Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and if you have to travel anywhere this holiday season, please stay safe!
Christmas was FABULOUS!!! Ben woke up at about 6.15am, so we woke everyone else up to see if Santa had been. First we checked the reindeer food - the water was all gone and so was most of the food. Then we checked the milk and cookies- all gone except for a few crumbs. And then we checked the tree and there were lots of presents!!! The boys went into a present frenzy - Ben's favorite present was a Starwars Lightsabre, while Christopher's was Fourarms from Ben10. Rachel's favorite was a vacuum cleaner - I know that sounds like a sexist toy - but she is obsessed when I vacuum, she walks along behind me pushing the hose to 'help' me! And she loves her little one - it lights up and spins glitter! Wish mine did that LOL!!!!
Laban and my favourite toy is the Wii - it is fantastic! I'm already a MarioKart champion, Laban is the resident tennis champ and Christopher bowls like you wouldn't believe! Ben just likes playing and Rachel is not at all fussed yet. The WiiFit is awesome too - I have sore muscles from 30 mins of different excercises! It graphs your progress and time spent training unlocks more excercises. Very clever technology!!!
We stayed home all day - Laban's mum and sister came out in the morning, my mum came for lunch and it was relaxed and peaceful and the kids got to play with their toys all day. It was fantastic!
Yesterday, we did pretty much the same - stayed home and relaxed and played with the Wii. Today we're off to Ballarat to see Laban's dad. Meant to be a warm one, so we'll go early to beat the heat.
On another note - the December Cybercrop has had to be postponed until next week due to technical difficulties at the site. If you've been over there, you'll see that the site look OK, but everything is locked out while the information is swapped to a new server. As we're not sure how long it will take, the easiest thig is to postpone until next weekend. So sorry about the disappointment, but stay tuned for next week! Bye for now :-)

Ah, Christmas Eve.....

The excitement in our house has reached fever pitch! We made shortbread yesterday for Santa and have the reindeer food ready to put out tonight. Ben is seriously wriggling with excitement and he has the whole rest of the day to get through yet LOL!!!
A couple of things to note - ***SNAP AND SCRAP IS DOWN FOR MAINTENANCE*** - not sure for how long but I'II keep you posted.
And then:

Due to the holidays, we're running Crop Bingo and the Progressive Blog Challenge, and as an extra bonus, it'll be running until New Years Eve to give you some extra time! So check back here on Friday the 26th for my part of the Progressive Blog Challenge!
I'm not sure that I'll be back here again today or tomorrow, so in case I'm not - Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a happy and safe New Year. May there be many magical moments and lots of love and laughter shared with family and friends! Take care and be safe xoxoxo

The silly season has struck!

Wow, what a busy few days it's been! On Saturday we had a picnic at Brimbank Park with my husband's family. His mother, her four kids and her six grandkids, plus the partners - quite a crowd! Here's a photo of the group (I'm not in it, I was taking the photo!)
Saturday night we had a few of our neighbours over for christmas drinks. I left them to it at about 10.30pm and went to bed! From what Laban can remember, they had a good night LOL!
On Sunday morning, we went to Geelong to Louise's parents place for morning tea. Louise is my best friend, a one in a million person who I'm lucky to have in my life. Her parents are the most amazing people; 6 kids of their own, another they have adopted and numerous foster children! Lou's eldest sister was there with her hubby - their second baby is due at the end of feb. Their first child was there but slept through our entire visit!
On Sunday night, we had our dear friends The Stones over for tea and a drive around to look at the Christmas lights once it got dark. The lights weren't as good as in previous years, but we found some nice houses to look at.
The kids are so excited - only 3 sleeps till Santa comes! Tomorrow we are going to make some shortbread for the grandparents and Santa. Nighty night for now :-)

6 sleeps till christmas!!!

What I love most about Christmas these days is the excitement of my kids! It's so contagious and wonderful and really makes christmas magical again. Christopher and Ben had a funny conversation the other day about Santa; we saw Santa at the shops and Ben was all excited when Christopher says "That's not the real Santa". I was about to intervene when Christopher says with all the arrogance of a 5 year old "That's not the real Santa because the real Santa came to my kinder and now he's getting ready to bring us presents. He's too busy to be at the shops as well." So real Santa has time to visit Christopher at kinder, but no one else! Love it!
My other exciting news is that Sharon and I registered today to join the AMAZING DIGI SCRAPPING RACE season 4! Our team name is "The Aussie Gumnuts" and you can see our blog here (it's a work in progress, so be kind!) If you don't know about ADSR4 - check out the ADSR4 forum at Natural Designs in Scrapbooking. I'm so excited to be part of it! It starts on the 4th of January and you have until the 26th of December to register. Sounds like a blast!

