Addicted to Books & Digiscrapping

Well technically I've been back for a couple of days, but it has taken me a bit of time to sort through photos, washing, emails and other assorted things that pile up while you are away for a while. I feel so fresh after our holiday, seven nights at Palm Beach, with daily walks, afternoon sleeps, and evening drinkies - ahhh that's the life. The beach just can't be beaten in the relaxation stakes! The kids had an absolute ball and would collapse into their beds each night happily exhausted. I really miss the sounds of the sea and the cool breezes *sigh* - but it gives us something to look forward to next year! Sorry, I'm a bit lazy today - I'm combining my Project 365 with sharing holiday snaps, so here we go ....... Jan 19 Bella enjoying riding in on her board. Jan 20 A pretty Galah I saw on an afternoon walk. Jan 21 Sunrise over the beach on an early morning walk. Jan 22 A stormy sea! The Currumbin beach was closed for swimming but we walked along it to check ou...

Soooo.. Here is my weeks worth of photos - I have popped them into this really cool storyboard by Lanne. You will notice that there is one day missing from the storyboard *sigh*. That was the schoolbook covering day and the only photo I took during that hellish day was of the mound of books as yet, uncovered, LOL - so I tinkered with it this morning in Lightroom and you can see the result below. Jan 14 - Tasha down at the park playing cute on the slide - I used Kelsey Smith's Into The Woods Lightroom Preset on the photo because it was slightly blurry - I like how it came out LOL Jan 15 - The spider has found something yummy to keep for later! I love her web! Jan 16 - This is the yucky photo of all the school books - it didn't come out very well so I put Kelsey's Give it buzz preset on it to make it a bit more fun LOL! Jan 17 - this photo was taken by my 6 year old tasha and is shockingly out of focus but it looked so moody I decided to play around with some lightroom pr...

Ohhh it's been nearly a whole week without blogging *blush*. Well it's been a busy week, getting ready for our week at the Gold Coast and finalising the kids school things. Well I had my first experience of covering two children's book as Tasha is going into Grade 1 this year and I nearly DIED! Rules of perfect contact application include - no humidity! HELLO! Sub-Tropical Brisbane in January is HUMID! Needless to say profanity was being muttered under my breath a fair bit - but after a concerted effort all the books are now covered, pencils, pens and assorted stationary are now labeled and packed away in school ports awaiting the 30th January! Oh and I bought Tasha's Big Girl Uniform during the week. It was so funny, as we walked into the uniform shop, Tasha reminded me in a very loud whisper, that she had to try it on - IN THE FITTING ROOMS like a big girl! I felt a little teary seeing my baby in her school uniform, she looked so grown up *sniff*. It has been a little...

So this whole posting every day thing is NOT working for me! I am taking photos every day, that's not the problem , I just can't seem to get over to blogger every night, with all the things I have to do, sooooooooo.......... I was thinking that maybe I would post a weeks worth of photos at once! I hope that is still in the spirit of the project. So as tomorrow is Monday I will start my week from there which means I won't be posting any more photos until next Sunday night. I might try my hand at some sort of storyboard-ish thing to show them off LOL! Well without further ado here is my Jan 12 photo I love taking photos of my girls, they seem to change every day! Tasha was being cheeky and kept moving so she is a little blurry! And this is my Jan 13 photo Do you like Tasha's new Body Glove swim suit? LOL Today was the first day she wore it and at first she wasn't too sure about going in the deeper water but in a few minutes she felt really confident and then i...

I wont say I have found my mojo yet, that may be a little too hasty at this point BUT I did a layout yesterday and I'm not TOO unhappy with it LOL. Well I HAD to used Natalie's GORGEOUS new Ultimate Element Collection immediately because there are so many wonderful goodies in it! Have a look at it! . You can pick it up at Natalie Bird Desings or DID or PBP ! And here is my LO - No Snow !. On our trip to Tasmania in 1992 we were all so excited at the thought of skiing! We live in sunny Queensland and this was going to be our first ever ski experience. But everywhere we went in Tasmania that year there was no snow! Ben Lomond Ski Resort was our last hope before we headed back to the mainland and you guessed it, there was NO SNOW!. Credits are here Well I had better get the kids breakfast so it's ta ta from me LOL

Now today I was in a bit of a pickle because all the pictures I took were all rubbish, it was gloomy and rainy outside and gloomy and dark inside LOL. But I finally got this photo of my daughter Bella reading in the evening. Why take a picture of this you ask? Well Bella has been very slack about reading recently preferring to spend all her free time on the playstation and the computer. So I had to come down a bit hard on her and I banned her from these activities until she had read for 1 hour each day! Well to sweeten it a little I took her to a book store and she got to pick a new book. She picked a Pre-Teen novel called INGO. At first she was a reluctant participant but yesterday evening I found her laying on her bed reading her book AFTER her 1 hour had been done that morning! The triumph of a good parenting move had to be imortalised by the camera LOL

Ok I got a little behind posting my photos sorry about that. I did actually take this photo on the 10th but it sat in my camera all day yesterday LOL. This is my puss Chelsea, I have had her for 13 years this year and I love her to bits and she tolerates me :). I took this photo under our house on an old 1960's lounge that Chelsea has claimed as her own personal property LOL.

