Look Mummy no Wheels .....

... is what Lachie told told me yesterday when Daddy took his training wheels off. Of course I had to laugh and force mself not to correct him and tell him that a bicycle has two wheels and that is how it moves because he was just so proud and he sounded cute when he said it LOL.

It was amazing to see how quickly he took to riding without his training wheels. His bike has been out of commission for quite some time (insert months rather than weeks) but I finally managed to get some new tubes yesterday morning and Tony finally had some time to fit them. Lachie's first request was for the wheels to come off but seeing as it had been so long since he had ridden the bike, we decided to lift the training wheels up a little bit. Of course, Lachie has always been wanting to push the boundaries - I think mainly to keep up with Mitchell - and within 30 minutes he was begging for them to be removed altogether. Needless to say he has taken to 'no wheels' like a duck to water. Sniffle sniffle, my baby is all grown up :-( .

On the scrapping front, things have been a little bit slow. Mojo is there but not flowing as fast as I would like but beggars can't be choosers. I was hoping to get a lot of scrapping done seeing as it is the holidays but a small handful of layouts for the album is better than no layouts at all. To be honest I am not really liking this layout - I haven't put it away yet in the vain hope that something comes to me. I know it is missing something but everything I have tried doesn't work. Feel free to offer any suggestions if you have any LOL. Ok off to see if something else will inspire me.

Thanks for stopping by
Me xoxoxo

Boys live here ........

While I am more than aware of this fact (how could I not be with all the noise, trucks, tractors and pieces of lego), I have never taken photos to document just how much 'blue' I have in my life. Here are a few random pics from around the house and farm today:

Monster trucks, graders and tractors and a patch of dirt - what more do little farm boys need?

Every little boy needs a Thomas (or 4) in their life, plus all of his friends.

Isn't it amazing what can be created with coloured pieces of plastic and little people? Gotta love the imaginations of kids.

Just some of the gang - lots more around but they were busy being played with and weren't available for an impromptu photoshoot lol.

Not a lot else to report. Have scrapped another layout but not happy with it. Still deciding on what else it needs to make it even remotely passable. Maybe these photos will inspire me.

Til next time

S xoxoxo

Monochromatic Madness

I have never attempted to scrap monochromatically but after reading the upcoming themes in the latest SBM, I thought I would give it a try as a bit of a challenge. Not sure I am liking the end result and couldn't stick to just one colour (had to throw in a little red just for a bit of something other than blue lol) but I have finally scrapped a photo I have been dying to scrap since I got it printed:

Can't wait for spring to start warming up and summer to arrive so I can get back out to the pool with my camera.
Off to see if I can manage more scrapping today. Not in the best of moods - feeling down in the dumps about a few things. Maybe I need to throw on some old eps of Sex in the City or Grey's Anatomy to take my mind off things.
Thanks for stopping by.
S xoxo

A little bit of awesome-ness and some ME time

Can't show it on the blog for another month or so but if you get Scrapbooking Memories Magazine, check out page 88. There is a cute little kid on there and he is all mine. Yep my very first publication in SBM and I am a BIG bit excited to say the least lol.
With this publication, that makes 2 of my scrapbooking goals complete for 2010. One more magazine to go and I will have accomplished most of my scrapbooking goals for the year. The great news about that is the in the next month or so CK will be publishing some of my layouts in the Aussie Reader gallery- gotta love that!
After all my 'marathons' over the weekend (not of the athletic variety but of the marking and housework variety) I finally decided that last night was the perfect time for ME time - something which has been a rare treat over the past month or so. I tried doing this layout about a month ago and didn't get anywhere with it. I found it late last night buried under some paperwork that I hadn't filed. Filing complete, I managed to pull it together reasonably quickly and have to say that I am reasonably pleased with the result:
Now that I have got that page done, I am hoping the inspiration and mojo will stay with me long enough to do some more.
No doubt, I will be back to post if I do manage to create more LOL.
Me xoxoxoxox

Holidays are here

School holidays are here and how did I spend the first day of Spring break? Buried in a pile of marking. The last week of school was filled with lots of action as the various subject areas prepared their Year 12 submissions to review at District Panel. As always, it was my job to prepare the Modern History submission. It is a huge job and, like usual, all of the other work got pushed to the side so I could concentrate on that. Of course, doing that means that it piled up, waiting patiently for me to turn my attention to it (yeah right - I make marking sound so enjoyable but it really isn't lol). I started last night and gave up around midnight but I am pleased to say that all I have concentrated on today (in between doing six loads of washing) is this pile of goodness:
There is a silver lining to all this pile of white paper. It is DONE, FINISHED, COMPLETED!!! Talk about doing a happy dance. It is such a huge relief to have it out of the way. I was going to make myself do an hour each day across the first week of the holidays but I forced myself to sit down and get it out of the way today. Very pleased with myself because now I can concentrate on better things for the rest of the holidays, like SCRAPPING!!! (I can dream and hope can't I hehe)

In other news, we have some welcome (well everyone else except me says welcome) additions to the family. I went scrapping with the girls a few weeks ago and was woken up early by the excited squeals of two little boys telling me about new chooks. Mummy was not a happy camper to say the least. First there was the issue with being woken up - I am much better if I am allowed to wake up in my own time. Next was the realisation that there were four chooks in the hen house. I have to admit (and you will probably hate me for this) that I am not a chook lover. I love eggs but given that I am the only one in the house who eats eggs on a regular basis, I thought it was kind of pointless getting chooks. Sadly, I was over-ruled on this one. Here they are and according to Lachie, they are Shay, Mahayla, Bee-Bee and Daisy. Not sure where some of the names came from but I know two are named after some of the girls in his class (I told him to keep that little gem to himself lol):
The next bit of excitement was Tony's decision to get himself another dog. To be honest, I am more of a cat person than a dog person but Tony is the exact opposite - he loves dogs, especially working dogs like Kelpies and Border Collies. Needless to say, my protests were not listened to and this is the result, little Toby:

Yeah I know he is cute and everything but at the end of the day it is a dog. I guess he will grow on me soon enough.

