I suppose... always the self critic, but after all the changes I had to make to the size (it went from 6x3 to 6x2.4, I know it doesn't sound much, but it effected the whole layout of the thing), I wasn't super happy with it, but they liked it, and that is all that matters :). Blogger won't let me upload a photo, so I'll take one at the show (if I get there).

Also managed another 8 pages for Isabella's album

I'm really loving this quick page Album! (fit for a princess by Anna Aspnes, if you missed the last post ;) )

TAGGED!
Oh, I nearly forgot! I got tagged by Chris.. thanks Chris :).. I have to list the 5 weird things again.. lol, I suppose I could cheat and just cut and paste ;).. nah (hopfully I don't list something I already have.. can't be bothered going back and looking)

1. For some reason I like car ads.

2. I have shocking hand writing!

3. I hate cooking, and prepare really boring meals.

4. I very rarely drink alcohol.

5. Ummmm........ I love fantasty and suspense books.....?

Ok, they probably weren't really weird, but I was having a blank ;)... I'm not going to tag anyone either, lol, partly for reasons previously stated, and partly because I really don't know that many people :P.

I think I might leave it at that... it turned out a little longer than planned.

TTFN and thanks for visiting :)

Getting my backside into gear

2006-10-17T07:18:00.000+10:00

{now that is conjuring up some ugly images I'm sure ;)}

I'm finally getting stuck into that princess album I started ages ago, for my niece. I've started from scratch again, not happy with some of the pages I'd done, good thing I'm using Anna Aspnes "Fit for a Princess" quick album (LOVE this!)... I seem to be flying through them, lol, well I was yesterday anyway ;). Here are the first 12 pages that I've done..

Now just need to decide on whether I go with the 8x8 or 6x6. I know I'd like the 8x8 better, but pricewise, the 6x6 is going to suit me better... Oh I hate making decisions!

TTFN

Thought I'd better post some pictures...

2006-10-10T12:39:00.000+10:00

since the last few post have been pretty boring (not that this is ever riveting lol).

Last thursday was Waynes Mums Birthday. We went out for Chinese, which was nice... mmmm the honey chicken was divine! But it ended up being a fairly late night, we didn't get home until about 11.30, which is a little late for a school night. Good thing Julieanne had swimming the next day, otherwise she would not have been so eager to get out of bed lol.

Sunday we went to the Gardening Australia show on in Caulfield. In the end it turned out to be shocking day. There were way to many people there ( and I just LOVE crowds!) and you couldn't get a look at any of the products they had there. I' m sure that the show would have been fantastic if only half the amount of people were there. The kids did manage to get into the "Fifi" tent, and make a door hanger which was nice.

Yesterday Julieanne had a curriculum day, so we had a lazy day at home. Went through her toys, to get rid of some, but only ended up with a small box full for the op shop... next time I'll do it without her there lol!

Today I spent the morning spraying the weeds. There wasn't a lot of wind (WOW!!!), and it REALLY needed to be done... I was going to do some weeding as well, but Wayne had conveniently taken my gloves with him, so I couldn't (and that is the excuse I'm sticking to!!) ;).

Well that's about it for now.. lol, even with the pics, it's still turned out quiet dull didn't it? Mental note to self: don't use this photo alignment again either.... ;).

TTFN

I think I should stop trying to change things...

2006-10-06T15:09:00.000+10:00

Grr.... now all my images are pixelated! I increased their size, didn't like the result, and now I can't get it back to normal!! I've taken the size out of the template, but they are still big.. might be more republishing issues methinks.....

LOL, they might look normal once I've posted this post ;)

Edit: it worked! This post must have kicked it back into gear! And yes Miss Lee, I should be out doing the lawn, halfway there now....

Thanks Lee...

2006-10-05T08:05:00.000+10:00

Back to my fantastic self ;)

Like my tune....?

2006-10-04T07:25:00.000+10:00

Ok, I know it takes a while to load up, but I just LOVE this song, and had to let you guys have a listed too. It's Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. I'm not going to leave it up long, as I'm not sure if it's actually 100% legal to have it here... anyone know? But it just makes me feel good, and I'm hoping that it will brighten some days out there :).

Also I've heard it on the tv in something, but can't for the life of me remember where... can anyone help me out?

Toodles ;)

Edited to add that blogger is really annoying me at the moment!!!!!
After 5 attempts at republishing this entry, and always ending up with a blank page, I thought I'd check my template... Somehow half of it had been deleted!! I have no idea how it happened, but it's VERY annoying, because I counldn't find Lee's changes anywhere on my computer (mental note: do a clean up!), and had to go back to my boring style... Hope Lee still has a copy ;)....

2006-10-03T10:11:00.000+10:00

Well, the holidays are over! Julieanne went back to school yesterday, and I think she was pretty excited to go. This morning however was a different story! It's not that she didn't want to go to school... she just didn't want to get up!!

Must say that having some "me" time again is nice... although Wayne had the day off yesterday, so didn't get any then... I was going to take a drive down to the Island (Phillip Island) and attempt to take some photos, but he had different ideas. He wanted to get started on our veggie garden, and I suppose I had to agree that it needed to be done. So we spent the day building 2 beds out of pavers that he got for free a few weeks back.

Heres a photo of our attempt...must say I do love the not perfect look roflol. Now just to put some veggies in ;).

I also took this yesterday. Didn't even know that there was freesias there, until I went to take the photo lol.

And this one was taken on Sunday night. With all the traffic coming back from the island I thought I'd attempt to take a photo of it.. not sure of the result though....

And finally, I also mangaged to get this done for the "defining me" project at PBP... just having a little fun ;). CC most welcome credits to Denise Docherty for her Blended Autumn kit and altered photography kit. Fonts Al Sandra, and Avant garde book.

TFV :)

It was supposed to be a quick one....

2006-09-29T13:43:00.000+10:00

Well I suppose it's officially the end of the school holidays today... Julieanne goes back to school on Monday, and I'm a little sad about it, it was nice having her home. We didn't really do a lot, but it was nice just having the time together.. although we both seemed to spend most of it on different computers ;).

