Happy Easter

Things I have learnt this Easter:

1. Too much chocolate makes you sick.
2. If you go to the dawn service it will involve a granny nap later in the afternoon.
3. Too much chocolate makes you sick.
4. If you go to the dawn service you will have no energy to do housework or anything else.
5. Too much chocolate makes you sick.
6. You definitely do not need to have dessert in any of the days over easter, oops.
7. Too much chocolate makes you sick.
8. And just for good measure ... too much chocolate makes you sick.


Do you see a theme going on here? Oh dear. I hope your Easter has been enjoyable.

I spent time with my mum yesterday, yes you read right. Our first one on one day in well over a year. We went out for lunch and survived, it was nice. I also spent some time with my in-laws down at the coast seeing their beautiful new house they've built. I'm envious.

Today we went to the Easter Sunday dawn service and had breakfast down at the lake with the rest of the community - hot cross buns, coffee and easter eggs, yes it started early in this household! Tabby and Wes came over during the afternoon which was so nice, and of course never one to miss an opportunity got some nice photos of them with their dad.

However you have spent your day, I hope it was full of love, laughter and fun.

Oh and I was especially proud of my Easter gifts this year, my first hybrid project (apart from printing out in book form), from the computer screen to an Easter present.

And here's a close up:

Credits Designer Digitals.

Printed on card and folded in half and stapled over the top of the bags. I had them lined up on the kitchen bench and Mike came in and said "hey they are cool, where did you buy them?". Ahhhh the ultimate compliment.

Righto, another big day tomorrow for Anzac Day. How will you be spending it?

Forgive me blog

Forgive me blog for I have sinned.
It's been over a month since my last entry.
I've fallen off the face of the earth.
Just that I've not had anything (happy, interesting, wonderful, cheery) to talk about.
My bestie has rung me worried about me not blogging.
I've been sad, very sad.

In a nutshell I had to say goodbye to these amazing, beautiful, smart, funny, loving, cheeky, darling, incredible boys, my nephews. The American nephews I instantly inherited when my brother married my new sister-in-law.

Sadly for all of us, my brother and my SIL have split, with my darling SIL returning to America with the two boys.

These photos were taken on what was probably one of the hardest days both Mike and I have experienced in the last oh so many years. We were able to spent one last day with them before taking them to the airport and in a puddle of tears saying goodbye. Even writing about it now puts a pain in my chest.

David and Matt are two really great kids and they know their Uncle Mike and Aunty Carol are always here for them, no matter what, no matter when.

Life really sucks sometimes. But with the wonder of modern technology messages across the net are easy and we're keeping in touch, so that's a good thing.

So that's what has taken up my thoughts in recent times and it's just been way too painful to blog about.

Hot !

The other night we had the fire going, and now it's turned hot again. I'm sitting here with the fan on, Molly is sprawled out in front of it, so she's feeling it too. We had number one step-son here for dinner and now we're up to choosing a movie to sit down and watch.

I forgot to mention about last Friday night. We went with some friends to a Rock & Roll night. Oh my goodness, what fun! Although I must admit, there was a time I'd bounce back the next day after a rollicking night like that. Not so any more, my knees were shot to pieces!

We danced like there was no tomorrow. There was a rockabilly band and they were terrific. A rock & roll dancing group were in attendance too, all in their big swirly skirts, it was a pleasure to watch. Mike and I did try to copy but ended up with arms twisting wildly and nearly knocking each others heads off as we were trying to twirl. Ahhh, at least we were entertaining.

Here's a recent scrap page I have done, loved the colours of these papers which just lended themselves to B&W photographs. And I'm loving finally being able to scrap a lot of these 2010 photographs that my friend Sam's husband was able to retrieve from my dead hard drive.

My brother and I ... at times when we're together it's like we're kids again, poking each other, teasing each other, silly silly stuff. Usually never a serious photograph, so it's a fluke we got this one, not before a lot of other whacky faces. Oh Lord, the bags under my eyes, you could pack for a holiday in them! ha.

Credits Designer Digitals.


As a final note tonight, my thoughts are with those in Japan at the moment, those with friends and family in Japan, and just the horror that they've experienced. So incredibly tragic.

I'm here!

No I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I'm here, I really am. I've had a horrid few weeks at work, really really busy, frantic, panic making weeks. Not fun! Plus I've had a trip to Melbourne during that time for some training, left home at 5.30am and stepped back in the door at 10pm. Darn that there's only 3 trains a day back here. Well there was some shopping done while I had some free time up there so there was a small bonus.