I made a blinkie!

I googled 'how to make a blinkie using Photoshop Elements 6.0' and found this easy tutorial on ScrapWhat.
So I had a play around and came up with the following. This is for my hubby, who now has a forum for his World of Warcraft Guild called We Are Furions. I made a header for it a couple of weeks ago, and matched the blinkie with it.

Then I made one for my blog using the beautiful Enchanted Forest by Vicki of A Work in Progress and the Add On by Sara of Sweet Blossom Designs.

I'm pretty please with how it turned out. My next challenge is to try my hand at making my own blogwear!

I'm married to the new Assistant Principal at The Grange P-12 College!

Woo Hoo! After about 20 applications and 10 interviews, Laban got an Assisitant Principal position at The Grange P-12 College in Tarneit (near Hoppers Crossing). He had the interview on Monday and came home thinking he wasn't what they wanted and as school finishes on Friday, it is unlikely any more jobs would come up this year. When they called Tuesday, he thought he'd get another knock back, so when they offered him the position, he nearly dropped the phone! We're so proud of you honey!
It makes me think that things do happen for a reason - the school is about 25 mins away from here; if we'd moved it would have been about 40 mins. So perhaps we were meant to stay in Melton!
This morning I've tried to get some pictures of the kids in Santa hats - notice I say tried? This is what I've got so far LOL.


I'll keep trying...

The end of an era and a new beginning...

Ahhhhhh, it's been a busy few days. On Sunday, Mum looked after the kids while Laban and I went and finished our Christmas shopping. We came home and I wrapped it all, so apart from a few little bits and pieces to pick up through the week, we're all prepared! Monday was the last swimming lesson for the year for Ben and for a while for Christopher. I haven't enrolled him to continue next year, we'll see how school and little athletics goes before taking it up again. At 5, he doesn't need too much on his schedule! Ben is enrolled and Rachel is on the waiting list, both for 10.30am on Tuesdays next year.
Monday was also the last playgroup for Christopher - sad in a way as most of the members of our playgroup were our original mother's group when our babies were pretty new! 5 years down the track, most have had at least one more and Narelle is the only one to have a third like me. There's not many coming back next year, so it's sad that we'll inevitably lose touch with some as life moves on. There's a few I know I'II be able to keep in touch with, and a few coming back next year.
But all these endings make way for a new beginning - SCHOOL!!
We've also decided to take our house off the market. There are 8 houses in our court, 3 of which are now for sale! Ours has been up for about 2 months, several inspections in that time, but no offers. The house on the corner was bought by a couple about 18 months ago who gutted it and renovated it all and are now selling to move onto their next project. The other house was bought about 10 months ago by a lady who moved down from Queensland. Her daughter has just been diagnosed with cancer and she needs to sell to get back up there to support her. So it's not a good look to see our lovely court with all these houses for sale and as we're not in a rush to sell, we've decided to take it off the market and stay her for a couple more years. I feel really good about it, it would have been nice to get back to Sunbury, but at the same time, we love our house and we can now plan things for next year as we know where we'll be. And so much less stress not having to keep it tidy all the time with 3 kids!
To finish off my HUGE post today, here is a LO I did of Rachel looking too cute in her fairy wings she got from the Kris Kringle at Playgroup yeasterday. I've used the Enchanted Forest kit by Vicki of A Work in Progress and the add on by Sara of Sweet Blossom Designs. I've also used the tri-frame template by Jaydid Designs.

So today, I'm catching up with some washing and I'm going to pull out the beanbags and watch a couple of DVDs with the kids. Kung Fu Panda, here we come! Have a great day :-)

Twilight - no spoilers I promise!

All I can say is OMG - go see it - AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! I LOVED it and am hoping to get the kids looked after so I can see it again on thursday with Yvonne and Gabbie! It was pretty close to the book, but obviously they can't put the whole book in the movie, so they did a good job I thought. And Edward - SWOON!!!!!!!!!!! Just as perfect as in the book, and when he looks at Bella, I so wish I was her LOL!!! Made me melt *sigh*. So in summary, all good, loved it and hope to see it again soon!

Rain, muses and a LO - we got it all!

