Back Again

...... ok I have given you enough time to pick your chins up off the floor.

I must be coming down with something - definitely must be considering I am posting yet again lol.

Had a great day yesterday - finished off the last of the christmas shopping for the boys. Had to pretty much start from scratch with the Santa stuff after someone discovered the loot tucked away somewhere :( Hace decided to play a game of switch-a-roo so now all the Santa pressies will be from Tony and I, and vice versa. Bugger have a kid who loves to explore and is constantly looking around every nook and cranny around the farm, in the house and car. Oh well, will have to work harder to find better hiding spots next year.

I have been loving the holidays so far - lots of cleaning out and clearing out the house and reorganising the scrap room. I finally finished a job I started way back in October when I was at home on bed rest - reorganise the albums and putting all the Layouts in their correct album and in their correct order. Yes I know I tend to be a bit OCD about that sort of stuff :o. But now it is done and this is what it looks like:

Moved all of the LO's out of the old albums - except for the Creative Memories ones used when I first started scrapping - and put them in the Printblocks Ringbinder albums (love, love, love these albums). Then I used white Making Memories rubons to put the name and relevant year/s on the spine of each album. Love how it all looks all neat and tidy and organised. Now all I need is to work out what sort of wall unit I want and I can put them on display instead of in the cupboard lol.

On the scrapping front, I spent yesterday afternoon and evening at the shop. Like always, I didn't create much but I sure had a great time. I was finally able to give T the LO's I did for her - lets just say there were tears all round. I was totally thrilled by her response and I cannot say enough how pleased I am that she liked them. While at the shop, I came up with these two LO's. You can probably tell that I loved the LO from 2peas mentioned in the previous post because I have used exactly the same design again hehehehehe.

Nothing much is planned for today - maybe some more scrapping and I can see 4 cropper hoppers full of patterned paper and cardstock that is more disorganised that goodness knows what. The usual washing and ironing also needs to get done but I am sure I can hang the clothes out inbetween fiddling with a LO and the ironing can wait until another time or maybe later tonight hehehehe.
Ciao for now

Me xoxoxoxoxoxo

Some Scrapping Goodness

Wow another blog post and it has onlybeen two days, not two months - can I handle this hehehehehehehe.

My desire to scrap is slowly returning and I have managed to complete these projects this week. Two are inspired from LO's found at http://http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/ - totally love that site for all the inspiration and information that can be found, not to mention the shopping when the Aussie $$$ is good.

The first two LO's are of a very special friend who was kind enough to let me take some pics of her baby belly a few months ago. Very happy with the photos and the layouts, even if I do say so myself, and the best bit is that I still have heaps of photos to scrap for her.

Couldn't resist snapping this pic of T and her two gorgeous kids :)

I promise to love you with all my heart :)

The third layout is more of Lachie and his best bud, Dudley Bear. Loved playing with Photoshop with all of the pictures used in these layouts.

Teddy love ... there is nothing better

Well that is about it for now, off scrapping with the girls. Who knows, maybe I will be back again soon with more showntell - lol I make myself laugh sometimes hehehehehehehe.

Me xoxoxo

Blog Update Well Overdue

I just had to take this pic while the boys were decorating the tree - sums up what this time of year is all about - pure joy.

How cute are my two little Santa's??? OK so well I am biased, but hey, what mother isn't lol.

After some not-so-subtle prompting from someone (aka H-er), I thought it was high time I updated this sadly neglected blog.

What can I say but how mad has this year been? It has flown by so quickly - I cannot believe we are 8 sleeps away from Santa's visit. Term Four passed by in a flash - feels like only yesterday I was welcoming 160-ish eager Yr 8's to their new school, yet school has been finished for a week.

Not a lot has been happening with me of late - the main reason for being so quiet was the fact that I got quite sick with a really bad chest infection (my GP suspected Whooping Cough at one stage) which meant a week of total bed rest and then another 3 weeks of taking things easy - well that was two months ago now and I still get the coughs up, particularly late at night and I don't have all my old energy back, although I have started back at the gym this week and have been swimming while the boys have their lessons for about a month now. I also took some time out from all things technological to focus on trying to get my head back in the right space again - my meds messed with the antibiotics I was on and silly me convinced myself that it didn't matter if I didn't take them once the antibiotics were done - BIG mistake. But I think I am slowly getting back to where I was - thanks to some visits to Toowoomba and just resting.

The boys are very excited about Christmas and have been counting down for weeks - can't believe it is just a few days away really.

Hmmmmmmmm I wonder who is being naughty and who is being nice in this pic lol

Up until this week, scrapping had been absent from my life for over two months, but thanks to some challenges from a couple of great buddies, I feel the need to scrap again - will share in another post.

Ok, I think this brings me pretty much up to date for now - happy H-er (hehehehehehehehehe)\

Me xoxoxoxo

Family Photo Shoot

FINALLY .........