We did manage to go to the movies on Wednesday with mum. We ended up seeing Garfield 2.. not the movie I really wanted to see (monster house would have been a little to much for her I think lol) but she wanted to see it... probably because her best friend had seen it the previous week. Nothing to rave about, and even Julieanne wanted to go home halfway though.. but we sat through it, and she said that she did like it at the end. As soon as we got home she had to tell daddy that Billy Connolly was in it. "I'm not joking, I'm serious" is one of her new statements, and that came out... I should mention that Wayne is a HUGE Billy fan, lol, I think he's pretty good too, and for a person that doesn't swear (I really don't!;)), don't even mind his potty mouth roflol!
We then went to the shops and Julieanne HAD to go to the toy shop.... mum always gets her something when we go out, so she ended up with a new Barbie... like she hasn't got enough already!! Oh well, at least she plays with them.

I also *finally* managed to get this done for MACdigi member Karen (the photo guru!), for our photo challenge.. not sure if I'm really happy with it... the original photo is just stunning, and I think I might have overworked it.

Credits: fonts: chocolate box decorative, asenine. Brushes by Jason Gaylor (seriously you HAVE to check out his brushes!!!!). Texture by Nancie Rowe Janitz.

Also managed to get this done last night while dh was away, lol.. I can play all I like when he's out, without him making me feel guilty ;)... I don't know what it is, but even if we are sitting on the same couch watching the same tv show, I can't have my laptop with me... it's *unsocial* he says.. I'm right there!!.... grrr men lol!

This is just a few photos of Stewart the Sk8terboy lol... not that he does it that much. The big photo on the side is actually one we had done professionally back in 2003.... That long ago?! and the others were taken in 2004... all scanned in so the quality is pretty bad, not that you can tell with my grunging.... is it too much?

Credits: Sk8terDude papers and Brushes by Anna Aspnes. Edge brush by Jason Gaylor Fonts: Misproject, undecapped vinyl, helvetica.

Well, that turned out longer than I thought... apologies to you all ;)

TTFN

Thank you Miss Lee :)

2006-09-24T16:47:00.000+10:00

Like my new look blog? I LOVE it!! Thanks to the VERY talented Lee for whipping this up for me... you are one SUPER talent girl! Not only do your layouts rock.. your photography is stunning, and now your blog work is sensational!!

THANK YOU :)

Credits: Lee used a brush by Denise Docherty, and a frame and paper from Sue Jones DSD free crop kit (recoloured) :)

Pictures from last post

2006-09-23T10:54:00.000+10:00

Oh WOW it worked!! I am truly amazed it only took 3 tries ;P.

Anyway, I think I'm blogged out for the day lol.

TFV and TTFN

Being a real party pooper and breaking rules..

2006-09-22T14:30:00.000+10:00

Alright I've been tagged by Karin (thanks Karin ;) ), but I'm going to break the rules a little :). I'm supposed to list 5 weird things about myself state the rules, tag 5 friends they list 5 things on their blogs and the cycle continues.... But I've never been big on the whole chain mail, "send this to 7 other people" email thing. So here's the drill: If you want to be tagged, consider it done and list 5 weird things on your blog.. if you don't... don't lol ;). Sorry if I've offended anyone, I really just don't like enforcing things on people ;).

Since writing this yesterday (I got interrupted and had to go out grrr), I was tagged again! By Missy Lee..... so.... rinse and repeat :).

Anyway here's the first one:

5 Weird things about me

I used to get picked on at school and get called "redfaces" lol, because I blush REALLY well.

I have REALLY ugly feet (ok, I know everyone says that but mine are truly bad :) )

I hate public speaking, but loved performing in plays at school (don't think I'd do it now though lol)

I sing along to ABBA ;)

When I get angry I clean the house... as I rarely get angry the house is a total wreck! lol.

Ok next one

If you could build a house anywhere, where would it be?
Hmmm... tricky. I suppose it would have to be local because of family commitments and all so I'll pick Toolangi (near Healesville) where we used to live... .loved the area, just not the house we had.

What's your favorite article of clothing?
This big long cardigan... just LOVE it :)!

Favorite physical feature of the opposite sex?
Has to be the eyes! I think that is what drew me to Wayne... not that they look as good now roflol!

What's the last CD that you bought?
I can't remember..... The last song I bought was Red Right Hand by Nick Cave.

Where's your favorite place to be?
Home :)

Where is your least favorite place to be?
Anywhere crowded.

What's your favorite place to be massaged?
Shoulders... but anywhere is good!

Strong in mind or strong in body?
lol...neither, but the mind would be stronger than the body.

What time do you wake up in the morning?
When dh gets up for work.. ranging from 5.30 to 7... I do go back to sleep sometimes ;)

What is your favorite kitchen appliance?
lol, wish I could say slowcooker here ;)... umm....my kettle, it's a stove top one (got to save that power lol), and I'm lost without my cuppa tea.

What makes you really angry?
Grrrr... Disrespectful children. Not the small stuff, all kids go through it, but those ones you see on the tv!

If you could play any instrument, what would it be?
Well I used to play guitar when I was a primary school,lol, can't remember any of it (sorry Mrs Miskan ;) ) I always love the piano though.. and the harp, now that would be nice :), oh and the banjo that sounds fun...

Favorite color?
lol, blue.

Which do you prefer...sports car or SUV?
SUV

Do you believe in an afterlife?
I actually do believe there is something :)

Favorite children's book?
At the moment it's Julieannes book "Felicity wishes" (I think that's what it's called), just a gorgeous book. But when growing up I loved anything really.... still do :)

What is your favorite season?
Autumn... just love the colours, and the weather.

What is your least favorite household chore?
cleaning the floor.. doesn't matter how often it gets done, there will be someone walking in with their boots and wrecking it!! That means YOU Wayne!!!

If you could have one super power, what would it be?
I'd love to be able to fly.

If you have a tattoo, what is it?
Dont' have one, but if I had to it would be something like a small (tiny lol) celtic design or something.

Can you juggle?
no... I can throw and catch through ;)

The one person from your past that you wish you could go back and talk to?
Wayne's grandad.

What's your favorite day?
Friday. It's the start of the weekend.

What's in the boot of your car?
Julieanne's bike.

Which do you prefer, sushi or hamburger?
Hamburger.

