Another Sunday night

The weekends are going so fast, heck the weeks are going fast too. Less than 4 months till Christmas, is that crazy or what? Haven't we just had it? I need to seriously get my butt into gear and start taking stock of where I'm up to with gift shopping, yep you know me, I like to get things as the year progresses.

I've mentioned my new American nephews before, many times actually! I'm quite in love with both of them. However young Matthew took one look at Mike and decided that he would be "his buddy" for life. That's what he calls him. It's usually something like "Hey, Uncle Mike my Buddy". It's really cute. So when they are here he becomes Mike's shadow. Just quietly I think Mike is revelling in it.

So it was very easy taking these photos during one visit, because Matthew was never more than one foot away from Mike at any given time!

creashens new kit called simply XO was perfect, loved the colours, loved all the fun elements in it. Go check it out at Catscrap.

I think today was the first day without rain in ... well ... in quite a while. We took the dogs down to walk along the side of the golf course just down the road late this afternoon. That's their favourite walk along there, although the ground was still soft. Only a couple more days and Spring will have sprung. I wonder if the weather will too?

So with that it's time to go get my work clothes ready for tomorrow. And surely enough the weekend will rock around in lightening speed again.

So with that, it's time to go get my work clothes ready and start thinking about bed.

Is he crazy?

I do wonder sometimes if Mike thinks. I gave him a hair cut tonight, just with the clippers because I have no idea what I'm doing honestly. He swept up and then jumped in the shower. I walked into the loungeroom shortly after and OMG! It stunk to high heaven. He had thrown the hair clippings into the fire place. Urrrrgh. Burnt hair. It was horrible.

You think that's bad? Then try this on for size.

Mike is on the quest for the hottest salami he can find and no one even comes close. So he has decided to make his own. With really horrific results. Dry. Crumbly. Inedible. A couple of weeks ago I walked into the loungeroom to smell what I could only think was one of the neighbours and a burnt BBQ wafting straight into our house. Yep, you guessed it. He threw the salami on the fire.

Do I need to stand guard? I'm just asking.

One thing that does smell great at the moment is my newly planted garden. It may look a bit bedraggled with the rains we've been having, some of my flowers have been laying flat on the ground. But my goodness what a sweet smell is coming from the pretty flowers. This really is a whole new world for me this whole gardening thing.

Still saying it's not ever going to be a hobby, but still getting satisfaction from how pretty and cottagy it all looks.

Roadside Designs puts out some terrific templates each week at twolittlepixels. You don't only get the template, but often get lots of little bits and bobs, buttons, string, ribbons, stitching. Here I used City Centre Collection Map 4, and the other goodies are from Butterfly Breeze by [ksharonkdesigns] which set off the garden theme perfectly. This also shows how you can use things in completely different ways. That wee little butterfly in the kit, I merged with the background paper and enlarged it and played around with the blending modes and made it part of that paper. So cool when you can find lots of different ways to use the same goodies.

Oh and I've decided I'm in love with ranunculas (is that how you spell it?). I plan on buying more bulbs next year. Only the red one has come out so far, I can't wait to see what colours the others are.

A sad day indeed

My last blog post I told of some dear friends who were going through a hard time with her mum in hospital. Well the darling lady passed away on Friday night with her family around her. Her funeral was today. My friend is one of the ladies from town I go away with each year and whilst she was surrounded by her family today, the other three of us held tight to each other giving her strength.

A couple of things stood out for me today. Family is all important. And it pains me to admit I'm still having difficulties with my own mother when things started astranging (is that such a word?) late last year. Whilst I am trying to meet her half way, she doesn't seem able to do likewise, but I will still try.

Another thing that stood out for me is that we must laugh, every day. We must celebrate ourselves. They told a story at the funeral which just about brought the house down and I know Mrs. C would be smiling as we were laughing so hard. They relayed a story about one day when my friend and her mother were driving somewhere and Mrs. C said in her unmistakenable accent "these GPS things, they are so good for employment". "Why so mum?" my friend replied. "Well they employ so many people, there's a lady working for you, and a lady working for your brother, and a lady working for your father". My friend went on to explain the intracacies of satellites. Honest to God, Mrs. C thought there was a camera on each of the GPS's that was relaying back to a lady at a call centre so she could tell you what direction to take as she viewed the road conditions ahead. "Well that was very silly of me" she went on to say.

