Monday Blues

When it's Friday after work, Monday night seems so far away, and yet here it is upon us and I've got the Monday night blues. I had an RDO today and it was so nice to have a three day weekend. That would be my dream working pattern - work 4 days and then 3 days off. So back to work tomorrow.

I have used this weekend wisely though, and finished step-daughter number 1's quilt top. Going shopping for backing material tomorrow. There's every colour of the rainbow on the quilt top so it's going to be a fairly easy task I hope to find something suitable for the other side. Although the shop that I got the original material from was in Geelong and it might be a week or 2 before I get back down there. So lets hope I can match it up here.

Did a bit of catching up, but not quite, on my Project 365 pages. I thought that step-daughter no. 2's Deb was such a special night that it deserved a page in the album all of its own. Hey, there's no rules right? Here's the latest glimpse into our lives. (I can't believe I put a pic of myself on here with NO MAKEUP !!! RUN FOR THE HILLS EVERYBODY!!!!! hahahahah

Credits here.

What a mad house!

This morning was a rush like no other. Mike (despite his sore throat) has decided to go bush today. It's a good day for it, quite warm. I can't make head nor tail out of this weather, we actually had the fire going two nights ago! So he said he was getting a bit of cabin fever and wanted to go make a withdrawal from the gold bank! hahaha Love how he says that. So off he went early.

I went back to sleep for a little bit and then got up. I didn't have to be off to make the trek to the dog obedience class till about 10.15 so I had heaps of time. Had brecky, had a little play on the computer. Loads of time. Thought I best do the dishes and as I looked around to the microwave to see the time it was 7 minutes past flipping 10 !!!!!!! WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!

Oh, my very thoughtful computer had decided to change automatically and come off day light saving a week early! Here I was thinking it had just gone 9! So flying around getting the collar, the chain, the water, the treats, the bowl, the poop bags, the car harness,oh and not to forget Lucky. Anyone think this is like getting a baby ready to go out all the paraphenalia we need? I drove like the wind and made it in the nick of time.

Third class of Grade 2 finished, one more to go. He's going well but it was warm out there today and he was distracted very easily about half hour into the class. He just wanted to sniff and play. Smelling the butts of other dogs really holds a lot of appeal for this little guy! haha He's obviously had a busy morning because right now he's conked it out on his bed.

Yesterday I went for a little trip round the town taking photographs with "Harry". Thanks for the suggestions all, but my new camera's name is Harry. I am very much like my darling grandfather Harry, I never go anywhere without the camera, and neither did he, it was a permanent fixture round his neck. So I think Harry will be my camera's name, sharing the love I have of photography with my grandpa.

Now Jodie warned me it would take a little bit to get used to and I wholeheartily agree, but out of the cough cough ... 150-odd photos I took I managed to snap some that I think were pretty special and I'm thrilled with them. Let's take a wander around my town ...

A trip to the local Apex Rose Garden. Isn't this an exquisite colour rosebud.

Close but not too close to the bee!

Our local park.

Another at the park.

I quite like this, just a fence along one of the farms.

And these last two from our own backyard!

And the obligatory Molly and Lucky photo!! te he

Hope you enjoyed! I certainly enjoyed taking them. :-)

My favourite time of the week

Friday nights. I love Friday nights. The work week is over and the weekend is yet to begin. I love them with a passion.

Tonight = Chinese for dinner, combination black bean. Perfect.

A bit of scrapping. Perfect.

A bit of knitting, yes Lynn, there will be knitting! Perfect.

And a three day weekend ahead of me. After a horrid two weeks at work I decided to book an RDO for Monday with all the hours I'd built up. Perfect.

I do believe the kettle has boiled and a pot of tea is about to be made. So before I go I will post this page of my best friend's son. How lucky to have another horde of photos to scrap with. His dad takes the best photos!!

Credits here.

Enjoy the weekend all. Me and my new best friend will be travelling around the area taking some photographs. I really need to give my camera a name don't I? I mean, we will be having quite the relationship together. Shall report back!

False start

Oooooh false start with my camera, we had such a busy weekend that I didn't get a great chance to go off and take pictures, so settled with being the paparazzi around the house. I still haven't worked out how to get the pictures onto the computer, but that will come. I did however work out how to view them on the TV screen but they were mostly all blurry. Wahhh!!! Then I realized I had taken a whole weekend's worth of photos on manual focus instead of automatic focus. I'm a long way from manual, let me tell you. So now I'm on the right track.