Phewww.....

Ok, on to other things :).

I finally managed to get this card done for Wayne's cousin. CC most welcome, but it's too late as it's already gone. I used Denise Docherty's Connections Kit, recoloured. Fonts chocolate box, and al sandra. Stock photo from stock.xchng. Quote was from 2 peas by April Hardwick, I just edited it a little to fit a boy.

It also looks like Tuesday was my last day of work for this season :). Nice, except the money did come in handy. Thanks to Lis for reminding me it is tulip season... I went to works farm and got these shots. I was a litte disappointed as it turns out that they only had about 2 acres here. They are growing the rest (I think about 28 acres) of them in Tasmania. Now that would be nice to see.....

I took the kids to the pool on Thursday. Only stayed for 2 hours as it was packed! and ended up giving me a headache... I dont' think Stewart wanted to leave, he was too busy picking up all the little chickies.... lol, I think he was having a fair bit of success as well... ah to be young again ;).

Well it looks like blogger is going to be a pain and not let me upload my pics!! Will have to do a new post.....

A fantastically uneventful week...

2006-09-14T16:32:00.000+10:00

I think that I like uneventful... compared to the tragic week we had last week, with the death of Steve Irwin and then Peter Brock (an Australian racing legend for you overseaies) last Friday... ironically both doing what they loved best..

There was a tribute to Peter in the newspaper on Sunday with his quote on life: bite off more than you can chew and chew like hell. I found this so fitting to Wayne, that I had to do a layout of it. As you may or may not know we own this truck, and it cost A LOT of money that we REALLY didn't have as we were in the middle of building our last house... but he thought it was a good idea to get it and go into business and me believing in him (having nothing to do with being the agreeable person that I am) agreed.. . ;). Thankfully it's turned out good... with a few small issues along the way... but I won't bore you with them ;).

Oh, credits: fonts: ck gutenberg, dirty ego. Brushes: graphic brushes by veronica ponce, gridstrips by unknown sorry( if you know please let me know :) ), and a paper by Denise Docherty used an an overlay.

I've been feeling pretty miserable this week too. I've got (getting over hopefully) a shocking headcold... I was sure it was going to explode yesterday, my head that is ;). I went and got some cold and flu tablets yesterday, a first as I generally don't take anything, and I had the worst nights sleep ever! Re-read the instructions this morning and it said that it may cause sleeplessness roflol... that'll teach me to read ALL the fine print next time!

Still need to make a card for Wayne's cousin that had a baby on Sunday, and now the inlaws have asked me to *attempt* to design a backdrop for the 4x4 show next month... the thing needs to be 6x3 metres!!! how do you do something that big!?!?

Oh well, I'll *attempt* something.... wasn't making any promises...

Ok, think that might be it. Once again, thanks for sitting through my boring ramblings... but it could be worse.... it could be tragic...

TTFN

Wow 2 Layouts :)

2006-09-09T12:43:00.000+10:00

The first one was done for my Yahoo group (macdigiscrap). We all take it in turns to submit a photo to scrap... it's great seeing the different ways everyone does it. Thanks Lis, for providing the wonderful photo :).
Papers by Sue Jones, from her Love Notes kit, fonts: Asenine, al afternoon delight, brushes by Anna Aspnes and Vered (sorry if that is wrong, that's what they are named)

This next one is a little different to my usual blendy style, so CC is VERY welcome. Fonts: Asenine (love using this font at the moment) and al singsong (love those al fonts too ;) ). Swirly Brushes by Anna Aspnes. I wanted to do a Layout about how Julieanne still wants to hold my hand whenever we walk together, it's still so cute, and I love it :). I'm sure that it will stop shortly though... They really do grow up WAY to fast don't they ::sigh::.

On another note, I forgot to mention Fathers day in my last post. I got DH a telescope! Very left field for him, but he seems to love it (thankfully ;) ) Julieanne also got him a mouse pad and a little windchime thingy from the school fatherday stall. Stewart forgot to bring his ;), but apparently it's some car seat covers... shhhhh Wayne doesn't know yet lol.

I ended up going the cheats way and getting both my dad and the FIL a dads bag from Darrell Lea (sp?). I really shouldn't have though as I found out later!

I went to work on Wednesday, after running around having to drop something off that Wayne forgot, and then drop Julieanne off at Mums, as I didn't want her to go to school with conjuctivitis. Turns out that Dad had broken his teeth on the chocolates on Monday night!! Ok they were false teeth but still... I felt soooo bad! I hope that it's not going to cost them too much to get them fixed (or replaced, they were fairly old).. good thing he has a moustache to hide it....

Well on that note, I think I'll leave you... lol, with that image of my dad and his missing teeth ;)

TFV :)

not a lot to say, but here goes...

2006-09-05T16:47:00.000+10:00

Ok this will be the second attempt to upload this lO... stupid me accidentally deleted the first one grrr ;) and with those blogger issues, it's always a gamble whether it will allow a second attempt lol.

Never comfortable doing a layout of myself, but Sue was holding a chat at DigiscrapDiva's with this kit, so I had to make an attempt. Beautiful isn't it? Really didn't do it justice with this LO.. oh well, the joy of digi is it can always be fixed :). Kit: Bella by Sue Jones, fonts: ITC avant garde, artistamp medium, and porcelain. Oh and I have to be honest here (sorry miss L :) ), I did whiten my teeth a little ... lol I'm so vain.

On another note, I've spend the first part of this week home with Julieanne. She's picked up conjuctivtis from school I think. We got some drops yesterday, but it's gone to the other eye now, which looks a little worse than the first :(. Hopefully it'll be better tomorrow... she's missing school, but I don't want to send her in case she passes it on to the other kids. I doctor visit might be in order tomorrow, if it doesn't look any better.

Wayne also had the day off today, so we went to see the Mortgage broker to see if we can work out how to fix our nightmare of a mortgage... I'm not even going to go into the details of that! Julieanne had lunch with her grandma at the church (where Wayne's mum works), which she loved, she got to draw on the white board.. lol the simple things that amuse children :).

Think that's it for now ;)... "pheewww" I bet you're all saying lol..

