Moved...

I have moved, you can now find me here.

I like to move it move it!!!!

Yeah, you know that song??? I hope you have it stuck in your head now like i do, LOL. I took the kids to Macca's for dinner and the latest toys are the little things that play a music. Jacob's plays "I like to Move it" and Haileys is the Veronica's. I think these songs will get old real quick!!! I took the kids shopping this arvo in search of new tops for everyone for a photo shoot we are having done on the weekend. I found tops for everyone except Jacob...and i thought he would be the easiest, oh well, i am sure i will find something for him before then, infact, if i look in his cupboard, he might even already have something suitable. The kids were soooo good shopping, there was the odd "don't touch her" "stop making noises" walk properly" but compared to the behaviour i have been getting lately, they were pretty good. George is away again tonight, and luckily his last one, so we will be back to normal from tomorrow. Thank goodness, i hate him being away over night. But i have been keeping myself amused with fluffing around on the computer, I started a LO for this weeks newsletter, and am just about to go watch a movie. AND... speaking of "moving it" i am working on a new blog. So look out, i am going to have a new home very soon. OK, i am off to bed. Cya's

BAIRNSDALE

We had a lovely time in Bairnsdale over the weekend. My parents went away for a few days and kindly offered for us to use their house for the weekend, so we did and took the Finno's with us. The weather was perfect the whole time we were there, we ate every meal outside, the kids played heaps outside and we got to go for a few trips around the place too. Friday night we all met in Traralgon for dinner at Pizza Hut then set off to Bairnsdale. We got there kinda lateish but once we sorted out where everyone was sleeping, we put the kids in bed and had a few drinkies. Saturday morning Nic and i left the boys and kids and went for a look around the town. Nic loved Mum and Dad's Shop with all the antiques and decided that she would rather work for them than me...hmph!!! After lunch we all headed to Paynesville, the boys all went fishing and the girls went to the park then on the ferry to Raymond Island for a wander and chat with the swans. Saturday night we had MORE drinks. Sunday we toodled off to Lakes to spend some time at the beach. The wind was a little chilly to put bathers on and go swimming, but having no bathers didn't stop the kids (or some of the big kids) from getting very wet. The kids LOVED playing in the water. Back for a bbq and more drinks (are we starting to sound like alcoholics???) We watched a few movies and had lots of laughs. It was probably about 2.30am before we got to bed, but well worth the late night ;) We headed back home on Monday. We had to be back in time for George to work in the afternoon so left about lunch time, which was actually just after we had breakfast, LOL. We had an awesome time hanging out with the Finno's as usual. Nic wasn't feeling well before we left and i know she wasn't feeling the best while we were away either, but I am so glad they still had a little holiday with us. Thanks for a good weekend guys and thanks Mum and Dad for the house. George is working again tonight, this time in Moe, so its not so bad, but tomorrow is Wonthaggi so he has to stay overnight. Bugger that i have to work Thursday cause the kids and I would have gone with him other wise. So i will be home alone again tomorrow night, luckily this week is his last week of working nights, so we will be back to normal soon. OK, thats about it from me, i will leave you with a few of my fave pics from the weekend. I have HEAPS and I am working my way through processing them all so i don't have many to share yet, but i will have more soon. I took these in the garden at mum and dads, this tree gets perfect light for photos, i love it. And i remembered today that i have a photo of Jacob in the same tree (about 3 years ago) that i scrapped, and that LO was my first ever publication....might have to scrap these ones and go for another publication in the tree ;) Ok, cya's all later.

Home Alone

Well, not quite alone, the kids are here, but George is working. He is off in Bairnsdale tonight, had a job there from 4 - 11pm then has to be back there at 8.30am, so he has stayed up there. But, i am missing him and I hate staying at home on my own at night. So i have been finding things to do to keep myself amused, I've been working on something, it's almost finished, I just want to get it right before i uncover it, so i guess you will have to wait to find out what it is, LOL. I am planning on trying to get a little scrapping done tomorrow (still got one class to do samples for) amongst general work and uploading some new ribbons to the website. Then i have my freestyle class tomorrow night, busy day. OK, i am off to watch a movie and hopefully sleep.

Quick pic

Two posts in 1 day again, WOW. Anyway, just putting up my pic from my classes at the all day layout class on Saturday. We had 12 awesome girls in for the day and their layouts all look great, these girls did 2 layouts with me and the other 2 with Nicole. It was such a good day. I am still feeling pretty drained today, so i hired out a movie and just about to go curl up in bed and watch it. George is working tonight and is working pretty much every night this week, i am going to miss having him around in the evenings, but i am hoping to have lunch with him tomorrow before he starts work again tomorrow. Ok Cya's.

And again....

Ok, i will start with the good stuff before i get to..well, just wait.... Nic and I hosted our all day layout class again last Saturday and i reckon it was our best one yet. We had a super full class and everyone was soooo cool, the layouts all turned out fantastic (will share pic later) and better yet, we actually finished pretty much on time too. Lots of our classes have been running over time lately and while they are fun and very social, it is also very draining, so we are making a huge effort to run on time. We usually go to the Fnno's after an all day Saturday of work, but decided not to this time as we are away with them all next weekend, but through the day i though it might still be fun to go have dinner together at least, so i rang George to see if he wanted to, but ummm. No we couldn't. Now... If you don't want to hear about more vomit, then you might want to skip the rest of this post. Jacob had been vomiting all day and George wasn't feeling so crash hot either. Bummer. But I am usually pretty lucky as i rarely catch whatever the kids bring home...but not so lucky this time. I got home from work to a house full of sickies and later in the night i started feeling a bit off myself. So i spent most of the night spewing my guts out, it was friggin' horrible. I hate being sick and i have such a phobia about spewing, i would do anything not to spew. Eeeeewwwww!!!! Anyway, i was out of action all day yesterday and the kids played so nicely together all day, well, after walking into the bedrooms last night to say good night, i worked out WHY they had played so nicely, their bedrooms were TRASHED. Hailey, the gorgeous girl, stay up and cleaned her room up so i could at least walk in it thismorning, but Jacob's is disgusting. I cant even see the floor and i am still not in the mood for anything today. Might have some time tomorrow to attack it because no doubt he will just end up throwing everything in his cupboard and hope it still closes. It probably needs a good clean out anyway. ok, i am off to hopefully have a fairly easy day at work.

OMG CRICUT

Shock horror 2 posts in 1 day. AND OMG I AM SOOOOOOOO EXCITED I AM SHAKING..... My CRICUT is HERE!!!!!!!! I had been at work for 17 minutes when they arrived, so much for getting all my work done first. Damn that Star Track man being early!!! Can't wait to play, YAYAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!

More Spew...

Well, hopefully your not eating while you read this, LOL. But yep, there was more spew to follow. She spewed through the night, she spewed at my feet in the morning while i was doing my hair, i took her to work with me thinking it was over, and she spewed there too all over her clothes. Luckily i packed her extras. Eva was coming in to work for a bit while i pick Jacob up from school so i asked her to stay till close to take my baby home, and yep, you guessed it, she spewed there too. Poor little thing, everything she ate and drank for a full 24 hours just came straight back up. Anyway, after cleaning both bathrooms AGAIN and caught up on the washing AGAIN, i think we are back on track. Another funny conversation with Jacob yesterday, he is soooo cracking me up lately. You can skim over this if you want, i needed to get it down for myself more than anything. Jacob - Mum i have a stick in my eye (not at all distressed) Mum - ok, gimme a sec, I'll have a look .... ok come here and let me see ...... wholey crap you wern't kidding, there is definately a stick in there (this thing was almost 1 cm long lodged under his eyelid) .... ok get me a tissue and i will see if i can get it out .... dose it hurt? Jacob - a little bit (i am suprised he wasn't scraming, it was huge) Mum - I cant get it and i am worried about hurting you .... can you cry, your tears will help wash it out?? Jacob - (trying to cry at the drop of a hat..normally this is easy for him) I can't cry Mum - yes you can, just cry Jacob - I can't cry..maybe if you smack me i will cry (standing up presenting his butt to me for a smack) Mum - I am not going to smack you Jacob - Yeah, smack me Mum - (gave a little tap on the bum) *laughing* Jacob - *laughing* thats not hard enough, smack me harder, go on.... So while we were laughing instead of crying, i had another go and ended up getting it with the tissue, but it cracked me up that that was his solution, LOL. OK, soooooo, on the work front.....another late class last night then Nic and i stayed for a bit to chat, so i got home a bit after midnight, like i wasn't sleep deprived already, roflmao. But.....i am HANGING to go to work today....asside from having to write up the latest newsletter, i have my fingers crossed that i will get my load of Cricut machines today.....i am hanging for this little machine to turn up, i can't wait to play with it. I am not normally much of a die cut kinda chick, but i just want to play with this thing. Might have to write the newsletter first thing so i have time to play when they arrive. I have booked myself into a full day clinic on how to use the cricut, which is on in a few weeks and i am being brave and going alone.....OMG. I hate going anywhere alone, so it will be an experience for me, but i am really looking forward to getting to know my new little machine. OK, i am off, got washing to hang AGAIN....does it ever end????

Short and Sweet

We are having internet issues, which is why my last post was short and sweet and this one will be pretty much the same. Last night was lovely, my gorgeous hubby took me and the kids out for dinner for our anniversary and dinner was delicious, the kids ate HEAPS and even had a full size adults dessert on top of it all. It cost us a fortune but it was very nice and it was also nice that the kids to ate dinner without us having to yell and threaten. I am just sooo happy they ate, they are super fussy and its all getting beyond a joke. Today was my day for catching up, i did 3 loads of washing, cleaned the bathrooms and had a quick tidy up and now i am feeling like i am getting back ontop of everything again. Been feeling so overwhelmed with everything lately, there just seems like there is so much to do and such little time to do it in. I am guessing thats normal though. I bought an outfit for Hailey on Ebay over the weekend and it arrived today, a pair of jeans and a top, they look gorgeous and when we got home i asked her to try them on to see if they fit and the conversation with Jacob cracked me up... Jacob - "they're nice Mum, where did you buy them?" Mum - "i bought them on the internet" Jacob - "really????" Mum - "Yep, they came today" :) me excited that they fit Jacob - "did you print them out?" Mum - .......puzzled at the odd question, then realised what he was thinking....followed by a long winded explanation of how you purchase things on the internet and they get "POSTED" to you, ROFLMAO. Its amazing some of these concepts we just take for granted. Anyway, my girl didn't eat much dinner tonight, then declared that she felt sick, so i grabbed her a spew bowl and within 1/2 hour, it was full, the poor little thing. She even got spew in her hair. She seemed to perk up a bit after that, so i gave her a bath and washed her hair. I blow dried her hair so she wasn't going to bed with wet hair. Her hair looked so pretty all freshly wash and blow dried straight, then she popped off to bed and spewed again (luckily IN the bowl) but managed to get her hair AGAIN.....aargh. She is sleeping soundly now, so i hope its all over, the poor little thing. Anyway, i am off to bed, hoping that i won't be up during the night cleaning spew.

8 Years

It's our wedding anniversary and its been 8 years today. So just a quicky to say... G, I love you with all my heart and there is nowhere else i would rather be than right here with you. Happy anniversary with many more to come ;)

Weekend Wonders

LOL, couldn't think of anything else to call it. I am over my hissy fit, and life has slowed down over the weekend so i am feeling a bit more back to normal. Friday i was still flat out getting all the new yummy stuff up on the website and writing the newsletter and of course it took WAY longer than i had planned. We had invited friends over for dinner for Friday night, and the house was a mess through neglect cause i was so busy elsewhere, and i had to do the shopping, get Jacobs hair cut, chop stuff for dinner and on top of all that i STILL hadn't finished the newsletter. Thankfully George rang me when i was just about to finish work to tell me he was at the supermarket and had finished work early. THANK GOODNESS, there was no way i could get all that done, we were busting our guts with the 2 of us as it was. Anyway, i was still at the computer typing away, copying codes, etc when our visitors arrived. We had an awesome night, we have been trying to catch up with these guys for months and finally did AND we used our little out door area too. It finally got christened properly. We had dinner, dessert and after dinner munchies out there infront of the fire. Unfortunately there were no marshies to toast on the fire, but we made do with toasting cabana and cheese (if you havn't tried it, its a must for your next party) its amazing what you can come up with after a few drinks, LOL. Yes, i drank far more than i should have, but i have had a very busy week. As i was trying to send the newsletter after our visitors left i realised i shouldn't have drunk that much, so if i stuffed up the newsletter...my appologies, LOL. Saturday was back to work. I had a really busy morning with customers and the Gorgeous Raylene came to hang with me for a bit and drool on some new stuff too. I soooo love the socialness of my job, i love that friends can drop in to see me, i love that i can have a little scrap if i want to (well, if i have time to, not as much as i would like) i can chat with customers and have made many friends from my customers too. Its really quite different to any other job i have had, no other job you can indulge yourself in your hobby and passion, you get such an insight into other peoples lives and them into your life too, and, well, it sure beats changing poopy nappies and dealing with preschoolers with attitude...i can do that at home anytime ;) Anyway, got side tracked....The rest of saturday i spent scrapping at home, i have just had that much to do at work that i had to scrap at home. I finally finished my "freestyle" class sample and all i have to say is....i have NO IDEA how i got myself into teaching that class, i am WAY too anal to do freestyle. But after procrastinating for weeks on it, i finally have a LO i am happy with. YAY. Today was a bit lazy too, George mowed the lawns and got stuck into pulling up a brick path in the back yard, so i shovled a little dirt and supervised a little ;) Then i decided that i wanted to watch a movie, so off to the vid shop, but have i watched my movie??? um, NO. Bum. Oh well, maybe tomorrow night then. Anyway, just thought i would do a quick upddate, so see ya's all for now.

Whinge and Yummy BasicGrey

Yes, i am going to have a whinge cause i have had a shitful week, feeling crap and super hypersensitive to EVERYTHING. Been so busy, I feel like i havn't stopped all week, my house is a mess, no matter how hard i tried, I can't keep up with the washing this week, I'm struggling to get out of bed in the mornings with this daylight saving thing, among a heap of other things. Last night, George was out at a work thing, so i decided to leave my piggy house and grab fish and chips and have a picnic in the park with the kids. Sometimes there are more important things in life than keeping up with the house work, and the kids loved it. Work has been super busy too and havn't had time to scratch myself there either. Today our HUGE box of the new BasicGrey arrived and will be on the web site with a heap of other yummy christmas stuff tomorrow, but as i was so busy, i had to unpack it and throw it on the shelves so fast i didn't even get to drool on it yet. It does look yummy, and i am soooo loving that they have some double sided ones too, they are just divine, looking forward to hopefully having some time to play tomorrow. Yeah, after i finish everything else that should have been finished today. I taught my paint class tonight and it went really well, i had 11 people (yes 2 shy people that wouldn't be in the photo :(, in my class and i was a tad nervous, but quite excited at the same time as its the biggest class i have taught. Everyone seemed to be really pleased with their layouts and they looked fabulous too. OK, i am off to bed to dream of happy things and maybe a BasicGrey LO or two.

Who'd a thought??

Well, who'd a thought another 10 days would go by without me posting??? I just don't think about it every day, thought about giving up blogging, but i really do like coming in here to writeand share, even if it is only occasionally. I have updated my music and gone with "you tube" instead of "bolt", so much better, but i can't seem to be able to resize them, grrrr. So my fave some ATM is Shannon Noll, Lift, and am half way through a LO in my BOM with these words. Jacob's song, Green Day, American Idiot, both kids love this song and usually sing it at the top of their lungs in public places, but its funny, I am just glad they don't know ALL the words. And Haileys song Sandi Tom, Punk Rocker. She LOVES this song and i am also half way through a LO of her with these words too. I did a photo shoot with her the other day specifically for this LO and she looked so cute. I picked out some clothes for her and she told me that "that is NOT what punk rock girls wear" so she went and picked her own clothes and picked her own flowers, and i LOVE the photos.

I am busting to get this LO finished and i am doing it "freestyle" as part of my Freestyle class, so i wont even be able to post it here till after the class....if your lucky i might do a sneak peek of it ;)

Last Friday i went to the Paperific and the trade show with the gorgeous Nic and even though i thought the show and trade fair was a waste of time, i had the MOSTEST fun hanging out with Nic for the day. Nic is just the best fun to hang out with and it dosn't matter where we are or what we are doing, we always have so much fun together. All we needed for entertainment was a camera, roflmao. Here we are looking like total "footy chicks" at the Telstra Dome ;)

(Argh, now it wont let me upload anymore pics. Oh well, go check out Nic's blog to see more of our sillyiness, LOL). At the end of the day we decided at the last minute to have dinner at the delightfully tacky Smorgy's and that was another super fun adventure in itself, and i know the "boys" enjoyed their little gifts we stashed away for them too ;)

Ok, thats it from me for now and, no, i still havn't taken photos of our backyard. But will get to very soon.

