Sleeping beauty

Is in the loungeroom right now as I type. Mike has conked out on the couch, we were watching "Long Way Down" which the hour went by and I thought he'd been so quiet because he was intent on the motor bike riding, ha! He was asleep. Still is. Guess who won't be able to sleep tonight?

Oh it was so cold this morning when I left for work. The garden temperature gauge (merely a garden ornament but it gives a general idea of the temp) said minus 7 !!! Everything was white and crunchy with ice. It was definitely one of those mornings when the alarm went off you wanted to stay under the covers.

I do have some exciting news to share. My brother has been "seeing" a lady for some times now, three years I guess, something like that. When I say "seeing" I use the term loosely as he met her on the internet but in those three years they have clocked up a zillion dollars of phone calls, he's been over to USA twice, she's been to Australia once, they've talked, corresponded, sent package after package to each other, and now it's happened. They've finally run the gamut of immigration and she's immigrated to Australia with her two boys. I'm looking forward to meeting the boys next weekend. It's all very exciting for all of them and my brother is happier than he's ever been.

I must admit, I am looking forward to having two more small "victims" to scrapbook! LOL

Now for another trip into the family history book, I have made this double page, except you're going to have to view it one after another. My brother did another lot of scanning and again more pictures that are completely new to me. I must admit to shedding a number of tears when I saw them, they're so fabulous to look at and again in pristine condition. So here are some pictures of my mum, my grandma and me from the 60's.

Credits here and here.


Gotta love my grandma, in full stockings on the beach! And well you all thought the pointy toes was so this season? I beg to differ. Check out mum's shoes!

Woooo hoooooo!!!

Okay I didn't get in last night to tell of my good news. I was so excited yesterday I could hardly breathe. I had rostered myself to come in late to work because 9am I had some very important business to do at home on my fast net access ... the box office opened for Billy Joel tickets.

So I syncronised my time on my computer with the time on the telly so I knew exactly when it was 9am. I had already logged into ticketek. And then the time clocked over and I flew into it. I dont think I've ever typed or clicked so fast in my life. And I got them. Two absolutely fabulous seats, so close to the stage, 8th row back in a raised section, that I swear if he flicks his head his sweat will fly onto us! hahahahahahaha

I rang mum as she's the other ticket, she's a huge fan too and well didn't go in 2006 because she wouldn't leave dad at home with a carer. We were both screaming on the phone and jumping around and Mike just looked at me like I was from another planet.

See he doesn't do "live" concerts. His view is why be crushed by hundreds of people, sit on uncomfortable chairs, pay exhorbitant prices when I can just sit at home in my comfy loungechair with a bourbon at the ready and watch a dvd of the same thing. How many times have I told him it's not the same thing, not at all. A live experience is like nothing I can describe.

This will be the sixth time I've seen Billy and these are my best seats yet. Now, hmmm, how many sleeps till 29th November? hahahahahahaha

Onto scrapping...

Creashens has a really lovely new kit called Tamed out and it is chockers full of pretties to play with, and totally perfect for animal or zoo type layouts. How cute is this picture, my brother took it at Healesville Sanctuary a few years back, I love the way the kangaroos are holding hands. I thought over the course of time when I get appropriate animal shots, I will do an alpha book, so at least I have K covered now. Only 25 pages to go, but I'm in no hurry.

If anyone has any animal pics to spare you know where to find me, I'd love to scrap them.

Here's the kit, click on the pic to take you to the store, oh and don't forget to pick up the freebie matching alpha too, you can get that from the twolittlepixels newsletter.

Hump Day

Isn't that what they call Wednesdays? Not sure why. But oh well, for want of another title, hump day it will be.

