I left a little piece of me behind ...

... in the States. I am so lucky to have been given the opportunity to be the chaperone for the students from school and proud to say that they were model students. I could not have asked to travel with a better group of teenagers - I love my job!!
I loved almost every minute of my three weeks there. I am still undecided about Los Angeles (no offence meant but over 4 hours of delays at airports and then the mother of all traffic jams at 11pm doesn't put me in a positive frame of mind) but I can definitely say that I fell head over heals in LOVE with San Francisco, closely followed by San Diego. I took so many pictures - as one does while travelling - and I am ashamed to admit that I have not sat down and taken the time to go through them properly. Between unpacking and starting work the day after I arrived home, there hasn't really been the time. Even now, I should be preparing lessons for tomorrow but I just HAD to share some pictures, just so I can prove that I was really there lol.
We spent all of our time in So Cal - San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. The majority of our time was spent in SD (10 days) where we were hosted by students and teachers from Grossmont High (go Hillers!!!).
Our first stop was San Francisco - just 3 1/2 days and in my opinion wayyyyyyyyy too short. I have read so much about SF in books over the years and I was most excited about going there. The weather was cold, wet, windy and FOGGY (typical SF apparently) but who cares, its SF!!! The pictures below are of the Golden Gate (which I walked over), Alcatraz, Pier 39 and the Powell-Hyde Cable car (which we took up to the top of Lombard St so we could walk down the Crookedest Street).

Our next stop was LA for 5 days - did the obvious like Disneyland/California, Knotts Berry Farm, Santa Monica Pier, Rodeo Drive, Hollywood. My pick places in LA were Santa Monica Pier and being able to touch Hugh Jackman's hands out in front of the Chinese Theatre (no pic of me touching them though, just a pic of his 'spot' which I may share another day).

Our final stop was in San Diego. I didn't know a lot about SD before travelling (not one to research before going anywhere but rather just take it how it comes) and I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. The weather was gorgeous, particularly in the last 4 days of our stay and as demonstrated by the photo taken down at Pacific Beach Pier (how cool is that hotel, you can actually book a room ON the pier and sleep over the water!!). I loved, loved, LOVED the zoo and could have spent more time there. I was in awe of the US Midway - the amount of effort which has gone into creating the museum is phenomenal. Shamu the whale was awesome - didn't expect anything less and San Diego, your sunsets are spectacular. So add all of those days together, plus the travelling and that is how I spent the last three weeks of our summer vacation.

But now it is back to reality for me - school lunches, washing, ironing, planning lessons and getting settled back into the routine of every day life. Not so much as a hint of scrapbooking yet :( hopefully it will not be too much longer.
So now that the love fest is over, I will let you get back to your lives.

Thanks for visiting,

S xoxoxox

Oh my ... where to start??? Floods? Travels? Birthday?

Floods???

Travels???

Birthday???

Oh my goodness ... what a start to 2011 it has been. So much has gone on in the last few weeks that I don't know what to talk about first. Have got so much to tell you but too tired to write it all out in full so I am going to throw in a few dot point highlights and expand on the details in the coming weeks.

• Floods - yep water and lots of it. Dalby inundated 5 times in the space of a few weeks - everything ok for us at home :)
• Christmas - wet, wet, wet. Water water everywhere. Getting stranded at Christmas - yep we were stranded at my parents house in Warwick due to teh flooding. Lucky for me I had packed most of the stuff for my trip just in case.
• America - still cannot believe that I have been there!!! Walked the Golden Gate Bridge, sailed around Alcatraz, went to Disneyland, fell in love with San Diego ... more on that some other time.
• Another birthday has been and gone - kinda special this year and not just because I was in the States. First time ever that I have been to school on my birthday - lol - one of the joys of always having a birthday in the school holidays.

Anyway, I should go to bed. Have only been home three days and need to get myself organised for the start of the school year as well as catch up on much-needed sleep (note to self, buy sleeping pills next time facing a 15+ hr plane flight).

Will definitely be back in the coming weeks with some pics of my favourite parts of the trip.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and lots of fun welcoming in the New Year.

S. xoxoxoxoxox

Preparing for December 25 the Aussie way

After printing off some of the pictures from our Christman photoshoot the other day, I was just itching to scrap some of them. I can tell that this is going to be the first of many Christmas layouts this year LOL. The title says, PREPARING FOR DECEMBER 25 THE AUSSIE WAY.


