Addicted to Books & Digiscrapping

The wonderful Jo over at PBP issued a challenge to compile a blog encyclopaedia about yourself, she said "It's not going to be a weekly, monthly, daily thing. You update as you want. If you do A-Z all in one week then so be it. Otherwise just take your time and work through the alphabet, no set number of topics per letter or anything." Well I was always one to love a bit of a challenge. BUT I can't promise that I will faithfully post every week (I'll try Jo I promise!) but I'm going to give it a damn good try. So here we go - my first post in my Blog Encyclopaedia! Credits - "A" from Pauline Rossi & Aries charm by Lemonaid Lucy I also wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas - we are leaaving tomorrow to go to Hervey Bay and we won't be back unitl after Boxing Day so I wanted to send you all a big Christmas Hug! Everything in the Card from the Christmas Magic kit by Paint the Moon and Holliewood Studios So to all of you, my friends and...

I have been taking advantage of the peace and quiet around here and I have done a little bit of scrapping LOL. The kids are nice and rested now and are at the stage where they will need entertaining soon so I won't have as much time to laze around creating LOs! So anyway I'm enjoying it while I can - which is good because Natalie has been putting out a few awesome little goodies for me to play with. And here is the LO I did with it for my Dad (told you didn't I Dad LOL!) Another new goodie is the Live your Life mini - And this is my darling Bella having a good laugh on the Chair Ride at the Brisbane Ekka this year! Credits for both LO are everything by NATALIE BIRD (except the Sanded Edge Action by Atomic Cupcake) Well anyway I have to go - I'm visiting my friend Kelly and her lovely new little baby boy (mmmm I love babies - oh and Kelly LOL) and I have a few things to do before I leave. So hugs to you all and I'll chat soon! Ta ta.

Peace has finally decended on our house! Ahhhhhh the kids are on holidays at last and we have had a pretty restful week. The kids are now officially DVDed out after a couple of marathon sessions of the latest new releases, and I never want to see the inside of a DVD shop again - hah hah well at least until they want to go back! I have done MOST of the Christmas shopping, all the Christmas cards are done and ready for posting, and those of you who receive pressies from me, rest assured they will be in the mail tomorrow LOL. So I am feeling relatively before-hand with the world at the moment, but that wont last. We may, or may not, be in Brissy for Christmas, we MAY be heading up to Hervey Bay for the Christmas period, it all depends on my FIL's health. There is some talk amongst the doctors here that he may be sent back for Christmas but they haven't made any final decisions as yet but hey! there is PLENTY of time! It will be wonderful for him to be back in Hervey bay for Christ...

Well after a mind-blowingly busy week, it is all over! The kids are now officially on seven weeks holiday and all the break-ups and parties are done! We are going to relax and have a quiet week, catching up on some quiet time, watching DVDs and trying for some afternoon naps LOL. Well we will relax until the play-dates and friends-over things start LOL! Do you know the best bit about Summer holidays (sarcasm alert!!!) - the kids get off school just in time for the temperature to climb to an average of 31 degrees C (if we are lucky or it might average at 35!), and the humidity leaps to about 95% (LOL) making everyone hot and cranky! Did I mention that I hate Summer ? hate it, hate it, hate it! Oh well, I have an air-conditioned bedroom and so do the kids LOL. This weekend not only marked the end of the school year at our place, but it also marked a time of birthdays here too :). Hubby and Tasha share the same birthday, Tasha turned 6 and hubby turned a little bit older than that LOL! W...

OK I have been absent from my blog for a little while but I have been busy, busy, busy! I'm really wondering people, how did I do it all when I worked? I just don't know LOL! Well since I last blogged the silly season has taken off in full swing. I honestly don't know where to start in listing what we have been up to but it includes things like, birthday parties, Christmas Litergies, Guide Camps, Christmas Concerts,Carol Singing, Christmas Card photo shoots, Christmas shopping, birthday present shopping for Tasha and hubby (who is very hard to buy for can I just tell you!), break-up parties at school and for hubby's work, CT LO's AND trying to find time to actually speak to my friends and family before December 25th! I still have a list of outstanding things to do and a couple of presents left to but after tomorrow (Bella's class break-up in the morning, a pool party at her friends place in the arvo and then an Irish Dancing concert for my Goddaughter in the ev...

