Whiz!

Tell me it's not only me? Are the weeks going by so incredibly fast for everyone? Is it just that we keep getting busier and busier? I'm sure winter only just started yesterday and here we are already over halfway through June. This is craziness.

I'm busy downloading a grab bag at the moment so can blog while I'm doing that. I just bought a Collab grab bag from Faith True and Creative Confusion from Live Out Loud. To be honest I don't know the "names" of designers in the digi scrap world. Only the ones I love and use all the time. I don't tend to go out of my box and get other stuff to play with. But I saw the previews on the grab bag reveal blog ... yes yes and I do read the last page of a book first too. I know the idea of grab bags is to get a surprise, but I'm not big into surprises when they cost money. And I'm thrilled with what the $4 bag contained.

Now onto my favourite designers and one of those is creashens. How lucky I am to play with her fun things. She created this amazingly beautiful kit called BelievHer. And I have the song completely stuck in my head too. ha. The kit really is something special, click on the pic to take you to the shoppe for a better view.

So I have this pic that my sister-in-law had taken of my niece which I think is just the most magic of pictures ever. So I can't take credit for this at all. But I put together a page which I love and which of course will be going into my sister-in-law's book next year ... shhhh it's for her 40th birthday. I can say that because she doesn't read this blog. te he.

I have mixed my song lyrics here ... "I'm a believer" and "Dream a little dream" but hey they both fit and there's no rules in scrapping right?

Credits here.

Sunday night

Not my favourite time of the week. The weekend is nearly over and back to work tomorrow. But I do have one thing yet to look forward to, that yummy smelling roast pork which is cooking in the oven right now. It smells divine.

So the trivia night. Do you really want to know? I should just learn to keep my mouth shut.

They split us onto different tables, a good way to meet others and not stack tables with brainiacs. So I had this great idea that whichever table lost out of Mike's table and my table, then out of the two of us the loser would have to make the winner breakfast in bed all weekend.

Do I slink away now when I tell you we lost by 10 points to Mike's table????

So not only do I have a flat as a pancake sultana cake, having to buy supermarket made lamingtons to replace it, but I've had to make bacon and eggs and toast both mornings. Enough! I will never open my big mouth again. Remind me next year won't you? ha

So I thought I'd delve into the lost (but now found) slides once again and do another page for mum's family history book for christmas. Here is me before I even had a little brother, playing in the backyard with my toys. The year was 1965.

Credits here.

I'm so pleased with the soft look I've created here, thanks to both Megan's and Sharon's papers, perfect for "little people pages". Click on the pics below to take you

Oh the shame ...

We are going to a trivia night in town tomorrow night and it's "bring a plate". Yikes. You know living in the country one of the biggest lessons I've learnt is "bring a plate" doesn't mean going to the supermarket and picking up a packet of Tim Tams and scattering them on a plate. No siree Bob!

It is "bring a plate Olympics". The lighter, the bigger, the more cream, the fluffier, it's all looked at by everyone and horror of horrors if your plate doesn't get finished, or heaven forbid doesn't even get touched, well you may as well hang your head in shame as you leave carrying your still fully laden plate home with you.

That's where a husband and his mates come in and I MAKE them go eat my stuff, haha!

So tonight I set about making my *easy-peasy-never-fail-can-make-it-with-my-eyes-closed-Sultana-cake* in readiness for tomorrow night. Yes true, it does have a name that long! Except as the cake was happily baking and I was washing the cooking dishes and then I put the containers of flour, sugar, etc. away ... what did I spy on my kitchen bench. The baking powder. Which I had forgotten to put in the cake.

Flip. The cake (using plain flour of course) has come out as flat as a pancake.

Looks like I'll be ducking down to a bakery out of town, cutting up a few bits and pieces and pretending tomorrow night. Expect an Academy Award performance, ROFLMAO!


The peeps I want to know more about meme

A little bit ago Bells tagged me and I'm still yet to reply, so here tis.