TFV

TTFN

What a wonderful

2006-09-02T07:24:00.000+10:00

week we have had here in sunny Victoria :)... the weather has been gorgeous! hard as it may be to believe lol ;). It got to 24 on Thursday, and not sure, but I think yesterday wasn't that far off that either... bit windy though (not enough to dry Julieannes doona grrr... ;) she had to sleep with a sleeping bag, but loved it).

Did this

But as per usual I'm not sure.. so CC is REALLY welcome :). Papers from Denises Docherty's Henna Kit (recoloured), brushes by Rhonna Farrer, Fonts al sandra, itc avant garde, ashby book. This is Julieanne having one of her frequent mood changes, as much as I love her I do have to say that she is the Master of it lol. I should put her in acting classes as most of it is so put on lol. Wayne's grandma called her Sarah Bernhard last night.. I go "who"? shows how ingnorant I am, I just know that name as a Paeony Rose lol.

Julieanne had grandparents day at the school yesterday, so Waynes mum and grandma went along. My mum had to cancel at the last minute as she had a fluey thing (not sure as she has had her flu shot), which she was pretty disappointed about. I think they all had a lovely time. Then we had them all her for tea.. did my famous (NOT) lasagna (sp), which Wayne's mum loves for some reason...

Fathers day tomorrow, so I'd better get onto making a card I suppose :)

TFL again :)

TTFN

Blogger issues.....

2006-08-30T16:25:00.000+10:00

Here is the layout that is missing from my last post. I deleted it to try to fix the size issue I was having, but then blogger wouldn't let me upload! Looking at it, I could have made it a little bigger.. Oh well :)

Just a quick one...

2006-08-29T16:20:00.000+10:00

Because there really isn't a lot happening, which is good in a way I suppose :).

I had to post though and do a little "toot-toot", lol. Picked up the latest For Keeps mag(for some reason the website hasn't been updated), and it's got this

in it. I know I know, they would have sent me a copy of the mag, but I couldn't wait to have a lookie, and because the Magazine is in sealed plastic I had to buy a copy! I'll give the other to mum I suppose :). The only thing is, you can read my journaling... not too sure if I like that. Credits: Papers by Denise Docherty (www.spaceraven.net) Fonts Broken 15, DSP can you hear me now?

Being the geek that I am, I had to contact the mag to see if it was ok to post here lol, turns out it was, or none of you would be seeing it ;)

That said here is the one that was in last months.. (gee this really is a self promotion post isn't it?!) Ok, it's turned kinda small, but you get the idea.

Credits: Papers by Shabby Princess, font Will n Grace.

Sorry no new stuff yet. I'm having major download issues, which has put me out of the mood lol. Anyone know a good download manager?

Once again, thanks for visiting.

TTFN :)

Lazy day....

2006-08-27T12:52:00.000+10:00

Just one of those lazy Sundays today.. hope it stays that way, but Wayne just got a phone call from one of his friends to go round there... personally I'd rather stay at home... we'll see ;).

Anyway I finally managed to get this done

I'd worked on so many versions, just was never happy with any :(.. Still not sure, but I think this is the best of the lot lol.

Not sure if you can read the text, so here it is. I though it was nice, and got it from 2peas.

Sometimes looking deep into the eyes of a child, you are conscious of meeting a glance full of wisdom. The child has known nothing yet but love and beauty. All this piled-up world knowledge you have acquired is unguessed at by her. And yet you meet this wonderful look that tells you in a moment more than all the years of experience have seemed to teach. Hildegarde Hawthorne

Papers in there from spaceraven (aka Denise Docherty, LOVE your stuff ;) ), fonts, itc avant garde, al sandra, mamma gamma.

We went to the home show on Friday night, and it was ok. Not as many things there as I would have thought, but did see some things that I'd love to get.

I've been thinking of getting a trampoline for a while now, and they had these, and they look fantastic! Bit on the pricey side though, the smallest one going for just under $900, the one that I'd get just under $1500! Julieanne had a turn at the show, and she didn't want to get off. I suppose it is good exercise... lol, she says trying to con dh into getting one ;).

I also saw a bath that I'd love. We don't have one at the moment, and I loved the fact that I could just leave Julieanne in the bath, and she's play for ages. Can't do that with the shower, and water restrictions and all. I couldn't get a pic of the one that I loved, but it's one of those claw foot ones... can't find any prices on it either so that can't be good!

TFL

So what's been happening?

2006-08-23T09:31:00.000+10:00

Not a lot really, lol, and it's been over a week... boy time does fly!!

Ok, the news that you all have been waiting for - NOT - the Krispy Kremes were nice, I especially liked just the plain glazed ones.. will probably just get them next time (yes there might be a next time) and maybe a jam one too. I'm glad I didn't spend hours in the queue for them though... I wouldn't go that far!!

I picked up some LO's, that I had printed out, on Friday (not bad as I only sent them in on Tuesday, and they were ready to pick on Thursday!). As usual the quality of the prints is second to none and they look terrific.. My only wish is that I could get my monitor to match the printouts, they never seem to look the same :(.

Also had new tyres fitted to the car on Friday, the old ones were way beyond being safe! Not happy about spending the money (would have preferred to spend it on a new macro lens lol) but I suppose it's one of those things that needs to be done. Earlier on in the week we put 4 new tyres on the truck, and that cost about 3 times as much!! Grr, not nice when the money really isn't there.

Work has died off again. I'm happy in one sense as I get to do more things at home now (like scrap - sure, that will happen lol), but the money did come in handy, and I did like to get out and do something.... Sometimes I feel really worthless when at home. I know it sounds stupid, but I think there is a stigma attached to being a SAHM, sad really :(.

Umm... what else (gee this post is going on and on......). My SIL had a Tupperware party on Saturday, boy that stuff is expensive, but being me I felt obligated to buy something, so I got a grater, as I don't have one at the moment, I didn't feel too bad about getting it lol.

I told dh that I was going to set up my home studio to take some photos on Sunday, but he seemed to have idea of working in the garden... boy was I happy when his brother showed up to help him, lol, let me play inside ;). Also he brought some more models with him that I could use.

