January is shot to pieces

Well there you have it, 1/12th of the year gone already. Is that just unbelievable or what? Is it me or is it whizzing by for everyone? I'm getting older before my eyes, LOL.

Bells mentioned about my new avatar in one of the comments she posted. It was quite by accident. Mike gave me a snazzy tripod for Christmas and I was playing with it. Trying to line myself up to get in front of it which I'd kind of angled down and I couldn't work out where to be when the self-timer thingy went off. So this was one of the results of my efforts, but I kinda like it.

So I delved into the layouts I haven't yet shown file and thought you might like to see my darling husband, this was last year's efforts for a 60/70's party we went to.

Credits here.

Now, I'm off to have a lovely cup of tea and knit the rest of the night. I am finally trying monkey socks, cross fingers. Oh, and I tried a long tail cast on and it worked beautifully. So incredibly even and even the join of the needles together looks seamless. I am hooked now with this cast on method, I dare say I won't do it any other way now.

A need was met !!

te he. Yes I did go get myself some chocolate, plus the newspaper, plus some milk, plus some bread. Just so I didn't look too desperate.

What is your chocolate of choice? Mine is white chocolate. Can be Nestles Milky Bar, can be Cadbury, can drool over Lindt, but white chocolate all the way baby!!! All that creamy goodness in one bite. Love love love it. I think there's two camps out there though, you either love it or hate it. Prove me wrong.

I'm in the home stretch of my latest socks, just a plain rib pattern but in the most delicious shades of green and blue from The Knittery. But I'm at that itchy stage that I'm looking longingly at my next chosen yarn and leafing through my patterns. But I must finish these. More so because I need the needles I'm using!! So that's a good incentive.

Now because I showed a layout of Molly yesterday, to be fair, I now must show one of Bo. Please do tell me if you get sick of seeing my dog and cat. Not seeing the kids every day, I do try to take my fair share of photographs of them when I do, even though they've taken to calling me papparazzi now instead of Carol. So in the meantime Bo and Molly become willing (sometimes not so willing) participants of my neverending quest for photographs.



Credits
Pink kisses kit by [ksharonkdesigns]
Designer Digitals quote challenge by Mary Ann Wise

Pink Kisses really such a great kit I've used it many times such soft and pretty colours, love the hardware, love the stitched frame, love the alpha. So much to play with. There's a tag in it I've used over and over. I've linked it up if you want to take a closer squiz.

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Hope all the Aussies have enjoyed their public holiday off today. We are in a country which loves our days off huh? Celebrate Australia Day and it was actually on Saturday! I'm voting on a national day of knitting. Anyone with me on that score? LOL

Climbing the walls....

Grrrr, how come when you really really feel like it there's no chocolate in the house, not even in my little hidey spaces (hidden from Mike!!) I tell you I can talk myself into a craving on the spin of a 10 cent piece. And I have a hankering for chocolate right now, nothing else will do, not even my beloved cup of tea in a bone china cup.

How desperate does it look if you go to the supermarket to only buy some chocolate? To feed the habit? I wonder if the girls at the checkout snicker knowingly that a craving or two is about to be satisfied? Or do we buy a basket of things and just pop some chocky bars in the basket at random so it doesn't look like that was the sole purpose of the visit to the supermarket.

Okay. I'm going to do it. Hmmm, I'm sure I need milk and bread and perhaps the newspaper too... LOL

Now forgive me if I've showed you this before, I'm really not certain. I did it some time ago but I went back through my pages to work out where I had gotten behind in displaying and although I'm certain I have shown it, it may have only been on my Gallery that I had done so and not on the blog.

Needless to say, you all know I love my girl.

Credits

This layout is inspired by Kathie02’s “One Small Dog”
Gone to the Dogs Kit by Pattie Knox (this kit is gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous!!!)
Frames – Katie Pertiet Curled Photo frame ad challenge
Font – Suzie’s hand

I am sleeeeeeepy

Gosh I'm tired tonight. It's not even 7.30 and I could quite easily crawl into bed right now. May just take myself to the loungeroom for a bit of couch luging for a little bit. And a cup of tea. A cup of tea rights all ails in the world I think.

Nothing much else to say except see you Saturday when I get back.

And to leave you with this, hahahahahahaha. You've probably all read it before, its been round the world and back on the email. Hope it's not too small to read. If it is, you can get to a link to a bigger copy HERE.

Credits

Template - Kimberley Lund (Miss Kim)
La Cremerie - Framboise Kit by Katie Pertiet
Fonts - GF Halda and Another Typewriter
Photograph - art-e-zine
Excerpts from "The Good Housewife's Guide 1955" (cough cough!)

Last day of the week tomorrow!

hahahahaha GOTCHA!!!! Well for me it is. I have a rather lovely long weekend ahead. I'm heading to Geelong on Thursday morning as we have an appointment to go to and mum needed support. And so I figured I may just stay with her a few days so took Friday off too. Then of course Monday is Australia Day public holiday. I all of a sudden have a 5 day weekend. Lucky me.

I went to the movies tonight, a girls night after work. We saw '27 Dresses'. Such a feel good movie. I thought it was great. Particularly as one of the girls I went with has just gotten herself engaged. Lots of fun. Pasta first then the movie. A lovely way to spend the evening.

So anyways, I went back through the layouts I have shown you and I have gotten myself way way way behind. I still have quite a number of layouts I haven't shown you. Plus a number of 'Things' layouts too. So here's one to give you a giggle.



Credits
Papers – Not So Blue Kit by [ksharonkdesigns]
Journal Stamp – Day Trip Freebie by [ksharonkdesigns] from her blog Artistic Musings
Background red frame – Scraplift Challenge freebie by [ksharonkdesigns]
Stacked vintage photo frames by Katie Pertiet
Curled Paper Edges No.2 by Anna Aspnes
Natali stitches
Photo – Square America
Fonts – Antique Type and Bernard Condensed

I'm off to dreamland. Toodlepip.

