Just have to share

I took some photos of Micayla for a layout I have in my head. The photos just came out so beautiful I just had to share.


She was getting stroppy with me cause I was taking so many photos and she was getting sick of it. Then she asked if she could make up some poses of her own. The above photos are her own ideas and I just snapped away as she played. They turned out the best out of all the others I took.



Keep scrolling down, there are lots of posts I've uploaded over the last couple of days.

I have been tagged!!!

Thanks to the gorgeous Cassandra for my tag.

Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!

1- I love to play with my hair.
It's been a habit I've had since I was a child and I just can't stop. I do it more when I'm tired. Adrian hates it and is always telling me to stop it and this frustrates me cause I just wanna do it!!!

2- I can't stand seafood or fish.
The smell of it makes me feel sick and just eating it makes me sick. I remember throwing up everywhere after eating scallops that we caught fresh that day when my brother went deep sea diving.

3- I am double jointed in my thumbs and my elbows.
My thumbs go in all directions and I can lay them flat against my wrist. I can also rest my hands palms down on the table and turn my elbows so the inside of my arms are facing the cealing. Micayla has inherited this from my and Adrian thinks we are deformed.

4- When I'm hungover I like to eat fried eggs on vegemite toast.
Gross isn't it!!! Not really, it's yummy.

5- I am a night owl
The only reason I go to bed is because Adrian says I should. What is sleep anyway, do we really need it? There is always too much to do. Don't have time to sleep. I can stay up till 2-3 in the morning and not be tired enough to go to bed. Especially when I am scrapping.

6- I write Lists
Before I go to bed each night I write a list of what I have to do the next day so that I can get to sleep. I even write that I need to have lunch, or shower after the cross trainer. I guess it's to remind me I have to stop. Also, it's another thing I get to cross off my list. I even have lists of what scrapping stuff and deadlines I need to complete, like entering comps etc.

7- I Love Summer and Hate Winter.
I love the bright warm sunny days, where I get to wear pretty skin showing clothing. I feel so alive when the sun is shinning and have some colour in my skin. I hate the drab boring colours of winter and the heavy ugly layering of clothing. I become a recluse in winter and would just love to be a bear hibernating in a cave. I do love though, snuggling up in front of a warm fire, while its cold and miserable outside. Pitty we don't have a warm fire in our house. So who wants to volunteer to walk Micayla to school and pick her up during winter.

OK so thats it...some boring trivial information about me. !! lol well it was a bit of fun, and these people can now consider themselves TAGGED.......

I can't find the 7th person to tag. Everyone else I would've tagged has already been tagged so I can only come up with 6.

LAURA, JUDEE, DEBBIE, LUCY, MICHELLE, and KAT

Anzac Day

David, Laura and Kaytie came around today. Laura and I scrapped all day and the boys took the kids to the park in the morning. Dave then took Kaytie back home so she could sleep and Adrian went with him to watch the Essendon/Collingwood match. Micayla and Bailey stayed with us otherwise Kaytie wouldn't sleep. It was very peaceful scrapping while they were all at the park. Here are some photos Adrian took at the park.
Micayla is helping Kaytie turn the wheel.

After lunch, when the boys and Kaytie had gone, Tania came and joined us to scrap. Nathan, Mitchell and Jaeda came as well and the kids played all afternoon. Laura, Tania and I were squashed into the office scrapping. Should've got photos of this, it looked pretty ridiculous when we could've spread out on the kitchen table. But Laura and I were already set up in the office so we didn't have to clean up when it was time for lunch. Tania BYO'd (is that a word; LOL it is now) her own card table to set up in the office with us. We finally packed up around 5pm and went around to David and Laura's for tea, but Tania went home to her intoxicated (LOL) husband who'd been at the footy all day. Poor Micayla had a splitting head ache that wouldn't go away. She was crying and crying. Never seen her with a head ache like that before. She was in bed early after 2 doses of panadol (over 4 hours) and nurofen, actually she's in my bed. Hopefully she won't wake up with it in the morning and she can go to school.

We were actually supposed to go to the Artypants All Day Crop, but the boys were supposed to go on a bike ride so we couldn't go. Their bike ride didn't eventuate and then Artypants were booked out. So we did the above instead.