Backyard Blitz

Far out, how these make over shows on TV get a whole yard done in a weekend is WAAAAAYYY beyond me. Geez i wish Jaime Durie was here....as much for the perve factor as helping us out ;) My awesome brother has been hard at it all week, I have done the odd token effort around work and the kids. George has had the last few days off work with Jacob having German Measles, so he has been getting stuck into it too. And today we had the "army" all working - myself, George my brother Mark and Uncle John and the kids driving us nuts in amongst it all. We got soooo much done, we have 2 coats of paint on the roof, which is now all charcoal instead of patchy ugly poo brown and silver, the big shed is now charcoal instead of ugly poo brown, the fence is now charcoal instead of raw timber, and my job was to paint the timber around the car park and the driveway fence and gate.....yes, i got down and dirty and did some painting too, can you believe it??? ;) So our little entertaining area makeover has spread to almost the entire outside of the house and yard. Amazing what you can acheive when you have a motivated person come in and pull everything apart. We even have a new deck at the front door, and hopefully a new one at the side door soon too. So, anyone coming to visit us...its number 78, just incase you miss it, it look so different, almost like a new house. I can't wait to have some friends over and hang out in our new yard, its so exciting. I will run around with the camera tomorrow and get a few photos to share. Cya.

I AM Here!!!

I know it kinda looks like i am not, but really i am, LOL. Been so preoccupied with other stuff that i havn't got back here to blog. And i hadn't realised how long it has been since i uploaded a LO, so I thought if nothing else, i will upload a LO. So....here is a LO if blogger will work for me...

OMFG can you believe it, it worked....do i dare upload another????

OOOooooo, I am on a roll, LOL. OK, last one, as i think thats all i have on the computer ATM.

So, there is proof that i have scrapped a little.

My brother is also back from OS and has been popping in and out of our house over the last few weeks and he decided he would take on our very messy backyard to resurect our entertaining area and so far it is looking sooooooo good, i can't wait till its finished to have some friends over and hang out in there toasting marshies on the fire.

Ok, thats it for today, and because i have been so slack, i have no idea if anyone still reads my blog, if you do, feel free to leave me a message to let me know you're there. Thank you for popping in and appologies for me being a slack bum.

I know i am slack!!!

Yes, I know I am a slack blogger. But i havn't much felt like it, i have had one of those weeks that I really never want to repeat. To start with, we lost about 6 months worth of photos off the computer, luckily Nicole has quite a few copies of our photos so we can recover some, then on the weekend i lost something else REALLY important to me, but luckily we found it again. And then i have been sick this week, which meant I missed catching up with my good friend from Uni which i was sad about. We havn't seen each other for about 2 years now and trying to get a day seems to be proving harder than it should be. I have also been staying away from the computer at home, thats mainly because there is nothing on it now that we lost it everything, LOL, but its been nice staying away from it too. So with all that going on, blogging has been right at the bottom of my to-do list lately. Anyway, now that i have had my whinge, i can move on to happier stuff. Last weekend, we caught up with some friends that we hadn't seen for a while and had the BEST dinner, man, those Hilder's can cook, and the kids had a great play too. Then off to the City to stay with the FiNNo's for the night and spend all day Sunday with them exploring the city. The kids both fell asleep in the car, which made for a peaceful trip, LOL, but they woke up at the tunnel which was so exciting for them to see all the city lights, i felt a bit bad that they are 5 and 7 and never seen that before, LOL, but they loved it and we got so excited looking at the lights and going over funky bridges, that we missed our turn off, but we got to see some really cool stuff getting lost. As soon as we arrived at our destination, the kids bombed out in bed and we sat up and had a few drinks. The kids we up bright and early as per usual but it was good to get an early start. I don't think we have ever been up and out the door that early with the FiNNo's, but it was great, i was so excited about showing our kids the city especially as they were so excited the night before seeing the lights. The first destination was the Botanic Gardens and the Children's Garden which was so cool, the kids had shoes off and explored everywhere, unfortunately because of water restrictions the water wasn't flowing, but the kids really want to go back so hopefully next time there will be more water. Then we went to the Shrine, the kids all got a poppy to lay but Jacob being typical Jacob, wanted to keep his, that was until we were leaving and the boys were running from tree to tree reading the plaques and he saw one with poppies layed around it and decided it was time to lay his, it was so nice to see him do that. Then through the gardens to Southbank. We wandered along the Market stalls and Jacob scored a gingerbread man for his "efforts". We watched a street performer, i think they are a bit daggy (of course i do!!, LOL) but this guy did have some relly cool tricks and Jacob was totally impressed with his backflips, I just hope he dosn't try it at home. Then back to the garden's for a picnic lunch. Then a wander around the city, a trip on the city circle trams, stopped off at a few places, including a really cool park at the Docklands. The park was so cool that we didn't realise we missed the last city circle tram, so we all walked back in the rain instead. Normally things like that would piss me off, missing the tram and having to walk in the rain at the end of a tiring day, but it was cool. It was an adventure and it was most definately the company that made it cool ;) After dinner in Southgate, we packed up and headed for home, the kids were so tired they were asleep in no time flat. We had an awesome time and thanks soooo much to the FiNNo's for inviting us along to hang with them for a day on their little holiday. We are planning to go back up tomorrow for the day to go to the Museum with the kids, so that should be good. GGGRRRRRRR ...... I can't upload any pics with this, bloody blogger!!!! So will try again to add pics later. Catch ya's. Oh and happy 100th blog post to me ;)

i have done:

I am stilll working on my other tags, but this one was easy that i got from Nicole.

Consider yourself tagged if you want to give it a go. All you do is copy and paste, then bold all the things you have done.

1. Bought everyone in the bar a drink 2. Swam with dolphins 3. Climbed a mountain 4. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive 5. Been inside the Great Pyramid 6. Held a tarantula 7. Taken a candlelit bath with someone 8. Said "I love you" and meant it 9. Hugged a tree 10. Bungee jumped 11. Visited Paris 12. Watched a lightning storm at sea 13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise 14. Seen the Northern Lights 15. Gone to a huge sports game 16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa 17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables 18. Touched an iceberg 19. Slept under the stars 20. Changed a baby's diaper 21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon 22. Watched a meteor shower 23. Gotten drunk on champagne 24. Given more than you can afford to charity 25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope 26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment 27. Had a food fight 28. Bet on a winning horse 29. Asked out a stranger 30. Had a snowball fight 31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can 32. Held a lamb 33. Seen a total eclipse 34. Ridden a roller coaster 35. Hit a home run 36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking 37. Adopted an accent for an entire day 38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment 39. Had two hard drives for your computer 40. Visited all 50 states 41. Taken care of someone who was shit faced 42. Had amazing friends 43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country 44. Watched wild whales 45. Stolen a sign 46. Backpacked in Europe 47. Taken a road-trip 48. Gone rock climbing 49. Midnight walk on the beach 50. Gone sky diving 51. Visited Ireland 52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love 53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them 54. Visited Japan 55. Milked a cow 56. Alphabetized your CDs 57. Pretended to be a superhero 58. Sung karaoke 59. Lounged around in bed all day 60. Posed nude in front of strangers 61. Gone scuba diving 62. Kissed in the rain 63. Played in the mud 64. Played in the rain 65. Gone to a drive-in theater 66. Visited the Great Wall of China 67. Started a business 68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken 69. Toured ancient sites 70. Taken a martial arts class 71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight 72. Gotten married 73. Been in a movie 74. Crashed a party 75. Gotten divorced 76. Gone without food for 5 days 77. Made cookies from scratch 78. Won first prize in a costume contest 79. Ridden a gondola in Venice 80. Gotten a tattoo 81. Rafted the Snake River 82. Been on television news programs as an expert 83. Got flowers for no reason 84. Performed on stage 85. Been to Las Vegas 86. Recorded music 87. Eaten shark 88. Eaten fugu (pufferfish) 89. Had a one-night stand 90. Gone to Thailand 91. Bought a house 92. Been in a combat zone 93. Buried one/both of your parents 94. Been on a cruise ship 95. Spoken more than one language fluently 96. Performed in Rocky Horror Picture Show 97. Raised children 98. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour 99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country 100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over 101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge 102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking 103. Had plastic surgery 104. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived 105. Wrote articles for a large publication 106. Lost over 100 pounds (24 kilo's don't know what that is in pounds) 107. Held someone while they were having a flashback 108. Piloted an airplane 109. Petted a stingray 110. Broken someone's heart 111.Ridden a bike 112. Won money on a T.V. game show 113. Broken a bone 114. Gone on an African photo safari 115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced 116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol 117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild 118. Ridden a horse 119. Had surgery 120. Had a snake as a pet 121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon 122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours 123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states 124. Visited all 7 continents 125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days 126. Eaten kangaroo meat 127. Eaten sushi 128. Had your picture in the newspaper 129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about 130. Gone back to school 131. Parasailed 132. Petted a cockroach 133. Eaten fried green tomatoes 134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey 135. Selected one important author who you missed in school, and read 136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating 137. Skipped all your school reunions 138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language 139. Been elected to public office 140. Written your own computer language 141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream 142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care 143. Built your own PC from parts 144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you 145. Had a booth at a street fair 146. Dyed your hair 147. Been a DJ 148. Shaved your head 149. Caused a car accident 150. Saved someone's life 55 out of 150, i definately need to get out more.

I am an idiot.

Found this on Raylenes blog and thought i would give it a go.

What Kind Of Idiot Are You?

You are a Clueless Idiot. Not only do you not know you're an idiot, you don't know much of anything. Your celebrity icon is Alicia Silverstone. Take this quiz! Quizilla Join Make A Quiz More Quizzes Grab Code

Now me being a "clueless idiot" is absolutely no suprise to me. I totally agree that i don't know much of anything, in fact, i like to call it blissfully ignorant, see, i even have my own name for it, LOL. With these quizes i usually do them a few times so i can get a result i am happy with but this one.....clueless idiot straight up, no need to try again. And to top it off, i actually like movies with Alicia Silverstone in them......freaky huh???

Give it a go and tell me what sort of idiot YOU are.....

I know i havn't been back to blog like i said I would, but, i don't give a toss. I will blog when i am good and ready, LOL. It's all just "EVS" (go Toby!!)

I Still have a tag i have been meaning to get to also. I will get there, promise.

OK, I hope you all have a good day and a good weekend, just incase i dont get back before next week ;)

Quicky!!

Just a quicky as i am so excited........yesterday while the sun was shining......i found something amazing...... I found the bottom of our dirty laundry basket!!!!!! That is something that NEVER happens. And tonight, i did another load of washing and guess what?? .....i found it again. I am impressed with myself :) I will be back tomorrow when i hopefully wont have a headache to update properly.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl.

I really wanted to come here and rant about how dissapointed in my boy i am tonight, his behaviour this last week has been awful and today, with a big fat lie coming out his mouth, saw his computer and arcade machine privledges taken away for 10 days (we said a week, he suggested 10 days, who are we to argue??). But Hailey is impressed that her computer now has a password that only she knows, LOL. Anyway, i am not going to go on about it, he knows he has done the wrong thing and hopefully has leart from it. The point to todays blog is......... My baby girl is now 5!!! FIVE years old, can you believe it?????

Look how teeny tiny and beautiful she was. Well, she is still beautiful but i can't believe she is 5. She was the easiest and most placid baby ever and she has pretty much stayed that way all through her toddlerhood. Now being a big girl, she can get a bit "chatty" and "screechy" and a little "irritating" at times, but she is still such a beautiful girl.

Her birthday was actually Friday, so celebrations started Friday at daycare when she took in a cake, lovingly made by Safeway Bakery, to celebrate with her friends for afternoon tea. She had a great day. Then in the evening, Heather, Mark and Samuel came around for the usual cake and candle blowing ritual. This time the cake was lovingly made by Coles Bakery and Hailey also got to open all her pressies. She got a new booster seat (a big girl one to replace her toddler booster, she was so excited), and a few bits and pieces for her home corner/kitchen, a Bratz tent (all she wanted) with a Bratz sleeping bag etc and a barbie chair for her computer desk. So Friday night she had her own little sleep over in her new tent.

Saturday afternoon we headed over to Nicole and Nathan's for more celebrations as it is also Nathan's birthday this week (Happy Birthday Nath). We had party food galore for dinner followed by the most delicious cake, cooked by Nic at Hailey's request, and eventhough there were no strawberries in the MIDDLE of the cake, it was still yummy (geeze, i did well at getting out of the cake making this time :). When the kids were in bed, we did the usual eat, drink and play games, and i can verify that Nic was very restrained in the drinking department this time, ROFLMAO.

Sunday was lovely too and we took the kids to the park to try and wear them out a bit. Not sure who was more worn out at the end of it though, LOL. Nic was photographer for the weekend, so go check out her blog for photos (link in the side bar, too lazy to link properly, LOL) We had an awesome and relaxing weekend and we soooooo love hanging with the Fino's ;)

And lastly, Hailey was off to Kinder today with a packet of "Tic Tocs" (the required kinder party treat and so much easier than making 26 little cupcakes), to celebrate her birthday with her kinder friends.

She has had a full on several days with lots of little celebrations, and now that i have written all that, i dont feel like a big meany mum for not giving her an offical birthday party.

OK, i think thats it from me for now, I am off to snuggle into bed and sniff my clean sheets ;)

Catch ya's.

Its going to be a BIG one

Well, my fave photo of today is this one of my girl all dressed up ready for dress up day at kinder. How sweet does she look? I seriously need to play with this photo, i reckon this might get scrapped a few times, i love it. Thank you to the gorgeous and generous Miss Maddy Moo for the loan of the pretty dress and accessories. Now, onto shop news. We have had a BIG shuffle around of the counter area in the shop. This is what it looked like BEFORE.......... And this is AFTER....... How much more space have we got?? And I am totally LOVING that hot pink couch. We have plans that we will have a "what's New" display in the centre there for new arrivals to the store. I am so loving the new look to the shop, its really brightened and freshened it all up. OK, now back to Hailey again. Check out her drawing on the megasketcher.

When i asked her to explain this, her explanation went something like this.... The people under the sun are us, in the day time, and the people under the moon and stars (coloured in)are people in China where its dark so they are in bed. I asked her who told her about it and she said noone she just thinked about it. I asked her teacher at daycare where i thought she would have picked it up from as one of the children in her group is Chinese, so thought they must have talked about it, but NO, she said she makes the odd comment about it but they havn't learnt about it in depth. OMFG how the hell did she get that concept?????? It took thousands of years for someone to work out the the world was infact not flat. How can an almost 5 year old just "GET" that??? This girl just keeps amazing me with her knowledge and understanding.

Now Jacobs turn. Today at school he won a $25 gift voucher to a local supermarket as part of the school's "Its not ok to be away" program. He was one of Five kids to get a voucher for excellent attendance at school this year. He has only missed 1 day of school all year. So, i guess we will be going shopping at Al's Supermarket and see what we can find. I suggested J buys us all stuff to make dinner one night, but i think he is more interested to see if "Al" has Ninja Turtles in his supermarket, so we will see, LOL. He also came home with 3 acheivement awards for getting his homework done, he has been doing so well in the last few weeks. Not sure if its because things are finally starting to click for him, or its because i am a bit more relaxed about it all. I was getting very stressed that he didn't seem to be keeping up and not knowing the things his teachers told me he should be learning, but after talking to my gorgeous friend Raylene, who is a primary teacher, and assuring me that he is infact not really behind and that the worst that can happen is infact not that big of a deal anyway. So, i am much less stressed, we do his homework when it suits us, he stops as soon as it becomes a chore, and if he doesn't finish it, I don't care. Grade 1 children should be able to enjoy their time at home, not have to spend every spare minute at home trying to keep up with school work. Plenty of time for that. So, I am very proud of him at the moment because he is doing well, he is even bringing home level 18 and 19 readers and doing really well with them. Well done jabe ;)

Phew, thats probably my biggest post for a while. And YAY that i actually got more than 1 photo uploaded. OK, thanks for dropping by ;)

I NEEEEEEEEED to scrap!!!!

I am busting to scrap and its driving me nuts. Waaaahhhh!!!! I have spent all week fussing over the shop and working my butt of with our big shuffle around and I must say, it looks AWESOME. I have been suffering headaches most of the later half of this week as my back has not held up well to all this more strenuous than normal work moving furniture, paper racks and shelving, and i am soooooo tired, but it has soooo been worth it. I spent a few hours there again today fussing a little more getting it ready to re-open tomorrow morning and hopefully the reactions from customers will be positive. I can't wait actually. Thanks to Nic and Nath for giving me a hand yesterday too. Now all i need to do is find my scrapping desk in my new little work space, and i will be set, i am on a mission tomorrow to do 2 layouts to catch up on the Elsie challenges on the Max forum as well as finish of my layouts from Nicole's AWESOME boho class last week. OK, nothing else exciting to tell, i just wanted to come here and whinge about how much i want to scrap, LOL. I will share some pics of the shop tomorrow if blogger will let me upload them. I took some before pics and will get the after pics tomorrow. Catch ya's.