Just popping in to say a big "Hi!" and to show off another couple of new LO's using the lovely Natalie Bird's products. I just love using her wonderful mix of grungy, magical goodies! I can't wait to see what her new stuff will be *wink* A trip to the Park! Credits are here and Fairies at the bottom of my Garden! Credits here Well in other BIG CT news, Natalie and I have decided that we like each other's stuff so much that I'm staying on as a permanent CT member! I can't begin to tell you how excited and thrilled I feel, being able to work with such a wonderful designer who is also a really lovely person. I can't wait to see what the future is going to hold *happy dance*!

Seriously........ it is so easy to do lots of LOs with Natalie Bird's lucious stuff *smile* This LO features Natalie's Together Forever kit, aren't the colours lush? Such a pleasure to work with! Credits are here - if you like it feel free to leave me a little love LOL! Hmmm I wonder if I have time to do another one before dinner??????? maybe not lmao!

I have some VERY exciting news to share with you all! I am so pleased and proud to announce that I have been accepted to do a Guest CT spot for the lovely and talented Natalie Bird (and the crowd goes wild!). Thanks so much for giving me this chance Nat! For those who may not know (seriously! where have you been?), Natalie sells her designs at both Desigins in Digital and Pickleberrypop and her designs are filled with amazing colours and textures. I really hope that I can do her talent justice *smile*. So without further ado - here is my first LO featuring Natalie's goodies. Details on Natalie's products used in this LO can be found here . Well I had best be off, I have more LOs to do and the happy dance to finish *snicker* so ta ta for now! Oh and " HI Dad " - Thanks for reading *wink*

I found this clip while scrounging around looking for a new Coldplay song for my blog! I was a child of the eighties and I was also a mad keen Cyndi fan. This song just spoke to me when I was an angst riddled teen and it still makes me feel all gooey when I hear it now (in my 40's LOL), I hope you like it too :)

In family news, on Wednesday, the Preps went to the Trevena Glen Farm for their excursion and I tagged along for a look. It didn't rain that much while we were there, thank heavens, and it was a lovely day. Tasha and the kids had a great time, they milked a cow, fed pigs, lambs & poddy calves, cuddled baby chicks and sat on the worlds most placid bull. This year the horse rides were out because of the Equine Flu but the kids didn't mind because they got to sit on a very strange eight legged cow (man-made LOL). Here are a couple of pics of Tasha, these are the only ones that don't have any of the other children in them LOL. In other family news, my FIL seems to be getting better every day and today his tracheotomy (sp?) tube came out at last. So hopefully, after eleven long weeks, he is on the mend, fingers crossed. In scrapping news, I was delighted to find out that I was actually awarded some points in the SUAS contest! I received a total of eleven points (2 points for...

Congratulations to the 6 wonderfully talented scrappers who took out the top three places in each category, they are all very well deserved winners, their work is just amazing! You might be able to find out their galleries from the SUAS blog in a couple of days if you are interested. And now that the big reveal has taken place we are all allowed to show the world our LO's. I have decided that I will only put mine in my DID gallery because DID is my "home gallery" (and because I'm lazy LOL!), oh and here on my blog. I put a lot of work into these LO's and most of the time I was really happy with them (even though I never placed once ha ha ha). I am bummed about leaving a "w" out of the journaling in the final week #6 LO argggh, I was so tired when I posted it I missed seeing it! I might fix it before I post it here lmao. Oh what the heck, you can see what a twit I was and anyway, I think that I flattened the damn text before saving it so I can't ch...

Just for you Carol, here is the recipe for the Carrot Cake LOL. It isn't anything wildly exciting but it does taste yummy. All pieces in the recipe card are from Kay Miller's All Organic kit. I hope that you can read it - if not click on the card and it will show up bigger! Must buzz - I'm for an early night tonight, I have a date with the air-conditioner lmao. Ta ta!

Well hello there! It has been such a busy week for me and I can't believe that it is finally Friday and I can't believe that I am actually blogging twice in one week LOL. I have been so lucky to have special visitors this week - I had my darling niece and her Mum (who is also a dear friend), staying for a couple of nights on their way back home from a holiday. It was so wonderful to see them both and all three of the girls got on like little house fires LMAO! I couldn't get over how alike my niece and Tasha are, in temperament and in looks. Needless to say I took loads of photos. Anyway I thought that I would post a photo from Mum's birthday dinner the other night - it's a cute photo of Mum (my step-dad & dd are in the pic too!) and you can check out my fab carrot cake (bwahaha!). On the scrapping front I was thrilled to read about this great challenge over at DesignsInDigital . This is Pauline's challenge to us - "I would love for everyone to get in t...