Another Hearing Test for Bailey

Well as you are probably aware both of Bailey's grommets have come out of his ears. He has had more fluid build up so we went for another hearing test. As it turns out he has mild hearing loss. This is actually quite good, because he had a little cold over Easter and normally this would cause a lot of fluid build up in his ears, causing a moderate to severe hearing loss, which it hasn't this time. So I think the grommets have done a good job so far, but not quite good enough. Given his history, he has been referred back to the specialist for him to make a decision whether or not to put more grommets in.

Something Newish for Scrapbookers

I just jumped onto the 'For Keeps' website, which is otherwise boring. But...... it's all been revamped and it's all new and exciting. Check it out....

www.forkeepscreativescrapbooking.com.au

They now have a forum, and you can sign up for a newsletter, check out competitions etc. They are just launching their competition for the 2008 Elite Team. Really worth a look. Hopefully see my forum buddies chatting over at 'For Keeps' as well. LOL see you over there Alz; you'll recognise me in there when you check it out.

Shanika's and a Movie

Thanks to Yvonne and Damien for starting out a lovely night out last night (Sat 21st), just Adrian and I. Yve and Damien gave us vouchers for a meal at Shanika's in Berwick. Damien told us that Yve had a little thank you for us for everything we did to help toward their wedding. I was just thinking a card and maybe something really little, which is even more than I expected. We were blown away when we opened the card to find Shanika's vouchers. And Shanika's is my fav restaurant; their food and service is just scrummy. We both had eye fillet steak, which was cooked perfectly (bleeding). Mine with a generous amount of Bearnaise sauce and Adrian had Peppercorn sauce. It was followed by the biggest piece of Tirimusu for me, which I ate every bit of (I know, I'm a piggy), and Sticky Date for Adrian. He left some on his plate but I just couldn't bring myself to finish it off for him.

After dinner we went on to Village Cinema in Fountain Gate to see 'Perfect Stranger'. Thanks to David and Laura for the vouchers for that. David and Laura gave Adrian movie vouchers for his birthday, 2 birthdays ago. We finally got around to using them. Just as they were about to expire. The movie was really good and the ending was definately not what I expected.

The kids had a sleepover at their Oma and Opa's and as always they had lots of fun and stayed up really late. They spent this morning playing in the park that has been updated with lots of awesome new play equipment. It was really quite in the house when we got home at around 11.30pm. I know it would've been quite at that time anyway cause the kids would've been in bed, but it seemed really lonely knowing they were not in there beds and we couldn't just go in there and see them sleeping and give them a kiss. It was very empty when we got up this morning to make our own breakfast and none for the kids. I missed the joyful noise of the kids in the morning. It made me think, what is it going to be like when they grow up and move out. I hope they visit a lot.

Thanks again to Yvonne and Damien and David and Laura for providing a really nice night out for us.

It's Time to Reveal My News!!!!

A lot of you know already and I am very excited!!! No I'm not pregnant (don't wish that on me). I know you probably thought that. LOL

I have set some Scrapbooking goals. I am being realistic and starting off small. The first goal I had was to be published and I have done that twice. Hope to get lots more published. I also want to be on a design team, become a teacher, a Scrapbooking Memories Master and be published on the front cover of a Scrapbooking Magazine. The last two are more of a long term goal as these are going to be the hardest to achieve. It would be awesome to be on par with Emily Falconbridge or the likes but that is such a huge huge dream, so I'll just work on the small ones. But.........

I have achieved another one of my goals. One I thought wouldn't happen for a while.

I am teaching at Artypants!!!!!!!!

Artypants is my local scrapbooking store and the team there are just a wonderful group of ladies. They are so friendly and make you feel welcome the moment you walk in the door. They will do whatever they can to satisfy the customer.

I am starting in 3 weeks (that makes it May 9th). 1 class a week (Wednesday morning atm) and 1 Saturday a month. When I feel settled in that and able to cope with home life and working again (I haven't worked since Micayla was a baby), I will take on an extra class a week. I am already having fun, cause I'm working on class samples and materials lists. Can't wait to teach my first class.

If you want to check out my classes contact Artypants on 8787 5255 or visit them at Shop 65, 166 Somerville Road, Hampton Park for a class schedule.

Can't wait to see you there!!!

I Warned You!!!!

I told you there'd be a lot more posting coming, from the backlog from the lull in posting Adrian's Israel trip. Enjoy the Read!!!!

I've Been Scrapping Again - What else you say!!!!