Gabbie's Tag

Found this on Gabbie's blog and considered myself tagged, LOL. So here goes. If you could build a house anywhere, where would it be? On a large block, not too large that there is heaps of lawn to mow for George, but large enough that you don't feel like you are ontop of your neighbours, and maybe a few mins out of town, an elevated decking with a view, few trees, Hmmm don't want much do i? And probably near Moe, I like Moe. What’s your favorite article of clothing? I love my jeans but my fave would have to be my cool undies ;) Favorite physical feature of the opposite sex? Hmmmmmm, I like a nice toned, non-hairy chest (lucked out there) and a nice tight bum, LOL. What’s the last CD that you bought? Its been years since i bought a CD and even then, it was probably a kids one. Sorry, boring answer. Where’s your favorite place to be? Most days, it would be at work, love going to work. Where’s your least favorite place to be? Stuck at home with the kids driving me nuts, hence the reason i am a working Mum. What’s your favorite place to be massaged? my neck Strong in mind or strong in body? Thats tricky, i have no idea. Don't really feel like either. What time do you wake in the morning? about 7.30, but it should be 7.00 What’s your favorite kitchen appliance? I would have said my dishwasher, but when ours broke down a few years back, we DID survive without it for a bit, but when the fridge went a few months ago, OMG we did not cope at all, so i will say the fridge. What makes you really angry? Way too much to mention here, i did a LO about it last week, but of course blogger wont let me upload it, but i have been thinking of making it a double page because there is so many, LOL. If you could play any instrument, what would it be? I am soooooo not musical. Tried a few times, but i suck at it badly, have played guitar and saxaphone. Favorite color? pink or brown Which do you prefer, sports car or SUV? Whatever is cheapest to run, i really don't care. Do you believe in afterlife? Not sure, and i try not to put too much thought into these sort of things, got too much else to worry about while i am in this life to be thinking about the next. Favorite children’s book? the house that sneezed What is your favorite season? spring What’s your least favorite household chore? pretty much all of them! If you could have one super power, what would it be? To be able to get all the housework done without lifting a finger. If you have a tattoo, what is it? I don't have one, but i am hanging to get a little one on my lower back/upper butt, but George wont let me. Hmmm, do you think he would notice if i did it anyway??? Can you juggle? I used to be able to. when i worked at a kids summer camp years ago i learnt, but i don't think i would be able to now, i am totally unco now, LOL. The one person from your past you wish you could go back and talk to? That would be my Grandfather, he died when i was young and I would love to have more memories of him. What’s your favorite day? Saturdays What’s in the boot of your car? Heaps of bags of clothes to go to the opp shop and also presents for Hailey's birthday next week, thats the only place i can hide them, LOL. Which do you prefer, sushi or hamburgers? Definately hamburgers......eewwwwww I don't do seafood. OK, thats it for today ;)

Potato heads

YAY, got another photo up. Here are the Potato Men the kids made on Sunday. Jacob's are the 2 on the left and Haileys are the 2 on the right, she went a bit brad and bling crazy on hers, LOL. Not much to update on since yesterday, the signwritter finished today and the window look UNREAL, i am loving it. So i am hoping to get stuff organised this weekend for my big plans. The Max Newsletter went out tonight, so i will post my LO's here tomorrow. Catch ya's.

hopefully.....

Well, hopefully blogger will play today, i havn't been as dedicated to blogging lately as i have had trouble uploading photos and its been bugging me. Anyway, i will try again. Asside from working, I havn't done much else. I have the signwritter at the shop today adding "something" more to our outside windows as i have something up my sleve for the shop. Its getting a bit of a makeover and I am so excited about it, its really going to open up the whole shop and just look fantastic.....well, it looks fantastic in my head, just hope it looks as good in practice, LOL. So, i have to spend a few days this week sorting stuff out and a general tidy up for my big plans. We had our all day class last Saturday, we had a great group of girls and everyone seemed really please with their layouts. Unfortunately Raylene went home sick through the day, so Nic stepped in and taught her other layotu and did a fab job of teaching it too. Oooo YAY my photo worked ;) This is the group with the layout that i taught, its so much fun seeing how everyones layouts turn out so different, and everyone seemed really happy with theirs too. I was really well prepared to teach this one as i had all my notes done with drawings and used the white board and i felt really organised......even if i did look "pedantic"!!!!! LOL. After the class, we did the usual, off to Nic and Nathan's, where the boys had been looking after the kids and had dinner cooked and on the table when we walked in the door. We had a nice evening of Up Words and a movie, but i was soooo tired. And thank goodness the kids actually slept in this time, it was so nice not to be woken up before the sun even gets up. We had to come home straight after breakfast as we had a guy coming to pick up George's old car he sold on eBay last week. The weather was beautiful, so i got a few loads of washing out, then G made lunch which we ate as we sat out on the back deck and it was perfect. The kids then decided they wanted to man "potato men" so out with the potatoes and toothpicks and i also found some very old and quite daggy scrapping stuff that they could put on there too, who'd a thought brads would make such great embellishments for spuds???? GGGGRRRRRRR now the photos wont work. Blogger SUCKS!!!! Anyway, i did some house work, baked some muffins and again sat out on the deck for afternoon tea. Hailey then played in the yard while i kicked back with a mag in the sun, it was so nice to have a really relaxing day where i got heaps done but still had time to sit and enjoy it with the kids. We soooo need to do that more often. Anyway, i need to go do some more stuff around the house while i have the time, and get all my tax stuff together and hopefully get some money back so we can do a few jobs on the house and get that new lounge suit that I have been drooling over.

Flying High.

We had a fantastic weekend, we had exellent company staying over and the weather was just gorgeous. The weekend started with a work issues, but seriously, I don't think we have anything to be worried about, the MAX has the best teaching staff with Nicole and Raylene and no-one will ever come close to their talent or teaching skills. I know a lot of other stores don't allow people that teach scrapping elsewhere to attend their classes, maybe thats what we need to do. Anyway, moving on now. Nicole, Nathan and their two gorgeous kiddies came over for the weekend. Saturday night was the usual kids everywhere, toys everywhere, and food everywhere. Once the kids were in bed, we had a great night of drinking and board games. "Upwords" seems to be the flavour of the month at the moment, and even though our game is old and dosn't have the 36 extra tiles (roflmao!) it was still fun. Right now I am in search of the new Piranah game that has been advertised on TV, I sooo want that game, but can't seem to find it anywhere. I think it was after 3am when we all finally went to bed, although i don't remember looking at the clock, it may have been later. I really need to stop mixing drinks, i need to pick one drink for the night and stick to it, the mixing dosn't seem to agree with me (or Nic for that matter...hey Nic????). Sunday, the sun was out with a bit of a breeze, so we decided in the afternoon to take the kids out to the park and fly some kites. I don't remember the last time I flew a kite, infact, i am not sure i ever have, can't remember. George wasn't real keen on flying kites, but guess what....he was the one hogging Hailey's kite and still flying it long after everyone else had finished. Hailey thought it was pretty cool, but 10 mins was enough for her. Jacob had a great time, really loved flying kites, he seemed to be a bit of a natural with it and had his kite flying so high. In the end, it got stuck in the tree so there were a few tears but we will definately be going kite flying agin, it was so much fun. OK, i had WAY more photos to uload, but blogger is being a pain in the butt and wont let me upload. I have been arguing with it for 2 days trying to do this post, GGGrrrrr and a big fat raspberry to blogger!!!! So anyway, after a great weekend with some great friends, and also starting to get a bit of organisation in my life (you will be pleased to know that the kitchen bench i cleaned a few weeks ago, is STILL tidy), keeping on top of my washing (helps when the sun shines) I am feeling like i have a lot more direction in my life. I feel like i am traveling on the right path and experiencing all the right experiences. I feel like i am more in control of my life and my direction. Its amazing what a little bit of organisation can do huh? I have even squeezed in a little scrapping time too. I finished off a DT LO and my class sample for the all day calls in 2 weeks. And i also sat down today to do the first Elsie challenge from her new book. This book ROCKS and I love it so much. Karen in the Max DT is hosting challenges on the forum and in the gallery based on the book, so pop over there to have a look at the other challenge LO's. OK, was going to upload it, but cant so have a look here. If i manage to get more photos uploaded, i will put them in my next post.

A bit of random waffle

* I found where the sock monster hides out......under the other computer desk. I found 23 socks under there while cleaning up the other day. And i thought Jacob was in desparate need of socks....well he WAS, but not anymore, LOL. * Our heater FINALLY got fixed today, YAY. So i have spent a fair amount of time this evening sitting infront of the heater watching TV, and i could actually HEAR the TV, which was even better, one happy mumma now ;) * Finally got all my BAS done and into my accountant and is all looking as it should be, YAY again. * I now need to organise our personal tax to get done. I am hoping to have that sorted and to my accountant next week so we can get our refund and work out what we are going to spend it on, most likely the house, it needs heaps of work and a I need a new lounge suit. * The last few weeks i have felt more organised at home than i think i have ever felt before. It's kinda cool, might have to try and keep it up. * My girl is totally blowing me away with her writing at the moment. She will sit and write flat out, and if you read it exactly how is sounds, you can work out what she has written. It's so amazing and i have no idea what I am supposed to do with her. All this training and years of working with kinder kids and i have no idea what to do with my own 4 year old. * I looked after my super beautiful nephew Sam on Sunday. He is so well behaved and just gorgeous, i just want to cuddle him and eat him up ;) * Nic, Nath and family came for dinner on Sunday night. They rock. * I did a pregnancy photo shoot on saturday and i am so pleased with the photos i took. We had a few things against us on the day, but the photos are awesome. I just hope they print as good as they look on screen. * That is for now i think. Until next time. Cya :)

Tagged

I have been tagged by the gorgeous porgeous Karen R so here are my answers. Four jobs I've had: 1. Macca's chick, pretty cool job while i was still at school. 2. Checkout chick and service supervisor at Safeway in Kew while I was at uni. Mostly loved this job too. 3. Childcare worker, had its ups and downs, generally good for the most part, but i am a bit "over" kids ATM, LOL. 4. Owning my own scrap shop, YAY, you jealous???? Four movies I can watch over and over: 1. Most Pixar movies are compulsary to watch over again when you have kids, luckily i like most of them. 2. 10 thing I hate about you. Love it but havn't watched it for ages. 3. Suddenly 30 4. Ummm.....can't think of another one. TV shows I love to watch; I don't watch a lot of TV, but i do like... 1. Sex and the City 2. Friends 3. Will and Grace 4. Hmmm, thats a bit of a sad list, sitcom central, LOL, think I will stop there. Four important things to me: 1. My children and hubby 2. My close friends 3. Scrapbooking and my business 4. happiness and doing what makes you happy. Four tunes that play in my head: 1. Songbird - Bernard Fanning 2. Skater Boy - Avril (Hailey's Fave too so we sing it together, LOL) 3. I like big butts - Jacob's fave, and i hear it a lot too. 4. Pretty Vagas - JD / INXS Four favourite food dishes: 1. Chocolate (goes without saying) 2. Stirfry with noodles. 3. Mum's chicken Puffs ;) 4. G's chocolate salty balls, LOL. Four websites I visit daily: 1. The MAX of course. 2. My friends blogs. 3. ummm...... 4. Nothing much else on a daily basis, but i go to supplier website regularly. Four scrap companies I like: 1. BasicGrey 2. Heidi Swapp 3. Kelly Panacci 4. Prima Four colours I like: 1. Pink 2. Chocolate Brown 3. Pink 4. Chocolate Brown Four people I am tagging: 1. My Hubby George (not that he will be able to answer the scrappy Q's) 2. My friend Super Nathan (as above, LOL) 3 & 4. Anyone else that wants to do it. P.S. I'll be buggered, i have just worked out how to change the colour of my text, gee i can be so blonde sometimes, LOL. Be prepared for some very colourful entries from now on, LOL. ;)

Something happened..... :)

Well, don't get too excited. But i have had a more exciting day yesterday and today. Firstly, last night i did Raylene's KI Memories Class and did these 2 LO's

The class was awesome as usual, and I am so pleased with my LO's. The class was asbout using 1 set of papers and getting 2 LO's from it. Was really cool. Thanks Raylene ;) In shop news, I have some new stock. But amongst a busy few days, i havn't had time to upload it all to the website yet. I have all the images ready to go, so hopefully i will get some time tomorrow morning. I DID start on my LO about Hailey's typing skill, but i am not at all sure about what I have done so far, so i might have to look at it again next week and see what I can do with it.

And I bought a CLEO Mag today, in my disgust for COSMO at the moment, LOL, i have really missed my monthly read.

Ok, thats it from me. Cya.

Still Boring.

Sorry everyone, my life hasn't really got much more interesting in the past few days, so nothing much to report. Although, i DID have a lovely afternoon with my girl yesterday. On Tuesday's she has kinder till 1pm then we have a few hours to kill before we pick Jacob up from school, but this week Jacob decided he was going home with one of his school friends, so it was just me and Hails all afternoon together.....and what do 2 chicks do with a free afternoon????? Go shopping of course!!!! We went to a few opp shops, she loves digging through the books, so she got a few books and picked a few for Jacob. We also went to the Warehouse and KMart and did heaps together and she was so delightful. She also had a play on my computer at work and did some lovely typing on it, which i took note from and plan to do a layout to document it. She really suprises me sometimes at how clever she is and how much she takes in, it's amazing, and i really am strongly doubting her kinder teaches reasons for wanting Hailey to repeat kinder, there is no way this kid needs to stay back. Right now Jacob is the one we are concerned about, and it really wouldn't suprise me if his teachers recomends him to stay down this year, he just has no interest at all in learning anything and its so frustrating. Anyway, I have finished all my book work, BAS statement done and all sorted, so i might even get to scrap this week if i am lucky, I really want to do this layout about Hailey typing on the computer, so, hopefully my next post will contain the LO all finished....well, maybe.....don't hold your breath for it though, OK. Cya ;)

Cosmopolitan Girl!!!

I can't beleive that i am going to publicly admit this, but I have been addicted to buying and reading the Cosmo Mag. I have been buying it for the past 4 months and i am really enjoying a bit of light reading every now and then. I am not normally the type of chick that will pick up a book and read, well, not since school when i HAD to read. The only other reading material i have frequented since school is books for preschoolers and scrapping mags. I still love reading scrapping mags, but really, i can do that at work, i needed something that i could just chill out with, so COSMO it is, LOL. But, I must say I am a bit disappointed with the latest one, read it in one night and was not really impressed. I usually read them over about a week and generally come out of it feeling enlightened about something, but this month....NOTHING!!!! I even yawned at the sealed section. :( I hope next months issue is better. So can you tell i don't have anything terribly important to write about?? Hopefully something really exciting happens tomorrow so my next post is not so boring ;)

Newsletter layouts.

Well, this week has kinda gone past in a bit of a blur, feel like i have had heaps on my plate, and my plate just keeps getting fuller and fuller everyday, and add to that, a good dose of lack of sleep....I am not sure how i actually made it through the week. Thursday i was at the shop till 1am chatting with Raylene, Nic and Eva after a class and then Friday i was up again till 1am chatting online to friends....any wonder i am tired, LOL. So after work Saturday, i put on my trackies and sat down to do the newsletter. I am so pleased with this months newsletter, it's our biggest one yet, and it looks fabulous, all the DT girls have been working so hard this month and it definately shows, thanks DT girls. After the newsletter went out last night, i did manage to get a relativly early night and a sleep-in this morning too, so i am much better today. Today has been another tracky day, I havn't been anywhere or done anything except vege out and build a big bionical for Jacob. George even did the grocery shoppinmg for me and we just hooked into roast lamb with yummy roast vegies and I made an apple crumble for dessert which i am not sure i have room for now after the roast. Anyway, here are my layouts from the newsletter.... First one is a funny photos of Jacob having a good belly laugh. This was part of the doodling gallery and i really had fun doing this one, a really cheap and easy page using pen on the boarder and also the title is all pen.

Next one is my gorgeous girl having a cuddle with me after falling off a swing. This paper is soooooo yummy, i love it. And last one is Jacob's batman bike he got for christmas. Well, thats it for now, cya's.

Showing my age....

Well.... maybe showing more arse than age, LOL. DON'T LOOK MUM!!!! OK, due to popular demand, here are the photos of mine and Nic's matching "Yummy Mummy" undies that Super Nathan made us on Saturday night. I am still recovering from my very busy birthday with the sale yesterday. We had so many orders to pack, we were still packing today. And Nicole copped the lovely job of cleaning up the mess i left at the shop as i was so busy with orders, i didn't get time to do anything else. Then Nicole and I topped off our day with making a few orders for new stock, yummy yummy yummy. Ok, off to get an early night sleep. Cya.

YAY I am 31.