Before I go any further I'm really pretty chuffed. On of my favourite blogs to haunt is Gallery Standouts. See anything you recognise??? Hmmm??? MY LAYOUT. On Gallery Standouts!!! That has never happened before. And for them to have chosen by "What Happens" layout too, it's such a special one. My friend Jodie alerted me to the fact and I immediately raced to get Mike to have a look and got the obligatory "Oh that's nice dear". WHAT?!?!?!? Doesn't he realise this is a big deal for me. Hmmmph. At least my scrapbooking buddies celebrate our toot toots.

This really is turning into random mutterings right now. I got a big bag of lemons the other day from mum's neighbour. What to do? I really get annoyed if I need one lemon and have to pay over 50cents for it at the supermarket, and now I've received about 50. I dearly want to make some lemon butter but I can't find my grandma's old recipe. I am on the hunt. But never fear, I made lemon delicious pudding tonight and it was sensational. Even Mike liked it and he's not a dessert/sweets fan. Which meant he got seconds and I didn't, but that probably is a good thing right. ha!

There were a few comments posted recently that I ought respond to.

Esther asked if mum and dad had kept the letters? Well I'm pretty sure they didn't, but they do have the first letter mum wrote to dad when he first responded and she found out he wasn't an American Airforce fellow. Actually that "What Happens" layout I rejigged a bit, the one in the album will have mum's letter which I scanned the first page, tucked in behind the picture. She says in it "Well this is certainly a nice surprise having you write, but I wonder how you got my name and address? Let me tell you a bit about myself...". It goes well with my journalling and nice that it's in her hand. She has however kept the very last letter dad wrote to mum before they got married. It's very very sweet.

Susie mentioned the clarity of the photo of mum in her nurses uniform. Well that was a trial in itself. I tried every which way to scan the photo which mum had in a frame on the mantlepiece. I "borrowed" it without her knowing. And it just wouldn't scan. But I think it's because it's kind of a photo but kind of that hand colouring of the photo, so it just wouldn't scan properly, very strange things were happening to the jpg. So I ended up going outside and taking a photograph in natural light of the photo, and that was the result, which I was quite pleased with.

I'm pretty excited, my brother rang today and told me he's scanned another 100 negatives and they're on the way in the post to me now. I can't wait to go through them and really get a lot more family pages done for the book. So while on the subject I may as well show you another layout I've done for the family book, a more up to date one. No particular grand story, just a page which speaks volumes as to their relationship.

Note the hideous wallpaper. Mum and dad were visiting me and this was a rented house I was living at. Can we all together now say ... "seventies" !!!!

Credits here.

So time for bed for me. I got quite a bit of interrupted sleep last night. At 4.30am I feel a bang bang bang on the bed and it was Molly nudging me, she wanted out. So off I trot in a daze, let her out for a wee and as it was below 0 celsius there was no way she was staying out there, so in she raced. Back to bed. At 5.30am I feel another bang bang bang on the bed and she wanted out again. Arrrrrrggggghhhh. Well she can stay out that time. Then another half hour and my alarm was waking me up. And of course Mike didn't hear any of it. Grrrrr.

Before I go, happy 10th anniversary to my dear friend who I'm sure will be reading this. You will know who you are. You changed my life and made it a better place.

Has it really been that long?

Has it? Since I last blogged? Nearly a week has gone by, well that's one week of your life you're not getting back huh? Goodness. Time is going by so quickly. Weekend is almost done. There's a yummy big lasagne cooking in the oven right now. I loooooove lasagne! Perfect to freeze in portions for those nights I get home from work and can't be bothered cooking. Ha! I could count every night in that equation.

I went down to Geelong yesterday to catch up with mum, my brother and out to see my parents-in-law. I had made a double quantity of vegetable, bacon and lentil soup to take to my in-laws. I haven't mentioned much on here but my mother-in-law is very ill so that's why I like to take something down for their freezer when I go, just to help ease the burden of my father-in-law having to cook. I can't do much from up here, but that's one little thing I can do.