The results from the shoot, were terrible though. I haven't done it for so long (nearly a year I think) that I've forgotten how I had my lights set up, as a result, most of the shots were very blurry... note to self: next time move the lights closer! Here's one of the better ones (thanks to photoshop!), shame the kids weren't very cooperative either... could not get a nice expression at all!

And I think next time I'll use the black. Julieanne just gets washed out in the white. Though her cousin looks striking with it..

I then went and took some outside... much better! Though still not the best expressions lol.

Oh, and I actually managed to do a LO on Mondy night (while watching Cold Case and Criminal Minds).

The kit used is Embrace Life, by Denise Docherty, and I just love the colours in it. I really don't like to blur out bits, but thought that I'd better... you never know.

Anyway, thanks for making it to the end of this post... must be the longest yet :).

On the bandwagon..... (a bit late as always)

2006-08-15T16:03:00.000+10:00

OMG! Blogger actually let me upload!!

First off, I have to let you all know that I've jumped on the Krispy Kreme bandwagon. Well sort of, I finally got some today, haven't actually tried them yet I'll wait for Wayne to get home lol. I didn't go the full hog, and only got the 1 box, everyone else in front of me in the drive through got their 2 boxes, lol... I made up for it with a hot chocolate, which was actually very nice.

lol, had to get a picture ;)... not sure if that 450 is the number of orders they had today.. if so they are still doing some good business.. I think I was there at about 1.30, not bad for half a day!

Umm.. what else? Obviously I had the day off today, work is starting to die off again, and I had to go and drop some stuff of at the accountants in Narre Warren(I suppose we'll have to wait another 3 months for the returns to come in! Grrrrrr!).. hence the Krispy Kremes ;). Finally got round to doing some reading at the school too. Julieanne has been nagging me for ages, but never found the time, terrible mother that I am ;). I'm glad that I went, it's nice to see how she is going with her reading compared to the other children... Just needs to work on her writing!!

I also managed to get this done for the colour challenge at PBP. The colours are really not me, and I did struggle with this one... PS crashing on me halfway through not being any help! But I think it turned out ok, sort of... might try and see what it looks like with some other colours... Kit used is Denise Docherty's Henna kit.

I was attempting to do a LO with this

Last night, thinking that I'd do something that Wayne would actually comment on, lol. Couldn't find my mojo though, and nothing came out of it.. though I'm not going to hold my breath for any compliments from him anyway ;).

Here's another one that I though actually turned into not a bad shot.... hehe, see I did manage to get those 4x4 shots in ;0... sorry.

2006-08-11T20:50:00.000+10:00

Ok, thought I'd see if blogger would co-operate for me.....
Well what do you know....

Open your eyes

(credits Anna Aspnes)

lol, hope this one will make some more sense Started with the background paper and duplicated that, moved it so it is on an angle to the fist layer. Added the bottom photo, and changed blend mode to luminosity 100%. New layer select the photo area (marching ants), fill with white, blend mode soft light 81%, move a little to get an edge, and mask out the faces.Add the top photo and using layer mask and grungy brush erase some of the photo edge. New layer and useing the same brush, paint some white around the photo edge. Duplicate this painted layer, and move it slightly to get more of an effect.Add the next photo, and repeat the above.Add an edge around the whole LO (I think that I used a pre made overlay for this, but you could just use a brush), then add the text. the "open" was cut out of a copy of the background paper, "your" was blend mode muliply, and "eye" blend mode overlay, with the layer duplicated.The rest is just a few curly brustes added at soft light .

Also managed to pick up a bunch of Freesias from work today, and I can't wait for that smell :).

TFL everyone :)

A "grrrrr" day

2006-08-11T17:47:00.000+10:00

Well it started wonderfully (note the sarcasm in that lol)! As I was having a shower this morning the power ran out.... the thing is, when we don'thave power, the pump doesn't run, so there is no water! I had to get out go outside (sopping wet), and attempt to start the generator (which a finally did, after a lot of "nearly" swearing lol). The sad thing is this isn't the first time this has happened lol. Anyway, there is some good news about the whole power thing. Yesterday I registered for the fuel grant scheme, so we'll get 38 cents back in the dollar for the fuel we use in the generator... better than nothing I suppose :).

Went to work, and felt like I got nothing done today, but in reality I did ;).

Got home and found in the mail my first cheque for scrapping... pretty chuffed about that. And I didn 't know that for keeps sends you a copy of the mag with your lo in it. Is this normal? If so, I won't need to buy a copy next month ;). Then as the day was looking up, I drove all the way in the drive, and saw that the bin had been knocked over... the bin that hadn't been emptied for the last 3 weeks! The stupid dog from next door has been paying visits... and our dog as decided that it is now a friend!! Anyway.. had to go over the whole backyard and pick up the mess... not happy Jan!

The day did pick up again (lol, what a rollercoaster ;) ). when I got inside and checked my emails (of course the first thing I do). I'd received a pm at SBB, from someone wanting to know how I do my Layout.... well how do I do my Layouts?! I really have no idea. I attemtped to answer her, but feel that my explanations were a little lacking lol. Anyway, thought that I'd post the los that she was interested in, and the attempt at explaining... note the word "attempt", as most of you know, i'm not the best at explaining things... especially when I really have no idea of how I get to the finished lo.

That Face:

(credits: Denise Docherty)

I started with my main photo and positioned it. Added a paper for the background, but moved it on an angle under the photo, so some of the white background still showed. Added the other photos, in strip form (believe me this is NOT how it started lol), and added some strokes around them. Added 2 more of Denises papers, and changed the blending mode to pinlight, opacity 100% for the first, and hardlight opacity 52% for the second. Also added some layer maskes to these layers to get rid of some of the effect where I didn't want it.Then added a gradient fill layer above my main photo, and created a clipping mask so it only coved that photo, blend mode to hard light 100%. Added 2 rectangle shapes above the photo, and masked out the centre leaving a feathered edge, and played with the blending modes of these too.Finally I added a solid fill layer (red) and blend mode to linear dodge 74%, using the layer mask to adjust where I wanted the effect. Phewww... lol

Grrrr... blogger won't let me upload the other one!