I am 31 and I have had the best day today. Birthday's are usually a bit of a "well, it's just another day" kinda thing with me and i don't normally make a big thing of it either, but this year, it has been so much fun. I have had emails galore to read with birthday wishes, i have had phone calls, friends dropping in to the shop, and the birthday sale was a HUGE success, I have been rushed off my feet and its been a great day. Then tonight I had my SIL, BIL and Nephew, Sam come for a visit and they bought desert with them too, sooooo yummy. I also had a really great weekend with my wonderfully fantastic friends. They did lots of little things that really helped to make my birthday special. Nic made me a chocolate brownie for my cake, toped with chocolate and M&M's and 31 candles, and not forgeting the barbie on top with "bite me" undies, LOL). I also had the pleasure of sharing my cake and candle blowing with the gorgeous Maddy Moo who also celebrated her birthday this week. YAY for the birthday girls ;) Nath made me some "yummy mummy" undies which i proudly wore on Sunday when we all went to Gumbya Park. The wind was soooo cold, but we all still had a fun day. It looks like we had more fun than the kids, but i promise they loved it too ;) Thanks Nic, Nath and kids for a great weekend ;)

2 hours left

I have only 2 hours left of being 30, flirty and dirty :( Right now, i don't think i am as excited as i should be as this cold seems to be getting the better of me. But hopefully tomorrow will be a good day, i am having a birthday sale just for me, where you get 31% off all my fave products. This includes the entire KI Memories range, the Kelly Panacci range, new K&Co papers, Heidi Swapp Plastic alphabets, repackaged collections chipboard shapes, and all ribbons by the metre for Monday only :) I have had a fabulous weekend with my wonderful friends. Will share some pics and details later when I am feeling better. I am off to bed. Catch ya tomorrow when i am 31 and ............ (still havn't got my new saying).

WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!

WARNING...this blog entry features a never before seen image of our kitchen. Please make sure you are seated to view this image.

To some this may look like an ordinary kitchen, but for those that have seen the usual state of my bench tops.......well......need I say more?

I have NEVER had this much bench space. Now all i have to do is try to keep it like this, thats the tricky bit, LOL.

Hailey said.....

I went to pick Hailey up from daycare today and one of the staff members approached me and said, "i have to tell you what Hailey said today" she was smiling so i knew it wasn't something really mean and nasty, athough they also thought it was funny when they had to tell me she had told another kid to "piss off" about 12 months ago. I was still cringing, because she has said some pretty embaressing things about me lately and was hoping that it wasn't that ;) Anyway, it was a conversation between Hailey and another child. Child - My Mum's having a baby. Hailey - My Mum's not having any more babies because Dad has sore nuts and they have a bruise on them so Mum can't have any more babies. Apparently the staff had a good laugh about it. Another funny thing she has been saying lately is about a jumper I bought her. We were shopping in Target and i spotted a jumper that says "You're NOT the boss of me" I picked it up and said.... Mum - Oh, this jumper is soooo you Hails, i have to buy it for you. Hailey - What does it say? Mum - "You're NOT the boss of me". Thats so you, isn't it? Hailey - I don't say that. Mum - No, i know you don't say it, but it's definately how you act. So we bought it and now whenever someone comments on her jumper she says "I don't really say that, it's just how I act" Other news. My headache and crusty mood has turned into a cold, so hopefully with the cold and flu tablets i got today, I can knock it on the head so i can still enjoy my weekend. I have so much book work to do and my accountant after me for it, but i really needed to scrap today. I did do some book work too, I promise. This is a case of Michelle M's layout in the Max Gallery as part of Tracy's challenge. It was so much fun, i think i might have to find another LO in there to case, there are so many gorgeous LO's in there, its hard to pick just 1. Well, after I have done the book work of course ;)

Randomness again.

More random thoughts, soo much easier, dont have to make sure it all make sense, cause i am not so good at that at the best of times. * I have had a very flat few days and my little headache from the last few days has turned into a monster today. Panadol didn't even touch it, so thanks Nic for the Advil, it kinda worked. I thought it might have been my back, so G gave it a crack thismorning, but it's not my back, maybe its just stress, or maybe its the looming 31 in less than a week. * With my next birthday just around the corner, i am happy to have made it this far and grateful to be having another birthday, eventhough the thought of leaveing my "30, flirty and dirty" comfort zone is frightning. I need a new "31" slogan now......any ideas? * Being 30 has been pretty cool for the most part, i have had some great times, some REALLY great times, but also some pretty shitty times. * I am looking forward to 31, so I can continue the good times, and leave all the shit behind. * My friendship toward other people is genuine. If i don't like you as much as i say I do, you would know. Trust me, you would know. (also, if i didn't mean it, i wouldn't say it) * I took my girl to daycare without her hair done today.....and of course its photo day. I had to go back to daycare and do her hair. I am such a slack mum. * Been thinking of taking Jacob to the doctor about his bed wetting. He seems to have a very weak bladder and will even wet his pants if he laughs too much and wets his bed way more than i would expect a 7 year old to. I am beginning to think that maybe its a medical thing related to the groin operation he had when he was 2. Perhaps we should stop being so hard on him if he can't help it. If i take him to the Dr's, how will they know, how will they tell, will i just look like a paranoid mother? Do I take him or not? * I have cleaned today. I have a kitchen sink the fly lady would be proud of, unfortunately, thats about the only thing she'd be proud of, I am the worst housewife in the world. * I don't want to cook dinner cause it will mess up my nice clean kitchen :( and besides that.....i hate cooking. * I soooooo need to scrap, i really want to have a go at Tracy's case challenge in the forum, but i have my accountant breathing down my neck for my book work. So i guess i should do that first :( * Been out looking at the sunset for a homework thing Jacob is doing. I let him loose with my camera.....he is so much like his father, even has the "i'm a shit hot photographer" stance happening, the repetitive clicking (lucky its digi) and look.......he even takes "artsy" photos like his dad.

What's the reason behind it all????

Why do people that don't scrap, just not "get it"?? Scrapping very much follows trends and what is fashionable now, may not be in 50 years time. Our grandchildren will probably look through our albums and laugh at our paper choices, the clothes we dressed our kids in, and those prima flowers were sooooo 2006. But, i know that they will be so appreciative of the journaling that we put with our photos on our layouts in years to come. The importance of remembering certain events and moments in our lives is so crutial, especially for our children. I want my children to be able to look back in their albums and see what sort of children they were, the things they liked, the things they didn't, the things they were good at, the things that were a challenge for them, how much they were loved and what i am proud of them for, what i want them to know and what i wish for them in their lives. These are the important things, all the paper and embelishemnts, in my opinion are all just a creative outlet to ultimately get the message across. Take this photo as an example. This is one of my Grandma's photo's, but do you know who these people are? Are they family? Do they get along? Do you know who's house that is? Where is that house? When was the photo taken? Why was the photo taken? Do we really know anything about this photo at all? Luckily my Grandma is still around, so i can ask her, but what if she wasn't and I found all these old photos? What would I do with them if i don't know who they are? In my opinion, photos are useless without the information. I know they say a photo can "say it all" but does it really? Now, look at this layout. Yes the colours are bright and not everyones cup of tea, they are not really my cup of tea either, but they really do reflect the personallities of the girls in the photos. Which brings me to my next point......who are these girl? When were the photos taken? What is the significance of these photo's? Are they friends? How long have they been freinds? Where were they? What were they doing there? How old are they? What sort of friendships do they have? How long have they known each other for?

Well......read the journalling tags and you will find out!!!

So, to the people out there that "don't get it"...... i hope in 50 years time, your grandchildren are not sifting through your box of photo's wishing that they knew who these people were and where all these places are and why you took photos of them.

OK, thats my rant and babble for now. Catch ya.

Another class

I was lucky enough to do another one of Karen's awesome classes and here is my result. I really love how this LO turned out. The doodles look so impressive, but they are really easy to complete once you know how. Karen gives the best handouts in her classes and the best instruction. If you have been considering doing one of her classes, GO FOR IT!!! You will love it. OK, thats it for now. Cya

I am back!!!!

Well, i didn't actually go anywhere, but OMG it has been a whole week since i last blogged, how bad am I???? I have been so busy lately that i have hardly had time to scratch myself. I have been busy with the shop, I am in the process of doing a big reshuffle and if I do say so myself, its looking pretty darn good. Our clearance racks of paper are almost down to nothing, which means it has made heaps more room for new stuff. I have some new products to go up on the website hopefully in the next few days and all i can say about that is....... prima flowers are soooooooo yummy!!!! I have also been busy with scrapping, I did a class by the gorgeous and incredibly talented Karen Ridgeway. The class was awesome and the LO was awesome. Here is my LO from the class. And with all this new knowledge I sat and created a LO for a beautiful friend of mine. Thanks for a great class Karen and i am soooooo looking forward to my next class tomorrow night. Over the weekend i had a great time hanging with frinds and staying away from the computer. We had Nic and family over Saturday night. We had a great time, had a few drinks, played a few games and not much sleep as usual, but the sleep deprivation is soooo worth it to have a weekend with this family, they are awesome. And to my "best friend", I know I emailed you last night and told you, but I wanted to write it here too. You are an amazing person, and i am so proud of you for what you acheived this past weekend, i know you can do anything you put your mind to. You are such an inspiration to me and i admire your strength so much. Thank you for being such a wonderful friend and being such a beautiful person. ;) Then last night, we caught up with some old friends for dinner and it was so lovely, just like the old days, but everyone seems to have multiplied since the "old days", LOL. We have all known each other since before having kids, and now there are 8 of the little things, ranging in age from 1 - 9 years old. We used to all catch up heaps, especially when the older of the kids were little, but as they go off to kinder and school, so much changes, and life just gets so much busier and we all seemed to hang out less and less. And while we do still keep in contact, it has been AGES since ALL of us have been in the same room at the same time. It was really great to hang out and chat last night, we will definately have to do it again real soon. And for being MIA for a whole week, that really dosn't look like much that i have done. Oh well, till next time....which i garuntee will be LESS than a week, cya.

Random stuff 2

I quite liked the randomness of my last "random stuff" post, so i thought i might try it again, so much easier than trying to squish a whole heap of unrelated stuff into one post and making sure it all makes sense. * I have had a lot of work related stress on me lately and its taking a lot of my time and energy to sort out, but no doubt it will be sorted soon and i might get a chance to actually scrap at some point. * Saturday i spent the day connected to the computer with work related stuff. * Saturday night i chatted online with friends....they are such funny geeks, LOL. * Sunday we were invited to Bec and David's for lunch. Thank you so much Bec for noticing that i needed a bit of time out and inviting us over and thank you for a lovely afternoon. I want that recipe too....yummmmmmmmmo. * Sunday night we went to Nicole and Nathan's for dinner. OMG time flies when your having fun, I think we got home at 1am this morning....ooops. * My poor kids were dragged out of bed this morning VERY tired from their very late and social day yesterday. * The good thing about the kids being tired, they are too tired to fight and annoy each other tonight....... well, so far, anyway. * I need to scrap * George went back to work today, he is still not 100% but i think he is ok enough to be back at work as long as he takes it easy. NO LIFTING HEAVY STUFF OK G!!!! It was quite nice to have him home last week, although i worked most of the time so he didn't get on my nerves too much, it was nice to come home to him being here and the heater on ;) * Thank you to the gorgeous girls that have sent me lovely emails in the last few days, they have been very much needed and appreciated. * I am very excited about an online class i am doing this week, it will be my first one ever, and i am soooo excited....here is a hint about what i am doing. * I have the most wonderful friends in the world. On that note, i am going to go put my tired kids in bed. Cya

DT layouts

The Max newsletter came out yesterday jam packed with the very talented Max Chicks work. They are such an awesome group of girls and so very talented and super supportive, they ROCK!!! Anyway, this was my contribution to the newsletter, not as much as i was supposed to do, but that could not be helpped. This is me when i was 9 months old with my cat "Kitty". These Carolees Creations papers were perfect for these photos. And this one is using the Junkitz Shabby Chic papers and Heidi Swapp chipboard diamonds. I cut the diamonds in half to make a giant flower. To see what the other girls did, pop over to the gallery for a squizz. And if you got the newsletter, you would know that we have a challenge running at the moment to create an off the page item from chipboard and upload to the challenge section ofthe gallery. The winner will receive a $10 MAX voucher. Ok, i am off for a vege out night. Cya

Random Stuff...

* first day of school holidays and i celebrated with a little sleep in as i didn't have to get a boy to school early. * eventhough i had a little sleep in, i am still tired and exhausted. * It's been 2 weeks since i last scrapped and i NEEEEEED to scrap. * George is still not so good today, I wish he could see a doctor earlier than Tuesday. * I found it amusing to find i got a google search for "saggy balls" that lead the searcher to my blog. * Hailey wanted sultana bran for breakfast....without sultanas. * Apparently my 'sultana fishing' skills are not so good, Hailey informed me after breakfast..... "there was a sultana in my breaky" * I need to ring my friend Kerrie, I so badly want to catch up with her these holidays. * My daughter is driving me nuts at the moment. Her behaviour has been so bad lately, i don't know what is wrong with her. She is so defiant. * Thankfully Hailey's behaviour is no where near as bad as Jacob's was at exactly the same ages. * Had Jacob's parent/teacher thing last night. He is at the level he should be for Grade 1, but needs to work on paracticing his writing and not being so disruptive in class. He ROCKS at Maths and reading though. He is reading level 16 readers and loves counting and working out numbers, YAY dude. * This year has been my most confronting, confusing and challenging year of my life. * This year has been the most rewarding year of my life. (hopefully they cancel each other out). I have learnt so much about myself, all things i wish i had worked out years ago. * I need to get off this computer and do some work, so i might have a chance to squeeze in a little scrapping. * I NEEEEEEED to scrap......have i said that already??

Hmmmmm

WARNING, i am going to be a total whinger today, if you don't want to read it, turn back NOW!!! Well, this week has been an absolute shit of a week, i feel so disorganised and have had four times as much stuff on my plate as i normally have and its sending me around the twist. Nothing has gone to plan and everything has seemed so much more difficult and complicated than it really needed to be. With George home, and then attempting to go to work, and then coming home from work. Trying to juggle the kids around pick up times, ballet lessons, extra housework, picking up stuff for the shop, trying to do a huge web site update in time for our 20% off Sale that starts tomorrow morning, trying to get a newsletter written and out ahead of schedule to coincide with the Sale and i am totally exhausted. I am exhausted from extra work and pressures on me, i am exhausted from lack of sleep from someone with sore balls being very restless and snoring really loudly at night. I need an early night and i NEED to scrap. I didn't even get all my DT layouts done, i have just had so much going on. AAARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!! OK, I will stop whinging now, I am hoping that this weekend will be a quiet one, might even bring home some stuff from work so i can scrap, i need a bit of scrap therapy.

Turkish Delight Lover here....

I hate grocery shopping with a passion, am never usually organised to do a big shop. I'm more of your "stop-in-at-the-supermarket-each-night-after-work-and-get-what-we-need-to-get-through-the-night-and-I'll-be-back-tomorrow" type of chick. I am lucky at the moment that Hailey's daycare centre is right across the road from the supermarket, so it's not really out of my way to go there, might be a different story next year when she is at school and a long way away from the supermarket, but for now, it suits me. So todays shop, it was a big shop.....probably enough to get through 2 nights, LOL. Anyway, back to my story.... I did the grocery shopping today and OMG i found Cadbry Turkish Delight ICE-CREAM. Of course i had to buy some instead of our regular light and creamy vanilla. I LOVE turkish delight sooooo much, it is definately my fave chocolate bar EVER. I got the shopping home, George left me to unpack it (another job he usually does, but he's still not totally functional around the house yet, so i had to do it), and i couldn't help myself, but to grab a spoon and dig in for just a little taste. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good. I couldn't have just one scoop. And the best bit.......its 97% fat free and dosn't taste like it. Yummo, i dont think this little 2 litre tub is going to last too long.....might have to go back and get a back up while its still on special. I "KNOW" there are other Turkish Delight lovers out there that might like to know about my find.....like my gorgeous friend Raylene ;)

Update

Just an update on the lastest goings on. It has been a full on week this week with the kids, George and work. First up the kids..... Jacob has been taking the little fishies every morning and i must admit that he has been an absolute delight this week, he even said he has been concentrating more at school and hasn't been staying in at lunch time to do his work. Woohoo Dude, i am very proud of you. Hailey on the other hand.....will not eat the fishies and is driving me insane, her constant chatter at me is sending me round the twist. Anyone who has heard Haileys voice will understand, she has this really high pitched whingy whiney voice and it definately gets too much. I think i need to employ bribery for the consumption of these fishy things. George.....well, where do i start??? He is sore, uncomfortable, a bit bruised and a tad swollen. All went well with his snip but i think at the moment he is wondering why he has put himself through all this. Well, he did offer and i didn't put up a fight. But, i figure, you add 9 months of pregnancy with morning sickness, 13 hours of labour, a screaming baby which you have no idea what to do with, sore leeky boobs of which the said child wants to have a go at every 2 hours, bleeding for 7 weeks, graizing, stitches EVERYWHERE, waking up a minimum of 7 times a night, an emotional hormonal rollercoaster, the feeling that everything will fall out if you stand up or cough and dont even get me started on sneezing, and did i mention a baby totally dependant on you for everything when you are feeling your absolute physical worst???? Well, i think if you add all that to what George is feeling right now, you might come close to what i had to endure....twice. So while i have total sympathy and am waiting on him hand a foot doing all i can to help him and make him comfortable, i think its only right that he go through this, LOL. Anyway, I have been busting my gut around the house, trying to get everything done, he normally helps me around the house HEAPS and now i know why, its so hard trying to get everything done that needs doing around my work and kids commitments etc. I really do appreciate the help he gives me around the house everyday. Thank you Sweety. OK, not much else to tell at the moment except..... HI MARK!!!!! I know you read my blog today cause i got a google from Holland. Hope your having a good time and looking forward to another email update. We miss you heaps. Ok catch ya's. ;)

BOM layouts.

