I love being on holidays

Love love love not having to go to work. I lay in bed this morning thinking I would have been on my way right now. What a great feeling to have the whole day in front of you and you can do whatever you wish. Which today has been scrapbooking and tonight will be sewing. Can't get much better than that.

Mike woke up feeling a heck of a lot better today, must have been the icecream ;-) But as the afternoon has worn on, he's worn himself out. He is a man who likes to run before he can walk.

Oldest stepson came around a few weeks ago sporting the beginnings of a beard, which has since been taken off. Apparently the boys at work bought in some wax strips and were not afraid to use them, ouch! Except Mr. W got wind of it and shaved the beard off before any hijinks could be had.

But I made sure I got a photograph so I could scrapbook it. Hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, right?

Credits Designer Digitals

Twas funny though, when I was doing this layout I was texting the boy.

Me: "Hey Wes, do you like the cold weather?"

Wes: "Sure, it's okay".

Me: "Hey Wes, do you like milk and cookies?"

Wes: "Carol, I am *NOT* Santa Claus."

Hmmm, if only he knew!

This will go into his upcoming book I am making for him. It was going to be for his 21st but that has come around too quick. Maybe he'll get the book for next Christmas.

Urrrgh

Day after Christmas and Mike started sniffing, and sneezing, and wheezing. I must admit at one stage I did ask him if he had "real" sick or "man" sick, to which he was quite affronted. Today though he has felt like he's been run over by a truck. No sooner had he gotten up from bed, showered and the next thing I found him asleep on the couch, to which he's been there most of the day. He's cursing himself at the moment, he's a bit of a man's man and he doesn't like to feel weak. I've told him, this is his body's way of saying to Mr. Workaholic "hey man, slow down, you need a rest".

So today has been a quiet day. I've done a bit of scrapping, a bit of tidying, a bit of playing around in the garden, trying not to wake him so his body can heal itself in sleep. It's been quite warm too which has made him feel worse. Feeling like this on a nice sunny day is the pits.

Here's the photograph my brother took the day he came down with the kids for a joint Mike's birthday and Christmas celebration. Too bad Miss Bo the cat didn't grace us with her presence. It was fun doing a scrap page using non-traditional Christmas colours and elements. Ahh well, a girl won't go wrong when she matches the background to his flannelette shirt! ha.

Credits Designer Digitals.

Now, I wonder if a bit of icecream will make the man feel better? What do you think his answer will be? I'm guessing yes! Oh, and this is my home made blueberry icecream I made for Christmas, it's delicious.

The aftermath

It's one day, right? A big build up. One meal. Lots of leftovers. And now I'm so incredibly tired. I didn't even bother going into Warrnambool for the sales today. I might head down to Geelong during the week, it doesn't worry me if I get a bargain or just go down and back for the sake of it. My time is my own while I'm on holidays, and it's just nice to go shopping somewhere other than here.

Had a brilliant day yesterday. We had the four kids for a lovely Christmas breakfast, which I hope becomes a tradition. Now that there are drivers licences and cars in the mix, it was nice that they came to us, before spending the rest of the day with their mum and other family. It was so much fun. Lots of yummy food, fun opening presents, I had Christmas Carols playing, lots of photographs. Oldest step-daughter's boyfriend had come along too, so he took a photograph of the 6 of us. We don't have many of these, one perhaps not long after I met the kids, the one taken at our wedding, and this one. So it's pretty darn special for me to have this done. So I actually got him to take about 7 photos! I'll probably do some head reconstruction so I have the perfect mix in the one photo.

Mike was as pleased as punch having the kids all here, it was so great. You think you can see that in the photograph?!?!

And of course the menagerie got presents from Santa too. A frisbee for Lucky and new tennis balls for Molly, which she looks quite content in the background with. Bo was off somewhere with her feathery toy playing.

Lots of fun throughout the whole day. We cruised though for the remainder, being that it was just Mike and I. Because of our big breakfast we didn't have lunch until mid-afternoon. It was so enjoyable, just the way we wanted it. No stress, no driving anywhere, perfect.