I think I'll remember that story for as long as I live and will always think of it with a smile for Mrs. C.

So share the laughter people, celebrate that in ourselves which will bring a smile to others.

Before I go I will share something of myself. Another All About Me page. Are you getting sick of them yet? The challenge was to describe a typical day.

All products Designer Digitals. Oh and no dogs were harmed in the making of this page. I promise I'm not strangling Molly, truly. I think I was holding her head up just briefly. The photo looks a bit weird, as does my hair just quietly.

End of the week

Not for some but it is for me. Still using my extra time that I've been working up off. Got to love flexi time. A few long weekends and I'll have recharged good and proper.

Some dear friends of mine are going through a hard time. Her mother is very sick in hospital and it doesn't look good so they've been up and back around the clock. With family flying in from interstate to be with their mother, they rang me in a moment of desperation last night, I'd not long gotten home from work, if I can come look after their kids while they took another drive in to see her.

Of course, without a moment's hesitation I was there within a minute. But young Miss K has been beside herself and was in tears and didn't want her dad to go. What to do? I really don't have experience with teary young girls. So I took her into the loungeroom and sat on the floor with her and said that mummy really needed daddy to be with her when they went to the hospital so daddy could look after mummy. And that I give really good hugs so would she like one from me. With that she sidled up to me and their big old dog came over and gave a slobbery kiss. I asked her was it okay if I told her daddy to go with her mummy and she said a tearful yes. So I ducked into the kitchen quickly and told them to vanish, we'd be okay.

She was still a bit teary while we lay on the loungeroom floor, playing dominoes with her brother and cousin, hiccupping every now and then. Until their little dog Odie, a fox terrier/whippet funny as all get out dog decided to come over and hump my arm. Well tears were well and truly forgotten as the kids fell about the loungeroom floor rolling over in hysterics.

Got to hand it to a dog to know when to break the tension huh? Good on you Odie. I owe you a treat for that. Even though my arm doesn't thank you.

Show and tell time again. Here's a page I did recently of my nephew surrounded by toys in his bedroom. They were in the process of packing up their house after it sold and so whilst the toys would be normally packed away, they were EVERYWHERE! Using these fun new Masked frames from creashens at Catscrap.

Credits here.

Is romance dead?

I wonder. I got quite excited the other day. Mike grandly announced "well, I've got plans for us this weekend". I looked in surprise. Mike just about works 7 days a week (working from home it's one of the perils) and he hardly ever makes plans for something for us to do together. So I look on in anticipation, getting more excited by the minute, waiting for him to announce what we are going to do.

"We're going to do bowel scan testing".

My mouth dropped open and hit the floor with a thud. He obviously thinks this is a good thing, and don't get me wrong, it is. He recently went to a talk at Masons by a man who had bowel cancer and obviously took on board everything the man said. But when you're expecting perhaps a nice drive out in the countryside? Perhaps dinner for two at a restaurant? Anything at all other than that.

I think he saw my disappointment because later on when I was reading the newspaper and see that Jon English, the rocker from yesteryear, was coming to Warrnambool for a concert in October and suggested we go, he said yes. Now Mike *NEVER* does live concerts, live theatre, live plays, he doesn't like the crowds. So I think he was trying to make up for my stunned expression about this weekend's surprise! But you know what, I'm taking it and running with it. Jon English here I come!

So who Aussies amongst us loves Jon English? I don't mind admitting that I did have a couple of his posters on my teenage bedroom wall. Those eyes! The Rock Show looks like a lot of fun. So first order of business at lunchtime tomorrow is to get tickets.

cherpea designs recently had a grab bag at twolittlepixels and has now upended the grab bag into the shoppe. The colours of the paper pack were perfect to show the quilt I made for Miss T last year, using a lot of her favourite colour pink and a mish mash of everything else, which turned out surprisingly well. I remember bringing the materials home, I actually got a whole kit, pattern, materials, the lot, and I laid it out on the table for Mike to see and he went bug-eyed (probably a lot like I went with this weekend's activities, ha) thinking "are you kidding me? all those colours?" but even he was surprised how eclectic it looked.

Now I'm seriously going to have to get a wriggle on to finish Miss B's quilt for her 18th birthday, which is at the start of November.

Over and out.