I scrapped my bum off today doing BOM layouts. But i really should have been doing DT layouts instead, LOL. The first is a bit of a therapy LO for me at the moment, as George is going in for the big "chopper rooney" tomorrow. He is pretty nervous about the whole proceedure, I am not so worried about that, i know it will be fine, but i am glad its not my bits they are messing with, I have done my duty as far as that is concerned, LOL.

And this one was inspired by yesterdays blog entry. The journaling is pretty much the same as yesterdays post. I thought scrapping 8 1/2 x 11 layouts would make scanning so much easier, and it does, but the scanner seems to have eaten the bottom off this one....just imagine the border ALL the way round.

OK, thats it from me. I will be spend the day running George around tomorrow and hopefully he's not too bad tomorrow night. Catch ya's.

Hair and aging men, LOL

After reading Mel's blog today about her hubbies hair, i could so relate to it all, strangely enough, LOL. When George and I first got together, he had long hair, but unlike Mel, it really didn't do it for me, but i did get used to it and didn't mind it too much. Then he went to a mullet (he he he, that still makes me laugh), but i thought that was ok at the time too. Man, i really should dig through photos to support this blog entry. Now he has his hair short, uses "product" and has the messy look happening and he is sooo HOT. He has definately got better with age, but it got me thinking ..... will he just keep getting hotter and hotter?? Or will there come a time when he reaches his "full hotness" (i made that up) and start going back the other way? Will his eyebrowns do the McAlpine thing and get all bushy and crazy? Will those freaky hairs start growing out his ears? Will he have saggy balls? Ooo and nostril hairs too, ewww. Will he get all wrinkly and saggy in places that used to be well toned?? Will his varandah hang waaaaaaaaayyy over his tool shed? Hmmmmm scarey thought really. I have no idea, and you know what? I don't really care. I can't wait to see what the future holds, and i want to grow old with you G ;)

Fave All Day LO

Just a quicky to share my fave LO i completed at our all day class at the shop last Saturday. The original layout was by Raylene and i just LOVE this LO using the BasicGrey tag sheet. This is Jacob when he was about 6 weeks old, such a little cutie and so hard to imagine that that was 7 years ago and he is still a cutie ;) Just had to share too, that after years of valcro shoes and pull on boots, Jacob decided he wanted "laces shoes" so he could learn to do his laces and he finally GOT IT this week, wooohoooo Jake, you ROCK.

Title unknown

Could life get much more confusing and complicated, i have so much going on at the moment and don't know where to turn first. Today has been one of those days, it was so darn foggy this morning that i almost ran into another car on the way to drop the kids off, kinda scarey really, then because it had been foggy, i left my headlights on, Grrrrr, thank god for RACV and quite a hot RACV dude at that. No offence to my BIL that used to do RACV, but it was always very embarressing calling RACV for really blonde things when he worked there. It was always such a releif to be able to lock my keys in the car in another town (sorry Tom, LOL). But this guy was kinda cute, might have to lock my keys in the car next week ;) Anyway, things usually happen in 3's so i dreaded to think what would happen next, but it was only the central locking playing up, i can handle that. I have also been feeling a bit unsupported with stuff, life in general really, and taking things way to personally. I really need to learn to stand up for my self better and stop letting pathetic little things that really are meaningless in the greater scheme of things get to me so much. I really need some undies that say "BITE ME", that will make me feel better, LOL. The other thing on my plate is that G and I are making some changes in our lives and our relationship. We have been talking about it for a little while now and today, it has been decided for us, and OMG very soon. I really thought we would have time to get used to the idea, but NO.....it's THIS WEEK. Crap, i hope it dosn't eat into our long weekend plans.

Stuff.....

We had an all day class on at the shop yesterday, and after getting over my night before (geez i felt crook, no more tequilla slammers for this chick) I had a really great day. There was such a great group of girls in the class which made for a fun day. I participated in 3 of the classes and I am so pleased with how my layouts came out, I just need to put the finishing touches on them then i can share. I taught one of the classes too and its really cool to see everyones layouts end up looking so different. I don't normally teach but the end results are kinda cool, its just all the other stuff i dont like, LOL. Nic, Raylene and I stayed back last night and set next terms classes and boy do these girls have some fantastic classes coming up. These girls so ROCK!!! I have a tonne of washing and tidying up to do today, i bought new boxes for Hailey's room and have to rearange Jacob's room, so i best get started as the day is almost half over already.

The first and the last.

We went for dinner at my SIL and BIL's. Dinner was delish, but the conversation progressed from cows to wombats and i was totally lost, that was until we decided to catch a taxi home so i could drink. The kids have never been in a taxi before, so it was very exciting. And at that point, i had my very first (and last) tequilla slammer. Although i have been told it was only half a slammer cause i wouldn't fill the glass up all the way. My SIL was ready with the camera to capture the momentus event and i will probably regret posting the photos in the morning, but, oh well, here they are, LOL. I really need to go to bed and get some sleep, i have an all day class at the shop in the morning and the lovely Nic is picking me up as i have no car, LOL. Catch ya's :)

Fish and layouts

Well, I scrapped my bum off this afternoon completing 2 LO's using our new MAX PACKS. It took me 3 hours from start to finish, including choosing photos, to do both layouts, which i think is a record for me. Now, for a fish oil update. Thanks for the comments on fish oil everyone. We gave it a go this morning and....well, we decided it might be best to go for the "disguised in cereal" method first. Hailey hated her cereal and wouldn't eat it. Jacob KNEW it tasted differnt, so i told him Daddy put special medicine in it to help him concentrate, and he ate it all up. So one out of 2 ain't bad, LOL. Tomorrow we are going to try the "open your mouth and let me squirt this is" method. So we will see how that goes. I spoke to Hailey's day care teacher today and asked her to observe Hailey. She reported back this afternoon and has basically confirmed what i KNEW to be true. At group time she was attentive for most of it, got a little fidgetty toward the end, but dosn't seem to be anything to worry about and her daycare teacher dosn't feel there would be a need for her to stay back from school. I also happened to have a school teacher customer today and chewed her ear off too. She was saying that the main reason they recommend children to stay back is if they are not "socially" ready. Hailey's Kinder teacher confirmed with me that it was NOT socially that she was concerned about Hailey......so, i have no idea really, but i doubt she will be repeating Kinder next year. I think i would have a battle on my hands if she didn't go to school anyway, she is POSITIVE she is going to school next year, LOL. OK, cheerio. ;)

The many uses of fish....

What is it with my kids???? Why the hell can't they concentrate??? We have had issues with Jacob and his concentration, attention span, not sitting still, not listening blah blah blah, thats not at all a shock to me, I know that. But Hailey????? Hailey's kinder teacher approached me yesterday about Hailey's "behaviour" at kinder, that she is one of the "disruptive" ones at group time, calling out that she has new shoes and head band when she is supposed to be listening to the story, "floats" around activities not staying long enough and that she may NOT be ready for school next year. At first I thought she must be talking to the wrong parent. This is my Hailey she was talking about, my Hailey that is always so well behaved, thrives on praise, the bestest helper girl, will sit for hours and draw, but OMG what the hell happens to her when she walks into kinder??? Am I blind??? Am I ignorant??? Have I been concentrating too much on Jacob that her issues have just slipped by me??? The kinder teacher will be applying for second year funding for Hailey to repeat kinder next year if she needs to, otherwise it will cost us $500 per term without funding, OMG!!! It's 8 1/5 hours a week, thats rediculous!! There was a talk at the local town hall last week about school readiness and I am kicking myself now that I didn't go, I wish her teacher had have appoached me earlier about this so I COULD have gone. I had no doubts in my mind that Hailey would be ready for school, her birthday is smack in the middle of the cut off dates, so its definately not her age. We kept Jacob back from kinder an extra year as his birthday was right ON the cut off date and even though I copped a bit of criticism for keeping him back, he is struggling enough as it is without him having to do it all a year earlier, I had no doubts I was making the right desicion and in light of his recent struggles, I KNOW I made the right decision.....so I stick my rude finger up to those that criticised me about that. I am still really unsure of what to do with Hailey next year, I plan on talking to as many people as possible about it with anyone who has anything to do with Hailey. I am hoping that she will not need a second year of kinder but I guess if we have the back up of the second year of funding, then she can if she needs to. Anyway, I bet your wondering where the fish come into it.....I was talking to a friend last night and she suggested that fish oil is good for concentration etc......EWWWWWW FISH OIL. GROSS!!!! I could just imagine trying to pour fish oil down my kids throats everyday. BUT, I found this morning in my travels that the make a kids fish oil in yummy chewy fishy shapes. Yes, they look cute and inviting, but i am yet to see if they are as yummy as they say on the box. But, I am willing to try anything, so, we will see how we go. Thanks for letting me babble. Catch ya ;)

I have created a monster....

I have created a monster in my husband ............. A BLOG MONSTER!!!!!!!!! He has had a blog for a week and he has just gone totally mad!!!! I havn't been blogging that long either and had mentioned to him a few times that i thought he would really enjoy it because he is quite a creative writer but hasn't done much lately. Years ago, when we first got together he used to write heaps of stuff, he even used to write me poems, although anyone that knows me will find that incredibly funny, cause i just don't get that kind of romance, its so not me, LOL, sorry Honey! After a while he kinda got the hint and started writing me funny ones.... and i did "get" those ones. Anyway, as time passed, we got married, had kids, got busy, work, blah blah blah, you know how it is, and he really hasn't done much since then.......until NOW!!! For the past week he has lived, breathed and dreamt blog entries. I woke up this morning and while staggering my way to the shower (i am soooo not human till i have had my shower and woken up properly) he is in my ear telling me that he has a job on at Barry's Beach today and he is taking the camera and hoping to get some pics to blog tonight, and that when you think of barry's beach BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH...... i saw his lips moving, but seriously, i was still asleep. I think my new phrase is going to be ....... "blog it, i'll read it later!!!" I have totally created a BLOG MONSTER!!!!

The funny things kids say.....

A conversation between Jacob and brother-in-law Mark tonight.... Mark; did you do a school project? J; yep Mark; can i have a look? J; Its at school Mark; What did you do your project on? J; on lined paper. Too funny!!!! Just had to share that. Thats it from me today, pretty boring. Catch ya ;)

More on Undies

Sorry everyone, i wasn't going to talk about undies in this post, but.......I had this turn up in my inbox this evening from my gorgeous, wonderful, talented, and beautiful friend Nic as an addition to my new BOM. Thank you sooooo much Nic. You have totally made my day with this and i am so honoured to have my arse on your last piece of kraft CS. Please note; me dropping my dacks in public is NOT standard practice and no animals or children were harmed in the recording of this incident!!!

Cool Undies!!!

It's no secret that i have cool undies. Anyone who knows me well, knows i have cool undies and i am very proud to be wearing cool undies. But, it doesn't matter how much faith and trust you put into your cool undies, they can still give you a wedgie, they can still fall down and need a good hoik up every now and then. In reality, cool undies are just regular undies disguised as super cool, Cameron Diaz style undies with a cool picture on them. There is nothing special about these undies. Superman undies don't give you super powers and cool undies don't make you cool. I need to stop putting so much faith and trust into my undies, and put that same faith and trust into myself. I am old enough and grown up enough not to need cool undies. I am a strong enough person to go through life without needing cool undies to get me through. But all that asside, a bad day can seems a little more bareable when you can be comforted in the fact that you are wearing cool undies. I love my cool undies and I will continue to wear them proudly. I am now on a quest to find undies that say "BITE ME" and i will not stop till i have them, LOL. Anyway, my gorgeous friend came to visit me yesterday, thanks for the chat K, and i will leave you with a quote from her....... "Life's too short not to have amusing underwear."

Sorted!!!

8 1/2 x 11 it is!!!! And here is my very first LO for my BOM. I have seen this heart idea a few times so i am not sure who to credit for it, but it certainly isn't original. Photography was by my gorgeous friend Nic featuring me and my spunky hubby. He is so amazing and loves me even when i am a total cow. I think my Dad said to him on our wedding day "good luck" and he certainly has needed it. But he loves me anyway and i really do appreciate it. I love you too Honey ;) I am loving this size too, i was a bit worried about going out of the "square" but it totally rocks and i can use a 5x7 photo and still have some page left. I am so pumped about these LO's now, i will have to get stuck into it. Thanks for peeking.

Our luck seems to be changing.

And thank god it is too, this week has been one of those weeks that i dont wan't to repeat it EVER! The "fridge-fix-it" dude came this morning and fixed our fridge. It was just the thermostat, so it was easy to fix and way cheaper than a new fridge. I also have a new flat screen monitor arriving today as the work one is crapping itself as i type and its driving me nuts because the picture wont stay still. It's not that old and probably still in warranty, but the supplier it came from no longer exists....hmm, wonder why....so a new monitor it is. And knowing my hubby, he will probably pull this one apart and see if he can fix it. And other exciting news.........Jacob won a Superman Xray Vision Pen in the cornflakes packet today. We were soooooo excited, LOL. Jacob and i spent ages in the cereal isle at the supermarket yesterday shaking all the cornie packets and that one felt like a lucky one, and YAY it was. So it looks like we will spend the weekend writing secret messages to each other, at least it might encourage him to practise his writing. I finished one of my DT projects last night, but i cant show you, LOL. You will have to wait, ha ha ha. And, i am thinking i might have a hack at a BOM LO today. I still havn't decided whether to go 9x9 or 81/2x11 yet. I am a bit scared of going outside the "square" format as it seems to work for me, but i also want this to be totally different to what i normally do. So, i am going to have a hack at an 81/2x11 and see how i go. Thats it for now as this screen is getting worse.

AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!

What the hell is it with us and fridges???????????????? I am sure we are up to fridge number 3 since we have been in this house, and thats only 6 years. GGGRRRRRR!!!!!!! I am trying to convince George it's the house that hates fridges, if we had another house, the firdge would be fine. Such BAD timing!!!!! But then again, for a fridge to shit itself, there is never a good time is there? I had plans of being super organised today, going to the supermarket and KMart before work.....but instead, i have to spend my precious time carting food out to the shed. GGRRRRRRRRRR! Today had better improve!!

I doodled my butt off !!!!

I finally got to use Karen's Flower Template today on a LO. This is probably the ONLY LO i have ever done that i have literally just slap stuff on and its defiantely the first LO i have done full on doodles on. It was quite liberating actually, LOL. I love looking at other people's doodled LO's especially the super talented Karen, but I never thought i could pull them off with my clean lined style. This was so much fun and i got way more carried away with it than i intended. I am soooo loving that white pen too, i think i will have to do way more doodling now...... i think i am addicted.

New Song.

Time for a new song. I was totally addicted to watching Rock Star INXS last year, and loved this song then and still do. Mmmmmmmm JD......Hubba Hubba!!!

Just a quicky!!

It's late and I am tired, but i just wanted to say how much my friends mean to me. I love you both dearly (you know who you are) and i would be so lost without both of you. I am so grateful to have you in my life and in my family's life. Its definately a firendship worth fighting for. And to the "wild one"......consider this an IOU for a purple rinse ;)

FINALLY!!!!!

Jacob has FINALLY finished his Grade 1 project and OMG was it a battle and a half!!!! We have had tears, yelling, bribery, more tears, tantrums, and even more tears (only the yelling and bribery were from me, LOL). We got a fair bit done yesterday, but still had more to do tonight.....its amazing how fast that kid can write when there is a brand new Beanie Kid sitting ontop of the TV waiting for him to finish. I tell you what, i am going to be one very broke Mummy if i have to buy him something every time he has homework. I am so glad to see the back end of that project, but i guess its just the start huh? Jacob dosn't really enjoy school, dosn't like sitting still, dosn't like writting, dosn't like learning, dosn't like reading readers with too many pages, dosn't like listening, dosn't like being told how to do something.......oh boy, how am i going to survive the next 11 1/2 years of school with this kid????????? I guess i just have to keep my fingers cross that it all clicks for him one day....hopefully very soon. On a brighter note....my spunky hubby George and our good friend Nathan have started their own blogs (with a little peer preasure, LOL). Click their names to check them out.

Last 2 pics.

And the 2 pics that didn't fit in my last post....... Thanks for a grat day guys!!!!!!

The photo shoot pics

YAY, I finally got some time to play with the new photos. Here are some pics from yesterday, there were so many really good one, it was hard to cull them and it will cost me a fortune to print them all, but i can't wait to scrap them. Gggrrrr, i wanted more pics in here, hopefully i can add then in later. Jacob did a bit of his project, not finished yet, but made a good start on it. The poor thing just hates learning, writing, reading and concentrating, don't know how he will get through school, hopefully it will get easier for him.

THE new do....finally.

We had an absolutely awesome day yesterday. After work we went to hang out with Nicole and her gorgeous family. The weather was perfect for photoshoots so we all went to a local park armed with cameras and had so much fun. I am sooooo happy with the photos we got and i still have to play with them all, but can't wait to get them printed. After the park, we had a roast which was delicious and the company, as always, was just the best. Soooooo....I finally have a photo of my "new do" (well, not so new now) to show all those that have been asking me ;) So there you go!!!! After i have had time to play with these other pics i will put some in here....maybe later, i have a grade 1 homework assignment to work on today and cracking the whip on a 7 year old to get it done. Oh the joys. Lucky presentation is open, so we are going "scrapping style" LOL.

