My beautiful grandma

My beautiful grandma passed away last Wednesday evening, peacefully in her sleep. It hurts to even have to write that down so I will let this page do the talking. Her funeral is next Tuesday so we are still in that limbo land between the death and the funeral and it's hard, but over the last few days there's been a lot of tears mixed in with a few laughts, just remembering.






Credits
Audobon Collection No. 1 (paper recoloured to her favourite colour) and LaCremerie –Framboise by Katie Pertiet

Help ... I'm stuck !!!!!

Today ended up quite eventful at work, and thinking about it, how come if you're about to get stuck in a lift, it happens at the end of the day when you're about to leave work. Why not at the start or mid way through. How come it's when you've clocked off! Hmmmmmm. Murphy's Law at work I'm thinking.

This will teach me for using the lift for one floor when there are perfectly good stairs right? But I had an awkward box to carry so I was justified in using the lift!

There was a shudder and then stop and half lights went on. I was on my own and between floors. So pressed the emergency alarm which puts you through to the company in Melbourne mind you (over 3 hours away!!!) So they say they’ll send someone out. Panic. I have to wait, on my own, 3 hours???? Surely there was someone local. I asked them if they could ring downstairs for me to tell them I was in the lift.

A couple of able bodied men from my work decided to come to the rescue and it took them half an hour but they finally prised the doors open and realized I wasn’t quite up to the 1st floor, kind of half and half, so they had to help haul me out. One offered to jump in and hoist me up from inside but the thought of one of the bosses having quite the view of my butt in his face didn't wash with me, so I levered up onto the hand rail and then they hauled me up from the outside.

Obviously I watch too many movies - what if the lift started when I was half way in and out and I got decapitated or something? They reckoned that the lift wouldn't work with the doors open. Well yeah right, when did they go to lift operators school huh?

I thought I'd finish this post with a fun layout I did when we went to the 70's party. I did it a little bit ago but haven't showed you yet. We really love fancy dress, both of us. I think my hubby because he loves to be the centre of attention!! ha And me, because I love working on outfits and planning it all.




Credits
Celebrating Color by Weeds & Wildflowers
Classic Cardstock by Katie Pertiet
Leora Frayed Fabric Edges
Vintage Frames No.5 by Katie Pertiet
Graphic Pop Frames by Katie Pertiet
Hung up tags by Katie Pertiet
Ultimate stitches by Lisa Witney

With a dog at my feet

I'm typing this with Molly lying at my feet, after an exhaustive training session (more so on my part, than hers). What is she now? 7 years old, and she's just learnt the command 'drop'. She even did it once tonight without food in my hand. Doctor Harry rocks! I'm doing exactly as he showed on the telly a few weeks ago. Who knew!

So what does she do now - sit, wait (before eating), stay (while I walk away until I call her to come), gentle (so she doesn't gulp a treat out of my hand), and now drop, well kinda drop, we'll get there. So who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks huh?

No more news on the home front, she's hanging on.

So my layout tonight was a quick page created by the fabulous Megan of Vintage Charm. You can pick this quick page with a couple of really gorgeous bonus papers in it right now for a limited time from Sharon's blog, Artistic Musings. It is so soft and pretty, I'm sure you'll find the perfect pictures for it. Here's my offering.

Tough times

She's hanging in there, mum and I spent nearly all day today with her on and off, holding her hand, talking, telling stories I remembered from when I was a kid. She knows exactly what is going on, just too exhausted to talk, but she can still smile, her eyes are knowing. When we held up a picture of grandpa she would slowly mouth a kiss to him. I even tucked one of her many many teddy bears into bed with her when we left tonight, she smiled when I told her teddy was in bed and would tell me if she misbehaved.

We reminisced today, talking to her, about when grandpa would chase her round the kitchen, or when unbeknowns to her, he'd tie her apron strings to the chair when she was sitting eating, the things she'd cook us when we come visiting, their little purple car.

I wouldn't have thought it possible but she's lost even more weight, in her face this is most noticeable, her arms are so tiny, her legs too, a skeleton with the barest most fragile tissue skin. I spent a good half hour giving her reiki this afternoon. I hope it helps her. It helped me, being able to lay my hands on her tiny tiny body and just try to send her my energy, a really nice connection to have.

But it's hard. Just so darn hard, watching, waiting, not knowing. Hard and heart wrenching.

No news

I saw grandma yesterday, Mike played the bagpipes at the foot of her bed, her own little concert - Amazing Grace, Danny Boy, a few others, topped off by the Collingwood theme song. She weakly tried to mouth the words and just shut her eyes and let the music wash over her. It was truly a moment to remember.