Mum and I also went into Bay City Plaza, or I should say Westfield and saw all the extensions. My goodness. I can't believe it but I actually got lost inside. And be still my heart, Big W has come to Geelong! ha. Bargains a plenty. My best bargain I got yesterday was 2 pair of men's denim jeans for $10 each! Perfect for Mike while working in the shed.

Today has been quite cruisy, our little town had it's first monthly craft market which we duly bought a few things, not to mention lemon butter. YUMMO! I love lemon butter on toast.

Two more weeks and I transfer into my new position. It made me laugh the other day. I was doing quite a bit of shredding, and it seems anyone that transfers often does that. All the excess baggage that we tend to accumulate along the way in our jobs.

Right, now here's a couple of pages to share for mum's family history book. This is a double page spread, the first is on the left, the second is on the right. These will feature on the first few pages of the book. Enjoy!

Credits for the first.
Credits for the second.


Absolutely loving Sharon's new pack of arrows. She says it's easy to create. I say phooey to that, I have no idea how. So to have a stack of arrows to pick from. I can see myself using these over and over. How cool are they... click on the pic to take you to the shoppe.

Okay well that's it from me this weekend. Mike is in the kitchen fiddling on the laptop changing his business website around. I have a dog nose nudging at my elbow and big brown soulful eyes looking up at me, wanting me to go play so best I do that, before we lose all light.

Enjoy the week ahead.

Will the good news ever end?

Oh me oh my stick a finger in my eye. I'm not making much sense at the moment because I just found out that Billy Joel is touring Australia again at the end of the year. Yahhhoooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are aware of my obsession with "The Man" of course. Tickets open on 25th July, so expect either excitement or sorrow on that day. I honestly thought after seeing him in 2006 that that would be the last time ever, so how could I get this lucky that he's touring yet again, I have no idea, but thank you whoever! te he

The weekend ... oh it was wonderful, just what was needed by all four of us. Lots of talking, eating, shopping, eating, laughing, eating, oh have I said eating? ha I don't think we stopped. We vowed and declared not to do the dishes for the weekend so that just meant we had to keep eating out right? Oh I am still dreaming about that lemon meringue pie I ate for dessert on Saturday night!

Sunday saw us eating brunch by the seaside at Time and Tide, what a view! A bit more shopping and then on to the movies to round off a perfect weekend to see Mamma Mia. Such a feel good movie.

We've decided this will be an annual event, although after seeing Mamma Mia we decided next year our weekend should be in Greece, hahaha.

Look at this little cherub. I am seriously lacking in up to date baby photos to scrapbook, and when the twolittlepixel ladies go and create seriously cute baby things to scrapbook with, what's a girl to do but borrow a baby! This is a the baby of a friend's sister who both have graciously allowed me to use their photographs to create baby pages. Look at these eyes. You truly can see all the answers you'll ever need to know when you look into a baby's eyes, don't you think?

Credits here.

Must go, Project Runway will be starting soon and I'm seriously addicted to this show.

And thank you for all the congratulations about the new position, I really appreciate it.

Good things for Friday

Well it's Friday and I think I need to list all the good things for today.

Let's see ... well the best thing is - IT'S FRIDAY!

I'm sitting here playing at my computer, Mike is on his working away, Molly is laying at my feet, the house is warm, the cat is curled up on the bed. Life is good.

I'm going away on a girl's weekend with three others from my town here, a weekend away, no kids, just us being us to a coastal town west of here. For a weekend of relaxing, good food, good wine, antique shops, craft markets, it will be lovely.

We have yet another designer to "play" with at twolittlepixels. Angelica E. is unveiled tonight but we've already had a play with her doodles. I do giggle every time I say that. Thank goodness Angelica is starting to get used to this creative team! The doodles are so fun, I've used some in the layout below. Check out twolittlepixels to see more.

Oh ... and well here's a last little good thing for Friday.

I GOT THE JOB !!!!!