Nothing else to report. My brain is fried after all the reading. Was thinking about tackling some scrapping but I think I might just go sleep instead.
Hope the start of the holidays have been more exciting for the rest of you.

Me xoxoxox

Point Shoot Play and Meloo Photography

Seriously, if you want to learn how to get the most out of your camera - DSLR/SLR or regular point and shoot - then you HAVE to invest in one of these workshops offered by POINT SHOOT PLAY. Seriously, you will NOT regret it. I say invest because that is what it is - those cameras of ours cost serious dollars and get a fair workout, quite often without us taking the time to get to know how to use them properly - it is an investment in getting the most out of your camera and finally moving the dial off the green rectangle (aka auto function).
For our workshop, Mel from PSP presented one day entirely devoted to photography and a second just for continuing to improve our photo-editing skills. To say the weekend was awesome would be an understatement. Even though my head was not always in the right place (should have realised at the time that I was coming down with a head cold and stuffed up sinuses
again :( ) I loved being able to spend time watching Mel do her thing. What I wouldn't give for time to be her 'offsider or apprentice' - just being around her inspires me to work harder at improving my photography.


As part of our photography class, we also managed to fit in a photo shoot out here on the farm. I haven't got many pictures to share as I was busy trying to organise other stuff but check out this bit of awesome-ness Mel caputured of my boys. (insert major jealousy here - would kill to take photos like this girl.)

Nothing else to report here. We have hit what we love to call 'Hell Week' at school - Year 12 exam block as well as preparing and packing up all the Year 12 submissions to go off to panel (basically where we gather a sample of student work from our teaching area and send it away for other schools in the district to review - kinda like making sure everyone is teaching the same sorts of things and awarding similar grades/levels of achievement). Even the exams the kids do this week have to be marked, internally moderated and then sorted for district review. Get why we call it hell week now??? lol The best part about the week is that after Friday, we have two weeks holidays - need it so that we can catch up on all the other marking that gets put aside this week in order to get all the Year 12 stuff done.

Til next time,

Sarah

Oh My!!!

Right now I am in a state of shock and awe (no, I am not pretending to be George W Bush and his invasion of Iraq/Afghanistan or where ever it was).
A week or so ago I was reading one one of my daily reads - Kathie Link's blog. I love how Kathie adds hand-written journalling to almost every single one of her fabulous layouts. She had a post about journalling and asked people to share theirs, so I did and was selected as one of her 'story tellers' - guess that is what she is intending. Check it out here. I have to say that I am truly astounded to be selected with this fine group of scappers - most of them 'names' from the Australian scrapbooking industry. Have to admit that I am more than a little bit chuffed to be considered with the likes of these amazing ladies.
Nothing else to report here at the moment. Life is slowly returning to its normal frenetic pace filled with work, home, work, home, marking, compiling submissions. Only 7 more school days until the holidays and I am making a promise to myself to have ALL of my marking done before Friday of next week so I can sit back and enjoy the holidays.
Til next time.
Me xoxoxo

Time Flies ...

... it sure does regardless of whether you are having fun or not.

Life has been running on over-drive for the past few weeks. Some of it has been fun - like scrapping a layout here and there will some of it has sucked completely. No other way of putting it than LIFE SUCKS.

We had sadness in our family last week with the death of my dad's oldest sister. Her passing was more sudden than I had prepared myself for - less than a month from initially being informed of her ill health until her death. While she was 12 years older than my dad (she was the eldest child, dad the youngest), there was still a closeness between them. Death is never easy, regardless of age but knowing that Aunty Marie had lived a full and mostly happy life, it does make dealing with it a bit better. As always, Dad was a rock for us all. Being the youngest doesn't stop him from being everyone's rock. I got to catch up with all of my aunts and uncles on his side of the family and quite a few cousins which was good, despite the sad occasion.

On the home front, life has been hectic. School is starting to wind up for the term but it is the busiest time of year in many respects with most of the major assessment for the Year 12 taking place now. I am beginning to feel as if I am slowly getting on top of things, although I will be glad when the end of term comes at the end of next week.

Not a lot of scrapping has been happening since my last post - a paltry two layouts. Hitting a flat patch with the scrapping again. I really need to get out and take some new pictures of the boys to inspire me. Maybe that can go on the 'to do' list for the holidays. Here's hoping anyway.

I am not totally happy with these layouts but I know I am always a lot harder on myself than everyone else lol. Both layouts are of Mitch, feel like I scrap pics of Lachie all the time so it was good to concentrate on pictures of Mitch.

Not a lot else to report. Spring is finally here and while the days are definitely getting warmer, the nights are still chilly. Bring on summer!!

Until next time

Sarah xoxo