I took this photo today on our walk back to the car from swimming at Redcliffe Lagoon. The kids had a great time even though it was an overcast day, there weren't too many people there which is always a good thing on school holidays! I really liked how the stones looked against the gently. rolling grey sea at this faux castle-ish structure at the basketball courts.

I was starting to feel that the photos were taking over my blog LOL! I have to admit I haven't scrapped a lot recently - I think I misplaced that darn mojo again! Which is a bit of a pain because Natalie has got some WONDERFUL new things out at the moment. I have done TWO new LOs recently, both funnily enough are vintage LOs. It makes me smile when I do vintage LOs because I always think of my friend Carol's "things that never really happened" LO's. If you haven't seen them before you should pop over to her blog and scroll down a little - they are so funny and so beautifully done, you won't be sorry! Mine, unfortunatley are NOT funny LOL but I hope that they are still OK. The first LO is of my Great Grandparents Credits are here and the other LO is of ME - when I was a little baby - look at how cute I was before time had it's way with me.......... Credits are here Oh BTW I used almost all of Natalie's new stuff for these two LO's so if you li...

Today's photo is of Bella and her new top! It's not just any old top mind you! No, this top is her first ever bought from a "Big Girl's Shop" LOL. She finally fits into XXS at Supre and she is thrilled! Plus, the photo is of Bella today also because she pointed out that I had taken two photos of Tasha and therefore it was HER turn - I did mention one photo was of tasha's shoes but she doesn't see that as different LOL!

My picture today is of Tasha swinging in the back yard. She has only recently leaned how to swing herself properly with out being pushed and she is pretty proud of herself!

This morning when I went downstairs I saw the most amazing spider web strung between the trees. It was enormous and had at least four different spiders living in it. They are all out and about after the rain, I guess. It looked almost magical because the light glinted off the strands and I had to take a photo straight away.

It isn't a technically brilliant photo today but it does document a special moment :) Last year Tasha was at Prep and they were pretty casual about the shoes that they could wear. But this year Tasha is in Grade 1 and she has to wear the full uniform. These shoes are Tasha's first pair of proper school shoes, and she wore them all day! From the time we bought them until she had her shower, you couldn't get them off her! She is so proud of her new shoes and can't wait until she can wear them with her new "Big Girl" School Uniform.

Ok I'm back doing this again - sorry I've been slack! Babies I always wanted babies, I can't really remember a time when I didn't want a baby. I first met my DH when I was 18 and I would have had one right there and then because I knew that we were for keeps but things got in the way and I ended up not falling pregnant with Bella until I was 30. And then there was a big gap of 4 1/2 years until we had Tasha! So eventually we got our babies, better late than never I always say! Sometimes I wish things had been different and we had had our kids younger but, well you can't change the past, even if you really want to. But now the closest I get to babies is cuddling my friends babies and at my age, that is OK with me! Blogger I would never have imagined in my wildest dreams that I would be a blogger a year ago! My Dh is very private and doesn't like sharing personal information on the net. I don't blame him at all. But when I was a participant in the Amazing Dig...

My friend Natalie told me about a photo-a-day challenge that she had read about at Scrap Artist and I was intrigued too. I popped over to Photojojo and read up about it, here is what they say about it "Why do it? Taking a photo a day is a big undertaking with big payoffs. Here are just a few reasons why you should consider doing it: Imagine being able to look back at any day of your year and recall what you did, who you met, what you learned… (Often we find it hard to remember what we did just yesterday or even last night, let alone a whole year ago!) Your year-long photo album will be an amazing way to document your travels and accomplishments, your haircuts and relationships. Time moves surprisingly fast. Taking a photo a day will make you a better photographer. Using your camera every day will help you learn its limits. You will get better at composing your shots, you’ll start to care about lighting, and you’ll become more creative with your photography when you’re forced to c...

Ok! Ok I know that it's the 4th already but, what can I say, I'm a bad blogger. I hope that you all had a wonderful New Year. It was way too wet and windy to go to the fireworks this year so we had a lovely quiet one over at a friend's place, chatting, nibbling and drinking coffee. So Christmas ….. We had a lovely time in Hervey Bay, the weather was wet and windy but that is certainly better than hot and steamy that is for sure! It was wonderful for hubby to spend time with his sisters and brother as it has been well over twenty years since they were all together at Christmas. Daphne (my mother in law) was in seventh heaven with all her children and grandchildren around her and at the last moment the Hospital allowed Ron (my father in law) home for the day, so we were all together. What a wonderful day. I missed my Mum though :) The whole Clan! The kids were spoilt but not too terribly, I couldn’t get them everything they wanted this year but they were very happy with wha...