Merry Christmas to you

The day has been long, but finally I have a moment to pop in and wish anyone who reads this a very Merry Christmas. And however you spend the day, I hope it is (or has been) enjoyable.

Miss Bo Bo also wishes you a Merry Christmas!

Lists make me happy

Last night I started a list of everything I have to do leading up to breakfast with the kids on Christmas morning. The list was a mile long, front and back of an A4 sheet of paper, even down to the most miniscule things like sweeping the front porch. What can I say, lists make me happy. Even happier was that I am up to date as of right now, with big purple texta lines striking out everything I was having to do.

Dessert tomorrow is blueberry cheesecake and a blueberry semifreddo, which I made both of today. Semifreddo! What a fancy schmancy name for icecream. Usually we go down the chocolate pavlova route, but this year I said to Mike lets do something different. I opened a cooking magazine that was full of Christmas recipes and went bang, pointed and decided, yep that will be it. Although there are no cherries to be found anywhere at the moment apparently due to the wet unseasonal weather that has been striking our shores, hence having to swap to blueberries.

Talking about weather though, the last two days have been glorious and we're building up for a balmy sunny day tomorrow. YAY! Now THIS is Christmas weather.

Tonight's plans are for number one stepson to arrive, the Christmas Eve church service, a drink at a friends place up the road, and then we're off to see some Christmas lights, especially a couple of farms near here which deck themselves out to the hilt. Looking forward to it.

You'll recall I was participating in the All About Me challenge at Designer Digitals throughout the year, but kind of fell off the bandwagon when my hard drive went kaput and I lost all but 2 of my pages. Well I jumped back on for the last challenge for the year, it was describe a day in your life right now. Well I described my whole month in one foul swoop! I wonder how many other women out there have experienced the type of December that I have. ha.

Credits Designer Digitals.

Not many more sleeps to go

And I have a list a mile long of things I need to be doing, but the majority can't be done until tomorrow. So tomorrow is not looking like a fun day! ha. Stepson number 1 is travelling down and staying the night, we plan on going to the Christmas Eve church service and then when it's dark we'll travel around to see the Christmas lights. There's a farm close to here that outdoes itself every year, so I'm looking forward to seeing that again.

Tuesday just gone was a big day. We went to Altona to the Crematorium to where my grandma and grandpa are placed. I like to go every year and spend some time just talking to them. May be silly, but it's something I do. Back in Geelong we also went to see my dad and Mike's mum at the cemetary and lay some flowers. I know we don't need to go to the actual places to visit, they are with us always in our hearts, but it's something we do.

I also saw my mum for the first time in over a year on Tuesday. It was okay. We both didn't break or anything. No need to rehash anything, no need to even speak of it. It was just from that day forward. I hope.

Then we travelled down the coast for a mid-afternoon lunch with Mike's dad, and lordy lord you have to love him, he put on a 3 course meal all cooked by himself for us, we had the bon bons, a lot of laughter, Mike's sister and children were there too, it was a lot of fun. I'm so proud of my father-in-law, he wouldn't even let us girls in the kitchen to help him, he wanted to do it all himself.

I tell you though, a lot of people work right up until Christmas and then have holidays. Never again. I've thoroughly enjoyed having this week before Christmas off, I've been able to clean the house, get the spare room ready for Wes, have done some baking, done some visiting, done last minute things, it's been lovely.

Plus done a bit of scrapping, I mentioned I went to Tarrington for our work Christmas function and I found the haybales. Apparently haybales are dropped off at homes, and mind you this is a very small town, for the residents to decorate as they see fit, to the delight of passing motorists. I think I set every dog off barking in town as I stopped to take photographs of all the ones I could find. I particularly liked the snowman, it was great, only when you get up closer do you realise his eyes are bicycle wheels, his nose a road cone, his mouth an tyre innertube. Terrific!

Long live little towns that go to these efforts for the delight of people either visiting or passing through.

Credits Designer Digitals.


Now I have a little dog to bath so he'll be beautiful, white and fluffy for Christmas. And I'll probably get quite soaked in the meantime!

And just for a change ...

It's still raining! Yep, that ark is looking mighty good.