It was announced today. I'm so looking forward to getting back to Human Resource which is what I love to do. Yes some may find it boring, all that personnel/payrolly type stuff, but I love $'s and figures and formulas and assisting people. Still with the same company (you know what that is if you know me), just a different position.

I would like to thank my friends for their support, it has meant a great deal.

And without further ado, here's a page using Angelica's doodles.

Credits here.

And now the waiting begins

Yesterday went well, I was really pleased and I thank all the lovely good luck comments. I got a bit of verbal diahorrea though, once I started talking I didn't shut up! LOL Can you imagine? hahahahaha

So now the waiting game begins. Shall let you know as soon as I can.

Okay now any Aussies, did you catch Project Runway Australia yesterday??? Already loving it. I'm not quite sure who I am barracking for though.

Now as for the rain, I'm all for rain, we're in drought, it's lovely to wake up with the tinkering of rain on the roof top while rugged up all cosy in bed. But at 5am with it pounding on the roof so loud you couldn't hear yourself talk?!?!?! Heck. I've never known such rain. I'm amazed I got to work in one piece, let alone home again. Winter has hit with a vengeance.

Now I mentioned that Sharon is revisiting some of her old kits at twolittlepixels and we're all having such fun tripping down memory lane with these great old kits. Fairy Footsteps is one of my very favourites, so here's another pic for the family album. My favourite toy as I was growing up. And yes, here I am at 43 (oops did I say that out loud) and I still have my Andy Pandy. Albeit he is sitting in a cupboard, very threadbare, but well I can't give him away he knows all of my secrets.

Credits here.

Think of me tomorrow

I have a job interview at 2pm tomorrow so send any and all good thoughts my way. Same complex but just back in the HR field which is what I used to do before transferring down here. Everything is ready, have all the documents, certificates etc. I want to take with me, outfit is pressed and hanging ready. All I have to do is the interview now. Shall be back with a report tomorrow.

I've done another page for mum's album, I'm pretty sure these were the very first pictures of me taken. The back of the pictures said I was 2 weeks old. I haven't been able to find any earlier. We're so lucky we can take a zillion pictures now digitally and it doesn't matter if they turn out or not.

I often said to mum as I was growing up that I wish there were some pregnant pictures of her carrying me, but she said it wasn't the done thing back then (which of course as a child gave me the ammunition to fire back "well that means I was adopted then" as only a young mind can work). As for it not being the "done thing" oh how times have changed huh? Pregnant movie stars naked on magazine covers, pregnant women on television, television shows about giving birth. Times sure have changed.

The picture of dad holding me has really given me a giggle, he looks scared stiff. Look at the monkey grip he has around my butt! hahahahaha

Credits here.

Surprise visit

Well that was a lovely surprise visit. Friday night here and step son number 1 has just left, completely took us by surprise. Decided to ride the new motorbike near on three hours to get here for a visit. He's just left heading on to see some mates. He's loving this new found freedom being able to just hop on and ride.

Nothing much else to report this week, it's cruised by, end of financial year came and went, now it's tax time which I always tend to leave till the last minute, almost losing my group certificate in the mean time. It happens every year, I would suggest this year will be no different! I will never learn. Plus I'm the shoebox kind of person throwing receipts in, in no particular semblance of order.

Sharon is having a fun time at twolittlepixels and she's revisiting a lot of her old kits. Go and visit Artistic Musings and check it out, and pick up a freebie every day. I had a play with the School Daze Kit. How fun. Yet another page for mum's family history album, some pics of my brother during his school year. And yes! There will be one coming of me, I've just got to find a couple of pics. Oh horror of horrors, I hated my school pics, but will scrap them all the same. All in the name of family history.

Oh and the first pic, don't you just love (what we lovingly term) the 'BOWL CUT' !!! I got them too. That wierd looking fringe, where mum would stickytape the fringe down to our forehead and just cut off what was underneath the sticky tape. Please do tell me other mum's out there were like that back in those days???????

Credits here.