Well it took over four years but I finally managed to get some decent family photos done. I found the photographer's card at the local pool and it turns out she has a daughter in Mitchell's class at school - small world isn't it. Anyway, she dropped the disk in Mitch's bag today and I have just picked out a few (of the almost 400 :o) that I think I like.

Thinking I might call this one: 'I'm the King of the World' - very Titanic-ish ... minus the ship and the icebergs lolHow does 'Wait for me!' sound?

And because someone hates white t-shirts, we had a wardrobe change lol:

Words cannot say how much I love this little boy ... I cried when I saw this pic for the first time :o

All in all, some pretty great pics here. Not sure if I like the family shots but I am totally loving the pics of the boys.

Ciao for now

Me xoxoxo

For the Love of Dudley

Took another sketch challenge over at inspired blueprints and came up with:

It is based on Sketch #33 and while i have changed a few of the details, I think it still fits the sketch ok - well here's hoping anyway.

Lachlan was given Dudley the day he was born by my parents (whom the boys call Nanny Goat and Poppy Choppy - story for another day lol) and four years later, they are still as close as ever.I am aiming to be back at work today - still coughing and spluttering and feel less than great. Hoping to get into the doctors as well but not liking my chances - they were already fully booked for the week when I called yesterday so hoping for a spare 'emergency' appt or a cancelation.

Have a great day

Me xoxoxo

Cough, Cough, Splutter, Splutter ....

.... but hey at least I am slowly getting better.

Have some how managed to come down with another chest cold. Thought now that winter was done, I would be free from catching any more nasties. Oh well not to worry because it means that I have to rest and relax and what better way to do that than scrap scrap scrap. Yeah my bad, skipping work today ... good thing today is a student free day and I am not actually missing any classes - I am sure my Year 12's will be pleased (insert rolling eyes here lol)

Haven't been able to concentrate on anything too much or for long periods of time because of the coughing but over the weekend and again today I have managed to do a bit of scrapping.

Layout One: Mitchell's new glasses - story behind the glasses is that I seriously thought he was only pretending to have problems with his eyes just so he could have glasses like Daddy and Stephen (his best friend). Long story short - I got sick of the nagging, took him to the optomertrist and yep he needed them because he is long-sighted :-o

Layout Two: Inspired by a layout in a new magazine that H-er (http://scrappinmyworld.blogspot.com/) introduced me to. Magazine is Scrapbook Trends (http://www.scrapbooktrendsmag.com/) and LO was from the August edition. The picture I have used is of my mother's older brothers and sisters - obviously taken before she was born because she is not in the picture lol:

Layout Three: Another LO of Lachlan - cannot believe how fast my baby has turned into a little boy - can't believe he is starting school at the end of January (eek):

Layout Four: Today's effort. After months of looking at the site and drooling, I finally decided to create a LO using one of Inspried Blueprints (http://inspiredblueprints.ning.com/) sketches and this is what I created for Sketch 31 - although I did rotate the sketch:

So that is what I have been up to for the past few days - when I haven't been coughing and spluttering that is.

Me xoxoxox

Another one bites the dust

... weekend that is.

I am sitting here typing this wondering where the last 48 hours have gone. Please don't tell me that it is Sunday night already! Seriously, I cannot believe how quickly this weekend has past. I have done so much but still feel as if I have achieved so little.

Our weekend began with a bang on Friday night - the TV pooped itself. No warning, no rhyme or reason. One minute we were all sitting there watching Better Homes and Gardens and the next minute we were watching a blank screen. Tony tried fiddling with cords and power-points (much to my disgust) without any luck.

So Saturday saw us hunting around town for a new TV. If it were up to me, I would have gone straight to the closest electrical shop and bought the one that took my fancy but no, Tony doesn't operate like this. He is a haggler. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with haggling, I just don't like to do it, after all the workers have to make a living too. So off we trudge from shop to shop then back to all of the shops with the prices. Hehe I escaped the last part of it and went and got an eyebrow wax - trust me, less painful than listening to Tony haggle. Finally we got the one I was after in the first place and after triple and quadruple checking to make sure it would fit in our entertainment unit, it was ours.

I also did the usual weekend chores of washing, folding, sorting clothes etc. I had a huge purge of the boys cupboards and donated over a garbage ball full of clothes to charity. Ashamed to admit that some of the clothes were hardly ever worn so here's hoping that someone will get some good use out of them. I also finished unpacking our bags from the last week of the holidays when the boys and I went to my parents place.

