Waiting waiting

Mike is off somewhere in town coin detecting and I'm waiting for him to return. I have a roast chicken ready to serve. Why oh why do I pick the hottest days of the year to make a roast, I'll never know. It has been a stinker here today.

I've had the doggy pool out and Lucky loved bounding in and out of it, making big splashes. It was fun to watch. Molly stayed inside most of the day with the AC on. She's done it hard today.

And me? I've scrapped! :-)

Here's the next two instalments to my Project 52 - week 3 and week 4 for your viewing pleasure. Oh and the bridge, the flood waters didn't do that. This is the old bridge that is still standing, but fenced off. I was leaning over the fence to take the photograph, not standing precariously on a wooden plank, I assure you.

Credits Designer Digitals.

Oh and yes, we are one of the very few houses in town that have a flag pole. I'm always a bit freaked particularly with lightening storms as it's attached up past the pinnacle of our big shed out the back, so it's high enough to be seen flying from the street. It's not really the done thing to have a flag flying in houses in Australia, although I know having been to America and Canada flag flying seems mandatory. Must say though, half the time our flagpole has the Lion Rampant flying (for Scotland) or in December there's usually a Santa Claus flag flying. So don't think I'm being too patriotic!! te he.

Another week

Heck, this whole going back to work thing really cramps my blogging, huh? Another week has shot past with nary a post from me. Wednesday saw us celebrate Australia Day. Well celebrate may not be the right word, we hung about home all day and did absolutely nothing to celebrate it. Oh I did put up the flag on the flag pole but that's about it.

Wednesday actually we had some really bad news that dear dear friends of ours had been in a really bad car accident the night before, so all day our thoughts were consumed with that and awaiting further news from their son. I won't say too much more here, but suffice to say there will be a very long road of recovery ahead for them which breaks my heart.

On to other things.

A hot day forecast tomorrow which I'm not looking forward to. Although I may get out the doggy pool and see if Lucky will have a flap around in it. Molly doesn't like getting her tush wet and won't sit in the water, funny girl she is. The heat really knocks her about and I'll admit now, us finally getting our air conditioner at the end of 2009 was not just for us, but also for her. Are we crack pots or what? Well we were going to get an AC anyway, we'd put it off a few times just not particularly wanting to look into the pros and cons of different models. But the summer we had early 2009 we just couldn't stand to go through again going into 2010 so that was the impetus we needed. Although not just for us but for the menagerie too, particularly our old girl. I just hate seeing her suffer through the heat.

Mike took some fun photographs of Molly and I on Christmas Day which of course ended up in a scrap page. I had just given her some new tennis balls as a Christmas present and she promptly rolled over on her back for a tummy rub. She's quite prone to this position!

Credits: Designer Digitals

Lucky, on the other hand, was off somewhere playing with his frisbee, which as of this weekend has been demolished, the middle had been chewed out like a donut. Oh well, it's lasted a month, that's not too bad!!!!

G'night.

Well that was the week that was

Woosh, where did that week go? I went back to work on Monday, by mid-morning my 4 weeks off were but a memory. I'm now back into routine, actually it's not so bad. I get so out of routine while I'm on holidays. Now I'm back on the straight and narrow with my diet, with my time, and all that goes with it. Although my blog posting suffered! Can't win them all.

Last night saw us seeing one of Mike's all time idols in Melbourne. We went to see ... the man! Don't mind the crap photos from my phone camera, I would have taken my big girl camera but I was afraid to have it confiscated from the theatre.

He was sensational. We were in row 10, we were in for a treat! He was so sooooo funny. I've never seen Mike look so forward to a show (being that he doesn't do "live" shows so much). Being that Billy is from Glasgow and Mike is from Glasgow, I think that he thinks they are best friends. Go figure.

Unfortunately Mike was sitting in front of a man who laughed like a horse. Honestly it wasn't necessary, but even before Billy said anything the man started snorting and laughing. Now to be honest I didn't even hear this, perhaps a woman's way of tuning out and concentrating. But it was all Mike could hear, to the point he was listening for horsey laugh instead of the story on stage, so it really disappointed him that he wasn't able to concentrate on Billy. I wish he had said something to me as I would have swapped seats, but that's just like Mike to suffer in silence.

Having said that though, the thrill of seeing him up close was enough, he spoke, told yarns, told tales for 2 and a half hours non-stop, no interval. It was amazing and he had us rivetted.

Long live Billy Connolly. He's an absolute legend.

