Happy new year

Yes for us here it is now the New year, 2010. I will have to remember to write it correctly when I go to work this afternoon. Despite it being the holiday season there is no let up in terms of work. Greg and Mike both started at 7am this morning and I am heading in for an afternoon shift. Still on the plus side the money is always good for working public holidays.

The new year didn't start with much joy for me as I am suffering from a miserable cold. I was asleep well before midnight. But I have some hopes, maybe some sketchy resoutions for the new year. Perhaps principally I want it to be a better year than last year which was overshadowed by lots of problems with my back. I am working hard at my physio and plan to do more swimming to strengthen all those core muscles which they tell me will help. We now have two children (young adults i suppose) out working which has changed the dynamics of our household somewhat. Greg has been very busy at Bunnings while Caitlin isn't getting the hours she needs from Subway. She is hoping to do an Aged Care Course this year as there is plenty of work in that field. If she likes it then she will hopefully go on to do nursing. She is working hard on getting her hours up on her Learners Drivers licence. I am impressed with her driving and she is gaining more and more confidence. She drove us to the Airport on Christmas Day! Mike is planning on doing Uni again in the second semester. Before that we have to take 8 weeks holiday. Well, he does as he has accrued too much. We are trying to work out the logistics of a rural short term contract. I think it would be a really interesting experience. Ben's future is still up in the air because his mother was disorganised and hasn't completed his enrolment for boarding school. In fact we still haven't figured out if we can afford it! Certainly it would be good for all of us and he would really like to go. Will have to wait a few more days until they reopen to see if it is still doable.

Otherwise it is life as normal. I plan to do more photography this year, I would really like to improve my skills. My scrapbooking seems to have come to a screeching halt and I can't seem to create anything I like. I am finding it totally frustrating. I have decided to focus on cleaning up my hard drive and sorting my stuff out until I get some inspiration back. I am totally sick of staring at poor pages that I know are lame but are the best I can manage.

I have been reading a lot, all sorts of stuff. Having finished my library books I have been reading Caitlin's books which mostly seem to consist of Vampire stories. They really are most entertaining, I can see why they catch on.

Anyway work time beckons and I have to fill up the car on the way. I hope, believe that this is going to be a good year.

Just another Tuesday

Although I have to say that I like tuesdays because that is our Lucus day and we try and do something fun while we have him and today Finally the weather remembered it was spring and the sun shone and it was beautiful. We went shopping over at Parahan, and then took a picnic down to the banks of the murky Yarra river and ate on a jetty where a beautiful swan came and had some nibbles of our bread. It was really lovely to see the change in the weather and feel all that warm sun. I am so over winter.
I made a page about my mum last night. I just had this sense that I wanted to write some more of my memories down for the kids. I saw the challenge on the daily digi for More with four and the crochet flowers just shrieked Jean at me. My mother was such an avid crocheter (not sure if that is a word) but she loved to crochet. She was a complete perfectionist and all her wool was colour coordinated and she would often take a whole strand off the ball to make it the right weight. It drove me nuts! She had wool everywhere. She didn't finish too many of her rugs because she was like me constantly starting new projects without finishing the last. Anyway here is my page about my mum. Hope you like it


Everthing I used in this came from the Digi files - its a real bargain at only $5.00. So much cool stuff. I picked up some yummy templates while I was there too. Worth checking out.

Just a wee note

I downloaded a few actions and a story board from Coffeshop.com. there is just so much information on her site. Actions, tutorials, templates. Fascinating stuff. So here is my first storyboard. Photos from Tuesday at the beach. and that's it. nothing else to tell.

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.