Well it looks like I have become a weekly blogger doesn't it :). It has been pretty quiet here and there hasn't been anything major to report, sorry. OK to sum up the week just gone - On the home front I spent another day with the Prep kids on Tuesday and I am beginning to think that the teacher has it in for me (ha ha ha). We did paper mache (sp?) ladybettles and the glue was EVERYWHERE! One sweet darling had it all over the front of her uniform and I have been hiding from her mother ever since LOL! Good thing it is only flour & water glue! Seriously though it really is a rewarding day! I get to spend time with my youngest DD and watch her interact with other children and I also get to see my eldest at lunch when she is swarmed by little Preppies wanting to hug her (now that is FUNNY!). Other family news is that we had Mum & Joe over for dinner on Saturday night for her birthday (which is actually today) and I made a carrot cake from scratch . Doesn't sound a lot d...

That about summed up my day! The half bad bit, was the horrid migraine that I had this morning, it was the worst one I have had in a LONG time. I was so ill I couldn't go to my dear friend Kelly's Baby Shower (which broke my heart!), I couldn't see properly and I had to take more pain killers than I usually do for migraines. And so this afternoon I was a bit of a space cadet. I am feeling better though, I just have a headache now. The good bit was that by the afternoon, when hubby had to take his Mum up to the hospital for her daily visit, I sat at my computer (well I rationalised that it helped the nausea to focus on the screen LOL) and popped over to Scrap Artist to see how the Fiesta was going. I downloaded the fantastic Fiesta Kit giveaway and the colours are just brilliant! While I haven't ever been to Mexico, so I won't be able to scrap it but those fresh, bold colours can be used for any type of LO. While I was there, I checked out the challenges and decided...

I spent the day with Tasha's Prep class today and they have worn me out! I am now officially a shattered husk of a woman and I can't BELIEVE that I put my name down for EVERY Tuesday until the end of school! I must be crazy! Seriously it was exhausting but I had the best day. The kids recorded a couple of songs for the Chrismas CD that the school is putting out this year and they were so well behaved and even though the auditorium was hot they did a wonderful job! Tasha just loved having me at school and gave me kisses and hugs every time she passed me. I must have been hugged about a hundred times by all the kids today, it's a good thing I'm chubby otherwise I would have bruised ribs. I also got to see my eldest daughter playing Tiggy in the school yard having a great old time. It was lovely to see her racing around laughing her head off because she is such a serious little thing most of the time :). BTW - yesterday was my brother's 39th birthday. I sent him a birt...

Ok, sorry about that, I am now officially a bad blogger! Life has been very, very busy and I guess time just got away from me. Well to recap on the last few weeks; we have had the best school holidays EVER (according to the girls LOL) and the girls have happily gone back to school perfectly content that the Christmas holidays are going to be just as good or even better (help I'm under pressure now!). It's funny but the time seems to go even more quickly now that I have finished work, my head is spinning by the end of some days. I think that people's expectations of you change when you don't WORK and they think that you have heaps of time to do things for them (ha ha!). Seriously the next person to say "so how is the lady of leisure" is going to get a slap! But I have to say that I am happy right now and even though I am busy, I feel content. I do miss my friends at work though. I was lucky that during the holidays I had the opportunity of catching up with some...

Hi there my family & friends I really just wanted to share a LO that I did tonight of my hubby and I. The photo is ghastly and out of focus but I grunged it up with an Urban Acid Action to give a bit of ompfh. I had to use it because it is one of the rare photos ever taken of just the two of us (that happens a lot when you have kids LOL). I was feeling all lovey tonight and I was thinking of the things that have changed over the twenty-two years that we have been together and smiling over the one thing that hasn't - Love. So I'll leave you with it, I'm not posting it anywhere else so the credits are everything by Christina Renee . Nighty, night!

I really should be in bed but .... I thought that I would quickly post before I go because I am not (repeat NOT) going to turn on my computer at all tomorrow! I spend WAY too much time on the damn thing LOL! So for my family & friends who have no interest in digiscrapping - a quick note about the family! School holidays have just started and my cherubs are delighted to have me home for the whole two weeks :). I am happy to BE home lmao! We started the holidays by sorting out the winter clothes and putting them away, and pulling out the summer clothes and making sure they still fit! What fun! Tasha is very much improved thankfully and she seems to be able to hear much better with her sore ear now. Bell is fine, just acting like a typical pre-teen girl at the moment (but enough about that LOL). Apart from that, my dear MIL is still here as my FIL is STILL in ICU, so we went and spent some lovely girly time yesterday, window shopping and sipping Chai Lattes at Westfield - heaven! As f...