I have a dirty nasty little secret to divulge, and it will change your life with regards to Christmas baking! The primary school here had a fundraiser recently and I bought a bucket of cookie dough, Billy G's cookie dough to be precise. I got the shortbread and it's delicious, I'm about to put another batch on now.

Sure sure, if I wanted to be all pedantic about Christmas I would be making my own shortbread, and yes that's an enjoyable part of Christmas, but to be honest I really haven't enjoyed the lead up to Christmas this year. Perhaps I've enjoyed small parts of it - the Carols on Friday night, the finishing of the wrapping of gifts, the delight of Tristan when he found his package under the tree ready for Christmas day, and my own particular joy when I found out the four kids are coming to our house on Christmas morning for breakfast. Other than that, it's kind of passing me by and if I can make it easy in any way, I'm all for it, so onward and upward to the cookie dough.

As usual though each Christmas I do buy a new decoration for the tree and this year I found a fabulous piper which I knew Mike would love. Or would he? Little did I know he was an Irish piper, and here's me thinking he was resin! ha!

Credits Designer Digitals here.


Over and out. Now off to "bake" or to just roll, cut and stick in the oven to be more precise, ha!

And still it rained

I swear we're about ready to build an ark, honestly. Plus it even hailed this afternoon for a short while. Hailed?!?!?!? This close to Christmas! When it's meant to be warm and sunny. Not only that, Mike even lit the fire this afternoon, it got quite cold. Ridiculous.

Friday we were to have the Christmas Parade and Carols by Candlelight. Alas, more rain. They held a brief soggy parade and then the Carols ended up in the hall up the road from the park. Not quite the same atmosphere, but it was heartwarming to see standing room only in the hall. A testament to Gonz, Mike and the boys from lodge who ran the event. Mike was in charge of the entertainment so he was sweating most of the day, despite the cold weather!

Then in amongst all of this planning for him on Friday, when I was at work, the man who we have been waiting on since forever to come and lop our trees (and shhh, pull some out) decided that Friday was the day he would turn up. If it doesn't rain it pours.

He and his partner did a mammoth job, lopped two of our big cherry plum trees, that were well over 5 metres tall. Hopefully this will promote new growth and better cherry plums. He also pulled out, goodness knows how he did it, the big unruly tree we had at the front. It was well past its prime and kept that side of the house in darkness. I now have a clear go to plant a magnolia which I have always wanted to do. Any hints?

Funny (or maybe not) our neighbour over the back fence, I ran into her at the Carols and she was commenting on the trees, or lack of them. She made the comment that now they can be in their kitchen and not have to have the light on. Oh dear. I didn't know that.

So I scrapped some of the photos from Friday night to make a neat double page spread. The parade on one side, the Carols on the other. One of my favourite things in our little parade was the horse that had a big red nose like rudolph. I thought that was darling.

Credits Designer Digitals.


So tomorrow is my first official day off, with four lovely weeks of leave ahead of me. Bliss.

Big day

I headed south to go to work for a few hours, then north to Tarrington for our work Christmas lunch, where we meet up with other staff members throughout our Division. It's a lot of fun, the only time we all get together after speaking by phone throughout the year.

And I discovered Tarrington does a really cute thing. The houses have those big rolled haybales out the front and all decorated in the Christmas theme. I spent some time after our Christmas lunch and took photos, obviously a scrap layout will be forthcoming!

In the meantime, feast your eyes on this, it's so darn cute. But then you know I'm partial to Jack Russells!

I am a fallen blogger

For sure. Every day in December? Huh! That obviously was not going to happen.

We have my youngest stepson staying with us this week so we've had a few things going on there, in amongst it on Monday was Mike's birthday, the last time he'll see the 40's, enough said. Plus had a Christmas BBQ to go to for Masons. Tomorrow afternoon is a bit of a loss for work as we are having our work Christmas party and going up to a little town called Tarrington where we meet up with other staff members from throughout the Division, it's always a nice catch up with people we deal with on the telephone all year round.

Mike's birthday I gave him the big secret I've been working on all year. "The book" (said in hushed tones). The biggest project I have had, from his parents meeting till he left home at 18, his childhood in Scotland, immigrating to Australia, it's all in there. He was gobsmacked. Man of a few words he is, but I think I floored him on this one.