I am from good stock, I will grant you that. She's fighting every step of the way. As small and as frail as she is, she's still got some unfinished business in this life, I'm not sure what it is, but she's a battler. If I can be half the woman she is, I'll be a happy happy woman indeed.

Amongst all the coming and going down to Geelong, I have managed to upload my scrapbooking layouts onto Snapfish. For the Aussie readers, if you have the September 2007 issue of Better Homes & Gardens, turn to page 164 and have a look. As a trial run I had some digi photos printed out and was very pleased with the quality, although I didn't click on matte, grrrrr. I prefer my pics in matte and either I didn't see it or they didn't offer it, but I'll check again next time. Only 19cents a picture.

BHG has a free offer of a 20 page Photo book, and there's a layout that would suit an 8" x 8" scrapbooking page with a margin down the centre of the book (hope that makes sense). So I've set my book up like that and have created a book and just this moment ordered it. I will let you know how it turns out, I'm rather pleased, it's entitled "Mike and Carol's Excellent Adventure" ha! Just layouts of our life here in this little town since we met, it ended up being 38 pages, harddover, and with the 20 page discount (courtesy of BHG) the whole lot came to $17.55 with $4.95 postage. Rather pleased with that. Hope it looks as good in real life as it did on the screen. Time will tell.

So in closing I'll share with you two layouts of my fur babies that put a smile on my face.

Credits

Scruffy freebie by [ksharonkdesigns] available from her blog Artistic Musings for a limited time only

Chunky Chipboard Alpha by Katie Pertiet
Font – Century Gothic

Credits

Pink kisses minikit by [ksharonkdesigns] available at pickleberrypop

Designer Digitals quote challenge by Mary Ann Wise

Time

Do you ever sit back and think about it? How quickly it goes? Oh it's an age old complaint of everyone's lately, how quickly the year has gone, Christmas is just round the corner, we're wishing our lives away, working longer hours, spending time away from the family to meet deadlines, finish projects, running ourselves ragged. But it does go quickly and we need to embrace every single milli-second and live our lives to the fullest with those that are important to us.

I don't have much to say tonight, my grandma, who is 89, is frail and bed bound at the moment so we're not sure what the future will hold, let alone the upcoming week, days, hours, moments. I've done this double layout in honour of her and her life.

Credits

Faraway freebie by [ksharonkdesigns] available from her blog Artistic Musings available for a short time only
Font – Dali

Ga-rooooooooovy baby, do ya dig it ?!?!

LOL. What can I say? The weekend was really fabulous bar the weather, but we were at Wonthaggi for a birthday party and party we did. Everyone got into the spirit with the 70's theme and we danced to the sounds of "Lionel Loves Vinyl" who got had us up all night. Amazing that it's now what? 30-odd years ago and you still can remember the words to all the songs.

Here's a sneak peak at hubby and I !!

Just as an aside, I think ebay made a killing on the big wigs, because every second person had them on, it was like a meeting of the clan!

Frames by [ksharonkdesigns]

Big big trip home, left Wonthaggi at 9.30am and by the time we did the detours to see in-laws, pick up cat, pick up dog, loo break, etc. we walked in the door here at home at 6pm. Whew! Don't think I'll be doing that big a trip again in one day in a hurry.

Here's a layout I did the other night of my gorgeous step-daughter, hubby said it would be okay to show on the blog, as I've been hesitant before now. But I'm so proud of all my step-children and love them to bits so you may get a sneak peek every now and then.

Credits
Lilsweetie freebie by [ksharonkdesigns] from her blog Artistic Musings
Small packages Flowers Set 1 by [ksharonkdesigns] available at pickleberrypop
Font – Century Gothic

Alrighty then, off to bed for I, I have a lot of sleep to catch up on in my sleep bank! Nighty night.

Summer Kisses

Hmmmm, well not quite summer in this neck of the woods, but kisses are good all the same! :-)

Check out this beautiful beautiful album called Summer Kisses by Traci Reed using [ksharonkdesigns] goodies from Pickleberry Pop. It is just full of such pretty and easy to use layouts. Perfect for those times when you want to create something but inspiration hasn't struck, or you need a bit of a nudge. Use them just as they are, or embellish them even more with Sharon's fabulous things. You will love them.

The creative team have had such fun playing with the pages, so check them out on Sharon's blog, Artistic Musings.

So I used this pretty page from the album to document yet another happening in the lives of my imaginary relatives. LOL

Credits

Summer Kisses Quick Album by Traci Reed using products by [ksharonkdesigns] available at pickleberrypop

Photo by Look at Me.

So we're off for the weekend to a 40th birthday party which happens to be fancy dress with a 70's theme. I'm sure there'll be some photos on our return, because we looooooooove fancy dress in this house! We even had a practice run through tonight of the outfits, although Mike's is far far better than mine. You won't recognise him, I promise!