True Friendship

Here is my LO from Raylene's Shabby girl class the other night. I have pretty much copied it directly, including same papers because Raylene's LO looked so gorgeous, i HAD to do it exactly the same and I am soo pleased with it. It even has pride of place on the mantlepiece at home which by the way, dosn't have my famous christmas display anymore, just incase you were wondering, LOL. Nic and I had our pic taken by Gayle for the shop to use for advertising etc. and I love this photo. I don't normally like photos of myself, but i like this one, not only because i think I look hot in it (not really, but it's half decent, LOL), but it also has my best friend Nic in it ;) I had trouble finding a B&W photo to use in the class, because as usual, i left it to the last minuite and this was the only B&W pic i had on the computer so the lovely Bec printed it out for me on her new printer so i could have it for the class (thanks Bec). I had planned to scrap this pic in my BOM (which i am yet to start) but i was wanting to do that in 8 1/2x11, but this one being a 12x12 I have decided this will go in Hailey's album and i will re-scrap it for my own album. The journalling is on the pull tab behind the photo and is a little note to my Hailey that says how much of an amazing connection i have with Nicole. With her unconditional friendship and support i have grown so much as a person since meeting her and my wish for Hailey is that she will find that same "true friendship" in her life and hopefully not have to wait till she is 30 to find it. Thanks for looking and reading my dribble. The sun is out, suprisingly enough on a weekend, and we are hoping to get out and take a few pics today. Have a good weekend everyone.

LO Share and Update.

I promised a LO share of Jacob so here it is. WAY, WAY, WAAAAAAAAAY outside the square to my usual clean lined style but i quite like it. I went a bit crazy with paint and stamps, and it was fun to do. This is Jacob and his friend Nicolas from school. Jacob and Nick were in the same class last year and i am so glad that they kept them together this year too. They have really buddied up, which is GREAT for Jacob after all the issues he had last year of settling in socially. I am glad they are friends, Nicolas is a gorgeous little boy and his mum is a scrapbooker, what more could i ask for??? I spent part of my day yesterday putting up some .new papers on the site. I already have some stashed to use, it so much fun unpacking boxes of new stuff, its like Christmas. I so wanted to scrap yesterday and do Karen's challenge of using the flower template.....maybe today i might be able to find some time. Last night was Raylene's Shabby Girl class and it was great. Asside from her being an awesome teacher, that LO sample ROCKED!!! I am sooooooo please with how my LO is coming along. I only have the journalling and the title to do on it then i can share it ;) Can't wait to finish it. That's probably about all thats happened lately. As far as the weekend goes, Jacob has a school project to do, so we are hoping to get that sorted, which will invole a visit to my Grandma to ask her a few questions about when she was little. OK, thanks for visiting ;)

FOUND!!!!!

Jacob found his Mother's day present for me.....apparently in a different part of his cupboard. He told me he put it up the top, so i climbed up there...a few times actually, trying to find it for him with no luck. And he found it tonight, in the other side of his cupboard and down the bottom.....go figure. Anyway, he had made me a card at school and it was really nice and definately worth the wait. How cute is that?? In other news, the Max newsletter went out last night and OMG, these DT girls SOOOOOO ROCK!!!!! They keep amazing me with their awesome creations and i am starting to feel a little like a fish out of water amongst them. I printed out Karen's flower patterns and i can't wait to give it a go. We have a comp running where all you have to do is use this template to create a LO and upload it to the gallery and you can win a RAK from the Max. Even though i can't enter, i am soo going to give it a go and can't wait. Here are my LO's from the newsletter. My ribbon LO of my crazy girl pulling faces looking cute. My girl....again. And using the new KI papers. And last one. My gorgeous nephew Samuel and nice simple one and no journaling as i am not journaling his album, just purely creative. And i have just realised that Jacob has missed out on a DT LO this month again......might have to make an effort to do a Jacob LO next month, LOL. I did a LO of him on Saturday at our crop so he is not totally missing out. Will put it in my next post, i promise. Ok, thanks for dropping by again ;)

Tag and Mothers Day weekend.

I was tagged by the lovely Nicole so i thought it was about time i got around to it. ln my Fridge: Milk Yoghurt Caffine free diet coke Cheese Heaps of sauces and spreads etc ummmmmm, havn't shopped for a while so thats pretty much it along with a few limp vegies in the bottom. In my Closet Clothes, not a lot that actually fit me, but there is a lovely pile of clothes in a smaller size waiting for me to get back into them. Christmas decorations. Old work stuff from my previous life as a childcare worker, that i still havn't decided if i will need again in the future. In my handbag A great big mess!!!!!! aswell as... Purse Phone, that i never hear ringing. Receipts Notes a bunch of yummy ribbon (not sure why that is still there) the work bank deposit book and more mess!!!! In my car Hmmm, more mess there too. Childcare receipts kids toys that they bring in the car then they never make it out rubbish rubbish and a little bit more rubbish. And an umbrella On my DVD / Video player Watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding again the other night....soooo funny. Going to hire out Chicken Little tonight for the kids, hopefully, if they have any copies left. I am not tagging anyone, but if you want to give it a go, consider yourself tagged, LOL. Well, my weekend started Saturday with an all day crop at the shop which was quite fun, laughed HEAPS and then off to Nicole's house to spend the weekend with her lovely family. The dad's had dinner all ready for us when we walked in the door which was fantastic and very much appreciated after a hard day of scrapping (or rather, procrastinating while i should have been scrapping). Nic and I kicked butt at pool that night too. WOO HOO, CHICKS RULE!!!!!!! I was woken at 6.15am with 4 noisy children playing.....hmmmm, you'd think they would let us sleep huh??? Then that was quickly followed by my Hailey tapping me on the head asking if she could give me her mothers day present yet. She was promtly told to atleast wait till the sun came up before she could, i am sooo not a morning person, LOL. She has been hanging out for mothers day this year as they purchased a present at Kinder last monday, and for a 4 year old, having to keep a secret and hide a present for a whole week, can be tourture. But she did well to hide it and keep a secret even with me constantly bugging her asking what it is. I got from Hailey a little hand towel with a loopy bit to hang it up, which i did this morning in the bathroom, and a jar of bath salts she made at daycare for me. Jacob also hid a present for me, but managed to hide it so well, we cant find it, LOL. I am sure it will turn up when we least expect it. Sunday was a great day of just hanging around (cause it was raining AGAIN!!!) chatting and playing a few games. We were supposed to drop by and see George's mum in the evening, but as usual we 'over-stayed' at Nicole's yet again cause we have so much fun hanging out with them, and it was too late by the time we got home to go there. Our cat Jedi is much better today after we had a bit of an emergency with him Saturday morning. He must have got into a fight last week and ended up with an infected wound on his leg which George discovered Saturday morning after he picked him up and disturbed the wound and puss went everywhere (hmmmm, hopefully your not eating while reading this) so we had a massive reorganisation of child and work arrangements as both G and I were about to leave for work with a child each, to get the cat to the vets. So with a few drugs and antibiotics, he is feeling much better now. OK, that kinda turned out long winded, but lots had happened. The Max newsletter is due out tonight so i will have some LO's to share in my next post. Thanks for dropping by :)

Useless Information

"On average, a four-year-old child asks 437 questions a day" Sooooooo, I worked out that Hailey, being an average 4 year old, would have about 9 hours of time when she is awake through an average day, which is the equivilent of 540 mins, which means that she would ask 1.235 questions every minute of the day........OMG. Hmmm, i guess that would explain why I go nuts from constant chattering at me from the kids. Ok, I am off to work in a sec, and going to stalk the postie on my way for my new lot of photos i am waiting for.

Mum's lunch and convicts.

Yesterday was the Mother's Day lunch at Kinder and i also had kinder duty, which was nowhere near as painful as it normally is as the kids program had to run ahead of time because of the Mother's thing, so i didn't have to wash paint pots or anything, it was great. I really hate doing kinder duty, and being a trained kinder teacher makes it worse, as i used to get paid $20+ an hour to do the shitty jobs that i had to do for free. They say its nice to come in a see your child in their kinder environment and interact with them blah blah blah, but they give you so many darn jobs that you dont have time to even look at your child let alone interact with them .,Anyway, the Mother's day thing was quite nice. I got a beautiful flower from my girl a lovely icecream bucket hat to wear and a gorgeous card. On the back of the card they had answers to questions they asked the children about their mum's and it was so cute to read.....although i think i am the OLDEST kinder mum EVER!!! --------------------------------------- MY MUM, BY HAILEY My mum is 65 years old. My mum's favourite food is - "Kentucky" and noodles My mum's favourite thing to do is - Scrapbooking When my mum is busy she is - on the computer at work My mum's favorite TV show is - sometimes the news and her other favourite shows i don't know. My mum gets angry when - sometimes we "be" naughty My mum is happy when - my dad makes her laugh ---------------------------------------- In other news, at dinner last night Jacob reminded me that it was dress up day today at school. They are studying "change" at the moment and had to dress up as they would have in the past, they could dress up as early settlers, swagmen, convits, etc. He so badly wanted to dress up in army style clothes and be a "troop", but at short notice, you cant be fussy.....all i could round up was a few MM foam stamps, some MM paint and a white tshirt to make him look like a convict.

Weekend

Absolutely NOTHING happened this weekend. We didn't really go anywhere or do anything and it drives me nuts. I am not the sort of person that can just stay at home and do nothing all weekend, I've always gotta be doing something. George is the total opposite and is quite happy to stay home all weekend but it drives me crazy. He wouldn't even go for a drive today, GGGrrrrrrrrr!!!!!! Anyway, we had a "very breif" trip to the local bush reserve yesterday (probably only there for 1/2 hour, not enough "out" time for me i am affraid) and i got a few photos of the kids. I don't know if I am either getting more fussy with my photos or I am becoming a very bad photographer. I have been really unhappy with the photos I have been taking lately. I am sure its not the camera as I have seen AMAZING photos taken on this camera by Gayle who owned the camera before me, so I am positive it can't be the camera. Maybe I need to spend a little more time playing around with it, I am hopeless at reading manuals which might be "the" problem, LOL, so I am probably not using the camera to its full potential. Anyway, here are the only half decent photos I ended up with from yesterday.

Now with music...

Yes, i have music on my blog YAY. To start with i have Kelly Clarkson with my fave song at the moment. If you dont like it....DONT press play!!!!!! I dont want to hear anyone complaining!!!!! I like it and it's MY blog, LOL. Thanks Nicole for getting it on there, i know it was painful for you, ROFLMAO!!!

Off to a good start.

I am having a great day so far and feel like i am acheiving something. I got the kids off to where they were going today, and i went home to clean the bathrooms before work, not the most fun job in the world, but i am happy i got them done. I have packed an order, eaten a tim tam......ooops, and it is the start to a good day and hopefully a good weekend too. We don't have plans for the weekend yet, but generally, no plan is a good plan. I want to get some more photos, so it will depend a lot on the weather as to what we do. Last night was Nicole's mini album class and it was fantastic. I was actually a bit anxious about going to the class, but i went with a positive attitude, wearing my new "cool undies" and i had a great time. The girls on my table were so much fun and despite the fact i wasn't organised and didn't have any photos, i am really pleased with how my mini album is coming up. I just need to get the photos organised and finish it off. So, despite Nicole's sexy husky voice, she did a great job with a large class and her sunshine was blinding ;) It was probably the best class i have been to so far, well done Nic. So the rest of my day will consist of gracing the website with a few new products and finishing a LO of my gorgeous nephew Samuel i have had sitting on my desk that i've been trying to finish for the last few days . Have a great day everyone. :)

A new do!!!!

I am totally impressed with this salon I went to today. It took me by suprise to get an appointment so soon and i hadn't really had time to think about what i wanted done etc, which was probably a good thing. I let them pretty much do whatever they thought was cool and i SOOOOOOOO love my NEW DO. I even got a free facial cleansing treatment aswell, the massage chairs were kinda freaky though, not sure if i like them. I have had comments all day about my hair, the chick where i get my lunch commented, the chick at the bank, the checkout chick at the supermarket......so i am hoping that when they say, "did you get your hair done, it looks great" that they really mean "it looks great" and not, "WHOLEY CRAP, what the hell happened to your hair? but i better compliment you cause it probably cost you a fortune". Even the kids commented when i picked them up. And George....well, he dosn't normally notice these sort of things or its just a "hmm, thats looks good", but tonight he noticed straight away and almost threw me on the floor there and then .... so i am guessing that means he likes it, LOL. So, not only do i have a new do....that i will no doubt be cursing in the morning when i cant get it to sit right....i also had a wonderful chat tonight with my best friend in the whole world. You know who you are and i am so bless to have you in my life and i look forward to getting a purple rinse with you ;)

New Header.

I took another photo yesterday for the online shop and thought i would change my blog header too. You can see a li9ttle sneek peek of Nicole's gorgeous Mother's Day Mini Album for her class this week. Click here to see the full cover. Ok, I am off to get my hair cut......OMG i can't beleive how excited i am, i rang to make an appointment thinking it might be a while before i can get in with my limitted time schedule, but they said, "Come in NOW!!!" OMG, how exciting.........back later, have a good day everyone. ;)

ABC 123

I was so happy today when i went to pick up my boy from the daycare centre he goes to after school. Jacob hasn't been going there very long and only needs a few days after school here and there, so he isn't there a lot either, but i was really pleasantly suprised tonight at how something really little that someone can say, can really mean so much. The last child care centre he was at after school i ended up pulling him out of because he was being bullied by another child which i was witness to on a particular day, as the staff just casually walked past him while he was spat on and generally pushed around. Needless to say, THAT was his last day there. Beofre i was witness to it, i knew he had "difficulties" with another child as i had had to sign the accident book a few times, and listen to staff tell me how horrible Jacob had been that day, and only because he was probably trying to stand up for himself. Being childcare trained myself and know I would never let bullying in this type of environment get out of hand, i had every faith that the staff where doing their job in dealing with the situation, but obviously not. Jacob hated going and i felt like the meanest mother in the world by making him go, only because i had no other option. Anyway, i took him straight to the only other childcare centre that do school pickups and enrolled him there and its the best thing i ever did. The staff there are lovely and I have never had a negative dealing with them. Jacob is MUCH happier there and I am much happier knowing that he is happy. Ok, got side tracked....TODAY i went in to pick him up and the staff showed me a building that he had made with the blocks. They had obviously been guarding it with their lives also so it was still standing for me to see it, and commented how hard he worked on it and how carefull he was building it etc. It was so lovely that someone has seen the positive side of him, not just a typical boy with concentration and social "issues". As they spoke to me he was grinning from ear to ear and when he got in the car he told me he wanted to be an "atretect" (architect). They have really boosted his confidence and also mine in the childcare system that there are childcare workers out there that see the children for who they are and not just an "issue" to deal with. Thank you ABC.

Heaps better!!

I feel heaps better today. I have had a few nights off the computer, George has stopped throwing vasectomy statistics at me, I have taken some time to just vege out, i have stopped second guessing what I want out of life, relationships and friendships, and i feel heaps better for it. I am ready to take it all on again with a new outlook. Anyway, enough of that. Our house is starting to drive me nuts, i feel like i really need a change. Strangely enough, George is feeling the same about our house, he never normally does. I am used to moving around, i think the longest i had ever stayed in a house was about 3 years and we have been here over 6 years and i get really antsy about it and i want to change stuff. George on the other hand, spent the first 23 years of his life in the same house so dosn't usually feel it. I need to paint the playroom (the kids are getting a little old for the rainbow fish story on the walls), finish painting the living room and entrance hall and we have been seriously thinking about getting the bathrooms renovated, been talking about it forever, but finally looks like we are moving in that direction. But for today, i will start small and go to shopping to get more boxes for Jacob's room as he has so many more toys now since his birthday and they need a home instead of being spread all over the floor like they have been this week. And the kitchen needs attention after the kids made their own breakfast and ended up with milk EVERYWHERE. Well, I am off for a hopefully productive house organising day. Thanks for dropping by.

Max Pack LO

Feeling a little better now, i think i just really need some time to myself just to chill out and do nothing. I have just been to the video shop to get myself some chick flicks to watch, George has a new book to read and i am going to put the kids in bed and "chill" in front of the TV. I did manage to scrap today and i am really please with the LO.....but you will have to wait till the newsletter for that one, LOL. In the meantime, here is one i did last week and only just scanned. Its using one of our Max Packs. Have a good weekend everyone ;)

Well......

It's an odd kind of day, i am not sure if i am bored, worried, happy, or hmmm, I dont really know. The shop is unusually quiet, actually i think the whole street is, so i have been taking advantage of it and scrapping ;) I really need to get a move on with these Design Team projects as this month feels like it has just slipped away from me. I put all the new KI out on the racks today and i am hanging to use it, i think Extreem is my fave range as its very "Jacob". I love boy papers but its so hard to find nice ones. So i am hoping to knock over this ribbon LO this arvo and get started on a KI one....hopefully. Well.... i thought blogging might help me work out if i was bored, happy or worried, but obviously not. I'll call it confused and leave it at that for now. I have a LO to scan when i get home and will put that in here later.

