Time I checked in

Hi from Springlike Melbourne.
Finally I think Winter is beginning to end. I have been looking at my summer clothes a bit more closely and even managed a t shirt and cut off jeans today as it was so mild. It is supposed to rain again tomorrow, but here in Victoria that is something to celebrate because the drought has been so bad. Apparently our dams are now at 32% capacity.. that is after the last lot of rain! So I will be happy for rain because that means that maybe we could use our spa bath again instead of having to wipe the dust out. I just can't justify running it when the drought is so serious.
Anyway I am sure you don't want to read about my weather woes. I have just finished a bit of web surfing. I usually start at Ikea Goddess and see if there are any cool freebies, and that leads to blogs which leads to more blogs, which can lead to sales and specials and spending if i am not careful. But not tonight. I actually had a bit of a spend up at the weekend. The big sale at pixelcanvas for their 1st birthday was pretty good and I bought up large. Then in an inspired moment decided to reorganise my vinnie pearce stuff so now have master directories of papers and elements and wordart. I just find her products so versatile that I often mix and match.
I have to admit that when I go web browsing that there is just so much cool scrapbooking stuff out there that I have to really hold myself back. There is always new and amazing kits, and yet I have a hard drive full of amazing kits and I am trying to make a conscious effort to use what I have already got. And when I buy something new, i am trying to discipline myself to actually use it. Isn't it funny how you have tried and true stuff that you use over and over, and kits that are totally gorgeous that somehow you have never used... or is that only me?
Here's a bit of my most recent art works.


Had to make a layout of my two teenage sons making pigs of themselves with pavlova mixture. So cute. This kit is from Pure Creativity called l'il baker and plus i used her l'il baker torn papers and template set2.



And my beautiful daughter, Elizabeth. She is a bit camera shy so it is not always easy to get good photos. I think i will have to slip her a few drinks when she comes over for christmas so she will be nice and mellow... and then click!! This is all Pixel Canvas product. A mixture of Vinnie Pearce and Viva Artistry.


I decided to do a bit of digging through old photos and found these. Too cute. This is vinnie pearce's New bike kit (mostly).


You know I just love this kit. Sheroes by viva artistry (pixelcanvas). Amazing colour palette and the elements are amazing. And there is a free alpha. This is a recent photo of Caitlin. I really like it.


Have to finish off with the beautiful grandson. Lucus.. taken a couple of weeks ago as he tries to pilfer the car keys out of my drawer. He has this obsession with keys! And do you know that the fabulous Flergs, made me this Nuffing wordart. I emailed her and asked.. and she sent it back the next day. Amazing lady and so talented! I love this kit - Carver, and of course it came as this cool bundle with funky frames and glitter and all sorts of stuff.

So that is up to date photos of every one except mike me and... ahh the missing son. Michael the younger appears to have vanished again. He is the one in the NZ army. Last time i lost track of him he had been posted to the Solomon Islands and forgot to tell his mother! I do think that when boys go off to war zones they should at least let their parents know! Hopefully he will turn up in the next few days or I might have to ring his base or something... again. But no up to date photos of Michael because... he never sends me any. Bad child.

Anyway enough middle of the night ramblings. I should do some sleeping now.

Winter flu

I have been so sick with this Winter's flu. I actually ended up in bed for 4 days, and finally yesterday was up and about, although I had to have a little nap in the afternoon. I don't get sick much but boy that flu really got me! I am still sniffling my way thru the days, keeping kleenex in business i guess. People keep asking me to smell things... I don't know if the milk smells off. I can't smell anything. My son has developed this habit of reading the best before dates and won't eat stuff that is past its date. Now most of us would have a look or sniff it. I know that stuff that is unopened just doesn't seem to go off, but he is convinced that it is no good after that date. I find bottles of milk pushed to the back of the fridge, because they are old! Ack why do we teach them to read!
Anyway enough of my miseries. I was planning on writing some upbeat happy stuff about HeatherT's new stuff. She makes such original scrapbooking designs that it is always exciting to use her products. So today she released Fasteners1. at Pixelcanvas (that kind of suggests that there might be more fasteners coming doesn't it?


And I made this layout, using this plus a few other HeatherT goodies (and one of Vinnie's templates)

And over at Gotttapixel, Heather has released another in her series of Tuesday templates. These are alway excellent value and she puts so much in! Heather's layout with this template was featured at Gallery standouts this week.


Here is my layout with the template using some of HeatherT's other papers.



And finally on my list is this new pack of pearly things, pack number 2 I might add Ooh shiney2 and I am sorry to say that I haven't got my layout made with these yet. But I am looking forward to using them, coz they are dead gorgeous.

No exciting freebies from me this week.. but lots of shopping tips. See you.

Another working weekend

Tomorrow is Father's day here. Mike and I are both working! I guess we will celebrate in the evening. It sort of snuck up on me and I only just managed to get two of the 3 things I wanted to give him delivered before the end of the week. I am just so not good at organisation at the moment.... ok maybe never.
This is just a short little blog to say Hi and put in a little plug for some of the gorgeous kits I have been working with this week.
For Pure Creativity Designs I have made this layout with the new kit called Sea Reflections which is a collab with Anita Designs.


And for Sweet Blossom Designs I made this layout using the new September collab from Scrapthatidea called Falling into you. the photo mask is by HeatherT


I am still working really hard on my hybrid book, and am nearly finished the first one. It has been a real learning experience. I had not done any paper scrapping for so long, and it is hard to remember that once it is stuck down, it is stuck for good. It has taken me days to fix a bodgy sticker I put on the first day. I finally found something big enough to cover it!
Anyway, one more album and I can post them overseas. It does look amazing!
Now I am on a run of 7 early shifts so I am not hanging around chatting tonight....
see ya later.