I'm sick of the rain

Is that bad to say while we are essentially still a country in drought? I'm sure I've said it a few times recently, I'm over it! Winter be gone. It's been a bitterly cold winter (by our standards) and wet. Oh my goodness, it hasn't stopped raining here. I'm sick of the dogs being wet when they've gone outside, traipsing muddy paws in, I'm sick of the grass always being wet when I walk across it to the post box, I'm sick of the house always being wet because I want to finish this darn house painting we've started, and I'm sick of the weekends being wet because I can't get out and about and do what I want outdoors.

There, I've had my whinge. But I'm not finished.

Yesterday we had the worst conditions I've seen in a long time. Torrential downpour started about 3.30am and was so loud it woke us up. And it rained. And rained. And rained. It was grey and gloomy and windy, and it didn't stop raining here all day. I decided to get home while it was still light, and thank goodness I did. I had to cross flooding which cut the road on the way home three times.

I got through the first and thought okay there's no going back, because it would have been higher if I had turned around. Everyone was taking it really easy and when we hit the water again the cars all took it in turns to drive down the centre of the road where at least the road was a bit higher, but still you could hardly see the white line the water was so high. In fact when it was my turn it must have been lapping at the underside of the car because I could feel my feet getting really cold.

Today on the way to work, the water had drained from the road, but the paddocks are all water ladened. I must take my camera tomorrow and grab a few snaps. I spotted one paddock which had a bit of a rise and some sheep and lambs had been caught at the top with water all round them.

Remind me of all of this when soon enough we will hit summer and I'll be complaining about the heat, will you.

creashens has a beaut new kit out, as a collaboration with Cinnamon Designs, called Simply Boy. Lots of browns and neutrals, my favourite colour to scrap with. It also contains this great quote "I wished and wished upon a shining star and you came true". It was perfect for this page of my nephew. He would say to me so often "Oh Aunty Carol, all I want for Christmas is my very own dog". Or in the case of birthdays it would be the same plead for a dog of his very own. Then last year they got Tilly who is a Gordon Setter. I've never seen one of these dogs before, they are very lanky and kind of plod along and so skinny. She really is a sweet dog.

Well with that I'm off to bed, to dream of a nice dry day tomorrow! here's hoping.

Yet another Sunday arvo

But I still have tomorrow off as an RDO, yay for me. We've had a fairly low key weekend, Mike has been working and pottering around in the shed inventing things. I've been scrapping and sewing. I'm about to go check out my recipes to make some sort of slice or cookie as my father-in-law is coming down tomorrow for the day. We're hunting about for accommodation in Glasgow for him as he's soon to embark on a trip back home to visit the relatives. Except he doesn't want to be tied to the relatives, hence the accommodation scout around on the net.

Watched Grease last night on telly. Ahhh, it doesn't matter how many times you see it, does it? It's still such a feel good movie. And of course I sang along at the top of my voice. Changing the words of course. "Hopelessly devoted to Lucky", and "You're the one that I want, ooh ooh ooooh Molly". I think Mike backed away very quickly when he walked in and saw me dancing around with Lucky doing the actions from "Greased Lightening". Well at least the menagerie were amused.

Creashens has a fabulous new kit out called Newport. It's full of beachy products in a gorgeous hue. I had such fun playing with it. When I thought seaside, it reminded me of when Mike's cousin Eleanor was out from Scotland last year and she stayed with us for a bit. We took her along the Great Ocean Road on probably the windiest day I've ever known down there, so I had to scrap one of the photos for a keepsake.

And in scrapping I used the new freebie template by Roadside Designs, so go check out her blog and nab yourself a really versatile way to get your scrapping mojo going.

Now off to find a recipe to make something yummy for tomorrow.

Where are the days going?

Is it just me or is everyone feeling the same? We're still in turmoil at work so still having very long days. Thank heavens for templates, my mojo for scrapping is waning at bit at the moment, as my tiredness levels increase. I have a long weekend planned with an RDO on Monday, so roll on the weekend. I just may sleep right through it.

Sharon's fantastic template called Simple Sets #70 was perfect to display my Photo Walk photographs, and I made up the second page to match. You just can't go wrong with these Simple Sets. I used the great kraft paper from Roadside Designs, the texture is just lovely, and the neutral colours in the pack just rock.

Here we are ready to head off. Quite imposing seeing all these shutter happy people heading towards you down the road. It was a picturesque area to shoot, and so much fun playing tourist in my home town.

That's it from me, over and out, off to join the land of nod !