The rules: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1) What was I doing ten years ago?
Hmmm 1998 and I was (cough cough) 33 years old. To be honest I wasn't doing anything that exciting. I was living in a house on my own. Oh hang on, that's the year my life changed I do believe. I got my very first computer in 1998 and hooked up to the internet. And a huge beautiful world came right to me in my living room. I have made some amazing friends through this medium and you know who you are because I don't give this blog address out to just anyone.

2) What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today:
Well considering the day is just about over I can tell you what non-work to do things I did today-
1. Visited Spotlight at lunchtime to check out the Cleckheaton Vintage Hues yarn on sale.
2. Short walk with Molly when I got home, it's getting dark way too soon.
3. Cooked dinner.
4. Scrapbooked.
5. Made a cake, if you deign to call it that. Hmmmph.

3) Snacks I enjoy:
Chocolate
Sourdough bread toasted with butter and honey
Chicken potato chips

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Quit work.
Travel.
Spoil our families.
Build the house of our dreams.
And then open up my own shop, something I would dearly love to do.

5) Places I have lived:
Born bred and lived the majority of my life in Geelong until I married and moved to a little town in country Victoria, population around about 1000.

6) Jobs I have had:
Legal Secretary
Executive Support
Human Resource

7) Peeps I want to know more about:
I will just say anyone who may read my blog and who might like to do this, feel free, but let me know so I can read more about you.


And last but not least ...

I really have been slack in showing off my pages so here's one a did a short while back. This will go in my shhhhh sister-in-law's birthday album for next year. Isn't my nephew cute, and yes, this is the real deal colour of the icecream.

Credits here.

They say "JUMP" ...

... and a dog says "HOW HIGH" ??

Shall get to that in a minute. What a great great long weekend I had ... oh and happy birthday Queen Lizzie!! Love that we get a day to celebrate a birthday, hey any reason for cake right?

The best part was mum coming down. I picked her up from the railway station on Friday after work. The train pulled in and I could see her in the carriage with a grin from ear to ear. A big fear conquered. See, mum hasn't taken a train on her own in 44 years. She always had dad by her side. And the fact that she doesn't drive either, the only way she ever could get up to visit me previously was if she got a ride with someone, and once dad got sick she stopped coming because she wouldn't leave him at home alone and he couldn't travel.

Well I think she felt like Rocky when she arrived. She had done it, her confidence was brimming and she could take on anything. I'm so proud of her.

We had a great weekend and on Saturday went to the Casterton Kelpie Festival. I was in dog heaven. Dogs as far as the eye could see. And what an amazing dog a kelpie is too, eyes like a hawk, they would do anything for their owner, and such power.

The street parade was so fun. One of the parade participants were three ducks wandering down the road with a kelpie rounding them up. It was hysterical. If they only slightly came one way the kelpie would have them scuttling back the other. His eyes didn't leave them for a minute. And I can honestly say that I've never been to a parade like this. The flower group gave mum a lovely posy of flowers as they came down the road. Oh and the CWA were handing out scones and jam and cream to the parade goers. Only in the country right.

But the best, the very best, was the high jump. It ended up being equal first, they couldn't split the dogs. They jumped ... are you ready for this ... 2.62 meters!!! That's 8 feet 6 inches to my American friends. Is that insane?!?!?!!? A little dog like that jumping that high. We were in awe watching them.

Here's a picture of one of the dogs on the day, bear in mind it went up another two planks to get to the final jump. It still blows my mind.

And because I'm just so proud of my mum, I had to do a page for the family album I'm making her for Christmas.

Credits here

Using the new kit Linen Fields by creashens. Isn't it pretty? Click on the pic to take you to twolittlepixels.

Sometimes things don't turn out as planned

But they can be even better.

This weekend there's a girl's weekend planned in Brisbane. Yes, a long way to go for a weekend, but these are dear dear friends and in the initial stages I was going to go. But then a planned BBQ with overseas relatives of Mike's got in the way and I decided to stay home for the opportunity of meeting them. Then the BBQ got changed so I thought I might end up getting away to Brisbane again.