Back to Christmas, here's a page I have done recently of my youngest nephew, apparently it is universal even in America the "red goes fast". Who knew?! ha. He is a little character and give him a racing car and he's hooked, better still a remote control one. This was from Christmas last year. One of my favourite photos is the large one, a little boy oblivious to everything and only concentrating on the car.

Designer Digitals credits here.


I think an early night is in order for me tonight. I was up at 5.30 this morning when Molly started pacing. I thought she wanted to go out so I dragged myself to the back door half in a sleep stupor and when I opened it she just stood there and shook. There was a storm on its way. Sure enough 10 minutes later the lightening, rain and thunder started. I ended up on the couch with her on the ground and my hand on her trembling body.

This certainly has been the season for storms, I'm over it! I'm sure Molly is too.

Terrific day today

My brother and family came down here to spend the day today, lots of fun. It didn't start raining until after they left, so the boys weren't cooped up inside all day which was a good start, they were running and playing with Lucky and Molly. Lots of laughs. Plus we were able to get some Christmas photos, although as you can see my four new santa hats were a wee bit stiff, pointing straight up, ha.

Molly had to get in on the act with my brother and the boys.

See what I mean about how stiff the santa hats were, Trevor's is standing up like a clown hat! ha.

And we even got almost a family shot ourselves, minus the cat. I might have to do some head surgery on Molly and get a photo of her looking at the camera, you know me and my switching heads on photos! Oh and you can see some of the pretty colour flowers I have in my garden near the front porch here. Very festive.

Oh and my yummy dessert, the easiest thing in the world ... chocolate ripple cake. I decorated it with spearmint leaf lollies and red smarties. And funnily enough I didn't even think about it, but Kim and the boys have never had this before, they likened the chocolate ripple biscuits to oreos.



Time for bed, night!

I'm done!

I have just finished wrapping up the last present, the very last. And I'm done, literally, exhausted. Mind you, while Mike has watched a movie and written only 4 tags. Urrrgh. Is it me, or is it everyone? Are these jobs left to the women in the partnership to complete?

And all I wanted was to sit and relax tonight.

But in amongst it all I have made a chocolate ripple cake (yum!) and made a curried rice salad for tomorrow (iffy ... I put a bit too much curry in it). Trevor, Kim and the boys are coming for the day, number one because Mike is having a birthday on Monday and number two to have a bit of Christmas cheer with us. I'm just doing a cold meat platter and salad, I'm doing it easy this weekend. But I intend to take lots of photographs, please please please don't let it rain. I've also hidden lolly pops on our Christmas tree for the boys to find. Fun.

Christmas comes but once a year, but I like making Christmas stockings whenever the sewing urge hits me. And if Tanya is reading this, I'm just about finished your two!! So here's another Christmas page I did for my December book last year, which featured some of the stockings I have made over the years. And my favourite Christmas stocking which is hanging up right now, lots of jingle bells on it, and given to me by a dear friend

All products used Designer Digitals.

Now, whilst Mike is finishing watching his movie I think a wee bit of scrapbooking is in order!

Oops

Oops is right, that didn't last long, the whole blogging every day in December. Monday and Tuesday nights we had storms, Tuesday night particularly, the longest storm I've known, the lightening was coming from both the west and the east. At one point Lucky and I sat out on the front porch and watched the light show. I'm not really that brave, if it was forked lightening I'd be hiding out inside, but it was sheet lightening and all night the storms circled our town, like we were a big black hole or something, quite bizarre.

Lucky isn't phased by storms at all, whew! Molly on the other hand was beside herself. Crazy eyed, drooling, she was under the kitchen table, or in the corner of the loungeroom with her head stuck right in the corner, or under our legs while we were sitting on the couch. Poor darling, her heart nearly beats through her chest. Mike says I have aggravated the behaviour by pandering to her, but I say if a 12 year old geriatric dog wants to be scared, then pander to her I will.