Last weekend I was asked to photograph a wedding. Eeeek. I did everything I could to get out of it, I don't *DO* this. She kept insisting that she only wanted candid shots, nothing posed. Yeah right, famous last words huh? Until the photos come in and you don't see the photos you were really hoping for. It is an older lady in town, she said she's been there done that, and that's why she only just wanted a representation of the day. She showed me some photos from her daughter's wedding from last year and I thought heck, I could do that, they truly were happy snaps.

So with much trepidation I said yes. Mike was already going to be playing pipes at the wedding. It was a really plush but low key affair, does that make sense? She had it at home, and by home I mean the most amazing gardens you've ever seen. A big marquee out the back with chandeliers no less. No dancing, no cake, just a string quartet and a dinner party afterwards. And after flitting around during the event I think she got what she wanted, it was truly divine.

Except it rained, only during the ceremony. But you roll with the punches right? Here's the happy bride and groom, I think the brolly is a great touch. All the guests were standing on the verandah of the homestead. I'm going to call it a homestead because it really was that much more than a house. And yes, this is her backyard.

She really was radiant throughout. Never wiped that smile off :-)

The reception set up in the marquee.

The menu

I was on the verandah of the house here looking over to the marquee, she had these beautiful tea lights all along the verandah in clusters, it looked all so glowy and inviting.

Okay so I will do better with my blogging, I must I must. I'm about to start on a new scrapping project for a friend and she's given permission for me to post pages here, so I'm quite excited to get this project started. More later.

Sunday oh Sunday how I love you so

Yes I do, I love Saturday too. Oh and Friday night. Don't get me wrong, I like my job, but I so much more love being at home.

Mike has been at a working bee all day, he left at 8am this morning and it's now gone 3pm. I mentioned some posts back that we had some devastating news that some friends had been in a very bad car accident. The working bee was out at their farm to build a fence and feeders for their goats, so that when Mr. C comes home he doesn't have to feed them by hand any more.

I've just been out there and visited and they've done a mammoth job. Mrs. C came home during the week, although not out of the woods yet, but it was so nice to be able to visit with her. She has to wear a brace for the next 6 months. She has a broken sternum, broken rib and a bad crack in her L2 that still has to heal, I must google that to find out exactly where it is. I was able to give her a very gentle hug, and truth be told the hug was for me more so, I have been so worried about them. But she has the resiliance of a country woman of many years, and their healthy living has aided a lot in their recovery. Still a long road ahead of them, but with their many friends and family they will get to the other side.

The Weather

So I guess people talk about the weather when they don't know what to talk about, but honestly the weather is really on our minds of late so it is topical. Thursday night we had the storm to end all storms, fire, brimstone, mother nature threw it all at us. Our power was off for about 3 hours, we had the dogs inside with us, Molly was panicking, Lucky couldn't care a toss, and Bo ended up fronting up the back door a bedraggled wet soaking mess.

So what to do? We'd had our dinner, thank heavens it was leftovers from the night before so I was able to heat it up with the gas oven. We were sitting there listening to the battery radio that is usually in the bathroom.

Me: "I'm bored"
Mike: (silence)

Me: "Want to play a game?"
Mike: "Hmmmm nope"

A moment later...

Me: "Sure? Want to play scrabble, we can do it by candlelight?"
Mike: (gives me "the look" more of exasperation, he really didn't want to play a game).

A moment later...

Me: "Wanna make out?"
Mike: "I REALLY just want to sit here and listen to the radio".

So there you have it. 3AW talk back with Derek Guille is more scintallating than making out with me. We have officially hit the seven year itch! ha.


The Weather

And onto scrapping, the small photographic group I'm playing along with at the moment has had some challenges which I've mentioned in the past. There was a challenge to fill the frame, no cropping afterwards allowed. Goodness knows what the neighbours thought when I lined Mike up outside the shed so I had the cool metal behind him and had the camera lens sooo close to him. I think they're used to strange things with me and my camera by now.

Love the whole manly feeling to this page.

Credits Designer Digitals.

And with that, I must start thinking about what to make for dinner, decisions decisions!

Another weekend gone

Where are the days going? Honestly, this is ridiculous. Life is really fleeting isn't it? We need to grab each day and enjoy otherwise zoom, and it will be gone. I'm sounding a bit tragic aren't I? Not meaning to but it's scary how quickly we start Monday and all of a sudden its Friday night and the weekend is upon us.

I've been doing some fun photographic exercises with a small group of women, it's been a load of fun so far. We have a theme for a week and then go out and snap and then share the photos on flickr. This past week the theme was panning. Have a moving object and follow it in the view finder and click click click as it goes by.