This is the layout I was doing a couple of weeks ago at a crop that I didn't get finished. I went to a crop night at Artypants last Friday night (13th) and finished it off. I didn't think it would take me long to do the title, after all I already knew exactly what I wanted to do. But an hour and a half later I finally finished it.



I also finished this one of Bailey called 'Beanie Kid'. You just can't get hats off him. It's Beanies in the winter and caps in the summer. Just will not leave the house without it unless he is going on his bike and is wearing his bike helmet.



Then the next day (Saturday 14th) Laura and I went off to a crop day with our Cyber friends from the Scrapbooking Memories Chat Forum. Thank you to Simmi for organising yet another fab day. You go to so much effort on this and thanks so much for the little gifts you give. It's great catching up with the people I chat online to. Some I've met IRL previously and have become good friends and others I was meeting for the first time. It's great to put a face to the name (well cyber name anyway). I was only able to get one layout finished. It's a double of my niece, Taylah's 8th Birthday party. Actually I didn't get it totally finished. I had to add some machine stitching to the ribbon and use my computer to type up the journaling. So of course that had to wait until I got home and then actually getting around to 'finishing' it took some work. Lots of other stuff getting in the way. My priority is the weekly Beyond the Blue layouts. I also have some wonderful exciting news I will share very soon, but it has also been taking up some of my time. Mmmmm, wonder what it is.....

Anyways, here's the layout.

Beyond the Blue Layout - see text below

Finally posting of the layout worked. See the post below for details on this layout.

Beyond the Blue Week 7

This week our challenge is "If you could turn back time, what would you change". I don't know why but blogger is not letting my upload a photo right now, so to view the layout you'll need to go into the embellished website. I'll try and post it again later.

I have recorded my journalling as an MP3 file on a CD. It fitted the "Back in Time" theme. I thought that future generations could go back in time and play the CD to hear what my voice was like way back when. I have made a transparency pocket for the CD to sit in and this has been made into a clock depicting the 4 decades that I've travelled through.

The perspex embellishments on each corner are made by my friend Julie, which I have inked. She also does chipboard. You can order a personalised name in chipboard or perspex. Just click on the link on the right hand side to her website 'Julies Craft Stop'.

The view the layout with the journalling, click on the link to the Embellished Beyond the Blue website and scroll down to Week 7. Click on Week 7 to view the layouts. You can leave a comment if you wish.

Another Easter in Moama

We headed off for Moama on the Thursday afternoon before Good Friday. We arrived around 6pm about the same time as Scott and Tania and the boys and Marty and Julie came much later around midnight.

The boat didn't go in the water on the Friday. We all just chilled, sitting around the campsite relaxing. No one could be bothered going in the water, except the kids of course. We put the boat in the water on Saturday and the kids had a few skies and that was about it. Still the adults couldn't be bothered getting wet. We then took the kids out to Five Mile boat ramp where there is some good bushland for the kids to ride their bikes around.

Adrian taking Bailey for a ride. Every time Bailey gets on the bike the cap has to go backwards and he turns it straight back around when he gets off.

Micayla getting ready to go off for her ride.


Micayla and Mitchell riding up a hill

Micayla riding through the bush


The girls chilling while the kids ride.

Marty was popping Mono's on the kids bike with Sarah on it with him. He ended up flipping the bike and doing a little bit of damage. Luckily Sarah was safe, a little shaken but otherwise OK. Marty however, came off a little second best. A few grazes later and a blown out pair of tracksuit pants. I guess they'll become rags now. It was very funny actually, once we knew they were OK of course. It was me last time, Marty this time, who will be next. Must be the Graham's turn. It will probably be Mitchell.


The kids were eagerly waiting for Easter Bunny to come to them, but before that happened, Scott set the kids up on front of the lap top for a movie night. They all sat sort of cinema style in their camp chairs with their bowls of chips. It was hard to take a photo in the dark and you can't see the lap top but it is there.

The next day Easter Bunny had been. Micayla and Bailey woke up to their chocolate sitting on the kitchen table, but they also get a little present, rather than having too many eggs.
The Easter Bunny always brings them a chocolate Bunny and Micayla got a Bindeez set. It's little beads she makes a picture with and then sprays it with water and all the beads stick together. It's what she always wanted.




Bailey was very excited to receive his bunny and he just loves Lightening McQueen, especially Mater.


