A little bit of conversation

I often think my husband is going batty when he talks to himself. Maybe it's a sign of working from home. Long hours out in the shed. With only himself, the radio and the dog and cat for company.

Sometimes I find him talking to Molly and Bo. Regular conversations. Molly laps it all up. Any attention and she's all eyes, ears and belly rubs. But Bo looks at Mike with disdain at times. Hmmmmm, why is HE wasting his time talking to ME. I will tell him when I feel like listening. ha!

It really is true, that old saying - dogs have masters, cats have slaves.

Caught this beauty of a photo, Mike was talking to Bo and well, you see the outcome.



Credits
Plain computer backgrounds/colours
Swirls – NRJ Swirl
Font – Century Gothic


Now on another front, I can report that my Kitty Pi is nearing completion, or as far as the knitting goes. That gorgeous yarn I bought from Tapestry Craft in Sydney is just delicious to look at and knit with. Very impressed. I just hope it felts well. So I may just plonk myself in front of the box for the rest of the night and go arm myself with my knitting needles.

Oh the shame...

Last night at the trivia night I had to take home a full plate of sandwiches (minus 2), plus a half eaten banana cake. Mike just did not do a good enough job of tucking in. I hung my head as I walked to the car. LOL

It was a great night, although the questions were flipping hard. Now to be fair, this is an older group that were putting this trivia night on, but I'd like some questions from this century please!!!!! My main claim to fame last night was that I knew the name of Fred Flintstone's daughter. Yes, you can roll your eyes if you must. But it was really hard.

PLUS ... they mixed all the teams up. We had to draw a raffle ticket at the start of the night, and they randomly called out numbers to make up the tables of four. My security blanket of a husband wasn't lending me his brain. And it was game on.

I will say this once and once only. His team beat my team by 10 points.

Moving on. LOL It was a glorious day in this neck of the world today. Plus we had the lawns mowed and that smell of freshly cut grass is just delicious. Sun shining, birds singing, well cockatoos mainly squawking, but you get the drift.

The latest of my imaginary relatives. One may ask the question why, when viewing this photo!

Credits

Vintage Label paper pack by Rhonna Farrer
Katie Pertiet Messy Stitches and Vintage frame
Tags/thumb tacks from Memories Kit by Lemonaid Lucy
Ribbon from Fresh & Distressed by Lyndsay Riches
Fonts – Festus and Antique type

Things that never really happened

Oh how I'm loving using these vintage kits and elements. Lots of fun making up stories about pretend relatives, all these old ancestors I didn't really have. Lots of fun.

I do hope that I'm paying homage to these beautiful people of yesteryear, having a bit of fun, laughing with them, not at them. One thing I've noticed is that they didn't smile a lot back then. Was smiling taboo? Was getting your photo taken such a completely serious thing? It's quite unnerving finding all these people with sad looks on their faces. I do hope they had joy in their lives.

Credits

Old Spirit collaborative kit by Digital Scrap Spirit
Vintage frame by Katie Pertiet
Flashwords background by Katie Pertiet used for the title
Notepad by Retrodiva from Bohemian Poetry kit
Stitching by Tracy Blankenship and Ultimate Stitches by Lisa Whitney
Keys from escrappers and Lauren Bavin
Butterflies – Ad Challenge freebie by Dana Zarling
Fonts – Blackjack and Typewriter

I have a sensational banana cake baking in the oven right now, the house smells absolutely delicious. Mike and I are going to a trivia night tomorrow which should be fun. Mike knows a truckload of things about everything and nothing in particular. It's like he sees things on National Geographic or the History Channel and it just sticks in his head. On the other hand I am full of HOllywood Schmaltz. I can tell you who is with who, who was with who, and probably who will get with who, ha! So I'm thinking together we may just make a good team.

Now back to the cake. I remember when living in the city the phrase "bring a plate" was eh, I'll pop down to the supermarket, pick up a packet of Tim Tams, plonk them on a plate and there you are and people were pleased.