I love the rain; the fresh,clean smell, the sound on the roof while snuggled in bed, and the feel of it on my face (only because we haven't had any for a while and it feels good! I'm sure the novelty will wear off once I have to unload all three kids in it!) It's rained here most of yesterday, most of the night and is meant to continue today. We need it, so keep it coming!
Yesterday was Christopher's last ever day of Kinder. My first born is going to school next year! I have mixed feelings about it, as I'm sure every parent has! His excitement is contagious, so I'm sharing his joy. I worry about bullies - he's a sweet natured kid who wears his heart on his sleeve and he wears glasses - will that make him a target? It's an adjustment for me that my baby is growing up and might not need me so much any more. And I'm excited at the prospect of just having the two little ones at home - I think it will be good for Ben to do his own thing as he follows Christopher most of the time when they play, and Christopher is quick to tell him he's doing it wrong (which means he's not doing it Christopher's way!) And it'll mean more time for Rachel too with more time to do stuff at her level. I booked tickets for the Playgroup Concert in March next year - something Ben and Rachel will enjoy. I will have to try very hard to not cry when I leave him in his class room the first day, but it'll be a mix of pride and sadness and excitement as he enters this next stage of his life. I'm honoured to be a part of it and I look forward to watching him grow and learn and see more of the man he'll become. Big times ahead!
I'm off to Twilight this afternoon - lunch beforehand and Goldclass tickets - how spoilt am I! My sister in law saw it yesterday and was a little disappointed; but I'm going there with an open mind. I'II give you my review later!
Here's a LO I did of the kids yearly photo with Santa. Rachel leaned in for a cuddle, but she wouldn't smile! And check out the boys - trying to get on Santa's good side by sitting up straight with hands in their laps and 'butter wouldn't melt in our mouths' smiles!!!! Very cute though!

I have used Candied Christmas by Brianna Cox of Scrap'it designs, available at the Snap and Scrap Shoppe.

The Toose Family Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thank you Kevin Rudd!

Just a quick post before I go to bed. I'm typing this on the laptop in the lounge room while Laban is playing WoW in the study thanks to our new wireless router! Also got a new portable hard drive - 1 terabyte of memory to back everything up after our last one was unstable and we thought we'd lost everything (lucky a techie mate was able to get most of it back). Just doing our bit to help the economy - thanks again Mr Rudd!

Snap and Scrap December Newsletter and other stuff

Back again! The Snap and Scrap December Newsletter is out! Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox. Otherwise, check out the link here.
My hybrid Christmas tote bag and card are featured in the newsletter - my first publication! And two of my LO's are in there as well! My head is swelling by the second, I'm very pleased with myself!
Other exciting news is that I'm doing my bit to help stimulate the economy by spending Kevin Rudd's bonus! I've ordered my pandora bracelet and a charm (I did it through Gillets and got a free charm valued at $30). Can't wait for it to arrive! And mum is looking after the kids on the weekend so Laban and I can finish the christmas shopping and might even catch "Australia" at the movies!
And on saturday I'm seeing TWILIGHT goldclass! So excited! Here's a LO I did a while back in honour of Twilight.
If you haven't read this series by Stephanie Meyers, you don't know what you're missing! There's even talk of a roadtrip to Queensland next year for the Twilght Convention amongst the stamping girls.....

Freebies!

Check out these awesome freebies by Kristie, one of the Sugarplum Girls. She is new to designing and has released three, that's right, three digi kits for FREE! Check out her blog here.

Back later with some more exciting news...

Challenge #8 on the Snap and Scrap Christmas Countdown

My turn for another Christmas Challenge at Snap and Scrap today and this is what I came up with :

I made the frames from thick cardboard - outside measurements are 8cm tall by 6.5cm wide. The inside measurements are 5cm tall by 3.5cms wide. I covered them with the patterned paper printed from Bree's Candied Christmas kit and sanded the edges for a neater look. The letters were Basic Grey undressed chipboard monograms - but any large alpha will do. Again, I covered these with patterned paper and sanded the edges. I added the star charm to the J with some wrapped around metallic string. The holly on the O was printed from Bree's kit . I've joined the frames together on the back with ribbon stuck down with double sided tape.
These photos are the first christmas' for each of my three children - scary when the baby in the first photo had his orientation day at school today! He had a ball, he's in a class with a few of his friends from Kinder and his teacher seems really nice. The kids are all 'big kids' now, ready for school, but I nearly cried when Christopher walked off with his teacher to see his classroom and he was holding hands with one of his kinder friends! Big kids, but still a little unsure...
Anyway, here is another frame I made a while ago for Rachel, just so you can see the variety with this idea:

And the other good news is that it is raining here and has been all afternoon! Send her down, we need all we can get! Bye for now :-)

Snap and Scrap Newsletter on the way!

Thanks for everyone's concern over my clumsiness! My bruises are a lovely spectrum of colours, but I'm not as sore today LOL!
Keep your eyes open for this in the next few days:

Chock full of great info and freebies - plus my first contribution on the Hybrid Creative Team!
Off to swimming, playgroup and a kinder picnic in the park for lunch, so I'd better get the kids ready. Have a great day :-)

Falling down and a couple of Layouts.