The Easter Bunny also leaves eggs all over the campsite for all the kids to share an Easter Egg hunt. I helped Bailey to find his eggs as he is still learning all about it. He usually walks right over the top of the eggs, he just doesn't see them. I pointed some out to Bailey and as he went to get them, Nathan or Mitchell would dive on them and take them and then Bailey would end up in tears. He said through his tears "I can't get them cause I can't race enough." Poor darling! Mitchell did end up giving Bailey some of his eggs. Bailey did see the two sitting on the Boat trailer, which he managed to get all to himself. He was happy then and he tells everyone how he found his eggs on the boat trailer. After everyone was being generous giving up some of their eggs for him, Bailey actually ended up with the most eggs.

With it being Sunday and we were going home the next day, the adults decided they better gets off their lazy butts and have a ski. After all, it wouldn't be until Cup Weekend that we could ski again.

It's not one of the better shots ever taken, but this is Adrian skiing.


This goes to show that I actually do come out from behind the camera. Tania got a shot of me out having a ski. I don't create as much spray as Adrian, but hey, he's 10 times a better skier than me.



Here is Scott, jumping the wake on the kneeboard. When Mitchell saw his dad do this, he wanted to get straight out there and try it himself. This is typical of Mitchell. I think he thought it looked easier than it was cause he didn't try it.

When Mitchell did have a kneeboard, he fell off right in the path of a houseboat. All the river rules went out the window as Scott drove the boat around the houseboat and stopped in front of it. Scott had to yell out to the people driving the boat to pull up the houseboat. I don't think they saw Mitchell in the water. As this was happening, I've jumped into the water and swam Mitchell out of the path of the houseboat. Luckily I was already in my bikinis, and I didn't even feel how cold the water was, cause all I could think about was helping Mitchell. The water though, was literally breathtakingly cold. I couldn't breath when I got in the water for a ski and I was all suited up. So you could imagine how cold I would've felt in my bikinis, had I been concerned enough to feel the cold. Mitchell was very brave though. He knew he was in danger from the house boat but he wasn't scared. He was very calm. I guess he knew his dad wouldn't let anything happen to him, and me for that matter too.

The last night before going home the kids cooked Marshmallows in the fire, as they had all done the other nights too, but this night was different. Micayla's marshmallow caught on fire and she waved it around in the air to put the flames out, but the Marshmallow fell off the stick and dropped onto her foot and burnt her foot. It was really painful for her so we sat down with some ice on her foot for a really long time. Then applied a bit of first aid and she was happy enough again and went off to bed. Surprisingly she went straight off to sleep and heard no more of it the next day, not even any mark of the burn. I guess next time she'll be more careful.

Beyond the Blue So Far

We are now half way through the Embellished Scrapbook Shoppe Beyond The Blue Competition. These are the layouts I've done so far. They are Week 1 to Week 5. I've been working on an 8.5x11 inch album and I am really enjoying working with this size. I'm also really enjoying this journey, it's making me really dig deep into myself and finding myself again. Each week I hang out to find out what the next challenge will be.


Week 1 - Looking on the horizon


Week 2 - Your greatest Aquisition


Week 3 - Where do you find inner peace


Week 4 - Define your turning point


Week 5 - Who is your mentor/someone you turn to.

This is the current weeks layout (week 6). We had to describe out biggest regret, so this is what I came up with. It's about my first marriage. I actually found this week pretty difficult to do. Having to scrap something you'd prefer to forget and bring it all back to the surface was really quite difficult and not much fun. However I do feel good, overcoming this dilema and coming up with what I did. This is really making me work outside my comfort zone. I didn't have any photos anymore but I found a photo of Adrian with a portrait of me as a bride the first time around on the wall in the background. So I scanned in the photo, cropped it and printed it. Because of the cropping and enlarging the photo came out blurry, so I worked with this and called the layout "A blur in my life" and it really worked well. Voting for this week is running now. You need to go to www.embellished.com.au/newshoppe and register into their forum (if you haven't already). Then click on the Beyond the Blue Thread, then click on 'The Journey'. It will come up with all the weeks competitions as separate threads. You need to scroll down until you find Week 6, click on this and then click on the thread for the voting and place your vote.

Taylah's 8th Birthday

The kids and I went to Ballarat on Saturday 31st March for Taylah's 8th Birthday. Adrian was laying concrete for some friends. Taylah had a red crazy hair party. The kids were having lots of fun, you could tell by all the noise. Here are some photos of all the cousins together and Taylah's blowing out the candles on her very yummy cake.





