How did I miss this?

Before I even start about going back to work, I need to question myself and my tv viewing habits of yesteryear. How on earth I ever missed watching the X-Files??? What was I doing instead? Probably watching the Hardy Boys or Partridge Family, who knows. How on earth did I go through the 80's (I think it was the 80's) without ever seeing one episode of the X-Files?

Stepson number 1 has all 9 or however many series there were of it, totalling about a zillion episodes and he's left them here for us to watch. We're slowly watching our way through series 1. AND I'M HOOKED!!! I actually woke up the other day with the X-Files theme song in my head. How hooked is that?

And I'm loving giggling at Scully's fashions - those big big shoulder pads. What a crack up.

As for work, oh it's been hard having the alarm wake me up these past two mornings. And soon enough, I think probably by about 10am on Monday morning, I felt that my 4 weeks off was merely a dream. Oh well. Roll on the next lot.

Alright now you are all sworn to secrecy here, absolute total secrecy. Can I count on you? Since I'm talking about the 80's I am daring to show a layout I've made for the family album which has pictures of me when I was 19 and with a very very bad perm. I have been reliably informed that "don't worry, we ALL had bad perms in the 80's" but I'm not so sure. This one was a shocker.

Promise not to laugh will you? I did say this album will have the good AND the bad !!

Credits here.

You know when I was putting these photos together and working out the date I did a few other calculations and worked out that in these pictures my mum was exactly the same age as I am now. (GULP). We always think our parents are so old don't we (I say that with the utmost respect) but looking back and thinking heck, when we were on our cruise, mum was my age now. I never think of her like that. We forget they were us once.

And with that I'm off to bed!

Last day

Last day of freedom! Back to work tomorrow. Early to bed early to rise and all that jazz. I know I'll soon be back into routine and these last four weeks will seem like but a memory. Oh well, that's how it goes doesn't it, to pay the bills.

I still have Australian Idol to look forward to tonight. It's quite windy out there, stepson number 1 is stopping in for lunch on his way back to Melbourne, I always worry about him on his motorbike in A. rain, B. wind, C. traffic. I guess that covers the lot doesn't it, it's just a motorbike thing.

The best thing about being on a creative team for digi scrapping is that the designers are always open for new ideas, what we think would be a great addition to the shop. How lucky are we, it's like Christmas - we write a wish list and get it answered. I had suggested to Sharon a hardware pack and poof, there it is. And I love love love it. Lots of fun things there to add dimension to your pages. Click on the picture to take you to the shoppe.

So I had to dig into my photographs for a shed page. I thought I'd done a pretty neato page here, a nice one of father and son hard at work in the shed, father teaching son the intracacies of a doo-dad-thingamybob-whoosawatsit-loud thing. I think that's the proper name of it. And Mike took one look at the page and said "what on earth are there gumleaves doing in my shed?!?!?!" I told him a bit of literary licence goes a long way with these pages and get over it. ha

Credits here.

What is it with boys and their sheds anyway? We have a huge shed, absolutely HUGE. It needs to be as Mike works here from home, but I take one step in there and there's crap everywhere. Oh yes his beloved machines are lined up beautifully in their spots. The old fish and chip shop closed down here in town years and years ago and when they were demolishing the insides Mike decided the fish and chip shop counter, you know those long long long counters, would make a great workbench. Must say he has made it work. I won't even go into the trouble we had getting it to our house and in the shed, eeek.

I did play a little joke on him when I moved up here. As my furniture and things were being moved in I took a little walk round the shed, rubbed my hands together, and said "so which part of it do I get?". The look on his face was priceless, wish I had my camera handy.

Never mind the cobwebs and sawdust in the shed, give me a craft area and a computer and I'm happy as larry.

It is raining cats and dogs out there

It's absolutely teeming (or should that be teaming???) down at the moment. Where I live here I'm sure it's a rain belt. Sometimes the rain starts so quickly that it's like someone up there has turned on a tap and then just as quickly turns it off again. And when it rains, it rains hard. It really doesn't give credence to the state being in drought at the moment. I've often said if they built a reservoir here we'd be able to service the whole of Victoria I'm sure.