Hot, steamy and rainy

There you go, that's the weather forecast right now at 10.30pm. It's hot, it's still hot, although if I sit out on the front porch (and get attacked by mozzies) there is a nice breeze. It's raining. It's been raining most of the day. And it's steamy. It's going to be another horrible night for sleeping. We had the fan on most of the night last night, there's a 2 hour timer on it. I swear I slept for 2 hours and then once it went off, I woke and turned it back on again, all night.

Still watching the devastating floods in Queensland. It's all so surreal seeing it on telly. I can't imagine the heartache. Mike's two uncles and cousin in Brisbane are up higher so they are okay. My thoughts keep turning to the animals. I looked at our menagerie today and wondered that if an inland tsunami hit us, with no warning, what the heck would we do.

Obviously we'd climb up onto the roof. As luck would have it we have a ladder in the porch area, Mike got it set up recently and can't fold the darn thing back up, it's stuck, so I'm calling it a bit of hardware garden art! But I can't imagine getting Molly up onto the roof. Mike said we would make a sling out of a bed sheet, but quite frankly I think she's made of sterner stuff than a bed sheet would hold. I don't do well in a panic situation, my mind would all be a muddle. So my thoughts are with everyone going through the heartache.

There's been appeals and lots of collections for the flood victims, and there will be lots of collections in the towns and cities to come, and I would urge everyone to contribute, as we have done. But close to my heart, I would urge you to also think about donating to the RSPCA of Queensland who have a special appeal out for the flood affected animals.

In scrapping news, continuing on with Project 52, here's week 2 for your viewing pleasure. Remember I am selecting a photo I have taken during the week and combining it with a quote from Confucious. Heck I have trouble spelling that man's name! The lavender in our garden is on its last legs, I took this yesterday, but now looking at it with all the rain today, the lavender has near on turned brown. Sorry bees, I think your days here are numbered.

Credits Designer Digitals.

And with that I'm off to bed, for a hot and fitful sleep I'm afraid.

My last week of holidays

Then back to the grind stone. I am so loving being able to get up and have the day at my feet. That doesn't sound right, but you know what I mean.

Yesterday we went to the other side of Melbourne to a funeral, Mike's Uncle had passed away. It was so moving, but not for what you would expect. The immediate family members all had a yellow rose either in their hair, on their lapel, etc. Then in walks one of the sons with this huge german shepherd with a yellow rose on its collar. I didn't realize Mike's Uncle who I had met only twice had a german shepherd, a darling old huge one. He sat in the front row laying with his head on his paws in drop position throughout the whole service at the funeral chapel with the immediate family. It was amazing, he looked so sad, like he knew. It was like Greyfriars Bobby, if you haven't seen that movie, please do look it up, amazing.

When they played certain songs ('Unforgettable' was one) the dog’s ears pricked and kept pricking around, obviously a song that Mike's Uncle played a lot at home. Then at the end the curtain went around the coffin and the son let the dog stand up and the dog walked immediately over to the funeral director and nuzzled him, almost as if to say thank you. Stupid I know. But it was just amazing. And then he went to each family member, the three sons and their respective children, in the front two rows and nudged them all for a pat, like kind of solace. Crazy but true. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.

So bravo to the funeral home to allow this to happen. This dog was Mike's Uncle's constant companion and one of the sons will take him in now. Which of course got me to talking to Mike on the way home (oh joy for Mike) "what will happen if we both die at the same time, what will happen to Molly and Lucky and Bo". Don't you just love these types of conversations with a captive audience.

And then with the horrible floods in Queensland it gets me to thinking, of course to the loss of life, but to the animals. And my thoughts go to if we were to be up there and having to scramble up onto a roof with the waters rising, how do you hang on to your dogs and cats.

As we watch the drama unfold in Queensland my thoughts go out to everyone.

So making me all melancholy tonight, it made me want to scrap Miss Bo Bo. I don't know how she does it, but 6am on the knocker she wakes me up. It's like she can tell time. And then even when we went onto daylight saving and wound the clocks forward, she still woke me up at 6am. How was that possible? Defies logic.

Using creashens beautiful new kit Simply Swell #1 available right now from Catscrap.

It's cooled down

My daily weather report. Yesterday was a hottie. Today it's cool. And I'm sniffing and sneezing like there's no tomorrow, my nose has blown up like rudolphs, and my eyes are watering. This is when people catch the dreaded lurgy isn't it, with the quick change of weather. Actually it's lightly raining out there now too.

Here I am, my word for the year is simplify, and I'm blogging daily. Where does that fit into the equation? I tried to blog daily in December and wrote it off as a bad joke. Now I'm not trying and I am. Go figure.