Calendars

No one from my family reads my blog so safe to show here. A number of family members are getting calendars this year, I've made 3 so testing the waters to see how well they'll be received. Having never made one before I decided on an Australian company Snapfish. Well, they have surpassed my expectations, I love them. I was a bit iffy to start with because I wanted full bleed, but having now seen the printed version I really like the white border, mainly also because you don't have a hole through the top of your layout.

Just wanted to display here, as I've had a few people ask about calendars now, so you can see what I mean. I also like that you can put a persons photo in the date section for their special days too. The only thing I didn't like was that the week started on a Monday, I like my calendars to start on a Sunday but they didn't give that option. Oh well. Can't have everything. This is the 30x30cm size.

And so this is Christmas ...

And revisiting another Christmas page I have made in years gone by in my effort to show all things Christmas, I do love this page, it was in my December book last year. So fun to see comparable photographs of Mike and his little brother and sister from 1970, and my brother and I from 1971 ... oh that fringe, what was mum thinking?!?!?!? She used to put sticky tape across my hair and then cut all the fringe from under the tape. Ick.

Products all from Designer Digitals.

Now I'm off to plan a menu for Saturday lunch, my brother and family are all coming down, and coincidentally I bought 4 santa hats today, hmmmm, photo opportunity anyone? ha.

Another hot and humid one

Again the weatherman was wrong, no rain or thunderstorms in sight. It's hot and steamy again and not pleasant at all. I put the Christmas tree up this afternoon, oh my goodness I'm exhausted. That was after I cleaned and polished the loungeroom from top to bottom, dragged the tree (yes we have a plastic one) from the top of the wardrobe, pulled out all the boxes of decos, mended the ones that needed re-threading, decorated the tree, put all the empty boxes back where they go ... and all the while Mike napped on the couch! Arrrrgggghhhhh!

It's like magic isn't it? You go to sleep, you nap, you wake up and everything is done.

Here's another blast from the past for my Christmas blogging every day, a page I also put into our family history book. Mum and my brother Trevor. Anyone who is around has to have a stir of the pudding mixture and make a wish, it's tradition.

Credits here.

Now I think a cool cool shower is in order, I'm beat.

So colour me happy is right

The difference in my blog was the blinky down there on the right hand side. I am now a creative team member at Designer Digitals. OMG! I'm still pinching myself. It is a site full of incredibly inspirational and just downright lovely people. Just quietly I think they've gotten my gallery mixed up with someone else's and have asked the wrong person! I'm assured that's not the case though, but I can't help but think.

However with that comes goodbyes, and I bid farewell to the twolittlepixels creative team I was on. [ksharonkdesigns] is one of the most lovely and generous and terrific people. She gave me my first break into this world of creative teaming. (teaming? is that such a word?) She put me on for a 3 month guest role and I just didn't leave. And during that time at twolittlepixels I have met some terrific people - Suzanne, Cheryl, Nisha, Shen - and Jodie who I actually got to meet in person when I went to Tassie last year, which was just terrific.

Then my digiscrap pal Esther came along to twolittlepixels and has been playing there with me since. And could I get any happier? She was also invited to the Designer Digitals creative team. It's so much more fun going on a ride like this, when you have someone along with you that you know and like.

The Weather

So what is going on? The weatherman (who we really should never trust) has said it was rainy and thunder and lightening storms all week. After a torrential downpour late yesterday afternoon in which Mike rang and told me to stay in Warrnambool and keep shopping ... silly man! He actually didn't want me to drive in the storm we were getting at home, so I took him at his word and kept shopping! But today, no storms as promised, but it was hot and humid and almost tropical.

Back to Christmas

I had mentioned that I was blogging every day and I would revist something about Christmas each day, so here's a memory from 1967. This was one of the pages that I put into my family history book. So many memories. We didn't have a dining room as such at home, just a kitchen table in a room separated by an island bar from the cooking part of the kitchen. So as a ritual on Christmas day, the kitchen table was moved into the loungeroom and we would have lunch next to the Christmas tree. We did that every single year that I remember until only recently when a new big dining table replaced the old kitchen table.