Funnily enough though it was beautiful and sunny this morning, one of the neighbours was even mowing their lawn, and now it's grey, dismal and raining. That's the way the weather is in this neck of the woods. I've never known anything quite like it.

Well this is my last official day off work, apart from the weekend of course. There's four weeks of your life you won't get back! I've thoroughly enjoyed myself, I'm such a home body and I do love to potter. Oh how to get paid to do this huh? Next week I'll be back on the talking books and driving that dismal road 100 kilometres every day to get to work and back. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

I have been able to make huge inroads into this family album. I've actually set a Word document up and put a table in it with side to side book pages and put thumbnails of each layout where it would sit in the book, so I can see where the gaps are and more particularly which side the binding will be on, don't want to lose any precious journalling.

I was able to dig out some fabulous old photographs from when our family home was being built so have put together a page for the book. I've covertly asked mum a few leading questions about the house, gosh she's going to get a giggle when she sees her words being read back in this book when she gets it.

Credits here.

This is the only family home I've known, mum and dad built it in 1963 and mum is still there today. It's me that's moved from pillar to post since I've left home! I took a nice pic of the house the other day when I was down there so I'll do an updated version for the back of the book I think, so many changes, there's no fence now, the driveway and a bit to the side got tiled when we had three cars that needed parking, then a ramp was put in at the front when dad had trouble walking. But the feel of the house is the same, because it's my family home.

Doing the count down

I hate it when you are at the tail end of your holidays and you start doing a count down - 6 days to go, 5 days to go and now I'm up to 4 days to go of lovely days off before Monday looms and I'm back at work. Where did that four weeks go? Hmmmmm.

Oh I know, lots of pottering and cooking and scrapping and knitting and shopping and coffee and caking and birthdaying and sewing and visiting and chatting and just generally doing anything that I darn well pleased and it's been wonderful.

So I've had a couple of days down at mum's and whilst down there I visited with my brother and scanned the last of the family slides, all 242 of them! whew. It took a total of 4 and a half hours, non-stop. But they are done now. At last. Now I have some of the missing years so will be able to fill those pages in the family album. Hooray.

I must say that our photographic skills led a lot to be desired, it seems that the younger we were the better the quality photograph, these middle years seem to have a lot of not so great, not so clear not so wonderful shots, I'm thinking perhaps we graduated from the box brownie to an instamatic which wasn't all that great. Can't beat those old box brownies.

Whilst I'm thinking of scrapping, and if you are a digi scrapper, I wonder if you realise that Sharon of [ksharonkdesigns] has a fabulous grab bag out. Let me tell you, you won't be disappointed. Beautifully distressed paper, fun doodles, a fabulous calendar, oops have I said too much. All that and more for only $3. Here's the link to twolittlepixels. Go grab a bargain as it's not for too much longer.

Here's another page for the family album, love this white paper which may just be in a certain grab bag I've mentioned (whistles innocently).

Credits here.

How cute were my brother and I, playing on the trike? ha. I am beyond guessing years at the moment so I haven't put one on, but it's the same day as the "nursie" layout judging by our look and the clothes we have on.

Let's get real ... literally

I am meaning reality TV. Okay so you know my dirty little secret from my last post. Tonight I was in heaven.

First round results for Australian Idol and whilst I really like Sophie I don't think she'll last the distance against the rest with the calibre of singing they have shown so far. I will go out on a limb and say that Wes and Mark will be in the final with Wes the ultimate winner. Let's see how I go with that one.

As for the rest of my evening, the last episode of Project Runway Australia. If you haven't watched it look away now. Go Juli !!! She was my pick right from the start, flawless, gorgeous gowns and she seems nice as well, no back-stabbing (that I can remember), just lots of giggles and perfect outfits.

Commiserations over the weekend for any 'woods fans out there. Mum of course is devastated. She is one-eyed Collingwood through and through, came from growing up part of her childhood in the suburb I think. Must tell you a funny story from quite a few years ago now. Remember those life size cardboard cut outs you might see from time to time at sports stores? Dad happened to know the owner of a sports store in Geelong and they were clearing out some and one was a Collingwood footballer, I have no idea who it was now, and he gave it to mum. She proudly displayed it in the front window of the house for all the world to see, there was a footballer standing in the front room. It was quite the talk of the street.