Day off YAY!!

Another day off, gee i am starting to get used to this, LOL. I got another sleep in, this time only till noon and was woken up because the pancakes were ready, how cool is that?? The sun was out a bit today so we decided we would go for a drive and spends some quality family time together. We ended up at Mirboo North where they have the coolest playground and the kids love it. Took some photos which have been seriously lacking lately. I was starting to run out of photos i wanted to scrap....not run out of photos in general, just exciting ones that make you want to scrap them. Thanks for dropping by again ;)

Jacob's party and other weekend stuff.

Well, its been a pretty full on weekend. Jacob had his party on Saturday straight after work and i was really hoping i didn't get stuck there, which i didn't, but it was a bit of a mad rush to get everything sorted for it around work. I am so glad i didn't have the party at home, i am so over having kids parties at home, i couldn't think of anything worse than 8 kids trashing my house. I definately see the value in paying for someone else to do all the work for me and clean up after us too ;) His party went really well despite me stressing over it. We didn't get a lot of rsvp's for his party and i was worried that he would only end up with a few kids and being really disappointed that all the kids he invited didn't come. I ended up booking the party for 2 extra kids "just in case" and luckily i did as they turned up. What is with parents that don't rsvp??? Anyway, his party was at the bowling alley and they all had a fab time and Jacob really enjoyed himself. Here is a pic of him with his best mate Alex. How gorgeous are these two boys huh?? Thank you Nic for being "party photographer" and to Karen for being "lane monitor" for the littler ones ;) From then on, the weekend went ..... well ..... it kinda just went in a big blur, and today i have been feeling incredibly tired and just generally drained from it all. But the good thing that has come from the weekend is that i have realised that i love my husband more now than ever before. We are definately on the same path and it's awesome. I can't wait to see where that path takes us now. I love you G ;)

Happy Birthday Jacob!!

Happy 7th Birthday to my sweet baby boy. I have a girl attached to me at the moment that just woke up with a sore ear, the poor thing, i hope she hasn't got an ear infection, will write more next time.

Quick one.

Just a super quick post to say how much i love my teaching staff. Nic and Raylene, you know how much you girls mean to me cause i tell you both all the time, i just wanted to publicly say it. You girls ROCK and i am incredibly lucky to have such talented teachers for my business as well as amazing friends. I am so lucky to have friends that are supportive and encouraging of me constantly. We have a friendship that goes much deeper than the business side of things and there is no-one that can do or say anything to affect that, it only makes good friendships stronger.

Slacker!!!

What a slack week i am having. Monday public holiday, Tuesday Nic worked, Wednesday Nic worked......bugger, i have to work today, but tomorrow, Nic is working again as Jacob has the day off school for a teacher thing and its actually his birthday so it was the perfect opportunity to take a day off and hang out with him. Although i don't think we will be doing much "hanging out", i have so much to organise for his party on Saturday that i think that's what we will spend the day doing. Even though my week has been a bit slack, i still havn't found time to scrap....hmmm, maybe today ;) hopefully, i think i am having withdrawls. Anyway, the reason i am blogging is to get down a funny thing jacob did this morning. I got out of the shower, feeling a little worse for wear (this time NOT self inflicted) to George saying "tell Mum what you did, go on, tell her" Well, i started thinking the worst, OMG what the hell has he done?? I asked Jacob....."i wanted to ring up my friend Alex and talk to him about Ninja Turtles" OK, fair enough....but i had visions of him dialing some rediculously long overseas number that was going to cost us a fortune. Apparently, Jacob had grabbed Georges mobile phone, scrolled though his address book, found Alex's dads name, rang it and left him a message. I thought it was pretty funny actually, and couldn't really tell him off cause i was laughing. I think we really underestimate kids on their abilities to understand things. I would never have thought he would know how to ring a specific phone number on a mobile, i dont think he has ever used it before. Or maybe i am just forgetting that he is not so little anymore, my baby boy will be 7 tomorrow, and man that sounds old for my little boy. Anyway, i better go play with some stock and hopefully create a LO before the new KI papers turns up and blow my scrapping plans out the window. Not that that is a bad reason to have your scrapping interupted ;)

I'm not working.....promise!

I am defiantaly not working today. Actually i have only just gotten out of bed.....at lunch time....OMG i dont think i have ever slept that late, but i obviously needed it as we have had several late nights in the last week, i just needed a catch up and i feel so much better now. We went to my Mum and Dad's for dinner last night and it was yummo, Mum makes these chicken puff things and they are my absolute fave, thanks Mum. Pretty boring post really but i found this on Tam's Blog and thought it might be fun. 10 Favorites Favorite Color: Brown Favorite Food: Chocolate of course, LOL Favorite Month: November Favorite Song at the moment: I am embarressed to say.....Because of You, Kelly Clarkson, LOL, please dont throw stuff at me. Favorite Movie: Dont really have one. Favorite Sport: anything i am not actively involved in, LOL Favorite Season: Spring Favorite Day of the week: Saturdays and Sundays Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Chocolate Favorite Time of Day: Evening. 9 CURRENTS Current Mood: very relaxed, not working and just got out of bed after a sleep in, does it get any better? Current Taste: Just had toast with raspberry Jam Current Clothes: Trakies, having a comfy day, LOL Current Desktop: The MAX easter pic, i love that pic. Current Toenail Color: Um, nothing. Current Time: 2.11pm Current Surroundings: A very untidy study Current Thoughts: I need to do some washing 8 FIRSTS First Best Friend: Maryanne First Kiss: ummmm, i dont really remember First Screen Name: dont know First Pet: Cat - Kitty First Piercing: ears First Crush: oh man, my memory is so bad....i dont know First CD: Aaargh now i look really bad, i cant remember that either 7 LASTS Last Cigarette: i had a go in secondary school, but that was it, eeeww Last Drink: Several baccardi and cokes on Thursday night Last Car Ride: To Bairnsdale and back yesterday Last Kiss: My hubby of course. Last Movie Seen: Most likely something with the kids Last Phone Call: To my SIL to say we were going to come for a visit and give my gorgeous nephew an easter egg. Last CD Played: I listened to take 40 online 6 HAVE YOU EVERS Have You Ever Dated One Of Your Best Guy/Girl Friends: not really Have You Ever Broken the Law: a few speeding fines and parking tickets Have You Ever Been Arrested: No Have You Ever Skinny Dipped: ummmm Yes. Oh man, my parents read this, LOL. Have You Ever Been on TV: No i dont think so Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn't Know: Nope 5 THINGS Thing You're Wearing: My new green bra Thing You've Done Today: ummm, nothing Thing You Can Hear Right Now: George and the kids playing the arcade machine Thing You Can't Live Without: my computer and camera Thing You Do When You're Bored: eat chocolate, LOL 4 PLACES YOU'VE BEEN TODAY 1. bed 2. shower 3. Kitchen 4. Study 3 PEOPLE YOU CAN TELL ANYTHING TO 1. my hubby 2. My bestest mate Nic 3. 2 CHOICES 1. Black or White: either 2. Hot or Cold: cold, i need a jumper on i think. 1 THING YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE: watch my kids and their kids grow up. ok, thanks for dropping by again.

2 days off!!!!

YAY!!!! I get 2 days off. My book work is done, the newsletter is out, it's easter and I am going to have 2 days where I am NOT going to work. How exciting.....will I know what to do with myself??? I have had a pretty full on start to the easter break. It started with a crop night at work on Thursday night and it was pretty late when I got home. We had friends staying over so I have no idea what time we all actually got to bed, but judging by how tired and hungover I was feeling, I think it was pretty late. I think I am getting too old for late nights and alcohol, LOL. The next day was pretty lazy as we were all feeling a little under the weather and I really could have stayed in bed all day. The kids all played so well, they are all fantastic kids. Saturday we had a wedding to go to. Apart from the freezing weather it was quite a nice low key kinda thing. The kids went to the in-laws while we were at the wedding and they baked a big fat chocolate mud cake for Easter with Nana. I have no idea how we are going to get through this cake, it looks sooo delicious, I could probably eat the whole thing myself, but I dont think I should. We are off to my parents in Bairnsdale for dinner tonight and hopeing that they will help us out with the cake a bit. This whole Easter thing is not at all good for my diet, I just can't resist chocolate. The MAX newsletter went out last night......twice because I stuffed up the first one, LOL. The LO's in there are so amazing, the girls on the team just keep coming up with fantastic LO's and they are getting beter and better. Here are my LO's from the newsletter. To see everyone else's pop into the gallery and have a look. This LO is about how much i hate Hailey's unmanageable baby hair, but i looks so cute all windswept. Using chatterbox papers and chipboard shapes. This one is Hailey a few Easter's ago. Lots of lovely stitching inspired by Nicole. This one is my fave LO ATM. My beautiful girl. Who told me that she looks beautiful just the way she is, and how true is that??? I love this new K&Co paper, as soon as i saw it i knew i wanted to stitch all those lines and i love how it turned out. Ok, thats it from me for now, i am going to try and enjoy a few days off and not eat too much chocolate, LOL. Happy Easter everyone.

Opposite

After my "I love my business, its so much fun" the other day, it's now "OMG, I have my book keeper coming tomorrow to finailse last quarters bookwork, I have 3 DT projects that I should have had done already, but have only actually completed one, I have washing coming out my ears because last weeks weather was so bad I only did the minimum, and now I am doing a huge catch up, I didn't get to the supermarket to get meat for dinner and the house kinda resembles a bomb site" (phew that was a long sentence). I had great intentions to get ontop of heaps of stuff today, and I managed to do quite a lot, but I dont think I actually finished any of the jobs I started. I should be on top of most of it by tomorrow afternoon, which will leave me free to scrap at our crop night tomorrow night, YAY, so I might actually get my design team projects done before the newsletter goes out on Saturday. The newsletter will be awesome, so many yummy easter projects as well as some challenges and competitions, so if you havn't signed up for it, you better go to the website and do so NOW!!! You won't want to miss it. I did a bit of a photoshoot today with lots of our yummy ribbons and of course chocolate. And what did I do with the chocolate after the photoshoot???? I ATE it!!!!!! Yumm!!!!

"I love chocolate, I eat it everyday".

life with a business

Can you have a life if you own a business?? In the past 15 months, i feel like my life IS my business. I live my business, I breathe my business, spend every spare minute thinking about it and really, is it a bad thing??? The bad side to owning my own business is that i spend less time with my children and family, I have less time for me, less time to clean my house, less time to get organised, and even less time to scrap......but on the other hand, I have more time to indulge myself in my passion for scrapping and i get to share that with like minded people EVERY day, and that is bloody awesome!!!! I never imagined "Amber" and "business woman" would ever be used in the same sentence together, but here i am, a business woman. I am certainly not one of those hard headed business people that see the $$$ signs and do whatever it takes to get there as fast as they can and using whatever dirty tactics they can. In all honesty, if i only made enough money to pay the bills, that would be enough for me (my accountant wouldn't agree though, LOL). I get so much more out of my business than all the money in the world could buy. Sharing in the passion of scrapbooking IS what its all about. I got a phone call today from another online scrapbook store owner asking for help with a product. With an amazingly friendly voice on the other end of the phone, I went out of my way to help her. Now our shops are in competition online, admittedly my shop is a little fish compared to the other, but why help??? Well, why not, we both have a passion for scrapping and we are both working toward the same goals in life and in business, so why not? I would like to think that other scrap shop owners would have done the same as me, but i guess thats not the reality and that is such a shame. So, while i put so much time and energy into my business, it has definately been a good thing in my life. It is a huge part of my life and i love it. Sharing the passion is what its all about for me, not the $$$ signs. If you follow your passion, only good things come of it and it is nice to see so many that share it with me.

Cookies.

I love cookies, and the more chocolate in them the better. I am such a bad cookie maker, and can't cook them if my life depended on it. My kids love home made choc chip cookies and luckily my Mum makes big batches and gives us some....supposed to be for Jacob's lunch box, but we don't get through many lunches before they are all gone, they are yummo. Anyway, did this quiz i found from Nicole's blog.....apparently i am a Black and White Cookie.

You Are a Black and White Cookie

You're often conflicted in life, and you feel pulled in two opposite directions. When you're good, you're sweet as sugar. And when you're bad, you're wicked!

What Kind of Cookie Are You?

I didn't really like what the Black and White cookie had to say so i went back again and had a second go, and yep, i am still a Black and White Cookie, so now I think I better agree with it.

Ok, not a terribly exciting blog post, but i dont want to leave it a week between posts again.

Update..

Well, sort of, LOL. I havn't blogged in over a week and its basically because i have nothing interesting to say. The only exciting thing i have done is dyed my hair, so i no longer have 3 inches of grey regrowth. I feel so much younger without my grey hair, now all i need is a decent cut. Must make a hair appointment today, been saying it for weeks. Last Thursday night at the shop we had a crop night, and it was probably the BEST crop night i have had in ages. There was only 5 of us and they were the best bunch of girls. After about 11pm there was only 3 of us left and we chatted till the early hours of the morning. I got home at about 1.30am, LOL. I don't normally have crop nights that go that late, but i was really enjoying talking to these 2 girls as they are both amazing, strong women and i have grown so much as an individual just through knowing these girls. I have never in my life had friends like this and i am truely grateful to have found them now. I met both of them through having the shop and they have been huge supporters of me and my business even though we didn't know each other from a bar of soap before hand. I am forever grateful to them for their help, support and most importantly their friendship. You girls know who you are, and i just wanted to say THANK YOU!! Man, i really need to do something interested to blog so i dont get all mushy again, LOL.

All is revealed :)

WOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!The Max finally has a Gallery and Forum to play in. I have been wanting these for sooooo long but had no idea how to go about it, and now they are finally done. Thank you so much to the talented, helpful and super efficient Gabbie who has worked so hard on these over the last several days. Thank you sooooo much Gabbie, you have done an amazing job. OK, now stop blog hopping right now and go play ;)

Update

Just a quick update on whats been happening the last few days. This is one of the photos from our weekend. Nicole took this photo of Hailey on the beach and its my fave from that day. I love it, Thanks Nic. I managed to get all those yummy new ribbons up on the site the other night. There is still more new stuff to go up, which will be up over the next few days when i get some time to sit and do it all. And.....we also have a very exciting announcement.....will reveal all very soon.....maybe even later today. :) Stay tuned ;)

New Stuff

We have had another one of those super fun but tiring weekends. I have a few photos to post from that, but will do that tomorrow. I just wanted drop in and share this LO i finished yesterday. This is me and my boy with the LO created using one of our new Max Packs. This is the Family pack. Hailey took the photo on the LO so its a little blurry but i love it. We are expecting a few new things in this week too. A top up of the new BasicGrey papers and rub-ons, as well as HEAPS of new yummy french ribbons. I can't wait for this one, i LURVE ribbons. So keep your eyes out in the What's New section over the next week. Now, I am so tired i am about to fall off my chair, I am off for an early night and hopefully get the kids sorted in time to get them back to school and kinder for term 2 in the morning.

Finally an Update, LOL.

Thank you everyone who gave me a kick up the butt to update tonight, I have been very slack. I had a very productive few days at home while Nicole worked on Tuesday and Wednesday. I was very good and didn't go to the shop much at all. I got Jacob's bedroom under control, and suprisingly enough it is STILL under control, he has done really well at keeping it nice and tidy. The playroom looks fantastic too, the Arcade Machine is getting a workout. Once the finishing touches are done on it I will take a pic and blog that too. Wednesday night we invited my SIL and BIL for dinner and then realised that Killing Heidi was playing live down at the Games Live Site. So opted to go there with them and get fish and chips. It was nice to get out and do something, the kids had a great run around, but really, I think we are getting a little too old for these live concert things. Instead of being up the front in the mosh pit, sreaming at the top of our lungs, we sat up the back so the kids could play and we could still see them, where the speakers wern't blaring in our ears, trying to see what was going on around the row of prams the lovely people next to us thoughtfully lined up right infront of us.....and quite frankly I dont think Killing Heidi sounds as good live. So do I sound like a grumpy old chick??? I kinda felt REALLY old. I also finished off the little mini album i made for my brother as he is heading overseas next week. Sniff Sniff. Its a little 4x4 album, i hope he liked it. Not much more to tell, more domestic duties over the weekend, now that i am getting somewhere with the organisation of my house, i just want to keep going and get it all done. Till next time :)

I Cased......

I cased the super talented Mel Diener. Her work is totally awsome, she has such a unique style and her LO's blow me away.....which is part of the reason she is a Max Chick ;) Anyway, i challenged myself to case the next LO she posts on her blog (you can see the original here). I don't really think i could have gone wrong with this challenge cause all her LO's are gorgeous. So....this is my version of Mel's "going up" LO. I had to make a few modifications to adapt it to a 12x12 format. Thanks so much Mel for such an awsome LO to case ;) Keep those gorgeous LO's coming. We had a great weekend too. Saturday after work, I took the kids to a birthday party and they had a fantastic time, except we somehow ended up coming home with 6 yabbies ..... i know .... Ewwwwww! What can I say? They caught me at a weak moment. Apparently you need to keep them in fresh water for a few days before you eat them, so in fresh water they are, but not sure if we will get to the eating part.....they have names.....and you can never eat anything that has a "REAL" name. Meet Jake, Jack, John, Jed, George and Bruce. The rest of Saturday was pretty uneventful. Sunday, I made a last minuite decision to go to Chadstone with a friend who was going down to meet up with some online friends. I decided to tag along too and go shopping. I had a lovely time wandering the shops on my own. My hubby and kids were playing with my friends hubby and kids for the day while we were out, and we ended up staying there for dinner at their house too, not sure how it happens, but we always end up staying there WAY longer than we intend to, maybe cause they are so much fun ;) Anyway, thats pretty much our weekend in a nutshell. Thanks for dropping by again.