I found some time to scrap as well last night, but it wasn't until after I had got most of the washing done, sorted and put away. Lucky for me 'Cars' was on TV so I left the boys and daddy in the lounge room to watch while I came out to the scrap room to play. After lots of fiddle-farting, pushing things around and ratting through my stash, I came up with this:

Today saw a repeat of yesterday. This time it was the floors, toilets and bathrooms which needed my attention. It is weekends like these that I wish I could justify the expense of having someone come in every week to clean. If I didn't have a wish-list of things I want for the house as long as my arm, I would probably get one but for the moment, saving up for some new pretties takes priority.

Also this afternoon we finally managed to catch the third dog that was dumped here last weekend. The other two were taken to the local pound but sadly, were euthanised on Thursday. Although we did consider very seriously keeping one of them, in the end it was just too risky considering we knew nothing about their history/temperament etc. Anyway the third dog took off up the paddock and only started coming back towards the house late this week. It still won't let Tony or I near it but it is more than happy for the boys to approach. Late this afternoon, Lachie caught it for me and carried it over for me to have a closer look at. He is such a cute little thing - a fox terrier/chichuaua (sp) cross by the looks of it. I am hoping to get him more confident with me over the next week and if he settles down, I think he will have a new home and lots of love. I know someone who is madly in love already:

Anyway, I think that is enough ramblings for now. Til next time, take care.

S. xoxoxo

To Blog or not to Blog ...

..... now what a silly question to ask. Of course I will blog - just won't have anything much to blog about. Another round of school holidays has come and gone in a blue - still trying to work out where they actually got to. Was a very busy fortnight indeed with visitors in the first week and then taking the boys across to my parents place to see my sister who I hadn't seen since January. Home again only to have to go on another little driving expedition to my nephew's Christening.

Haven't scrapped in over a week - think I am still getting over the shock of my scrap-athon while H and family were here. I had this LO pretty much finished a week ago except for the title and journalling; finally got it finished thanks to the help of some special girls. Thanks chickies mwah mwah.

This is the first time I have ever journalled directly onto the photo - not sure whether I like it or not. Have decided to sit with it for a week and then come back to it - if I like it, it stays; if not, I will get another photo printed and won't journal on it hehehehe
Think that is all for now.
Cheers
Me xoxoxo

During and After ...

... the dust storm.

From the images on tv it was very widespread and left a lot of cleaning up to be done. I took some pics yesterday while I was at my desk and decided this morning to take some after shots as well. What do you think?

Been a bit slow on the scrapping front - only did two layouts and both of those were yesterday/last night. Too busy cleaning up today, taking Mitch to the Dr's about his lymph glands again (yay report was good, no surgical intervention needed, but will always have a lump on his neck - good thing you have to look reeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaal close to see it if you don't know about it) and just hanging out with Heather.

This is what I have come up with:

This one is from Father's Day (I did another LO using a pic from the same day which I put in the previous post)Love love love this picture of Mitchell out in the wheat paddock. He was playing with the heads of wheat and looked so sweet and innocent when he looked towards the sky. Growing up wayyyyyyyyyyyy too fast that's for sure.
Hope all of you who are on holidays are enjoying them.
Take care,
Me xoxo

If Only ...

If only this was rain and mist instead of dust:

:-( Looks like all of Tony's planting over the last week or so has been for nothing - the rain that was predicted never eventuated and the hot weather and drying winds took away all of the moisture in the soil that made it all seem so promising just two weeks ago :-( :-( The joys of farming; something I am sure all you farmer's wives out there fully know and understand - all tips for cheering up gratefully appreciated ... well apart from 'that' lol.

I mentioned in my previous post that someone had to have 7 stitches. Guess who it was???

Apparently this is what happens when you forget to move your head lol. Lachie was playing in the bedroom and pulled my IPod dock off the shelf. He came into me in the office very calmly holding one hand over his eye and the other under his chin to collect all the blood (which there was HEAPS of) and said, 'Mummy I forgot to move my head'. No tears, no screaming, just calmness - wonder if that is a sign of things to come later in life - like he is preparing me for all the injuries he is going to sustain considering how rough and ready he is lol. He was such a brave little boy - he had to wait a fair while at the hospital to see a doctor and despite all the pain, poking and prodding he didn't cry once.

Now as promised last night - scrapping to share. Been having a ball with H-er out here to inspire and encourage me to do all of these:

LOL not bad to get this much done considering how much fiddle-farting is going on in this room. Me thinks I need to surf the net less, talk less, procrastinate less and I might actually manage to scrap more hehehe.

I found this LO sitting under a pile of stuff and realised I hadn't shared it yet so thought I would do it now:

Ok I think that it is for the scrap share for now. Just took another pic of the dust storm. This is how much it has come in over the last half hour while I have been working on this post, making phone calls and doing other stuff:
Unbelievable. Not looking forward to cleaning up after this. I have got pretty much all of the house closed up but the dust is so fine that it is still coming in. Anyone know a good cleaning lady???

Ciao for now

Me xoxoxox