Except ...

Many times when I went over to mum and dad's to visit, I would turn the footballer up on his head and stand him upside down. Mum would have no idea until they maybe got in the car later on in the day and were backing out and she had a view of upside down legs in the front window of the house.

Ahhh memories!

So in honour of mum and alas all those 'woods fans out there, I'll show you a page I have done for the family album.

Credits here.

Today I am 40 ... plus GST

te he. Yes that way I can get to be 40 again really can’t I? For those not from Aus and who don’t know, GST is Australia’s 10% Goods & Services Tax. So there you go, do your math!

I have been very spoilt. Yes some men bring flowers, some bring chocolates, but mine brings lots and lots of more RAM for my computer. The way to a girl’s heart. He even wrapped it up and told me I had to be very very careful. I took one look at it (you know what I mean, a bit of the doo dads of the innards of a computer) and said “what is it?” because it was just a computer part to me hahaha, but when he told me what it was I jumped for joy. He's already put it in and everything is running just that much faster. ~~sigh~~

There was quite a start to the morning though and I've flagged fast throughout the day. I woke at 5.30am, a combination of the Bo the cat walking on me and the torrential rain and wind that was bucketing the house (tin roof and all). So in my sleep induced haze took the cat to the backdoor as she wanted out and she took one look out there and thought better of it. Grrrrr. Back to bed with me.

10 minutes later meow meow meow, she decides that yes she does want out (see our cat is too hoity toity to use the kitty litter, she has a spot in the backyard she calls her own). So muddled my way to the back door and out she went. I decided at that moment she could stay out. Back to bed with me ... yawn.

At 6.30am Molly the dog decides that she might like to start her day and go out. She comes to the side of the bed, shakes her head so that her collar will jingly jangle. When that doesn't wake me (I'm pretending to still be asleep, if you ignore it, it will go away won't it?) so she decides to thump her head up and down on the bed next to me. Okay okay, up again, wander to the door, bump into some walls, and out she goes. Back to bed with me for what? the third time!

Another 10 minutes and Mike decides to snore like there was no tomorrow, like a thousand buzz sores had started up in the house, like we were being attacked by killer bees.

So I decided to get up at that stage and put the kettle on and do some knitting. Arrrrrggghhh.

Happy Birthday to me. What a start to the day.

We have been out for a lovely lunch though, and he surprised me with some friends coming around yesterday when a birthday cake was produced. See, the surprise being the birthday cake the day before the birthday. At least he remembered this year, but shhhh, we won't talk about that year, even though I remind him from about a week before my birthday each year now, hahahaha.

So I decided to do a very self-indulgent scrapbooking page, it will be fun to look back on to see how things change over the years. So go to it, this is me, at 40 plus GST.

Credits here.

Yikes!

I have a confession to make. My cat is a d.r.u.g.g.i.e. (I don't want to put that as one word for fear google bots will pick it up and I'll get wierdos visiting my very tame little blog).

Last night was pool night. Every Tuesday night she must know, she hears the car pull up the drive and waits patiently by the door. For what you might ask? My chlorine soaked towel! She LOVES it. I'm not kidding, I will take a picture of her one of these days. The routine used to be that as soon as I went to the bathroom to take a shower she'd scoot into the bathroom too and spend the next five minutes luxuriously rolling about on my towel. I thought this was quite funny and it happened every Tuesday night. Ahh, whatever floats her boat right?

Then I mentioned it to one of the girls from the pool and she told me chlorine is like crack for cats! OH MY! I'm enabling her, hahahaha. Has anyone else had similar experiences with their cats and the smell of chlorine, I'd love to know.

Designer Digitals have a fun challenge each week called the iTunes challenge where they get a record/CD cover and challenge people to do a layout using it as inspiration. I thought I'd give it a try this week. You can see the CD cover here, Death Cab for Cutie's Forbidden Love ep. And this is my take on it of beautiful step-daughter no. 2, one of the pictures I took on Father's Day. Yes, she is the eclectic one, can you tell? I love her to bits.