There's me below, with the little pink hat on in the blue dress. And my brother (who is now 43) in the bouncinet. I don't even know how to spell that. And Christmas wrapping galore. Oh and my nanna on the right there, she passed away when I was young so I only really have memories of her in photographs. And grandma on the left there next to mum, she passed away in 2007. And my dad there at the head of the table. He loved Christmas so much.

This is why I scrap. This is why I want to preserve these memories, so we never have to wonder who is in the photographs, what they are doing, all those little details that get lost over time. This goes right to the essence of why I do this.

All products here from Designer Digitals, but unfortunately I don't know what I used, this was from so long ago.

Flip! Gotta blog!

Making it a hat trick ... just. It's still Friday isn't it? LOL

I wonder if anyone can spot a difference in my blog tonight?

Anyone?

Anyone at all?

Just wondering.

Here's another Christmas photo I found some time ago that made me smile, obviously being because of my brass band past.

Quick, press save, before Saturday arrives! ha.

Two for two

Haven't blogged two days in a row for quite some time!

Today's Christmas event was me visiting Toy World during my lunch break. Holy crap! Was that a place I was wishing I was somewhere else. There were kids running around everywhere, there was so much noise and squealing, mothers completely on edge, a line that nearly went out the door at the cash registers, and I was standing in the checkout wishing the ground would open up and swallow me whole, but I had made it that far, I wasn't backing out with my stockpile of goodies. Sooooo glad to get out of there. Even more glad that a few more kidlets have been crossed off my list.

Found this photo on the net last year, absolutely love it. Can you imagine the distraught children at the airport when they see this plane come flying in?

Mike is off at a meeting tonight, so it was a perfect opportunity to sit and really look at a surprise that I have for him for his upcoming birthday, and wrap it while he isn't here. And more importantly right now hide it! I can't wait to give this surprise to him, it's probably the best gift I've ever given him. All will be revealed soon enough - said the woman of mystery! ha.

First day of Summer

Wow, can you believe it, first day of Summer and it's cold and rainy right now. And rain and storms forecast for the rest of the week through the weekend. Gah!

Well after mentioning I was having an overnighter for work in Melbourne, on Monday night I hit the streets armed with a big shopping bag and a list. I was very brave and took a tram! By myself no less! See, that's a very brave thing for me to do because I have this fear I'll get on a tram and end up in woop woop and not know how to get back. Add to that memories of getting on the tram when I was a little girl with my family and dad was trying to get to his seat and the tram took off and he fell. I have this fear of falling in a tram, so I found out I could buy a ticket before hand at the 7-11, so I did that! But I worked it out and soon enough I was in and out of shops, shopping like a wild woman.

Have finished most of the kids shopping now, I bought a few more things online tonight but they're mostly done. Added a few more things to Mike's gifts. I took in the delight of Myer windows, it's the Nutcracker this year, and absolutely gorgeous. And finally with my shopping bag full of goodies and quite heavy on my shoulder I ended up in a restaurant in one of the little arcades. "Table for One" I said. How extremely bold of me. Well I figured it was either that or takeaway in my room, and I was hungry and the smells from the restaurant were delicious. So I ended up having a very yummy meal, and then headed back to the motel on the tram again afterwards, I was an old hand at it by that stage.

How very city-fied I became. Amazing when you are on your own that you just have to have a bit of braveness about you.

Christmas is coming and it's picking up speed!

So have you visited Roadside Designs yet to pick up your first template in the free giveaway they are giving all month. Go forth and say hi and grab yourself the little beauty. You won't want to miss it.

So on with the Christmas theme, I've decided, oh boy, I will live to regret this I'm sure, but I've decided to blog every day in December. It just may get me into the Christmas spirit, you think? And I'm going to revist some of my Christmas pages over the years, and add a few new ones into the mix, who knows what I might come up with. (cross fingers after my grand announcement there that I keep going with this, ha!)

It made me laugh when I remembered this page I did from Christmas 2 years ago. It really is a very unusual thing for us to have the fireplace going in December, but yet here we are two years later, and whilst the fireplace may not be going, I certainly have a thick sweater on right now. Summer people! It's summer! What's going on?

Credits: Goodies from [ksharonkdesigns] twolittlepixels.