But the phrase "bring a plate" in the country fills me with horror and brings a whole new set of worries. There's no scooting down to the supermarket, no siree. It's baking. And being able to bake the highest, the lightest, the sweetest of whatever you are making. It's almost like Bring--a--Plate--Olympics! And oh the shame if at the end of the night you have to take a near full plate back home with you again. That's where hubby and his mates come in. I badger them to go eat my stuff, make some ooohings and aaaahings whilst doing so, which in turn makes other people want to try it too. And then I'm happy. I go home with an empty plate. I've been able to hold my head high. It's almost like ... shhhh ... I'm part of the inner circle in the country. Don't tell anyone!

There will be a pic tomorrow of my delicious banana cake with caramel icing. I may just even share my secret recipe with you. :-)

Bad blogger!

Hmmm, this whole going back to work after holidays deal is playing havoc with my blogging! Well I survived a week, well three days. I heartily approve of not working a full week when going back after a month off. It was hard enough working three days. ~~sigh~~

I have some show and tell from the Sydney weekend. Bells, my darling friend Bells and I, went to an awesome shop called Tapestry Craft and they had wool that I had never even heard of. I have wanted for so long to make a Kitty Pi which is featured on Wendys Knits blog. Check out this gallery of kitty pi's, it will make your heart warm and make you giggle at others.

Now mind you - I'm hopeless at dpns, I've never done felting, and I just spent nearly $30 on a skein of wool. You think I'm crazy? I do. But Bells has confidence in me, and by golly I'm giving it my best shot.

Well after a disastrous ten times trying to cast on only 9 stitches on dpns, yes I know, only 9, but I kept getting mixed up at how you do that first row and join them kind of together, so I made up my own way which will be fine with a small stitch of sewing to sew it togther :-) So we'll see how it goes. I'm finally onto the round needles so feeling a lot better. At the moment the pi is looking like a beret for a person with a very big head, LOL.

I hope it's knitting up tight enough, I'm using the size needles specified in the pattern. Oh well, we will see. If it doesn't work for the kitty pi, I'll just look around town for a big headded person!!!

Isn't this the most delicious shade, the pic hardly does it justice.

(Fantabulous Frames designed by "I made this today")

Wild wild weekend

Well my holidays have now come to a close, back to work tomorrow where within one morning I shall more than likely feel like the last month is but a memory ~~sigh~~ I shall take inventory of my 'to do' list later, but I can report I didn't get them all done. Oh well.

However my holidays did close with a bang! I am actually still recovering so glad I have had these last couple of days to recover. I spent last weekend in Sydney with a remarkable group of women who, well lets just say, they know how to party!

But I did get to do a bit of sight seeing.

Lots of fun though the weekend, lots of laughs. But who'd a thunk it. Here I am, a mature woman of 42, and I got refused entry to a night club because I didn't have my licence ID on me. I didn't know whether to be outraged or give the bouncer a big hug! hahahahahahahahaha

One very very fun part of my trip to Sydney was to meet up with my long time online friend Bells. Do check out her blog, she does AMAZING knitting. Plus I got to actually touch the revered steeked jacket! Plus go yarn shopping with her. I also got to meet her very nice friend Rose Red. They collaborate together on Mouthsfuls of Heaven.

Bells, she's EXACTLY like I imagined, I've seen many many pics, even spoken to her on the phone, countless emails, but in person she is just gorgeous. What a friend I have made. This whole online community, it's just great isn't it? Can't wait to do it again!

Now off to bed with me, there's an alarm due to go off tomorrow. Yawn.

More dogs!

Okay, well you can be forgiven if you think I've turned this blog into a dog blog, but I seem to be inundated in pupkins at the moment. A gorgeous yellow lab decided that our place was a nice home to visit yesterday and lobbed on our doorstep, via digging his way under our fence and tryng to mount our poor innocent Molly. She retaliated in disgust mind you (good girl!!!) with a sharp snap at our guest.