The weekend

2006-08-07T16:42:00.000+10:00

Friday
We ended up going to Knox. Dh wanted to look in the ABC shop for something (didn't find it lol), and I just wanted to go out, so I didn' t have to cook dinner lol. Turns out that everyone came hope with something except me :(.. The kids both got a book each (though Julieanne's only cost $3.00 bargain!) and Wayne got a dvd (ummmm... what's it called....... Crackerjack!) I wanted to look in Teds, but it was shut by the time we got out of Kmart, which in hindsight was probably a good thing ;).

Saturday
I actually managed to get another LO done :). This is Stewart and Julieanne last year, when I actually got round to doing some photo sessions lol... once again "need to get the stuff out again"! It's a little different, but nothing seemed to look right with the photo, and I wanted to somehow use the white backgroud.

We went out to my BIL for dinner, and had a roast, which was nice (once again not having to cook lol), and a yummy apple crumble type thing.

Sunday

Well, we ended up going 4x4ing. I really didn' t want to go, wanted to meet up with Shez instead, but Wayne talked me into it..... We started in Rokeby (sp?), but I have no idea of where we ended up lol. Here's some photo's, not that they are really interesting ;).

Nope, blogger won't let me upload them, so lucky you lol. Oh, and forgot to mention that I found a Lyrebird (sp?) feather :).. .pretty chuffed about that lol.

Special Luncheon

2006-08-02T14:36:00.000+10:00

Julieanne had her special Luncheon at school today. It turned out that it was only the junior schools turn today, so there was only about 8 children and 8 adults there. It was a nice thing for the school to do, and I think that it made the kids feel very special... Especially when the principal said that they were the perfect (or near perfect as he later amended lol) students. The food wasn't anything special.. just party food.. but the kids loved having the softdrink lol. I did think that it went on a little too long, Julieanne getting restless towards the end, but I'm glad that I went. They also had an award certificate presented by the principal, but my stupid (ok I didn't mean that lol) camera wouldn't work for some reason so I missed that photo op. Good thing it later worked for the photo sessions outside ;)...

I ended up taking the long way home. I was going to go into town but decided not to at the last minute, and took the back roads home instead. Nearly ended up getting lost along the way, but saw this gorgeous house... .I was going to take a photo, but thought that it might have been a little to weird to take one of some strangers house rofl ;). Did manage to get back home after about 20 mins (and a few more nice houses).

Ummm... what else? I did this LO, for the challenge at MAC, using Denise Docherty's Whisper kit...

Ok, I'll leave it at that, and sorry for another not too interesting entry... I don't know why you bother ;).... Thank you anyway :)

Smelly House

2006-07-28T17:16:00.000+10:00

Thanks to Julieanne being sick last night.. I was up from 2.30 to 7 am (when I snuck back in bed for 2 hours). She came home from school yesterday complaining about a sore ear, so I thought that I might of needed to take the day off for that, little did I know, it was going to turn out into a definite day of. Oh well, not a total loss I did manage to get this

done. CC welcome as always. Papers and brushes by Anna Aspnes. This is when Julieanne had her first ever face paint last year. I think that she has had it done at least another 2 times since then.

Umm... what else? Oh, I'm now a published scrapper lol. Picked up the new For keeps this week with my Lo in. I'm a little disappointed with how it looks in there, the colous look terrible (ok, they are a bit garish lol). I've got this one printed professionally, and it does look a LOT better thank goodness! I've got another one coming in the next issue, so I'm hoping that it looks a little better :)

Ok, that will do for now TFL ;)

Toot toot (well maybe)

2006-07-25T16:32:00.000+10:00

lol, checked my inbox this morning and had 2 messages from Krys at scrapbook memories. I'd submitted 4 for the black and white theme, and it turns out that this

was being considered. Don't really like the way they say that.. it means that I'm still not 100% sure if it is actually accepted lol. The second message was letting me know that this

is being "considered" (that darn word again) for their teen theme, which I didn't even know about lol. Anyway the day got of to a good start, and just had to let you all know.

Still on the submission front, still waiting for the new issue of For Keeps, which has my first ever published lol in it, lol, I've got another one coming in the issue after that too! lol.. ok that's enough gloating for now ;)

Oh and miss Lee, if you'd re read the previous post, you'd see how much the lights were lol ;)

The lights

2006-07-24T20:05:00.000+10:00

Just because Miss L, asked for it I'll share what lights I used for the last photo (don't you feel special L? ;) lol).

They are just some basic 500 watt halogen (sp?) ones that I picked up at Bunnings (I saw them there on the weekend for $25). I also use a shower curtain in front of them to diffuse the light (just need to be careful not to get them too close, as they get VERY hot!). I did the home studio course at dsp, and this is what we were told to use.. lol, looks very shonky but seems to do the job... just as long as I remember to set the custom white balance that is. I even managed to get some half decent shots of some seats to put in the 'recaro' catalogue that the inlaws sell (well, as interesting as car seats get!)

Gee... I really want to take some more photos now... might just have to start the generator up to run them ;)... This green power really gives me the poops!

On a different note, I just put Julieanne to bed and got out all the notices that she gets on a Monday, and found a peronalised envelope in there.. being the pessimist that I am, I naturally think it's bad news, but it actually turned out to be a letter informing us that Julieanne has been selected to go to special luncheon at the school. Apparently 2 students from every grade get to go because of excellent work and behavior (or something along those lines lol). I hope that this is the start of something good lol, fingers crossed!

Oh and here are some photos from a few months ago. We went to the apple cider festival in wonga park... Julieanne playing in the fountain with the ducks ;)

Once again... TFL

2006-07-23T15:33:00.000+10:00

Ok, just wanted to share this photo with you (some of you may have seen a version of it before ;). I just found it (amongst the too many that I have hidden on my computer) and was wrapped when I did lol, still not really sure about the b&w editing, but I think it looks ok. I actually think that I took this about a year ago, when I was first trying out lighting inside. I should do some more, but the lights that I have use a TON of power, and with us running on solar power, it's a little short in winter (darn Melbourne weather lol).

TFL :)

An early morning....

2006-07-11T07:01:00.000+10:00

Not seven o'clock yet and I'm up at this computer.... do I have a problem or what?!? LOL. Had a brainwave last night in bed for a layout, so got up with Wayne to have a go, but got sidetracked with this blogging... LOL, I thought that I'd better post something with a little more substance than my last one (well as substantial as my posts get ;)!).