Thank you for the excitement over my purchase. You know I went to the store fully going to buy a Canon, it's all I've talked about for the last 12 months, but came out with the Sony. Who knows, I might have made a huge mistake, but I'm working with it, I'm happy, I don't feel like I'm going to drop this, fumble fingers that I am. This weekend I'll get out and about and let this beauty fly! (not literally, oh God no! don't let me drop this camera too!!!)

Step-daughter No. 2 had her deb ball last Saturday, oh my gosh she looked a dream. She enjoyed herself immensely, all the serious girls and boys counting their steps dancing, looking very awkward, not Miss B. She danced and laughed and completely enjoyed herself with her partner. Mike had never been so proud doing the father/daughter dance.

What can I say, all the debutantes were up on the stage looking all very demure while the masses of families were taking photographs and I got the thumbs up. This is so perfectly Miss B! Oh the blurry photo was because the lighting was atrocious and I had my old camera because I didn't want to come away with no decent ones seeings I'm not used to my new camera yet.

Off to bed with me. Mike is "dying" at the moment because he has a sore throat. ~~rolls eyes~~ Yes, women keep going, sick, cooking, cleaning, keeping the house running, but the world stops for the male species, right?

Once upon a time

Sit back my friends and I'll tell you a story.

Once upon a time there was a shop called Hardly Normal who often send out beautiful glossy brochures selling all manner of wares with a promise of high end customer service. There also lived a fair maiden named, hmmmm, shall we call her Princess Carol. Yes that's right, Princess Carol. The fair maiden princess was excited because the time had come for her to buy her DSLR.

She went along to the big Hardly Normal store in the city by the seaside. The princess was full of wonder as the big doors opened and swallowed her up inside. Brochure in hand she went to the counter because she knew the exact DSLR she wanted. Alas, the big bad wolf of a salesman said "I have just sold the last one, but we can order a new one for you and it will be in by next Friday. We'll call you". With that Princess Carol laid down a deposit and although a bit dejected she knew by the following Friday she would have her coveted DSLR.

She waited and waited for her call on Friday but it never came. When she finally rang to ask the big bad wolf at Hardly Normal growled that the shipment had not come in. Another Friday passed and despite a further two calls, the big bad wolf grudgingly rang her back a few days later. Same story.

Princess Carol had done her homework and asked if it would be possible for a stock transfer to be done from a sister store. The big bad wolf looked a bit surprised at that. Hmmmm, that might take actual work on his part. But he said it could be done. He'll call the fair maiden.

Yet another week had passed and Princess Carol had actually done more homework and was able to find a stock of 6 of the exact cameras at a nearby Hardly Normal Store, which incidentally she didn't know existed and had she, she would have driven an hour there in the first place. The big bad wolf tried to bluff her and said he couldn't find any available and we'd have to wait for the shipment. When the fair maiden told the wolf of her discoveries at the other store, the wolf said he'd try.

In the end Princess Carol got more and more dejected, the Hardly Normal kingdom had her deposit, the big bad wolf kept making up more stories and yet another month went by. The Princess at this stage had had enough. She rolled up her sleeves and went in for battle, demanded her deposit back, and told the big bad wolf in a not so quiet voice that she's never had such bad service in her life and would not step foot inside the store ever again. Oh and there may have been a parting shot along the lines of "there's no wonder Hardly Normal stores are shutting across the country if people are getting service like this" as she flung out the doors never to return, deposit in hand.

The princess was sad. Until this week, when she went shopping again and got exactly what she was wanting.

And the Princess will definitely live happily ever after.

My brave moment

Remember back when the festival was on and Mike shouted me the joy flight on the helicopter? I did end up making a page out of it, so you've already seen the pictures but just not set out like this.

Fun huh? I think the pilot didn't know what the heck I was doing when I turned the camera back on myself for a self-portrait. hahahaha We really must warn people that we're scrapbookers and need photos of every possible thing that happens!

Credits here.

I am travelling to Geelong tomorrow morning to go to a funeral. A dear workmate from when I worked down there lost her father last weekend so it will be a rather big draining day considering there'll be a 4 hour round trip, but one thing I've discovered in the number of funerals we attended in the last however long, is you may think you are alone in your grief but the minute you look up and see dear friends there behind you, next to you, alongside you, it makes it a little easier to bear.

And with that I'm off to bed. Last night I went to sleep and woke up thinking it was nearly time to get up and it was only 12.30 AM !!! Imagine my joy when I realised I still had 6 hours sleep left.

G'night.