This is Taylah and Micayla.


This is Kieran and Liam. Kieran is Taylah's big brother and Liam is Rohan and Wanda's eldest son.



This is Micayla, Bailey and Lachlan, Rohan and Wanda's youngest son. Bailey just adores Lachy and follows him everywhere and Lachy loves to play the big cousin to him.

Yet Another Crop!!!

This is what I came up with when I was out cropping with friends. Actually it was from a sketch that Simmi put up on the forum from a couple of months ago.
I started on another one of Bailey wearing Micayla's dance jiffies, but I didn't finish it cause I talk more than I scrap. Since then the only scrapping I have done has been the challenges for the Embellished Beyond the Blue competition. I hope to get it finished by the weekend.

Adrian's trip to Israel

Sorry this is a long post but there are lots of photos to share.

It has been 2 and a half weeks since Adrian returned from Israel. I know, I know, I've been slack with updating the blog. But in my defense it's really hard trying to journal someone else's trip, so I had to wait until Adrian was able to help me. But I give up now, he keeps saying he'll do it later. So there won't be much to say about the photos, just what they are.

I could bore you with lots of photos of them eating and drinking a lot, which I won't do, but I will show you photos of the entertainment they had while dining. Their entertainment was lots of different traditional Israely dancers. There were lots more different costumes so I'll just share a couple.

Jerusalem

Then, after spending a couple of days in Seminar at the big Iscar Manufacturing plant in Israel, they went off to do some sightseeing. The first place they visited was the old city of Jerusalum.




These photos are of the old city streets of Jerusalem, where Jesus was carried on the cross. The last 3 photos were at the points of what was called "stations of the cross" where they would change over those carrying the cross. There are 12 stations of the cross all up. The photo where Adrian is standing at a set of steps is actually a house where people lived and still live in today.


This is what some of the streets look like now they have been commercialised.



This is the tomb where Jesus is buried. Sorry they are a bit dark. The first one is the tomb from the outside and the other looking inside the tomb. You could actually go inside the tomb but the queue was too long to wait for.

The Whaling Wall

This was at the Whaling Wall in Jerusalem. This is where people go to pray and put notes into the wall for Jesus. It is compulsory to wear these caps on your head. This area is for men only, there is a separate section for women. They are not allowed to come together.

Holocaust Museum

This is a photo looking at the Holocaust Museum. You were not allowed to take photos inside.


This photo was taken at an observation lookout. Behind Darren and Adrian is the city of Jerusalem. The old city of Jerusalem is a tiny dot, which I have marked on the photo, if you can see it.

Israel Countryside

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These photos were taken of the desert from the bus window. The second photo is how the Nomads (Gypsies) lived. They looked like lean to's in the paddock that my horse used to shelter in.

Masada

This is the ramp to Masada. Masada is the fortress they used in the fight between the Jews and the Romans.


This is Masada itself.

The Dead Sea

I think this is where they had the most fun. The first photo is looking at the Dead Sea as they were arriving in the bus. The Dead Sea is 400 metres below sea level. The next photo is some of the guys floating in the Dead Sea. Adrian is the one at the very top left of the photo. The Dead Sea is so concentrate of salt that you float without trying to. The sea has 30% salt concentration and you could not rub your eyes. Whoever had my camera took this photo with the wide angle lens still attached and used the zoom function. Wide angle lens and zoom do not go well together. The next photo is typical of Darren being a larrikan. I think he thought he was Rambo or something. The final photo is them floating again in the hot sulphur pool. Adrian is at the very bottom left of this photo.

Adrian brought me home lots of hand creams, mud masks, eye cream, body cream, foot cream and bath salts that are made from the mud and salt of the Dead Sea. He has bought me the hand cream on a previous trip and it is awesome cream that he just had to get me more. I sometimes get contact dermatitis and this is the only hand cream I find that helps with immediate soothing results. I regularly use masks and eye creams so I thought I'd try them as well. Loving them so far too. Oh by the way, they are called Ahava and our very own Jody Gordon (Martha) from Home and Away is the face of Ahava over there.

If you made it to the end, thank you for taking the time in reading this long post and hope you enjoyed the story. Stay tuned over the next few days cause I have lots of blogging to do. This one has taken me so long to get to that there is lots more banked up behind it.