Ummm...ok, well what can I write about? Went 4x4ing on the weekend with one of dh's friends... I think that I must be getting old, because I've turned into a real nervous nelly lol, although must admit that a car nearly going over the edge is worthy of some panic!! I generally just like going for the drive in the bush, with a couple of bumps.. none of this serious stuff :(... In the end, Wayne managed to get him back on dryish ground. I think next time I'll stay home and attempt to do some scrapping lol, Wayne will probably want to stay too ;).

Also managed to get 2 LO's done for some challenges at MAC. Seems that I need to scrap someone's else's photos, to actually get me to do something LOL.

Think that might be all for now.. turned out to be more than I thought. Hope that some of you are still with me, even though you really have better things to be doing... go and do them NOW!! lol!
TFL

For Lee ;)

2006-07-10T22:08:00.000+10:00

Ok, here is my post...

Done ;)

Another photo, and a Layout!

2006-07-01T16:05:00.000+10:00

Yes that's right, I actually managed to get one done today! Yay! Not too sure about it, but then I'm never sure about any that I do.

For some reason, blogger won't let me insert more than 4 photo in a post, so I had to create a new one to add this extra photo, bit of a pain as it seems to take AGES.. does anyone else find it slow?

Anyway, this is where we were staying on the Broadwater.. well across the road anyway, we did have a roof over our heads LOL. It was very nice, and a shame that we didn't have more time to explore futher. This shot was actually quickly taken one night after coming home from wet and wild. I ventured out on my own, as everyone else was to lazy! So it was a super quick shot, as I felt really self conscious of being out there be myself and my tripod (really need to get used to taking that!)

The LO from the animal farm shots... didn't use the tongue one as the main.. thought that I should actually get her face in. CC most welcome.

TFL

It's been a while....

2006-07-01T15:46:00.000+10:00

Sorry. I have the utmost respect for all of you that work full time and still run a family. I've been starting at 9 (meaning I have to leave before 8) and finishing at 3 (getting home after 4.30) and am exhausted! There is no way I could do more hours, so a huge round to those that do!
Anyway, not having much to say (what else is new?!) I'll post some more holiday snaps. This time from wet and wild. I think that this is the park that I actually got the most shots, and some of them are classics LOL, though I don't think the subjects would appreciate me posting here LOL.

Julieanne having a ball at Buccaneers bay (sp?). Good thing the water was heated, as I think the temperature only got to about 20 degrees. It was a lot of fun though, and as long as you stayed out of the wind, it wasn't too bad. The wave pool was a little cold though, but the hot spas were fantastic!Can you tell she doesn't like the water in her face. I was very proud that she did go down some little slides though. No way was she doing the bigger ones though. She climbed all the way to the top to 2 of them only to chicken out at the last minute, not that I blame her LOL.

Wayne and Stewart going down one. Have no idea how Stewart is sitting, but it looks mighty awkward ROFLOL!

And this is Wayne and his brother being dumped on by the big bucket in the children's park. It was fantastic, and the kids (the old ones as well LOL) loved it.

Just a quick one

2006-06-19T07:05:00.000+10:00

before I go to work... yep, back to work today :(, not looking forward to it, but the money will help out.

Just one from Dreamworld that I'm sharing. I did not take a lot of photos there, only 31! Must of been because I spent too much time on all the rides LOL. Did buy a couple of those Dreamworld ride photos, but there is no way I'm sharing them here..... they actually have me in it!!!

This is Julieanne feeding the baby animals in Wiggles World.... at first she didn't want to, but eventually got the hang of it. Just love this photo, as both of them are sticking their tongues out LOL.

Anyway, gotta go ::sigh::, will attempt to update later, but not promising anything :)

Seaworld

2006-06-19T06:49:00.000+10:00

For some reason it always seems that I take less photos than I actually think I do. After going through all my holiday pics, I've realised that I really didn't take as many as I would have liked, ranging from 30 to 75 photos a day... I probably would have taken more if I had've remembered to take my second CF card away with us GRRRRR!!!! My memory is shocking, the whole week before leaving I told myself to get it out from under the desk (terrible place to have it, but it was still plugged in to the desktop LOL), but did I? NO!

Anyway, enough of the complaining ;). Here are just three of the shots that I got from Seaworld, which is where we went on the first day. I did manange to get a heap of dolphin shots, just love what they do LOL. The polar bear one was taken through some glass, and has had some ps work done on it, as the original was terrible. We all had a great day, and there was hardly anyone there, always a plus. I guess that my favorite thing would have to have been the 4D sea adventure, it was very cute :).

Oh and here is another photo that I should have included with my last post, but for some reason blogger wouldn't let me.... what is a series of beach shots without a seagull??

Kids on the beach

2006-06-16T13:51:00.000+10:00

Well, this will be super short, as I have to get Julieanne in 10 mins, but thought that I should upload something from our holiday. We all had a WONDERFUL time, and nobody wanted to come home.. .but life reality has to kick in at some point doesn't it?
We found that 1 week was way to short, so next time (yes already planning the next LOL) we'll make it 2. Did all the theme parks, and rides, and loved all of it. Julieanne even surprised me by going on the runaway raptor ride (think that's what it's called) at Dreamworld, and loved it...

Anyway.. here is a couple of photos of the kids on the beach taken on our last day, the only day that we actually made it down to the beach. They weren't dressed for it, but had a ball anyway.. just love the shot of Julieanne taking her clothes off.. no modesty there LOL. Haven't had time to play with them in PS yet, and some of the shadows are bit much, but I like most of them anyway... shame about me chopping off some body parts with the action shots.. .why can't I just get ONE perfect shot?!?!

Thanks for looking, and hopefully will share some more later ;)

Another quick one

2006-05-31T16:57:00.000+10:00

Ok, still not a lot happening around here lOL. The day started off nice though... I received a very nice PM at DSP, from someone new to digi scrapping, saying how much she liked my work. It's always a bit of a confidence boost when you hear something like that, especially as I always find my own work lacking. Maybe one day it will sink in that it's not that bad LOL.