Over at Designer Digitals I've been putting together the Saturday Scraplift for the blog over the last few weeks, with Lynn being on a well deserved break over the holiday season. I've been having fun scouring the gallery for just the right page for people to lift, it's been a lot of fun. This is the part of scrapping I find really enjoyable, the scraplifting. Seeing where a page starts and where it eventually ends, more often than not nothing like the original. I love the tangents that people go on. Lots of fun.

Here's a page I did for this week's Scraplift. I was very lucky, Trevor sent me a memory stick thingy with loads of photos he had scanned from mum. Yay, preserved forever! And I really went back on a walk through time looking at them. And realised a valuable lesson on the quest for the perfect photograph. I've come to the conclusion that every photograph is a perfect photograph, a gift to ourselves, preserving the moment forever. How lucky we are to be able to do that.

So whilst of course I, along with the rest of everyone taking photographs, will still try to compose the perfect shot, everyone looking at the same time, no antennas or street posts coming out of people's heads in the back drops, I won't be devastated if I get ordinary every day shots as well. Sure I have some rip roaring photos of my grandma, beautiful beautiful shots where she's looking as elegant and as posed as she could be. But this one spoke to me. All the memories in conjured up.

Credits Designer Digitals.

Now off to plan some sort of food for dinner, not that I feel like eating at the moment.

Just when you thought it was safe

Along comes another Christmas page!!!! I fear my sister-in-law will flip out when she sees this photo. Mike ... err Santa ... was handing out presents with his family and Mike ... err Santa ... demanded a kiss from everyone. Just as his sister went in to give him a kiss Mike ... err Santa ... went "Aaaargh" and pulled away.

Urrgh. Brothers and Sisters. Never changes no matter how old they get.

Credits Designer Digitals.


It was another hot one today. I fear my hydrangeas have gone where no man has gone before. They are dried up and shrivelled, it's not pretty. After dinner tonight I decided to plant some more plants though. Mind you, I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm just plonking them in, watering, sprinkling some magic stuff around (the container promises I will get lots of flowers) and cross fingers and hope for the best.

I so much wanted a Chinese Lantern and planted one some time ago and unfortunately the snails ate it almost to the ground. I haven't given up hope though. Where one of our trees have been pulled out, we're not getting a bit of sun to that area of the garden, and need something in place of the tree, but not so big as the tree was. So I've gone and bought another Chinese Lantern, a deep red this time. I've sprinkled sawdust all round it, I guess snails don't like getting splinters in their belly, I'm having better luck with the sawdust in keeping the snails at bay.

I also planted some other flowers and for the life of me I can't think what they're called, that's what kind of hopeless gardener I am. I think they are Zinnias. Actually now having typed it I'm sure they are. Cross fingers they grow too.

I really should be writing down the name of all the flowers I've planted so I can keep track of what they are. Why didn't I think of that months ago? Maybe I need to take a photograph of each flower and put it on my blog and have a "name that flower" competition! That might be the only way I'll be able to keep track.

Hot night tonight, looks like we'll be having the fan on all night. Just as I've started getting the sniffles. Figures.

It's a hottie

It's a hottie here today. Mike decided to see what "the boys" (the gold detecting crew) were doing up north and went for a drive up there. He was back this afternoon feeling quite ill. Hmmm no doubt. He was wearing his flannel shirt still and hadn't drunk water at all. I asked if he'd had anything to drink. Errr coffee. Coffee isn't water my friend. He's now conked out on the couch. I would dare say he got a bit of heat stroke, but he says the 3 little bits of gold were worth it.

I did say you weren't out of the woods yet with Christmas pages. I have finally put the photographs from Christmas breakfast with the kids onto a double page. Lots of fun using Christmas goodies on pages I must admit, and I'm very spoilt for choice at Designer Digitals.

I have split the page in two with the journalling on the second, I always have so much to say on my pages. Which I think is a good thing. Better than in 50 years time someone getting a shoe box full of our photos and not knowing what was going on with them, right?

Credits Designer Digitals.

And so the year begins

I'm not quite ready to get myself back into a Project 365 frame of mind, and bearing in mind my word was SIMPLIFY for this year, that would probably be anything but if I were to do that. But I did want to commit to a project, one in which I would enjoy and help me again back on the road to taking more photographs, something I really enjoy.

So I'm jumping on the Project 52 bandwagon. I'm taking a photo a week, well actually probably still taking a photo a day, but picking my favourite for the week, heck it may even be the first one I take during the week, but the photo needs to speak to me and with a bit of luck make me smile.