It's been a busy couple of days! Last night, we had Laban's work Christmas party at the Hobsons Bay Hotel in Willimastown. A lovely night out on the balcony with delicious food and no kids - they all a holiday at my Mum's for the night. We were on the second floor, and coming down the wooden stairs, I fell down! I've scrapped the skin off my left elbow, bruised my right arm - it's gonna be a ripper! I had such a huge lump on my arm that Laban was concerned I'd broken it and the lump was bone! I've also done my right leg a beauty too - more bruises! And the worst part was I only had one alcoholic beverage all night! If I was drunk I'd probably have navigated the stairs much better! I'm quite stiff and sore today :-(
This morning Laban went to the working bee at his school and I picked up the kids and mum and went to the Sunbury market. I stocked up on Gabbie's fabulous candles (check them out on her website, but you can only buy them at the markets now. The boys got face painted - spiderman for Christopher, Ben 10 for Ben.
Tonight I'm off to Yvonne's for a Christmas Extravangza - making all sorts of goodies which I'II post about tomorrow. Yvonne is incredibly talented - check out her blog here (but just so you know, she's offline at the moment while waiting for computer repairs).
But before I go, I just wanted to show you a couple of LO's I've made yesterday and today using a couple of Bree's gorgeous kits.
I made this LO for the Terrific Template Challenge at Snap and Scrap using one of Mitzie's beautiful templates (grab it form the blog here) and Bree's Cool Change kit (grab it in the shoppe here)

This LO was made using Bree's kit Zoolander (grab it here)

Better go - picking up Gabbie on the way to Yvonne's! Back tomorrow :-)

The news that has made my whole month!

I am absolutely delighed to be joining the Creative Team of the amazingly talented Brianna Cox of Scrap'it Designs. We've got to know each other over the last couple of months primarily at Snap and Scrap, and I have always admired Bree's work. So when she asked if I would like to join her team, I jumped up and did the happy dance around the room, then composed myself and said a big resounding YES!!!!!
Here's a couple of LO's I've done with Bree's kits.
Using "Pretty Grungy".
Using "I love U beary much."
So thanks for having me Bree and I look forward to working with your designs!

And the universe smiles...

Last night Venus, Jupiter and the crescent moon appeared together to make a smiley face in the night sky. It was an awe-inspiring thing to see, and gave me hope that things are going to be OK. I tried to take a few photos, but obviously need to work on my night photgraphy skills! This was the sight from my driveway at about 9pm.

I googled it this morning, and the event won't happen again for 5 years. Europe and Africa will miss it all together and for US readers, by the time you see it, the moon will be inverted and it will appear as a frown. Another example of the universe's sense of humour? LOL...

*****UPDATE*****
And how could I not scrap it?

Supplies - I wish I was the Moon by Amy Riley and sparkles from Ferntree Fairies by Brianna Cox (both available at Snap and Scrap).

*******Snap and Scrap off line*******

Snap and Scrap is currently experiencing some issues while moving to a new server. Hopefully it won't be down for too long, so please bear with us!

What a great weekend!

What a great weekend of Cybercropping goodness! An amazing amount of visits to my blog and downloads of the wondeful elements Bree was kind enough to share with me. I might try my hand at making quickpages so I can make one for the next Cybercrop!
And we got a lot of traffic on the gallery and forum at Snap and Scrap, so thanks to everyone who got involved in the challenges! Check out the Cybercrop Gallery!
Speaking of the challenges, here are my LO's for the weekend.

This is my take on Sharon's Scraplift Challenge. I've used Shabby Little Christmas and Mistletoe Magic available at the Snap and Scrap shoppe. Gold swirls are from Marcee Fairchild's Rhumba Kit.

This was my LO for the Progressive Blog Challenge. I love how varied each and every LO is considering we all started with the same kit! Some very creative people out there!

This was my take on Sarah's List It Challenge. This challenge was like a speed scrap - you get a list of instructions, but we had the weekend to complete the LO, not an hour like a speed scrap. Again - the varied LO's that were made with the same instructions is awesome! Supplies for this were Bohemian Summer Kit by Michelle Coleman and that gorgeous alpha was Bree's from the PBC.
Melissa was the lucky winner of Crop Bingo - I came close,I had two words to go! So did a few others, so the last few words were highly anticipated!! Congratulations Melissa!
So I think my first Cybercrop as part of the team at Snap and Scrap was heaps of fun and a huge success! Thank you to everyone who took the time to leave some love for the downloads, and thanks to everyone who particiapted. And a big hug and thanks to Bree (Brianna Cox) for all her hard work in getting the ball rolling and organising it. I can't wait till the next one!