Another page finished

I'm still keeping up with the Project 365, I can't believe it, I've done a page every week and almost a photo every day. Okay so some days I take two. But I'm just trying to represent the week and hopefully improve a bit on the photographic skills.

Credits here.


Mike has been off to dancing lessons tonight with number 2 daughter. She's doing her deb on Saturday night. I'm sooooooo looking forward to it. This is the funky eclectic non-conformist completely and utterly original daughter. I can't even imagine how beautiful she'll look, she's gorgeous at her one-of-a-kind best, but to see her wearing all white and make up and high heels, I can't wait. Camera will be at the ready. I do believe there may be even a whole 365 page devoted to her, because this is a very big night in her life. So anyway the dancing lessons are for the father-daughter dance. Mike said it's to a tune called "The Huckleberry" so it sounds interesting.

Thinking of this made me reminisce of number 1 step-son's deb a few years ago. That night I'll always always always remember. When it came time to do the mother-son dance, he collected his mum and off they went for the dance around the floor. While the dance was still going he escorted her back to the table and held his hand out to me to finish it with him. I was gobsmacked and utterly thrilled. Even his dad didn't know he was planning to do that. What great kids they all are.

Twas Underbelly night tonight and Mike got home in time to watch it with me. I do enjoy my Monday night's TV viewing. But now it's time for bed, so g'night!

Still 30 mins to go

I'm up late, but there's still 30 mins to go.

Credits here.

Saturday blues

What a day, more torrential rain. Although there are smiles on people's faces, their water tanks are full to overflowing! But it's been cold, wet, muddy, my little white Lucky turned a shade of grey that was quite indescribable. Molly however was content to just lie by the couch inside.

Right now it's still cold and raining outside, I have the fireplace going, crazy weather that it is after all those sweltering days recently, Mike won a triton work bench on ebay so decided to drive 2 hours to go pick it up straight away, so I'm waiting for him to come home now. Lucky has been bathed and is now snoozing on his big pillow in the warm room, Molly is asleep and Bo is eating, I can hear her little bell tinkling. All will be right with the world once Mike comes home.

Lynne of Too Hot to Knit let me know she was having a winter knitalong and in case I still remembered how to knit I might like to join in the fun! ha! It's the 'Winter of Textured Knitting KAL'. Now textured knitting, ribs, cables, bobbles and the like, is what I call slow knitting, at least for me, so it will be interesting. Maybe the current pair of socks I'm knitting that I've seemingly been knitting forever might fit into the category. We'll see. I've got to finish them yet, LOL.

LieN of twolittlepixels has a fabulous grab bag out at the moment, her very first one, and she's outdone herself. Lots of beautiful things to play with. I'm not going to spoil it for you to tell you what's in it, except that you won't be disappointed. I made this with the grab bag. My best friend's beautiful children.

And with that, Mike must be almost home. So I'm off to do another few rows of the sock! See Lynne, I am knitting. Truly.

Icky day today

In more ways than one. Icky weather - there was fire and brimstone! It came over so incredibly dark this afternoon like it was night time, the rain pummelled the building, the roof leaked, a huge heavy security door fell off it's hinges, strange happenings at work, by the time I went home it was warm and steamy again, there was a rainbow on the way home and then closer to home it was dark and lightening, Molly was beside herself with fear she hates storms, she's been by my side ever since I got home. We have had it all. Icky weather, icky work.

I have a tough work fortnight ahead of me, I figure it's not even Friday the 13th yet! Got to look on the bright side huh? Today wasn't too bad. It can only get worse from here right. Urrrrgh.

I just got a text message on my mobile 5 minutes ago, one of my old workmates who's father has been poorly has died tonight. See it did get worse. This has been the day from hell.

Let's hope that tomorrow dawns a bit brighter.

Thought before I go to bed I wanted to finish this page I started on a few days ago. I did mention that perhaps that defuzzed picture of Mike I took might need it's own scrapbook page. I had a bit of inspiration from JB himself. This is what I came up with. Mike of course took one look at it and asked "where are the sexy girls". Hmmmph.

Credits here.

And this was my inspiration:

Good night one and all. I'm off to snuggle with James ... err ... Mike. ha

The weekend is over :-(

I have the feeling right now like I usually get Sunday nights. I love my weekends and three day weekends just rock! And as promised, no labouring was happening today! Except sewing, sewing and more sewing.