Well what better object than Lucky. Mike was at one end of the yard with his plastic bone toy throwing it to the other. I took about 50 shots in all up and back and up and back and he was so darn quick I've got heads, I've got rear ends, I've got bits of feet and only a few with him in the shot, a lot blurry because I was laughing so much. But I got a couple of okay ones. How fun!

He's certainly focussed on the end result here! Too bad about the toy tyre on the ground in the second shot, nothing that a bit of photoshopping can't make magically disappear though.

So after I finished these shots I thought I needed another subject, Mike to the rescue. He volunteered to run up and down the FRONT yard! But only if he was a superhero. Oh My Lord!!! So we got out the red velvet Christmas Tree skirt so he had a cape, and he grabbed the rasta hat I made him for a fancy dress a few years ago, and all of a sudden RASTAMAN was born!! I don't know what his super hero powers are though.

So he did about 5 laps of the front yard and a couple out the back where the light was better. I can only imagine the eyes peering from the neighbours houses. But no matter, all I could think of was how lucky I was to have a husband who joins in the spirit of the occasion, no matter what. I think we're both as crazy as each other. Until at the end he said no more and was gasping for breath, I thought he was going to have a heart attack.

So I introduce you to ... RASTAMAN! One of the few photos I got that I wasn't falling about laughing.

Onto scrapping...

Lots of fun this weekend at Designer Digitals with their famous quarterly sale, so go grab a bargain. And then of course on Saturday (US time) it's their all day chats, I've been to a few of these chats, surival of the fittest. Sometimes there's hundreds in the chat room, all talking scrapping and the chat moves so fast. Lots of freebies every hour. I'll miss the start because it starts 12midnight hour time.

Here's the timetable, bear in mind it's listed as eastern US time.

8am Package Inspiration with Andrea
9am - Talking Type with CathyZ
10am - Add Flare with Anna
11am - 30MM with Cassie
12pm - Dates, Numbers etc with Elena
1pm - Collageable with Katie
2pm - Felt Friends with Pattie
3pm - iTunes with Mel
4pm - Templates with Kayleigh
5pm - Embellishing with Kathleen
6pm - Scraplift with Lynn
7pm - Family Time with earlofoxford
8pm - Color Challenge with Anke
9pm - Singing Bee with Jesse
10pm - Fitting The Words On The Page with Ali
11pm - Last Call with Randy & Katie

And of course I will show a scrap page I recently did. I was feeling melancholy thinking about my grandma and wanted to scrap photos of her throughout various stages of her life. Blink of an eye, yep, this is how quickly life goes.

Credits Designer Digitals.

Time for bed, over and out.

I have discovered...

When you make a discovery, you just want to share, right? Well I have discovered that licorice and a sweet cup of tea just DO NOT MIX. They are definitely not a match made in heaven. What a horrid taste. I rarely eat licorice and yet Mike decided to bring some home yesterday. I just munched on some and then took a sip of my tea.

GAAAAAAAAAAGGGG !!!!

Not good. Don't recommend it.

Funny old day today. The top of our state is copping it with rain again and yet we've only had a tad of rain here today, and it hasn't been hard, and up to today it's been hot. The world has gone crazy. Let's see, 2011 has brought to us in Australia floods in Queensland and beyond, floods in northern Victoria, bushfire in Gippsland, Cyclone Yasi in North Queensland, locusts are making their way across Victoria and now floods again in North East Victoria.

I said to Mike the other night there's a lesson to be learnt from all of this. Don't piss off a woman.

How so? he asked.

Well as I figure it, Mother Nature is surely pissed with us at the moment bringing her wrath on us like this.

The Garden

Now I do believe I have mentioned once or twice that I am semi - getting into this whole garden caper. Still not enjoying it by a long shot, but I am loving all the colour I have going. I have had a wee bit of a snail problem and much to my dismay have had to replace some plants. I got a great tip from the nursery man to sprinkle sawdust around the base of the plants. He even GAVE me a punnet of petunias he had on sale to get me to try it and if it worked remember him and come back and buy more. Great service that was! Of course I went back.

And it worked a treat. Sure there are some snails making the trek and crossing the sawdust, and might I add probably getting splinters in their bellies trying. But the great majority have given up. Perfect solution seeings we can't put down snail bait because of the menagerie.

But the evening of me first putting the sawdust down, the following photographs resulted. Too too funny seeing Mike out on snail patrol.

Credits Designer Digitals.


Planning dinner tonight, I have two delicious looking porterhouse steaks to cook, baked potato and sour cream and a yummy salad. Doesn't that sound good?