Getting back into it

Must get myself into a habit of a regular post again. I look to see when my last post was and think where on earth have those days gone? Already the 20th January, which means January is nearly shot to pieces! Is time really getting quicker? I'm sure it is.

Had a terrific night out last night at a lovely dinner party with a few other couples. A very relaxed evening, good food, conversation and some very fun games of snooker. Funny how men get things mixed up huh? These were Mike's friends and I was going thinking it was some big BBQ party or similar, to pull up and only see another car there and it was then he told me, "no, I thought I told you, it was a dinner party". Uh No! You didn't tell me.

It's a detail thing isn't it? Women like the details. Men gloss over them. No biggie.

Recently my step-son had his 18th birthday. 18!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Wasn't he only just 11 or so when I first met him? When did this all happen? Ahhhh yes, that time that gets away with us. What a very handsome grown up man he has become.


Credits here.

Okay, must away. Mike is off gold detecting and I have housework to do. Hmmmmm, let's weigh that up for a sec, he is off having fun and I'm vaccuuming, ironing, dusting, cooking. I think I got the short end of the stick this weekend. Perhaps I'll just do a bit of scrapping for 5 minutes first .... LOL.

A fine time was had by all

Well I really had quite a wonderful time meeting up with my friends for a weekend break in Melbourne. A girls weekend was wel neededl on the cards for a definite pick-me-up and we laughed and talked and shopped and ate. It was just wonderful.

Melbourne really is a fun city. When I lived in Geelong I played in a band in Melbourne (yeah right, think punk rock chick and you are SOOOOOO off the mark!!! LOL). But I was up and down that highway twice sometimes three times a week for rehearsals and gigs. te he. I say "gigs" like I'm cool, but it was a brass band.

But living down here in the sticks now I maybe get to Melbourne a couple of times a years for forums or work courses but its there and back in a day. No time for anything else.

I need to do this more often. More to the point ... WE need to do this more often. But getting Mike to Melbourne, let's just say it's easier to pull teeth. He doesn't "do" big cities very well! ha. Can't wait to get back home.

I put together a collage of photographs using Megan's fabulous Design Blueprints, available at twolittlepixels. I've used Design Blueprints 6 and Design Blueprints 7 in these layouts. Such a great way to create a layout with multiple photographs.

Credits here

Credits here

Oh dear! Well that's no good, you can't see the shape of the page because of the white on white background. You'll just have to click on the credits link to see the page how it looks square.

Something else to show

Quite some time before Christmas, heck it was even the end of November I think, I was involved in an 'Ornament Exchange'. I was given the name of my secret giftee (is that what you would call them?) and thought long and hard. I decided that instead of an ornament for the tree, I would give her something that would keep on being used forever if wanted.

Remember this unholy mess?
Well the mess soon turned into this ...

You can't see it but there were pretty little crystals sewn into some of the panels.

You may remember during 2006, that sounds so long ago doesn't it? I made a zillion Christmas stockings for people (well ... a zillion is a slight exaggeration, but a heck of a lot). Last year these are the only two I made for gifts. And she loved them, which I was so pleased about.

Tomorrow I am heading down to Geelong to see my mum and then onto Melbourne to meet up with some friends, which I am immensely looking forward to. I need this girls weekend away I think, just to let loose and enjoy great company.

Thank goodness the cool change has arrived, I have been really flagging in this heat. Temps over 40 nearly every day has just about done me in (that's 104 F and over for my American friends). Mike finally went out and bought an air conditioner yesterday and the darn thing blew up today so back to the shop it went and we got our money back as they had sold completely out. Grrrrrrr.

Enjoy your weekend and I will be back to show you some digi scrapping and I'm sure some tales of the weekend.

More socks

Over the course of the three weeks I spent at mum's, thank goodness for my knitting. She would go to bed early and I just couldn't sleep so I would sit up and knit. It saved my sanity. To have those needles clacking away, having to follow a pattern, having to really concentrate, being that socks are still quite new to me. Otherwise my mind would wander and the world came crashing in. So I knitted. And knitted. And knitted.

[frames from ksharonkdesigns]

Socks No.1 were a pattern called Little Shell Socks which I obtained off the web. I vow and declare from this day forward that I will NEVER (repeat ... NEVER) knit a pattern that involves pearl 3 together in it again. EVER. That yarn was Bruised Bloodwood by Yarncakes.

Socks No.2 were a pattern a friend gave me from Fiber Trends, Hellens Favorite Socks. The yarn is Opal.

First of all - thank you

Thank you one and all for the condolences sent. What an amazing community blogland is. You really don't even know me do you, apart from the blog, and yet all these warm and beautiful sentiments both sent here and to my email for those who have it. Thank you. It helped.

Can I share with you part of the tribute my wonderful husband gave at dad's funeral, because this really sums up dad's courageous battle in the final weeks after he lost the ability to swallow and made his own decision not to have a feeding tube to survive.

"... In closing, throughout his illness, John never complained about his unfortunate situation, and so I learned that he possessed patience. But beneath the calm exterior, I also learned that John was a fighter, because when the inevitable occurred, he made the conscious decision to deny his illness any further control over his life. It was a courageous decision, knowing full well what the end result would be, and that his destiny would arrive sooner, rather than later. John was a man that any man would have been proud to have called his Father in Law and friend.

He was a big man with a big heart and our lives have been enriched for having known him."

These photos formed part of the Order of Service at the funeral but I've added others to show a journey through dad's life.



Credits here

Thank you friends for understanding.