I'm making huge progress on my about-to-be-18-step-daughter's quilt. This is the eclectic lots of colours and patterns with nothing matching quilt. I did have serious misgivings, as did Mike, when I cut all the material ready for sewing. I guess his "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" was a big enough hint he thought the mish mash of colours and patterns was a bit out of the norm. ha! But as each row gets sewed on and the quilt gets bigger, it is looking fabulous, if I do say so myself. I even made Mike sew a little row today (much to his chagrin). I want to be able to tell Miss T. that this special forever heirloom quilt for her 18th birthday was made with love by both me *AND* her dad. That will mean the world.

Am I being completely errationally emotional about that?

Now as for other matters. I nearly fell off my chair tonight. Mike was getting ready to go to Masons and he was taking an awfully long time in the bathroom. He had given himself a brazillion!!! hahahahahaha

Okay back up a bit. Maybe not what you're thinking. He had shaved his moustache and goatee off. I have *NEVER EVER* seen his naked upper lip and chin. It was such a shock. A very pleasant shock. I had to grab the camera and snap. I do believe there will be scrapbook page coming up so you'll have to wait and see!

Speaking of his meeting, hmmm how come when he gets asked to "bring a plate" it is me that does the baking?!? Lucky I like to bake. I made a lovely madeira cake (so I guess there was a bit of pleasant labouring done on this Monday Labour Day). Courtesy of Nigella's "Domestic Goddess" my favourite baking book. How does this look for sensational, I love the crispy sugary top.

Funnily enough when I grabbed the camera out, Mike knowingly looked at me and said "ahhh, the project right?" Clever boy.

Got to love a long weekend

All hail Labour Day Monday! And on Monday I plan on doing NO labouring whatsoever.

And now this is ridiculous. We've gone from stinking hot days to cold, literally overnight. We actually had the fireplace going the other night and I'm thinking right about now I'm about to start it again today. Although that sounds mighty fine though doesn't it? The fireplace going, the house toasty warm, the husband gone detecting for the day, the knitting and sewing and scrapping at the ready. Perhaps a girly DVD. Fabulous!

Sometimes I pinch myself at how lucky I am to be part of the twolittlepixels creative team. I love Sharon's goodies, they had me at hello! ha. And with Shen into the mix now I get to play with all the beautiful creashens designs. And I can tell you this template was a lot of fun to play with. If you don't get anything else all year, make sure you have this one marked to get. You not only get the layered file to add your own mix to the page, but quick pages too if you want to throw the photos on quick, and a file with lots of bits and bobs to play with. I've used a lot more other creashens elements in my page from her other kits too, but Shen has given you stitches and screws and sticky tape and dates to help you on your way. It's truly a magnificent package.

Credits here.

And if you click on the product below it will take you straight to the shop.

Now, I have a fireplace to start, some sewing to continue, a bit of scrapping, a lot of knitting. Sounds like an exhausting day huh? haha

World War 3

It was WW 3 here this morning. Mike had just come home with Lucky from his 6am walk. I didn't realise Bo (our kitty) was sitting on the chair pushed under the kitchen table. Lucky spied her and decided he wanted to jump up and play. I heard hissing and a bit of swatting (no claws) from Bo and a few grrrrrs from Lucky. Bo jumped off the chair, Lucky took chase, there was a big skid on the kitchen floor, Lucky grabbed Bo's tail, Molly decided she better start running round and barking too with all the commotion, Bo took off down the passageway with Lucky and Molly close on her heels, took a flying jump over the baby gate and out the cat flap of the laundry door.

Big grrrrs and big "NO's" from Mike and I and Lucky and Molly were banished to the back yard and not allowed inside all day. Bo has come back during the day, a bit wary. I can hear her tinkling in the laundry now with her bell on, so Lucky is at the moment on his training leash. We're going to try to correct the behaviour with this.

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT ELSE TO DO! Any suggestions gratefully appreciated.

Yes I know he is a Jack, yes I know he's just shy of 1 year old and very excitable. But Bo doesn't care a fig about being in the room with Molly, maybe because she's old and slow. And I know Lucky just wants to play and he sees a little creature his own size to play with. But I'm becoming desperate.

Please someone post and let me know that it will get better. Lie to me if need be! LOL

I'm up to date with my Project 365 pages. Here's the latest double page edition. (Excuse the entrance to our town sign, I don't really live in Bedrock! Just thought I'd change that, being that I'm in a small enough town, probably don't want to plaster my location across the net).

Credits here.


Now on other matters, Victorian people please stay safe tomorrow. The fires from Black Saturday are still raging across the state and tomorrow is forecast to be a horrible windy hot day. They've closed all schools in our town and general vicinity, that's scary enough to think that those measures are being taken. Not to mention the police warning we all got on our mobile phones today. Stay safe.