Then mum said, of her own accord, without any pressure from me, 'how about I come up the Queen's Birthday weekend'. YAY YAY YAY, jumping up and down I was. And she's doing it under her own steam and is taking the train here.

So whilst there was an up, then a down, there was definitely another up again.

This is a big thing for mum, her first train ride on her pat malone in 44 years. She's nervous as anything. But my brother will be putting her on the train at one end and I'll be waiting on the platform at the other. Funny how little things we take for granted can send other people into a cold sweat. I know once she's done the journey on her own once, she'll be right. She just needs to take this first step.

Onto digi scrapping. Did you download twolittlepixels' last newsletter, you still can if you as yet haven't, it's still available here. As well as some fabulous freebies inside, there was also a tutorial to make your own blinkie. To date all other instructions I've read on the web had my head spinning and I just couldn't work it out. Until now. I feel really quite clever. So here it is, of course using 2LP products ...

Now back to the lost slides. I had previously created this page, but I had done it in a hurry and had never been quite happy with it. Plus I have since found out that I had the original story wrong. The photos were from 1967 but the story I had told was from 1963. So I ended up rejigging the lot and made it look a lot more vintage, more in sync with the era of the photos.

I tell you, looking at these old lost slides, it's been a journey and a half. Seeing pictures of us that I've never seen before, almost like discovering a past you knew existed but seeing little bits of it for the first time.

Credits here.

Still sniffing and sneezing

You just wanted to know that didn't you? It's just stayed in my head, it hasn't gone to my throat, just that now I look like a red nosed reindeer with my poor raw nose from blowing it. And I just totally want to scratch my eyes out. So it was a no brainer tonight, I ditched my Tuesday night at the pool.

The first episode of Long Way Down was on Austar tonight and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved watching Long Way Round, what an adventure by two mates. So this will be regular Tuesday night viewing from here on in. Thank heavens I'll be home from the pool in time. Oooh found some footage if you want to have a squiz if you have no idea what I'm talking about. Check it out here.

Now scroll back a little bit and remember I mentioned about the slides that had been found in the back of the cupboard in pristine condition, never before seen. Well I've done another page which will go in the ... shhhh ... album I'm making for mum for Christmas about our family over the years and the different stories that made us what we are. I really love the feel of this page and how it turned out which was quite something else to how it started.

Credits here.

Off to bed for me now. Nighty night.

Sunday - a day of sneezing!

Who ever said Sunday was a day of rest? All I've done already this morning is sneeze and blow today, ha! So I'm taking it easy today, NO HOUSEWORK I've decided. I don't need any dust to make me sneeze any further.

Although I did need to report back on the pillow. I've had a great sleep right through the last two nights. I'm amazed. I usually wake during the night, well that might have something to do with the tablets I'm taking why I'm sleeping through, but I'm definitely not waking with a crink in my neck like I usually do.

I did wonder if I'd be able to sleep using only one pillow because I'm a two pillow girl, but surprisingly I have. I'm really impressed. So I don't know whether it's because of the shape cushioning the neck more, or the latex, or the fact I got 30% off at Target which is always good! LOL But it's good.

Must share a layout that I made with Anna's goodies at Studio Anna and a few others thrown in. Lo and behold it ended up being 'page of the week' at Scrapbookgraphics. I was absolutely stunned (and thrilled at the same time).

Credits here.


How lucky our dog and cat are, never being left alone while we're off working, being that my husband works from home. They don't know how good they've got it!

Plans for the rest of the day are to sit quietly and sew. Along with the scrapbooking and knitting socks (which has come to a bit of a standstill mid-sock now that Southern Summer of Socks knitalong as come to an end) I am sewing up a storm of Christmas stockings ready for the end of the year. I've got lots of bottoms done but now need to put cuffs on, my least favourite part. But not much good unfinished.

Might just do a spot of browsing in the latest Ezibuy catalogue first. Yes, you may call me Miss Procrastinator!