This gorgeous dog obviously had lost its way, its collar was missing, but it was quite evident it had had a collar previously by the way his neck fur was. The Council tried to no avail to find an owner (well, I wonder actually how hard they did try as we are still yet to hear back from them) so we had to call the Ranger. At least this beautiful boy can be checked if he had a microchip (we hope) and go back to his rightful owner.

Don't you worry, we'll be keeping close tabs on him to make sure he does. In the meantime, look at this face!!!







Things that Never Really Happened

I decided I needed a bit of a change with some scrapping and there are two very talented ladies at Designer Digitals who post these brilliant "Things that Never Really Happened" layouts. So I thought I'd give it a go also. What fun! A nice way to use some antique style papers and elements, and imagine what was going through the minds of the victims ... err models !!! te he

Here's my first shot at it.

Journalling

"Tom ponders the loving way to tell Katie she's put on the beef since the wedding ... Whilst he tries to rid his knee of cramp, he mentall budgets for a Jenny craig voucher for her first anniversary present".

(Poor Tom! He has no idea huh?)

Credits
Old World Charm Kit by Lisa Carter
Vintage frame by Katie Pertiet
Curled Paper edge by Anna Aspnes
Stitching by Tracy Blankenship and Bluish Dream Kit by Lively
Pressed flowers by Doris Castle
Tag by Linda Gil Bildall
Fonts – Another typewriter and Amanda’s hand

By the way, this pic is of "unknown" people, I believe a flea market find. So if you do happen to stumble on this and do know them, please let me know.

Warning : Cute Alert

Actually I should say "Warning : SERIOUSLY cute alert!"

Have had a terrific few days visiting my bestie over the other side of Melbourne. OMG though, those freeways! Considering I'm using a Melways that is well over 10 years old, I can be forgiven that half the new roads aren't even on it. Although her hubby did me a very good map courtesy of whereis, complete with pointed out spots he added on the way (7-11, Maccas, supermarket, etc.) which made it a very good map to follow. Got to love a man like that. I thought I was going well, only got honked at twice and seriously cut in on once resulting in brakes being slammed on and some not very nice words coming from my mouth! ~~BLUSH~~

So my camera has been in over-drive, considering she has a 5 year old sweetheart of a daughter and a 15 month of cuddle sponge of a son. Add to this mix a 9 week old puppy named Otto, and I was in shutterbug heaven!!!

Ready to melt your heart? Isn't this the darn cutest thing you ever did see?

I think I need to print this picture out and carry it with me. When things get tough or life isn't going the way I want it, I need to drag this out and life will be okay again. What do you think?

Life is like a soap opera at times!

I am in the middle of a real live soap opera happening in my street at the moment. Well ... I'm not *IN* the middle, but watching from the sides, but it's happening all around me.

Take a girl and a boy who have fond affection for one another. Life has gone on happily for quite some time now. They meet every morning for a hello and a bit of luvvin' and ... well ... life is good. She was feeling quite secure in her own world and he was in his.

UNTIL ....

A cheap walkin' talkin' hussey moves into town. And not just town, but right up the street.

All of a sudden life as we all knew it had changed. The poor girl couldn't look sideways without the hussey being right there in her face. And not only that, but the hussey has started making moves on the boy. HER BOY! Right in front of her. Up and down the street the hussey struts her stuff, taunting the girl. I swear this hussey even wiggles as she goes by. It's shameful.

Who knows how this saga is going to pan out. Who will end up with who?

Stay tuned.


Credits

Saturday Scraplift Challenge (Designer Digitals) of 'Friends' by Mozer

Paper – Anna Benjamin of Paper Moons – Cartoon Garden Kitz
Fonts – Mandigo and You are Loved
Curled Paper edges by Anna Aspnes