Newsletter share

Oh, what a mental week. And i am such a bad blogger, sorry Mum and Dad who come here everyday, and everyone else that visits regularly to see what we are up to. Next week should be a little less full on.....hopefully, i am determined to take a day off next week....we'll see huh, Nic? Anyway, we did manage to get the newsletter out so i thought i would share my layouts here too. This one was for the pattern paper challenge using the Simply Fabulous paper range. I also used the matching trims which are yummy as. This one is useing the new Silhouettes. They were not at all what i was expecting when i opened the pack, but I love them. I painted the backs of them within the lines of the design, and glued them down with a liquid glue. The design was inspired by Hailey's shorts. Ok, last one and my fave. This one was using the Heidi Swapp Plastic Alphabets. I love this product and I love these photos of Hailey playing on the slide and pool in our backyard this summer. I have also use SEI Hippie Chick papers, the flowers were hand cut from the paper. To see the other Max Chick's layouts and projects have a lookie here. They are a fantastically talented bunch and if you missed the Newsletter this month, go sign up for to get the next one here. I finished making a little album today for my brother to take overseas with him, so will share that in my next post.

Newsletter Update and Tagged.

Well, this newsletter is taking a little longer than i expected it to take, but it WILL be out tomorrow. The layouts from all the Design Team Chicks are nothing short of awsome and they are just the best bunch of girls. I have been working flat out today on what was supposed to be my day off with Nicole working today, but it just wasn't going to happen with new ribbons to add to the site, newsletter to sort out and a class list to get out. Anyway, I think i have it pretty much under control thanks to two of my bestest friends who have helped me out heaps today, thanks Nicole and Karen. So i guess tomorrow's blog entry will have my DT LO's, YAY!!! OK, onto my tag. What scrapbook lines/products etc do you dislike? Anything themed makes me cringe, but asside from that, i will have a go at almost anything else......within reason, LOL. What is the hardest thing you ever had to scrap? Layouts about myself, although i don't tend to do many cause i find it difficult. I also find it hard to journal layouts about some of the challenges my children have faced. One that springs to mind is Jacob's first day of school, even though he is in grade 1 now, i still havn't finished his prep LO. What technique do you use more than anything else? I use a lot of ink and also brads, I love brads, i am the brad queen, LOL. What is the smallest scrap of paper you save? Probably about 10cms. It depends on the paper too, if i have something in mind to use it again, i save every scrap possible, but if its something that i will not use again, i pretty much chuck the lot. Have you ever had any scrapping related injuries? A few minor stab wounds from my craft knife, umm....that might be it. Finish this sentence, “If I wasn’t a scrapbooker, I would spend my money on....." ....stuff for the house, kids, clothes. But I think my life would be pretty dull is i didn't scrap. Give your best storage or organizational idea I am soooo not the best person to ask.....my tip - employ Nicole to clean up my disorganisational mess for me....seems to be working for me at the moment, LOL. Sorry Nic ;) You just won a week long scrapbooking cruise for 5. Who is going with you? I would take Nicole, Raylene, Karen H, and all the Max Chicks. Too many, i know, but i can't pick just 5. When you received your first publication notification, who did you tell? Oh man, I seriously can't remember....i probably emailed Karen H first, then maybe told my hubby. I now tag....umm, i have no idea who hasn't been tagged by this yet. Mel maybe....sorry if you have already been tagged. OK, that it for today, thanks for dropping by again.

Still Recovering.

Yep, still recovering from Saturday night as Saturday night turned into ALL weekend and we had a blast. They are an awsome family to hang out with, they are so much like us and its very comfortable with them. We kept finding fun stuff to do, so we ended up staying all weekend. It's a good thing that their kids are the same ages and sizes as my kids because there was a fair bit of clothes borrowing happening as we hadn't planned on staying that long, LOL. I have also been tagged by Nicole so i will get to that tomorrow night after i get the Scrap To The Max Newsletter sorted and sent out.

Layout Class

Thursday Night I attended Raylene's Pattern Paper Class and it was fantastic. The objective of the class was to extend the pattern from the paper and incorporate it into the layout. I pretty much cased Raylene's LO and i am so pleased with the out come, especially as i used pre-digital photo's. I like to challenge myself to pick older photos to use in classes to get them done, cause they really don't jump out at me to be scrapped otherwise. These photos are of Hailey at 5 months old (now 4 1/2 years old) and how cute is she??? The black strips are done with an old dymo labeler. I bought it ages ago, with the intention of using it on a LO, but havn't had the right LO for it to go on until this one....I think I might use it heaps now, I love it. The arcade machine G has been building came inside last night, its pretty much finished, all it needs is a coat of paint and we will be set. So the kids have been having fun playing that. G and I had a play last night and I sooooo kicked his butt.....i am the Arcade Master, LOL. OK, we are just about to get sorted to go to friends house for dinner and some drinks and maybe even a few games of pool. Catch ya in a few days when i have recovered.

Eeeeewwwwww Spider!!!!!

Yep, thats what i was greeted with this morning in the car. I sooooo hate spiders, but i was very brave, i knew i had to be brave, cause the alternative was to loose it in the car, then be even more freaked out!!! On my way to work, i parked my car, grabbed my handbag, and there sitting under it, on the front seat of the car was the ugliest, hairiest, darkest, eeeeeeewwwwwww huntsman spider. Eew, its still creaping me out. I managed to kill it, luckily my car is not the tidiest place in the world, so there were pleanty of weapons around, so i grabbed Tuesdays newspaper and squished it. I have no idea where it came from, we dont get a lot of huntsman around our house....whitetails yes, but not huntsmans. Not sure which is worse, i hate the whitetails because i am worried that the kids might get bitten, and although the huntsmans are relatively harmless, they do scare the crap out of me. After i had squished and removed the spider from the car, i realised that the newspaper i squished it with had my pic on the front page.....yep, i was front page news.....well, not really, it was a pic of the queens baton dude and i could see myself in the background with a 300D infront of my face. And i must say that my photos of the event were much better than that on the front page of the newspaper......maybe i should have taken mine in for them to use. So, its a good thing that i got a copy of the paper at work that i can keep ;) On a brighter, and much less creapy note......today is the last day of term 1 and dubbed "out of uniform" and "crazy hair day" at school. Jacob was so excited and he looked so rockin thismorning, not sure how long his hair do will last, but he looked awsome when he left. How cool does he look?? And can you beleive that this is the kid that untill he was well over 5 years old, would not let me touch his hair with any more than a hair brush, no spikes, nothing......now look at him. I must admit i was a little suprised he let me spray it green and orange, i didn't think he would go for it. And in true "little sister" fashion, Hailey couldn't miss out on crazy hair day, eventhough she was gong to daycare. Luckily there were a few other "little sister's" at daycare that had crazy hair too, so she didn't look as odd as i thought she would. OK, thats it from me for now.

So much to do, so little time...

Well, i finally sat and added all the new yummy BasicGrey to the website today. I still have to find time to add all the other new papers too. Hopefully i will get most of that done tomorrow. I have so much stuff i need to do around the house too. Even with Nicole working 2 days a week, i still find i don't free up some time for myself or or to get stuff done around the house, there is just way too much to do at work. I have decided to make myself a hair appointment over the holidays at the same place Nicole got her hair done last week. I am really looking forward to the massage chair and having a "stylist", LOL. That will keep me away from the shop for atleast half a day. ;) George is still working hard on his arcade game thing, its actually starting to look like an arcade machine now. I just have to pull my finger out and sort out the play room, ready to turn it into a "hang-out" room instead of a kiddy room, so this thing has a place to live. Thats about all thats happened around here lately. Thanks for stopping by again.

Busy, Busy, Busy.

Wow, what a busy few days! I am exhausted! Friday was a busy day at work setting up for our All Day Crop on Saturday. I unpacked HEAPS of boxes of new stuff, so keep your eye on the new products section of the website as i will be adding it all on this week. The new BasicGrey is so nice, i think it is some of the nicest BG ranges they have bought out so far. I even mangaged to do a LO using the new Hang 10 papers at the crop (unfortunately its a DT project, so you cant see it yet). The crop went smoothly and was a great day, the girls attending were all so friendly and they were so productive, there were some great LO's happening there. After the crop i rushed home to get organised to go to friends for dinner and a sleep over, the kids are loving sleep overs ATM ;) Dinner and dessert was delicious....even if the corn caught on fire. BTW, the stop, drop and roll method dosn't apply to BBQed corn on the cob.....just incase anyone was wondering, ROFLMAO. After dinner, we had a few drinks, ok, a lot of drinks, lots of laughs and managed to get to bed just after 2am. I am sooo not as young as i used to be and i am very tired today, but it certainly was worth the sleep deprivation, we had a great time. Today has thankfully been much slower. I have been tidying my girls room and rearranging it back so the mess hide behind the door again, and George has spent the arvo out in the shed trying to make an arcade game cabinet......he's pretty keen today and has done heaps of work on it. He may be hard to motivate to get things done sometime, but when he really wants to do something, look out!!! Anyway, I am in for an early night tonight hopefully, and back to work tomorrow to play with some basic grey....i mean, to work.

A new baby and the queens baton.

Well, my wonderful friend Karen gave birth to a beautiful baby boy last night, Andrew. I went up for a visit and a cuddle this evening and he is sooooo gorgeous. He has the cutest little chubby cheeks and he is very sweet. Almost enough to make me clucky, but not quite, i am soooo done having kids. 2 is definately enough...more than enough sometimes, LOL. Today was also a bit of an exciting day because the Queens Baton relay went through Moe. Jacob was going up to see it with school and as i had some time off work today, i thought i would take Hailey up too. Jacob has been learning all about it at school and was so excited. Hailey had no idea, but i knew she would appreciate the experience anyway. I got some pretty awsome photos.....they would have been heaps better if i was actually watching what was happening and had my camera on the right setting ready and waiting. I have no idea who the dude with the baton is. The other night Jacob was telling us all about the Queens Baton and how it had a light and a web camera in it. George asked him if he knew who the Queen was....his reply... "yep, thats the cockatoo thing that holds the Baton" How cute is that??? OK, thanks again for stopping by ;)

dodgy house photo challenge

Ok, a while back,Nicole set a challenge to post photos of the dodgy bits in your house. I am a bit slow on this, but i was in denial that I needed a blog at the time, so i am catching up now. This is our living room wall that i started painting the border about 2 years ago, and as you can see, its still not finished. The little strip of green was an experiment gone wrong and we need to fix that up too. This is the ceiling in our bedroom, it did leak, but luckily its over George's side of the bed. We have fixed the roof on the outside, so it dosn't leak anymore, but we do need to fix up the plaster on the inside. OMG! Check out this girls room. I usually have her room with her bed right infront of the doorway and all the mess hides behind the door, but she prefers her bed this way....so EVERYONE can see her mess. I am suprised she dosn't trip over all this stuff, i know i do, but i have much more important things to worry about than how clean her room is. OK, now that you have seen the dodgy bits.....here are some things i LOVE in my house. This is a shabby frame thing that is in our bedroom on the purple feature wall above our bed, i love these frames. Not sure if this should be in the "I love" section or the "dodgy" section. This is our mantle piece in the living room. I love it because i like to display photos up there and i love my tulips and I love my lights up there at xmas. But, it seems to come under the dodgy heading because, yep....thats my xmas decorations on it....still. Thanks for taking a peek at my dodgy house pics.

Layout finished

I have finally finished my LO I started in Nicole's paint techniques class last week. I am so happy with how this ended up. This was Jacob's prep teacher last year and she was so awsome. The journalling reads, 2005 wasn't an easy year for us with you starting school and me starting my own business. It was a year full of new experiences, new routines and new challenges. Mrs Jennings was a huge support for both of us, helping you adjust to being a big school boy, and me adjust to being a busy Mum of a school boy. We could not have asked for a better or more supportive teacher if we tried. Thank you Mrs Jennings.

Jacob was bullied at the start of last year and for the rest of the year feared being bullied so it wasn't a terribly pleasant year, but he made it through with the amazing support of his teacher and thankfully is having a much better year this year.

Photography credits

Just thought i would throw in a few plugs for the photographers behind my profile pic and the pic at the top of my blog. My profile pic was taken by Gayle Knowles. She took some photos of Nicole and I for an ad in Scrapbooking Memories. The family photo at the top was taken by "Photography By Sue Tanian". I dont think she has a web site, but if anyone wants details, just email me.

Aussie, Turkish, Greek and Chinese

What a combination, huh??? Well, as unsure as I was about where we were going for dinner, we had a blast!!! We went to a Chinese resturant that was serving a Greek banquet with Aussie chicks belly dancing to Turkish music.....can you see why i may have been unsure??? The food was not what i would have chosen to eat (anyone who knows me, knows how fussy i am) but, i ate callimari rings for the first time, i ate eggplant, zucchini and peper antipesto....all of which i have never had before. It was all edible but i dont think i will eat it again, LOL. The entertainment was great too, the belly dancing chicks were relatively new to belly dancing and they gave it a great go and was good to watch. Towards the end of the night they called for 2 volunteers to get up and belly dance with the girls.....well, George and my SIL arn't terribly shy when it comes to these sort of things, so up they got. George was sooooo funny to watch, i was in hysterics watching him. There was a guy there with a digi camera and i asked him to get a few pics for me and gave him my email addy, so hopefully i end up with some pics of the night, it was hilarious. SIL and i even tossed around the idea of having a go at belly dancing ourselves, not sure if she was serious or it was excessive alcohol talking, but it did look like fun. Hailey had fun at the party she went to yesterday also. We went up there after the party and met friends there and the kids had a great time. The play centre is so good, so much room for the kids. They just went and did their thing while us parents just sat, ate, had cuppas and chatted, it was lovely. We will definately be going there again. I still havn't finished my LO, but i did steal some brown thread from Nicole so i will hopefully have some time tomorrow to finish it and share. Today Jacob went to a school friends house to play for a bit, which is fantastic. Last year he didn't go to anyone's house or had anyone over, but things are really looking up this year, its amazing what a different kid he is this year. While he was there, we went to SIL's for lunch and met up with a few friends which we havn't all caught up with for ages. SIL and another friend that was there, attended the all day class at the shop last weekend and i got to see their LOs all finished, they were so good. I love seeing everyones LO's from classes as they all end up so different. OK, almost dinner time, and i must get organised for antoher week of work and sort the kids stuff out for school and kinder. Thanks for stopping by.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Last night I went to Nicole's paint technique class at the shop. The class was great, as usual and the LO sample was beautiful, as usual, but for some reason, i was struggling with my LO, it just wasn't happening for me. I think it was the papers i chose. I have almost finished it, and i am loving it now, but it just needs some brown thread to finish it off with a little stitching in true Nicole style. I searched high and low at the shop today to find some brown thread but couldn't find any anywhere. I was almost desparate enough to pull a few threads out of my brown pants I was wearing, LOL. So hopefully i will get it finished this weekend to share. Its been pretty hot and muggy today and just in time to pick up the kids, the sky opened up and just poured and poured. While the rain was nice, it made it that bit more muggy, so on with the aircon when i got home. We have a pretty full on weekend ahead. Hailey has a party to go to in the morning at a play centre in a nearby town, i have to send her off with one of her friends as i will be working when the party starts. We will go to pick her up and no doubt have to have a play there too :) Saturday night we have a babysitter as George and I are going out for dinner...... something we NEVER do. I am a little unsure about WHERE we are going, but we are going with my SIL and BIL so it should be a lovely night, we rarely get to go out with them much either so i am looking forward to hanging out with them anyway. Hopefully in my next post I will have a LO to share and let you know how dinner was. ;)

Lovely Day

The weather was fantastic today and I have had a great day. Jacob had the day off school for a teacher something day today, so i had both my babies home with me this morning. Nicole worked today, and with the kids home, I actually had an excuse NOT to go to work. I took the kids to McDonald's for lunch and a play before Hailey had to go to Kinder, then Jacob and I Opp Shopped the afternoon away and came home with a tonne of stuff.....pretty much like the kind of crap i donate after a big clean out, but it will give the kids some enjoyment for a while.....until i donate it all back again, LOL. It was lovely to hang out with my boy this afternoon, it dosn't happen very often anymore and he really is a hoot to hang out with....most of the time. Thanks for stopping by.

Welcome..........

Here's my blog. I know I have said a million times "I dont NEED a blog", and I still don't "get it" but.....I have given in. My baby brother told me the other day that he is going overseas for 4 months soon, and I know he will miss my kids like crazy, so this is my attempt of being able to keep him updated with what we are up to. So, welcome into a behind the scenes peek at Scrap to The Max