Now for the twist. This is going to be 52 weeks of Wisdom, with a bit of help from Confucious. Front cover and Week 1 here for your viewing pleasure so you can see the theme I'm going with. I've made templates for the pages (see ... I am keeping in with my simplify word) and I hope you'll join me on my year long quest, keep me honest, keep me going, help me get to the finish line.

Credits Designer Digitals.


Oh and if you think the cover is an odd shape for my square book, it's been shaped ready for printing including the fold over wrap part for Shutterfly.

Big day

Today was stepson number one's 21st birthday. Quiet lad that he is he didn't overly want a big celebration so a family BBQ it was. We are one of those extended families that work. I have no qualms of being around Mike's ex-wife and her family, her dad and mum treat me wonderfully, the kids will hug me in front of their mum, which I thought to start with must be hard for her to see, but everyone is okay with our family as it is. It works. So we've spent a very pleasant day at an extended family BBQ.

We gave Wes a beautiful gold St. Christopher medallion on a gold chain, to keep him safe. Mike had also had it blessed by the local priest. Plus I got one of my layouts printed on canvas from Snapfish. Turned out fabulous. All thanks to a friend Doris.

Situation was that this layout was on my computer hard drive that had crashed and I lost it. No way no how could I go through that whole Andy Worhol thing again, but I had previously uploaded the page when I did it to Shutterfly. Doris suggested a way to get the layout back from Shutterfly, albeit at a slightly lesser quality, I nabbed the photo part, rebuilt the page to figure in the wrap around section of the canvas, uploaded to Snapfish, hit order, and it was with me within 5 days. Fabulous service. And it printed on canvas wonderfully.

I did say I was not quite finished with the Christmas pages, I still have more photographs to scrap, and still a few more pages to show.

Niece and nephew here. We had an early Christmas that week before with Mike's father, sister and family and I snuck the two kids outside to get a nice photo. This page will end up in a calendar for Mike's sister at the end of the year. The calendar was such a hit last Christmas that I think it's going to be an annual gift now.

Credits Designer Digitals.


Still have just under 2 weeks holidays from work left. Have I said before I loooooove not going to work.

Simplify

Don't think you're out of the woods yet, I'm still not done with my Christmas pages, but I diverge just slightly, being that we are at the start of the year, I want to start the year off right. Ali Edwards has had this fabulous project where she picks a word for the year. I half heartedly did it last year. This year I'm committed.

My word for 2011 is : SIMPLIFY.

I want to simplify my life. I look around and see clutter. I try to be organised and find myself completely disorganised. I buy gifts in advance and then forget where I've hidden them. I love my job but I just want to go to work, do my work and come home. I don't want to be involved in office politics. I want to love purely. I want to transform my life. Simplify my life. Live a peaceful existence and just be. Me and Mike. Just us. Simply.

Oh it sounds so poetic doesn't it? But I'm committed. Either that or I'll try that hard with it I'll *be* committed ! Just to remind me I've made a page, I'm going to print it out and put it on the wall above my computer desk.

Credits Designer Digitals.


So if you do a similar thing, tell me what your word is going to be? And if you've never heard of this before, perhaps I should challenge you to try it.

Happy New Year

Well happy new year, 2011, the year of new beginnings and possibilities.

New Years Eve was a stinker of a hot day for us here. We had a quiet one, apart from midnight when Mike did his usual Auld Lang Syne on the bagpipes outside. The neighbours all expect it now. A party up the road disbursed and they came down and stood on the naturestrip and enjoyed an impromptu concert. One fellow even ducked home and came back with a lovely bottle of red wine for Mike for his trouble, he enjoyed it so much. It was fun. Molly started singing along, or should I say howling along to the bagpipes. Too funny.

So wherever you are in the world reading this, I hope that 2011 will be a cracker of a year for everyone.

I'm still finishing up some Christmas pages. I've done a double page here from the photographs I took when my brother and family came down before Christmas. I did a bit of head surgery on Kim and changed her head with one from a similar photo taken a few seconds afterwards. Worked out perfectly.

Oh and about the hats! I bought them knowing they were coming that weekend and knowing I wanted to get a photograph like this. But by golly they were as stiff as a board. I laugh every time I see this photo and that hats are standing straight up!

Credits Designer Digitals.


Very much looking forward to tomorrow. My digi scrapping friend Esther is coming by this way and is stopping in. Am so looking forward to catching up with her again in person.