Just a quick HI before I go and pick up the eldest girl from school :). Well poor old Tasha had a middle and outer ear infection and now that we are all dosed up with antibiotics, drops, Nurofen & Claranaise (sp) syryp all is now well on the home front - LOL. That girl MUST go back to school tomorrow as she is going stir-crazy at home and she really is well enough to do so - but she is a bit deaf in her sore ear so I kept her home for another (and the last!) day. On the scrapping front - I thouhgt that I had best give my creative juices a work out because the Stand Up and Scrap Contest starts tomorrow and I didn't want to be stale. So I tried my hand at the LO you can see below. It is a bit busier than I am usually inclined to do but, what the heck, live a little I say! Credits here Well I had best get on my way because it is nearly that time - take care my family & friends - ta ta :)

I think I may have found the answer to my missing Mojo! With much encouragement (read nagging LOL) from my pal Deb, I registered today for the "Stand Up and Scrap Contest". It is a wonderful concept that gives participants the opportunity to contribute to The Alliance for Climate Protection and buy the most AMAZING kit I have ever seen! Now I know that I have no chance in hell of winning, or frankly even get a place, but I really enjoy the challenge of stretching myself artisticly and forcing myself to do things that I wouldn't normally attempt. So there you are - I'm now an anonomous number in a sea of other participants (who are incredibly talented and equally anonomous!) - I can't post my LO's here on my blog because then you would know they were by me LOL but I am so looking forward to it :). On the home front, all is good. Amazingly my dear FIL is hanging in there!!! It is so wonderful and he has even woken for the first time in a fortnight, so fingers c...

It has been a little while since I last blogged because real life has been so very busy up until now! I finally finished work on Friday and it was a lovely, sad day. Everyone made a fuss and I felt very loved and very sad to go - after all I had been there for eleven years (but I still went LOL). My FIL is still in ICU after his surgery and we are taking my dear MIL up there daily to sit with him. The whole business is so very exhausting for everyone and my poor MIL is worn out with worry and stress. But sadly, all we can do at the moment is be there for them both, that is what families are for. I wish I could find my mojo (has anyone seen it around???) as I would love to do a scrap for my MIL of my FIL in his bowls rig but when I sit down at the computer I find myself staring off into space. So if you see my mojo lying around please return to sender OK! Well I had best get back to staring off into space as it is nearly time to pick up the kids from school...... ta ta for now ......

.....and so I had best catch up! Well as you might remember last weekend it was my darling Bella's 10th birthday and we spent the day at Sea World to celebrate. We had a fantastic day and the weather, the crowd numbers and the kids were amazing. Bella went on the corkscrew for the first time ever and while I think that it might be a while before she goes near it again (lmao!) she is now starting to think that it might have been "sort-of" OK. She had a great day and if I don't get a chance to send you all emails (I'll explain later in the post) I just wanted to thank friends and family for their cards and gifts - she was spoilt appallingly! But I still love you all :). Here are some photos from the day - there were so many to chose from! I haven't spent much time on the computer this week sadly, because hubby's Mum is staying with us while her partner is having surgery, and my computer is in the guest room - I am having serious withdrawls and I am trying t...

Well as you might already know it is blowing a gale here and has been since yesterday! I am loving the rain (not enough of it though) but the wind is starting to make me feel a bit wild :). The poor cat can't stand it and jumps on the bed with me the minute I get in and at the moment she is sitting there glaring at me, waiting for me to go to bed LOL! Not a lot to report apart from the crazy wind, we are all well and life is rolling along as it does. Boy this working full time does eat away at your week though and leaves you spending the whole weekend cleaning. But we have something special to do this weekend that doesn't involve cleaning - it is my darling eldest daughter's tenth birthday and we are heading off to spend the day at Sea World. It is her favorite place to go because she just LOVES sharks and adores the Polar Bears there too! I will definately have to post some pics! Thank heavens I managed to talk her out of a party! Yikes :) On the scrapping front I am gathe...

I wanted to shout out a big "Horray" because a wonderfully talented friend of mine, Anna Benjamin (aka Paper Moons), is breaking out into selling her gorgeous designs and I am so excited for her - go and check out her blog to get all the details but .... here is my first LO with her beautiful new marbled bookbinder papers! Don't they just ROCK! These papers were all hand painted by the talented Anna and they have so much amazing detail that I'm just speechless (yes me! speechless!). If you do pop over to her blog she has these papers at a fantastic price of only $1.00US for a pack of ten papers. One pack is made up of soft pastel colours and the other pack is stuffed with lovely & rich colours. PLUS there is a little freebie treat there just for stopping by! Now it doesn't get any better than that does it! Good luck my friend, I know you will take the scrapping world by storm :)