Then after dropping Julieanne off, I made my way to the factory. They are in the process of moving so you'd assume there would be heaps to do... LOL, I did manage to whip up a moving flyer for them, and send it off to a couple of people. Good thing it only took me about 10 mins to do, because I must have spent about 45 minutes trying to get the printer to work with my laptop.. no such luck! The disk with the software was for a mac, and the windows version had already been packed! Had to do it the long way round and save to cd (as all the memory cards were missing too).
For those interested here is the result

Julieanne was in foul mood when I picked her up after school because I wouldn't let her play on the play equipment.. I think mainly because she's not feeling the best. I took her to the docs yesterday because she was complaining about her ears. Turns out they did have a bit of fluid in there, and we can't have that next week... Queensland here we come!

A layout, and my dream trip

2006-05-25T16:33:00.000+10:00

Julieanne and Isabella look so different, and yet they can be so alike it's funny. I took these photos about a minute apart, and yet neither of them saw the other one pose... so funny how they have the same look. The wonderful papers used in this are by Sue Jones.. aren't they wonderful?

Speaking of Sue, I was in the newsagent this afternoon, flicking through a For Keeps mag (issue 38, not sure if it is the lastest or a special edition), and nearly laughed out loud. There was this wonderfully funny LO, of a gorgeous little girl ironing her ball.. just love it Sue.. fantastic work!

Then when I got home, I checked me email (first thing I always do when I get home LOL, who doesn't?!) and received an email from this Holidays with kids website.

It had my dream holiday there. A trip to the Antarctic, how "cool" would that be?! Considering that it cost $14,000 + per person, I think it might be one of those "after we win tattslotto" things LOL.

Not much happening....

2006-05-24T17:31:00.000+10:00

I so wanted to do a layout today, but have been having a major lack of inspiration.. I'll have to make do with a photo. This was taken at Mordialloc (sp) beach, a few months ago. I loved the look of the sunset, but as I took the photo, this flock of birds flew across the shot.. oh well.

Still trying to figure out how we are going to afford the trip to the gold coast, I'm attempting to arrange accommodation here. If anyone has any other recommendations let me know ;). I know that we are leaving it all to the last minute, but that is what happens when you arrange to go away with family I suppose.. trying to get everyone to agree on a spot.

Umm.. I think that's it, sorry, I did warn you that there wasn't a lot happening. I think that I'm going to start to scare people away from this blog LOL, it's very BORING.

I think that I'm coming down with something too.. I think I'll call it the MAC virus ;).

I can sing a rainbow....

2006-05-22T11:14:00.000+10:00

Ok, just a quick one (aren't they all?). I got up this morning and saw this rainbow out the kitchen window. It was the brightest one that I have seen for a long time, and the light was just beautiful, so I had to get the camera out and venture outside. I must have been a sight, in my dressing gown with my blunnies on! LOL, not to mention the rain! Good thing that neighbours are a fair distance off!

There are some very annoying rain spots on the images, that I could not get rid of. Thanks to the MAC girls for some image editing tips. Didn't get the result that I was after, but it is a little improvement. The second shot is of the backyard, bit of a mess at the moment so don't look to closely LOL.

Also had a phone call from dh this morning. Grrrrr... Stewart has been suspended from school (again!), I really don't understand WHY? What drives him to do these stupid things? This coming from a girl that NEVER got into trouble. I was the quiet mouse that used to sit in the corner at school, and avoid any attention. He has been threatened numerous times that if he acts up, he is going to miss out on something special. He doesn't know that we were planning on going to the gold coast next month. Dh is now having a major dilemma as to whether to carry out the enforcement or let him come..... He will be SOOOO disappointed if he misses out, but what do you do? His mum had to go and pick him up from school, so we'll see what happens tonight when we get his phone call. Maybe we should just cancel the whole thing.. really can't afford it at the moment anyway :(.

Going Crazy!

2006-05-19T21:23:00.000+10:00

OK, I feel like I'm in a mad house. The TV is blaring Creed, after certain members of this house had a karioke (sp) session. I think I might enroll them all in some singing lessons LOL! Did hear some good music though (not the singing) ranging from The Doors through to Pearl Jam, and also some Counting Crows thrown in, as Julieanne loves "that Shrek song".

Um.. what else? I actually went to work today, well sort of. I went over to the factory, takes me over an hour to get there, but really need the money, and it helps the inlaws out. They are pretty busy at the moment with the caravan and camping show on in Caulfield.. at least I think that is where it is!

I'd had enough of being in the house yesterday, and as it was such a nice day I thought that I'd do something outside.. I ended up spraying the weeds outside.. we are being overrun here LOL!

Oh and I managed to get a LO done, not too sure about it, but at least I have something to post ;). Kit "caberet" by Rhonna Farrer, recoloured.
Oh and Miss M wanted to know how I did the edge. The floraly frame is part of the kit, and I just added one of the other papers as an overlay and masked it off to show the photo. I really do hope that made sense, because I'm terrible at explaining things, as some of you may know ;).

Album fit for a Princess, and Be Happy

2006-05-16T19:38:00.000+10:00

Ok, lets attempt to post some pics LOL. Here is the beginning of a Princess Album that I'm doing for my niece. I'm using Anna Aspens Fit for a Princess album which I just fell in love with when I first saw it. Makes life a lot easier.. I'm up to page 9 already! I'll just post a couple for you guys though.. they are all basically the same.

I also managed to do another LO today.. haven't done one for a while, and was getting withdrawals ;). This is Julieanne the other day when we went to the park. I was having a ball taking photos of her and Isabella on the swings, oh the joys of digital, you can just shoot and shoot!

Papers by Iron Orchid, recoloured.

Well I think that will do for now. Thanks for looking.. if there is anyone out there LOL.

TTFN

Ok, I've given in!

2006-05-16T07:07:00.000+10:00

Well after a fair amount of pressure, I've finally created a blog.. to all you MAC girls out there "thank you" NOT! I have no idea of what I'm supposed to be writing here, but I can tell you now that I don't think there are going to be many posts LOL. I lead a pretty boring life..

On the up side I suppose I can get myself one of those cool looking slide show things.. Now to figure out how to set this page up so it looks good ;). BTW does this thing have a spell check?!?