I love how these photos represent what Christmas in Australia means to me - hot weather, sunny skies and swimming. I think I will be doing this every year considering the fun the boys had swimming with Santa's hats.
Not a lot else to report. I should be getting the rest of the christmas stuff sorted and my bags for America packed but just can't get into the mood to do anything. I hope I do get in the mood soon. Christmas is next week and my plane leaves on New Year's Eve eeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkk!!!
Til next time
S xoxo

An Aussie Summer Christmas

The weather here yesterday was HOT HOT HOT. This was a pleasant change for us as we have had nothing but grey skies and rain for the last few weeks. Now being a farmer's wife, I would not normally complain about rain but even this wifey has to say enough is enough. We have already lost some paddocks of crops twice due to minor flood and water damage and the rest of it, particularly the cotton, is struggling to grow in the cooler conditions. Here's hoping we have a few more weeks of 35 degree C days with no rain - lol not looking likely though.
All that being said, I had to make the most of the sunny weather and get some Christmas photos. The only problem was that two little men were not interested in getting their photos taken at all - all they wanted to do was swim in the pool. So what was a girl to do? Fight and nag and whinge and whine until I got what I wanted (keeping in mind that I am the adult in this situation lol) or just come up with Plan B?
Well Plan B is what I did. Nothing like adding an Aussie Summer touch to Christmas IMO:








Pretty clever thinking on my part, even if I do say so myself. I have to say that I totally LOVE the last photo of Lachlan, a very cute Santa indeed. Now all I have to do is scrap some of the pictures lol.
Cheers,
Sarah

p.s. Are you as shocked as I am that I have blogged twice in the same day???!!!!!! hehehehe

All about the number ...

Yep that's right. The oldest of my two little men turned 8 at the start of December and we celebrated with a party at the local pool. Sounds like a good idea right? I mean it is summer, the weather is supposed to be hot hot hot, the sun is supposed to shine. Well the only thing we got right on that day weather wise was the fact that it was summer. There was no sun, it wasn't your typical December hot day - instead it bucketed down rain. Bucket loads - I am talking a few inches in the space of an hour or so. Originally the plan was to book the pool as well as the inflatable obstacle course for the two hours of Mitchell's party. Sadly, with all the rain that fell, the obstacle course was out of action as it would have been too dangerous considering the pump runs off electricity. That didn't stop the boys though - they had a great time swimming, jumping and racing each other from one side of the pool to the other. Unfortunately my favourite lens was still out of commission but luckily for me, one of Mitchell's friends' mother is a scrapbooker so she took lots of photos for me. Yay for scrapping Mums lol. I made this LO after being inspired by Pip Prosser's double page layouts (Yay for inspiration). I see me in the layout in terms of blocks of cs and pp but it is so not like me to use that many photos on a layout:

Some closeups:
I loved this next pic and even though I had it printed in a smaller size to use on the layout above, I just had to get it printed bigger and use it on a LO all by itself:

I uploaded the wrong picture to the computer as the LO does actually have a title 'It's all about the number 8', hence the title for this blog post. And some closeups:

These are just some of the many left over chipboard number 8's that are lying around in containers. I stuck them all to a sheet of cardstock, painted it with white paint, left it to dry overnight and then sprayed it with multiple layers of various blue glimmer mists from Tattered Angels. After the mist dried, I rubbed some red ink onto my finger and light brushed over the tops of each of the numbers and finished it off with a coat of Pearl glimmer mist. Doesn't look real shiny in this photo but it sure does IRL.
And lastly, where would I be without October Afternoon stickers??? They are the best way to finish off a page. Here I used a lot of different ones from a few of their ranges - even their Christmas one (the word magic). Gotta love that!!!:

I also forgot to share a LO with you that I created a few weeks ago. I was in desperate need of a scrapping fix to break up all the marking and report card writing I was doing at the time, so I went to a crop night with the girls at my LSS. Sadly for you but YAY for me, the LO has already been picked up for publication in the Aussie Reader Gallery in Creating Keepsakes magazine, so I will just have to leave you with a sneak peak or two lol:
I will leave things there for now. Have got some awesome pictures from my Aussie Christmas Photo Shoot to show, but I will do those another time. I really need to get back to covering school books - wtf??? school only finished for the boys and I last Friday so what am I doing covering books now??? Well the truth is that I am off to the USA on New Year's Eve for three weeks as part of a cultural exchange with students from my school. We are spending our time in San Francisco, San Diego (where we will be 'hosted' for 10 days by schools there) and Los Angeles. We get back the day before I am supposed to start school again (thank goodness it is only student free days) which means that I have to be SUPER organised before I go.
Ok, the books are calling me but swing by later because you might be in for a real treat with some photos.
Cheers
Me xoxoxoxox

In Bloom

We are lucky enough to have a huge Jacaranda tree right outside our bedroom window. Jacarandas are my all time favourite trees. There wasn't any on the farm I grew up on, nor do I recall there being many at friends houses but when I left home to go to Uni in Brisbane, I fell in love with them. Even though they come into bloom at one of the most stressful times of the year - end of Semester 2 exams - they will always hold a special place in my heart. My walk to Uni from Auchenflower to St Lucia each spring was like walking on a purple carpet.

My layout from the weekend is a tribute to my love of Jacarandas. Not happy with the layout - definitely struggled with the colours - sooooooooooooooooooo not into using purple.

My go-to camera lens is playing up something cronic at the moment. It has already been away for repairs once so I am grappling with sending it away again or ordering a new one. Given what I spent on repairing it last time, I could have almost paid for a new one. Part of me thinks it is a waste not to repair it as it sounds like such a simple repair job but the cost of sending away and paying just for it to be looked at makes me think twice. Anyone got advice for me? Should I buy a new one or get the old one fixed again???
Ok got a pile of marking sitting on the desk and unfortunately, it won't mark itself (bugger!) so I'd best get on with it.
Thanks for stopping by.
Sarah

Howdy Stranger

lol do people still say Howdy??? hehehe I think not. Oh well I like being different.
I have finally found a few spare minutes in the week to update this blog. Nothing special has been happening - just life. Have had a massive fortnight marking and preparing assessment. I finally finished the last lot of marking on Thursday around midnight. Felt good to have it done. I have about a two week break before getting inundated with all of the end of year exams. My Year 12's are definitely on the countdown - 5 teaching lessons with them until their exam. Where has the year gone???
Not a lot of scrapping has been done - in fact, just one layout since starting the term. Very plain and VERY SIMPLE but I actually like it, especially the Pink Paislee Parisian Anthology Ruffle Ribbon:

This is the boys' school photo for the year - the very first one of them together at 'big school' as Lachie still calls it. I cannot believe how much both boys, but particularly Lachie, has grown in the last six months. Hard to believe that Lachie is only in Prep - he looks so much more grown up.

Have spent last night and today trawling online shops looking for After 5 dresses for an awards ceremony I have been invited to attend next week. Nothing like short notice to kick a person's butt into action. Found out on Wednesday about it which meant 10 days to find something - not easy when you are a bit on the 'cuddly' side. I have two formal outfits in the cupboard but have worn them so much over the last few years I am sick of the sight of them. Found this one and have ordered it. It was love at first side. Just hope I don't end up looking like mutton dressed as lamb:

The sales assistant was soooooooooo helpful when I called (they have online plus store front). Promised me that they can get it from their end of the country to mine by Wednesday 9am at the very latest (fingers crossed). All I have to do is pray that it fits hehehe.
On the magazine front, the following page was recently published in Scrapbooking Memories Magazine. Not one of my favourites but was accepted for their 'banner' theme, even if the banners I used look a little like g-strings hanging on the line lol. Gotta love October Afternoon stuff though - all the pp is from their collections. I {heart} OA HEAPS and LOTS and MUCH

I have more to show but cannot just yet but if you get Scrapbooking Memories for yourself, turn to pages 29 AND 110 (still cannot believe having two layouts published at the same time). The colours of the layout on pg 29 are totally blown out but hey, who cares, it is published lol. The one on pg 110 is soooooooooooooooooooo not my colours but I love the basic design of it.
Anyway, I guess I should start to turn my attention to the neglected piles of folding that have multiplied in my push to get all the marking done. When oh when will someone invent a washing machine that washes, dries, folds and irons clothes? Oh and putting them away should be an optional extra lol.
Til next time

S xoxoxoxoxo